Bagsy spent at least three of her personal studies looking up the term 'silver tongue' in the school library. There wasn't a single mention of them anywhere, and when she looked where the books under the category should be there was only empty space, or unrelated textbooks. When she tried to ask the old librarian for help, the woman simply turned away from her as if she hadn't heard, keeping her head buried in a book and out of sight, whilst the young librarian was too busy and flustered with work to be of much help, either.

Bagsy also spent all of her evenings working on upgrading the school brooms, sometimes skipping sleep entirely. She realised how clueless she really was about broom work and how much ground she had to cover before the next match, which was only four weeks away for the Hufflepuff team, when they'd be facing Ravenclaw. Building a broom from scraps turned out to be much easier than successfully and safely dismantling and upgrading an existing broom, especially when the existing broom was as poor a quality as the school brooms were.

With the work she was putting into upgrading the school brooms and the planning she and Mezrielda were making for finding the gauntlet, Bagsy was doing even worse in class than previously. Before Professor Starrett had been threatening her with remedial Charms – now she insisted she attend. Bagsy had yet to cast a single spell, let alone in Charms class, and Starrett was getting meaner by the day. In remedial classes Starrett was even worse, and it was making Mondays Bagsy's least favourite day.

'Anyone would think you have a broken wand,' Starrett spat in frustration one day, snatching Bagsy's wand out of her hand and examining it. When she found no fault she opened her palm and let the wand fall to the floor, a clumsy Bagsy trying to catch it but missing. 'Pity, I guess you're the broken one,' Professor Starrett muttered, walking over to another of the students, her high heels clacking on the wooden floor. 'Or, as I suspect is actually the case, a deceiver.' Bagsy picked up her wand and rubbed her wet eyes with her robe's sleeve.

Professor Hilkins had been kind enough not to give her remedial Transfiguration but she knew she was standing on thin ice even with the soft-spoken professor. To make matters worse, Bagsy's Astronomy was slipping, given how little time she now had to study it, and Professor Jones had told her she had to pick up doing homework again until her performance returned to normal, which only added more work load to an already overwhelmed student. At least Professor Binns didn't pay any attention to his students and Bagsy used History of Magic as an extra study period to prepare for her other classes. She ignored whatever Binns was droning on about, and madly turned from a Charms textbook to a half-written Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, whilst practising wand movements for Transfiguration below the desk. Mezrielda would look at her, bewildered and with a pinch of fear in her expression, as she worked.

Thankfully, Herbology and Potions were continuing as they always had, and acted as a respite from the frustrations Bagsy encountered in every other subject. Professor Wattleseed had been surprised Bagsy's, and technically Winifred's, living stampelia hadn't transformed over Christmas but assured the pair it was only a matter of time, and that when it did they could both expect a reward from the stampelia and from him.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was as challenging as the other subjects that required spell casting, but for the first few weeks Professor Fitzsimmons had cancelled their private sessions with Bagsy.

'I sense you are overworked,' Fitzsimmons had said after one lesson, peering through their large glasses at her. 'Keep reading that book I gave you. I have a feeling the best way for you to improve is under your own steam. Perhaps we will resume lessons one day, perhaps not. Until your other subjects improve, our sessions shall remain cancelled in favour of you getting time to rest.'

'But I need to learn spells!'

Fitzsimmons' enlarged eyes had pinned Bagsy to her seat. 'You cannot learn if you are overwhelmed. Your mental wellbeing must always come first, Bagsyllia.'

'Okay,' Bagsy had said. She was relieved; she still couldn't understand Unseen Connections, the book Fitzsimmons had given her, and didn't want to further frustrate them by floundering in more private lessons.

Bagsy was alone in her and Mezrielda's corner of the library doing her Astronomy homework one Monday evening, in a very sour mood. She'd had Professor Starrett berating and humiliating her all day and she was beginning to loath her more than anyone she'd ever loathed before.

Mezrielda, having been off somewhere else, suddenly slammed her hands down on the table Bagsy was sitting at. 'I have a plan.'

Bagsy jumped in surprise. Even her living stampelia, which was on the table next to her quill and ink pot, seemed perturbed. 'What?' she asked, not really that interested.

'You are going to ask Tod for help casting spells,' Mezrielda explained, 'then, when he's not looking, you go through his stuff.' She narrowed her eyes. 'You've already proven you're very good at doing that.'

'I'm sorry about looking in your bag, okay?' Bagsy snapped, feeling too tired to be polite.

Mezrielda seemed to notice and her face softened. 'I think it will work,' she pushed on, sitting down by the desk. 'It's the only option I can think of, anyway and, look…' She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. 'Maybe I overreacted a tad about the whole bag situation.'

