Chapter 9
The Sacking of Tiana Triphorm
KIARA
The moment his finger touched the mark, my scar burned savagely, the starry room vanished from sight, and I - no, she - was standing upon an outcrop of rock beneath a cliff, and the sea was washing around her and there was triumph in her heart - they have the girl.
A loud bang brought me back to where I stood: disorientated, I raised my wand, but the wizard before me was already falling forwards; he hit the ground so hard that the glass in the bookshelves tinkled.
"I've never Stunned anyone except in our CA lessons," said Lincoln, sounding mildly interested. "That was noisier than I thought it would be."
And sure enough, the ceiling had begun to tremble. Scurrying, echoing footsteps were growing louder from behind the door leading to the dormitories: Lincoln's spell had woken the Raven-Wings sleeping above.
"Lincoln, where are you? I need to get under the Cloak!"
Lincoln's feet appeared out of nowhere; I hurried to his side and he let the Cloak fall back over us as the door opened and a streak of Raven-Wings, all in their nightclothes, flooded into the common room. There were gasps and cries of surprise as they saw Abbadon lying there unconscious. Slowly, they shuffled around him, a savage beast that might wake at any moment and attack them. Then one brave little first-year darted up to him and prodded his backside with her big toe.
"I think he might be dead!" she shouted with delight.
"Oh, look," whispered Lincoln happily, as the Raven-Wings crowded in around Abbadon. "They're pleased!"
"Yeah … great …"
I closed my eyes, and as my scar throbbed I chose to sink again into Zira's mind … she was moving along the tunnel into the first cave … she had chosen to make sure of the locket before coming … but that would not take her long …
There was a rap on the common room door and every Raven-Wings froze. From the other side, I heard the soft, musical voice that issued from the raven doorknocker: "Where do vanished objects go?"
"I dunno, do I? Shut up!" snarled an uncouth voice that I knew was that of the Csintalan sister, Acantha. "Abbadon? Abbadon? Are you there? Have you got her? Open the door!"
The Raven-Wings were whispering amongst themselves, terrified. Then, without warning, there came a series of loud bangs, as though somebody was firing a gun into the door.
"ABBADDON! If she comes, and we haven't got Pride-Lander - d'you want to go the same way as the Maltys? ANSWER ME!" Acantha screamed, shaking the door for all she was worth, but still, it did not open. The Raven-Wings were all backing away, and some of the most frightened began scampering back up the staircase to their beds. Then, just as I was wondering whether I ought not to blast open the door and Stun Acantha before the Love Destroyer could do anything else, a second, most familiar voice rang out beyond the door.
"May I ask what you are doing, Professor Csintalan?"
"Trying - to get - through this damned - door!" shouted Acantha. "Go and get Winds! Get her to open it, now!"
"But isn't your brother in there?" asked Professor Darbus. "Didn't Professor Winds let him in, earlier this evening, at your urgent request? Perhaps he could open the door for you? Then you needn't wake up half the castle."
"He isn't answering, you old besom! You open it! Garn! Do it, now!"
"Certainly, if you wish it," said Professor Darbus, with awful coldness. There was a genteel tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked, again, "Where do vanished objects go?"
"Into non-being, which is to say, everything," replied Professor Darbus.
"Nicely phrased," replied the raven doorknocker, and the door swung open.
The few Raven-Wings who had remained behind sprinted for the stairs as Acantha burst over the threshold, brandishing her wand. Hunched like her brother, she had a pallid, doughy face and tiny eyes, which fell at once on Abaddon, sprawled motionless on the floor. She let out a scream of fury and fear.
"What've they done, the little whelps?" she screamed. "I'll Cruciate the lot of 'em 'til they tell me who did it - and what's the Scarlet Lady going to say?" she shrieked, standing over her brother and nibbling on her lower lip with worry. "We haven't got her, and they've gorn and killed him!"
"He's only Stunned," said Professor Darbus impatiently, who had stooped down to examine Abaddon. "He'll be perfectly all right."
