1 Chapter Seven: Foolish Games
"Follow me."
It was clear from the command that the assembled group of well over 50 students was to follow the stranger from dinner out of the Great Hall and down several hallways to a little used room Lucy had never seen. It looked like someone's old office, there was a large mahogany desk with a large chair behind it and two facing it, plenty of bookshelves, several leather sofas and armchairs with footstools, a fireplace, and no windows.
"In you go please." The students did as they were told, and when they were all inside turned to face the as of yet still nameless man.
"Take a seat if you would please, we will be with you momentarily."
With that he turned and shut the door, and Lucy clearly heard the distinct sound of a lock and an anti-alohomora charm being set in place.
The students turned around and looked at each other, sighed, and took a seat. Lucy noticed Marguerite tailing after Aysha, and waved. The small girl looked relieved and trotted over. By then all the good seats had been taken, so the two girls sat on top of the large desk.
"Lucy, what's going on?"
"Wish I knew. It looks like we just have to sit tight."
"I don't like it."
"Trust me Marguerite, neither do I."
She liked it even less when an hour later a different stranger in expensive robes came in, locking the door behind him, and asked for their wands, which was more of a command than a request, and placed them inside the box. When one of the Lane boys asked why he was met with a piercing stare and an "Are we going to have a problem?"
He put his wand in the box. They all put their wands in the box and watched as they were carried out of the room and the door locked again.
That was when Lorenzo, a seventh year Hufflepuff, threw up his hands and shouted, "What the hell is going on!"
"Well, I think that is pretty clear, don't you?" Said Audrey Su, Karen's big sister, a seventh year Ravenclaw.
They looked at her, she sighed and turned to Lorenzo. "Where do you live?"
"Florence."
She turned to Aysha, "And you?"
"Soweto."
"Chandrika?"
"New Delhi."
"Vladimir?"
"St. Petersburg."
They went around, and it became very clear that the tie that bound was that no on in that room was born or lived within the boundaries of Great Britain. Every international student in Hogwarts was sitting in that room.
Wesley Lane shook his head. "Is this more rubbish like those papers at the beginning of the year?"
"Why on earth are they bothering with us? We're stuck here, its not like we can DO anything."
"It's not like anything's happened."
A heated discussion was springing up in the corner. Lucy left Marguerite, who wandered over to a pack of Ravenclaws, and sat down in an open gap in the circle.
"I don't like it at all," said Aysha, "I don't see how Dumbledore would allow this in his school."
"Well, its not like anything's being done to us Aysha, and we don't have to go to Potions."
"Don't think you're getting out of the assignment Sergei, you know Snape as well as I."
"Bastard…"
Aysha shook her head. Lucy understood her fear. She was from South Africa, and knew exactly how separation of people based on differences could lead to much more serious problems.
"So what do we do?"
"We watch our backs, " piped up Nicholas Kornakovitch, a fifth year. "I mean, first the papers, now this, I think we have to watch what's going on very carefully.
"They make me wear a gold star, I'm leaving," pouted William.
"Maybe that's what they want us to do."
"We have just as much a right to stay as anyone else."
That much was true. Most of these students had at least one parent who had attended Hogwarts themselves. For reasons varying from career to health, they left the country; but they sent their children back to be educated at the same school they had attended in their youth. Or there were some, like Mr. and Mrs. Kornakovitch, who hadn't been happy with the way Durmstrongs was being run, and chose to send their children to a different school. But despite how they got there, all agreed that sequestering them, singling them out for whatever reason, was ludicrous.
They were still in argument over what to do when the door opened, all fell silent, and all heads turned toward the sound of the bolt being pulled back.
The stranger who had taken their wands had returned.
"Maeve Abrams?" Maeve, a Hufflepuff prefect, who had attended primary school with the Lane boys in Canberra, stood up.
"Please come with me."
Wesley nodded at her and Maeve raised her chin and followed the stranger out of the room, the rest of the occupants waiting to hear the now familiar sound of being locked in.
They waited in relative silence for the better part of half an hour, when the door was opened again, and Maeve returned. At the same time Lesley Arong, a third year Slytherin from Kiyoto, was called out, and she got a reassuring squeeze from the older Aussie girl as she left. It seemed that at this point house boundaries didn't matter much.
The little group immediately converged on Maeve to hear what had happened. Maeve shrugged.
"They just asked me questions, a LOT of questions."
"What about?"
"Everything. Some were normal, sort of. Had I ever been asked to bring a package into the country, had I ever been asked to send something out of the country, had something ever shown up in my trunk that I hadn't packed, that sort of thing. But then…"
"What?"
"They asked me if there were any unusual students at Hogwarts. I told him we were all pretty weird, and he didn't look happy. He asked if any students seemed to be out of the ordinary, like they didn't belong. It was like he was trying to get me to give somebody up or something. There was a lot of weird stuff, but that was the strangest part."
Lucy tried not to let the feelings of apprehension show on her face. Strange students?
They gave Maeve a break after that, and Lucy found Marguerite and they chatted for a while about what the other had been up to, and about Chester. Every half an hour the door would open, and one student would be swapped for another. At noon one of the strangers brought in a tray with water, pumpkin juice, and sandwiches. It seemed they were not being released to dine in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body. They sat in glum silence, nibbling away and wondering when they would ever be let out.
