Alexandra returned to the seven-gabled house in less time than it had taken her and Hela to march out of sight of it that afternoon.

Nothing confronted her on the way in, though the house felt oppressive even in its silence. She found Drucilla in one of the libraries, sitting quietly amongst stacks of leather-bound books.

"Studying for the… ritual, or whatever you're going to do to cure Lucilla?" Alexandra asked. "Can I help?"

"No, and no," Drucilla said. "We studied the Spiritus Loci spell for many years. Do you think we intended to wing it, if something went wrong?"

"Sorry," Alexandra said. "I just want to help."

Drucilla blinked at her slowly. "No, Alexandra, I'm sorry. I'm being very abrupt with you, as if you were still an apprentice. But you've already helped. Merlin's boots, you brought back an army of Doomguards and cleared out the Dementors…" She paused. "Where are the Doomguards, by the way? And where is Hela?"

"The Doomguards are with Hela. The ones I didn't leave in The Castle."

"You left Doomguards in The Castle?"

Alexandra sat down next to Drucilla, and told her about their march to The Castle, and what she'd done. She spoke bitterly and left nothing out, including what she'd done to the guards, and Hela's condemnation.

"I don't even understand her," Alexandra said at last. "She's colder than me. She doesn't care about anything but her own people. But even though she lectured me about this being a war, she's squeamish when it comes to actually…"

"Killing people?" Drucilla said quietly.

"I'm not sorry," Alexandra said. "Stringy-Hair and Gloomy and probably everyone who was a guard there, they're all sadistic bastards. They're lucky I didn't order the Doomguards to kill them as well. I hope the Confederation doesn't send anyone else and they all starve in there."

"That would be a horrible way to die," Drucilla said. "For the remaining prisoners as well."

"Most of them are probably psychopaths. Serial killers, or child-eating monsters…"

"You let the child-eating monster out," Drucilla said. "And if what I heard about Eerie Island is true, she might not have been the first."

She took Alexandra's hand. Drucilla was rarely demonstrative, though Alexandra could see that her experience in The Castle had stripped away much of her tough exterior. She could still speak with the authoritative voice of a teacher—or an older sister—but now there were pauses. She hesitated. Alexandra didn't really think this could be true, but it was almost as if Drucilla was intimidated by her.

"You are rationalizing, Alexandra," Drucilla said. "You attacked The Castle for no other reason than vengeance, and you turned your wrath on any available target, just as it seems you've been doing to Hela. And when your wrath was spent, you walked away, leaving a mess behind. I'm sure Father won't mind. You've sown as much chaos as when you escaped Eerie Island."

"He'll probably mind about the Doomguards."

"Well, yes." Drucilla smiled faintly. Then her smile faded. "I remember those men you described. The man with the stringy hair and the pock-marked face, and the gloomy dark-skinned one…" Her eyes became distant. "I don't feel sorry for them either."

Alexandra sat there with her hand in Drucilla's. Finally she asked, "Where is Lucilla?"

"In the basement. That's where the spirit of this house is located. It's where we put a piece of ourselves. I'm simplifying; it's not really a single spot, it's the entire house. But for purposes of the Spiritus Loci, that place, which spawned the Dementors in our absence, is where Lucilla will become… herself again."

"How long will it take?"

Drucilla shrugged, a gesture that conveyed the opposite of indifference. Uncertainty was a heavy weight on her. "Days? Maybe weeks. Or longer. We can only wait for her to return. She might become part of the house instead. This isn't like the spells you learned at school, Alexandra, or any of the enchantments we taught you. I know there is a piece of her still, a part preserved here that the Dementors didn't get, just as there's a piece of me that's permanently part of this house. I'll stay here forever, if it will bring some part of Lucy back." Tears streamed down her face.

"Can I see her?" Alexandra's own voice was hoarse.

Drucilla blinked, realized she was crying, and wiped at her eyes. She nodded. "Yes. Come." She rose to her feet, and Alexandra followed her out of the library. Drucilla led her down to the basement, which was still cold, but no longer felt like a black pit of despair. The gargoyle over the door wrinkled its nose as if to say, "You again?" and Alexandra just shook her head at it.

The basement, Alexandra knew, had many workshops and storage rooms. It was impossible for it to exist in the marshy ground on which the Whites' house was built, and yet here it was, a solid stone foundation that was larger than it had any right to be. The Doomguard she'd left behind stood motionless by one wall.

