Chapter 13

The Unforgivable Curses

KIARA

The next three days passed without incident, unless you count Nikita melting her sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Triphorm, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Nikita detention, and Nikita returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel-full of horned toads.

"You know why Trihphorm's in such a foul mood, don't you?" Chris said to Chrissie and I, as we watched Sian teach Nikita a Scouring Charm to remove frog guts from under her fingernails.

"Yeah," I said. "Grumpy."

It was common knowledge that Triphorm really wanted the Dark Arts job, and she had failed to get it for the fourth year running. Triphorm had disliked all of our previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it - but she seemed to be displaying overt animosity to Crazy-Head Grumpy. Indeed, whenever I saw the two of them in together - at meal times, or when they passed in the corridors - I had the distinct impression that Triphorm was avoiding Grumpy's eyes, whether magical or normal.

"I reckon Triphorm's a bit scared of her, you know," I said thoughtfully.

"Imagine if Grumpy turned Triphorm into a horned toad," said Chrissie, as Chris and I started giggling at the thought, "and bounced her all around her dungeon ..."

We Lion-Heart fourth-years were looking forward to Grumpy's first lesson so much that we arrived early after lunch on Thursday and queued up outside her classroom before the bell had even rung.

The only people who were missing were Sian and Chrissie, who turned up just in time for the lesson.

"Been in the - "

"Library?" I asked them, surprised that Chrissie would be in there with Sian, along with Beth, Kestrel and Merida.

"No, not really," said Chrissie. "We'd love to tell you what we're up to, but you'll have to wait for that. Ma's orders, I'm afraid," she finished, shrugging her shoulders. I wondered what was going on, but quickly shrugged it off.

"C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."

We hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out our copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon we heard Grumpy's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and as she was coming, a distinctive beeping went off somewhere nearby. It turned out the sound came from Sian's pocket and her Scanner, which she quickly pulled out.

"Oh, I don't want to deal with it," she said without looking at it (big mistake!), and she put it on silent, which did silence the beeping, but did not keep it from vibrating (I should point out here, just for the record, that her Scanner always did this whenever Grumpy was nearby for the rest of that year).

Just then, Grumpy entered the room, looking as strange and as frightening as ever. I just saw her clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath her robes.

"You can put those away," she growled, stumping over to her desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't be needing them."

We returned our books to our bags, Chris and Chrissie both looking excited.

Grumpy took out a register, shook her long mane of grizzled grey hair out of her twisted and scarred face and began to call out our names, her normal eyes moving steadily down the list, while one of her magical eyes swivelled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered, as her other eyes moved ceaselessly all around.

"Right, then," she said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Meers about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in teaching Dark creatures - you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas and werewolves, correct?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Grumpy. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark - "

"What, aren't you staying?" Chrissie blurted out.

Grumpy's magical eyes spun around to stare at Chrissie; Chrissie looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment, Grumpy smiled - the first time I had seen her do so. The effect was to make her heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless a relief to know that she ever did anything as friendly as smile. Chrissie looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Matthew Dawson's second child, eh?" Grumpy said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago ... yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to your mother ... one year, and then I'm back to my quiet retirement."

She gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped her gnarled hands together.

"So - straight to it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it 'til then. But Professor Crighton's got a higher opinion of your nerves; she reckons you can cope, and I say the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourselves against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's going to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to know what you're up against. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Mr Brown, when I'm talking."

Larry jumped and flushed deeply. He had been showing Perry his completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Grumpy's magical eyes could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of her head.

"So ... do any of you know which curses are heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Chris, Sian and Chrissie's. Grumpy pointed at Chrissie, though one of her magical eyes was still focused on Larry.

"Er," said Chrissie tentatively, "my dad did tell me about one ... is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Grumpy appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Grumpy got heavily to her mismatched feet, opened her desk drawer and took out a glass jar. Three large, black spiders were scuttling around inside it. I felt Chrissie recoil slightly next to me - Chrissie hated spiders.

Grumpy reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders and held it in the palm of her hand so that we could all see it.

She then pointed her wand at it, and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Grumpy's hand on a fine thread of silk, and began to swing backwards and forwards as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Grumpy jerked her wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakeably a tap dance.

All of us were laughing - all of us, except Grumpy.

"Think it's funny, do you?" she growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did that to you?"

Our laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Grumpy quietly, as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats ..."

Chrissie gave an involuntary shudder.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Grumpy, and I knew she was talking about the days when Zira - and also Voldemort - had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will.

"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it, if you can. CONSTANT VIGILENCE!" she barked, and we all jumped.

