Valkyrie sat in the hospital wing, propped up on her bed with her am in a sling. She had been there, recovering, for nearly two hours. The air had finally returned to her aching lungs, and her arm had already begun to heal thanks to Madam Pomfrey's potions. Of course, it didn't help she was fussing over Valkyrie at every moment she had been there. She had only disappeared within the last five minutes back to her office to being preparing more potions. Valkyrie sat quietly. She was worried, and miserable, too miserable to even bother to conjure a fireball to keep her amused. She was miserable because the reflection had tried to kill her, she wasn't miserable because it had brought the sceptre back (although that did worry her), and she wasn't even worried that the students would probably be shell shocked. She was miserable because she didn't know how long the reflection had been planning to kill her, or if it had been acting strangely around her family. She was worried for her family's safety. The reflection said it could have done something to her family as a precaution, and Valkyrie had killed it. The only way to know what the reflection would know, was to put it back in the mirror. And that worried Valkyrie. If she put it back in the mirror, it may disappear again, go and hurt her family, her friends. But she knew she had to do it. Skulduggery would suggest it to, she was sure. She was also worried because of the voice of Darquesse calling to her. As soon as she entered the mirror, and felt the lack of oxygen in that cold damp field, Darquesse seemed to have sprung to life, begging to be let out, insulting her, pleading with her, mocking her. Valkyrie feared Darquesse was about to take over. That was when Skulduggery had rescued her for the millionth time running. She doubted even he knew how close to turning into Darquesse she had gone, and that worried her too. Darquesse was still there, in her subconscious, as real and evil as ever, ready to kill anyone or anything that stood in her path.

The doors to the hospital wing opened and Fred and George came tumbling in. It must have been the end of the school day. Valkyrie looked up slightly as they stumbled to her bedside.

"In the name of Merlin!"

"What the heck happened Val?!"

"People are saying all sorts!"

"Dead bodies, enchanted mirrors-"

"-you getting injured! What's going on!"

"It's nothing important." Valkyrie muttered.

"Your arm is broken." Fred replied sceptically.

"I've had worse injuries." Valkyrie muttered.

"Care to explain why there's a dead person on your classroom floor?!" George exclaimed before Madam Pomfrey came bustling out of her office.

"The patient needs rest. Out you go. You're making far too much noise." She ordered.

"It's ok, I'm feeling a lot better. They're going in a few moments anyway." Valkyrie said to her before she turned to the boys "Aren't you." She raised her eyebrows with an 'I'll tell you later' look. George began grumbling under his breath as he
grabbed the back of Fred's collar and dragged him form the room.

"Bye Val!" They called half-heartedly.

"Bye." She replied quietly. Before they could close the door Skulduggery strode in.

"Madam Pomfrey, could I have a few moments alone with my partner?" He asked immediately. Madam Pomfrey hesitated, and then nodded.

"Not too long. She needs rest."

"Of course" He said before Madam Pomfrey scurried into her office.

"Have you called Ghastly?" Valkyrie asked immediately.

"Yes. He's going to your house right now with some Cleavers. They'll stay in the background while he checks on your family."

"What if something's wrong? What else could the reflection have done?"

"You know the only way to find that out is to absorb its memories."
"Yeah, I know. Can you take the spell off as soon as I touch the mirror?"

"I was planning on it. We don't need a malfunctioning reflection on the loose." Skulduggery paused "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Valkyrie said quietly "I was just so worried that, the other me would get out. She was close you know."

"I'm not surprised. You lasted a lot longer than you should have, Val." Skulduggery said solemnly.

"Where's the sceptre?" Valkyrie asked.

"I've hidden it. I think, with the other you so close, it might be better not to tell you."

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." Valkyrie said. There was silence for a moment. "What am I gonna do?" She whispered "I have no reflection any more. My parents are going to notice I'm missing. I'm bound to miss out on all that school work it always did. I can't be in two places at once, not without it."

