'You sleep in a coffin?' Bagsy asked incredulously. Mezrielda had led Bagsy to her room. It was large, old and in dis-repair, like all the other rooms in the house. Massive, dark-wood furniture stood stiffly at the edges. The wardrobe looked ready to swallow the both of them whole and the chest of draws seemed like a fanged mouth waiting to snap them up. The coffin in the middle of the room, however, was by far the oddest item. 'Do you sleep in that?' Bagsy repeated. Mezrielda looked away. 'I won't laugh if you do,' she added.

'Yes… I sleep in that.'

Bagsy snickered.

'You said you wouldn't laugh!' Mezrielda protested, glaring at her.

'I'm sorry it's just… you sleep in a coffin,' she emphasised. 'How are the fangs coming along? Do they grow in now, or are they like wisdom teeth? Or do you take one of those muggle pencil sharpeners and-'

'That's not funny, Bagsy,' Mezrielda grumbled, but Bagsy could see the smirk she was holding back.

'Do I have to sleep in a coffin?' Bagsy asked tensely, suddenly apprehensive.

Mezrielda did smirk, then, and whipped her wand into her hand. With an elegant flick and a long, complicated incantation, she turned a vanity in the corner of the room into a small, comfy looking bed. There was even a pillow with a black and white badger embroidered upon it.

Bagsy couldn't help gaping. 'How are you so good at magic?' she asked. It felt long overdue.

Mezrielda shrugged. 'Because I have to be.'

Bagsy didn't understand what Mezrielda meant but, instead of asking about it, she decided to unpack the few things she'd brought and let Bill onto the bed to snuggle up and sleep.

Life at Vespite Manor was very different from life at home, and though Bagsy ended up being there only two weeks, she wished she could have stayed longer.

On the first day Mezrielda wasn't free – Dantura and Palid were tutoring their daughter intensively. Mezrielda hated it, and Bagsy disliked walking the big house alone, feeling like she'd never left One Aesher Common. The library entertained her for a while, but the books were so old that many of them were in languages she could only hope to understand, and most of it was forbidden. The Glints had said they were age inappropriate. Unlike Mezrielda, Bagsy was not going to disobey the commands of Dantura and Palid. They'd been kind enough to let her stay – if they didn't want her looking at certain books, then she wouldn't.

Spot had taken to clinging to the walls outside the windows of the rooms Bagsy paced through, his menacing eyes following her every movement.

That first night Bagsy heard strange noises in the distance, mingling with the tapping of the barren tree branches clacking against the windows and walls of the manor. She soon realised what the noises at night were when she tried to fetch herself breakfast the next morning only to find a freshly dead rabbit hidden in a cupboard. Two small, red pinpricks were in the side of its neck. It was jarring – Bagsy had never seen a dead animal up close before, let alone eaten one, so seeing it waiting like any other item of food, like it hadn't once been a living being, was very strange and upsetting indeed. It was not something she was used to.

On her second day at Vespite Manor Palid offered for Bagsy to join Mezrielda's lessons and she eagerly accepted.

Dantura was tutoring that day and took Mezrielda and Bagsy down the cliffside to the sea shore and they spent all day practising spells. Bagsy, who couldn't cast any on her own, spent the time practising one spell over and over. Dantura had recommended the leg-lock counter spell after Mezrielda had said it was the one most likely to come in handy at Hogwarts. Bagsy had added that it was the spell she was closest to actually casting, given she'd partially blocked a leg-lock jinx last year.

Whilst Bagsy was repeating the wand movement over and over, her throat growing tired from saying the incantation what felt like a thousand times, flashes of light and sprays of colour where shooting between Dantura and Mezrielda.

'Good!' Dantura cried after Mezrielda had thrown him onto his back by transforming the ground beneath his feet into a set of springs. 'Magnificent, my daughter, truly magnificent!' Dantura waved his own wand and the springs turned into hands that pushed him back onto his feet. 'For a first year,' he added with a taunting voice.

'Can we stop now?' Mezrielda whined. Bagsy had noticed, in the time she'd known Mezrielda, that as talented as she was she didn't have an attitude for hard work.

'Have I ever said yes to that question?' Dantura asked. Mezrielda shook her head and they continued their training.

