Encanto + The Wizarding World

Chapter 3

I've been here three days now, and I already knew almost everyone. They came up and introduced themselves whenever I went outside. This is mostly why I often snuck out of the village in my animagus form and went exploring in the forest towards the base of the mountains.

There was one tree in particular that I liked: a plain oak tree that was climbable. I would climb up to the top and read books in peace.

It was there in the tree while I was reading on my third day that someone approached me.

"Hello." Called the voice of Bruno Madrigal.

"Hi." I called down, surprised.

"Can we talk?" He asked nervously.

I climbed down after I had put my book back in my bag and leaned up against the base of the tree.

"What about?" I asked.

"Back at the Casita. Everyone else wants to talk too."

Odd, but okay. I went with him back to the Casita, finding his sisters and Alma hovering over the kitchen table with a faint green light illuminating their faces.

"Oh Athena! Thank goodness! You can help!" Julieta said in relief. She moved away from the table and gestured for me to look at the glowing green rectangle.

I knew exactly what it was depicting. I ground my teeth and turned around, intentionally hitting my head against a column.

"Foolish of me... to hope..." I muttered.

"Fool? Hope? What?" Bruno said.

"You know what this is?" Alma nearly yelled.

I simply nodded, going back to the table so I could show them what I knew.

It was an aerial view of a room, though it wasn't the whole room. There were two people I recognized bounded to chairs by chains. One was me, the other was Bruno. But something was missing.

"Was there any more to this picture?" I asked Bruno.

"Yeah." He said.

"Was there a man right about here," I said, pointing to a spot on the table. "Probably sitting on a raised platform on a throne?"

He nodded, his eyes widening the more I talked.

"How do you know all of this?" Pepa injected.

"That man is the Wyle King. A criminal mastermind. He's evil beyond all measures..." I hesitated, not knowing what to say without saying too much. "He's the one who killed my family."

Julieta gasped and covered her mouth, Pepa grew a severe thunderstorm, and Alma and Bruno gaped at me.

"But why did he kill your family?" Bruno asked. It was the question I hoped no one would ask.

"I can't say exactly, if you know that puts you at risk, but let's put it this way: I possess an object that Wyle wants, I hid it and he needs it if he hopes to gain more power. He killed my family in the hopes that I would break and tell him. When killing them wielded no results, he took me and tortured me for two weeks before I escaped and made my way here.

"If I have any hope of keeping you safe and preventing this from happening, I have to go. It's the only solution." I turned to leave, but Julieta immediately grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"You can't leave!" She said with a pleading face.

"Do you want your brother to be tortured? Killed? I have to go if you don't want that to happen."