A/N: So I see ya'll are sloooooowly coming in and reading. Now if only ya'll would review as well. -.-

I'm thinking of doing a music video for Troublesome Trio. I've got a song for it, but I need to do some sketches for it. . Too many things.

Anyway, I'll be putting it up on my deviant art archive, so when I get it done, look on there.

Chapter Three


Charlie once again didn't bring Manfred his lines, so he had detention. Charlie walked down the Music Tower corridor but didn't find anything resembling an office. Manfred had given him a riddle for directions, and Lysander had figured it out for him, but he still couldn't find it.

That is, until he saw the book case once again. He started moving the books about when he saw Asa come up behind him. "Not there," he said in a small voice. He pushed a knot in the wood and the whole book case swung open.

Charlie blinked at Asa. "Ah, thank you, Pike," he said in his confusion. He walked in and Asa walked in behind him. He put his lines on Manfred's desk and growled with that inhuman growl of his while running a hand through his red hair.

Charlie was about to say something when he saw the new teacher come in. "What are you lot doing here?" he grumbled.

Asa looked to the man with a sort of fear in his wolf-like eyes, color draining from his already pale face. Charlie looked to the man, "Er—sorry, sir."

"Tantalus Ebony, my boy," he said with an affectionate smile before glaring at them. "Now, I think it's time you walked out of here, now isn't it?"

Charlie nodded and walked out quickly, Asa behind him. "Not so fast, Pike," growled Mr. Ebony. Asa gave Charlie a fearful expression as Charlie ran away. He ran until he couldn't any long and leaned against the wall, panting. Tantalus Ebony was scary, but he couldn't place why. He shook his head and headed for his next class.


Morgan walked out of her music lesson and up the corridor for the music tower. She heard someone talking and a bit of a scuffle. She blinked and looked around before heading toward the voices quickly. She was nearly run into by one of the new teacher's her father had told her about, Mr. Ebony.

She blinked as the purple cloak disappeared around the corner, flapping at her. She walked in the direction he came from and found Asa Pike on the ground, white as a sheet.

She let out a gasp and ran over to him, patting his cheek and shaking him slightly. "Pike? Pike, are you all right? Pike!"

Asa mumbled and opened his yellow eyes, rolling them toward her. His black eye was healing, but it looked worse since he was so pale. "Are you all right?" she asked again, holding his head up right on her knee.

Asa squinted at her and tried to move away from her. "Hold still, you idiot," she grunted. "What happened to you?"

"Ebony… feel drained…"

Morgan grunted and lifted him up right, putting both her knees under him as she looked around. "You're heavier than I can carry," she grumbled. She looked up and saw Manfred coming toward them. "You have to help me get him to the hospital wing, sir," she said, remembering that Manfred was a teaching assistant now.

Manfred snorted and looked away from her before touching something on the bookcase beside them and walking into a hidden office. She grunted and pulled Asa up carefully. She glared at the passage ahead of her as she wrapped his arm around her shoulders and her own around his waist. "Lean on me… I'll help you to the infirmary," she said with a slight smile at Asa before concentrating on walking.

Asa simply moved the way she wanted him to, not really caring what was happening to him now. Ebony had done a number on him for sneaking around, screwing up the experiment, showing Charlie how to get into Manfred's office. He was in the way and he knew it. He simply didn't know why he was in their way when he had been their ally before, their little worker bee.

Then, he felt something soft against his back as he felt himself lie down on a bed. Morgan was looking over him, asking him something, but he couldn't hear her very well. Then, everything went black.


Charlie was outside during break, talking to Fidelio about what had happened to him when he had gone to take his lines to Manfred's office. "That doesn't sound right, Charlie," said Fidelio.

"I wonder what happened to Pike. He looked very scared when Mr. Ebony grabbed a hold of him," said Charlie, looking to the grass. He felt somewhat bad about leaving Asa to get punished, though he hardly knew why.

Fidelio nudged him and pointed toward Morgan. She was running toward them, white as a sheet. "Morgan? What's wrong?" asked Fidelio.

Morgan panted as she doubled over to catch her breath. "Asa… Pike… in the… infirmary.. took him there m'self.."

"What?" Charlie blinked at his friend as though she'd grown another head.

