Arguments and counter arguments

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Not really, we have been working on this, James"

James and Rose were facing each other at the front of Manticore Hall. Rose had just revealed where the Heart of the World was going to be over Midsummer's day, and James was not taking it well.

The fact that they would have to travel nearly two hundred klicks into the Giantlands, an area forbidden to humans since the Treaty of Drakenoir in the sixteenth century was a large part of it. The Giant tribe whose lands they would be invading would be completely within their right to kill them all, and nobody could do anything about it.

The next few minutes confused all the Manticores except Tiffany, and even she was hard pressed to keep up. The twins slipped into the one or two word sentences that they could use with each other to argue about this.

Rose, "Planning"

James, "Risks."

Rose, "Alexander"

James, "Patient Child."

This went on for several minutes, and by the end of it, the Manticores were hopelessly lost. The first few sentences had been easy to follow, but after that, nobody had the faintest clue of what they were arguing about.

Emma Weasley put a stop to that. "Excuse me." The twins broke off, and looked at her. "I realize that you two understand what you're saying, but the rest of us are involved here, and we'd like to be able to put our two Knuts worth in as well. Would you please use a language the rest of us speak?"

James looked at her, and the Manticores looking at them. "Fine. I was just asking Rose how she plans on hiding sixty people for three days, while we cast the spell."

"A few more than that actually, James. We are taking Alexander, Martin and a few others."

"How many people are we going to be responsible for?"

Rose looked at Alexander inquiringly. He answered the question. "Right now, myself, Martin, Falcon and Shadowwalker are definite goes, and I'm still waiting for replies from Blacklegs and Stalker." Alexander grinned at a sudden thought. "If Stalker goes, we'll have another Ranger with us, a lady by the name of Leafstar."

Sonya giggled. She directed her question at Alexander. "Still?"

Alexander smiled at some joke only the Borderers understood. "Yes."

Sonya looked at her cousin Mary, who was one of the reserve Manticores. They shared a smile, and turned their attention back to the argument.

James was examining the mission plan for the trip into the Borders. "So you want us to leave here, consolidate at this point, just outside Drakenoir, and use that as our jump off point."

Rose nodded. "That is the last place you can Port-key to without attracting the attention of the Borderers. While the rangers won't bother us, the rest of the Borderers are not in on the mission, so we'll have to avoid them as well. Alexander is going to have an area of the Border being watched by allies, who will not report our entry. Once we're in, we should be fairly safe while we move, as the Giants can't catch flying humans unless they get in front of us, and ambush us."

James considered her plan, and nodded. "With a point team out, covered with invisibility and silencing spells, it might work." He turned back to Rose. "What are you going to do about the three days we have to be stationary?"

Rose unrolled another map. "Here is the valley where the Heart is going to be. It's not so much a valley, as a canyon, with just two points that offer easy entrance for anybody that can't fly. If we put three teams at each end, we can cover both of those entrances."

She unrolled another map, which had team markings on it, and let James examine it. She watched him, hoping he'd spot the flaw in the plan and make a suggestion. Once he started making suggestions, they could draw him into the planning, and by the time he realized that he'd been tricked, he would not be able to withdraw.

James was examining the team locations carefully. "This is good," he said absently, as he traced the positions, "But it doesn't leave a reserve. Try this, with a team here and here, and at this end of the valley, a team here and here. That leaves two teams in reserve, mounted on broomsticks, ready to be the quick reaction force for either side of the valley."

Jerrick moved up to the map, and Adam joined them. "What about sleep? Three days is a long time to go without sleep."

James frowned. "We don't have enough people to relieve the teams."

Alexander interjected a comment. "That's not a problem. You sleep at your positions, in a 50/50 ratio."

James blinked at him. "Explain what you mean, please."

Alexander shrugged. "When you're setting into a defense like this, you pair two people from a team together, for mutual support and to allow one of them to attend to anything that comes up. Food, latrine needs, sleep, that sort of thing. As long as one person at each position is awake, there are eyes on the perimeter twenty-four seven, but everyone gets to sleep and eat."

