Chapter 13

Dympna was amazed to find people she had never thought about or even faintly despised would include her when offering around sweets. There might be a pause before including her, but include her they did.

She also had the chance to ask Jade what she meant by calling Madam Malfoy 'mum'. Jade looked surprised.

"Oh didn't you know? She's Madam Snape by rights but you can't hardly have two Professors Snape, especially when you can describe both of them as the snippily sarcastic potions professor. So she uses her maiden name. She's not actually my mum, Lydia and I are her cousins but she reared us from when she was about thirteen and us just babes so mum she is from our point of view. And when she married dad, he became dad."

"Is that why he drops on you so hard then? Because he's only your stepfather?"

"Goodness, no! He doesn't want to be accused of favouritism. Nor does mum. And more to the point they don't want us to get picked on for being teachers' pets. You know; any decent parent tries to do what's best for their kids, not what's necessarily nicest. WE don't mind though; 'cos we get them unadulterated by you other brats in the holidays."

Dympna could not conceive of a parent that would not cosset all the time; if her father was one of the professors she would have expected – and got – special treatment and better marks. That Jade accepted taking often quite horrendous detentions and impots for her mischief and expected him to be harsher on her and considered that right and proper amazed her.

Dympna was spoilt; but she was not stupid.

Jade enjoyed a relationship with her parents, from the way she spoke of them, that was closer than Dympna's own relationship with hers, even though they weren't Jade's real parents.

And they did not seem to be given many presents either, not like Dympna expected, measuring the success of Christmas by the number of gifts. She had heard Jade describe her Christmas and it had been about whom they had visited and how they had built a whole army of snowmen with the Malfoy kids and their friends and not a mention of presents. To Dympna, being asked about Christmas meant cataloguing what you had been given.

And if her dad was to go to jail that would mean much less in the future, and maybe even living in relative poverty. Like Jazka. And Dympna quailed. And she must learn not to ask for things because wanting what her mum could not get would hurt her mum. And her mother had no connections to fall back on; she had been the shop assistant once and dad had married her.

But these people who had so little, some of them, shared their sweets with her.

It was not easy to understand.

When the package arrived by owl, Dympna assumed it might too be from a well-wisher; and opened it eagerly. A silver and opal necklace fell out, the prettiest thing, and Dympna reached for it.

And then she was in mid air, her mind being searched, and suddenly all her worst nightmares were happening at once.

oOoOo

Jade saw Dympna touch the necklace, rise into mid air gracefully, arms outstretched, her face completely blank.

There was something terribly wrong and Jade sent a blood call and started chanting.

Severus and Krait were beside her, and the marauders of all ages.

And Dympna was screaming.

Severus pulled the child to the ground where she thrashed, screaming incoherently, not seeming to recognise her surroundings or anyone there.

She lay there as the blood group moved into a general curse-breaking chant.

"It was the locket, when she touched the locket!" said Aurelia Yaxley "No, don't touch it Harmony, it's cursed!"

Professor Dumbledore had come quickly over and pushed the locket back into its wrappings with a salt spoon.

"I'll take charge of that….Professor Snape must examine it presently" he said. "Severus, can you as a group take her to sickbay?"

Severus nodded, not interrupting his chanting and the entire group with Sirri and Beloc on each side of Dympna apparated smoothly.

"Hey!" said Priscilla Parkinson "Snape doesn't have an apparating licence, and nor do half them younger ones!"

"Miss Parkinson I believe that you should consider the lack of wisdom in questioning what you are unable to understand" said Professor Dumbledore.

"Ain't Hogwarts an anti-apparating zone though?" asked Leonard Baddock.

"It is, Mr Baddock; and I as headmaster am able to cancel that momentarily at will for medical emergencies" said Dumbledore. He did not mention that he did not need to for the bloodgroup.

oOoOo

The bloodgroup was meanwhile busy ignoring Madam Pomfrey's frantic questions, that they might continue holding a ring to chant about the screaming girl. Severus was adding skilled counterpoints in the chanting, more specifically targeting the curse as he probed and sought its nature. Madam Pomrefy, trying to push into the circle demanding to be allowed to see the patient was thrown unceremoniously back by someone's irritable will; and was ready to complain when Dumbledore arrived by more conventional methods.

"Poppy, you're a good nurse but sometimes you can be a little silly" said Dumbledore "NEVER interfere with cursebreaking! Do you want to kill the child?"

