AN: Well, I hope I did Chris and Kiara's get together justice for you all and I really hope you enjoyed it. The POV switches to Crighton before the bottom of this chapter. It is quite interesting what happens there, so please read it and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 27

The Seer Overheard

KIARA

Dear Daddy and Mum, and little brother Kion,

I am sorry for what I did to Dani Malty. I should have known better and I will never use that spell on another living soul for as long as I live ever again, ever!

But on to more happier news now, we won! Lion-Heart won the Quidditch Cup without me! Don't get me wrong, I was disappointed to not be there for the last match of the season - and still am - but after that I met up with Chris in the room where I taught Chris how to dance for the Yule Ball and I have to tell you that we are now a couple. Don't worry, he broke up with Dena a few weeks before, so he's not cheating on her. It's all completely honest, I swear.

I am so happy right now, I can't describe it. I never dreamed I could be this happy before, because with Chris everything seems right and simple and easy, and when I'm with him I don't even have to struggle of things to talk about. We understand each other on every level. I don't know whether it's because we've known each other a long time, but I wouldn't change anything with him. I love him. I know I'm only sixteen, but I know that I am falling for him.

Well, I have to go. Give my love to Kion for me.

All my love,

Kiara

Chris was right about the news about us getting out quickly, because the fact that I was going out with Chris Rickers seemed to interest a great number of people, most of them boys, yet I found myself newly and happily impervious to gossip over those next few weeks (although I didn't mind the reactions of the Dawson siblings, who were all happy to see me with Chris). After all, it made a very nice change for me to be talked about because of something that was making me happier than I could remember being for a very long time, rather than because I had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark magic.

"You'd think people had better things to gossip about," said Chris, as I was sat on the common room floor, leaning against his legs, letting his fingers brush through my hair. "Three Stinger attacks in a week, and all Ronnie Vaughn does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."

Sian and Chrissie both roared with laughter. I ignored them.

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him it's a unicorn," said Chris, shrugging his shoulders. "Much more girly."

"Thanks," I said, grinning. "And what did you tell him Chrissie's got?"

"A Niffler, but I didn't say where."

Chrissie glared as Sian rolled around laughing.

"Watch it," said Chrissie warningly, pointing a menacing finger at Chris and I. "Just because you two are dating now does not mean you get to go snogging each other all over the school - "

Sian snorted and said, "Don't be so hypocritical, Chrissie!"

"I am not a hypocrite!" said Chrissie indignantly.

"Actually, Chrissie, you are," said Chris. "After all, you and Larry were thrashing like a pair of eels all over the place, and no one ever stopped you, did they?"

But as much as Chris and I were happy, as we moved into June we could not help but be worried about Sian, who, although she tried to act normal, always seemed to have an anxious, worried look about her. Whenever one of us would ask her if she was all right, she would smile, say she was fine and brush it off, but none of us believed her, and it made myself and the rest of the Dawson siblings all the more worried for her. Furthermore, on the first Saturday of June, all the Dawson siblings, besides Sian, were called one by one to see their mother. Each meeting lasted for about half an hour, and when they came back, none of them would say what happened, but they bore expressions of sadness and confusion, and each Dawson sibling carried a letter with one line written on it: Not to be opened until Sian tells you.

It was a few days after this that, one evening, I was to be found siting beside the window in the common room, supposedly finishing my Herbology homework, but in reality I was reliving a particularly happy hour I had spent down by the river at lunchtime, when Sian dropped into the seat opposite me and, ignoring Chris and Chrissie, looked at me with an unpleasantly purposeful look on her face.

"I want to talk to you, Kiara?"

"What about?" I said nonchalantly.

"The so-called Half-Blood Princess."

"Oh, not again," I groaned. "Will you please drop it?"

I had not dared to return to the Room of Needs to retrieve my book, and my performance in Potions was suffering accordingly (though Beadu, who approved of Chris, had jocularly attributed this to me being lovesick). But I was sure that Triphorm had not yet given up hope of laying hands on the Princess' book, and I was determined to leave it where it was while Triphorm remained on the lookout.