He looked at the map, and made a couple of minor changes to James's deployments. "Of course, a lot of this will depend on the terrain when we can actually see the site."

James and Jerrick started a debate, and Rose smiled at Tiffany. "I told you I could do this."

"Sister Mine," came James's thought, as he continued to argue with the rest of the planners, "I might be planning this, but that does not mean we're going to do it. This could be the thing that causes the Sphinx knot."

"James," said Rose, in a voice that had suddenly gone to steel, "like I said, this mission is going to happen. I am not giving up my brother, or my friend because of your fears. All you and Tiffany have to do while we cast this spell, is stand there with your hands on the Heart of the World. You can do that in chains, if necessary."

James turned to stare at Rose. Before he could say anything, Rose played her trump card. "I've been using the Sight. I cannot tell which path is which at this point, but if we don't do this, the Patient Child will win, if the war goes longer than a few years, simply because you and Tiffany will not be there."

James stared at Rose. He sighed and turned back to the planners. "Where are we going to put Phoenix? It will have to be close to a central location."

Rose watched as James drew the team leaders into the planning session, and the argument was mostly over, except for one last comment from James, which only Rose heard. "Sister Mine, I am going to repay you for scaring me out of a year's growth. Count on it."

Rose merely shrugged. A prank or two was a small price to pay for her brother.

As lunch approached, the planning session broke up, and the Manticores started downstairs to eat.

James and Adam were still arguing in front of the map, and Rose looked at them. She touched James and groaned. She walked up to them, and cast an obscuring spell on the map. "James, I know you. You are not pulling an Emily, and skipping meals."

Adam and James looked at her, and James was about to say something when his stomach rumbled. Rose looked at him. "You were going to say something?"

James sighed. "Betrayed, alas, by my too, too human flesh."

Tiffany winced as James mangled another classic literature quote. "Yank, learn the quotes, if you're going to use them."

James just smiled at her as he sent something over the Soulbond. Tiffany blushed, saying, "It figures you would remember that one correctly."

The next three days were hectic, as James reviewed every step of the mission statement, going over each thing one step at a time, and insisting on knowing every detail. He gave Jerrick new orders regarding intelligence from the borders, questioned Sonya and Alexander about the borders, made Mercy start looking into the most common injuries inflicted by Giants, as well as the health hazards native to that area. The team leaders came in for a share of extra work as well, having to go over their teams, and make sure that everyone was clear on what they had to do.

Chimera finally cornered James in the lab one morning, and took the notebook he'd been writing plans in away from him. Rose was their spokesperson. "James, go make sure your formal robes are ready for the Ball. Brush Tiffany's hair. Do anything, just let the Manticores enjoy the Holidays. There is more than enough time after them for us to plan this mission right down to the time each of us can pee."

Tiffany flared up as James thought something. "James Evans, if you think you can ask me to a Ball, and then not go, just because something came up that you're working on, you had better think again."

James smiled at his better half. "You're right, and I apologize for even thinking it. I can assume then, that you haven't had a better offer, and are going with me?"

"Of course I am. For some reason, nobody else has asked me." Tiffany pretended to pout, and then smiled. "That means I get to dance with you." Her words were innocent, but the mental images she sent James at the same time were not.

James stopped, thinking about those images until Melissa elbowed him. "Just think about something else."

James rolled his eyes. "That is the only problem with Empaths and links," he complained, as they walked out of the lab, "You have no privacy at all."

James did let the Manticores have the rest of the time until the holidays for themselves. The only thing he did was study the data that they had collected, and make notes for after the holidays.

The day before the Ball, James and Rose were sitting in Manticore Hall, and James looked around. "Who's taking who to the Ball? I know you and Tiffany have been working with Professor Dumbledore and William Moore on that project for Richard, but who's taking Mercy?"

