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　　 𝐊𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐎'𝐒 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 echoing through the woods after he'd cast the jinx. A blue-hued, spiralling spell circled around the group that had hidden in the bushes to witness the fight of before. The hues went from the lightest of baby blues to the deepest sapphires. The power of the orbis jinx pulled the two groups together before they felt the ground underneath them liquefy. The previously solid ground was now sucking in their feet and didn't stop until they were all knee-deep.

Florence restlessly moved around, trying everything she could to get out of the ground that had solidified around her legs again. She stuck her hands into the dirt and vigorously started to scoop it away from her legs. 'Stupid magic,' she muttered and angrily turned to the Pevensies and Eustace, who'd all realised that they'd sunk to the perfect height where they could sit onto the ground with their legs into the ground.

'I don't think there's any use in digging into the ground to get us out of here. They'll just make us sink again with a whip of their wand,' Peter said. 'And their sticks have been taken away so we're stuck.' He lazily waved to the four dressed in graduation robes, not even bothering to look at them. His attention was fixated upon the Time-Turner held by Chrys as the four Bellicose members had huddled together to examine what they'd found.

Edmund's hands were slowly turning red from the pressure of the weight of his upper body that he put on them by leaning backwards. Like his brother, his interest was piqued by the Time-Turner and the feeling it brought to his chest. His heart had a firmer beat because of it and he knew that there was only one place that could fill his heart with this much righteousness.

Lucy stroked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she guiltily looked at her hands. The open wound on Alexis' knee was no longer there, whereas Charlotte's forehead was beginning to lightly bruise as well as Victoria's hand which flickered back into her sight every once in a while. 'I'm very sorry,' she mumbled and looked up to Charlotte, who was right next to her. 'I shouldn't have thrown rocks at you.'

The overly fake smile that Charlotte was wearing said enough to Lucy. 'What made you come to that conclusion?' she sneered slightly, but once she saw the look in Lucy's eyes, her own features softened. 'Just,' she began with a sigh. 'Don't make assumptions about us.'

Every word that the ones stuck in the ground said was heard by the members of Bellicose and Alexis scoffed audibly because of them. 'Right because branding us as a notorious, rebellious gang is not making assumptions whatsoever,' she said, her voice clear and even. She didn't look to any of the other members' approval or agreement. She always had her opinion ready and she was always ready to make them known.

Kiano only nodded solemnly. 'I can't believe that that's what we're known for. They seem to think that we terrorise everyone that comes in our way.' His jaw was painfully clenched as he tried to contain his annoyance. 'Can't we just obliviate them and get out of here?'

'How can you want to walk away from them? They're beyond interesting.' Chrys looked up from the Time-Turner to see Kiano glaring at the two groups that had caught them. 'How are they in possession of a Time-Turner? One that seemingly comes from a rather near future. It's the same Time-Turner that we know nowadays, but it's better. Slightly smaller, more precise, stronger with more energy.'

Victoria walked over to Kiano, the wands that she had in her hands tucked away for a moment. 'They're time-travellers, Kai,' she said with much more casualty than Kiano had expected and he frowned in confusion.

Alexis interrupted Kiano before he could say any word at all. 'How are you so sure?' she asked.

'Have you seen the robes that they're wearing? Those are Hogwarts robes, two Gryffindors and two Slytherins. Now my memory could be failing me, but does anyone remember any of their faces from the last five years? Robes could've changed over time, but they could also be for a special occasion. My point is that they don't seem six years older or younger than us, thus they should've been at Hogwarts when we were students still and I don't recognise any of their faces.'

The blonde witch peeked over to the Hogwarts students still wearing their graduation robes. Her brown eyes were as polished amber in the first rays of dawn and glistened with the realisation that Victoria had put upon her. 'And why indeed wear your Hogwarts robes in the Muggle World when you've already graduated,' she muttered.

Victoria shot a look towards Aiden before averting her gaze again. 'He's the one that worries me. Everything about him is in conflict,' she said, her voice so low the other three could barely hear it.

'He also immediately retrieved his wand. I don't trust him at all,' Kiano scowled.

Chrys cocked her head to the wands that both Victoria and Alexis were holding. 'What about the wands? What can you tell about them?' she inquired.

