Chapter Twenty-One

Trial by Numbers

Alex couldn't be happier when the last two weeks before the holidays dragged slowly to a close, but it seemed that no one was happier than her friend Rose. The attention she had gotten after the rescue was unwanted at best. Rather than have to deal with the sudden popularity, she took to carrying her Elf Willow around who swatted at any student who came too near. Of course, the Willow never seemed to mind Alex and Mandria, so with the plant to guard, Alex found plenty of time to chat with her friends without worrying about others trying to listen in. Of course, her plant wasn't allowed in Snape's classroom, so it didn't save her from the humiliation of Defense class. Snape had made an example out of her assumption that her diamonds were harmless by giving a lecture on the point, and then had all of his classes write a paper on ways of detecting cursed items before the end. It was on this that they were working on the last evening before they went home, putting the finishing touches on it.

"I still think Madame Brittle must know something about who they are," Rose said, and definitely not for the first time. "Conner said he saw her signal someone, and it must have been them."

"It's possible. After all, the Musketeers have been friends with the school for many years now. Dumbledore admitted to knowing them too," Mandria said.

"Rose, do you think you could look over my paper? I'm not sure I was eloquent enough," Alex said, handing her the paper. Even before she got to visit Rose, her parents had warned her about keeping family secrets… as if she had to be reminded, she thought to herself.

"Oh, Alex, we both know your work is always passable, especially the essays," Rose said, glancing at it. "You're still using too many words, though."

"What's the good of talking about anything unless you're going to expound upon it?" Alex protested.

"Besides, I'm sure this essay was meant to be busy work anyhow to keep everyone from spending all our time talking about this. But Athos saved my life, and it nearly cost him his own life. If I knew who he was, it'd be easier to thank him. Did you hear what the paper was saying about the dragon? They said that officials were speculating the dragon was Ciardoth herself! We could have all died," Rose said, sounding distant.

"But you didn't, and I'm very sure Athos knows you're grateful," Alex said. "I can't believe we're finally at the holidays! I am going to miss you both, but it sure will be nice getting to go home for awhile."

"What did your grandfather say when he found out the diamonds he gave you were some she had been looking for?" Mandria asked. Alex sighed in resignation and took out a book.

"He was as surprised as the rest of us. It had been my grandmother's… my mother's mother, I mean… also his granddaughter. It was one of the things he was given when she died."

"Also his granddaughter? Just how many generations removed are you, anyhow?" Mandria said.

"I'm not exactly sure myself, actually, he just refers us all as his grandchildren," Rose shrugged. "Anyhow, I personally discounted it as soon as I found out that all the diamond sets were made of seven. My anklet had eight." Alex looked up, suddenly interested again in spite of herself.

"I wonder if it's the only one with a differing number," she murmured, and then pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen.

"Why, what are you thinking about, Alex?" Mandria wondered.

"All of the items so far have been seven, even Uncle Sirius said his cufflinks had them, three inset on one side and four on the other. I'd bet the Minister had taken out one on the four-diamond side, hoping it wouldn't have been noticed. But if this one had eight, it might be the clue we need to narrow down how many there are. Let's assume whoever divided these up tried to get them as even as possible. It means then that the total number can't be divisible by seven evenly… or eight for that matter," Alex said, jotting down some numbers. "And we know that she has at least five sets, probably more that no one caught either because it happened elsewhere or nobody saw the correlation between the two before now, and I think we can safely say there are more that haven't been found."

"Why's that?"

"Because something would have happened by now," Alex told Mandria forebodingly. "Remember, Ciardoth said once she had the diamonds, something would happen after eleven minutes have past. Eleven, then…there's another number," Alex mused. "I wonder if there's a connection."

"I guess I should have taken Arithmantics this year," Rose sighed.

"I'm no good with numbers at all," Mandria shrugged.

"Neither am I, but I know someone who is," Alex said, folding the paper and tucking it in her robes, "and I'll be seeing him tomorrow."

Trunks were quickly unpacked and rooms put in order before Alexandria called her siblings to her room an hour after they had gotten home. Outside the girls' bedroom window, snow was falling steadily, frosting the windows. Andrew dutifully took to building up the fire, and it was going quite steady before Aurelius appeared in the doorway, closing the door behind him.

"Here we are and still in one piece, thanks to Dumbledore keeping his word," Aurelius said.

"You sound almost as if you doubted that he would," Andrew said.

"Well, I want to know just how he explained to Father why you were missing for so long," Aurelius said. "You were rather vague about it in mail."

