Kendis blinked, and suddenly she, Ian, and Jason found themselves on an unfamiliar street. It wasn’t all that strange. Los Angeles was so vast that a lifetime wouldn’t be enough to explore it all.

The neighborhood had clearly been freshly gentrified. The street was full of white Spanish-style buildings with pristine red roofs and neatly manicured shrubbery.

It oddly reminded her of the one and only time she made the trip out to Santa Barbara.

Yet, standing out like a sore thumb on the otherwise perfect street was a rectangular shaped art déco two-story building. It was not that big, and it only took up a quarter of the block. The old theater might have once been the picture of Old Hollywood glamor, but now it was nothing more than an eyesore.

The theater’s walls had probably once been white and gleaming, but now the paint was off-white and peeling enough to show the brick underneath.

Someone sprayed colorful but otherwise illegible graffiti on a few sections of the walls.

Inside the large, vacant frames that once held movie posters, only scattered shards of glass remained.

Kendis could only wonder why this old theater remained unchanged while everything on the street underwent gentrification. Something about the place didn’t sit right with her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. ‘It’s probably because the place needs to be condemned. ‘

“I forgot about the Freda Theater,” Ian shook his head. It was hit hard during that big flood back in ‘92. I remember seeing in the paper that the owners wanted to rebuild.”

Jason shook his head. “By the looks of things, its reopening didn’t go well.”

There was a pop, and Hermione and Ron appeared next to them. Ron grimaced, “Blimey, this place has seen better days.”

Ron and Hermione quickly cast disillusionment spells on Ian and Jason while Kendis pulled the hood of the robe over her head, activating the cloaking spells embedded in it. “This will make it a lot less easy for Coil or any nosy muggles to see us.”

Kendis turned to Hermione, “Are you sure this is the place?”

Hermione muttered a point me spell, and sure enough, her wand swung directly at the theater.

“Of course Coil’s overdramatic arse would choose a theater.” Kendis sighed in frustration, “No matter, we need to get in.”

“Well, a good alohomora would work.” Ron shook his head. “But I reckon that Coil would have it booby-trapped.”

Hermione cast a spell, and suddenly, lines appeared, which Kendis recognized as a floor plan. She studied it for a moment. There were offices on the top floor, bathrooms on the bottom, and one large theater.

“I bet you 20 galleons that he is set up in the main theater,” Kendis rolled her eyes.

“Why can’t we just teleport ourselves in there?” Ian asked, confused.

“We’d be easy targets for whatever traps Coil has set up,” Jason shook his head.

Hermione traced the lines of the hallway that led from a set of rooms to the lobby. “This is our best bet.”

The five of them quickly crossed the street and circled to the back. The alley was dark and filthy with trash scattered everywhere, with a dumpster near a dead end. And Kendis was suddenly thankful she didn’t try to rescue Tony, dressed in that posh jumpsuit she wore earlier. She was probably already in deep shit with Samantha; no need to tempt Marco’s wrath on top of that.

Hermione stopped and then nodded at an empty stretch of wall. 

Hermione checked the floor plan and then nodded in satisfaction. “Everybody take a step back.”

Hermione muttered a spell Kendis had never heard before, and then suddenly there was an enormous gaping hole in the wall. Kendis recognized the next spell she cast as one that detected dark magic.

“It’s clear! Now hurry,” Hermione ordered as she quickly ushered all of them inside. The room was clearly used to be an old break room. There were a bunch of dusty card tables, old folding chairs, and even a few empty coffee mugs.

Ron darted up front, putting his body in front of Kendis and Hermione. The two friends rolled their eyes but allowed Ron this bit of protectiveness.

“Lumos,” Ron said, and there was a light from the tip of his wand. Kendis and Hermione followed Ron’s example, and Ian, Jason, Hermione, and Kendis followed Ron down a long, dark hallway.

Even with the light from the wands, the gloom of the hallway seemed overwhelming. The place was a mess: soggy red wallpaper was coming off the walls, there was trash everywhere, and it looked like some homeless folks had crashed there.

They turned the corner, and it opened out into the lobby. The only thing left of the luster of the place was the peeling goldenrod yellow paint on the walls and the ticket booth that still had a welcome sign above it.

Trash and broken furniture littered the lobby. The warped wooden floor showed clear water damage, threatening collapse with every step.

That awful feeling Kendis had was now even worse.

“Help me check for traps,” Ron said as he started to cast a variety of detection spells. 

Kendis and Hermione nodded in agreement. Kendis turned to give Ian and Jason a stern look. “Don’t move until we clear everything.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “We are not amateurs.”

The golden trio carefully cast spells and, to no one’s shock, there were a few booby traps here or there: a threshold snare, a silencing fog, and the best so far was the final insult trap, which would disarm anyone but the caster. Thanks to their experience both in the war and as Aurors, they easily managed to disarm each trap.

“Dissolvo periculum,” Kendis said, and another trap turned to dust.

“I think that is the last of them.” Kendis nodded to Ian and Jason. The two men quickly hurried over to Kendis.

Jason looked at the double doors piled with rubbish, “What next?”

But before Kendis could say anything, she saw a movement in the corner of her eye.

“Wow, this is cool!” Ian shouted, lunging for the welcome sign by the ticket booth window. “This will look great in the bar!

Abruptly, a surge of energy coursed through them, and then the building began to tremble.

“Bloody hell!” Kendis shouted as she fought to keep steady on her feet, but then suddenly a pale hand punched through the floorboards.

“Ian, didn’t I tell you not to touch anything?!” Kendis shouted as floorboards splintered all around them and hands rose from below. 

Kendis stared in horror as the dead bodies crawled out from beneath the ground. She suddenly had a flashback to the cave in sixth year, and unfortunately for them, Dumbledore was long dead in a tomb a thousand miles away.

“Old Merlin,” Ron groaned.

“Inferi,” Hermione confirmed with a grim nod as they backed away, only to be surrounded by the shambling bodies.

“By the gods, I hate zombies,” Jason muttered. “Ian, if we survive this, you are going to be sleeping on the sofa for a month.”

Ian didn’t reply as suddenly Inferius lunged at him, but to all of their surprise, he pulled a sword out of his jacket. And in one smooth move he was cutting its head off.

And then, as one, the Inferi attacked, and all Kendis could concentrate on was the battle before her.