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Beetle put the kettle on and faced Septimus with a very somber expression on his face.
"We need to talk, Sep," he sighed.
After that there was no stopping to Beetle's rapid stream of words. He told Septimus about his crush on Jenna ["Really? I thought you were just shy."] and the dream.
Septimus tried to maintain a straight face as he understood how awkward this must be for Beetle.
"Beetle, I swear, Jenna is my sister and I'm real close to her, but I'm not in love with her or anything," Septimus answered.
"I guess that was obvious, wasn't it? But I had to make sure, you see. I'm really sorry for treating you like that, I really am Sep," Beetle apologized.
After that strange conversation they talked about something totally different and tried to pretend that their former conversation had never taken place.
Then Septimus took his leave, as he should have been back an hour ago, and Beetle was very relieved at the outcome of things. That night he dreamed about a midnight stroll with the heir of the throne.
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"Hey Jen! Guess what? Marcia said I could have a day off," a very excited Septimus called after his sister.
"What? That's great! Want to come back with me and tell mum?" Jenna asked.
"Yeah, ok, but I also want to visit Beetle. Want to come?"
"Alright."
Suddenly, a very dreamy look crossed Jenna's face and she said:
"Hey Sep, you know that Merrin, DomDaniel's old Apprentice? Have you noticed how pretty he is? Or seen his beautiful eyes?"
This unsettled Septimus and he asked himself what in the world he had done that the whole world talked about love. Hang on, Jenna hated Merrin. What was going on with the world? Wait, Beetle liked Jenna. What was he supposed to do now? Beetle wouldn't take the news well, he thought. Then it hit him that Jenna might have been but under a spell.
"Jen, are you alright? Maybe we should go to Marcia..."
Jenna retorted that she was perfectly alright, thank you very much, and if he wanted to see Marcia, he shouldn't make excuses about her being sick and just say he wanted to see her.
But what they didn't know was that Merrin was behind this. His plan was to charm Jenna into thinking she fancied him and get close enough to her that he could do bad things to Septimus, the boy who had stolen his name, and also become the ruler of the Castle like the Supreme Custodian before him.
Jenna, meanwhile, had agreed to come with Septimus to see Marcia. On the way to the Wizard Tower, Jenna talked nonstop about Merrin, which made Septimus sure that this was not the real Jenna.