Alexandra Quick and the Deathly Regiment

Things Change

Alexandra knew she shouldn't have been surprised when she found Diana Grimm waiting for her as she stepped out of the Portkey booth, but she was momentarily caught off-guard.

"Again?" she sighed, trying to appear unconcerned. "Every time I visit my relatives?"

The Chicago Wizardrail station was being decorated for Christmas -- Alexandra could see miniature sleds and reindeer flying around overhead, and a Christmas jingle was playing over the Wizard Wireless Address system. The decor contrasted sharply with Ms. Grimm's formal black and red robes -- she looked like a traditional witch.

"We won't be long, unless you insist on being troublesome again." The Special Inquisitor's tone was flat, and there was no trace of friendliness in her expression.

"All right," Alexandra said. "Are we going to that office again in the back of the station?"

She was very tired, and hoping that she could just get through the interview without betraying her nervousness. All it would take was one slip-up, or for Ms. Grimm to search her, and it would all be over. It couldn't just end like this. She desperately tried to calm her mind and use her rudimentary Occlumency training, and it took every bit of her energy.

She became alarmed when Ms. Grimm took out her wand, but the Inquisitor just said, "Muffliato," and then tucked it back under her outer robe, then laid a hand on Alexandra's shoulder to steer her towards the exit.

"The Charmbridge bus is already waiting for you. I'm not going to try to make you late. Just answer my questions and don't lie to me, Alexandra. I'm not in the mood."

Alexandra got the feeling that Ms. Grimm was trying to get this over with quickly. She doubted it was for her benefit -- obviously the Special Inquisitor had other things on her mind. So much the better for her.

"I won't lie," she said. And making every effort to sound meek and apologetic, she added, "I'm sorry about last time. I was just... angry."

Perhaps her fatigue made her sound more convincing. Ms. Grimm looked down at her, arching an eyebrow, and then smiled.

"I do understand, Alexandra," she said. "But you must learn to manage your feelings."

Alexandra nodded, and Ms. Grimm went on. "It sounds as if visiting your sisters has been beneficial."

"It was." Of course she'd know that Valeria was there, too, she thought.

"I imagine you talked about a lot of things. Your father, your brother, Valeria's work for the Academy of Magic..."

Alexandra felt herself tense. Calm, calm, calm. She nodded. "All of that, yeah." She looked up at the other witch. "Our father didn't contact us. Not once, all weekend. I haven't heard from him at all since the last time. Not even a phone call or an owl."

"That storm that blew over Roanoke would have been excellent cover for him to visit."

Except you'd expect him to do that. "Maybe, but he didn't. I think he knows none of us want to talk to him. We all think what he did was terrible."

"And you're certain he didn't contact Julia or Valeria, either?"

"If he did, they didn't tell me about it." Alexandra then repeated what Julia had told her, about meeting her father in disguise at a museum, and Valeria claiming to have spoken to him only three times in five years. It was easy to just tell the truth; she was too tired to dissemble.

They reached the entrance of the Wizardrail station, and Alexandra could indeed see the Charmbridge bus sitting in front, wedged between an enormous three-wheeled tractor with race car exhaust pipes, and something that looked like a pink hearse with mirrored glass. As she watched, Angus MacAvoy walked up to the bus and boarded it.

"Is there anything else you'd like to share with me, Alexandra?" Ms. Grimm looked down at her with a knowing smile, as if she already knew all of her secrets. Her fingers had not loosened their grip on her shoulder. "As I told you, these meetings can be quick and painless if you're forthcoming... and unpleasant for all involved if you remain stubborn and rebellious."

"I'm not being stubborn and rebellious," Alexandra said. "I don't have anything else to tell you. I'm not keeping anything secret. You already know everything."

Ms. Grimm studied her, while Alexandra kept her face passive, and concentrated on her Occlumency -- Calm, calm, calm! She knew she wasn't good enough to actually block Legilimency. She just had to be convincing enough that the Special Inquisitor wouldn't decide to use it. She hoped. She hadn't lied until now. She was so close! The Charmbridge bus sat there, only yards away, offering safety and the last leg of her journey back to Charmbridge Academy and the chance to make things right. It would be so unfair to be stopped now!

