Chapter 22
The Unplottable Room
KIARA
My dearest Kiara,
Your mother, brother Kion and myself are all fine. Your brother is healthy and is giving your mother and I a fair few sleepless nights. We're sure it won't be long before he starts crawling now and then he'll start giving us the runaround, that we're both certain. He doesn't like going to bed at night, but he loves bath time, especially splashing us both with almost all the water from the sink, which is both a fun thing to experience, and yet can be a nightmare. We received a lot of compliments from many people, including Professors Darbus and Beadu, and a lot of baby gifts for him. So in short, your mother and I are currently tired but happy.
And on to a slightly more serious note, Crighton did write to us the day Chrissie got poisoned and told us what you did to save her. Your mother and I were both shocked to learn that she had been poisoned, yet we were pleased to know that you were there and are relieved to know that she is in the clear. Your mother and I are both proud of you, Kiara, for saving her. You'd be a terrible friend if you didn't do anything, and at least this time you aren't in danger yourself when it comes to saving a friend's life, even if there was a dangerous substance in the room at the time.
Well, I'm going to put my quill down because I really want to catch up on sleep, but before I do I've taken the liberty of putting more pictures of Kion in this envelope for you to look at.
Keep in touch. Your mother and I always want to hear from you.
Lots of love,
Daddy, Mum and baby Kion
I pulled out the pictures as soon as I read this, and as I looked through them, they were all really the same: Daddy and Mum holding him, Kion sleeping, or else Kion splashing about in the bath, which I could not help but laugh at. I showed Chris, Sian and Chrissie them, and they fawned over them as much as I did. I put them in my bedside table that night, thinking that as soon as I could I would get them framed.
And now, on with this chapter.
I racked my brains over the next week as to how I was to persuade Beadu to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brainwave occurred and I was reduced to doing what I did increasingly in those days whenever I was at a loss: poring over my Potions book, hoping that the Princess would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as I had done so many times before.
"You won't find anything in there," said Sian firmly, late on Sunday evening.
"Don't start, Sian," I said. "If it hadn't been for the Princess, Chrissie wouldn't be sitting here now."
"She would if you'd just listen to Triphorm in our first year," said Sian dismissively.
I ignored her. I had just found an incantation (Sectumsempra) scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words "For Enemies", and I was itching to try it out, but I thought I best not to in front of Sian. Instead, I surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page.
We were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only people still up were fellow sixth-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when we had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the noticeboard that announced the first date for the Apparition test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Dragsmeade.
Chris, Sian, Chrissie and I were all disappointed on reading this, for we would all turn seventeen in July, but that did not put us at ease, oh no: Chrissie was panicking because she had not yet been able to Disapparate; Sian had managed to Apparate twice and was fairly confident about her chances; and Chris and I had only managed to Apparate during our previous lesson.
Chrissie had wasted so much time worrying aloud about Apparition that she was struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Triphorm that Chris, Sian and I had already completed. I fully expected to receive low marks on mine, because I had disagreed with Triphorm on the best way to tackle Stingers, but I did not care: Beadu's memory was the most important thing to me at that point.
"I'm telling you, the stupid Princess isn't going to be able to help you with this, Kiara!" said Sian more loudly. "There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal - "
"Yeah, I know that, thanks," I said, not looking up from my book. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Crighton says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell ..."
"You're going about it the wrong way," said Sian. "Ma says that only you can get the memory. That must mean you can persuade Beadu where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping her a potion, anyone could do that - "
"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" said Chrissie, shaking her quill very hard while staring at her parchment. "It can't be B - U - M - "
"No, it isn't," said Sian, pulling Chrissie's essay towards her. "And 'augury' doesn't begin O - R - G either. What kind of quill are you using?"
"It's one of Tanya and Geri's Spell-Checking ones ... but I think the charm must be wearing off ..."
"Yes, it must," said Sian, pointing at the title of her essay, "because we were asked how we'd deal with Stingers, not 'salamanders', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Christy Daizin', either."
"Ah, no!" said Chrissie, staring horror-struck at the parchment. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again?"
