Chapter 20

Marian felt very tense on Saturday at breakfast. She could tell that Bill was feeling the same way – he was jiggling his leg constantly and glancing up at the staff table every so often.

"Calm down," Charlie muttered irritably. "You're putting me on edge!"

"Are you sure about this?" Marian asked Bill for the tenth time. "You don't have to go either. None of you do. We could…"

"We've been through this, Marian," Bill said impatiently. "I want to go! I just don't want to get caught by Snape!"

"Well stop being so damn obvious then!" Charlie snapped again.

They ate their breakfast in silence after that. It felt like they were playing in a quidditch match and she just had to sit and watch, Marian thought. Part of her was extremely relieved that she wasn't venturing into the forest with them, but the other part felt wildly jealous.

"Where is Merula?" she asked, glancing around the Great Hall to try and distract herself from her own feelings. "She said she'd meet us at nine and it's quarter past now!"

Rowan squeezed into the seat across from Marian. "All right? I thought you'd be gone by now, Weasley and Weasley. What are you hanging about for?"

Bill and Charlie both looked a little confused at Rowan's greeting, so Marian answered for them. "We're still waiting for Merula. She's late," she said curtly.

"'We'?" Rowan asked, eyebrows raised. "You're not having second thoughts are you, Marian?"

"Of course not," Marian scowled. "I'm just… seeing them off, OK?"

"OK," Rowan replied. "It was just a question!" She tucked into her breakfast of bacon and eggs, seemingly oblivious to the heavy tension around her.

Across the Great Hall, Marian saw a familiar head of wild brown hair. "Finally!" she muttered. "Come on – let's go!"

"We can't all go together!" Charlie said quickly. "Too obvious! And it'll look weird if she comes in without having had any breakfast!"

Marian groaned. "What, we have to wait for her to eat now too?"

"Just go." Bill nudged her. "Looks weirder if you're here with us anyway. You're more suspicious – they'll expect you to go flying off into the forest more than us! And we don't need you. Go on."

Marian fidgeted. "What if there's a problem? What if Sickleworth escapes? Or what if there's something in the ruins? Or what if there's nothing? What if you get caught by Snape or Filch or…?"

Merula arrived beside them and sniggered. "Baker, we will survive perfectly well without you – in fact, I have no doubt that we'll not only have found this arrowhead, but also have uncovered the next vault by the time we see you again! You're the one holding us back!"

She'd touched a nerve, and Bill clearly noticed as he quickly said, "We won't. We won't do anything except look for the arrowhead. Don't worry. I'd never go anywhere near the next vault without you, Cursebreaker!" He gave her a friendly nudge and Marian relaxed a little, still shooting furious looks at Merula, who looked like the cat who'd eaten the cream.

"Come on, Marian. You're coming with me to the library so I can keep you out of trouble," Rowan said, standing up and dragging Marian with her.

"Please find me as soon as you're back," Marian pleaded with Bill.

He smiled at her, and she could see the excitement in his eyes. "Course we will."

To be fair, Marian really did try and focus on her Herbology essay. At least for the first hour, she almost managed not to think about the forest. She wrote a couple of paragraphs. And then she started glancing at her watch and gazing out of the window. She could see the edge of the forest in the distance, but they were planning to enter it from the other side, just like they had last time. Was that a broomstick she could see? No, just an owl. By the time two hours had passed, she was getting antsy. She couldn't sit still. Rowan was clearly losing patience with her. "Just stop fiddling with your hair, Marian, for goodness' sake!"

Skye arrived in the library at half eleven and Rowan heaved a sigh of relief. "Good! Please take her away! She's ruining my concentration!"

"Come on, Cursebreaker," said Skye easily. "I'll take you for a spin! I brought your broom."

Marian grinned at her. As they made their way outside, she said innocently, "You know, maybe we could fly around the lake, rather than going down to the pitch today?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "Do you think I was born yesterday? I know what you're up to!"

"It wouldn't hurt, would it?" Marian asked. "We wouldn't be going into the forest – but we'd see them as soon as they come out!"

"I mean, it doesn't matter to me," Skye replied, shrugging. "But I thought the whole point was that you didn't want to put yourself into any danger again for a while? You know – after the attack?"

"The attack was in the castle, though, wasn't it?" Marian said quickly. "I'm in as much danger here as anywhere else!"

Skye frowned at her. "Why the sudden change of heart? You seemed really certain yesterday that you didn't want to go."

"It's just killing me, not knowing what's going on!" Marian whined. "Please, Skye!"

