Feeling very dispirited about life and job hunting and all that, but at least this chapter was easy to write.

"What happened to you?"

If Kai could do wordless wandless magic, not only would he have not got into this situation but if he somehow still had, Ray would have just been cursed. He restrained himself and just tried to ignore him. Difficult when their beds were next to each other, and when Ray was holding up his lit wand and squinting at Kai.

"You're all bruised!"

"Ten points to Gryffindor," Kai muttered, digging through his trunk for his wand. It wasn't as easy as it should have been, as his hand just wouldn't uncurl. Thinking about it, the spell must have hit that hand first and then spread to the rest of him.

"Why?"

Kai ignored him while he finished looking for the spare wand. Why was it at the bottom? He dug through would seemed like never-ending piles of folded robes and parchments. Underneath a Sneakoscope and a Shield Charm Hat, he found something which felt like the right shape. As soon as his fingers closed it though he realised that it was a dead Bowtruckle that Max had asked him to store while some Potion or another reached maturity. However, as if even in death the magical creature could sense wand wood, his wand was just underneath it. Finally. Once he was holding the wand, he gave Ray the barest skeleton of an explanation.

"Fell down the stairs." He could actually hear Ray's skepticism even though the other boy was silent. Falling down the stairs wasn't an uncommon reason for students to attend the medical wing, since Hogwarts' staircases had a mind of their own and several seemed to be not only sentinent but malevolent. But it happened to first years, completely new to everywhere, and to third years who had to navigate new areas of the castle for their freshly-picked OWL subjects. It didn't happen to sixth-years, and if there was any student least likely to clumsily fall down the stairs, it was Kai.

"Who pushed you?" It wasn't an insightful question, so Kai took far too much pleasure in answering truthfully;

"Nobody pushed me." He juggled the wand in his frozen right hand for a second or two hopefully, but no it really wasn't feasible. Oh well. Good job part of the training in Duelling Club had been to become as close to ambidextrous with wands as was possible. He tucked his Astronomy note into an inside pocket and stood up from where he'd been crouched down by his bed. "I'll be back in a bit." He smirked as he walked away as fast as he could and heard Ray call after him, exasperated,

"Kai, what are you doing?"

He stopped in the common room and leaned absentmindedly on a table as he thought. He had to be careful about this. His Astronomy note would only give him so much lee-way. There were lots of areas of the castle that he would have no legitimate reason to be seen in. Like the Slytherin common room, for example. It would be the height of stupidity to head to the common room anyway; he couldn't get in unless he ambushed somebody coming in or out, and if he by some miracle caught them there they would have an entire House to call upon, not even mentioning the Head of House who would probably give Kai a year's worth of detentions.

But no, the question wasn't where would they be right now, since that wasn't productive and he had no way of knowing. The question was why had they been there to attack him? It wasn't as if he had been predictable: he had visited the tower at intervals which were nonsensical unless you were also doing NEWT level Astronomy, and every single time he had arrived and left at a different time. They weren't waiting for him. But they were waiting for anyone who came down those steps – and so now Kai was bitterly glad that he had been the victim, rather than Hilary or Max. It seemed much more appropriate that he get his wand taken off him, he who had done it to others before, than either of those two who felt irrepressibly guilty if they lied about not doing homework, or sneaking forbidden contraband back from Hogsmeade. He didn't give two shits about Emily, though. She could probably do with a tumble down the stairs and a brief separation from her prized walnut wand.

So they'd been haunting the Astronomy Tower because it was in semi-regular use thanks to the four of them being given the same project. But they'd struck there tonight, so they wouldn't be there. Where else would they be? Where would be a good place to ambush students? Kai's particular wand-hunting days had never been of an ambushing type, because he'd only needed to hold the wands to confirm or deny what he was looking after. That had occasionally required intimidation, but never ambushing. All the same, he very quickly came up with a great possibility.

The Owlery. Students were always sneaking up there late at night to send messages, whether they were homesick, lovesick, or engaging in illicit purchases. It would be a very good target, and what's more from Kai's point of view, if he was caught he could always make up a decent believable lie. Needed to send a message, the only question was what message and why, and hoping that it wasn't the caretaker who would ask Kai to show him the message out of spite. If pushed he could probably make some shit up about Hilary's owl needing fed extra after its journey earlier today.

Yes, ok, he'd decided. He'd go to the Owlery and try to find them. And then he would get his wand back.

Yes, there were two of them. They were only averagely magical, which he could measure from the duration of their dual Body-Binder, and were only fourth years. Even though he could reasonably assume that as Slytherins they knew more curses than they would if they were of another House, he wasn't worried. He was the best (male) duellist in his year, had the Darkest background out of most students, and most importantly he was happy and willing to do pretty much anything to them to get his wand back.

His current wand throbbed and sparked in his hand. Eagerly. He looked down at it and grinned. Hornbeam wands worked best for those of single-minded purpose.

All opinions welcome!

xIlbx