Chapter Twenty-Six

Picking One's Battles

Maurice glanced up from his books when Garvan stepped into their room.

"I take it that my niece didn't medal?" Maurice inquired when he heard Garvan sigh.

"Fourth place… she was quite livid. She thinks the familiar tournament favored flyers," Garvan explained, sitting down and reluctantly accepting the scroll of homework Maurice handed out to him. "Have you any tickets for this weekend?"

"We have a test between then and now," Maurice said persistently, tapping the scroll in Garvan's hand.

"Yes, I know. I was just asking," Garvan protested.

"I have tickets for Wizard Go and Hurling for both this weekend and next, and I also went ahead and got tickets for the footrace prelims the weekend after this as well," Maurice said, turning his attention back to his books.

"No reason to buy those so early. It isn't like it's going to be full, the prelims never are," Garvan said.

"Just thinking ahead. I have a feeling the prelims are going to be exciting regardless, considering whose in it… it is the most important leg of the Hexathlon, you know." Maurice reminded him.

"Yes, and I'm quite sure all four contestants will survive to the next round, so where's the excitement in seeing who wins? We know who will end up qualifying already," Garvan argued, finally opening his scroll before digging in his trunk for his quill case.

"Let's hope so, at least," Maurice said. Garvan looked up and studied him for a moment, but before he could ask what was on his mind, there was a knock on the door. "Enter, it's open." Cain opened the door and poked his head in, looking around.

"Leu's outside the Grackle wanting to speak with you," Cain informed him. "Hey, are you studying for Transfiguration? Can I study with you?"

"Sure, just transfigure yourself another chair," Maurice said on his way out the door.

"If I knew how to do that I wouldn't have to study with you guys," Cain pointed out as he came inside, while Maurice continued out of the Slytherin rooms and out into the hall where Leu waited against the far wall.

"Hullo, nephew. What can I help you with?" Maurice asked.

"I just wanted to talk to you about something. Do you know about what happened yesterday?" Leu asked.

"About Quintin wandering off again? Yes, he's been doing that a lot lately, actually. It's not all that uncommon, really… he's at a stage where he's completely mobile but not old enough to get him to understand about rules and things. My sister and his caretakers really need to keep a closer eye on him until he grows out of it," Maurice said, shaking his head with exasperation. "Especially with all these visitors in the castle."

"It isn't just the visitors that needs worrying about. There was a gargoyle trying to get at Quintin yesterday. A strange one, part man and part gargoyle," Leu said. "I've never seen it before. I think he was after Quintin."

"Why is that?" Maurice asked.

"He was clinging from the castle wall and watching when I was trying to get Quintin away from the tree," Leu explained.

"That's what gargoyles do, after all," Maurice reminded him.

"Not like this, this was different. And I think Noah knows something about it, or at least he was behaving very strangely when I started talking about it. I didn't imagine it. I did see it, ask your sister if you don't believe me," Leu insisted.

"I never said I didn't believe you, did I? I know you aren't the sort that jokes about things like that," Maurice said calmly.

"Well, I should have believed you when you said Noah knew something about all of this, because I am pretty sure he does now. You don't think Noah would be involved in anything that would harm Quintin, do you?" Leu asked concernedly. Maurice sighed at him.

"You really are new at this, aren't you? As I told you before, who you ask is just as important as what to ask," Maurice said.

"Yes, but you tend to know everything I want to know, so I thought I'd save time simply asking you first," Leu said.

"I'm not getting in the middle of this. You'll have to figure it out yourself, Leu. Perhaps you should ask Noah about it," Maurice suggested, turning back towards the painting.

"But what about Quintin? Aren't you in the least bit worried about that?" Leu snapped with frustration. Maurice paused thoughtfully.

"He is a Snape and a Craw, and as such has the family's utmost protection. Including mine," Maurice added before stepping back inside. Leu glared at the Grackle in the painting as the door closed, resisting the urge to throw something at it before sulking back over to the stairs.

In the Ravenclaw rooms, Noah was already at his desk, looking up when Leu came in.

"There you are. Where have you been?" Noah asked. "We have a paper to work on, you know."