"Fine, we'll fly around the lake!" Skye said. "Race you!" She leapt onto her broom and took off before Marian had so much as mounted. Laughing, they zoomed down towards the lake.

"Last one to the boat shed is a hairy troll!" Marian yelled as the cold February wind whipped their faces. They were halfway around the lake, occasionally stopping to dare each other to dive as close as they could to the surface without getting wet, when Skye spotted three figures flying towards them.

"Look!" she cried. "It must be them!"

They'd clearly spotted Skye and Marian, too, because they headed straight over towards them, landing on the stony path that threaded its way around the lake. Marian stared at them. Charlie was bleeding from a cut over one eye and Merula's robes were slightly scorched. Bill looked unharmed and triumphant.

"We found it!" he cried, digging his hand into his pocket and pulling something out, waving it at Marian as they headed towards them. "We found it!"

"Weasley!" Skye exclaimed, dismounting next to Charlie and peering at the cut. "What happened?"

"It's fine." Charlie shrugged, looking a bit embarrassed. "Nothing much."

"But what happened?" Marian repeated, glancing around at each of them. "Were you attacked? Where did you find it?"

Bill answered, butting in before Merula had done more than open her mouth. "It was in the ruins, but they weren't just ruins – a red cap had made them its home!"

"A red cap?" Skye gasped. "Merlin!"

Merula chuckled. "It was no biggy, Parkin. We finished it off easily."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "You mean Bill finished it off easily, Snyde! All you did was slice my head open!"

"That was you?" Skye glowered at Merula.

"Just tell us what happened!" Marian interrupted impatiently.

"Well," Bill continued. "It was all pretty straight forward. Sickleworth was raring to go so we were feeling excited, then suddenly this little ugly thing leapt out at us – it was like a bigger house elf. He was a bit frantic – poor old guy, he'd probably enjoyed peace and quiet there for years until we turned up!"

"Merula panicked and started slashing about with her wand!" Charlie added irritably. "And so I was trying to stop her, while Bill just cast a full body bind curse on the thing and tied him up."

"You didn't kill him? Oh, good," Marian breathed.

Merula snorted. "Glad to see you're more concerned with the welfare of some troll than of us, Baker!"

"I meant the red cap, not you," Marian replied sweetly and Merula glared.

"And then we let Sickleworth rampage around and it took him about a minute to find this!" Bill held out his hand to Marian, and she stepped forwards, picking up the little object in his palm. It was tarnished and dirty, but unmistakeably the head of an arrow, triangular in shape and intricate patterns and runes were carved into it.

"Wow!" she gasped. "I can't believe it! We can give it to Torvus! He'll show us where the vault is!" She threw her arms around Bill and Charlie. "Well done!"

Bill was beaming at her. "I feel curse-breaking coming on, don't you?"

"This is all very touching," Merula said dryly. "But we should get back to the castle before lunch is over or we'll be missed."

"Let's try and patch you both up first or it'll be a bit of a giveaway," Marian replied, pointing her wand at Charlie's head and muttering Episkey. His graze vanished, and he wiped the blood off his face while Bill tried to repair Merula's robe.

They flew back together, with Charlie peeling off to drop Sickleworth back with Hagrid. Marian was over the moon. They'd found the arrowhead! They were going to get into the vault – they could go today, if they wanted to! As Skye and Marian raced up to Ravenclaw Tower to put away their brooms, they ran into Murphy and Orion, who were just heading down to lunch. Marian threw her arms around Murphy excitedly.

"Woah! What's got into you?" he asked, chuckling, as he pulled her down into his lap.

She grinned at him. "They've just got back! They found the arrowhead!"

"Oh." His smile dimmed a little. "Oh. That's good news, then."

Skye shared a look with Orion, who said, "We'll meet you both down in the Great Hall. Come on, Parkin."

"It is good news, Murph!" Marian bounced a little on his lap like an excited toddler. "It means Torvus will show us how to get into the vault now! We can stop the sleepwalking! We might even find Jacob this time!"

"I'm happy for you," he said, cupping her cheek and stoking it gently with his thumb. "I am."

"You don't look very happy," she replied, frowning a little. "No one got hurt, Murphy! Well, not seriously anyway. And I didn't have to go with them!"

He nodded absently. "I know. That's great." He took in her expression and added quickly, "No, honestly – I know how worried you were that you'd never find it. But…"

"But you're worried about me opening the vault," she finished, sighing.

