Secrets of the Musidora

The Musidora

One afternoon a few weeks after their arrival at Hogwarts, Melanie, Kathryn, and Scarlett were sitting in their common room, gathered around Melanie's book of Greek mythology, flipping through the section on the muses. They had already figured that Kathryn was inhabited by Clio, the muse of history, but they hadn't yet decided about Scarlett.

"Wasn't there a muse of love?" Kathryn asked, turning one of the pages.

"That seems to fit for me," Scarlett said happily. "Isn't there a planet named after her?"

"Venus was the goddess of love...and she was Roman, not Greek," Melanie answered, flipping through the book. "You're talking about Erato, the muse of erotic poetry." She turned one more page, stopping on a page showing a delicate figure in pink gazing temptingly up at them.

"I can live with that," Scarlett said, peering over Melanie's shoulder.

Kathryn looked from the page to Scarlett. "Well, she qualifies in the erotic department..."

"But what's your power with that?" Melanie interrupted. "The most we've seen so far is the ability to inspire love and willingness to give money from the audience. Compared to what Kathryn and I can do, that's child's play."

"I don't consider either love or money child's play," Scarlett said indignantly.

"I'm not saying that," Melanie corrected. "What I'm saying is that I think that there's another muse that fits your abilities more." She turned pages in the book, past Calliope, muse of epic poetry, Thalia and Melpomene, muses of comedy and tragedy, and Urania, muse of astronomy, until she stopped on a page with a large drawing of a delicate woman dancing with a scarf. "Like Terpsichore."

"Who?"

"The muse of dance."

"I could handle dance. Not as good as erotic poetry, though."

Melanie laughed. "I think you're Terpsichore and your power is that you can control people with your dancing."

Scarlett's eyes widened. "What?"

"You said so yourself," Melanie told her. "You said it wasn't hard for you to convince men to give you their money when you danced. What if you were actually bewitching them through your dancing?"

"It makes sense," Kathryn agreed. "And it seems like the kind of power a musea would have."

Scarlett pulled the book towards her and looked over it for a minute. "That's interesting," she said to herself. "I might have to experiment with this."

"It's not like we don't have time," Kathryn mumbled to herself. "Being stuck here day in and day out."

Melanie's eyes widened. "We can all experiment," she told them. "That's what we can do while we're stuck here. We can work with our powers-strengthen them. I mean, think about what we can do. If we work with our powers and find out how much we can really do, we won't have to hide from You-Know-Who anymore, because we'll be able to take anything he can throw at us!"

Kathryn and Scarlett looked at her blankly for a second before smiles began to spread across their faces. "Well, it gives us something to do." Her face fell. "Too bad we don't have the other six museas. Imagine what we could do if all of us were here."

"If we could just use the compass," Melanie grumbled.

Kathryn sighed and gave Melanie a sympathetic look. "We're just going to have to trust the Order to find the other museas."

"I'm just worried that the Order won't find them before You-Know-Who gets to them." Melanie shook her head. "Death Eaters have been on our heels every time we've tracked someone down."

"Well, how are they managing to do so well?" Scarlett asked.

"Who knows?" Kathryn asked. "I don't know how they manage to track down museas who don't even realize what they are."

"Or how they managed to find Scarlett," Melanie added. "Who would think of looking for a muse in a strip club, for crying out loud?!"

The girls were silent. "Maybe they have something like the compass..." Kathryn suggested. "But at least the Order has something to use, too."

"It was more our intuition and feeling that led us to Scarlett, though. We practically felt where she was..." Melanie's voice trailed off.

"But at least the Order's trying," Kathryn replied. She looked over at Melanie, who was just staring into space. "Melanie?"

Melanie just kept looking past both of them. "Melanie? What's wrong?"

"I know where another musea is," she said quietly.

"What do you mean? How could you know?"

Melanie turned her attention to Kathryn. "Do you remember the first time we touched, how we felt that surge of energy?"

"Yes, but..." Kathryn trailed off as Melanie stood up.

"I've felt that surge before."

"With who?" Kathryn asked. Melanie opened her mouth to answer when the front door swung open.

"Good morning, all!" Rhonda greeted cheerfully. "What are you up to this morning?"

"Not much," Kathryn replied from the table. "We've just been..."

"Actually," Melanie interrupted. "You showed up at the perfect time, Rhonda. Can you do us a favor?"

