Chapter Twelve

Seeking Answers

The next morning, Tim shook him awake. "Come on, Ethan! We've got to get to breakfast early."

Ethan got up yawning, stumbled into his clothes and headed past the Dutchman on the way down to breakfast. Once the team had finished eating, they headed out to the locker rooms to change and make final preparations for the match.

Danny gave them a pep talk as they pulled on their team robes.

"This is it, ladies and gentlemen!" he exclaimed as he strode up and down the room. "Last year we were brilliant against the Prophets, thanks to Tim and Jenny. This year we need to close the deal and bring the trophy home to Bradbury. They won't underestimate Tim this year, so everyone needs to step up...and Ethan can provide the surprises this time!"

Ethan swallowed. It was bad enough to be reminded of his predecessor's timely capture which sealed Bradbury's win the previous year. He didn't need the pressure that Danny's well-intentioned exhortation had just put on his shoulders.

"Don't worry," Tim whispered as they marched out onto the pitch, cheers and jeers raining down on them from the stands. "Just do your job...seek, and the rest of us will run up the score."

Galvez beckoned the captains to the center of the pitch to shake hands. Danny and Mo Barnhill, the Tenskwatawa captain, did so rather briefly. Barnhill said something that made Danny blanch for a moment.

As they mounted their brooms, Danny gave a final word of encouragement.

"They've got fast brooms, but we've got better flyers! Let's show 'em!" he said.

Tim looked across at the Prophets' team and whistled.

"Those are all Quicksilver XLTs!" he said enviously. "The most technically advanced...I wonder where they got those."

"I think I know," Ethan said, for he'd spotted Simon Brocklebank sneering at him in a superior way across the pitch. "Looks like they have a new player, too."

Galvez whistled and tossed the quaffle high into the air. The bludgers were released and then the golden snitch fluttered away free. Ethan soared after it as play began in earnest. To his chagrin but not surprise, Ethan found Brocklebank shadowing him as the Tenskwatawa Seeker.

"Father decided if I deserved the best, so did my teammates," Simon boasted as he pulled even on his XLT. "Worried, Lloyd?"

"You wish!" Ethan said defiantly. "It takes more than speed to catch the snitch."

"If you say so. See ya!" Simon shouted as he rocketed away.

Speed does help, though, Ethan thought ruefully as he attempted to catch up, while also trying to keep his eye on the fluttering snitch. Simon hd gotten all the way around the Tenskwatawa hoops in the time Ethan had reached the first hoop, but Simon had clearly lost sight of the snitch. Ethan had last caught a glimpse of it about 30 feet above the hoops, so he coasted up to have a look. A bludger whistled past his left ear and Nick Cooper hurtled past him after it. Ethan looked about, eyes peeled for any movement, but there was nothing.

Brocklebank was zooming up and down the pitch, to little apparent effect. Looking down, Ethan saw that the XLTs were indeed affecting play. The Prophets had scored the first four goals and five of the first six. Only Danny's prowess as keeper was preventing a rout. Ethan redoubled his efforts to spot the snitch; he wanted to catch it before Tenskwatawa built an insurmountable lead.

Suddenly, he saw it, gold glinting as it flew nearly straight upwards about 30 feet ahead of him, back towards midfield. Simon was inconveniently nearby, but Ethan didn't want to waste valuable time, so he accelerated vertically after the snitch. The sun, brilliant on the nearly clear late fall day, made it difficult for Ethan to see his quarry. Ethan heard the whoosh of Simon's broom below. A good flyer, Simon would catch up in seconds on his superior broom.

Brocklebank passed Ethan, but neither boy could make out the snitch in the dazzling sunlight. Had Ethan been less single-minded in his pursuit, he might have registered how far above the pitch they'd come. When Simon leveled off, Ethan did too. Only then did he glance down for a moment and see the the other players and the crowd, mere ants far below him. He instinctively gripped his broomstick tighter.