"Well… yes," he admitted. "I can't help it! Look, I know you have to do this for your brother, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about you. I don't want anything to happen – I don't want you to get hurt!" He looked so miserable for a moment that Marian felt something in her chest tighten.

She leaned up and kissed him gently, not caring that they were in the middle of the corridor and anyone could see. "I know. But we'll plan carefully – we'll strategise. We'll take every precaution. I promise."

Marian went to bed that night feeling elated. They'd found the arrowhead, and tomorrow was Valentine's Day. She was excited about her picnic with Murphy – it was their first proper date and she couldn't wait!

When she woke up, she found a little pile of presents waiting for her at the foot of her bed. Frowning, she got up to go and inspect them. She hadn't got anything last year on Valentine's Day, she thought. Had her mum sent her something, out of pity? She used to always do that when she was younger. But no – there was a total of three cards and four presents. She looked at the cards first. The first one she opened immediately started singing shrilly:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

You make the world better,

By just being you.

Marian shut the card quickly, but not quickly enough to stop Rowan, Skye and Tulip from diving through the hangings around her bed.

"Who was that one from?" Skye asked breathlessly, settling herself at the bottom of Marian's bed.

"Dunno," Marian replied, trying to peer inside the card again without opening it properly. "It doesn't say."

"Let me see," Rowan said, taking it from Marian. "Oh, look – you can tell by the writing. It's definitely Barnaby."

"Oh Merlin," Marian muttered. "He doesn't take a hint."

"Open the next one!" Tulip said excitedly, bouncing up and down so hard that she nearly made Skye fall off.

Marian groaned. "What about you? Don't expect me to believe that none of you got any valentines."

Rowan snorted. "Jae Kim. Does that count? Talk about not taking a hint…"

Tulip chuckled. "I got three."

"Three?" Rowan looked surprised. "Who from? Did you get one from Merula?"

"I couldn't possibly say," Tulip replied mysteriously, winking at her.

Marian was busy opening the next card. This one had a big picture of a golden snitch on the front. Inside it read, 'Dear Marian, You're a Catch, From ?'

She snorted. "Nice. At least that one's a bit less cheesy."

"Who's this one from then? McNully?" Rowan was inspecting it.

"Don't be thick!" Skye said, taking it from her. "He'd never send Marian a picture of a snitch! She's a chaser!"

Marian had turned to her final card. Opening it, she found that it wasn't a card at all – it was a photo of the Ravenclaw quidditch team. Marian vaguely remembered it being taken after they'd won the house cup the year before. Orion was holding the cup and kept kissing it, looking giddy. Skye was jumping up and down next to him, punching the air. Murphy was sitting at the edge of the picture, beaming, and Marian was between him and Skye. She looked both amazed and joyful, and she kept bending to speak to Murphy. Marian smiled as she traced her fingers over the picture. She had hardly any photos of her friends – none of them had a camera, for a start – and she had none at all of Murphy. She knew this one was from him. Turning it over, she found that he'd written on the back, 'Happy Valentine's Day, Cursebreaker' in his round handwriting.

"That's such a lovely photo of you both!" Tulip cooed, peering over Marian's shoulder. "Good thinking, McNully! He definitely wins on the card front. Now, onto the presents!"

Marian reluctantly set down the photo on her bedside table.

"I got something," Skye suddenly volunteered, her face a little uncertain. "But – I don't have any idea who it's from!"

"What did you get?" Marian asked curiously. Skye hopped off the bed to go and fetch it, returning to drop it into Marian's outstretched hand. It was a silver necklace with a broomstick hanging from it. "Oh, Skye – that's lovely! Was there a card or anything?"

Skye shook her head. "No! Weird, right?"

Marian had strong suspicions about who might have sent her a necklace with a broom on it, but didn't say anything out loud. Rowan, however, had no such scruples. "It's obviously from Charlie Weasley," she said matter-of-factly. "Did you send him anything?"

"What?" Skye's eyes were wide. "No – he wouldn't! We never… it was just that time at New Year… we're not…"

"Did you send him anything?" Tulip asked, grinning mischievously.

"Of course not!" Skye blustered, but Marian was not particularly convinced by that.

By this time, she'd opened the first present. It was a big bar of Honeyduke's chocolate, with a label that said, 'There's No Chocolate Sweeter Than Your Smile'. Marian groaned. "I mean, at least they know I like chocolate…"

"Definitely Barnaby," Rowan giggled.

