One more chapter until Christmas! I'm drawing this out, I know. However, between some extra research stuff, some bits and bobs from other characters, and the birth of a side plot (which will eventually become the main plot) there is a lot to cover.

So. Unicorn Blood. Jealousy. Chestnuts?

Read on and you shall learn.

—0—

Hogwarts Castle and its surrounding grounds were quite large. Well, more than large. The grounds were MASSIVE! The large edifice contained a combined school, four student residences, offices, closets, and several secret chambers. For a single wizard it was huge.

Now imagine yourself as a rat.

That massive chunk of reality just became a whole kingdom.

A kingdom which Despereaux had already begun to explore.

So far, the brave little rat had explored every corner of the great hall, or as he called it, 'The Land of Yummies.' The room was always filled with some kind of treat, from nuts, roasted seeds, and bread, to pastries, vegetables, and tubers. Despereaux found it to be one of his favorite places in this magnificent kingdom, and had already begun conquering it for his queen.

On days he was able to explore, he would spend a bit of time in the land of yummies, conducting his ancestors herbal rituals and old dances of ownership. He was making progress, that much he knew. His queens spot at the great honeybadgers plateau always sprouted a few sprigs of lemon balm, his favorite herb, whenever she sat down. It left the plateau smelling wonderful the day in and day out.

In between his ancestral dances and herbal rituals, Despereaux continued to branch out through the great kingdom of little sorcerers. He had placed old protections on his queens lands, the lands where she slept, and had even made sure that her robes were kept safe with the blessings of rosemary and thyme.

He had explored enough to know the path between his queens lands and the land of yummies. It was through the rumbling flats of feets, which would rumble and shake with a stampede of little sorcerers every hour or so. Despereaux preferred traveling when the little ones roamed, however. At night there was always the hunters.

A man thing, like Despereauxs mouse queen, but with bad hair and teeth. He had no magic, but he did have a monster. A beast with pointy ears and teeth. It ate rats like Despereaux, it had told him itself.

However, Despereaux was still alive thanks to the other monster. The monster witch, who taught transforming to his mouse queen. The monster witch was both a woman man woman and a monster, one with pointy ears and fangs. She spat at the two hunters when the one had cornered the brave Rat king. Bad hair and bad teeth had been mad, especially because Despereaux had shown his pet monster that bramplepoke bit back harder and sharper than her teeth.

It made the rat king a bit smug knowing that the terror only had one eye thanks to his trusty blade.

There were a few other places that Despereaux had explored. The book kingdom, a smaller kingdom nestled within the grounds of the first kingdom. There was the changing room, which he discovered after seeing a few red hairs and a gold head enter it. Then there was the room of evil stinky.

Evil stinky was familiar to Despereaux. The rat had realized who he was after the man tried to hurt his queen's friend. Evil stinky bathed in garlic though, and Despereaux was made sick by the stench of garlic.

Still, he had braved the lands of evil stinky once, alone. He snuck in and placed old lines of good health around the doors and by the windows. That would hopefully keep evil stinky at bay.

Despereaux let out a small squeak as he woke up and stretched on this particular morning. His queen was already up from her nest, meaning it was another exploration day.

The rat king hopped to his feet and retrieved his trusty blade from its place beside the candle of his queens nest table. With a bit of thread, he strapped it to his furry back and scampered out of the room, never seeing that his queen was indeed still in the room, just busy with an interesting experiment.

Despereaux scampered through the rumbling flat of feets, which was currently calm. He still kept his guard up, the hunters could still be around and he would not let them take him today.

The land of yummies was abuzz with the chitter chatter of little magicals, `1qqAQ each looking at books or waving their sparkle sticks to make things move or appear. Despereaux scampered over to his queens seat and asked the table for some fresh mint, ground ginger, and tamarind paste. A small plate of the materials appeared before him and he began conducting the regular dance of ownership.

The mint was crushed and ground together with the tamarind, which Despereaux then used to make a series of circles and spirals. He didn't know what the symbols meant, they had just been passed down from rat to rat.

Despereaux did know, however, that the symbols and the ritual had power. They were his own magic, herbal magic. Herbs could be used to guard against sickness and vermin, vermin like fleas. Each rat had a bit of knowledge on the magic, but Despereaux held all of the rat kings secrets. He could do much more than the average rat. He had his rituals, his salves, his recipes for natural medicines.

Yet he also knew how to use herbs to harm. Mint could burn, ginger could stab, yarrow could shock. If used correctly, herbs were powerful. It was magic that only magical creatures could learn, as they were aligned with the earth. Witch folk could mimic it, but they couldn't learn it the same. They had their own magic.

Despereaux finished his circles and swirls with a flourish of his paw. None of the little ones had noticed him yet, and the rat was fine with that. A small shimmer of magic flowed through his paws and into the circle, and with a soft whoosh, the symbols faded into the table. Despereaux wriggled his nose in happiness, before scampering away and across the table, looking to find himself some pumpkin seeds.