"No he bludgering well won't!" bellowed Acantha. "Not after the Scarlet Lady gets hold of him! He's gorn and sent for her, I felt me Trail burn, and she thinks we've got Pride-Lander!"
"'Got Pride-Lander'?" said Professor Darbus sharply. "What do you mean, 'got Pride-Lander'?"
"She told us Pride-Lander might try and get inside Raven-Wings Tower, and to send for her if we caught her!"
"Why would Pride-Lander try and get inside Raven-Wings Tower? Pride-Lander belongs in my house!"
Beneath the disbelief and anger, I heard a little strain of pride in her voice, and affection for Deidre Darbus gushed up inside me.
"We was told she might come in here!" said Csintalan. "I dunno why, do I?"
Professor Darbus stood up and her beady eyes swept the room. Twice they passed right over the place where Lincoln and I stood.
"We can push it off on the kids," said Acantha, her pig-like face suddenly crafty. "Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll say Abaddon was ambushed by the kids, them kids up there," she looked up at the starry ceiling towards the dormitories, "and we'll say they forced him to press his Trail, and that's why he got a false alarm … she can punish them. Couple of kids more or less, what's the difference?"
"Only the difference between truth and lies, courage and cowardice," said Professor Darbus, who had turned pale, "a difference, in short, which you and your brother seem unable to appreciate. But let me make one thing very clear. You are not going to pass off your many ineptitudes on the students of Dragon Mort. I shall not permit it."
"Excuse me?"
Acantha moved forwards until she was offensively close to Professor Darbus, her face within inches of hers. She refused to back away, but looked down at her as if she were something disgusting she had found stuck to a lavatory seat.
"It's not a case of what you'll permit, Deidre Darbus. Your time's over. It's us in charge here now, and you'll back me up or you'll pay the price."
And she spat in her face.
I pulled the Cloak off myself, raised my wand and said, "You shouldn't have done that."
As Acantha spun round, I shouted, "Crucio!"
The Love Destroyer was lifted off her feet. She writhed through the air like a drowning woman, thrashing and screeching in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, she smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor.
"I see what Katalina meant," I said, the blood thundering through my brain, "you really need to mean it."
"Pride-Lander!" whispered Professor Darbus, clutching her heart. "Pride-Lander - you're here! What - ? How - ?" She struggled to pull herself together. "Pride-Lander, that was foolish!"
"She spat at you," I said.
"Pride-Lander, I - that was very - very gallant of you - but don't you realise - ?"
"Yeah, I do," I assured her. Somehow her panic steadied me. "Professor Darbus, Zira's on the way."
"Oh, are we allowed to say the name now?" asked Lincoln with an air of interest, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak. This appearance of a second outlaw seemed to overwhelm Professor Darbus, who staggered backwards and fell into a nearby chair, clutching at the neck of her old tartan dressing-gown.
"I don't think it makes any difference what we call her," I told Lincoln, "she already knows where I am."
In a distant part of my brain, that part connected to the angry, burning scar, I could see Zita sailing fast over the dark lake in the ghostly green boat … she had nearly reached the island where the stone basin stood …
"You must flee," whispered Professor Darbus. "Now, Pride-Lander, as quickly as you can!"
"I can't," I said. "There's something I need to do. Professor, do you know where the diadem of Raven-Wings is?"
"The d-diadem of Raven-Wings? Of course not - hasn't it been lost for centuries?" She sat up a little straighter. "Pride-Lander, it was madness, utter madness, for you to enter this castle - "
"I had to," I said. "Professor, there's something hidden here that I'm supposed to find, and it could be the diadem - if I could just speak to Professor Winds - "
There was a sound of movement, a clinking of glass: Acantha was coming round. Before Lincoln or I could act, Professor Darbus rose to her feet, pointed her wand at the groggy Love Destroyer and said, "Imperio."