"It's OK, we can fix it," said Sian, pulling the essay towards her and taking out her wand.
"I love you, Sian," said Chrissie, sinking back in her chair, rubbing her eyes wearily.
Chris snorted at this. Sian just rolled her eyes and said, "Don't let Larry hear you saying that."
"I won't," said Chrissie into her hands. "Or maybe I will ... then he'll ditch me ..."
"Why don't you ditch him if you want to finish it?" I asked.
"You haven't dumped anyone, have you?" said Chrissie. "You and Khan just - "
"Sort of fell apart, yeah," I said.
"Wish that would happen with me and Larry," said Chrissie gloomily, watching her sister tapping each of her misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page. "But the more I hint I want to finish it the tighter he holds on. It's like going out with the Giant Squid."
"There," said Sian, some twenty minutes later, handing back Chrissie's essay.
"Thanks a million," said Chrissie. "Can I borrow your quill for the conclusion?"
Seeing as I had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Princess' notes so far, I looked around; the four of us were now the only ones left in the common room, Zara having just gone up to bed cursing Triphorm and her essay. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Chrissie scratching out one last paragraph on Stingers using Sian's quill. I had just closed the Half-Blood Princess' book, yawning, when -
Crack.
Chris jumped in his seat; Sian let out a little shriek; Chrissie spilled ink all over her essay and I said, "Kleaner!"
The house-elf curtseyed low and addressed her own gnarled toes.
"Young Mistress said she wanted regular reports on what the Malty girl is doing so Kleaner has come to give - "
Crack.
Dokey appeared alongside Kleaner, her tea-cosy hat askew.
"Dokey has been helping too, Kiara Pride-Lander!" she squeaked, casting Kleaner a resentful look. "And Kleaner ought to tell Dokey when she is coming to see Kiara Pride-Lander so they can make their reports together!"
"What is this?" said Sian, still looking shocked by these sudden appearances. "What's going on, Kiara?"
I hesitated before answering, because I had not told Sian (or Chris) about setting Kleaner and Dokey to tail Malty; house-elves were always such a touchy subject with her.
"Well ... they've been following Malty for me," I said.
"Night and day," croaked Kleaner.
"Dokey has not slept for a week, Kiara Pride-Lander!" said Dokey proudly, swaying where she stood.
Sian looked indignant.
"You haven't slept, Dokey? But surely, Kiara, you didn't tell her not to - "
"No, of course I didn't," I said quickly. "Dokey, you can sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?" I hastened to ask, before Sian could intervene again.
"Mistress Malty moves with a nobility that befits her pure blood," croaked Kleaner at once. "Her features recall the fine bones of my master and her manners are those of - "
"Danielle Malty is a bad girl!" squeaked Dokey angrily. "A bad girl who - who - "
She shuddered from the tassel of her tea cosy to the toes of her socks and then ran at the fire, as though about to dive into it; this was not entirely unexpected to me, so I caught her around the middle and held her fast. For a few seconds Dokey struggled, then went limp.
"Thank you, Kiara Pride-Lander," she panted. "Dokey still finds it difficult to speak ill of her old masters ..."
I released her; Dokey straightened her tea cosy and said defiantly to Kleaner, "But Kleaner should know that Danielle Malty is not a good mistress to a house-elf!"
"Yeah, we don't need to hear about you being in love with Malty," I told Kleaner. "Let's fast forward to where she's actually been going."
Kleaner curtseyed again, looking furious, and then said, "Mistress Malty eats in the Great Hall, she sleeps in a dormitory in the dungeons, she attends her classes in a variety of - "
"Dokey, you tell me," I said, cutting across Kleaner. "Has she been going anywhere she shouldn't have?"
"Kiara Pride-Lander, miss," squeaked Dokey, her great orblike eyes shining in the firelight, "the Malty girl is breaking no rules that Dokey can discover, but she is still keen to avoid detection. She has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for her when she enters - "
" - the Room of Needs!" I said, smacking myself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. Chris, Sian and Chrissie stared at me. "That's where she's been sneaking off to! That's where she's doing ... whatever she's doing! And I bet that's why she's been disappearing off the Map - come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Needs on there!"