"Well," Ms. Grimm said at last. "I think 'everything' might be an exaggeration."

She let go of Alexandra's shoulder, and curled her fingers to tilt the girl's chin up towards her.

"You look exhausted, child. It must have been a long weekend for you."

Alexandra didn't say anything.

Ms. Grimm dropped her hand. "You'd better get on the bus, so you can return to school and get some sleep. Until next time, Alexandra."

Alexandra nodded. "Yeah. Later."

She knew she sounded sullen, but she was exhausted. Ms. Grimm just watched her as she walked to the bus, fighting every step of the way not to hurry her pace. Then Mrs. Speaks was greeting her, and Alexandra was on board -- she barely paid attention to anyone else, grunted when Torvald said hello, and collapsed into a booth by herself.

She slumped in her seat, and was already beginning to nod off when someone cleared her throat and slid into the opposite seat. Alexandra opened her eyes, and found herself staring at Darla across the table.

"Long weekend?" Darla asked.

"Get lost," Alexandra said.

Darla's mouth turned up in a pert frown. "You don't have to be nasty."

"What do you want?" Alexandra snapped.

Darla's forehead wrinkled. Her cat, which she was holding on her lap, meowed as she stroked it.

"We don't have to be enemies, you know," Darla said quietly.

Alexandra stared at her, as Mrs. Speaks told the last student aboard the bus to sit down, and the engine rumbled to life.

"Maybe we didn't have to be enemies after the first time you tried to kill me," Alexandra said, in a low voice, once the bus began moving. "But after the second time, yeah, we do."

"What do you mean, the second time?" Darla asked.

Alexandra's eyes narrowed. "You know what I mean!" She leaned forward, and her voice was a hiss. "In the cavern, where you and John tried to stop me and Max! What were you going to do if you'd won?"

Darla blinked at her slowly. The hand that was caressing her familiar stopped moving.

"You stole my obol," she said.

There weren't that many students on the bus -- just those who'd gone home over Thanksgiving weekend -- but they were chattering and playing games and making enough noise that the deadly silence surrounding Alexandra and Darla went unnoticed. The two girls stared at each other for several long moments.

Then Alexandra's lip curled into a sneer. "What are you going to do, tell Ms. Grimm?"

Darla continued staring at her, as her expression hardened -- but there was something else in her expression, too, that made Alexandra uneasy. It was almost as if Alexandra had answered a question for her.

The other girl rose to her feet, still holding her black cat in her arms, and looked down her nose at Alexandra.

"You think you know so much," she said. "But you don't know anything!"

With a haughty toss of her head, she turned and flounced across the aisle to another booth by herself.

Alexandra eyed her warily, but Darla just took out a book and began reading it, after settling her familiar back onto her lap. After a while, Alexandra's eyelids grew heavy, and she curled up on her seat and fell asleep.

---

"Wake up, Troublesome!" someone yelled at her, and several other students snickered. Alexandra sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes. It took a moment to orient herself. Then she remembered where she was, and where she was going. The other students were lining up at the front of the bus to disembark.

She grabbed her backpack frantically, and thrust her hand inside, almost up to her shoulder, reaching around in the magically-expanded space within until her fingers closed on the wooden box holding the Time-Turner.

With a sigh of relief, she withdrew her arm and shouldered the pack. She ignored the other students. Nothing mattered now, except getting back to Charmbridge. She barely paid attention at all as she crossed the Invisible Bridge, and didn't speak to anyone as she trudged along the path through the woods. When they reached the entrance to Charmbridge Academy, she hurried up the steps and down the corridor to Delta Delta Kappa Tau Hall.

"Don't run, Miss Quick!" admonished the hall monitor, but she ignored him.

Calm down, don't act like you're up to something, she thought, before opening the door.

Anna looked up from her desk, where she was writing a letter, and smiled. "Hi!"

"Hi." Alexandra unslung her backpack, just before Anna got up to give her a hug.

"How was Roanoke?" Anna asked.

"It was nice -- well, the weather sucked, but seeing my sisters was nice."

"Sisters?" Anna raised her eyebrows.

