Alexandra Quick and the Deathly Regiment

Finding Trouble

Angelique and Darla, it turned out, were displacing Sonja Rackham and Carol Queen, who moved into the room adjacent to Alexandra and Anna that afternoon.

Sonja, a pretty girl with curly red hair and an explosion of freckles across her face and arms, was loud and extroverted. Her roommate, a somewhat awkward-looking girl with mousy brown hair and glasses, was the opposite -- Alexandra wasn't sure she'd heard Carol speak out loud in class the entire previous two years.

Alexandra and Anna heard the other two girls as they began moving their things into their new room Sunday afternoon, and walked through the connecting bathroom to greet them.

"-- that's why they're calling her 'the girl who came back,' because no one's ever come back from the Lands Below before," Sonja was saying to Carol, as she balanced a whirling, spinning contraption on her dresser. It was a sort of wire sculpture that appeared to be magically suspended in air.

Carol turned pale when she saw Alexandra in the doorway. Sonja turned around slowly, with a blush spreading beneath her freckles.

"That's not true," Alexandra said. "Indian wizards used to come and go from the Lands Below."

Sonja recovered quickly. "Really? Says who?"

"They don't tell us everything here at Charmbridge," Alexandra said, walking into the room uninvited. "And not everything they tell us is the truth."

Carol looked worried. Sonja stood there, a little warily, but she didn't back away from Alexandra. Anna smiled nervously.

"I'm sorry about your brother," Sonja blurted out.

"Thanks." Alexandra looked around the room. Sonja seemed to be a fan of Hamlet's Clowns -- she had plastered posters of the macabre-wrock band all over her side of the room. The lead singer was hanging prominently over her bed. He was juggling skulls, and when Alexandra looked at him, he caught one of the skulls, gave it a kiss, and winked suggestively at her, before tossing it into the air again.

Carol had framed wizard photographs carefully lined up on an already-packed bookshelf, but no posters. There was a cage under her bed, but it was empty; its resident, a large brown rat, was sitting docilely on her shoulder.

"Anyway, as long as you don't hog the bathroom like Darla and Angelique did, we'll be fine," Alexandra said. She turned to look at her new suitemates. "If you do, I'll have to curse you."

Sonja's eyes widened, and Carol shrank away from her. Her rat chittered nervously.

"Just kidding." Alexandra caught Anna's eye, and winked. Anna shook her head.

"Hah hah," Sonja retorted.

Alexandra gave her a small smile, and walked back towards her own room.

"Hey, are you going to join the Dueling Club this year?" Sonja asked.

Alexandra paused. She had almost forgotten about Charmbridge's Dueling Club. It was restricted to eighth graders and above, and she had been looking forward to joining it since sixth grade.

"Yeah, probably."

Sonja nodded. "Great. Me, too."

"Are you crazy?" Alexandra heard Carol whispering, as she closed the door behind them.

"Are you really going to join the Dueling Club?" Anna asked, back in their room. They hadn't quite finished unpacking everything and rearranging their room for the coming semester, but Anna was lining up her books, while Alexandra took the last of her own belongings out of her backpack to put away.

"I guess so." Alexandra frowned, as she took a picture cube out of her pack. It displayed images on all six sides, wizarding photographs taken the previous year, of her and her brother and his friends from BMI. Some had been taken down in the valley below the Invisible Bridge, where Maximilian had taken her to practice wizard-dueling. She had been looking forward to using all the spells he'd taught her.

In the photograph facing her now, she and Maximilian were both wearing their Junior Regimental Officer Corps uniforms, and Maximilian had thrown an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against him, winking at the camera. Alexandra was flushing with embarrassment, but there was a silly grin on her face. Behind Alexandra, Maximilian's best friend Martin Nguyen was holding a wand over her head; in the next moment, Alexandra knew, he would be casting a Bubble-Gum Jinx on her hair. Beatrice Hawthorne was holding the camera for this picture, but Alexandra could see her rolling her eyes in the photograph next to it, where Alexandra had snapped the three juniors posing with wands drawn. Maximilian was scowling and Martin was snickering -- Alexandra recalled that she'd been holding the camera with one hand and giving a sticky pink middle finger to Martin with the other.

She only realized her mind had wandered again when she sensed someone beside her. She turned and saw Anna looking at her, sympathy and concern etched on her face.

"I'm okay, Anna," she said, putting the picture cube on her nightstand, next to her alarm clock.

That's when she noticed the pictures hanging on the wall over Anna's desk. Last year, Anna had put up very little in the way of decorations, but now she had a framed photograph of a proud man in imperial-looking robes, folding his arms and practically puffing out his chest for the camera. Next to that picture was another one that looked flat and lifeless by comparison. A woman with long black hair and large brown eyes, much like Anna's, smiled timidly from her frame, frozen and unmoving, unlike the wizard photograph next to her.