"Maybe the Scallywags never knew the Room was there," said Chris.
"I think it'll be part of the magic of the Room," said Sian. "If you need it to be unplottable, it will be."
"Dokey, have you managed to het in to have a look at what Malty's doing?" I said eagerly.
"No, Kiara Pride-Lander, that is impossible," said Dokey.
"No, it's not," I said at once. "Malty got into our Headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on her, no problem."
"But I don't think you will, Kiara," said Sian slowly. "Malty already knew how we were using the Room, didn't she, because that stupid Maurice had blabbed. She needed the room to become the Headquarters of the CA, so it did. But you don't know what the Room becomes when Malty goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."
"There'll be a way around that," I said dismissively. "You've done brilliantly, Dokey."
"Kleaner's done well, too," said Sian kindly; but far from looking grateful, Kleaner averted her huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked to the ceiling, "The Sackbrain is speaking to Kleaner, Kleaner will pretend she cannot hear - "
"Get out of it," I snapped at her, and Kleaner made one last deep curtsey and Disapparated. You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dokey."
"Thank you, Kiara Pride-Lander, miss!" squeaked Dokey happily, and she, too, vanished.
"How good's this?" I said enthusiastically, turning to Chris, Sian and Chrissie the moment the room was elf-free again. "We know where Malty's going! We've got her cornered now!"
"Yeah, it's great," said Chrissie glumly, who was attempting to mop up the sodden mass of ink that had recently been an almost completed essay. Sian pulled it towards her and began siphoning off the ink with her wand.
"But what's all this about her going up there with a 'variety of students'?" said Sian. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think shed trust lots of them to know what she's doing ..."
"Yeah, that is weird," I said, frowning. "I heard her telling Crate it wasn't Crate's business what she was doing ... so what's she telling all these ... all these ..."
My voice trailed away; I was staring at the fire.
"God, I've been stupid," I said quietly. "It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon ... she could've nicked some any time during that lesson ..."
"Nicked what, Kiara?" said Chris.
Ignoring the way his voice made my heart flutter for the time being, I said, "Polyjuice Potion. She stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Beadu showed us in our first Potions lesson ... there aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malty ... it's just Crate and Gabber as usual ... yeah, it all fits!" I said, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if she won't tell them what she's up to ... but she doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Needs, so she's got them taking Polyjuice to look like other people ... those two boys I saw with her when she missed Quidditch - ha! Crate and Gabber!"
"Do you mean to say," said Sian in a hushed voice, "that that little boy whose scales I repaired - ?"
"Yeah, of course!" I said loudly, staring at her. "Of course! Malty must've been inside the Room at the time, so he - what am I talking about? - she dropped the scales to tell Malty not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that boy who dropped the toad-spawn, too! We've been walking past her all the time and not realising it!"
"She's got Crate and Gabber transforming into boys?" guffawed Chrissie. "Blimey ... no wonder they don't look too happy these days ... I'm surprised they don't tell her to stuff it ..."
"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if she's shown them her Death Trail," I said.
"Hmmm ... the Death Trail we don't know exists" said Sian sceptically, rolling up Chrissie's dried essay before it could come to any more harm and handing it to her.
"We'll see," I said confidently.
"Yes, we will," said Sian, getting to her feet and stretching. "But, Kiara, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Needs without knowing what's there first. And I don't think you should forget," she heaved her bag on to her shoulder and gave me a very serious look, "that what you're supposed to be concentrating on is getting that memory from Beadu. Goodnight."
I watched her go, feeling slightly disgruntled. Once the door to the girls' dormitories had closed behind her I rounded on Chris, who was watching me closely.
"What do you think?"
Chris looked at me sadly, shrugged and said, "I'm with Sian, Kiara. Sorry."
Annoyed by this reaction, I turned to Chrissie instead.
"And what do you think, Chrissie?"
"Wish I could Disapparate like a house-elf," said Chrissie, staring at the spot where Dokey had vanished. "I'd have that Apparition test in the bag."