Victoria's eyes darted from one spot to the other as she tried to recollect all of the information that had been stored in her brain over the years of watching her father produce numerous wands. She knew her father only used three main cores for all of his wands; phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs and dragon heartstrings. It took a refined touch to feel the strength and capabilities of a wand's core.

The two wands felt the same in her hands. She'd held a wand like this before and she remembered who it was sold to a few years ago. The polished wood left a different tingling in her fingertips, suggesting to Victoria that even though they were brothers, they had very different natures. The wands tugged on her, begging her to bring them back to their rightful owners. She knew the wands. She was there when they were made after all.

'It's rather interesting that I'm holding two brothers that are part of a triplet,' she said as she felt a wind stir up between the ruffling bushes. It flew through the strands of her auburn hair, relieving her for a slight moment of the weight. 'In 1938, a Phoenix shed three feathers and three wands were made of it. All the woods were different; one with yew, one with holly and one with elder. It just so happens that two of these wands which should still be at Ollivanders are currently in my hands.'

'How do you even know what core it has?' Alexis asked as she too took a look at the wands. The wands that she was holding, which belonged to Charlotte and Hermione, felt lifeless in her hands. Nothing special or notable. She couldn't even tell which woods were used for the making of them. 'There's no way for you to see it.'

Victoria's lips curled into her familiar amused grin. 'You people are too focused on what you can see.'

Alexis stuck the two wands underneath her arm so she could use her free hands to fiddle on her small silver ring around her middle finger. The fingers of her right hand swiftly moved the ring up and down or twisted and turned it while Alexis herself was deep in thought. 'If they are from the future and they know who we are, that means we're remembered throughout history as a notorious gang,' she muttered, her eyes slightly bigger than they usually were as her stare became fixed.

For a sheer moment, the forest around them seemed to come to life. The trees danced in the wind that stirred up here and there, but remarkably, none of those strong gushes made it to the square. The thick clouds that at times shielded the sun from reaching them passed by. It resembled the pure, white steam that the steam locomotive produced that had brought Florence and Lucy to King's Cross Station less than an hour ago. One of those clouds blocked the sunlight, making everything seem sombre when Hermione spoke.

'Say Victoria, are you going to do something with us or will you leave us stuck in the ground, because we can get ourselves out of here eventually.' Her voice rang through the air with such sharpness that it made Victoria slowly spin on her heels to face her. Hermione bit on the soft flesh of her mouth from within to keep herself from quivering and raised her chin to seem more intimidating than she truly was. 'Yeah, I know your name. I know all of your names. Alexis, Chrysanthemum, Azarios—'

'—do not dare to call me that,' Kiano growled as he marched over to her, his wand at the ready. 'Never call me by that name, do you hear me?'

He stopped in his steps when he felt Alexis' hand tugging at his shoulder. She shook her head at him and mouthed some words that seemed to calm him down. He went on to stand behind her, his eyes flickering to every corner of the square to see if they were still alone.

Victoria sluggishly came closer to Hermione, her dress flowing over the ground with such smoothness that she seemed to float. 'What more do you know about us?' she asked her.

'That's all we know,' Aiden interrupted, glancing over to Hermione, who nodded softly after her initial surprise.

Chrys knelt down before him and held up the Time-Turner in front of his eyes. 'Care to explain why you travelled back in time then?' she asked him. The Time-Turner dropping from Chrys' hand until she only held onto the chain made for an eerie sound. It echoed and overruled every other sound that the forest brought forth.

Aiden glanced from the device into Chrys' eyes and he swallowed. The sun illuminated her eyes and melted the golden rays into them, circling around her pupils like an eclipse. 'I can't tell you. It could have detrimental consequences to our present,' he answered. He hadn't intended to tell her the truth about their time-travel, but he also couldn't lie to her.

'So tell me then,' Chrys said. 'From which year did you come and why did you come here of all years? I'm hoping there will be an era without two global wars.'

Aiden grimaced at Chrys. 'Again, I can't tell you,' he repeated.

'It's time we went ho—' Hermione tried to say, but was cut off by Alexis.

'—not until we get to the bottom of this.'

'I agree with Hermione. . . Playing with time could possibly change the entire future. The future we live in,' Charlotte persisted.

'Then why are you here?' Victoria's eyes linked with Charlotte's. None of the Hogwarts graduates knew what to tell her. They couldn't tell her the truth and she seemed like someone who could instantly detect a lie. When no answer came, Victoria gracefully walked from them to the other group, who had been rather silent ever since Kiano made them sink into the ground.