Morgan sat on the ground and ran a hand through her messy hair. She told them about what she'd heard and saw when she had gone to investigate the whole ordeal; her accent getting a little worse as she spoke, tired from all that running. "It' mor' than I can understan', lads."

Fidelio smirked faintly. "Did you know your accent gets worse when you get tired?" Morgan stuck her tongue out at him.

Charlie frowned. It sounded very familiar. "We should take a look at him," he said, still thinking.

When they walked inside, Charlie was bumped into by Ada. He blinked and looked down at her. Her eyes were like black holes in her head as she looked up at him. "He's here," she said. Then, she walked off, walking into Gabriel who gently caught her by the shoulders.

She suddenly seemed to snap out of whatever she was in and looked to Gabriel, face going red. "Ah! Excuse moi, Gabriel!" she said just before she took off like he was going to hurt her.

Gabriel was blushing a bit too and Charlie thought he had a funny look on his face. However, Ada's little episode struck a chord in him. Who was there?

They walked into the infirmary. The nurse wasn't around and there was only one person on a bed. Asa looked pale, his hair having lost some of its color. Charlie walked over and looked down on Asa. It was like Uncle Paton when he'd come home from Yewbeam castle.

"He's one of Manfred's lackies," he said. "Maybe we shouldn't do anything."

Morgan looked at Charlie as though she could kill him with her bare hands. "Does that matter? He's hurt and hurt by one of US, the ENDOWED. They might not do the same for us, but what does it say about us if we drop to their level?" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, willing him to say something that would give her an excuse to hit him.

Charlie frowned and thought about the vervain. "We'll both be staying over on Saturday. I can ask if he can come home with me. He's so out of it, I don't think he'll notice."

Morgan nodded, knowing that Fidelio had vervain in his mother's garden. She vaguely remembered seeing Emma fly, but the whole incident involving her attacking them had to be told to her. She remembered none of it.

Charlie noted how Morgan was looking at Asa and frowned faintly, not sure how to take the look in her face. "He'll… be all right.. you know."

Morgan's ears went red and she shot a glare at Charlie. "And just what are you insinuating?"

"Nothing more than what is obvious. You're worried about a fellow endowed," said Fidelio, diffusing her sudden ire. "That's a good thing, from what I can tell."

Charlie blushed faintly and shrugged. "Yeah, that's all I was talking about."

"So don't worry, he'll be right as rain and tormenting small children in no time," grinned Fidelio.

She gave a half smile and nodded, walking out quickly. Charlie let out a breath he'd been holding. "I thought for sure she was going to try to kill me. She's right scary when she's angry." Fidelio nodded in agreement before they walked out themselves to get to the coat room for their cloaks.


Friday came quickly and left just as quickly, leaving Charlie without anyone to talk to other than a dazed Asa Pike. Billy wasn't even there. He recalled Billy telling him that he was being adopted, though he wondered if Billy's new family was very nice. Billy seemed terrified to be around Charlie now instead of happy to be with a new family that cared for him.

Charlie sat down on his bed, Saturday afternoon, and checked under his mattress for his wand. He blinked when he didn't feel it. He went through his things, even lifting up the mattress and tossing it off the bed. He found nothing.

Charlie sat down on his bed frame, in a state of shock. He'd brought his wand with him to keep it safe from his Grandma Bone, but now it wasn't safe anyway. He figured who had done it and he figured who it would go to.

He put his bed back in order as well as everything else and went down to lunch. Asa was walking in the hallway, somewhat aimlessly. When he ran into a wall, Charlie walked over and took a hold of his arm, pulling him to the dining hall. "This way, Pike," he said.

Asa mumbled something, though Charlie didn't stop to listen. Charlie was too into his own thoughts to care if Asa said "thank you" or "Get away from me".

Cook was clearing plates when she looked up at Charlie and Asa. "Oh, I didn't know you were here. I just finished giving the Bloors their lunch." She smiled and moved her head in the direction of the kitchen. "Come and eat, I still have some soup left, though the roast beef is all gone." Then, she walked to the kitchen.

Charlie pulled Asa into the kitchen and sat him down. Cook took a look at Asa when she set a bowl of some delicious looking soup in front of both of them. She opened his eyes into the light and checked his pulse, staring at him. "He's in a bad way. What happened to him? He looks as though the energy has been sapped right out of him."

