***March 3***
"Yes, Mr. Potter, we've noticed that," Agent Starler interrupted rudely. He looked up a little surprised at her.
"What my colleague means to say, Mr. Potter," Agent Musklin said, "is that we've been over and over these files and we generally have noticed everything that is relevant to the case at hand."
Harry thought for a moment and then said, "So you noticed the connections to Cara?" Everyone looked at him strangely.
"What do you mean? Of course we noticed. The cat was hers," Hermione said, a little lost.
Harry smiled. "You know what? You must really be nervous about this, because under any other conditions you would be the one pointing this out to me. All of the victims have some connection to Cara. Yes, the cat was hers, but if you look at her school record she had detention for a week because of some unnamed incident with the professor that was injured. Also the girl that was hurt had once been Cara and Aislin's roommate, but she switched rooms because of 'weirdness' as she puts it. I tried to look up Cara's past records, but there is none. It's sealed."
"Well, that we knew. We didn't want to get tied up in red tape just to have someone die this time because of the anomaly. I suppose though that if Cara is now a suspect, then we have the right and the duty to unseal her record...." Hermione paused and then smiled slowly. "I'll go talk to Lentho."
~
Cara woke up early. She walked over the cold floor to Aislin's bed, ignoring Shandeigh's growling. "Aislin? Aislin?" she whispered. She shook her friend. Aislin rolled over to look at the clock which said, "Go back to sleep. No sane person is awake at this hour." Aislin pointed at the clock and pulled the covers up over her head.
"But Aislin, I think I know who's doing this." Aislin sat up and rubbed her eyes. "You do?" she asked groggily.
"Yes, I had another dream. Agent Musklin was coming back with that new person. Only the new person flew away from the agent and stopped in front of me. He pulled out his wand and said that finally someone had played right into his hands, and now fear will rule, or something like that. It was the same voice I heard in my other dream. He pulled out his wand and killed me. Only I could still hear everyone screaming." Cara broke down and started crying and mumbling incoherently.
Aislin put her arms around her friend, trying to comfort her. Cara didn't stop crying though. Aislin took her friend by her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Cara, what do you want to do? I have a feeling that you were right about the first dream. If it will make you feel better, then...we can skip class today and spy on the person." Cara stopped crying for a moment.
"Do you mean it? No, we can't. Can we?" Cara asked. Aislin nodded and got up. She went to the bathroom and turned on the shower.
"I'm going to get ready. They'll probably be patrolling the grounds or interviewing students or something like that. I know where Professor Lentho put him. We can do it, Cara."
The girls got ready and waited until they knew that class had been going for a while. They walked out into the hallway, saw no one, and proceeded to the east wing of the castle where classes were held. They snuck towards the library where there were four adults questioning Jenn. I see Agent Musklin, Agent Starler, Assistant Head Granger, and...darn. I can't see the other person's face. Starler walked in front of him. But if he's here then we can sneak into his room."
Aislin and Cara went back to the west wing. "Are you sure you know which room is his?" Cara asked when they reached the corridor where guests were normally boarded.
"Yes," Aislin replied. "When I was coming back here from class, I heard someone trying to get into the trick door room. He was having trouble. It had to have been the new guy." Cara looked doubtful, but she walked over to a wall and reached out straight in front of her and poked it.
"Hey!" came a gruff voice. "I don't remember anyone saying that some chicks would be coming here. You feel like students. They poke the hardest." The door was apparently not in a good mood. The girls looked at each other and Aislin stepped forward.
"We're, um, here because your, um, occupant told us to get something for him. Could you please open up? Pretty, pretty please with a chocolate frog on top?" There was what sounded like a large sigh and the door opened up.
"I always was a sucker for cute girls who ask nicely." Cara walked inside and started looking around. Aislin followed her in and her eyes fell upon a broomstick.
"Cara!" Her friend rushed over and stopped dead when she saw the broom.
"Is that what I think it is?" Cara asked. Aislin nodded. She had never bee any good at Quidditch, but she loved brooms.
"A Firebolt. It's a classic. When these babies came out they blew every other broom out of the water. Of course there have been better brooms since then, but none have ever come close to lasting as long as Firebolts do. I've never been this close to one. Whoever this person is, they're rich. Firebolts were only made for two years and they were extremely expensive." Cara shook her head out of reverie.
"Aislin, we're not here to look at brooms. Beautiful, thought they may be...we need to find out who this person is," said Cara. Aislin didn't move from her spot near the broom. She had her hand held out as if to touch it, but she never did. She was afraid that she might wreck it. Cara sighed at her friend's hypnotic state and turned to open a trunk at the end of the bed. There was a letter on top and it was resting on a very filmy cloak.
