Jane Court had little reason to be on Jinx's case thus far into the year. So far, the pesky Third-Year had not done anything out of the normal and blended in well with the rest of the student populace. Of course, Jane had heard the professors grumbling about how Jinx had somehow managed to convince Madam Rosmerta to let her work at the Three Broomsticks every weekend, but that had died down quickly when Professor Flitwick brought up that Talbott Winger of all people informed him that Jinx had worked at the inn all summer. And so there was little that could be said, except that Jinx Raider was a tricky sort of student.
Although, she certainly was not as tricky as the Boggart problem was beginning to be.
At least twice a week, each of the Prefects was called in to diffuse some sort of a situation regarding the Boggarts. In just the week of Halloween, Jane and Felix Rosier, a Slytherin Seventh-Year Prefect, had had to interrupt several Charms classes.
In one particularly memorable class, Professor Flitwick had the Third-Year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs practice the Petrification Jinx on each other. Jane and Felix watched in amusement as Jinx Raider's spell hit Ben Cooper square in the stomach. He froze within a blink of an eye and fell directly backward into a pile of pillows Fliwtick had conjured at the start of the class. To Jane's delight (and less so with Felix), Flitwick had given Hufflepuff 10 points for Jinx's perfect spellcasting, and another 10 to Gryffindor for Ben Cooper's good sport. Still, the two Seventh-Years had to physically hold back their laughter as they scurried away.
While Jane and the other Prefects were running around the castle trying to help in whatever ways they could to keep the calm, mischief was brewing in the Herbology Greenhouses one late-November afternoon. Specifically, mischief in the form of two scheming Third-Year Hufflepuffs.
As Professor Sprout announced the subject of that day's lesson (de-fanging vampiric vegetation), Jinx Raider quietly snuck into the back of the classroom, late after taking a few extra minutes to review her Ancient Runes problem set.
"Wotcher, Jinx!" Tonks greeted. "Everything okay? I saw Filch tear out of the Three Broomsticks, then you left looking like someone stole your last Chocolate Frog."
"Is this about the boggarts?" Charlie Weasley interrupted. "My friend said there have been boggart sightings in all four Common Rooms."
"No, it's not about the boggarts," Jinx hissed. "Tonks-"
"Miss Tonks, Miss Raider, pay attention!" Sprout called out. "I'd like a puncture-free class today."
Charlie gave Jinx a triumphant grin at having not been reprimanded by Sprout. Jinx stuck her tongue out at him before bringing her attention back to Sprout demonstrating proper glove usage. "It's okay, Tonks. We can talk after Herbology," she whispered to her friend.
Tonks nodded in agreement.
It seemed that class always went by slowly when Jinx wanted it to go by quicker. De-fanging vampiric plants was not Jinx's preferred way to pass the time, especially when her set of plants was particularly pungent with the smell of blood. She secretly thought that some of the lessons Professor Sprout had for them were just so the students could do the chores that she didn't want to do on her own. Not that Jinx really blamed Sprout for that: she too would go insane if she had to de-fang all these plants on her.
Still, Jinx welcomed the end of class, which couldn't come soon enough. Despite being in the same house and year, Jinx had never talked with Tonks much outside of classes. After the First-Year slumber parties the Hufflepuff girls had tried to initiate, smaller cliques obviously appeared and there hadn't been much interaction between them. Jinx could hardly remember the last time she had spoken to Stella, Audrey, or Chiara. But Tonks had always made Jinx laugh and she seemed fun to be around, so Jinx wasn't displeased at all when Tonks wanted to chat.
"So what happened in the Three Broomsticks? Besides your nasty run-in with Filch," Tonks asked as she cleaned her gloves at the end of the lesson.
Jinx hesitated. She didn't want to reveal too much of what had happened to Tonks. "Well, I worked at the Three Broomsticks over the summer," she started to explain, "and Madam Rosmerta invited me back to work during some weekends. I realized I had left a notebook there over the summer, and right when I found it, Filch took it right out of my hands. I have to get it back."
"It must be a pretty special notebook," Tonks commented, accepting Jinx's half-lie as a satisfactory answer. "Well, I happen to know that Filch puts everything he confiscates in his office. I'd need forty-seven fingers to count everything he has of mine."
