Mr Mortem had arrived once again for a random inspection. His presence was becoming common place as he watched the students with his beady eyes, looking down his small nose at them all. Bagsy wondered if he'd go as far as to accompany the students to Hogsmeade. The second visit to the wizard town was fast approaching and it was no coincidence that Bagsy was more than ever trying to avoid Arice. Perhaps even more than she was trying to avoid Mr Mortem.
As Arice approached her in the hallway, casting a friendly wave in the busy corridor and moving purposefully towards her, Bagsy quickly showed him the vials in her hands as her excuse. 'I need to make a delivery,' she said awkwardly. 'Sorry!' Quickly, she turned and set off in the opposite direction from him.
Winifred and Robin were just leaving the secret room that had once housed the Eagle Club when Bagsy came across them. 'Two phoenix quells coming right up,' she announced, offering the vials to them, which the two took and immediately drank. For the briefest of moments, she thought about Primrose and her disfigured face. Then she told herself this was different; if Mr Mortem discovered Winifred and Robin's powers he'd take them away. Bagsy didn't have a choice here and, besides, now that they'd solved the issue of the potions making Winifred and Robin explode at random times, there didn't seem to be any other bad side effects.
'Woooonderful.' Winifred beamed, her head freshly bald. She and Robin must have just let out a bunch of fire in the Eagle Club room, Bagsy decided. For a second, she glanced at their scorch free robes. Reading her mind, Winifred did a little twirl. 'Fire proof,' she offered in explanation. 'Handed down in our family from one phoenix borne to the next. Before these were developed it was very awkward to use our family's fiery powers,' she added jokingly. 'Though, if the fire gets really intense, they don't always last.' Robin giggled.
'I had a question, actually,' Bagsy said in a small voice.
Winifred looked overjoyed. 'Shoot! We looove questions. Can't get enough of 'em. All about curiosity, we are. Better to speak up and sound stupid then stay quiet and be stupid.'
Ignoring the feeling she'd been indirectly insulted, Bagsy pushed on. 'Don't answer if it's too personal but… how come your parents let you come back to Hogwarts? Given what's going on, I'd thought they'd want you to stay somewhere out of sight.'
'Well,' Winifred began, only to be cut off.
'Hold it.' Robin held up her hand uncertainly. 'Did you two hear that?'
Winifred and Bagsy looked down at little Robin in confusion.
'Hear what?' Winifred asked.
Robin lowered her hand. 'It's probably nothing,' she muttered.
'Aaanyway,' Winifred continued. 'As I was saying, we didn't exactly tell our parents the Ministry was running searches at the school. They'd sort of assumed we'd be free from prying eyes here – and they're too busy hiding themselves to pay much attention to what's been happening.'
Bagsy gaped. 'You mean… they don't know?'
Robin nodded proudly. 'Yup. Smart deception of ours.'
'Be this as it all may or may not be,' Winifred breezed on as if they were talking about Herbology, 'we better get going. Gotta practise for our match against Slytherin – they're top for points right now and we're going to change that.'
Robin and Winifred waved at Bagsy as they left, before turning to each other and talking eagerly about flying tactics, their faces as animated as the raging fire they were capable of letting lose. Then, they were gone, disappeared around the corner.
'What interesting information indeed…' a voice hissed above Bagsy's head. 'You'd think you'd have learnt your lesson by now – prying ears are everywhere.'
With a jerk of horror Bagsy looked up to see Primrose's face smiling evilly down at her from the ceiling. With a kick, Primrose fell down and landed like a cat on the ground. She stood up to her full height, baring her pointed teeth at her. Bagsy stared, mouth agape. 'Oh, and thank you for these,' Primrose said casually, slipping the spell-sponge gloves and spider slippers off before chucking them at her. Bagsy barely managed to catch them in her dumbfounded state. Primrose barged Bagsy's shoulder as she walked by her. 'I won't be needing those anymore.' Bagsy felt as if her veins had turned to ice and her mind to static. 'And, by the way…' Primrose paused as she began ascending the steps leading to the main corridor. 'Tell that arrogant Slytherin buddy of yours that she really needs to work on her obliviation spells.' With that, Primrose was gone.