Poppy Pomfrey stared at him, her rather foolish mouth hanging open. That interfering might pose so great a risk had never occurred to her!

Dympna's spasmodic shudders and screaming began to diminish.

The chanting became more a song, soothing, calming; and presently the girl's eyes stopped staring, seemed to glance around the group and her eyelids fluttered, closing; and her body relaxed into sleep. The singing gently sank in volume, fading away with exquisite control.

Severus was still chanting quietly, his harsh voice a contrast to the softly fading song; and then the chant built up again reaching a crescendo and stopping sharply as he brought his hands together with a loud clap.

"Slightly brute force for you my dear" said Krait in a normal voice.

"There was a slightly brute force element to the curse" said Severus "We can't always expect to deal with the subtleties of Tom Riddle or the fey. Most wizards aren't in their class. This was insidious and nasty but ultimately not subtle. She touched a locket, did someone say?"

"Yes, it came for her through the post" said Dumbledore "I have it here."

"Excellent; we shall examine it in your office I think, Albus, I don't want it uncovered even near her. Junior and mini marauders to stay with her and begin chanting if she shows any signs of restlessness; even I am fallible sometimes and though I think we got out every last vestige… they can be excused morning school, Albus?"

Dumbledore nodded and the younger marauders sat vigil.

"Only decent thing Burke's ever done, get me out of a Charms test" said Leo.

His sister poked him.

oOoOo

Severus examined the locket, putting wand to it lightly and pulling a face.

"As I thought…. We have been lucky, or rather Dympna has. I rather fancy that had not Jade started chanting so quickly we might have lost her. As it is it will take her much time to recover; her heart may be affected."

"What can you tell me about it Severus?" asked Dumbledore.

"It contains a curse that seeks the mind of the victim and then places them in the worst situations they could imagine over and over again until the heart, racing with terror and anguish finally gives up" said Severus. "I believe it has been made with the blood of a boggart, possibly under torture. Whoever made it had either conquered their worst fears and could thus see boggarts or was so coldly arrogant a person that they could not conceive of having any fears…. A truly dangerous villain if so. It is old. It is also not English. It is now about to be destroyed if I may use Gryffindor's sword a moment….or rather, if you give it to Abraxus. He is our Gryffindor head boy after all. The rest of us will chant while he does it to assist the blade."

Abraxus grinned.

"Horcruces and cursed items, destruction of, the speciality of the Malfoy twins AT your service."

Severus cuffed him affectionately.

The sword, gleaming and deadly, made short work of the opal necklace while the rest chanted a curse-breaking chant. It did not scream or wriggle, to Abraxus' surprise; and he queried it.

"It's not alive" said Severus "Merely cursed. It had a rudimentary PROGRAMMED intelligence – like a snitch if you will or one of Garjala's blasted swooping cursers; but not an actual intelligence. It's a nasty cursed item but not on the same scale as a horcrux."

"That kind of brings home even more what a nasty little oik Riddle was" said Hawke.

"He's been learning litotes from you dad" said Romulus.

"Apparently" said Severus. "Let me test this….yes, with physical destruction by a magical sword the curse is effectively broken. Even so…evanesco!" he banished the pieces of the broken locket.

"You have to admit I suppose that he does know his business" said the portrait of Phineas Nigellus in his snide voice.

"Oh I've never doubted that, Phineas Nigellus" said Dumbledore.

"He's really VERY good!" cooed Krait, leaning together with Sirri and Dione against Severus. The saucy look she shot at Phineas Nigellus showed that curse-breaking was NOT uppermost in her thoughts and Phineas Nigellus made a noise of disgust.

Which had been the general idea.

Krait loved teasing the former headmaster!

oOoOo

"And now" said Severus in his most dangerous soft voice "We need to find out who can hate a little girl – however much of a brat she may be – that much."

"If you ask me" said Krait "It's not about Dympna. It's about getting at her father. Her agonised death was merely an incidental."

"That's awful!" said Kinat "How could anyone hurt a kid to get at someone?"

"Kinat, she's not real to whoever did this – just a name" said Krait "WHICH does not excuse it. But they're not seeing her as a kid. Same as racists don't see the object of their dislike as people; and wouldn't care about age thereof. And we have to ask if it might be a goblin that Burke has stiffed. I hate that family as much as anyone I guess but I'm still sorry for Dympna for belonging to it; but Albus I want you to legilimens me now because I have motive. And with it being a locket that has some symmetry with the locket Caractacus Burke cheated Merope over."