About an hour after lunch most students began to doze off, there was little point in staying awake and worrying, not when it was pretty clear that there was no way out. Lucy couldn't sleep, but sat crossed legged on the desk while Marguerite was curled up on one of the sofas with about half a dozen other first years. How they fit Lucy could only imagine, but she was glad Marguerite was calm now, she had been terribly ruffled after they called her in for questioning.
She was on point off nodding off herself when William Lane was returned and the stranger read off the name "Lucille Montero." She grumbled a bit as she got to her feet, caught a wink from the blond Australian boy, grinned, and then scowled at the strange man as she was led out.
They didn't go very far. Lucy was led down the hall and into the next room. Although she furtively glanced about for any students, there were none in sight. She sighed and tried to keep her face expressionless as she entered a room not unlike the one she had just left, although much smaller. There was a chair in the middle of the room which one of the men gestured for her to sit in. If she hadn't been so nervous, she would have laughed at the similarity of the situation to bad police dramas on television, which she and Diego had spent many nights that summer making fun of.
"Your name?"
Lucy looked at the first man to speak as if he was crazy.
"What? You know my name, you just called it!"
The man sighed and indicated the enchanted pen on the desk, which appeared to be writing down every word spoken. Lucy strained enough to see that her interrogator's words were in blue ink, and hers in red.
She sighed. "Lucy Montero."
"You're school?"
"Hogwarts." She saw the shadow flicker across his face, but hers remained expressionless. She wasn't giving anything personal out as long as she could.
"Who is your guardian?"
"I am currently in the care of the headmaster."
"But who decides where you go for holidays, vacations?"
"I do."
"It says here in your file you are in the guardianship of your school."
"Yes, and since the head of this school is Albus Dumbledore, he would be in charge, wouldn't he?"
She wasn't going to tell them a damn thing more about Espiritu than she absolutely had to.
"Where are your parents?"
"Dead."
"I'm sorry," he didn't sound like it, and Lucy didn't buy his look of sympathy for one second. "How did they die?"
"They died at work."
"What did they do?"
"They were pilots."
"Were they in the military?"
"No, they flew commercial jets."
"Yes, thank you. And after their death, who took charge of you?"
"The state, that's what happens in America when you're an orphan."
"Did you have any brothers or sisters?"
"No. And why is this important?"
"Excuse me?"
"I want to know why you are asking me this?"
"For your own safety, for the safety of every wizard."
"I fail to see how the safety of anyone is going to be protected by analyzing my parents' deaths or my childhood."
"That's because you are too young to understand. Now, how long have you been in this country?"
"Since the first of September."
"When were you last in the country before then?"
"The second of July."
"And last year was your first year at this school?"
"Yes."
"Why did you come so late in your education?"
"I have no idea, you'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore, he knows more about that than I do."
"What were you doing here between the end of term and July 2nd?"
"I was working."
"Where?"
"At St. Mungo's Hospital."
"Doing what?"
"Whatever the staff thought I could do that was useful." That wasn't exactly a lie.
The questions went on in a similar vein for a while, concerning who Lucy met when she traveled, had she ever seen any suspicious people, had anyone tried to get her to transport things, and questions of the like. Then,
"Lucy, have you ever noticed strange students?"
"Have you had a look at Draco Malfoy? He's pretty damn strange."
"Not what I meant. Have you noticed students with strange abilities?"
"Well, most of the Ravenclaws are uncommonly smart, the Hufflepuffs uncommonly good, and the Slytherins are uncommonly obnoxious, well, most of them anyway."
The man gave her a Look. "Anything else?"
"The Gryffindors usually get in an uncommon amount of trouble."
"Lucy, have you ever seen students with abilities you've never seen before? Students doing spells without wands, that can make things happen just by thinking about them?"
"Well, if they could do that then I don't suppose I would be able to tell them apart from ordinary people, could I?"
The man did not seem happy.
"Where did you go to school before you came here, Lucy?"
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"I fail to see how my education in primary school or any other year is important to national or wizardal, or any other type of security."
"Never you mind that, just tell us."
"No, I don't see why that is any of your business."
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me. Give me one good reason why this interrogation is anything better than a witch-hunt, no pun intended. If you tell me what you are looking for than maybe I can help you and save you some time. But as it is, I don't see how my personal circumstances are of any use to you."
He stared at her and she had stared right back.
"Get her out of here."
With that, Lucy was led back to the rest of the students to sit and stew over whether what she had just done was extremely intelligent, or very stupid.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Aren't they ever gonna let us out of here?" Maria Moray of Pretoria flopped down on the couch next to Aysha and pouted. Again. The older girl sighed and squeezed her shoulder, getting up so the second year could lie down.
Lucy was still sitting on the desk, although she had learned not to swing her feet back and forth anymore, as this caused a thud thud sound that had driven the rest of the company dangerously close to killing her. It had been at least two hours since the last of them had been interrogated, and the Halloween Feast was well underway. This caused particular pains for the Lane boys, all of whom, so it seemed, were big Savage Garden Gnomes fans.
"They have to feed us soon at any rate."
"Maybe they forgot about that."
"What if we have to spend the night?"
"I get the couch!" This accomplished little since at least fifteen people shouted at once. Lucy flopped onto her back on the desk. It was getting really hot in here. She had tried earlier to talk to Seamus, but he was still limited to line of sight in terms of telepathy, and she hadn't been able to get through. And she wasn't as good at talking through emotions as he or Diego, so she had given up trying to make contact for now and had focused on trying to sleep. Marguerite had been out for hours, and was the envy of many of the others locked in that room.