Grumpy picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Sian's hand flew into the air again and so, to my slight surprise, did Nikita's. The only class in which Nikita usually volunteered information was Herbology, which was easily her best subject. Nikita looked surprised at her own daring.

"Yes?" Grumpy said, one of her magical eyes rolling right over to focus on Nikita.

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Nikita, in a small but distinct voice.

Grumpy was looking very intently at Nikita, this time with all six eyes.

"Your name's Bore?" she said, one of her magical eyes sweeping down to check the register again, as the other three swivelled around, each in a different direction to the other.

Nikita nodded nervously, but Grumpy made no further enquiries. Turning back to the rest of us in the class, as she reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Grumpy. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," she said, pointing her wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"

The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretence, Chrissie pushed her chair backwards, as far away from Grumpy's desk as possible.

Grumpy then raised her wand again, pointed it at the spider and muttered, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but I was sure that if it had been given a voice, it would have been screaming. Grumpy did not remove her wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently -

"Stop it!" Sian said shrilly.

I looked around at her. Sian was looking, not at the spider, but at Nikita, and as I followed Sian's gaze, I saw that Nikita's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of her; her knuckles were white, and her eyes were wide and horrified.

Grumpy raised her wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"Reducio," Grumpy muttered, and the spider shrunk back to its proper size. She put it back in the jar.

"Pain," said Grumpy softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse ... that one was very popular, too.

"Right ... anyone know any others?"

I looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, I guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Sian's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it in the air.

"Yes?" said Grumpy, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Sian whispered, after a few shaky breaths.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, Chris and Chrissie included.

"Ah," said Grumpy, another slight smile twisting her lop-sided mouth. "Yes, the last and the worst. Avada Kedavra ... the Killing Curse."

She put her hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Grumpy's fingers, but she trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

Grumpy raised her wand, and I felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.

"Avada Kedavra!" Grumpy roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something soared through the air - instantaneously, the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakeably dead. Several of the girls stifled cries; Chrissie threw herself backwards and almost toppled off her seat as the spider skidded towards her.

Grumpy swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," she said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only two people are known to have ever survived it. One of them is, of course, Harry Potter, and the other is sitting right in front of me."

I remember how my face reddened as Grumpy's eyes (all six of them) looked into my own. I felt everyone else looking around at me, too. I stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all ...

So, that was how Harry's parents had died ... and how mine could have died too, I thought to myself at this point. I wondered that if they had died, that would they have been unblemished and unmarked, too? I wondered if they had simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from their bodies. Of course, I was just wondering all this stuff, because as you all know, up until that point in my life, I had not seen someone die, but we'll get to that.

Anyhoo, I had been picturing how things could have gone, had Zira succeeded in killing myself and my parents for three years, ever since I had found out that I had been taken from my parents for my own safety: how the Absters had betrayed my parents to Zira, because of my brother, Kopa, and how she had proceeded to torture him until he couldn't move when he was just a small boy; and how she had got two of her followers to take him away from the Pride-Lands and leave him somewhere to die, just so Zira could get to my parents, and try to get them on her side. How my parents had refused Zira, and how she had seen my father touch my mother's stomach, for she was pregnant at the time with me, of course. How Zira had come back almost a year after I was born and tried to kill me in broad daylight ... and how distraught my parents were when they found out what happened to me ...

I knew these details because I heard my parents' voices when I had fought the Stingers in my third year - for that was the terrible power of the Stinger: to force their victim to relive the worst memories of their life, and drown, powerless, in their own despair ...

Grumpy was speaking again, from a great distance, it seemed to me. With a massive effort, I pulled myself back to the present, and listened to what Grumpy was saying.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it - you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nose-bleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.

"Now, if there's no counter-curse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" she roared, ad we all jumped again.

"Now ... those three curses - Avada Kedavra, Imperius and Cruciatus - are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming, but above all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vicgilance. Get out your quills ... copy this down ..."

We spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. None of us spoke until the bell rang - but when Grumpy had dismissed us and we had all left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices - "Did you see it twitch?" - "and when she killed it - just like that!"

They were talking about the lesson, I thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, but I hadn't found it very amusing - and nor, it seemed, did Sian.

"Hurry up," she said tensely to Chris, Chrissie and I.

"Not the ruddy library again?" said Chris.

"No," said Sian curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Nikita."

Nikita was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite her with the same horrified, wide-eyed look she had worn when Grumpy had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.

"Nikita?" Sian said gently.

Nikita looked around.

"Oh, hello," she said, her voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm - I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Nikita, are you all right?" said Sian.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Nikita gabbled, in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner - I mean, lesson - what's for eating?"