The next one was a small, round object that looked a little bit like a spinning top. Rowan snatched it up immediately. "A sneakoscope! Great! Rakepick has one of these in her office!"

"When were you in Rakepick's office?" Marian asked in surprise.

Rowan looked awkward. "Er – just asked her for some help with something," she mumbled vaguely. Marian was concerned, but she didn't want to press her. Why would Rowan have been seeking out Madame Rakepick? And why wouldn't she have told Marian?

"Well, unless that's from Rakepick, which I think is unlikely," Tulip said, "I'm assuming that's from Bill Weasley! So your mystery card might be from him too!"

"Bill?" Marian stared at her. "He wouldn't send me a valentine! Are you mad?"

"Who else would be sending you dark detectors as a gift?" Tulip snorted. "It's not very romantic, is it?"

The third parcel was squashy and soft. Marian opened it to find a pretty, dark blue dress, embroidered with silver thread around the sleeves and bodice. A note was in the parcel, and it read: Darling, I know you're probably inundated with valentines this year now that you're so beautiful and sophisticated, but just in case… ? Marian laughed and made a mental note to send a letter back with Biscuit to thank her mum.

That just left the fourth. Marian felt a little jolt of excitement, realising it was probably from Murphy. She opened it slowly, wishing that the others would leave. It was a book, of course. But it wasn't a playbook, for once. Instead, it had a picture on the front of a quidditch umpire, whistle in his mouth, staring down with a lustful expression on his face at a beautiful girl on a broomstick, who was gazing up at him in adoration. Bold lettering across the top read, Chased by the Umpire. "Oh, Merlin!" Marian burst into laughter.

"Er – Marian?" Rowan looked confused. "Why is McNully sending you a romantic novel?"

"Is he trying to send you tips?" Tulip looked interested.

"No!" Marian wiped her eyes. "I… it's kind of a joke we have. It doesn't matter."

"I think I might have this one actually," said Rowan, turning it over. Marian snatched it back. As usual, Murphy had gone through the book, annotating it with comments, statistics and occasionally, a diagram. Marian hugged it to her, eager to look at it properly.

"Oh, you have private jokes now, do you?" Skye teased her. "It must be getting serious!"

After spending an inordinately long amount of time working out what to wear, Marian set off down to breakfast with Rowan and Skye. They stopped in the doorway of the Great Hall, looking confused.

"Wow," Skye exclaimed. "This is certainly – er - different!"

"Different?" Marian repeated, screwing up her face. "More like disgusting!"

There were giant roses and hearts set around the edge of the Great Hall and pink heart-shaped confetti was falling slowly from the ceiling. It sounded like harp music was emanating from the staff table, but Marian couldn't work out its actual source.

"This is almost as bad as Madame Puddifoot's," she muttered to her friends as they found a space at the Ravenclaw table and tried to find some food that wasn't covered in pink confetti.

"I think it's quite nice," Rowan said shyly. "Romantic."

Marian and Skye shared a look of dismay but didn't say anything. Marian couldn't stop glancing towards the Entrance Hall and Skye quickly picked up on this.

"So – any plans with McNully today, Cursebreaker?" she asked casually as she waved confetti away from her beans.

Marian could feel herself blushing. "Maybe."

Rowan giggled. "Course she has! She spent about half an hour in the shower and then took at least half an hour to choose an outfit!"

Marian rolled her eyes at them both. She looked down at herself in some concern. Bearing in mind that she knew they were going to be sitting in the grounds for quite some time, she'd eventually decided on her new dress with thick tights and ankle boots, leaving her hair loose. She smoothed the dress down now, hoping it wasn't too much, and therefore missed the moment when Murphy actually arrived. She jumped as he moved himself onto the bench opposite her, next to Skye.

"Morning," he said brightly, smiling around at them all and shooting her a quick wink. Marian could feel herself blushing all over again. He was wearing a light blue shirt, today, open at the collar without a tie, his golden snitch badge still pinned to his pocket.

"Aw! You two match!" Skye said, grinning mischievously at Marian and Murphy. "Two little Ravenclaws, out on a date!"

"Parkin, I'm warning you," Marian muttered under her breath.

"I thought you'd be off looking for dragons with Charlie Weasley today, Skye," Murphy said breezily.

"Yeah," Marian added, feeling wicked. "Nice necklace, by the way!"

Skye's mouth fell open slightly. "What? Why would you…?" Marian chuckled and Skye glared at her and Murphy. "I hate you both."

