Free Hilda and Zelda by Paul Kater

stairs and went down a floor. There his wand did its
interpretation of lights flashing and all alarms going off.
Obviously there was something on this floor that needed special
attention, he was certain of that before he reached the door with
the window.
    As he looked through said window, he knew he
had struck gold. Black gold in this case... the entire corridor was
black. There were fire-pits in the carpet; several people lay in
the corridor. They did not move, and William feared the worst.
Slowly he opened the door.
    There was silence. Not even an echo of
anything.
    Hilda, on the roof of the other building,
froze. "She's there, William. She's there. Whatever you do, be
careful and ready to run. She's there, William."
    William caught what Hilda was saying and
feeling. He would be careful. Despite the strange situation, a
thought came up to him. How would Harry Potter handle this? There
was no invisibility cloak around, so that idea was out the window.
William needed to see what was going on without being seen. Then a
wicked smile formed on his face. Of course. That was the perfect
idea.
    Hilda, on the roof, sensed what was going on
inside William. His idea took shape. "Oh, no. You're not going to-
Suck an elf, he's going to!" She stared at the building opposite
the road. "I'm rubbing off on him." She did not sound as if that
were a good thing.
    William had his wand in hand. "Right. Let's
see if we can do a Very Headless Nick..."
    Slowly a ghostly figure took shape in front
of him. It carried its head under an arm. It wasn't much of a ghost
as William was not trained in them, but he managed to see through
the eyes in the head. It did make him dizzy, until he noticed that
closing his own eyes helped.
    From behind the closed door, William floated
his ghost into the hall. It went sideways, so he had a good view of
the rooms that had once been offices.
    Hilda was not sure what William was doing or
seeing, he was too focused on his actions. It unnerved her, and
more than a dozen times she was ready to jump on her broom and head
over to see what the hell was going on. But that would put William
in jeopardy.
    In the corridor, most offices were empty. The
one that was occupied had been three rooms. It was a large space
now, with the wall to the corridor removed. In the middle was a
large black throne adorned with silver symbols. There were four of
the large menacing plants next to it, two on each side. Zelda sat
on the throne. She was reading a book and seemed entirely absorbed
by it. He noticed she was wearing some kind of silver headband. It
was an eerie sight for William, to see their enemy feeling so at
home in there. She had made things comfortable for herself,
obviously.
    Zelda did not even seem to notice the ghost
that floated through the corridor. William dared to make his Very
Headless Nick go slower, so he could see as much as he could. It
did not tell him a lot more, though, so when Nick showed another
empty office, he dissolved the ghost.
    William felt feeble in his legs, and noticed
his hands were shaking. The trick with Nick had taken quite some
energy out of him. That made him decide he had seen enough for this
time and quietly headed up the stairs, to the roof, and from there
he made his detouring way back to Hilda.
    After telling her what he had done and seen,
she stared at him in disbelief. "You did what? You conjured a ghost
and spied on her?"
    William nodded as he sat down. "It's hard
work, you know."
    "And she didn't even look at it?"
    "No. She just kept reading that book she had.
Sorry I could not see what it was about."
    "Don't worry about that, William," said Hilda
as she kneeled down with him. "You are scary, my wizard. Not many
magicals can conjure up ghosts like that." She stroked his
cheek.
    William looked at her and shrugged. "Perhaps.
I don't know. But we do know now where she's put up camp."

11. The
Winklers

    Hilda and William had retreated to their
apartment. On the way they had visited a supermarket