Timetables were given out on Monday morning when Bagsy was sitting at the breakfast table, eating some cereal, with Neve and Teresa sitting opposite. She'd found it difficult to move back into her private room and had slept, once more, in the girl's dormitory. At least this time her stomach hadn't been keeping them all awake.

Greenda hadn't spoken to Bagsy since Emmeline and Kat had teased her for being friends with younger years at the welcome feast except to tell her, in a kind but miserable tone, that Bagsy should forget about her and focus on making friends her own age. Now, Bagsy glanced down the table at Greenda, who was sitting alone, but she didn't return her look, instead stirring her porridge with a dejected expression.

'This is ridiculous!' Teresa was fuming. 'Double Charms first thing on a Monday again! Wasn't last year enough?'

Bagsy snapped to attention. 'What!?' she squeaked. Teresa tapped the timetable that Eldritch had dropped in front of her earlier and Bagsy peered at it, finally paying it notice. Sure enough, the first two periods on a Monday were Charms with Professor Starrett and the Slytherins. Bagsy shivered in dread. Last year Starrett had made Bagsy's Charms lessons a misery to behold and had assigned her remedial Charms where the torment had continued. At least this year only the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins would see her humiliation – last year all the first years got to witness her torment every Monday. Bagsy reckoned it had become very entertaining for quite a few of them.

'Starrett really has it in for you, Bagsy,' Neve commented quietly. 'Did you do something mean to her last year?'

'No,' Bagsy said glumly, thumbing her timetable. She didn't know why Professor Starrett hated her so much.

'I've heard Starrett's only going to be worse this year,' said Teresa. 'Ministry's been watching her all summer. Gave her a curfew and everything.'

'Really?' Neve asked curiously.

Bagsy looked at Teresa quizzically. 'Why did they do that?'

'Trying to find the missing magical beings, I expect,' Teresa explained, peeling an orange.

'Magical beings?' Bagsy frowned.

Teresa's face was very still for a moment. 'Magical creatures,' she forced out in annoyance. 'The ones rescued from the Ministry.'

'Why would Professor Starrett have them?' Bagsy furrowed her brow even further. Starrett seemed like the last person who'd break into the Ministry and steal magical creatures, as had been done last year during Bagsy's first week at Hogwarts.

Teresa glanced around to check no one was listening in. 'Because her sister tried to get them out of the Ministry before,' she whispered and Bagsy's eyes widened.

Neve looked shocked, too. 'What?'

Teresa nodded importantly. 'Oh, yes. Zotova told me all about it. Some years ago Starrett's sister tried to break out the magical bei– creatures inside. She was caught and sent to Azkaban for a very long time.'

Bagsy shivered. Her sister, Bontie, had told her about Azkaban before, and how horrible criminals were sent there.

Teresa continued. 'They reckon Professor Starrett was an accomplice to the rescue– to the theft last year. They have no proof, but they've been watching her like a hawk, searching for anything to implicate her.'

Neve bit her lip, thinking. 'I remember my brother mentioning something about Starrett. Isn't she meant to be one of the strongest spellcasters?'

Teresa mulled that over. 'It wouldn't surprise me. She seems frightfully good with charms. If she really is one of the best witches of our time, it's no wonder the Ministry wants to keep tabs on her. The muggle government do the same with powerful people in the muggle world, too. People with power can easily misuse it. Or…' She trailed off, leaning forward with a conspiratorial quirk of an eyebrow. 'They use their power to expose secrets of a corrupt government. If that's the case, the government would have to keep a close eye on her.'

Bagsy frowned at Teresa. Somehow, she doubted that. Her sister worked for the Ministry herself, after all, and if Bontie wasn't corrupt then the place she worked for couldn't be either, or else she'd have quit.

Teresa leant back, raising her eyebrows. 'If you ask me, you only need to speak with Professor Starrett for two seconds to know she lacks the motivation to do anything for anyone else's sake, let alone poor, locked up magical beings.' She looked at Neve. 'It's like I was saying to you yesterday. Sometimes, for progress, you have to take drastic action, and Starrett doesn't strike me as someone who would care enough to do the drastic actions that need to be done.'

Neve squirmed uncomfortably at that but didn't say anything.

Bagsy paused. 'Do you think stealing the magical creatures from the safety of the ministry was good for them?'

Teresa was very still, considering her in silence. 'No, of course not,' she said at last with a forced smile, looking down at Bagsy. 'What a silly thing to ask.'

Charms was as horrible as it had been last year. Bagsy managed to find her way to the long, tall lecture room without getting lost, as she had done before, and secured herself a seat as far back as possible. The further back the seats, the higher up they were, so that when Professor Starrett entered the click clack of her incredibly high heels was a whispered echo in her ears.

Mezrielda slid into the seat next to her, unpacking her things neatly. Bagsy's equipment was already strewn in a mess on her desk.

Professor Starrett was a small, dark skinned, skeletal woman whose red and gold robes took up more space than she did. As she spoke, she paced, like a soldier, up and down the class, her hands clasped behind her back, twitching her bright red wand with a white tip back and forth absent-mindedly.