Sleep wasn't so easy for Lucy, so she resorted to another less savory means of occupying her time, eavesdropping. There was something about telepathy that made it easier for you to consciously extend the boundaries of your own hearing, she supposed it had something to do with quieting your mind and your breathing. And with the size of the room they were in, she had several main targets.
Students had divided up either by house or by country. There was a large group of Australians in the far corner around an armchair and an ottoman, but they were talking loud enough for anyone to hear anyway, and mostly it was about Quidditch; and Lucy had had about as much as she could take of THAT sport. There was a large group of Hufflepuffs around the fireplace, half napping and half speaking softly. There was a small knot of older Ravenclaws on the far wall near the door, writing on the floorboards. Lucy recognized a few of them from the Advanced Arithmancy class that met right before her Ancient Runes lesson; they had a year long project to discover some new type of algorithm, and apparently were wasting no time. A few minutes of them gave her a headache and she quickly looked elsewhere. There was more talk of Quidditch and complaining from the Gryffindors a few feet from the desk, although most of the younger ones had dropped off and the others were in the process of dropping off. Karen Su had brought the small wizard chess set she was never without along with her, so there was something of a tournament going on between the Italians and the Japanese off to the side, and from the look of it Lucy guessed money was on the line.
The only group left to listen to was the Slytherins. Those not involved in the chess match occupied the corner opposite the door in a small, close huddle. And while most of them were asleep, those awake were highly agitated.
"I don't see the difference, if we miss, we miss."
"I think this qualifies as extenuating circumstances Vlad."
"Misha, have you ever missed one?"
"Well, no, I have my whole savings tied up in this thing. I don't know how I would tell my father…"
"You couldn't! Don't you know anything? No telling anyone. You lose, you take the fall on your own. Come on, you've read that stupid thing by the fireplace, 'take responsibility for yourself'. There's no way you can try to bring the rest of us down with you."
"Vlad, he never said he was going to tell anyone, did you Misha?"
"No, and thanks for the vote of confidence, comrade. It's nice to know that in a tough spot I can count on my dear friend Katrina to stand up for me."
"Don't hide behind Katya. The fact is you need to get used to the idea that you're going to lose a little."
"I don't recall asking for your opinion."
"Hey, I'm as deep in this as you are. And lets just all be happy that THAT is not what those guys were asking about, hey?"
"Yeah, but I still don't have to be happy about not being there to protect last week's haul. And you, there is no way you are in this as deep as I am."
"Misha, you're not making any sense. I don't see how you can lose what you already have."
"That's because you've always been in the low stakes Dimitri, you keep what you get."
"And…"
"And I've been in the high stakes all year. I HAVE to get to every game or I have a just one shot next week at keeping last weeks profit."
"Did you do well last week?"
"I doubled my total, and I still haven't made up what I lost the first week. Listen guys, I'm in it up to my ears, and Tsepish has too many people in this to let me off. I don't get to the game and I'm hosed."
"You get one spin, don't you?"
"Katya? How did you know about this?"
"I think you're the only one who hasn't moved up in the world Dimitri, even I know about the last chance save-your-robes Russian roulette spin, and he's right; Vlad would have better luck of acing Transfig than he does of saving his stakes."
"Thanks for the support Misha."
"Just trying to be honest. You never should have kept this much in the game Vlad."
"It's criminal the way she runs this thing."
"You didn't have to get involved to begin with. And do you realize the risks she takes in setting it up? If Snape caught her, again, cripes, I'd rather face a Siberian snowstorm in my underwear."
"But when you realize what she's taking off the top…"
"She has to be able to cover the bets…"
"She must have a fortune by now."
"I hear she pays for her tuition out of it."
"I don't care what she does with it as long as I get my winnings back."
"Listen, you still have a couple of hours, there's no way they'll start the game before the concert, and all you have to do is get there before it ends, right?"
"Right."
"So quit worrying, all of you, and get some sleep. Or do I have to wake up Sasha and get her to sing you a lullaby?"
"She's right."
"Just forget about it Vlad."
"Easy for you to say."
That was about all Lucy got as the Slytherins bedded down in their corner to try and get some sleep. She knew them a little from what other people in the room had filled her in on. Vladimir was a fourth year from St. Petersburg, Misha was a very tall seventh year boy from Moscow, Katya was a fifth year from Protechka, and Dimitri was also in fifth year, from Saransk. Sasha, who had been asleep, was a skinny blond from Angarsk, in Siberia, and was universally feared throughout the first year, or so Marguerite had informed her.
Slytherin didn't have as many international students as most of the other houses, and the few that they had were either from Russia, Italy, or Japan, so they were all pretty easy to keep straight.
Lucy curled up on the desk to rest, although she kept puzzling over the conversation she had just heard. She only knew one Tsepish in this school, so what on earth was Bet up to?
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
About an hour and a half later the door opened and one of the men stood there staring down at the students asleep on the floor.
"Get up. You may now join your houses in the Great Hall."
"That's it?" It was hard to tell if Chandrika was pleased or offended.
"Do you need a written invitation girlie? Come on, lets get out of here!" Warren grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her along in the throng of students piling out of the stuffy room into the cool fresh air of the hallway. Poor Chandrika had to jog along as the Lane boys quickened their pace at the sound of the Savage Garden Gnomes latest single coming from the Great Hall.
"I hope there's food left," Marguerite was suddenly at Lucy's side, and she took the girl's hand to make sure she didn't loose her in the crowd.