"Your parents?" she asked. Anna nodded. Her eyes were distant for a moment, and Alexandra felt guilty for forgetting that Anna, too, wasn't coming back to school under happy circumstances.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Anna blinked. A couple of tears glistened, and she wiped her eyes. "Yes." She smiled at Alexandra. "I think it's great if you want to join the Dueling Club. It would be, you know, something for you to do. To... to take your mind off..."

Not likely, Alexandra thought, but she said, "You could join, too."

Anna laughed quietly, shaking her head. "No way. You scare me enough without a wand."

---

Although Charmbridge Academy students had more choices in electives available as they advanced, Charms, Transfiguration, and Alchemy were core courses, and it was rare for anyone to skip levels, which meant these classes stayed much the same from year to year.

Their Charms teacher was the familiar, humorless Mr. Newton, whom Alexandra did not like much. He was always squinting at her behind his thick spectacles, as if not quite sure why she was in his class, and he lectured in a slow, pedantic tone about proper incantations (always Greek or Latin) and correct wand movements. Alexandra thought she could learn more spells faster if Mr. Newton weren't so picky about making sure every last syllable and gesture was correct.

For Transfiguration, they again had the befuddled but harmless Mr. Hobbes. He looked a bit mad, with white hair that always stuck up away from his head as if he'd just gotten out of bed, and a grin that bordered on maniacal as he spoke about Gamp's Law and the Arithmantic Principle of Conservation. He told them that their focus for the entire year would be inanimate transformations, as they wouldn't be introduced to complex animate transformations until their freshman year.

Alchemy II took place in the same classroom where Alchemy I had been held, and Basic Alchemy before that, and the same teacher was waiting for them.

"Doesn't anyone else teach Alchemy here?" Alexandra whispered to Anna, as Mr. Grue watched the eighth graders file into his classroom. He looked unchanged since the previous year, or the year before that. She'd never seen him wearing anything but his thick black robe that matched his shaggy black mane. Both his hair and his robe were perpetually glittering with metal dust, and Grue's scarred and blistered face made him look sinister even when he wasn't scowling -- which was almost all the time.

"Yes!" snapped the teacher from across the room, looking at Alexandra as if she were a bug he'd caught crawling across his classroom floor. "But unfortunately, not at your grade level." He stomped across the room, glowering at her, until his bushy black beard was practically in her face. "Each year, you've barely passed my class, Miss Quick. If you can pass this year, I will never have to see you again."

"Good," Alexandra said. "All you have to do is not fail me, then."

There was a collective intake of breath. Anna looked a little nauseous. Darla, sitting in the back with Angelique, was trying to hide a smirk.

"You. Have. To. Pass," said Grue, leaning forward until she was staring at his large, yellowing teeth.

He straightened up, and addressed the room. "You also have to stop whispering to your friends in class." He held up a small vial. "Aural amplifying drops. Commonly referred to as 'Auror's Ears.' Some of you will learn to make this this semester. Those of you who do not listen to directions and measure very, very carefully will probably go deaf."

Everyone was very quiet for the rest of Mr. Grue's class.

After third period was lunch. As they approached the cafeteria, David found himself awkwardly caught between two groups that had separated themselves after exiting Mr. Grue's classroom. Angelique was walking with Darla and Lydia, who were trailing well behind Alexandra, Anna, and the Pritchards. Alexandra and Darla had made a point of not looking at or addressing one another in any of their classes, but the chill between them was as palpable as it had been last year.

"So," Alexandra whispered to her friends, observing David's dilemma, "do you think he likes Angelique or dislikes Darla more?"

David seemed to be pondering that himself, as he shuffled along, glancing over his shoulder.

"More koosy lally-gaggin'!" Constance muttered, shaking her head. "Didn't y'all learn nothin' last year?"

"Hi David!" Innocence suddenly darted ahead of a group of sixth graders who were also heading for the cafeteria, and fell in alongside David. "You hain't still put out with me, is you?"

"No." David gave Constance and Forbearance an odd look.

"Oh, I'm so glad. Constance says you play Quidditch. I hain't never seen Quidditch -- our brothers say it's for sissy furriners."

"Innocence!" Constance turned red.

"What I meant to mean is I'd like to watch!" Innocence said, as David frowned at her. "Noah an' Burton just plays Quodpot with twig brooms an' a noggin, an' I don't think they's as skilt as they conceits."

"Innocence, leave him be!" said Constance, grabbing her younger sister by the wrist.

"Hi, Alex!" Innocence said to Alexandra. "And, uh --" She looked at Anna for a moment, and leaned over to whisper in Constance's ear: "What's the Oriental gal's name?"

"Are Oriental girls deaf where you're from?" asked Anna, irritated.

Constance smacked Innocence lightly on the back of her head. "Ask her yourself proper!" She shook her head.