After breakfast, Marian hung back as Rowan and Skye headed back upstairs to the common room. "What's the plan then?" she asked Murphy shyly as they left the Great Hall.

"Well, we have detention with Snape and Weasley to look forward to this evening," Murphy replied, smiling at her cheekily.

"Ummhmm," Marian nodded. "I was meaning the part before, really. The good part."

"You think it's going to be 'good'?" Murphy asked teasingly. "Oh dear – I have a lot to live up to! Merlin forbid it's great, excellent or fantastic!"

Marian nudged him playfully. "You know what I mean, dung brain!"

"Dung brain?" He repeated, pretending to look offended. "Oh, I don't know, Cursebreaker. We might have to call the whole thing off. You've insulted me now."

"Murphy!" Marian half-laughed, half-cried in irritation.

He took pity on her. "Wrap up warm – we're going to be outside for a while! I'll meet you back here in… twenty minutes?"

"Fifteen!" Marian cried excitedly, leaning forward to kiss him quickly before turning to make her way up the stairs. She suddenly turned, though, and raced back to kiss him again. "Happy Valentine's Day, Murph!"

"Happy Valentine's Day, Cursebreaker," he murmured, beaming at her as he pulled her back again for another kiss. "You look even more beautiful than usual. Now off with you!"

When Marian returned, wrapped up warmly in her thick winter cloak, she found Murphy already waiting for her. "Impressive," he remarked, pointing to his watch. "31% quicker than you said!"

"Well, I had a 'fantastic' reason for being quick today, didn't I?" she said, smirking at him as he took her hand, intertwining their fingers.

"Ugh!" A loud voice interrupted their bantering. "Your flirting is making me feel queasy, Baker. Take it outside, why don't you?" It was Merula, flanked by Ismelda and Barnaby. Marian felt her heart sink as she saw Barnaby's face – he looked miserable at the sight of her and Murphy together, and she remembered his valentine to her. She felt terrible. Murphy took one look at her face and obviously realised what was going on, practically dragging her with him out of the Entrance Hall and into the grounds. It was a beautiful day – crisp and cold, with not a cloud in the sky.

"Get many valentines, did you?" he asked conversationally as he led the way down towards the lake.

Marian sighed. "Four, actually. But one was from my mum." She smiled at him. "My favourite was from a mysterious admirer who draws very interesting diagrams of…"

"Interesting!" He interrupted her quickly, grinning back at her. "My mysterious admirer sent me a book with some diagrams in too! Not very well-drawn though, so I have an idea who it might be from."

"Well, I never said anything about a book, Murphy, so I think you've given yourself away there," Marian teased. She'd sent Murphy a book called, 'The Greatest and Best: Quidditch Commentators Throughout History'. She'd annotated it too, obviously, writing about how each of them was not as good as Murphy in various different ways.

"I loved it – thank you," he said, stopping to pull her closer, his arms round her waist.

"Me too. I can't believe you remembered what I said about Rowan's romantic novels." Marian chuckled. "I was so mortified that I said that out loud!"

"It's an… er… interesting read!" Murphy replied. "I learned a lot, that's for sure."

"Oh?" She tilted her head to consider him. "And what exactly did you learn from a romantic novel? How to woo me properly?"

"I already knew that!" He smirked at her. "Calculate complex statistics, talk so much you can barely get a word in, make sure my hair is impeccable at all times, and kiss you as often as possible." With that, he slid a hand behind her head to draw her face to his for another kiss. "Sound about right?"

Marian nodded, grinning. "Sounds good to me."

"What about your other valentines then?" he asked as they headed down the hill. "I'm guessing from your face back there that you got one from Lee."

"Yeah," Marian said unhappily. "I feel like I've been really clear with him though. I don't know why he's still…"

Murphy glanced at her sympathetically. "He knows, I'm sure. But he obviously still likes you – I guess he can't help how he feels. Maybe he's still trying to win you back! And what about your other one?"

She shrugged. "I don't know who that's from."

"I have one or two ideas," Murphy said grimly. "Maybe we'll find out in detention tonight."

"What – Snape?" Marian stared at him. "I don't think he'd send a valentine to a student, Murphy!"

He roared with laughter. "No, not Snape, you idiot! I meant Weasley!"

She groaned. "I don't want to talk about either of them. Let's just…"

"Fine by me." He took her hand again. "We're nearly there. Look!" By the lake, under the weeping willow tree, there was a blanket spread on the ground, with a basket lying beside it.