Bagsy squinted at Mezrielda. 'If I didn't know any better, I would say you were apologising.'

'Good thing you do know better,' Mezrielda grumbled. 'I never say sorry.'

Bagsy chuckled. 'Alright, if you say so.' Her gaze drifted past Mezrielda to look at the other students in the library and she furrowed her brow, spotting Winifred with some of her friends mucking about with the floating books. They would hit them, causing the books to flap furiously to move back onto the correct path, only for another student to throw a second book at it, letting our cries of victory when their aim was true.

'What's she doing here?' Bagsy murmured. Winifred never used the library.

'Who?' Mezrielda looked over her shoulder.

'Her – Winifred.' Bagsy pointed.

Mezrielda shrugged. 'Who cares,' she said.

'I have a better plan,' Bagsy said after a pause, shutting the book she'd been reading and rolling the parchment she'd been using up.

'Where are you going?'

'Stay here,' Bagsy instructed.

'What's gotten into her…' Mezrielda muttered as Bagsy walked up behind Winifred and tapped her on the shoulder.

Winifred turned to look at her. 'Sup,' she said.

'Can I talk to you?'

'You already are, dingus.'

Bagsy looked behind Winifred at her friends. 'Alone, if that's alright?'

Winifred sighed and waved her friends away, who cast Bagsy suspicious glances but moved to another section of the library, bothering some first year Gryffindors doing homework. 'What's up?'

'You won that bet because of me,' she reminded Winifred, 'because I blocked those jinxes in Herbology.' That part was a lie and Bagsy didn't feel too good about it, but it was necessary.

Winifred raised an eyebrow. 'Okaaaayy,' she said, uncertainly. 'That was ages ago.'

Bagsy continued, 'And I've been doing all the work for our Herbology project.'

'What do you want?' Winifred cut in sharply, folding her arms.

Bagsy sucked in a breath. 'The talk-a-lot powder you won in the bet.'

Winifred laughed. 'I'm not giving you that! That stuff is hilarious. Makes people spill their darkest secrets.'

'Okay, just one sachet, then,' Bagsy begged.

Winifred shrugged unsympathetically. 'Sorry pal. No can do.'

'Please!' Bagsy grabbed Winifred's sleeve, stopping her from leaving.

Winifred looked down at Bagsy's hand, who let go fearfully. 'You do all our projects from now on,' Winifred said coldly. Bagsy nodded. 'And don't ask me for anything else.'

'Of course,' Bagsy agreed. Winifred sighed then pulled a sachet of talk-a-lot powder from a pocket in her robe. Bagsy furrowed her brow. 'You carry that around with you?'

'Whatever.' Winifred shrugged again. 'It's funny stuff and you don't always know when you'll get an opportunity to use it.' Bagsy took the sachet from Winifred and thanked her profusely. 'Don't mention it. Anything to help my herbology partner.'

Bagsy didn't remind Winifred of the bargain she'd forced her to make before returning to Mezrielda, sitting down opposite her and holding out the sachet.

Mezrielda read the label and her eyes widened. 'Good thinking,' she nodded approvingly. 'One of these in Tod's morning tea and I could get a lot of information from him, but this will require caution – if he realises someone's trying to pry information from him or he'll make that person forget.' Mezrielda gave Bagsy the sachet and leant back in her chair, thinking.

'What if we're not the ones asking him?' Bagsy said.

Mezrielda looked at her through narrowed eyes. 'I don't want other students knowing about the gauntlet.'

Bagsy leant forward, feeling more awake than she'd felt in a while. 'Trust me on this.'

Mezrielda just shook her head. 'No. I don't want other students knowing. The more people know, the more people will want the wish for themselves.'

'But, Mezrielda, afterwards they won't remember,' Bagsy insisted, 'because Tod will make them forget.'

Mezrielda paused, tilting her head in interest. 'Ah,' she mused at last. 'I see. Yes, that will work. So, who did you have in mind?'

'A friend from potions. Someone who said he owes me a favour.' Bagsy smiled. 'Arice Allthorn.'

Bagsy waited until Friday, and Potions, rolled around to broach the subject with Arice. Professor Blythurst was as uninvolved as ever, and when he asked the class to brew forgetfulness potion Bagsy couldn't hold back a snort of laughter at the irony.

'Something funny, Ms Beetlehorn?' Blythurst asked, fixing her with his uneven stare, and Bagsy shook her head, looking down at her feet. She knew a forgetfulness potion wasn't what she or Mezrielda needed – there was no controlling what it made a person forget so they couldn't give it to Arice to make him forget the gauntlet. He may forget his entire family instead and Bagsy didn't like the sound of that.

