A new resident had taken up permanent board in the Eagle Club room. Mezrielda had found the space usefully filled with a chalk board, desks, and a training dummy. She'd spent all year arguing that there was no point to re-learning her spells, that she wouldn't be able to. But now, Bagsy's life was on the line.

It was two weeks before exams, but for Mezrielda, it was days before the acting troupe could disappear forever.

'Rocushift.' Mezrielda pointed her wand at the wall. It was only her second attempt, but already she was growing frustrated at the fact it hadn't worked. She'd grown accustomed to things happening when she wanted them too. At least, when it came to casting spells, she had. Every time she tried and failed it was a fresh knife to her heart. Before, she couldn't have brought herself to think about casting spells, let alone try, but now she pushed through the heartache. She had too.

'Rocushift!'

A section of the wall bulged slightly then fell back to its position.

Mezrielda frowned at her replacement wand. It was very cheap. Her parents couldn't afford a good one, and nothing like the white-wood elder wand she'd had since a child that had been passed down in the Glint family. She imagined part of the struggle was trying to cast spells without it. It was like trying to ride a broom with five handles and seven cranks while balancing a teacup on her head.

'Rocushift!' she tried again, seeing the bricks bulge out properly, forming an extra square shape jutting from the wall. A thrill of satisfaction flew through her, and she tried to see if she could move the stone at will, stretching it towards her to create an extra wall, or squashing them back into where they came from.

'What's that spell?' Tod asked as he walked in.

Her focus broken, the stones dissolved back into the brickwork they'd come from. She tusked. 'Good. You didn't get lost,' Mezrielda said, lowering her wand.

'Down the stairs and behind the tapestry,' Tod echoed the message she'd whispered to him in passing in the Slytherin common room. 'It wasn't exactly hard.'

'Absolutely,' Mezrielda agreed. 'That doesn't mean it isn't surprising you didn't get lost.'

Tod narrowed his eyes. 'What did you want me here for?'

Tapping the chalk board with her wand, Mezrielda indicated the layout of the castle on the clouds that she'd drafted. 'I've sorted transport there, and I've got an idea of the structure and the obstacles we will have to face.'

'We? Look, I'll help you prepare, but I'm not going into that building. It's suicide.'

Mezrielda looked him up and down as if he smelt of excrement. 'Fine. Then we'll need some more hands.'

'The more people you tell the greater the risk is of the acting troupe finding out. You're not thinking of telling a professor, are you?' he asked, incredulous.

'No,' she answered honestly.

'Good. Any professor worth their salt would report this to the Ministry, and then we'd have a problem.'

Mezrielda tilted her head in interest. 'How so?' She was against the ministry finding out because Bagsy was a doppelganger. Doppelgangers were listed as inexcusables by the Ministry, so if Mezrielda reported the incident, and the Ministry found out Bagsy's identity, it could put her in even more danger. The only issue was, Tod shouldn't know that Bagsy was a doppelganger, and should have no reason to suppose telling the Ministry was a bad idea.

Taking a seat at one of the desks, one hand in his pocket, the other resting on the wooden surface, Tod stared at his drumming fingers.

'Tod?'

'My family have the same power I had,' he said abruptly, without looking up, an odd expression on his face like he'd drunk unsavoury medicine.

Mezrielda sat at another desk, remaining silent.

'It's not surprising that they're a powerful family.' His mouth clacked shut. He moved his eyes off his hand and onto Mezrielda meaningfully.

Mezrielda leant back, understanding. 'Your family has influence in the Ministry.'

Tod looked away, neither confirming nor denying it.

'You weren't surprised,' Mezrielda said, anger growing in her voice. 'When I told you Bagsy was taken you weren't surprised. You believed me straight away.' She stood back up. 'You already knew.'

'My family work closely with the acting troupe,' Tod admitted. 'I didn't know much about what the acting troupe did and I didn't know they were after Bagsy. I thought she'd do some acting for them and then go on her merry way. I had no idea they'd take her.'

'You knew they were dangerous and you said nothing! Instead you demonised us in your silly little paper!'

Tod was standing, now, too. 'That silly little paper is the only chance I have to be of any worth to my family. It has to have readers and influence, and if that means I have to write a few nasty things here and there, then so be it.'

'A few nasty things?' Mezrielda grabbed a copy of yesterday's edition and slammed the Witchment Enrichment on the desk. 'You wrote an article claiming that Bagsy is willingly staying with the acting troupe for extra rehearsals. It's no wonder people don't believe me.'

'People would have asked questions if Bagsy hadn't of turned up after the ball,' Tod insisted. 'Those questions would have gone to the Ministry which, as we've established, are a group we don't want being pestered. Besides, only a short time after publishing that article, the exact same story came from the Ministry. They've even managed to convince the school Bagsy's willingly missing revision time. I'm simply letting everyone know what's being claimed already.'

'How generous of you. Don't go acting like all your articles have been a selfless act.'

'The students enjoy them just fine!'

Mezrielda closed her eyes and counted to ten. 'We're not helping Bagsy by fighting. Tell me what you know about the acting troupe.'

