Beth woke up wide-eyed and sweating. I've got to go work on that potion, she thought desperately, until it occurred to her that the potion was finished and all that remained was to put the plan in action that very morning, the first day back to class. The thought didn't comfort her much.
Melissa had come back some time that night, so while they were getting ready for class Beth told her about the man she had seen with her father. Melissa wasn't concerned.
"He said he had business, and that must have been it. You just caught him at the right time, that's all. How's everything with Dell?"
"Fine, I guess." Beth told her about how they had prepared over break. She got to the part about the schedule.
"What do you mean only the boys get to turn into Daedalus?"
Beth winced as Melissa glared at her. "Well -- that's what Rich said --"
"Oh, it was Rich? He doesn't think we're good enough to mess with his precious Polyjuice? Or maybe he doesn't trust us to keep the secret?" She started throwing her books into her backpack and went on, livid. "I think he just doesn't appreciate that we have as much to offer as any of them. Won't accept our worth. That must be it."
She stormed down to breakfast, with Beth, resigned, in her wake.
Breakfast did nothing to improve her mood. Aaron mentioned seeing a Quidditch game with his brother and father over Christmas, and Melissa tore into him, demanding to know why they hadn't taken his mother along, until he was forced to move down the table to sit with the team. Bruce took a lesson from him and didn't say anything at all.
Mervin came up. He was wearing a flask at his hip, and had a big bag with him.
"Clothes," he explained. "Dell was twice my size. This is never going to work."
"It's got to," Beth said, but Melissa broke in:
"Oh, it's you first, is it? Aren't you unlucky, to be a poor besieged male? Break a leg," she added viciously, and stormed off to class. Mervin stared after her, bewildered.
"She is the weirdest person I know," he said fervently.
"Lay off her," said Beth sharply. "Anyway she's not the one with the canteen."
"It's the you-know-what," said Mervin, pained, "and Rich is making us all wear it. I don't want to go out like this."
Which is why Bruce practically had to frog-march him into the boys' bathroom to make the switch. Beth hung around outside nervously; sure enough, Mervin had gone in but Daedalus came back out.
"Good luck... Dell," she said, as he started down the hall to Transfiguration.
He turned around; Beth had never seen that kind of nervousness on Daedalus's face. "Whatever you say," he replied mournfully.
Beth couldn't concentrate on Arithmancy. She kept having visions of Daedalus sitting in class, suddenly shimmering and fading into Mervin, while Professor McGonagall glared at him over her granny glasses. Afterward she bolted to Defense Against the Dark Arts and sat with Bruce and Melissa, anxiously awaiting his results.
"What if he got caught?" Bruce worried. "Or it faded out in the hall -- or if the timing was just a little off -- someone stops to talk to him --"
Melissa didn't look worried. Beth guessed that making up with Galen was going to be the high point of her month -- either that or she was still mad over the discrimination. "He'll be fine. Mervin's a strong boy."
Just then, Mervin came into class looking hollow-eyed and dazed. He slid into his seat beside Beth. One of his eyelids was twitching a little.
Beth gave Melissa a nervous glance before asking carefully, "How did it go?"
Mervin let out a howl and threw himself onto the desk. "I can't do it," he moaned. "I got called on twice and I didn't know anything -- I hate Transfiguration -- and we have to wear around that flask of Polyjuice, you know, so the Gryffindors thought it would be funny to start calling me Canteen Boy!" He covered his head with his hands. "Uther's taking his turn now. I don't care how we do it, we've got to get him changed back. I'm going to go barmy."
Beth patted his arm in consolation. "Of course not."
"Yeah, you're already barmy," said Bruce.
Mervin gave him a very dirty look.
They met that Thursday, although nobody really wanted to.
It felt strange to be gathered in the Vase Room without Daedalus stretched out near Vivian's divan. He had, in fact, after much argument, been set on a shelf beside the big silver trophy that they had won last year. The snake wouldn't stand up on its own, so they had to prop him up against a glass beaker.
"The teachers ... seem to be fooled," Vivian said slowly, when Richard asked how the great Daedalus impersonation was going. "I mean, the Polyjuice is great, looks and sounds perfect ... but there are little things, you know ..."
"Like what?" asked Melissa.
"Like the fact that Dell's an Animagus, and I can't even make a frog out of a cabbage," Mervin said glumly.
"Or that he's in his fourth year of Ancient Runes," added Herne.
"Or," said Uther, "the fact that none of his roommates have seen him get up or go to bed since the last attack." He was fiddling with a Quaffle and looking worried. "They're starting to be suspicious."
Richard sighed. "It's not going to be perfect. We just have to hold his place until we can figure out how to change him back. Keep your eyes open, by the way, for some kind of restorative. Other than the usual, any new business?"
"Roosters," said Evan.
"What?"
"I said, roosters."
Richard stared at him in exasperation. "What about roosters?"
"Someone's been killing Hagrid's roosters. He's lost three already this year. The thing is, every killing has been right before an attack."
A muscle worked in Richard's cheek.
"How ... how long have you known this?"
Evan gazed back at him coolly. "Since before break. Another rooster was strangled the night before the ghost and the Hufflepuff were Petrified. Then Daedalus got hit, and things were too crazy for me to mention it."
"How did you find out?" asked Richard, through gritted teeth.
"Saw it," Evan replied carelessly. "Thursday before break. Thought I'd do a little prowling around after the meeting. I looked out a window in the Owlery and saw two people down by Hagrid's chicken coop. Next day Hagrid was carrying the carcass of a rooster around."
"Who were they?" Richard practically choked out.
"Couldn't tell," Evan shrugged.
"You saw the Heir and didn't get close enough to see who it was?"
"Nope."
Richard closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked much more collected when he opened them again. "All right," he said slowly, "Evan thinks the roosters have something to do with the attacks. Who knows anything about roosters?"
No one replied.
"Then it's back to the books. Pince can give us some good bestiaries and things. Let's all report back next week."
Uther stifled a snort. "I say, Rich, researching chickens? That's a little -- ignoble, isn't it?"
"Nothing's ignoble when it's done in the name of Slytherin," Richard said stoutly. "Rothbard would have said the same."
So, thought Beth, would Tom Riddle.