Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-06-04 06:13 am
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-06-04 06:13 am
Entry tags:
... and the Monster of Amristar XII
Chapter 12: Easter Holiday
The students spend their Easter break trailing their preferred suspects, fitting in a few moments to engage in more enjoyable pursuits. Lachlan works on his Quidditch and plays catch up on his studies.
Juliet and Daisy work on their music, with Juliet learning the basics of magical enchantment, including a note that will render the air completely still, causing it to drop all humidity, dust and what have you for an instant downpour on a muggy day. The haunting strains of Daisy’s violin echo across the castle and can be heard even as far as Hogsmead and the Forbidden Forest.
Pollux and Castor engage in battles with Professor Lippershey, replaying Morgan’s sacking of Panama. The Astronomy professor takes the Panamanian position, and over the course of the week outmaneuvers the boys sufficiently to “win” his victory conditions even as Morgan’s pirates still take Portobello. (The boys just couldn’t successfully convince their troops to use the Jesuits as shields in the final assault.) It’s clear the tweed clad professor has a lot of experience with warfare!
Castor also continues to make subtle changes to the set of the play, finding and adding bits of Indian brick-a-brack. Jasmyn helps some, but is much more intent on taking care of Willow and stalking Professor Kettleburn & Dr. Plain. She wants it to be mean old Kettleburn, but now she’s not so sure. Castor, following up on his suspicions, feigns a crush on Professor Briar, so that he might follow her everywhere being “helpful” and see if that produces anything. It does not.
Dr Plain does interview both of the Fontaine girls, asking them if they’ve found anything odd or unusual at the school. He explains this away by saying it’s just what he’d need to know to explain to Muggle parents. But that’s just what he’d have to say to distract them. He also wouldn’t tell Daisy where he was born (“what an odd question!”), doing nothing to dispel her belief that he was born in Newcastle, perhaps just down the street from where Slaughter’s body breathed its last.
More importantly, Daisy overhears a conversation between Dr. Plan and Filch, where the Plain’s private room has been prepared. For all that the Muggle dotes on his pregnant wife, seeing to her every need, he does keep slipping away to that room. As the end of break approaches Jasmyn decides that she’s not going to wait any longer to find out what’s in that room. Unable to pick the lock, she slips into the greenhouse and seizes an Argusato! She stands outside the secret room and raises the blinking tuber to her mouth. Despite the panicked looks on the eyes she bites down hard, feeling the eyelashes flutter against her tongue. Ewwwwww!
It is an act of supreme willpower to force the entire tuber down, with its sickly stench and slimy, aqueus humor texture. Once she does so, however, the walls of the castle fade way, leaving visible only wooden doors, metal hinges, tapestries and carpets. Inside the secret room she spies Dr. Plain fumbling with Muggle tools to construct a crib. He’s already built a cradle, changing table and the floor is covered with Muggle toys like trucks and wooden trains. When he stands, wiping his greasy hands on his flannel shirt, his foot lands on a stuffed bear, which makes the squealing noise Lachlan heard from the trunk.
Unwilling to go through such hardship for so little return she makes her way to Professor Kettleburn’s room. It’s tricky walking when you can’t see the floor, but at least the stairs are wood. Most of them. With bruised shins and skinned knees Jasmyn finally reaches the stables and Kettleburn’s quarters, where she gazes upon a nightmare! Kettleburn is performing a slow, ritual dance in front of an alter, with a straight sword in one hand, a curved one in another, a dagger in another, a small shield in another, a rattle in another and a wand in another. He had six arms! It must have been him Juliet saw in the Astronomy tower! She would surely have lost her lunch at the shock of it were it not for the nightmarish thought of tasting Argosato again.
She turned her attention away from this scene into the stables to see what he had transferred to the school on the train: it was a huge, winged serpent, nestled atop of clutch of silver eggs. At a loss she moves as fast as she could back to the others.
Juliet is able to identify the creature: an Occamy, native to India, normally placid but very dangerous when their eggs are disturbed, which humans often do since the eggshells are solid silver. Daisy is able to find a list of creatures recovered by the ministry in the wake of their Genus’ Exotic Beasts raid, and an Occamy was among them. Did he steal it? Or is he keeping it until it can be moved? And, just out of curiosity, why does he have SIX ARMS?! “He must be part Rakshasa” Castor theorizes, explaining about the shape-shifting Indian monsters that he, Juliet & Pollux had found in their studies. This would explain the concern about his “blood” when he was hired. Castor continues, “OK, so he has six arms, a giant serpent and an altar to Shiva. To me, this rules him out as Reg.”
Lachlan agrees, and leaves to immediately confront the teacher. Kettleburn is surprised by the knock on his door but listens as the first year explains that he found an alter to Shiva with Kobolds on it during detention, that he thinks Woden is on the grounds and that he is aware of Kettleburn’s unique physiology. To say that the Professor is taken aback is the least of it, but it’s clear that Lachlan has touched a nerve. He thanks the student for his forthrightness and admonishes him not to speak of this to anyone. As Lachlan is leaving, the professor asks one last question: “Does ‘Amristar’ mean anything to you?”
“That’s the massacre in India, wasn’t it?”
“That it was. Be very careful, child.”
Despite the innocuous contents of Plain’s secret room Daisy is still suspicious: if Reg is going to move Olaf into the child, of course he’ll do everything he can to protect it, both before and after it’s born. The others agree to a plan – on the night of the play, when Plain will be surrounded by teachers but readily accessible, they’ll get the Reality Cloak on him. It can’t be fooled. There’s a moment of concern that if he is Reg that the baby might be in danger, but Castor dispels it: if he is Reg, the safest place for Professor Plain to be is right at his side, where he’ll keep her protected.
