Kendis unlocked the door to her shop. But even with the usually comforting sound of Alke‘s nails clicking against the linoleum floor, the shop was eerily quiet. She had just returned from Hortense and Isiah’s place. They’d handed her the spare keys to their apartment, and she’d patiently listened to Isiah’s careful instructions on how to care for his plant babies.

Then the couple had taken turns hugging her.

“Fire call us if you need anything,” Hortense had said as she hugged Kendis.

“I will,” Kendis had lied. She will do anything to keep her friends safe. And with them constantly coming in and out of the compound that Kendis both lived and worked in, they would be the easiest target for Chester. No one would hear from Kendis until everything was settled.

Kendis was trying to figure out how long she could avoid Ian and Jason before they caught on. She hadn’t been back to Miscellany since those letters started arriving. She knew that the two men were far from being helpless muggles. Hell, she’d witnessed Jason and Ian intimidate countless Aurors and MACUSA agents who’d staked out Kendis at the bar, hoping to recruit her. She laughed as they practically ran screaming from the bar after Jason’s threats.

But she didn’t know for sure until a few months later when she saw them fighting a furious dragon shifter in the alley outside the bar. They weren’t magical, but Jason was way too powerful and quick, plus Ian’s injuries vanished in seconds.

Later that night in their bungalow in studio city, the couple finally admitted that they were the demigod Hercules and his immortal sidekick Iolaus. Speechless, Kendis could only gaze at her friends, who were, in fact, superheroes.

For the first time since she left everything behind in England, Kendis found herself spilling her past to the two men who clearly understood the weight of being a hero. The exchange of stories that evening created a strong bond among the three. Kendis felt as close to Ian and Jason as she did to the Weasley brothers.

But unlike the Weasleys, the two men didn’t have thousands of miles and an ocean between them to prevent them from getting involved in this situation.

Nevertheless, Chester was her problem, and the less interference from her friends, the less she would have to worry. Kendis had no choice but to send Hortense and Isiah away.

She remembered how Isiah had hugged her tight and said, “Be safe and don’t do anything foolish!”

Kendis had laughed and shoved him away. And then Hortense and Isiah had shrunk their luggage and placed them in their pockets. They had both grabbed hold of a conch shell, and then, a moment later, they had disappeared.

Now Kendis was here alone in the shop. Alke nudged her hand, and Kendis scratched behind her ears.

“It’s just going to be you and me,” she said with a sigh and then walked into the garage. Kendis had pretty much cleared her calendar for a month to deal with Chester.

She had started reaching out to her magical contacts and had even gone to El Caldero. It was the local wizarding district and governmental hub for Los Angeles County.

Kendis had walked into Auror headquarters and finally made a formal report. She had been putting it off because she knew it was more than likely that they would brush off her concerns.

And Kendis had been right.

“This is a free country, Mx. Black.” An Auror, who was an older white man by the name of Nelson Buckling had told her. “Unless you can prove that he is physically harming you, then there is nothing we can do.”

Kendis had frantically gestured to the stack of letters she had collected. Chester had increased the frequency of his letters to every other day. She knew Isiah had been suspicious when he had found one in the breakroom, but he hadn’t pressed her when she gave him a hasty explanation. Even Hortense had badgered her about the envelope that had appeared while Kendis had been cutting the cake.

“Sending someone a letter is not illegal,” the Auror shrugged and then grimaced. “No matter how distasteful.”

Kendis had stormed out of El Caldero, frustrated and close to tears. In the end, it had proved what she had always suspected: she was on her own.

“Come on, Alke,” Kendis called out to her dog and did her best to push away her melancholy thoughts as they made their way further into the garage.

Isiah’s side of the bay was messy with the tools drawers left open, and a dirty oil rag was left on the table with some nuts and bolts. While Kendis’s side was neater, as everything had a place and a spot.

Her autistic brain craved order, while Isiah was just a mess. In the early days of Isiah’s employment, Kendis had always been getting on his ass about it. But then they’d compromised, and now Isiah’s mess stayed in his half of the garage.

Sitting on a few hydraulic lifts was a sweet white Suzuki GSX, right to it was a Honda CBR111XX Super Black Bird that she needed to finish up, and a sweet Triumph Daytona 675.

She should try to at least work on the Triumph, but Kendis couldn’t really feel excited about it. The garage was too silent without the noise of Isiah’s tinkering and constant singing along to the radio. Missing her friend, Kendis turned on the radio in hopes of shaking off her discomfort.

‘Under Pressure’ by Queen came on, and she bopped her head to it as she pulled a treat off the shelf and threw it at her dog. After delicately taking the treat, Alke loped over to her corner cot and ate it.

