Time went by like nothing. At about nine Isabelle and Honoria had entered the Brain Room together, chatting animatedly about brain twisters, Isabelle in anthracite clothes, inconspicuously elegant as always, and Honoria in her flowing robes. They both greeted her, then hurried to their respective rooms to prepare for the day.
Gwen was cleaning up her table after she'd put Ernie back into the green liquid, when Isabelle came to tell her about Ad and the Indicimaginis spell, and Gwen informed her about her appointment with Vivi and Roberta, and her afternoon appointment with Crow. They had a cup of Isabelle's excellent coffee while Gwen grumbled a bit about wanting to learn the spell, and definitely not wanting to work with Crow.
Isabelle laughed and commiserated with her: "I really don't envy you. But he seems to be the clever type, and will learn the technique soon enough, so you can return here."
"What do you mean – return here?" Gwen stared at her.
"Eh bien – he wanted you to go to the Death Chamber. That's where you'll work with him."
Before Gwen could protest Vivi appeared in a wave of expensive perfume, her claret-coloured dragonhide briefcase under her arm. "Here you are! Off we go! Roberta lends us her hippogriff. Cool, isn't it?"
Gwen nodded. "Will we all sit on it?"
"No, just you and me, Roberta won't come with us. She just lends us her pet."
"Why?" Gwen couldn't hide her disappointment.
"Something about a hearing she wants to attend."
Gwen took her cloak, leather bag, and wand and followed Vivi in her cloud of perfume. Dressed in a brilliantly white tunic over pure white linen pants, Vivi took long strides to reach the Circular Room where they met Roberta Dunphy, nervously chewing gum, and the blond Timothy Oakden, who carried a bronze magic lamp, which clattered slightly in his hand.
"Hallo, you two," Roberta kept on chewing. "So sorry, I can't go with you, but there will be a hearing before the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. They consider the fate of a hippogriff from Hogwarts called Buckbeak. They say he hurt a student, which is hard to believe since Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, is a very competent man as far as I know. I hope they will sort it out."
"He is very good with creatures," said Gwen, remembering Hagrid from her school-days. "I hope the hippo will be fine." Roberta smiled weakly. She surely loved hippogriffs a lot.
"Is that a magic lamp with a djinn?" Vivi looked at the rattling lamp questioningly.
"I hope so," Timothy laughed, bowed slightly and tapped his forehead, before he left through the door that led to the Death Chamber.
The three women hurried to one the lifts and went as high as Level One. "Level One, Minister for Magic and Support Staff," the cool disembodied female voice announced. The golden grilles opened to a wood-panelled thickly carpeted corridor. Yet instead of following the long corridor, Roberta opened the next door on the right side that gave way to a gleaming white staircase with one window showing a bright blue sky and cotton-wool clouds.
They climbed up one flight of stairs, where Roberta opened a wooden door to a great hall flooded with sunlight, where different magical creatures were accommodated. Gwen could see some thestrals, several hippogriffs, a small dragon, a lot of owls, and even an Aethonon winged horse. Roberta guided them to a large bay, where a chestnut Hippogriff was standing. They kept their distance.
"This is Amber Dancer," she introduced him proudly. "Now, show me how you approach a hippogriff, girls."
Gwen and Vivi nodded, they all maintained eye contact with the beast. Then they bowed and waited. Gwen was a bit nervous, but did not want Roberta to notice. Amber Dancer looked at them with an unfathomable expression, and finally bowed in return.
Roberta went to him immediately and patted him on the neck. Gwen and Vivi followed her a bit more slowly, and stroked Amber Dancer shyly. Roberta helped them to get up and sit on the hippogriff, Vivian in front, Gwen behind her, clinging to Vivi. Headcollar in hand, her colleague guided them through a long dark corridor which led steadily upwards until they reached a platform. She performed a Disillusionment charm on herself, her hippogriff, Vivi, and Gwen, who shuddered, then pointed her wand at the platform, which started to run upwards driven by invisible strings. Above them a roller shutter opened. They went out. Gwen held her breath. They were suddenly standing on a muggle schoolyard, but there were no children. They were obviously in class.
"Have fun," Roberta beamed, and Gwen wasn't sure whether she was talking to them, or to Amber Dancer. Vivi took the reins.