"I'm not dropping it," said Sian firmly, "until you've heard me out. Now, I've been trying to find out a bit about who might make a hobby out of inventing Dark spells - "

"She didn't make a hobby of it - "

"She, she, who - actually, you're right. What was I saying?"

"Where is this coming from, Sian?" I asked, confused.

"Well, I've been having the assumption that the Princess was a boy, until I found this a few hours ago ..." Sian then pulled out a very old piece of newsprint out of her pocket and slammed it down on the table in front of me. "Look at that! Look at the picture!"

I picked up the crumbling piece of paper and stared at the moving photograph, yellowed with age; Chris and Chrissie both leaned over for a look, too. The picture showed a skinny girl of around fifteen. She was very plain; she looked simultaneously cross and stubborn, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face. Underneath the photograph was the caption: Eleanor Princess, Captain of the Dragon Mort Gobstones Team.

"So?" I said, scanning the short news item to which the picture belonged; it was a rather dull story about inter-school competitions.

"Her name was Eleanor Princess. Princess, Kiara."

We looked at each other and I realised what Sian was trying to say. I burst out laughing.

"No way."

"What?"

"You think she was the Half-Blood ...? Oh, come on."

"Well, why not? Kiara, there aren't any real wizarding princesses in the wizarding world! It's either a nickname, a made-up title somebody's given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn't it? No, listen! If, say, her mother was a witch whose surname was 'Princess', and her father was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Princess'!"

"Yeah, very ingenious, Sian ..."

"But it would! Maybe she was proud of being half a Princess!"

"Listen, Sian, I think I'm right in saying the Princess is a girl, I'm just not sure she's this one."

"The truth id that you don't think other girls are clever enough," said Sian angrily.

"I'm not saying that all girls aren't clever, Sian, I'm just saying I don't believe what you're telling me," I said, stung by this. "The Princess could be a number of different girls, but I'm certain this girl hasn't got anything to do with it. Where did you get this, anyway?"

"The library," said Sian, predictably. "There's a whole collection of old Prophets up there. Well, I'm going to find out more about Eleanor Princess if I can."

"Enjoy yourself," I said irritably.

"I will," said Sian. "And the first place I'll look," she shot at me, as she reached the portrait hole, "is records of old Potions awards!"

I scowled after her for a moment, then continued my contemplation of the darkening sky.

"She's just never going to get over you outperforming her in Potions," said Chrissie, returning to her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

"Neither of you don't think I'm mad, wanting that book back, do you?"

"Course not," said Chrissie robustly. "She was a genius, the Princess. Anyway ... without her bezoar tip ..." she drew her finger significantly across her own throat, "I wouldn't be here to discuss it, would I? I mean, I'm not saying that spell you used on Malty was great - "

"Nor am I," I said quickly.

"None of us are," said Chris, covering my hand and smiling gently at me, "but she healed all right, didn't she? Back on her feet in no time."

"Yeah," I said; this was perfectly true, although my conscience squirmed slightly all the same. "Thanks to Triphorm ..."

"You still got detention this Saturday?" Chrissie asked me.

"Yeah, and the Saturday after that, and the Saturday after that," I sighed. "And she's hinting now that if I don't get all the boxes done by the end of term, we'll carry on next year."

I was finding those detentions particularly irksome because they cut into the time I could have been spending with Chris. Indeed, I began to frequently wonder whether Triphorm did not know this, for she was keeping me later and later every time, while making pointed asides about me having to miss the good weather and the varied opportunities it offered.

I was shaken from these bitter reflections by the appearance at my side of Jenny Peet, who was holding out a scroll of parchment.

"Thanks, Jenny ... hey, it's from Crighton!" I said excitedly, unrolling the parchment and scanning it. "She wants me to go to her office as quick as I can!"

Chris, Chrissie and I stared at each other.

"Blimey," whispered Chrissie. "You don't reckon ... she hasn't found ...?"

"Better go and see, hadn't I?" I said, kissing Chris' cheek and jumping to my feet.