When Bagsy told Mezrielda, she pursed her lips. 'We should warn Winifred and Robin,' she muttered. 'They'll need to leave.'
The only issue was, when they found and informed the Ravenclaws of the risk, Winifred shrugged them off. 'Primrose is a right rotten git, but everyone knows she makes a point of not being a snitch. We'll be fiiine.'
Bagsy had hoped that, like with many other things in the past, Primrose wouldn't tell. She hoped that Winifred had been correct. Yet Monday morning, as Bagsy sat at the back of the class frowning at what Professor Starrett was trying to teach them and wondering if she'd ever be able to cast a spell in her life, Mr Mortem burst into the room with two Ministry officials on either side of him.
Professor Starrett calmly placed the chalk she'd been writing with down by the blackboard and picked up her wand, holding it between her two hands. 'Why have you disturbed my class?' she asked in a cold voice.
Mr Mortem didn't bother responding. Instead, his eyes scoured the classroom. At first Bagsy thought he was looking for Winifred, and couldn't understand the grim triumph on his face, but then she saw Primrose shooting her a grin filled with forced satisfaction and her stomach fell.
'Mezrielda-' Bagsy rushed out in panic, trying to duck down, but Mr Mortem had already spotted her.
'Bagsyllia Barciry Beetlehorn,' he announced with a grimace. 'The ministry requires you come with me for questioning.'
With a stalling heart, Bagsy gripped the desk in front of her and willed this all to be a dream, her mind wondering for a delirious moment if standing completely still could make her invisible.
Starrett took a few loud steps forward, glaring up at Mr Mortem. 'Miss Beetlehorn keep your foolish self sat down. This is my classroom and you will do as I say.'
'I am from the ministry,' Mr Mortem spat down at her. As he and Professor Starrett held a glaring contest, Mezrielda subtly slipped Bagsy's robe off from over her school uniform.
'Wear mine,' Mezrielda urged her, swapping her own robe for Bagsy's many pocketed, bulky one. Swiftly, she flung her Slytherin coloured robe over Bagsy's shoulders, who slid her arms into the sleeves. With a quick muttering, the green accents on the robe turned yellow.
As Mezrielda finished the manoeuvre, Mr Mortem turned his harsh eyes back on to Bagsy. 'You're coming with me,' he ordered, Starrett looking frustrated in her authority's defeat.
The last time Bagsy had been questioned by the Ministry, it had been after the incident at the end of her second year. But back then, she hadn't done anything wrong, and the Ministry were wanting her help. Now, though, she had done something very wrong, perhaps illegal, and the Ministry were looking to catch her out. Perhaps that was why it took her so long to force herself to her feet and walk down to the centre of the classroom.
'Good. Come with me, now,' Mr Mortem said calmly, placing a pale hand firmly on Bagsy's shoulder. Bagsy felt burnt by the touch.
'You can't-' Mezrielda spoke up.
'Professor Starrett, please control your class,' Mr Mortem snapped.
Starrett glared at Bagsy and angrily tapped her foot as Mr Mortem led her out of the classroom. As the double doors leading to the Charms classroom closed behind her, it felt as if her fate had been irrevocably sealed.
Neither Mr Mortem, nor the ministry officials he had brought with him, spoke as Bagsy was escorted down the corridor. She clasped her hands together nervously, her breathing staggering with each step. At one point she keeled over to the side, her head becoming impossibly light, the world like a vision through a distorted lens. The Ministry official on her left caught her before she collapsed. From then on there was a hand on both her shoulders as they progressed.
The halls were mainly empty but for a handful of second years, who had private study. Elijah Levitt and Howe, two second years Bagsy had hung out briefly with over the Christmas period, looked in alarm as she was led past them.
Just as Bagsy was wondering where all the air around her had gone, Mr Mortem opened a door and peered into an empty classroom. 'This will do,' he muttered, sweeping into the room, his gaunt figure hunched in the low-roofed space. 'Sit, Bagsyllia,' he instructed firmly. Bagsy obliged in silence, pulling a chair out with meek hands and shakily lowering herself onto it.