Chris, Chrissie and I stared at Nikita, stunned.

"Nikita, what - ?"

But an odd, clunking noise sounded behind us, and we turned to see Professor Grumpy limping towards us. The five of us fell silent, watching her apprehensively, but when she spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than we had yet heard.

"It's all right, girl," she said to Nikita. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on ... we can have a cup of tea ..."

Nikita looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Grumpy. She neither moved nor spoke.

Grumpy turned one of her magical eyes on me. "You all right, Pride-Lander?"

"Yes," I said, almost defiantly.

The magical eye of Grumpy's that was looking at me as well as the others all quivered slightly, as the other three eyes that weren't looking at me, then did turn to look at me (if that makes sense to anyone).

Then she said, "You've got to know. I know it sounds harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No pint pretending ... well ... come on, Bore, I've got some books that might interest you."

Nikita looked pleadingly at Chris, Sian, Chrissie and I, but we didn't say anything, so Nikita had no choice but to allow herself to be steered away, one of Grumpy's gnarled hands on her shoulder.

"What was that about?" said Chrissie, watching Nikita and Grumpy turn the corner.

"I don't know," said Sian, looking pensive.

"Some lesson, though, eh?" said Chrissie to me, as we set off for the Great Hall. "Tanya and Geri were right though, weren't they? She really knows her stuff, Grumpy, doesn't she? When she did Avada Kedavra, the way the spider just died, just snuffed it right - "

I was fortunate enough at Chris, who had remained silent during this time, seemed to sense what I was thinking rather than taking a look at my face, chose that moment to turn to Chrissie and said, "Knock it off, Chrissie." Chrissie looked at him, confused, but when Chris nodded at me, and Chrissie looked at me and saw the expression on my face, she thankfully shut up. I smiled my thanks to Chris, who in turn acknowledged my gratitude to him by nodding, as we carried on walking to the Great Hall.

Once we were there, Chrissie then chose to speak up again, saying that she had to put off whatever she, Sian, Beth, Kest and Merry were working on, seeing as she and I had our Divination homework to do. Sian agreed without arguing, but said that they would have to work extra hard on Saturday, seeing as it was the weekend. Chrissie groaned, but agreed, somewhat reluctantly. Sian nodded her head curtly, before wolfing down her food again and rushing off to the library. Chrissie and I were discussing the Divination homework we had to do, for we were sure that it would take hours to do. Chris didn't talk at all during dinner, but sat eating rather slowly, waiting for us to finish.

When Chris, Chrissie and I left a little while later for Lion-Heart Tower, I had been thinking of nothing else but the Unforgivable Curses over dinner (and on the way to Lion-Heart Tower), despite the fact that I had been discussing Divination homework with Chrissie, so I decided to bring the subject of the Curses up myself.

"Wouldn't Grumpy and Crighton be in trouble with the Ministry if they knew we'd seen the Curses?" I asked, as we approached the Fat Lord.

"Yeah, probably," said Chris, speaking up for the first time since he had told Chrissie to shut up (in a matter of speaking). "But Ma's always done things her way, hasn't she, and Grumpy's been getting into trouble for years, I reckon. Attacks first and asks questins later - look at her dustbins. Balderdash."

The Fat Lord swung forwards to reveal the entrance hole, and we climbed into the Lion-Heart common room, which was crowded and noisy.

"Shall we get our Divination stuff, then?" I said to Chrissie.

"I s'pose," Chrissie sighed.

As we were about to cross to the dormitories, I stopped Chris and Chrissie and nodded to one of the chairs by the fire, in which Nikita sat. She looked a good deal calmer than she did at the end of Grumpy's lesson, though still not entirely normal. Her eyes were still rather red, and she was reading, for the book was over her face.

Chris, Chrissie and I stepped closer to Nikita. When we were close enough for her to hear us, I said, "You all right, Nikita?"

Nikita looked up at us, smiled and said, "Oh, yes, I'm fine, thanks. Just reading this book Professor Grumpy lent me ..."

She stuck her thumb in the page she was reading, closed the book gently on her thumb, and held it up so that we could read the title: Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and their Properties.

"Apparently, Spud told Professor Grumpy I'm really good at Herbology," Nikita said. There was a faint note of pride in her voice that I had rarely heard there before. "She thought I'd like this."

Telling Nikita what Spud had said, I thought, was a very tactful way of cheering Nikita up, for Nikita rarely heard that she was good at anything. It was the sort of thing my dear old friend Professor Meers would have done.