“Spoiled rotten.” Kendis laughed.

With a sigh, Kendis put on her coveralls and started working on installing the motor bike’s new cylinder block . Parts for the Triumph finally came in yesterday, and it had taken forever to get her hands on the right cylinder block.

Kendis gave a triumphant grin as they finished installing it. She frowned as she noticed that the news had suddenly replaced the music.

“In a move that surprises no one, billionaire playboy and inventor, Tony Stark, has been nominated for the Apogee Lifetime Achievement Award in Design and Innovation,” the radio host announced. “But what we all want to know is who is going to be on his arm? Rumor has it Tony is dating heiress Hope Van Dyne…”

Kendis groaned and sat up before hurrying over to the radio to turn it off. She took a deep breath and consciously unclenched her fists. Kendis knew firsthand that press speculations were usually total rubbish.

Besides, what did it matter if the rumors were true or not? Hadn’t she told Tony to move on? This was for the best, as they both had better things to worry about.

And the infuriating man had ignored her boundaries and violated her privacy, making it clear that he was just another man who only saw Kendis as a pretty toy to use and discard.

Kendis ran her hand through her hair and sighed. It was for the best that she and Tony went their separate ways. Death awaited anyone who got close to her and, although Tony was an arrogant fool, she didn’t want him to die.

They glanced at Alke, and her dog threw her a very judgmental look. Kendis snorted. I think it is time to call it a night.

Her house was just as quiet as the garage had been, but it was a comfortable silence that Kendis was more used to. She walked into the enormous great room that had six tall rectangular windows stretched across the wall and overlooked her neat lawn and main garage, which was only a short distance away.

Kendis, with Alke close behind, walked past the overstuffed burnt orange leather sofas and cherry wood coffee table, where a large jigsaw puzzle sat unfinished next to an empty mug. But she was drawn towards the bookshelf where a simple wooden box sat placed near framed photographs of Hermione, Ron, and herself at the burrow, taken during the early stages of her transition.

They were the only photos of herself from before that she could stand to look at.

Beside the shelf was her old Gryffindor Quidditch jersey, lying next to her broom. With a sigh, Kendis put her phone in the wooden box. The box protected her phone against any magical interference.

Alke whined and barked, and Kendis rolled her eyes as she walked into the kitchen. The open plan of her house was something she usually loved. It made her house feel big and airy, which was something she craved after sleeping in a cupboard and then in a crowded dorm room as a child. Yet, now it made her feel that much more alone.

Alke barked and whined once again, and Kendis turned to find her standing pointedly next to her empty food and water bowl.

“Menace,” Kendis said with a fond smile. She pulled out Alke’s expensive dog food and mixed the wet food with the dry.

And Alke put her entire head in the bowl as she devoured her dinner.

After she made Alke’s dinner, Kendis walked into the living room and pulled out one of her Weird Sisters albums. Listening to some music should make the silence a bit more bearable.

She placed the vinyl on the record player and, with a flick of her wand, made sure the sound of the music was amplified enough that she could hear it throughout her house.

Kendis hummed along to Cruel Bind as she made her way back to the kitchen. Ugh, what am I going to eat for dinner? She considered cooking and sighed. Kendis hated cooking just for herself. Normally, she would cook a big meal, and then give it to Hortense and Isiah for lunch. But with them gone, she had lost any motivation to cook.

With a sigh, Kendis opened the cabinet stacked with her pot noodles. Her favorite flavor was, of course, Bombay Bad Boy. Hortense always despaired of the stuff and couldn’t understand how Kendis was able to eat only that for weeks at a time.

After Kendis and Alke’s quick dinner, they both headed down the short hall to her bedroom. Kendis quickly stripped and headed to the en suite bathroom. She’d had a quick wash-up at the garage, but she wouldn’t be able to sleep without a proper wash up.

“You can’t watch me take a shower.” Kendis shook her head and pointedly closed the door in Alke’s forlorn face. She took a warm shower, then went to her room, put on her gold bonnet and red pajama shorts, and hopped into bed.

Alke pointedly ignored her dog bed and jumped up beside her. Kendis scratched between her ears and then grabbed her book, ‘A Charm for A Cold Case’ by Hazel Hexley off her nightstand.

Instead of sending her usual thick magical theory books, Hermione had owled her Hexley’s latest book instead. She had been too busy with work to find time to read until now. 

Kendis eagerly read through the book for a few hours until her exhaustion from her long day finally caught up to her. ‘I was just going to find out if the Apothecary was the killer,’ Kendis gave a disappointed sigh. 

She put her book away, turned off the light, and gradually fell into a restless sleep.