"Merlin, Tonks! How much contraband do you bring with you?"
"I swear, it's mostly just because I'm forgetful and leave stuff around," Tonks laughed. "But that just means I'm an expert at getting into his office."
"Do tell." Jinx zipped up her school satchel and waited for Tonks to finish stuffing her class notes back into her bag.
"You need to find a way to scare him outta his office so you have time to search for the notebook," Tonks explained.
"How do you scare someone whose job is to scare children?" Jinx joked.
"Ha! Don't worry, I made sure to pick up a lot of things from Zonko's when I was at Hogsmeade," Tonks laughed. "Let's go over everything I have in my room after dinner, alright?"
"Sounds like a plan!"
Later that night during dinner, Tonks kindly informed Jinx that tonight would not be a good night to meet up to discuss pranks. Apparently, she had been caught trying to break into Filch's office earlier that day, and Professor Sprout had awarded her with three nights' worth of detention.
"I promise after my detentions are over we can go over my pranks!" Tonks said, placing her hand over her heart.
That didn't exactly fill Jinx with the most confidence in Tonks' rule-breaking abilities, but she simply smiled in Tonks' direction and went back to eating her pumpkin pie.
"What do you need to discuss pranks for?" Sebastian asked between bites of Treacle Tart.
"Filch stole something from me," Jinx explained, "and I kind of need it back as soon as possible."
"I thought you were turning over a new leaf this year?" Rowan joked.
"Hey, in my defense, it wasn't even something illegal!" Jinx protested. Upon seeing Rowan, Penny, and Sebastian's doubtful faces, she sighed. "He took a freaking notebook from me."
"It must be a very special notebook then," Sebastian said offhandedly.
"It is," Jinx replied, looking at Rowan and Penny. She was thankful that the two of them seemed to understand the meaning behind her words, although they didn't look any less concerned.
"Ancient Runes study session after dinner?" Rowan suggested to Jinx and Penny.
"You're all nerds for taking that class," Lenny snorted, leaning over Sebastian's plate for a slice of pie.
"Thank you!" Rowan beamed. Jinx couldn't help but laugh at this; Rowan took great pride in the fact that she was taking all five possible electives one could take starting in their third year at Hogwarts.
After dinner, the three girls hurried back up to their room. Jinx did feel slightly guilty for not telling Penny and Rowan about the notebook right away, but she was sure they would understand. After all, not everything had to be shared right away, especially since Jinx didn't have the book in her possession.
When Jinx had finished telling Penny and Rowan about the notebook, Filch, and Tonks' offer to help with a prank, the two girls sat there quietly, deep in thought.
Finally, Rowan broke the silence. "I'm sure Tonks has a lot of experience with breaking into Filch's office."
"Yeah, I'd trust her to be able to find a way to get in there," Penny agreed.
It seemed that Penny and Rowan were right to put their trust in Tonks, as when Jinx met up with her a few days later, she discovered why Audrey and Stella were always complaining about Tonks' side of their dorm room. After dinner, Tonks and Jinx headed back to the Hufflepuff dorms, specifically the other Third-Year Hufflepuff girls' room. Jinx hadn't been in that room since their first year in Hogwarts, not that she had any reason to.
To her surprise, Audrey and Stella were already in the room. They gave Jinx and Tonks a judging look before going back to their whispered conversation.
"I've got a decent stash down here," Tonks called out as she crawled under her bed. Jinx could hear her rummaging through what she assumed were mountains of things. Audrey and Stella paused their chattering to watch as Tonks threw out random objects from under her bed: Quidditch gloves, old Astronomy notes, a Gryffindor scarf, and a Fanged Frisbee.
The frisbee landed on Stella's bed, and she squealed as it nearly hit her. "Tonks!" Stella yelled. "These are banned, don't you know?"
"Not if anyone knows," Tonks yelled back from under her bed. Then, she popped out, her magenta hair frizzy and all messed up. "I've got some fake rates here, a Nose-Biting Teacup, and the Stella's frisbee."
"It's not mine," Stella hissed.