"I've already thought of a cover story." Skulduggery said proudly "You've got an exchange partner in England and you're coming over for a few months to attend an English school in preparation for a specialised University. As for your school work, I'm getting Ghastly to send you the rest of the year's worth over."

"What! No! Skulduggery!"

"We can't have you falling behind Val."

"But the whole point of going to school is to get a job. I have a job. When I said who was going to do it now the reflection was gone, I didn't mean me!"

"Everyone else your age is managing to cope just fine." Valkyrie groaned in further misery.

"But I'm not like most people my age!"

"True but irrelevant. Let's focus on making sure your family is ok before we address school work, ok?" Valkyrie felt guilt sweep over her. She was moaning about school when her family could be in danger. If it meant doing a hundred years of school to keep her family safe, she'd do it. That was a fact. She sighed.

"Ok." She muttered.

"I'll be going now."

"Why?"

"I have to clean the classroom. I don't know if you noticed, but there's brain and blood everywhere."

"Nice" Valkyrie said sarcastically "I'll come and help. It is my reflection after all."

"Madam Pomfrey says you have to stay here."

"Like anyone else's opinion has ever mattered." Valkyrie said, swinging her legs off of the bed and standing. Her body was still stiff from being inside the mirror, but apart from that and a light headache, she felt fine.

"As much as I agree, except from my opinion of course which is always the most accurate, she said you have to stay in bed. I'm not arguing with the doctor."
"You argued with Kenspeckle all the time."

"Yes well, he gave me a ridiculous hospital gown, didn't he" Valkyrie bit her lip to stop her laughing as she remembered the scene. She had of course got the respectable blue hospital gown, while Skulduggery had to be content with moaning about his bright pink fluffy bunny one while Kenspeckle tended to their injures, highly amused.

"And you argue with Dr Nye."

"Nye is an evil thing, I have every right to argue with it. Especially after it cut you up and left you on the operating table."

"I'm not saying I like him either, but why can't you argue with Madam Pomfrey."

"Frankly I think if I started arguing with her she'd throw a faint. Most of the teachers here find me highly distressing."

"Well duh, you're a living skeleton." Valkyrie said, smiling slightly.

"That may be, but they don't have to be rude about it." He muttered, and Valkyrie smiled again before Madam Pomfrey came back into the hospital wing.

"Time's up. Thank you." She said. Skulduggery tipped his hat to her.

"Of course. See you later Val."

"Bye." She said as he turned and walked out the hospital wing doors, closing them behind him.

"Get back into bed Miss Cain, I insist. Now." Valkyrie narrowed her eyes and began muttering curses under her breath, but did as she was told.

"Such foul language for a young lady." Madam Pomfrey scowled as Valkyrie sat on the bed.

"I'm on the bed aren't I?" She muttered.

"Your arm should be healed fully in about an hour. Then you can go."

"Good. I need to help Skulduggery clean the classroom."

"The house elves do that dear."
"The house elves'll get a bloody big shock." Valkyrie stated loudly. Madam Pomfrey scowled again.

"I won't have language like that in my hospital wing young lady."

"Mmmm." Valkyrie mumbled. Madam Pomfrey turned her back and began rearranging potions at the other end of the room. Kill her. 'Go away Darquesse.' Valkyrie thought. Kill her and you can leave. 'Or I could not kill her and leave in an hour.' …Spoil sport. 'Damn right I am.'

Valkyrie blinked and looked down at her hands. One in a sling, the other rested on her lap; she saw she was shaking slightly. She used her spare hand to quickly run her fingers through her hair, hoping the slight panic didn't show on her face. She flexed her fingers and conjured a small fire ball to twirl in her fingers. The flickering orange flames were small but intense. Valkyrie could feel the heat radiating from it on her face, but as always, her hands remained 'untouched' by the flame. She extinguished it and sighed, leaning her head back against the bed frame. Why did life have to be so complicated? Why her life?