"Now, we're not calling it a date because I remember you saying you never wanted to go on another date again, after your date with Barnaby," Murphy said. He glanced at her somewhat anxiously, as if worried about what she'd say.

"That was a little different, Murph," Marian replied, cringing inside as she remembered it. "This is… just what I'd have wanted as a date, if I'd thought about it before. It's perfect." She turned to him, beaming. It was beautiful, with the sun glinting on the still waters of the lake, and only the sound of distant birds in the forest to be heard. It was so clear that Marian could see the white-tipped caps of the mountains in the distance.

Murphy gestured to her to sit down on the blanket. "Please." She settled down. He moved himself down to sit next to her, and she immediately snuggled into his side. He grinned, wrapping an arm around her.

"Mmm. This is nice," she murmured, her head against his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeats. She felt so peaceful. So right. She lost track of time as they sat there, sometimes chatting, sometimes quiet. At one point, Murphy revealed he had brought his wizard chess set and he beat her twice. Kneil appeared and demanded they throw sticks for him for a while.

When Marian's stomach started rumbling loudly, Murphy laughed and opened the basket. It had a flask of pumpkin juice and – even better – warm butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, and (to Marian's delight) a box of Honeyduke's chocolates in a variety of flavours. "How did you get it all?" she gasped, clapping her hands together in excitement.

"It's a secret," he said, grinning at her enthusiasm. They feasted together and Marian didn't think she'd ever been happier. She accidentally said this out loud to Murphy, whose cheeks went pink, but he looked very pleased, replying, "If I'd known all I had to do was buy you chocolate, Cursebreaker, I'd have asked you out ages ago!"

A little while later, they were lying together on their backs, staring up at the sky and discussing quidditch. Marian reflected on how different this date was from her one with Barnaby – she and Murphy never ran out of things to talk about. If they were quiet, it's because they wanted to be, and it didn't feel awkward.

Murphy suddenly propped himself up on one arm to look at her, and she mirrored him so she could see his face properly.

"Marian," he said slowly, leaning over to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her closer to him. "I… I wanted to ask you something."

She nodded encouragingly, her arm sliding around him too, enjoying the feel of his warm body against hers. "Go on."

"It's just - whenever anything happens, you're the person I want to tell about it, or… or we can just talk about quidditch or play chess. I just enjoy spending time with you. I'd even play gobstones with you if you wanted to, and it's a stupid game!" He let out a breath of laughter and ran a hand through his hair. "I want to kiss you every moment of every day, although actually, that would probably be a bit weird for everyone else. But the point is… will you be my girlfriend? Officially?"

"Officially?" She was trying not to laugh. "Do we need a certificate?"

"Yes, preferably one signed by Dumbledore himself to say that we can get out of all homework so that we can sneak off here whenever we want to." He grinned at her. "Is that a yes?"

"Hmm. It depends." She pretended to think, tapping her chin.

"On what?" His face was indignant.

"On whether you'll be my boyfriend?" She glanced up at him through her eyelashes.

He laughed loudly. "You didn't really need to task, did you?"

"Well, I'm surprised you did actually, seeing as how you announced to Bill that you were my boyfriend last week," Marian said slyly. "A bit presumptuous, McNully!"

Murphy chuckled. "I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention it before, to be honest! I didn't even realise I'd said it until afterwards." He cupped her face, his thumb stroking across her cheek. "Well? Will you be my girlfriend, Cursebreaker?"

She nodded, leaning into his touch. "I will."

"Good," he replied, leaning down to kiss her.

By the time they eventually dragged themselves back into the castle, the sun was setting and they were starting to feel very cold indeed. Murphy's nose and cheeks were pink, Marian noticed with a smile.

"Shame we've got detention," Murphy said as they made their way into the Great Hall for dinner. "It's spoiling a pretty amazing day."

Marian nodded. "I wonder what we'll have us doing?"

"You're in detention all the time, you troublemaker," he replied, chuckling. "You must know what to expect by now."

"Just with Snape," Marian said, rolling her eyes.

"I can't decide if he loves you or hates you."

"Me neither." She slid into a seat, rubbing her hands together to try and warm them up. "Merlin, I'm starving!"

"What, was my picnic not enough for you?" He pretended to look wounded.

Just then, Rowan descended upon them. "Hi, guys! How was your date?" she asked brightly.

Murphy squeezed Marian's hand. "I can see Orion over there – I'm going to just go and catch up!"

"What did I say? Doesn't he like me?" Rowan asked, frowning after Murphy.