"Daniel is taking Mercy, Jerrick is taking Sonya, I think you know who's taking Lisa and Emma and Emily is going with Ron Stone."

"Ron and Emily? That is a pair that I wouldn't have thought of."

James grinned at the thought. Emily Kitchen was the single biggest bookworm in Hogwarts, and Ron only opened a book for study, and closed it again as soon as he was done. James and Tiffany had seen him sneaking around late at night sometimes, and knew that he loved to fly as much as they did. They had never let him know that they knew he went out after nightfall to fly, although James was careful to keep an eye on him, in case something happened to him.

James looked at Rose as a new thought occurred to him. "There were a couple of names absent from that list."

"Melissa and I aren't going. We have something to do that is far more important. I've finished the research into that project you asked about, and the potion part of it has to be finished that day."

James sat up. "I'm sorry, Rose. Are you sure you can't put it off one more day?"

"Brother Mine, first, I agree that it's important enough to skip a dance over, and second, the only person that asked Melissa to the dance was Draco Jr."

"What? Why?" James was puzzled about that. Melissa was not a ravishing beauty, but she was cute, and she didn't have any bad habits that James knew about.

"James, you're a nice guy, but what you know about people could be engraved on your thumbnail. How many guys outside of Manticore want to date a girl who knows what you feel, and what you think?"

"Melissa can't hear thoughts," James said, "Only emotions, and she would not use that against a guy, certainly not one she liked." He thought about what she'd said. Why didn't any of the guys in Manticore ask her?"

"James, think about how it looks to the guys outside of Manticore. She's part of our link, and most of the school has figured out that we don't need to talk to each other, which means she reads minds. Everyone also knows she's a Healer, which means Empathy. Very few of the Manticore linked people have been asked to the Ball by anyone not in Manticore. Not that it matters, as all the ladies in links are going with a guy from their link for the most part."

James frowned as he thought about that. James was almost completely oblivious to personal relationships. He'd never been very good at them before he had Soulbonded to Tiffany, and the Soulbond made it worse. He simply didn't think of people in any sort of romantic way, and that made thinking about their dating or romantic actions a logic puzzle to James. Since matters of the heart don't always make sense to logic, James had given up on figuring it out, and simply asked Rose or Melissa to explain anything he needed to know.

He thought about it for a minute, and then shrugged. "I'll trust you to tell me anything I need to know, and leave anything else in your capable hands. I note that you didn't say if anyone asked you."

"You're right, I didn't and I am not discussing my love life or the lack thereof with my brother."

"I can't say I'm sorry to hear that, I was dreading it." James smiled at Rose. "I love you dearly, but I don't want to hear about you snogging somebody anymore than you want to hear about what Tiffany and I get up to after the rest of you are asleep."

"You mean you do something besides brush her hair?" asked Rose in mock astonishment.

James grinned at her, even as he blushed. "Sister Mine, you have no idea, and I don't think you want one."

"Brother Mine, you've just reached the TMI line. Melissa and I are taking 30 Galleons from the Green Flower account to pay for the March Project."

"OK. I assume it's going well?"

"The Feathers are using the Winged Flame services, and they have given Cathy permission to attend the Ball, provided she is back by 0100. William is going to Port-key to their house and pick her up, using the Port-key to bring her here, and he's going to take her back as well."

Richard March was dating a Muggle girl, and while he could send her letters, they were usually separated for the entire year, as he was linked. That meant he had not been home in a long time.

Rose and Melissa had used a Witch working at the Winged Flame to approach the Feather family, and gotten them to attend a few of the classes that the charity offered. The Winged Flame offered classes in Muggle/Wizard relations to Muggle families that had a wizard or witch born to them, as well as offering a home for magical children that were not wanted or safe in their homes. It also offered classes to families that had a Wizard or Witch marry into the family.

The Feathers had known that there was something strange about Richard, but finding out about the wizard world had come as a shock. After a few classes, they had understood that Richard was just a boy with a talent that most people didn't have.

