Chapter 15-Whatever Happened to Dallen

Saturday morning, Leo felt like a collection of files had been dumped over his head for him to alphabetize. He'd had a dream last night that he was staring into the night sky and the sun shone impossible bright back at him. It was impossible. The sun couldn't be out at night. Until he realized that it was the full moon, reflecting the sun's light as it did every night and he realized no one could ever escape the sun.

At nine in the morning, he was sitting alone in the common room, watching the fire he'd lit. A light array of snowflakes fluttered gently in the outside air. He'd gotten up early to watch Quidditch practice, but then saw it was snowing and decided to just silently watch the flames he'd set to eat at the logs. He turned his head and stared across the way, out the window, where a white owl perched on the pane.

"Beautiful, isn't she?"

He switched his head around and stared, wide-eyed, at a tan blot of color. Her hair swirled back against her head in sections as if black velvet flowers were growing from her scalp. She took in his face for a moment and smiled. It reminded him of the delicate grin on Sleeping Beauty in the picture book his mother used to read to him.

"Beautiful," he repeated.

"Lovey," she reminded him, leaning over the back of the couch.

"Right…yeah…"

"You don't seem well," she remarked.

"Yeah, well, I…hey, wait. I've got some serious questions for you!"

"Such as?"

"Well, first off—" He looked around them for anyone else who might've let her in, but the common room was devoid of life, everyone either sleeping in on such a frigid Sunday or in the Great Hall absorbing bacon and eggs. "—How did you get in here?"

She nodded, drawing herself up and beginning to walk towards the window on the other side of the room. "It's not so hard to find the common rooms, or each one's special way of getting in, if a student doesn't know he's being followed. I know how to get into all of the houses. Of course, for this one I need the password, but it's not so hard to find. You know, it's mostly to protect the students from outsiders, not other students, though it works both ways. Ravenclaw is actually the hardest to enter."

She stuck her fingers beneath the latch of a window and yanked it up, over her head, so the wind shot through the rectangular space and blew at her hair. Black locks curled loose at her ears as Lovey hopped through the window, onto the near table.

"So, let me get this straight," Leo said as she slammed the window shut once more. "You spend your time playing stalker and then when you need to, just come in? Why? What's wrong with the Hufflepuff common room?"

She smiled down at her hands and removed them from the window glass, leaving frosty prints behind. "I would think that would be obvious," she told him. She turned back to look at him. "You're not in it."

"I'm not in…The Living Pearl."

"The Living Pearl," she agreed. She walked forward and sat comfortably on the arm of the couch. "I know I've been avoiding you for some time, but I realize now it has to stop." She looked at him. "I want us to work together, but if we are, we'll have to tell each other everything we know. This is bigger than just us and a few goblins. Like it or not, if we're going to get out of this alive, we need each other." She held out a hand. "Partners?"

He stared at it for a moment. He took it. "Doesn't look like I have much of a choice."

She smiled. "You're a fast learner."

Carina led him deep into the dungeons, past places and down corridors Leo had never seen in his life. Eventually, they passed into a dark passage where the once enchanted windows were fogged with cobwebs and dead flies. The area grew dimmer and dimmer until she was twisting through the solid darkness. At first, he thought an animal was following them or some clock was ticking against the wall, but he realized it was Carina. She was clicking her tongue in a constant rhythm that echoed off the walls. She had been ever since they'd been submerged in black.

"Carina, what is that you're doing?"

"Listening. See, I've never been very good at making friends aside from the animals that wander on the grounds," she told him. "I remember I used to take spiders from their nests and play with them in my hands during class and the children didn't like that much. I would come down here and wander far out into the dungeons. I never realized how deep they truly went. They weave into a system of underground caves that goes on for miles, I bet. I only know a bit of it. This part's like home to me. I've been through here hundreds of times. I remember I used to go through with my wand lit, but I found this big nest of bats and it irritated them so I had to put it out. I like to copy animals, so I tried to get exactly what they were saying, but it's like being in a mob of people and trying to single out one person's voice you've never heard before. I couldn't. But I tried all the way back through the dungeons. That's when I found out. I could hear the echo of my own voice. I could tell where it was coming from. I can do a pretty good bat, but it's easier to click and hear the echo of that one constant sound. I can see where I'm going better."

"You have to be kidding. You can see with sound?"