I hurried out of the common room and along the seventh floor as fast as I could, passing nobody but Weeves, who swooped in the opposite direction, throwing bits of chalk at me in a routine sort of way and cackling loudly as she dodged my defensive jinx. Once Weeves had vanished, there was silence in the corridors; with only fifteen minutes left until curfew, most people had already returned to their common rooms.

And then I heard a scream and a crash. I stopped in my tracks, listening.

"How - dare - you - aaaaargh!"

The noise was coming from a corridor nearby; I sprinted towards it, my wand at the ready, hurled round another corner and saw Professor Crystals sprawled upon the floor, his head covered in one of his many scarves, several sherry bottles lying beside him, one broken.

"Professor - "

I hurried forwards and helped Professor Crystals to his feet. Some of his glittering beads had become entangled with his glasses. He hiccoughed loudly, patted his hair and pulled himself up on my helping arm.

"What happened, Professor?"

"You may well ask!" he said shrilly. "I was strolling along, brooding upon certain Dark portents I happened to have glimpsed ..."

But I was not paying much attention. I had just noticed where we were standing: there on the right was the tapestry of ogres clubbing their dance teacher and, on the left, that smoothly impenetrable stretch of stone wall that concealed -

"Professor, were trying to get into the Room of Needs?"

"... omens I have been vouchsafed - what?"

He looked suddenly shifty.

"The Room of Needs," I repeated. "Were you trying to get in there?"

"I - well - I didn't know students knew about - "

"Not all of them do," I said. "But what happened? You screamed ... it sounded as though you were hurt ..."

"I - well," said Professor Crystals, drawing his scarves around him defensively and staring down at me with his vastly magnified eyes. "I wished to - ah - deposit certain - um - personal items in the Room ..." And he muttered something about "nasty accusations".

"Right," I said, glancing down at the sherry bottles. "But you couldn't get in and hide them?"

I found this very odd; the Room had opened for me, after all, when I had wanted to hide the Half-Blood Princess' book.

"Oh, I got in all right," said Professor Crystals, glaring at the wall. "But there was somebody already in there."

"Somebody in - ? Who?" I demanded. "Who was in there?"

"I have no idea," said Professor Crystals, looking slightly taken aback at the urgency in my voice. "I walked into the Room and I heard a voice, which has never happened before in all my years of hiding - of using the Room, I mean."

"A voice? Saying what?"

"I don't know that it was saying anything," said Professor Crystals. "It was ... whooping."

"Whooping?"

"Gleefully," he said, nodding.

I stared at him.

"Was it male or female?"

"I would hazard a guess at female," said Professor Crystals.

"And it sounded happy?"

"Very happy," said Professor Crystals sniffily.

"As though it was celebrating.

"Most definitely."

"And then - ?"

"And then I called out, 'Who's there'?"

"You couldn't have found out who it was without asking?" I asked him, slightly frustrated.

"The Inner Eye," said Professor Crystals with dignity, straightening his scarves and many strands of glittering beads, "was fixed upon matters well outside the mundane realms of whooping voices."

"Right," I said hastily; I had heard about Professor Crystals' Inner Eye all too often before. "And did the voice say who was there?"

"No, it did not," he said. "Everything was pitch black and the next thing I knew, I was being hurled headfirst out of the Room!"

"And you didn't see that coming?" I said, unable to help myself.

"No, I did not, as I say, it was pitch - " He stopped and glared at me suspiciously.

"I think you'd better tell Professor Crighton," I said. "She ought to know Malty's celebrating - I mean, that someone threw you out of the Room."

To my surprise, Professor Crystals drew himself up at this suggestion, looking haughty.

"The Headmistress has intimated that she would prefer fewer visits from me," he said coldly. "I am not one to press my company upon those who do not value it. If Crighton refuses to ignore the warnings the cards show - "

His bony hand closed suddenly around my wrist.

"Again and again, no matter how I lay them out - "

And he pulled a card dramatically from underneath his scarf.

" - the lightning-struck tower," he whispered. "Calamity. Disaster. Coming nearer all the time ..."

"Right," I said again. "Well ... I think you should tell Crighton about this voice and everything going dark and being thrown out of the Room ..."

"You think so?" Professor Crystals seemed to consider the matter for a moment, but I could tell that he liked the idea of retelling his little adventure.

