Chapter 2:

Dragons and Goodbyes

"You shouldn't be here, Mira. He's doesn't belong there!"

A loud whisper was the first thing Joonmyun heard once he woke up. He didn't dare open his eyes though, they felt too heavy to lift and his head was pounding against the frail bone of his skull, aching pain radiating throughout his body.

"San, look at what just happened. If he comes with me, it'll be better for everyone."

"Not for me, it won't. Without him I have nothing left."

It was his mother's voice, he noticed, but it wasn't calm like every other time she talked. It was harsh and not appealing to the ear, like a knife cutting right through his head. Joonmyun wanted her to stop and calm down.

"You seriously can't take a hint, can you? He is long overdue and he should be at the castle in two weeks. If not, he'll be an easy target and you'll be handing him over on a silver platter with an apple shoved into his mouth. How can you be so selfish? He's not your personal body guard and he'll be of no use if he has no training!"

"I'll train him. I can be his teacher. He'll learn everything from me," his mother sounded desperate now. Joonmyun wouldn't be surprised if he opened his eyes to see his mother's hands making elaborate gestures in every direction possible.

"You? I know you spent years reading the books your grandmother left you but you're not a witch. You can't teach him because you have no experience. He needs proper education. You can't just take this away from him because you had to watch your friends leave on the train you desperately wanted to board. It's not your faith to be a wand yielder, Sandra." It was Mira's voice, Joonmyun knew that, but it was also different from how he heard it earlier.

Joonmyun heard his mother sigh loudly before letting out a choked sob. At that moment he desperately wanted to stand up and comfort her with loving words but he didn't. Instead he listened as footsteps shuffled over to her and sat down next to her shaking frame, the couch making crying in protest at the weight.

"I'll personally take him in. All you need to do is go in hiding. Don't let him catch you and don't let him know," Mira comforted.

Joonmyun thought this was a good time to announce his consciousness and coughed lightly to get their attention. He hadn't expected to have listened in on such a conversation but it just made him more curious, but also scared to learn of these things he was curious about.

"Honey, how are you feeling?" His mother immediately rubbed away her tears with her index finger not to mess up her once perfect make-up, and sat down next to Joonmyun on the bed.

"Fine," he lied, not wanting to add weight on her shoulders. Joonmyun perched himself up on his shoulders and muffled a groan. It didn't go unnoticed by Mira, though.

"Lay back. You took quite the fall earlier."

"How long have I been out?"

"About thirty minutes. It was hard getting you out of there. No one even bothered to offer help, can you believe that?" Mira sighed and shook her head. "Bloody muggles with no decency. Though, there aren't many wizards in their right mind either."

"You said that word earlier, muggles," Joonmyun thought out loud.

"Non-magic people. Like your mum." Mira earned a stern look from his mother and held her hands up in defeat. "Sorry."

"Can you give us a minute?" Sandra asked politely but with a tone and Mira gladly stepped out of the stuffy hotel room. Once the door had shut she sighed loudly and buried her head in the blanket around Joonmyun. She kept whispering to herself 'where do I start?' and Joonmyun decided to take initiative.

"I'm a wizard," he said and his mother replied with a muffled 'yes'. "and you don't want me to go to that school," he stated, earning another muffled 'yes' from his mother. "Why?" was finally his question.

"Because," his mother began, lifting up her head for Joonmyun to see her expression. She looked lost and the red, puffy eyes that seemed to stare into Joonmyun's soul didn't make things easier for either of them. "I was jealous. I never got the opportunity to go to Hogwarts and I just... I'm sorry, Joon-honey."

"So you knew why those weird things always happened to me? You knew why I was constantly getting into unexplainable trouble?" Joonmyun's tone wasn't harsh, it was barely above a whisper but he was sure his mother could hear him clearly. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I wasn't sure. Not until I got the letter." She sighed loudly, her head dropping on her shoulders once again. "There are...things out there that are much, much bigger than I could possibly explain to you. And it was wrong of me to keep you away from it."

Silence filled the room after her words. None of them knew what to say but Joonmyun had one more question lingering in his mind. "When do I leave?"