"Valeria was there, too," Alexandra said, but before she could go on, a noisy squawk interrupted them both.

"I don't think Charlie was very happy about being left behind," Anna said.

Alexandra walked over to the metal cage hanging over her desk. Anna had left the door open, just like Alexandra did, but Charlie was sitting inside on a perch and making no effort to come out.

"Hi, Charlie," she said. "I really missed you."

Charlie made a rude sound.

"Don't be angry. I couldn't take you with me." She reached inside, but Charlie pecked angrily at her hand, and Alexandra flinched and withdrew it.

"Don't be like that," she said. "I didn't have a choice. You wouldn't have liked going by Portkey anyway. And it was miserable outside -- you wouldn't have been able to fly around --"

Charlie answered with a foul word. Anna's eyes widened.

Alexandra snapped, "If you're going to be like that, then you can just sit in there and sulk!" She swung the door closed and latched it. Charlie squawked angrily, but fell silent as Alexandra checked on Nigel, and then sat down to tell Anna about her visit. All the while, though, the raven's beady black eyes tracked her around the room resentfully.

It would have upset her more, and she would have tried to assuage her familiar, except that she knew she was about to change everything. She was going to go back in time, and maybe then this moment would never even happen.

She couldn't help feeling guilty as she talked to Anna, though. She couldn't tell her about the Time-Turner. She knew what Anna would say.

She wondered if her friend suspected something, though. Anna often did.

Alexandra was antsy, impatient to do what she had dreamed of doing for so long, now that the means was literally within her grasp. She couldn't simply run down to the basement without checking on her friends and her familiars, but she was ever-mindful of the passing of time. She knew she still had hours before her theft would be discovered, but she worried that something might go wrong -- that Diana Grimm might somehow appear here at Charmbridge, demanding the stolen Time-Turner.

She slipped it out of her backpack and into her pocket when Anna wasn't looking, and went down to dinner with her hand constantly brushing against her thigh, to reassure herself that it was still there. David and the Pritchards ate dinner with her in the cafeteria, and she repeated the edited tale of her Thanksgiving visit to Croatoa, and her sister the Historicist.

"So time travel is real?" David asked. His brow wrinkled in thought. "I don't see how it's possible. I mean, suppose you go back in time and kill your own grandfather --"

"Why would anyone do such a thing?" Constance asked, appalled.

"It's just an example," David said. "If you killed your own grandfather before your father was born --"

"That's an awful notion!"

David was flustered. "I'm not saying anyone would do that! You're missing the point!"

Anna said, "Anyway, you can't change the past, even with a Time-Turner. Everyone knows that." She was looking at Alexandra, who didn't say anything.

David's speculations about changing the past echoed what Alexandra had spent many months pondering. She knew he was wrong about time travel being impossible; notwithstanding his logic, time travel was real. Therefore, just because everyone 'knew' something was impossible didn't make it so. And that's why Anna was wrong, too.

She had to be. Alexandra was going to prove it.

She had four hours left when they returned to their room. Back in Roanoke, she knew, she was still sitting alone in the dark, and for a moment, she shivered in empathy with her other self. Anna asked if she planned to study, and Alexandra shook her head.

"I'm going to go say hi to Bran and Poe," she said. "And then I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm pretty tired."

Anna nodded, and Alexandra noted that her friend looked a bit melancholy. She should do something to cheer Anna up, she thought. They really hadn't done much together lately.

After I do this, she thought. After I do this, everything will be better.

She walked over to Charlie's cage and opened it.

"I really did miss you," she said softly. "And I am sorry I didn't bring you along."

Charlie eyed her, and made an obnoxious crackling sound, followed by, "Jerk!"

"Fine, I'll wait until you get over it." Alexandra smiled. "When you're done being angry at me, I'll make it up to you."

The raven squawked and tilted its head to regard her as she turned away. Anna and Charlie both watched her silently as she walked out the door, utterly intent on her mission, almost trembling with anticipation.

She wasn't actually planning to go to the library to see Bran and Poe, so she was surprised to find Bran waiting for her just outside her door. He was wearing a squished cap made of yarn, and an unraveling yarn sweater in a completely non-matching color; more items salvaged from the school's Lost and Found.