Jinx shook her head in amusement. While she did appreciate the harmony of her three-person dorm room, she did admit that this room would certainly be entertaining. She felt a bit bad for Chiara Lobosca, the fourth member of Tonks' dorm; she could only imagine all the arguments Chiara was witness to.
"I'll take one Nose-Biting Teacup please," Jinx decided. The teacup seemed to be the best middle ground of causing enough chaos to distract Filch but also not causing too much destruction to make Jinx feel guilty.
"Excellent choice! A little chomping never hurt anyone," Tonks said cheerfully. "Filch will never know what hit, or in this case bit, him."
"Filch?" Audrey asked. "What are you bothering him for?"
"Yeah, didn't you just get out of detention, Tonks?" Stella asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not that we're complaining," she muttered under her breath.
"Important business with Jinx," Tonks replied. "I'm afraid it's very confidential."
"Even better," Stella deadpanned, now turning to Jinx with a judgemental stare.
Jinx smiled and waved in response. Then, to Tonks she said, "Well then, let's go pay him a visit."
Early morning Sunday was the best time to pull a prank. At least according to Tonks, it was. "Everyone is sleeping in, even the Quidditch teams!" Tonks had explained when she snuck into Jinx's room and practically dragged her out of her bed. That was true: now that Rowan was a reserve Chaser for the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team, she was up even earlier than usual in the mornings for practices. Jinx barely had any time to pull on her slippers before she left the room. And it was a good thing she did because the castle was chilly. A late November draft was blowing through the empty halls of Hogwarts, leaving Jinx to shiver in her flannel pajamas.
"Was this necessary?" Jinx chattered her teeth.
"Yes," Tonks said with a surprising amount of energy considering it was six in the morning.
"If you insist," Jinx grumbled. "Do you have the teacup?"
"Of course," Tonks grinned. "I've got it wrapped as a little gift and everything."
Tonks placed the present in front of the closed door of Filch's office. Then, she and Jinx quickly hid inside a nearby cupboard. Jinx left the cupboard door slightly open so she could levitate one of the suits of armor that was along the wall. Once the suit of armor had been lifted a few feet in the air, Jinx stopped the spell and shut the door as quietly as possible. The armor fell to the ground with a loud CLANK. She could hear the sound of a startled meow, and then the sound of a door opening. It didn't seem he noticed the gift at the foot of his door, because all Jinx could hear was one long sound of someone running down the hall with a cat close behind.
"Now's your chance," Tonks said, nudging Jinx out the door. "But be quick - Filch never leaves for long."
Jinx nodded, then sprinted across the hall into Filch's office. She was surprised by the number of boxes and drawers inside the office. She figured it would take forever to find anything old in here, and could only hope that since the notebook had been confiscated fairly recently, that would mean it would be easy to spot. She started rummaging through the box on Filch's desk but didn't find it in there.
"It just isn't fair, Mrs. Norris," Filch was saying off in the distance.
Crap. Filch was coming and he was close by. "Reducio humano," Jinx recited quickly, closing her eyes in preparation for the shrinking sensation. She ducked behind the leg of Filch's desk between a pile of parchment files and hoped that Mrs. Norris wouldn't catch her.
"Bad enough I have to deal with Peeves, an' these filthy little misbehavin' beasts," Filch was grumbling to the cat, "but now I'm doin' chores for Professor Snape. Why should we be freezin' our whiskers off in Hogsmeade just to steal some child's notebook? Maybe I want a Butterbeer too." So Snape had been the one to give the orders to confiscate Jacob's notebook? How had he known about it?
"Oh, what's this?" Filch paused at the door. Jinx could hear the sound of paper rustling. "It's a note from a Madam Tyler, who wants to thank me for my hard work? How thoughtful!" Ah, so Filch had found the gift Jinx and Tonks had left him. Jinx couldn't hold back her smile as she heard Filch unwrap the gift.
"Ahhhh! It's a crazy teacup. Run!" Filch hollered. The sound of his footsteps and Mrs. Norris' yowling faded off into the distance.
Jinx quickly brought herself back up to her regular height and opened the top drawer in Filch's desk. To her delight, she saw the notebook at the very top of a pile of other confiscated books. She removed a decoy notebook from her pocket and put it where the original notebook had been. Then, she sprinted back out into the hallway and opened the supply closet, where Tonks was changing her fingernail shape.