"I thought you had a date," Leu parried, digging out his research notes.

"I did, but she started to get all cuddly on me, so I said something questionable enough that I knew she'd take it the wrong way and she wandered off to be mad at me," Noah explained.

"Girls are supposed to be cuddly when you're going out with them. Really, I don't see why you bother at all if you're going to treat her like that," Leu scolded, sitting down. "I suppose you'll say it's a ghost thing."

"In a way it is," Noah said grumpily. "Are you going to help me with our paper, or not?"

"Yes, although I can't help but be distracted, what with all that business with Quintin and the Man Gargoyle," Leu said.

"Not that again. Didn't the Headmaster tell you not to worry about it?" Noah said.

"No, he simply said thank you and that he would look into it," Leu said. "He didn't say I couldn't worry."

"But he did say he'd look into it, so we'd be better off doing what we're supposed to. Like homework," Noah said.

"All right, but perhaps after we finish that, would you help me try to find out more about that strange gargoyle?" Leu asked.

"By the time we get that done, it'll be after curfew," Noah pointed out. "Maybe you should wait until the weekend and try the library or something."

"The library?" Leu said, thinking it over.

"Why not? There are books on practically everything in there," Noah shrugged.

Leu lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling and attempting to gauge Noah's reactions. He seemed to be acting so normal… well, at least normal for Noah. But at the same time Leu felt that Noah was trying to stay out of it. So was Maurice for some reason, Noah realized with a frown. But would either of them behave like that if they felt that Quintin was in danger? Maurice certainly wouldn't, Leu decided. And what reason could Noah have for trying to protect anyone who would try to hurt his little brother? That seemed quite out of character as well. Perhaps he should take Noah's advice and simply leave it up to his father to handle, Leu mused with a soft sigh. After all, what could he do?

Near the end of January, the intermittent coughs from Jennifer's students began to grow more frequent. In resignation, she decided to start teaching Pepper-Up Potions and other cold remedies before Ginny decided to order in bulk. Several large cauldrons had already been started and labeled by the time Hermione wandered in at the end of Jennifer's fourth year class, smiling knowingly at her.

"It's not going to be enough," Hermione commented after Jennifer released the students.

"What isn't?" Jennifer asked.

"The potions. Ginny is already complaining that the hospital wing is getting filled up and is demanding that we move all the track events back to April so that the situation doesn't get worse," Hermione said.

"That isn't likely to happen," Jennifer said, shaking her head as she stirred one of the pots.

"Yes, I know it won't, I helped set that schedule up. I just thought you ought to know that she's concerned about it," Hermione explained, helpfully stirring a different one. "Especially with the vendors and crowds on the property, we're likely to have an active season of sniffles and coughs."

"I have full faith in Ginny and Sagittari's capacity to keep up with it. And as you can see, I'm taking my fair share of precautions as well," Jennifer pointed out, grabbing a rack of clean bottles.

"Good. I think I might let it slip that you're already working on it then," Hermione decided, Jennifer smiling knowingly at her as she left.

Leu and Noah wandered into the library with books in hand and couldn't help but notice the wide gap of empty tables in the middle of the room. On one side, a small handful of students with red noses sat at tables with tissue boxes in the center, while on the other side sat a larger portion of students, warily glancing over at them any time one had a coughing fit. In the mix was Natalie and Garvan sitting across from each other with books between them in an attempt to study.

"Looks like even some Owls got condemned to the sick tables today," Leu noted.

"I think I'll go sit with them," Noah decided, hovering in that direction while Leu stepped into the Owl room. Boulderdash looked up from his work desk, eyeing him critically.

"If you are feeling at all under the weather, Mr. Murphy, I suggest you go back out there where you can not contaminate the rest of us," the librarian informed him.

"Professor Craw gave me a potion cocktail to prevent me from getting sick, I doubt I'll be catching anything, Librarian Boulderdash," Leu said.

"Hey! How come you get it and the rest of us don't?" Hope complained with a scowl.

"I think it's because it can be a bit toxic. She made me stay in the lab for two hours after taking it to make sure I didn't have any weird side effects," Leu explained, sitting down by Amy. "I rather got the impression she did it for Quintin's sake more than anything."