They entered the cafeteria as a group -- with David still trailing a little behind them -- while Constance and Forbearance continued lecturing their younger sister. Almost immediately, Benjamin whistled from his table, and Mordecai gestured at the Ozarker girls.

Alexandra's eyes narrowed, but she bit her tongue.

"Do we'uns have to sit with them every day?" Innocence asked, sticking her lower lip out.

"Hush, Innocence!" said Forbearance. They both looked apologetically at Alexandra, who just sighed and nodded. She noticed that Constance's cheeks had gone a little red -- she looked stiff and angry as the Ozarker girls walked over to the older boys' table.

"Going to sit with us, or with your girlfriend and the crazy bitch?" Alexandra asked David.

He coughed. "Actually, I'm gonna sit with the team." He pointed at the table where the Quidditch players were congregating. "Tryouts are on Friday."

"Chicken."

David rolled his eyes at her, and joined the other 'brooms.'

Alexandra endured the rest of the day, which consisted of Magical Theory, Magizoology, and American History of Magic. Magical Theory was taught by the same new teacher who had taught last year, Miss Hart, and Alexandra didn't think they would be covering anything related to time travel or the afterlife.

Mr. Fledgefield's Magizoology class promised to be a little more interesting: he promised a field trip into the woods later in the semester. Fledgefield was a short, unassuming man who wore a long coat and breeches, marking him as an Old Colonial. With his balding head, he looked a bit like a younger, thinner Benjamin Franklin, and certainly not the sort of wizard who could tame wild Thestrals, fight manticores, and ride dragons, as he claimed he had before becoming a teacher.

"If we're lucky," he said, winking at the students, "we may even encounter the legendary hodag! And if we're very lucky, we'll make it back alive." He chuckled at his little joke, and most of the students chuckled along with him, some a bit nervously.

Alexandra wasn't amused.

The last class of the day was American History of Magic, which was another required course for all eighth graders. It was taught by the matronly, patronizing Mrs. Middle, so Alexandra expected it to be as boring and whitewashed as last year's Wizarding Social Studies class.

She didn't really care -- she knew now that anything she really wanted to learn probably wouldn't be taught in class.

"So, are you allowed to play games with us in the rec room?" Anna asked Constance and Forbearance as they all headed back to their dorms. She tried not to sound sarcastic, but the twins glanced warily at her.

"'Course we are," Constance said.

She and Forbearance exchanged looks.

"'Course," Constance admitted, eyes downcast, "Ma and Pa wouldn't 'zactly approve..."

"Who's going to tell them?" Alexandra asked.

Forbearance sighed. "Benjamin and Mordecai."

Alexandra shook her head. "Are you really going to put up with this all year?"

"Alexandra, we'uns really will get called home if we -- Innocence!" Constance interrupted herself, as Innocence came shuffling down the hall from the opposite direction, hanging her head and looking disheveled.

"Tsk! Lookit you, girl! You're a frazzled sight!" Forbearance tut-tutted and grabbed the loosely hanging strings of Innocence's bonnet. She cinched the cords under the younger girl's chin and made her tilt her head up as she tucked her loose hair back under the head covering.

"You hain't been away from home but a few days and you're unpresentable as a flowzy wild hen!" Constance said.

"If Ma and Pa saw you like this --" said Forbearance, and then she gasped. "What in heaven's name?"

Innocence had a bruise on her cheek and her lip was split, and when Alexandra took a closer look at the girl, she saw that her knuckles were skinned and that her skirt was torn as well.

"What happened to you?" Constance demanded.

"I got detention." Innocence would not meet her sisters' eyes. "Twice."

"Twice?!" Constance and Forbearance said together.

"Mr. Grue is mean!" Innocence said angrily.

The twins sighed and shook their heads. Alexandra struggled to keep a straight face.

"How'd you get a second detention?" asked Forbearance.

Innocence mumbled something inaudible.

"What?" Forbearance demanded.

"Fightin'!" Innocence said, more loudly.

"Fighting?" Constance and Forbearance echoed together.

"With who?" Forbearance added, in a shocked voice.

"With my roommate, stupid, whiny, cymlin-headed Ouida Francie Miriam Noel!" Innocence raised her voice and wiggled her hips side to side mockingly. "She said Ozarkers is backwards an' uneducated an' I look like a li'l baby doll with my quaint old-fashioned bonnet an' she implicated my wand was just some stick I broke off a tree..."

"I'm shamed at you, Innocence!" Constance said.

"Do you want to go home?" Forbearance asked.

"Come 'long, we need to fix you up presentable."

"A'fore the Rashes sees you!"

The appalled twins began dragging their sister off to their room. Alexandra and Anna looked at each other.

"Even I've never gotten detention twice in one day," Alexandra said.

"They're awfully strict," Anna said, noting the way the elder Pritchards were fussing and scolding Innocence all the way down the hall.