And if it’s not him Kettleburn is next. They’ll find Reg even if they have to throw the cloak over everyone single professor and student in the school!
The students spend their Easter break trailing their preferred suspects, fitting in a few moments to engage in more enjoyable pursuits. Lachlan works on his Quidditch and plays catch up on his studies.
Juliet and Daisy work on their music, with Juliet learning the basics of magical enchantment, including a note that will render the air completely still, causing it to drop all humidity, dust and what have you for an instant downpour on a muggy day. The haunting strains of Daisy’s violin echo across the castle and can be heard even as far as Hogsmead and the Forbidden Forest.
Pollux and Castor engage in battles with Professor Lippershey, replaying Morgan’s sacking of Panama. The Astronomy professor takes the Panamanian position, and over the course of the week outmaneuvers the boys sufficiently to “win” his victory conditions even as Morgan’s pirates still take Portobello. (The boys just couldn’t successfully convince their troops to use the Jesuits as shields in the final assault.) It’s clear the tweed clad professor has a lot of experience with warfare!
Castor also continues to make subtle changes to the set of the play, finding and adding bits of Indian brick-a-brack. Jasmyn helps some, but is much more intent on taking care of Willow and stalking Professor Kettleburn & Dr. Plain. She wants it to be mean old Kettleburn, but now she’s not so sure. Castor, following up on his suspicions, feigns a crush on Professor Briar, so that he might follow her everywhere being “helpful” and see if that produces anything. It does not.
Dr Plain does interview both of the Fontaine girls, asking them if they’ve found anything odd or unusual at the school. He explains this away by saying it’s just what he’d need to know to explain to Muggle parents. But that’s just what he’d have to say to distract them. He also wouldn’t tell Daisy where he was born (“what an odd question!”), doing nothing to dispel her belief that he was born in Newcastle, perhaps just down the street from where Slaughter’s body breathed its last.
More importantly, Daisy overhears a conversation between Dr. Plan and Filch, where the Plain’s private room has been prepared. For all that the Muggle dotes on his pregnant wife, seeing to her every need, he does keep slipping away to that room. As the end of break approaches Jasmyn decides that she’s not going to wait any longer to find out what’s in that room. Unable to pick the lock, she slips into the greenhouse and seizes an Argusato! She stands outside the secret room and raises the blinking tuber to her mouth. Despite the panicked looks on the eyes she bites down hard, feeling the eyelashes flutter against her tongue. Ewwwwww!
It is an act of supreme willpower to force the entire tuber down, with its sickly stench and slimy, aqueus humor texture. Once she does so, however, the walls of the castle fade way, leaving visible only wooden doors, metal hinges, tapestries and carpets. Inside the secret room she spies Dr. Plain fumbling with Muggle tools to construct a crib. He’s already built a cradle, changing table and the floor is covered with Muggle toys like trucks and wooden trains. When he stands, wiping his greasy hands on his flannel shirt, his foot lands on a stuffed bear, which makes the squealing noise Lachlan heard from the trunk.
Unwilling to go through such hardship for so little return she makes her way to Professor Kettleburn’s room. It’s tricky walking when you can’t see the floor, but at least the stairs are wood. Most of them. With bruised shins and skinned knees Jasmyn finally reaches the stables and Kettleburn’s quarters, where she gazes upon a nightmare! Kettleburn is performing a slow, ritual dance in front of an alter, with a straight sword in one hand, a curved one in another, a dagger in another, a small shield in another, a rattle in another and a wand in another. He had six arms! It must have been him Juliet saw in the Astronomy tower! She would surely have lost her lunch at the shock of it were it not for the nightmarish thought of tasting Argosato again.
She turned her attention away from this scene into the stables to see what he had transferred to the school on the train: it was a huge, winged serpent, nestled atop of clutch of silver eggs. At a loss she moves as fast as she could back to the others.
Juliet is able to identify the creature: an Occamy, native to India, normally placid but very dangerous when their eggs are disturbed, which humans often do since the eggshells are solid silver. Daisy is able to find a list of creatures recovered by the ministry in the wake of their Genus’ Exotic Beasts raid, and an Occamy was among them. Did he steal it? Or is he keeping it until it can be moved? And, just out of curiosity, why does he have SIX ARMS?! “He must be part Rakshasa” Castor theorizes, explaining about the shape-shifting Indian monsters that he, Juliet & Pollux had found in their studies. This would explain the concern about his “blood” when he was hired. Castor continues, “OK, so he has six arms, a giant serpent and an altar to Shiva. To me, this rules him out as Reg.”
Lachlan agrees, and leaves to immediately confront the teacher. Kettleburn is surprised by the knock on his door but listens as the first year explains that he found an alter to Shiva with Kobolds on it during detention, that he thinks Woden is on the grounds and that he is aware of Kettleburn’s unique physiology. To say that the Professor is taken aback is the least of it, but it’s clear that Lachlan has touched a nerve. He thanks the student for his forthrightness and admonishes him not to speak of this to anyone. As Lachlan is leaving, the professor asks one last question: “Does ‘Amristar’ mean anything to you?”
“That’s the massacre in India, wasn’t it?”
“That it was. Be very careful, child.”
Despite the innocuous contents of Plain’s secret room Daisy is still suspicious: if Reg is going to move Olaf into the child, of course he’ll do everything he can to protect it, both before and after it’s born. The others agree to a plan – on the night of the play, when Plain will be surrounded by teachers but readily accessible, they’ll get the Reality Cloak on him. It can’t be fooled. There’s a moment of concern that if he is Reg that the baby might be in danger, but Castor dispels it: if he is Reg, the safest place for Professor Plain to be is right at his side, where he’ll keep her protected.
And if it’s not him Kettleburn is next. They’ll find Reg even if they have to throw the cloak over everyone single professor and student in the school!