"Don't know really. Morgan said she found him in front of Manfred's office and Mr. Ebony had been ready to punish him for something when I saw him before Morgan found him."

Cook sat down and frowned. "Mr. Tantalus Ebony? I saw him arrive and I didn't like the looks of him then. Still don't."

Asa ate the soup half heartedly, not really there in his mind. Cook helped him eat, saying he needed to get something into his stomach since he was working at half mast anyway.

"Cook… do you know what Billy's new family is like? Who they are?" asked Charlie when he'd had his bowl refilled.

Cook watched Asa carefully before answering. "Pest… I caught the name Pest, but I was shooed out of the room before I could catch anything."

Charlie looked at her, afraid suddenly. "We have a new student named Cathrine Pest. She's like pestilence from the four horsemen of the apocalypse!"

Cook looked like she was going to say something when Mr. Weedon, the gardener, appeared in the kitchen. "Bone, your aunt is here. You've got five minutes to get ready to leave."

Charlie blinked. "But it's only midafternoon. I'm supposed to go home in the evening."

"It's the only time someone would be able to come get you, Bone. Be grateful you going home at all. Now get ready," said Mr. Weedon before slamming the garden door shut.

Charlie looked to Asa. He had to get Asa ready as well, but Asa was too out of it to do it on his own. He pulled Asa up to his feet and pulled him to the senior boys' dorm. He found Asa's trunk, virtually untouched, and pulled it with him as he directed Asa downstairs to the main entrance. He found his own trunk already downstairs, Mr. Weedon picking it up.

"What are you doing, Charlie?" said Aunt Eustacia as she put on a pair of driving gloves.

Charlie recoiled from Eustacia. Aunt Eustacia was the world's WORST driver. If she was going to be taking him and Asa home, he would have to make out a living will for the both of them. Street lamps leaped out of the way for fear of being turned into scrap metal.

"Asa is going to stay the night at our home," said Charlie, trying to keep the fear in his voice from showing through.

"And you didn't even ask if you could bring a friend over? How selfish," she said in a clipped tone. However, she walked out the doors anyway. Mr. Weedon took Charlie's trunk as Charlie pulled Asa's behind him. They walked past the front gate where Aunt Eustacia's car was parked on the curb.

Charlie now wanted to be in the same state as Asa, because he would at least not know what was going on. Then, he helped Asa into the car and got in himself, strapping the both of them in as tightly as he could manage. Then, he prayed for a miracle.

Aunt Eustacia stopped on the curb in front of the three houses that belonged to the Yewbeam aunts; one was under construction, however. "You and your FRIEND can walk home. You've got legs, use them."

Charlie pulled out his trunk and Asa's and started walking away from Darkly Wynd as fast as possible. It wasn't so bad, though Charlie didn't like the fact that he had to redirect Asa every few minutes so that he didn't wander away.

When they reached Filbert Street, Charlie saw Morgan look out the window at him, waving. He had his hands full, so he couldn't wave back, so he nodded his head at her before walking into Number Nine. A chestnut fell right onto Asa's head, bouncing off and falling onto the ground as he walked in. Charlie sighed and closed the door just as Maisie came out of the kitchen. "Charlie! Oh! You brought a friend with you?"

"This… is Asa Pike," said Charlie as he pulled the trunks over to the sitting room.

Grandma Jones had heard about Asa Pike and knew he was the one that had attacked Runner Bean when they were trying to protect the metal box from the Bloors. "Why did you bring HIM here?"

Asa looked to Maisie and then leaned against the wall, sliding down as he blacked out. "He's in a bad way, Maisie. I think someone got to him."

Maisie hesitated for a moment before helping Charlie to pick him up off the floor and help him over to the couch. "Oh dear, it's like Paton all over again."

Charlie's face was stricken with horror. That was what he was trying to remember. Was Yorath Yewbeam at Bloors?

Charlie sat down for a snack in the kitchen when he heard Paton come in. He pulled off his sunglasses and grinned at him before he looked into the sitting room. "What the—what is HE doing here?" said Paton in disbelief, the lights in the room, thankfully, were off.

Charlie explained what was happening and Paton looked like he was going to faint right there. That evening, Charlie got to explain things to his mother before helping Asa up to his room and setting him up on the floor. Then, he went to sleep himself after studying a bit, musing to himself how his life never seemed to go well.