When Rose and Melissa owled them about the Ball, they had been hesitant. Rose had sent her mother a note, and Mary Evans had called the Feathers. She had made an appointment, and spent a day showing the Feathers a world they had never known about.

In the end, Mary Evans had convinced them to allow their daughter Cathy to attend the Ball.

Rose smiled, as she remembered the look on Richard's face when she and Melissa had told Richard that Cathy would be at the Ball.

Jerrick came over to them and sat down. "I have the list of Ministry researchers, and their files."

James reached for the pile of paper that Jerrick had brought with him, and looked at the top one. "Elbert Madison." He frowned, looking up as he thought. "That name sounds familiar."

"It should, he's Emily and Harry's grandfather," said Jerrick. "He was at the last family week."

James smiled. "Great. That should make our job easier. He already knows about the Prophecy, and he supports us."

Jerrick nodded. "I've been in touch with him, and we're working on ways to hide Manticore. He can control two of the others, but two of them might be problems."

James looked sharply at Jerrick. "Tell me about them."

Jerrick pulled his little notebook. "Gilbert Lock is a career Ministry man who only stays there because he is one of Minister Fudge's biggest brown nosers, according to Mr. Madison. He's been shunted through every department in the Ministry, and was assigned to this project over Mr. Madison's protests."

James winced, as Tiffany's memories showed him the Weasley family stories about the last time a Ministry employee had been at Hogwarts. While this person didn't sound as bad as Dolores Umbridge did, he could do more damage, simply because they actually had something to hide now.

James shifted as Tiffany came up and sat next to him. The rest of Chimera was also gathering as they heard the discussion through the link.

Lisa was thinking about what Rose had relayed to them as she took one of the files from the stack in front of James. "What about the other person that could be a problem?" she asked.

Jerrick grinned mirthlessly. "She's a former Ravenclaw, professional researcher and a very nice person. She is friendly, been on Mr. Madison's team for six years and good at her work. She's married, has two children and is very loyal to her family."

Emma frowned at Jerrick. "What's wrong with that? She's sounds like a very good person to me."

Jerrick nodded. "That's the problem. Her name is Elizabeth Marley, but her maiden name is Fudge. She's the oldest daughter of Cornelius Fudge."

Chimera stared at Jerrick while they thought about that. James looked around the hall, looking for Cary Fudge. "The biggest question here is, is she like Cary, or her father?"

Jerrick sighed. "Neither, because according to Professor Dumbledore, she was one of the brightest Witches in Ravenclaw when she was here. That means she has a brain, which makes her very different from her father. She's also organized and thorough, which makes her different from Cary as well."

Jerrick passed another parchment to James. "On the bright side, Mr. Madison was able to buy us some more time. He convinced Minister Fudge that one year was insufficient data to work with, so the team will be coming here next year."

James sat back, idly caressing Tiffany's hair as he thought about the whole thing. "So we have to deal with a Ministry sneak who will report what we're doing, simply to stay on Fudge's good side, and his daughter, who will report us because of family loyalty."

Jerrick considered James's summary. "Yes, that's it in a nutshell."

James thought some more and then narrowed his eyes as a thought came to him. "How many of the Manticore's family work in the Ministry?"

Jerrick had that answer instantly. "Five Manticores have family working in the Ministry, not counting Emma, Tiffany and me. Cary Fudge, Emily and Harry Kitchen, Maynard Winchester and Joy Grethen. Of those five, only Emily and Harry's grandfather knows about the prophecy." Jerrick smiled. "Of the three of us, my father, Arthur Weasley, Percy Weasley Jr., Hermione Granger-Weasley and two of Bill Weasley's children work at the Ministry."

James looked at Emma. "I see what your family is doing now," he joked, "You're going to take over the Ministry by numbers."

Emma grinned at James, saying, "Of course. Violence is such a passé way to take over."

Emma looked at Jerrick. "You missed one though. Charlie's daughter works there as well." A shadow crossed her face. "Fleur remarried, but Melody Gaines is Charlie's daughter."