'Last year,' Professor Starrett's shrill voice announced, 'I told you that if you put the work in you could expect my teachings to help build you into a masterful charm worker during your time at Hogwarts.' Students wriggled in their seats, some were enthralled by Starrett's words, other looked bored already. Some, like Bagsy, were fearful and trying their hardest not to be noticed. Neve, who was sitting on a seat equally as far from Professor Starrett but on the other side of the class, was so small she could duck below her desk and out of sight, only the top of her boy-short hair-cut poking above it.

'However,' Starrett's voice snapped harshly and Bagsy found a bad feeling settling in her gut. 'Term has only just begun, and one of you has already seen fit to steal from my personal collection.' She whirled about, pacing back down the room. 'Thankfully, I know exactly who stole from me, as only one person in this entire school wants to appear to beso pitiful at magic that they have need of a set of wand training wheels to cultivate their illusory persona of pathetic-ness.'

A hush fell over the classroom as students slowly turned in their seats to look at Bagsy, who's face had turned almost as white as Dantura Glint's had been.

'Bagsy…?' Mezrielda hissed quietly without looking at her.

'I swear I didn't…' she hissed back.

'Miss Beetlehorn,' Starrett called. 'Return the item at once and I shall forget and forgive, or would you rather I remove ten points from Hufflepuff?'

Bagsy's mouth hung open. 'I…' she said in a voice too small to be heard.

'Make it twenty, then,' Starrett tutted.

'I didn't take it, professor,' Bagsy managed to raise her strangled sounding voice enough for Professor Starrett to hear.

'Thirty, then,' Starrett decided. 'I want it returned, Bagsy. Trust me, you could use a thousand training wheels and you'd still seem atrocious at magic if that's all you want people to see. We both know the issue isn't with your wand.'

Bagsy fumed at that. Starrett seemed convinced her missing magic was a deliberate choice, not an infuriating inability to cast spells.

'Now, on with the class, today we'll be learning animation charms…'

Bagsy didn't pay much attention for the rest of the lesson. When the students filed out at the end she was dreading Professor Starrett would call her over to have a word. Thankfully, Starrett seemed satisfied with the humiliation she'd caused her and let Bagsy leave with everyone else.

'Here,' Mezrielda passed a piece of parchment to Bagsy as they left. She took it. 'I made an extra copy of my notes for you,' Mezrielda explained. She must have noticed how out-of-it Bagsy had been. 'Ignore Starrett. She's a toad of a human being.'

'That's very insulting, Mezrielda,' she responded. 'You better apologise to the toads. Slippy will be devastated.'

Snickering Bagsy and Mezrielda made their way to lunch. They shared all their classes on a Monday, with double Charms in the morning and double Transfiguration after lunch but Bagsy felt horrendous during any class that required her to cast spells, and Transfiguration was no exception. Professor Hilkins rattled stiffly about the classroom, placing cups on their desks and asking them to turn them into lilies. Bagsy was doing awful, as usual, and had an entirely unchanged and unmoved cup on her desk the whole time.

'Do you always struggle this much in Transfiguration?' Mezrielda asked, looking at Bagsy, who nodded glumly. 'I bet you're incapable of touching the centre of my water lily,' Mezrielda challenged her.

Bagsy sighed. 'You're probably right.'

Mezrielda floated her beautiful flower onto Bagsy's side of the desk. 'Go on,' she encouraged her. 'Try.' Bagsy cast Mezrielda a sideways glance then, humouring her, lazily went to poke the centre of the lily. The lily let out a squawk like a bird and snapped at Bagsy's fingers, who yelped in surprise and withdrew her hand. Mezrielda smirked and moved the lily back to her side.

'What was that for?' Bagsy asked. Mezrielda flicked her wand and the lily squawked again. Bagsy had to admit it looked a little funny.

'I felt the need to snap you out of your self-pity,' Mezrielda said, pushing Bagsy's cup back towards her. 'Keep trying.'

Bagsy did keep trying and kept failing. Nothing she did changed the cup. Even its colour stayed the same, whilst her face grew red. As they left the lesson her head hung low.

Mezrielda patted her on the back. 'I've never seen anyone try as hard as you do, Bagsy,' she said honestly.

'And yet I still can't do it!'

'You can Bagsy,' Mezrielda insisted. Bagsy shook her head, disbelieving. 'You blocked that leg-lock jinx, remember?'

'Only partially.'

'But you still did it!' Mezrielda said before glancing around and leaning in closer. 'Listen, Bagsy, I wish I could bring myself to put in even half the effort you did. Give it a few years and you will be leaps and bounds ahead of all of us. Well, not me, obviously, but everyone else for sure.'

'You really think so?'

Mezrielda shrugged. 'I can't be certain – but I'd put good money on it. If I had any,' she added bitterly.

That evening there was an optional flying lesson with Professor Kim. Unlike with first years, Hogwarts didn't require second years to take a flying lesson once a week. Regardless, Bagsy wanted to go, eager to get as much practise in as she could before Quidditch try-outs. She was still unsure if she was going to try for the team, but it didn't hurt to brush up on her skills. However, Mezrielda grabbed Bagsy by the back of her robe and dragged her to the library the second she finished her dinner, so Bagsy gave up on attending the optional flying lesson that week.