His mother raised her head to look at him with tears threatening to fall. Joonmyun's not stupid, not at all. He's been praised all his life regarding his excellent participation in school but as well as having a great ability to read people and in between the lines. It was a gift, his mother had once told him, but now it felt like a curse. Joonmyun knew that he'd be departed to that school, and quite frankly, he wanted to go. He felt betrayed by his mother for some reason, despite having the urge to push those feelings away. He wanted to go, to leave his mother to wallow in her own despair, as terrible as it sounded, he wanted that.

"Today," his mother spoke in cut syllables. Joonmyun's eyebrows tugged in shock. He hadn't expected it to be so soon. He wanted to at least spend the remainder of the day talking to his mother into the early hours of the morning searching for answers. All that shattered with one word. "There's a lot of things you need to learn before you board the train to Hogwarts, a lot of things you'll need as well. I can't provide that information like Mira can so you'll be going with her tonight."

"I don't even get to pack?" he exclaimed a little too loudly for his mother's liking.

"I'll send you everything tomorrow. It'll be fine, don't worry," she said, letting a hand fall softly on Joonmyun's cheek in an affectionate but he jerked away. She looked sad yet her eyes were partially glowing in Joonmyun's view.  "But," she began as she straightened her back and searched through her clutch for something. A golden key surfaced from the bag and Joonmyun took notice of the exquisite detailing and the numbers '634' written in cursive. She asked for Joonmyun's hand soundlessly and he reluctantly gave it to her. She placed the small key in his palm and closed his fingers around it. "You'll need this."

"What's it for?" But his mother never answered him because a second later, Mira was spewing into the room with a deeply heaving chest.

"They've found us," she said with widened eyes and Joonmyun had no idea what she was flustering about.

"What?! How- Goddamnit. Mira, get him out of here now," his mother spoke in such a demanding tone that it even scared Joonmyun.

Mira rushed over to the boy on the bed and pulled him up with a ferocious arm to stand. She held out her hand for him to take but he refused.

"Take it," she forced.

"But my mum-"

"Will be fine. She's a big girl. She can handle herself," Mira assured him but it made him feel no better. Yet, he took her hand and she twisted it away from her and the next thing he knew, they were surrounded by black suffocating air pulling him in every direction that would otherwise be impossible. Within seconds they were warped into a completely different place and the first thing Joonmyun felt was the need to breathe. Later, nausea paid a visit and took over his body. He felt himself hurl forward and throw up the contents of his stomachs four corners. It was like having the worst case of the stomach flu and not being able to escape.

"I don't want to ever do that again," he said as he spit out the last of the foul taste.

"Apparition is only so bad the first time. It'll get better over time."

"I still don't want to do it. It feels like I'm getting stretched into multiple versions of myself," Joonmyun spat as he stood up straight again, wiping away the remaining spit with the back of his hand.

As he stood, the view of the dark alleyway came into view. It took time for his eyes to adjust to the darkness but once they did, everything seemed clearer than day. It was obvious they were in a big town from the sound of local cars' engines roaring and the drivers' impatient honking but it was definitely not London anymore. Joonmyun knew that for sure.

Joonmyun felt dozy, lightheaded as he fluttered his eyes open. He let out a low groan, turning around in the soft comforter he had snuggled in and nestled his head lower into the fluffy, white pillow. He breathed in a deep breath smelling of lilies and spring and white chocolate; his mother's perfume was exactly in that smell. Joonmyun remembered it so clearly because he had bought a bottle for her thirtieth birthday, a year ago, and the smile she had given him was priceless. Nothing but sheer happiness laced her lips and the crinkles by her eyes.

It smelled amazing and just for once, he let a smile tug at his lips as he dozed off again. It felt like he was four once again, lying in his mother's bed watching cartoons at nine in the morning on a Saturday as his mum slept in and groaned whenever he'd poke her or place a really wet, sloppy kiss on her cheek. She'd always pretend that it was the yuckiest thing ever and complained about cooties and other germs, making little four year old Joonmyun giggle and laugh like the little child he was. His mum would still do the exact same thing until Joonmyun had turned eight - that was when he began thinking it was disgusting for her to kiss him on the cheek when she'd drop him off at school. The first day he had done that to her, he remembered seeing her smile falter before she faked a laugh and left. Little eight year old Joonmyun felt regret that entire day and had come home tackling his mum to the sofa and showered her with kisses. Ever since then, she'd gradually given him less kisses until one day, they all ran out.

