Hello everybody! I know, I know, it's been a long time since I last updated, but something called real life takes its toll... Thanks to all you great reviewers out there. I never thought I'd ever get one that long! Well, here part of the mysterious message is explained (though it does not really explain much, or at least I hope so). I'm a bit disappointed at you people; I'd have expected someone to at least guess what the part with the scorpion was about. So I'll give you another chance to have a go at the water/fire thing. And no, definitely no wedding bells for Harry and Fleur, not for a long time! (Harry is not even fifteen now, remember!)

Chapter 25: What does it all mean?

April 2nd, 1995

In the light of the new day everything seems so ridiculous that we have decided not to tell anybody anything.

"After all," said Margaux, "I don't want a lecture from old Max about being immature and toying with things we don't understand, you know how she gets..."

We all know exactly what she was talking about, and so we agreed to remain quiet about the weird business. However, I'll tell Gabie, there can't be any harm in that. And who knows, sometimes she has the strangest ideas. I'll see that I find the time to visit her again soon.

Just at the moment, though, we are all extremely busy with all sorts of homework. Seems the teachers want to put in as much as possible before the Easter Holidays.

April 8th, 1995

It has been a hard week, but it's finally over. We handed in our last papers yesterday, and now the holiday week has started. (Not that we didn't get things to do during the holidays, no way!)

Several of the Beauxbatons students are growing restless and have started complaining about being "cooped up here in this boring old carriage", without anything to do outside of the lessons. I must say I don't blame them; it's really not easy to see why all the rest have to stay here. Of course I am glad that I don't have to remain here all on my own, but I can see their point.

Maxime was less than amused when she found out. She had all of us assemble in the common room and gave us quite a piece of her mind. The usual stuff about being ambassadors for our school, and it being a shame that some were not willing to disregard their petty personal interests in view of the greater goal.

"What goal?" I could hear Armand grumble in a low voice. It was not low enough for Maxime, and earned him a couple of hours of detention, so there were no further complaints.

At dinner, the Great Hall was more or less deserted; most of the students have obviously gone home for the holidays. There were hardly more Hogwarts students there than the Durmstrangs and us put together.

I had not seen much of Harry during the last weeks, and so I was especially happy to see him there with his friends.

"Hello," I said, walking up to them. "Why haven't you gone-" I checked myself. "Sorry," I said to Harry, "I should have remembered... how stupid of me-"

"And we are keeping him company," Hermione intervened to dispel the tension. "My parents are at some dentists' convention, and I dare say they are happy enough not to have to look after me besides all those conferences."

"And it's quite a treat," Ron added, "to be the only Weasley around for a change."

"Yes, one Weasley can be more than enough," Hermione said teasingly, and we all laughed.

April 9th, 1995

Saturday, first day of the Easter break. Margaux and Iphigenie have said they want to go for a walk together, and they have given me the distinct impression, although they haven't said anything, that they'd prefer to be on their own. They have become a bit secretive since that prank they wanted to play on me, and the mysterious outcome.

I have considered visiting Gabie at home, but decided against it. The weekend isn't a very good time for this, there are sure to be some guests, and I know only too well that my mother will require her to be present so she can show off her sweet little daughter. I have a whole week for that, anyway.

Think I'll go flying again, the weather is quite mild and sunny for this time of the year.

Played wizard's chess with Harry and his friends after dinner. Surprising that Hermione is not a good player at all, I'd have expected she'd be very good with that logical mind of hers, but in fact she was easiest for me to win against. Harry was pretty easy, too, somehow I seemed to know in advance which moves he was going to make.

Everyone was surprised when I beat Ron, too. Apparently he is a natural talent at chess, and always wins. True, he put up some fight, but in the end it was not so hard, after all.

"How can you expect me to concentrate on a chessboard, playing against a Veela?" he grumbled and although, seeing Hermione's face, he had the presence of mind to grin widely, I'm not sure if he was entirely joking.

April 10th, 1995

Grisabel has got a boyfriend! In the middle of the night I was woken by loud caterwauling outside. I got out of bed and looked out of the window. There I could see her engaged in what appeared to be a song contest with a large ginger cat that I had run across now and then in the Hogwarts corridors. When I opened the window to silence them, she looked up at me, and I could have sworn she was grinning. Then they both stopped their duet and disappeared out of sight.

In the early morning light, I woke up again, and found both the animals curled up in my bed, side by side, sleeping deeply. I envied them, in a way.

Grisabel's friend is actually Hermione's cat! (Well, as far as a cat can be ANYbody's.) She brought him along at dinner, and was quite surprised when he jumped straight on my lap and started purring loudly.

"Consider yourself honoured," she said to me. "He doesn't do this with many people."