"I guess they have to be, with those two jerks keeping tabs on who they socialize with and whether they're 'dressed proper' and if they're being 'good,' which I guess means being obedient," Alexandra said in disgust. "But I swear I'm going to hex Benjamin and Mordecai."

"I think you should let Constance and Forbearance fight their own battles," Anna said quietly.

Alexandra started to issue a sharp retort, and then glanced at Anna, and fell silent.

"I just don't want you to get into trouble, too," Anna said.

"No trouble this year." Alexandra patted her friend on the shoulder. "I'm going to the library. Want to come? Maybe we can find out how to help your father."

Anna shook her head. "What can a couple of kids do, Alex?" She sounded so dejected, Alexandra almost forgot about her own plans.

Then Anna looked at her, and offered her a small, sad smile. "Thanks -- maybe later. But right now, I need to write a letter to my mother."

"Okay. See you at dinner, then." Alexandra smiled back at Anna... but her smile disappeared after Anna walked away.

The Charmbridge library was a huge space near the center of the septagonal building. Alexandra was never exactly certain where it was in relation to the other wings of the academy, nor how much space it occupied, because it was one of those places that was larger from the inside than it was from without. Three floors full of books -- but Alexandra had learned that somehow it always turned out that books containing information she was really interested in -- like the Dark Arts, the Lands Below, and her father -- either weren't in the library, or were off-limits to most students.

Mrs. Minder, the librarian, was one of the few adults at Charmbridge Academy who had always been friendly to her, and Alexandra was glad that the events of the past year hadn't changed that -- the librarian greeted her cheerfully enough, and then asked her, with a touch of concern, how she was doing. This was something Alexandra was coming to dislike almost as much as the opposite reaction -- the baleful looks and the averted eyes. But she gave Mrs. Minder her practiced smile, and told her that she was fine.

"Well, I'll bet you'd like to visit with Bran and Poe," Mrs. Minder said, in a near-whisper.

Alexandra's smile in response to that was a little more genuine. "Yes, please."

For the past two years, Alexandra had been a frequent presence in the library, and she was one of the few students who were even aware of the two elves who worked invisibly behind the stacks, let alone had made friends with them. Despite the incursions of Clockwork golems to do much of the manual labor, Charmbridge Academy still had many elves working behind the scenes, out of sight of the student population. For Bran and Poe, the library was their domain. Behind the bookshelves, in back rooms, or late at night, they were always busy, cataloging and repairing and sorting books and cleaning up after students who were less respectful of the library than Alexandra.

Mrs. Minder took Alexandra into her office, and then snapped her fingers. "Bran, Poe."

With a pop, the two elves appeared in front of her. Most Charmbridge elves wore discarded clothing items scavenged from the school's Lost & Found. Apparently, some girl had never reclaimed a fuzzy pink sweater, because Bran was almost lost in it, with its sleeves hanging to his knees. Poe wore the tattered remains of an old robe, and a shapeless wool cap.

"Miss Alex!" The two elves beamed with delight.

"Hi, guys." Alexandra looked at them fondly. They had been true friends to her, these past two years -- even when she had taken advantage of them for her own schemes.

Bran bounded over, or rather, stumbled over, almost tripping in his ridiculously oversized pink sweater. "Did Miss Alex have a good summer?" he asked. Poe followed him, looking at her with big eyes and droopy ears.

Conscious of Mrs. Minder standing behind her, Alexandra nodded. "It was okay."

Poe tilted his head, and looked dubious. Alexandra squatted to face the two elves.

"I missed you guys," she said. "And I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the library this year."

"That's the spirit, dear," Mrs. Minder said kindly. "If you devote yourself to your studies, it will... you know." Her hands fluttered a bit, as Alexandra turned her head to look up at her.

"Take my mind off of things?" Alexandra said calmly.

Mrs. Minder nodded, relieved. "Yes, exactly."

Alexandra's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Sure." She turned back to the two library elves, and her expression became a little warmer. "Anyway, I just want you to know that I'll be here to read and study. I'm not looking for any trouble this year."

"That is good," Poe said seriously.

"We is happy to hear that," said Bran.

"And we will always be here to help Miss Alex find bookses," said Poe.

"Great." Alexandra's smile broadened. "Because there are some things I'm really interested in reading more about."

After visiting with the elves for a while, Alexandra thanked Mrs. Minder for letting her talk to them, and promised she would indeed be back.

"That's a lot of books," Anna commented, when Alexandra brought the stack she'd checked out back to her room.

"I have a lot of reading to do."

Anna looked a bit puzzled, but nodded; like Mrs. Minder, she apparently believed that Alexandra needed to occupy herself, to take her mind off her brother and the events of the previous year. It was only when she noticed the titles -- all of them to do with time travel, ghosts, and theories of the afterlife -- that her brow wrinkled with concern again.

