Thursday, 21 April 1994

Her head ached. She moaned a bit, turned around and tried to ignore it. The headache grew stronger. She shouldn't have drunk so much wine yesterday night. The head in the flames had finally turned out to be Norma, who had wailed and discussed with her for nearly an hour. Why Gwen had left. Why she had come here of all places. Why she didn't come back to London. Why she wanted to be alone. Whether she, Norma, could apparate and talk to Gwen in person (which Gwen had declined). How she was supposed to live without Gwen.

How did she find me in the first place? Gwen wondered. She had ended the relationship, left London and come here to find some peace and quiet.

She peered out of the window. The sky outside had the colour of anthracite coal. Her round red alarm clock whispered dozily. "Half past four – what's the matter with you?" She rubbed her eyes. Indeed. Yet she did not even try to get back to sleep. She was wide awake, her head was throbbing.

Gwen got up, wrapped herself in a black wool cardigan, took her wand and cast a Lumos spell. Then she went to the kitchen where she put on the kettle and lit the fire. She took the dark-blue satin pouch remembering yesterday's card and drew a new one. She turned it over and stared. It showed a skeleton in armour on horseback bearing a black standard with a white sign she did not know. Below the horse a dead man was lying amongst litter and waste. On the right-hand side a bishop, a young girl and a child were welcoming the strange knight.

"Death," she murmured. Honoria had calmed her once, explaining that this card did not necessarily mean physical death, but could be interpreted as an ending in general – of good or bad things. She mused for a while, thinking of yesterday's discussion with Norma.

~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~

Gwen opened the door to the Brain Room, yawning heartily. Her head was still throbbing a little. She even had had a big mug of strong coffee instead of her usual morning tea, but if anything it had made her even more tired.

She wanted to start early to do some calculations for Isabelle, and perhaps finish a report for Ad before she had to join Suplinius Crow at nine o'clock again. She was all alone, not even Ademarus was here. The green liquid in the tank was emitting an occasional soft gurgle.

She sat down at one of the tables, running through a list with various columns of figures she had taken out of her office and yawned again. She suddenly felt a cold shiver down her spine and hugged herself for some warmth. She screwed up her eyes to fight against her headache, and saw a pink glint when she opened them again. She moaned. What a hangover! Hopefully she could leave early in the afternoon. This seemed to be one of those horrible days…

After a quarter of an hour Honoria entered the room.

"Good morning, Gwen," she beamed at her. "You're early. What's the matter with you?"

"Morning Honoria," Gwen muttered in reply. "I am a bit tired. Hangover," she added half whispering.

Honoria smiled: "I'll bring you an anti-hangover potion. I've got some in my office."

"How very convenient," Gwen grinned for the first time this morning. "What are you doing here so early?"

Honoria looked at the big round clock hanging over the entrance door. "Oh, a quarter to eight. I am not early, I am late," she explained. "We had a trance night at one of my participant's home. Originally we wanted to go to a meadow, it's nearly the full moon, but it was too cold."

She yawned. "We stayed awake all the time, singing, drumming and dancing. A really exciting experience! I've only come here to note down some of my results, but now I am going home to have a sumptuous breakfast and then catch up on some sleep. I suppose I can write my report at home – in the afternoon."

She kept her word and brought Gwen a pale-blue potion that tasted a bit like a mixture of peppermint, salt and pumpkin. Gwen screwed up her mouth, but sipped it obediently in tiny gulps. Honoria bid her good-bye and left the Brain Room.

At eight o'clock Bob and Ademarus turned up. Ad looked knowingly at Gwen with her pale-blue potion. "How was your work with Crow?" he asked without preambles.

"All right," she replied. "He'll get the hang of the spell soon enough. Anyhow – you've never told me why Agatha Hill gave her approval."

Bob could be heard whistling a merry tune while he was cleaning the big tank with some expert spells.

"Haven't I?" Ad looked at her in mild surprise. "She told me Crow had good reasons to learn our technique, since he was investigating an area where there are overlappings with our field of study."

Gwen looked at him questioningly.

"Well, you know that Mr Crow studies natural dying," Ademarus added a bit impatiently. "He wants to examine the brain, too, I suppose." He didn't elaborate any further.

~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~

Isabelle and Firmin entered the Brain Room. They wished Gwen and Ademarus a good morning. Firmin asked whether Vivi had been already here.

"She wanted to bring me a new muggle brain," he informed them enthusiastically. "One of a rather youngish person. The others I am working with are from older ones."

"No, I haven't seen her," said Gwen. "And I've been the first today," she added, not without pride. Firmin scratched his slightly balding forehead, and disappeared into his office.

Gwen handed Isabelle the calculations she'd done for her. Isabelle patted her shoulder. "Excellent! Thanks. You're becoming an early riser."

Both of them went to their office where Gwen confided Isabelle that Norma had contacted her by remote floo yesterday evening. Outside the window dark heavy clouds were passing by.

"How come Norma knew where to find you?" Isabelle asked, pouring Gwen a cup of her delicious coffee.

Looking at her desk Gwen thought: What a mess. I really should invest some time in clearing this desk one of those days. She took the proffered cup and stirred. "Thanks. – I haven't got a clue who could have told her. I suppose the Ministry staff is not allowed to provide information."

"No, they aren't," confirmed Isabelle. They looked at each other knowingly. "Perhaps someone has blabbed. Are you going to work with Crow again?"

"Yep," Gwen nodded, then suddenly had an idea, and extracted a small package from her leather-bag. "You know what? I'll hurry to the smoking room for one little cigarette. If I work with him the whole morning I won't have time to do so. If there are any problems with the calculations you know where to find me. " She grinned. "See you later, I hope."

"See you," said Isabelle, looking disapprovingly at the cigarettes.

When Gwen left the smoking room on the fourth floor at a quarter to nine she nearly bumped into Macnair who was leaving the lift. She remembered Roberta telling them about the Hogwarts hippogriff, and drew back instinctively. Macnair grinned at her, and she didn't like his grin at all. It was more of a leer. She entered the lift and hurried to the Department of Mysteries.

She could have entered the Death Chamber directly from the Circular Room, yet out of habit entered the Brain Room first, crossed it, waving at Isabelle and Ad who were absorbed in pointing their wands at "Jérôme". The brain was wobbling back and forth in the big tank.

When she opened the door to the gloomy Chamber she gave a sudden gasp. Horror-struck, she took in the picture that presented itself to her.

An immense green translucent skull with a snake coming out of its mouth was hovering in the air above the ancient stone archway. A wizard was cordoning the area off, others were standing or kneeling around a dead body lying face-down on the dais. One of those people was suddenly pointing at her, then turned to another person, as the door closed irreversibly behind her. She stood as if rooted to the spot, a dark cold clasping at her.

~ooOOooOOooOOooOOoo~