As they emerged into the Great Hall, Lucy realized their pseudo-captors had timed their release perfectly. The band was on its first set and there were so many students crowded around the stage in the hall that no one really noticed the small mob that showed up at that time and headed directly for the food.
Chester P. Parker, however, was not one of those people. He trotted over from the Hufflepuff table, two plates of food in his hands, demanding an explanation. Lucy sat down with the pair long enough to give a general explanation while a ravenous Marguerite chewed and nodded. Then she excused herself as the French girl came up for air and filled in the details, and made her way over to the Gryffindor table, where Seamus, apparently not a Savage Garden Gnomes fan, sat grimacing. He leaped to his feet when he saw her, vaulted over the table, grabbed her by the hand and dragged both her, and the plate of food HE had saved, towards the end of the table farthest from the music.
"What happened! Why did they keep you so long? I tried to contact you and I couldn't! That Chester boy has been asking about you at every meal and he came to the Tower twice between classes asking for you and that French kid. Are you ok? Did they feed you? I had to fight off Ron to get the last roll so be grateful and eat!"
Lucy laughed out loud at the non-stop stream of words coming from Seamus' mouth, and as she tore into her food she managed to convey that she had not been harmed, she had been fed, a little, and that all she had done all day was cool her heels in a nasty little room and answer a bunch of pointless questions.
"So you're really ok? Why couldn't I get to you?"
"Well," she paused as she munched away, "I think you're limited to line of sight, you know, you can't focus unless you can actually see your target. We'll work on it, don't worry."
"You have no idea how frustrating that was."
"I can imagine."
"So, who was in there with you again?"
"That's what I was trying to say, they had gathered up every single foreign student in the school. If you were from outside Great Britain, you were in that room."
"Must have been crowded."
"And hot, I mean, it was as stuffy as those nights last summer when Diego and me-" She dropped her chicken leg.
"Madre de los luces, I forgot! And he's probably been at it all day. Oh man, he's going to be really angry."
She jumped up from the table and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'll tell you later! Explain about today to the others for me, will you?"
And with that the door swung shut behind her and she was gone.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
As she made her way back to the tower Lucy shook her head at how forgetful she had been. True, today had been somewhat abnormal, but still. She cut off the fat lady's interrogation as to why she wasn't at the feast by snapping the password at her, which earned her a Look and more muttering, but by then she was inside and didn't care.
She dashed up the stairs, threw open the door to her room and dove for her trunk. Rummaging about a bit yielded up the larger of her mirrors, and she threw herself down on the bed, pulling the curtains shut around her. She forced herself to calm her mind and her breathing before reaching out to make the connection and waiting as the mirror went dark and then the image of Diego's face shimmered into place.
"Where have you been? I've been waiting all day."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but you wouldn't believe the day I've had."
"You're right, I probably won't, but can we talk about it later?"
Lucy nodded. "Anyway, I'm sorry. Do you want to start? Because I'm not sure if I rememeber…"
"It's ok Luce, I can do it."
She smiled, nodded, and propped the mirror up with a pillow so she could look without having to use her hands to hold it up. She quieted her mind and listened to Diego's voice, which was now more in her head than her ears.
Dia de Los Muertos was, by tradition, in fact tied up with All Soul's Day, a Christian holiday on November 1st. Most people at Espiritu weren't monotheists in any sense of the word, but most religions did have a day set aside to remember the dead. Since both Lucy's family and Diego's had traditionally celebrated Dia de Los Muertos, the pair had agreed that they would do their remembering and praying tonight; for although a large part of their families were not dead, just gone for a while, Diego's mentor was, and so were Lucy's parents and several of their friends. As for the others, well, Diego didn't think a little ceremony would hurt anyone.
It was a strange mix of old Spanish and Navajo prayers that were used that night, but the two young students said all of the ones that they could remember. When they had said all they could, they agreed that they would keep the mirror connection up and just sit there together, like they had for so many years with Rosa in the tiny Espiritu cemetery.
Lucy calmed her breathing, and her mind, as much as she could, and instinctively reached out for Deigo's soothing presence. He was a lot better with emotions on all accounts than she, and finding his cool, crisp, deep blue essence was as easy as breathing. But she was almost shocked out of her semi-trance when she DID find it. They had spoken using focus mirrors and the like across the vast distance, but never directly mind to mind; but then, they had never tried the rapport that had been such a large part of their lives in the past, since she had gone away to school. She could tell he was as surprised as she, but she felt his laughter and smiled, it was rather ironic when you thought about it.
She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, wordless thoughts and conversations passing between them at times, memories, stories, and then long periods of nothing. If the other girls came in and went to sleep, she didn't hear them; she didn't hear anything. She might have started to doze off still sitting crossed legged on her bed, when she heard Diego's voice in her head.
**I don't know what it is you're doing over there Luce, but your reserves are drained. It's late, tomorrow at the very least. Close down the mirror, you need the rest.**
**But…** She didn't want to sound like a five year old child, but after so much time spent digging up the past, she didn't want to be left alone all at once.
Of course, she should have realized that with his knack for emotions, Diego would have felt that, she didn't really need to say anymore.
**I don't want to go either. Just, just get in bed chica, hmm? I've got a hell of a lot more reserves than you, I'll stick around until you fall asleep, how about that.**
**Sounds good.** Her head voice was already sleepy as she kicked off her clothes, placed the mirror on the floor, and crawled under the covers. The last thing she recalled before she fell into a dreamless sleep was the sound of Rosa singing a lullaby, but that must have been one of Diego's memories.