They sat back down slowly, as if the other would draw their wand and attack at any moment.

'I know they're invaluable to my family. Enough so that a lot of my childhood was spent carrying out chores to help the troupe.' Tod stopped there, as if that was answer enough.

'What kind of chores?'

The discomfort on Tod's face grew.

Mezrielda said, 'Can you give me an example?'

'An example?'

'You heard me.'

Tod clenched his jaw. 'The last chore I did for the acting troupe was at the start of this summer. It was to make some guy forget about a girl.'

Mezrielda thought for a second. 'Perdita Jewel?'

A glimmer of horror lit in Tod's eyes. 'You shouldn't know that name.'

'And yet I do. Are you going to wipe my memory, too?' she challenged, remembering full well Tod had lost his powers. It felt nice to mock someone else for what she'd been suffering through all year. At least, she consoled herself, she wasn't the only one who'd once felt like she could do anything and then, suddenly, nothing at all.

Tod folded his arms. 'I had Magnus wipe Maisy's mind once I realised she still remembered her sister. I can ask him to wipe yours as well.'

Realisation struck Mezrielda. So that was why Maisy had changed her tune. 'Magnus has the same power you had?' Tod inclined his head. 'Then we'll need his help. Maybe he can force the acting troupe to forget about Bagsy—'

'No. Magnus is dumb as a brick and loyal as a dog. If you ask for his help he'd report straight back to my parents, and they'd do to you what the acting troupe did to Perdita.'

A chill ran down Mezrielda's spine. 'I take it your family uses their powers to allow the acting troupe to take whoever they want, whenever they want them.' Having the awareness to look at least a little guilty, Tod nodded. 'My question is, then, what do your family get in return?'

'That's not relevant.'

'That very much depends on the answer.'

They glared at each other for a minute. Tod refused to break.

'Fine,' said Mezrielda. Time was of the essence, they couldn't afford to be petty. 'Tell me what we're up against.'

'The acting troupe?'

'No, Primrose's pet cat. Of course, the acting troupe! What are they? What can they do?'

Tod shrugged. 'I don't know what they are, but I have some idea about what they can do.'

Mezrielda waited expectantly. As far as individuals went, Tod was very good at making a statement and then not following up on it at all. 'And what, pray tell, can they do?'

'It's Philipupus, really,' said Tod. 'I'm not sure how it works, but as far as I can tell from what I overheard my parents say, Philip collects people. He's the puppet master, if you will. He pulls the strings of all the others, controlling their moves and thoughts. I'd say it was like a hive mind but, again, I really don't know, and his puppets do seem to retain echoes of their personality and can operate without his focus on them.'

Mezrielda said, 'After the second episode Bagsy wasn't acting like herself. She was… sleeping at reasonable hours…'

Tod baulked. 'She what?'

'The bags below her eyes were practically gone.'

Tod shuddered. 'That's plain wrong.'

'That's what I thought. Then, when they took her, they were all speaking in unison, and it was as if they were making Bagsy speak with them.'

'That would've been Philip's influence. That I can be sure of.'

'That tells us one important thing about our enemy, then.' She stood and walked to the chalkboard, flipping it over and writing on the other side. 'Our enemy has a collective consciousness of some kind.'

'Why is that so important to know?'

Mezrielda shot Tod a despairing look. 'Because if our enemy has a collective consciousness then their communication will be beyond anything we can imagine. They'll be able to plan and execute attacks without verbalising.'

'That's… a good point.'

'Yes. It is. What else do you know?'

'I overheard my parents mention this once,' he began uncertainly. 'They were talking about Perdita, and about how long it would be until Philip had control of her.'

Mezrielda stood very still. 'How long?'

'Eight days before the mind-control would be permanent. After that, Perdita would be… gone. For good. Eight days and Perdita would be nothing more than an empty shell, never to be full again. The casing she'd once been in might move and act like her, but it would be an empty imitation. Like one of those skeletons that work during Christmas in Diagon alley.'

Mezrielda stared at one of the walls, pulse pounding. That gave her one week. One week to save her friend.

'I'll make it work,' she said quietly. 'What else?'

Tod was silent.

Mezrielda was losing her patience. 'What else do you know about Philip?'

Tod let out a breath, suddenly looking very small. 'Nothing. I know Philip is a powerful being but I have no clue what he is or what other powers he has. My parents have always been tight-lipped about things like this… just in case they…' He swallowed. 'In case they couldn't trust us. In case we ever told people we shouldn't about these things.' He eyes flicked up to her pointedly.

Mezrielda considered consoling Tod, but then again, he'd known all along that the acting troupe were dangerous, and that they liked to steal people, and he hadn't so much as hinted it to them.

Mezrielda snapped, 'In other words you're now useless to me. You have no information, and you refuse to come with me to rescue her.' She put the chalk down and gestured at the exit. 'I'm done with you.'

Tod was still, as if he hadn't heard her. 'Alright,' he said at last, leaving with stiff movements.

He hovered at the exit, looking as if he was about to say something.

'I don't want to hear it,' said Mezrielda.

Tod left.

