Chapter Fifteen: Dealing with Diggory

None of the fourth-years looked very happy on Monday. They never admitted why, but the reason was obvious; especially after some of the Gryffindors came in at lunch, excitedly spreading the word that Hagrid was teaching again. Beth didn't say so out loud, but she was actually kind of relieved. She had found Professor Grubbly-Plank more than a little bit annoying.

There were in fact three things, apart from Professor Grubbly-Plank, that Beth was currently finding annoying. One was the fact that she'd spent most of the first term with bandages all over her arm, and now it looked like she was going to have to spend the second term wrapped up as well. The blisters made it difficult to eat, sleep and bathe -- let alone the times she accidentally brushed against the corner of her desk, which left her howling with pain. She did not, after this year's experiences, have much respect for Madame Pomfrey's potions.

The second thing was Richard -- or, more specifically, Gypsy and the way she wouldn't just leave him alone. Worse, Richard never seemed to mind.

The third was the thing that had been annoying her all year.

"Goot morning, Beth!"

He was named Josef Poliakoff.

All right, she admitted, he was occasionally funny. And at least he wasn't going around acting like they were a "thing" now that they had gone to the Yule Ball together. Aaron Pucey was starting to hide every time he saw Blaise coming.

"Beautiful day, yes?" Josef sat down and indicated the enchanted ceiling. The sun shone warmly through a few gray clouds. Outside, the mat of snow was slowly shrinking; the warm spell was very welcome.

"Yes," Beth agreed.

"T'e lake is thawed," Josef said, with as much satisfaction as if he had accomplished the feat himself. "Und my tea leaves said Saturday vill be nice as vell. It'll be t'e perfect time for you to come out und take a look at t'e ship."

Beth looked at him thoughtfully. "Actually, that sounds kind of fun." She had been planning on -- and dreading -- a full day of Alchemy work.

Josef looked delighted. "Vonderful! You vill be impressed and amazed."

"Yeah, all right. But you'd better not be kidding about the weather."

Josef looked mildly affronted. "I haff never read t'e leaves wrong," he announced.

"Right," said Beth, "and Viktor's no good at Quidditch."

***

Josef's tea leaves did not lie; Saturday was about as nice a day as it was possible to get in late January. Beth was met in the Entrance Hall at ten o'clock by both Josef and Andrei. "Ve can't be seen vith you," Andrei told her, in a grinning whisper that was uncomfortably reminiscent of the Weasley twins. "Karkaroff doesn't vant anyvone else on t'e ship."

"Oh vell!" Josef shrugged amicably, and the three of them set off across the grounds.

The Durmstrang ship bobbed placidly on the surface of the lake. Its gangplank rested on the shore, partially buried in heaps of murky snow and frozen mud. Josef and Andrei hustled her up quickly and hurried her below, winking at their classmates gathered around on the deck.

Finally the three of them jammed through a narrow door and closed it behind him. Andrei breathed a sigh of relief. "That vos easy," said Josef brightly, and he waved his wand into the darkness.

Immediately the room was illuminated. Beth let out a gasp -- what had first seemed to be a tiny closetspace was in fact a classroom, lavish with twelve large desks, fountains and sinks for Potions work, shelves crammed with equipment, an enormous teacher's desk, and a broad blackboard upon which a piece of chalk was writing out the homework assignment by itself.

"This is fantastic," Beth managed.

"Vell, ve haff to live here for a whole year," Andrei pointed out.

"Come on," Josef said excitedly. "T'ere's more."

Andrei stayed behind to serve as a guard. A back door to the grand classroom led deeper into the bowels of the ship ... which really, Beth thought, couldn't be called bowels at all. Each room was as meticulously clean, as majestically designed, as the one before it.

Josef was obviously very proud of the workings of the ship, and seemed to know every plank and peg in its construction. He pointed out some of the sailing apparatus, none of which Beth understood, and the small storeroom, which was stocked with Potions ingredients -- some of them very hard to come by in Britain. Beth would have liked to spend more time peeking around the drawers and vials, but Josef hurried her on -- "In case Karkaroff comes around," he explained, in a quick excited whisper.

The cabins were much larger than the tiny, worm-eaten sailors' barracks that Beth had expected. Each was done in warm hardwood, with a set of bunk beds, two writing desks and a little table in the center of the floor. The room that Katya and Gypsy shared also had a round rug and some blankets thrown across the backs of the chairs. If not for the round porthole windows, Beth never would have guessed that the rooms were anywhere but on dry land.