I did not sleep well that night. I lay awake for what felt like hours, wondering how Malty was using the Room of Needs and what I would see when I went in there the following day, for whatever Sian said, I was sure that if Malty had been able to see the Headquarters of the CA, then surely that meant that I would be able to see Malty's ... what could it be? A meeting place? A storeroom? A workshop? My mind worked feverishly and my dreams, when I finally fell asleep, were broken and disturbed by images of Malty, who turned into Beadu, who turned into Triphorm ...
I was in a state of great anticipation over breakfast the following morning; I had a free period before Defence Against the Dark Arts and I was determined to spend it trying to get into the Room of Needs. Sian was rather ostentatiously showing no interest in my whispered plans for forcing entry into the Room, which irritated me, because I thought she might be a lot of help if she wanted to.
"Look," I said quietly, leaning forwards and putting a hand on the Daily Squabbler, which she had just removed from a post owl, to stop her opening it and vanishing behind it. "I haven't forgotten about Beadu, but I haven't got a clue how to get that memory off her, and until I get a brainwave why shouldn't I find out what Malty's doing?"
"I've already told you, you need to persuade Beadu," said Sian. "It's not a question of tricking her or bewitching her, or Ma could have done it in a second. Instead of messing around outside the Room of Needs," she jerked the Squabbler out from under my hand and unfolded it to look at the front of the page, "you should go and find Beadu and start appealing to her better nature."
"Anyone we know - ?" asked Chrissie, as Sian scanned the headlines.
"Yes!" said Sian, causing Chris, Chrissie and I to gag on our breakfasts, "but it's all right, she's not dead - it's Mona, she's been arrested and sent to Azkaban! Something to do with impersonating an Inferius during an attempted burglary ... and someone called Octavia Sprint has vanished ... oh, and how horrible, a nine-year-old girl has been arrested for trying to kill her grandparents, they think she was under the Imperius Curse ..."
We finished our breakfast in silence. Sian set off immediately for Ancient Runes, Chris for Arithmancy, Chrissie for the common room, where she still had to finish her conclusion on Triphorm's Stinger essay, and I for the corridor on the seventh floor and the stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barbara the Barmy being clubbed by a gang of ogres.
I slipped on my Invisibility Cloak once I had found an empty passage, but I need not have bothered. When I reached my destination I found it deserted. I was not sure whether my chances of getting inside the Room were better with Malty inside it or out, but at least my first attempt was not going to be complicated by the presence of Crate of Gabber pretending to be an eleven-year-old boy.
I closed my eyes as I approached the place where the Room of Needs' door was concealed. I knew what I had to do; I had become accomplished at it during my fifth year. Concentrating with all my might I thought, I need to see what Malty's doing in here ... I need to see what Malty's doing in here ... I need to see what Malty's doing in here ...
Three times I walked past the door, then, my hear pounding with excitement, I opened my eyes and faced it - but I was still looking at a stretch of mundanely blank wall.
I moved forwards and gave it an experimental push. The stone remained solid and unyielding.
"Ok," I said aloud. "OK ... I thought the wrong thing ..."
I pondered for a moment, then set off again, eyes closed, concentrating as hard as I could.
I need to see the place where Malty keeps coming secretly ... I need to see the place where Malty keeps coming secretly ...
After three walks past, I opened my eyes expectantly.
There was no door.
"Oh, come off it," I told the wall irritably. "That was a clear instruction. Fine ..."
I thought hard for several minutes before striding off once more.
I need you to become the place you become for Danielle Malty ...
I did not immediately open my eyes when I had finished my patrolling; I was listening hard, as though I might hear the door pop into existence. I heard nothing, however, except the distant twittering of birds outside. I opened my eyes.
There was still no door.
I swore. Someone screamed. I looked around to see a gaggle of first-years running back round the corner, apparently under the impression that they had just encountered a particularly foul-mouthed ghost.
I tried every variation of "I need to see what Danielle Malty is doing inside you" that I could think of for a whole hour, at the end of which I was forced to concede that Sian might have had a point: the Room simply did not want to open for me. Frustrated and annoyed, I set off for Defence Against the Dark Arts, pulling off my Invisibility Cloak and stuffing it into my bag as I went.
