Chapter Twenty: Taxonomica Gigantica

The next day, nobody had any lessons with Rissa. Conny sat through History of Magic, always just on the cusp of expecting Professor Binns to say something boring about Merlin that would suddenly be the key to solving the painting mystery. Unfortunately, no such tidbit came out of Binns's ghostly mouth, and she left the stuffy classroom feeling unfulfilled. Then, Professor Snape took a collective five points off Ravenclaw because she, Lucy and Jon had their top buttons undone in Potions. As if the day couldn't get any more frustrating, Professor Flitwick had summer flu and Professor Atremidus was covering his lesson. She lit all the fires in the classroom, complaining of the 'unseasonal chill' and pulling her cardigan tighter. By the time the class ended, Four Hufflepuffs had passed out of heatstroke without Atremidus noticing, and Conny had sweat more than Corfax up a flight of stairs. Her collar was damp with sweat and she was feeling particularly pissy.

"I can't wait." She hissed at Lucy as they changed into light, summery blouses and shorts. "Where will Rissa be now?"

"Probably in the Slytherin Common Room. Behind the wall in the dungeons, that requires the password." Lucy replied glumly, pulling on a sky-blue paisley-patterned tunic. "No idea how we could get in."

"Maybe we could wait outside, then ask a Slytherin to get her when they go in?"

"No way. They're very protective of the location and password to their common room. And we'd get Rissa in trouble with her house if we go looking."

"Ugh. Snakes are slithery." Conny rolled on deodorant and pulled her hair into a ponytail. "So we have to wait for DADA tomorrow?"

"You could always grow a pair and ask… oh, say, a fourth-year Slytherin boy you know?"

"Shut up about Az; it isn't going to work." Conny said sourly. "You wanna go fly somewhere?"

"In this dress? Not unless you want my arse to get very well acquainted with my broomstick." Lucy deliberated her large collection of Alice bands, eventually deciding that matching colours were in at the moment and so it was perfectly fine to go for a powder-blue headband with sequins. "And anyway, flying will remind you of Az and just make you sadder."

"Tch."

"You need to get over him; why don't you go and talk to that third-year you were eyeing in the speed-dating at Valentine's? Whassis name, Peter?"

"Ugh, no way. He was cute until he opened his mouth, totally wierdo." Conny grabbed a book and a jersey in case it got cold. "Let's get out of the castle, I'm melting."

"Seems funny to think that just four months ago you were risking your life to fix the boiler." Lucy chuckled as they left the dorm. "Speaking of that, ever since that night my wand has been temperamental."

"Temperamental? What, like it gets PMS or something?" Conny asked, pulling her own wand out of her pocket. The sliding pieces of the puzzle box pattern on the handle had been awfully hard to shift as of late.

"Nah, just… y'know, being a bit glitchy. Some spells too strong, others too weak, stunning when I want to repair, that sort of thing." Lucy's wand was much longer and made of lighter wood. Its handle was decorated with hieroglyphics; probably suitable, as Lucy was half- Egyptian.

"Hey, can I hold yours a minute?" Conny asked.

"Er… um, I suppose." Lucy handed it over as they left the Common Room. "You're not fullblood, so you might not know, but it's a pretty… well, it's not the done thing to ask for another wizard or witch's wand."

"Sorry. I'll keep that in mind." Conny held the two wands out in front of her. They looked so different, and yet… and yet the felt very similar. What did that say about what sorts of people she and Lucy were? When she moved them close together, little white sparks flickered in and out of existence in the air between them.

"Can I have my wand back now?" Lucy whined, suddenly twitchy. "I feel insecure without it."

"Sure." Conny handed it back. There was a mass migration from the common rooms through the entrance hall and to the grounds, considering the weather was being so gracious. The only problem was finding an area of the grounds that another group didn't have dibs on- trees and hills were usually nabbed by large groups of sixth- or seventh- years. Conny and Lucy found their second-year friends on the large, rickety jetty that let out onto the lake. The low, warm sun made the lake look like a giant pink mirror to the sky. Conny absentmindedly thought that she should go get Az, because he'd love the view. Maybe write a poem about it.

