Standing in the grounds, he looked back at the red-brick house and sighed. A tap on his shoulder startled him. Instinctively, he made a grab for his wand.
‘It’s only me,’ Cordelia said, taking a step back.
‘Sorry I thought…’
‘I know,’ Cordelia said softly, laying a hand gently on his arm, ‘but Ragnorf and the rest of his cronies are in prison and they’ll be staying there for a long time.’
The Gnomes, having had most of their money stolen, did not take it lying down. They had hired a hit man to take Jebediah out. Luckily for him it had been Primrose. Before the Gnomes realised that they had been double-crossed they had already been arrested. The lure of money within the vaults of the Wizarding Bank of England had been too much to resist. Ten had been eaten by the enormous Koshi Dragons, specially imported from Japan, that were guarding it, and a further six had been crushed by a boulder mechanism which they had tripped when they blew the doors open. Most had been arrested but Ragnorf, the head of the Mafia, was not one of them having sent his minions in to do his dirty work for him. He had finally been caught and imprisoned on the charge of tax evasion dating back three hundred years.
‘I just wanted to say goodbye,’ Cordelia said, trying to raise a smile. She, too, felt sad to be leaving.
‘We’ll see each other next year,’ said Jebediah, fighting back the hollow feeling that had taken over.
‘I know,’ Cordelia replied, fiddling with her hands.
From nowhere she bent forward and kissed him gently on his cheek. Flushing a deep red she hurried off, her head down, before he had chance to say anything.
Jebediah stood for a moment and touched his cheek, hardly daring to believe that he wasn’t dreaming and would soon wake.
‘Things are definitely looking up,’ he said under his breath as a glowing smile erupted over his face.
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S.N.O.T. Page 16