After explaining to Arice that forgetfulness potion needed Lethe river water, Valerian sprigs and mistletoe berries, as she'd read in Beyond Fundamentals: What Makes Potions, Bagsy brought up the favour he'd offered her last term.

'You may not have really meant it,' Bagsy rattled on nervously, 'but if the offer is still there, I actually do have something you could do for me. In return for all my help, that is. I wouldn't ask you otherwise.'

Arice Allthorn tilted his head quizzically. 'Of course, I'll help – I'm curious what you need me to do, though,' he responded, stirring his potion five times anti-clockwise. He was about to stir it once more but Bagsy grabbed his hands, stopping him.

'No,' Bagsy said forcefully. 'You're only meant to stir it five times.' Realising herself, she released his hands and flushed. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to be so aggressive about it.'

'It's no worries,' Arice said, taking his spoon out of the potion. 'I'm thankful you stopped me.' He lowered his voice, casting a cautious glance at Blythurst. He appeared to be sleeping but the students had learnt looks could be deceiving by then. 'I think Blythurst wants to kick me out of Hogwarts, the way he talks to me, and I really don't want to give him an excuse.'

Bagsy's eyes widened. 'Really?'

'Really.' Arice nodded seriously.

They continued their work for a little before Bagsy paused, noticing that Arice's hair was different than usual. Before his fair locks had been an average length, but now it was cut so short it looked fuzzy like the bristles on a scrubbing brush.

'What happened to your hair?' she asked.

Arice looked away shyly. 'Mum cut it,' he admitted. 'It was all my sister's fault, really, but she never gets punished because she's the younger one.'

'What did your sister do?'

Arice shrugged. 'She said she hoped the magical beings that escaped from the Ministry would be rounded up and executed. I told her she was a brat and too young and stupid to understand. Mum told me I was being a bad brother and should explain the situation with a kinder, more informative tone if I wanted to convince anyone of anything, but it's not my job to explain this stuff to her!'

Bagsy nodded, thinking about Bontie and her long hours at the ministry, then furrowed her brow in thought. The people who'd stolen the magical creatures from the Ministry had broken the law. Surely Arice's sister was right, even if she was being extreme. The creatures should be found and, whilst not executed, returned to the Ministry once more for safe keeping.

Arice let out a huff, sorting through his ingredients. The lesson was drawing to a close, and it was time to pack away. 'Anyway. What's this favour you need?' he asked once their desks were clear and they began walking away from the lesson. Double Potions had been the last lesson of the week, and a whole weekend lay ahead of Bagsy in which to enact the plan.

'Come with me,' Bagsy said, leading Arice to the library.

Mezrielda was sitting in their nook at the back, looking out over the lake.

'This is Mezrielda,' Bagsy said, and Arice held out a hand. Mezrielda looked up at him, then at his hand, and reluctantly shook it.

Arice smiled pleasantly and sat down at the table. 'Nice to meet you.'

Mezrielda shrugged. 'Sure.' Bagsy elbowed Mezrielda who forced a grin. 'A pleasure,' she added, with a glare at Bagsy who smiled innocently back.

'What's all this about?' Arice asked.

Mezrielda sat up importantly. 'We need you to get information for us. We plan on slipping some talk-a-lot powder into Tod Alden's morning tea. Once he leaves the Great Hall you're to follow him and ask him a list of questions we have prepared for you.' Mezrielda slid a piece of parchment over to Arice, who took the parchment and eyed the writing sceptically. It had taken Mezrielda and Bagsy an age of bickering to decide what they would have Arice ask Tod, and the parchment was filled with scribbles, crossed out sentences and a doodle of a griffin Bagsy had done in the corner when she'd grown bored.

'This is odd,' Arice said. 'I'm not sure I-'

'Please, Arice!' Bagsy begged. 'You said yourself, Blythurst might have kicked you out of Hogwarts but because of my help he didn't.'

'Is this blackmail?' Arice curled his upper lip in disgust.

Bagsy shook her head vehemently. 'No! Never!'

At the same time, Mezrielda cast Arice a dry look. 'Yes.'

Bagsy shot Mezrielda a glare, before turning back to Arice. 'You don't have to do it if you don't want to,' Bagsy assured him. Now it was Mezrielda's turn to elbow her. Bagsy yelped and awkwardly tried to disguise it as a cough. 'I mean, you don't have to, but I'd really appreciate it if you did.'

Arice looked between them nervously. 'I guess it can't hurt. I'm just very confused… what's the thorned gauntlet and why am I supposedly looking for it?'

'None of your business,' Mezrielda hissed, narrowing her eyes and baring her teeth.