There was a low knock on the doors. 'Well', Valkyrie thought 'aren't I popular today.' There was no one else in the hospital wing for someone to come and see. Madam Pomfrey turned around, scowling.

"Who now? It seems half the school has been in."

"3 people so far." Valkyrie corrected her. When she opened the door, Seamus Finnigan was stood there.

"Can I see Steph – I mean Valkyrie, please?"

"She's resting."

"Oh let him in" Valkyrie protested "I'm dying of boredom over here!" Madam Pomfrey scowled again.

"You have 10 minutes." She stated, and Seamus scurried in with a quick 'thank you'.

"Hey Stephanie." He smiled.

"Valkyrie" She corrected.

"Call yourself what you like, I know you as Stephanie." Seamus said, smiling slightly, but he was pale. "Are you ok now? We saw the mirror thing."

"Yeah I'm fine. Going within the hour." She smiled slightly, then frowned "Sorry you had to see that." She said quietly.

"What the hell was that thing? It looked just like you. It had me fooled." Seamus whispered.

"My reflection has – or had – a spell on it, so it would come out and take my place whenever I need to go and work with Skulduggery, so my parents wouldn't know. It would go to school for me, do the homework, and fill in my place at home whenever I wasn't around. It's been good so far… I don't know what got into it." Valkyrie said, although, the last part was partly a lie. She thought she knew what had driven it 'crazy'. It had been tortured, in the parallel universe. Felt everything, even though reflections weren't supposed to feel anything. Something like that was enough to drive anyone crazy.

"You killed it. Shot it."

"Yeah, although technically it was never alive, so, whatever. Good thing Skulduggery likes guns, huh." She said, smiling slightly.

"But, it won't be able to take your place any more." Valkyrie frowned.

"I know." Was all she said. "So, what happened after I was carried out like a complete idiot?"

"Steph, we thought you might be dead when you first came out that mirror."

"Me? Dead? Nah. It's really hard to kill me. So hard no one's ever succeeded." She said, her voice going higher as she went through the sentence, Seamus smiled weakly.

"I can see that." He sighed "We were all really worried."

"By 'all' I assume you mean you, Fred and George?"

"No, by 'all' I mean me, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, Neville, most of the other Gryffindors, even a few Slytherins!"

"Wow, Slytherins, it must have looked bad." Valkyrie said in mock shock. Seamus smiled.

"Yeah, well. One minute you're completely normal, the next you're talking in a weird voice and we realise you aren't you, and then it goes through the mirror and Skul-what's-his-name go through the mirror, and when he gets back he's carrying the real you and you've covered in blood-"

"I wouldn't say I was covered. It was just my arm." Valkyrie protested.

"-and then the other thing is wafting around this weapon of super destruction or whatever, and then you just disappear form one end of the room and end up at the other firing a hole through its chest!"

"Work is messy, people get hurt. Plus the reflection started it first, so…" Valkyrie's voice trailed off.

"So that's your average day at work?" Seamus asked in disbelief.

"No of course not. It's my average… every few months at work." Valkyrie said slowly.

"Few months? I was joking! You actually killed someone?! I mean, apart from the mirror thing!"

"Yeah I guess. But they tried to kill me first, it wasn't like I just randomly went out and killed someone. If you're gonna be a detective, you're going to end up hurting bad guys. It's inevitable. Plus if we hadn't killed them they probably would have destroyed the world, so, it's the lesser of two evils." Valkyrie felt a lump in her throat. She didn't even want to think about the people Darquesse had killed. Seamus was now looking at her with a mixed expression. She suspected at least half of it was fear or disgust.

"You mean, you've saved the world before?"

"I guess so. You have no idea how many super-villains are out there. Like, earlier this year, there was a sorcerer who found out his true name, and for most sorcerers that means they become super powerful, and he tried to take over the world by giving everyone magic – 3 kids who got it turned into murderers straight away. In the end we had to kill him."

"What about the kids?"

"What kids?"

"The kids who turned into murderers."