"Not scared of heights, are you?" Simon yelled. "Just you and me up here, Lloyd. Nobody to save your skin, if you had a little accident."

Ethan ignored Simon and looked around for the snitch. He didn't think Simon was capable of knocking him out of the sky.

"What's that behind you?" Simon asked as he floated about ten feet from Ethan.

"You think I'm going to fall for that?" Ethan called back.

"I'm not kidding!" Simon retorted, pointing past Ethan. "What's that glow?"

Ethan then heard another voice over his shoulder, deep yet distant. "Ethan Lloyd, why do you tarry where you are in danger? The Cleansing has begun anew, yet here you remain."

Now Ethan whirled around. There he saw a half-circle of ghostly sailors floating before him with Jan van Dam in the middle.

"What are you talking about?" Ethan yelled in frustration. "I told you, I belong here! Leave me alone!"

Simon stared at him, caught between confused silence and scornful laughter.

Ethan turned to Brocklebank with an icy stare. "I don't need any ignorant comments from you, either!"

This awoke Simon from his trance. His eyes fixed beyond Ethan, he said, "Fine. You go ahead and talk to yourself. I'll just take the snitch and go."

As Simon flew past him, Ethan turned and saw the snitch fluttering amongst the ghosts.

Ethan cursed loudly and spurred his broom towards the snitch, but he knew there was no way he could reach the golden ball before Simon did.

A moment later, though, Brocklebank stopped short. As Ethan came along side he could see that the color had drained from his rival's face.

Simon was staring wild-eyed ahead of him. Ethan realized that Brocklebank could now see the sailors levitating around them, though he could not imagine how.

"Ghosts!" Simon shouted. "Call them off, Lloyd. You're cheating!"

"They don't take orders from me," Ethan said with a shrug. "Guess you'll be seeing their ship next."

Ethan had been alternately fascinated and annoyed by Van Dam and his crew., but he'd never been frightened by them. Simon, however, seemed paralyzed by fear of what he could now see. The snitch was now weaving its way around the ghosts, as if daring the boys to come closer.

Suddenly, the ghosts flanking Van Dam began moving closer, as if to close a circle around the two Seekers. This apparently pushed Brocklebank over the edge. Ethan had seen Simon panic once before, so he was unsurprised when his rival let out a whoop of fear, swung around and zoomed away.

Ethan, unperturbed by the ghosts' incorporeal movement, moved forward at the same instant that Simon fled. He cruised right up to Van Dam and plucked the golden snitch off the captain's shoulder.

"Thanks!" Ethan said, grasping the snitch in his right hand. "Now, please stop trying to save my life, will you?"

Van Dam let out a sepulchral sigh but said nothing. The next moment he and his crew faded, images shredding like a fog clearing. Once again, the sunlight dazzled Ethan and at last the realization of how high above the ground he really was sank in. He steadied himself and cruised down slowly.

As he neared the stands and the other players, he held the snitch aloft. As he did so, a huge roar went up from the Bradbury supporters. A moment later he was mobbed by his teammates. Danny was slapping his back so hard that Ethan thought he'd fall the remaining distance to the ground. But he managed to coast down to the ground, where he handed Galvez the snitch.

"That was amazing!" Tim shouted in his ear. "How'd you manage to beat Brocklebank to it all the way up there?"

"I didn't," Ethan managed to gasp. "But Simon's afraid of ghosts."

Across the pitch, Tenskwatawa's captain was berating his Seeker. Like an echo, the only words Ethan could make out were "afraid of ghosts?"

"Handy bit of flying, Lloyd," Ethan heard the gruff voice of Uriel Swope from behind him.

"Thanks, sir!" Ethan replied, somewhat distracted by Marcus' attempts to pour a barrel of Pumpkin Juice over his head.

"Glad to see heights don't bother you," Swope added. "Nor strange orange clouds..."