Acantha got up, walked over to her brother, picked up his wand, then shuffled obediently to Professor Darbus and handed it over along with her own. then she lay down on the floor beside Abbadon. Professor Darbus waved her wand again, and a length of shimmering silver rope appeared out of thin air and snaked around the Csintalans, binding them tightly together.
"Pride-Lander," said Professor Darbus, turning to face me again with superb indifference to the Csintalans' predicament, "if She Who Must Not Be Named does indeed know that you are here - "
As she said it, a wrath that was like physical pain blazed through me, setting my scar on fire, and for a second I looked down upon a basin whose potion had turned clear, and saw that no silver locket lay safe beneath the surface -
"Pride-Lander, are you all right?" said a voice, and I came back: I was clutching Lincoln's shoulder to steady myself.
"Time's running out, Zira's getting nearer. Professor, I'm acting on Crighton's orders, I must find what she wanted me to find! But we've got to get the students out while I'm searching the castle - it's me Zira wants, but she won't care about killing a few more or less, not now - " Not now she knows I'm attacking Horcruxes, I finished the sentence in my head.
"You're acting on Crighton's order?" she repeated, with a look of dawning wonder. Then she drew herself up to her fullest height.
"We shall secure the school against She Who Must Not Be Names while you search for this - this object."
"Is that possible?"
"I think so," said Professor Darbus drily, "we teachers are rather good at magic, you know. I am sure we will be able to hold her off for a while if we all put our best efforts into it. Of course, something will have to be done about Professor Triphorm - "
"Let me - "
" - and if Dragon Mort is about to enter a state of siege, with the Scarlet Lady at the gates, it would indeed be advisable to take as many innocent people out of the way as possible. With the Floo Network under observation and Apparition impossible within the grounds - "
"There's a way," I said quickly, and I explained about the passageway leading into the Dragon's Eye.
"Pride-Lander, we're talking about hundreds of students - "
"I know, Professor, but if Zira and the Love Destroyers are concentrating on the school boundaries they won't be interested in anyone who's Disapparating out of the Dragon's Eye."
"There's something in that," she agreed. She pointed her wand at the Csintalans, and a silver net fell upon their bound bodies, tied itself around them and hoisted them into the air, where thy dangled beneath the blue and gold ceiling, like two large, ugly sea creatures. "Come. We must alert the other Heads of House. You'd better put that Cloak back on."
She marched towards the door, and as she did so she raised her wand. From the tip burst three silver cats with spectacle markings around their eyes. The Patronuses ran sleekly ahead, filling the spiral staircase with silvery lights, as Professor Darbus, Lincoln and I hurried back down.
Along the corridors we raced, and one by one the Patronuses left us; Professor Darbus' tartan dressing-gown rustled over the floor and Lincoln and I jogged behind her under the Cloak.
We had descended two more floors when another set of quiet footsteps joined our. I, with my scar still prickling, heard them first: I felt in the pouch around my neck for the Scallywag's Map, but before I could take it out, Darbus, too, seemed to become aware of our company. She halted, raised her wand ready to duel, and said, "Who's there?"
"It is I," said a low voice.
From behind a suit of armour stepped Tiana Triphorm.
Hatred boiled up in me at the sight of her: I had forgotten the details of Triphorm's appearance in the magnitude of her crimes, forgotten how her greasy, strawberry-blonde hair hung in curtains around her thin face, how her ice-blue eyes had a dead, cold look. She was not wearing nightclothes, but was dressed in her usual red cloak and she, too, was holding her wand ready for a fight.
"Where are the Csintalans?" she asked quietly.
"Wherever you told them to be, I expect, Tiana," said Professor Darbus.
Triphorm stepped nearer, and her eyes flitted over Professor Darbus into the air around her, as if she knew that I was there. I held up my wand too, ready to attack.
"I was under the impression," said Triphorm, "that Abbadon had apprehended an intruder."
"Really?" said Professor Darbus. "And what gave you that impression?"