Marian laughed. "No, I don't think it's personal. What have you been up to today?"

"Tutoring Barnaby, helping Skye with her transfiguration homework, writing letters home, drawing up my revision timetable," Rowan listed off. "But I'm much more interested in hearing about your date."

"It was lovely," Marian gushed, glancing over at Murphy, who was deep in conversation with Orion, but seemed to feel her eyes on him because he looked up and smiled at her. "He'd organised a picnic by the lake and there was so much chocolate! And we just… it was just perfect."

"Aw, I'm so happy for you!" Rowan nudged her gently with her shoulder. "I'm sorry I was weird about you liking him at the start. I think you're great for each other."

"Thanks," Marian said, feeling touched. "I… I really like him."

As seven o'clock approached, Marian said goodbye to Rowan and set off with Murphy down to the Potions classroom. He took her hand, swinging it and humming tunelessly as they made their way along the corridor to the dungeons. Marian smiled at him.

"You're very cheery for someone going to a detention, Murphy," she observed.

He beamed at her. "I'm in a good mood."

"And why's that?" she teased him.

He stopped and pulled her onto his lap, kissing her soundly. "That's why. I've just spent the day with my beautiful, fantastic girlfriend. Isn't that a good reason to be cheery?"

Marian melted into him, returning his kiss warmly until a cold voice interrupted them, making them leap apart.

"Baker! McNully!" Snape stood at the door to the Potions classroom, glaring at them. "I believe you are due to serve detention, not put on an exhibition of lurid public displays of affection!"

They both raced forward, red-faced, to find Bill already in the dungeon, his face stony as he looked at them. Snape closed the door behind them with a snap and swept around to face them. "You were given detention as a punishment for breaking school rules, specifically the rule on duelling in the corridors," Snape said smoothly. "If I hear of you making the same mistake again, I will see to it that you are expelled. Therefore, it seemed fitting that you have a taste of life without magic this evening. Your task if to clean this classroom – without magic. It is hopelessly filthy – the house elves do an abysmal job. Every jar, every cauldron, every surface. You have three hours. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Professor," they all mumbled unenthusiastically.

"Good," he replied silkily. "I will return to see the results. And be warned – I will know if you have used magic." He turned and strode out of the dungeon again, letting the door bang shut behind him.

Marian, Bill and Murphy stared at each other.

"It could be worse," Marian said optimistically. "This is definitely better than the time I had to squeeze the eyes out of dungbeetles without gloves."

Murphy snorted. "Yes. Fair enough. For Snape, this is actually a treat. He obviously does love you after all. I mean, he couldn't really not punish you for knocking the Weasleys out, but it could've been a lot worse."

"Let's just get started," Bill's voice was cold. "I'll do the jars – I'm the tallest, after all."

Murphy moved across to the cauldrons. "I'll do these then, I suppose."

Picking up a ladle, Marian shuddered. "Oh, these are disgusting. What's on them? It's sticky!" She rolled up the sleeves of her dress, wishing she'd thought to get changed into something she didn't mind getting dirty. Glancing at Bill, who was standing on a stool to dust the jars on the top shelf, Marian tried to draw him into conversation. "Have you seen Rakepick yet?"

He shook his head. "She's away in Egypt this weekend apparently. Cursebreaking."

"Wow!" Marian said in admiration. "I bet she'll have some stories to tell when she comes back."

"Has she told you about the time she opened the pharaoh's tomb and this horde of mummies sprang out and she had to use Fiendfyre to destroy them?" Bill asked excitedly, turning around to face her, seemingly forgetting his bad mood.

Marian shook her head. "No. She should write a book!"

Murphy laughed from over by the sinks. "She'll be the next Gilderoy Lockhart. My mum loves him."

"Mine too!" Bill replied, grinning. "She has all his books. But Madame Rakepick wouldn't have time for that – she's too busy actually living, you know? Not like Lockhart. I don't think he's done half of what he claims he has."

"He won Witch Weekly's 'Most Charming Smile' award again this year – Rowan told me," Marian said idly as she inspected a pestle and mortar. "I think she fancies him."

"She fancies everyone," Murphy retorted, snorting.

They carried on cleaning, the silence a little less awkward than it had been.

After a while, Bill said, "Now that we've got the arrowhead, we can go into the vault whenever we like!"

Marian shot a quick look at Murphy before answering. "Yes – we'll have to plan really carefully. Think who should come with us and what spells we'll need to learn and what we should prepare."