"Human children do seem to be a bit on the fragile side, at least compared to ours," Boulderdash commented distractedly, carefully repairing a binding on one of the books in front of him.

"Not so much, I just think Grandmother is a bit paranoid when it comes to Quintin," Chuck said from the other side of Amy.

"She has reason to worry, but there are more important things to worry about than just a common winter cold. Isn't that right, Llewellyn?" Amy said.

"Oh, now don't get him going about that mysterious gargoyle man again. Nobody else has seen anything like that, it's obviously just his imagination running away with him," Chuck said with agitation, sliding over a Wizard Go board. The black stones in front of him immediately took an interest, muttering to each other excitedly in scratchy, high-pitched voices.

"The Headmaster didn't think I was making it up," Leu said.

"And Grandfather is just as paranoid, especially when it comes to security," Chuck said. "Besides, that was two weeks ago. If there were some sort of gargoyle man, I'd expect someone else would have seen him by now. Amy, do you want to play?"

"No thanks, I lost interest when I got eliminated," Amy said.

"I would, but I really should study for this Transfiguration test. Don't you have a test coming up as well?" Hope reminded him.

"Don't you start, I get enough of it from Mum and Grandfather," Chuck scowled.

"You wouldn't be if you actually had decent marks," Hope said.

"Do you have any more books on gargoyles, Librarian Boulderdash?" Leu asked.

"Perhaps, although I have trouble keeping them on the shelves these days for some reason," he said with a toothy sneer, hopping off his stool. "Come along, I might as well do it now while the binding is drying."

"I don't suppose there are any recent ones?" Leu asked as they stepped out into the library. "I'd rather like to know who the current experts on gargoyles are."

"You'll be needing to peruse copies of the Dark Quarter Quarterly, then," Boulderdash grunted. "They're in the restricted section. I doubt your parents would object to you reading them, but you won't be able to take them out of the library."

"Can I bring them back to the Owl Room?" Leu asked.

"Provided you don't share them," Boulderdash said with a suspicious squint, becoming distracted when he noticed movement in one of the restricted aisles. "Anything I can help you with, Mr. Coventry?" Leu peered around curiously to see Don look up from his book, looking quite annoyed at being startled.

"I don't need anything off the bottom row at the moment, but thanks," Don said icily. Boulderdash growled softly in the back of his throat.

"The only area you are approved to browse in at the moment is potions, Mr. Coventry. I doubt you would need anything from that section for that," Boulderdash said.

"Fine, I'll go get an effing note from Bellamy, if it pleases you," Don said with exasperation, stomping away while muttering. Leu couldn't make out all of the words, but was quite sure that "blighted" and "green" had been two of them.

"Next row, Mr. Murphy," Boulderdash said, continuing to the end of the Dark Arts section.

"You heard that rather clearly, I suppose. What did he say?" Leu whispered.

"Mind your curiosity, Mr. Murphy," Boulderdash advised as he perused the magazines.

"Shouldn't you have deducted points from him for that?" Leu asked.

"It is wise to pick one's battles, Mr. Murphy. Only fight the ones that matter," Boulderdash said, pulling out three volumes and handing them to him. "There you are, return to your research."

"Yes, Librarian Boulderdash," Leu said, returning to the Owl Room.

"Did you find anything?" Amy asked immediately. Boulderdash squinted at her dangerously.

"Am I at least allowed to share any information I might find?" Leu asked, sitting down on the opposite end of the table from the girl. Amy scowled at him.

"It is not my responsibility to control any hearsay that takes place after they are borrowed, Mr. Murphy, but no sharing periodicals," Boulderdash warned.

"I understand," Leu said with a grin, then began to look through the listings.

"Anything yet?" Amy pressed.

"Miss Weasley, do leave him alone and concern yourself with your own affairs. Don't you have a research project due next week for history?" Boulderdash said. Grimacing at the reminder, Amy got her books out of her bag.

A few minutes passed with nothing but the clack and mutter of stones on Charles' Go board until Mike came in, heaving a sigh that was a mix of relief and exhaustion before walking over to get some cocoa.

