Alexandra was excited by the spells the Field Training Grimoire offered, but it was very difficult to study from. Since she couldn't show it at school, and she couldn't practice spells at home, its terse and rudimentary instructions were extremely frustrating. The Patronus Charm instructions told her to "clear your mind of all doubt, fear, and despair" and "focus on your happiest memory," but there was no guidance on how to do that. Did Aurors learn how to just feel whatever they wanted to feel? She persisted, in the mornings before class at the Pruett School, but day after day, her "Expecto Patronum" failed to produce even a faint wisp of silver.
The week after the field trip to Chicago, Franklin Percival Brown stormed into the Pruett School during their morning Charms lessons.
"You!" he bellowed, pointing at Alexandra.
"Excuse me, Franklin," said Madam Erdglass.
"Madam Erdglass," said Mr. Brown, "your inability to control this witch borders on negligence! Have you any idea what she was up to while on your recent excursion to the Territorial Headquarters Building?"
There was a long silence. Mr. Brown finally gave up on waiting for her to respond.
"She wandered away from your group, didn't she?" He barely suppressed the volume of his voice in Madam Erdglass's calm, half-awake presence.
"I recall she might have," said Madam Erdglass.
"I had to use the bathroom," Alexandra said.
"Bollocks! Blazing bollocks by God!" bellowed Brown. "Do you think I am a complete and utter fool? An absolute idiot? A hapless, cretinous simpleton?"
Alexandra silently congratulated herself for exemplary self-control by keeping her mouth shut.
Mr. Brown addressed the class. "I'm here to interrogate all of you about your activities, and Miss Quick's, in Chicago."
"Why don't you just talk to Alexandra if your problem is with her?" Rachel Ing asked. "I don't think it's fair to keep accusing all of us."
"I'm not even sure what he's accusing me of," Alexandra said.
"Sneaking about unsupervised, entering offices that were off limits to the likes of you, illegally assuming my identity, and no doubt pursuing nefarious wickedness you were put up to by your father!" Brown said.
"Assuming your identity?" Freddy looked between Alexandra and Mr. Brown. His expression was a theatrical display of astonishment. "Wow, that must have been some disguise." When his face was turned away from Mr. Brown, he winked at Alexandra.
"My father didn't put me up to anything," Alexandra said, suppressing a grin.
"I will get to the truth of that and uncover whatever scheme you and your sire concocted!" Mr. Brown said. "And all future field trips are canceled!"
"I don't believe we had any scheduled," Madam Erdglass said.
"You are not to leave this town without notifying the Trace Office!" Mr. Brown said, pointing a finger at Alexandra.
Alexandra raised her eyebrows. Did Mr. Brown really have that kind of authority?
"Answer me, girl!" Mr. Brown snarled. "I expect you to say 'Yes, sir'!"
Alexandra sat back in her chair and glared at him. Mr. Brown turned redder and redder. The silence stretched as everyone else in the room watched the two of them.
Finally, Madam Erdglass said, "Was there anything else, Franklin?"
"Yes," said Mr. Brown. "I'm going to speak to each student individually in the office, starting with Miss Quick."
Alexandra shrugged and rose to her feet. "If I don't return, remember what I told you," she said.
Mr. Brown's red face mottled with splotches of purple. "Enough of your slanderous insinuations, you brazen little brat!"
Alexandra found it amusing how easy he was to push around, except that he also seemed dangerously unstable, and she wasn't sure he wouldn't lose his temper and do something violent. She walked ahead of him out of the classroom and into Madam Erdglass's office, where he slammed the door behind himself.
"Maybe you should leave the door open," Alexandra said. "You know, so there are witnesses."
"Witnesses to what?" Mr. Brown nearly knocked her aside trying to squeeze past her and around the desk.
"Well, who knows what you might do in a closed room?" Alexandra said. "Since I'm the illegitimate spawn of a Dark Wizard, a brat, a sorceress, a Bellatrix, whatever that is, and everything else you've called me, you might decide you can get away with practically anything." She widened her eyes just a little, as if to convey fearfulness, but she suspected even Mr. Brown could detect the sardonic twist at the corners of her mouth.
He fell onto Madam Erdglass's chair so hard that it shivered, and for a moment Alexandra thought he would wind up on the floor. He glowered at her from a face like a stewed tomato with two dark eyes beneath bristly black brows.
"What were you doing on the thirteenth floor?" he demanded. "And where did you get Polyjuice Potion?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Alexandra said.