Lucilla was in a room Alexandra had never seen before. The room was empty but for a wooden platform on which a white mattress with silk coverings had been placed. Atop it, Lucilla lay on her back, dressed in soft white robes; not the ones she'd been wearing when Alexandra brought her out of The Castle. Her eyes were closed. She was like a sleeping princess in a fairy tale. Alexandra couldn't see any signs of life. Her face was pale. Her chest didn't rise or fall.

Alexandra reached for one white hand, and glanced at Drucilla questioningly. Drucilla nodded. Alexandra took Lucilla's hand. It was cool.

Alexandra leaned over her, then slowly laid her head against Lucilla's chest. It was slow and faint, but Lucilla's heart was beating.

"She'll sleep like that for as long as she needs to," Drucilla said quietly. "She's not really sleeping. Her mind has not rejoined her body. Her mind is… here, but not. There's nothing more we can do for her but wait."

"Will she have her memories too?" Alexandra asked.

"Some memories are attached to her, and some to this place, and some might trickle in from the far corners of the world. She's a bit like a Pensieve right now. An empty Pensieve, waiting to be filled. We are all Pensieves in a way. Fragile vessels holding memories that can be lost more easily than we imagine. I know you learned an impressive amount of memory alchemy, so you probably understand some of this, but… ah, I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"It's okay," Alexandra said. She kissed Lucilla's cheek.

"Please come back, Lucy," she whispered in Lucilla's ear. "Dru needs you so much. We both do."

She released Lucilla's hand, laid it gently where it had been, and stood.

Drucilla smiled weakly. "She's here because of you."

Alexandra flinched. Dru's smile faded. "Oh, no. I didn't mean it like that! I meant you brought her out of The Castle… you saved us both, Alexandra."

"This happened because of me," Alexandra said.

"Stop thinking like that. This happened because we joined our father's cause and that made us enemies of the Confederation. They didn't just do this to get at you, or even at him. I know you like to take on far too much blame, Alexandra, but grant us some agency for ourselves."

Alexandra followed Drucilla back upstairs.

"Will you stay?" Drucilla asked. "This house… it's very empty right now."

"I'll stay," Alexandra said. "For a little while."

Alexandra stayed into December. She was restless, and worried about what was happening in the rest of the world, but she couldn't abandon her sisters. Occasionally she risked crossing the river into town to make phone calls. Anna and David were still in California, and Claudia and Archie were still in France with Valeria.

Brian told her that the Regal Royalty Sweets and Confections Warehouse had been fenced off and that the rumor in town was that it was a secret headquarters for "wizard people," which meant that reporters and curious teenagers kept trying to sneak in.

Alexandra supposed that wasn't far from the truth.

"We hear things," Brian said. "Monsters on the Great Lakes. Walking dead in Sheboygan. Dragons out west."

"Don't believe everything you hear," Alexandra said.

"We're past that, aren't we? Take me with you, wherever you are. I want to help. I want to fight this Confederation!" He was almost yelling.

Alexandra closed her eyes.

"No," she said, and hung up.

Alexandra didn't try to visit Livia, but sometimes Livia and her husband took their son out into town, and Livia would call her. Usually she had to leave a message, but she finally caught Alexandra while they were both outside their respective hideouts.

Livia told Alexandra that they had been forced to stop bringing day school students to Larkin Mills, with a hint of reproach.

"What about Goody Pruett?" Alexandra asked.

"If Muggles do manage to get inside, they can decide what to do with her. That's the least of the things they're being exposed to now." Another hint of reproach.

Alexandra had ventured all the way to the part of town where a few wizarding shops were located. Down the street was a bakery that sold Goody Pruett's pies. She looked up at a second floor walkup, and saw a dark doorway that was the entrance to Sojourns. She could almost feel Charlie and Nigel, inked into her skin beneath her winter coat.

Down the street, a vehicle turned the corner, with a sort of slow deliberation that struck her as odd. Not like the other cars that passed up and down this side street. It was dark and had tinted windows.

"Alexandra?" asked Livia, slightly annoyed.

Alexandra looked over her shoulder. Men in dark suits and overcoats, with sunglasses obscuring their eyes, approached her on both sides of the street.

"Oh, hell," Alexandra said. "G-Men."

"What?" Livia asked.

"Miss Quick!" yelled one of the men in black.