The smell of this pillow reminded Joonmyun of that moment. And it made him miss those times he'd actually have to fight away his mother whenever she squished his face into her hands and forced a kiss on his nose, on his cheek, on the other cheek and lastly on his forehead. And made Joonmyun feel depressed and at the same time happy warmth spread throughout his body.

Joonmyun sighed loudly, turning his head to the side and sunlight blared at his eyes through the lids. He shut them tight in efforts of getting away from the blinding light. He didn't have a window to the left of his bed, so why would there be sunlight coming from that way?

He squinted one eye open and regretted it instantly. The room was fully white, unlike the dark blue walls of his bedroom, and the window that he so wanted gone was big, with doubled glasses and a windowsill with several potted flowers that bloomed like there was no tomorrow. Joonmyun furrowed his brows in confusion. There were no flowers in his room - his windowsill was filled with handcrafted Lego robots from his days of being a Transformers fan. When did his mother replace them and repaint his walls?

Joonmyun sat up quickly, too quickly for his head to fully comprehend and his vision blurred black before steadying. He looked to the left of the window and there stood a rather large, almost empty white bookshelf with only a few books with rather fascinatingly moving covers. Further away stood a dark blue armchair with a fluffy white pillow laid perfectly in it. If this were Joonmyun's room, there would have been a desk in that corner and a bureau in dark, dark brown with books stacked in two different rows separated by fiction and non-fiction. This was most definitely not his room, nor did it look like his mother's bedroom for she had a telly and her window was above the head of her bed.

Joonmyun turned around, whipping his head to the other side of the room. This side, just like the other, was completely different from anything he was used to. It had a bright red door with a silver doorknob and simple detailing. Beside it stood a rather large, brown teddy bear perched on a stool with three legs, looking creepily in Joonmyun's direction.

"You're awake?" a voice called out and Joonmyun focused his eyes on the short boy who stood in the now open door with a tray in hand. Joonmyun simply sat with parted lips on the bed and blinked at the boy. He had light brown hair, on the verge of orange-blonde swept across his forehead and had deep, chocolate brown eyes that suited his face deeply. His cheekbones were evident and a mouth full of curled up smiles pointed in Joonmyun's direction as he stepped closer to the end of the bed. "I'm Chen," the boy said cheerfully after a moment of silence. He smiled widely but Joonmyun didn't return it. Instead, he asked;

"Where am I?"

"In my house," the boy answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and already, it was getting on Joonmyun's nerves, especially the way the boy's lips curled in the corners even in his relaxed state.

"Why?"

"My mum took you here," Chen said, settling down the tray at the foot of the bed, and stepped away as if Joonmyun was a fire breathing dragon ready to pounce him. Now that the boy spoke a longer sentence, he could hear how he spoke with a distinct 'r', like a Bristol accent, very much different from Joonmyun's own posh Es one.

Joonmyun had no idea what to say and simply parted his lips in confusion. Thousand of questions could have flooded his mind to the point of him drowning but the gears in his head stood still, no thoughts produced simply because he had no idea what to think. This was new to Joonmyun who had gotten used to the loudness inside the stuffed cavern of his skull. It suddenly felt completely empty and like the world had paused on its axis just for him.

"What?" he had to say to grab onto the last string of sanity within him.

"Uh, MUM!" Chen yelled, stumbling clumsily out of the room, leaving Joonmyun to stare blankly at the spot the young boy had just left vacant. He sat completely frozen, waiting for something but he didn't know what.

"Joonmyun," a sweet, warm voice called out, much like the one he had heard yesterday when he stepped out into the cold of the night on the balcony. "How are you feeling?" Mira continued.

Joonmyun simply looked at her, his eyes blinking every ten seconds with a blank gaze. Memories of the previous day flooded his mind at a rapid speed and Joonmyun was forced to physically grab a hold of his head to steady himself.

"We left....my mum, yesterday.....after her art directors party....and then we were chased.... oh God," Joonmyun whispered to himself, his eyes wide and voice breathy. He felt light-headed, all the blood seemed to be pooling at his feet instead of in his brain where it should be and the room began spinning slowly, enough to make him feel sick.

"Is the corpse alive?" a deep yet childish voice sounded as a tall teenager rushed into the room, knocking into the back of Chen's small frame who had followed his mother in.