"What?" Rhonda asked, giving her a suspicious look.

"Do you know who Pippy McGregor is?"

Rhonda groaned. "Pippy? That annoying first year?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, she's just...well I heard some of the first years complaining about her last year. Apparently she's worse than Hermione."

"Worse than Hermione? How so?"

"She's a bookworm twice over, apparently. They said she's read all of her textbooks and half of the books in the library and can quote them all."

Melanie's eyes widened. "So she can read something once and have it memorized?" She looked over to Kathryn and Scarlett. "That sounds like the kind of power a musea would have."

Kathryn and Scarlett nodded and Rhonda groaned. "Pippy, a musea? You can't be serious!"

"I think so. Do you think you could find her?"

Rhonda sighed. "I think my mom knows them."

A broad grin formed on Melanie's face. "Thanks, Rhonda."

"Why do I let you talk me into these things?"

"Because you're my friend."

Rhonda shook her head. "Well, all right, then. I'll see what I can do." She turned and headed back out the door. "Talk about a quick trip."

~*~*~*~*~

Voldemort's robe swirled across the open field as he made his way to where a cauldron was brewing over an open fire. "Is it ready yet?"

"Yes, Master," Snape replied, stepping away from the cauldron. Voldemort peered inside and nodded his approval at the orange potion.

"Bring the book!" he cried, and another figure ran up carrying a large book.

"Here, Master," a high-pitched voice replied, opening up the book.

"Good. Everything else is prepared. Read the incantation to reveal the lineage of Calliope."

The figure nodded and began to read from the book in a strange language. The potion in the cauldron began to glow until a face appeared in it-the smooth, circular face of the muse Calliope surrounded by delicate brown curls. The face faded until another one appeared-the chubby face of an infant that grew older and more mature until, at the brink of wrinkles, it changed into another infant.

And so the progression continued. Each face grew from infancy to adulthood, a succession of faces across years and ages. The cycle finally began to slow until it ended on a young girl, her red hair in pigtails and smiling broadly out from the potions surface. At the bottom of the image was the edge of a Hogwarts uniform.

"Severus," Voldemort began, turning to the potions master. "Can you identify this girl?"

Snape peered inside the potion. He took in a deep breath and sighed. "Penelope McGregor. A rather know-it-all Ravenclaw."

"Good. Crabbe, McNair," two figures instantly appeared at Voldemort's side, "pay a visit to the McGregors and have the young girl grace us with her presence."

"Of course, Master," the two Death Eaters replied in unison, hurrying off. Snape's glare followed them.

~*~*~*~

The sun was fading low in the sky when Rhonda made her way to the McGregor's front porch. She sighed as she knocked loudly against the door.

"Who's there?" a scratchy voice asked from inside.

"Rhonda Mittenborn," Rhonda called. "I'm here to see Pippy."

The door cracked open and a wrinkled face with a wild head of graying hair appeared in the space. "Mittenborn, eh?" The one eye in the crack looked her up and down. "What do you want with Pippy?"

"I know her from school, Ma'am. I just want to talk to her." The eye stared at her for one moment before retreating as the door opened all of the way.

The woman looked less fierce when Rhonda saw more of her than her face as she walked inside.

"Can't be too careful, nowadays," the woman said as she led Rhonda inside and closed the door behind her, shooting a spell off at the closed door with her wand. "Pippy!! Someone's here to see you!"

There was a scurry of footsteps and the short figure of Pippy ran in from a room in the back of the house. She stopped when she saw Rhonda and looked at her in shock. "Rhonda?"

Rhonda forced a smile. "Hi, Pippy. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Pippy looked from the woman to Rhonda, her eyes wide in confusion.

The woman looked between them and shook her head. "Aren't you going to invite her to sit down?" the woman asked exasperatedly.

"I guess." Pippy looked over at Rhonda. "Do...do you want to sit down?"

Rhonda sighed. "Of course," she answered with false optimism.

"Here, I'll make you all some tea," the woman said, leading the group into the kitchen. Pippy and Rhonda sat down at the table while the woman scurried around by the stove, making tea.

Rhonda just looked at Pippy, who sat there uncomfortably. Pippy would shoot her a glance, then let her eyes wander around the room. Frustrated, Rhonda finally sighed.