Jerrick swore. "I never thought about that. Do any more of your relatives work there?"

Emma thought about it, and shook her head. "Not that I know of, but grandmother Weasley would know."

Jerrick made a note, and then looked at James. "That list of course, only covers immediate family. If I continued the list to include cousins, the list would be almost three quarters of the Ministry."

James blinked. "That many? Is there any way we can use that?"

Jerrick frowned. "I doubt it. Too many of the people in the Ministry are loyal to the Ministry." He looked at James quizzically. "What do you mean, that many? You have nearly that many in the American Department of Magic, and if you count all the relatives in local Departments, the Evans and Pendragons encompass nearlyforty-six percentof the American Department of Magic."

James and Rose looked at each other, and back at Jerrick. "Keep track of them," James said, "but don't count any American Pendragon as a relative or an ally, unless mom tells you they are."

Jerrick nodded. "So, Mary Evans is the Pendragon Heir?"

James looked surprised. "You didn't know that?"

Jerrick smiled. "Not until now, although it was high in the list of possibilities. We couldn't find any records of Mary Drake until she rented an apartment and started working at a tailor shop, the day before the Pendragon Heir went missing. Based on physical descriptions of the Heir, and your mother there was a high probability of them being the same person, but no proof."

James shrugged. "As long as you keep it quiet, I don't care if you know, but remember where I got my temper, before you talk to anyone not here about that."

Jerrick stared at James with a wounded expression. "James, do I ever tell anyone anything they don't have a need to know?"

Jerrick went back to the original topic. "Anyway, Mr. Madison can control two of the team, as well as showing us all the reports that the team makes. The only people we have to worry about are Gilbert Lock and Elizabeth Marley" He looked at his notes. "In fact, Melody Gaines is listed as the Researcher's assistant for the group. She's been working with Mr. Madison for a year now, and he trusts her."

He looked at Emma. "How close is Miss Gaines to the Weasley clan?"

Emma sighed. "She's not close at all. We would love to see more of her, but Fleur doesn't like being around us. She doesn't like to think about her first husband dying less than a year after they were married."

Jerrick frowned. "In that case, we need to keep her out of the loop. If she lost her husband to a dark wizard, she'll be very upset to find out there is another, especially if Melody joins us."

James agreed with him, and then said, "Keep track of the people coming here, but since it's going to be next year, I'm not going to worry about it right now. The Giantlands may make the whole idea of keeping Manticore secret impossible anyway."

Jerrick winced. "Don't remind me. The endless possibilities for having out cover blown there are driving my father and I nutters."

Adam smirked at him. "You mean you weren't nutters already?" he asked.

Jerrick looked at him innocently. "We're not nearly as crazy as the boy that once wore cowboy boots to school for an entire year."

Adam blushed as the other members of Chimera looked at him. They were smiling, and James was grinning. "Don't worry about it, Adam. I have a pair, and so does Rose. They are, after all, the best way to keep your foot in a stirrup."

Jerrick smiled again. "True, however, Adam's school didn't teach equestrian skills at that time."

Adam looked around. "They also have another advantage. They add a couple of inches to your height, and when you're the shortest boy in your year, that means something."

Hangeld was looking at Jerrick. "How many tidbits like that are you hiding?"

Jerrick smiled innocently. "Me? You don't believe that I'm hiding anything, do you?"

Chimera stared at him for a minute in disbelief, and then burst out laughing. Tiffany smirked at Jerrick, "James believes you try to keep secrets from yourself."

Jerrick looked at James severely. "That would be impossible, much like trying to hide a one-way blinds prank that went a bit wrong."

James and Rose blushed. "Jerrick," said Rose calmly, "If you value your health, you'll shut up right now." She stared at him, and didn't take her eyes off him until he shifted uncomfortably. "Who else knows about that?"

"William Moore is the only other person I know of," he confessed.