—0—

"So tell me again what is so interesting that you would ignore first breakfast?" Hannah sighed. "And why does it require you covering yourself in… is that mercury?"

The girl lay upon her bed, with her head hanging off of the side. Her blonde hair spilled down like a waterfall, touching the wooden floorboards of their dorm room. "You know that can easily kill you, right?"

Merlot rolled her eyes. "It isn't Mercury Hannah. But… it is pretty dangerous stuff so, don't come over here."

Hannah blinked, before rolling over onto her stomach. "What is it then?"

Merlot blinked. She had read all about unicorn blood, how it was a sort of taboo material. However, in her handy dandy book of wandlore, it was specified that unicorn blood, while not suitable for a wand core, was still a potent magical medium. She for one, couldn't wait to see what uses it could have when used in her runic array development.

"Um, next question?"

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Merlot, what are you doing?"

"Well, I'm using this very special solution to draw out a runic transmutation circle that I developed."

"Alchemy?" Hannah blinked, rising up a bit.

"Well, sort of. I have to learn Alchemy because of the Dragon Preserve." Merlot shrugged. 'That's a good cover, right?' "Anyways, I used one of the transmutation glyphs in there as a central rune for my array, pertaining to the element of fire."

"Okay, so what does it do?" Hannah quirked an eyebrow as Merlot began to clean her hands of the silver substance. "Please say it won't explode."

"Magic arrays like these don't explode Hannah." Merlot rolled her eyes. "At least, not normally. Honestly, this is all experimental, but-"

"If we go boom, I'm using you as a shield." Hannah hopped up from her bed.

"Well, you won't be protected much seeing as I have to be directly beside the circle." Merlot deadpanned.

"On second thought, my bed seems like a great place." Hannah shrugged, sitting down. "Okay then, show me."

Merlot huffed as she tossed her cloth on her bedside table. "It isn't fun unless I explain it to you."

"You're using a glyph for fire, right?" Hannah asked. Merlot nodded. "So obviously you're going to… you're gonna. Oh fine! What are you going to do exactly?"

"Well if you would let me actually answer." Merlot smirked, causing Hannah to pout. "I'm imbuing an object with the element of fire."

"And what will that do?"

"I- Don't really know." Merlot sweatdropped. "I think with the runes the way I put them, it should create an object that is always warm, or that generates fire. Maybe both."

"Okay. So, what are you using then?" Hannah shrugged. "If it just does those things."

"Well, I'm trying it with a series of items. A cloak, a few quills, and funnily enough, a glass of water."

"Water?"

"Yes. Maybe I can make it eternally warm?"

Hannah scrunched up her nose. "Yeah, no thank you."

"Suit yourself." Merlot shrugged. "All in the name of research. Here we go!"

"Don't you think that-" Hannah began, but she was too late. Merlot had drawn her wand.

The raven haired witchling brought the tip of her wand to her palm and inhaled deeply. Hannah watched as she slowly pulled a dull blue wave of light from her palm, before thrusting her wand down to the circle of silver runes.

A hum filled the air as the circle shimmered. Hannah's eyes widened as it began to glow. The silver liquid that Merlot had used to paint her array of runes seemed to become pure light as Merlot channeled magic into it.

One by one, the objects at the center of the array began to light up with their own glow. The cloak was gray, the quills blue, and the ink yellow. The items began to pulse as lines of orange flowed from the white light into them, and then they stretched, as if something was sucking them into a singular point.

The light slowly dimmed and Hannah felt everything slow to a stop, before there was a bright flash and Merlot was sent flying across the room. Hannah let out a shout as Merlot crashed down upon the floor, her eyes wide in shock.

"MERLOT!"

The young witch coughed as she stood up, brushing her scorched robes. "Sorry… ow."

"You said it wouldn't blow up!"

"Geez. 'are you okay' would have been nice." Merlot rolled her eyes.

"Don't you sass me! That was scary!" Hannah's eyebrows furrowed. "And since when do you sass people anyway?"

"I sassed you before!"

"Not like that!"

Merlot huffed and turned back to her project. "Wonder where I went wrong… hm?"

"What?"

"Look." Merlot blinked, walking over and picking up the object at the center of the circle.

It was the cloak she had used in the experiment, although it was… different now. The spare winter coat that she had gotten some months ago. The plain black surface now bore a pattern of silver feathers, which stood still even as the cloth rippled. The cloth which now felt warm in her hands, unnaturally warm…

"I think I did it…"

"You think?" Hannah jumped up from her mattress. "Thinking isn't good enough. What did you- woah…"

"Right? I think the fire glyph did more than I anticipated… It actually forced the materials I had to combine!"

"Is that why you were thrown away? Maybe the magic that was supposed to go into each item ended up being too much?" Hannah blinked.