They tiptoed past Karkaroff's door -- which, Beth noticed, was tightly bolted and much more ornate than the others -- and crept up the steps to the deck.

"Impressive and amazing," Beth agreed, once they were outside and it was safe to talk. "I didn't realize it was so big inside."

"Ve enjoy it," said Josef, suddenly and surprisingly modest.

Most of the Durmstrangers were gathered on the deck, huddled together at the rail, talking quickly and pointing at something in the water. Beth, figuring the giant squid was making an appearance, joined them, with Josef close behind. But the object cutting through the dark water wasn't a familiar tentacle.

It was a shark's fin.

For a moment Beth was too startled to do anything, and she was immediately grateful -- she might have cried out. She stared at the fin in shock and fascination. Years ago in America her father had let her stay up late to watch Jaws on TV. It was not his best parenting decision ever; Beth had lain awake in silent terror pretty much every night for a week. Now half-formed memories from the movie flickered through her mind. She shuddered involuntarily.

"Don't vorry," came Josef's voice, from behind her. "He doesn't bite."

She looked over her shoulder at him. "That thing is yours?"

Josef grinned at her. "In a vay."

The shark cut a sleek circle in the waves. Without warning, it turned and started toward the ship, first lazily, then steadily gaining speed. Beth jerked back from the railing. The slick black head came into view, rising slightly out of the water, rows of teeth glinting beneath the surface, devilish fin leaving a sharp white wake as it flew soundlessly toward them ...

Two feet from the ship, the shark ground to a halt.

The shark raised its head out of the water -- and morphed into Viktor Krum, who looked up at his classmates expectantly and called out, "How vos that?"

"Better," Andrei called back. "T'e fin vosn't nearly as crooked as before."

Beth looked from Viktor to Andrei and back down to Viktor. "That was great!"

Viktor swiveled in the water and noticed her for the first time. "Hello," he said mildly. Beth had the impression that he couldn't remember her name.

Josef leaned over the rail and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Viktor Krum, ladies und gentlemen!" he cried, more to Viktor than the rest of the students. "He flies like a bird and svims like a fish!"

Viktor, treading water, broke into a grin while his classmates laughed. "That must be vhy he valks like a duck," Andrei said, nudging Josef with his elbow.

The Durmstrang students roared with laughter. Viktor, feigning insult, slammed his arm across the surface of the lake, sending freezing-cold water splashing up at his classmates. Katya, the girl who didn't know very much English, let out a shriek and jumped backwards, scolding Viktor in her native language. Viktor replied, grinning, and did it again.

"Poor Katya," Josef sighed. He peered around the girl's back and gave Andrei a very meaningful look. "She'll never know vhat hit her. One ... two ..."

Beth grasped what was going on a split-second before Andrei and Josef swooped down on Katya, picked her up by her arms and legs and hurled her into the lake.

She landed beside Viktor, with a splash that would have been louder had it not been drowned out by her angry screech. She came up gasping, drenched, and started beating on Viktor and cursing her classmates loudly. Viktor laughed out loud and let her hang onto his neck while he swam to the ladder and clambered out onto the deck. He helped her up beside him.

"What is all this?"

Professor Karkaroff emerged from the cabin, scowling around at his students. The activity on deck became suddenly, deathly still. Josef and Andrei quickly hid Beth behind them.

"I vos training for t'e second task, Professor," said Viktor, in a low voice.

"And your classmates were distracting you, I see." He turned on Josef angrily. "Poliakoff! What did I tell you about Viktor's time?"

"That it vos very valuable and that ve shouldn't spoil it vith our presence," Josef said promptly.

"You have a remarkable memory for someone so lacking in sense," Karkaroff sneered. "Back to your studies, all of you -- and try not to get in your champion's way!" He stormed back into the cabin and slammed the door without noticing that Katya was dripping wet.

Viktor cast a look of undeniable hatred at the cabin door. "Go on, get out," he growled to his friends, and dove back into the water without another word.

Beth was appalled at what she had heard. She looked over at Josef, but the tow-headed boy seemed no worse for having been unfairly singled out. He was picking pieces of seaweed off of Katya's shoulders and putting them in her hair (in between dodging her punches, that is) and chatting unconcernedly with Andrei in his native language. Kayta sneezed, shivered, and gave the boys a deadly glare.

