Mark wanted to vomit again after the void dragon’s roller-coaster flight but tried his very best to exert an unimaginable amount of will to prevent such a shameless act in front of the circus people. To his amusement, there were a couple of people who vomited after the ride.
“Hamil, are you planning on letting children ride the void dragon roller-coaster?” Mark asked the circus leader.
“Yes, but I should set up another flight route and speed for a certain age group.”
“Okay, good luck with that. I need to go back to my cart since riding that roller-coaster together with the amount of alcohol I consumed last night disagrees with me. I’ll go to the tent before one in the afternoon to give you the device that contains the films for our children's film festival.”
Mark left the circus people with the void dragon. When he looked back, Hamil was asking the children to ride the dragon between two adults and he knew that the circus leader was now setting up for the route and speed for the children and for people who prefer mild speed.
When he arrived in his RV, Mark saw that Melina was reading her book but stopped and told him that she would now prepare their lunch and he just nodded.
Mark then prepared a laptop that contained the first three movies of the Harry Potter films which were The Sorcerer Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, and The Prisoner of Azkaban. He liked the movies but he loved the books more and he was hoping that the twins would continue reading the books after seeing the films. He hoped that everyone would like the films but he couldn’t think of what the reaction of the circus people would be. The majority of the attraction of the Harry Potter films was the magic but people in this world had actual magic so he really didn’t know what the films draw would be.
The twins and Nedertu arrived from somewhere and Milena served them the food she cooked for their lunch. The food was delicious but the twins kept sighing that they missed pizza and hamburgers.
“I understand but eating those would cause problems later in life so we will only eat them during special occasions,” Mark told the kids.
“We understand. We’re just saying that we miss it,” Isaac said.
“I’m thinking that there’ll be lots of food for kids later during or after the film festival.”
After lunch, they all went to the tent where the theater was set up and Mark saw that there were already tables outside and there were ungodly amount of children. When they went inside the tent, Mark was surprised that half of the chairs were already occupied by children and half were by teenagers. He didn’t expect that there a huge amount of kids in the circus.
“This is the first time you saw the circus children all at once right?” Hamil asked when he saw Mark’s surprise.
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“Yes. I knew that there were a lot of children but this many? I didn’t expect this!”
“There were always a lot of kids in the circus. I remember when I was a kid my friends and I were like an army but we were taught from the start not to mingle together. There could only be at most three or four teens in a group to not alarm the city folks and in villages, we tend to ask the children to go out of sight. There were always rumors that the circus steals children,” Hamil said then he laughed.
The children were so loud that Mark had the urge to put his hands in his ears then Hamil went to the front and told everyone to quiet down. Mark was surprised that everyone obediently obeyed the circus leader.
Milena who was excitedly waiting for the movie to start explained to Mark that it had always been that way when he saw Mark’s amazement in the children’s obedience. Circus folks tend to obey the leader without questions at first since they had been taught that way so in case of emergency, everyone would be able to move in a coherent way faster.
Mark thought that it was almost like a cult but thinking about the situation of any group in this world which was full of danger, it was obvious that organizations or groups would tend to create rules that would let them survive better.
Hamil gave a brief explanation of the movie, and then the lights dimmed. The movie started without further ado and the magic of Harry Potter was introduced to the circus people.
Mark was watching the children instead of the movie since he enjoyed seeing their reactions and their reaction was telling almost to the point of exaggeration. He remembered that even though this world was a world of magic, people tended to focus on survival first and not on entertainment so to see an entertaining movie like this one would become an exciting sensation to them and Mark thought that even the most boring movie would elicit enjoyment from them. That was the reason why the circus was so popular and any movies that he had shown were welcomed by everyone.
Every laughter, every loud exclamation, every gasp were warm notes to Mark’s ears. He laughed with them and gasp with them. The only flaw in his enjoyment was the smug look on the twin's face and the loud voice that kept interrupting those who were sitting around beside them telling everyone that they knew what would happen since they had read the books.
Mark had to shush the twins and told them that if they did not shut up he would drag them out of the tent. The twins pouted but then soon, they joined everyone in focusing on the movie since the movie was still basically different from the books.
After the first movie ended, they were given a five-minute break.
“Kids don’t keep telling your friends what will happen even though you’ve read the books! Do you do that as well when your friends were watching Star Wars for the first time and you’ve seen the movie already?”
“No, we didn’t. I don’t know what came over me. I guess it was because you were correct that the books were better since they had a lot more details so I’m thinking that my friends were missing a lot,” Isaac said and Aaron added that it was the same thing for him.
“You can recommend the books then later but for now enjoy the movie and don’t spoil it for your friends. “
The twins apologized to Mark and they also said sorry to their friends then they ran off outside to take a bathroom break.
When everyone returned, Hamil played the next movie and everyone was focused on watching it. Mark planned to go outside once the movie started but he was enjoying the audience’s reaction too much so he stayed and watched the audience watch the film. It was a bit creepy but he didn’t care since nobody noticed anyway.
Mark then remembered his friends from Earth and he remembered Albert, the kid he cured of ALS who thought he was a magician from the world of Harry Potter. He hoped that all of his friends were doing all right and nothing bad would happen to them.