"Hey, I got a question," I say as I roll over in bed. I spent the whole night with the stone clenched tightly in my fist, letting the steady pulse of his heart beat lull me to sleep. I don't know when it stopped being creepy and started being somewhat romantic, but maybe our encounter last night had changed things more than I thought.

"Can it wait 'til I wake up first?" Virginia asks, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Ellen was gone, probably off to get breakfast with Donald or something, and it was just the two of us alone in the room. I don't want to push her too quickly, but at the same time, I am getting ridiculously impatient. I want to have this case cracked and solved by Monday morning so I have time to prepare my victory speech before I run to Hieronymous Monday night and tell him that I figured out everything on my own, without his help.

"I mean, I guess it can," I say, trying to sound indifferent. "But it's a pretty juicy piece of gossip."

"I suppose I can be coerced before breakfast," she says as she rolls over on her stomach to face me. "What's your question?"

"It's about marriage," I say, being as vague as possible to spark her interest.

"Wait, is someone getting married?" I smirk at her. "It's not you, right?"

"No, no," I say quickly. "But I do have questions about magical marriages, and I was thinking that you were the perfect person to help me out, since you're from a magical family and all."

She eyes me suspiciously. "And you're sure it's not you getting married?"

"Virginia," I say flatly, and she giggles.

"Okay, okay, what's up?"

"Well, I know in like, non-magical families, people make vows," I say. "To love, honor, and obey, right? Do they do that in magical families too?"

"I think so," Virginia said. "I've never actually been to a magical wedding to know for sure, but yeah, they probably do."

"Okay," I sit up and hold my hands out in front of me. "So what if two people are married to each other and one person's like, 'hey, wash the dishes' and the other person's like, 'no, I don't want to,' does that person lose their magic for breaking their vows? Since they're not technically obeying?"

"I don't think it works like that," Virginia says slowly. "I mean, vows are still vows, but obeying can have a lot of different meanings. It's in the semantics, although now that you say it that way, I doubt they actually use the word obey in a lot of magical marriages for that reason. It seems like an unnecessary risk."

"Yeah, I see your point," I say, then push the issue a little further anyway. "So you mean like, obeying can be considering someone's opinion? You don't have to exactly do what they say, word for word, but you at least consider what they have to say?"

"I guess so," Virginia shrugs. "What's with all the questions about obeying?"

"Well, not obeying," I shrug. "Just about vows and promises in general. I mean, I used to make promises all the time back at home. Like, if I promised my parents to do the laundry before they got home from work, and then I didn't, would I lose my magic for that?"

"I don't know," Virginia shrugs. "You could, I guess. It's why we're all very cautious around those types of words. We try not to use them if possible. It's just better not to risk that stuff, you know? My parents kind of drilled that into us since we were kids."

"That's what I was wondering…" I take a breath. Here we go. "Like, say, in married relationships, when you promise to enter into a union, you make vows of loyalty, so you implicitly kind of agree to the no-cheating thing, right?"

Virginia shrugs. "Are you involved with a married man, because I thought you were dating-?"

"Just humor me," I say quickly. "If, I don't know, say a married guy kissed you, or had really strong feelings for you and acted on those feelings, would he be breaking his martial vows?"

"Probably," Virginia says. "I mean, I think so. It sounds weird when you put it that way, but magical unions are created and disbanded for all types of reasons, so it's actually pretty easy to get married and divorced to prevent that kind of stuff from happening. Magical martial unions are really common, actually. One of my friends was actually married off to this older guy when she was fourteen because she promised to marry him as a joke, and didn't realize that she had to go through with it until it was too late. They thought about ending the marriage after the year was up, but it turns out she really liked the guy."

"So what happened?" I ask. "Did they stay together?"

"No, she left him for a guy her own age that she was starting to develop feelings for," Virginia says with a laugh. "So she called off the marriage before she could risk breaking her vows, basically to prevent what you were just asking."