"I'm going to see her right now," I said. "I've got a meeting with her. We could go together."

"Oh, well, in that case," said Professor Crystals with a smile. He bent down, scooped up his sherry bottles and dumped them unceremoniously in a large blue and white vase standing in a nearby niche.

"I miss having you in my classes, Kiara," he said soulfully, as we set off together. "You were never much of a Seer ... but you were a wonderful Object ..."

I did not reply; I had loathed being the Object of Professor Crystals' continual predictions of doom.

"I am afraid," he went on, "that the nag - I'm sorry, the centaur - knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked her - one Seer to another - had she not, too, sensed the distant vibrations of coming catastrophe? But she seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!"

His voice rose rather hysterically and I caught a powerful whiff of sherry even though the bottles had been left behind.

"Perhaps the horse has heard people say that I have not inherited my great-great-grandfather's gift. Those rumours have been brandished about by the jealous for years. You know what I say to such people, Kiara? Would Crighton have let me teach at this great school, put so much trust in me all these years, had I not proved myself to her?"

I mumbled something indistinct.

"I well remember my first interview with Crighton," went on Professor Crystals, in throaty tones. "She was deeply impressed, of course, deeply impressed ... I was staying at the Dragon's Eye, which I do not advise, incidentally - bed bugs, dear girl - but funds were low. Crighton did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn. She questioned me ... I must confess that, at first, I thought she seemed ill-disposed towards Divination ... and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day ... but then ..."

And now I was paying attention properly for the first time, for I knew what had happened then: Professor Crystals had made the prophecy that had altered the course of my whole life, the prophecy about Zira and I.

"... but then we were rudely interrupted by Tiana Triphorm!"

"What?"

"Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barmaid standing with Triphorm, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I'm afraid that I myself rather thought she had been apprehended by eavesdropping on my interview with Crighton - you see, she herself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips! Well, after that, you know, Crighton seemed much more disposed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Kiara, that it was because she appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young woman who was prepared to listen at keyholes - Kiara, dear?"

He looked back over his shoulder, having only just realised that I was no longer with him; I had stopped walking and we were now ten feet from each other.

"Kiara?" he repeated uncertainly.

As he had been talking, I felt the blood rush from my face, which was probably the reason why Professor Crystals was looking so concerned and frightened at me. I was standing stock-still as waves of shock crashed over me, wave after wave, obliterating everything except the information that had been kept from me for so long ...

It was Triphorm who had overheard the prophecy. It was Triphorm who had carried the news of the prophecy to Zira. Triphorm and the Absters together had sent Zira to hunt my parents and their children ...

Nothing else mattered to me just then.

"Kiara?" said Professor Crystals again. "Kiara - I thought we were going to see the Headmistress together?"

"You stay here," I said through numb lips.

"But, dear ... I was going to tell her how I was assaulted in the Room of - "

"You stay here!" I repeated angrily.

He looked alarmed as I ran past him, down the stairs and all the way to the second floor, where, once I had placed the token in the slot in the glass elevator and told it to take me to Crighton's office, it sped all around the school, but I hardly cared nor noticed. Once out, I did not knock upon Crighton's door, I hammered; and the calm voice answered "Enter" after I had already flung myself into the room.

Kenna the phoenix looked round, her bright black eyes gleaming with reflected gold from the sunset beyond the window. Sian was there, stood next to the desk and looking steadily at me. Crighton was standing at the window looking out at the grounds, a long, black travelling cloak in her arms. If I had looked closely enough, I would have seen that the photographs on Crighton's desk and the pictures her children had sent her and the articles on the wall had gone - all but one - but I didn't, because I was too angry.

"Well, Kiara, I promised that you and Sian could come with me."

For a moment or two, I did not understand; the conversation with Crystals had driven everything else out of my head and my brain seemed to be moving very slowly.

"Come ... with you ...?"

"Only if you wish it, of course."

"If I ..."

And then I remembered why I had been so eager to get to Crighton's office in the first place.

"You've found one? You've found a Horcrux?"

"I believe so."

