Chapter Nine: Meeting Emma Helkery

"Guys, ready?" Paulina asked. The four girls had just gotten up and were getting ready to go downstairs and grab breakfast.

"It's girls, not guys, and yes, we are ready." Autumn said. Paulina rolled her eyes and opened the door, leading her friends out. They tiptoed down the stairs and around the corner and froze. Someone was talking to Auntie Ann about something. Someone that looked like Sackanah.

The girls whizzed back around the corner as fast as they could so Sackanah wouldn't see them.

"She didn't see us, did she?" Lily asked anxiously as they placed the charm that wouldn't allow anybody to hear them around the small group.

Paulina shook her head. "No, but I think we need to change the plan. There's absolutely no way we can 'grab' breakfast while Sackanah's standing guard.

"Then do we just check out, or make a run for it?" Angela asked.

"I say we make a run for it, but we'll have to change disguises as soon as we get there." Autumn said firmly, looking at Paulina.

"Okay. Out the back door, run, and then get the heck out of here to Traverse City, where my aunt lives." Lily said, looking around. Everyone nodded.

"1…" Angela started.

"2…" Said Lily.

"3…" Autumn finished queasily.

"GO!" Paulina shouted, not refraining from talking loudly as there was a silencing charm around them. The four girls sped towards the back door. Lily blasted it open and they raced as fast as they could down the road, ignoring the alarms and sirens. Autumn looked back while they were racing and saw Sackanah gaining speed on them. They were not going to win this race if they kept on going much longer. She pulled her friends into an alley and Angela whispered them off to Traverse City.

They landed in the middle of the beach full of people. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice and the small group made their way across the beach and into town, looking for a place to change their disguises. The girls finally came across a small store that said it was closed until twelve. Unlocking the door with a spell they learned in Breaking Out, the four girls slipped into the store and behind a rack of chocolates. A few minutes later they emerged with an old granny (Angela), a young woman (Lily) and two children (Paulina was the older one and Autumn had been shrunken down to the size of a seven-year-old). Feeling quite content, Autumn left $20 on the table and got some beef jerky, muffins, and milk for breakfast. The small group ate breakfast in the store and the slipped back out to find the twins' aunt.

An hour later, they had reached Ms. Helkery. They rang the doorbell twice, thrice, four time, but no one answered.

"We need to get in." Lily said firmly.

"Why? No one's answering, she must not be home!" Paulina asked, a bit annoyed.

"I think there's more to that. We need to get in!" Lily repeated. Paulina sighed and unlocked the door. They looked around the house. It was clear, from the many spell books and strange objects that Emma Helkery was magic, but no one was there. It seemed as if no one had been there for a month, if not more than that. Suddenly, Autumn called the others over to Emma Helkery's desk.

"Look at this!" She cried. The others ran over.

"What?" Angela and Paulina asked, looking at the rather empty desk.

"There's a note!" Lily said, pointing to a square of nothing.

"We can't see it! What about if you read it to us?" Angela asked. The twins nodded and started reading:

Hello Lily and Autumn. If you are reading this, then that means that you have escaped from that horrid school and have come to me for help. However, you must have found that I am not there. That's because I'm on the run. Sackanah has found me and I must not let her find me again. I do not know where I'll be when you read this letter, but here are the places that I will be going. I'll be staying in each for one day at a time and then doing it all over again. Look for me under the name of Emily Stevenson, Molly Brown, Nellie March, Bonnie White, April Carpenter or Carolina Niota. I'm sorry for the inconvenience with the names, but I have to stay hidden. Here are the places you'll find me in (In no particular order):

San Diego, California

Dallas, Texas

New York City, New York

Orlando, Florida (where I will be hiding out in Disney )

Ann Arbor, Michigan (where your mother used to live)

If you for some reason don't find me in any of the places then look for me in your house in England.

Good Luck and Lots Of Love,

Emma Helkery

"Okay." Autumn breathed. "There are five places she might be in. We have four people. I say we each take one place and then stay there for two days."

"Two days?! What are you trying to do, kill all of us?! I thought we were going to stay together!" Paulina said, eyebrows raised.

"But then that'd take forever! We can't just stay in a place for five days!" Autumn said.

"I have an idea." Angela whispered. Her face lit up. "You know the transportatia spell? How you say the place you want to go, and then it takes you there?" Her friends nodded. "Well," Angela said, "What if we told it to take us to the place where Emma Helkery was? In theory, that should work!"

