Inferius

Chapter 2

The clocked ticked as the day slowly dragged by. I sat behind the counter with my head in my hands. It's been a couple days since Cirrus Seble stopped in and I couldn't stop thinking about Hogwarts and the war.

My mind raced with ideas of what could be happening now. Was it another war? Did someone take Voldemort's place as a dark wizard? Why does everything happen at Hogwarts? There's only ever been pain at Hogwarts.

"Why can't we just get some peace for once?" I asked out loud, causing some customers to look over at me.

One wondered over, unwrapping a lollipop before sticking it into her mouth. Her eyes held curiosity as she stopped in front of the counter, looking at me and the jars of dirt and flower petals in different vials under the glass counter.

"Why can't we get some peace from what?" She asked, pulling the lollipop out of her mouth as she spoke.

I bit my lip, cursing myself mentally for saying it out loud. I should've known these people would listen to my every word, even the ones I meant to keep quiet.

"Well, there's this war going on," I started, speaking slowly, deciding to take pieces of the Second Wizarding War and put them into my story, "it's been going on for years, the creatures of darkness wrecking havoc and destruction on any poor soul they could find.  The evil is trying to gain power of our world, they want us to be servants to their every whim. This evil has so many followers, people in so many different countries that they have been growing stronger each day. In my free time, when I'm not running this shop, I've been fighting this evil. They've sent more Dementors after me," I stopped and lifted my bandage hand to show the girl and the now growing crowd, "they almost killed me last night, but I was able to scare them off for now. I just want some peace."

The girl gasped, moving her hands softly over my wounded hand that was now healed. She inspected my hand, her mouth gaping.

"I can't believe it!"

"That's horrible, I didn't even realize there was such evil out there," another spoke out in shock.

"You know," a coarse voice started, "that makes sense! I thought the world was falling into a black hole of hatred and you just confirmed my suspicions!"

I looked up, watching an old man limp over to the counter, pushing a couple people out of his way. He looked familiar but I couldn't place his face with any names. He limped from the front door into the crowd slowly with his back hunched over slightly. 

"You've noticed," I said, letting my voice fill with happiness and shock. The little inflection of emotion meant my customers would keep coming back even though I knew they didn't see or know the truth. 

The old man nodded, looking up at me, "yes! I've been on this Earth for a long time and it's only been in the last couple of years that things have gone awry."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," the girl with the lollipop piped in, trying to catch my eye.

I looked over at her, giving her the satisfaction of my attention.

"What can we do to help? We need you," she said, her voice trembling a little at the end.

She was so gullible, so naïve. Her voice trembled with fear at the thought of the evil taking over. I couldn't judge her for that, I've been filling her mind with these stories for so long that they were becoming her alternative reality.