"Late again, Pride-Lander," said Triphorm coldly, as I hurried into the candlelit classroom. "Ten points from Lion-Heart."
I scowled at Triphorm as I flung myself into the seat beside Chrissie; half the class was still on its feet, taking out books and organising its things; I could not be much later than any of them.
"Before we start, I want your Stinger essays," said Triphorm, waving her wand carelessly, so that twenty-seven scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on her desk. "And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open you books at page - what is it, Miss Finn?"
"Ma'am," said Zara, "I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the Squabbler about an Inferius - "
"No, there wasn't," said Triphorm in a bored voice.
"But ma'am, I heard people talking - "
"If you had actually read the article in question, Miss Finn, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak-thief by the name of Mona Fetch."
"I thought Triphorm and Mona were on the same side?" I muttered to Sian and Chrissie. "Shouldn't she be upset Mona has been arrest- "
"But Pride-Lander seems to have a lot to say on the subject," said Triphorm, pointing suddenly to where I was sat at the back of the room, her icy-blue eyes fixed on me. "Let us ask Pride-Lander how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost."
The whole class looked round at me, and I hastily tried to recall what Crighton had told me the night that we had gone to visit Beadu.
"Er - well - ghosts are transparent - " I said.
"Oh, very good," said Triphorm, her lip curling. "Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Pride-Lander. Ghosts are transparent."
Parry Parker let his head fall back and let out a roar of laughter. Several other people were smirking. I took a deep breath and continued calmly, though my insides were burning, "Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren't they? So they'd be solid - "
"A five-year-old could have told us as much," sneered Triphorm. "The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard's spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard's building. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth ... and of course, as Pride-Lander so wisely tells us, transparent."
"Well, what Kiara said is the most useful if we're trying to tell them apart!" said Chrissie. "When we come face to face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a shufti to see if it's solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"
There was a ripple of laughter, instantly quelled by the look Triphorm gave us.
"Another ten points from Lion-Heart," said Triphorm. "I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Christina Dawson, the girl so solid she cannot Apparate half an inch across a room."
"No!" whispered Sian, grabbing my arm as I opened my mouth furiously. "There's no point, you'll just end up in detention again, leave it!"
"Now open your books at page two hundred and thirteen," said Triphorm, smirking a little, "and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse ..."
Chrissie was very subdued all through the class. When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Larry caught up with Chrissie and I (Sian mysteriously melted out of sight as he appeared) and abused Triphorm hotly for her jibe about Chrissie's Apparition, but this seemed merely to irritate Chrissie, and she shook him off by making a detour into the girls' bathroom with me.
"Triphorm's right, though, isn't she?" said Chrissie, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two. "I dunno whether it's worth me taking the test. I just can't get the hang of Apparition."
"Push it out of your mind for now, Chrissie," I said reasonably. "We only have to wait until summer, and then you, me, Chris and Sian can all take the test together - Moany, this is the girls' bathroom!"
The ghost of a boy had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind us and was now floating in mid-air, staring at us through thick, white, round glasses.
"Oh," he said glumly, "it's you two."
"Who were you expecting?" said Chrissie, looking at him in the mirror.
"Nobody," said Moany, picking moodily at a spot on his chin. "She said she'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me, too ..." he gave me a reproachful look, " ... and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect much from girls."
"I thought you lived in that boys' bathroom?" I said, being careful to give the place a wide berth for some years.
"I do," he said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?"
"Vividly," I said, as I felt my cheeks burn red, and next to me, I saw Chrissie trying to keep a straight face. I glared at her.
"But I thought she liked me," he said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, she'd come back again ... we had lots in common ... I'm sure she felt it ..."
And he looked hopefully towards the door.
"When you say lots in common," said Chrissie, sounding rather amused now, " d'you mean she lives in an S-bend, too?"
"No," said Monay defiantly, his voice echoing around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean she's sensitive, people bully her, too, and she feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and she's not afraid to show her feelings and cry!"