Just then Anne and Alec reached them.

"Well done, Ethan!" Anne exclaimed, smiling broadly.

"Yeah!" Alec agreed, adding "Do you always have to dodge ghosts to catch the snitch?"

Everyone looked at Alec as if he'd gone mad―everyone, that is, but Swope, who was looking at Ethan shrewdly. Just then Marcus, with Kyle's help, succeeded in tipping the pumpkin juice barrel over Ethan. Normally, he wouldn't have wanted to find himself covered with the sticky, sweet orange liquid, but it saved him from having to deal with awkward questions about his snitch capture.

Tim cleaned up the pumpkin with a scourgify spell. The team trooped into the lockers to shower and change. Not long after, feeling much refreshed, Ethan and Tim joined their classmates in the grandstand to watch the Harrison-Tituba match.

"So," Tim said quietly as the match began. "What did you and Simon see up there?"

"You've already guessed," Ethan said as Anne craned her neck to hear their conversation. "Van Dam and his crew. Why can't they leave me alone? Still, they scared Brocklebank so much, he ran away."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Tim said. "Brocklebank saw the ghosts?"

"Sure did," Ethan confirmed. "Wanted me to send them away. As if I could!"

"Well, you did, didn't you?" Anne asked. "The glow disappeared just as you caught the snitch."

"Not really," Ethan said. "Though I suppose I did discourage them. But they hung around until I had the snitch."

"Maybe they're secretly Bradbury fans," Tim said with a laugh.

"Well, it was strange the way the snitch just sort of stayed with them," Ethan recounted. "And Brocklebank wouldn't go near them."

"But why could Simon see them?" Anne asked.

"I don't know," Ethan said. "It was pretty convenient, though. Maybe they do like me."

"It's as if they're broadcasting on a TV channel only you can see," Tim mused as Anne looked confused. "Well, you and Alec. And then, all of a sudden, Brocklebank tunes in. Weird."

"Yeah, but there's one thing I've decided," said Ethan. "I'm not afraid of Van Dam. Whoever sent the ghosts, they mean me no harm. Which reminds me...Van Dam told me the Cleansing had begun 'anew.'"

"You mean it's happened before?" Anne asked.

"That's what it must mean," Ethan affirmed.

"We've got to find out when it happened," Tim said. "That could tell us a lot."

The three of them had become so absorbed in their conversation that they'd forgotten there was a quidditch match going on. Just then the crowd erupted in cheers. The Harrison seeker had just caught the snitch, ending the match.

As the student body headed in, the Bradbury and Harrison crowds were particularly boisterous. Parties were being planned, people were cheering their teams and players. Ethan vaguely realized that his name was one of those being shouted, but his mind was focused on Van Dam and his words about the Cleansing.

He reached the doors of the school, where the crowd funneled into the Entry Hall. Everyone slowed down. Ethan found himself behind Edwin Malinowski and some other Harrisons, who were deep in conversation and didn't notice him.

"Oh, come on, Jana," Edwin said to a short, round-faced Harrison girl to his right. "Whatever you may think of Lloyd, he can't be Hrothgar's heir...can he?"

"Think about it, Ed," Jana said. "He was there when Standish was found―and he'd just had a run-in with Standish; he conjured up that lightning storm on the way up river; and now we find out he can summon ghosts to win quidditch matches."

"But his parents made Hafgan go away and last year he kept Hafgan from coming back from what I've heard," Edwin protested.

"Yeah, well from what I heard," Jana said in a still lower voice. "Lloyd killed a teacher at the end of last year. And we still don't know whose side his parents were really on, do we? That's why I told Bram to lie low for awhile, since he let Lloyd hear he's muggle-born."

"I still say you're nuts," Edwin responded, but he said no more.

"Thanks, Ed," Ethan said, unable to contain himself.

Edwin looked around, startled. Jana and the other Harrisons jumped and backed against the side of the corridor. They looked convinced that Ethan might freeze them with a glance at any moment.