After the morning of spells, they stopped for a lunch of garden weed sandwiches, which tasted surprisingly like water-cress and tomato. Palid and Dantura had left-over rabbit, explaining that, because of their vampiric nature, unlike Bagsy and Mezrielda, they didn't have any choice but to consume it. Bagsy still felt sad knowing the rabbit had died but could understand Palid and Dantura's position. They'd die without feeding, so it was their only option, which, as far as Bagsy was concerned, made it justified. Even so, she held back a shudder. She knew all too well what it felt like to be prey, and for something far larger and stronger than you to want to eat you. Thoughts of being trapped in the beast's throat, surrounded by blood and the heat of fire, almost made her throw up her food.

After lunch, Mezrielda and Bagsy were led into the library. Once they were settled at a wonky table on tilted stools Dantura ruthlessly quizzed Mezrielda on all the spells she knew and their possible uses. The entire time, Mezrielda snapped her answers out, impatient to be done with the studying.

Bagsy was a hard worker, and she couldn't count the times she'd gone whole days without eating she was so busy learning something exciting. It had never occurred to her before that such traits could be a good thing. Throughout all the tutoring Bagsy sat in on, Mezrielda was bored and dragging her feet, wanting to do anything but work, whilst Bagsy was a mind sponge, desperate to take in everything Dantura and Palid told them.

The structure of learning continued whilst Bagsy stayed at Vespite Manor and at the end of her second week there, in a five-minute break Palid had reluctantly granted Mezrielda, she found herself being hauled off to a private corner of the expansive library. Shelves of books reached high above their heads, raining dust down onto the floor and creaking like trees of an ancient forest.

'Do you do this all summer?' Bagsy asked once Mezrielda had sat down on a half-plush half-falling-apart armchair with an exhausted look on her face. Since Bagsy had been there the tutoring wasn't letting up.

'Unfortunately.'

'It's amazing,' Bagsy breathed, smiling wide.

'Perhaps we can swap families – I'd love for my parents to ignore me for just one day.'

Bagsy's face fell.

'I'm sorry – I didn't mean that,' Mezrielda added quickly with an apologetic look at her. 'It can all become quite tiring here, but I know my parents only do what they must to keep me.'

Bagsy nodded. Last year, when Mezrielda had been framed for theft and was facing expulsion from Hogwarts, she was also facing expulsion from her family, too, courtesy of the Ministry of Magic.

'Bagsy…' Mezrielda glanced around, checking neither her parents nor Spot were nearby. 'I have a plan for this year.'

Bagsy blinked. 'It's not like the thorned gauntlet hunt, is it? Because I really don't want to go through something like that again…'

'No, no,' Mezrielda assured her with a wave of her hand. 'No. Bagsy, this year, I want to try to become an Animagus. And this year, I will be successful.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means I'm going to need your help,' Mezrielda admitted sulkily. 'It's a very complicated process.'

Bagsy nodded in determination. 'I'm in. Hey, maybe I can become an Animagus, too?' she joked.

'It requires very difficult transfigurative spells, Bagsy,' Mezrielda pointed out.

Bagsy sagged. 'I should have guessed.'

The armchair Mezrielda was sitting in tipped onto its side from a sudden loud noise that rocked the entire manor. Sharply extraditing herself from the chair, standing back up and straightening her hair, Mezrielda marched past Bagsy. 'What on earth was that?' she wondered indignantly. Bagsy followed her at a more subdued, and fearful, pace.

'What is the meaning of this!' Bagsy heard Dantura boom from across the manor. The residents converged in the foyer, where the double front doors had been splintered apart. Bagsy recognised the tall, gaunt man with tiny spectacles and an even tinier handkerchief that he was using to clean wood dust off of them. Mr Mortem – from the Ministry – scoured his beady eyes at them as her stepped over the broken planks of wood that had once been the front door, pinching his nose as if against an awful smell.

Dantura's tone changed when he and his wife set eyes on him. 'Ah, Mr Mortem,' he greeted, gritting his fanged teeth as pleasantly as he could. 'What an unexpected pleasure.'

'You are under arrest for the kidnapping of Bagsyllia Barciry Beetlehorn,' Mr Mortem announced, aurors from the Ministry entering through the blasted doorway behind him, pointing their wands at Dantura and Palid.

'Under arrest?' Palid exclaimed.

'Barciry?' Mezrielda repeated, before startling. 'They didn't kidnap her!'

Mr Mortem placed his spectacles onto his face and stared coldly at Bagsy. 'Were you kidnapped?'

'N-no. I was invited here and so I came,' Bagsy stammered.

'You can tell us the truth, girl, they can't hurt you now we're here,' Mortem assured her with a grim smile. The aurors' shoes crunched over the debris they'd caused as they moved towards Mezrielda's parents.

