...and the Root of All Evil X

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Chapter 10: A Thousand Years

Over the next weeks the second years marvel at how close Jasmyn came to death, how prescient Kettleburn’s warning was and how, despite all their best efforts, they can’t find any sign of the creature in the DADA and Care of Magical Creatures texts. That’s no reason to stop looking, of course – it just means that the creature must be really rare! And so they redouble their efforts.

Daisy plays from the roof in hopes of hearing Firenze’s counterpoint. For now it remains a sad, yet hopeful, solo.

Shortly after that Dumbledore announces to the students that the school is going to be applying some restrictions – some of the club hours are being cut back, the breakfast options are being reduced – and while our heroes know that this is because of the school’s money woes the headmaster couches it in terms of easing the burden on the staff as the theatrical company scouts out locations.

The students are thrilled that the school is going to be part of such a major production, and are unable to stay completely out of the way of the veritable army of goblin workers and wizarding technicians arrive. While the goblins are predictably surly the wizards are happy to accept help from the Muggle Studies students, given how modified Muggle tech is being used in this. This means that Professor Plain and is kept rather busy, poking about in the production.

Eventually Daisy’s calls get a reply, and after the human-centaur duet breaks the tension a little she is able to ask some questions. Centaurs, she learns, live on the boundaries – between rage and civilization, Apollo and Dionysus, life and death – and if their control slips the results are disastrous. That’s why nockinumnogginum, or alcohol, are so dangerous.

Firenze relates that he had seen in the stars that a mad beast would threaten Jasmyn in the garden. He had gone there to protect her, but, alas, the fates cannot be denied. They will always find a way to twist things to their ends. Despite his continued protestation of the dangers, he will bow to Daisy’s wishes and arrange a meeting between Daisy and Chiron next month.

Mrs. Dee arrives on campus again for a quick visit, and again takes her sons out for tea. The twins glean that mum thinks everything will be OK financially as long as no one panics. The next morning Daisy opens her Daily Prophet to find the front page headline “Financial Malfeasance at Hogwarts: Vector’s incompetence, Dumbledore’s cluelessness, lead to death of great institution?” The article strongly insinuates that Mrs. Dee – their family no longer beloved by the Slytherin – had been hiding this from Ministry. Clearly someone either on the Hogwarts board or at the bank leaked. “Mum’s gonna go spare, she is,” Pollux predicts.

The school doesn’t exactly panic, but there is rather a lot of unfocused worry that even a speech from the headmaster does not quell. The school may have to be shut down! It doesn’t help that the Witches Bowl is called off due to the expense. With that venerable institution gone, what else might follow? Dramaturgy? Quidditch?!? The mind boggles.

But not so much that the bureaucracy goes away, as the second years have to pick advanced classes. Castor wishes he could drop Herbology, but no luck. It takes a deep heart-to- heart for the kids to convince Jasmyn that she is not, in fact, great at Runes, sparing her from years of torturing Professor Ogham. Pollux cannot make up his mind, and petitions for the right to take extra classes on top of Runes and Magical Creatures – perhaps just a little Arithmancy? Please? Sprout is eventually convinced to speak to Vector, convinced of the boy’s boundless work ethic. Juliet looks at Divination on the list and laughs heartily – even Professor Trelawny could predict that she would be avoiding that class like the plague.

Rowan signs up for Divination, but drops it when she learns that Peri & Roberta are taking it, opting for Runes because she knows Ogham from Dramaturgy. Grendel quizzes Juliet to see if she might be in Arithmancy or Magical Creatures with him, and Juliet again tries to push him off, fearing some secret motive or collaboration with Peri.

While Pollux, Juliet & Jasmyn are stymied in their monster research, Castor scores a victory in another area: the mystery of the Not Juliet. Having exhausted research on other means of duplicating his friend – illusions, polyjuice potion, simulacra, etc. – he finally found notes on Homunculi. These solid constructs last for a season or two before breaking down, are made from advanced potions work, and look just like the person they were based on, only much stronger and tougher. They require hair or other ‘corpus residue’ of the subject and images that capture the subject’s emotional resonance. Peri had made Juliet’s hair fall out in their duel! And there had been snapshots taken of her after the train assault and while she was raving against movie tryouts! Juliet is livid at the depth & planning of the Peri’s plot, and Pollux pontificates on how much Luci’s patience makes Peri a more formidable opponent. That’s one impressive summer camp! What they can’t figure out is how this ties in with the vampire, or any-thing else. Or are they not connected at all?

Jasmyn & Juliet are cornered by Filch between classes. The muddy footprints are back, first time in months, and he knows that the girls are responsible for it somehow. And he wants it stopped! As he works up the Gray Lady appears, silently staring at him until his tirade stumbles to a halt and he skulks off. With a slight smile she whispers to them “No one is really dead if they can still speak their mind.”

Daisy is approached by Professor Plain, who informs her old student that she and her family are going to be leaving the school before the end of the term. Part of it is her decision – the school is a chaotic place to try to raise an infant – but she doesn’t deny that the financial pressures have something to do with it. The Board of Governors felt that her having the family here was an undue expense, and that he class could be handled by an adjunct for the remainder of the year. Daisy is stricken, but Professor Plain thinks it’s for the best. She even got to pick her replacement, an old student named Quirrell.

Once again Pollux is pulled from his bed by his cat, Bess, and dragged over to the air vent to listen to an echoed conversation. The harsh voice is the same as last time, lambasting someone. “Listen you useless lump, if you think you can get out of this now you don’t understand the terms of the contract. Oohh, poor you, it isn’t what you thought. Get used to it! It’s never what you think! That changes nothing.” Prepared, Pollux casts his air spirit spell, getting a map of the air vents that leads to a storage room near the kitchen – just next door! Moving with as much speed as stealth allows he reaches the room and strains to hear more.

He is able to make out, “You have your orders and you’ll do what you’re told. Or else, well, you wouldn’t like that…” There’s a shuffling step, a gasp, some sort of scuffle and a groan. “Carry that carcass out of here, and stay out of sight.” Fearing that they’d be coming through this door Pollux retreated, hiding inside a cupboard where he might be able to see them. After a count of a hundred he realized they weren’t coming out, and instead went in with an alohamora. The room is empty other than muddy footprints, signs of a large person being dragged to and through the window and a half burned cigar. He pockets the cigar and leaves.

The next morning Pollux relates these events to his friends over a spartan breakfast. They notice that Manny is at the school, bending Dumbledore’s ear about something. “Hey,” Jasmyn remembers, “Manny smokes cigars.” The group tails the suspicious figure for a while, but can’t find anything that might implicate him. Still, he’s clearly up to something.