---

Alexandra was unsurprised to learn that none of the books she'd checked out actually answered the questions she wanted answered. 'Time travel' was spoken of only obliquely, in reference to historical research, or else used as a plot device in children's stories like Marty the Muggle's Travels Through Time. Hapless Marty was constantly being sent to places like Cleopatra's court or Camelot, thanks to a broken Time-Turner he'd stolen from a wizard. The only other book that made direct reference to Time-Turners was a volume in the Paracelsus Series on How Magic Works: the chapter on Artificing, after explaining some of the basic charms and enchantments used to create flying brooms, magical cameras, Wizardrail locomotives, Clockworks, Sneakoscopes, Seven-Lock Boxes, and Underwater Bicycles, mentioned other, much more powerful artifacts that only the most skilled Artificers could enchant, like Portkeys, Hallucinoglobes, and Time-Turners.

"But how do they make Time-Turners?" Alexandra asked the friendly illustrated wizard on the last page of the chapter.

"Oh, it's very difficult and complicated," Paracelsus said.

"I know that, but what enchantments do they use?"

"You must first study Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, and Astronomy," Paracelsus told her, in a patronizing tone that was all the more infuriating because it came from a drawing. "It will take you many years before you can even begin to learn the actual enchantments."

"We'll see," she grumbled, and slapped the book shut.

The books about ghosts were interesting, inasmuch as they told her a little more about the witches and wizards who became ghosts, and where they took up residence, and what they were and were not allowed to do. (The International Confederation of Wizards, for example, had added a few clauses to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy which allowed ghosts to make limited appearances before Muggles.) But even those ghostly autobiographies that mentioned the ghost's death and subsequent unliving state were maddeningly vague about what happened when a wizard died -- and where those who didn't become ghosts went. The books about afterlifes were no more authoritative or enlightening than anything Alexandra had heard in Vacation Bible School the previous summer.

There were many more books remaining in the library, though, and if she couldn't find her answers there, she knew she would just have to look elsewhere.

Despite her dismissive attitude towards classroom learning, Alexandra was, for the first time, beginning to realize how much she didn't know. To this point, they had learned magic by memorizing incantations and wand gestures. Alexandra assumed that she could accomplish anything, if only she knew the right words and had enough determination to make the magic work.

It was Miss Hart, the inexperienced new teacher whom Alexandra had assumed knew nothing of value, who gave her her first insight into what great magical works required. That Friday, as she lectured the class on Ptolemy's Principles of Magic, Thomas Klaus raised his hand.

"Yes, Thomas?" she asked. She called the students by their first names, which pleased the boys a great deal. Miss Hart was pretty and blonde, and her robe had a tendency to cling to her ample figure, so that even though she was dressed as conservatively as any other teacher, Alexandra knew that the boys were wishing they had a pair of those fabled See-Through Spectacles.

"I heard Ptolemy's Principles of Magic have been disproven," Thomas said, in an eager voice that unfortunately chose that moment to crack, making 'Ptolemy' come out as a high-pitched squeak. Most of the class snickered, and Thomas turned red and slid lower in his seat.

Miss Hart looked at the boy, blinking in surprise. Alexandra was surprised, too. Thomas was a shy, awkward boy who turned red whenever he was called on.

Instead, the teacher took a deep breath (which captured the attention of all the boys in the class far more effectively than any of her lessons did), and said, "Yes, technically that's true."

Now a few students were actually becoming interested. Not everyone -- Darla was tapping her wand against her mirror, Angelique was giving David a sour look, and David, like the other boys, was watching Miss Hart's chest rise and fall. But Thomas sat up straighter, and Sonja raised her hand, then asked a question before Miss Hart called on her.

"If they're wrong, why are we learning them?" she asked, echoing Alexandra's thoughts.

"They're not wrong. They describe a certain model for how magic works, a model that has worked well for hundreds and hundreds of years." Miss Hart was no longer stammering to recite her tedious, carefully-prepared lesson, and suddenly sounded much more self-assured.

"I don't understand," Sonja said.

"Magic exists in the world, and we wizards and witches can use it to do wonderful things." Miss Hart looked around, encouraged, at her students, who seemed to be coming out of their lecture-and-hormone-induced daze. "But without a set of principles to follow in working magic, you're likely to do unpredictable things. Maybe even terrible things." For a moment, she glanced at Alexandra. Alexandra returned a blank look. "Ptolemy described magic as he understood it, and the principles he developed based on his understanding happen to apply to most magic that we do. But yes..." She took another breath, and the boys once again forgot everything she'd just said. "The Academie de Magie actually published a paper six years ago that proved most of Ptolemy's Principles are wrong. But," she added hastily, "the reasons they're wrong only matter if you're doing magic far above the level any of you will be learning for a very long time. Don't think you can just pretend the rules you've learned don't matter when you try to cast a spell. And you still need to remember them for your SPAWN."