"Let's go!" Jinx said and the two ran back down to the Hufflepuff Common Room.
"Did you get the book?" Tonks asked as Jinx tapped the barrel rhythm.
Jinx nodded and smiled. "Thanks for your help."
"Anytime you want to bother Filch, I am happy to help," Tonks grinned.
Back in her dorm room, Jinx could finally search through her brother's notebook in peace. By now, Penny and Rowan had woken up and were chatting about Christmas plans with their families. Upon noticing Jinx's arrival, however, they quickly stopped talking.
"Success!" Jinx announced, holding up the notebook.
Penny and Rowan applauded.
"I'm glad you didn't get caught," Rowan said.
"Me too," Jinx nodded.
Then, she flopped back onto her bed and started flipping through the book. The book was relatively empty, with only a few pages containing text written in some sort of code. It looked familiar, and Jinx realized it was written in the same code as the message in the room of ice from her first year.
"Rowan?" Jinx called out.
"Yes?"
"Do you still have those notes on the code from the room in first year?" Jinx asked.
"What?" Rowan frowned in confusion.
"The room with the ice from first year," Jinx clarified. "We found a message in there written in some sort of code."
"Ohh, right," Rowan said, adjusting her glasses. "Yeah, just give me a few minutes to find it."
"Is the book written in the code?" Penny asked.
Jinx nodded. "It should be decipherable, but might just take a little while."
"Well, you have time," Penny said. "Hopefully you'll get everything deciphered before the holidays. Unless you're staying at Hogwarts, of course."
"I'm going back home," Jinx told her. "Mum wants to have a big family gathering this year, so I won't be able to avoid that."
"That should be fun," Penny said. "I'm glad to hear you're also going home though, because Rowan and I are also going home and I'd hate to think about leaving either one of you here alone."
"That's so nice of you," Jinx gave her friend a genuine smile. Ever since the Boggart had taken the form of Penny's worst fear all the way in the beginning of the year, Penny had been quieter than usual. Jinx hadn't bothered or pressed her about it, but she couldn't help but worry for one of her dearest friends. Still, if Penny didn't want to talk about it, it was not Jinx's job to press her about anything.
"I found it!" Rowan waved a handful of parchment in the air. "It might be a bit messy, but it should be accurate."
"You're the best, Ro," Jinx said, giving Rowan a tight hug before taking the parchment and smoothing it out.
She took out a fresh sheet of parchment from her own bag and spread out Rowan's notes on her bed. Opening the first page with writing in Jacob's notebook, Jinx saw that the code was slightly different, but it wasn't anything she couldn't solve. Besides, in their Ancient Runes class, they had learned how to decipher variations of simple codes, which was what the notebook code seemed to be. Jinx worked until mid-afternoon, not even bothering to eat lunch. Thankfully, Penny and Rowan had saved a sandwich for her, so she wasn't too hungry, but she didn't even register any hunger as she was completely engrossed in decoding Jacob's words.
Rowan's notes were indeed messy and unorganized, but after re-writing out the translated alphabet on a new sheet of parchment, the deciphering process was relatively simple. The first page of notes turned out to be a journal entry dated October 3. Jinx couldn't make out what the date was, but it was in the late 1970s, a few years before Jacob's expulsion and disappearance.
" … Boggarts related to curse protecting the vault … someone else messed with vault again and found it first … move research to abandoned 5th floor room … avoid Dumbledore…."
Well, that was certainly informative.
She decided that she would decipher the rest of the notebook sometime later, as she was hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion. But this was a very useful message, and Jinx felt closer to Jacob than she had in a long while.
Jinx decided that she wanted Bill to go with her when she searched the fifth floor for Jacob's room. It was actually Charlie who had been the one to give Jinx the idea, as the two of them had been paired up during Charms class. They were practicing the Banishing Charm on empty jars after Lenny and Aiden had accidentally set the practice pillows on fire. Thankfully, Diego had earned back the House Points the two had lost by getting his Banishing Charm perfectly executed on the first try. While all that chaos was happening, Charlie had made an offhand comment to Jinx about how busy Bill was studying for his OWLs, and how Charlie wished he could give his brother a break somehow.