Dumbledore shrugged.

"If you wish, my dear; but frankly you have had far more opportunity to kill the child in the last few years she has been at school without having to be so melodramatic. Yes, I see your resentment on your poor little grandma's behalf; and I see your wish to turn CARACTACUS Burke inside out. I can testify to your innocence. I suggest we use the wrapping to begin with."

"The sender may have used gloves to protect him or her from the locket on the inside but I suspect we may find traces of him on the outer wrapping" said Severus "Immensely difficult. I want Draco and Harry involved in this."

oOoOo

Draco and Harry got to work, with Severus' help; and Severus reminded them how David had wiped sweat from a wand and folded it as a bird and sent it to find the person who had used the wand to make fire writing. Draco was accounted the best at origami; and with thin leather gloves he folded the wrapper as a bird, then he and Harry took themselves outside on brooms.

"Ready?" said Draco.

"As I'll ever be" said Harry.

"And only two of the best seekers ever known could do this" said Draco, in some satisfaction.

"Better than the one and only Eunice Murray who petitioned for a faster snitch because it was too easy?"

"Heh, she was a loudmouth airhead….reckon she wouldn't have found playing against the fey any too easy" said Draco. "You ARE the Quidsats Haddarach my friend and I'm the reserve. Go."

He released the wrapping paper bird; and it fluttered.

The two seeker aurors followed.

The trail led the pair to a wizard in Birmingham who collapsed under questioning and confessed to sending it.

It transpired that a jealous suitor his new wife had rejected for him had sent her this cursed object; and he had watched her die screaming. He had tracked down the suitor and made him tell where he had bought it – as well as killing him nastily and letting people assume it was deatheater – and bided his time. Causing yet more grief to Aloysius Burke when he was already down seemed to him a good idea.

He did not seem to comprehend let alone feel remorse for the fact that Dympna was only thirteen years old. All he could comprehend was that his beautiful lovely young wife had died and died horribly.

Draco and Harry took him in.

"He's become unhinged" said Harry.

"Charitable as always old boy" said Draco "Note his phrasing – 'taken away from ME', 'I have nothing to look forward to', 'this Burke girl is nothing to ME, why should I care…' all I and Me. Selfish love. I can understand him cutting apart the creep that sent it slowly with diffindo; guess I'd feel the same if it were Grace as you would over Ginny….only the difference is I might actually do it and you wouldn't."

"You wouldn't Draco. You'll fight to kill beside us because we all stand together; but you're not a killer. You'd get him tied up, tell him all about what you planned to do, and then you'd look into his terrified eyes, throw down your wand in disgust and drag him into the office."

"I wonder if you're right? You probably are, old boy, it's a bad habit you have. Because, I suppose, we are better than people like that. And this fellow was weighed in the balance and found wanting; because he IS selfish ultimately, so the lives of others mean little or nothing to him. Reckon he wasn't a deatheater because it would have disturbed his hedonistic lifestyle."

"Harsh."

"Plenty joined the side of Voldemort because they thought he was going to win and wanted to be on the winning side. Weak, selfish people. He's a weak, selfish person. I'm going to suggest that his assets are confiscated as he has no children and handed over to Dympna Burke, poor little sod. Not her fault that her father has his fingers in more and nastier pies than Kordach ever came up with, or his ancestors even" said Draco.

oOoOo

In school the nine-days wonder of the cursing of Dympna Burke, and the various theories attached to it, eclipsed the fact that Willow Prince had developed some odd food cravings.

Severus noticed.

When Willow pounced on a mouse in the potions' dungeon and proceeded to eat it with every evidence of enjoyment – and horrid crunching noises – he asked after class,

"Are you pregnant?"

The blood group had felt a backwash of the deep joining with Sirius; and the two had moreover discussed the relevant details of what they had deduced to add to the elf –curing ritual.

"Yes, I timed it nicely though" said Willow "Should be due back end of July after all the exams are over."

"Well just talk to Krait about it" said Severus "She has enough experience after all to keep you checked over."

"Thanks Mummy" said Willow ironically.

Severus cuffed her lightly.

"You are dear to me, idiot" he said. "Have you broken it to Sirius?"

"That he's going to have puppies? Yes. He hasn't stopped wagging his tail since."

"How like a Gryffindor" said Severus dryly. "Puppies plural? And not Kittens?"