'Mortem you shouldn't be arresting us – you're with the Magical Creatures Department, not with the aurors,' Dantura pointed out, raising his hands in surrender to the aurors, darting his gaze from one stern face to the other.

'I was here on other business when I received a letter that Bagsy had been kidnapped.'

'That's a lie,' Mezrielda spat angrily. 'What letter?'

'This one,' Mortem snapped a piece of parchment in Mezrielda's face, who grabbed it and read out loud.

'To whomever can help us,' Mezrielda began, reading the letter in disbelief, 'our daughter has most likely been taken captive by the villainous vampires Dantura and Palid Glint.'

'I never,' Palid gasped.

Mezrielda kept reading, 'Please rescue her at once – sincerely, Florentchia and Himble Beetlehorn.'

Bagsy had a very strange feeling in her stomach indeed. Dantura and Palid were in great trouble, thanks to her parents, but then again, her parents had actually noticed she'd gone missing. It had only taken them two weeks. Bagsy stared at the parchment in Mezrielda's hands dumbly.

'As you can see the matter is clear,' Mortem explained in his nasally voice as the aurors conjured bindings that tied Dantura's and Palid's hands behind their backs. 'Bagsyllia was kidnapped by these… creatures… who must be punished accordingly. Who knows what they would have done to her if we hadn't arrived in time.'

'I've been here for two weeks!' Bagsy protested. 'And I already told you I came willingly-!'

'Enough!' Mortem scolded her. Bagsy shut her mouth and flinched, her hands instinctually rising to cover her face.

'Please, Bagsy,' Mezrielda whispered.

Bagsy sucked in a breath, clasping her shaking hands together and forcing them back down. She squared her shoulder and closed her eyes tightly. 'I'm serious!' she spoke back up, forcing her voice to work. 'I wasn't kidnapped! Dantura and Palid are lovely people!'

The aurors who'd tied Dantura and Palid up were looking at each other uncertainly, then at Mr Mortem.

'We only came for the inferno conscription,' one of them muttered to Mortem in a low voice.

Mortem narrowed his eyes dangerously. 'Are you challenging my authority?' he asked.

'Yes,' the auror confirmed. 'Your job is magical creatures, Hagas. Frankly, there clearly hasn't been a kidnapping here, just an attention seeking kid running away from home.'

Bagsy felt indignation rise within her but said nothing. She wasn't an attention seeker. At least, she hoped she wasn't. She didn't like attention one bit.

Mortem sneered. 'Fine. Release them.'

The aurors vanished the bindings. Dantura put one of his arms around Palid, who looked shaken, and gave a grateful nod to the auror who'd spoken up.

'What's this about other business? What are you here for?' Palid asked with concern.

Mortem paced around the room, looking at the half-broken antiques and faded paintings with fake interest. 'I'm here on account of the inferno conscription. Your family has been listed as likely harbourers of the conscripted given your prior involvement with the MBM so we are here to search the house. Naturally, we'll need you to vacate the premises whilst we conduct our business.'

'Of course.' Dantura dipped his head in forced politeness, leading Palid, Mezrielda and Bagsy outside. 'Take all the time you need.' Something about Dantura's voice sounded angry – but when Bagsy looked she could only see a pleasant smile plastered across his face.

'What is this nonsense?' Mezrielda asked once they'd walked over to the weed garden and stopped amongst the grey and dying plants. 'They can't just invade our home and force us out!'

'I'm afraid they can,' Mr Glint said gravely, straightening his waistcoat. The Glint's were, as usual, all dressed in black and cut impressive silhouettes against the blisteringly blue ocean. Bagsy looked like a small fluffy pillow in comparison.

There was a crash from inside the house.

'There goes the grandfather clock…' Palid sighed. 'I hope they leave the coffins intact. Sleeping on the floor is most unpleasant, and sleeping upside down is so last century.'

Bagsy nearly yelped in fear where she heard the thudding of something heavy stalking up behind her. She turned and saw Spot, the gargoyle, staying low to the ground.

Dantura noticed, too. 'Stay hidden, you fool,' he ordered. Spot made a nasty expression, but obediently crawled away, jumping off the edge of the cliff and flying into the distance. Dantura grimaced. 'We're not, strictly speaking, allowed a gargoyle.'

'But it's traditional we have one!' Palid added indignantly.

'Of course,' Dantura agreed. 'But the Ministry doesn't understand that.'