"But then Sackanah could find us so easily!" Paulina said nervously. Everyone blanched. Autumn cast an invisibility spell on them and then the silence charm.

"Could you wait a second guys? I need to see something." Angela said. Then, without waiting for the answer, she raced up the stairs and came back down a minute later with a book.

"Autumn, make me visible, won't you? I'm under a desk, people can't see me." Angela called up from under the desk. Autumn consented and Angela appeared with a book in her hand, flipping through the pages. "Found it! To transport to an unknown place where something, such as a person, is, it takes a large amount of magic. Not even the most powerful magician can do this, for it takes at least 10 average magicians, or at least 5 rather powerful ones to do it. Guys, we have four people and we know that Autumn and Lily are quite powerful. We could try it! Please?" Angela pleaded the others. Autumn, Lily, and Paulina nodded reluctantly. Taking off the spells, they held hands and said together, forcing magic out of their palms:

"Transportatia wherever Emma Helkery is!"

There was a whooshing feeling and they landed in the middle of a ride in Disney next to Emma Helkery, a raven haired, blue eyed, rather pretty woman. It turned out to be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the cart was moving up and down.

"Heavens! Who the heck are you!" Emma asked, pulling out her wand.

"What? I'm Lily, your nie— oh yeah. Guys we haven't changed back yet." Lily said, looking at her friends who were still under Paulina's enchantment, but before Paulina could do anything, Emma waved her wand over the four and they became their selves. Emma gave a sigh of relief at the sight of her nieces and then narrowed her eyes at Angela and Paulina.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"We're Autumn and Lily's friends. I'm Paulina, this is Angela. We met at the school." Paulina said nervously under Ms. Helkery's gaze. Emma looked at them for a moment and then relaxed, leaning back as the ride lifted them up and down. Seven dwarfs waved at the merrily and sang some kind of song, but they weren't listening.

"I have to say, you girls got out of that school pretty quickly. Whatever plan you had, you did it pretty well. I was planning to go over and help you if you weren't out of there by Christmas." Emma said, smiling warmly. Lily frowned. Why was her aunt just sitting here doing nothing, riding rides in Disney World. She shook it off, glancing at her sister who shrugged and looked uncomfortable.

"Actually, our plan kinda failed. We were going to get nine of us out of there but only us four got out. They were after us so we had to get out of there." Autumn said miserably, telling Emma the whole story.

"That's alright. We'll get your friends out of there." Emma said. Then she pursed her lips. "If my army wins this war then we'll get all of the out there."

"What war?" Angela asked.

"The Magic War. It's the second one that ever happened. The first one we lost. We were fighting over whether or not to build the school. This war…if they win then they get to rally their armies and take over the world. If we win, then the school is done for and Sackanah and Lestrangeo will be in rather big trouble." Emma finished.

"When is this war going to start Ms. Helkery?" Paulina asked.

"Call me Emma. The war will start…actually, there's no exact date, but it's starting soon, which is why I'm here. I'm planning on recruiting a few people." Emma said. Lily relaxed. So this is why her aunt was here.

"You have an army?" Autumn asked.

"Yes. They're scattered around the country. Some are in the U.K. as well." Emma said. "But what we need to focus on right now are your friends. You say they were left in that school?"

"Yes. We don't know if they have been caught yet…we hope not." Angela said, worried about her two bestest friends, Hermione and Natalie.

"We'll get them out, don't worry. But we have to do it quickly since Sackanah and Lestrangeo already know their gone. They might put a tracking spell on them, and if your friends don't know how to dodge that, then…" Emma trailed off, seeing the worried looks on the four girls faces.

"Don't worry girls. We'll get them out, I promise you." Emma said warmly. "Come, we'll ride a few more rides and then go to my hotel room to make a plan." She told the girls as the ride ended and the doors opened.

Despite their worries, the four girls had a good time riding the rides and eating lunch with Mickey Mouse. It almost felt normal…well, almost. After lunch, the small group took a bus to the French Quarters Disney Hotel where Emma was staying and entered her hotel room, which was surprisingly big. The four girls sat down on the two couches while Emma got some snacks, drinks, paper, and a pen. Bringing it over to the coffee table in the middle of the living room, she took a seat next to Lily.

"So, when you guys got out you closed the barriers behind you?" Emma asked.

"Yeah." Lily replied.

"Did anyone other than you, Lily, know the spell for the barriers?" Emma said, brow creasing. Lily bit her lip.