"You're the one always nagging us not to say too much," Alex pointed out. "I didn't lose any time at all. Professor Dumbledore had a Time-Turner. It's a device like an hour glass that lets you go back in time," she explained to Andrew and Alicia. "Anyhow, he sent me back so I could make my next class on time, and Father didn't say a word to me, although for a second I almost thought he was going to when I ran into him coming out of class. Honestly, I thought I was dead for sure."

"Only if he told Mum," Andrew chuckled. Alex shook her head at him.

"You don't know what it's like at school. Mum and Father… well they just aren't there anymore. In fact, they disappear entirely. Instead you have Professor Patient Let's-be-Pals and Professor Psychopath, in that order." Alex explained. "It's a nightmare, really."

"Don't tell me you're going to blame your imperfect marks on their refusing to give you a free ride," Aurelius said, rolling his eyes.

"Mum's always putting on the manners for strangers, I imagine she is like what Alex says," Andrew admitted. "But Alex, you can't honestly mean that about Father. Surely you're exaggerating a bit. So he's a bit strict?"

"Strict is one thing, a complete ass is another," Alex said. Even Aurelius' jaw dropped at that one. The idea of talking that disrespectfully to either of their parents had never occurred to them before, and Andrew looked as if expecting for lightning to strike on the room to cure her of her audacity.

"Oh, Alex, how could you? Why, you've always been one of his biggest defenders!" Alicia said sounding positively horrified.

"Look, I know you don't believe me, and I suppose you'll have to experience it for yourself before you do," Alex said. "But take my word for it, if there's one teacher you don't want breathing down your neck at Hogwarts, it's Snape, and for your own sanity, I recommend not mixing up that old goat with the person we know of as our father. Anyhow, there's something I wanted to talk to you about, Rel, and it might as well be now before I forget it."

Aurelius raised his eyebrow as she filled them in on the last few weeks' events, including the entire account from Rose's point of view of the rescue itself. Andrew and Alicia sat with open interest as she went into the daring of Corey as Athos, while Aurelius rolled his eyes and shook his head at the idiocy behind Corey's bravado.

"Amazing what some people can talk themselves into with a stupid uniform and a cheap disguise spell," he had muttered. But the others ignored him, coaxing her to go on with her story. Alex was, as always, a brilliant storyteller, her voice dramatically emphasizing every detail until finally she started talking about the day before, pulling out the paper she had made notes on and handing it to him.

"So you think there is some sort of connection, behind this seven and eight thing and this eleven minute thing?" Aurelius repeated musing over the numbers.

"At the very least, I am sure it's a number that's not divisible by either seven or eight," Alex said.

"Which would include every prime number plus everything in between each from here to eternity," Aurelius mused, pacing with the paper. "Just over eleven minutes. Well, eleven isn't divisible, but maybe in seconds ... divisible by eight… or rather seven with a remainder.." he paused then, squinting at the paper and setting down. "What's supposed to happen just over eleven minutes again?"

"Something about everyone joining her in oblivion or some such thing," Alex said.

"Then that is it," Aurelius said to himself, sitting down at the desk. "Andrew, go down to the library and see if you can find that book Mum has down there on mad wizard inventors."

"What is it?" Alex asked impatiently as she and Alicia peered over his shoulders.

"I think you're right about there being a connection between the time and the number of diamonds, Alex. And you should have seen it yourself, after having had the experience of using a Time-Turner," he said almost chidingly. "I think perhaps each diamond represents a second in time. If that is the case, and it's just over eleven minutes, there may be six hundred and sixty-six of them, the Arithmantic number of Armageddon… the end of the world."

"What do you mean the end of the world?" Alicia said frantically. "The world can't end, not yet! I've just started experimenting with oil pastels! How am I going to master them if there's nothing to draw?"

Aurelius glanced up from his math problem a moment to stare at her. "It's official, being born premature does make you dotty later on in life," he said, ignoring Alicia's protruding tongue in his direction. "Just as I suspected. Sevens are divisible by six hundred and sixty five. One item of eight would have been needed if the diamonds were spaced out correctly. And that also means there's ninety-five pieces, assuming that this correlation is correct."

"But, that's a lot of ifs, right? A lot of assumptions to get that," Alex said. "We could be a long way off."

"Rel always does seem to make the worst out of everything," Alicia agreed. But before Aurelius could comment, Andrew came up the stairs with the book and put it down in front of them.

"Sorry, almost got caught," Andrew said.

"By who?" Aurelius asked.