Rage and resentment fought shock and excitement: for several moments, I could not speak.

"It is natural to be afraid," said Crighton.

"I'm not scared!" I said at once, and it was perfectly true: fear was one emotion I was not feeling at all (at that moment). "Which Horcrux is it? Where is it?"

"I am not sure which it is - though I think we can rule out the snake - but I believe it to be hidden in a cave on the coast many miles from here, a cave I have been trying to locate for a very long time: the cave in which Dizra Maliay once terrorised two children from her orphanage on their annual trip; you remember?"

"Yes," I said. "How is it protected?"

"I do not know; I have suspicions that may be entirely wrong." Crighton hesitated, then said, "Kiara, I promised that you and Sian could come with me, and I stand by that promise, but it would be very wrong of me not to warn you that this will be exceedingly dangerous."

"I'm coming," I said, almost before Crighton had finished speaking. Boiling with anger at Triphorm, and my desire to do something desperate and risky had increased tenfold in the last few minutes. This seemed to show on my face, for Crighton moved away from the window, and looked more closely at me, a slight crease between her silver eyebrows, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed that she was no longer wearing her silver phoenix pendant. Even Sian knew that something was wrong, the way she was looking at me.

"What has happened to you?" Crighton asked.

"Nothing," I lied promptly.

"What has upset you?"

"I'm not upset."

"Kiara, you were never a good Occlumens - "

The word was the spark that ignited my fury.

"Triphorm!" I said, very loudly, and Kenna gave a squawk behind us. "Triphorm's what happened! She told Zira about the prophecy, it was her, she listened outside the door, Crystals told me!"

I saw Sian turn to her mother, shock written all over her face, but Crighton kept looking at me. Her expression did not change, but I thought her face whitened under the bloody tinge cast by the setting sun. For a long moment, Crighton said nothing.

"When did you find out about this?" she asked at last.

"Just now," I said, refraining from yelling with enormous difficulty. And then, suddenly, I could not help myself. "AND YOU LET HER TEACH HERE AND SHE TOLD ZIRA TO GO AFTER MY FAMILY!"

Breathing hard as though I were fighting, I turned away from Crighton, who still had not moved a muscle, and I began to pace up and down the study, rubbing my knuckles in my hand and exercising every last bit of restraint to prevent myself from knocking things over. I wanted to rage and storm at Crighton, but I also wanted to go with her to try and destroy the Horcrux; I wanted to tell her she was a foolish old woman for trusting Triphorm, but I was terrified that Crighton would not take me along unless I mastered my anger ...

"Kiara," said Crighton quietly. "Please listen to me."

It was as difficult for me to stop my relentless pacing as it was to refrain myself from shouting. I paused, bit my lip, and looked into Crighton's semi-lined face.

"Professor Triphorm made a terrible mistake - "

"Don't tell me it was a mistake, ma'am, she was listening at the door!"

"Please let me finish." Crighton waited until I had nodded curtly, then went on. "Professor Triphorm made a terrible mistake. She was still in Lady Zira's employ on the night she heard the first half of Professor Crystals' prophecy. Naturally, she hastened to tell her mistress what she had heard, for it concerned her most deeply. But she did not know - she had no possible way of knowing - which girl Zira would hunt from then onwards, or that the boy she would destroy in her murderous conquest was the son of the people Professor Triphorm knew, the son of your mother and father - "

I let out a yell or mirthless laughter.

"She hates my mother like she hated Pumbaa! Haven't you noticed, Professor, how some of the people Triphorm hates tend to end up dead?"

"You have no idea the remorse Professor Triphorm felt when she realised how Lady Zira had interpreted the prophecy, Kiara. I believe it to be the greatest regret of her life and the reason that she returned - "

"But she's a very good Occlumens, isn't she, ma'am?" I said, my voice shaking with the effort of keeping it steady. "And isn't Zira convinced that Triphrom's on her side, even now? Professor ... how can you be sure Triphorm's on our side?"

Crighton did not speak for a moment; she looked as though she was trying to make up her mind about something. At last she said, "I am sure. I trust Tiana Triphorm completely."