Triphorm made a slight flexing movement of her left arm, where the Death Trail was branded into her skin.
"Oh, but naturally," said Professor Darbus. "You Love Destroyers have your own private means of communication, I forgot."
Triphorm pretended not to have heard her. Her eyes were still probing the air all about her and she was moving gradually closer, with an air of hardly noticing what she was doing.
"I did not know that it was your night to patrol the corridors, Deidre."
"You have some objection?"
"I wonder what could have brought you out of your bed at this late hour?"
"I thought I heard a disturbance," said Professor Darbus.
"Really? But all seems calm."
Triphorm looked into her eyes.
"Have you seen Kiara Pride-Lander, Deidre? Because if you have, I must insist - "
Professor Darbus moved faster than I could have believed her: her wand slashed through the air and for a split second I thought that Triphorm must crumple, unconscious, but the swiftness of her Shield Charm was such that Darbus was thrown off balance. She brandished her wand at a torch on the wall and it flew out of its bracket: I had been about to curse Triphorm, but instead I was forced to pull Lincoln out of the way out of the descending flames, which became a ring of fire that filled the corridor and flew like a lasso at Triphorm -
Then it was no longer fire, but a great, black serpent that Darbus blasted to smoke, which reformed and solidified in seconds to become a swarm of pursuing daggers: Triphorm avoided them only by forcing the suit of armour in front of her, and with echoing clangs the daggers sank, one after another, into its breast -
"Deidre!" said a squeaky voice, and looking behind me, still shielding Lincoln from flying spells, I saw Professors Winds and Spud sprinting up the corridor towards us in their nightclothes, with the tall, bony figure of Professor Beadu panting along at the rear.
"No!" squeaked Winds, raising her wand. "You'll do no more murder at Dragon Mort!"
Winds' spell hit the suit of armour behind which Triphorm had taken shelter: with a clatter it came to life. Triphorm struggled free of the crushing arms and sent it flying back towards her attackers: Lincoln and I had to dive sideways to avoid it as it smashed into the wall and shattered. When I looked up again, Triphorm was in full flight, Darbus, Winds and Spud all thundering after her: Triphorm hurried through a classroom door and, moments later, I heard Darbus cry, "Coward! COWARD!"
"What's happened, what's happened?" asked Lincoln.
I dragged him to his feet and we raced along the corridor, trailing the Invisibility Cloak behind us, into the deserted classroom where Professors Darbus, Winds and Spud were standing at a smashed window.
"She jumped," said Professor Darbus, as Lincoln and I ran into the room.
"You mean she's dead?" I sprinted to the window, ignoring Winds and Spud's yells of shock at my sudden appearance.
"No, she's not dead," said Darbus bitterly. "Unlike Crighton, she was still carrying a wand … and she seems to have learned a few tricks from her mistress."
With a tingle of horror, I saw in the distance a huge, bat-like shape flying through the darkness towards the perimeter wall.
There were light footfalls behind us, and a great deal of puffing: Beadu had just caught up.
"Kiara!" she panted, leaning against the doorway, her hand over her heart beneath her emerald-green silk dressing-gown. "My dear girl … what a surprise … Deidre, do explain … Tiana … what …?"
"Our Headmistress is taking a short break," said Professor Darbus, pointing at the Triphorm-shaped hole in the window.
"Professor!" I shouted, my hands at my forehead. I could see the Inferi-filled lake sliding beneath me - no, her - and she felt the ghostly green boat bump into the underground shore, and Zira leapt from it with murder in her heart -
"Professor, we've got to barricade the school, she's coming now!"
"Very well. She Who Must Not Be Named is coming," she told the other teachers. Spud and Winds gasped; Beadu let out a low groan. "Pride-Lander has work to do in the castle on Crighton's orders. We need to put in place every protection of which we are capable, while Pride-Lander does what she needs to do."
"You realise, of course, that nothing we do will be able to keep out She-You-Know indefinitely?" squeaked Winds.