"Have you ever heard of the musea, Pippy?"

The woman scoffed. "That absurd old legend? That's been floating around since I was a little girl and some German dame thought she could throw off curses with just music."

"It's been around a lot longer than that," Pippy said quietly. "The legend of the musea has been around since the fall of Rome." She blushed. "I read about it in a book."

"Well, it's not just an old legend-it's true."

There was a clatter in the kitchen and the woman fastened a suspicious eye on Rhonda. "What?"

"It's true." Rhonda turned to Pippy. "Do you remember Melanie Brienwald?"

Pippy nodded. "Is she..."

"Load of rubbish," the woman said, setting the tea on the table with a clatter.

Rhonda shook her head and turned to Pippy again. "And we've found out something more-there's not just one musea."

Pippy's head jolted up and she looked at Rhonda in surprise. "How can there be more than one-it's just the spirit of Euterpe..."

"But there were eight other muses," Rhonda finished.

Pippy's eyes widened. "Brilliant." Her head turned to look at the woman. "It makes perfect sense, Aunt Gertrude."

"It's just a great load of rubbish! Miss Mittenborn, if this is what you came to talk to my niece about, then I must insist that you leave."

Rhonda looked at her in surprise. "Don't you understand? We think Pippy's one of the museas."

Pippy's eyes widened. "What?"

But her aunt just laughed. "That's preposterous."

"It's true." Rhonda gave her a serious look. "We need to get her to Hogwarts where the other museas are so we can..."

"Fight against You-Know-Who?" the woman finished. Rhonda looked up at her in surprise. "I'm sorry, but no."

"Ms. McGregor," Rhonda protested, but the lady continued to shake her head.

"My family was once large and happy-until my parents decided to join the fight against You-Know-Who. They slaughtered my entire family-my parents and seven of my brothers and sisters. By a sheer miracle, I managed to escape with my youngest brother, but I swore that no more of my family would ever fall to the Death Eaters and I don't intend to break that promise." She fixed a fierce glare on Rhonda. "We stay here, no matter what crazy legend or prophecy you think applies to my niece. When my brother and his wife died, they left her in my care, and I will not let her go gallivanting off to be a Death Eater target."

"It doesn't matter what you do, Pippy's still going to be a target. You need to get her to safety."

The woman looked at Rhonda doubtingly. "What, the safety that a little child can give? I can protect my own, Miss Mittenborn. And now may I ask you to leave my home?"

Rhonda looked from the woman to Pippy and sighed. "Fine," she said as she stood up with a huff. "Why should I care what you do? Good evening." She turned and walked back out of the door.

"Silly woman," Rhonda told herself, pausing on the porch. "Looks like Melanie's gonna have to get the Order to get her." She shook her head and started to walk out into the street when she heard a noise behind her. She stopped and held her breath, straining her ears to listen. There were a few more soft noises, followed by some whispers.

"Now, remember, the Dark Lord wants the girl. The old woman doesn't matter, but don't harm the girl."

Rhonda froze in fear. "Death Eaters," she thought to herself. A million thoughts flew through her mind: people she could run to for help, plans to try. She shook her head. Nothing would help; by the time she got back, it would be too late.

There was a clatter and a shout, and Melanie knew the Death Eaters were in the house. She searched down the road anxiously for a solution to present itself. Finally, she sighed and turned back to the door.

She pushed the door open and pointed her wand at the first cloaked figure she saw. "Stupefy!" The Death Eater dodged her spell, and looked at her curiously for a second before sending a curse in her direction.

It missed Rhonda by mere inches as she took off running down the hallway where she found another Death Eater battling with Pippy's aunt.

"Rhonda!" Pippy squealed, suddenly appearing from a corner and running towards Rhonda.

"Petrificus totalus!" a voice behind Rhonda shouted as the Death Eater ran in behind her. A jet of light flew towards Pippy, where it disappeared just before it hit her. Pippy stood there in shock, and the Death Eater sent off the spell again.

"Stupefy!" Rhonda shouted, but her spell missed the Death Eater and hit a vase full of flowers.

"You need to work on your aim," the Death Eater told her, aiming his wand at her. "Avada kedavra!"

Pippy jumped on his arm and sent the jet of green light to Ronda's left. The Death Eater quickly threw Pippy aside and Rhonda pointed her wand to the spilled flowers. "Sprountia!"