Cara dropped the letter and picked up the cloak. "Aislin!" Cara's friend didn't move. "Aislin!" she yelled louder, finally getting her attention. Aislin walked over, annoyed at having to move away from the broom. When she saw what Cara was holding, her eyes widened.
"Rich doesn't begin to describe this man," she whispered as she ranher hands over the cloak. "Cara, put it on." Cara paused for a moment, but then decided that it would be as close as she ever got to a real Invisibility Cloak and so she complied.
"It's real!" Aislin squealed. "I can't see...cover your foot, dear. You're gone, now. Hey, what's this?" Aislin picked up the letter that Cara had dropped. She opened it and read a few lines. "Cara, did you read this?"
Suddenly there were footsteps out in the hallway. The door woke up and started talking to whoever it was. Aislin closed the trunk and Cara put the cloak over her friend too. The door opened after a few protests at being treated unfairly. A black man walked into the room. The two girls held their breath and waited. The man looked around suspiciously for a while, then got his broom and left.
Cara threw off the cloak and put it back into the trunk where she had found it. "The letter it to Harry Potter!" she said as she closed the trunk. "That was Harry Potter! Do the agents think that whoever is doing this is...You-Know-Who?"
Aislin shrugged and said, "Well according to your dream, he's the one who's doing this." Cara shook her head. Things were getting way too confusing.
"Let's go," said Cara. "I don't know what to think anymore."
The girls headed back to their room. They were silent the entire way and when they opened the door to their room, they found Professor Lentho waiting for them. Shandeigh was in a Full Body Bind, and the Ministry Agents were behind him.
"Would you care to explain where you two were?" Professor Lentho asked.
"Not particularly, no," Cara said. Aislin gaped at her. She had never heard her friend talk to a professor that way. Professor Lentho was thrown off for a moment, too.
But only for a moment. "Well, cutting classes is unacceptable on it's own, but you girls did not just cut class. I want to know what you two were doing, and until you're ready to tell me, you will both have detention every night starting tonight. Also having an unauthorized animal! This dog will be taken to the infirmary and kept until we can run a few tests to see whether it's the cause of it. No animal that's good would be anywhere near this place during an anomaly." With that, Lentho walked out of the room. The agents followed him out, each giving the two girls dirty looks.
Hermione was last. She turned and looked at them. "I suggest you girls go to class for the rest of the day."
~
"Harry Potter, my pet? Harry Potter. They think that he will make a difference? They truly are idiots. I have learned from my master's mistakes. I will not confront that boy until I have all the power that I need to defeat him. Right now, pet, I focus on my next deed. There is nothing to stop me now. The time is here. Tonight draws near." There was a deep growl, and the owner of the horrible voice moved away from it's pet.
~
"Is this truly necessary?" Aislin complained to Madame Arino, the nurse.
"Detention is supposed to be punishment," the woman said simply. "Now stop complaining and get to work." Aislin groaned and looked down at her work. Fifteen bedpans all full.
"Can I at least have gloves?" Madame Arino glared at her and took some gloves from an apron pocket. She threw them down on the side of the sink. Aislin thanked her and put the gloves on. She knew that she hated the nurse. That woman just never seemed happy.
Aislin dumped the first bedpan in the sink. She scrubbed it vigorously and thoroughly. She didn't want that woman to think that she was unable to do the simplest, if disgusting, tasks.
~
Cara had been folding sticking seals on what seemed like millions of letters for three-quarters of an hour. The worst part was that the stacks din't seem to be getting any smaller. The care of Magical Creatures professor came up the owlry steps and startled Cara.
"You know, you're finished with the first section. I won't say anything if you leave a little early." Cara stared at the professor, and then got up. She walked down the steps and started towards her room, but then went in the opposite direction. She stopped in front of a massive door and knocked. Professor Lentho answered.
"Professor," Cara said, "I'm ready to tell you what we were doing."
~
Aislin had just put away her fourteenth bedpan and was starting on the last one when Agents Starler and Musklin burst in. Madame Arino ran out trying to shush them.
"This is a hospital ward, and I know that my patients would appriciate peace and quiet," said the flustered nurse.
"We're terribly sorry, but we were informed just what she was doing when she skipped out of class. That's right, dear, Cara told us that you snuck into Mr. Potter's room and when you found out who he was you said something to the effect of 'This changes everything. Now I know who the next will be.' What do you have to say for yourself?" Agent Starler said. Aislin could see that she was gloating. Ever since that first interview, Agent Starler seemed to not believe anything she said.
"It's a lie! Okay, I'll give it to you that we snuck in, but I never said anything like that. Cara had a dream that whoever the person you called in was the person doing this! We were trying to find something to prove it!" Aislin yelled. BY now, Madame Arino had had enough and was shooing them outside. The door was shut behind them and the halls were empty. It was late and Aislin was alone with the agents.