"But we can hold her up," said Spud.
"Thank you, Spud," said Professor Darbus, and between the witch and wizard there passed a look of grim understanding. "I suggest we establish basic protection around the place, then gather our students and meet in the Great Hall. Most must be evacuated, though if any of those who are over-age wish to stay and fight, I think they ought to be given the chance."
"Agreed," said Spud, already hurrying towards the door. "I shall meet you in the Great Hall in twenty minutes with my house."
And as he jogged out of sight, we could hear him muttering, "Tentacula. Devil's Snare. And Snargaluff pods … yes, I'd like to see the Love Destroyers fighting those."
"I can act from here," said Winds, and although she could barely see out of it, she pointed her wand through the smashed window and started muttering incantations of great complexity. I heard a weird rushing noise, as though Winds had unleashed the actual power of the wind into the grounds.
"Professor," I said, approaching the little Charms mistress, "Professor, I'm sorry yo interrupt, but this is important. Have you got any idea where the diadem of Raven-Wings is?"
" … Protego horribilis - the diadem of Raven-Wings?" squeaked Professor Winds. "A little extra wisdom never goes amiss, Pride-Lander, but I hardly think it would be much use in this situation!"
"I only meant - do you know where it is? Have you ever seen it?"
"Seen it? Nobody has seen it in living memory! Long since lost, girl!"
I felt a mixture of desperate disappointment and panic. What, then, was the Horcrux?
"We shall meet you and your fellow Raven-Wings in the Great Hall, Wanda!" said Professor Darbus, beckoning Lincoln and I to follow her.
We had just reached the door when Beadu rumbled into speech.
"My word," she puffed, pale and sweaty, scraping her bottom lip with her teeth. "What a to-do! I'm not at all sure whether this is wise, Deidre. She is bound to find a way in, you know, and anyone who has tried to delay her will be in most grievous peril - "
"I shall expect you and the Snake-Eyes in the Great Hall in twenty minutes, also," said Professor Darbus. "If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop you. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance, or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Arachne, we duel to kill."
"Deidre!" she said, aghast.
"The time has come for Snake-Eyes House to decide upon its loyalties," interrupted Professor Darbus. "Go and wake up your students, Arachne."
I did not stay to watch Beadu splutter: Lincoln and I ran after Professor Darbus, who had taken up a position in the middle of the corridor and raised her wand.
"Piertotum - oh, for heaven's sake, Match, not now - "
The aged caretaker had just come hobbling into view, shouting, "Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!"
"They're supposed to be out of bed, you lumbering, blithering idiot!" shouted Darbus. "Now go and do something constructive! Find Weeves!"
"W-Weeves?" stammered Match, as though he had never heard the name before.
"Yes, Weeves, you fool, Weeves! Haven't you been complaining about her for almost a quarter of a century? Go and find her, at once!"
Match evidently thought Professor Darbus had taken leave of her senses, but hobbled away, hunch-shouldered, muttering under his breath.
"And now - piertotum locomotor!" cried Professor Darbus.
And all along the corridor the statues and suits of armour jumped down from their plinths, and from the echoing crashes from the floors above and below, I knew that their fellows throughout the castle had done the same.
"Dragon Mort is threatened!" shouted Professor Darbus. "Man the boundaries, protect us, do your duty to our school!"
Clattering and yelling, the horde of moving statues, stampeded past me: some of them smaller, others larger than life. There were animals too, and the clanking suits of armour brandished swords and spiked balls on chains.
"Now, Pride-Lander," said Darbus, "you and Mr Lovedream had better return to your friends and bring them to the Great Hall - I shall rouse the other Lion-Hearts."
We parted at the top of the next staircase: Lincoln and I running back towards the concealed entrance to the Room of Needs. As we ran, we met crowds of students, most wearing travelling cloaks over their pyjamas, being shepherded down to the Great Hall by teachers and Prefects.
"That was Pride-Lander!"