Alexandra remembered Livia warning her that the government could listen to her phone calls.

What had Livia also said? That Muggles had already been exposed to enough already. It wasn't like these men didn't know who she was.

She concentrated on her three Ds, and again felt a bit of exhilaration at doing the forbidden in plain sight, just before she Apparated away.

Each night, Drucilla and Alexandra went down to see Lucilla. Each night, she lay still and empty.

Until one night, she opened her eyes.

Drucilla put her hands to her mouth. Alexandra walked slowly over to Lucilla.

"Lucy?" she said.

Lucilla stared blankly at the ceiling. Then her eyes closed again.

"Lucy!" Alexandra shouted, but Lucilla didn't move or speak.

"She's returning," Drucilla said, on the third night after Lucilla first opened her eyes. "Some part of her is. Slowly."

Each night, Lucilla's eyes opened a little longer, and that night, her lips moved.

Alexandra wondered if it were true, or if Drucilla was just believing what she wanted to believe. She forced such doubts away. Lucy and Dru knew what they were doing. They must have done it right.

On the fourth night, Lucilla sat up.

Drucilla knelt next to her and took her hands.

"Lucy?" she asked. Her eyes glistened with tears.

Lucilla gazed at her for a long time, then in a voice that sounded like it came from another room, said, "I remember you."

Alexandra stood behind Drucilla, with her hands on her shoulders. Lucilla lifted her gaze to meet Alexandra's eyes. They stared at each other for a moment. Then Lucilla said, "Sister?"

"Yes," Alexandra said. She laughed, and then she wept.

Lucilla was like a ghost, but made of flesh and blood. She never seemed entirely there; her memories came from some remote reservoir that she could draw on only with effort.

She called Drucilla and Alexandra by name, and was soon walking about on her own, but there was often a distant expression on her face when considering the most simple tasks, like opening a door or answering questions. It was as if she were learning how to inhabit a body again.

Drucilla was by her side constantly. Alexandra spent some time with her, but more time in the library.

Lucilla reminded her too much of her mother. Her mother had a soul without memories. Lucilla seemed to have memories without a soul.

A week after Lucilla had risen from her bier, Alexandra told her sisters that it was time for her to go.

Lucilla, sitting in a chair examining a book—she seemed able to read, but it was not clear the words had any significance to her—nodded and said, "You did that before, didn't you? But you came back. You'll come back again?"

Alexandra put her arms around Lucilla's shoulders. Lucilla looked at her with an empty smile.

"I'll come back," Alexandra said. "You too, Lucy. Dru needs you."

"But I'm here," Lucilla said.

Alexandra and Drucilla walked outside together. On the porch, Drucilla took Alexandra's hands. "Please stay, Alexandra. There's no need for you to rush back into Father's schemes. Haven't we had enough of this wizard war? Haven't you done enough?"

Alexandra smiled sadly. "I'd love to stay here with you, and study, and wait for Lucilla to come all the way back." She shook her head. "But no, I haven't done enough. Not yet. Julia and Livia aren't safe yet. Muggles are going to need help against all the things being set free. Against the things I set free. And my friends… my friends are in danger right now. I can't just sit here in this house while they're out there fighting. I have to go join them, Dru."

"I know better than to think I can talk you out of this. But be safe, Alexandra. Don't be reckless. I know that goes against your nature."

Alexandra frowned. "Everyone says that, like I just try to be reckless."

Drucilla put her arms around her. "I am not as brave as I thought I was, and now I have learned to fear so much more. Please don't let me lose another sister."

Alexandra hugged her back, fiercely, taking in the scent that always clung to Dru, of old books and alchemical solutions. Dru felt thin and frail compared to her former stolid figure. The two of them stood there for a long moment, holding each other.

"I've learned to fear, too," Alexandra said. "But I've also learned to let the people I care about know how I feel. I love you both. And I'll be back."

With her pack on her shoulders, wearing a heavy coat, black jeans, her Seven-League Boots, and a wool cap and scarf, Alexandra stepped off the Whites' porch in the cool winter evening. A few flakes of snow were drifting down.

She stepped seven leagues west. And another seven leagues. Even in her Seven-League Boots, it would take her a while to get to California, but she knew her friends were waiting for her there. She would see Anna and David at last, and she would tell them how she felt. And then she'd join them in the wizard war they'd been fighting while she'd been running around getting into trouble and saving nobody.

There's a Confederation to tear down.