Everyone else groaned at the reminder of the Standardized Practical Assessment of Wizarding kNowledge they'd have to take at the end of the year, but Alexandra took a different lesson away from class that day: You can break the rules, if you're good enough.

She also realized that maybe she should try to get better grades in Principles of Magic, so that she could join Anna and the Pritchards in their more advanced class.

"I don't get it," David grumbled. "Why do they test us on stuff that's wrong? They don't teach us stuff people believed a thousand years ago in Muggle school!"

"Well, if you think Muggle school is so wonderful, why are you here?" Angelique said haughtily. David gaped at her, as she brushed past him, followed by Darla, who looked a little smug but was carefully not looking at either him or Alexandra.

"Now what did I do?" David whispered to Alexandra.

She rolled her eyes at him, and proceeded to her Magizoology class.

By the end of sixth period, Angelique and David were talking again. As they left their American History of Magic class, and the eighth graders moved in a solid mass towards their dorms, Angelique was giggling in his ear. The Pritchards walked alongside Alexandra, and from their expressions, Alexandra guessed they were starting to get annoyed by David and Angelique, too.

Everyone usually returned to their rooms following the last class of the day, before dispersing to various after-school activities. When the girls separated from the boys to go upstairs, Angelique said, "See you later, David!" and gave him a wink and a coy little finger wave. Darla followed her up the stairs, expressionlessly, while David stood there with a goofy smile on his face.

"See you later, David!" mimicked Dylan in a high-pitched voice, before giving his roommate a punch in the arm. "Dude!" he whispered, grinning.

The two boys looked utterly smug and pleased with themselves.

"David!" called out a familiar voice. David's smile faltered, and he frowned and turned around as Innocence came running down the hall.

"Quidditch tryouts is today, hain't that right?" she asked breathlessly, coming to a halt in front of him.

"Yeah..." he answered slowly.

"Cool!" she said, pronouncing the word as if trying out a foreign phrase. She looked at her sisters. "We'uns can go watch, can't we?"

Forbearance frowned. "I don't know, Innocence..."

David rolled his eyes. "Yeah, don't wanna get in trouble with your boys."

Constance puffed up, in a way Alexandra had rarely seen before.

"I done told you the Rashes hain't our boys!" She looked at Innocence. "I don't see why we can't watch, if you can settle and mind us!"

Innocence nodded eagerly.

"Great. See you there," David said, a bit nonplussed, while the girls filed past him. "You coming, too?" he asked Alexandra and Anna.

Alexandra glanced at Anna, who shrugged.

"Sure... dude." Alexandra gave him a punch in the arm as she walked past. Anna actually laughed as they headed upstairs, leaving David grumbling and rubbing his arm behind them.

They changed out of their school robes, and into more casual clothing, which for Alexandra meant throwing a casual robe over her regular Muggle clothing. Technically, dressing like a Muggle was forbidden at Charmbridge, but increasingly, Muggle fashions were infiltrating the wizarding world, and students from a Muggle background got around the restrictions by combining 'wizard clothing' with their jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers.

Anna wore her usual red cloak over her robes as they headed outside. Alexandra heard the Pritchards arguing and fussing even before they emerged from the academy building, looking around almost furtively.

"If'n the Rashes sees us, they gonna give us heck for sure," Forbearance said. She looked at Innocence. "Don't you be jawin' unnecessary 'bout Quidditch an' suchlike front o' them boys!"

Innocence made a face. Alexandra was beginning to feel sorry for the sixth grader.

The Quidditch field was one of several athletic fields lying on Charmbridge's grounds, and it was smaller and more distant from the academy building than the more popular Quodpot field. Alexandra and Anna and the Pritchards made their way across the grass to the stadium, and took their seats on the benches overlooking the large oval sandlot with the high Quidditch hoops rising overhead at either end. Below, a group of about twenty kids all clutched their brooms while the Charmbridge Quidditch team captain went over the rules and procedures. Alexandra saw David looking nervous -- he was one of the youngest would-be players, and last year he had only made Reserve Seeker, and spent all year on the bench.

Tryouts took over an hour. As the players zoomed about, dodging Bludgers and trying to send Quaffles through the hoops, Alexandra's mind drifted back to her own flying lessons with Maximilian. Max had not been too interested in broom sports, which was a shame -- Alexandra was sure he'd have been good at them. But he'd been preoccupied with more important things.

She watched a cocky tenth grader swoop about on his broom, and wished she could be doing that -- not to play Quidditch, but just to fly.

Of course, now the only flying she would do would be on a wobbly old school broom. She thought about her 2009 Valkyrie, the birthday gift from her brother that Diana Grimm had blown apart over Old Larkin Pond, and, lost in bitter, regretful memories, almost missed it when David took to the air in pursuit of the Snitch.