"Leave that to me," Jinx had reassured Charlie.
Later that night, Jinx headed over to the library, where she knew Bill would be studying. Her instincts were correct, as he was sitting there alone, immersed in a large Arithmancy textbook. To her surprise, Bill was more than happy to accompany her on her search for Jacob's room.
"I've just been so busy with studying I need some sort of a distraction," Bill explained. "And you know I'm always up for Curse-Breaking activities."
"This won't exactly involve any Curse-Breaking, but it shoul definitely help with that!"
Bill had agreed on meeting during the weekend. It was going to be an early December Hogsmeade trip, and Jinx figured the castle would be empty as most of the students would be going into the village to start shopping for the holidays. Luckily, Bill didn't seem to stress too much about missing the Hogsmeade trip. So on Saturday morning, Jinx and Bill met at the far end of the fifth-floor east corridor.
"How did you even find out about your brother's secret room?" Bill asked.
Jinx paused for a moment, breathing heavily after she had ran up five flights of stairs. "He kept records of his search," Jinx explained, still out of breath. "I found his notebook and deciphered a message talking about his room on the fifth floor."
Bill nodded. "We'll find it, Jinx," he said determinedly.
Jinx certainly hoped that he would be correct.
There was no sign of a secret room anywhere in the east corridor. A pixie in a painting followed Bill and Jinx as they walked around, staring at them in curiosity. It seemed to laugh when the two reached the end of the corridor without finding what they were looking for. Jinx gave the pixie a dirty look, and the creature ducked behind a nearby tree in the next painting over.
They turned the corner onto the next hall. After a few minutes of walking, Bill halted to a stop. "I know there's a bit of a mini-hallway behind this doorway," Bill explained, leading Jinx through the doorway that she was just now recognizing. "I've caught several First-Years trying to pull pranks here since September. You'd think by now they would know not to try me," Bill tutted.
The corridor Bill was talking about was the very one that Ben had been found in the previous year and close to where the entrance to Vault of Ice had been. It couldn't be a coincidence that Jacob's research room just happened to be in the same exact place, right?
"And here we are," Bill announced, pointing at one of the four doors in the corridor. "I've always noticed that this door has been locked and chained, but I've never really thought much about it."
Jinx took a closer look at it. "There's a strange padlock on this door," she noticed. "It looks like there are two keyholes."
"We should be able to use a spell to get past this lock," Bill said, taking out his wand.
"Alohomora," Jinx said. But the door didn't open at all. The padlock didn't even budge.
"That didn't appear to work," Bill said. "Let me try. Flipendo."
Once again, the door didn't even move under the impact of Bill's spell.
"Hmmmm, that's odd," Bill frowned. He took the lock in his hands and shook it in frustration.
"Wait," Jinx called out, "there's something written on the lock. 'Property of Tulip Karasu.'" Tulip Karasu? The name sounded familiar, but not under any relevance to Jacob or the Vaults. "I think I've heard of Tulip Karasu. She's a Ravenclaw in my year," Jinx said, remembering now.
"She's always in detention," Bill added, nodding his head upon recognizing the name. "I sometimes have to watch over the kids in detention, and I see her frequently."
"I don't know much about her, except that she sounds strange," Jinx said. Tulip's name had never been in any of Penny's gossip or Rowan's commentary on people's academics. She could only remember Talbott mentioning how Tulip was even more of a loner than he was among the Ravenclaws in their year.
"She sounds strange. I've seen her hang around the Transfiguration Classroom a lot, if that helps," Bill grinned.
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go check and take a look!"
With that, Jinx and Bill hurried over to the Transfiguration Classroom. It felt strange going to a classroom on a Saturday, and Jinx wondered why Tulip Karasu would spend so much of her free time in a classroom. Still, she supposed it made it easy to pinpoint where she could possibly be. As it turned out, Bill's intuition was right: a red-haired girl in Ravenclaw robes was sitting calmly at one of the desks in the classroom, levitating something in the air.
"There she is," Bill whispered. "What are you going to do?"
"I'll explain the situation, and ask nicely," Jinx replied after thinking about it for a moment. "If she's reasonable, she'll help us."