"Oh, them. Well, we tried to kill them because they were protecting him, but he brought them back to life before he died. They're serving life in prison at the moment."

"Whoa. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or creeped out."

"Trust me, a combination of both is healthy." Madam Pomfrey scurried in again.

"Visiting hours are over. Off you go."

"You just enjoy kicking people out don't you." Valkyrie muttered. Seamus smiled slightly, but stood.

"See you later. Maybe come by the Gryffindor common room. I'm sure everyone will want to see you."

"Ok. I have to talk to Fred and George anyway. How long do I have to wait here?" Valkyrie turned her had to Madam Pomfrey.

"50 more minutes." Valkyrie groaned.

"This is going to take forever!"


Valkyrie strode into the classroom, scowling.

"How bloody long?" She exclaimed. Skulduggery looked up from where he was mopping the floor. The reflection's body was wrapped up in a white sheet and laid out on a table. There were still bits of blood and brain on the walls, and the floor was tinged red, but the puddles and lumps were gone.

"I take it Madam Pomfrey wanted to keep you longer?"

"I escaped" Valkyrie muttered "She'll probably come looking for me soon." Skulduggery chuckled.

"Where are the other mops?"

"There's only one" he replied "and I'm using it. There's a bucket with a sponge in there if you want to do the walls, but it might take a while. I've been cleaning the floor for over an hour now."
"It's still red." Valkyrie pointed out as she looked around for the bucket. When she spotted it in the corner, she walked to it and picked it up.

"Skulduggery." She sighed, putting it back down "Have you been using this bucket for mopping?"
"Yes. Why?"

"There's bits of brain floating in it. I'm not sticking my hand in there."

"Fine" Skulduggery sighed "I'll throw it out of the window." He opened the window, picked up the bucket, and tipped it out over the ledge. There was a splash as the water hit the grass below. He brought the bucket back in and put it on the floor, his hand over it. Clean water appeared in the bucket, quickly filling.

"Show off." Valkyrie muttered. Skulduggery tilted his head before returning to his mop. Valkyrie began to scrub the walls, finally feeling useful. The brain came off pretty quickly even if it did smear across the wall a couple of ties, but the blood, that was murder to get off.

Valkyrie had been scrubbing for a total of 15 minutes before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Skulduggery said, not bothering to look up from his mop. Valkyrie tilted her head so the door was in her view as it opened, but she didn't stop scrubbing. Professor McGonagall walked in, going slightly white in the face.

"I don't know what you've been doing in here, but students are telling me someone is dead."

"Yeah…" Skulduggery said slowly. McGonagall's face went even whiter as she surveyed the scene, then turned a deep red.

"I don't know what your average day at work is, but we are not running a police precinct! You can not go killing people, especially in front of students!"

"Believe me, it wasn't our first option either." Valkyrie muttered.

"May I ask who exactly am I striking from our list of school pupils?"

"It wasn't a student" Skulduggery exclaimed, standing straight, "God no, we'd never do anything to cause harm to any of them. That should have been clear from the very beginning." His tone suggested he was offended at her accusation.

"It was my reflection." Valkyrie said, leaning on the sponge, keeping it stationary. "I don't know why but it went crazy and tried to kidnap me. I wouldn't have shot it if there was another option." She went back to scrubbing, realising how cold her own tone had been.

"Regardless of who-"

"It was an 'it'."

"Regardless of what it was" McGonagall continued "the events today could have scarred the students for life. They're children! Seeing, blood and guts on the floor-"

"Actually it's blood and brain on the floor."

"I don't care what it is." McGonagall said sharply "Make sure it is cleaned up, and if the students are now psychologically disturbed from this entire ordeal, it will come down on your heads. I do not expect this to happen again, detectives. Ever."

"We understand." Skulduggery nodded. McGonagall pursed her lips into a thin white line and turned, storming off. Once they were sure her footsteps had echoed away, Skulduggery turned to Valkyrie.

"Well" he said "that went well."