"No!" She stopped herself. She shouldn't think about him! Bad Conny!

"D'ye particularly deplore of ladybirds?" Rosie McAvery asked. A wobbly chalk circle had been drawn on a plank near where they were sitting. Rosie and Mark Arrit had apparently enlarged two ladybirds and they were having a sort of wrestling match.

"Er, no, forget that I said anything." Conny sat. "Who's the seed?"

"Rosie's, of course, she picked an aggressive one." Corfax said. "I think we should try barnacles next; ladybirds are boring."

Conny's half-muggle upbringing proved itself useful. "Did you know that barnacles have the highest penis to body size ratio in the whole animal kingdom?"

"What?" Corfax asked, aghast.

"Yep. And, as I remember, they have both sets of… sexy bits." She giggled. "Fax, you're muggleborn, you must have done biology at primary school."

"Er… yes, but I was never very academic." He admitted. "Hang on, you went to muggle primary school?"

"Of course I did." Conny replied, perplexed."

"Wait, you guys went to a school before Hogwarts?" Rosie asked, suddenly less interested in the wrestling ladybirds.

"Yes. Why, you guys didn't?"

"Oh, no." Rosie, Lucy and Bill all shook their heads.

"Then… how do you learn English and maths and stuff?" Fax asked.

"Um, you don't, really. Well, me parents taught me some things, but yeh're just left to do if for yerself." Rosie said.

"Seriously?" Corfax whistled under his breath. "I suffered for years in muggle primary school, getting my head stuck down grotty toilets and my packed lunch stolen… when my dad remarried, they were going to send me to a board at secondary school."

"I didn't have such a bad time."

"Yeh, but Conny, you live in a nice part of London. I bet your school was nice, too." Said Lucy.

"Mmm… I suppose. The catchment area was mixed, but I enjoyed it. I liked being involved in things, though I suppose it was hard sometimes to keep from all the others that I was a witch." Conny smiled at a memory. "When my dad came in for parents' evenings, all my teachers would think he was so weird. Tartan waistcoats aren't apparently the correct dress for a man in his forties."

"I like your dad's waistcoat." Lucy pouted.

"Aye, but what tartan was it, hmm?" Rosie asked, her Scottish-ness rearing. "I'd betcha all the galleons in Inverness that yer father was wearing the tartan of a clan he doesn't even belong to."

"Oh gosh, what a terror. Maybe he was wearing hunting tartan on a Sunday, too… shocking. Burn him, I say!" Lucy giggled, not noticing that Rosie was frowning at her and obviously didn't find that too funny.

"Anyway," Conny cleared her throat. "Anyone want to skip stones?"

"No way, you always cheat."

-0-

"Now, my dears, about your summer exam…" Professor Atremidus cooed from her oversized chair, a cup of milky tea steaming on her desk. The class groaned. "Don't be like that, my pumpkins. Now… where was I?"

"Letting us go early?" Lucy piped up hopefully.

"No, no… ah, yes, summer exam. There will be a paper, just to check that you've all been paying attention… and then a practical."

"Practical?" Lucy whispered to Conny, looking worried. "God, she's not going to curse someone with Moroccan Mucocytosis and then get us to cure them, is she?"

"If she does, I'm hoping it's Max." Conny replied, and they both turned to Max Borridge, who was picking his nose near the door. "I would fail the exam just to make sure he gets those permanent mucus-filled warts on his face."

"You're a git, Conny."

"A righteous git."

Atremidus cleared her throat. "The practical examination will involve diagnosing and administering the correct cure for a range of magical afflictions."

"Awesome." The murmur went around the class. "Of course, it will only be those appropriate to your second-year syllabus, my dears. No Eternal Sneezing Diseases for you!"

"Oh, the disappointment." Lucy joked, "I had no reason to live but Eternal Sneezing Diseases!"

"You're an arse, Lucy."

"A righteous arse." Lucy countered, "Touché."

"Arse."

"Git."

A bell rang in the distance for the end of the lesson. "Right, you go front, I'll go back, we need to isolate and confront."

"Lucy, we're not a SWAT team."

"But they look so cool in muggle movies!"

