A/N: Gaaaaaaaah. Just when I get back into doing this, the next book comes out. . Oh well… the same thing happened with my Harry Potter Stories. Book Five had been scheduled to come out and it didn't so I wrote a series taking place after fourth book.

Thankfully, none o' ya'll care. Lol If you do, then you aren't reading this. I'll have to get book four of CB when I finally get paid. . : wishes she had money now:

Chapter Twelve

The end of school play was coming up rapidly. Morgan and Fidelio could be seen together working over a piece of music. Olivia would disappear for extended periods of time into the Drama department while Emma was stuck with making clothes with some of the other girls.

Charlie was effectively left alone most of the time. Even Asa and Mafred seemed to ignore him, which was very strange indeed. He was glad he wasn't ever chosen to play with the rest of the orchestra, but he did miss his friends being there.

Mr. Paltry, once again, was disgusted with his playing. "You are useless!" cried the old tutor. Then, he shooed Charlie out of the practice room with his trumpet.

Charlie sighed as he sat down in the hallway. It was now officially summer, though the sky remained cloudy and the air cool. He could always see the sun peeking out, waiting to be exposed fully, but then the clouds would cover it up quickly. Corazon was still under Manfred's spell and she was trying to break it daily. The only girl that didn't seem to ever break it was Ada. Whenever he saw her, her eyes were as dull and lifeless as ever.

Suddenly, someone ran right into his outstretched leg and fell over. He blinked as he saw a mass of dark hair and purple cloak. Ada Isidore was hastily trying to gather herself up as she pulled her hair back from her face. Charlie blinked. She didn't look the least bit hypnotized.

"Ada?" he asked softly.

Ada looked to him with wide, brown, doe like eyes surrounded in thick black eyelashes. "I'm sorry!" she said in surprise.

"Are you all right?"

Ada nodded as she sat on her knees and looked at him, rounded face looking flushed. Charlie frowned. "What's wrong?"

"M-Manfred… he's been trying to get his hands on me all day. I keep running away, but he somehow manages to get where I'm trying to go before me. It's really annoying and a bit scary," she said with a frown.

Charlie got to his feet and helped Ada up. "So you don't know what he's been doing to you?"

"What do you mean?" she said as she stood up. She was shorter than Morgan, but still taller than Charlie.

"He's been hypnotizing you, I believe. Don't know why though, but you have to be careful about not looking at his eyes," Charlie said in a hushed tone.

Ada looked away, frowning. Charlie furrowed his eyebrows at her. "What's wrong?"

Ada looked to him and her dark brown eyes seemed to get darker, gazing at him. He almost felt like he was being hypnotized himself, though it wasn't as bad as Manfred's influence on him. He looked away and rubbed his head. "You… you do it too?"

"Somewhat… I know they want me near them because I say things that they don't want people to hear. That's all I know, I swear," she said in a small voice.

"ISIDORE!"

Ada's face snapped around to Manfred's voice. She looked to Charlie with a fearful look and then ran off. Charlie saw Manfred come around the corner and glare at him. "What are you doing out of class?"

"Teacher kicked me out," Charlie said as he glared back, though he concentrated on the caterpillar growing on Manfred's face instead of his eyes.

Manfred narrowed his eyes and grunted, looking away. "Fine. Just stay put until next class period then." Then, Manfred walked off shouting Ada's name.

Charlie had to find Emma and the others. He had to tell them about what Ada said. Olivia had told him already about Ada saying that she said things that shouldn't be said. He sat down and started writing out what Ada had said earlier. "One is strong and will bring peace to the castle of red," he mumbled to himself, "The five will break through, beware."

Then, there was the mystery song that he kept hearing. It all made no sense to him. What was it that fit the whole thing together?

He stood up when he heard a song playing, the one that was bothering so much lately. It was a violin playing, fairly well at that. Charlie followed the sound to a practice room. He looked in and found Morgan practicing. She had said she only started the previous year, but she sounded very good, though not as good as Fidelio who was practically a virtuoso.

The song stopped and Morgan stood up, opening the door. She blushed when she saw Charlie standing there. "Ah—what are you doing here?"

"Kicked out of practice," he said automatically, "Where did you hear that song?"

"I dunno, I heard it one night and the song has been bothering me since. I'd sing it if I knew the words to it, but all I could hear was the tune," she said sullenly.

"I hear that above the boys' dorms. Billy said a girl stays over on the weekends and sings that song at night. He doesn't know which girl though," said Charlie as he thought. He blinked for a moment as a thought hit him. "Do you know of anyone that doesn't sleep in the girls' dormitory?"

Morgan nodded. "Yeah, Ada. She's always missing. I figure she's just getting in later than everyone, but y'know," she trailed off.

Charlie nodded mutely as he stared up at Morgan. "Ada's the girl they're keeping here. It all makes sense. She said she says things that the Bloors' don't want anyone to hear and that she knows Manfred is constantly hypnotizing her."

Morgan looked about ready to split heads open, blue eyes wide in anger. "Those…. horrible… PEOPLE! How dare they do that to her!"

Charlie was suddenly very afraid for his life if he didn't calm Morgan down. It was the same thing with her father. It was as though the entire world was about to end as everyone knew it the moment one of them got angry.

"Calm down! There isn't anything we can do right now," Charlie said, "We'll have to find some way to get her out of their grasp without them knowing it."