"Not very well," she added. "But you don't want to keep a light on in here while you're walking. You might annoy someone. Making a lot of noise also warns unwanted rodents you're coming, so they go away. A lot of them know me, though, and don't bother. They know I won't touch them."

"They know you?"

"I spend a lot of time down here. There's not much to do when no one remembers who you are."

"I want to ask you about that."

"We're here."

He stopped in place.

"I don't see anything."

She let go of his hand and he panicked momentarily. The second her skin left, the dungeon was colder than a crypt and seemed like a dark and impossible labyrinth which had swallowed him just to drive him mad trying to claw his way out. But he calmed immediately when he heard her knocking. Then, there were noises. Suddenly, she yanked open a heavy metal door so light poured into the passage. He stood stalk still for a moment before Carina, small and young-looking as she was, grabbed his shirt sleeve and threw him into the room before slamming the door closed behind them, pulling down a wooden board to lock them in.

Leo looked up from the ground. His eyes followed a patch of grey hair until he quickly reached the chin of man. His face was stubby and pink like the very center of a strawberry, but dirty and round.

"Who the ruddy hell is this?"

"Leo," Carina said, pulling the hood back on her cloak. "I told you he was coming."

"Dwarves?" Leo asked in amazement. "You're actually dwarves?"

Another of the tiny men stepped forward. "Sloane Copperridge, at your service. And this is my companion—"

"I CAN INTRODUCE MESELF! Honestly. Dwarf thinks I'm an imbecile."

"—the ever-so-kind and gentle Darius Minesworth." Sloane shook the hand Leo hadn't realized was lying out in front of him. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Same," Leo said robotically, getting to his feet. His eyes scanned the small room and instantly took in that Carina's real bedroom wasn't in the Hufflepuff dorms. Around the room were shelves that had been half-heartedly hammered into the stone walls, filled with vials of strange plants and limbs of animals. The walls were crowded with drawings of strange creatures she must've spent hours trying to get close to in order to sketch. Most of them were sloppy, but as he searched, he spotted more and more sketches that looked more like photographs than something etched out with ink. The point on her quill must've been finer than a fountain pen.

Instantly, from looking at all this, Leo was able to see what life must've been like for Carina. But something made him know better than to feel sorry for her. He could imagine that at one time she was unhappy this way. Maybe it was the way she held herself or gazed out at the sun during class, but something told Leo that this was no longer the case. Carina liked her life the way it was. She'd been cold to him because she didn't want him ruining her silence.

"Well, let's just mosey around and stare at the décor all day, shall we?" Darius said sarcastically. "Not like any of us are being HUNTED OR ANYTHING!"

"Hunted?" Leo asked.

"Start from the beginning," Carina told them, sitting on the ground. "The very beginning."

"It was that damn Dallen Ruby!" Darius shouted. "Always gettin' himself into trouble. Runnin' around with girls that waren't 'is, drinkin' when 'e should 'a been minin,' eatin' durin' chores. Boy was outa control. 'e was the hooligan 'a the city."

"Still," Sloane added, "You must admit. 'e was good with 'is hands."

"Aye, there that I'll say," Darius nodded. "Good with 'is hands and better 'n any dwarf in the city. Strange for one so young. 'nother strange thing. If there was an expedition past the city's confines, 'is name was the first on the list. 'e was itchin' to get outa there which is odd fur a dwarf. Always wanted to leave. Like 'e'd find somethin' better outside 'is family."

"Did you know him personally?" Leo asked, sitting on the ground beside Carina. The stone was even colder than the air, but no one else seemed bothered, so he didn't complain.

"Somethin' you should understand," Darius told him. "Even in the biggest dwarf city, everyone knows each other personally. We're all a big family. There're no creeps who live on the outskirts or dangerous parts 'a town like 'ere. If one man needs money, we help 'im 'till 'e's on 'is feet. If another's beat, we beat the offender. Understand? We work together. That's how a tight-knit place works."

"But Dallen was different," Leo surmised. "He was the outsider."

"Exactly," Darius said. "The lad was with 'is parents alone in the mines. Somehow theys was killed and 'e was so small 'e got lost. 'e returned years later a dwarf different from the others. 'e was alienated. Seen as somethin' of a dangerous one."

"So he left," Leo said, filling in the blanks. "I read a bunch of his biography. He left the clan and met up with Baxg Gearshatter."

"Is that all the fellow told people? Just up and vanished?" Darius said.