"Kiara Pride-Lander!"
"It was her, I swear, I just saw her!"
But I did not look back, and at last we reached the entrance to the Room of Needs. I leaned against the enchanted wall, which opened to admit us, and Lincoln and I sped back down the steep staircase.
"Wh- ?"
As the Room came into view, I slipped down a few stairs in shock. It was packed, far more crowded than when I had last been there. Kara, Kopa, Meers and my parents were looking up at me, as were Olivia Cane, Keith Ball, Andrew Johnstone and Alex Spinns, and Sam and Ferdinand.
"Kiara, what's happening?" said my father, meeting me at the foot of the stairs.
"Zira's on her way, they're barricading the school - Triphorm's run for it - what are you doing here? How did you know?"
"We sent messages to the rest of Crighton's Army," Tanya explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Kiara, and the CA let the Order of the Centaur know, and it all kind of snowballed."
"What first, Kiara?" called Geri. "What's going on?"
"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organised," I said. "We're fighting."
There was a great roar and a surge towards the foot of the stairs; I was pressed back against the wall as they ran past me, the mingled members of the Order of the Centaur, Crighton's Army and my old Quidditch team, all with their wands drawn, heading up into the main castle.
"Come on, Lincoln," Dena called as she passed, holding out her free hand; he took it and followed her back up the stairs.
The crowd was thinning: only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Needs and I joined them. And as I looked around, I saw -
"Grandmother Sarabi!" I called in joy, surprise and relief as I ran to her, for I never thought I would see her again. I embraced her with such force that she staggered a little, but she quickly regained her balance as she hugged me back.
"Oh, my darling!" she cried happily, laughing at the same time. "Oh, I'm so happy to see you! I've missed you so!"
"I've missed you too, Grandmother," I told her happily. I pulled back a little, enough to see her face, and said, a little confused, "Don't get me wrong, Grandmother, I'm happy you're here, but I thought you were in a safe house with - "
"I was, and I have stayed with them all these months, worrying about you constantly, as has Sarafina," she reassured me. "She, Mavuto, Frank and Carol all send you their love, by the way. But I had to come. As soon as I got the message, I just had to come to your aid."
"Why?" I said childishly.
Grandmother Sarabi chuckled, cupped my face in her hands and said, "Because you're too precious to lose, sweetie."
We hugged again. When we let go, it was then that I noticed the man standing behind Grandmother Sarabi, a man I had never seen before. He was tall, muscular and broad shouldered, and his skin was dark and quite grey, suggesting he hadn't seen the sun in a very long time. He had a shaggy beard and long shaggy hair, both of which were copper coloured, but the beard did nothing to hide his strong chin. He had a long nose and almond eyes, which were green, the same forest green colour as -
"Who are you?" I asked.
The man smiled and said, "I am sure you know, Miss Pride-Lander."
I gasped, although I do not know why I was so surprised that he knew me. He chuckled at my shocked expression and said, "Alexander Charles Rickers, at your service, Kiara."
"Chris' father?" I asked. He nodded. I looked at him confusedly as I asked him, "But I don't understand … Chris told us that you had disappeared many years ago, and many people assumed you to be - "
"Dead? Yes, well, that's what I let them think," Mr Rickers explained, his expression turning sad. "I hated to stay away, but it was the only way I could keep my family safe." He then sighed deeply as he added, "Well, maybe not as safe as I thought, seeing what happened to my Amelia, my darling wife, but at least my son found a good home with the Dawsons, and," he added, smirking at me slyly, "with you too, as a little bridie has told me."
I blushed under his smirk, as Mr Dawson approached him, laughed and said, "I might have told him a thing or two about yours and Chris' relationship, Kiara."
"Yes, and I couldn't be more happier for my son than to be with you, my dear," said Mr Rickers, smiling at me fondly, "and I hope that when all this is over that you and he will be very happy together. For after all I've heard about you, I'm glad he's found you."
