TORMENT (Harry Potter Sequel)

Part II: Chapter Eleven

The Wizarding Civil War has begun. Hundreds or rioters all over the city of London. Screams, yells, chants, fires, spells everywhere. Members of the Ministry for Magic scrambled fruitlessly to maintain any semblance of order. The Malumist movement had sparked into something more and, at least for the time being, it showed no sign of slowing down.

A nice, neat-looking grassland surrounded the orphanage, stretching for at least a mile in each direction. The day was bright and sunny with white, marshmallow clouds flying over the heads of the children as they looked up into the sky. The orphanage was rather small with it only consisting of one, reasonably sized cottage standing on the hill with 7 rooms inside- 2 being the shared bedrooms for the 8 children who stayed there. They were well looked after by a group of three- the old woman who owned the house, her 21 year old daughter and the Priest of the church from the local village. Although upon first glance it would look as if the orphanage was isolated, the journey downhill to the village was only around 20 minutes. The village wasn't all too big in size but it was enough.

The old lady- Bertha was her name- lazily waved her wand around as all the clothes threw themselves over the washing line. Turning around she looked out across the field and called out loudly.

"Come on everyone! Back inside!"

7 children ran joyfully back to the house, ready to have a nice warm meal. However 1 young boy still stayed outside. He lay down on the grass, staring up at the sky above him. At the clouds. He didn't want to go back to the house. He hated the orphanage. He hated feeling so lonely. Everyone treated him differently and all he wanted, more than anything, was to just run away. The young boy continued to stare up at the clouds. He wished he could fly among them, soar in the skies. His only wish was to be free.

And that young boy was called Paul Layne.

Tom Malumis marched through the crowd directly to the front. Paul got down from his high place and they greeted each other with a slight head nod.

"Are you okay?" Paul whispered to him.

"I'm fine now. I've saved my Anti-Magic ability- if we ever get into a situation," Tom replied, equally as quietly before turning around to address the crowd.

"Thank you for coming out to join me today!" he proclaimed loudly and received many a cheer from the crowd so large it didn't just fill the room but streamed out into the streets as well.

"My goal is to find the documents regarding my family hidden away in the offices here. We'll storm them and take them for ourselves, starting with the office of Esther Young. I will go there myself," Everyone was looking at Tom Malumis admiringly. In this moment it was like he was a born leader. He continued, "What I need everyone to do is to simply create chaos. Follow me through the departments and take them all- I need as much time as possible, does everyone understand?"
Another cheer erupted from the crowd, so ear-splittingly loud that Mia got slightly scared and got closer to Tom's leg for protection.

Without another word, Tom turned around and started leading his comrades deeper into the Ministry of the Magic.

The young boy wandered down the hill and into the village, his curious eyes gazing around at everything as he did so. The village was medieval in a way, with its stone architecture, strange house designs and the town square even having a well in it. Paul had been taken to the village a few times in the past but he was too little to remember it well and he had been taken mostly to just see the church and not actually explore the area. Now he had that chance. He still looked at the church- it would be impossible to miss it. It was by far the largest building there: a Minster. It overlooked the whole village. He didn't go anywhere close to it though, he wanted to see everything else. He walked aimlessly, past the house, past the shops until one thing caught his attention: A sweet shop, lit up with bright colours and showing off thousands of tiny little delicacies. His tummy rumbling he ran up eagerly to the outside window of the shop and peeped inside. Already there was a group of 4 larger boys, walking around the shop's interior. Just looking at them Paul felt an immediate instinct telling him to look away and not be near them. They were bad news, he could just tell from their faces and how they were walking. He decided quickly to walk away, as much as he desperately wanted to enter the shop. He turned around but unfortunately, the people inside had noticed him and started coming towards him. Sensing their aggression he broke out into a run. The group then began running after him!