"Trespassers in the kitchen! Trespassers in the kitchen!"
Jimmy O'Bannon expected this response from the Servant Elves who staffed the school kitchen. Still the sight of the little white-clad creatures jumping and screeching made every muscle in his body tighten in dread.
Just like at Hogwarts, the kitchen was off-limits to students. But back in Britain the House Elves didn't freak out when O'Bannon joined Fred, George and Lee on their many forays to the kitchen. In fact, the elves had been downright accommodating to them.
Damn, but he missed those British House Elves.
"Fetch a teacher!" One of the elves clamored. "Better yet, fetch the Headmistress!"
Two elves headed for the exit.
"Wait!" O'Bannon blurted. "I brought you a gift."
Instantly the chaos evaporated. The two elves running for the door halted. Every pair of humungous eyes turned O'Bannon's way.
"A gift?" The elf apparently in charge spoke in a reverent tone. "You brought us a gift?"
"Yeah. Uh, you know, for all the hard work you do. I just felt I haven't been as appreciative of you guys as I should. So here."
O'Bannon frowned as he reached inside his robes and pulled out a white box with yellow frills. He'd so wanted to give this to Rana instead. But saving the world, or at least his little piece of it, took priority.
He handed it to the head elf. Impossibly, his eyes grew larger as he held the box as delicately as a mother would her newborn child. The elf removed the wrapping and opened it. A collective gasp of awe went up from the elves.
"Sweet Succulent Berry Clusters. A most exquisite taste."
"Yeah, I know." O'Bannon sighed quietly. He knew Rana would have loved those. What girl wouldn't?
The elves each took a piece in an orderly fashion. Every one of them closed their eyes and moaned in delight the moment they popped the candy in their mouths.
"Glad you guys like 'em," O'Bannon said. "Say, you mind if I nip some food? I'm kinda hungry and don't feel like waiting for dinner."
"Help yourself, Sir," the head elf said in a voice dreamy enough to match Luna Lovegood's . . . if the weird Ravenclaw chick spoke like her vocal cords had been subjected to a cheese grater.
While the Servant Elves swooned over the candy, O'Bannon went around grabbing everything he could. Eggs, milk, chicken, cranberries, pastries, potatoes. When his bookbag was stuffed he turned to the elves and gave them a two-fingered salute.
"Thanks for the take-out. Enjoy those berry clusters."
"We most certainly will. Sir is most kind to Greller and his staff."
The head elf bowed to O'Bannon. He was taken aback for a moment. He couldn't remember a Servant Elf sounding so sincere.
"Anytime. Well, gotta run. Have a good one."
O'Bannon squeezed between an old fashion iron stove and the wall. He tapped the wall with his wand four times. A portion of it vanished. He stepped through the newly created opening and waved his wand in a circular motion to reseal the wall.
"I still can't believe you had to bribe them to get all that."
O'Bannon looked up to see Tonks, in her Katerina Ponce disguise, the tip of her wand glowing to light the tunnel.
"No, you don't bribe Servant Elves. They consider that an insult, a hundred times worse than forgetting to tip them."
Tonks rolled her eyes. Oh well, it took him a while to accept the fact you didn't have to tip elves in England to get them to do stuff.
"But a gift," O'Bannon continued, "shows you sincerely appreciate everything they do for you. And it's about the only thing that will make a Servant Elf actually happy. Give 'em a gift and they're putty in your hands."
"Well, be that as it may, it looks like we've got enough food to work with. Come on."
O'Bannon nodded and led the way, his pace a bit quicker than normal. He wanted to get out of these tunnels as soon as possible and let Tonks examine the food and find out what it had been tainted with. Then they'd have proof Cecilia and Serinta had actually caused all this discontent infecting Salem.
"So how did you learn about these secret tunnels under your school?" Tonks asked.
"Ha! Secret my ass. Everyone at Salem knows about them. I've only been in a handful myself. If I ever get any free time I'd like to explore the entire network. What can I say? Being with Fred and George last year emboldened me to . . . whoa! Low bridge."
