Bagsy hadn't planned on becoming an owl for Greenda and Emmeline, but after Monday's quidditch practise that was exactly what she was.

'Bagsy,' Greenda said stiffly one evening in the Hufflepuff common room, 'can you tell Emmeline that Ford asked me to inform her we have a match this weekend.'

'We have a match this weekend!' Bagsy whimpered – she didn't feel nearly ready. Emmeline and Greenda certainly weren't.

Greenda sighed tiredly. 'Yeah. Slytherin had an injury and are busy looking for a sub, so we've been given their slot this weekend against Gryffindor.' With that, Greenda went back to the table she'd been working on and buried herself in books and notes.

Bagsy cautiously approached Emmeline to tell her the news. She wasn't sure why she was doing this for Greenda – she was feeling a little angry at her for telling Ford about her boy troubles when she'd promised she wouldn't – but Bagsy wasn't going to confront her about it.

'Can you tell Greenda,' Emmeline muttered, sitting lazily in an armchair near the fire place, 'that I already knew this because, unlike her, I have friends, some of whom are Gryffindors.'

Bagsy furrowed her brow. To be honest, she'd never seen Emmeline hang out with anyone besides Kat. She didn't strike her as particularly popular. Not any more so than Greenda, anyway. 'Who?' Bagsy found herself asking before she could stop herself – her curiosity winning against her social awkwardness.

Emmeline cast a disapproving glance at Bagsy, who stiffened. 'Why do you care?' she snapped. Bagsy dipped her head apologetically, her throat dry. Emmeline heaved a tired sigh. 'Sorry. Work has me stressed,' she confessed, and Bagsy felt a flash of confusion at the hint of kindness in her words. 'Magnus Alden. You know, the boy who does all the commentary for the games? He told me. He's been complaining all week that he's had to come up with new insults, puns and jokes.'

Bagsy stood still, confusion washing over her. 'B-but…' Bagsy trailed off. 'He's so mean…' Her voice was incredibly quiet, she was half hoping Emmeline hadn't heard her.

Emmeline, not looking like her usual spiteful self at all, shrugged. 'He only says what he says to entertain the crowd.'

'He called you Wirth-lesslast year!' Bagsy reasoned, not sure why she was still talking, or what had come over her. Emmeline's surname was Wirth and Magnus hadn't missed the opportunity to use that to mock her.

Emmeline cracked a smile. 'Yeah, that was my idea.' She let out a half-laugh. Kat giggled as well. Emmeline's smile died, and her eyes remained trained on the fire, unfocussed.

Bagsy knew she should just turn around and leave, she'd delivered the message she'd needed to, and her job was done, yet something was eating away at her. 'H-how…' Bagsy stuttered, twiddling her thumbs and looking down at her feet.

'What?' Emmeline asked, sounding more tired than annoyed.

'How come Magnus hasn't insulted Greenda, then? If you give him ideas for commentary… don't you… don't you hate Greenda?' Bagsy looked up, her heart in her throat. She knew this was foolish. She was poking a very angry, very aggressive bear, but it was her task to reconcile Emmeline and Greenda and this was the most promising route she'd been presented with so far.

Emmeline shot to her feet, her eyes wild with anger. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

At the same time, Kat shrugged nonchalantly. 'Because Emmeline told Magnus not to.'

Bagsy didn't know who to look at. Emmeline, who felt like a very real threat to her ongoing existence, or Kat, who'd just openly revealed that Emmeline had asked Magnus not to insult Greenda during his commentary.

Emmeline's jaw clenched hard and she turned very slowly to look at Kat.

'What?' Kat said. 'This feud has been going on long enough. It's getting old, Emmeline, and we're getting too old to behave like toddlers.'

Emmeline's eyes flicked back to Bagsy. 'You go and tell Greenda that I have to ask the commentator not to single her out because her flying is so weak and she's so fragile that one wrong comment will squash the tiny chance of her getting within a mile of the snitch! Oh, and, unlike her, I don't feel the need to share our business with the rest of the school like some degenerate gossip!'

Bagsy, finding her fight or flight instinct kicking in, nodded sheepishly and hurried away to do just that.

Greenda had some choice words for Bagsy to take back to Emmeline.

By the time Greenda and Emmeline had gone to bed, Bagsy had found herself running from one end of the common room to the other more than she could count. Her legs ached from the constant movement and exhaustion tugged at her limbs, but she still had to work on her studies, on the weather machine, on her plan to get the weeping weeds from the forbidden forest and on how to stop Greenda and Emmeline being such foolish children to each other.