The cat's name is Crookshanks, which I don't think is a very nice name, though I must admit it describes him rather well.

Hermione was delighted to find that I like cats, while Ron looked at me in a moody sort of way.

"He doesn't get along too well with Crookshanks," she said, nudging him. "Perhaps he is jealous, are you, Ron?"

Ron tried to hide it, but it was quite obvious to me that he was embarrassed, which makes me suspect that Hermione wasn't too far off the mark. As she hasn't seen Grisabel yet, I invited her to come over to the carriage some time during the week.

April 13th, 1995

I showed the carriage to Hermione today. She was very impressed by the sophisticated magic involved, and she made friends with Grisabel at once.

After some hesitation I asked her, and I felt my cheeks burning as I said it:

"Some time ago, I asked you to - well - do some investigation for me..." and as she looked blank, I went on, "about, you know, Harry, and, eh, what he thinks about me."

She smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, really. He doesn't talk much as it is, I mean, of course he talks about the usual stuff, school routines, and homework, and things, but it's not very often we get to talk about things that really matter, see?"

"It's probably asking too much," I said, feeling disappointed, though I was not even sure what I had expected. "Does he ever talk about me?"

"Oh, well, after that last time the two of you went flying, he said something about what a good broom you had, and that you were quite a talented flyer-"

I couldn't help grinning as she said it.

"And after the chess game he said how it was funny that he had the impression that you always knew in advance what moves he was going to make..."

"Strange, I remember having the same idea."

"Perhaps you're on the same wavelength," she said jokingly.

If we only were!

April 15th, 1995

I went to see Gabie again today, and found her in her room as I had expected. By now, she was not surprised any more at seeing me appear out of thin air, though she still finds it hard not to rush and embrace me. It's one of the things I love about her.

"Mother has a visitor," she told me presently.

"So?" Mother frequently has visitors, she likes playing the charming hostess and great lady. The only unusual thing, perhaps, was that it was not weekend yet.

"She's trying to keep this one a secret! She likes all those huge parties, normally, with all the important people around her, and can't get enough of it all. Remember how she even invited those reporters the other time? And now this is only one single man. I'm not even supposed to know about him. It was just by chance that I saw him arrive just about an hour ago. I was just looking out my window, when he Apparated in front of the main door. A moment later she came out of the house, looked around in a very furtive way, - but not up to my window, - and walked away with him to the pavilion. It was all very suspicious."

"Maybe she is having a secret love affair?"

"No," she said, and as there was not even the faintest trace of a smile in her face I knew it must be something more serious. "Not her. Besides, if you had seen him, you'd know- He is not the sort of person anybody would look at twice-"

"Now, who would YOU look at twice?" I tried to tease her, but she ignored me and went on.

"Besides, he gives me a creepy feeling, there is something sinister about him..."

"How can you say that, you've barely seen him at all?"

"But that's just the point! Even though I only looked at him for no more than a minute, less perhaps, this impression was so very clear. I wish you'd use this charm of yours and go and have a look at him. I'm sure you'll find that I'm right."

There was something unusually urgent in her voice.

"You mean spy on them?"

"Yes, I know it's not nice, and there'd be the most awful trouble if you got caught, too, but aren't you curious?"

I had to admit that I was.

"The pavilion, you say?"

"Yes, there are all those bushes there, you know, so you can hide pretty easily. Just have a short look at that man, and come back as soon as you can."

"All right, you win. I only hope I remember the pavilion well enough to visualize it."

Luckily, my memory was accurate enough, and presently I found myself next to the rococo garden pavilion. Luckily I had arrived in the middle of one of the bushes, perhaps two metres distant. (I must say it's a strange feeling what with all those leaves and twigs though your immaterial boy.) And indeed, there was my mother, wearing one of her everyday gowns (they still cost as much as some people earn in a month or two), which was another sign that this couldn't be a normal visitor. For her visitors, she normally puts on her extravagant robes to impress them. Sitting next to her on the bench, was the man Gabie had been talking about.

At once, I saw how perfectly absurd the idea of a secret love affair was. Now apart from the fact that my mother does not even remotely understand the meaning of the word love, if she really did engage in any affair, she'd go for the athletic superman type, the broad-shoulders-slim-hips type of guy, with tons of muscles, not choose a slightly potbellied short man, a whole head smaller than her, with sparse greying hair, a sharp nose in a pointed face and watery shifty eyes. No, definitely no affair of any kind!

On the other hand, I noticed very clearly what Gabie had meant by 'creepy feeling'. I could sense it very strongly, an aura of malevolence emanated from him an almost tangible cloud of- I can't even now think of an expression to describe it. But it was obvious that this man was up to no good.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have finished their conversation the very moment I arrived. They both stood and started to leave the pavilion. As the path would have led them dangerously near to my bus, and as they were not talking anymore, anyway, I decided it was better to leave and return to Gabie.