"What makes you think I'm going to attack any one?" Ethan asked angrily. "And Hafgan killed Skryme, I didn't!"

"That's your story. I think your record speaks for itself," Jana said insistently. "Incidentally, I'm a full-blood back 20 generations, if you were wondering."

Tim, Anne and Marcus had stopped to watch the proceedings. At this point, Marcus interjected, "Well. maybe you could let them off with a minor curse this time, oh mighty one...as a warning!"

The humor was lost on both Ethan and the Harrisons.

"Why should I care who your ancestors were?" Ethan asked Jana in exasperation.

"Well, you live with muggles," Jana replied stubbornly. "I heard that you dropped some huge light standard on one you didn't like."

"Not exactly," Ethan said hesitantly, taken aback that word of incidents from his life in Madison were being circulated around Kaaterskill. "I mean, he was a bully beating up a little kid."

"Ah-ha, so you admit it!" Jana replied triumphantly.

"No! Oh, you're hopeless!" Ethan exclaimed. "Where's Bram? I need to talk with him."

"Why do you want to talk to him?" Jeremy Holsapple asked fearfully.

"Don't you be a prat, too!" Ethan answered. "I just want to explain what happened the night Standish was frozen."

"We all saw for ourselves," Jana said. "What's to explain?"

"Come on, Ethan," Tim said. "You can't talk sense to them, not right now."

Reluctantly, Ethan moved up the hall with his friends, leaving the Harrisons muttering among themselves.

"Forget it!" Anne urged. "They're ignorant and they're scared. That's a really bad combination."

"Yeah, OK," Ethan replied. But the Harrisons' reaction bothered him. It was one thing to be at odds with Brocklebank and his ilk, but Ethan had always been reasonably friendly with the Harrison second-years.

As they were about to go through the hidden door that was the shortcut to Bradbury Tower, Ethan felt a hand tap his shoulder. He turned and saw Professor Swope.

"Lloyd, since the matches finished so quickly, perhaps you'd like to do a bit more protective work after lunch?" he asked.

"Sure," Ethan said, glad for the chance to think about something other than the Cleansing. "How about 3 o'clock?"

"See you then," Swope replied and he stumped off down the hallway, humming to himself.

"Someone seems pretty happy," Marcus observed. "Must have had money on Bradbury."

"Or Harrison," Ethan suggested.

At lunch and afterwards in the Common Room, Ethan was able to keep his encounter with the Harrisons in the back of his mind, for everyone else focused on the quidditch match. He found he rather liked having older students he'd never met come up to congratulate him. Every now and again, he had to remind himself that he, Ethan Lloyd, had in fact won the match for Bradbury. He really hadn't had any idea of the score until Tim had told him: Tenskwatawa was leading 160-20 when the snitch was captured.

"They were just too fast for us," Tim admitted. "I scored one and so did Melinda. That was it. If you'd taken another two minutes, your catch wouldn't have made any difference. It was brutal."

As 3 o'clock approached, Ethan was loath to leave the Common Room and his new found popularity for the quiet of Swope's studio. But he did want to learn more about protective spells, so off he went.

Along the way, his mind wandered from quidditch back to the Harrisons. He was talking to himself, head down, when he ran into something so hard that he was knocked back on his seat.

When he looked up, there was Mr. Beadle. Ethan sprang up quickly.

"Sorry there, Mr. Lloyd, Beedle said. "But you should look where you're going!"

"Yeah, sorry," Ethan said, noting with a start that Beadle was carrying a large, gray, furry animal―obviously dead―by the tail in his left hand. "What is that, Mr. Beadle?"

"Wolf, found it dead outside the greenhouses. Third one this month," Beadle explained. "Odd, no signs of violence on any of them. The headmaster wanted to know right away if any more were harmed."

"Maybe the wolves are after Standish's animals," Ethan suggested.