Agent Musklin was nicer to Ailsin. He took her arm lightly as they walked towards her rom and said in a soothing tone, "Now, now, don't worry. We'll listen to both of you, but until all this is over, we're going to keep both of you in your rooms. Think of it as us trying to help prove your innocence." They had reached Aislin's room and he nudged her inside and shut the door. Aislin heard a click on the outside. She was locked in her room.
"Hello Aislin." She spun away from the door to look at Cara who was standing in the bathroom doorway.
"You. How could you lie like that? You and I both know that I never said that!" Aislin yelled.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'm not so sure."
"What is the matter with you? No, I don't care. One thing is for darn sure, though. If I go down for this, you had damn well better believe that I'm taking you down with me." Aislin couldn't believe what she was saying. This was Cara she was talking to. And yet, she meant every word that came out of her mouth.
Cara didn't seem phased by Aislin's threat. "You don't care what's wrong with me? You should, you know. Because it's me."
"What the hell is the matter? What are you blathering on about now? More of your little stories?" Aislin was starting to be frightened for some reason. Cara was scaring her. The look in her eyes was the look of someone gone mad.
"It's me. What else can I say? I'm the one who's been doing all this. The 'accidents,' the anomalies, the dreams. They're all me." Cara's face was different. It was as if she was possessed. "No I'm not possessed. It's more like that Muggle disease. Multiple Personality Disorder." Cara took a moment to laugh at the bewilderment on Aislin's face.
"Cara, I don't understand..."
There was a pause and then she spoke. Her voice had changed and it was not sweet anymore. It was like every horrible sound that Aislin had ever heard."I'm not Cara. That's just it. Oh Aislin, my pet, I'm older than I look. Let me explain as you are apparently more stupid than I anticipated. Cara is from Greece. Ancient Greece to be more exact. She is a dryad which is a type of nymph. She lived in my tree and played with all the other little nymphs for quite some time. It was fun then, but it grew tiring after hundreds of years.
"One day, though, a wizard came by and showed all the nymphs magic that he could do. Everyone 'oohed' and 'aahed' while he was there, but once he left it was right back to the same dancing and singing as always. Cara was touched by the experienced more than she liked and soon I was born, Aretha. I wanted that kind of power. Nymphs are magical creatures, but the only magic they can do involves their domains. Dryads rule trees, and that was the extent of our power. I waited patiently as Cara danced with the others. She tried to forget that I was there, but I was. It was years and years before our family of dryads moved to England to a place where we thought that we could help.
"My family had met a clan of traveling centaurs and made friends with them. The descendants of those centaurs called us to help them try to protect a forest from pure evil. So we came and we did for a while. Many of our family were killed. This forest was by a school and one day a student ventured in. He was foolhardy to do it, as he was sure to be attacked. He was, but he summoned a power that I had not thought possible and fended of his assailant. I had to know this power. It excited me to think that I could be like that. I approached him and talked. He said that it was easy enough to learn the power. The boy's name was Tom Riddle.
"As the story draws to a close, he taught me many things and though I was much older, I was happy to serve him. He went away for a long time when he graduated and I was left alone to bide my time once more. When he came back he told me to call him by a new name and he was more powerful than before. He said that he was ready to take his place as the dictator for life over the magical world. He almost did, too until that blasted boy defeated him. He lost his power and for some reason, I did too. After that fateful night, I could no longer summon up the magic to do just the simplest things. Cara had taken over again."
Aislin stared at her friend, or whatever she was. It was all to much to take in at one time and she needed time to think, but she didn't have any. Aislin wanted to run away, but instead she was locked in with a monster. The only thing Aislin could do was keep her talking until morning and maybe the light of day would bring Cara back. Yes, she would have to talk to her, even thought the voice was painful to hear.
"Why did Cara come to a wizarding school if she knows that it could have taught you what you needed to know?" asked Aislin tentatively.
"Our minds are separate. Cara knows about me, but refuses to acknowledge my presence. I can only assume that she thought that if she learned magic herself she could defeat me if I ever gained my power again." Aretha said.
"That's risky. I don't believe that Cara would do that. In fact, I don't believe that you're doing this at all. I think that you're just a shadow of what you once were. You said yourself that you lost all your power," Aislin confidently stated. If she got Aretha to tell her the whole story, she might have time to think of a plan.