"Well he likes to think of them as puppies so I'll not quibble; they can choose their animagus forms when they're bigger" said Willow insouciantly. "Two I think; one of each. A nice little litter."

Severus gave up.

oOoOo

Lionel's group knew that Alice too was in the same interesting state; and Hagrid was worried.

"Och, dinnae fash" said Alice "Ah'm due end of September , weel past when ma' exams are due and Ah've no' even had morning sickness. Ah shouldnae even show wi' a firrrst bairn until school is oot."

Lionel did however persuade Alice to be checked over by Krait who informed Alice that she was blooming nicely with twin boys and even if she dropped early – as twins sometimes did – there shouldn't be any reason that they'd interrupt her exams.

"Not that you care much" said Krait cheerfully "But Rubeus would feel guilty if you missed out. And you have to consider his feelings you know. He IS yours."

"Aye, weel I do consider his feelings; tha's why for I didnae wish tae get him in the family way until after Christmas" said Alice, twinkling.

"You're a bad girl" said Krait, not meaning it.

She scolded Willow a bit more seriously for her rather close timing.

"If I'd waited another month we'd have been on top of the run-up to the ritual" said Willow "And it'd have been too flaming cold to seduce him properly in that little room without stopping to light a fire. And he'd have smelled one if I'd prepared it before hand and I'd NEVER have got him tied down. His boggart was failure, Krait; he had to have decisions like that taken from him to find he could succeed in the important things like love. I should be due end July or beginning of August; all serene, surely?"

Krait sighed.

"Let me know if anything starts feeling odd; twins can be impatient you know. You drop when you have a certain weight inside you; with two babies they can get to that quicker."

"I guess I hadn't thought of that" said Willow ruefully.

"An arithmancer who can't add one and one together to make two? You nutter, Willow! Oh well, if the worst symptom you have is an urge to chase and eat mice you won't be too bad. Dumbledore will do his nut though if he finds out that THREE of his girls are pregnant!"

"Three?"

"Dione, due in September, after surreptitiously joining the celebrations after the elf freeing, careless of all of us but she's so happy she doesn't care even if she gets expelled; Alice Trumball, better calculated than you and due in September also with twins."

"Lumme!" said Willow "Who's been knocking off Alice? Lionel Dell? I thought he was already going around with three girls from his group, Melody, Mary-Anne and Arjelan."

"Lionel's just greedy" said Krait "No, Alice isn't one of his, she's with Rubeus Hagrid."

"Hagrid?" Willow was taken aback.

"Why not?"

"Well, he's really nice and good fun and kind but, you know, I don't kind of see him as taking to bed material."

"If we all liked the same people life would be awfully boring" said Krait serenely.

"Well yeah, but….. oh well, like you say, it takes all sorts" said Willow. "After all there ARE people who don't like cricket."

oOoOo

Willow was a little preoccupied with cricket at the moment of course; it was that time of year again for playing fixtures, or at least the usual fixture against St Jodoc's.

The cricket team from St Jodoc's were the visitors again; and this time Willow had the happy idea of using the Room of Requirements as a dormitory for them.

They had put together two elevens with Lionel dragging in some of his group; the first eleven consisted of Willow, the Malfoy twins, Romulus, Elisa Mourne, Lionel, Mary-Anne, Melody, Tim, Tamsin and Ross.

Heather; who bubbled about cricket since her chalet school heroines played it, had been asked to captain the second eleven as she took to it rather well, and led Freya – reluctant but supportive – Jade, Cholaka, Arjelan, Harmony – following both her elder sister's and Jade's lead – Leo, Mad and Chad, Hadrian and Albert Macmillan.

The first eleven lost by three runs and a wicket; but the second eleven pulled a victory out of the bag with Albert's steady batting despite the rapid loss of the three insane mini marauders, as Jade described them, after having held the St Jodoc's boys down to one hundred and thirty six runs with Albert's wickedly slow bowled balls that broke unexpectedly and accounted for more of the opposition than Mad Fenwick's high speed deliveries. Ross notched up a half century and seven, and Albert managed sixty two not out.

"He's quite a cricketer even if he does have short square legs" joked Chad, who adored the strange terms in cricket.

Albert grinned.

He had no desire to be either a marauder or part of the Dell-Tuthill gang but being their friend was nice.