"C'mon, she's leaving." They shoved their books into their bags and set off in pursuit of Rissa, who moved fluidly through the crowd of Ravenclaws and Slytherins. "Merlin, she's fast."

"'Scuse me! Sorry! Pardon me!" Conny very politely pushed her way through the chatting group that filled the corridor. Lucy, who'd never had the whole 'P's & Q's' talk, went more with the 'get out of my way or I shove you' approach. This worked well, and soon they'd caught up with their target.

"Clarissa." Lucy panted, hooking their arms together much to Rissa's obvious discomfort. "Trying to slip away there, hmm?"

"There is no law prohibiting me from moving between destinations quickly." She replied flatly. "What do you want, Lucelia?"

"Your use of my full name hurts my soul, Riss." Lucy pretended to cry. "We need your help."

"With what?"

"Secret."

"You will probably need to tell me what it is you require help with before I can actually help you." She pointed out stiffly. "And kindly disengage your arm."

"Rissa." Conny said from her other side, startling the Slytherin slightly, who'd been occupied with Lucy. "What do you know about Lucius Malfoy?"

Rissa raised a pale eyebrow. "You are still pursuing this?"

"Yep. You led us to the squib brother, and we need your pureblood social club information."

"Ask away."

"Have you seen Lucius Malfoy recently?"

Rissa nodded.

"Er… expound, please."

"He attended the House of Karov's Spring Equinox Gala, with his wife and young son, yes."

"Was he all happy and fulfilled, or sort of angry and depressed?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was he boasting about anything? Being all 'I'm awesome'?" Conny asked.

Rissa considered it. "No, I would say he was the reverse. He mostly talked quietly with various people, and looked worried and… rushed is the best word. He had just come back from a holiday to India, and the heat had not agreed with him, he said. You know, Lucy, he attended with your youngest brother."

"Alexi? What was he doing with Alexi at a pureblood gala? We're not House of Karov. I think we're… House of Akhet."

"He was evidently a guest. I do not know beyond that."

"This is encouraging," Lucy noted, "It means that he hadn't had any luck with… the thingy yet at Easter, so we're still in time."

"You can talk about the paintings in front of me, Lucelia." Rissa said off-handedly, causing Lucy to stub her toe and swear colourfully. "I am not stupid."

"Never said you were…" Lucy grumbled. "Eesh, does anyone not know all of our business?"

"I assure you that I have kept the matter under strictest confidence."

"Brill. So, you got anything else on Malfoy?"

"Hmmm… I suppose I thought it was strange that he was so angry, but kept your brother so very close. Perhaps Alexi was rendering services?"

"Services? You make him sound like a builder or a carpet-fitter." Lucy pouted, "Please, give a master criminal his due."

"Do excuse me. I was being euphemistic; perhaps Malfoy had engaged your family's criminal syndicate in some sort of nefarious exercise."

"That's better. So, you think that my brothers are involved in Malfoy's plans?"

"I would… It is a reasonable supposition."

"Reasonable supposition is good enough for me. But this is good, it means we've still got time." Something dawned on Lucy. "And it means that my brothers made the spell that's going to get Malfoy into the painting. Which means that I might be able to see how they did it."

"How?" Conny asked, "You can't get home."

"You underestimate me, babe." Lucy winked, taking in a loud breath as they left the stuffy castle and emerged onto the grounds. "Ugh, an hour in a sweaty greenhouse? I'd rather kiss a toad. Hang on, Riss, that isn't the cue for you to make a joke again."

"How droll." Rissa snapped, pulling her dragonhide gloves out of her bag. "I hear the mandrakes are hungover today; it makes them prone to biting, so I suggest gloves."

"Gotcha." They entered the greenhouse, surprised to find it rather chilled out. "Whoa."

"Apparently the mandrakes had a massive party and trashed the humidifiers." Polly greeted them, looking very serene. "Sprout has been going spare, apparently we have to clean up their vomit."

"Yey for plants."

"Don't be that way. If we had some petrified people, these mandrakes would be key to their recovery." Polly replied, affronted.