As she downed another exhaust-gone and felt her body move into unconsciousness her deep frustration at her situation grew like an inferno. When she woke up minutes later, her body feeling awake and alive, she set to her tasks with a furious vigour, determined to complete everything she'd set her mind to.

Come Herbology on Friday, Bagsy hadn't slept a single night. Exhaust-gone wasn't particularly hard to brew, and she had so much that needed to be done that sleep had become a luxury she couldn't afford.

'Are you okay, Bagsy?' Arice asked as they neatly laced aluminium foil into the soil around where they'd planted their clostra boab.

'Why wouldn't I b-be?' Bagsy asked, struggling to focus on what was in front of her as her eyes kept drifting to the sides and hazing her vision.

'You keep twitching.'

'Do I?' Bagsy asked, forcing her mind to pay attention. Sure enough, every few minutes or so her hands would give a small shudder and her shoulders would jerk minutely up or down. 'Guess so,' she murmured, forcing down a yawn. She must need to take another exhaust-gone, she decided. 'Give me one second,' she said, lying down on the dirt, her tiredness banishing any shame she may have felt.

'Bagsy!' Arice exclaimed in confusion. Bagsy quickly took a few sips of a vial of exhaust-gone, she always kept a few in one of the many pockets of her school robes, and allowed herself to pass out. Two minutes later she woke up, feeling fresh and ready to work.

The second the fog of sleep cleared from her mind, it hit Bagsy that now was her only chance to get the zout she needed – the zout that she reckoned was the liquid the weeping weeds gave off. It only made sense, after all. The weeds would cry until their name was remembered – therefore, the thing they cried must be something they hoped could restore memories so that, one day, they could know what they were called. And, once they recalled what their name was, they would stop crying, because they would no longer have need for it. If Bagsy was right, that meant that zout had the ability to help single something out in a person – their memory – and effect it. This made sense given it was the key in the phoenix quelling potion, which isolated an innate ability and effected it.

'Arice,' Bagsy said in a low voice, 'about that favour…'

'What do you need?' Arice asked, stilling his work on the soil.

'I need you to distract Wattleseed for me, and not freak out when I do what I'm about to do.'

Arice frowned. 'What are you about to do?'

Bagsy glanced over her shoulder at the forbidden forest, hidden behind the fence Wattleseed had erected.

Arice followed her gaze. 'Oh no. No, no, no,' he muttered. 'Bagsy, don't be stupid,' he said harshly and Bagsy flinched.

'I have to, Arice,' she insisted. 'I won't go in far, just to those little blue flowers and then straight back. You won't lose sight of me – which is why I need you to distract Wattleseed, so that he doesn't notice me breaking the rules.'

Arice didn't look convinced.

Guilt weighing Bagsy down, she took in a deep breath. 'If you don't help me now I'll have to come back when no one else is around and then-' Bagsy's voice caught in her throat. She hated herself for doing this. 'And then if something goes wrong no one will be there to help me.'

Arice's face paled and, to Bagsy's surprise, a smirk spread across it. 'Didn't know you had it in you to blackmail someone,' he chuckled. Bagsy let out an internal sigh of relief. She thought Arice would be really upset with her for that little manoeuvre, given how he'd reacted to a similar tactic from Mezrielda in their first year. 'Alright, I'll distract him'

'Thank you.'

The next time Wattleseed came over to inspect their work, Arice sent Bagsy a meaningful nod and began his task. 'Professor Wattleseed?' he began, moving so that Wattleseed, looking down at him, was facing away from Bagsy and the forbidden forest. 'It's so amazing that you got this exchange arranged with… what was it called again?'

'Quolldron College for Magic,' Wattleseed supplied, an excited edge to his voice. 'Yes, it is amazing! I was overjoyed! What a super, duper, cool opportunity, I thought. I nearly leapt up and down! That's a lie – I did jump up and down. Many times.'

As Wattleseed rattled on, Bagsy cast a nervous glance over her shoulder, steeled her determination, and snuck over to the fence. With some difficulty, she clambered over it, thanking her Thaumathletics lesson for acclimatising her to such movements. Despite this, it was still with a thud that she fell to the other side of the fence. Gathering her nerves, she scrambled to her feet and moved towards the trees.

After her first step she froze. Branches loomed above and around her, dark tendrils of long, crooked fingers that wanted to drag her into the darkness. A cold wind moved ominously past her, sending a shiver down her spine.

'Move…' she urged herself quietly, taking another step.

There was a rustling above her head and Bagsy let out a small yelp, huddling in on herself, pulling one side of her robe over her face and hiding behind it. Something brushed against the back of her leg and with a startled noise Bagsy ran, eyes shut, to where the weeping weeds were. Collapsing to the ground Bagsy forced her eyes open and, with shaking hands, fumbled for the empty vials in her robe.