"Miss Alex has been naughty," Bran said, shaking his head in disappointment. "Bran knows Miss has something she isn't supposed to have!"

Alexandra gulped. "W-what?"

The library elf squinted at her. "We has to go looking for library bookses that is not returned when they is due. Miss Dearborn checked out a book last month that is overdue. Poe went to collect it from her, and she said she returned it. She was most vexed." Bran folded his arms and tapped his tiny foot expectantly.

"Oh." Alexandra flushed, as relief flooded through her. "Umm, yeah, The Master of Death."

"Why does Miss Alex have a book she did not check out? We thought Miss Alex knows library rules."

"I'm sorry. I meant to return it -- it's in my room, hold on." Flustered, she darted back into her room, as a bemused Anna watched her retrieve the book from her backpack and walk back outside to give it to the elf.

Bran sighed and shook his head. "We would hate to have to suspend Miss Alex's library privileges."

"I'm really sorry. It won't happen again." In a little while, it won't ever have happened.

Bran's expression softened. "If Miss Alex has not finished reading it, Bran can hold it for her. But Miss must check out bookses properly."

"Yes, you're right." Alexandra nodded rapidly. "I'm sorry."

She tried to hide her annoyance and impatience as Bran walked with her all the way down the hallway and downstairs. She noted that the hall monitor, who usually stopped any boy who tried to enter Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall, apparently didn't count boy-elves.

She made idle conversation by telling Bran about her trip to Roanoke, but her mind was elsewhere. At the bottom of the stairs, the library elf admonished her one more time, while promising to hold The Master of Death for her in the library, and then disappeared with a pop.

She wondered briefly why Bran hadn't just Apparated from upstairs, but with the elf gone, she hurried towards the stairs to the basement, wanting to avoid any further delays.

Talking to her friends had already felt too much like saying good-bye. It wasn't as if she were going anywhere. When she was done, things would just be -- different. Maximilian would be alive. They would never have gone to the Lands Below. Maybe the entire past six months would never have happened -- or it would have happened differently.

She descended the stairs to the basement, retracing the steps she had taken six months before. The main basement corridor that ran past the wide steps usually taken by students and staff coming downstairs was lit, as usual, by lamps along the walls. She looked towards the custodian's office, and saw a light under the door.

She saw no one else in either direction, so she padded down the corridor away from the stairs, and around the corner. A little further down was the door that she and Maximilian had passed through -- the same door that she had found open a couple of months ago, before discovering Ms. Gale's fatal tumble down the stairs.

Except that now the door was gone, and the doorway was bricked up. Alexandra stared at it, then shook her head. It didn't matter -- she was going back in time, to before Dean Grimm had gotten around to sealing off the sub-basements. She took the Time-Turner out of her pocket.

She understood David's point about the Grandfather Paradox well enough. She had never come across anything that explained such paradoxes, but wasn't going to the past a paradox in itself? And Valeria had proven that the past could be changed.

Alexandra had, of course, spent a great deal of time thinking about how to change the past. Obviously, she needed to prevent herself and Maximilian from going to the Lands Below. When she first conceived of getting her hands on Valeria's Time-Turner, she had thought she might go right back to her first visit to Croatoa. All she had to do was tell herself, or Max, or Ms. King, what was going to happen.

But she knew how stubborn Maximilian was, and she didn't trust her father at all. Having been warned that their journey to the Lands Below would result in Maximilian's death, Alexandra suspected that Maximilian and Abraham Thorn would have made alternate plans -- plans that wouldn't include her.

No, she had to make sure that she and Max were prevented from ever going through that gate. And that meant stopping them before their journey began.

She was going to make sure she and Maximilian never went down those stairs.

She took a deep breath, while holding the Time-Turner in both hands. She touched the dials.

One-hundred eighty-four days and three hours...

That was when she heard a noise. Movement in the shadows at the far end of the corridor caught her eye. She looked up.

"Who's there?" she called out.

The lamps didn't cast any light that far down the corridor. She grabbed her wand and pointed it. "Lumos!"

