An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Twelve

A/N: Sorry, this one's a little bit of a cliffhanger 😬 It's not toooo bad though, so hopefully you guys will be ok 😂

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I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of screams. I shot straight up in my bed, wondering if they had come from a bad dream or something, and were all in my head.

I sat for a minute, just listening, but the screams continued. They were real.

I jumped down out of bed, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew we couldn't just sit here and wait to find out.

"Ginny, Hermione, get up," I hissed, moving over and shaking each of them awake.

"Ugh, is it time to leave already?" groaned Ginny.

"Something's wrong. You need to get up and get dressed now, we have to get outside."

The urgency in my voice got both girls moving. I don't think they'd ever heard me speak like that. I threw on some clothes too, and barely two minutes later the three of us were moving outside our tent.

The scene before us was utter chaos. People were screaming and running for the woods, and the sounds of a raucous mob came from the tents where cheers and laughter abounded just a few hours earlier. I looked to see a crowd of dark shapes marching steadily closer, with four shapes floating and contorting above them.

"Ana, you there?" I asked, speaking to my AI for the first time since returning to the wizarding world as I whipped on my Stark glasses.

"Here," she responded, not wasting a minute.

"Zoom in. I need to see what the hell those things are."

She did as I asked, and I saw the figures all wore grotesque silver masks, like some kind of cult. Even worse, when I looked up I realized that the figures above were the muggle campsite owner and his family, being spun and tortured on parade for everyone watching.

"Holy shit..." I breathed, not quite able to believe what I was seeing.

"Ginny, Alexa, Hermione! Thank God you three are already out here, you need to go," said Mr. Weasley, emerging from the boys' tent with Ron, Harry, and the twins in tow.

"We're going to help the Ministry," Mr. Weasley called over the chaos, gesturing to himself, Bill, Charlie, and Percy, who had just emerged from their tent looking ready to fight. "You lot—get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

I didn't waste a second before sprinting off with Bill, Charlie, and Percy, straight towards the chaos. Mr. Weasley yelled after me in distress, and he chased after us once he'd made sure the rest of the kids were headed for the woods.

"Alexa!" he barked. I wouldn't have stopped, but Bill, Charlie, and Percy did, and I didn't want to ditch them. "You need to get to the forest, now!"

"Alright, this is a crisis so I'm gonna make this fast. I can help," I said, tapping my arc reactor and shooting my hands out to get my repulsors up and running. "I may not have magic, but I'm an Avenger by blood for crying out loud. Saving the day is what we do."

Mr. Weasley still looked livid, but he didn't have time to keep arguing with me. We'd gotten close enough to the mob that we were in the line of fire, and a tent exploded right next to us, forcing us to duck for cover.

"Ana, power me up!" I yelled. The next jet of red light came streaking right for our group, but I met it with a shot from my arc reactor and it exploded in the air before it reached us. My suit formed fully, and as my helmet clicked into place I got a Head's Up Display to show me everything that was coming.