The seconds seemed to elongate like the horrific, reaching tendrils of trees coiling around her as she filled vials with the viscous, blue liquid. The small happiness sparking in her belly at the look of the liquid, which definitely mirrored zout, was almost entirely put out by the oppressive atmosphere she found herself in.

When she had filled as many vials as she dared stick around for, Bagsy turned and hurried back to the cloasta boab patch at the edge of the forest.

She could have sworn that two of the long, hand-like branches moved forwards as she left, reaching out from the darkness between the trees, their owner hidden in shadows. But then Bagsy was vaulting with more efficiency than she'd ever had over the fence. The darkness was behind her at last, her mind unable to play scary tricks in the warm sunlight.

With a swift apology to a grumpy looking Primrose, Logan and Rebekah, who's patches she'd landed on, she hurried to her own patch and slid the last few yards on her knees just as Wattleseed turned towards her.

'Don't you agree?' he asked, his eyes taking on the mad, passionate look they glinted with when he spoke about plants.

Bagsy, trying her best to hide her gasping breaths, nodded. Her hair was a mess, her uniform scuffed and dirty, and there were leaves stuck to her, but Wattleseed didn't seem to notice and left them to it. Once he had walked on from them, Bagsy hung her head and shoulders forwards, folding in on herself.

'That was close,' Arice breathed, patting Bagsy on the back who, despite her state, managed to tense and shuffle awkwardly away from him.

'Sure was,' she choked out, her face flushing as she repositioned herself to be more comfortable on the ground, picking up a trowel. 'Thank you, A-Arice. L-let's get back to work, n-now…' she stammered out, looking away from him.

'Yep. Let's.'

The second Wattleseed began to dismiss the students Bagsy was tearing across the ground back towards the castle, her robe and hair flying out behind her. She needed to brew the phoenix quelling potion as quickly as she could and rush it to Winifred and Robin and, in truth, she also wanted to put some distance between herself and Arice.

Her urgency only increased when she saw Mezrielda standing at the entrance to the castle, a severe expression on her face. Bagsy stopped at the open double doors and bent over, breathing raggedly.

'The Ministry are already here,' Mezrielda said urgently, placing a hand on Bagsy's back and giving it a gentle pat. 'I'm afraid we need to hurry.' Bagsy nodded, but she was already so tired from her sprint there. 'Teporiem,' Mezrielda cast, and Bagsy felt a gentle warmth seep through her limbs and into her bones, softening the aching of her muscles.

'Right,' Bagsy managed to gasp out, standing up straight and setting off again.

'Winifred and Robin are hiding in the Eagle Club room,' Mezrielda explained as they rushed through the corridors. 'Brew the potion as quickly as you can, and then we'll go to them so they can drink it. That's the plan.'

Bagsy nodded, taking in deep breaths as they reached the basements and sprinted past the still life painting that led to the kitchen. Bagsy tapped out the Helga Hufflepuff rhythm on the barrel and ducked through, Mezrielda close behind her. Heading straight towards her private room, Bagsy was stopped in her tracks by Greenda.

'Bagsy,' Greenda said, looking angrily over to a desk in the corner of the room, 'Emmeline is hogging the whole table with her stuff and I can't study. Can you ask her to move?'

Bagsy looked over her shoulder at Emmeline and her eyes widened. Emmeline was physically lying on the desk, flat on her back, holding a book in one hand whilst the other was behind her head. She shot a contemptuous look over at Greenda before turning a page and resuming her reading.

Mezrielda shouldered her way between Bagsy and Greenda, one of her pale hands grabbing onto Bagsy's shoulder. 'Ask her yourself,' she bit out angrily at Greenda, pulling Bagsy towards her room. 'Quick, go into your hidden room,' she urged.

Bagsy nodded and did as she was told.

'Wha-' whatever Greenda was going to say was cut off by a confused noise. 'Where did Bagsy go?'

'She went to her room – didn't you see?' Mezrielda retorted testily.

Bagsy blocked out the rest of the conversation as she desperately shuffled through her potions equipment and ingredients, throwing what was needed into the cauldron, untidily chopping what needed chopping, and blowing on the fire to keep the liquid boiling as she sped the brewing process along.

When she left her room her hair was puffed out and tangled, with leaves and dots of colour from the ingredients decorating it, and her robes were scruffy and slightly damp from the humidity the brewing had created in her room. Feeling tiredness tugging at her arms, Bagsy held two vials out to Mezrielda who nodded and dashed from the common room to get them to Winifred and Robin. Bagsy sunk to the floor and rested her head against the wall.