The second eleven also travelled to rural Sussex to play the Henderson Girls' School that had come to visit after Hogwarts had been given such a glowing report by Offstead; they now had enough pupils to scrape together an eleven. Jo Henderson, the Head's little sister, was the captain and in the year that it had been running it had doubled in numbers and more and now boasted eighteen pupils, so as she said to Willow, who had gone to supervise, she had some pick, but yet had to disappoint others.

Jo remembered Jade who had settled her and her friends into the train and was eager to chat again. Jade had to heavily expurgate what had been happening at school – one cannot really tell a muggle about fighting huorns and cursed lockets after all! The mini marauders' rubber spider jape was fine to tell and a quickly made up version of Parkinson's mean revenge, in saying that she had nicked all the ink cartridges in the pens of those she – wrongly – believed responsible, and it being during strict prep time they had had to get into trouble for using biros and being improperly prepared.

"Does speaking out about that count as sneaking? 'cos it's MEAN" said Jo.

Jade shrugged.

"They set a trap for her and she ended up covered in jelly and they told her she better leave them alone. The marauders TOLD her it was them, some people are plain mean."

Jade was sore at Parkinson at the moment; the girl was spreading the spiteful story that the locket wasn't really cursed at all and that Burke had pretended to be hurt for the sympathy vote.

"I'm glad we're still small enough that our teachers know all our personalities and who's mean" Jo said.

"Oh ours are pretty au fait" said Jade "Only the ones that got their ink nicked, they're my cousins and the class they were preparing for – junior Chemistry – is taught by my mum. So she had to be tough about it. Still, she was less knacky than she might have been so I suspect she had a shrewd idea. We're all in the same house too and Dad is head of house and he has to try to be as fair as possible to problem kids because most kids are a problem only because their parents are. Only getting through to some of them is like digging for oil with a teaspoon."

Jo laughed.

"That sounds like something one of your parents said?"

"Mum. She has some individualistic similes at times" said Jade. "Oh good, we're ready to play…tell your team to watch out for our Albert; his bowling's deceptive and breaks as wrong 'uns."

"Fred's a handy googly bowler for that matter" said Jo, naming Melissa Bassett who had acquired her nickname for the Fred Bassett cartoons.

It was a fun match.

The second eleven had not been playing together long but were still more of a team than the Hendy's as they called themselves. They declared at two hundred runs, having been put in to bat first by Jo, when she won the toss. The Hendy's managed to scrape to a hundred and sixty all out and the visitors declared they had put up a manful show with so relatively few to choose from.

The fact that the first and second eleven comprised almost all the cricket players at Hogwarts was beside the point.

After all they were all volunteers and as Willow often said, better eleven volunteers than a hundred and eleven pressed men.

"We did beat St Jodoc's boys this year" said Heather, as team captain to Jo. "The first eleven got hammered; there were several really good players left last September, and they were adjusting to almost half the team being new, which isn't as hard as with hockey but not easy anyway."

"Well, that's decent of you" said Jo. "Next time maybe we'll win!"

"Why not? We were well hammered at everything by St Jodoc's when we first started" said Heather.

oOoOo

Dympna had meanwhile come to in the sick bay. Dumbledore had debated sending her to St Mungo's but was concerned that Dawlish the auror might decide to confront her there – while she was weakened and receptive to interrogation, being the sort of thing Dawlish would think clever – and cause the child more harm. Hence against normal custom he kept her under the care of Madam Pomfrey with Severus monitoring her condition.

Dympna was very subdued.

Dumbledore had a long chat with the child and explained exactly what had happened.

"So you see, it was nothing personal, just a case of such utter selfishness that the feelings of others were as nothing to him" said Dumbledore.

Dympna was nobody's fool.

She knew that THAT was a commentary on her own behaviour too.

"Fortunately" said Dumbledore "There are unselfish people in the world too; and some of them are even intelligent. Had not Jade Snape realised that something was very wrong indeed – when you initially rose in the air most people just gawped – and started chanting the level of chant that she must have picked up eavesdropping on the chanting class, then my dear the outcome would have probably been very much worse. You would probably not have survived."

Dympna gasped.

"Would – would the awful dreams and things have KILLED me?"

"Essentially, my child yes; it is possible to die of fear. Now I think that your best way of dealing with what has happened is to talk to someone about what the phantasms that beset you were, and look at them in the open. Then you can start to move on."

"Who should I talk to? Professor Snape? Madam Malfoy?"