Mr. Brown slammed a fist on the desk in front of him. "You think you can get away with anything you like, don't you? You think you can be disrespectful, disobedient, and deceitful and no one can do anything about it, don't you?"
Alexandra met his seething glower with a flat, cold stare of her own. "What is the Accounting Office?" she asked. "And how can you be working for them and the Department of Magical Education?"
"Keep your nose out of things that don't concern you. If you think being confined to this Muggle burg and having your wand locked up is the most severe discipline I can invoke upon you, insolent, impudent child, you are egregiously mistaken!"
"It does concern me when one of my classmates disappears," Alexandra said. "What happened to Roger Darby? Or Forrest Fleming or Lila Hill?"
Mr. Brown's face drained of much of its color. He slammed both of his palms on the desk, and used the impact to half-launch himself from the chair, rising to his full height with a strained groan that brought the reddish color back to his cheeks and forehead.
Leaning over her from across the desk, he made almost as if to topple over onto Alexandra, and said, "So! You have been poking around into the affairs of others! What did you steal? Who did you bribe, coerce, or seduce into blathering about matters they don't understand and have no business talking about?"
"Maybe it was you," Alexandra said. "Maybe I'll claim you tried to do something inappropriate to me behind closed doors. Just why are you harassing kids while pretending to be some important official? Your grandfather was a janitor."
She didn't know where her rage came from — Mr. Brown angered her in a way she hadn't felt since Dean Grimm's first attempts to cow her as a sixth grader. Worse, because even when she hated Ms. Grimm as only an eleven-year-old can hate an adult, long before she'd learned the Dean was her aunt, she had on some level realized that the Dean was acting in what she believed to be her best interests. Mr. Brown, however, was a bully and, she suspected, a monster. She was tired of adults demanding respect and deference while hiding behavior a hundred times worse than anything she'd ever been accused of. She was almost an adult herself. She'd stood toe-to-toe with grown wizards trying to kill her. Being hectored and lectured by some self-important minion of evil bureaucrats had pushed her past her limits.
They'd expelled her, painted a target on her, blackened her name and inked her record in red, taken her wand away and marked her as the Enemy's daughter. What else could they do to her?
"I'm going back to class," she said.
Mr. Brown's mouth had fallen open in disbelief. Now his eyes bulged, and as if in slow motion, his hand rose toward her. She saw it coming, yet couldn't quite believe it was happening — his thick arm swung around and his knuckles clipped her across the side of the head, knocking her off her feet and sending her crashing into the book boxes stacked against the back wall. She lay on the floor, not quite dazed, but quivering in shock and fury.
Mr. Brown stood over her, his face registering equal amounts of shock and fury of his own.
Shakily, Alexandra stood back up, rubbing her face. It was tender. She'd have a bruise. It took all of her self-restraint not to draw her wand. Either wand.
"I'll see you broken, imprisoned, and wandless," Mr. Brown said. His voice quavered a little. Was he worried about getting in trouble? He'd hit a student, but Alexandra doubted the rules would apply equally where she was concerned. Maybe he was realizing that he'd just hit the daughter of Abraham Thorn, the Enemy of the Confederation, who had done terrible things to other men for lesser slights to his daughters. Alexandra enjoyed the thought of Mr. Brown being afraid, but threatening him with retribution would mean admitting that she relied on her father's protection. She didn't want Abraham Thorn to avenge her. She wanted to avenge herself.
"You'll pay for that," she said, and something in her tone made him flinch, then quickly clench his teeth in fury.
"Go back to class," he said. "And send Miss Ing in here."
"Screw you," she hissed, and she ran out the door before he could react.
Slamming the door behind her, she leaned against the wall, pausing in case he stormed after her. He didn't. She took a deep breath and put her hand to her face again.
She didn't know what to do. So she went back to class.
Everyone stared at her when she sat down. Madam Erdglass paused in her lesson, and after a moment, said, "Would you like to go to the lavatory, Miss Quick?"
"No," Alexandra answered quietly. She realized she was trembling, and clenched her fists. Everyone probably thought she was terrified, or on the verge of tears, when in fact she was shaking with rage.
Mr. Brown came to the door of the classroom. "Miss Ing," he said, "I would like to speak to you."
Rachel looked at Alexandra, then at Mr. Brown. "I don't think so," she said.
Mr. Brown's face turned another shade darker. Madam Erdglass cleared her throat. "Let's take a break. Franklin, you and I can chat with Miss Ing together."
