Chapter 8 Book I Arc II

Ptolemy had lost track of when September had given way to October. Their first month back at school had passed so quickly, thinking on it now. It was a blur of Sunday detentions, studying in the library, and hanging out with Bartimaeus. He reminisced like this for a while, distracted as he was from the book on his lap. A smile flitted to his face though. At least unlike Bartimaeus, when it came to those detentions he hadn't picked up even more of them.

The Hufflepuff just was not good at hiding his even partial responsibility in any of the constant pranks this year played on Professor Lovelace. He had gotten docked a good amount of points for the "pink dress green hair" incident alone; and things had only gotten worse from there. It had taken only a day after all, for the true effects of Underwood's green hair concoction to make themselves apparent. Nobody saw Lovelace that day, but it was rumored that he had suffered from having his hair fall out rapidly in small clumps. Those rumors were only confirmed when Bartimaeus was grimly called to Uraziel's office yet again. He was called a second time when Lovelace was stuck speaking in rhyme for twenty four hours, and a third when half of his office was ransacked…though Ptolemy was pretty sure that Nathaniel alone was solely responsible for that one. Of course, somehow all the evidence managed to point themselves towards Bartimaeus anyway. Hm. He'd have to have a "talk" with that Slytherin Prefect later. Regardless, Bartimaeus's other antics hadn't exactly helped his case at the time; not when other incidents such as the one involving the duck transfiguration were counted against him, least of all the unfortunate aftermath of that particular one. A disgruntled Lovelace had to suffer through the rest of the day with his hair shedding duck feathers in light floating clumps behind him.

The worst by far though was the entire week Lovelace had to spend in the form of Khaba; a prank that Khaba himself was still seething over. It had nearly earned Bartimaeus a whole extra month of compounded detention from the both of them, but there had been no evidence found at the time that they could charge him with. He was luckily left off the hook and spared the consequences, for once. Ptolemy still wasn't sure how exactly he had managed that one. Then again, Bartimaeus had always had a particular affinity for transfiguration. He had a sneaking suspicion though that Uraziel must have found that last prank funnier then he let on; whenever he thought no one was looking, he smirked over at Khaba. Something must have soured Uraziel to him, he thought.

Other than these events though, things seemed to go on at the school same as usual…well, up until the unfortunate quidditch incident. Ptolemy grimaced upon remembrance. Poor Kitty and Jane had been in the hospital wing for a week; Kitty still had a nasty set of splotchy bruises from the bludger, though they were half faded by now. His stupid cousin. Ptolemy sighed. The older boy may be a seventh year, but it would take nothing short of a miracle for him to pass his NEWTS. It didn't seem to particularly matter to him though, since all his cousin seemed to care about was booze. That and trying to sleep with every other girl he could – not to say that any of them did though. Not to say that any of them particularly wanted to either. Ptolemy snorted to himself, setting a hand over the ancient amulet he always wore in thought; it flared with warmth briefly, before returning back to normal.

That was when Bartimaeus came skidding into his dorm room, tripping over his feet and falling flat on his face.

"What's got you in such a rush today, Rekhyt?" Ptolemy asked, trying not to laugh as the Hufflepuff groaned from where he lay sprawled out on the floor.

Let me…huff…catch – my…ha…breath…" he gasped out dramatically. Ptolemy held back a snicker, but closed the book he had been neglecting anyway. He hadn't been able to pay attention after all, fascinated though he was with the subject matter. Placing it on his bedside table, he watched as Bartimaeus pulled himself up from the floor to lie on top of the bed with him instead. Ptolemy pulled his head over to his lap, hearing only the faintest of protests.

"So, what happened?" he asked again, idly carding fingers through the other's hair.

"Well. There I was! In that one clearing by the Black Lake," Bartimaeus began, eager to get his story out. "You know the one, right? It's surrounded by the large rocks?"

"Yes I –"

"– There I was! I was uh, having a nap. When all of a sudden, I heard people nearby making enough noise to wake up the dead! I was already in my animagus form though, so I was able to slip away quickly and easily enough beneath some bushes. So there I was! Hiding, you know. As these guys…well I couldn't really see who they were from where I was, but I'm just going to assume – anyway, they were invading my clearing! Of course I was pissed, but when they started talking? Ooooh, you'll never guess what I heard."

"What did you hear then?"

"Wait, hold up!" Bartimaeus scrambled up from his perch and bolted over to the closet, pulling out a blackboard. Ptolemy's face blanched.

"What are you –"

"I got this," Bartimaeus said, pointing his wand at it dramatically. "Okay, look at this now…"

"Why are we doing this again?" grumbled a deep voice; sounds could be heard of grunting and shifting around.

"You know better than I what happens if we don't. He tells everyone and you're fucked," snapped a second voice. Bartimaeus frowned. Both voices sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place them.

"I still don't like it."

"Let me worry about it then. We already got what we needed copied from the book before sniveling Nathaniel swiped it. What a pompous shit."

"Heh…"

"Like I said though. All we need to do now is keep an ear out and make sure nobody's caught on or suspects anything. And you know, help Verroq when he needs it. Then you're safe from being outed, and I'm safe from that." More shuffling sounds, a loud grunt, and then a tired sigh.

"…Thanks."

"Just stop worrying about it Jabor. Everything's going to be fine." Bartimaeus's eyes widened as he finally identified the voices. He escaped from the tangle of bushes in a shot, running as fast as his four-legged form could take him back up into the castle. He only stopped to change out of his animagus form once he was in the empty Ravenclaw common room, bolting up the stairs to Ptolemy's dorm.

Ptolemy stared in aghast as Bartimaeus finished recanting his story, furiously drawing diagrams still on the blackboard.