"There's been a girl in here crying?" I said curiously. "A young girl?"
"What's so odd about that?" said Chrissie, sounding confused. "We girls cry in bathrooms all the time, don't we?"
"Not to ghosts, we don't," I said pointedly.
"Fair point," shrugged Chrissie.
"Never you mind who cries in here!" said Moany, calling our attention back to him, his small, leaky eyes fixed on Chrissie, who was now definitely grinning. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone and I'll take her secret to the - "
" - not the grave, surely?" said Chrissie with a snort. "The sewers, maybe ..."
Moany gave a howl of rage and dived back into the toilet, causing water to slop over the sides and on to the floor. Goading Moany seemed to have put fresh heart into Chrissie.
"You're right," she said, swinging her schoolbag back over her shoulder. "I've got until summer to do the actual test. I can worry about Apparition then."
And so the following weekend Chris, Sian, Chrissie and I watched the rest of the sixth-years who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. I knew that my three best friends, much like myself, watched the crowd who were waiting to go into the village enviously; I missed making trips there, and it was a particularly fine spring day, one of the first clear skies we had seen in a long time. However, I had decided to use the time to attempt another assault on the Room of Needs.
"You'd do better," said Sian, when I confided this plan to her, Chris and Chrissie at the top of the marble staircase, "to go straight to Beadu's office and try and get that memory from her."
"I've been trying!" I said crossly, which was perfectly true. I had lagged behind after every Potions lesson that week in an attempt to corner Beadu, but the Potions mistress always left the dungeon so fast that I had not been able to catch her. Twice, I had gone to her office and knocked, but I received no reply, though on the second occasion I was sure I had heard the quickly stifled sounds of an old gramophone. "She doesn't want to talk to me, Sian! She can tell I've been trying to get her on her own again and she's not going to let it happen!"
"Well, you've just got to keep at it, haven't you?"
We watched from the top of the stairs as the other sixth-years filed slowly past Match, who was doing his usual prodding with the Secrecy Sensor. When we could no longer see them, Chris, Sian and Chrissie headed back to the Lion-Heart common room together to get some work done. I waited until I could no longer hear them and set off up the marble staircase, determined, whatever Sian said, to devote an hour or two to the Room of Needs.
Once out of sight of the Entrance Hall, I pulled out the Scallywags Map and my Invisibility Cloak from my bag. Having concealed myself, I tapped the Map, murmured, "I solemnly swear that I shall do no good," and scanned it carefully.
As it was a Sunday morning, nearly all the students were inside their various common room, the Lion-Hearts in one tower, the Raven-Wings in another, the Snake-Eyes in the dungeons and the Badger-Stripes in the basement near the kitchens. Here and there a stray person meandered around the library or up a corridor ... there were a few people out in the grounds ... and there, alone in the seventh-floor corridor, was Gemma Gabber. There was no sign of the Room of Needs, but I was not worried about that; if Gabber was standing guard outside it, the Room was open, whether the Map was aware of it or not. I therefore sprinted up the stairs, slowing down only when I reached the corner into the corridor, when I began to creep, very slowly, towards the very same little boy, clutching his heavy brass scales, that Sian had so kindly helped a fortnight before. I waited until I was right behind him before bending very low and whispering, "Hello ... you're very handsome, aren't you?"
Gabber gave a high-pitched scream of terror, threw the scales up into the air and sprinted away, vanishing from sight long before the sound of scales smashing had stopped echoing around the corridor. Laughing, I turned to contemplate the blank wall behind which, I was sure, Dani Malty was now standing frozen, aware that someone unwelcome was out there, but not daring to make an appearance. It gave me a most agreeable feeling of power as I tried to remember what form of words I had not yet tried.
Yet my hopeful mood did not last long. Half an hour later, having tried many variations of my request to see what Malty was up to, the wall was just as doorless as ever. I felt frustrated beyond belief; Malty might just be feet away from me, and there was still not the tiniest shred of evidence as to what she was doing in there. Losing my patience completely, I ran at the lower wall and kicked it.
"OUCH!"