"And how many times has anyone done that?" grunted Morgan.

Charlie blushed faintly. Morgan grinned that lopsided grin and patted him on the head. "All right, we'll get the others into this and figure something out."

Charlie nodded and ran off, leaving Morgan to put her violin away. She turned around and crouched down to open her case when she heard someone come up behind her. Just as she was going to turn, she was shoved inside the room and heard the door close behind her, the click of the lock sounded in the practice room. Her heart pounded as she fought to right herself and see what happened.

"And just what are you two planning?" said that voice that had a tendency to grate on her nerves every time she heard it. Asa Pike was leaning against the door, his arms crossed in front of him.

Morgan's eyes widened as she stared up at him from the floor. "Let me out," she said. "I'll turn you inside out if you don't let me out!"

Asa pulled Morgan to her feet and pushed her against the wall of the practice room. "I'll ask again. What are you two planning," he said in a calm tone.

Morgan trembled slightly at his proximity. His hands were planted on either side of her head on the wall, the only way out for her would be to go under his long arms, but the room wasn't that big to start with and all he had to do was turn to grab her. She wasn't THAT fast.

"What are you talking about?" she said as calmly as she could.

"You were talking to Charlie Bone again. Whenever he talks to someone he has a tendency to start something up that he shouldn't even know about. Now I'll ask one more time, MacGregor; what are you two planning?" His wolfish eyes bored into her with intensity, like two lasers.

Suddenly, she felt cloth against her fingers, and what felt to be muscle. Asa trembled, eyes wide as he stared at her. "Don't you start that again! STOP IT!" he shrieked, Morgan's eyes clamping shut at the sound.

"I'm sorry! Okay! I'm sorry! I can't control it sometimes, so stop yelling at me!" Morgan shouted; her nerves frayed even more than ever. Her cheeks were burning up in embarrassment.

She felt a button against her fingers and her eyes shot open as Asa suddenly jerked away from her. A low growl emanated from his throat as he backed up against the door, watching her cautiously. One of the buttons was undone at the top of his shirt. Morgan felt like she was going to faint. That was what she'd feared she had done and now she saw the evidence of it. Her face was fully red as he unlocked the door.

"I'll find out what you lot are planning, just you wait." He grinned horribly at her, as wolfish as ever. "And make sure you don't go outside at night." Then, he shot out of the room like she was going to come after him.

It was quite the opposite, however. She fell onto her knees, eyes wide and tears coming to them. "Why… why can't I stop my powers when it does that?" she mumbled. Then, she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, the door closing with her help.

Mr. MacGregor motioned for Emma to come to his desk. Emma did so and looked to her new Art teacher. "Yes, sir?"

Mr. MacGregor smiled at her broadly. "I wanted to tank you for helping with the costumes. I'm not much of a seamstress," he said.

Emma shook her head. "It's no problem. I do it anyway, especially since Olivia is in it. I like making costumes for her."

Mr. MacGregor nodded. "Good good." He shifted a couple of papers and looked back at her. "I… wanted to ask you something."

Emma nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. Mr. MacGregor frowned as he looked off into the air in front of him. "How is m'daughter getting along with everyone?"

"Morgan? I think she's doing fine. She irritates Charlie sometimes, but I think that has to do with the fact that she's way too cheerful," said Emma with a smile. "Other than that, the only person she seems to not get along with is Asa and Manfred."

"That Bloor pipsqueak, Manfred, hasn't been trying any of his tricks on her lately, has he?"

Emma shook her head. Mr. MacGregor nodded. "And the Pike boy, what of him?"

Emma smirked. "She teaches him a lesson every time he makes her angry. I've seen the marks she leaves on him."

Mr. MacGregor nodded once again, steepling his fingers against his chin. "She knows better than to do it on purpose, but she was never one to keep her temper together, at least not for long. She's actually able to keep it under control compared to me."

Emma giggled. "Anything else, sir?"

Mr. MacGregor smiled at Emma. "You are getting better at your figures, Miss Tolley. I hope to see more improvement as I continue to teach here." Emma nodded, feeling very elated from such a compliment and stood, walking out quickly.

Charlie found Fidelio and Olivia before dinner was to start. He pulled them into a corner and told them about Ada being the girl that was left up in the attic above the boys' dorm and about how she was the one always singing at night.

Olivia nodded. "She isn't as quiet as she usually is. She was very happy and smiling all the time in class."

Fidelio grinned. "I saw her in the hallway and she was as bright as the sun."

Charlie nodded. "She's being controlled by the Bloors, though I think my warning about not looking into Manfred's eyes helped her some. We have to find out where she really lives and why her parents aren't worried about her not coming home."

Olivia frowned as Fidelio smiled weakly. "And just how are we to do that? Break into Dr. Bloor's office?"

Charlie narrowed his eyes in thought. "I suppose it would be the only way other than asking Ada herself."

"We would never get close enough to her, Manfred's always at her side," said Olivia, not in her usual high spirits. "OH! I know! I can see if I can't talk to her when she manages to get away from Manfred! She's always doing that!" she giggled.

Charlie and Fidelio nodded. "You do that. We'll reserve the spy stuff for later," said Fidelio with a grin.

With that, they walked into the main eating hall quietly, one of the last people in before the doors closed behind them.