"Well, we don't have any petrified people I know of, so ixnay on the vomit for me." Lucy hopped up onto a dirty planting table and crossed her legs, leaning against the glass. She stretched her arms languidly and began to work the kinks out of her muscles.

"I see that Lucy is above such things as vomit." Ralphus sneered from where he was getting Derek and Feol to do his share of the work.

"Hypocrite." Lucy flipped him the finger lazily. "Hey, Ralph, since I'm not doing anything and neither are you, maybe you'd like to share my seat? There's room for two if we sit… close."

Ralphus blushed bright pink and mumbled some cusswords before suddenly finding a puddle of vomit on the other side of the room to deal with. Lucy chuckled and grinned, quite pleased with herself.

"You're a git, Luce."

"Why did I never think about this before? He's powerless against my wiles!"

"Be careful." Conny warned, deciding she was sagely enough in the ways of the heart to offer advice. Lucy blew as raspberry and proceeded to file her nails for the whole of the Herbology lesson. Professor Sprout, bless her, was much too busy to check on them, as she had a planter full of groaning, hungover mandrakes in need of glasses of water and Alka Seltzer. Conny and Rissa therefore spent a difficult but relatively cool hour cleaning up the debris from the mandrakes' party. When they were done, they stank of mandrake sick and bleach, but Lucy was totally unmarred and had very symmetrical fingernails.

"So, I have a plan." Lucy said at dinner (seafood) later that day.

"Go for it." Conny said through a mouthful of absolutely delicious squid. "Oh, this is divine. Have some."

"No way. I don't eat anything with suckers." Lucy said, ironically shoveling octopus sushi into her mouth. "Anyway, my master plan."

"Yes, yes, go on."

"So. I figure that Malfoy hasn't had any success getting at our Caradoc yet. But, equally, he was acting close to Alexi, so whatever my brothers did for him worked. So, I think it's fair to assume that he's got into the painting, but for some reason he can't get at our Caradoc."

"That seems sensible to think." Conny agreed, eying some prawns near Jon. "So, when does the plan come in?"

"I'm getting to it. I think that we need to save Caradoc."

Conny nearly choked on her mouthful. "Er… Luce, Malfoy's a paroled Death Eater, Caradoc is clearly a competent wizard of… twenty-eight, by now. I'm sure they can duel it out."

"But… but what about the thing Tilda hold you?" Lucy lowered her voice. "You know, the whole 'Let them both die' thing?"

"I figure it's both. You know, like Malfoy and Caradoc. That's two; they're the 'both'."

"That's bull. From what you said… Tilda was emotional when she said that. She's a Gryffindor. I don't think she was talking about saving Malfoy."

"Then who? Not Maenalus, he's in muggle prison for stealing the seventh painting."

"I dunno. Someone. Someone… someone important to both Malfoy and Caradoc. Hence the conflict." Lucy proposed shyly, obviously not confident in her idea.

"A girl."

"That's it. I think… I mean, Caradoc doesn't seem like the selfish type… He was protecting someone."

Conny nodded. "The question now is… who was important to both of them? In fact, Maenalus as well."

She and Lucy very briefly thought in silence, the only sound a sizzling halibut that Olivia Teppit was gingerly eyeing a few feet away. Then, Conny thought of something. "Hang on. I have a hunch."

"I disagree; you walk fine."

"Funny, Luce. But I think I know where we can find the girl."

"Fire away, captain."

"It's not going to be that easy. We need access to the student roster in the restricted section."

"You think the girl was a student?" Lucy asked, grabbing Jon by the ear as they left. "Eesh… the restricted section isn't going to be easy to get into. Even if you get a slip, Pince goes and fetches the book for your rather than let you in. Conny's an anomaly, being allowed in."

"Then we go in the hard way. Sneaky sneaky."

"Taking stupid risks? How unlike you." Lucy jibed, a wide grin on her face and excitement in her eyes.

"No idea how we'll manage it." Conny hummed as they climbed up through the castle. "I wish we had some sort of… invisibility cloak, or something."

"Well, we don't." Lucy replied. "We'll need to go at high morning. Four or five, when the patrols are really tired. Boris mentioned something about a secret passage the other week when… well, never mind when. I'll ask him."