O'Bannon ducked under a protruding rock. As he straightened up, he heard a soft thud behind him, followed by a stream of cursing. He turned to see Tonks grimacing and rubbing her forehead.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Bloody marvelous," she growled.
O'Bannon shook his head. First the chair in Potions class, now a rock. He wondered how someone this clumsy could have become an auror.
"Come on," Tonks grumbled.
They continued through the tunnel, emerging in a closet in the basement of Blazenrowe Hall. O'Bannon turned just as Tonks came through the opening . . . and planted her foot in a metal bucket.
"Dammit!" Tonks turned away from O'Bannon and kicked furiously to rid herself of the bucket.
O'Bannon canted his head and stared at Tonks in bemusement. "Jeez, what are you? A walking Three Stooges sketch?"
Tonks whipped around and glowered at him. She tried again to kick off the bucket, yelped and pitched forward.
"Crap!" O'Bannon stuck out his arms to catch her.
Tonks crashed into his chest. The two dropped to the floor. O'Bannon grunted as he hit the cold, hard stone surface. A tingle went through his body as Tonks' hair brushed against his cheek. The auror lifted her head. O'Bannon's chest seized as Tonks' pretty face hovered inches from his. He then realized his hands rested on the woman's shoulderblades.
"I hope no one opens that door," she said. "This could be rather awkward to explain."
"Huh?" O'Bannon blinked, trying to comprehend the fact a very beautiful older woman was lying on top of him.
An image of Rana Rollingsworth popped into his head.
"Oh. Um . . . yeah. Glad I was here to break your fall."
Tonks rolled off him and kicked out her foot. This time the bucket flew off her foot and clattered on the stone floor. The two then got to their feet and brushed themselves off.
"Well . . ." Tonks straightened out her robes. "I hope you enjoyed your cheap thrill of the day."
O'Bannon gasped. Heat welled up in his cheeks.
Tonks winked and playfully tapped his chest. "Lighten up, O'Bannon. It was a joke. Anyway . . ." She bent down to retrieve his bookbag. O'Bannon half-expected her to drop it on her foot. "I'll get to work on this right away."
"So how long will it take to find out if the food's been spiked?"
"Depends on what the spell is, whether whoever's responsible is using charms to conceal their work. Hopefully I can come up with some answers by tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" O'Bannon slouched and slapped his sides. He didn't want to wait until tomorrow. He wanted to know what was making his classmates want to tear one another apart, and he wanted to know now.
"Hey." Tonks gave him a sympathetic smile and gently clasped his shoulder. "I need to be thorough if we're going to find out what's affecting your friends. If there's something in this food, I'll find it. I promise."
O'Bannon sighed and nodded. He had no choice but to trust Tonks' abilities. Klutz or not, the woman was an auror.
"Yeah. Okay."
She patted his shoulder. "I'll check back with you as soon as I'm done."
With that, she exited the basement.
O'Bannon folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe of the closet. Nothing to do now but wait . . . dammit. He felt he should be doing something more than sit on his ass and wait for Tonks, especially with someone manipulating the emotions of his classmates.
Actually, there is something I can do.
XXXXX
After dinner O'Bannon gathered the Blazenrowe hockey team in the parlor. He stood beside the fireplace, trying to force on his stony "game face." But mostly he allowed his eyes to fall to the rug with its blue and gold geometric patterns, feeling the players' apprehensive gazes grip his body.
Clutching the mantle so tight he thought he'd crush it, O'Bannon stared back at his team.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I acted Saturday. It's true, we played like crap out there, and every one of us knows, or should know, that we're a hell of a lot better than that. As captain I should have conveyed that in a much better way than I did. I hope you can forgive me, and I hope we can put this whole thing behind us and look ahead to our next game."
He was greeted by silence. Prickly heat crawled over his body. Did his meltdown damage this team beyond repair?
O'Bannon gazed at Jared and Rosa, who sat together on a blue Victorian-style sofa. If anyone would apologize first, it should be them.
He waited . . . and waited.
