The next few days went by as close to normal as things could get at Bloor's. Friday approached slowly for everyone who wanted to be free from the academy walls. Olivia still had Vanessa as a friend. Charlie had told her about how Manfred had acted around Vanessa but she refused to listen to him. Charlie was sitting in the King's room when Manfred stood up to make an announcement.

Manfred cleared his throat. "We will be having an end-of-term dance at Bloor's at the end of this semester," He told them.

"WHAT?" Tancred shouted. "Here? Why are we doing that?"

"All," Manfred continued loudly ignoring Tancred, "the seniors must go."

"That's crazy," Tancred shouted again.

"Torrsen, shut up. I didn't plan it," the head boy told him. Tancred opened his mouth to say more but Lysander nudged him with his elbow and muttered, "Forget it."

"Juniors may go, but they must have a partner," Manfred said. "Back to work now."

Tancred was right. This was very unlike Bloor's to have a dance. Charlie wasn't sure he would be going. If Fidelio found a partner and wanted to go, Charlie would try to find a partner himself. Fidelio being unendowed, Charlie thought it would be much easier for his friend to find someone to go with.

After they left the King's room, Charlie made his way down to his next class. He couldn't keep his mind on history and got a few questions wrong. Charlie wanted to get out to break and talk to Fidelio.

Once he got out the garden doors, Tancred and Lysander caught Charlie before he found Fidelio.

"That's seriously crazy," Tancred muttered. "Why are we having a dance at Bloor's? I mean really, dances are supposed to be fun and have they ever cared about having fun at Bloor's?"

"He does have a point," Lysander said to Charlie. "When have they cared about us having fun?" Charlie nodded. He did agree. It was a very strange thing for the academy to do.

"I think it has something to do with Vanessa," Charlie told them. Tancred stopped his muttering and turned to listen to Charlie. Charlie explained about how Vanessa had told them about her hypnotist gift and the strange way Manfred seemed to get along with Vanessa.

"Yeah," was all Tancred said after Charlie's explanation. "Hmm, interesting."

"It is," Lysander agreed. "Well if you need us we'll be around."

"Sure," Charlie said and Tancred and Lysander left to another part of the grounds.

Charlie found Fidelio with Emma and Olivia.

"Hi Charlie. Where've you been?" Fidelio asked as Charlie walked over to them.

"Sorry, I was talking to Tancred and Lysander. Where's Vanessa?"

"Look," Emma pointed over to a group of seniors where Vanessa was, again, talking with Manfred.

"I can't believe her," Olivia said. "Why Manfred?"

"Why a dance?" Charlie said instead.

"Yeah," said Fidelio.

Olivia turned pink, "I think it's rather nice. I would like to go, too."

"I completely agree with Olivia. I think it's nice and I want to go," Emma said.

"Yeah, well anyway," Fidelio changed the subject. "I'm not doing anything this Saturday, can any of you meet at the Pet's Café?"

"I can," Olivia told him. "I will be there."

"That would be good," Charlie agreed. "Runner's in need of a good jog in the park."

"You Emma?" Fidelio asked.

"If I could borrow one of Gabriel's gerbils, then I bet I could convince my Auntie to let me come.

"Gabriel can come, too," Fidelio said. "One of us can ask him later. He's talking to Billy and I don't want Billy feeling like he's left out."

A few minutes later the hunting horn sounded and the four friends walked to the garden doors together. Charlie finished his last few classes and went down to dinner with Fidelio. They ate quickly and went hurriedly to their dormitories to pack. Charlie had managed to tell Gabriel about the meeting at the Pet's Café.

The packing had gotten done quickly and many children made their way out to the busses. Charlie, Fidelio, and Gabriel found a seat together on the blue music bus and Charlie felt a weight lift off his shoulders as the bus pulled away from the school.

"See you tomorrow," Charlie called to the other two boys as he got off the bus. "Finally. The weekend," Charlie muttered to himself as he walked down Filbert Street. The door opened, on number nine, just as Charlie was reaching for the knob.

"Hello Charlie," Aunt Eustacia said, too sweetly for Charlie's liking. "I thought you'd be here."