"I see you're still among the healthy," Kimberly noted, glancing over his last move.

"Yeah, and I plan to stay that way for as long as possible," Mike chuckled softly. "I saw Helena out there, though. Is it wrong for me to hope my brother gets it next?"

"Yes, it's wrong, but I hope so too," Amy said. "Speaking of which, is Hope out there?"

"No, she's out helping at the booths, which reminds me… Mr. Willowby was asking about you when I was out there doing my run, Leu. I think Natalie was supposed to be out helping him today and she's sick," Mike said.

"But what about the gargoyles?" Amy protested.

"You may leave those here on my workbench until you are ready for them, Mr. Murphy," Boulderdash suggested.

"Don't worry, Amy, I'll get back to them as soon as I'm done," Leu promised.

"I hate being a first year. We don't get to do anything," Amy brooded as Leu left the room.

"Leu isn't all that older than us. How come he's allowed to get magazines out of the restricted section anyway?" Charles asked.

"His father preapproved it," Boulderdash shrugged and then sneered. "Although I think he'll be surprised it took him this long."

"If that's so, then that probably means the Headmaster already tried this route," Amy reasoned.

"And if he approved it, that probably means he didn't find anything interesting," Charles concluded with a snort.

"How come you didn't just tell Leu that it was a waste of time researching it?" Amy asked Boulderdash, who immediately sat up haughtily with a dangerous glare.

"Research is never a waste of time, Miss Weasley, no matter what the result," he said indignantly. "The trouble with people in this castle is everyone seems to take knowledge for granted. It has to be earned like anything else," he said, pointing her to her books. Reluctantly, Amy slumped and put her chin on her open tome.

Leu ran out to the Quidditch Pitch, dodging several runners practicing for the foot race and managing to get cussed at by Don as he and several other of his friends got ready to join the rest of them.

"Did he just call you a little goblin freak?" Dasher asked when Leu ducked into the Mungo's tent out of breath.

"Among other things," Leu panted. "I suppose it's partially my fault for crossing the tracks like that… I had forgotten they were there."

"All the same, it's no excuse to go after you like that, especially treating our good name like it was an insult…"

"Your father told me to only fight the battles that matter," Leu said solemnly. Dasher immediately grew quiet.

"Very good advice," Corey offered, stepping up behind them. "Let him mince words if he wants. Besides, the best revenge against words is to either prove them wrong or prove them right, depending on what was said."

"I rather think that's good advice too," Leu decided. "Did you need me to fill in this afternoon?"

"I certainly did, thank you, Leu," Corey said. "Can you help Dasher restock and then help Hadrian at the counter? Alicia didn't show up this afternoon so I'm going to relieve Lindsay at the regular St. Mungo's booth."

"Do you suppose that means she's going to have her baby?" Leu asked curiously.

"I don't know, but I've been wondering the same thing. She may have just overslept, too," Corey shrugged. "I'll be right on the other side of this tent wall, so just yell if you need me. I need to get everything stocked before the afternoon events."

"Yes, Corey," Leu said and followed Dasher into the tent.

As Corey turned to step into the next tent, he heard his name called in the distance. Was it his mother? Perhaps Alex? No, Alex wasn't here, he mused, unable to place the voice as he looked around. He also didn't see anyone who seemed to be hailing him, even across the way where a small group had gathered to watch various practices while they waited for their ticketed events to start. He frowned, taking a couple of steps away from the tent before deciding he must have imagined it. It was then that he felt a strange tap on the back of his heel and happened to look down at the ground.

It was his shadow. And it wasn't following his movements.

"Uh oh," Corey said to himself as the legs of his shadow started to elongate and take shape in front of him. It was then that he realized it seemed that his silhouette seemed to have a sword. Putting out his hand, he called his sword to him just as the silhouette took on a more three dimensional appearance, managing to parry the first strike as it came in. Immediately he ran into trouble; Corey was not used to fencing with such a close opponent, which was no more than an arm's length from him. To make matters worse, he knew perfectly well that any strikes he might make would not harm the shadow at all, but the shadow was capable of harming him as if it were a second Corey in front of him. That immediately put him at a stale mate, knowing that all he could do was take a defensive stance until he inevitably ran out of energy. "Dasher!" Corey belted out. "Dasher! Run to Rosmerta's tent for some butter!"