"Follow me."
It was clear from the command that the assembled group of well over 50 students was to follow the stranger from dinner out of the Great Hall and down several hallways to a little used room Lucy had never seen. It looked like someone's old office, there was a large mahogany desk with a large chair behind it and two facing it, plenty of bookshelves, several leather sofas and armchairs with footstools, a fireplace, and no windows.
"In you go please." The students did as they were told, and when they were all inside turned to face the as of yet still nameless man.
"Take a seat if you would please, we will be with you momentarily."
With that he turned and shut the door, and Lucy clearly heard the distinct sound of a lock and an anti-alohomora charm being set in place.
The students turned around and looked at each other, sighed, and took a seat. Lucy noticed Marguerite tailing after Aysha, and waved. The small girl looked relieved and trotted over. By then all the good seats had been taken, so the two girls sat on top of the large desk.
"Lucy, what's going on?"
"Wish I knew. It looks like we just have to sit tight."
"I don't like it."
"Trust me Marguerite, neither do I."
She liked it even less when an hour later a different stranger in expensive robes came in, locking the door behind him, and asked for their wands, which was more of a command than a request, and placed them inside the box. When one of the Lane boys asked why he was met with a piercing stare and an "Are we going to have a problem?"
He put his wand in the box. They all put their wands in the box and watched as they were carried out of the room and the door locked again.
That was when Lorenzo, a seventh year Hufflepuff, threw up his hands and shouted, "What the hell is going on!"
"Well, I think that is pretty clear, don't you?" Said Audrey Su, Karen's big sister, a seventh year Ravenclaw.
They looked at her, she sighed and turned to Lorenzo. "Where do you live?"
"Florence."
She turned to Aysha, "And you?"
"Soweto."
"Chandrika?"
"New Delhi."
"Vladimir?"
"St. Petersburg."
They went around, and it became very clear that the tie that bound was that no on in that room was born or lived within the boundaries of Great Britain. Every international student in Hogwarts was sitting in that room.
Wesley Lane shook his head. "Is this more rubbish like those papers at the beginning of the year?"
"Why on earth are they bothering with us? We're stuck here, its not like we can DO anything."
"It's not like anything's happened."
A heated discussion was springing up in the corner. Lucy left Marguerite, who wandered over to a pack of Ravenclaws, and sat down in an open gap in the circle.
"I don't like it at all," said Aysha, "I don't see how Dumbledore would allow this in his school."
"Well, its not like anything's being done to us Aysha, and we don't have to go to Potions."
"Don't think you're getting out of the assignment Sergei, you know Snape as well as I."
"Bastard…"
Aysha shook her head. Lucy understood her fear. She was from South Africa, and knew exactly how separation of people based on differences could lead to much more serious problems.
"So what do we do?"
"We watch our backs, " piped up Nicholas Kornakovitch, a fifth year. "I mean, first the papers, now this, I think we have to watch what's going on very carefully.
"They make me wear a gold star, I'm leaving," pouted William.
"Maybe that's what they want us to do."
"We have just as much a right to stay as anyone else."
That much was true. Most of these students had at least one parent who had attended Hogwarts themselves. For reasons varying from career to health, they left the country; but they sent their children back to be educated at the same school they had attended in their youth. Or there were some, like Mr. and Mrs. Kornakovitch, who hadn't been happy with the way Durmstrongs was being run, and chose to send their children to a different school. But despite how they got there, all agreed that sequestering them, singling them out for whatever reason, was ludicrous.
They were still in argument over what to do when the door opened, all fell silent, and all heads turned toward the sound of the bolt being pulled back.
The stranger who had taken their wands had returned.
"Maeve Abrams?" Maeve, a Hufflepuff prefect, who had attended primary school with the Lane boys in Canberra, stood up.
"Please come with me."
Wesley nodded at her and Maeve raised her chin and followed the stranger out of the room, the rest of the occupants waiting to hear the now familiar sound of being locked in.
They waited in relative silence for the better part of half an hour, when the door was opened again, and Maeve returned. At the same time Lesley Arong, a third year Slytherin from Kiyoto, was called out, and she got a reassuring squeeze from the older Aussie girl as she left. It seemed that at this point house boundaries didn't matter much.
The little group immediately converged on Maeve to hear what had happened. Maeve shrugged.
"They just asked me questions, a LOT of questions."
"What about?"
"Everything. Some were normal, sort of. Had I ever been asked to bring a package into the country, had I ever been asked to send something out of the country, had something ever shown up in my trunk that I hadn't packed, that sort of thing. But then…"
"What?"
"They asked me if there were any unusual students at Hogwarts. I told him we were all pretty weird, and he didn't look happy. He asked if any students seemed to be out of the ordinary, like they didn't belong. It was like he was trying to get me to give somebody up or something. There was a lot of weird stuff, but that was the strangest part."
Lucy tried not to let the feelings of apprehension show on her face. Strange students?
They gave Maeve a break after that, and Lucy found Marguerite and they chatted for a while about what the other had been up to, and about Chester. Every half an hour the door would open, and one student would be swapped for another. At noon one of the strangers brought in a tray with water, pumpkin juice, and sandwiches. It seemed they were not being released to dine in the Great Hall with the rest of the student body. They sat in glum silence, nibbling away and wondering when they would ever be let out.
About an hour after lunch most students began to doze off, there was little point in staying awake and worrying, not when it was pretty clear that there was no way out. Lucy couldn't sleep, but sat crossed legged on the desk while Marguerite was curled up on one of the sofas with about half a dozen other first years. How they fit Lucy could only imagine, but she was glad Marguerite was calm now, she had been terribly ruffled after they called her in for questioning.