I breathed deeply for a few moments in an effort to steady myself. It did not work.

"Well, I don't!" I said, as loudly as before. "She's up to something with Dani Malty right now, right under your nose, and you still - "

"We have discussed this, Kiara," said Crighton, and now she sounded stern again. "I have told you my views."

"You're leaving the school tonight and I'll bet you haven't even considered that Triphorm and Malty might decide to - "

"To what?" asked Crighton, her eyebrows raised. "What is it that you suspect them of doing, precisely?"

"I ... they're up to something!" I said and my hands curled into fists as I said it. "Professor Crystals was just in the Room of Needs, trying to hide his sherry bottles, and he heard Malty whooping, celebrating! She's trying to mend something dangerous in there and if you ask me she's fixed it at last and you're about to just walk out of school without - "

Before I knew what had happened, before I could say another word, I felt something powerful knock me to the floor, knocking the wind out of me. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Sian was on top of me, glowering, her breathing heavy, looking more lionlike than ever. "Don't ever talk to my mother like that again, Kiara!" she growled, her face inches from mine. I have to admit, I was afraid of her: I didn't dare move in case I did something to enrage her even more than I did.

"Enough," said Crighton, to my immense relief. She said it quite calmly, and yet I kept quiet; I knew that I had finally crossed some invisible line, and apparently, Sian did too. She got up off me and went to stand by her mother's desk; getting up, I saw her glaring at me. "Do you think that I have once left the school unprotected during my absences this year? I have not. Tonight, when I leave, there will again be additional protection in place. Please do not suggest that I do not take the safety of my students seriously, Kiara."

"I didn't - " I muttered, a little ashamed, but Sian cut across me.

"And you're forgetting, Kiara, that some of us here are more than just students to my mother."

Sian then turned to her mother, and I felt more ashamed than I already did. Crighton smiled at her daughter, before she turned to me and said firmly, "I do not wish to discuss the matter any further."

I kept my mouth shut, afraid that I had gone too far, that I had ruined my chance of accompanying Crighton, but Crighton went on, "Do you wish to come with me, Kiara?"

"Yes," I said at once.

"Very well, then: listen."

Crighton drew herself up to full height.

"The condition on which I take you with me is one that Sian has already agreed to, and it is this: that you obey any command I might give you at once, and without question."

"Of course."

"Be sure to understand me, Kiara. I mean that you must follow even such orders as 'run', 'hide' or 'go back'. Do I have your word?"

"I - yes, of course."

"If I tell you to hide, will you do so?"

"Yes."

"If I tell you to flee, you will obey?"

"Yes."

"If I tell you to leave me, and save yourself, you will do as I tell you?"

"I - "

"Kiara?"

We looked at each other for a moment.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very good. Then I wish you to go and fetch your Cloak and meet myself and Sian in the Entrance Hall in five minutes' time."

Crighton turned back to look out of the fiery window and Sian continued to look at her mother; the sun was now a ruby-red glare along the horizon. I walked quickly from the office and down the spiral staircase. My mind was oddly clear all of a sudden. I knew what I had to do.

Chris and Chrissie were still sitting together in the common room when I came back. "What does Ma want?" Chris said at once. "Kiara, are you OK?" he added anxiously.

"I'm fine," I said shortly, racing past them. I dashed up the stairs and into my dormitory, where I flung open my trunk and pulled out the Scallywag's Map and a pair of balled-up socks. Then I sped back down the stairs and into the common room, skidding to a halt where Chris and Chrissie sat, looking stunned.

"I haven't got much time," I panted, "Crighton thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen ..."

Quickly I told them where Sian and I were going, and why. I did not pause either for Chris' hasty questions or Chrissie's gasps of horror; they could work out the finer details for themselves later.

" ... so you see what this means?" I finished at a gallop. "Crighton won't be here tonight, so Malty's going to have another shot at whatever she's up to. No, listen to me!" I hissed angrily, as both Chris and Chrissie showed every sign of interrupting. "I know it was Malty celebrating in the Room of Needs. Here - " I shoved the Scallywag's Map into Chris' hand. "You've got to watch her and you've got to watch Triphorm, too. Use anyone else who you can rustle up from the CA. Those contact Galleons of Sian's good thinking should still work. Crighton says she's put extra protection in the school, but if Triphorm's involved, she'll know what Crighton's protection is, and how to avoid it - but she won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will she?"

