Chapter 14

"Alright," Jude laid out his supposed blue prints as he and his two best friends stood in the library once more. After pleading with his friends to listen to his explanations, they soon found themselves in a small corner away from all the other studying students.

He pointed at a poorly drawn quidditch pitch, "This is why I believe the lightning stone is real." He glanced up at his friends, seeing their questioning gazes. "The first game of year was us against Slytherin. The lightning strike came at me, but my broom moved me out of the way. Now, who got hit with the lightning stri-? James, please put your hand down."

James gave a small grin, ignoring the small glare Emma gave him. He waved his hand amusedly, "Continue, mate."

"Right," Jude nodded before continuing. "Now, we've had more lightning storms over the past 10 months than ever recorded in wizard history. I'm not saying that these are caused by the lightning stone, but the fact that…" He pointed at the quidditch pitch once again. "On the next game, I was almost hit by lightning multiple times, but my broom moved me out of the way again."

"You and your broom have some kind of weird relationship," James muttered.

Emma shook her head, her eyes scanning the paper in front of them, "So if the lightning stone is real, who would have it? Why would they have it?"

"Who do you think, Emma?" Jude pointed to a crudely drawn image of what was supposed to be Lazarus. "He wants it because of what happened last time with the fire."

"A battle of elements," Emma stated thoughtfully. She pursued her lips, tapping her chin before turning back to her friend, "The fire that helped us last year; was that your doing?"

Jude shrugged, sitting down and gazing at the map, "Don't know. It just pushed out of me when Lazarus-Emma, please?"

"Sorry."

James sat up, leaning his head on his hand, "I didn't see this whole fire play personally, but do you think you could control it?"

"If I could, why do I have fire scars on my back?"

"I think the real question is; if a fire did kill your parents, how are you still alive?" James said, frowning.

Jude opened his mouth to retort before snapping it shut. Why was he still alive? How was he still alive? He felt a pounding in his temples causing him to grit his teeth in frustration.

"Sorry, mate," James apologized, patting his friend's shoulder. He turned to Emma who was biting her lip as she also thought of his question. "Another question; if the lightning stone is real, who was the first person to mention it?"

Jude furrowed his brow in thought as Emma gasped in realization, "Professor Miles. Remember, he told us after he saw a flash of lightning in class."

"You don't think he's working for-you know-do you?" Jude asked, scratching his head as he drew a stick figure then proceeded to write the professor's name. "If he is, it would make sense on why the lightning attacks happened during the quidditch games."

"So what?"

James sighed, tapping the desk, "We follow the bastard. Sooner or later, he'll report back to the blond git just like Professor Lamb did. We'll get him."

Emma spoke up next, "While this might be a battle of elements, I don't think the bad guys took all of the elements into account."

"Bad guys? Really?" James raised his eyebrow incredulously.

Jude gestured for her to continue, "What do you mean? I thought lightning was one of the strongest elements ever."

"That may be true in some cases," Emma nodded, pushing a strand of her red hair behind her ear. "But each element has a weakness."

"Like fire to water," James added.

Jude nodded, "Or wind to fire."

"Exactly," Emma agreed, continuing. "Wind is weak against fire because fire is fueled by air. Lightning is weak against wind because wind is a natural electrical insulator."

"But we don't have wind on our side," Jude put in with a shake of his head. "If we tried to go against-you know-he'd have the upper hand."

Emma shook her head as well, giving her friends a small smile, "That's not entirely true. While he may have lightning on his side and he believes we have fire; he didn't take account what fire can actually do. Since fire takes up all the air of the wind-"

Jude snapped his fingers, grinning widely, "That means that the lightning won't get past the fire." He patted Emma's shoulder, "I don't know how you do it, Emma, but you really surprise us all the time."

"But, if we do control fire, we'd have to set up some kind of raging fire wall," Emma added a bit doubtfully.

"True," Jude rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He shrugged, "Well, I'll see if I can actually control fire."

He held out his hand, his friends watching, and stared intently at his fist. Moments past before he gave up, shaking his head, "I don't think so. I think it was just a spur of the luck thing."

"We must be really lucky then," James said, scratching his forehead. "Do you think it comes from being angry?"

"Maybe," Jude murmured, leaning back in his chair. "I mean, the fireplace did explode on Piers when he was beating me and tried to keep me from going to Hogwarts."

James chose to ignore Piers' involvement in the sentence while Emma just looked absolutely mortified, "So, you were angry right? I know I would be. Not only that; Jude, you never get cold or hot ever since we've known you."

"Good genes," Jude tried feebly. When his friends only glared at him, he slumped his shoulders, "Guys, I don't know. Honestly, I don't even know my parents or any of my family, really. How am I supposed to explain that happens around me?"

Emma sighed, "He's right. For now, we should juts focus on making a plan to see if Professor Miles is actually working for you-know-who."

The two boys nodded and went back to the drawings before them as they created a plan on catching their professor.