"Thank you, sir," I said. I then turned to my mother and father, who had stayed behind, and were both looking at me patiently. I ran to them and hugged them both fiercely, happy to see them alive and well after all this time.
When we finally let go of each other, I realised that someone was missing.
"Where's Kion? Is he all right?"
"Don't worry 'bout 'im, Miss Pride-Lander," said a familiar Cockney voice behind me. "Your brother's safe with me missus and me little 'un."
"Joey!" I said, turning to face the man himself. "It's good to see you again."
"And you, Miss, and you," he said, and he gave me a swift kiss on the cheek, which made me blush and giggle.
"Joey!" said another voice close by: Sian, who had finally let go of Kopa once she heard Joey's voice had come rushing over to us.
"All righ', Miss D?" he said, a soft fondness in his eye as he looked at Sian. "I'm glad to see you in better health now, Miss, than you was las' time I saw you."
"Thanks, Joey," said Sian, smiling up at him. "I'm much better, as you can see - but it's not just the outer parts of me that have been healed, you know."
"I'm very glad to 'ear that, Miss," said Joey, inclining his head.
"As am I," said a deep voice behind us.
Joey stepped aside swiftly, and I saw that it was Mr Dawson who had spoken, who had eyes for no one but his firstborn, which were shining with nothing but love for her, and as soon as Sian spotted him, he opened his arms out wide.
"Dad!" Sian cried, and she ran into her father's arms, which wrapped around her like a vice.
"Hello, Siany!" he said into her hair, kissing the crown of her head. "Ooh, I've missed you!"
"I know, Dad," said Sian, her voice slightly muffled as her face was half-hidden in her father's jacket. "I've missed you, too, as well as myself."
Hearing this, Mr Dawson kissed Sian's crown again. Then he stepped back to look at her properly. After studying her for about a minute, he cupped her face and said, "You really are back, aren't you?" Sian nodded, and father and daughter hugged again.
The moment was broken, however, by a chorus of "Dad! Dad! Dad!" coming from Beth, Kestrel, Merida, Joe, Jack, Max, Ben and Dave, who had rushed over to them. Mr Dawson and Sian shared a smile before turning to the rest of their breed, smiles still on their faces.
Unfortunately, the good feeling did not last long.
"Dad, can we join in the fighting, too?" said Max, to a chorus of "please"'s and "can we"'s from the others.
Mr Dawson's smile faded at once to be replaced by a serious expression.
"Absolutely out of the question," he said sternly.
Beth, Kestrel, Merida, Joe, Jack, Max, Ben and Dave were not happy with this at all. They cried out over each other at once.
"Aww!"
"How come?"
"I really wanted to fight!"
"This blows!"
"This is so unfair!"
"If you didn't want us to fight tonight, Dad, then why are we here?" asked Merida grimly.
At this, Sian turned to her father, her face a mask of pure fury.
"You brought them here?" she yelled.
Watching this, I found it hard to keep a straight face at seeing Sian's fiery side.
Mr Dawson seemed to think the same as me, for I saw his lips twitch slightly as he looked at Sian, but he sobered up quickly and said, "Look, the only reason I brought them with me was to keep them here, in the Room, so that if anything happens to any of us, they won't be kept up all night at home, worrying if any of us are dead."
Sian's fury slowly washed away as she took in what her father had just told her. After a while she nodded and said, "That sounds reasonable." And when her siblings argued against it, Sian said quickly, "Guys, I'm sorry, but this is the only way we can ensure your safety while - "
There was a scuffling sound and a great thump: someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly and fallen. She pulled herself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided hornrimmed glasses and said, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I - I - "
Perdy spluttered into silence. Evidently she had not expected to run into most of her family. There was a long moment of astonishment, broken by Ferdinand turning to Meers and saying, in a wildly transparent attempt to break the tension, "So - 'ow eez leetle Teemy?"
Meers blinked at him, startled. The silence between the Dawsons seemed to be solidifying, like ice.