She caught a glimpse of another figure raising an arm, as if to mirror her, and then a voice said, "Stupefy!"

A red flash of light threw her against the wall. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

---

Her first sight when she opened her eyes was the new head custodian, Ms. Fletcher, towering over her and eyeing her as if annoyed at finding an unconscious girl littering her basement floor.

Someone was touching her, and Alexandra turned her head to see an elf shaking her gently, looking concerned.

"Is Miss all right?" the elf asked anxiously.

Alexandra blinked, then looked around in a panic. "Where's my -- ?" She sprang to her feet.

"Would you be looking for this?" asked Ms. Fletcher, in a surprisingly melodic voice, holding up the Time-Turner.

"Give me that!" Alexandra lunged for it. The other woman was tall and hefty, and easily stopped her with one hand.

"You Stunned me!" Alexandra shouted.

"What are you talking about?" the custodian demanded. "And what in Medb's fair kingdom are you doing with a Time-Turner?"

"Give it to me!" Alexandra screamed. "It's mine!" She struggled against the large woman's grip, but Ms. Fletcher pinned her against the wall with one thick arm.

"Calm down or I will stun you with the back of my hand!" the custodian said. "You're Alexandra Quick, aren't you? The Dean wanted to be told immediately if any students were caught down here after hours. Why do I have a feeling she's not going to be surprised that it's you?"

"Let me go!" Alexandra's voice was demanding at first, and then she began struggling again, with increasing desperation, trying to grab for the Time-Turner that was so close and yet so impossibly out of reach. "Please -- please let me have it, just for one second!" she begged. "I just need it for one second! I'm not going to hurt anyone! I swear I didn't do anything! You need to give it to me! Please!"

Ms. Fletcher just stared at her, amazed.

Behind her, a voice said, "Miss Quick, you sound positively hysterical."

The custodian turned. Dean Grimm was standing there, regarding Alexandra with an expression of pity and disdain. The three elves with Ms. Fletcher immediately stepped away from her.

Alexandra sagged. Fighting was futile. Pleading was futile. Ms. Fletcher still held the front of her robe, but Alexandra was no longer struggling, and the custodian loosened her grip a little.

Ms. Fletcher said, "I have no idea what's going on, Dean Grimm, but I found little Miss Quick here unconscious on the floor, and this lying next to her." She handed the Time-Turner to the Dean, who looked at it and then at Alexandra.

"Where did you get this?" she asked.

Alexandra stared at the floor, not saying anything.

She had failed. It had been her one chance, and she'd failed.

"Answer me, Miss Quick!" the Dean snapped.

Alexandra shook her head, still not looking at either of the adults. What could they do to her now? It didn't matter.

Ms. Grimm took a deep breath, and Alexandra half-expected to be cursed in the next instant, but instead, the Dean told Ms. Fletcher, "I'll send Ms. Shirtliffe and Miss Gambola down here -- I want you and the elves to comb the basements for any other wandering students. Including the lower basements."

The elves shuddered -- Alexandra knew they didn't like going into the lower basements.

"I've spent most of the evening down there," Ms. Fletcher said. "Found two Boggarts, but no sign of students, or that damned spook."

"Language, Ms. Fletcher, please." Ms. Grimm's gaze was fixed on Alexandra. "Look again. For students, not for this 'spook' of yours."

"There's a ghost down here, Dean Grimm, I'm certain of it --"

"All well and good if you find it, but ghosts aren't my concern right now." Ms. Grimm held out her hand, and said, "Accio wand." Alexandra's wand flew into the Dean's hand from where it was lying on the floor.

"Come with me," Ms. Grimm said.

Alexandra didn't have the heart to resist or argue. She followed Dean Grimm up the stairs. They passed Ms. Shirtliffe on the way down. Alexandra didn't even look at her. She didn't care what anyone said to her now, and she didn't care if other students saw her and the Dean. None of the whispers and the rumors mattered now. She didn't look up when she passed below the portrait of Miss Marmsley, and she didn't even glance at the portraits of Charmbridge's past deans on the wall of Ms. Grimm's office, when the Dean opened her door and ushered Alexandra inside.