"So now I have proof that Faquarl and Jabor are evil! And up to something, at that! I bet Shubit is in on it too," he added furiously, drawing a tiny sketch of Shubit's face above his little Faquarl and Jabor, circling it with relish. It was actually a very good likeness.

"Well. That is something. Do you think we should tell anyone?" Ptolemy asked, looking back at the seventh year who'd by now quieted down, stepping back from his work to appraise it eagerly. Ptolemy didn't have the heart to tell him that it looked like gibberish mixed in with admittedly acceptable artistic talent.

"Makes sense to. Nathaniel should definitely be one of them, and I wouldn't mind Kitty. During detention on Saturday, then?"

"Good plan. For now though, you should put that away; there's not much longer until dinner, and I don't want anyone seeing that and catching on too."

"Yeah, I'm on it! How long do we have your dorm to ourselves?" The look Bartimaeus was giving him, Ptolemy couldn't help but laugh.

Ptolemy would forever be glad that he had a fairly light schedule on Fridays, as it just made things that much easier for him. Sure, he wasn't too fond of Double Herbology first thing in the morning, but at least it meant that he could go shower during lunch and get the dirt off. Somehow, it always managed to end up everywhere. Of course Ramuthra glaring down at him (and everyone else too) didn't exactly help make him any fonder of the subject. That he had Care of Magical Creatures after lunch with Bartimaeus, and Ancient Runes later made up for everything though. That is, unless a situation like today happened. As it turned out, all the sixth and seventh years regardless of their house affiliation were shoved into one class for reasons unknown to him. Ptolemy silently wondered to himself who had thought that this would be a good idea, as he turned over to give Bartimaeus a hushed glare.

"No Rekhyt, I don't think throwing ink at Faquarl is a good idea; Nouda will kill you for messing with his favourite student."

"But Ptol! Look at him! He –"

"I don't care how much he may or may not resemble the Giant Squid. Nouda. Keep your ink in your bag, and save it for later."

"Fine," he grumbled, though he still shot Faquarl a withering look. "Look at him being all smug over there with what's-his-face and fucking Shubit. Shubit. I told you Shubit was probably in on it! Hell, the little twit is probably the mastermind behind it all," he whispered quietly, before wincing as Queezle reached over and flicked his forehead.

"You know you guys look suspicious when you whisper like that, right? I don't want another incident with Nouda again," she hissed, before returning to tend to her own Jobberknoll chick. Bartimaeus quickly covered his right hand protectively, shuddering as he remembered the incident where he lost his finger in third year. Thankfully Karloum, one of the school's Healers, had reattached it easily. Ptolemy patted his arm absently, before returning to his own work.

There was half an hour left. Half an hour left of this class. And then another hour and half to get through of Ancient Runes. Compounded with other things, that meant he had three hours and ten minutes left to get through until dinner, at which point it would be back to the dorms to finish his homework and sleep. Not even the promise of the next day was anything to look forward to, as it was the Saturday of their sixth detention. He sighed…he was really starting to get sick of them by this point, but at least there were only two more left to go through after. That…and the next one would be considerably more interesting, what with Bartimaeus' usual theories actually making sense and fitting together for once. Still, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that it was all going to lead them somewhere no good. And that ominous feeling was bothering him.

"You're kidding, right?" Was all that Kitty said as she stood beside Nathaniel, a look of pure disbelief on her face. Bartimaeus had somehow managed to procure a blackboard once again, and had redone his entire performance for Ptolemy a second time through. He only shook his head vehemently in reply.

"Of course not! I don't joke about this kind of stuff; Faquarl and Jabor are up to something, and Shubit's is the most likely candidate for the status of mastermind! I swear, he's been out to get me ever since third year when Faquarl broke up with him because he obviously wasn't over me dumping him –"

"He dumped you Rekhyt. You sulked for three days."

"– wasn't over me dumping him and so Shubit's out to get me and is obviously blackmailing! Or maybe he's brainwashed them like in that one muggle movie you showed me last summer, remember? But anyway, that! Into doing his dirty work! And it's all building up to Halloween!"

"I can't believe you said all that in one breath," Kitty deadpanned. Nathaniel snorted, and Ptolemy couldn't help but hide his own smile behind his hand.

"Oh come on! Okay then tell me, what about that book they mentioned huh? What about that Nathaniel," he said, giving the Slytherin a pointed glare. The grin immediately died on Nathaniel's face, and for the first time Kitty actually began to look wary.

"He has a point," she said, remembering the books they picked out for their project from the library. Nathaniel nodded slowly.

"What were they doing there you think anyway? And how does the Gamekeeper tie in to this," he muttered.

"Forget about that, it's not important. What is important is that fucking Shubit's up to something, and it's up to us to figure out what that thing is," Bartimaeus insisted. Nathaniel rolled his eyes, as Kitty sighed.

"Alright, we'll keep our eyes open and see if we can find anything more concrete. Okay?" She said, picking up a broom again. "Now can we get back to doing what we're supposed to be here for in the first place? I would actually like to leave sometime soon."

And so, they got back to work in Lovelace's classroom.

So uh, it's been a while. Again. Sorry about that. School sucks. But 'eeeey, you're getting two chapters out of me tonight! One more chapter left of Book One! And then the Yule Interlude (which I still have to finish writing... It's getting kinda long...), and then comes Book Two! I'm still iffy about whether or not I'll actually go into Book Three, but there's still time for me to work out the kinks of that, so w/e.

Hope you enjoyed and please leave kudos, comments, reviews, whatever. I thrive on them and they encourage me to actually work on this fic instead of procrastinating! And as always, all credit for this story actually being readable goes to the lovely Jojo.