A/N Will probably put the last two chapters of this story up later tonight, once I have a chance to give them one last look-over; don't want to leave you hanging too much on this one (g) JCWriter

XXIII

What Bill Saw This Time

Lucky's triumphant smile turned to one of curiosity as she and Professor Weasley stepped out of her office a few minutes later. Juliette was standing there, gazing between them guardedly.

"If you're here about Slughorn's little tea, I'm already aware of it," Hermione told the girl briskly before walking away. "I'm heading down there right now." Juliette merely stared after her a moment before looking back over at Lucky.

"Couldn't stomach it either, chica?" Lucky asked.

"All right, Lucky?" Juliette asked softly.

"Oh, I'm used to that sort self-serving attitude. I run into it all the time back home," Lucky said, blowing it off and walking down the hall. But after a few steps she noticed that the timid girl was following behind her. Lucky stopped and turned around. "You know, I need to go meet a friend. Why don't you go back to your own house friends? It's Saturday. Live it up a little." Juliette gave Lucky a hard look as if attempting to understand before finally walking away.

Lucky shook her head and picked up the pace, wondering where Bill was. She decided to check the library first, and wasn't all that surprised to find him sitting with his hands clasped over his history book, staring down the aisle at the closed door.

"You're obsessed, amigo, you know that?" Lucky said, sitting down beside them.

"I was thinking it'd be a good idea to keep track of who all goes in so I make sure they all are out tonight before we go in," Bill said in a low voice.

"You're staying here all night? Even through dinner?" Lucky said dubiously.

"Well, maybe you can break me for dinner," Bill suggested. Lucky stared at him. "How was your tea party?"

"Oh that. Well, the next time you tell me someone is a jerk, I think I'll listen," Lucky said, then stared at the door. She could only handle five minutes of that before she was bored out of her mind. "Why don't we wait 'til late and just take our chances?"

"I can't afford to get caught. People might ask awkward questions," Bill murmured.

"You mean like, what are we doing trying to break into a research library?"

"Hush! Someone might hear you," Bill hissed at her nervously.

"Excusez-moi, but, I see you are doing 'istoree?" Juliette said. Lucky looked up in annoyance at the nervous girl, hugging her books to her. "I wonder if we could study togethers?"

"Um, sure, I guess," Bill said, but as Juliette sat down, Lucky stood up.

"I think I'm going to take a nap," she decided. "I'll come study later, Bill."

"All right," Bill said, then reluctantly turned to his books while still keeping an eye on the door.

Lucky didn't return until just before the end of library hours, and Bill, although he had his finished History report to show for it, was quite drowsy to say the least. In fact, he and Juliette were both dozing off when Lucky hit his shoulder with the back of his hand.

"Come on, get up, let's go," Lucky whispered impatiently.

"But…"

"The library is about to close. I have something for you, too. Come on," Lucky hissed, pulling him away from the table. Reluctantly Bill gathered his books and the two of them left, although Bill was very aware of Boulderdash's squinty black eyes staring at him suspiciously. But Lucky ignored him, dragging Bill out and into the next corridor, pulling out some sloppy sandwiches out of her pocket. "Here."

"Thanks, I guess," he said, lifting up one corner skeptically. "Do you always eat everything wrapped in bread? There are even vegetables in here."

"They keep you sharp, you know," Lucky said, then pulled him back quickly, nearly making Bill lose a lot of the contents of his meal. "Stop fighting me! Someone is coming!" she hissed at him.

"I will watch them, Professor, and truly, had I known the situation coming into the school, I assure you that wouldn't have occurred," Lucky heard Slughorn say. She crept back a little further as he and Weasley past the corridor they were in.

"I agree it was partially my fault. Since they were already in separate classes, I didn't think it would come up," Hermione said.

"Is it against policy to have students chat in one's office these days?"

"No, of course not, Horace, although I would consider the fact that parents are quick to complain about favoritism. Anyhow, I really need to be going, right after I have a word with Boulderdash," Hermione said, pausing in front of the library door. "He usually goes to visit his brother on Saturday evenings. Tonks volunteered to go help Harry out…he can't sleep these days without an Auror there to fend whoever tries to kill him, even secret locations haven't been foolproof…but I will be at home, so don't hesitate to send up a flame if you need me."