Bagsy laughed awkwardly. 'What she means to say,' she offered, patting Mezrielda on the back in an attempt to stop her frustrating the poor boy, 'is that the thorned gauntlet is something we're looking for. Tod has information we want, but he can't know we're looking for the gauntlet too.'

'This is all very complicated.'

'I bet you find tying your shoelaces complicated,' Mezrielda muttered under her breath.

'What was that?' Arice asked.

'Nothing,' Mezrielda grumbled reluctantly after Bagsy shot her a silencing look.

'Can you do it, Arice?' Bagsy said seriously.

Arice pursed his lips and scanned the parchment over before letting out a breath. 'I do owe you big time,' he admitted. 'And this is sort of exciting, like one of those muggle spy films.'

Bagsy and Mezrielda both exhaled in relief.

'Thank you, Arice,' Bagsy said.

'Yes. Thank you,' Mezrielda added, not sounding particularly thankful.

Breakfast on Saturday was a tense affair. Bagsy sat next to Greenda, as she now often did, but for once she wasn't hanging on Greenda's every word as she talked about her latest attempt at a complex Potions homework because she was too busy looking at the Slytherin table to pay Greenda much attention, and only managed a half-hearted goodbye when Greenda realised Bagsy wasn't listening and left. She did feel guilty, but the plan was too important.

Just as Tod was finishing his food, scraping his bowl clean of fruit and bran flakes, Mezrielda gave the subtlest of flicks of her wand below the table where she was sitting a few places down from Tod.

Bagsy saw the sachet of talk-a-lot powder drift into the air and, when Tod was talking to the Slytherin next to him, up-end its contents into his tea before Tod picked his mug up, unaware, and finished his drink. Placing his mug down and gathering his things, Tod stood up and exited the hall. Bagsy quickly turned to the Gryffindor table where Arice was chatting to one of his friends. He wasn't looking her way, as he was supposed to be.

'Arice!' Bagsy hissed, trying not to raise her voice too loud. Arice didn't notice.

'Arice, get moving or I'll make your legs run until your feet fall off,' Bagsy heard Mezrielda's voice whisper as if it were right in her ear. Bagsy jumped and looked behind her. Mezrielda was still on the other side of the hall, at the Slytherin table, but was pointing the tip of her wand against her throat. Bagsy looked back at Arice who'd clearly received Mezrielda's whispered message from the pale colour of his face, and Bagsy couldn't stifle her awe at Mezrielda's magical capabilities.

Arice said a rushed goodbye to his friend and got up from his seat, half walking half jogging to the exit. Bagsy nodded at Mezrielda and the two of them rose as well, following more slowly.

Bagsy fell into step with Mezrielda once they were out of the hall. 'There,' Bagsy said, pointing at the pieces of bread on the floor. They'd instructed Arice to leave them to make following him easier. Ducking behind tapestries and peeking around corners they eventually reached a cross roads in the corridors and Mezrielda held her finger to her lips. When Bagsy heard voices she realised why.

'How are you doing?' Arice's voice carried back to them as they edged to the end of the corridor they were on and peered around the corner.

'Fine,' Tod said, sounding annoyed. 'Who are you?'

'I'm Arice Allthorn, it's good to meet you.' There was a pause and Bagsy saw Arice hold out his hand.

Tod looked down at it scornfully. 'What do you want? I'm busy looking for the thorned-' Tod slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide, and muffled the rest of his sentence. He removed his hand, looking enraged. Clearly, the talk-a-lot powder had taken affect. Tod's dark eyes narrowed dangerously. 'What did you do?'

Arice stammered and Bagsy prayed he'd get through the questions they wanted him to ask before it was too late. 'Where do you think the gauntlet is?' That was the first, and most important, question. Bagsy crossed her fingers.

'My sister used magic to narrow down its location. It's in the Owlery, most likely,' Tod answered, before his face paled. 'Stop it!'

Bagsy took a second to wonder who Tod's sister was, as she'd never met her, before noticing that Arice was shaking. She worried he'd give up but, to her surprise, he pushed through his evident fear and asked the next question.

'What were you doing in the endless staircase?'

'Confirming it was the place spoken of in the riddle,' Tod answered. His eyes narrowing, Tod pulled his wand out and pointed it at Arice's face. 'Stop talking right now,' he snarled. 'I don't like being used as a tool, I get enough of that from my parents who probably don't even care-' Tod bit his lip before letting out an angry scream. 'What have you done!'

It finally occurred to Bagsy that sneaking talk-a-lot powder into someone's drink probably wasn't a nice thing to do and, suddenly, she wasn't so keen on the plan. Arice seemed to be having second thoughts as well, as he was putting away the piece of paper with the questions on it and taking a few steps away from Tod.