"Butter?" Leu repeated in surprise. "Why don't I just call up some darkness?"

"This is a dark shadow spell, not the normal one. It'd just get bigger," Corey explained and then was forced into a very low duck as the shadow sword swiped towards his neck. As he rolled back to his feet, the shadow's orientation changed to the other side, but didn't lose a beat and came in for a thrust that Corey was barely able to sidestep.

"There it is!" Tonks dropped down on her broom with her wand out, Bellamy and Eric dropping down behind her. She had a strange compass-like device in her hand as she pointed her wand at the shadow.

"That's the shadow assassin spell. Have a care, sir! It's quite dangerous," Bellamy warned.

"Tell me something I don't already know! I sent Dasher for butter," Corey said.

"We'll still have to wrestle the bugger down," Bellamy pointed out, then came up behind it. Corey did his best to keep the shadow busy, his attempts at taking a more aggressive stance easily parried by his dark counterpart. But the fact that the shadow assassin was still attached proved to be a disadvantage when it came to facing several targets at once, and Bellamy was a powerful wrestler under even normal circumstances. Once its arms were pinned, Corey was able to hook its legs, so by the time Dasher returned with the butter, they were holding it down.

"What do I do with it?" Dasher asked, and Eric took over, grabbing the stick and rubbing it over the soles of Corey's shoes until the shadow finally released. As the spell broke, the assassin lost its substance and Bellamy fell on Corey, the two of them letting out a grown before pulling away, out of breath.

"What in the world was a spell like that cast in the middle of the day? And in a crowded area, no less!" Tonks asked. "Sloppiest assassination attempt I've ever seen."

"Unless it was meant only to cause trouble," Bellamy said. "Another attempt to disrupt the games?"

"Possibly," Eric admitted, helping Corey up. "Have you offended anyone lately, Corey?"

"I stay out of things as much as possible and don't get in anyone's way unless I absolutely have to," Corey protested, but then chuckled. "Frankly, Eric, these days I really don't have the time to offend people."

"Noted," Eric agreed.

"Still, there are definitely people who don't like you. But who would be here?" Tonks said, frowning at the Pitch. "I'd better have a look around."

"Tonks… what about not getting involved?" Eric reminded her.

"Better than staying here and putting up with that," Tonks said, gesturing over where Abraxus Coventry and Peter Gamban were hurrying over. Corey groaned, dusting himself off.

"You handle it. I'm going to the Mungo's booth," Corey said, walking over to where Lindsay was watching and began talking to her.

"What in blazes is going on now?" Abraxus asked.

"Nothing but a small security matter, nothing left to see here," Bellamy said.

"If it involves security in any way, I demand to know what it is. My boy is using the tracks, and if it jeopardizes his safety in any way, I have the right to be privy to it!" Abraxus said.

"No, sir, you do not, unless it involves him, which it doesn't," Bellamy said evenly. "Therefore, you should probably return to whatever it was you were doing."

"I shall do no such thing, not until I have reassurances that these 'small security matters' that keep happening are going to stop!" Abraxus demanded.

"Now, that's hardly fair, Abraxus, especially with the amount of people coming in and out of the castle," Eric interjected. "From what I've witnessed over the last couple of months, they've done a spectacular job keeping a handle on it, especially Wing Commander Bellamy."

"Thank you. At your service, sir," Bellamy said.

"And what about that dragon? I've yet to hear any resolution for that," Peter pointed out. "And just where is Jennifer? She's normally in the thick of these things."

"She is out of the castle at the moment, Mr. Gamban. But I assure you I have things under control," Bellamy said.

"If you do I have yet to see it," Abraxus said haughtily before stomping away, Peter giving them an approving frown before following.

"Is it just me, or does Abraxus seem to be in the middle of things every time there's an incident?" Eric said with thin smile.

"The thought has occurred to me, sir," Bellamy admitted. "I only hope that one day I will be free of any obligations that restrain me from telling him what I really think of him." Chuckling in agreement, Eric and Bellamy went to find Tonks.