Charlie wished he were back on the bus. He was looking forward to a nice weekend without the thought of school or the Yewbeam Aunts.

"Oh, you're here," Charlie muttered.

"Charlie, that's no way to talk to your aunt," Grandma Bone snapped. "Well come inside, you live here don't you?"

"Unfortunately," Charlie groaned.

Grandma Bone chose to ignore this. Charlie was about to go up and relax in his room when his grandma called to him.

"Where are you going boy? You must sit down at the table with your aunts."

"Must I?" Charlie mocked. "I'm going upstairs to talk to Uncle Paton."

"You are not," Aunt Venetia told him. "Your Uncle is out."

"Where is he?" Charlie asked.

"At that bookstore woman's place," Grandma Bone snarled. Charlie nodded and secretly wished his Uncle luck with Miss Ingledew. Reluctantly, Charlie walked over to a chair and seated himself.

"There you go," said Lucretia. "Now, how was your week at school?"

"Fine," snapped Charlie. He was wondering why they were asking him this because he knew they really didn't care.

"Did anything unusual happen?" Eustacia asked.

Charlie thought about the new girl, Vanessa, and the dance. "Nope," he said innocently.

"Are you sure, Charlie?" she pressed.

"Of course I'm sure."

"What about the dance?" Lucretia asked. Her being Matron at Bloor's she had already heard about the dance.

"So what. It's a school dance. Don't most school's have dances?" Charlie did think this was a bit unusual but he wasn't about to admit it to the Yewbeam Aunts. Charlie started pushing his chair away from the kitchen table.

"You can't go yet, Charlie," one of his aunts told him. Charlie sat in his chair, facing the door, ready to bolt out of the room the minute they said he could go.

"Isn't your Aunt Venetia's necklace beautiful?" Grizelda asked Charlie.

"Sure," Charlie muttered without looking at it and getting up out of the chair.

"Look at it," Grandma Bone told him sternly. Charlie sighed and deciding not to start more trouble, turned to look at the necklace.

The olive green stone that hung on a silver chain around Charlie's aunt's neck was about an inch wide. The shine on the stone caused it to look like other colors were painted on. Once Charlie looked at the large rock he couldn't take his eyes away.

"Don't you love to look at the necklace, Charlie?"

His aunt's voice seemed to come from far away. Charlie did not like to look at the necklace. Looking into those deep colors was just as bad as Manfred Bloor's cold, dark, hypnotizing eyes. Charlie felt like he was being hypnotized.

"Don't you like to look at it?" his aunt asked again.

"Yes," said Charlie dreamily. 'No I don't,' Charlie thought. "I do like it," he found himself saying.

What was going on? Charlie remembered he could block Manfred's hypnotizing. Perhaps he could block the stone the same way. Charlie tried to find the stone's inner thoughts. It was much more difficult to do this with a stone rather than a human and being already hypnotized he was finding it hard to concentrate already. When Charlie thought he had no chance blocking a stone, Aunt Venetia grabbed the rock and looked at Charlie flabbergasted.

"You evil boy. What did you do?" she shouted.

"I did nothing. I didn't do nothing," Charlie yelled.

"That's right you didn't do nothing," Lucretia snarled and jumped up out of her chair. "It's anything, you stupid boy, but you did do something."

Charlie wasn't sure if the necklace had done this or if Charlie had done it himself, but what happened next surprised Charlie and the Aunts didn't seem to notice. Charlie glared at the necklace again, right where you would unclip it from around Venetia's neck. The clasp broke and the whole silver chain disintegrated. The large green stone slipped down and silently hit the carpeted floor while the Yewbeam Aunts were still yelling names at Charlie. Charlie gasped.

"What?" Grandma Bone asked hearing Charlie's gasp.

"Nothing," he said and pretended to have fallen out of his chair and on to the floor. Charlie grabbed the stone from off the rug and stuffed it in his pocket just as Aunt Eustasia looked down at him.

"Get up," she yelled. Charlie hoped she hadn't seen the necklace. "Leave now."