"Either of those would be eminently sensible choices. Or if you prefer you could talk to someone your own age, like Jade for example. She's a sensible child and a compassionate one."

"I need to thank her for saving my life."

"Then when she returns from her cricket match I'll ask her to come and see you" said Dumbledore.

oOoOo

Jade ran up to the sick bay still in her whites.

"They're a bit ladylike about the ball – dunno HOW they'd cope if they had to face bludgers – but some of them have a nice style" she reported "I suppose you don't care much though; cricket isn't really your thing, is it?"

"I don't know anything about it" said Dympna "I – I wanted to thank you for saving my life."

"Aw nuts" said Jade "I just saw your face and it was kinda like people who were under imperious curse and stuff by old Fishface. Instinct kicked in. How are you feeling? Dad explained what it was going to do – that is just so totally gross, it kinda makes you wonder what sort of sick bunny comes up with artefacts like that."

Dympna shuddered.

"I – I can't get some of it out of my head" she said.

Jade plonked herself down on the end of the bed.

"Trouble shared?" she said.

Dympna breathed a sigh of relief; she wasn't going to have to suggest it, to ask.

"Some of it's a bit confused" she said "All sorts of bad things mixed together."

"Like dementors do" Jade nodded. "Like in really bad dreams when you're fighting to wake up and can't."

"YES! Oh yes exactly like that. How did you know?"

Jade shrugged.

"When we were in the orphanage with mum before we knew we were Malfoys and witches it was….bad at times" she said "Took a couple of years to wake up without being afraid the waking was a dream. But we're not talking about my nightmares; just take it I understand."

"I – was living in a filthy dirty apartment with water running down the walls like some of those you see and my father was a goblin who was screaming at me, hitting me, throwing me about. They do you know."

"Not all goblins" said Jade "Gorbrin's dad was as gentle as any dad you could find. And I know of wizards who act like that. 's why some of the big ones are adopted; dad can't stand people like that."

Dympna stared.

"I – I've seen it! This bullying goblin, knocking his kids about, behaving like an animal!"

"Never said it doesn't happen; he sounds a real creep. But you said THEY do like it's all goblins…people who are really poor, whatever their race, can sometimes get violent in frustration. It's not an excuse; but it is a reason. This guy must have made a big impression; bet you saw the real one when you were small enough for him to be much bigger than you."

Dympna nodded.

"Yes; and my dad told him to get out of the way and he was all fawning and cringing then hitting them worse when we'd passed."

"That's why little kids sometimes join bully gangs – because by fawning on bullies they don't get bullied but they can make themselves feel less small by hitting on those even smaller. Bullies are generally cowards you know" said Jade. "That's a pretty awful nightmare though. Right at the bottom of the heap and no way out without even the comfort of a loving family."

"It – there was more. All the kids in Obscura Alley were beating on me too – they've done it once, I was so scared! – and they sold me to the Grubbe brothers to be used in a dark rite as a virgin. I – I've always been scared of the sign they used to have up before they were taken to Azkaban… I don't suppose you've seen it."

"I have as it happens; and I know that Mordecai Filch used to kidnap muggles to sell" Jade said. "Are you mostly upset because your father has been known to associate with people like that?"

Dympna nodded and burst into tears. Jade wriggled up to put an arm around her.

"He said I'D never have to worry about that notice because he had contacts to protect me" she said "But if he's in prison, how can he? I don't suppose his contacts will care to know him any more."

"Then they're not real friends, are they? Said Jade. "The best way to protect yourself is to join the MSHG that pledges to fight against things like that; and say that such things just STOP with our generation. Muggles or goblins, wizards or elves, we've got the same feelings. And you've had a taste of being a goblin child, and what it's like to be the poorest of the poor; so maybe you'll feel a bit more tolerant towards others, which means you can use this to get some positive out, right?"

"I don't know. I don't like goblins. Though Jazka was decent to me."

"Well hang on to that thought. Are you afraid to sleep by the way?"

"Yes."

"Then I guess the best thing for me to do is to do you a healing sleep chant and give you dreamless rest; and then you can deal with stuff better. You've been semi-conscious for days you know. Just hang on to some nice thoughts like all the colours Priscilla Parkinson's eye is going to where I blacked it for her for saying you were faking."

"You did?"

"Yeah, I know she's a year younger than me but sometimes the provocation gets too great; and I nutted her" said Jade. "Shh, now and lie back…." And she began a singsong chant that carried Dympna into dreamless sleep.