She was on point off nodding off herself when William Lane was returned and the stranger read off the name "Lucille Montero." She grumbled a bit as she got to her feet, caught a wink from the blond Australian boy, grinned, and then scowled at the strange man as she was led out.
They didn't go very far. Lucy was led down the hall and into the next room. Although she furtively glanced about for any students, there were none in sight. She sighed and tried to keep her face expressionless as she entered a room not unlike the one she had just left, although much smaller. There was a chair in the middle of the room which one of the men gestured for her to sit in. If she hadn't been so nervous, she would have laughed at the similarity of the situation to bad police dramas on television, which she and Diego had spent many nights that summer making fun of.
"Your name?"
Lucy looked at the first man to speak as if he was crazy.
"What? You know my name, you just called it!"
The man sighed and indicated the enchanted pen on the desk, which appeared to be writing down every word spoken. Lucy strained enough to see that her interrogator's words were in blue ink, and hers in red.
She sighed. "Lucy Montero."
"You're school?"
"Hogwarts." She saw the shadow flicker across his face, but hers remained expressionless. She wasn't giving anything personal out as long as she could.
"Who is your guardian?"
"I am currently in the care of the headmaster."
"But who decides where you go for holidays, vacations?"
"I do."
"It says here in your file you are in the guardianship of your school."
"Yes, and since the head of this school is Albus Dumbledore, he would be in charge, wouldn't he?"
She wasn't going to tell them a damn thing more about Espiritu than she absolutely had to.
"Where are your parents?"
"Dead."
"I'm sorry," he didn't sound like it, and Lucy didn't buy his look of sympathy for one second. "How did they die?"
"They died at work."
"What did they do?"
"They were pilots."
"Were they in the military?"
"No, they flew commercial jets."
"Yes, thank you. And after their death, who took charge of you?"
"The state, that's what happens in America when you're an orphan."
"Did you have any brothers or sisters?"
"No. And why is this important?"
"Excuse me?"
"I want to know why you are asking me this?"
"For your own safety, for the safety of every wizard."
"I fail to see how the safety of anyone is going to be protected by analyzing my parents' deaths or my childhood."
"That's because you are too young to understand. Now, how long have you been in this country?"
"Since the first of September."
"When were you last in the country before then?"
"The second of July."
"And last year was your first year at this school?"
"Yes."
"Why did you come so late in your education?"
"I have no idea, you'll have to ask Professor Dumbledore, he knows more about that than I do."
"What were you doing here between the end of term and July 2nd?"
"I was working."
"Where?"
"At St. Mungo's Hospital."
"Doing what?"
"Whatever the staff thought I could do that was useful." That wasn't exactly a lie.
The questions went on in a similar vein for a while, concerning who Lucy met when she traveled, had she ever seen any suspicious people, had anyone tried to get her to transport things, and questions of the like. Then,
"Lucy, have you ever noticed strange students?"
"Have you had a look at Draco Malfoy? He's pretty damn strange."
"Not what I meant. Have you noticed students with strange abilities?"
"Well, most of the Ravenclaws are uncommonly smart, the Hufflepuffs uncommonly good, and the Slytherins are uncommonly obnoxious, well, most of them anyway."
The man gave her a Look. "Anything else?"
"The Gryffindors usually get in an uncommon amount of trouble."
"Lucy, have you ever seen students with abilities you've never seen before? Students doing spells without wands, that can make things happen just by thinking about them?"
"Well, if they could do that then I don't suppose I would be able to tell them apart from ordinary people, could I?"
The man did not seem happy.
"Where did you go to school before you came here, Lucy?"
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"I fail to see how my education in primary school or any other year is important to national or wizardal, or any other type of security."
"Never you mind that, just tell us."
"No, I don't see why that is any of your business."
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me. Give me one good reason why this interrogation is anything better than a witch-hunt, no pun intended. If you tell me what you are looking for than maybe I can help you and save you some time. But as it is, I don't see how my personal circumstances are of any use to you."
He stared at her and she had stared right back.
"Get her out of here."
With that, Lucy was led back to the rest of the students to sit and stew over whether what she had just done was extremely intelligent, or very stupid.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Aren't they ever gonna let us out of here?" Maria Moray of Pretoria flopped down on the couch next to Aysha and pouted. Again. The older girl sighed and squeezed her shoulder, getting up so the second year could lie down.
Lucy was still sitting on the desk, although she had learned not to swing her feet back and forth anymore, as this caused a thud thud sound that had driven the rest of the company dangerously close to killing her. It had been at least two hours since the last of them had been interrogated, and the Halloween Feast was well underway. This caused particular pains for the Lane boys, all of whom, so it seemed, were big Savage Garden Gnomes fans.
"They have to feed us soon at any rate."
"Maybe they forgot about that."
"What if we have to spend the night?"
"I get the couch!" This accomplished little since at least fifteen people shouted at once. Lucy flopped onto her back on the desk. It was getting really hot in here. She had tried earlier to talk to Seamus, but he was still limited to line of sight in terms of telepathy, and she hadn't been able to get through. And she wasn't as good at talking through emotions as he or Diego, so she had given up trying to make contact for now and had focused on trying to sleep. Marguerite had been out for hours, and was the envy of many of the others locked in that room.