"Kiara - " began Chris, his eyes wide with fear.

"I haven't got time to argue," I said curtly. "Take this as well - " I thrust the socks into Chrissie's hands.

"Thanks," said Chrissie. "Er - why do I need socks?"

"You need what's wrapped in them, it's the Felix Felicis. Share it between yourselves. Look, I'd better go, Crighton's waiting - "

"No!" said Chris, as Chrissie unwrapped the tiny little bottle of golden potion, looking awestruck. "We don't want it, you take it, who knows what you're going to be facing?"

"I'll be fine, I'll be with your mother," I said. "I want to know you lot are OK ... don't look like that, Chris, I'll see you later ..."

I gave him a swift yet powerful kiss before I was off, hurrying back through the portrait hole towards the Entrance Hall.

Crighton and Sian were waiting for me beside the oaken front doors. They turned as I came skidding out on to the topmost stone step, panting hard, a searing stitch in my side.

Just as Crighton was about to speak, she stopped, her eyes wide and unblinking. I looked at Sian, but she looked just as confused as I did. I then looked back at Crighton, who looked frightened, her eyes flickering slightly, as though she was seeing something we couldn't. And then Crighton came back to us with a great gasping breath that made Sian and I both jump. Crighton took deep steadying breaths, the fear still in her eyes. Whatever she had seen must have deeply unnerved her.

"Mother?" said Sian quietly, tentatively, walking towards Crighton.

Crighton's head shot up at her daughter's voice, looking at Sian as though seeing her for the first time. I saw that Sian was afraid, and I couldn't blame her, for Crighton was scaring me too.

"Come here, magi," said Crighton shakily, and she led a confused-looking Sian over to a corner of the Entrance Hall, where she spoke very quietly to her. I couldn't hear what was said, but I could tell that Sian was shocked by it. After a couple of minutes the two women embraced, holding each other so tightly it looked as though they didn't want to let go. Eventually, though, they did, and mother and daughter both made their way back to me, both looking upset about something, though I didn't know what, but Sian was trying as hard as she could to pull herself back together ...

SUSAN CRIGHTON

Just before Susan could ask Kiara if she had her Cloak, she heard a voice enter her head: a wise, powerful voice that she had heard many times before. It was the voice of the Oracle, and it must have been important, for the Oracle would not have chosen to communicate with Susan telepathically if it wasn't.

"Susan ..." the Oracle spoke, "I know you want to take Sian with you on this mission ... but you must understand that if you do, you will be hurting her more in the year to come ..." Then images entered Susan's mind, painful, horrible images of her Sian, screaming, crying, in pain and isolated. "You know what is going to happen to you, Susan ... you can almost see how much it will hurt Sian ... if you want to protect your daughter ... do not let her go with you."

And then it was over. Susan blinked rapidly, staring ahead of her but seeing nothing. What she had seen and heard terrified her. She was aware of some of the dangers they were going to face tonight. A familiar feeling of foreboding suddenly stole over Susan, and somehow, she knew that if Sian went with her and Kiara to the cave, she would be damaged. The Oracle was right: to save and protect her daughter's mind as best she could, Susan would have to leave her behind.

"Mother?" she heard Sian ask timidly, which brought Susan back to her surroundings and the two girls in front of her, both of whom were looking equally afraid and confused at Susan. If they had known what I had just seen and heard, she thought despairingly, but she didn't go down that path. She knew what she had to do.

"Come here, magi," said Susan shakily, and taking Sian by the hand, she led her to a quiet corner of the Entrance Hall. Speaking so low that Kiara couldn't hear them, Susan told Sian, "I'm afraid you can't come with Kiara and I to the cave, Sian."

Sian's confusion quickly turned to shock. "What? But why - ?"