"I - oh yes - he's fine!" Meers said loudly. "Yes, Todd is with him - at her mother's."
Perdy and the other Dawsons were still staring at one another, frozen.
"Here, I've got a picture!" Meers shouted, pulling a photograph from inside is jacket and showing it to Grandmother Sarabi, my parents, Ferdinand, Mr Rickers and I, who saw a tiny baby with a tuft of bright turquoise hair, waving fat fists at the camera.
"I was a fool!" Perdy roared, so loudly that Meers nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a - a - "
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Tanya.
Perdy swallowed.
"Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Tanya, holding out her arms to Perdy.
As Perdy moved in to embrace her sister, Sian stood in front of her. Perdy stopped, surprised, and looked at Sian nervously. As Sian stepped up slowly to Perdy, Perdy said, "Sian, I'm sorry. You were right, about everything. I shouldn't have turned my back on Aunt Sue when I did. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but if you can find it in your heart to - "
"Perdy!" said Sian forcefully, stopping Perdy's blabbering. Perdy looked at Sian, and was surprised to see how gentle she looked. Sian then shook her head slightly and said, "What took you so long?"
And that was all it took for Sian and Perdy to run and hug each other like sisters. Still hugging Sian, Perdy's eyes found her uncle's.
"I'm sorry, Uncle!" Perdy said.
Mr Dawson blinked rather rapidly, then he, too, hurried to hug his niece.
"What made you see sense, Perd?" enquired Geri.
"It's been going on for a while," said Perdy, mopping her eyes under her glasses with a corner of her travelling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aunt Sara and she tipped me off ten minutes ago that Dragon Mort was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."
"Well, we do look to our Prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said Geri, in a good imitation of Perdy's most pompous manner. "Now, let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Love Destroyers'll be taken."
"So, you're my brother-in-law now?" said Perdy, shaking hands with Ferdinand as they hurried off towards the staircase with Sam, Tanya and Geri.
"Kestrel! Merida! Max!" barked Sian.
Kestrel, Merida and Max had been attempting, under cover of the reconciliation, to sneak upstairs too.
"You three - and the rest of you," Sian added to Beth, Joe, Jack, Ben and Dave, " - are staying here! No arguments!"
The eight of them did not seem to like this idea much, but under their elder sister's familiar stern eye, they nodded.
As Mr Dawson, Mr Rickers, Meers, my parents, Grandmother Sarabi and Kopa headed off for the stairs too, I realised that two people were missing.
"Where's Chris?" I asked. "Where's Chrissie?"
"They must have gone down to the Great Hall already," Mr Dawson called over his shoulder.
"I didn't see them pass me," I said.
"They went to the Chamber of Mysteries," Sian whispered in my ear.
I looked at her, surprised.
"Are you sure that's where they went?"
Sian nodded.
"But what would they want down there?"
"Lizsnabadra fangs," answered Sian simply.
"Lizsnaba - what?" I said, taken aback by this.
"To destroy the cup," Sian explained. "The same way I destroyed Dizra Maliay's diary. Chrissie thought of it, we discussed it, I handed them the cup, they took a couple of broomsticks and off they went. I decided to stay here to wait for you."
"Thanks," I said shortly. I did not know how to feel about Chris and Chrissie wandering off to the Chamber of Mysteries when I needed them, even if they did have a Horcrux to destroy. However, one thing did not make sense.
"Wait, how did Chris and Chrissie get in there? Only a Parshydamouth can get into the Chamber."
"Kiara, this plan was formed in Chrissie's mind," said Sian, rolling her eyes. "Most of what she thinks isn't well thought out."
I thought that this was a good point. But then my scar seared and the Room of Needs vanished: she was looking through the high, wrought-iron gates, with winged boars on pillars at either side, looking through the dark grounds towards the castle, which was ablaze with lights. Namzo lay draped over her shoulders. She was possessed of that cold, cruel sense of purpose that preceded murder.