Beth touched Josef on the shoulder. "Tell Katya she can come back into the castle with me," she told him quietly, as Josef and Andrei exchanged looks. "Madame Pomfrey will give her something to keep her from catching cold."

Josef met Beth's serious look, and his grin slipped a little. "Ve can take care of ourselves," he said, with only the smallest glance back at the cabin. "Ve haff medical supplies."

"Oh," said Beth. "I ... only thought that it might be best if a professor ..."

"And ve don't need a professor," said Josef, his voice suddenly curt. "Katya, idite s' Andrei, i najdite nekotoruyu lekarstvo. Beth, you should go back to t'e castle. Karkaroff may return."

Beth looked from Josef to Katya, and to the ripple of water that marked where Krum had dived in. "All right," she said reluctantly. "Thanks for letting me look around."

Josef looked like he wanted to say something; then he made a sweeping bow. "Anyt'ing for a Slyt'erin beauty," he declared, and Beth went red. She stammered out her thanks and beat a hasty retreat down the gangplank and across the school grounds.

It was strange, Beth thought, how Josef could be Karkaroff's most cheerful student as well as the most hated. Viktor Krum, on the other hand, was doted upon, and was easily the surliest member of his class. The two situations seemed to oddly parallel one another; yet neither quite made sense.

Beth entered the common room and hung her cloak, wet through at the hem from snow, by the door. She glanced around for her friends and saw Melissa and Bruce sitting with Rich and Gypsy at a small table in the corner. The four of them were all absorbed in their studies: Melissa buried in Ancient Runes and Bruce struggling through some Herbology, Gypsy reading from a scroll in some unknown alphabet, Richard with N.E.W.T.s notes spread out in front of him and the ink smudge on his cheek. He also had a smudge of another sort on the other cheek. Beth pulled over an empty chair and sat down, ignoring both Gypsy and the fact that she was wearing lipstick of much the same color as Richard's smudge.

Richard glanced up and smiled. "Oh, hallo."

"Hi."

Melissa looked up from her Ancient Runes text and rubbed her eyes. "How was the ship?"

Gypsy looked faintly surprised. "Oh, you've been to tour the ship? I see Karkaroff didn't catch you -- you've still got all your limbs."

"No, but there was a close shave," said Beth. In the interest of conversation and goodwill, she said, "Your ship's really fantastic."

"One thing about Karkaroff -- he does provide us with the best," Gypsy admitted. She smiled at Richard. "We enchanted quite a bit of it ourselves, sort of to get us in shape for the Tournament. Josef had a hand in nearly everything."

"You mean -- he made some of that?" said Beth.

"Oh yes," said Gypsy. "More than any of us."

Even stranger, Beth thought. You'd think Karkaroff would be impressed, or at least grateful.

She turned to Rich. "We've got confirmation that Diggory's right about the second task," she told him. "That the riddle indicates merfolk and everything. Viktor was training in the lake already. We've got to figure out how to breathe underwater -- anything else we find is worthless if he can't stay alive down there for an hour."

"Couldn't we ask the professors?" said Bruce.

"Wish we could," said Richard wistfully. "But they'd be on to us in a minute. It's too suspicious -- we might as well just go up and ask them how to solve the second task. But," he said, perking up, "there is someone."

***

"I cannot help you," said Madame Pince sternly.

Richard put on his most charming smile. "Not even for the Society you love? Gloria serpens..."

"Mr. Shaw, it's not an issue of whether or not I want to help you. I simply cannot. To tell you the truth, I already spent several hours with Miss Delacour on that very subject," said Madame Pince. "This library is a forest of knowledge ... but where that particular piece of information lies, I haven't the slightest."

"What's she going to do then?" asked Melissa.

"I believe she has contacted her own librarian at Beauxbatons. An excellent man. Very precise." Madame Pince looked as if she approved thoroughly. "You might wish to do likewise."

"He'd know straight off why we wanted to know," said Richard dejectedly. "Besides, I don't speak French."

"I do," said Bruce.

Richard looked at him thoughtfully. "How well?"

Bruce shrugged. "Medium-well."

Richard continued to look thoughtful. Then he looked up at the three girls. "Go on studying, we'll be back soon," he promised. Melissa and Gypsy exchanged resigned glances. "Come with me, Bruce. We're going to go find Oren."

Beth watched them go. "Why Oren?" she wondered aloud.

Melissa let out a dismissive noise. "Who knows what's going on in Richard's brain?" she said.