The charmed flowers quickly grew and wrapped their stems around the Death Eater's feet. As the Death Eater aimed his wand to be rid of the plant, Rhonda took her chanced and immobilized him.

"That was incredible!" Pippy exclaimed as Rhonda let herself breathe a sigh of relief.

"Thanks to charms," Rhonda replied, looking to where Pippy's aunt was fighting unsuccessfully against the last Death Eater. "Sprountia."

The stems began to steadily grow towards the last Death Eater. There was a flash of light, and, when Rhonda's eyes could see again, the flowers had disappeared and the Death Eater had Pippy's aunt in his arms with his wand pointed at her.

"Your little charms won't do any good against me," he told Rhonda gruffly. "Here's the deal-give me the girl and I won't harm the old lady."

"Old lady!" Pippy's aunt protested, struggling against his grip.

"And don't even try to curse me," he added. "You'll hit her before you hit me."

"Rhonda!" Pippy gasped and Rhonda stared the Death Eater down.

"Stupefy!" Rhonda shouted, sending the spell just over the Death Eater's shoulder. He laughed at her as it bounced off of a mirror behind him and turned to hit him in the back. His face froze in shock as his body fell to the floor. Pippy's aunt quickly crawled out of his grip and looked from the Death Eater to Rhonda.

"Aunt Gertrude!" Pippy shouted, running to give her aunt a hug. But the woman's eyes stayed focused on Rhonda. She nodded slowly.

"All right, quickly," she told Pippy. "Get what you need. We're heading to Hogwarts."

~*~*~*~*~

Pippy's small figure looked uneasily around her.

"Oh, let's see how well I remember this!" Scarlett exclaimed. "A musea is someone who contains the spirit of one of the ancient Greek muses."

"Very good. It only took us a month to get you to understand it," Kathryn muttered under her breath.

"Hey, it was a lot to take in!" Scarlett objected.

"That's enough fighting, you two!" Melanie told them, shaking her head.

"What can she do, then?" Kathryn asked. "And what muse is she?"

"Hey, she's just a little girl," Melanie reminded them. "This is a lot to throw on her at once." She turned to look down at Pippy, but found her absorbed in the mythology book. "Pippy?"

"Are all of you musea, too?" she asked, looking around the table.

Scarlett and Kathryn just nodded, looking at her curiously.

"Then does each musea have a power related to their muse?" Pippy asked enthusiastically.

"Yes," Melanie answered and Pippy continued to flip through the book at breakneck speed. Kathryn leaned over by Melanie. "What's going on?"

"She's really smart," Melanie whispered back. "She catches onto things really quickly." They both turned their attention back to the small figure absorbed in the book.

~*~*~*~*~

The girls spent the next few days experimenting with different abilities. Eventually, though, arguments forced them to break apart and work on their powers individually, and Melanie, who was already the most advanced of the group because of all the time spent training the year before, ended up spending most of her days in her lab fiddling with her potion.

"Good morning," Draco told her, walking up behind her and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Melanie returned his greeting with a grunt. "What's wrong?"

"What isn't wrong?" she complained. She turned away from the cauldron and shook her head. "Kathryn and Scarlett can't stand each other, Pippy just spends all of her time in the library reading the books she didn't get to last year, and I'm stuck just sitting here working on a potion that won't do any good!"

"It'll be fine," Draco comforted her.

"Not to mention the fact that Rhonda hasn't been here since Pippy arrived, but I can't go see her since I'm stuck here."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't worry." He gave her a hug, and a silver object on the table caught his eye. "I thought you said you gave the compass to McGonagall?"

"I did," Melanie said, stepping away. "I made another one, and I've added Pippy and Scarlett to the potion." She looked down at the compass, pointing determinedly towards the door. "Now I have to just sit here and look at the compass pointing towards someone that I can't help."

"Come here," Draco told her, pulling her into another hug. "It's your job to stay safe now. Let the Order worry about the other museas."

Melanie dodged him and walked out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

Melanie woke up before everyone else the next morning and got dressed. She left the girl's apartments quietly and walked up to the seventh floor and into an old familiar classroom.

"Phantom?" she asked.

"Well, that's a voice I haven't heard in a while." There was a swirl of light and the Phantom appeared before her again. Melanie couldn't help but smile when she saw the familiar apparition. "What are you doing here? I thought Hogwarts was closed for this term."