Mezrielda wrote out, for perhaps the fifth time, everything she needed to consider.

I can't tell the Ministry

I can't tell a professor

If they realise I know they'll make me disappear

I have one week

It wasn't looking good. Perhaps Tod had been right. Perhaps there was no way to save Bagsy. The odds were certainly stacked against her. The worst part was, she didn't even know what Philip was, and if she didn't know what he was, she couldn't hope to understand how to defeat him. Unless, there was some way she could find out.

Mezrielda spun and rushed out the room, taking two steps at a time as she rocketed towards the Hufflepuff dormitory.

'Hey!' Tod exclaimed as Mezrielda pushed past him. A moment later, she heard his footsteps following. 'You figured something out!'

Mezrielda ignored him.

She reached the correct barrel and tapped out the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff before ducking into the common room. With a speeding heart, she looked directly at the armchair and the ferns tucked into one corner of the room. Victoriously, she found her eyes landing on a round, wooden door with iron decorations in the shape of badgers.

She could see the room, then. She was part of the fidelius charm hiding it.

Primrose, Rebekah and Logan, who were sitting around a desk playing wizard chess, looked at her.

'Oi,' Primrose sneered, holding up a newspaper that had been resting on the chair's armrest. 'Bagsy's not here, she's with the acting troupe, or didn't you hear?'

Mezrielda scowled at her. 'Do you believe everything you read?' she said, cuttingly.

Primrose huffed, standing up and flexing her claws. 'I happen to know someone in the acting troupe, thank you very much, so I think I know what I'm talking about.' As if ready to scratch Mezrielda's face into a thousand shreds, she advanced, Rebekah and Logan rising to their feet in anticipation.

Mezrielda didn't waste a second and darted for the hidden door, shoving it open and darting through it.

'Where did she go?' Primrose exclaimed, a feeling of satisfaction crawling down Mezrielda's back lake a massage.

'Imbecile,' she muttered, standing up in Bagsy's private room.

She stopped in her tracks. The issue wasn't what she saw, though all of Bagsy's inventions crammed onto wooden shelves were heart crushing knowing she may never see her again. The issue was the smell.

It smelt of Bagsy, of soil and smouldering metal, and that fact made Mezrielda take a moment to breathe. Her arms were shaking with the worry that she may not be able to save her.

Mezrielda spotted the petri dish she'd been searching for. It contained the smudged paper Bagsy had found in the hidden room in the acting troupe's tent. Lurching forward, she looked down at the slip, and felt victory seize her. The restoration had completed, and a single word was staring back up at her.

Pullyaouffestryng.

Mezrielda jotted it down, not sure at all how it was meant to be pronounced, and was about to leave when she noticed a stack of small chalkboards on the corner of the desk.

What was truly strange about them was that on their displays was written the precise list she'd just made in the Eagle Club room. Curious, Mezrielda grabbed the chalkboard. Bagsy had mentioned trying to invent a talk-board. It seems she'd succeeded.

She was finished in Bagsy's room and so, casting a glance at the pair of crows peering at her through one of the high windows, she left.

'Hey!' Primrose shouted, jumping out of her chair. 'Where'd you go!?'

Not giving her time to answer, Mezrielda hurried from the room.

'Leave her alone,' Teresa's voice sounded from behind. Mezrielda didn't stick around for the ensuing argument. Instead, she hurried through the barrel passage and back to the Eagle Club room.

Tod was waiting for her there. He stood up as Mezrielda placed the things she'd gathered on a desk.

'What were you running for? What did you realise?'

'I have a word,' Mezrielda said. She may have a use for Tod after all. 'Bagsy found a scrap of paper hidden in the acting troupe's tent. She managed to restore it. It said this—' Mezrielda quickly wrote out pullyaouffestryng on the board.

'Pully-auff-est-strang?' Tod narrowed his eyes. 'Sounds German.'

'I also found these.' Mezrielda put one of the talk-boards, about the size of her palm, on a desk and a second on another. She drew a circle in one and, with a kick of astonishment at how Bagsy managed to build such things, watched as the same circle formed on the other. A third circle appeared on the large chalkboard in the middle of the Eagle Club room. 'Talk-board,' she explained. 'Bagsy made them.'

'Why did you bring these?'

'If our enemy can communicate without talking, then we'll need to do the same.'

'But only you are going to get Bagsy.'

'As I said, I'm going to need more hands. You may be unwilling to help but that doesn't mean no one else will be.'

'But no one believes she's been kidnapped!' he retorted. 'And every person you tell is a risk that word will get to the acting troupe. If they find out what you're planning—'

'I know, I know,' Mezrielda hushed him. 'I'm not a fool, now shut up. Do your job and let me do mine.'

'What job?'

Mezrielda put the paper she'd written pullyaouffestryng on in front of him. 'You're to research this. Find whatever you can.'

'And what about you?'

Mezrielda checked she had her wand on her and pointed it at the test dummy. 'Obliviate,' she incanted, and a perfect stream of light shot from her wand and hit the dummy's head. Mr Mortem had left her one spell, but she wanted to check it still worked fine, just in case. 'I have some recruiting to do.'