One of the ministry officials stepped forward. 'I'm going to need you to turn out your pockets,' she said flatly. With a gulp, Bagsy reached into the robe's pockets, thankful Mezrielda had thought to swap them. All she found was a handful of different gleaming objects, like buttons and rocks, a small vial of eyedrops, and some neatly folded paper. Most of the neatly folded scraps had different complex transfiguration spells written on them but one had a small, rough sketch of someone with bushy hair in a bobbed haircut. Bagsy squinted at it and tilted her head, realising it looked a bit like her.
Mortem gave a hum of confusion as he inspected the items, glancing at Bagsy with a frown. The Ministry official who'd asked her to turn out her pockets took a step back, returning to silence.
Giving up on the items Bagsy had produced, Mortem turned his attention directly onto her. 'Do you know why you're here?' Bagsy averted her eyes. 'Look at me when I'm talking to you,' he added. Bagsy looked up from her lap, gulping. The jitters were overpowering her – she felt like she was about to split in two she was shuddering so much. 'I've been informed of some very serious information,' Mortem explain, pulling a chair out and placing it opposite her. He turned it around and sat on it backwards.
Bagsy shifted in her seat and glanced to her left and right. The Ministry officials, a young man and woman with impassive expressions, cast her unsympathetic looks.
Mr Mortem splayed his hands out wide and smiled at her. 'Do you know what this information might be, young lady?' he asked, his beady eyes taking her in from behind his tiny spectacles. Bagsy felt like she was being examined below a magnifying glass.
She didn't know what to say – if she shook her head or said no she would be lying. If she nodded her head and said yes, she'd have to tell them about Robin and Winifred and what she'd been doing for them. Neither option was something she wanted to do. Unfortunately for Bagsy, this didn't seem to be a decision she couldn't postpone, which was her go-to solution when she couldn't make a choice.
Mr Mortem's smile faded. 'And here I thought I'd finally found a student who understood authority,' he tutted, leaning back and folding his arms. He forgot he was sitting on the chair backwards and nearly fell off, before awkwardly correcting himself. One of the Ministry officials snorted in amusement and a vein pulsed angrily in Mortem's forehead as he glowered up at them. The official said nothing more.
Bagsy, on the other hand, was far too terrified to find any humour in the situation – she felt filled with electricity – she could only sit as it painfully jolted through her, restraining any movement with rigid, pitiful juddering.
'I don't have all day,' Mortem pressed. 'Bagsyllia, do you know what it is you have been brought here to talk about?' Bagsy remained silent. Mortem clenched his jaw, his wrinkled face screwing up in frustration. 'Alright. Allow me to enlighten you. A classmate of yours has come to me concerned that you are being manipulated by inferno. Is it true that you've been assisting in the hiding of inferno amongst the student body?'
Bagsy opened her mouth, then shut it, then opened it again. 'I-I'm s-s-s-sorr-r-ry,' she stuttered out, her teeth chattering against each other. She hugged herself tightly, digging her fingers into her skin, avoiding the painful scar left by the blood eyed beast. 'I-I…. I c-c-can't…' She looked around herself, feeling ice cold. Were her fingers about to fall off because of frostbite?
'Can't? Are the inferno threatening you? Have they controlled your mind?' Mortem looked a mixture of concerned and infuriated. 'You're safe here, child, you can tell us the truth. The Ministry will protect you.'
'N-no-o,' Bagsy forced out, like she was puppeting her vocal chords with tangled string. The noises were warped and off key. 'Nervous.' She thanked the stars she'd managed get that word out unobstructed.
Mortem's expression changed. 'Why didn't you say so, silly girl,' he muttered, fishing a vial from his pocket. 'Here, this will make you feel better,' he said, handing her the bottle. Bagsy took it in her weakening hands, struggling with the cork. Mortem was about to open it for her when the sound of footsteps fast approaching interrupted them.
Someone kicked the door down, the wooden piece landing with a loud clamour on the stone floor.
Heel held aloft form where she'd just booted the door in, Rebontil Beetlehorn looked into the room furiously. With a tap, her heel connected back to the ground, like a full stop at the end of a statement. 'Mr Mortem,' Bontie drawled slowly, her green eyes cutting like spikes into him. 'A guardian must give permission for this interview to take place, or did you forget?'