"Hey, don't sweat it, Jimmy."
O'Bannon's head whipped to the left. Dante Marshall flashed him a grin. "Everyone's been flying off the handle around here lately. I guess Saturday was just your turn. We're cool."
"Thanks." O'Bannon managed a half-smile.
"Apology accepted, Jimmy," Jared said. Rosa nodded in agreement.
The rest of the team also accepted his apology. Even Marcel Dubuque . . . if a brief nod and a less sullen look than usual could be interpreted as acceptance.
A few minutes later, the team dispersed, except for Rosa and Jared.
"We've been friends since we all first came to Salem, Jimmy," an unsmiling Rosa said. "And yeah, we've had our share of arguments. But you never made me feel like crap until after the game. The things you said to me and Jared and Artimus, especially when all we were trying to do was help you, really hurt. I know you must be feeling a lot of pressure being team captain, but that's no excuse to say the things you said to us."
O'Bannon just nodded. He never realized how much he hurt his friends with that outburst. At least he could take comfort in the fact it wasn't entirely his fault. After all, what made him immune to the spell that was affecting the other students? He wished he could have told this to Rosa and Jared. But Tonks instructed him to keep all this between the two of them for the time being.
But Rosa and Jared know I'm helping out Headmaster Dumbledore and Harry. They can be trusted.
He felt the words pile up behind his teeth. His lips parted, ready to tell Rosa and Jared everything. But again, the words of Mad-Eye Moody, imposter or not, arose in his head.
"When someone tells you to keep a secret, then shut your bloody gob! The more people you tell, the better the chance the wrong sort will hear it, and that's when people get killed."
Hard as it was for him, he swallowed, forcing down everything about Tonks and the manipulation of their classmates' emotions.
O'Bannon drew a deep breath and gazed at his friends. "I honest to God wish I could take it back, guys. I mean, we're like family. I just want you to forgive me."
"We do." Rosa briefly hugged him.
Jared shook his hand. "Next time, think before you speak . . . for once." He tacked on a sly grin.
O'Bannon smiled back.
With things patched up between them, O'Bannon headed to the girls' side of Blazenrowe Hall to make another apology.
Rana greeted him with a cold stare when she opened the door after he knocked. O'Bannon spoke quickly, fearful she would slam the door in his face before he could apologize.
"I was so stupid. You didn't deserve to be treated like that. You just wanted to see if I was all right, and I jumped down your throat. You are such a wonderful person and . . . and I really like you and I would never do anything to hurt you. Please, please forgive me."
She stayed silent for a few seconds, the longest seconds in the history of the universe for O'Bannon.
"You know, Darius had a temper, too," Rana finally said. "He'd snap at me sometimes if we lost a Quidditch match. It really got on my nerves after a while. And I don't want to go through the same with you every time you lose a hockey game."
"You won't. I promise. Heck, I just apologized to the whole team in the parlor. Please forgive me, Rana."
She took a deep breath and smiled. "All right. I forgive you, Jimmy."
Rana gave his wrist a gentle squeeze. His legs turned to jelly.
Much as O'Bannon wanted to spend more time with the beautiful Seeker, he had one more apology to make.
When he couldn't find Artimus in their room or the parlor, he headed over to the library. O'Bannon was walking up to the front door when it opened and out came Artimus, with Cecilia Malfoy behind him.
"Art." He called out, a harsh gaze targeting the Slytherin girl. "You got a sec?"
Artimus' lips curled. He looked over his shoulder at Cecilia. "I'll talk to you later."
The girl nodded and sent an equally harsh gaze back at O'Bannon as she walked away.
"What is it?" Artimus sounded annoyed.
"Look, man. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for going off on you like I did. You were trying to help and I . . . well, you didn't deserve all the crap I said to you, said about you. I'm sorry, man."
Artimus folded his arms and stared at O'Bannon, his face unreadable. After exhaling audibly, Artimus said, "Yeah, no problem. Apology accepted."
"So we're cool?"
"Yeah. We're cool."