The class broke up, and Alexandra retreated to the lunch room with everyone else. Rachel and Pete stood at the front of the room, Pete arguing with Madam Erdglass and Mr. Brown, until finally Rachel made calming gestures, and Pete reluctantly let her go with the two adults.
He stomped into the break room and asked Alexandra, "What did that fat bastard do to you?"
The younger kids gasped. Helen held her breath. Silvia said, "You shouldn't use words like that."
"Shut up, Silvia," Pete said. Silvia's face clouded over.
"Calm down," Alexandra said. "Rachel will be all right. It's just me he hates. Well, actually, he hates everyone. But it's just me he's after."
Pete sat down across from her. Freddy slid onto the bench next to him.
"If he hit you, he should be arrested," Pete said.
"Really? You're going to call the cops on a wizard?" Alexandra asked.
"Even for wizards, it's illegal for adults to hit kids," Freddy said.
"Probably," Alexandra said. "But I'm pretty sure he's not going to hit Rachel. And I'll take care of this myself."
"What do you mean you'll take care of this yourself?" Freddy asked.
Pete said, "We can't let him get away with this."
"He won't get away with it," Alexandra said.
"What are you gonna do, curse him?" Freddy asked. "That's a great plan. What do you think will happen then?"
"You sound too much like my friends," Alexandra said, rubbing her face.
"Aren't we your friends?" Silvia asked. Alexandra looked at the girl in surprise.
Freddy smiled. "Yeah, aren't we?"
Alexandra didn't know what to make of Freddy's apparent sincerity.
"Anyway, nobody should be abused like that," Pete said.
Alexandra said, "I've suffered worse."
Everyone fell silent, with appalled expressions.
"That's not what I meant," Alexandra said.
Penny walked over, face set in a grim little scrunch of tightened features. "He wants to talk to all of us, doesn't he?" she asked.
"He wants to know what you know about what I did while we were in Chicago," Alexandra said. "And you don't know anything."
"I say we need to file a complaint," Pete said.
"You should tell your parents," said Rachel Cohen.
Alexandra sighed. She didn't know how to explain the situation. Sure, she could tell Claudia and Archie — heck, she wasn't even sure what she would tell them when they saw the bruise on her face — and they would want to file a complaint. And who would read that complaint? Did the Department of Magical Education even care when day school students were abused? Maybe they'd use it as an excuse to shut down Livia's school. Maybe Mr. Brown would claim he was defending himself. Alexandra was sure people would believe almost anything about the Enemy's daughter.
She was still in shock, still outraged, and still ready to attack Mr. Brown in a blind fury, which was why she had walked away and didn't want to talk about this now. Why were Pete and Freddy suddenly so concerned? Well, Pete was obviously worried about his girlfriend.
Rachel returned to the break room after five minutes. Pete went over to her immediately, and she smiled and patted him on the arm. Rolling her eyes, she walked into the room and said, "It was no big deal. He just wanted to know what Alexandra was doing in the Territorial Headquarters Building, and if she was doing anything illegal or against the rules here, and if we ever saw her dancing with black goats in the woods."
"Dancing with what?" Alexandra exclaimed.
Rachel laughed. "Just kidding." Her face turned serious. "Don't worry. No one's going to tell him anything." She looked around, as if to confirm this with all the younger students, who all nodded their heads.
"Are you all right?" she asked, turning back to Alexandra.
Alexandra nodded.
"He wants to talk to you next," Rachel said to the other Rachel.
Rachel Cohen bit her lip, then straightened her collar and tugged at the long sleeves of her dark jacket before exiting the room.
"Madam Erdglass said the rest of us should keep reading our lessons," Rachel Ing said.
With a few glances at Alexandra, they all returned to their seats in the classroom.
Alexandra used a Wound Relocating Charm to move the bruise from her face to her back, where Claudia and Archie couldn't see it. She didn't tell them about what had happened at school, nor did she call Livia. She was afraid Claudia and Archie would want to do something; she was afraid Livia wouldn't.
Mr. Brown returned the next day, and the next. He was there early in the morning, preventing Alexandra and the other students from practicing dueling. He watched Madam Erdglass's class, and interrupted frequently when he saw students whispering or passing notes or not paying sufficient attention. He raised his voice, sometimes to a yell, but did not physically threaten anyone. He lectured them pompously on their behavior and breeding, with words that made Alexandra seethe, brought Silvia and the younger Rachel to tears, and frightened Helen and the Dennings, while the older kids turned slowly more hostile. Penny continued scribbling blackly in her notebook.