"Perth," Mira warned, "out. You too, Chen."

Joonmyun heard them both groan lowly before leaving the room, shutting the red door after them. As soon as the lock clicked, Mira turned back to Joonmyun, letting the warmth of her eyes comfort him instead of any words.

"Where am I?" Joonmyun asked, hoping the woman could give him a better answer than Chen did.

"Bristol," she answered quickly.

"Why?"

"Because your mother can't take care of you anymore," she said, looking straight into Joonmyun's eyes.

He suddenly felt defensive and offended at that because he knew very well that his mother could take care of him just fine, better than anyone else actually. "She can do a much better job than you," he spat out, voice dripping in hurt covered venom. Mira did nothing but sigh, her gaze softened even more as she did.

"I didn't mean it like that, Quincey. There are complicated things going on that makes her unfit to take care of you. She'll be back soon." It sounded like an answered by the books, not sincere and just rehearsed.

"What complicated things?" Joonmyun asked, pushing to see how soon she'd crack. He gave the middle-aged woman a stern look.

"Off the grid kind of things," she said simply, crossing her legs as she did.

"I think I have the right to know." Joonmyun felt anger begin to surface as the suddenly pale looking woman dragged out on the time. He didn't want to be in this situation, he at least deserves to know why he's in a house full of unfamiliar people. Never would he admit it, but he was scared.

Instead of giving him an answer, Mira walked out of the room, leaving the eleven year old confused and feeling completely ignored. Just when Joonmyun was about to get up and follow her, she returned with a rather odd looking metal case embroidered with thousands of different patterns all around it. The detailing was credential; vines, roses, dragons, swords and a lot more covered the entire surface of the silver box, carved to most exquisite detailing that would make his mother swoon in admiration.

"I've sworn oath to not tell you anything but I think you'll find this box a lot more educational." She stepped no further than the tripedastoll and set the box carefully on the teddy bear's lap before stepping out and closing the red door behind her.

Joonmyun felt confusion flush over him as he stepped towards the box. With a cautious hand he ran a finger over the small dragon on the lid and instantly the dragon moved, its head turning towards Joonmyun and yawned. Joonmyun stepped back in shock but kept his mouth shut from any girly yelp that threatened. Again, he reached out to the box but the little bird next to the dragon, it too coming to life at the touch. It even let out a lively twittering song and tested out its vocal cords in a fluent string of musical notes. Joonmyun stood in a mixture of awe and dread as he watched the rest of the box's decorations come to life by his touches.

When everything that covered the silver box woke and spoke and stretched as if they'd been stale for hundreds of years, the dragon he'd first touched roared and breathed a rather real stream of fire into the air. Joonmyun stumbled back and onto the bouncy bed at the action.

"What generation touches the Box of Oliver?" the dragon, to Joonmyun's surprise, spoke with a deep, raspy voice loudly into the room.

"Uhm," Joonmyun began, not knowing how to respond to such creature. "The ninth?" he tested, hoping he had answered right. He felt like the kid who had been sleeping in class and suddenly been handed a pop quiz he knew nothing about.

"Don't be silly," the dragon laughed, "Marlow Oliver died in 1936. The ninth generation is no longer alive-"

"What are you?" Joonmyun asked quickly.

"We are the guarding creatures of the Box of Oliver; a highly respected magical item created by the great Merlin himself," the dragon answered. Actually, Joonmyun wasn't sure if it was the dragon who spoke - it could have been the entire box taking a voice.

"Is Oliver a family?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

Joonmyun sat flustered on the bed, not a single thought occupying his mind at the moment. "J-Joonmyun Quincey."

"Ahhh," the dragon said in understanding, "The tenth generation has arrived."

"How would you know what generation I am?" Joonmyun didn't mean to sound defensive, it just came out like that despite how curious he actually tried to convey his words.

"I know of the future, the past and the present of this family before you know yourself. It is my job to know who is in the blood line of the Olivers."

"But how do you know I'm an Oliver? My parents aren't wizards." Joonmyun stood up as he spoke carefully to the dragon. As he neared the box once again, he could see how every creature had faced him and watched him with black beady eyes with the exception of the dragon's glowing emerald ones.

"Not all people can bring life to the Box of Oliver unless you are of Oliver blood. Such a shame you had to take your father's name," the dragon physically sighed, his chest heaving up and down deeply. Curiosity sparked within Joonmyun.