Sleep wasn't so easy for Lucy, so she resorted to another less savory means of occupying her time, eavesdropping. There was something about telepathy that made it easier for you to consciously extend the boundaries of your own hearing, she supposed it had something to do with quieting your mind and your breathing. And with the size of the room they were in, she had several main targets.
Students had divided up either by house or by country. There was a large group of Australians in the far corner around an armchair and an ottoman, but they were talking loud enough for anyone to hear anyway, and mostly it was about Quidditch; and Lucy had had about as much as she could take of THAT sport. There was a large group of Hufflepuffs around the fireplace, half napping and half speaking softly. There was a small knot of older Ravenclaws on the far wall near the door, writing on the floorboards. Lucy recognized a few of them from the Advanced Arithmancy class that met right before her Ancient Runes lesson; they had a year long project to discover some new type of algorithm, and apparently were wasting no time. A few minutes of them gave her a headache and she quickly looked elsewhere. There was more talk of Quidditch and complaining from the Gryffindors a few feet from the desk, although most of the younger ones had dropped off and the others were in the process of dropping off. Karen Su had brought the small wizard chess set she was never without along with her, so there was something of a tournament going on between the Italians and the Japanese off to the side, and from the look of it Lucy guessed money was on the line.
The only group left to listen to was the Slytherins. Those not involved in the chess match occupied the corner opposite the door in a small, close huddle. And while most of them were asleep, those awake were highly agitated.
"I don't see the difference, if we miss, we miss."
"I think this qualifies as extenuating circumstances Vlad."
"Misha, have you ever missed one?"
"Well, no, I have my whole savings tied up in this thing. I don't know how I would tell my father…"
"You couldn't! Don't you know anything? No telling anyone. You lose, you take the fall on your own. Come on, you've read that stupid thing by the fireplace, 'take responsibility for yourself'. There's no way you can try to bring the rest of us down with you."
"Vlad, he never said he was going to tell anyone, did you Misha?"
"No, and thanks for the vote of confidence, comrade. It's nice to know that in a tough spot I can count on my dear friend Katrina to stand up for me."
"Don't hide behind Katya. The fact is you need to get used to the idea that you're going to lose a little."
"I don't recall asking for your opinion."
"Hey, I'm as deep in this as you are. And lets just all be happy that THAT is not what those guys were asking about, hey?"
"Yeah, but I still don't have to be happy about not being there to protect last week's haul. And you, there is no way you are in this as deep as I am."
"Misha, you're not making any sense. I don't see how you can lose what you already have."
"That's because you've always been in the low stakes Dimitri, you keep what you get."
"And…"
"And I've been in the high stakes all year. I HAVE to get to every game or I have a just one shot next week at keeping last weeks profit."
"Did you do well last week?"
"I doubled my total, and I still haven't made up what I lost the first week. Listen guys, I'm in it up to my ears, and Tsepish has too many people in this to let me off. I don't get to the game and I'm hosed."
"You get one spin, don't you?"
"Katya? How did you know about this?"
"I think you're the only one who hasn't moved up in the world Dimitri, even I know about the last chance save-your-robes Russian roulette spin, and he's right; Vlad would have better luck of acing Transfig than he does of saving his stakes."
"Thanks for the support Misha."
"Just trying to be honest. You never should have kept this much in the game Vlad."
"It's criminal the way she runs this thing."
"You didn't have to get involved to begin with. And do you realize the risks she takes in setting it up? If Snape caught her, again, cripes, I'd rather face a Siberian snowstorm in my underwear."
"But when you realize what she's taking off the top…"
"She has to be able to cover the bets…"
"She must have a fortune by now."
"I hear she pays for her tuition out of it."
"I don't care what she does with it as long as I get my winnings back."
"Listen, you still have a couple of hours, there's no way they'll start the game before the concert, and all you have to do is get there before it ends, right?"
"Right."
"So quit worrying, all of you, and get some sleep. Or do I have to wake up Sasha and get her to sing you a lullaby?"
"She's right."
"Just forget about it Vlad."
"Easy for you to say."
That was about all Lucy got as the Slytherins bedded down in their corner to try and get some sleep. She knew them a little from what other people in the room had filled her in on. Vladimir was a fourth year from St. Petersburg, Misha was a very tall seventh year boy from Moscow, Katya was a fifth year from Protechka, and Dimitri was also in fifth year, from Saransk. Sasha, who had been asleep, was a skinny blond from Angarsk, in Siberia, and was universally feared throughout the first year, or so Marguerite had informed her.
Slytherin didn't have as many international students as most of the other houses, and the few that they had were either from Russia, Italy, or Japan, so they were all pretty easy to keep straight.
Lucy curled up on the desk to rest, although she kept puzzling over the conversation she had just heard. She only knew one Tsepish in this school, so what on earth was Bet up to?
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
About an hour and a half later the door opened and one of the men stood there staring down at the students asleep on the floor.
"Get up. You may now join your houses in the Great Hall."
"That's it?" It was hard to tell if Chandrika was pleased or offended.
"Do you need a written invitation girlie? Come on, lets get out of here!" Warren grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her along in the throng of students piling out of the stuffy room into the cool fresh air of the hallway. Poor Chandrika had to jog along as the Lane boys quickened their pace at the sound of the Savage Garden Gnomes latest single coming from the Great Hall.
"I hope there's food left," Marguerite was suddenly at Lucy's side, and she took the girl's hand to make sure she didn't loose her in the crowd.
