The Moon's Choice

  Morning arrived stiff and uneasy. Something hung in the air—too quiet, too heavy. Even before announcements began, students whispered in nervous clusters along the hallways.

  Daniel, Scarlett, and Tom met near the stairway that led to Charms class. Scarlett noticed immediately that Daniel looked worse than yesterday.

  “Rough night?” she asked.

  Daniel hesitated. “Same dream. Except this time… someone else was there.”

  Tom’s eyebrows shot up. “Someone? Not the… shadow figure?”

  “No. A person. I couldn’t see his face. But he spoke to me.”

  Scarlett leaned in. “What did he say?”

  Daniel’s voice dropped to a whisper.

  “He said, ‘The Moon doesn’t take, Daniel. It chooses.’”

  The words made them all fall silent.

  “Chooses for what?” Tom muttered.

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  But before they could dig deeper, every torch lining the hallway flickered at once—dim… bright… dim…

  Then the Headmaster’s voice echoed sharply from the walls.

  “All students, report to the Grand Hall. Immediately.”

  The trio exchanged worried looks.

  Something big had happened.

  The Academy Trembles

  The Grand Hall buzzed with raw fear. Professors stood along the walls, whispering tensely to each other. Mrs. Elizabeth kept scanning the student crowd, her eyes stopping on Daniel with visible worry.

  Headmaster Albus Christ e onto the platform, his robes trailing like storm clouds.

  His voice was steady, but even Daniel could tell it was forced calm.

  “Students… faculty… this morning we received news from Azkaban.”

  Gasps spread through the hall.

  Azkaban.

  The fortress prison where the worst magical criminals were kept

  Nobody escaped Azkaban in decades.

  Headmaster Albus continued, “A prisoner—considered extremely dangerous—has broken out.”

  The hall erupted into panicked shouting.

  “Impossible!”

  “How?”

  “Who escaped?”

  “Are they coming here?”

  A few younger students started crying.

  “Silence!” Albus’s voice cracked like lightning.

  When quiet settled again, he went on, “The Ministry believes the escapee was assisted from the outside. We do not yet know their target, but we cannot rule out any academy, including ours.”

  Tom swallowed hard. “So we’re on the list?”

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  Scarlett looked pale. “Every school is on the list.”

  Albus raised a hand. “From this moment onward, you are not to roam alone. Travel in groups of three or more. Dorms will lock at night. Curfew will be strictly enforced.”

  Daniel felt Mrs. Elizabeth’s gaze again. She was terrified for him—more than for anyone else. Why?

  Something wasn’t right.

  A Second Clue

  Classes were dismissed early. Students rushed about in panic, but the trio headed straight to the greenhouse. They needed to check the next step of the potion.

  Scarlett stirred the cauldron slowly, watching the surface shimmer.

  “We’re moving into phase two. Today we add leeches and start reducing the mixture.”

  Tom unpacked the slimy ingredients with a disgusted expression.

  “I swear this potion gets grosser every day.”

  Daniel didn’t comment. His mind wasn’t here.

  He kept replaying the dream.

  That voice.

  The figure standing under the broken moon.

  The message whispered like a warning.

  “The Moon doesn’t take… it chooses.”

  What does that mean?

  Scarlett added the leeches and began the next controlled boil.

  “If we keep everything on track, the final stage will start 14 days from now.”

  Tom nodded. “And then we’ll only need the bicorn horn, boomslang skin, and… well, the personal piece.”

  Scarlett shot him a glare. “Don’t remind me.”

  Daniel wandered toward the back of the greenhouse. Something scratched faintly against the stone wall.

  He turned.

  There was something behind the broken vines.

  A faint mark.

  Scarlett noticed him staring.

  “What is it?”

  Tom pulled the vines aside.

  And then they all froze.

  Carved into the wall, in the same violent style as the abandoned classroom message, was another symbol.

  Not a circle this time.

  A crescent moon.

  Facing downward.

  And beneath it, a single word:

  CHOSEN

  Tom backed away slowly.

  “Nope. Nope. I’m done. This is creepy.”

  Scarlett’s voice trembled. “It appeared after we left last night. Someone was here.”

  Daniel felt cold sweat slide down his spine.

  He whispered, “The dream… the man said the moon chooses.”

  “And now this word appears,” Scarlett finished.

  Tom pointed at the symbol. “What does the upside-down crescent mean?”

  Daniel stared at it, heart pounding.

  “I think it means the curse is active.”

  Scarlett’s hand tightened around her wand.

  “Then we need answers. Fast.”

  The Academy Reacts

  By late afternoon, Arcanmere felt like a different world.

  Aurors patrolled the gates.

  Professors whispered spell protections around hallways.

  Every door and window was charmed with locks that glowed faintly.

  Upper-year students looked tense. First-years looked terrified.

  Rumors spread like wildfire.

  “He’s heading here!”

  “The escaped prisoner used moon magic!”

  “No one escapes Azkaban unless they have help from the dark world!”

  Some swore they heard something howl near the outer walls at noon.

  Daniel walked the corridor and felt every pair of eyes on him. People were scared, suspicious, desperate for answers.

  But Daniel carried something worse:

  He had a second message no one else saw.

  Daniel’s Dream Grows Darker

  That night, sleep dragged him under like cold water.

  He found himself again in the forest—the same broken trees, the same wind twisting like a living thing.

  The moon above him was still half-light, half-shadow.

  But tonight, the man stood clearer.

  Not just a shape.

  A silhouette of a human, tall, ragged cloak brushing the leaves.

  His hair was long, black, falling over one shoulder.

  His face was shadowed… but not completely hidden.

  Daniel could see the faint outline of a scar running down the left cheek.

  “You returned,” the stranger said, his voice deep, echoing strangely.

  Daniel stepped back. “Who are you?”

  The man didn’t answer directly. He pointed at the broken moon above them.

  “The curse follows its cycle. You cannot outrun it.”

  Daniel’s throat tightened. “What curse? Why me?”

  The man stepped closer, still partly blurred by moonlight.

  “The Moon doesn’t take.”

  His voice dropped lower.

  “It chooses.”

  Daniel closed his eyes. “For what?”

  The forest went silent.

  The wind stopped.

  Leaves stopped moving.

  Even sound held its breath.

  “For the awakening,” the man whispered.

  A chill shot through Daniel’s bones.

  “What awakening? What are you talking about?”

  The man raised a hand, placing it gently on Daniel’s shoulder.

  The touch felt cold, almost unreal… but not evil.

  “Beware the one who hunts the chosen.”

  His voice cracked like the breaking of trees.

  “He has escaped.”

  Daniel’s breath stopped.

  Escaped.

  Azkaban.

  The escaped prisoner.

  The man leaned closer, finally revealing one eye—pale silver, almost glowing.

  “The hunter seeks the moon-marked. He will come to Arcanmere.”

  Daniel stumbled backward. “Why me? What did I do?”

  The man’s voice softened.

  “It is not what you did. It is what you are.”

  Before Daniel could ask more, the forest snapped apart like glass.

  He woke up screaming.

  A Warning and a Fear

  Daniel sat up, shaking, drenched in sweat.

  The moonlight through the window cast the exact shape of the downward-facing crescent onto his blanket.

  He pressed a hand over his racing heart.

  The hunter.

  The curse.

  The choosing.

  The escape.

  It was all connected.

  Scarlett and Tom were sleeping peacefully in their dorms, not knowing the truth Daniel had just learned.

  The escaped prisoner wasn’t after Arcanmere.

  He was after Daniel.

  And now the moon—broken, watching, shifting—seemed to whisper a single message through the cold night air:

  You have been chosen.