Lisa groaned. "I know about it as well," she said, "It made the papers here, and I read about it then. When you approached me, I did some checking on you two, and the lawsuit came out."

The rest of Chimera, who didn't know what they were talking about, was looking from one to another curiously. Emma spoke up first. "A prank that made the papers in Britain, and a lawsuit? What did you two do?"

James and Rose looked at Tiffany and Lisa, who were giggling as they shared something over a private link. Rose groaned. "We'll tell you about it later, since half of you know already anyway. Right now, I believe we have a few things to do, and I need Melissa in the potions lab."

The meeting broke up, and the various members of the group went to do the things they had to do. James and Tiffany were sitting on the couch. Tiffany listened to James fret for a few minutes. "Relax, Jerrick doesn't know about that. He would have used it, if he knew."

"I hope not, I'd never be able to look Hangeld or his father in the face if they knew about that."

Tiffany thought about the Unicorn incident, but managed to keep the smile off her face, which didn't work, since James could feel her amusement. He sighed, and distracted her with a soft touch of his mind. They sank into the rapport, and passed a pleasant hour.

Sunday, the day of the Ball, James had granted a Playday to the Manticores. He had done so only because Rose and the other ladies in Chimera had convinced him that nobody was going to have their mind on PT or anything but the Ball.

The only thing James did do, was warn Manticore not to pull any pranks at the Ball. "It is My Lady's first Ball, and it will be perfect for her. If I do catch anyone pulling a prank that ruins any part of the Ball for her, I will do things to that person that students will be talking about three hundred years from now."

The day was a mass of last minute preparations, with a great deal of Giggling behind the closed doors of the girl's rooms, as they did things to their hair and faces that left the boys shaking their heads.

Adam was visibly nervous, and Hangeld wasn't much better, pacing across the common room as they waited for their dates. James watched them with a smile. "You two do realize that Emma and Lisa are enjoying what Tiffany is telling them, don't you?" he said calmly.

The two of them looked at James. "You were right. Links don't allow for any privacy," Adam said. "They're not supposed to see how nervous we are before we see them."

James merely grinned. "Like you two haven't been listening to Emma."

Emma's thoughts were suffused with embarrassment as Tiffany relayed that comment to her. "It's not my fault. I just can't shield that well."

"It doesn't matter now." Lisa said pragmatically. "We're coming down now."

The boys waited at the bottom of the girl's stairs. Emma was the first one to come down, and Hangeld stood there transfixed as she came down the stairs. Emma was wearing a simple gown of green silk, and had done something to her hair to make it lie flat. With her hair pulled back, and a touch of eyeshadow, her large expressive eyes were the focal point of her face. She smiled at Hangeld as he held out his arm.

Whatever Hangeld said to her was over a private link, but it made her blush and then smile again.

Lisa came down next, and her dress was a dark blue, contrasting beautifully with her blond hair and pale skin. Adam took her hand, and smiled as he spoke. "Miss Malfoy, I think I understand why James can write poetry now, if he thinks Tiffany is half as beautiful as you are."

James looked at Adam. "My Lady is as beautiful to me as Lisa is to you. Nice necklace, Lisa."

Lisa was wearing a simple necklace, of a White Knight holding a Silver Sword, which every Manticore present recognized as Adam and Lisa's signatures.

Emma smiled at Hangeld, thinking of the Oak and Lioness charm hanging under her gown.

It was Adam and Hangeld's turn to smirk at James, as Tiffany came down the stairs. She was dressed in a gown of gold-laced green, and her hair fell freely around her flowing like a scarlet river down her back. The Winged Flame charm around her neck stood out prominently against her skin, while the thin silver chain it was hung on was nearly invisible, leaving the impression that the charm was hanging there with no support.

James stared for a minute, and then held his arm out to her.

"Her hair is a crimson waterfall, flowing like silk,

Her eyes are shining green, emeralds without peer,

Her beauty is unmatched by mortals mere,

The sight of her fills my heart, no other has seen her ilk.