Madam Erdglass endured this all with apparent equanimity.
Sometimes Mr. Brown sat in the lunch room while the students ate. He didn't say anything, but scratched notes with a large quill pen. Alexandra stole glances at his book, but it wasn't the same one he'd used to record the names of the disappeared Muggle-borns.
When Alexandra asked the other students about their closed-door meetings with Mr. Brown, they told her that he had grilled them about her, just as he had Rachel Ing — he was certain Alexandra was up to something nefarious, and he wanted to know what.
He tried to flatter Rachel Cohen. He tried to scare Silvia. Chris said he got angry quickly and told him to stop asking questions.
Penny wouldn't speak about her interview with Mr. Brown, but shrugged and turned her back, doodling in her notebook with furious stabs of her marker.
Every day, Mr. Brown returned.
Alexandra waited until the end of the week to try snooping again.
Mr. Brown was upstairs, supposedly making sure students couldn't trespass there. The class was broken up into groups by age level in two different rooms to practice Charms, and Madam Erdglass was in the other room. Alexandra got up from the table and said to Freddy, Pete, and Rachel Ing, "I'll be right back."
"Where are you going?" Freddy asked.
"The bathroom."
Freddy rolled his eyes. Alexandra exited the room, checked to make sure no one else was in the hall, and went quickly to the little office that was now effectively shared by Madam Erdglass and Mr. Brown.
When she opened the door, Penny jumped and spun around.
"What are you doing here?" Alexandra whispered.
"What are you doing here?" Penny whispered back.
Penny had been leaning over a large brown cloak — Mr. Brown's, carelessly draped over the chair behind Madam Erdglass's desk.
"You're supposed to be in the other room," Alexandra said.
"So are you," Penny countered.
Penny was holding a vial of dark reddish liquid in one hand, and a tiny metal ball dangling from a silver chain in the other. The metal ball was perforated with holes, like a spherical sieve. Seeing Alexandra eyeing them, Penny put her hands behind her back.
"What the heck are you doing?" Alexandra asked.
Penny shrugged, but there was an ugly scowl on her face. "Big Boy has been interrogating me all week, calling me a Mudblood, threatening to visit my house and scare the parental units…"
"So you're, what, sprinkling some kind of potion on his cloak?"
Penny curled her lips, but said nothing.
Alexandra tried to reach around the fat girl, but Penny backed away and stared her down with stubborn defiance. Alexandra shook her head and grabbed Mr. Brown's cloak.
"No!" Penny said, her voice too loud.
Alexandra's hand burned.
Biting her lip to keep from screaming, Alexandra dropped the cloak and shook her hand. The skin of her palm bubbled, and the pain was nearly the worst she'd ever felt. Her flesh felt as if it were on fire. Horrified, she whipped out her wand with her other hand and tried a counter-curse, then a first aid charm. She knew the recipes for several anti-poison potions, but there wasn't nearly enough time to prepare one, even if she could get all the materials out of the school's storage room.
Her spells barely diminished the agony in her hand, but the bubbling stopped. With tears of pain stinging her eyes, she turned furiously on Penny. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Teaching the fat fuck a lesson," Penny snarled. Her features twisted into something hateful and disturbing, boiling away her usual sullen, taciturn demeanor.
Alexandra gestured at the robe. "What did you think would happen when he puts that on?"
Penny laughed. The laugh died in her throat beneath Alexandra's wrathful stare, but Alexandra thought about the last time she'd heard a laugh like that, on the lips of John Manuelito.
"You're out of your mind," Alexandra said. "Are you trying to kill him?"
Penny sobered. "I diluted it."
Alexandra held her hand up. "This is diluted? What is it?"
Penny pressed her lips together. Her eyes glittered defiantly.
"Look at my hand," Alexandra said, almost hissing. "Spill it, or else." She pointed her wand at Penny, whose self-assured, maniacal look vanished.
"Hydra blood," Penny whispered fearfully.
It took Alexandra a moment to absorb this. "Hydra blood? That's supposed to be the deadliest poison there is!"
"I said I diluted it. The original solution was just a single drop in a whole bottle of oil, and I mixed one drop of that into a bathtub full of water."
Alexandra clenched her teeth. "Where did you get hydra blood? Nobody would sell that to a kid. I think even professional alchemists need a license for it."