"Good." O'Bannon looked off in the direction Cecilia had gone. "So how's things with our favorite Slytherin?"
Artimus groaned and rolled his eyes. "Not this again."
"Art . . ." O'Bannon clenched his teeth and breathed deep. He'd just reconciled with his friend. He didn't want to get mad and piss him off again.
"Look," he continued in a calmer tone. "We have to find out whether or not Cecilia is up to something."
"You're just determined to hate her, aren't you?"
"It's not a matter of hate. It's . . ." O'Bannon bit his lip. If only he could tell Artimus about Tonks and her investigation. "There's some stuff going on around here, and Cecilia and Serinta might be involved in it."
"What sort of stuff?" Artimus demanded.
"I really wish I could tell you, but I can't. You'll just have to take my word for it."
"'Take your word for it.'" Artimus chuckled sardonically. "And I'm just supposed to do that? Believe everything that comes out of your mouth because you're Jimmy O'Bannon."
"What the hell's your problem, man?"
"What's my problem?" Artimus' voice rose. "I'm supposed to take your word without question. Well what about taking my word? I told you about Cecilia's family situation, and you treated me like I was an idiot."
"I never said you were an idiot."
"You don't need to. You think I don't notice the way you talk to me, the way you and Rosa and Jared treat me. It's like I'm the baby brother of your little clique. Let's protect Artimus from bullies, because he can't fight them himself. Let's get Artimus a girlfriend, because he sure as hell can't get one on his own. Let's just dismiss everything that comes out of Artimus' mouth because he couldn't possibly say anything of importance."
"Dammit, Art. Will you chill out?"
"Why?" Artimus stomped closer to him. "You don't like what I said? Too close to the truth?"
"No one thinks that about you. Art, please. There are things going on around here you don't know about. Real serious stuff. And those two Slytherins . . ."
"Cecilia is not involved in anything!" Artimus shook with anger.
O'Bannon's eyes widened in surprise. He even took a step back as his friend raged.
"Cecilia Malfoy is a great girl! She's smart, she's insightful, and she doesn't think I'm worthless!"
"Merlin's Beard, you're talking like you're . . ." O'Bannon's jaw dropped. He regarded Artimus in silence for several seconds. "Oh my God. Art, don't tell me you're . . . you're . . ." He couldn't bring himself to say the rest of it. It was just too far-fetched.
"What?" Artimus took a step closer to him. "Attracted to her? Maybe I am. What, is that not allowed in Jimmy O'Bannon's world? Hogwarts can't keep their stupid house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin inside their own walls, now you gotta bring it to our school and force it down my throat!"
"All you're asking for is trouble if you get involved with Cecilia. Dammit, I'm just looking out for you."
"I'm not eleven-years-old anymore!" Artimus flung his arms out to his sides. "I can make my own damn decisions about my own damn life! Quit treating me like the Ron Weasley to your Harry Potter! I'm not here for you to take care of just so you can inflate your stupid ego!"
"What in the hell are you talking about!? Is Cecilia filling your head with this crap?"
"No! She's opening my eyes to the truth. And the truth is . . . you were never really my friend."
Artimus purposefully bumped into O'Bannon's shoulder as he stormed off. O'Bannon watched him vanish into the darkness, too stunned to say anything.
It's not really him. It's this spell or whatever that's infecting everyone.
The thought did nothing to diminish his surprise. He'd never seen Artimus so furious. O'Bannon began to wonder if everything his friend said could be blamed on some emotion manipulating spell.
It has to be. He'd never . . . he wouldn't . . .
A nasally squeal arose in the darkness. O'Bannon glanced down and saw a small silhouette scurrying toward him. In the light of a nearby gas lamp he recognized the perverted garden gnome Feetish.
O'Bannon bared his teeth and snarled. Feetish skidded to a halt a couple feet from him. The gnome stared up at him, yelped, spun around and ran off.
O'Bannon snorted as he stared into the darkness. He now wished Feetish hadn't run off. He was in the mood to kick something.
NEXT: If you thought tempers have boiled over, wait till you see what happens in the next chapter.