"Somehow I remember it differently," Sloane agreed. "It started with an expedition."

"My expedition, I might add," Darius grumbled. "It would 'a been the perfect score if Dallen hadn't signed to come. We hadn't enough dwarves. No one wants to leave the shelter 'a the city and mines. We 'ad plans to etch out a new cave where we thought minerals might be."

Sloane added, "I was the geological surveyor. I was the only one fluent enough in the art of alchemy to decently determine what types of minerals were hiding in various areas. That is, there were dozens of us. I was the only one young and daring enough to go on Darius's mission. It was a far way out."

"Dallen and I were the muscle," Darius said. "Lots 'a dangerous creatures in the mountains. You bump into a dementor or bogart and 'aven't the right equipment or know-how and you're dead as a spider under an axe.

"We went into an area Sloane 'ad plotted, and was searchin' it out. Sloane did a bunch 'a funny whooey and said it'd be ready come mornin' and to take camp. When we woke the next day, Dallen was gone."

"Along with all our supplies," Sloane added.

"The slimy snarsgoff 'ad left us fur dead. We'd never make it back the three days' journey without those provisions. It was just as we were wakin' that we 'eard a bunch of other dwarves."

"Wouldn't you know, the very same who'd vowed never to step foot in those regions even if we did find a hoard," Sloane commented.

"The minute we sees 'em, they up and arrest us. Not enough provisions to make all 'a us back to the city, so they hold a hearin' right there. They tell us we robbed the city treasury with Dallen and used this as an excuse to get a head start 'fore anyone noticed. Judge was right smug when 'e was tellin' us how dumb we was to 'ave taken the same route as we'd said we was goin' to and to sleep so long in the caves. Gee, we must 'a been the worst criminals 'e ever seen. Slimy snarsgoff never seen no criminals past a child stealin' a licorice whip, I bet you, I'll bet you a lot."

"Immediately, we knew it was Dallen," Sloane told them. "And everyone else knew it too. They just made the mistake of thinking we were involved as well."

"What was in the treasury that was so small Dallen could get it past you?" Leo asked. "The book I read strongly suggested dwarves don't place much value in what they mine just because they find it everywhere."

"The lad took 'is share 'a gems," Darius acknowledged, "but the real prize was the Pearl."

Carina shook her head. "You don't mean the Living Pearl?"

"That I do, lass. The Livin' Pearl was special far before the goblin, Baxg, enchanted it. He sought an object that could improve a being's natural condition. Dallen brought 'im that object. The Pearl was an empty shell 'a magic. Anythin' could be placed in it. The city was savin' it in case of emergency, a pox outbreak or food shortage or the like. If used right, the Pearl can be filled with a singular purpose until it's emptied. Even not bein' a dwarf, Baxg had the genius to fill it."

"So Dallen and Baxg knew each other before Dallen left the city?" Leo asked. "That would explain why he always wanted to go on those expeditions."

"Of course 'e did. We all knew about 'im," Darius said.

Carina shook her head. "You knew about Baxg?"

"Dallen talked of Baxg often after his parents died," Sloane explained. "Claimed he was a dwarf that saved his life. Of course, now we know, it was just a story he invented to explain how he got out alive."

"That's why he has a dwarf name," Leo realized. "Baxg Gearshatter wasn't his name at all. But then who was he really?"

"Does it matter?" Sloane asked. "He's dead now. They exhumed him some years ago. We were there to see it and the sight wasn't pretty."

"The rest is 'what you'd expect," Darius continued. "Sloane and I kept sayin' the lad was strange for wantin' to control all the supplies, but we was happy to not be carryin' 'em ourselves so we didn't say nothin' and just assumed it was another one of 'is quirks. The dwarves that came to arrest us found that story mighty fishy, the lousy—"

"—But we don't blame them," Sloane interrupted. "Those dwarves weren't close with us and the story would've sounded wrong to anyone. We would've begged to go to the city for another trial, but it was no use. It had been three days. By then, we knew the rumors would have spread through the city and tarnished our names. People would always suspect we did it no matter how much proof we had of our innocence. We were held for a time as they tried to catch Dallen, but it was a fool's errand. Lad must've been planning that run for a long while."

"And then 'e left and met up with Baxg," Leo said, filling in the blanks. "According to the book I checked out at the library, Dallen lamented helping Baxg make the Living Pearl into what it was and tried to stop him, but was pushed away by Baxg who'd absorbed it. Eventually, a gangster named Jagobin got wind of the invention and went after them, so Dallen ran."