Bill gave her a doubtful look. "I don't know, Jinx. I really hope it works, but we don't know her at all."
"All the more reason to be nice," Jinx said, trying to be optimistic. Watch and learn, Weasley."
Jinx walked into the classroom and cleared her throat. She expected Tulip to turn around at the sound of her footsteps, so when she didn't, Jinx turned to look at Bill for assistance. He smiled at her, as if to say "I told you so", but still followed her into the room.
"Excuse me, Tulip?" Jinx called out. "I'm Jinx Raider. I know your time is valuable and you're probably very busy, but I really need your help."
"Little flower… smells so sweet, so soft and delicate," Tulip sang out. Upon closer inspection, Jinx could see that she was levitating a purple orchid flower.
"Nobody told me she was eccentric," Bill said quietly.
"Did you hear me?" Jinx asked, her voice louder.
"I'm very busy," Tulip mused, still not bothering to turn around. "Talk to dennis until I'm finished."
Just then, something let out a very loud "CROOOOOOAAAK!" Jinx jumped back a little, surprised by the depth of the sound. Then, she noticed the toad perched on the desk next to Tulip. The toad was a dark, muddy green with brown splotches around its legs and head. Other than the strange gray sphere tied to its back, it looked like a perfectly ordinary toad - certainly not one that could talk.
"What is that?" Bill asked, squinting at the creature.
"A toad. His name is Dennis," Tulip replied.
"I know what a toad is," Bill rolled his eyes.
"What's the thing strapped to its back?" Jinx asked. She was concerned at the realization that the object seemed to have a lit fuse attached to it.
Tulip finally turned around and have Jinx an incredulous look. "You don't know?"
"As a Prefect and a Weasley," Bill butted in, "I can say with great confidence that it's a dungbomb."
Jinx sniffed the air, which smelled suspiciously normal. "But I don't smell anything?"
"You will when it explodes," Bill said solemnly.
This was not going how Jinx wanted it to at all. She exhaled sharply and pinned her hair back in frustration. "Tulip, how do I disarm this dungbomb?" Jinx asked, trying to keep the irritation in her voice at a minimum.
Tulip laughed at this. "I can't just give you the answers to my test," she smiled, "I need to know that you're worthy of my help."
Jinx looked to Bill for help again, but he could only shrug, as if to say that among his brothers, he was not the one to deal with Dungbombs in any capacity. So it looked like it would be up to Jinx to figure out how to disarm the prank. She carefully picked up Dennis, who croaked softly. Jinx didn't like the feeling of its throat pulsing against her hand, but there was no other way she could properly inspect the Dungbomb.
First, she froze the fuse with a simple Immobolus. It reminded her of stopping the ice from spreading in the Vault the previous year. Next, now that she wasn't holding a fire, she could take a closer look at the Dungbomb and fiddle around with the weird notches and levers on its underside. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, but when she pulled the smallest level, the Dungbomb made a soft clicking noise and flattened out on its own. Dennis let out a little chirp in response.
"I think I disarmed it," Jinx replied, handing over the toad and the now-broken Dungbomb.
"I assumed you would," Tulip said, giving Jinx an approving look. "Disarming a dungbomb is nothing compared to breaking the curse on a Cursed Vault. I was very jealous to be honest. I've always wanted to be told off in front of the entire school at a Welcoming Feast."
"Why?" Bill couldn't help but ask.
"Because rules are made to be broken, and Hogwarts has far too many rules," Tulip said, all trace of joking gone from her voice. She looked at Bill with judging eyes, then turned to look at Jinx. Jinx found Tulip's dark stare a bit intense, but she needed this strange girl's help so she held her stare.
"You inspired me, Jinx Raider. I knew I had to be the next one to open a Cursed Vault. I immediately scoured this castle for clues until I found the abandoned room Jacob Raider used to research the vaults. When I found the room, I fashioned a lock with two keys, so no one else could find it. I kept one key, and agreed to give the other to my accomplice."
"Who's your accomplice?" Jinx asked, trying not to sound too eager. Who could possibly deal with Tulip's oddities for so long? Perhaps a fellow Ravenclaw?
But Tulip only giggled. "I's not going to be that easy."
Bill groaned.
She should have at least been able to guess that much.