"WEEHAW! GO, DAVID!" shouted Innocence, leaping to her feet, before Constance grabbed her elbow and pulled her back down, shushing her.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Alexandra thought, watching as David flew about, not half-badly. She hadn't seen the other players trying out for the Seeker position, so she didn't know how he compared, but he looked relieved when he finally landed, with the Snitch in hand.

When tryouts were over, most of the spectators began trickling back inside, but Innocence leapt from the bench and bounded down to the field before her sisters could stop her. Constance and Forbearance rose from their seats and gathered up their skirts, sputtering as they followed their younger sister down the stairs. Alexandra and Anna followed, bemused.

The players were told by the team captain that selections would be posted by Monday morning, and then they were dismissed, and David broke away from the group to join his friends.

"That was the most spectacularest bodacious thing I ever witnessed in my entire life!" Innocence declared, running over to him.

"Yeah?" David said, with a bemused smile.

"You was the best of all of them!"

"Thanks." David looked a little uncomfortable.

"I thought you looked fine," said Angelique, who had been watching on the ground. She and Darla both joined the small group -- Darla standing a few paces away.

"Really?" David grinned.

She leaned forward and gave him a very quick kiss on the lips, then wrinkled her nose. "But you don't smell so fine. Go take a shower. I'm going to eat. See you in the cafeteria?"

"Yeah, okay," he mumbled.

Angelique looked at the other girls, and winked, then she and Darla began walking back inside.

"You did look fine," Innocence agreed. David gave her another small smile, then walked off towards the boys' locker room.

"She's sure bossy!" Innocence said, folding her arms and watching Angelique retreat across the field.

"You mind your tongue, Innocence!" said Forbearance.

"And stop your fussin' at David," said Constance. "I hain't likin' those koosy-eyes you been makin'."

Innocence gasped at that, and turned on her sister in a fury. "I am not makin' koosy-eyes at nobody!"

They walked slowly back across the field, following the same path Angelique and Darla and the other kids who'd watched the tryouts had gone, with Innocence arguing loudly and indignantly with her sisters. Alexandra and Anna exchanged glances, and shook their heads.

Then Innocence said, "Whuh-oh," and Forbearance murmured, "Oh, dear."

Stalking across the lawn towards them were Benjamin and Mordecai.

"There you are!" Benjamin said, looking angry. He was walking a little ahead of his brother. The Pritchards stopped walking as the Ozarker boys, wearing matching long-sleeved shirts and dark gray trousers with suspenders, marched up to them. Alexandra and Anna slowed to a halt as well.

"You hain't told us where you was goin'," said Mordecai. "We 'spected to eat dinner with you in the cafeteria."

"We can eat dinner now, Mordecai," Forbearance said.

"We been waitin' for you!" Benjamin's eyes flashed as he looked over their shoulders at Alexandra and Anna. "What are you'uns doin' out here? We done told you 'bout consortin' with these rullions!"

Alexandra bristled. Anna clenched her jaw, but put a hand on Alexandra's arm.

Constance and Forbearance were both looking at the ground.

"We're sorry, we didn't mean to make you'uns wait," Forbearance said. "Or give you cause to worry."

Innocence stuck her lip out. "I hain't sorry!"

"Look what a wicked tongue she's sproutin'!" Benjamin scowled at Innocence. "This is what happens when you let girls prancy 'bout unreg'lated."

Alexandra clenched her fists. So did Constance. Anna was holding onto Alexandra's arm now.

"We'uns don't need reg'latin', you maple-headed blaggards!" Innocence said. "We was just watchin' Quidditch!"

Constance sucked in a breath. Benjamin stepped towards the younger girl, and raised his hand. "Girl, I'm fixin' to reg'late that mouth of yours."

Forbearance stepped in front of him.

"You will not," she said.

Benjamin stared at her. Behind him, Mordecai grabbed his brother's hand, looking around. There were no adults in sight -- Miss Gambola had been at the Quidditch field, overseeing tryouts, but she had either gone to the locker rooms or was putting brooms away.

"You'uns better straighten your brooms and start mindin' us," Benjamin said. "If your Ma and Pa knew how you'uns are behavin' or what wickedness your little sister is up to --"

"I hain't up to no wickedness!" Innocence shouted, before Constance put a hand over her mouth.

"We're sorry, Benjamin. We're real sorry. Please don't tell our folks," Forbearance pleaded.

Benjamin pointed at Alexandra. "I don't want to see you'uns consortin' with this sorceress again."

Alexandra could no longer hold her tongue. "They can consort with whoever they like."

"Stay out of this, girl," Mordecai said. "This don't concern you none."

"My name isn't 'girl,' and like heck it doesn't!" Alexandra advanced on the Ozarker boys, shrugging off Anna's grasp and ignoring Constance and Forbearance's horrified expressions. "You're just a couple of bullies! You have no right to tell them who they can be friends with."