"It's hardly the first time I've looked over the castle for an evening, Professor," Slughorn said dryly.

"Well, of course not, although security is much tighter with the current Headmaster than it used to be…"
"I'll manage," Slughorn said, then waited outside the door for Hermione to finish her business with Boulderdash so he could walk her out.

"Sounds like my luck is still holding. Anybody who would have caused us problems is leaving for the weekend," Lucky said, peering around the corner as Hermione came back out of the library and the two walked down the hall. "We just have to wait for the librarian to leave and we should be all set."

"I guess," Bill said, troubled. "Why in the world would Weasley trust the school to someone like Slughorn?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised she didn't give it to Professor Andrew," Lucky agreed.

"Well, knowing Andrew, he probably had a few dates lined up," Bill said.

"A few dates?" Lucky repeated.

"Yeah, he's a real playboy, didn't you know?" Bill said casually. Lucky stared at him, trying to imagine that overgrown scarecrow attracting even a single date let alone several.

"Wait, how do you know?" Lucky asked.

"Duck! Here comes the Goblin!" Bill hissed. Lucky straightened up closer to the wall as Boulderdash began to walk by, while Bill held his breath, clinging onto her uncomfortably tight.

Lucky didn't dare move, for the goblin had paused and made a strange sniffing noise. But he harrumphed softly and continued on his way with one hand strangely positioned near his belt.

"Let go of me," Lucky hissed after the Goblin had left, peeling Bill off of her. "You are such a baby sometimes! What are you, a five year old?"

"Seven," Bill sighed.

"Ya, funny…"

"No, I'm really seven," Bill said so insistently that Lucky stared at him. But Bill looked away. "I'm using an illusion to feign my identity. I'm not Canadian, I don't even live more than five miles from here. I don't have a famous father, I don't even know who my father was. Some friends of mine helped get my name on the school register and snuck me in because Headmaster Snape didn't want me to come early. He's…well, he's my godfather." Lucky stood there and stared at him in the darkness for a long time. "I suppose you don't believe me."

"It answers a lot of questions, really," Lucky murmured, thinking back, then pausing. "But then why did Judge Vallid say what she did? I mean…well, she didn't seem the type to lie about something like that."

"I know, I can't figure it out either," Bill admitted, looking back out to the hall. "The coast is clear. Maybe we ought to go."

"Yeah, let's end this thing so your godfather can get back to work, eh?" Lucky said.

"And your guardian," Bill agreed.

"Hey! We're practically family then!" Lucky grinned, and Bill grinned back. "Let's go take a look of that door of yours."

A library with few people in it can make someone uneasy even during the daytime, but that was nothing compared to the uneasiness the two felt now as they crept inside, fearful of every shadow. Silently Lucky followed Bill back to the door, and as suspected, it was shut tight. Without much hope of it actually opening, Bill cautiously tried the handle.

"Now we come to the hard part," Bill said, taking out his wand.

"Not so fast, chico…let's think this through before you start blasting anything," Lucky advised. "It should be simple enough."

"Simple?" Bill said incredulously. "Didn't I tell you all the trouble I had the last time I tried this? No one can get through that door…"

"Then it wouldn't be a door," Lucky reasoned. "It would be a wall. A door may keep people out, but its main purpose is to let people in, verdad?"

"Right, but I'm telling you it's pretty good at keeping people out," Bill said, but Lucky seemed to ignore his warning.

"Let's go back to basics, chico. How does one get into a door?" Lucky asked patiently. "First, you can try knob. We know that is no good. We could have a key, but we know the key is being a Professor…which we aren't. Then there is the knocking option." Lucky rapped smartly on the door and immediately Bill panicked, grabbing her arm and pulling her back behind the bookshelf.

"Are you crazy?" he hissed at her. Lucky calmly gazed at the door and waited a few minutes before answering.
"Well, now we not only eliminated that option, we figured out no one's likely to be in there."

"Who says someone isn't in there and just didn't answer?"