"I don't know…"

"But you know who would?" Hannah's eyes lit up.

"Who?"

"Granger! She's a genius when it comes to just about everything! She could have an answer for you!"

'Simply put, she will never surpass you.'

"Maybe… Alchemy is pretty advanced though."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Which is why she's most likely read about it in some book or other. It can't hurt to ask."

Merlot nodded and looked down at the cloak. "Maybe…"

—0—

Despereaux raced as fast as his paws could carry him. He had explored enough for one day. He had found something scarier than the hunters.

The forbidden corridor lay upon the third floor of the castle. And Despereaux, curious as ever, had stumbled in accidentally, coming face to face with a massive, terrifying dog.

The mouse never knew the area was forbidden, bless his little heart. But he now knew it was far too dangerous to explore. He would be certain to keep his queen away from that place.

The rat came to the land of moving mountains (The moving staircases) and squeaked quietly to himself as he found that the mountains had moved away from his platform, and he had no way down to the rest of the kingdom.

"Hello little mouse."

Despereaux squeaked and turned around, surprised. One of the wall men was talking to him.

"Wall man?"

"Aren't you a smart one! Yes, my name is Sir Cadogan! Are you lost, little one?"

"Queen! Queen!"

"Queen you say? Ah, are you looking for someone then?"

Despereaux wiggled his nose in affirmation, before standing up on his hind legs. "Queen! Queen!"

Sir Cadogan chortled and nodded. "Here, I can help you to the great hall. Let me just…"

The knight reached to his waist and drew a silver blade, before sliding to the side and revealing a small hole in the wall. Despereaux let out a squeak of excitement seeing the sword, and drew his own.

"This should take you to the great hall." The knight chuckled. "From one knight to another I see. I wish you luck on your quest."

Despereaux wiggled his nose in excitement and scampered up into the wall, following the path down, down, around and around, and eventually dropping out of a crack in another wall, right into a bowl of chestnuts.

Despereaux quickly scrambled up and out of the bowl, finding himself once again in the land of yummies. He could see his queen next to bushy hair, the girl witch of smart eagles. As he scampered up to them, he caught a bit of their conversation.

"Well of course you were blown back. You combined objects at a molecular level and didn't account for blowback? Honestly… you should have madam Pomfrey examine you for any adverse effects."

"Adverse effects?" Hannah Abbot, or golden hair asked.

"Radiation can be a deadly thing!" Bushy hair blinked. "It can kill you! That kind of bad!"

"A lot can, right?"

Bushy hair rolled her eyes. "A little is a lot. I won't here more of this, go to the hospital wing! Both of you!"

Despereaux watched as his queen and golden hair left the land of yummies. Before he could go to follow them, he saw the two faced boy walk over from the serpents table.

"Everything alright?" the boy asked.

"Is it just cluelessness? How are they that far?"

"What?"

"Am I clueless Neville?"

"What? No. You're the brightest first year!"

"Wrong, they're brighter." Bushy hair sighed. "Scortwit's already doing alchemy!"

"Alchemy? Are you sure?" Two faced's eyes seemed to glow a bit. "Are you sure?"

"Yes Neville, I'm sure." bushy hair grumbled. "I'm just not smart enough for them…"

"For her. Scortwit's the one who's doing it."

"Thanks Neville." Bushy hair snarked. "Because knowing she's doing it on her own is much much better."

Two faced sighed. "You know… if you want to get smarter, there may be something that can help you, here. Inside the castle."

"I practically live in the library Neville." Bushy hair rolled her eyes.

"Not the library." two face smiled. "The diadem of Ravenclaw."

"The what?"

"It's an artifact. A tiara that's supposed to make the one who wears it as smart as Rowena Ravenclaw herself!"

"Really?" Bushy hair blinked. "Where is this artifact?"

"It was lost, years ago. But it has to be in the castle somewhere. Maybe, with that handy dandy tracking spell of yours…"

"I could find it!" Bushy hair gasped. "I could find it and become the smartest in the school!"

Two face nodded. "Yeah! And I'll be there with you! Maybe then you'll learn some cool plants that i don't know."

Bushy hair grinned. "Let's do it Neville. The quest for the lost diadem."

"Has a good ring to it. I'll see if I can find something with Ravenclaws magical signature?"

"And I'll work on improving the locator spell."

Despereaux didn't stick around to listen anymore, but he had the sneaking suspicion that whatever he had just overheard would not end well for anyone.

—0—

And there we have it. The last chapter before christmas. A bit of alchemy, a bit of exploring, and the beginning of the diadem quest. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Also, give Despereaux some love. For one of my two OC's, he is not getting the praise he deserves! Even if he hasn't shown up much! That first christmas chapter was just *mwah!*

As always, leave a review. And until next time.

A ho ho ho, Feliz navidadios!