"I'll go get some clothes together. I know where the roster is, we just need to be in and out." They split up as they entered the Common Room; Lucy made a beeline for Boris and his mates in the corner; Conny went up to her dorm, and Jon, thinking of something important, dashed off.

-0-

The reconvened in the Common Room at four A.M.

"We look so badass." Lucy grinned, dressed all in black. "Whatchu got there, Jon?"

"I was thinking about what you said about wanting an invisibility cloak."

"Who have an invisibility cloak?"

"Non." Jon shook his head; Lucy visible deflated. "But I do 'ave… zees."

He took from his pocket three rustic-looking bracelets. They were strangely translucent, and Conny thought they were woven from some sort of see-through plaited hair.

"What are they?"

"Ze hair of ze Demiguise." Jon said proudly. "My father gave zem to me in case I was ever targeted because of 'is job, but I think zey have a better use 'ere."

"They're like… invisibility bracelets?"

"Ish. Zey do not give invisibility like a cloak, but zey make you less… what iz ze word?"

"Conspicuous." Conny offered, to which Jon agreed.

"With zem on, you blend into ze shadows, or ze crowd, et cetera. Zey aren't perfect, but… aurors use zem, so I figure zey must have proven to work, non?"

Lucy and Conny took one each and held them up to the light. "So awesome. We're like ninjas."

Lucy frowned, not understanding. "What's a ninja?"

"Ancient Japanese Hit-Wizard."

"Ah; thanks."

"No prob." Conny slipped hers on. She felt sort of… insubstantial, like she'd float away if she wasn't careful. Whatever it was, it was a very weird feeling. "Whoa."

"Yep." Lucy grinned, her white teeth the only clearly visible part of her. It wasn't that Lucy was invisible; more like Conny's eyes just forgot to look at her. It was as though Lucy just faded from significance… like it wasn't important to consider her. "This is really freaky, Jon. Just how dangerous is it to be you?"

"Tres dangerous." He gave up a rare smile. "Shall we go?"

"Oh, yes." The three of them slipped out of the Common Room and were gone before Charlie could recognize them. The school was creepy at night, though Conny had never really had a problem since she'd spent the whole of her first year roaming around, unable to sleep. She kept thinking that Lucy and Jon had disappeared, even though they were just behind her.

"Lord this is creepy." She whispered as a pair of Hufflepuff prefects strode right past them without noticing. "Is this how you've been stealing food, Jon?"

"Maybe."

They crept downstairs, relying on Conny's excellent memory of the school's secret passages to get them to the Library. In her Carom boots, she moved quickly and silently, able to jump from shadow to shadow with ease, or scramble up archways or doorframes to peer around corners from the eaves. The Grey Lady floated through a wall on the fourth floor, alarming them, but only stopped to warn them that Filch was lurking next to the magenta tapestry a corridor over. They thanked her and Conny helped Lucy and Jon climb up to a shaded balcony where they pressed themselves into the corner while Filch grumbled and staggered around, holding his lantern high.

Once sure he was out of sight, Conny jumped down and caught Lucy, who barely weighed anything, and then they both had to catch Jon since he was a bit heavier.

"Uff." He grunted as Conny and Lucy failed to fully take his weight and he fell hard on his ankle. "Ow, ow, merde."

"Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine. No problem." He winced as he put weight on his ankle. "I'll be fine."

"Sure."

"Yes, sure. Let's go, we're wasting time." Jon said, hobbling off with a grimace towards the Library. Conny and Lucy shared a worried look before following him.

The Library was, if possible, even quieter and creepier than it was during the day. The lights from the Library's long, thin slitted windows left dancing motes of dust and moonbeams glancing off the shining bookcases that Conny had put so much effort into cleaning. The cordoned-off Restricted section beckoned menacingly.

"Right. Jon, you're on east, Lucy's on west, the signal is that whistling noise."

"Aye-aye."

They split up, Conny making a beeline for the cordon and stooping under it. Bookcases towered over her, but she quickly found her way to the table upon which the roster sat; opened still at the page of D names she'd checked last time. She quickly and silently flicked the pages until she got to M.

