Chapter 86: Finding the Queen
With a sideways 'V' flick of her wrist, Claire's spell was able to make the Bundimun dizzy enough to stop moving.
"Great job!" Chiara cheered. "Now, how do we pick it up without being burned by its ooze?"
"I know how!" Barnaby interjected. "My grandmother made me catch the Bundimuns in her shed to make Doxycide when I was younger."
"But, Bundimun Ooze is acidic," Claire said, looking at Barnaby's hands which didn't have any burns on them.
"Sure is, but luckily I brought dragon-hide gloves with me," Barnaby said, taking a pair of gloves out of his pants pocket. "That's how you pick a Bundimun up without burning your hands."
"Do you always carry dragon-hide gloves?" Claire wondered.
"That's not too strange," Chiara said. "I always carry a lunascope around."
"Oh, because it shows the phases of the moon," Claire said, remembering the lesson about it in Astronomy. "Makes sense."
Chiara looked to see if Barnaby was listening, but he was picking up the stunned Bundimun with the dragon-hide gloves on and putting it in a dragon-hide pouch. Once he did this, he gave the pouch to Claire.
"Thanks for your help, Barnaby," Chiara said before looking at Claire. "He and I will check on the Doxy bite victims."
"Right, and I'll help Professor Snape brew the Doxycide," Claire agreed.
Claire then marched up to the castle and went into the Potions Classroom where Snape was examining the baskets of hemlock, tormentil, and cowbane that Claire and her friends gathered in the greenhouse earlier.
"Professor!" Claire said, holding up the pouch. "I got Bundimun Ooze for the Doxycide."
"At least you're not totally incompetent," Snape said, taking the pouch from Claire.
From a shadowy corner appeared Ben.
"What are you doing here?" Claire asked.
"I heard about the Doxy situation from Chiara, and thought I would help," Ben said.
Snape glared at Claire and Ben. "If you two are done with your idle chatter, tell me the first step in brewing Doxycide, Mr. Copper."
"You juice the Bundimun with dragon-hide gloves on and add the ooze to the cauldron, then stir quickly so the ooze doesn't melt the cauldron," Ben answered.
"Correct, Mr. Copper," Snape nodded before glancing at Claire. "And what do you do after that, Miss Krystal?"
"Um, grind Streeler shells and add them to the cauldron," Claire said nervously. "I think?"
"That is quite correct, despite your hesitation," Snape said. "Now let's brew this Doxycide so I don't have to put up with you two any more."
So the three of them went to individual brewing stations and each brewed one cauldron of Doxycide using the gathered herbs, the ooze from the Bundimun, and dragon liver. After that, the three cauldrons were poured in a bigger cauldron.
"Will this be enough to get rid of all the Doxies in the school, Professor?" Claire questioned.
"It should be enough to neutralize the Doxy Queen, which is the source of the infestation," Snape said. "You should know that if the Queen is neutralized, the other Doxies will be rendered powerless and go away."
While Claire hesitated to answer, Chiara burst into the classroom.
"Claire, there are Doxies in Peeves' Room!" Chiara said. "We have to get rid of them."
"Agreed, despite my dislike for Peeves," Claire said. "Though I hope we can find the Doxy Queen too."
In Peeves' Room, Peeves was nowhere to be seen. Claire was grateful for this as she and Chiara searched through the piles of furniture and books to find the Doxies Chiara saw. They soon found a birds' nest, though it was actually covering a hole where dozens of Doxies emerged from. Claire used Flipendo to stop them from attacking Chiara, who cast the same spell. Yet this didn't stop the Doxies as they continued to fly around the room.
"There's too many of them," Chiara said nervously. "What are we going to do?"
"Bombarda!"
An explosion shook the room, causing the Doxies to fly back into the birds' nest. Claire and Chiara looked behind them to see Victor holding a wand.
"Now hold your applause," Victor said before Claire had the chance to speak. "I know I just saved you, and looked good doing it, but now's not the time to congratulate me."
"Okay," Claire said, unsure of what to say. "Though it is awfully convenient that you happened to show up when you did."
Victor chuckled. "If I told you all my secrets, I would lose my charm. What I'm most concerned about is the sandwich over there. Peeves can't eat food since he's a Poltergeist."
Claire looked and saw a sandwich on top of a pile of books near the nest the Doxies flew into.
"Wait, that looks like one of Jae's sandwiches," Claire realized.
"That explains the smell of bacon and pickles," Victor noted, wrinkling his nose.
"So the Doxies must have gotten into the kitchen," Chiara assumed. "That could be really bad for the health of the entire school."
Without wasting time, Claire, Victor, and Chiara made their way into the Kitchens. There, piles of purple eggs covered most of the room with Pitts trapped in one such pile.
"Looks like we'll have to rescue Pitts first," Claire said, raising her wand.
"Maybe he knows where the Doxy Queen is," Chiara hoped. "Though I don't know how we're going to get past these eggs."
"Who cares? They're just eggs," Victor insisted. "Let's just break them."
"But…there might be a way of avoiding them," Chiara said. "I know they're Doxies, but they're still living creatures like us."
"Chiara's right," Claire said. "There's no reason for us to kill unborn Doxies when all we're really after is their Queen."
Victor sighed in disappointment. "Aw, you're no fun!"
Just then, a red-haired female Doxy with four arms and legs appeared. She made a buzzing sound, and a bunch of Doxies swirled around her.
"Sweet!" Victor said, readying his wand. "I do love a good challenge."
"Just remember that once we have the Queen, we can douse her with Doxycide and the other Doxies should leave us alone," Chiara reminded Claire.
"Yeah, assuming we can even reach the Queen," Claire said.
To be continued…