"You need to work on your logic, amigo. Since staff can get in, the only ones who'd be knocking is a student, and any teacher should have been out here demanding what we were doing out here. There's no one in there," Lucky said. "The next way of getting in is, of course, breaking in, which you say is impossible."

"Well, I couldn't get in by myself, at least," Bill said.

"It's okay, I have another plan," Lucky said, stepping back over to the door.

"Another? What other?" Bill asked.

"We change the lock," Lucky said, studying the door.

"What?"

"We cheat. We change out the lock itself to one we do have a key to…gimme some room," she said, putting her hands on the door.

"We cheat?" Bill repeated. "Why, that's just like what Sirius said Snape did…"

"Ssssh, I'm listening," Lucky said.

"To what?" Bill said in confusion.

"To the numbers, shut up!" she hissed.

She didn't really expect Bill to understand what she meant…but to her, this was a number problem; it had a '1' and '0' quality…open, or not. It had a condition…if faculty then this, if not than that. And as she looked closer at the door, she realized there were even more conditions and exceptions than she might have imagined….if castle ghost…if incorporeal, not ghost…if House Elf…the more she saw, the more numbers seemed to come out. Suddenly she saw a map of numbers in her head, a mesh of lines crossing each other and somehow reminding her of a computer schematic. Slowly she followed each of the lines until she understood them, completely blocking out Bill's nervous queries beside her. Finally she saw what she had to do, and since it now involved changing one number, was as simple to her as anything she had done before coming to the school. With absolute certainty that came with a perfect solution, Lucky opened her eyes with an enigmatic smile, turned the handle, and opened the door.

"How in the hell did you do that?" Bill stared at her. She thought about it a moment, then decided she couldn't explain it.

"Luck," she shrugged, walking in. "I changed it from 'staff only' to 'students only.' We shouldn't be bothered."

But as she stepped into the dark room, her eyes caught a soft, sparkling glow coming from inside a glass cubicle on a pedestal in the center aisle and she stopped short, feeling a strange, dark, sensation run through her.

"What is that?" Lucky asked.

"What we came for," Bill said, striding up to the pedestal. The closer he got, the brighter the crystal seemed to get brighter and brighter until the glow showed up in each of the three mirrors behind it. But even as Lucky felt a true feeling of foreboding looking at it, Bill felt a strange sense of power and self control. "Stay back," he cautioned her, although afterwards he couldn't remember why he had done so.

"No problemo, amigo," Lucky said, backing up. But as she did, she noticed that the door was still open, and a pale red-haired girl stood just behind it. "Quién es…Juliette! Are you following me again?"

"Look!" Juliette said, pointing over at the pedestal, and Lucky turned to see that the image of the hand holding the crystal had completely faded from the mirrors, while the crystal itself was growing even brighter than before, so much that it lit the whole room. But Bill didn't look away. He was murmuring something.

"Show me," he said softly to the crystal. "Show me how to stop this. Show me who's doing this and why."

The fog in the three windows suddenly began to clear and he felt a strange sensation. Not all of the images were quite right, but one seemed more in focus than the others. It was this one he concentrated on, and he saw two hazy silhouettes…a crumpled thin figure, and a hunched, larger figure in a rather plain white room.

"You are well, I hope?" the larger figure asked. Bill recognized it at once. It was Slughorn.

"It is I who should be asking you," a woman's voice came from the other, but Slughorn seemed not to hear the question.

"I have done as you asked, but they did not believe a word of it."

"No, I didn't expect them to," she said, a shakiness to her voice despite her attempt to seem at ease.

"Then why the devil did I go all the way up there? I ended up being a curtain for hours…do you know how hard it is to manipulate illusions when one is hanging from a rod? For what reason?"

"Because if they don't heed my warning, they have only themselves to blame for what happens next, don't you see? They must see that not listening has consequences!" she said, reaching out. But her trembling hands stopped short of actually touching him.

"I suppose so, Sibyl," Slughorn said.

"You still are not sure, are you, old friend? Poor man, you still don't believe me," Trelawney accused him, her eyes strange behind the thick glasses.