'Bagsy,' Greenda said, walking over to her, 'could you ask Emmeline to move please?'

Bagsy cast Greenda a sideways look, let out a long-suffering sigh, and nodded before weakly rising to her feet. The next fifteen minute were a repeat of what had become unavoidable for Bagsy that week – ferrying messages to and from Greenda and Emmeline. At the moment Bagsy was resigning herself to doing this all Lunch, Mezrielda returned to the Hufflepuff common room.

'Winifred and Robin are fine. They drank the potions and-' she cut off. 'Bagsy, how come you didn't come to lunch?' she asked, furrowing her eyebrows, before flicking her gaze up to Emmeline who was approaching them.

'Bagsy,' Emmeline said, to which Bagsy cringed in preparation, 'can you tell-'

'So, this is why Bagsy hasn't had time to eat…' Mezrielda said in a very quiet voice that sent a terrified shudder through Bagsy.

Emmeline looked Mezrielda up and down. 'What's it to you?'

'Greenda!' Mezrielda called from across the room. Greenda, who was sitting at the now Emmeline-free table, looked up. 'I didn't know you made a habit of using your friends as messengers,' Mezrielda hissed, sneering at her.

Greenda opened and closed her mouth and then, finally, for the first time that lunch, took in Bagsy's appearance. 'Bagsy!' she exclaimed. 'What happened to you?'

Bagsy looked at her feet quietly. Emmeline also seemed sheepish at the realisation of what state the younger student she'd been ordering around was in.

'Let's get some food in you,' Mezrielda murmured to Bagsy. 'I grabbed you a sandwich.'

Bagsy smiled weakly at Mezrielda as they walked from the common room. 'Thank you, Mez,' she breathed, her stomach letting out a loud growl.

Mezrielda held the sandwich out to Bagsy, looking in the other direction with a scowl on her face. 'Next time you can tell those two to shove off and get lunch for yourself,' she muttered grumpily. 'Silly.' Once they ducked down and made it out of the barrel passageway Mezrielda grabbed the sleeve of Bagsy's robe. 'Hold on,' she said in a soft voice that caught Bagsy off guard. Mezrielda brandished her white wand and gently tapped it to Bagsy's clothes. 'Scourgify,' she murmured, and Bagsy found the dirt, twigs and leaves vanishing from her uniform. Mezrielda reached her hand out to touch Bagsy's hair, pulling the strands around slowly as she tutted disapprovingly. 'How did you manage this?' she scolded, tapping her wand to Bagsy's hair and muttering another incantation. The tangles untangled, the leaves fell out, and Bagsy's hair was returned to normal. Mezrielda took a step back, inspecting her handiwork. 'It'll do,' she grumbled, sounding far more satisfied to Bagsy than she imagined she intended.

'Thank you,' Bagsy said.

They headed to the great hall for the last fifteen minutes of lunch, Bagsy munching on her sandwich happily as they went.

'Winifred and Robin took the potion,' Mezrielda explained as they walked.

'You sound… concerned?' Bagsy tried, not really sure what the emotion in Mezrielda's voice was.

Mezrielda inclined her head. 'They didn't look well,' was all she offered. 'Perhaps it's best you see for yourself.' She looked down at Bagsy silently, taking a few moments to consider her. At last, she spoke again. 'You've been having a tough time recently, I suppose.' It wasn't a question. 'I imagine you're very busy and, knowing you, stressed.' Bagsy shrugged and averted her eyes, taking another bite of the sandwich. It was really yummy. 'Stop working on the weather machine,' Mezrielda said abruptly. Bagsy recognised the emotion now – guilt. She looked at her in surprise. She hadn't realised Mezrielda was capable of feeling guilty. Mezrielda grit her teeth, her jaw clenched. 'I'm not giving up on becoming an Animagus,' she hissed, anger creeping into her voice. 'I… it's just…' She seemed flustered, now. Bagsy wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not – what had gotten into her friend? 'Spend the time you would on the weather machine relaxing.' Mezrielda turned blazing brown eyes on Bagsy. 'Please.'

Bagsy stopped in her tracks. 'Please?' she echoed in shock, worried a doppelganger had replaced Mezrielda.

Mezrielda sneered. 'You heard me, or are you deaf as well as dumb?'

Bagsy tried to force down her smile, moving forward again, satisfied it was still her friend. 'Alright,' she relented. 'I'll stop work on the weather machine.' Mezrielda grunted her approval. 'For now,' Bagsy added. Mezrielda's brow furrowed. 'Once I'm not as busy I'll get back to it – I want to help you, Mezrielda, or didn't that possibility cross your mind?'