Mezrielda held her wand to her throat again. 'Reposurrus,' she cast, followed by, 'keep going, Arice, or shall I make your arms fall off, too?' Bagsy could tell from the odd way Mezrielda's voice sounded that it was being projected to him.

'Mezrielda!' Bagsy chastised, but Mezrielda didn't seem to care.

Arice stiffened when Mezrielda's message reached him and guilt tugged at Bagsy's stomach.

'Do you know the riddle t-the…' Arice trailed off awkwardly. He reached into his robe and pulled out the parchment again, scanning the third question. 'Do you know the riddle the wishing fairy left to find the gauntlet she'd trapped the girl in?'

Tod's eyes focussed on the parchment. 'What's that? Why did you need to read from that?' he asked. 'Hah! If I just keep talking I don't have to worry about whatever silly little prank you've pulled. Look at this wall here, isn't this a fine wall? I'm going to talk all about this wall and its bricks and their colours and-' Tod prattled on whilst Arice looked bewildered and helpless.

'Sod this,' Mezrielda cursed, stepping out into the corridor. 'Tod!' she yelled, walking towards him. Bagsy let out a yelp and ducked down, hoping she wouldn't be noticed. This definitely wasn't part of the plan.

'Mezrielda!' Tod greeted sarcastically. 'The only girl here who comes close to my talents, though the difference between our skills is still pitifully large,' he continued, looking more frustrated by his tongue the more he talked. 'Of course, I'm only saying all this to stop saying how the last bit of that riddle goes. It was near impossible to counter the anti-ripping charms that odd, old librarian had laid on the book and if I let you get those last few words it would all have been for nothing.' Tod's face was turning red and he stamped his foot. 'Shut up, shut up, shut up!' he hissed to himself, his face a mess of anger and concentration.

Mezrielda stood tall and pointed her wand at Tod. 'Implexio!' she growled and a small ball of yellow light shot towards Tod and spread like static over his dark hair, tangling it into a mass of dark curls and knots.

Tod put his hands in his hair. 'You stupid, ignorant-' he hissed.

'How did the riddle end?' Mezrielda said sharply and loudly.

'Then bring the gauntlet and pass the test,' Tod said, still feeling his hair and not focussing on Mezrielda. He froze, realising his own words, before his hands dropped to his side. Furiously, he snatched the parchment out of Arice's hand. 'Let's see what we have here. What a silly set of questions.' Tod looked disappointed. 'Don't become a reporter, Mezrielda, you'd be awful at it. And isn't your mother a journalist, Arice? She'd be disappointed.' With that, he ripped the parchment up and let it fall to the floor, before looking directly at Arice, and then turning to Mezrielda. 'As wonderful as this conversation has been, I have better things to do. First of all, removing whatever loose tongue enchantment you've placed upon me. Second, fixing my hair. Something I, unlike you, know how to do. Finally, ensuring neither of you interferes with my search again.' The last few words were laced in power, and a sharp cold spread harshly down the corridor, strong enough that Bagsy felt it even from where she was hiding.

There was silence. Bagsy felt a shiver crawl up her back, as if the air had lost all life and warmth.

Tod spoke again. 'You don't know anything about the thorned gauntlet, and you aren't going to go poking your nose where it doesn't belong again.' Each word felt like a snowball to the face as Bagsy listened, before the silence returned, for much longer this time. Finally, it was broken.

'What on earth are you talking about?' Bagsy heard Mezrielda say, her voice sounding too quiet and too slow.

'Nothing, nothing at all,' Tod said. 'I'm just talking out loud because I enjoy it. Good day.' Bagsy heard Tod leave, rambling about why blue was his favourite colour to keep himself from saying anything else, and sunk to her knees.

Arice walked around the corner and saw her. 'Oh! Hello, Bagsy, need a hand up?' Bagsy took his hand and let herself be pulled to her feet. 'Any time you want a favour remember, you can ask me,' Arice said pleasantly, before walking off, seemingly having no recollection of what had just happened. Bagsy watched him go in silence and when she turned back around Mezrielda was there, looking down her nose at the her.

'You're in my way,' Mezrielda said coldly. Bagsy stepped to the side and watched Mezrielda walk past her.

'Mezrielda?' Bagsy asked. Mezrielda stopped and looked back at her. 'Isn't there something we're looking for?' Her heart sped up in dread.

Mezrielda narrowed her eyes. 'What on earth would we be looking for?' she said, before turning her head. With a flick of her sleek black hair, Mezrielda was gone.

Bagsy sank to the floor again.