"Well, I'm hiding, actually. You-Know-Who..." she trailed off.

The Phantom nodded. "I understand. Voldemort wouldn't be an intelligent adversary if he didn't try to use your power."

"But it's not just my power..." Melanie explained. She looked at the phantom curiously. "Did you know that there was more than one musea?"

"Well, there have been several throughout the years as the spirit moves on. I thought you knew that."

Melanie shook her head. "No, I mean more than one musea at the same time."

The Phantom laughed. "That's just silly. How can the spirit be in more than one place at once?"

"I mean that there's more than one spirit, more than one muse."

The Phantom drifted down to sit on the piano bench thoughtfully. "All of the muses...That's incredible!"

"I know, and that's what You-Know-Who's after. He wants to combine all of our powers."

"Incredible," the Phantom said to herself. "I never would have imagined it. What can they all do?"

"Well, we've only found three others right now. Clio can turn anything into how it used to be, Terpsichore can control people through her dancing, and Calliope can memorize something just from reading it once."

"Impressive powers. Do you know what you're going to do with them yet?"

"Well, actually, we're trying to train ourselves to use our powers as well as we can. There's going to be a face-off with You-Know-Who at some point, so we're gonna be prepared."

The Phantom just nodded, then laughed and shook her head. "I've never been so glad that I'm not currently living. It's a grave danger you're facing."

"Well, I don't plan on just hiding here forever. I have a life that I'd like to live at some point."

The Phantom laughed as she floated back towards the piano. "I wish you luck with that."

"So you never knew that there was more than one musea?"

She shook her head. "Never. It makes sense, though. If Euterpe can have a musea, why can't the others?"

"I just wanted to ask before we started working with this, in case there was something I was missing."

"I don't know. For once you are outside of my real of understanding."

Melanie nodded. "I understand. Well, the others will be waking up and they'll be wondering where I've run off to."

"Of course." The Phantom nodded. "Well, visit if you have time." Her figure faded into a mist that disappeared back into the organ.

~*~*~*~*~

Melanie wandered around the castle a lot that day, just thinking and reflecting on everything. She didn't return to her room until later that afternoon. Draco was waiting for her when she walked into the common room.

"Well, I was beginning to think you weren't coming back," he told her, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Melanie shook her head. "I just had a lot of stuff to think about."

"Well, now you have a lot of stuff to talk about, too."

Melanie turned and looked at him in surprise. "What?"

Draco motioned over to the corner of the room, where Rhonda was sitting quietly in an armchair.

"Rhonda?" Melanie asked in surprise.

"Hi, Melanie," Rhonda replied quietly, looking nervously around the room.

Melanie instantly picked up on her awkwardness and approached her cautiously. "You know, I haven't seen you in a while. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Rhonda answered quickly, staring over at the door. There was an awkward silence for a while. "Actually, I'm surprised you noticed."

"Why wouldn't I?" Melanie asked, giving her a surprised look. "Ever since I've been here you haven't visited that much, and then after Pippy got here you haven't visited at all. Was something wrong?"

Rhonda shifted uneasily in her seat. "Well, it just felt awkward. You were always working with the other museas on important things. Why should I be involved?"

"What?" Melanie asked in disbelief, giving Rhonda a strange look.

"Well," Rhonda muttered as she looked around the room, avoiding Melanie's glance. "Why would you want to spend time with little old me when you have important and powerful people to deal with."

Melanie looked at her silently for a moment, and Rhonda continued to look away. Slowly, Melanie started to notice tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"Rhonda Eloise Mittenborn, wherever did you get a ludicrous idea like that?" Melanie suddenly exclaimed. Rhonda blushed and shirked away. Melanie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, of course you're right," Melanie continued sarcastically. "Why would I want to spend any time with the friend who helped me pass my sixth year of Hogwarts with only a summer of experience and who helped me figure out who I was and what all of it meant? And never mind the fact that she almost single-handedly fought off two Death Eaters who were trying to capture the youngest musea. Yup, why would I ever consider spending any time around that looser?" Melanie flashed a stern smile at Rhonda, who was finally meeting her eye.

Rhonda managed a chuckle, a few more tears started to form in her eyes. "I know it sounds stupid, but...that's how I felt."