"Hope I'm right…" she muttered to herself, running a finger down the list of names. "Malfoy… Malfoy… there's Lucius, no, up… Brutus…"

She'd come to the top of the page and flicked back over. Surely enough, at the bottom of the next page were two other entries.

Abaraxs, Malfoy… and there, below him, was a large burn-mark, covering the entry of a student. It must be a Malfoy, because it was in the middle of a great slew of other Malfoys, but it had been totally obscured. Someone- probably Lucius, the last Malfoy to attend Hogwarts – had scoured the existence of that member of his family.

"Gotcha." Conny grinned. "You're not Maenalus- he'd never have gone here because he was a squib, so you must be… you must be the link."

A high-pitched whistled snapped Conny out of her musings. Alarmed, she leapt up atop a nearby bookcase, and then ran along the top until she found some shadows to crouch in. Professor Snape was swooping in, Filch at his heels, definitely looking for someone, the greasy yellow of his lantern swinging about the bookcases. Lucy had made the whistle; she was trying to make herself as small as possible in a dead end of the Bestiary section, but it was fruitless; she wasn't invisible.

Thinking fast, she pulled the demiguise hair bracelet off and tucked it down her shirt. Filch and Snape rounded the corner and saw her, backed into a corner, and gave startled snarls. "Told you we'd find one."

Lucy, to her credit, drew on a large amount of her reserve calmness and coolness to cock a hip and cross her arms. "Evening, Professor."

"As wonderful as it is to see you, Miss Ra, I do believe you are out of bed."

"Seeing is believing." She replied. Filch's face was making ugly contortions, his bloodshot eyes popping. He was obviously not used to a student talking back, and Lucy was no deer in the headlights.

"How clever." Snape said curtly. Lucy was very good at potions- much better than Conny, at least, so he didn't hate Lucy quite as much. Plus Conny's Cat had mauled his face last year, so that wasn't helping. "What were you looking for?"

"Oh, you know, some early morning reading. Taxonomica Gigantica looks like a hoot."

"It's riveting. Thirty points from Ravenclaw and a week's detention."

Lucy groaned, but recovered. "That sounds great. Can you do Friday?"

Snape, past the point of mild amusement, scowled at her. "I will enjoy watching you scrub grime-caked cauldrons."

"Grime cakes? You love them too?"

Snape made an evil sound in his throat, Filch practically apoplectic beside him, a vein almost bursting on his balding forehead.

"You are not helping your case, Miss Ra."

Lucy noncommittally shrugged, whistling merrily. Conny suddenly realized that she was saying 'get the hell out of here while I'm distracting them'. Conny, quiet as she could, edged down from the bookcase and fell to the floor with an unfortunate thump.

"What was that?" Filch asked loudly. Conny couldn't see him now, and felt very threatened.

"Go and check; where you find one, others are sure to be scattered around." Snape spat. "As for you, Miss Ra, we will see how chipper you remain after my gift to you of Professor Slughorn's unwashed Boil solution cauldrons from nineteen forty-nine."

"Forty-nine was a great year for French chardonnay."

"And evidently a terrible year for Boil solutions. I expect you in my office after supper tomorrow."

"It's a date."

"I will not have you speak that way to me, Miss Ra." Snape said, his voice cold. Conny snapped out of it and slunk around a bookcase, ensuring that the roaming Filch didn't find her.

"Fine. I shan't." Lucy replied tartly. "See you tonight, Professor."

Snape made a disgruntled noise and Lucy sounded like she stomped past him, turned and left out of the other side door.

"Kids these days eh?" Filch complained. "Didn't find nothing around there. Since Pince got that girl to clean the whole place, I can't see footprints in the dust anymore."

"Hmm." Snape paused. "Strange that Miss Ra was here without her cadre- DeHayersae and Lucwitt. You take the east door, I will get the west. Perhaps we can catch the rats leaving the sinking ship."

Conny, alarmed, ran for the east door, Filch wheezing and clanking behind her. He was an unfit man in his fifties; she was a spry thirteen-year-old with a partial invisibility bracelet and a pair of magical boots. There really wasn't a great deal of competition between them; Conny slipped out of the door before Filch had even rounded the corner of the bookcase containing volumes on Magical Trichology.