Mezrielda was looking at Bagsy again. Her expression seemed cold, except her eyes were ever so slightly wider than usual, and Bagsy realised that no, that possibility hadn't crossed her mind.

Bagsy shook her head and laughed. 'Maybe you're the dumb one.'

Mezrielda tutted and looked away, folding her arms. 'Definitely not,' she muttered. Bagsy laughed again.

After the rest of the day's lessons, and an exhausting Thaumathletics class in which Bagsy discovered new levels of tiredness she hadn't thought possible, she practically collapsed onto her bed. Yet, Bagsy found, no matter how much her bones felt brittle, and how much static rumbled through her mind, she could not sleep. With growing frustration, she grabbed a vial of exhaust-gone and downed it, feeling her consciousness slip, and allowing herself to faint onto her pillow.

A few minutes later, her eyes opened again, and she turned back to work. Mezrielda had told her she could stop work on the weather machine, so instead she started by brewing more phoenix effect quelling potion; Winifred and Robin would both need another dose tomorrow and Bagsy had plenty of zout to accommodate them.

With the potion set on a low temperature to brew in the background (when not in a rush, it was almost always better to brew a potion slower) Bagsy sat crossed legged on her floor, chewing the end of her quill as she stared at her notebook. Bill scampered onto her lap and poked her, her rat nose twitching, so that Bagsy couldn't resist the pats she was clearly after. She gave her head soft scratches as she worked.

In Bagsy's notebook were a collection of words and questions, scribbled messily about the page.

Emmeline asked Magnus not to insult Greenda

What did Greenda do to make Emmeline mad?

Emmeline was really worried when Greenda was injured last year

Emmeline thinks Greenda can't keep her mouth shut

They will no longer talk to each other. Emmeline goes out of her way to antagonise Greenda. Greenda, when she can, will get back at her.

What do I do?

Thinking hard, Bagsy scrawled a few ideas out.

Give them a common enemy to work against?

Lock them in a room until they reconcile?

Find out what Greenda did and go from there?

I could…

Bagsy stared blankly at the page. What could she do? None of her plans seemed like they would work, and her previous attempts had only made things worse. Bagsy let out a hefty, frustrated breath and tossed the notebook across the floor, giving up on it.

She dedicated a few hours to homework and, for the first time in a while, practising casting spells. Tentatively, she took the wand training wheel she'd made out of her robe and placed it onto her wand. Placing Bill onto her bed she stood up and held her feet, shoulders and arms in the perfect position to cast the light charm. Bagsy sucked in a breath. 'Lum-!'

A loud bang reverberated through the small space. Bill let out a petrified squeak and ducked below a pillow. Bagsy, who was on the floor, her back having impacted with the door, stared with a dazed expression ahead of her. The hornbeam wand in her hand was smoking at the end, but there was a small glimmer of light like last time. A mad grin spread across Bagsy's face and she let out a triumphant cry.

Then the wand training wheel sizzled and fell off, cracking in half and clattering to the floor.

'No!' Bagsy cried, lurching forward to grab the pieces. 'No!' she said again, more softly, a tremor finding its way into her voice. Bill's head poked out from under the pillow. 'Sorry, Bill,' Bagsy mumbled sadly, putting her head in her hands. She knew she cried easily, but even this was a bit ridiculous. Perhaps it was her tiredness that was making her so emotional. 'If I could cast spells I could do all these things so much quicker,' she spat out bitterly as Bill curled up comfortingly in her lap, nuzzling her side. Bagsy picked Bill up and let the rat perch on her shoulder. 'You're getting old, Bill,' she commented. Bill blinked at her. 'Please don't leave me.' Her voice was practically a whisper as she held a finger out to Bill, who grabbed it with her tiny rat hands and gave it a friendly nibble. Really, Bagsy should have bought another rat to keep Bill company. Rats weren't meant to be alone – but Bagsy wasn't sure she could commit to owning another rat, not after Bill and Jill had proven to be such wonderful companions. She didn't think any other rats could replace them. At least, she consoled herself, Bill had Teresa's mischief of rats to socialise with. Even if Bill did sometimes prefer to be in Bagsy's private room alone with her instead, she could always leave any time she wanted to.

Bagsy took out some transfiguration books, and some history of magic scrolls, deciding she wasn't going to waste the night sulking, even if she did want to. Not to mention, alongside feeling miserable, her mind kept drifting to Arice Allthorn, who she was due to visit Hogsmeade with tomorrow. It was something she didn't want to think about.