"I believe your fate for me…for what you've seen is something I've long known," Slughorn said in a low voice. "But I need proof that what you said about the Snapes are true…"

"Promise…promise to free me, and I shall prove it! You have the influence, you know who to go to! I see myself outside these walls…I see you helping me…and then, perhaps, we can help each other. You shall see, yes, you shall see!" she whispered ominously.

"What is going on, chico? Do you see something I don't?" Lucky asked when Bill hadn't moved for awhile.

"Hush! Don't interrupt!" Bill said. But the image had already begun to fade and blur, and his eyes darted between the mirrors until another one finally focused in. Juliette edged in closer to try and see, but to her as well the images were little more than smoky figures.

Bill couldn't tell where the woman was this time…it was quite dark and bleak, and Bill had the impression she was in hiding. The man soon entered with a newspaper in his hand.

"So it is happening, just as you said," he said, sounding unsure.

"Of course…how else would I be here, and not in there…poked and prodded by doctors as if there was something wrong with me?" Trelawney said, anger in her voice as she restlessly paced the room.

"I received a letter, begging for me to come…the Headmaster, it seems, has left the school."

"Now you believe, don't you? Now you finally know the truth of what he is doing…all those names…what he has done…none of them should be alive. None of them, or the curse wouldn't have worked…the curse…yes, the curse that spares you! But how long? Oh, for how long? You must find it now…you must bring it here…and the crystal…the crystal as well! I must have it, you owe it to me, and you can't survive without my knowledge! But beware…beware the students of Hogwarts! They may be your undoing, as they were mine."

"I need no advice about students, Sibyl, as you can well remember, I'm sure," Slughorn said, a spark in his eyes that sent a chill through Bill. "With Snape gone, the castle will be at my disposal, and woe to any student who stands in my way."

Suddenly there was a flash, and Bill and the others instinctively dove as three black shadows burst out from the crystal, their misty arms raising their scythes as they picked a target.

"Bannisez!" Juliette intoned, pulling out her wand in a lightning-quick movement and casting a spell at the figures. Immediately the misty figures suddenly lost shape and spread out like black clouds before fading all together.

"Whoa…" Lucky said, but before she could comment more, she saw that Juliette staring hard at Bill, who had shakily pulled himself up to his feet, puzzling over what he had seen.

"It's not…it's not really us they're after…" Bill said, sounding strange. "It's a distraction, don't you see?"

"No, we didn't see anything! What are you talking about?" Lucky said.

"I think Slughorn is dying," Bill said. Before he could explain, Juliette suddenly leapt to her feet and bolted out the door. "Wait, we should stay here! I think he's going to steal the crystal!"

"He can't get in here, amigo, students only, remember?" Lucky said, scrambling to her feet. "Come on, let's follow her."

"I'm not leaving it!" Bill shouted.

Leave it, boy.

Bill turned around expecting to see where the voice was coming from only to see that the fingers on the alabaster hand had suddenly elongated and flattened until it covered the crystal altogether. Stunned, Bill found himself getting dragged out of the room, Lucky pulling him into the hall in time to just barely catch the sight of Juliette running up the back stairs.

Lucky let go and broke into a run, and Bill shook himself out of it, trying to catch up. She paused only briefly at the stairs, staring up in bewilderment.

"Where in the hell did that little faker go?" Lucky asked out loud. "She's gone! Poof! Into thin air!"

"What?" Bill said, out of breath.

"That girl…she knows English, I've suspected it all along. She just didn't want anyone to know what she was up to! I bet she has something to do with all of this!"

"Maybe she's the woman I kept seeing," Bill said.

"Well if she is, she's wherever the Slug is," Lucky said. "And this castle is too big to try and find them."

"Well, I'm not ready to give in yet," Bill decided and began up the stairs again. "Come on, we have got to at least try!"

"It'll take more than luck to find them," Lucky said dryly. "It'll take a miracle."

"Wait! What on earth is that noise?" Bill asked. Lucky paused a moment, and then shrugged, but he shushed her again before she could answer. Then she heard it…a strange hollow screeching sound that somehow reminded her of the sound from Yankee Stadium when standing at the far side of the parking lot. "Come on!" he said in a much lower voice, and the two of them darted up the stairs, pausing every now and again to listen.