According to Oliver Campbell, it felt like such a long summer.
First of all, it had been hot some days, which Oliver found unbearable. Second, he had been stuck with his parents for the majority of the time. Third, he preferred to be anywhere but in his bedroom all day. He didn't even have to be outside.
Anywhere is better than here, he thought.
His parents barely said a word to him ever since he left King's Cross Station with them. Oliver isolated himself into his bedroom and hardly came downstairs to eat with them at the table. Even for his birthday, which was the first day of August, he stayed in his room. If all of his best friends weren't out of the country around the time of his birthday, they would've done something for him.
Oliver huffed a sigh as he sat down in a chair and propped his feet up on his desk, looking out of his window. He watched as the cars below him were passing by his house. He wondered if Eliza, one of his best friends, was home. Oliver figured that he owed her a visit since she had been gone for almost two weeks. Deciding to go see her, Oliver stood up from the chair and headed downstairs, trying to get to the front door as fast as he could.
"Where do you think you're going?" his mum asked, standing in front of Oliver, her arms folded over her chest.
"Do you really care?" Oliver retorted.
"Oh, don't tell me you're going over to her house," she replied.
"For all you know, I could be going over to Andrew's," he said.
His mother scoffed. "That's even worse. He's just as bad as she is."
Oliver rolled his eyes. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't even know them."
"Hey!" his father walked up beside his mother, holding a book. "Don't talk to your mother like that." He huffed a sigh. "Seriously, son, when are you going to grow up?"
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll be out of the house when I turn seventeen," he replied. "You won't have to deal with me after that."
Oliver walked past his parents and left the house, slamming the front door behind him. He began to stroll across and then down the street, hoping that Eliza was home. He liked going over there and just talking to her. It was good that she lived near him.
When he got to her front door, he knocked three times and waited for someone to come to the door. Her mother opened the door and greeted Oliver with a warm smile. "Hello, Oliver!" she said.
Oliver smiled back. "Is Eliza home?" he asked.
"Of course. She's in her room," she replied, moving out of the way so that Oliver could come inside.
He headed upstairs and found Eliza in her bedroom, spinning around in her chair, staring up at the posters of Liza Minnelli, an actress the Pearce family admired. "Bored, huh?" Oliver inquired, leaning against the doorframe.
Eliza stopped spinning in the chair and looked at Oliver, smiling at him. "It's about time you showed up. I haven't seen you since I got back from Australia."
Oliver smiled and entered the bedroom, plopping down on her bed. "So, how was your trip?" he asked.
"It was amazing!" she exclaimed. "Mum and Dad want to go back for sure. I think we're going to go again next summer. You should come with us."
He chuckled in response. "Yeah, definitely. My parents are ready for me to leave."
Eliza shot Oliver a sad look. "You don't mean that, do you?"
"Yeah, I do," he replied. "Everything changed in my house when Fiona died. My parents never looked at me the same ever again."
She nodded her head. "I remember how hard it was for you and your parents."
Oliver had a younger sister. She was only seven when she died under mysterious circumstances. His parents never knew what happened, but they assumed it had something to do with Oliver and his magic. Oliver, who was upset that they would even think that, began to rebel against them once he got to Hogwarts. However, his parents thought his friends were the reason for his behavior, which was why they never cared for them.
"Anyway, have you heard from Jake or Vi lately?" Eliza asked him.
Oliver shook his head. "Not much since Jake stayed with his great-aunt in America and since Violet and her family went to Italy. What about Andy?"
Eliza nodded her head. "He's been sneaking out to come over here a lot. You know how his family is."
Oliver nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, right."
Andrew, known as Andy by his close friends, never knew his real parents. Like the famous Harry Potter, they died when he was a baby. He was adopted by Squibs that had kids of their own. No one had magical abilities of their own, all except the youngest kid, Sarah, who went to Hogwarts as well. Andrew always talked about how his siblings didn't like him and Sarah because they were the only ones with magical abilities. He felt like his parents favored the others because he wasn't related to them by blood.
Suddenly, an owl flew in Eliza's room and landed on her dresser. Eliza stood up and took the letter from the owl. She opened it and read it. She looked up at Oliver and said, "It's Andy. Here, read it." She handed Oliver the letter and let him read it.
Liza,
Meet me at my house in five minutes. Planning to get out of this hellhole today.
Andy
"We better go, then," Oliver said. Him and Eliza left her room and hurriedly left the house and began to walk down the end of their street, where Andrew lived. Living in a Muggle community wasn't too bad, but it was difficult to talk about Hogwarts and magic out in the open, which was why they did their best to be discreet about it.