Penny fell silent again. Alexandra remembered seeing her whispering to Anya in Chicago, and her mouth dropped open. "Oh. My. God. You traded with a hag?! What did you give her?"
Penny's eyes widened, but she said nothing.
"You're crazy!" Alexandra said, and grabbed Penny's wrist, then almost immediately released it, hissing with pain. Penny winced and immediately tried to wipe her wrist off on her dark skirt. Her wrist was already an angry blood-red, and smoke curled from the fabric of her skirt. Alexandra felt light-headed, and wondered if the hydra blood had already penetrated her skin. She cast a counter-curse on Penny, not sure how much had gotten on the other girl.
The door abruptly flew open. Mr. Brown stood in the entrance, filling almost every square inch of it. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" he bellowed.
Penny stepped back, her bravado dispelled. Mr. Brown stared at his cloak, lying on the floor. "What —?!" He moved toward it.
Alexandra pointed her wand at it and said, "Incendio!"
The cloak ignited, burning brighter than usual with ugly green flames licking around the edges. A horrible, acrid smell filled the room, and Alexandra immediately cast a Breeze Charm to blow the smoke out through the doorway. Unfortunately, this sent it directly around Mr. Brown. He coughed and swayed; for a moment it looked as if he would topple over. Alexandra continued blowing the smoke away.
Mr. Brown grabbed the doorframe on either side to steady himself, and his eyes burned malignantly as he stared down the two girls. "How dare you?" he yelled. "I'll see you both wandless for this!"
The other students were now gathering in the hallway behind him. Madam Erdglass was nowhere to be seen.
Alexandra said, "There was a spider on your cloak."
Mr. Brown grabbed her by the collar. "No more of your foul, black lies! You are a snoop, a sneak, a saboteur, a thief, and a liar! And you!" He turned on Penny. "A black-hearted heathen child! Raised by Muggles to wallow in modernism! I am not surprised at all to see you following the siren song of this Dark sorceress's damnable bidding!"
Penny's cheeks colored and she opened her mouth.
Alexandra said, "Shut up, Penny."
Penny and Mr. Brown both jerked their heads in Alexandra's direction.
Mr. Brown's face glowed like an ember. "You admit it! You practice Dark Arts and seduce others into your foul practices!"
"I didn't seduce anyone," Alexandra said.
"I knew it was you who stole that list of Dark artifacts from the Juvenile Magical Offenses division," Mr. Brown said. "And those curses in the witches' lavatories! Oh, the Aurors thought it was this spawn —"; he pointed a finger at Penny; "— but I knew it was you!"
Alexandra cast a sideways glance at Penny. The girl was really an idiot, she thought.
"Where is it?" Mr. Brown demanded. "Where is the list?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Alexandra said.
"Under the WODAMND Act, minors can be subjected to inquisitorial questioning if suspected of practicing Dark Arts," Mr. Brown said.
"You aren't an Inquisitor," Alexandra said. "You're an Accountant."
Mr. Brown froze. His flushed cheeks turned pale. Then he grabbed Penny and practically hurled her out the door. He slammed the door shut, leaving Alexandra alone in the room with him.
"Tell me about the Dark artifacts," he demanded.
"I don't have any Dark artifacts," Alexandra said.
"Don't lie to me! Tell me where you hid the list!"
"I don't have it."
"Liar!" He looked down at the charred remains of his cloak, and kicked it aside with an angry growl. "Tomorrow," he said, "I will bring Veritaserum and question you with that."
"You can't do that," Alexandra said. She didn't actually know if he could, but she couldn't let Mr. Brown question her with a truth potion. She might not know about the list of Dark artifacts Penny had stolen, but she knew too many other things.
Mr. Brown sneered. "You're not at Charmbridge anymore. You are not protected by your meddlesome aunt. Don't you know what powerful enemies you've made, brat?"
"I know," Alexandra said. "I know you're making some powerful enemies too."
This provoked another furious look of rage. Mr. Brown raised his hand, and Alexandra steeled herself not to flinch. "Go ahead," she said. "Hit me again."
There was a soft tapping on the door, and then it opened.
"Franklin?" Madam Erdglass stood in the doorway. Mr. Brown blinked at her, then lowered his hand.
"What is going on?" Madam Erdglass asked.