With her Carom Boots, Conny leapt down corridors at breakneck speeds, easily outstripping anybody trying to follow her. She slammed the door of the Ravenclaw Tower shut, panting but thankful.

Lucy was waiting on a sofa, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"You look happy for thirty points and a week of Snapey detention." Conny puffed, collapsing next to her. "Jon'll be up in a moment; he doesn't have super-boots."

"Good. Now that, Conny, was step 2 of my master plan."

"We're back at the master plan?"

"We never left the master plan, babe." Lucy beamed, stretching. "See, I go to Snape's detention and I act up. Way up. So, in the end, he sends me to Flitwick. And I act up to Flitwick. And then, he-"

"Suspends you." Conny realized, her eyes widening. "And you go home and find out how your brothers managed to get Malfoy into the painting!"

"Excellent powers of deduction." Basil Fronsac muttered, yawning, from his portrait on the Common Room wall.

"Thanks, Bazza." Lucy gave him a thumbs-up. "So, I'll get a week suspension and be back for the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match. That's the end of May. We'll have all of June to get in and save our Caradoc."

"That is if we can work the spell."

"You'll manage it; you always do."

Jon barreled into the Common Room, panting, looking fairly sick.

"You look like you snogged a troll, Jon, are you all right?"

"Filch… chasing… 'ad to 'ide… boys bathroom." He gasped. "'E came in after me… I hid under ze grate by ze sinks."

"Where all the pipes full of crap are?" Lucy shuddered. "Well, top marks for effort."

"Welcome back Jon. You smell." Conny offered.

"Shuttup. Did you learn what you wanted to?" He flopped down on an armchair opposite, which quite rudely made a gagging sound and promptly threw him off.

"Well, I know who the girl is."

"You do!?" The both exclaimed.

"Well, I know she was a witch, and a sister of Lucius and Maenalus Malfoy." Conny said proudly. "Her entry in the roster has been burned off by dark magic. I think that Bad Malfoy had a witch sister who, when the war came, sided with Good Malfoy."

Basil cleared his throat. "Why didn't you ask me?"

"Erm…" They looked up at him. "Your portrait is in the Ravenclaw Common Room, Basil. We're dealing in Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, aren't we?"

He looked offended. "I have several other portraits around the castle. I was an important man, once. I happen to divide time between this portrait, and others on the third and seconds floor. I also have one in the dungeons."

"Really?"

"Yes. And I can tell you, my dear, that Caradoc Dearborn spent almost all of his time with Althea Malfoy."

That was it. Althea Malfoy. The girl.

"It fits! She's Maealus's sister and Caradoc's girlfriend. But she's also Lucius's sister, and I bet he wasn't happy when a Hufflepuff got her, or when she decided to go against You-Know-Who in the war. I bet… I think that she and Caradoc escaped into the painting with Maenalus's help!"

"Holy Circe." Lucy swore, sinking into the sofa. "Lucius wants to get his sister back. Actually, scratch that… they've been there four years. I reckon that Malfoy wants to get rid of their child, too."

"You think they had kids?"

"I'd bet my last knut on it." Lucy nodded. "We have to get in there. Caradoc and Althea might know what Bad Malfoy looks like… they can avoid him or fight him off. A four-year-old child can't."

The three sat in heavy silence as dawn began to light up the Common Room. Well, they were all thinking, we'd best get going.

Cell Forty-Seven, Azkaban Prison, North Sea

Dear Khai,

I'm about to do something very stupid. Please know that I have to. When you get back, things will be better. You'd never hit me like Ali or Jah or Lex. I know you love me. I love you too, Khai… but I miss you so bad sometimes. I know I can get you out, I know I can, and I will. I think I know a way I can get you out earlier, but if that doesn't work, I'll demand the retrial when I'm of age. So you have a maximum of four years left. Please keep hoping.

I still don't have that owl. After when I'm about to do, I know none of my other brothers will give it to me. But, please, Khai, I really need one. The school owls are okay, but I really want my own one.

I love you Khai.

Love,

Lucy