"I wonder what his big escape plan is," Oliver said in a playful tone, smiling at Eliza.
Eliza smiled back. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's a good one."
All of a sudden, screams erupted from Andrew's house. Oliver and Eliza looked at each other with worry and then ran up to the front door. They saw black smoke filling up the inside. Before they could do anything, Andrew's bedroom window opened up.
"Guys!" Andrew shouted from the window. "Come over here and catch my stuff!"
The two ran over to the window and saw Andrew getting his trunk first. He put it out of the window and dropped it for Oliver and Eliza to catch. They two ran out of the way, causing the trunk to hit the ground.
"Watch where you're throwing!" Oliver called out.
"Sorry!" Andrew shouted back. "I'll give you a heads up next time!" Five seconds later, Andrew shouted, "Heads up!" Andrew threw his rucksack next. Eliza let it land in her arms while Oliver got ready to catch the next thing Andrew was going to throw at him.
"Hurry up, Andy!" Eliza shouted.
"Owl cage is next!" Andrew announced, dropping the cage. Oliver swiftly caught it and put it on the ground. The last thing Andrew threw was his broom, which Eliza gladly took, and ran back to her house. Andrew climbed out of his window and jumped, landing on his feet. He grabbed his trunk while Oliver grabbed his rucksack and cage. The two boys took off as fast as they could, following Eliza back to her house.
"Well, that was fun," Andrew told Oliver.
"Yeah, totally fun," Oliver responded sarcastically. "Not sure why we had to do it, though."
"I'll explain it when we get to Liza's house," Andrew said.
Eliza was waiting for the boys when they arrived at her front door. She let them in and led them upstairs into her bedroom. The boys placed Andrew's things on the floor while Eliza claimed her spot back on the chair.
"So, mind telling us why we had to help you escape?" Eliza asked Andrew as he was putting his owl back in the cage.
Andrew sighed, closing the bird cage and then plopping down next to Oliver on her bed. "My parents took Sarah to Diagon Alley for school supplies. She got her letter yesterday. Elijah had some friends over and they wanted to start a fight with me. They were all older, and I couldn't use magic on them, so I used the next best thing: Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."
"And where exactly did you get that?" Oliver asked.
"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, that joke shop Fred and George Weasley just opened up," Andrew answered. "Jake sent me some last week. He thought it would come in handy."
"Well, he was right about that," Oliver muttered.
"Do you think Sarah will be okay without you over there?" Eliza questioned. "I mean, her siblings might give her a hard time about her being...well, like us."
"She'll be fine. She's a tough girl. She knew that I was planning to leave today," Andrew explained.
"Do you think it'll be safe to go back to Hogwarts this year? Even after everything that happened two months ago?" Eliza asked, sounding a bit concerned.
"Why else would they send our letters to us?" Oliver said. "If they hadn't, then we would still be stuck here. Right now, Hogwarts is probably the safest place we can be at."
"He's right," Andrew added. "Besides, things have been getting bad in the Muggle world. Remember that bridge that went down recently? It was really bad."
Eliza chuckled a bit. "Even our parents...Muggles...they know what's going on in the Wizarding world. They know it's not as safe as it used to be. Remember when we were eleven? We didn't have to worry about being attacked by Death Eaters or even You-Know-Who himself. We were all worried that we would get placed into the House that we didn't want."
Oliver and Andrew laughed. The return of You-Know-Who shook the entire Wizarding world. When Harry Potter and Dumbledore made that statement after the Triwizard Tournament in fourth year, no one believed them, not even Oliver and his friends. But they came around eventually and joined Dumbledore's Army once they were finally convinced that Umbridge was a lousy teacher.
"Well, despite what's going on, I think this year at Hogwarts should be a fun year," Oliver said. "No distractions. Just the five of us."
Eliza and Andrew nodded their heads in agreement. "I think that's a good idea," Andrew spoke up. "What else could possibly go wrong in the Wizarding world?"
Oliver chuckled. "To be honest, I really don't want to find out."
A/N: Ayyyye, it's the first chapter!
I really hope you like it so far. I'm super excited for this story and I can't wait for you to read the rest!
What do y'all think of the characters so far? Let me knoooow.
Song is The Great Escape by Boys Like Girls (#throwback).
Comment, vote, and dedicated to my girl reloading- for convincing me to create characters for this story. :)
-A