"Okay, but say two people are still actually married," I say. "Like, if they are still in the union, their vows still apply, right? So if one of them cheats, that person would lose their magic and have their memory wiped, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Virginia says. "I mean, I don't know if just kissing would be enough to do it, but I don't know who would be stupid enough to risk it and find out." She looks at me. "So what does this have to do with anything? What's the juicy gossip?"

"It's uh, nothing," I say quickly. "Just tricked you into helping me with a bit of homework." I wink at her as I start to throw on my robes.

"For what class?" Virginia asks, but I'm already halfway out the door.

I hear Virginia's voice in my head. I don't know if just kissing would be enough to do it, but I don't know who would be stupid enough to risk it and find out. Professor Grabiner was not a stupid person. He wouldn't risk his magic and his memories just to kiss me, no matter how much he cared for me. He had told me directly that he was married, so why would he kiss me? Why? It didn't make any sense. Aside from Professor Grabiner, there was only one other person who I knew might know the answer, but there was no way she would tell me anything directly. This one was going to take a great deal of subterfuge.

I knock on Minnie's door, but when no one answers, I head up to the library. Minnie's there, reading quietly to herself at a table pushed up against one of the windows. As I start to approach, she looks up and sees me. Her eyes go wide and her whole body stiffens, like a deer caught in headlights.

"I just want to apologize," I say quickly, holding up my hands. "For what happened last week." She looks at me skeptically, like a mouse that's not sure whether to take the cheese or run. "Prof- Hieronymous explained everything." She stares at me dubiously. "We spent last night…catching up." I wink at her and recall the kiss, letting a blush take over my face. It has to look good, or she's not going to buy it. "He and I…we, you know…" I shuffle my feet awkwardly, pretending it's as uncomfortable as possible for me to say.

"Oh," Minnie says, looking surprised. "They- he didn't tell me. But I mean, if it happened last night…" Her voice trails off. "But that's good news."

"Yeah," I say, scratching behind my ear nervously. "I'm just, not sure what to do about it next. With everything going on, I'm just not sure how he and I can really be together, you know?" I frown at her, biting my lip, and I think she believes me.

"Well, if you're looking for my advice," Minnie says. "I think you should-" She stops suddenly, as if she's suddenly remembering where she is. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm supposed to say anything yet. They told me to wait and clear things with them before talking about it so I don't, well, you know." She tugs nervously at a strand of hair.

"Right," I say quickly. "Right, Hieronymous mentioned that. I'm so sorry about everything, Minnie. Like, I was out of line last week and I'm sorry for that. I didn't know everything then. But now that he's filled me in, I know that you helped me out with a lot and so, you know, thanks."

"You're welcome," she says happily. "I'm just glad it looks like everything worked out in the end. We were all really worried about you, but I knew you could pull through. And I'm glad, for the both of you. I was hoping that you two would…" She smiles at me again. "You know. I'm glad it worked out."

"Thanks," I say. "I'll make sure not to talk to you until, you know, it's all sorted out. I don't want to get you in any sort of trouble."

"Thanks," she echoes, and she looks relieved.

I turn around quickly and leave the library. As soon as the doors shut behind me, the fake smile I had plastered on my face immediately drops into a scowl. Minnie knows something, that was for damn certain. Whatever is going on with me, she's been in on it from the beginning, and "they" don't want her to say. Did they really make her vow not to say anything to me? Is what is happening to me so serious that they would threaten her with losing her magic if she told me? But who was 'they?' Mrs. Grabiner? Another teacher? Another student? Professor Potsdam? How far up did this go?

I take a deep breath. There's only one other person I know for sure who knows the answers. He hadn't been willing to talk much before, but perhaps…

I reach up and stroke my cheek lightly with my fingertips, the way he had done last night. I still can't shake the way he had been looking at me, like I was a ghost that could slip away at any moment if he wasn't touching me.

…perhaps he could be persuaded.