"I agree. It was a rather gutsy move for our friend Cara. As for my power, Voldemort came back, and that gave me faith that I could regain what I had lost. I studied for years with Cara in the school of light magic and then I tried the dark side of it all. It took me a few months to figure out that Cara was most vulnerable at night, and had the least control over me then. I tried a few things at night like killing birds and bugs. They worked, but the animals seemed to dampen my powers to. I deduced a way to keep animals away. I had to make a wal of evil that no animal would cross and I would be safe. The 'anomaly' is that wall. I can only maintain it for a few days, and no animal comes near it. Of course Cara got onto me. The next day she went out and brought hoem a cat. So I killed it."
Aislin looked at the girl in front of her. There was no doubt in her mind now that she was a codl monster. Aislin's thoughts turned to poor Felix who died thinking that Cara had killed him.
Aretha continued. "After that I discovered that it was becoming easier for me to do harm to people. I decided to cut off the school when I found a way to keep the anomaly up and hold everyone here hostage until I was name dhte supreme ruler. It would have happened much sooner if those Ministry people hadn't arrived. And if you hadn't found that damn dog. Cara used to keep it near her constantly and it would have been my victim had she not been taken away."
"You can't win. The Ministry will find out and they won't even negotiate with you," Aislin said. If only Aretha would keep trying to prove her wrong.
"Well, you won't be around to find out, dear, because You're going to die tonight. No, trying to keep me talking didn't work and I can tell that you don't have any other plans." Aretha leveled Cara's wand at Aislin. Aislin acted on impulse. She ran towards her at full speed. Aretha dropped her wand for a split second and tried to raise it again, but not in time. Aislin had rammed further into the bathroom and in the tub. Aislin closed the door behind her and grabbed her wand.
"Loquito imperviouso!" she yelled. A gray mist jumped from the edge of her wand and took a stand in front of the door. Aislin knew that it wouldn't hold her forever though.
~
Harry had just come back from the Ministry's ahll of records. He had to tell Hermione what he had found. He didn't even bother to go inside the castle. He simply flew around until he got to her window.
"Hermione! Hermione!" he yelled, knocking on the window. She got out of bed and opened the window.
"What in the world are you doing out here? Are you insane?"
"No, we have to get Cara. I found her records and she goes back a lot further than seventeen years. Get on."
Hermione got hesitantly on the broom and Harry flew around to the main entrance. "What do you mean she goes back further than seventeen years."
"She's a nymph that happened to have moved to the Forbidden Forest right around the time Tom Riddle was going there. She met him and was his student. She's the one who's doing this," Harry explained as he ran down corridor after corridor searching for the right room.
"Oh, no! Aislin! Harry, I know where she is." Hermione led the way down the right corridor. One of the doors was being pounded from the inside. The students were all gathered outside looking at the door in fear. Aislin could be heard screaming on the inside.
"Help! Someone, plaes! Can't you haer me! She's gone mad! It's Cara!" Hermione tried the door, but it was locked. She remembered that both girls were under room arrest until the anomaly left. Hermione coldly smiled at the irony.
"Everyone stand back and don't look directly at the door," Harry said carrying a small vile to the door. He poured to over the knob. There was a blinding light even though no one was looking at the knob directly. When the light was gone, the knob had disintegrated. Harry kicked the door open and Hermione ran in.
The bathroom door was broken. Aislin was in the corner of the room and Cara was hovering over her, fury in her eyes and her wand ready. Aislin's wand was across the room.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione shouted. Cara turned and stared at her and then fell down, paralyzed. Aislin broke down crying and had to be carried to the infirmary.
~
"I never would have believed that it was Cara if I didn't see it myself," Hermione said.
"It wasn't Cara, it was Aretha. Two different people. I don't know how it's going to work, though. After all you can't send Aretha away and not send Cara with her. And Cara is in charge most of the time. It wouldn't be fair to her. It wasn't her fault that Arteha did everything." Harry stopped and looked questioningly at Hermione
"It doesn't seem fair does it? But that's how it has to be. We can't risk Aretha coming out again. Besides, Cara knew all along that it was Aretha doing it and she did nothing. Maybe if she had come to us, we would could have done something, but she didn't."
Harry nodded. "Well, it's over at least."
"Yes, it's over. For now. It seems that even though we've defeated Voldemort, his followers don't seem to realize that there's no hope. There will always be someone to try to take over for his master." Hermione sighed.
Harry put his arm around her. "So what if they do? It's not happening today. Just live now. And when another day comes that you have to fight the forces of evil...well you have the practice. Besides, you're on the good guys side. They might not always win, but the balance is tipped in their faovr," he said with a sily grin.
Hermione laughed. "Oh well, you're right I suppose. I'll just wait for another day."
AN: Et voila! I finished it in the next installment, just as I told you I would. I hope you like his ending, I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I hope that it's just me. Please review and owls can be sent to mtfbwya@pacbell.net. Thanks for reading!