"How did you get away with that?" Ron gaped, his mouth hanging open.

"I'm a detective, I can do what I want." Valkyrie shrugged.

"That's a very egotistical approach." Hermione frowned "They could fire you."

"Being fired has never stopped me before." Valkyrie shrugged again "Besides, it's true. The law is on my side."

"I didn't think there were sides when it came to the law." Hermione frowned again "Don't you realise how stupid that was? Umbridge is going to be after you. You shouldn't have messed with her."

"She shouldn't have messed with me." Valkyrie protested "I could have done a lot worse. As it happens I just broke her nose and handcuffed her to a radiator for a while. Big deal. Not to mention I dropped the charges." Valkyrie said as Fred and George came into the common room "Besides, she's older than me, she's supposed to be the mature one. I didn't sneak puking pastilles into her dinner."

"No, we snuck ghost chillies into her sugar." Fred grinned from behind the chair where Valkyrie was sat. George grinned, and a smile crept onto Valkyrie's face.

"So you did start it?" Hermione glowered.

"No, she started it by using that quill of hers on Harry. We may have made her life a little more… interesting" Valkyrie smiled slightly "Then she assaulted me, so I arrested her."

"Assault for putting a puking pastille into your breakfast?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow "Don't you think that's taking it a little far?"

"You weren't the one with your head shoved down the toilet for 3 hours straight." Valkyrie growled "I've never felt so ill."

"It was awesome!" George grinned "Valkyrie's gone badass!" Valkyrie laughed.

"What makes you think I haven't always been like this?" She grinned as they sat on the chair alongside her, taking an arm each.

"Reckon you could teach us to do that?" Fred asked.

"Haven't you been listening in class at all?" Valkyrie said, a frown niggling away at the back of her mind.

"Well sure, but we haven't actually got to hurt anyone have we."

"That's not the point of the training. It's so you can hurt someone, if you have to. Not so you can just go around doing it."
"Why not, that's what you seem to do." Hermione said slightly coldly. Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

"I do it because it's my job, not because I enjoy it."

"But you do enjoy it."

"I know, but that's not the reason I do it. Most of the time anyway." She stood and stretched.

"Anyway, I'm turning in."

"It's only 7." Ron frowned.

"Yeah, well, busy day, you know. 'Night." She waved slightly as she walked away, a chorus of 'goodnight's' following her. She left the common room and almost instantly ran into Harry.

"Hi Harry." She smiled.

"Hi," he replied, almost nervously.

"Something wrong?"

"Not really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Valkyrie frowned, and he laughed slightly.

"I'm just tired, honest." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. It was if he were trying to make a joke out of something that hadn't been said.

"Well, I know how that feels." Valkyrie said, still frowning. "If there is anything on your mind, feel free to find me."

"Will do." She walked around him slowly, about to descend down the stairs, when she heard his voice behind her.

"Hey, Valkyrie." She turned.

"Yeah?"

"How long does it take to be good at sorcery?" He asked Valkyrie frowned.

"Depend how often you practise, and what branch it is. I'm still not great with water and I've been practising for nearly 5 years. Why?"

"No reason." He said blandly, and Valkyrie frowned again. Harry did look tired. There were bags visible under his eyes, even though his glasses should have obscured them, and his shoulders drooped slightly.

"Get yourself an early night Harry, you look like you need it." Valkyrie said, and he nodded.

"Goodnight." He smiled slightly.

"'Night Harry." He disappeared through the portrait hole, and Valkyrie turned to walk down the staircase and back into the corridors. Valkyrie was silent as she walked. News of Umbridge's arrest had spread like wildfire, the rumours confirmed when she hadn't shown up for the DADA lessons, the students instructed to read their books through the lesson by Professor McGonagall, a slight smile on her lips. And of course, news of just who had arrested her had spread as well, and when Umbridge was spotted walking down the corridor with blood across her face, each common room (save for Slytherin) had burst into laughter, sudden respect blossoming for the young detective. She'd been receiving compliments all day; people asking what it was like to punch Umbridge, saying how brilliant she was for breaking Umbridge's nose and how brave she had been for taking on Umbridge alone. Valkyrie didn't see what the big deal was. As far as she was concerned, despite what she told everyone else, it was personal. Umbridge had hurt Harry, she'd mocked the Sanctuary, she'd hindered the education of Valkyrie's friends, and she's spiked Valkyrie's food. No one, not even lunatics, messed with Valkyrie and got away with it. Most people knew better. Umbridge should know better now.

Valkyrie walked through one of the empty courtyard corridors, where half the ceiling was supported by pillars and the path led out onto a patch of grass and paving, with benches and bushes. There was a slight breeze, and she looked to the right out past the pillars. In less than a millisecond the garden like landscape was twisted and set alight. Students screamed as they lined the corridors, fire blazing, shooting across the grass as a wall of pure inferno. It blazed against the pillars, burning the bushes to shreds, flickering, reaching out to Valkyrie. The screams echoed out around her before a small boy ran up to her.

"Please help us!" He cried, tugging at her coat "Please!" He screamed as the fire latched onto his skin, but Valkyrie couldn't move, couldn't blink, couldn't click her fingers and douse the fire. She was immobilised, paralysed in her own skin. Black plumes of smoke rose into the air as the fire crackled, the smell of burning flesh seeping into Valkyrie's nostrils. A smile involuntarily crept its way onto her face.

