Hello everybody! Here is a new chapter with a new development that I hope keeps you all wondering.

Chapter 24 – More Mysteries 

March, 23rd, 1995

It's surprising how quickly everything returns to normal, even after an exciting and frightening experience like ours. It's all back to lessons, and homework, and the occasional chat with my friends, among whom I can now also count Hermione Granger. Had an owl from Mother, too. I had expected her to blame everything on me, to rant and rave about neglecting my duties, and irresponsible behaviour, and what not; even if she wasn't really worried at all, she'd at least have thought it educational. But she was surprisingly cool about Gabie's adventure, said these things simply happened and everything turned out well, anyway; it's completely unlike her.

I'm still not any wiser concerning my feelings for Harry. We talk to each other nicely enough whenever we meet in the castle, and I find myself enjoying every minute of it. Thankfully, I don't feel any of the desperate, crippling longing that I've read about, and I have no trouble sleeping or eating at all, though I tend to daydream about flying together with him rather frequently.

At any rate, the Veela charm seems to be gone for good. Even Ron (I still call him the Moron to myself), who seems to be particularly susceptible to it, has not shown any signs recently. This is a very good thing, too, as I wouldn't be able to look at Hermione as my friend otherwise.

March 27th, 1995

With the help of the Virtualis charm I visited Gabie at home. I found her in her room as I knew I would. She was surprised to see me, of course, but it was nothing like last time. I admire her for reacting so fast and finding it so easy to stay calm.

"Oh, it's you," she said coolly, and only the sparkle in her eyes gave her excitement away. "I thought you might come to see me one of these days."

"If you aren't happy to see me, I can just go again," I told her in what I thought to be a severe voice, but she didn't buy it.

"Rubbish," she said, now grinning at me widely. "Come, let's go down to the pond, it's a nice day, and Maman is not going to find us there, too."

So I visualised the lake, and patiently waited for my sister to arrive, which she duly did after a couple of minutes. I had almost forgotten how lovely our parks with the ornamental lakes and fountains are, especially in early spring. Naturally, as opposed to Hogwarts, lots of flowers are out already, and the gardens are a sea of colours. The sun was in a cloudless deep blue sky, and was quite warm, although my virtual body could not feel it, of course.

When Gabie arrived, breathless from running all the way, I was again touched by the loveliness of her appearance, and sorry for not being able to hug her.

"How are you?" I said, "Has Maman been giving you a hard time?"

"You won't believe it," she told me, "but she's been awfully nice, really. Didn't reproach me at all, just said it was an unwise thing to go into a forest all by my own, but she understood I was feeling bored and everything…"

"She wrote me a letter, and she didn't get mad at me either. Are you sure she knows exactly what happened?"

"I don't know, you see. I assumed Madame Maxime had told her what happened in the forest, so I did not think I had to tell everything again. I mean, she did not seem too excited … Actually, now you mention it, she didn't even ask me too many questions… Just how I came to go into the forest, and how I got out again… Anyway, I was asleep when you came to fetch me, so there was not much I could tell her. I don't even remember the werewolf, you see."

"And – what about the necklace?"

"We never talked about it, if you mean that. I have no idea, however, if Maxime told her about it."

"So maybe she doesn't know about it?"

"Possibly. Tell me, did you find out anything about it?"

So I told her about our experiments, and she laughed at my description of Hermione falling on top of Ron.

"I bet they enjoyed every second of it," she giggled.

"Well, they did seem to take their time getting up again," I agreed. "Listen, Gabie," I went on, „we don't know whether Maman knows about the necklace, but somehow I have a feeling that we'd better not tell her anything about it. Don't ask me why..."

"Yes, she is the kind of person that does not exactly inspire your confidence," she replied, and the bitterness in her voice went straight to my heart. "I won't tell her. But it will be useful in the third task won't it?"

"I expect it will. But, you know, there is something else, and even stranger about it..."

And I told her what that weird girl, Luna, had said. "Crazy, isn't it? But then, everybody says she is strange, and has the funniest ideas..."

"No," she said earnestly. "There must be something more to that girl - Luna, you say? - Just the fact that she recognised the stone that you had not told anybody about proves it. If I were you, I'd go and ask her what else she knows. She may be able to tell you something useful. Like how to use it to read someone's thoughts, you know. Now wouldn't that be fun?"

"And VERY useful in tests and exams," I agreed, happy that she had found back to her usual light-hearted self. "Now, I'm afraid you'll have to go back again, before anyone starts wondering where you have gone. But I promise to come and see you soon. And don't tell Maman I've been here; this is another of the things she'd better not know."

April 1st, 1995

What started out as a harmless prank of Margaux and Iphigenie (Silly, I'd call it, but harmless, nevertheless), has turned out as some more mystery. We have no idea what to make of it, and of course we also don't know whether to tell anybody about it.

I was aware, of course, that it was April Fool's Day, and so when I found a charred slip of parchment net to my plate at lunch saying in strange old-fashioned writing,

"If you want more information about the STONE, come to the large elder-bush at the edge of the forest."