"You shouldn't have had to feel that way." Melanie sighed. "I don't care about power and importance-I would have been sorted into Slytherin if I had." Rhonda laughed unwillingly. She nodded.

"I understand. But you have to realize how I feel left out by all of this." She looked around uncomfortably. "I'm not a musea, I'm not especially talented in anything..."

"Oh, I think I know of a couple of Death Eaters who think you are quite talented with charms."

Rhonda laughed again. "It's not doing any good to tell you anything, is it?"

"Oh it is, I just..." Melanie sighed. "I'm listening to everything you're saying, I'm just trying to cheer you up some." Rhonda smiled at her and Melanie continued. "I mean, I can understand how you might feel left out, but you need to realize that you're my friend and that means that..."

Melanie was interrupted by a shout from Kathryn's room. Both Melanie and Rhonda looked over as the door to Scarlett and Pippy's rooms opened and the two girls looked out into the common room.

"Is everything okay?" Scarlett asked.

"I don't know," Melanie said, walking over to Kathryn's door. She knocked quietly on it and everyone else gathered around behind her. "Kathryn? Are you all right?"

The door cracked open and Kathryn peered out. Her hair was messed up and her eyes were wide open, but all she did was stare out at the crowd outside of her door.

"Kathryn?" Melanie asked again.

Kathryn seemed to snap out of her daze and looked at Melanie. "I've had a vision," she said, turning to look out at the crowd again.

"A vision?" Scarlett asked. "What, of the future?"

"Why would she have a vision of the future, she's the muse of the past," Rhonda threw back at her as Melanie helped Kathryn back into her room and sat her down on the bed.

"I've seen things in dreams before," Kathryn stammered as she sat down. "Places and people from the memory of old museas. It almost seems like every night now I see something since I've been working on my powers so much."

"Has it been bothering you?" Melanie asked. "I haven't been hearing you yell in your sleep."

Kathryn shook her head. "No, the memories are never much. They're just like regular dreams, really. This was just the first time I saw something during the day, when I wasn't asleep."

"You weren't asleep?" Scarlett asked. "How could you have a vision if you weren't asleep?"

"I don't know," Kathryn replied. "One minute I was sitting at my desk over there writing and the next I was having this vision." She shook her head.

"What was the vision?" Melanie asked. Kathryn looked at her and then at the crowd gathered around her.

She took in a deep breath. "I saw the muses," she said quietly.

"What?" Scarlett asked, leaning over closer to hear.

"I saw the muses," Kathryn told her, speaking a bit louder and more confidently. "As they were back in Greece when they were, well, alive."

"Really?" Pippy said excitedly, popping her head through the small crowd to see them.

Kathryn couldn't help but laugh. "Yes. All nine of them, too. They were the most beautiful human beings I've ever seen."

"Then why did you cry out like you did?" Melanie asked.

"It was what happened," Kathryn explained. "They were all gathered in their temple, but an army was attacking. They didn't say anything, but I knew that they knew it was the end-that they couldn't escape from this army."

"That would be the Romans," Pippy said, looking around at everyone. "When they attacked the Greeks, they destroyed the old temples."

"But they were witches!" Scarlett protested.

"Do you honestly think that the Greeks were the only ones with witches on their side?" Melanie asked.

"Yes, the Romans had loads of wizards and witches on their side," Pippy continued. "That's how they annihilated most of the Greek wizarding community-well, the outspoken ones, at least. The ones who interfered with muggle life and pretended to be gods."

Rhonda looked at Melanie and laughed. "We're lucky that we have the only person who paid attention in History of Magic here." Pippy blushed, but still smiled proudly.

"That's exactly it," Kathryn agreed, looking at Pippy. "Not that I paid attention to that old ghost, either, but, in the vision, I somehow knew that's what was going on. Nobody said anything at all in the vision, but I somehow knew exactly what was happening."

"Well, what happened? Did the Romans attack the temple?"

Kathryn nodded. "And they knew there was no way to escape. So, they cast some kind of charm."

Rhonda's eyes perked up. "A charm?"

Kathryn nodded again. "That was the only thing I didn't understand in the vision. I knew they were casting a charm, but I didn't understand what it was."

"What did the charm do?" Rhonda asked.

"Well," Kathryn began, "all nine of them joined hands together, and one of their priests stood in the middle and spoke an incantation."