Susan quickly cut across her. "The Oracle spoke to me through my mind just now, Sian, and he showed me what you are going to be like next year. I knew of some of the dangers, but I should have given them more thought, because if you come with us your mind will be damaged, my darling, and I do not want that to happen any more than you do. Do you understand now why you cannot come with us, Sian?"

"Yes, Mother," Sian answered at once.

"Good. Now, once Kiara and I have gone, go back to my office and get Aoife's spare Invisibility Cloak from the bottom-right drawer of my desk. She gave it to me in case I needed it for any reason. Once you have it, put it on and head up to the Astronomy Tower and stay there until Kiara and I return. Will you do that for me, magi?"

"Of course, Ma," said Sian.

"Good girl. Come here." And mother and daughter embraced, neither knowing that their embraces were numbered. If they had known, they would never have parted, but part they did, for there was good work to be done this night. And so, mother and daughter went back to Kiara, the two of them trying to hold back the tears that were about to be shed ...

KIARA

When Sian and her mother reached me, Crighton said in a slightly cracked voice, "There's been a slight change of plan, Kiara. I'm afraid that Sian will not be joining us tonight."

This surprised me. "Really? How come?" I asked.

Sian and her mother shared a look, and Crighton said to me, "There were some elements I overlooked that are unsuitable for Sian, so that's why she can't come."

I thought this was an odd reason, but I didn't say anything. I turned to Sian, who merely shrugged, then hugged me and whispered, "Look after my mother, Kiara."

"I will," I whispered back. We let go of each other and faced Crighton, who said to me, "Now, Kiara, I would like you to wear your Cloak, please." She waited until I had thrown it on before saying, "Very good." Crighton then turned to Sian and kissed her forehead gently.

"Good luck, Ma," Sian said gently. Crighton smiled at her, then turned to me and said, "Let's go, Kiara."

Crighton set off at once down the stone steps, her own travelling cloak barely stirring in the still summer air. I hurried alongside her under the Invisibility Cloak. I had stopped panting and sweating by this point. I turned back to look at Sian, who had her eyes fixed on her mother's retreating back.

"But what will people think when they see you leaving, Professor?" I asked, Malty and Triphorm gone from my mind.

"That I am off into Dragsmeade for a drink," said Crighton lightly. "I sometimes offer Smootherster my custom, or else visit the Dragon's Eye ... or I appear to. It is as good a way as any of disguising one's true destination."

We made our way down the drive in the gathering twilight. The air was full of the smells of warm grass, river water and wood smoke from Mina's cabin. It was difficult for me to believe that we were heading for anything dangerous or frightening (well, at that point, anyway).

"Professor," I said quietly, as the gates at the bottom of the drive came into view, "will we be Apparating?"

"Yes," said Crighton. "You can Apparate now, I believe?"

"Yes," I said, "but I haven't got a licence."

I felt it best to be honest; what if I spoiled everything by turning up a hundred miles from where I was supposed to go?

"No matter," said Crighton, "I can assist you again."

We turned out of the gates into the twilit, deserted lane to Dragsmeade. Darkness descended fast as we walked and by the time we reached the high Street night was falling in earnest. Lights twinkled from windows over shops and as we neared the Flying Owls we heard raucous shouting.

" - and stay out!" shouted Sir Smoothster, forcibly ejecting a grubby-looking wizard. "Oh, hello, Susan ... you're out late ..."

"Good evening, Smoothster, good evening ... forgive me, I'm off to the Dragon's Eye ... no offence, but I feel like a quieter atmosphere tonight ..."

A minute later we turned the corner into the side street where the Dragon's Eye sign creaked a little, though there was no breeze. In contrast to the Flying Owls, the pub appeared to be completely empty.

"It will not be necessary for us to enter," muttered Crighton, glancing around. "As long as nobody sees us go ... now place your hand upon my arm, Kiara. There is no need to grip too hard, I am merely guiding you. On the count of three - one ... two ... three ..."

I turned. At once, there was the horrible sensation that I was being squeezed through a very thick rubber tube; I could not draw breath, every part of me was being compressed almost past endurance and then, just when I thought I might suffocate, the invisible bands seemed to burst open, and I was standing in cool darkness, breathing in lungfuls of fresh, salty air.