Bill nodded. "Of course. Remember that first time – with the ice knight? We had no idea what we were doing!" He chuckled.

Marian laughed. "We were so ridiculous back then. It's lucky you and Rowan weren't killed!"

"It wasn't lucky, really – you were on fire, shooting off Incendios and Flipendos like some kind of crazy fiend!" Bill replied, grinning. "I'd never seen anything like it!"

"So remind me how many vaults you've vanquished now?" Murphy asked, obviously determined to make an effort. Marian beamed at him.

"Well, there was the Ice Vault – that was two years ago," Bill said, considering. "We had to defeat the ice knight who kept shooting cursed ice at us for that one."

"Then last year was the one in the library!" Marian cried. "The Vault of Fear!"

"That does sound dramatic," Murphy replied dryly. "What did you have to do to get past that one? I remember you being very secretive and gadding about with your friends, but I don't think I ever really knew what you were up to."

Marian and Bill exchanged glances. "Boggarts," Marian replied darkly. "There were boggarts guarding that one."

"Of course!" Murphy slapped his knee. "I remember all the boggarts all over the place! One was in Orion's locker in the changing room, wasn't it?"

Marian nodded. "Yep. I didn't know him that well back then, so I didn't know whether to laugh or not."

Murphy chuckled. "He screamed like a banshee! I've never heard anything like it!"

"I think Andre dealt with it, didn't he?" Marian said. "He's good in a crisis! Orion was a nervous wreck!"

"What form did his boggart take?" Bill asked interestedly.

"I didn't see it," Murphy admitted. "And he wouldn't tell me."

Marian grimaced. "It wasn't very nice. I don't think he wanted people to know. It was only me, Andre and Skye that saw it with him."

"What was yours then?" Murphy asked Marian. "You must have seen yours in the vault."

"You-Know-Who," Marian replied dryly. "Not a very original one, I suppose."

Murphy gazed at her. "So you had to face You-Know-Who to get into the last vault? Merlin, I can see why it's called the Vault of Fear!"

Marian shivered suddenly. The dungeon felt even colder than it had before, somehow. She noticed that Bill had fallen silent too, and wondered if he was remembering the form his boggart took – his little sister, Ginny, lying dead in front of him.

She suddenly felt a warm hand on hers and, looking down, realised Murphy was beside her, his face concerned. "Sorry," he murmured. "Let's talk about something else. Merlin, you're freezing! Where's your cloak?"

"Here," Bill said, jumping down nimbly from the stool and pulling off his jumper – it was green, with a large letter 'B' stitched into it in gold. "You can wear this – take care of it, mind! It's very special."

"A Weasley jumper!" Marian smiled as she pulled it on. "Charlie said you always get them at Christmas! Thanks. I'll try not to get whatever this horrible stuff is all over it." She poked half-heartedly at a mess of thick, gloopy green liquid that was seemed to have oozed all over one set of scales.

They kept going. Marian could feel herself getting more and more tired. Even Bill, who seemed to have limitless energy normally, was starting to look drained. It felt late. The dungeon was looking much cleaner and tidier than it ever had done before, Marian thought. It wasn't perfect, but she thought Snape would probably be impressed. Although she was sure he wouldn't show it if he was.

As if on cue, the dungeon door suddenly burst open and Snape swept in, dramatically as ever. Marian saw Murphy jump and nearly drop the cauldron he was holding.

Snape surveyed the room critically, one eyebrow raised. "Adequate. You may go."

Marian couldn't stop yawning as they trailed slowly up towards their common rooms. As they neared the bottom of the spiral staircase that led up to Ravenclaw Tower, Marian pulled off Bill's jumper and handed it back to him. "Thanks, Bill. Let me know when Rakepick's back, won't you? We can go and see her together?"

He nodded and ruffled her hair. "Night, Cursebreaker. McNully."

Once they were about to enter the common room, Marian turned to Murphy, smiling. "Thanks, Murph."

"For what?" he asked, smiling back at her but looking confused.

"For…" Marian gestured around. "For today. It was perfect. But also for making an effort with Bill. And for not getting jealous. It means a lot, really."

His smile widened. "Well, it's hard to be jealous of anyone when I'm the only one who gets to do this." And he slid his arms round her waist, pulling her closer, his lips meeting hers passionately. Marian forgot completely that they were right outside the common room and returned his kiss just as passionately, her tongue moving against his, setting off fireworks throughout her body. When they drew apart, gasping for breath, Murphy leant his forehead against hers. "I've been wanting to do that for hours."