"I showed it to them, but I don't know if they remembered the spell or not, much less practiced it." Lily said. "You don't think…"

Paulina gasped. "They could've gotten stuck in between barriers! Oh god…if they didn't know the spell, then…it'd be so easy for Sackanah and Lestrangeo to get to them!"

Emma's face was pale, but holding her hand up, she said, "Calm down girls. They might know the spell. Autumn, you did say you guys brought spell books with you, no?"

Autumn nodded. "We did. They were with Nick."
"There is a good chance that he searched up the spell and broke the barriers himself." Emma said reasonably.

"But what about the tracking spell?" Angela asked anxiously.

"That will be the problem. And that is why we need to get to the school as fast as possible." Emma said.

"Okay, then what are we waiting for? Let's go now!" Autumn stood up from the couch and grabbed her backpack.

"Hold on there! We need a plan. Just because I'm an accomplished magician does not mean Sackanah and Lestrangeo aren't. They are powerful. I still find it confusing how a simple barrier repel such as the one you used could actually get you guys out! They aren't that stupid!" Emma said firmly. "It was too easy to escape. Something's terribly wrong here."

"But Aunt Emma! They never knew that anyone wasn't under the spell! They might have only put simple barriers because they thought nobody could get out! Or wanted to get out." Lily said.

Emma sighed. "Yes. But I swear to God that Sarah Sackanah would not do that. She would take all precautions."

"Perhaps Lestrangeo did it." Angela said.

"Perhaps. You know, maybe you guys are right, but that does not mean we can just get up and go, okay?" Emma asked, voiced raised. Autumn nodded guiltily and sat down. "Good. Now we need a plan. Your friends could be anywhere right now. From what I've heard, that school is a gigantic place girls. And the alarms from the barriers? This time we aren't getting out. We're going in. We can't make a quick escape like you four did. While that was a great escape, and I'm proud of you guys, that's just not the case in this situation." Everyone nodded.

"We could use a silencing charm on the alarms." Angela said.

"Yes, and then break the barriers. Once we get in…" Paulina continued.

"We split up. One of us searches for one of them since we both have five people." Lily piped up.

"Yeah! And we need a form of communication. We also might want to learn the tracking spell! Once we find them, we all meet up at the barriers and escape." Autumn finished.

"Then we'll find my army and the war will start." Emma said, nodding. "Now, as for the form of communication, if you raise your wand up to your mouth and say the person you would wish to talk to, you could talk to them. To end it you simply just say, end. Let's try that girls." Emma held up her wand to her mouth and said, Angela Steelmer. Angela's wand shot up from her pocket and flew into her hand. Raising her want up to her mouth, Angela said,

"Um…testing…is this thing on?" Everyone (sans Emma, who smiled) gasped as Angela's voice came through Emma's wand.

"And if you want the conversation to be private, you just say the name and say private afterwards." Emma told them, smiling. The four girls nodded enthusiastically and practiced for a few minutes while Emma went to the bathroom. When she came back, she stopped the girls practice. "Now the tracking spell is 'tracamonia', and then the name of the person you want to track. It needs a certain amount of power which I believe you four possess, but unfortunately, so does Sackanah and Lestrangeo. The only reason they haven't tracked us yet is because I placed a spell that repels trackers on myself and the twins, and when you two arrived on that ride, I placed it on you two too. Therefore it is impossible for anyone to track us."

"Couldn't you place it on those five too? Like, long distance?" Angela asked hopefully. Emma shook her head.

"No, sorry, it just doesn't work like that. The spell for repelling is 'tracamonia—"

"Let me guess, 'nof'?" Autumn said, cutting her aunt off.

"Correct, and then you say the name of the person you don't want to be tracked. That spell takes quite a lot of power too. And practice, which we can't do because saying it to anyone of us takes of the spell and we'll be traceable, even if it is only 3 seconds." Emma said.

"So, now that we've got a plan, could we go?" Paulina asked rather eagerly. Emma bit her lip. It was obvious that she was rather reluctant to go so quickly. Emma surprised everyone when she nodded.

"Yes, we can. It's not going to do any good just sitting here and plan something that has a 50% chance of not working in our favor." Emma agreed. The four girls gathered their stuff. Emma put her wand to her mouth and said, "Angela Steelmer, Lily Wellers, Analisa Wellers, Paulina Nkansah. Private call. Are you here?"

A chorus of 'yes's came from Emma's wand. "We'll leave this on so we can communicate." Emma smiled. "Hold hands. Your wands will stay where they are." They held hands. The middle-aged woman waved her hand in the air and they became invisible.

"Transportia T.E.D.!" Emma whispered and off they went.