I will try my best to give you five entries (ten chapters) this week and the final four/eight next week. This is the final season I'm doing and will wrap up the story.

House of Ghosts

Covered in the robes of Victor's secret society was a strange feeling for Noah, but one she had become accustomed to. Over the Christmas vacation she had helped Victor in the basement, and had often worn the robes along with him. She had become used to brewing concoctions, and used to Victor's company. One might say Victor had a soft spot for her, and actually liked her.

"Another failed batch," Victor muttered as he poured the concoction from his phial into a larger container filled with wasted chemicals and other concoctions.

"We'll get it eventually," Noah told him. She had no intentions of living forever, or extending her life, but Victor was dead-set on doing it, so she was willing to help him.

There was soon the sound of the door upstairs opening. Victor looked up at the ceiling and growled, "They've," he hissed, word filled with venom and disdain, "returned."

"Is it that time already?" Noah asked, leaving Victor and hurrying up the stairs.

"Robe off!" Victor shouted after her, but she hadn't heard.

It soon became clear that it wasn't just a single student returning from break; it was the entire House-worth. They had convened in the dining room, where Trudy had set out food for the lot of them before leaving.

"I wonder where Noah is," Nina said, "I mean; she was staying here over break, right?"

"Had nowhere else to go," Mick agreed.

"I'm right here!" she told them as she walked in, drawing strange looks from the others, and utter fear from Joy.

"What are you wearing?" Joy demanded.

"Huh?" Noah looked at her sleeved arm and realized she still had the robe on, "One of Victor's robes from the basement. I've been helping him, so…"

"Take it off!" Joy told her angrily. It was a very sore subject for her; the entire Chosen One debacle from last year. It made her incredibly uneasy just seeing the robe.

"Alright, alright," Noah said, pulling it off over her head and tossing it onto the sofa. She walked over to the table and joined the others. "How was break for all of you?" she asked them.

"Well, I had an interesting time staying in Britain," Nina said. She had returned home to America over the summer, but it wasn't worth it for Christmas vacation after the semester ended.

"She stayed with me," Fabian said, "My family loved her."

"I imagine they did," Amber commented, "They ask if you were going to marry her?"

Fabian's face went red and he started to stutter, but ultimately couldn't come up with anything.

"Oh come now, if anyone's getting married first out of us it's going to be Jerome and Mara, isn't it?" Noah questioned, directing it at those two with a hint of malice.

Jerome sent a slight glare her way but brushed off the question as he ate. Mara didn't seem to respond to it at first, but then looked back at Noah, "Still sore for you?"

"Let's please not get into this…," Patricia muttered, "I can't stand this stuff."

"Agreed," Mick said. Joy gave him a look, "Other couples," he clarified.

"Better," Joy said, giving a small smile before going back to her meal.

"Well, my break was wonderful," Amber said, picking that back up, "Daddy let me spend it in Spain at our villa. Spain is so nice and warm, so beautiful…"

"And the rest of us are poor in comparison," Patricia said, "I guess we all stayed here in Britain then."

"I spent the time studying," Mara said, getting some groans from others, but not out of surprise, more of annoyance. "Come on! I didn't say what it was I was studying!"

"Studying is studying," Alfie said, "It's bad enough as it is, but on break? Come on Jerome, didn't you distract her?"

"I tried, believe me," Jerome muttered before quieting.

"I was studying Egyptian mythology," she told all of them, "I mean, it would be useful to have more knowledge, right?"

"I don't know," Nina said.

"If something happens, then yeah," Fabian said, picking up her thought, "But do we think something's going to happen again?"

"Well, you never know," Mara said.

"And that, everyone, was my break," Jerome said, "Trying to convince her of just that, and then being bored."

"I ate," Alfie said, but there were no surprised looks on anyone's faces. "A lot."

"Did the usual things," Patricia said, "Slept, ate, watched television. Life, without the mystery or the homework."