Madame Pince gave them all a wry grin. "I certainly do. No matter what it is, it has the Society stamped all over it."

***

Beth noticed three things at the meeting that Thursday. First, Oren was looking extremely pleased with himself. Second, Bruce was there on time and awake. Finally, Richard held a piece of parchment in his hand, and was clutching it so tightly that he looked like he was afraid it would be stolen if he let it go.

"This," said Richard, holding up the parchment and giving it a shake, "is a copy of a manuscript that was once in the possession of Fleur Delacour. It was stolen from her carriage by Oren, translated by Bruce, and tomorrow we're handing it over to Cedric Diggory. May it save his life."

It took everyone a while to work out everything he'd said. Beth didn't know who she was more impressed with; both Bruce and Oren were getting their share of congratulations.

"Great," said Mervin. "So ... what's it do?"

Bruce answered him. "It's called Le Charme Bulle-TĂȘte -- the Bubble-Head Charm. Basically it forms this clear bubble around your head. You can go underwater and breathe the air inside it for about two hours. It looks tricky -- you have to be very careful how you do it, because if the bubble pops, you drown."

This was met with a nervous quiet.

Richard broke the silence. "Sixth-years, it's up to you to get this to him. You've got class with him and you approached him for the dragons as well." He handed the paper to Beth. "Good luck. Gloria serpens."

***

For the job of coaching Diggory through the second task, Beth chose Evan.

Her first choice was Mervin, who was in Apparator's Ed with her and Diggory, but the redhead refused on the grounds that he was so very busy at this particular time. He then scurried off to meet his Hufflepuff girl in the library.

Evan was the next choice because he was taking Alchemy, albeit in the next level down. If suspicions were raised about a couple of Slytherins suddenly rubbing elbows with the Hufflepuff prefect, they could always blame their mutual class.

She had her doubts about the dark-haired boy. He had been acting shadier and more suspicious all year. Herne was exasperated with him, but wouldn't tell anyone why. Moreover, Evan had recently been coming to breakfast with eyes that were more hollow and skin that was more pale. He never looked like he was eating enough or getting a good night's sleep.

Still, he was clever, and above that, he had proven to be trustworthy. Back in second year, he had learned the secret of the Heir of Slytherin earlier than anyone except Riggs, and had gone so far as to drag Ginny Weasley to the Vase Room to prevent further killings. He was odd, Beth told herself, but there was no reason he couldn't be counted on to do a job.

Therefore, when Beth sighted Diggory sitting alone at a table in the library, she quickly rustled up Evan and went to join the Hufflepuff at his studies.

Cedric glanced up at them. "Hi," he said, obviously surprised.

"Can you breathe underwater yet?" Beth said, keeping her voice low.

Now Cedric looked both surprised and suspicious. "No."

"Yes, you can." Beth handed him the translated parchment.

Cedric looked it over, first with mild interest, then with growing astonishment. "Where did you get this? Pince and I have been through this library a dozen times --"

"If we don't tell you, you can't get in trouble for it," Beth told him, taking a seat across the table from him. Cedric's wary expression was not lost on her. "You've got a month to practice and to test it out. I think it'll work."

Cedric glanced over the page uncertainly. "Well ... thank you." He took a closer look. "Rather complicated beast, isn't it?"

Beth hadn't actually read the parchment. "Oh?"

"Yes -- advanced -- more than just swish-and-flick, anyway ..." He chewed on his lower lip. "I think I'm going to have to go to Flitwick."

Evan raised an eyebrow laconically. "Isn't that cheating?"

To Beth's astonishment, a sheepish look came over Cedric's face. "Yeah. You're right." He took a breath and laid the paper out between the three of them. "All right, you two will have to help me work this out."

Beth glanced over at Evan's smirking face. Then she leaned forward to help Diggory sort out the workings of the Bubble-Head Charm.

They spent the good part of an hour figuring out the intricacies of the charm. There were a lot of detailed notes on how to perform it properly, which were sometimes hard to make out in their translated form. Finally, after a few heated arguments and after Cedric made quite a few notes of his own, the Hufflepuff leaned back in his chair and declared that he understood.

"About time," Evan said, before Beth could stop him, but Cedric nodded in rueful agreement.

"And it'll take all month to learn to perform it, I'm sure." He looked up at the two of them and cracked a smile. "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome," said Beth, surprised and pleased. "Good luck. If you have any problems, you know where to come."

And before Evan could harm the temporary peace between houses, she yanked him away.