It seemed she hadn't seen the stone so Charlie jumped up from the floor and raced out the front door. Any minute they would notice it was gone. Charlie was feeling a bit dizzy from the hypnotizing but he ran. A scream echoed from number nine and Aunt Venetia poked her head out the door.

"Get him," she yelled and started down the street. Even though she could run the fastest out of the three aunts, Charlie was much faster and he finally lost her as he turned the corner. He kept running until he was completely out of breath, extremely tired and very dizzy. Charlie collapsed on the sidewalk.

"I gotta stop somewhere," Charlie groaned to himself. He looked up and noticed Fidelio's house a little farther down the street. Charlie pulled himself off the sidewalk and walked to Fidelio's door.

Mr. Gunn sang at Charlie that Fidelio was in his room practicing his violin, but Mr. Gunn thought Charlie looked a bit ill so he let Charlie go up to Fidelio's room.

Charlie dragged himself up the stairs and followed the violin music. Fidelio was playing a very difficult sounding piece. Charlie walked into his room without knocking and fell onto Fidelio's bed.

"Oh hi, Charlie," Fidelio said still playing his piece. When he saw Charlie's face he stopped and put the violin aside. "Are you OK? You don't look like it."

"I think I've just been hypnotized," Charlie murmured.

"Have you seen Manfred?" Fidelio asked concerned.

"No." Charlie pulled the stone out of his pocket and held it up to Fidelio. "This," he said.

Fidelio gave him a questioning look. "A rock," he asked.

"Don't look at it." Charlie clamped his hand over it.

"OK, I'm a bit lost," said Fidelio. "Explain to me what this rock did."

Charlie told Fidelio about his aunt's visit and how the rock had hypnotized him. He was wondering if Fidelio had any other idea besides asking Uncle Paton.

"Well I don't know, Charlie," Fidelio said to him when Charlie finished. "Definitely ask your Uncle Paton."

"I will," Charlie nodded. "Can you think of anyone else I could ask to find out more about this necklace?"

"I think you should ask Gabriel," Fidelio said calmly.

"Why Gabriel?"

"Let me see the stone."

Charlie held out the olive green stone and Fidelio took it into his hand. Fidelio looked at it and didn't take his eyes away. Charlie suddenly realized Fidelio couldn't take his eyes off the hypnotizing colors. Charlie reached over and grabbed the rock out of Fidelio's hand.

"Woah," he gasped. "I see what you mean, Charlie." Fidelio sat down on the chair in his room and bent over with his hand shading his eyes. "That's even worse than Manfred's hypnotizing. Whoever or whatever made that must be very powerful. Everyone says Manfred is very powerful but I think this would be beyond him."

"It's very strong," Charlie agreed. "What were you saying about Gabriel, then?"

"Right," Fidelio said standing up again and walking over to his violin. "Well, it has a little hook so put it on a chain an ask Gabriel to put it on." Fidelio picked up a cloth and started wiping his violin.

"WOW! You're brilliant, Fido!" Charlie jumped up from the bed. "Thanks."

Fidelio smiled. "Sure," he said. "So now you're calling me 'Fido' too?"

Charlie ignored that and told him thanks again.

"I better get going and let you finish your practice," Charlie told his friend.

"Yeah, I have to help my brother, Franklin. He plays piano and needs help, badly," Fidelio laughed and snapped his violin case shut. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. Bring the necklace to show to Gabriel."

"You bet I will," Charlie called as he walked down the stairs. "Bye, Fido."

"Bye, Charles," Fidelio called back, smirking, as he walked into his brother's room where someone was slamming on a piano. Charlie figured he better stop calling Fidelio 'Fido' unless he wanted to be called 'Charles' himself. Charlie smiled as Mrs. Gunn let him out the front door.

Charlie was happy he came to see Fidelio. Showing the necklace to Gabriel was a great idea. He figured asking Uncle Paton first would be best, though, remembering all to well the incident with Mrs. Bloor's glove. Charlie walked home hoping the Yewbeam Aunt's were gone and Uncle Paton was home from Miss Ingledew's Bookstore.