"You hain't no kind of friend," said Benjamin. "You're a sorceress! Dark begets Dark. Your own brother died on account o' your wickedness and now you want to drag others into --"

Alexandra's wand came out in a flash, and she pointed it at him with an expression that made everyone else turn pale.

"Take that back," she said coldly.

"Alex," gulped Anna.

"Benjamin, Mordecai..." Constance spoke in a pleading tone.

"You got wrackspurts in your head, girl," sneered Benjamin, drawing his wand. "Ain't no Mudblood witch who's a match for --"

"Expelliarmus!" Alexandra shouted, and Benjamin spun about a hundred and eighty degrees as the spell caught his hand and his wand both, sending the wand flying and almost yanking him off his feet. Anna squealed as Mordecai drew his own wand and cast a hex that Alexandra deflected into the grass, splattering green goo at Anna's feet.

Benjamin dived for his wand while Alexandra and Mordecai exchanged hexes and the other girls scattered out of the way. Alexandra blasted Mordecai's hat off his head, and as the other boy tried to Stun her, she threw a Spinning Jinx. Mordecai whirled violently around, almost knocking his brother over as Benjamin rose to his feet grasping his wand. He tried to Stun Alexandra also, but she cast a Shield Charm and the red beam fizzled harmlessly against it.

"No!" Alexandra shouted, as Anna began drawing her own wand. She saw that Constance and Forbearance, too, had their wands out, and Alexandra held her hand up in a forbidding gesture. Her friends all looked aghast as Benjamin swung his arm in a circle to cast another hex. Already, more students were running over to watch the fight.

She let her Shield Charm repel Benjamin's hex, and said, "Tarantallegra," just as Mordecai began to stop spinning. The already winded and dizzy boy's feet began jerking and kicking violently beneath him.

Benjamin flicked his wand and shouted, "Flagration!"

Alexandra felt the heat just before she deflected this spell like the others. It went rolling across the lawn, igniting the grass in a long fiery streak. Her Shield Charm dissipated; Benjamin tried to hex her again, and she pointed her wand and cast a jinx that collided with Benjamin's spell, making a bright flash in the air between them.

They're both good, she thought. But they don't work together. She had practiced against multiple opponents with Maximilian, Beatrice, and Martin. She'd always lost, of course, but the Stormcrows were older and better and used teamwork.

"Stupefy!" Benjamin yelled, and Alexandra whispered a Blocking Jinx; the Stunner rebounded and almost struck its caster. Mordecai finally managed to undo the Tarantallegra hex; Alexandra promptly knocked him off his feet with a Stunning Spell of her own, and then struck Benjamin in the face with another curse.

He reeled back, while his teeth began growing and his nose began shrinking, and Alexandra snapped, "Piikkikipu!" with a sharp flick of her wrist. Quills spontaneously sprouted from Benjamin's arms, tearing through his cotton shirt from his wrists to his shoulders, and causing him to drop his wand and yelp in pain as the sharp spines began stabbing him every time he moved.

For just a second, he stared at Alexandra in horror, even as his face continued transforming. Then Alexandra said, "Feordupois," and a Deadweight Jinx made his knees buckle. He collapsed to the ground, struggling to hold his arms away from his body, though he could barely lift them.

His face was deformed and rat-like, with his front teeth sticking grotesquely out of his mouth and his nose shrunken to a tiny, wet nub, but his eyes were still normal. They widened in shock and fear as Alexandra leaned over him and pressed the tip of her wand to his throat, with her eyes blazing.

"Don't ever call me a Mudblood again, me or any of my friends," she said, in an icy voice. "And Don't. You. Ever. Talk. About. My. Brother." She jabbed him with the point of her wand, and he flinched. "Do you understand?"

"QUICK!" yelled a woman's voice in a commanding tone. Alexandra stood up slowly.

She was surrounded by a ring of spectators, and her shocked friends. Anna looked as if she might be sick. Constance and Forbearance were horrified, but Innocence was staring at her with her mouth open and her eyes as wide as saucers. Benjamin lay at her feet, groaning; Mordecai lay several yards away, knocked out cold.

Ms. Shirtliffe, the formidable commander of Charmbridge's Junior Regimental Officer Corps, and the teacher in charge of the Dueling Club, was sprinting towards them, dressed in boots and black pants and a leather jacket. From the opposite direction, a little further away, Miss Gambola was running their way.

"Why is it always you, Quick?" Ms. Shirtliffe demanded, when she arrived at the scene of the duel, looking around at the defeated Ozarkers and the scorched grass. "Why?"

Alexandra looked up at the older woman, with her short-cropped gunmetal gray hair and scarred face, and shrugged. She felt no sense of victory, no remorse, and no dread, even as Shirtliffe ordered her to the Dean's office. The only thing she did feel was relief, when she saw that Shirtliffe wasn't dragging Anna or Constance or Forbearance with her. At least this time, she'd kept her friends out of trouble.