They weren't even out of the library before clumping footfalls sounded from behind them.

"Been spending a bit of time with Diggory, haven't you?" came a gravelly voice.

Beth and Evan turned to find Professor Moody staring them down with his good eye while the magical eye whizzed around, taking in everything in the library.

"We're both in Alchemy with him," said Beth quickly.

"Aha," said Moody. His good eye fell on the parchment in Cedric's hands, well across the room. "That's how old Snape's teaching you, then? Charms off of old bits of paper?"

"He's being frugal," Evan sneered.

"You'll keep a civil tongue in your head, Wilkes, when speaking with your professors," Moody said sharply. He looked from one to the other. "Mad-Eye's no fool. You've been helping Diggory work out how he's going to handle the next task. Well, that just makes me wonder what a pair of Slytherins like yourselves would be doing with a Hufflepuff like him, when you could be putting your minds to cheating for Karkaroff's boy."

Neither of them spoke. Evan glowered at Moody from beneath his dark bangs.

Professor Moody nodded as if all his suspicions had been confirmed. "Wilkes and Parson," he said thoughtfully. "Oh yes, I've heard those names before. Some of your parents' friends would go to great lengths if they thought they had a chance at hurting Potter. They'd even support a rival of his -- wouldn't you say, Parson?"

Beth wanted very much to retort that her father didn't give two cents about what happened to Potter, but thought better of it and stayed silent.

Moody leaned into them until his warped, grizzled face was only inches from theirs. "See here," he breathed, his voice a low growl. "I'm on to you two. You've been dedicated to the Dark Lord since before you could walk, and I trust you as far as I trust your filthy kin. There'll be no cheating in this contest, for Diggory or anyone else, so long as I've got my say. There's one reason I'm at Hogwarts this year, and that's to see that no harm comes to Potter, in class or in the tournament -- you have Moody's word on it."

Giving them one last warning glare, he stalked off, false leg clomp-clomping on the wooden floor of the library.

Beth waited until he was well out of hearing range before saying, "Of all the nerve ..." She expected Evan to have some venomous comment in hand, but it never came. She turned around to see Evan positively glaring in the direction that Moody had gone in. It looked as though he were trying to shoot poison out of his eyes. He looked frightening and dangerous -- Beth remembered the time at the end of her fourth year, when she had been convinced that Evan was the Heir of Slytherin. "Er ... Evan?"

Slowly Evan's lips moved. "Someday," he hissed, in a voice that was barely audible, "he'll get what he deserves. And it'll be soon."

Beth opened her mouth, unsure of what to say. She glanced toward Moody, limping out of the library, but when she turned back to Evan he had disappeared into the forest of bookshelves and desks.

***

It was hard to remember sometimes, in the face of the Triwizard Tournament and her injured arm and the disappearance of the Ledger and Gypsy's increasingly frequent presence at Richard's side, but school went on, and so did everything that went with it.

Apparator's Education wasn't fascinating, but it wasn't hard either. It consisted of a lot of geography and a lot of rote memorization. Beth crammed for the weekly quizzes the night before and always made it through pretty well, even if she forgot everything by the next day. They would soon start practicing actual Apparation, Madame Hooch kept warning them, so they'd better sit up and pay attention -- "But she won't until just two weeks before," Melissa confided, "so you're safe 'til then."

Then, of course, there was the Alchemy project. The more Beth worked on it, the more she realized how far behind she had actually fallen. She wouldn't be ready to start working on the potion for another week or two. Luckily, she knew for a fact that only four people were on the potions bit of it by that point, and at least three were farther behind than her. Sometimes, the only thing that mattered was how well you did in comparison to everybody else.

It was starting to seem like the foreign students had been there for as long as anybody else. Andrei and Melissa were regularly doing their homework together now; Viktor wasn't getting stalked in the library as much these days. Josef remained cheerful and insufferable.

Katya, the girl from Durmstrang who had been thrown into the lake, came down with a cold. It was hard to tell if her ears were steaming because of the Pepperup Potion that Madame Pomfrey gave her, or because she was so mad at the boys for having thrown her in.

"Idiot," she said icily, every morning when Josef greeted her. It was one of the few words of English that she had learned.

"I thought you had medicine for her," said Beth concernedly.

Josef shrugged. "It's not qvite as good as usual, perhaps. Ve'll check te concentration later."

Beth let out a short "Hmm."