"That sounds like Dallen," Darius griped. "The slimy snarsgoff, the runner. 'e was a coward if I ever saw one and doesn't deserve to be called a dwarf!"

"Let him finish," Sloane said patiently.

Leo continued, "Dallen escaped to a different set of mountains and hasn't been seen since. The only reason his story's in the book is because he met up with the writer and told him the entire story just before he went into the mountains to get some money for supplies. He was flat broke after he left Baxg."

"I'm not surprised he lied about how he left his clan," Carina said in her soft-spoken voice. "He knew he would never return back to that world, but he at least wanted to be remembered as a good man." She stopped talking, but Leo had the feeling she had more to say. The statement sounded incomplete, like she was holding something back.

"In the outside world, at least, he would," Sloane said. "The dwarves have next to no contact with the outside world. They've no idea what's become of the Pearl and are too tied to the mountain to ever leave and find out."

"The book doesn't mention the Pearl after that," Leo said. "It says Baxg turned himself in to the magical authorities to prevent himself from being captured by Jagobin, but the Living Pearl just sinks into obscurity."

Carina looked thoughtful. "I wonder if your father knows. He sent me a page from a book on goblin inventions that said—"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," he stopped her. "You're on speaking terms with my father?"

"Of course. We've never fought. Why, is he angry with me?"

"I don't—No. It's just…when did this start?"

She tilted her head. "When you remembered who I was, Leo," she said.

He didn't say anything. He just stared, confused. Did his father know something about this? But Carina didn't notice the perplexity of him and the dwarves so she kept talking.

"Let's see...The page said Baxg came to live here, in the United Kingdom and many people thought he'd died with the Pearl, but when his body was exhumed, it wasn't there, meaning he had to have passed it on at some point in his life before he went to Azkaban to hide from Jagobin."

"It's possible Baxg found a way to hand the Pearl off to Dallen, ever his partner in crime. After all, dwarves can live for hundreds of years, he could keep it safe much longer than the short-lived Baxg," Sloane suggested. "Or it languished at the Ministry of Magic."

"But none of this explains how I got it," Leo said. "I'd never heard of the Pearl before Carina showed it to me let alone put it in my body."

"Aye, someone must've put it in you for safe keepin,'" Darius said. "No one would guess it was bein' protected without the host body knowin.'"

"And Hogwarts has protective barriers that would protect Leo if someone did find out. The only reasons the goblins were able to find you two that day in the graveyard was because he was outside of the wards," Sloane added. "Darius and I had a grand old time trying to take up residence here. We wanted somewhere people wouldn't come bothering us and where better than a forest forbidden to all wizards? Eventually, we negotiated a deal with the centaurs. Darius constructs things, I brew chemical elixirs."

"You're forest shrimp," Carina commented. The room paused for a moment.

"I think she means handymen," Leo changed.

"I love eating shrimp," Carina smiled. "Flavors that zap and twist against my tongue."

"I've never heard of them," Sloane said.

Darius looked as if he was deciding whether or not to be offended.

"Anyway…" Leo said, trying to swerve them back on topic. "How would someone get the Living Pearl inside them?"

"Press it into your naval until it sinks into your skin," Sloane said. "Or swallow it. Any number of ways to get it in, really. The trouble is getting it out. You can't just grab the Pearl to pull it back out. Someone must've done it while you were sleeping."

"Mr. Wespurt," Carina said. "I'll bet it was him."

"Who the hell is Mr. Wespurt?" Darius asked.

"You think it's my dad?!" Leo asked incredulously. "What is wrong with you!? It isn't him! He would have told me!"

Carina shrugged. "He may have thought you were better off not knowing, but needed to do what was safest for the Pearl."

"She's right, lad," Darius told him. "'e's in your house when you sleep, 'e knows you go to Hogwarts, and 'e knows about the Livin' Pearl. It's probably 'im."

"No it isn't!" Leo got to his feet. Carina and the dwarves stared up at him from the ground. "Don't you think if he did know, he would've told me?! Don't you think he would've wanted to protect his only son?! YOU THINK HE CARES MORE ABOUT SOME STUPID PEARL THAN HE DOES ABOUT ME!?"

Sloane stepped forward. "We didn't say that, lad. It's just—"

"NO, FORGET IT! MY MOTHER LOVES ME!"