"So you know my father?" he asked, lifting the box up and making his way over to the bed once again. He set the silver item on the light linen carefully and situated himself cross-legged in front of it.

"I know all people associated with the Oliver family. I also know why you are asking all these questions and what answers you are searching for."

Joonmyun cocked a brow and asked, "How?" with grave curiosity. It was once again his childish instincts that caught the better of him.

The dragon sighed visibly again but this time a small gust of grey wind exited the dragon's nose. Joonmyun coughed heavily as he breathed the intoxicating air, glaring coldly at the miniature dragon.

"We are enchanted with the connection to Oliver blood. Everything in you will be known to us," the dragon's mouth came to a close and its eyes died down its glowing until it was nothing but silver detailing. The entire box's creatures slowed down to a stop and froze into their original positions and then the box opened on its own. Joonmyun wished he had been given more time with the dragon so at least the most important of his question could be answered but he sighed at the sight of the dead glow.

The box's lid opened to Joonmyun's surprise, startling the boy into a shake as the lid revealed all the little knickknacks inside. There were five major items, Joonmyun counted; one miniature sword with blue and emerald stones lacing the handle, one rolled up piece of parchment with a deep red wax seal with the lettering 'O.W.', one black book that looked no different from his mother's little phone book with her most valuable customers, one equally silver key as the box it laid in with small detailing and the numbers '634' in cursive, and a odd looking pink bracelet someone from the nineties would wear.

Joonmyun picked up the bracelet, seeing it the most curious out of the items, and twirled it in his fingers. There seemed to be nothing remotely magical about it so his eyebrows naturally flared up his forehead. It looked completely ordinary in his hands and nothing odder than a cheap friendship bracelet.

"What is this?" Joonmyun asked himself before setting the hot pink band back in the box, picking up the rolled up parchment instead. The seal was waxed but there were several cracks in it that had been mended several times over a hot candle. Joonmyun slowly peeled it off and rolled out the paper in his palm. On it stood thousands of words, far more than in any book Joonmyun had ever read, and the paper just seemed to become longer and longer as one end rolled off the bed and onto the floor. Joonmyun sighed, knowing he'd have to pick it up and roll it together again.

"'Answers to those who seek it will find it in time. Things will be answered by only a good question that lures us to answer,'" Joonmyun read aloud as the words thousands of words were replaced by lettering in deep blue ink and faded away just as quickly. So all he needed to do was ask the proper question, right? That wouldn't be so hard.

Joonmyun stretched over to the small bedside table and grabbed a pencil to begin writing.

Why am here? he wrote first but as the words disappeared, no answer came to replace the messy handwriting. Joonmyun furrowed his brows together before writing another question instead, Who is after my mum? Once again, nothing surfaced after his own question disappeared into the sheet of paper. Was he asking the wrong question? How could he be? Was it not the question he really wanted to know?

Joonmyun though harder to himself - maybe he needed to look at the bigger picture, take a step back and observe from the distance something he really needed and wanted to know. After all, the parchment had said that he had to ask the right questions.

Just for the sake of trying, Joonmyun wrote, Who is he?, and to his surprise, an answer finally surfaced.

He is your father, it responded and disappeared once again.

Who is my father? Joonmyun wrote and it responded once more.

He is the one chasing your mother into dark territories. No help can be given to him or her.

What was that supposed to mean? Dark territories? No help? Joonmyun sat confused, clutching onto the wooden pen in his hand as beads of sweat began to trickle his forehead from the intensive thoughts he thought.

Before he could set the tip of his pen back down onto the coarse paper, it rolled itself back into the original scroll and the waxed seal closed over the flap of paper. Maybe he had used up all his questions for the day, like some kind of genie that only granted two wishes per session...

It seemed ridiculous, this whole situation really, and Joonmyun laughed out loud because if he had sat in pure silence, he'd surely have gone crazy from the sound.

He should have persisted on looking through the box but he didn't. Instead, he closed the box and a small clicking noise signalled it had locked and he pushed the silver box away harshly, letting it hit the head board of the bed with a loud bang. He was already going crazy, the thought as a menacing smile formed on his thin lips.

♥

private tumblr | official tumblr

(^for more information^)

4592 coconuts