"Thanks Roberta, we'll be all right," Vivi reassured her. "I hope the other hippogriff will be acquitted."
Gwen held on more tightly. Amber Dancer took off and spread his wings while Roberta waved them good-bye, smiling. At the sudden movement Gwen felt her stomach lurch, and forced a smile in return.
~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~
Some hours later, when they returned from their visit to Tutshill and landed on the still empty schoolyard, Gwen felt a bit tired and lit a cigarette, while Vivi, who was very confident in handling Roberta's hippogriff, patted Amber Dancer's neck.
Gwen had always considered herself a bad small-talker, but Vivi insisted that she had been a big help, and their visit a great success, pointing at the box full of hour-glasses, candle clocks, and oil lamps.
"But I did not get his jokes about the Holyhead Harpies and the Tutshill Tornados," Gwen groaned, inhaling the blue smoke.
"Never mind, he laughed at them a lot," Vivi grinned, waving the smoke away lazily.
Gwen could not even remember how Vivi had succeeded in bringing the topic to Tutshill. She had felt awkward as always when trying to ask a complete stranger questions, but Vivi was brilliant in leading the conversation wherever she wanted to. So Maguire and Gwen had reminisced about their home village on the bank on the River Wye, the watchtower, and the Forest of Dean. Finally, Maguire had sold them what Vivi needed at a reasonable price.
Vivi pointed her wand at the platform to lower it, while Gwen trod out her cigarette, and made it vanish with an Evanesco spell. They performed the reverse Disillusionment charm and brought Amber Dancer back to his bay.
Gwen's stomach gave a rumble. As Vivi first wanted to store her booties, Gwen went alone to the Cenaculum. Today the windows looked onto a snowy mountain landscape. Gwen went to the counter to get some plaice and chips, and then joined Isabelle, Firmin and Ademarus, who were sitting together on a dazzlingly white table.
While Firmin and Ad were discussing the latest news about Sirius Black, Isabelle turned to Gwen and whispered: "T'sais, I really like your idea that legilimency might have got to do with receiving waves, or – let's say – any form of an energy flow that transfers the images from the legilimented person's mind. Alors, muggles describe their brain waves only inside the brain, as a kind of …" she hesitated to pronounce the Muggle word correctly – "electrical power. But perhaps we can prove that there are other types of waves, external ones. Ad and I made some tests with our Indicimaginis spell. You know, that's the spell we developed to make thoughts and images visible, without having to use a pensieve." Gwen nodded. Ad had told her before.
"It seems to work! But it needs some improvement before we can use it in this context. When I used it during the Legilimency actions, it was not stable. Nevertheless for a fraction of a second we succeeded in making one image visible outside the brain that sent them. Isn't that marvellous!" She beamed.
"Eh bien, so we still haven't proved that the image moves in the form of a wave, but if I succeed in making it visible several times in a row, and then monitor its entire trajectory, we might be able to see in which way it moves!"
Gwen shovelled the last bit of fish into her mouth, frowning.
"Oh, I really envy you. Do you want to hear what a morning I had? First I had to ride this hippogriff, and Roberta wasn't even coming along."
Isabelle grinned, her eyes twinkling.
"Then we had this rather boring conversation with a collector of medieval clocks," Gwen yawned, " and now I have to face Crow. Please bring me a pudding, my dear, I need a treat." Isabelle laughed good-naturedly and went to the counter to get their desserts.
When Gwen and Isabelle left the Cenaculum they met Roberta in the Circular Room. Timothy and Honoria were with her, Tim was patting her on the back, while Honoria looked full of sympathy, trying to find consoling words. Roberta looked up at Isabelle and Gwen, and said indignantly: "You won't believe it! They sentenced the hippogriff to death! They're going to execute him in June! This horrible Walden Macnair will to do it."
~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~
Gwendolyn opened the door to the Death Chamber, deep in thought about Roberta's anger about ignorant hippogriff haters, and Honoria trying to console her, explaining about the option of an appeal, and a possible subsequent acquittal.
"Good day to you," a dark velvety voice said suddenly. Gwen whirled around and met Manisha Cullen's round black eyes. "What leads you to our section?" She smiled, her brilliantly white teeth flashing.
"I am looking for Mr Crow," Gwendolyn replied, looking over her shoulder and trying to remember which door led to Crow's office.