He reached the door just as he heard an airy voice echo through the chamber.

"Don't you mean your father?"

Leo froze in place. He looked back at her. "Now it's your turn," he said. "Tell me everything you know."

"I see the sky and wake to a translucent reality."

They say nothing for a moment. Then, Leo opens his mouth and shuts it again. Sloane nods for a moment. We're like that until Darius blurts, "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!"

I cock my head. Right. "I suppose you could refer to me as clairvoyant," I try to clarify. "It's not possible for you to comprehend, I do not think. It's like…like a fish swimming against the current."

"Our comprehension or your psychic powers?" Sloane asks.

"Both," I say. "One day third year, I fell into a pool of water and the rest is a blur of photos etched into my mind." I shrug.

"Third year?" Leo asks. "But you were thirteen. Your friends must've noticed you disappeared."

I smile softly. "I never had any friends, Leo."

He looks at me. "Your parents?" I say nothing. Leo can't stop shifting his eyes as he looks at the ground. "No one ever remembers who you are," he says finally.

"Only wizards," I say, trying to lesson his pity for me. I need none of it. "Most other creatures, like the dwarves and animals and the goblins that saw us at the graveyard, aren't affected by the curse. I don't know why. Some wizards, though, like Frieda, can remember me and she even doesn't pay me mind for long. Leo, I think you might be like her, able to remember me, but just a bit. If we'd spoken before I fell under this curse, you would've vaguely kept an image of me if I was salient enough. The Living Pearl enhances a body's natural abilities. That must be one of yours."

Leo sits back down where he is, a distance from us in the room, still shifting his eyes as if he's trying to solve a puzzle of the floor stones. "That's how you knew about me in class and Lovey and my paper and…You really are a psychic."

"In a way," I say. "But something's happened." I don't want to share, but I think they may be able to help. Oh, please be able to help me. "I usually pinch myself to wake from a vision. Some sort of pain. But today, when I kissed Albus—"

"You kissed Albus?!" Leo shouts incredulously. "When did this happen?!"

"No worries," I say nonchalantly, waving a hand. "Scorpius and some others did it, so—"

"They WHAT?!"

"They were there so it doesn't count. Well…it wouldn't count anyway…"

"What is going on in this school?" Leo whispers, rubbing his temples.

"When I kissed him, I woke up. The pain didn't work, but the kiss did. For some reason, my impetus changed."

"Just this morning, you say?" Sloane asked.

"Just before I met you."

The two dwarves exchange a serious glance between them. "It's started," Darius said.

"I'm surprised it didn't come until this late," Sloane sighed.

"What is it?" I ask. "Is it something bad?"

"Depends on your definition," Sloane tells us. "The Living Pearl is using its magic to manipulate Hogwarts, starting with Leo and whoever he's closest to. It'll spiral outward until everyone in the school is affected."

"But why?" I ask. "I don't understand. What could an object stand to gain from any of it?"

"There is the question of the hour. Baxg may have given it a task it's set to fulfill even in his death or it might have taken its own wants into consideration."

"Too bad we don't have a psychic," Leo says looking at me.

I shake my head. "Leo, you misunderstand. My visions come to me, but they are by no means set in stone. I change the things that happen every day, but only day by day. I can only see under the sun's rays. When it falls from the sky, my vision goes as black as the oncoming night. I can't see so far into the future as to know what the Pearl is after. I've known instantly since I got this curse that it connected me to the sun. I only feel alive when I am beneath its rays and it controls what I do and how I live. I only live for each day and never for the future."

Sloane nods and says. "You're a sun slave. And that has everything to do with why the Living Pearl chose you."

I shake my head. "It chose Leo."

"It chose to let Leo see you," Sloane corrects. "It may have been placed in Leo, but me thinks you are its true master."

"It really is alive," Leo says, fingering his naval. "And I think they're right. The Pearl likes you, Carina. It doesn't belong to me. It just let me carry it to you. Just like with Baxg, the Pearl will start taking advantage of me and bringing out the worst in what I am until I let it go. You have a different kind of magic that might actually be able to combat the Pearl's."

"But we don't know how to get it out," I say. "And besides, I don't want to keep it. If so many bad people want it, it should be destroyed."

"One thing at a time, there missy," Darius responds. "We get the Livin' Pearl out first and then we see about killin' it."