'Did you bring it?' Mezrielda asked, and Bagsy nodded. Mezrielda had asked her to return her book, the one she'd given Bagsy back at Vespite Manor, to her at dinner and Bagsy had stowed the large volume beneath her robes.

Now, as Bagsy and Mezrielda sat down in their favourite nook of the library overlooking the lake, with the matured stampelia standing proudly on the windowsill and greeting them with a gentle wave of its large, pink flowers, Bagsy pulled the tome from beneath her robes and heaved it onto the table.

'Good,' Mezrielda said, cracking the old book open, its ancient spine protesting at the movement. 'To be completely honest with you, Bagsy, I didn't want to attend the flying lesson because I wanted to speak about something…' She cast her cold gaze around the empty library. 'Important.'

'The beast,' Bagsy responded, subconsciously grasping the invisible necklace she always wore and praying that it did, in fact, hide her from the beast's powers of mental invasion. She hadn't had any strange dreams so far this year, so it seemed to be working.

Mezrielda nodded. 'You've been thinking about it, too?'

Bagsy sighed. 'As little as possible, but yes. I try to ignore what happened last year…'

'We can't ignore it, Bagsy,' Mezrielda insisted. 'I tried looking up information about the beast after our exams last year, but there was nothing in the library on it I could find. At least, nothing on it not in the restricted section, which I was unable to access.' She looked over at the locked segment of the library. As if on cue one of the books rattled and let out a muffled scream before falling silent. Both Bagsy and Mezrielda shivered.

'But this?' Bagsy tapped the book open in front of Mezrielda.

'I found this in my library at home,' Mezrielda explained, rifling through the pages. 'It's called the Book of Beasts. It's the only thing I could find that even had the word beast in it. My parents caught me and banned me from reading it. They run a tight ship, Dantura and Palid, and can't risk be being distracted from what I need to be learning, so I didn't get a chance to sneak it out until you and Tod turned up.'

'You used me to smuggle the book out?' Bagsy asked, aghast.

Mezrielda nodded. 'Naturally.'

'So, what does this book say on the blood eyed beast?' Bagsy shuffled her seat closer to Mezrielda's, peering at the pages.

'I'm not sure, I didn't get a chance to read it. It might say nothing at all.'

Bagsy looked at Mezrielda.

Mezrielda looked at Bagsy. 'Shall we?'

Bagsy nodded. They turned the pages one after the other, eyes absorbing the words as they looked for anything relating to the blood eyed beast. It took some searching but, eventually, they turned a page and froze. Looking down at the page they saw, staring back up at them, the words 'the blood eyed beast'.

Bagsy blinked and read the title of the page again. 'It can't be…' she trailed off.

Mezrielda seemed to be having a similar thought. 'I only called it that in my head,' she murmured, running her finger along the words written in black ink.

'The blood eyed beast,' they both read aloud, glancing at each other.

'But… how did I know it was called that?' Bagsy wondered out loud.

'I only saw it once, and in my mind I kept referring to it as the blood eyed beast, too,' Mezrielda agreed. 'How peculiar…'

They read what the page had to say.

The Blood Eyed Beast – a creature of greed and intelligence in equal measure – flanked by her four apostles, was the cause of the great wizard kind decline (and near extinction) in 1804.

'When was this written?' Bagsy asked.

Mezrielda hauled the pages over to look at the front of the book. '1805…'

Bagsy looked at the book as if it were a snake about to strike her.

'Let's keep reading.' Mezrielda turned back to the page.

The Beast was defeated and imprisoned by the Ministry during the winter. Investigations on how to dispose of the creature are currently underway. However, it has become evident that the beast consumed some form of immortal soul and, thus, is itself immortal.

Her four apostles remain at large.

There was nothing more written on the blood eyed beast. The next page was a detailed description of vampires, which Mezrielda very quickly hid by slamming the book closed.

'Fat lot of help that was,' Bagsy muttered.

Mezrielda hummed her agreement and they sat in silence.

'Bagsy…'

'Yes?'

'You forgave me very quickly, last year,' said Mezrielda.

Bagsy, moving her chair back to where it had been, tilted her head. 'What do you mean?'

Mezrielda sat up straight, swishing her long hair behind her back. 'I informed you my wish was to save your life, and within a few seconds, or there abouts, you both believed and forgave me. Did-' Mezrielda curled her hands up in anger. 'Did Tod tell you what my wish was before me? Because I specifically asked him not to-'

'No, he didn't,' Bagsy assured Mezrielda.

'Good.'

'It was Fitzsimmons who told me.'

Mezrielda's face paled, her brown eyes snapping onto Bagsy. 'Come again?'

'Fitzsimmons told me you wished for me to live,' Bagsy repeated, not understanding Mezrielda's concern.

'Bagsy... neither I nor Tod told Fitzsimmons what I wished for.' Mezrielda's words hung in the air between them.

'But then, how did they know…?' Bagsy's voice tailed away.

Mezrielda looked out the window, her eyes narrowed. 'I think we need to be cautious of Professor Fitzsimmons.'