Relations with Durmstrang had improved, but the ones with Beauxbatons had not. The "Madame Maximum" joke had gotten old; now the boys were referring to the large headmistress as "Mount Maxime" and making dirty jokes about rock climbers. This earned them dirty looks from the Beauxbatons students more than once, and Aaron had once been physically accosted by a boy after an extremely rude comment about a pair of hot-air balloons. The boy who had been rejected by Antigone was spreading rumors about her. This did nothing but earn him a quick, silent and thorough beating at Warrington's hands (arguably, the biggest hands in the school). Warrington got detention. The Beauxbatons boy got a cast and a lesson about taunting people with large boyfriends.

Even though Cedric had the Le Charme Bulle-TĂȘte in his hands, the Society wasn't finished with him. Evan found a map of the lake on the wall of the Vase Room, and handed him a copy when no one was looking. Oren hunted up some books on underwater hazards and gave them to Beth to pass on in Alchemy. Blaise made an effort to get onto Hagrid's good side during a CoMC lesson. From that she extracted a surefire way to scare off the giant squid.

All this happened in less than a week. After class on Tuesday, when Mervin had delivered some useful comments on how to untangle yourself from Grappling Seaweed, a handful of members ducked into an unused classroom to report to their fearless leader.

"Absolutely splendid," said Richard, propped on the corner of the teacher's desk. "He has everything he needs. You know Diggory -- he won't stop working on it 'til he has everything right. We've done all we can do. Diggory's fully prepared for the second task and now it's up to him."

They got up to leave.

Richard had his hand on the doorknob when he stopped. A dull sort of whirring sound had sprung up somewhere in the mostly-empty classroom. They looked around for a moment, trying to judge the source of the subtle noise. "Insect," he said, and shrugged it off.

Morag let out a gasp.

A horrified look spread over Blaise's face. She turned on a dime, jabbed out her wand and shouted, "Petrificus totalus!"

The frozen carcass of a large black beetle clattered to the ground.

It lay there for a second or two, spinning on its back with six frozen legs at odd angles in the air. Morag darted over and swept the beetle into his hand.

Richard took his hand from the doorknob. He looked from Blaise to Morag and an expression of very deep suspicion crossed his face. "What's that?"

"Nothing," said Blaise quickly.

"Hand it over," Richard ordered.

"Tisn't naught," Morag insisted.

"Tis so aught, now give me that!" Richard demanded.

Morag glanced at Blaise, who was glowering by now, and reluctantly handed over the beetle. Richard took the thing gingerly between thumb and forefinger and looked it over carefully. Finally he said,

"What is it?"

"Just a bug," said Blaise.

"Morag?"

"Tis naught but a beastie," said Morag sullenly.

"Oh," said Richard, "then you won't mind if I --" He put the beetle between his palms and prepared to squish.

Blaise and Morag started forward -- backed away -- looked at each other askance -- started to speak and then didn't -- shuffled a bit more before Blaise finally said, "No, don't do that," very reluctantly.

"Why not?" said Richard tersely.

More stammering and looking at shoes. Then Morag spoke up.

"Tis a colleen."

Richard looked at him blankly. "A what?"

"A colleen -- a lassie! Tha' beastie's a woman!"

Richard's jaw dropped. "Good lord." He held the beetle in the flat of his hand as if afraid to have it too close. "How do you --"

Mervin elbowed his way closer. "Allow me." He snatched up the beetle, placed it on the floor between them, and pointed his wand at it. A flash of blue-white light shot out of his wand -- another one, like a flashbulb, enveloped the beetle. The creature shuddered ... and began to grow.

Beth watched in amazement as the beetle took on the form of a woman, who brushed herself off and stood up quite without embarrassment. She had tight blonde curls and a pair of odd, horn-rimmed glasses perched low on her nose. She carried a purse. She did not seem astonished to see them.

Melissa looked from the woman to Blaise to Morag and back. "Who are you?" she finally demanded.

The woman turned to Melissa and appraised her quickly. Then she smiled widely and stuck out her hand. Melissa, astonished, shook it.

"Rita Skeeter," she said, "freelance journalist. Thanks for the petrification," she said icily to Blaise. "Nice to know you young Slytherins can keep a bargain."

Blaise advanced on her indignantly. "You promised not to spy on us," she said angrily. "You broke your end of it first."

"My dear, a story is a story," said Rita, fussing with her alligator-skin purse. She looked up and her eyes fell on Richard. "Cheating in the Triwizard Tournament? Now that's juicy. Could someone be trying to ensure that Harry doesn't win? Is Cedric trading any ... favors for this kind of help? Our readers want to know!"