"I was questioning this sorceress about theft, vandalism, and Dark Arts, all of which I am certain she is guilty of," Mr. Brown said. "It's just a matter of time, and not very much time, I should think, before I extract a confession from her."
Madam Erdglass stood still a moment. "I think it would be appropriate for me to be present when you question students, Franklin."
"With all due respect to your classroom authority, and deference to your age and position, Madam, I am entitled to audit, supervise, and question all activities and students at this school." He stomped toward the door. Madam Erdglass stood aside.
"I will discover the truth about what you were up to in Chicago!" he said to Alexandra, and stormed out of the building.
"Please take your seat back in the classroom, Miss Quick," Madam Erdglass said.
Alexandra came to school the next day prepared for a fight. She had a bandage on her left hand.
She didn't arrive early. Since Mr. Brown began skulking around, they had stopped their before-school dueling practice on the third floor, though Alexandra still tutored Helen and any of the other kids who were willing when she arrived in the morning. But today she got to the Pruett School just as class began. She took her basswood wand from Madam Erdglass, relieved that Mr. Brown had never noticed the black hickory wand she'd actually been holding.
"Where's Mr. Brown?" she whispered to Silvia, though she suspected she could shout without Madam Erdglass hearing her.
"In his office with Penny," Silvia whispered back.
Alexandra saw then the empty desk on the other side of the room. So, Mr. Brown was working on Penny again. She clenched her fists. Madam Erdglass was copying formulas from an Alchemy textbook onto the board, waving her wand from her desk to guide the chalk. Alexandra knew them — she'd learned them in seventh grade. More anger bubbled up inside her.
She did the tedious drills and read from their book throughout the morning session. Penny did not reappear. When it was time for their mid-morning break, Alexandra stormed into the hallway outside and went directly to the office that Mr. Brown had virtually commandeered from Madam Erdglass.
The door was closed. She rattled the glass with her fist.
There was no answer, though she could hear movement in the office. She opened the door. Inside, Mr. Brown sat behind Madam Erdglass's desk, writing something in yet another large notebook with a black leather cover.
"Where's Penny?" Alexandra asked.
Mr. Brown finally looked up. He scowled. "Go back to your classroom. I will call you when I am ready to deal with you in turn."
"Where's Penny?" Alexandra repeated.
Mr. Brown rose to his feet. "Get out of this room and begone!" he bellowed.
Alexandra gripped her wand, and refrained, just barely, from drawing it out of her pocket, though Mr. Brown's eyes followed the movements of her hand. He took a half-step back and fumbled for his own wand, turning a deeper crimson as he realized how he'd been provoked into reacting, and that Alexandra had noticed it.
"What did you do with her?" Alexandra said, keeping her voice low and even. She suspected he hadn't brought Veritaserum after all.
"I'm allowing her to rethink her unwillingness to answer questions put to her. Your turn is coming, you insolent little sorceress. And DON'T YOU DARE THREATEN ME!"
She backed away from him as if from a madman — his last outburst startled her, betraying fear along with anger, and some instinct told her that Mr. Brown might be even worse to deal with when he was afraid.
Rather than continue shouting back and forth — already the others were coming up the hallway, and behind them, Madam Erdglass — Alexandra slammed the door shut. Then she spun on her heel and walked to the stairs.
"Alexandra, where are you going?" asked Freddy.
"She's crazy," said Taylor.
"Alexandra!" Helen called plaintively.
Barely audibly, Madam Erdglass also called her name.
Alexandra ignored them all and ascended to the second floor. Goody Pruett looked surprised when Alexandra appeared at the top of the stairs. Lamps were lit, so Alexandra knew someone had been up here.
"Where did Mr. Brown take Penny?" Alexandra asked.
The portrait stammered. "I… he told me she was dabbling in Dark Arts."
"Where is she?"
Goody Pruett shrank away from her, or at least gave the impression of trying to, trapped as she was against her canvas. "I don't know, child! One of those offices going unused…"
Alexandra turned. "Penny!" she shouted.
Pete and Freddy followed up the stairs. None of the younger kids were with them, and Madam Erdglass either wasn't attempting the stairs or was too slow to keep up.
"Hey, kiddo, what are you flipping out about?" asked Freddy.
"Didn't you notice Penny's been gone all morning?" Alexandra said. "That fat bastard locked her in a room up here."
Freddy and Pete looked at each other.
"Maybe you should come back downstairs —" Pete said.
"WHAT ARE YOU LITTLE HEATHENS DOING?" roared Mr. Brown from the first floor. "Madam Erdglass, why are your students not in the classroom?"