"I'll show you the way," Manisha offered. "What a beautiful pendant you're wearing." She pointed on the white gem, glimmering softly in the dimly lit Chamber.
"Oh, that's just a rock crystal," Gwen murmured. "it clears mind, soul and body. How are you doing?"
"Splendidly. This morning I had contact with a soul who affirms to have been Louis XIII, and awaits its reincarnation in France."
Gwen raised her eyebrows: "Indeed?"
"I must, of course, check some historical details. It seems rather conspicuous that so many of them affirm to be a celebrity," Manisha sighed. "From a statistical point of view there are comparatively few rank and file souls."
Gwen smiled, not knowing what to say.
Archibald Dusk, the young blonde Eleanor's husband, came along accompanied by an ascetic-looking wizard of about fifty years of age in perfectly ironed clothes, who had a straight parting and wore horn-rimmed spectacles.
"Hallo Gwendolyn," Archibald greeted her. "I assume you already know Jacobus Mayfield, my team colleague?"
Gwen nodded and they shook hands. "I am going to work with Mr Crow this afternoon," she informed them, wondering what Archibald's and Jacobus' work was.
"May you do well," Mayfield said a bit stiffly. He held a beautiful goblet in one gloved hand.
Manisha led her on to Suplinius Crow's office, Archibald and Mayfield entered the office next-door.
"Enter," a voice said after Gwen had knocked at the door, and she followed the invitation.
"Ah, Miss Bale, good afternoon," the dark-clad wizard stood up and beckoned her to sit down.
"Good afternoon, Mr Crow. I am here since you asked our team to show you our method of isolating and conserving memories from a preserved brain."
"Who of your team is going to show me your method?" Suplinius Crow asked, seemingly uninformed.
"I am," answered Gwen.
Crow cocked up one eyebrow: "Could not Mr Hutton…."
"I am completely capable of showing you our method, having been one of the developers," said Gwen impatiently. She drew herself up, and suddenly felt like bearing a sword. It felt good.
Crow scowled, but nodded.
"Well, then, let's waste no time." With a flick of his wand, he moved the screen to one side. A medium-sized tank was standing on an elongated table. Gwen had a sudden inkling that the table usually served other purposes. A pearly white brain was swimming lazily inside the familiar green liquid.
"I thought you could show me your method with this brain, which Miss Gregorius was so kind to procure for me as a subject of experiment." Crow pointed at the tank, and Gwen asked herself whether she would ever be informed what his true intentions were.
"Could we have a better lamp?" she asked, shivering slightly. Crow's office was as cold as the Death Chamber itself.
~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~
Gwen returned home in the evening and collapsed into the cosy sofa in her sitting room. Nap snuggled at her side, purring. Wookey, who was wearing a pink, frilly terry towel, and a pink-checkered tea cozy on her head, brought her a cup of steaming Darjeeling tea. Sniffing slightly she glimpsed at Gwen with a look of nearly undisguised reproach, as the latter lit a cigarette. Nap didn't like the smoke either and withdrew a bit.
"What's the matter with you, miss?" the house-elf asked worried. "You look exhausted."
Gwen took a sip of tea, and groaned. "Worked all afternoon with a stiff-faced colleague of another section in a stone-cold office," she replied, taking off her glasses, and cleaning them with a Tergeo spell. "That meant no breaks, no chatting with Isabelle, not one little cigarette…"
Wookey looked at her thoughtfully. Gwen sighed. The elf, of course, would not understand. She would certainly love to work ceaselessly. The only good thing was that Crow, even though unfamiliar with the brainroom magic, was really quick on the uptake. He would master the spell soon, and was obviously eager to know every detail.
Wookey left to prepare the supper in the kitchen; Gwen looked into the fire dreamily, blowing smoke rings into the air, while she heard Wookey clattering with pots and dishes. She suddenly gasped – hadn't there been a head in the fire? She screwed up her eyes, until she saw a pink blur. There was nothing but the crackling flames. Hadn't she just cleaned her glasses? She must have been dreaming.
After a while Wookey called her to the kitchen: "Dinner's ready, miss!" Gwen stood up, yawning and stretching and went through the hallway to the kitchen, Napoleon jumped off the sofa, following her. Wookey served her an excellent herbed potato salad, home-baked bread and a cold butterbeer.
~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~