Chris then found us a table and told Chrissie and I that he'd save it for our use. We thanked him and went to get some ink, quills, parchment and our copies of Unfogging the Future and went back down to the common room and joined Chris, where we set to work on our predictions for the coming month. An hour after we had first sat down, Chrissie and I had made little progress, though our table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and I remember my brain being as foggy as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Crystals' fire. Actually, just thinking about this scene even now is making me tired, just as if I were back in that class, nodding off by the window on a warm summer's day from the overwhelming fumes of the fire. Anyhoo, I noticed that Chris was staring at me with a strange look in his eyes. I knew he was fond of me in a brotherly way, it was true; but there was something more in his eyes from how he was looking at me.

"I haven't got a clue what any of this lot's supposed to mean," Chrissie said, staring down at a long list of calculations, which brought me back to the present, and away from my confusing thoughts of Chris.

"You know," I said, rubbing my eyes in frustration, "I think it best if we revert back to the old Divination standby."

"What - make it up?"

"Yeah, why not?" I asked, shrugging. Chrissie quickly picked up on this idea, sweeping the jumbled scrawl of notes off the table, dipped her pen into some ink and started to write.

"Next Monday," she said, as she scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." She looked up at me. "You know him - just put in loads of misery, he'll lap it all up."

"Right," I said, as Chris laughed, and I crumpled up my first attempt and threw it over the heads of a group of chattering first years into the fire. "OK ... on Monday, I will be in danger of - er - a sprained wrist."

"Yeah, you will be," said Chris darkly, "we're with the Crabs again on Monday."

"That's true," said Chrissie. "OK, Tuesday, I'll ... erm ..."

"Lose a treasured possession," I said, whilst flickering through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

"Good one," said Chrissie, copying it down. "Because of ... erm ... Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"

"Yeah ... cool ..." I said, scribbling it down, "because ... Venus is in the twelfth house."

"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worse in a fight."

"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. OK, I'll lose a bet."

"Yeah, you're betting I'll win my fight ..."

We continued to make up predictions (which grew steadily more tragic) for another hour, while the common room around us slowly emptied, as people went up to bed. Lucifer wandered over to us, leapt lightly into an empty chair and stared inscrutably at me, rather like Sian would have looked if she knew we weren't doing our homework properly.

As I stared around the room, trying to think of a kind of misfortune I hadn't yet used, I saw Tanya and Geri sitting together against the opposite wall, heads together and quills out, poring over a single piece of parchment. It was most unusual to see Tanya and Geri hidden away in a corner and working secretly; they usually liked to be in the thick of things, and the noisy centre of attention. There was something secretive about the way they were working on the piece of parchment, and I was reminded of how they had sat together writing something back at Dawson Manor. I had thought then that it was another order form for Fangs' Friendly Funnies, but it didn't look like that this time; if it had been, they would have surely let Leah Jones in on the joke. I wondered whether it had anything to do with the Triwizard Tournament.

As I watched, Geri shook her head at Tanya, scratched something out with her quill and said, in a very low voice, that nevertheless carried across the almost deserted room, "No - that sounds like we're accusing her. Got to be careful ..."

Then Geri looked over and saw that I was watching her. I grinned, and quickly returned to my predictions - I did not want Geri to think that I was eavesdropping. Shortly after that, the twins rolled up their parchment, said goodnight to us and went off to bed.

Tanya and Geri had been gone ten minutes or so when the portrait hole opened and Sian climbed through it into the common room, carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked, in the other. Lucifer arched his back, purring.

"Hello," she said. "I've just finished."

"So have these two," said Chris, as Chrissie threw down her quill triumphantly.

Sian sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair and pulled Chrissie's predictions towards her.

"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically, as Lucifer curled up in her lap.

"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Chrissie yawned.

"You seem to be drowning twice," said Sian.

"Oh, am I?" said Chrissie, peering down at her predictions. "I'd better change one of them to ... erm ..."

"Getting trampled by a rampaging Hippogriff?" Chris suggested.

Sian turned her head to her brother, looking shocked at what he just said. Chris didn't seem to mind, though, for his eyes twinkled mischievously, as Chrissie said, "Thanks, Chris, that's a good one!" and scribbled it down enthusiastically. Sian looked at Chris disapprovingly, but he just shrugged his shoulders unconcernedly.

Sian then sighed, before she turned to Chrissie and said, "Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?"

"How dare you!" said Chrissie, in mock outrage. "Kiara and I have been working like house-elves here!"

Sian raised her eyebrows.

"It's just an expression," said Chrissie hastily.

I laid down my quill, too, having just finished predicting my own death by decapitation.

"What's in the box?" I asked, pointing at it.

"Glad you asked," said Sian, with a nasty look at Chrissie. She took off the lid and showed us the contents.

