For the next six months
they traveled some more, met more creatures and even came across
Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher who had retired to Florida.
As the summer began to wane and the end of August came upon them once
more, they decided it was time to go home. They made sure they had
everything they brought with them, packed up Jordin into her cage and
held hands, looking around them at the Nation's capital, Washington
D.C, where the American version of the Ministry was located. They all
focused on King's Cross station and arrived in the same alleyway they
had left from. They said their goodbyes and apparated to their own
homes, and as Lucius appeared on the porch, his mother rushed out to
greet him. She hugged him and kissed his face, telling him that she
had been so worried about him and how much she missed him.

“There's just one more
adventure for you to take on before you can be done,” Dorla said,
smiling.

“What's that?”

“The garden needs
de-gnoming. Do that while I make you supper.”

Lucius groaned, but smiled
to let his mother know he was joking. He grabbed the dragon-hide
gloves from the garden shed and headed over to the small patch of
land they used as a garden. He stuck his hand in and came up with his
first gnome: it looked like a potato. As he gripped it's hard, horned
shaped feet, it yelled, “Gerroff me, gerroff me!” Ignoring this,
Lucius swung the gnome in circles around his head and then let it fly
over the gate, listening to it screaming. He glanced down and shook
his head as he saw all of the other gnomes peeking curiously out of
the shrubbery. He started to grab them by handfuls now, and withing
twenty minutes, he had the garden completely clear of gnomes. He put
the gloves back and went inside the house to wash his hands. His
mother had a bowl of french-onion soup sitting on the table for him
with a large hunk of bread on a plate next to it, and his stomach
roared as he sat down to eat and relax. He had missed being home and
helping his mother but a large part of him couldn't wait to get out
there again one day and explore some more.

THE END