Once the Ministry officials had completed their search they left the house and waited outside. As Bagsy and the Glints walked back to the building she caught a glimpse of upturned floorboards and broken wardrobes, paintings torn from their hangings and chairs with their legs pulled apart. Palid let out a miserable sigh and Dantura had a furious look in his eyes. Mezrielda was eyeing a section of wall and, when Mortem and the aurors weren't looking, subtly pushed her hand against it. For a second Bagsy saw a small square section, just big enough for a person to crawl through, open up to reveal a hidden chute, before Mezrielda pushed against its side and the wall reformed, hiding it from view. Mezrielda looked at Dantura and Palid and nodded in relief at both of them. Whatever that chute was, the Glints were evidently relieved Mortem hadn't discovered it.

'That will be all,' Mr Mortem said briskly to them as he and the aurors turned back around. He paused. 'Ah, no, wait. I'll be taking you, as well,' Mortem added, gripping Bagsy's shoulder so tightly she was sure he would re-open the scar below it.

Pain shot up and down her bones and Bagsy cried out.

'Let go of her!' Mezrielda protested taking an angry step forward, but Mr Mortem was already turning in place, and Bagsy felt like a ribbon wrapping around him, unable to escape. She turned as he turned, twirling suddenly and painfully and then snapping back into place. With a popping noise Bagsy found herself, and Mr Mortem, stood in her own back garden, having apparated. Within less than a second, Bagsy had hunched over and thrown up at the unpleasant sensation of it.

Himble, covered in smudges of grease and dirt, and with a quill tucked behind each ear, rushed out towards them on his chubby legs.

Florentchia swept after him, her glossy, brown hair trailing like a waterfall behind her. 'Oh, thank goodness!' Florentchia fussed. 'We were so worried! What had those heathens managed to do to her?' she asked, forcing Bagsy's head to the side and checking her neck for teeth marks, using a spell to clean her mouth from where she'd been ill. Bagsy wasn't sure when the last time her mother had held her was, or even the last time her mother had shown her concern. Whenever she'd been ill as a child she'd always had to take care of herself without her help or rely on Bontie to make her warm soup and bring her cold flannels.

'We arrived in the nick of time, Mrs Beetlehorn,' Mr Mortem lied.

'That's not true…' Bagsy protested in a small voice. 'I went there because I wanted to. I've been there for two weeks. Mr and Mrs Glint as really nice people and they've been taking care of me.'

'They're not people, darling,' Himble corrected her. 'And don't be silly, we'd have noticed if you'd been gone for two weeks,' he laughed, casting Mr Mortem a look.

Bagsy fumed and clenched her fists so tightly she broke into the scars left in her palms from the injury she'd sustained last year. Cora had cast a scythe-like spell and cut through her spell-sponge gloves and into her hands. The best magic healing Hogwarts had to offer had managed to leave Bagsy with only faint marks. After all that trauma, all that danger, the urgent letter Hogwarts had sent Florentchia and Himble to inform them of their daughter's peril sat unopened, collecting dust in their pigeon hole.

'I'll leave you too it.' Mortem bowed politely and apparated away.

Feeling as though her arms weren't her own, Bagsy shoved her mother off of her. Florentchia barely resisted – it seemed the fuss had only been for Mr Mortem's sake. Without looking at either of them, Bagsy hurried into the house.

Bontie was standing in the living room.

'You only just noticed?' she asked Bontie angrily. She'd expected as much from Himble and Florentchia – but not Rebontil. Not her sister.

'I'm so sorry, Bagsy,' Bontie apologised, following after her younger sister as Bagsy rushed up the stairs to her room, her face turned away from her. 'I was at Griffin's or I was at the Ministry and so I thought you were just wanting your space and didn't realise until I came to check on you and you weren't in your room.' Bontie caught up to Bagsy and grabbed her shoulder. Bagsy stopped but didn't look back. 'I sent for help straight away. I spent hours de-activating mum and dad's privacy charms to alert them, too. I made sure you were safe. Of course, once mum and dad heard where you were they assumed the worst. I tried to tell them Mezrielda was one of your school friends but…'

'They refused to believe they wouldn't know who my friends are,' Bagsy finished for her. Bontie pursed her lips and nodded. Bagsy found herself pressing her face into Bontie's shoulder and holding back sniffles. Bontie awkwardly wrapped her in a hug – but it still helped. 'They've been living here for two weeks,' Bagsy cried quietly, 'and they didn't notice I was gone.'

Bontie tried to stroke Bagsy's hair but the tangles made it difficult, so instead she patted Bagsy's back.

'Don't call them mum and dad,' Bagsy said at last, after an age of standing in silence. She pushed away from Bontie and scampered as quickly as she could to her room, shutting the door tightly behind her and diving under her duvet, hoping to block the rest of the world out.