Relief swamped Bagsy like a warm bath. 'Bontie!' she cried, shooting up from her chair and hurrying over to her sister, dropping the vial in her excitement. The force she threw her arms around her sister's waist with was almost as great as the force Bontie had used to kick the door down. Her sister thrust out her arms and grasped the doorway to stop herself from being bowled over. Bagsy felt a gentle hand smooth over her messy brown hair and pat her on the back soothingly.
'It's alright, I'm here,' Bontie assured her. Bagsy let out a long breath, deflating, not realising how much she'd missed the familiar scent of her big sister. 'You need to let go, sis,' Bontie added. Bagsy nodded, but it took another minute and some gentle prying to get her back into her seat. Bagsy was so relieved to see her sister after she'd been missing for so long.
Bontie pulled a chair up next to Bagsy and with a calm confidence wavered only by the fiery rage in her eyes, sat down and crossed one leg over the other, placing her hands in her lap.
The brief moment of confused horror on Mr Mortem's face had passed. Now lines criss-crossed his scowling features, his eyebrows low over his eyes as he glared at Bontie. 'We've been over this, Rebontil, you're not Bagsyllia's guardian.'
'Perhaps not, but I'm listed as her emergency contact and next of kin in the school and Ministry records.'
'Since when?' Mortem challenged with a satisfied smirk. 'You can't make up this stuff. We have documents and processes for a reason.'
'Since I had it changed,' Bontie explained, Mortem's smirk vanishing. 'If you'll recall my sister has been in multiple incidents since enrolling at Hogwarts. Neither of our parents have adequate time to deal with such matters.'
'Oh, and little Miss Ministry worker does?'
Bontie's expression turned dark. 'Always.'
Mortem sat in silence, then let out a small, disgruntled noise.
Bontie said, 'And please, Mr Mortem, call me Miss Beetlehorn.' Mortem's nostrils flared. He took out some documents and seemed set on continuing the interview regardless, when Bontie casually gestured at the vial on the floor – now broken and leaking clear liquid onto the stone. 'And what, perchance, is that?'
Mortem looked up from his documents as if he was being greatly inconvenienced. 'What what is?'
'That.' Bontie produced her wand and floated the liquid into the air. It hovered, a fluctuating sphere, in-between them.
Mortem took his spectacles off and frowned at Bontie, his lips pursed. 'It's a calming draught,' he dismissed with a wave of his hand, returning to the documents and placing his tiny glasses back on his tiny nose. 'I have a few questions Bagsyllia must answer and– I'm sorry, am I boring you?' Mortem looked at Bagsy who, for the first time, wasn't looking either nervous of his questioning, or overjoyed at Bontie's presence. Instead she was transfixed, staring at the floating liquid, paying little attention to anything else.
Bontie gave her a nudge. 'This is important, Bagsy, I need you to focus.'
'It's only,' Bagsy murmured, her voice caught in her throat.
Mortem said, 'If it's not important it can wait.'
Bontie said, 'We won't know if it's important if we don't let her speak. Go on, Bagsy.'
The vein in Mr Mortem's forehead was pulsing again as he glared daggers at Bontie. 'I am conducting the interview here,' he snarled nastily, crinkling his small nose as if Bontie reeked of garbage.
Bagsy forced herself to speak. 'You see, calming draught is blue…'
Bontie stiffened and looked down at Bagsy in surprise, before tilting her head and thinking, her expression shifting the moment she must have realised Bagsy was right.
Mr Mortem startled, his spectacles falling askew. 'W-w-well,' he spluttered. 'Not all calming draughts have a blue hue.'
'Um,' Bagsy cut in again, despite herself, her confusion pushing her voice to continue. 'I-I don't mean to be rude, but all calming draughts have to be blue as they require at least three sprigs of blue-berry bells, which turn anything they're used in blue. Its why people's tongues turn blue after drinking too much calming draught. It's one of the signs of overuse of the potion.'
Bontie folded her arms and turned from Bagsy to Mr Mortem, tilting her head. 'How intriguing,' she intoned. 'I wonder what this clear substance you were giving a thirteen-year-old interviewee without a guardian present was, then?' She pointed her wand at the liquid still hovering in the air. 'Shall we find out?'