"Maybe," Beadle said doubtfully. "I'll admit things have been odd since Ebenezer was attacked. I'm doin' the best I can, but I'm no gamekeeper. But wolves...see, Bradbury himself s'posedly had an agreement with them. They don't bother out creatures, they can live safely on Kaaterskill land. Something's seriously wrong if they're being killed."

Beadle looked worried. Ethan's own anxiety was magnified by the custodian's concern.

"Well, I'd better be going," he told Beadle. "I'll be late for Professor Swope."

"Very well, you watch yourself now, Mr. Lloyd," Beadle said as he continued down the stairs.

Ethan hurried up to the next floor. As he dashed through the next corridor towards the stairs that led up to the studio, the already-sinking late fall sun nearly blinded him. Before he could shield his eyes to see where he was going, he'd tripped over something large and once again sprawled on the floor.

He'd landed in something wet and cursed as he struggled to get up. Robes dripping, he turned to see what he'd fallen over and when he did, his knees almost gave way again.

Bram Rozema crouched unmoving on the floor, one arm shielding his face, the other outstretched (it was this arm Ethan had tripped over), a look of fear and surprise on his face. He was frozen, that much was clear, and the outline of his form flickered indistinctly just as Standish's had.

Ethan wanted to call for help, but at the same time he wanted to be miles away from Bram's blank stare. For a moment, he thought of just continuing up the stairs to the studio, but then he wondered how he would explain his soaked robes to Swope. He looked again at the floor and saw a series of puddles that led further down the corridor.

As he hesitated, a shimmering form emerged from the wall opposite and he saw the Harrison ghost, Natty Swarts. She swooped down to his level, curtsied and said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Lloyd." Then she stopped short, hovering over Bram's motionless form and let out a high-pitched scream.

"What have you done?" the ghost wailed. "Help! Student attacked! Woe, woe! Help!"

Suddenly there came the sound of many rushing footsteps from both directions. In the vanguard came round-faced Jana Gerrits and Jeremy Holsapple. Down the stairs stumped Uriel Swope, who looked from Nattie Swarts to Ethan and Bram, then to the growing crowd.

"Caught red-handed!" Jana exclaimed dramatically, looking straight at Ethan.

"Silence!" Swope roared. He waved his wand and set off what sounded like a thunderclap.

"Head back to your common rooms," Swope bellowed at the students, who obeyed as more students arrived: Tiverton, Renfro and, last of all, Herodotus Bancroft.

"What do you know about this, Lloyd?" Bancroft asked, as he knelt before Bram.

"Nothing, sir," Ethan replied, shaking. "I tripped over him on the way to the art studio."

Tiverton arched an eyebrow. Swope, who had now moved beside Ethan, said, "That's true. He had an appointment with me this afternoon."

"On a Saturday, after a smashing quidditch victory?" Tiverton asked acidly. "By the way, Lloyd, congratulations on a fine catch, to you and your teammates, the living and the ghosts."

Bancroft looke up and said, "Terence, will you and Uriel take this boy to the Infirmary, please?"

Neither of the teachers looked overly pleased, but Tiverton immediately conjured a stretcher shaped perfectly to carry Bram in the awkward position in which he'd been frozen. Then he levitated Bram onto the stretcher and Swope began steering the unfortunate boy down the hall.

"Now, Lloyd, you come with me," Bancroft said.

"But, sir, I had nothing to do with..." Ethan protested.

"That will be for the Headmaster to determine," Bancroft replied as they walked up the corridor and down another set of stairs. In a moment they'd passed the library and Bancroft stopped down the corridor at the statue of a rather jaunty looking wizard.

Bancroft looked at the wall next to the statue and said "Worm-eating fernbird!" The door appeared before them and as they entered the small anteroom, another door appeared to their left. With one more step they were on the moving floor which bore Ethan once again to the desk of Cyrus Flyte.