***

Her wards’ shattering instantly snapped Kendis out of her sleep. With her wand in hand, Kendis closed her eyes as she mentally traced over the spider web configuration of her magical protections. She’d been reinforcing the wards ever since Chester started sending his letters again.

They should have been near unbreakable, but her wards were now in tatters. Kendis’s eyes snapped open as she heard Alke give a low growl. Her dog stood in the middle of the bed, rigid as she stared at the door.

The grip around Kendis’s wand tightened, and her ears strained to hear the intruder, but she heard nothing. Alke jumped off the bed and hurried to the door.

Then the door flew open, and Alke jumped back, narrowly missing being hit. At the door was a figure of a man. The dim light from the cracked door of her ensuite bedroom illuminated enough features to reveal Chester Coil’s face.

“I think it’s time for you to come home, Harry.”

Kendis shuddered at hearing her dead name. “My name is Kendis, and I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Alke lunged for Chester, but he cast a quick protego, and Alke flew across the room, hitting the nearby wall.

“Expelliarmus!” Kendis shouted, but Chester easily deflected it.

“Reducto!”

Kendis ducked and rolled as her bed was blasted into pieces. She got up on her feet and shouted, “stupidfy!” But the bastard was too quick and wily, and Kendis narrowly avoided having the pieces of her wardrobe fall on top of her when he shouted another blasting curse.

 “Petrificus totalus!” Kendis shouted, and Chester was quick to get out of the way, but not quick enough to dodge Alke. The huge dog jumped on him, and he cried out in pain as she sank her teeth into his leg. He tried shaking his leg out of her grip, but Alke didn’t give him an inch.

“Diffindo!” Chester violently slashed his wand, and Alke yelped and fell back. A large cut on her stomach caused the dog to yelp in pain.

“No!” Kendis screamed as she threw a blasting spell at Chester but he deflected it. Then the fight was really on as the two exchanged spell after spell. Furniture broke and glass shattered as blue and red magic collided and parried. Chester was powerful and wily like a snake, but Kendis had kept up her training.

She had dedicated countless hours to training in her magical practice room, constantly sparring with friends who surpassed her in both speed and strength.

“You are too stubborn for your own good,” Chester snarled. “It’s going to be a delight breaking you. crucio!”

Kendis cried out, her body trembling at the sudden pain. It had been a while since she had been under this curse, and it still felt like every nerve in her body was being lit on fire. She gritted her teeth and pushed through her agony.

Kendis suddenly noticed that in his fury, Chester was leaving his right side open and she took advantage of that. With a powerful swipe of her wand, she shouted, “Sectumsempra!”

Chester cried out as he cradled his side. Blood seeped through his shirt and onto his fingers. “This is not over,” Chester said, but instead of lunging for her, he disappeared with a loud crack.

Kendis panted for breath, her eyes darting around the hallway for any more lurking dangers, but thankfully, she found nothing. She heard Alke whine and, with her heart pounding in her chest, she ran back into the bedroom and kneeled beside her baby.

Her dog lay in a pool of her own blood, and Kendis’s fingers trembled as an image of Josefa’s body flashed in her mind. Her heart thumped as she smoothed a hand down Alke’s fur.

“Alke,” Kendis choked up. She needed to get help, but couldn’t risk apparating. She cast a statis charm that she’d learned during the war. It would keep Alke alive and keep her from further injuring herself.

Kendis shakily got up and headed back into the living room. Kendis went to her rotary phone, her fingers shaking as she tried to dial Dr. Lan Zhan’s number, but her brain was too muddled with panic to remember his number. 

She hurried over to the shelf and, with shaking fingers, opened the box.

Kendis unlocked her phone and went to her contacts. She was just about to tap on her veterinarian’s number when her fingers slipped. Tears of frustration and rage rolled down her cheeks as she tried to disconnect the phone call and try again, but to her shock, she heard an all too familiar voice.

“Kendis?”

Kendis needed to hang up and would have, but then her panic and fear swiftly slammed down hard on her. She struggled to breathe when she couldn’t. All Kendis could manage to gasp into the phone was “Tony.”

“Kendis, what happened? What’s wrong?”

“Pan…Panic…attack,” Kendis gasped.

“Oh, okay, breathe with me.”

Kendis glared at the phone because it wasn’t like she wasn’t trying.

“In and out,” Tony directed her.

Kendis forced air into her lungs and then breathed out.

“Again.”

Kendis did it again and again and slowly but surely, the panic began to disappear. Kendis took a deep breath. “I…I think I’m okay.”

“Kendis what happened?”

“I was attacked and Alke was hurt—” Kendis started and then stopped. “Look, I’ll call you back.” She ignored his shout for her to wait and hung up. Then Kendis called her vet. The sooner Alke got the help she needed, the better.