Yet it is not the Physical wonder that makes her divine,

But the love that she holds for me, heady as wine,

Shining in her heart and soul, a Love that makes her mine."

James spoke softly, caught in Tiffany's eyes. Tiffany laid her hand on his arm, and neither of them moved for a long minute. The rest of Chimera could feel them, touching at levels the link could not take them. They turned and smiled at the silent couples.

"We think we have a Ball to attend, shall we go?" said a voice that was neither James nor Tiffany, but some mixture of both.

Lisa looked at Adam as they went out of the portrait hole. "I envy them, and yet I don't."

"I know exactly what you mean."

The House Elves and some of the staff had been hard at work in the Main Hall. The dining tables were gone, except for one that was pushed up against the wall, and covered with finger foods and bowls of punch.

The ceiling did not look like the sky tonight, but had the soft light of a noonday sun, that was covered with clouds. Falling from it were large snowflakes, that didn't land, but disappeared when they touched something.

The Hall's decorations were snow white, with trims of light blue and made you feel as though you were walking in a winter wonderland.

The three couples looked around, admiring the Hall. Emma smiled at Hangeld. "I know where you want to go first," she teased gently.

Hangeld smiled, but shook his head. "The food will be there all night. My courage, on the other hand, is more likely to disappear. Emma, would you dance with me?"

Emma's smile grew softer. "Of course I will."

They walked over to the area set aside for dancing, and joined the few couples already on the floor.

Adam looked at Lisa, and merely held out his hand in silent offer. Lisa took it, and they followed the other two.

James and Tiffany looked at the two couples. Adam and Lisa were passable dancers, but Hangeld and Emma were staying in one place, swaying.

"My Lady, shall we join them?"

Tiffany smiled at James. "Yes, although you do know that the only dancing I can do, I learned from your lessons."

"So? Take the lead if you can."

Tiffany and James traded the lead back and forthin their dancing, and while they were not that good at dancing, the closeness of their Soulbond meant they didn't step on each other too often.

Professor McGonagall was standing against the wall, watching the proceedings with Professor Potter and the Headmaster. "I wonder what pranks will be pulled tonight."

Professor Dumbledore smiled softly. "I don't think there will be any. Little birds have been busily running through the castle all day, warning everyone, even the Slytherins about something James said this morning." He told the other two Professors about James's threat to "Do things" this morning. "Ever since then, the Manticores have been passing the word along, and most of them have added even more comments. It would take an absolute fool to pull a prank at this Ball."

Professor Potter smiled. "You know," he confided to the others in a low voice, "Despite his being a Yank, and his disturbing temper, I'm beginning to like James."

More couples trickled in, and soon the Hall was full of couples, most of whom were enjoying themselves. One couple though, was standing in a dark corner, looking at James and Tiffany out of the corner of their eyes. "Bloody Yank, trying to scare people."

"I agree," said the woman, "we should show him that not everyone is scared of him."

The man standing there nodded in agreement. "What should we do then?"

The woman considered the question, and then turned back to the man. "I have an idea. Here's what we're going to do."

The Ball was nearly over when James and Tiffany looked up from the rapport they had been in. They were still on the dance floor, but had joined Hangeld and Emma in simply swaying to the music.

"James, all hell's about to break loose." Rose's sending was sudden, and swept across the Chimera link. "Some sort of monster is about to appear, Melissa and I are on our way."

James and Tiffany looked around. There were still quite a few people in the Hall, mostly long term couples unwilling to end the night. James spotted Professors Potter and McGonagall, and started towards them.

Professor Potter spotted the movement, and looked that way. He saw James heading towards him with a look that boded ill for someone. "Minerva, look at James."

That was when the peaceful scene became a nightmare. In one corner of the room, the floor buckled, erupting as something huge pushed through the floor. It spoke in a rasping sibilant voice. "Fools, to think I could be slain so easily."

Professor Potter froze, not believing what his eyes were telling him.

1"The Basilisk."