"Exercise, training," Mick said.

"Watching," Joy commented.

"Working with Victor on potions and the like," Noah said, "You know, he's actually a really good guy."

"He can be," Nina agreed, "He really helped us out this last time, after all."

"What sorts of things were you making?" Fabian asked Noah.

"Going for immortality potions," she said, "He's dead-set on making one."

"Still?" Patricia questioned.

Noah nodded, "No luck."

They could finally hear Victor coming up. Presumably he had been finishing one last batch and then scrapping the failure. He took a look at the lot of them, grabbed Noah's robe off of the sofa, and proceeded upstairs to his office.

"Can't say he's gotten any warmer," Joy commented.

"He has to me," Noah said.

"You're related to something Egyptian and magical, you don't count like the rest of us," Patricia told her.

"Nina's the Chosen One," Noah pointed out.

"Ok, I guess it's just you," Nina said. Although he had been rather good to Nina during the incident with Frobisher's manor and the Book of Thoth and dealing with Mr. Wolf.

After dinner the kids returned to their rooms to unpack. Living arrangements remained the same as the previous semester. Fabian was with Mick, Jerome was with Alfie. Joy, Patricia and Noah shared a room, and finally Amber, Nina and Mara shared another.

"You ever think we need more boys around?" Noah asked Patricia. Noah was sitting on her bed, watching as Joy and Patricia unpacked.

"Yes," Joy said absently.

Patricia didn't answer.

"That was really directed at you, Patricia," Noah said.

"Why?" Patricia questioned.

"You and I are alone," she said, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a relationship?"

Patricia didn't answer.

"You're not likely to get any straight answer out of that one," Joy told Noah.

"It's an honest question," Noah said.

"One she doesn't like," Joy said.

Noah pushed herself off of the bed, "Well, I'll be downstairs," she said, leaving the room and going down to the sitting room.

As time went by and the others finished packing, a number of them had migrated to the sitting room. Noah, Patricia, Amber, Nina and Fabian. Fabian felt a bit lonely as the only boy, even if Nina were there with him. He just sat and watched them talk between themselves, wondering if he shouldn't go and try to find Mick, who was no doubt with Joy. Alfie might be free, but he didn't find that appealing as an option at the moment.

"I have an idea," Noah said, voice lowered.

"Oh, what would that be?" Nina asked.

"I feel like this isn't going to be good," Amber commented.

"Let's go to the basement," she said, "I'll show you guys what we've been working on. I even have a key to the lock," she said.

"He trusted you enough to give you a key?" Fabian questioned.

Noah nodded, "Now, want to come and see?" she asked.

Soon they were creeping down the stairs, door closed behind them. They had twenty minutes before Victor would come and drop his pin, so they assumed he'd be in his office the entire time.

Noah pulled a robe on out of habit as she turned the lights on. She walked over to the table with the others, looking at the chemicals, pointing things out.

"It didn't take long for him to trust me," she said, "We started almost immediately. I'd like to be able to make the immortality formula, if only to say I could."

The lightbulb started to flicker a little. Fabian glanced up at it, but said nothing.

"Does it usually do that?" Amber asked.

Noah looked up, "Sometimes, I guess."

Soon the light went out completely. They were stuck in the pitch darkness, scrambling around for mobiles to light their way back to the stairs.

"Ok, this way," Patricia said, leading on by the light of her mobile.

They stopped in their tracks. They could see two people in front of them, walking to the stairs. Was it possible some of the others got down here? Perhaps Mick and Joy, or Jerome and Mara? No; they were both men, but it could have been Jerome and Alfie.

One was a man, one was a teenager. That soon became clear. What else became clear was that the kids could see through them; they were transparent. The boy was in the rear, holding a large ankh in hand. They both looked around before reaching the stairs. Two steps up and they vanished.

"Were…were those…" Patricia started.

"Ghosts?" Amber finished dreadfully.