"I'm sure your readers would also be interested in unethical conduct by a reporter!" Richard said hotly, finally finding his voice. "Breaking into Hogwarts school won't be taken lightly, especially by those who have children here. And in the form of a beetle -- are you registered?"

Something glinted behind Rita's eyes. Richard crossed his arms smugly: his suspicion had been correct.

But Rita was undaunted; in fact, she looked delighted that she had been challenged.

"Well, now here's a conundrum," said Rita, smiling widely. "Either one of us can destroy the other. Dual blackmail is so inconvenient, don't you think? Quite bothersome really." She beamed even wider, which Beth thought made her look like a crocodile. "What do you say that we both agree to keep our secrets? I don't tattle on you, and you don't tattle on me."

Richard looked furious. Then he said, "That's not good enough, Rita. What we've got on you is plenty worse than what you have on any of us."

"Oh?" said Rita, narrowing her eyes and leaning into Richard's face. "Can you be so sure?"

Richard's look faltered, and Beth knew what he was thinking. Had there been a beetle at any one of the S.S.A. meetings? What about when they had discussed the Society in the halls or at lunch, or even -- Beth gulped -- when they had spoken about all they had gotten away with in previous years? Rita was right: there was no way for them to be sure of what she did or didn't know. Satisfaction spread across the newswoman's face as she recognized that uncertainty.

"I believe I have you checkmated."

Richard squared his shoulders. "All right. Let's bargain."

"Lovely," said Rita, tapping her acid-green quill against her palm.

Richard looked back at the Society and nodded his head toward the door. Reluctantly, the members backed out and left him alone with the reporter. Their president wore his game face, grim and resigned; but Rita Skeeter looked like she was getting ready to have the time of her life.

***

Nobody saw Richard until the end of the day, when he came into the common room and wearily slumped in a chair by the fire. Immediately, he was swarmed by half the Society wanting to know what happened. Blaise and Morag were not among them.

"Didja kill her?" whispered Mervin excitedly.

Richard gave him a tired look. "No, I did not kill her." He paused reflectively. "Probably I could've got away with it though. Next time."

"So you made a deal," said Melissa, with an annoyed look at Mervin.

"Yes."

Beth and Melissa exchanged looks. "And ..."

"It's very simple," Richard sighed. "I made her promise not to print anything negative about any current Slytherin, and to stay out of the castle between dusk and dawn. She's also not going to mention that we're working with Diggory. Meantime she goes on buzzing about for stories." He shrugged heavily. "It was all I could do."

"That sounds all right," said Beth. "Does she know -- did she hear anything about the Society?"

Richard gave her a smile. "No -- that's the one good thing. She thinks we're just a bunch of opportunists or something."

Evan arched an eyebrow. "We are."

Richard glanced at him with obvious distaste. "Well at least it's not in her bloody newspaper," he said. He stood up wearily. "I'm going to bed. We'll talk about it at the meeting this week."

And before another word could be spoken, he was gone.

***

The happenings of the evening spread through the Society like wildfire. Nobody wanted to show up at the meeting that Thursday -- no one was sure what Rich would say about the fourth-years' alliance with a reporter, or what he would do. Blaise held out that they hadn't done anything wrong, but Morag would go red and stay quite silent on the subject. The gathering in the Vase Room was very subdued.

For a long time Richard stood there, looking as if he were gathering his words. Then, finally, he said quietly, "Why did you do that to us?"

Morag lowered his head guiltily, but Blaise met Richard's eyes. Beth didn't like the look in them ... it was part defiance, part something more poisonous. The thief has to be one of us, she thought unexpectedly. Since the incident with Rita Skeeter, she had forgotten the Vase Room break-ins.

"We didn't do anything to you, Rich," Blaise snapped. "How were we supposed to know she'd be snooping around us?"

"You've been letting her into the castle," Richard argued back. "We're all over the place, with the meetings, and searches, and Diggory; she was bound to run into us. The whole Society was endangered -- because you people wanted to make Potter look bad."

Blaise was looking surly. "It was Draco's idea." Morag looked downright ashamed.

"And you helped him!" said Richard.

"That's our business!" said Blaise hotly.

"Not if it puts the Society at risk of being found out," said Richard, leaning forward. "Then it's everybody's business."