I thought I might have broken my toe; as I clutched at it and hopped on one foot, the Invisibility Cloak slipped off me.
"Kiara?"
I spun round, one-legged, and toppled over. There, to my utter astonishment, was Todd, walking towards me as though she frequently strolled up this corridor.
"What're you doing here?" I said, scrambling to my feet again; why did she always have to find me lying on the floor?
"I came to see Crighton," said Todd.
I thought she looked terrible; thinner than usual, her mouse-coloured hair lank.
"Her office isn't here," I said, "it's round the other side of the castle, you have to use the glass elevator - "
"I know," said Todd. "She's not there. Apparently she's gone away again."
"Has she?" I said, putting my bruised foot gingerly back on the floor. "Hey - you don't know where she goes, I suppose?"
"No," said Todd.
"What did you want to see her about?"
"Nothing particular," said Todd, picking, apparently unconsciously at the sleeve of her robe. "I just thought she might know what's going on ... I've heard rumours ... people getting hurt ..."
"Yeah, I know, it's all be in the papers," I said. "That little kid trying to kill her - "
"The Squabbler's often behind the times," said Todd, who didn't seem to be listening to me. "You haven't ha any letters from anyone in the Order recently?"
"My parents are the only ones who bother now, and I've not heard anything worrying from them," I said. "After all, who's going to write to me? Pumbaa - "
I saw that her eyes had filled with tears.
"I'm sorry," I muttered awkwardly. "I mean ... he was a good man ..."
"What?" said Todd blankly, as though she had not heard me. "Well ... I'll see you around, Kiara ..."
And she turned abruptly and walked back down the corridor, leaving me to stare after her. After a minute or so, I pulled the Invisibility Cloak on again and resumed my efforts to get into the Room of Needs, but my heart was not in it. Finally, a hollow feeling in my stomach and the knowledge that Chris, Sian and Chrissie were down at lunch made me abandon the attempt and leave the corridor to Malty who, hopefully, would be too afraid to leave for some horrible hours to come.
I found Chris, Sian and Chrissie in the Great Hall, already halfway through an early lunch.
"So, Kiara," said Sian, the moment she saw me, "I take it that, seeing as we haven't seen you since this morning, that you've been up at the Room of Needs all this time?"
"Yep," I said. "And guess who I ran into up there? Todd!"
"Todd?" repeated Chris, Sian and Chrissie together, all looking surprised.
"Yeah, she said she'd come to visit Crighton."
"If you ask me," said Chrissie once I had finished describing my conversation with Todd, "she's cracking up a bit. Losing her nerve after what happened at the Ministry."
"It's a bit odd," said Sian, who for some reason looked very concerned. "She's supposed to be guarding the school, why's she suddenly abandoning her post to come and see Ma when she's not even here?"
"I had a thought," I said tentatively. I felt strange about voicing it; this was much more Sian's territory than mine. "You don't think she can have been ... you know ... in love with Pumbaa?"
Sian stared at me.
"What on earth makes you say that?"
"I dunno," I said, shrugging, "but she was nearly crying when I mentioned his name ... and her Patronus is quite a big four-legged thing now ... I wondered whether it hadn't become ... you know ... him."
"It's a thought," said Sian slowly. "But I still don't know why she'd be bursting into the castle to see Ma, if that's really why she was here ..."
"Goes back to what I said, doesn't it?" said Chrissie, who was now shovelling mashed potato into her mouth. "She's gone a bit funny. Lost her nerve. You know," she said wisely to Chris and I, " sometimes I think it would be easier if people simply laughed their troubles away."
"And yet," said Sian, coming out of her reverie, "I doubt you'll find anyone who'll laugh about your joke about the hag, the healer and the Mimbulus Mimbletonia."
"Hey, I laughed at that!" said Chrissie indignantly.
"Sister, just because you found something amusing does not mean that you should expect the rest of the world to laugh with you," said Sian bluntly.
Chrissie looked annoyed at Sian's words. "I'm funny, damn it!"
To this, Sian just sighed, "Keep telling yourself that, dear."
Chris and I snorted. Chrissie scowled.