"Father. I just told him I had an assignment over the holiday," Andrew said, leaning on the desk as Aurelius flipped quickly through the book. "So what's this all about, anyhow?"

"The end of the world, apparently," Alex said.

"Oh. Not before Christmas dinner though, right?" Andrew asked.

"Can't any of you take anything seriously?" Aurelius said with frustration, finally stopping to scan a page, flipping it quickly over. "This is it. Alex, this is it."

"What is it? Read it!" Alex said, barely controlling herself from shouting.

"Baethen Blithers, a well known Experimentalist, was also well known for the twenty-seven failed attempts by the state to have him committed after his creation for the Great War effort, the Grimlin, was found to be responsible for the sinking of over a hundred ships and several hundred planes. After his failed experiments with Boomerang Grenades and the House Elf Sock virus, responsible for every wizard in the county of Berkshire having one of each socks stolen so that none would match, it was also rumored that Blithers was working on a giant time device designed to slow down time for everyone within a several hundred mile radius. It was at the time of the investigation of this device that Blithers was at last formally committed. However, his assistants denied that the device ever existed, as well as denying the popular rumors that the device had the ability to permanently stop time." The other three exchanged glances. "Further investigation of the matter was halted when the site of Blither's lab was destroyed in an explosion. No cause for the explosion was ever determined."

"A way to permanently stop time? That's not possible, is it?" Alicia asked after a moment.

"A several hundred mile radius? Wouldn't that take out most of the country?" Andrew asked.

"That would be the least of our problems if this thing actually exists," Aurelius said grimly. "These diamonds are the miniaturized sands of the giant hour glass. I bet he made it as a sort of last resort device of mass destruction to end the war by using it on the enemy. But time is an integral part of the universe… bending it is one thing, but if one forces it to stop completely, even in a limited area, it could destroy everything."

"What are we going to do?" Alex asked, staring at the scrap of paper that started this.

"I don't think we have any choice this time," Aurelius said after a moment.

"Do you think they'll believe us?" Alex asked thoughtfully.

"Guess there's only one way to find out," Aurelius sighed, gathering up the book and papers. He glanced back only once before heading down the stairs to tell their parents, the other three following silently behind him.

When Severus was told what they had found out he didn't speak at first, looking over the entry with such speculation that the four standing in front of them couldn't help but feel that perhaps they were on the right track after all.

"Perhaps you ought to take a look at this," he said at last, handing the book over to Jennifer where she stood on the other side of the kitchen counter. She slowly read it, glancing up at Severus to read his face before turning to her children.

"And you put all of this together from just three sets of numbers?" Jennifer said.

"And a little homework," Andrew added, chuckling nervously at his father who was looking none too pleased about having been told a story just a few moments before.

"What are we going to do?" Alex said worriedly. "If we're right and this is what it is, that means there's nearly a hundred sets…"

"Ninety five," Aurelius corrected calmly.

"And all of those people are going to be in danger, not to mention what's going to happen if she gets them all! But she already said she saw herself getting them! Does that mean we can't do anything about it?" Alex asked.

"We aren't going to do anything about it," Jennifer frowned at them. "You are going to finish unpacking and go to bed. Don't forget we have to pick out a Yule Log tomorrow."

"If there is a tomorrow," Aurelius pointed out, earning a disapproving frown from their father.

"I'm sure there will be, and chores to take care of, and baskets to deliver, so I won't have any sleepy heads over this," Jennifer said, opening the basement door for Aurelius. "You did the right thing telling us, thank you," she added as he went downstairs and the other three opened the bookshelf and headed up, turning back to Severus who was watching her carefully.

"So? How are they really, about all this?" Severus asked. Jennifer grew uncomfortable.

"Well, they're worried, obviously, aren't they?" Jennifer said, trying not to sound as if she were questioning that herself. "Amazing how they put that together. Trust a Snape to be able to put obscure clues together and come up with what they did."

"Yes, and trust a Craw to stick their noses in when they probably shouldn't," he added in a taunting tone. "You should probably keep a careful eye on their thoughts over the holidays. We certainly don't want them mixed up in this."

"Really, Severus, how much trouble can they get into with us right here with them?" Jennifer protested. "We should be thinking about what we need to do."

"The first thing we need to do is to let everyone involved know what's going on," Severus said. "Call Dodger in… yes, and Ratfly as well. They have some work to do tonight."

Down in Aurelius' room, three figures climbed out of a painting, stepping out on his trunk and sitting down on the floor by the fireplace.

"So, what should we really be doing?" Aurelius asked Alex, who was wondering the same thing herself.