Chapter 11 – The Tournament and the Tower

After what seemed like an eternity, Nora was setting up her chess set for the third time, preparing for the semi-final against Hunter Morgan, a bespectacled boy in Dane's year.

"Right, then," said Jeffrey, who had good-naturedly just lost to Hunter in round two and was now holding up the tournament chart. "Finny and Vin at table one, Gregory and Morag at two, Marissa and Laura at three, Paul and Alexandria at four. You're competing for ninth through sixteenth place among the first people eliminated. Me and Nate at five, Jeannie and Sandrine at six, we'll be fifth through eighth. And the four semifinalists are Nora, Hunter, Dane and Mira. Tables seven and eight."

"Cheers, Jeff," said Julian as he, Andie, Geoffrey and two other sixth years came through the portrait hole.

"Back so soon?" asked Laura Messinger, who was already seated across from her opponent, Marissa.

"Wanted to see how you lot were faring," said Geoffrey. "Sneaks, you out yet?"

"No, Geof, semifinals," said Nora, pleased with herself.

"How about you, Dane?" asked Andie.

"Same," said Dane.

"Well, that just proves that they're Weasleys," said Julian.

"Stop it, you'll jinx us," said Nora, annoyed.

They began their games – Nora was discouraged to see that Hunter Morgan was much better than her previous two opponents, Finny and Nathan. Three times she realized that she was in danger of a check, and it took her sometimes five minutes of deep concentration to figure out the right evasive maneuver. Hunter was an excellent player.

"You're very good, you know," she said softly to him as she hit the clock.

"And you," he said, not taking his eyes off the chessboard.

"Hey, what's with the owl?" asked Paul, one of the second years that Nora was not familiar with.

"What owl?" said Sandrine.

"At the window," said Paul, nodding towards the window of Gryffindor tower.

Gregory Chatham stood up to let the owl in – to Nora's surprise, it flew straight to her.

"I wonder what this is about," she said, puzzled, and then opened it.

Red,

Grab Vin and meet us on the Astronomy tower, quick as you can.

Kincaid

Nora swallowed, and then looked up, realizing that the whole of Gryffindor's first two years were watching her expectantly. "Oh, no big deal," she said.

"Your move," Hunter said politely, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"So it is," Nora agreed. She studied the chessboard. What can it be?

Finally, without giving much thought to it, she moved a knight two spaces to the left and one down.

Hunter looked at her strangely. "You sure you want to do that, Weasley?"

"Sure," Nora said vaguely as she let go of the horse.

"All right…checkmate, then."

Nora looked down at the board. "So it is," she said again, watching one of Hunter's castles storm over to her king.

"We're done," Hunter called.

"We're not," Mira snapped from where she and Dane were sitting. Nora watched as the dark-haired girl bent over the chessboard in frustration, and saw that Dane's expression was one of sadness.

Oh no, she thought to herself, he's not going to let her win, is he?

Then she remembered Kincaid's note. "Say, Vin, would you mind helping me with…that Potions assignment?"

Vin frowned at her; they had both finished the Potions assignment the previous day. Then it dawned on him. "Sure, let's go to the library."

"Oi, you can't do that," Jeffrey protested. "Nora still has to play whoever loses Dane and Mira's game."

Nora shrugged. "I'll just forfeit. Fourth place isn't bad." She and Vin hurried out of the portrait hole.

"What's going on?" Vin said in a low voice.

"Here," she said brusquely, and handed him Kincaid's note.

"I don't know if I like the sound of this," Vin said grimly as they quickened their pace.

When they got to the Astronomy tower, they found Kincaid waiting with Pallas and Nick. "What took so long?" asked Nick.

"We were in the middle of a chess tournament, sorry," said Nora. "Why the Astronomy tower?"

"Because I knew no one would be here," said Kincaid. He turned to Pallas. "Pallas, tell them."

Pallas' usually composed face was ashen. "You know those creatures we talked about yesterday, the Mundrings? Whose whiskers used to be used in wands, but now they're extinct?"

"Yes," said Nora slowly, remembering vaguely that something along those lines had been mentioned yesterday.

"Well, I was bored and I wanted to know what they were, out of personal interest, so I had my mum send me a book from the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures. I don't think anyone had read it in centuries, but when I looked up the Mundrings, I found out that wands with their whiskers, like Nick said yesterday, can only cast Dark magic spells. But there are also a bunch of things that Mundring wands can do that no other wand can – and one of the functions unique to a Mundring wand is to cast Black Slumber."

"No!" said Vin, amazed.

"But who would have a Mundring-whisker wand, if Mundrings are extinct?" Nora said quickly.

"We don't know," said Kincaid, his quiet voice able to convey as much meaning as if he had yelled. "But we should find out."

"But don't you see?" said Nick. "Mundring wands can't be that common. If we can find who has them, it'll narrow down who the possible casters can be."

"It's not like someone can just register a Mundring wand," said Pallas, shaking her head. "If you have a Mundring wand, you're obviously going to be a Dark wizard. Why else would you need one?"

"Still, it's something to go on, Pallas," said Nora soothingly. "Maybe I should tell my…"

She stopped herself.

"Tell your what, Nora?" asked Vin.

"Tell your…parents?" Nick guessed.

"But if you do that, they'll know you were listening!" said Pallas.

"I know…that's why I stopped myself," said Nora. "Maybe I could just bring it up casually, as if it's something really interesting I learned…?"

"Maybe…but hold off on that for a while," said Kincaid cautiously. "I don't think it's the kind of thing you would have picked up at regular Hogwarts lessons. Maybe if you first talk about Charms Club, and that you were supposed to find out an interesting fact about wand cores?"

"That's perfect, Kinny," said Nora, relieved that there was a way to clue in her parents without giving away that she had eavesdropped.

Kincaid smiled lightly. "All right, then. I think that's it for now. Unless wait, have we found out anyone's bloodlines?"

"Yes," Nora sighed.

"Jeffrey Kingsley's a target," Vin continued. "In addition to Morag."

"As is Shelby Cherice, in my House," said Nick.

"Over in Ravenclaw, in our year, there's Matt Yardmark and Braden Reilly," said Pallas, sounding tired.

"We should write these down," said Nora.

"I brought parchment this time," said Kincaid. "And while we're writing them down, Nora, you can do that thing your mum did."

"Sure thing," said Nora, reaching out and accepting Kincaid's parchment. She screwed up her face in effort and tapped the parchment three times, then said the incantation she had heard numerous times in her mother's retelling of the story of Dumbledore's Army. For a moment, the parchment turned a bright red, and then the color faded back to normal. Then she wrote her name, Nora Weasley, with a flourish.

"There, I'm first," she said, and gave the quill and parchment to Vin, who was standing idly as the other three wrote down the list of targets.

"You know," said Pallas, "while the weather's okay, we can continue meeting here. No one uses this tower until midnight, do they?"

"That sounds good. But it'll start snowing soon, and then what?" asked Nick.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," said Vin.

"But in the meantime, we can still keep a lookout for possible places," said Nora practically.

"Fair enough."

"Sounds good."

"Then I'll go write that letter to my parents…hopefully they'll find the information useful," said Nora. She bade the four of them goodbye, and hurried out of the Astronomy Tower.

A/N – yes, it's short. But at least I'm writing it, right?

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