She blinked and fell backwards against the wall. Her chest heaved, heart pounding. There was no fire. No students. No smoke. The air was silent, slightly cold. It was getting dark, but the sky was clear. So why were the images scorched into her mind? She had never experienced anything like it. It was almost a scaled up version of what had happened during that lesson, less than a few weeks back. But it had seemed so real. Nausea pulled at her stomach as she stood. She brushed her hair back and wiped her face with her hands, steading her breath.

She began to walk down the corridor, hurrying in the direction of her room, just in case it happened again. She didn't know what it was, but she was fairly sure she knew what was responsible for it, or rather, who was responsible for it.

"Are you tormenting me again?" She thought to herself, but the low hum in the back of her mind that seemed to symbol Darquesse did not reply.

She scowled and walked into her room, collapsing on the bed.

"God, what am I doing?" Valkyrie muttered to herself, covering her face with her hands. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. 'I shouldn't be at Hogwarts,' she thought to herself 'I should be finding out a way to contain Darquesse so she doesn't end up destroying the world. The cube idea could still work, if we can get it modified so it doesn't require a constant source of magic from someone, and so she can't break out like Argeddion did. But, even so, I should be looking for other ways too. After all, the images of me the sensitives were seeing didn't show me as much older than I am now, which means the future can't be that far away. I should be trying to stop it happening as much as possible'.

Valkyrie frowned to herself and sat up, brushing her hair back with her fingers. Dark clouds seemed to form in Valkyrie's mind, but strangely the evil subconscious sorceress was silent. Valkyrie frowned further. Something wasn't right. But she couldn't put her finger on it. Wait, was the room different? When had that dresser gotten there?

Valkyrie opened her eyes and sat up sharply. Her heart was pounding as the shadows surrounded her. Skulduggery looked up from where he was sat in the corner.

"Val, are you alright?" He asked, standing.

"What happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?"

"How did I get into bed? Why are my pyjamas on?"

"Um, because it's night time? Isn't that traditionally the time for sleeping?"

"Don't joke about this!" Valkyrie threw her pillow at him. "What happened?!"

"Nothing happened. You went to the Great Hall for dinner, went back to the Gryffindor common room for a while, came back, had a shower and went to bed. I wished you goodnight and you smiled, nodded and went to sleep. You've been asleep for about 5 hours."

"I have?"

"Don't you remember?" Valkyrie frowned. According to Skulduggery, the last thing she could remember doing that she'd actually done was return from the common room. How had that happened? Had she just been so tired that her mind had blocked it out? But then, she could remember thinking about Darquesse to herself. It just didn't make any sense.

Valkyrie sighed. When did anything make sense anymore?


Melissa stared at the envelope in front of her, her hands clasped over her mouth in deep thought. Desmond was at work, Alice upstairs taking a nap. Melissa was alone, alone with the unopened envelope that lay on the table. Could she bring herself to open it? Could she really? Whatever it held or didn't hold, could she resist the temptation? What Dunne had told her was absurd. Completely ridiculous. Stephanie would never go behind her family's back. Not to mention the entire idea that her 18 year old daughter was a sorcerer detective for a secret organisation was absolutely outrageous. Sorcery didn't exist. It never had and it never would. As for being a detective, maybe in the future, but not now. No precinct in Ireland would employ an 18 year old girl full time, and it certainly wouldn't be a secret organisation. The entire idea screamed 'conspiracy'. There was no way it was even remotely possible. So why was she so curious about the envelope?

Melissa sighed. Her mother had always taught her to be honest, and good. She shouldn't poke around in other people's business, and she shouldn't judge people before she knew them. That was what she was taught, but this was her daughter, her Stephanie. Was it wrong for her, as a mother, to want to protect her daughter? What if this man, this Kenny Dunne, was some perverted stalker intent on harming her little girl? From what he had said, he had been following Stephanie for quite a while. Melissa refused to think of her as 'Valkyrie'. Whoever Valkyrie was, if she existed at all, Stephanie wasn't her. So why was that name in the bin? Why had strange clothes appeared on Stephanie's bedroom floor? Why all the secrecy? Where was she? Where was she really? What if she wasn't at a school, and was in fact in trouble, or danger, too confused to defend herself?

The image of her innocent little girl in the hands of some possible psychopath caused Melissa to grab the envelope and tear it open, spilling no more than a dozen photographs across the table. Her breath hitched as she picked one up and looked at it. Was that Stephanie? Too blurry to be sure. There was a figure there, definitely, maybe even two, but there were no distinctive features.

She picked up another, but it was the same thing. Just a blur of images, nothing distinct or recognisable. The third picture was clear, but it was just of an old black car with darkened windows. Definitely not Stephanie. But wait, was that their street? Had Dunne been on their street taking photographs? Melissa felt sick knowing the strange man had been so close to her house, her home, where'd she'd always thought she was safe.

The other photographs weren't of any help either. The Haggard pier with a blurred image of what looked like a boy standing at the edge looking into the water, an old derelict building, a strange symbol next to a door in a wax model museum (she could make out the models in the corners of the picture, too artistical to be real), two middle aged men seemingly talking on a street corner, a photograph capturing the edge of what looked to be a grey sort of armour, the old car again, a dark haired girl with her back to the camera (it looked like she was dodging something, but Melissa couldn't be sure), and a picture of fire.

Melissa scowled. How on Earth were they helpful? How did they explain anything? Kenny Dunne was an idiot if he thought this proved anything. Melissa stood, putting the photographs back in the envelope and shoving them into a desk drawer. She didn't know why she didn't just throw them away right there and then, but instead she walked up to Stephanie's room, and sat down on the bed. Her daughter was still innocent, but things still didn't make any sense

She brushed her hair back with her fingers, frustrated. Why was everything so difficult?