There was no signature, but I felt quite sure that it had something to do with my two friends, whom I saw looking at me with a very suspicious expression. In fact, they seemed to have a hard time to suppress their giggles.

"Look at this," I told them as earnestly as I could, pretending not to notice their merriment. "What do you make of it?"

"Give it here," Margaux said with an obvious effort, and I noticed Iphigenie murmur something inaudible, perhaps some charm to help both of them to keep calm.

I handed them the note.

"Very strange," I said. "Do you think I should go there?"

"Of course," Iphigenie told me, now looking perfectly serious again. "You want to know about that stone, don't you?"

"You're right. But that bush is so near the forest. Do you think it's quite safe?"

"Don't worry," Margaux said. "There's quite some distance in between. And it's broad daylight, too."

They were both obviously eager for me to do what the note said.

"All right," I said, and added, innocently: "Why don't the two of you come along? Whatever it is, it may be useful to look at it from different points of view afterwards."

"Ah, well, I 'm afraid I can't," Margaux stammered. "There is that Potions essay I have to do..."

"I'll come," Iphigenie said quickly, sparing her the trouble to go into more complicated explanations. So it was obviously Margaux, who planned to stage some performance or other over at the elder bush. I didn't show my satisfaction and turned to Iphigenie:

"When do you think we ought to go there?"

This took her by surprise, and she shot Margaux a questioning glance.

"I'm not sure," she said hesitantly. "Let me see - it's half past twelve now, - how about in half an hour, at one?"

I could see Margaux nod very slightly. But I was not going to let them off so easily.

"Why?"

"Well..." now it was Iphigenie's turn to stammer. "I think - eh - it's exactly the middle of the magical noontime, between twelve and two, you know."

"Magical noontime? Never heard of it-" I laughed inwardly seeing her face, and went on, "but you're the clever one, so I'm sure you know all about it. You'll have to tell me some time."

She looked very relieved.

"So we'll go there at one."

Soon afterwards, Margaux disappeared quietly, ostensibly to do her essay, and a few minutes later Iphigenie and I left the carriage to go over towards the forest.

The bush was still quite bare, with just a tinge of green beginning to show, and as we approached, there was absolutely nothing remarkable about it.

"There's nothing there," I said to Iphigenie, but the moment I had said it, a figure appeared next to the bush. Even though I had expected something of the kind I jumped. The figure, a female form, deeply veiled in various shades of blue, seemed to hover slightly above the grass. A glance towards Iphigenie showed me that she was not surprised at all. I decided to play along with their joke.

"Who are you? And what do you want with me?"

"Morgaine of Avalon," the figure replied in a hollow voice, which, however, I had no trouble to recognise as Margaux'. "To tell you about your mission."

And now, quite suddenly, it happened: A shiver went through the figure, and she began to glow with a cold blue light. I heard Iphigenie gasp beside me.  Presently, the figure spoke again, but this time the voice was completely different, resounding like a huge bell, yet strangely clear, with a silvery undertone. Definitely NOT Margaux' voice at all.

"When Water and Fire are married, let the Dar One beware of the scorpion's sting."

There was a blue flash of lightning, and before any of us could as much as open their mouth to speak, the veiled figure collapsed in a heap at our feet.

I can't say how long it took until we were able to move again, but as soon as we could, we bent down ad started tugging at the veils. Soon we had uncovered Margaux' face, which was deadly white. Her eyes were closed, and her breath was shallow, but she didn't seem to be hurt in any way. Within a few seconds she opened her eyes.

"How did you do THAT?" Iphigenie demanded.

"What?" she asked in a whisper, looking at us blankly.

"Come, no use pretending any more. Your performance was great, but-"

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything, well, I did say that first thing about the mission, but then everything is a blank. Tell me, what happened?"

"Are you telling me you don't know what you said?" Iphigenie sounded incredulous, and I didn't blame her. But something told me that Margaux was not shamming.

"You started glowing blue all over," I told her, "and then you said something about water and fire marrying..."

"Did I"? She sounded genuinely surprised, and now Iphigenie believed her, too.

"And something about a dark one bewaring of the scorpion's sting," she went on. "And then you seemed to explode and fell down like this."

"Amazing. I swear I don't remember any of it. It's creepy. As if something or someone had taken possession of me..."

"Well, you don't seem any the worse for it," I said trying to sound more light-hearted than I really felt. "Get up and see if you are completely all right."

Together we pulled her to her feet. She shook herself and, to our relief, agreed that she was fine. We kept standing near the bus for several more minutes, but nothing happened, and so finally we returned to the carriage.

We have talked this strange event over again and again, but we have not the slightest idea what it could have been about. If Margaux is right, and she was really possessed, as she calls it, then WHO was talking through her? And, of course, WHAT, if anything, is the message? "When water and fire are married..." So much the worse for the fire! I've never heard such nonsense before! And the other thing about the scorpion...

It's probably best, as Margaux says, to sleep on it. Tomorrow we'll have to make up our minds whether to tell Maxime, though.

A/N: Now, my friends, any guesses as to the strange event? Prizes for those who get it right!