Freddy said, "Seriously, are you trying to get yourself in more trouble?"
Alexandra walked further into the nest of offices and corridors on the second floor of the former warehouse. She pushed open doors, calling Penny's name, until she reached one in the far corner where barely any light fell. The door didn't open. When she rattled the knob, she heard a whimpering sound from the other side.
"Penny?" she said.
There was no answer, but she heard indistinct noises… including a sliding sound, like a legless, leathery body dragging itself across rough wood. Goosebumps crawled up her spine.
"Alexandra, Madam Erdglass is telling us to bring you back," called Pete, from down the corridor.
And behind him: "GET BACK DOWN HERE IMMEDIATELY, YOU WRETCHED, IMPUDENT, INSOLENT LITTLE WENCH!"
Alexandra cast an Unlocking Charm and then a Light Spell. She pushed the door open, holding her lit wand before her.
At first she saw nothing in the circle of radiance cast by her Light Spell. It was as if darkness itself choked the room, grudgingly yielding to Alexandra's spell but reluctant to give up the corners and far spaces.
Then, something emerged from the shadowy depths. A tall figure, a familiar, grinning face.
Alexandra's throat suddenly became so dry it nearly closed around the breath she sucked in, and she stumbled backward.
John Manuelito leered at her from the stark threshold of the room's shadows.
"Barak!" Alexandra shouted, just as Pete and Freddy reached her. They both flinched and ducked as a lightning bolt crackled from Alexandra's wand. Badly aimed in her panic, it blew a hole in the wall next to the door, showering bits of wood and brick on the cringing boys, and adding an ozone smell to the fetid odor already pouring out of the room.
John Manuelito continued grinning maniacally, his eyes alight with murderous glee.
"You're dead!" Alexandra shouted. "You're dead, you're dead, I saw you die — I'm not afraid of you!" She knew the last was a lie even as she spoke it, was furious at herself for being afraid of him, and in a flash of heightened, heart-racing awareness, with her throat closing up and all her instincts screaming at her to fight or flee, she realized what she was actually facing.
Freddy cautiously raised his head. "What. The. Hell?"
"Who's that?" asked Pete. He peered at the figure of John Manuelito, dimly visible from the hallway.
"Stay back!" Alexandra shouted. She pointed her wand again, but her hand trembled. "R-r-ridikkulus," she said.
John Manuelito laughed at her.
"Wait, what are you casting now?" asked Pete.
"Get back!" Alexandra shouted. "He'll kill you!"
"What?" said Pete.
"Isn't that spell for banishing boogeymen?" asked Freddy.
"Boggarts, you idiot!" Alexandra said. The anger focused her. Her fist tightened on her wand and she waggled it contemptuously. "Ridikkulus!"
John Manuelito sprouted feathers and beads. Suddenly he was decked out in full "Indian" regalia: a rainbow-colored war bonnet, bone and bead ornaments hanging over his bare chest, Halloween costume face paint, and fringed leather chaps and moccasins. In one hand, he held a large, cartoonish tomahawk; in the other, a peace pipe. His skin tone became a bright maroon. Like a living cigar store Indian, he was an absurd caricature of no actual tribe.
Alexandra forced laughter at him, while Freddy and Pete finally reached her side and gawked.
Pete said, "Wow, that's —"
"Really racist," Freddy said. "Seriously?"
With a final scowl, "John Manuelito" vanished.
"Henry Tsotsie really will turn me into a snake if he ever finds out about this," Alexandra muttered.
"Who's Henry Tsotsie?" asked Freddy. "And who the hell was that?"
"That was a Boggart." Alexandra extended her wand and pushed the door open a little further. The room didn't seem quite so dark now, and in the light cast by the tip of her wand, she could see a small, dark figure huddled in the far corner. "Penny?"
The girl made a small, pitiful sound.
Alexandra moved into the room, and Penny scooted away from her. "Go away," she whispered.
"It's okay," Alexandra said. "The Boggart's gone."
"Wait, so she was trapped in here with a Boggart?" said Freddy, following Alexandra through the door, with a nervous look around. Other than Penny, the room was empty.
"You should've taught us that Ridiculous Spell," Pete said.
They all paused as they recognized the odor tingling beneath the musty stench of the Boggart.