"Now?" She asked simply.

"You are right, there is something weird about that man. Well done to notice it so clearly. And no love affair, too!" I added to ease the atmosphere.

She didn't say
'I told you so', which was nice of her.

"Did you see what they were doing?"

"No, unfortunately they had just finished whatever they were talking about. Probably some business thing, though. They didn't behave in an exactly friendly way towards each other, businesslike, yes, and distant, but not angry or anything..."

"But if it's business, why the secret meeting?"

"Could be many reasons, others might want to go in for the same thing, most likely."

"Or it might be illegal!"

"You're reading too many pirate stories, Gabie. And then in the books, the pirates are always the noble ones, too."

We agreed she would keep her eyes open for other unusual things, though, and I would come see her on Sunday.

I'm not really sure what to make of all this. Probably it is none of my (or Gabie's) business, anyway. But that man did give me an uneasy feeling, too.

Only now that I'm writing this, back in the carriage, I realise I've completely forgotten to tell her about the strange behaviour of Margaux.

April 17th, 1995

Paid a short visit to Gabie in the morning. Sundays are usually days when our mansion is full of guests, so I had to be especially careful not to be seen. Also, the guests always want to see my sweet little sister, and mother is only too happy to present her like a performing monkey, playing the violin, singing, and making cute intelligent conversation...

She had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. The stranger had not appeared again, or at any rate, she had not seen anything of him, and mother was behaving quite the same as always. So it seems there's really nothing about the whole episode, and we will never know what it was, most likely.

This time, I did not forget and told her about Margaux pretending to be Morgaine. She did not laugh, and seemed to consider it very earnestly.

"Unless Margaux is a VERY good actress," she said, "-and you think she was not shamming, do you? - There has to be something behind this. I have no idea what it may be, water and fire marrying, and all that stuff, but - hey what was that other thing? Something about a scorpion?"

"Let the Dark One beware of the scorpion's sting."

"You're a Scorpion, aren't you?" she looking at me excitedly.

I gasped. "Yes, of course I am! How perfectly idiotic of me not to think of it! Do you really think - it can't - what would it mean?"

"That you are a danger to some 'Dark One', obviously." She said it so matter-of-factly that there didn't seem to be any other explanation. "So the only thing you'll have to figure out is who that 'Dark One' may be."

"Do you know, I'm not really so keen on finding out," I said. "Doesn't sound like something very nice. And anyway, there's no way water and fire can marry, is there?"

"Right. But be a good girl and look out for any dark ones that you may happen to meet."

"And do what?"

"Sting them, of course," she was now grinning widely.

Before I could reply, someone was at the door, and I thought it wise to return.

It is all very well for Gabie to joke about all this, I have a feeling she isn't really convinced that Margaux was not making it all up; but I do wonder what it can all be about.

When I was back in the carriage, I wanted to tell these latest ideas to my two friends, but I could not find them anywhere. They seem to hang out together quite a lot recently. Perhaps I should talk to Hermione about it.

In the evening all the Hogwarts students that had been away for the holidays were back again, and the hall was buzzing with their talk as usual. Everything seemed so normal that again I felt ridiculous thinking of the absurd message and taking it seriously.

Cho and Cedric look happier than ever, I believe they spent the holidays together; they have eyes for each other only, and I felt left out a bit.

Several owls arrived, among them Harry's beautiful snowy one. She was carrying a rather large parcel, which the three of them opened readily. Harry had got a rather large Easter egg, but I could not see what the others had. I noticed, though, that Hermione looked disappointed and angry. There was also a letter, which the three of them read together. From their expressions I gathered they were not too pleased at what they were reading. However, I didn't want to appear nosy and so I didn't ask them.

April 18th, 1995

I told Margaux what Gabie had pointed out about the scorpion thing.

"Honestly and truly," I said, "did you act out the whole thing or didn't you?"

"I did not!" She flared up angrily. "I've been telling you this before. What do you expect me to do? Filch some veritaserum or what?"

"Ok, I believe you," I said soothingly. "It's only- it may be important, don't you think?"

"Sorry for exploding like that. Yes, I suppose it may be important. Something strange happened, so much is certain. And it would be too much of a coincidence if that scorpion was NOT you..."

"But what about that fire and water thing?"

"I can't imagine. It sounds so absurd."

"Well, it's the condition for the other part about the 'Dark One'. So as long as that does not happen, I won't have to worry about any Dark Ones, nor they about me."

"But-" she said suddenly, and her eyes went wide, "what if that Dark One, whoever that may be, won't risk the chance of water and fire marrying?"

I must say she has a point here, and I don't particularly like it.