Peter looked at the small grin on Victoria's lips. 'I would let us go if I were you. You have no idea who you're dealing with,' he spat at her and the three others around her.

'Neither do you, so close your mouth before I do it,' Kiano warned in a low voice.

'Touch my brother and see what happens.'

Kiano's gaze wandered down to the lustrous eyes of Lucy. The young girl had expected him to have a fierce response, as fierce as to Peter, but none of that was true. He had a soft smile which almost looked amused to her. 'I won't have to touch him.'

Victoria stepped in and made Kiano re-focus on what their mission was. She then first eyed the youngest sibling, glanced over to Florence, Eustace and Peter and ended staring into Edmund's eyes for a split second. 'You're interesting too, hm? You're Muggles, yet there's a hint of magic about you.'

She circled around them as a snake would around its prey and studied every inch of them that was above the ground. Dozens of questions were roaming around her mind. She didn't understand how a group of Muggle was connected to a group of time-travelling witches and wizards. Neither why they seemed so casual about witnessing magic for the first time. She'd seen Muggles go mad over it, freak out for hours until they'd finally regained their posture. They seemed to accept it without a second thought. Magic, time-travelling. They weren't strangers to the aspect of the supernatural.

Florence followed Victoria with her eyes, feeling violated in a sense. Her hands that were stained with dirt frantically searched around for anyone else's hand. When she felt Peter and Lucy's familiar touch, she let out a breath of relief and found the little strength that she now had to speak up. 'Can you just let us go now?' she asked.

She sounded exhausted, her voice still hoarse from the panic attack she had earlier. She could feel it starting to bubble in her stomach. Instead of the tingling feeling of butterflies, she felt the dreading cramps of anxiety.

Victoria nodded and within seconds the four members of Bellicose stood in front of the others with their wands in their faces. She stood opposite Edmund. He had a charm about him which distracted Victoria from what she had to do.

A realisation suddenly dawned on Aiden. 'You cannot erase our memories. We won't find our way back to our own time,' he argued as he watched Chrys stand up. 'Please.'

No one seemed to listen to his pleas though. This was protocol. The Bellicose members had to erase their memories. While Victoria had no problem doing this with Walmond not much earlier, she didn't feel like she could do it now. There were so many more things that she wanted to know. One by one they were all interesting individuals with their own life and their own stories.

The radiating summer sun no longer warmed Finchley as the sky turned clouded. It wasn't uncommon for the weather to change so rapidly in England especially when it came to rain, but there was something about this change that made them all feel eerie. To some it felt like a sign.

'Erase our memories?' Florence asked in disbelief.

Chrys was standing opposite her—as she couldn't stand to look at Aiden while they'd have to obliviate them—but that didn't intimidate her nor did Chrys' tall length compared to Florence's small exterior. Before the witch realised what was happening, Florence had taken hold of her ankel with her two hands and pulled her foot from underneath her. Chrys lost her balance by the sudden movement and fell backwards, her head painfully colliding with the ground.

Florence quickly grabbed her wand that had clattered onto the ground as well and pointed it at Chrys. 'If you do not let us go, I will erase your memories,' she threatened the witch.

'You're a Muggle. You cannot perform magic, even with a wand,' Alexis retorted.

Florence blinked once as the realisation set in. 'Well, then I'll just hit you in your face with it. What's it gonna be?'

All members of Bellicose were in utter disbelief of the courage and stupidity of the Muggle. They had the power to kill her without ever having to touch her or come close to her and yet here she was, making threats and demands.

Victoria was the first to lower her arm. 'Lower your wands,' she murmured to the others. 'These people do not deserve to have their memories taken away. Perhaps they could even help us on our quest. . .'

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Hii everyone!

Happy Friday the 13th. I hope the bad luck didn't strike ya.

We'll go to Narnia soon, I promise you :') I hope you didn't find this chapter too boring and if you did—well that's your problem lmao. I like the chapter so deal with it. Ngl, months ago, I wouldn't have thought that I could fill a chapter like this. With purely showing how characters are, how they think, how they interact and think that it's actually an entertaining chapter that helps me build the story along the way. It's still mind-blowing to me.

Anyway, thank you for reading!

xx Theresa

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