"Oh man," Freddy said. "She, uh, she —"
Penny had been left alone in a dark room with a Boggart all morning, without the ability to defend herself. Trapped with her worst fear and unable to escape. Had she screamed for help? Begged? How long had she pounded the door, or tried to cast hexes at whatever form the Boggart had taken? Alexandra imagined being trapped helplessly in the dark with John Manuelito… or the bony, mummified monster John had sent after her, and shuddered. She didn't know how long it would take for her nerves to break.
Penny whimpered in shame and terror as Pete knelt next to her. "Hey," he said gently, though he wasn't completely able to keep his face from registering disgust. "Are you all right? You weren't actually hurt, were you?"
Freddy said, "What kind of a sick —"
A roar shook the air. "HOW DARE YOU? Get out of there immediately!"
Franklin Percival Brown filled the hallway, heaving with exertion after coming up the stairs. His robe dragged on the floor.
Alexandra turned slowly in place. Her eyes reflected the glow of her wand like green ice.
Mr. Brown stumbled to a halt. Alexandra stepped toward him and raised her wand.
"Uh, Alexandra…" said Freddy.
Brown stammered, "Y-you've overstepped yourself and then some this time! I'll have your wand for this —"
Alexandra said, "Barak!"
Freddy and Pete both flinched as the lightning bolt crackled down the corridor. The brilliant flash seared everyone's vision, and the sound of the discharge drowned out Mr. Brown's screams.
Long moments later, Freddy raised himself from a crouch. Still inside the room, Pete, who'd nearly fallen over, raised himself to one knee while keeping a hand on Penny's shoulder.
"Oh, mama," said Freddy.
Mr. Brown was on his hands and knees. He cowered as Alexandra, shaking with fury, advanced on him. The lightning bolt from her wand had struck the ceiling behind him. Smoke poured from a charred hole.
Alexandra herself could not have said whether she'd missed intentionally or not. She was as blinded by rage as by the after-image of her lightning bolt, and she didn't even hear Freddy. Franklin Percival Brown filled her vision like a bloated symbol of all the power and oppression of the Confederation, and every hindrance, humiliation, and injustice that had been inflicted upon them. She didn't care about consequences — he represented everything and everyone she wanted to strike down, from John Manuelito to the Governor-General, whose toady he no doubt was.
Mr. Brown squealed as her Levicorpus spell yanked him feet-first into the air. He hung upside down, his unkempt hair almost brushing the wooden floor and his body thumping side to side in the confines of the corridor. He fumbled in his cloak, maybe to find his wand, but Alexandra followed her first spell with a spray of black quills that embedded themselves in his body from head to foot. Mr. Brown screamed in pain.
"Yo, have you lost your mind?" Freddy shouted.
"Alexandra, what are you doing?" asked Pete.
Alexandra waved her wand again and set Brown's robes on fire. He howled.
"Holy crap!" Freddy said. "Stop it! You're gonna kill him!"
Alexandra dropped Brown on his head, with a terrible thud that cut off his screams. She cast another spell that sent him rolling down the corridor ahead of her as she advanced. His flaming clothes were mostly snuffed out as he rolled, but small tongues of flame licked at his robes and trousers, leaving a burnt, smoking trail behind him. He bounced against the wall with another thud, and groaned. Blood trickled to the floor from the dozens of quills still sticking out of him.
"Stop… stop…" he gasped.
Alexandra bared her teeth as she bore down on him. As he frantically tried to crawl away, she bombarded his enormous behind with hexes that split his trousers and made him gibber in agony. She afflicted him with boils, blisters, rashes, and swarms of stinging insects that turned his exposed flesh into raw meat. Ignoring Freddy's pleas, she followed him around the corner, where the sight of the crawling, burnt, blistered official made Goody Pruett stiffen in shock. Alexandra cast another spell that sent him flying head over heels down this corridor too, once again slamming into the far wall. He hit his head and went limp, still surrounded by buzzing gnats and smoke.
Freddy clapped his hands over his mouth. He looked nauseous. Alexandra held her wand lightly between her fingers, still thinking about spells to cast on Mr. Brown. It was slightly disappointing that he was no longer moving. The red cloak of rage that blotted her thoughts was beginning to fall away; she felt the first gnawing tinges of regret.
She turned to look at Freddy, who stared back at her wide-eyed, then stepped back with a fearful expression. Even Pete, running up the corridor, blanched and jerked to a halt.
Hanging above Mr. Brown, Goody Pruett's mouth opened in horror. "Stars Above, what have you done?"