Inside were about fifty badges, all different colours, but all of them bearing the same letters: H.A.M.E.

" "Hame"?" I said, picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"

"Not hame," said Sian impatiently. "It's H-A-M-E. Stands for Help All Mistreated Elves."

"Never heard of it," said Chris.

"Of course you haven't," said Sian briskly, "I've only just started it."

"Yeah?" said Chrissie, in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"

"Well - if you three join - four," said Sian.

"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying "hame" do you?" said Chrissie.

"H-A-M-E!" said Sian hotly. "I was going to put Let's Make Lives Better for All House-Elves Everywhere Who Work in Squalor - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."

She brandished the sheaf of parchment at us. "I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries, and it's been brought to the surface in recent years by Hermione Weasley, but there is still much work to be done."

"All right - I'll admit, some of them do need help," said Chris, but not all of them - "

"I know that, Chris," Sian interrupted him, "and that's the whole point. If house-elves are happy where they are, then I won't interfere. But in those rare cases like Dokey's, who have been mistreated - or have been mistreated without even realising they're being mistreated - " (obviously referencing Blinky here) " - only then shall we interfere to change their lives and help them get better jobs and lives. These are our-short-term aims. Our long-term aims are going to continue to helping house-elves making their voices heard for their people in the Ministry of Magic."

"And how do we do this?" I asked.

"we start by recruiting members," said Sian happily. "I thought two Sickles to join - that buys a badge - and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. Chrissie, you're treasurer - I've got a collecting tin upstairs - and Kiara, you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting. Oh, and Chris, you'll be helping me with some advertising, for I'm hoping that when word gets around of what we're doing, I'm thinking that we could get a petition sorted and send it off to the Ministry at some point, and hopefully get a charity sorted to make sure that house-elves get more help with the funds we get."

There was a pause in which Sian beamed at the three of us, and I sat, torn between exasperation at Sian, and amusement at the looks on Chris and Chrissie's faces. The silence was then broken, not by Chris or Chrissie, who in any case both looked like they were temporarily dumbstruck, but by a soft tap, tap on the window. I looked across the now empty common room, and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a snowy owl perched on the window sill.

"Harold!" I shouted, and I launched myself out of my chair and across the room to open the window.

Harold flew inside, soared across the room and landed on the table on top f my predictions.

"About time!" I said, hurrying after him.

"He's got an answer!" said Chrissie excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment that was tied to Harold's leg.

I hastily untied it and sat down to read it, whereupon Harold fluttered onto my knee, hooting softly.

"What does it say?" Sian asked breathlessly.

"Read it! Read it!" Chris said excitedly.

The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scribbled in a great hurry. I read it aloud:

Kiara -

Your mother and I are flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumours that have reached us here. If it hurts again, go straight to Crighton - they're saying she's got Crazy-Head out of retirement, which means she's reading the signs, even if no one else is.

We'll be in touch soon. Our best to Chris, Sian and Chrissie. Keeps your eyes open, Kiara. Oh, and your mother sends her love, too.

Lots of love,

Daddy and Mum

I looked up at Chris, Sian and Chrissie, who stared back at me.

"They're flying north?" Sian whispered. "They're coming back?"

"Ma's reading the signs?" said Chrissie, looking perplexed. "Kiara - what's up?"

For I had just hit myself on the forehead with my fist, jolting Harold out of my lap.

"I shouldn't've told them!" I said furiously.

"What are you on about?" said Chris, in surprise.

"It's made them think they've got to come back!" I said, slamming my fist on the table so that Harold landed on the back of Chris' chair, hooting indignantly. "Coming back, because they think I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! And I haven't got anything for you," I snapped at Harold, who was clicking his beak impatiently, "you'll have to go to the Owlery if you want food."

Harold gave me an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing me around the head with his outstretched wing as he went.

"Kiara," Sian began, in a pacifying sort of way.

"I'm going to be," I said shortly. "I'll see you in the morning."

Once I was upstairs in the dormitory, I pulled on my pyjamas and got into my four-poster bed, but I didn't feel remotely tired.

I remember how much I blamed and hated myself, for if my parents came back and got caught, then it would be all my fault. Why couldn't I have just keep my mouth shut? A few second's pain and I'd had to blab ... if I'd just had the sense to keep it to myself ...

I heard Sian and Chrissie come up into the dormitory a short while later, but they did not speak to me. For a long time, I lay staring up at the dark canopy of my bed. The dormitory was completely silent, and not a sound came from outside; so I was left alone in the darkness, with not a sound to distract me from my own thoughts, which I was with for a long while before I finally drifted into unconsciousness.