As they emerged into the Great Hall, Lucy realized their pseudo-captors had timed their release perfectly. The band was on its first set and there were so many students crowded around the stage in the hall that no one really noticed the small mob that showed up at that time and headed directly for the food.
Chester P. Parker, however, was not one of those people. He trotted over from the Hufflepuff table, two plates of food in his hands, demanding an explanation. Lucy sat down with the pair long enough to give a general explanation while a ravenous Marguerite chewed and nodded. Then she excused herself as the French girl came up for air and filled in the details, and made her way over to the Gryffindor table, where Seamus, apparently not a Savage Garden Gnomes fan, sat grimacing. He leaped to his feet when he saw her, vaulted over the table, grabbed her by the hand and dragged both her, and the plate of food HE had saved, towards the end of the table farthest from the music.
"What happened! Why did they keep you so long? I tried to contact you and I couldn't! That Chester boy has been asking about you at every meal and he came to the Tower twice between classes asking for you and that French kid. Are you ok? Did they feed you? I had to fight off Ron to get the last roll so be grateful and eat!"
Lucy laughed out loud at the non-stop stream of words coming from Seamus' mouth, and as she tore into her food she managed to convey that she had not been harmed, she had been fed, a little, and that all she had done all day was cool her heels in a nasty little room and answer a bunch of pointless questions.
"So you're really ok? Why couldn't I get to you?"
"Well," she paused as she munched away, "I think you're limited to line of sight, you know, you can't focus unless you can actually see your target. We'll work on it, don't worry."
"You have no idea how frustrating that was."
"I can imagine."
"So, who was in there with you again?"
"That's what I was trying to say, they had gathered up every single foreign student in the school. If you were from outside Great Britain, you were in that room."
"Must have been crowded."
"And hot, I mean, it was as stuffy as those nights last summer when Diego and me-" She dropped her chicken leg.
"Madre de los luces, I forgot! And he's probably been at it all day. Oh man, he's going to be really angry."
She jumped up from the table and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'll tell you later! Explain about today to the others for me, will you?"
And with that the door swung shut behind her and she was gone.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
As she made her way back to the tower Lucy shook her head at how forgetful she had been. True, today had been somewhat abnormal, but still. She cut off the fat lady's interrogation as to why she wasn't at the feast by snapping the password at her, which earned her a Look and more muttering, but by then she was inside and didn't care.
She dashed up the stairs, threw open the door to her room and dove for her trunk. Rummaging about a bit yielded up the larger of her mirrors, and she threw herself down on the bed, pulling the curtains shut around her. She forced herself to calm her mind and her breathing before reaching out to make the connection and waiting as the mirror went dark and then the image of Diego's face shimmered into place.
"Where have you been? I've been waiting all day."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but you wouldn't believe the day I've had."
"You're right, I probably won't, but can we talk about it later?"
Lucy nodded. "Anyway, I'm sorry. Do you want to start? Because I'm not sure if I rememeber…"
"It's ok Luce, I can do it."
She smiled, nodded, and propped the mirror up with a pillow so she could look without having to use her hands to hold it up. She quieted her mind and listened to Diego's voice, which was now more in her head than her ears.
Dia de Los Muertos was, by tradition, in fact tied up with All Soul's Day, a Christian holiday on November 1st. Most people at Espiritu weren't monotheists in any sense of the word, but most religions did have a day set aside to remember the dead. Since both Lucy's family and Diego's had traditionally celebrated Dia de Los Muertos, the pair had agreed that they would do their remembering and praying tonight; for although a large part of their families were not dead, just gone for a while, Diego's mentor was, and so were Lucy's parents and several of their friends. As for the others, well, Diego didn't think a little ceremony would hurt anyone.
It was a strange mix of old Spanish and Navajo prayers that were used that night, but the two young students said all of the ones that they could remember. When they had said all they could, they agreed that they would keep the mirror connection up and just sit there together, like they had for so many years with Rosa in the tiny Espiritu cemetery.
Lucy calmed her breathing, and her mind, as much as she could, and instinctively reached out for Deigo's soothing presence. He was a lot better with emotions on all accounts than she, and finding his cool, crisp, deep blue essence was as easy as breathing. But she was almost shocked out of her semi-trance when she DID find it. They had spoken using focus mirrors and the like across the vast distance, but never directly mind to mind; but then, they had never tried the rapport that had been such a large part of their lives in the past, since she had gone away to school. She could tell he was as surprised as she, but she felt his laughter and smiled, it was rather ironic when you thought about it.
She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, wordless thoughts and conversations passing between them at times, memories, stories, and then long periods of nothing. If the other girls came in and went to sleep, she didn't hear them; she didn't hear anything. She might have started to doze off still sitting crossed legged on her bed, when she heard Diego's voice in her head.
**I don't know what it is you're doing over there Luce, but your reserves are drained. It's late, tomorrow at the very least. Close down the mirror, you need the rest.**
**But…** She didn't want to sound like a five year old child, but after so much time spent digging up the past, she didn't want to be left alone all at once.
Of course, she should have realized that with his knack for emotions, Diego would have felt that, she didn't really need to say anymore.
**I don't want to go either. Just, just get in bed chica, hmm? I've got a hell of a lot more reserves than you, I'll stick around until you fall asleep, how about that.**
**Sounds good.** Her head voice was already sleepy as she kicked off her clothes, placed the mirror on the floor, and crawled under the covers. The last thing she recalled before she fell into a dreamless sleep was the sound of Rosa singing a lullaby, but that must have been one of Diego's memories.