"What was the incantation?" Rhonda interrupted.

"I don't know. I didn't hear anything, I just saw their mouths moving."

"Oh," Rhonda complained. "Well, go on."

"Well, then all of the muses replied with something in unison and a bright golden light began to emerge from all of them. And the light kept getting stronger and stronger until it formed into one big beam of light that dropped into the priest's hands. There, it started to form into..."

"...a book," Rhonda finished, staring into space.

"Rhonda?" Melanie asked, looking from Kathryn to Rhonda.

"Kathryn, what happened next? Did the muses just disappear?" Rhonda asked, ignoring Melanie.

Kathryn nodded. "They just gradually faded away until nothing was there anymore. Then the priest hid the book in the temple before the Romans arrived. That was when I woke up."

Everyone turned their attention to Rhonda, who was whispering to herself and nodding. After a bit, she looked around. "I know how You-Know-Who's tracking the muses. It's an old-and powerful-charm. I've never heard of it actually being used, though. It requires such sacrifice and yields so little power that it would only be attractive under very specific circumstances." She laughed to herself. "Like this."

"Little power?" Melanie asked. "How is the power of the museas considered little power?"

Rhonda shook her head. "The power to the possessed is big, but not to the possessor. Even though they inhabit each of you and, through that, allows each of you power. But, the muses themselves do not have much power. Their power is in your hands. Why would that appeal to anyone?"

"It would appeal to someone just trying to stay alive," Kathryn replied.

"And whose existence was already based on inspiring the work of others," Melanie added.

"So, we know why the muses picked that spell, but how does You-Know-Who fit into all of that?" Scarlett asked.

"Well, the name of the charm is the Sutirips Charm, and its basic function is to change someone from their physical form into a spirit form," Rhonda explained. "However, there are so many side effects that happen that the charm is undesirable to most people. As a spirit form, the witch or wizard is forced to inhabit a magical being, but they cannot control it. They offer the magical being power from the connection, but they themselves cannot wield it. Plus, a book is created as a by-product that contains spells to control the spirits-even against their will. The spirits can at least choose who they inhabit, so that gives them some form of control, but, when the book is in play, they have no choice. The book is formed in the hands of whoever casts the charm, so those who are participating needs to choose someone they ultimately trust."

"But their priest just left the book in the temple."

"They didn't have much choice, though, did they?" Kathryn replied. "The priest was highly unlikely to get past the Romans alive, and hiding the book in a temple about to be destroyed would be the next best option."

The group nodded, and Melanie turned to Rhonda. "What kinds of spells are in the book?"

Rhonda shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Nobody really does, because the spell is so rare. But I would assume that there is some form of tracking spell, and that that's what You-Know-Who is using to track the museas."

Melanie gave Rhonda a frightened look. "Would there be spells to actually control the power of the muses, either while they're in us or by summoning them out of us?"

"Maybe. But if the book is in You-Know-Who's hands, wouldn't he have used that spell by now?" Rhonda asked.

Everyone exchanged silent looks.

"It's like having a ticking time bomb hovering over you," Kathryn remarked with a shiver.

"Well, I assume the magic of Hogwarts would protect us from anything like that," Melanie said optimistically. "So it doesn't do much good to worry about that now, anyway."

The rest of the group nodded. Pippy and Scarlett quietly headed back to their rooms, and Melanie and Rhonda headed out into the common room.

Melanie chuckled and turned to Rhonda. "So, see what I mean? You might not have the powers of a muse, but you do have the powers of charm knowledge that we needed."

Rhonda laughed. "Of course. You can pick my brain on charms any time you want."

Melanie opened her mouth to reply when Kathryn walked up behind her. "Melanie?"

"What?" Melanie asked, turning around to face her.

"I don't know if this would help Rhonda or not," she began, "but I did manage to make out one word from trying to read the lips of what people were saying during the vision."

"What?" Rhonda asked excitedly.

"It happened after the spirits and the book had formed. The priest hid the book and then I saw him say the word 'musidora.'"

"Musidora? What's that supposed to mean?" Melanie asked.

"I bet it's the name of the book," Rhonda replied. "Which is now conveniently in the hands of the most evil wizard to roam the earth."

Melanie gave a frustrated sigh. "We HAVE to find the rest of the museas before he does."