"What -- and tramping around after curfew doesn't put us at risk of being found out?" she exclaimed, face growing red. "How about hanging off Diggory all the time? Or you running around like a nutcase setting people up for the Yule Ball just so you can spy on as much of the school as possible?"

Rich looked stunned.

"I don't know what you think we accomplish," Blaise went on bitterly. "I can't remember us ever doing a single thing to impact anyone in the school." She changed subjects in a flash. "And whatever it is you try to get done, you never let me work on it."

Richard opened his mouth indignantly. "I say, that's not true! We've done a lot of good --"

"What do I care?" said Blaise. "I've never helped with any of it."

Beth couldn't believe the course the confrontation was taking. Had the Society somehow added to Blaise's general sense of bitterness toward the world? She tried to think of something big that Blaise had been involved with. She couldn't come up with anything.

Richard looked like he couldn't believe it either. "Almost all of our assignments are open to volunteers," he said stubbornly. "But this is not the point. The point is that our security was compromised because you two collaborated with that -- criminal --"

"Oh, whatever, Rich," said Blaise.

"I just want to know why you did it!" cried Richard.

A long, silent look from Blaise.

"Because we wanted to be in on something," she said.

The Vase Room hung in silence.

"Nobody in Hogwarts could ever get away with sneaking a person into the castle," Blaise went on, voice rising. "But we did it. We could do it -- I could do anything you put us up to. I could've broken into Azkaban. I could've kept that werewolf away from Potter -- not," she added maliciously, "that I would have wanted to, but you never let me do anything at all! It's like you don't care I'm here! I mean -- I get the feeling that I was inducted just because I'm the only person in our year who isn't a goon or a jerk!"

Morag looked hurt.

"Well --" Richard ran his hands through his hair.

Blaise's face twisted. "I knew it. You just needed your two inductees to keep the Society padded with 'volunteers'. Well, I've had it. You can count me out. I quit."

She took hold of the Society ring and began to twist it off.

"You can't take off your ring," said Richard quietly.

"Don't tell me what I can't do," grunted Blaise, tugging at the ring. "I'm telling you, I'm out. No more. Goodbye, Vase Room."

"And I'm trying to tell you," said Richard. His voice was firm but apologetic. "You can't take the ring off. Your name is in the Ledger and on the walls of the crypt. You're a member for life."

Blaise was still clawing at the ring on her finger. "You bloody liar."

Richard shrugged.

Blaise caught one look at Richard's face and quit tugging at the ring. "I do not believe this." She slumped onto a low sofa in defeat.

"You really can't take them off?" said Melissa, with great interest. "I thought you were making that up, Rich."

"Not I."

"Wait a minute," said Beth, "I took mine off the other year when Baltus Gatherum died. I thought it was going to cut my finger off, the way it was getting tighter."

"And I took mine off to go swimming over the summer," Herne added dubiously.

"Let me clarify," said Richard. "You can't take it off with the intention of not putting it back on again." He shrugged again. "All this is -- was -- in the Ledger."

Mervin looked almost as annoyed as Blaise. "Why didn't you warn us at the induction?"

"Everyone knows how Slytherins like to hedge their bets," Richard said. "We could never get anyone to join if they knew."

"Right on that count," said Blaise, from the sofa.

Richard looked from Blaise to Morag, and around at the rest of the Society. He went back to Blaise.

"That was pretty quick thinking, with the freezing charm," he said. "Otherwise who knows what kind of dirt Rita would've gotten away with. At least we got a chance to bargain before we saw our pictures all over the front page of the Prophet."

Blaise grunted. Morag looked hopeful.

"And it was good of you to ask Hagrid about the giant squid," Richard went on. "And we needed you to hunt down Dumbledore while we were out with the werewolf. And the two of you are in class with Potter -- that could be vital some day." He paused. "We really do need you. We need you both."

Blaise looked up at him. "Then act like it."

Richard took a deep breath. "I will -- if you act like you want to be a part of this club."

"Apparently," said Blaise, "I don't have a choice." But her voice was softer, and her words less pointed. The conflict was over.

~~~~~~~~
Josef says, "Katya, go with Andrei and find some medicine."
Some of you have asked why they inducted more people to replace the Arendts, but not Riggs. The answer is that the Society is supposed to have ten members at a time: two from each eligible year. If they're under ten, they make it up with inductees, but even without Riggs they numbered ten, and didn't need any more members. Plus, you have to admit the pickings were a bit slim in Harry's year.