A dead expression settled on Mr Mortem's face as he looked from Bagsy to Bontie and back again, the vein in his head beating out an intense drum solo. 'This interview is concluded,' he muttered at last, as if it had been his decision, folding his documents and putting them back into his pocket in defeat. He stood up, banging his head on the ceiling on his way, before hunching over and storming out of the open doorway. The two ministry officials followed him. The woman paused and shot Bontie a subtle nod. Bontie mouthed thank you back at her before the official left.
'Thank you so much!' Bagsy blurted out, turning to face her elder sister.
Bontie looked at her seriously. 'Bagsy, what have you been doing?'
Sharply, Bagsy was dragged back to the terror of being interviewed. 'Wha-? Nothing! Studying, I mean, not nothing. Studying super-duper hard and not misbehaving at all, ever, anywhere, any chance, ever.'
Bontie furrowed her brow. 'Why did Mr Mortem want to interview you, then?'
Bagsy took in a breath and hung her head. She looked back up. 'Forget about me, what have you been doing? I've been trying to write to you but no owl under the sun is able to figure out where you've been! We've always written to each other during term time and yet you stopped out of the blue. Even Griffin couldn't get a hold of you. I was so worried something had happened.'
Bontie's expression softened. 'I was called away on emergency Ministry business. It was unavoidable, and I was told, firmly, that I wasn't allowed to let you know.'
'What are you doing here then?'
Bontie twitched as if experiencing a small stab of pain, a past horror glazing her eyes as she glanced down at her left arm, placing her right hand gently on it and staring in silence. She looked like she was thinking very deeply about something, weighing her options as she chose one path over another. 'We'll have to discuss this later,' she said. 'I'm sorry, Bagsy, but I must go.'
'But-!'
'Stay out of trouble,' Bontie ordered her as she stood up, remembering to hunch over and, unlike Mr Mortem, avoiding a bonk on the head. 'Please, Bagsy, for me, whatever it is that is getting Mr Mortem's attention needs to stop.'
'Bontie, you don't understand-'
'Please just be safe,' Bontie cut her off. 'Do as I ask. You must keep yourself out of this.' Without a chance for Bagsy to respond, Bontie swiftly departed, waving her wand and disappearing the liquid in the air as she went, as well as repairing the broken door.
Confused, Bagsy scrambled from her chair and set after her, finding the door jammed. She tugged on it as hard as she could, feeling some of her thaumaturgy power her muscles. After a minute, she managed to pull the door open and darted into the corridor in time to see Bontie disappear at the end. 'Wait!' Bagsy cried, running after her. She followed along desperately. A thrill ran through her body, like the electricity she'd felt when she'd drunk thaumaturgy, only a thousand times weaker. All the same, her movements felt faster and more accurate than they had been before as she raced down the corridors, taking sharp turns and jumping through arch ways as she tore across courtyards.
She'd lost Bontie a while ago and was now trying her best to find her again. At last, she caught a glimpse of her sister on the floor below as she was running along a balcony above. She paused, breathing heavily, and looked down. Bontie was walking alongside Mr Mortem and the two Ministry officials.
'Can you get yourself back?' Mortem asked, an angry undertone in his voice.
'I got myself here, didn't I?' Bontie shot back.
'You sure did,' Mortem grumbled as the four of them disappeared out the doors and onto the grass outside.
Taking in another breath, Bagsy set off again, towards the nearest staircase. 'Sorry! Excuse me!' she cried apologetically to the students suddenly filling the space as classes finished and others began. 'I need to get through!' Eventually, she reached the base of the stairs and bared down on the exit. With a sudden hit of harsh sunlight she was standing outside, squinting around herself. Neither Bontie, Mr Mortem nor the two officials were anywhere to be seen.
Bagsy ran around a bit, checking the edges of the castle to the left and the right, glancing at the bridge that led to the building, even checking in the direction of the boat house, but her sister was nowhere to be seen.
Confused and concerned, she looked over the gently rippling surface of Hogwarts lake, breathing heavily. Where could they have gone?