Alexandra stood there, eyes fixed somewhere vaguely in the direction of the floor, as Ms. Grimm used the Prior Incantato spell to examine the last few spells cast from Alexandra's wand, and then laid it on her desk. Finally, the Dean said, "Sit."

Alexandra took a seat, still not looking up.

"And here I was hoping you might actually be making an effort to stay out of trouble. I should have known better."

When Alexandra didn't respond, the Dean's voice became sharper. "Look at me when I speak to you, Miss Quick."

Alexandra raised her eyes to meet the Dean's hard stare.

"Just how many chances do you think you get, Alexandra?" Ms. Grimm asked. "How many times do you think you can break the rules, and even bring the attention of the Wizard Justice Department to this school, before you're expelled?"

At any other time, even Alexandra's nerve would have faltered beneath the Dean's implacable gaze, but at that moment, she felt such a sense of despair that she was truly was beyond caring.

"Well, since Darla is still here, I think I still get at least one murder attempt, don't I?"

The portraits behind Ms. Grimm all became very still. Alexandra felt a chill, and stared at Ms. Grimm, expecting some sort of retaliation, but the Dean's eyes remained fixed on hers, and her hands remained motionless on her desk.

"Go ahead and expel me," Alexandra said bitterly. "I don't care."

Ms. Grimm continued staring at her. That was even more unnerving than a tongue-lashing or a curse. She just kept staring at her, until even in her grief and apathy, Alexandra couldn't look at her any longer and dropped her gaze.

"I believe you," Ms. Grimm said. "I believe that you don't care, right at this moment. You're a foolish, short-sighted child, and your plan to save your brother failed, and so you're feeling so terribly sorry for yourself that being expelled probably seems inconsequential."

Alexandra looked up sharply at Ms. Grimm's mention of her brother, but didn't interrupt as the Dean went on. "Of course, eventually you would care, but by then it would be too late. When you realize how much protection you've enjoyed here, and how little you'd have back in the Muggle world, attending a wizarding day school to learn basic wand-work if you're lucky, it would be too late."

Alexandra closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"Really? The best way to honor your brother's memory is to throw away your own life?"

Alexandra's eyes popped open. "Don't use my brother against me!"

"Then stop using him as an excuse. He's dead, Alexandra. I am very sorry about that, but he's dead and you can't bring him back, not even with a stolen Time-Turner." Ms. Grimm held up the Time-Turner. "I'm going to hazard a guess -- you somehow obtained this from your sister, the Historicist?"

"How do you know about Valeria?"

Ms. Grimm smiled thinly. "Does she know that you took it from her?"

Alexandra glanced at the clock on the wall. "Not yet," she mumbled.

Ms. Grimm shook her head. "You foolish, foolish child. You very, very clever and foolish child." She leaned back in her seat.

"You could let me try," Alexandra whispered, not looking at the Dean. "What does it matter if you're so sure I can't change the past? You could let me try."

Ms. Grimm was silent for several long moments. Then she said, in an unusually gentle tone of voice, "No, Alexandra, I cannot. Don't you realize how fortunate you are to have escaped unharmed from your attempt to meddle with time? If I let you try again, you would fail, again -- and it might well be fatal next time."

She opened a desk drawer, and dropped the Time-Turner into it. "I have to report an unregistered Time-Turner -- by tomorrow morning, at the very latest. My sister will probably be the one to come and collect it. I'm sure she'll have plenty to say to you, so I won't bother trying to convince you of the futility of your plan. It isn't as if you're going to hear it."

Alexandra stared at her feet.

"We all have to cope with loss, Alexandra. You've had to do so at a younger age than most. I'm making allowances for that, but at some point, you're going to have to decide to get on with your life, accept that some things cannot be changed, and stop wallowing in self-pity."

She held up Alexandra's wand, as if thinking about something, and then extended it. "Go back to your room, Miss Quick. Expect to be summoned back here tomorrow morning."

Alexandra rose slowly, and took her wand from the Dean.

"You just got off of probation," Ms. Grimm sighed. "I'll have to put you back on probation, and you've earned evening and weekend detentions again until the winter break."

Alexandra nodded dully. She was about to go, when she remembered how she'd been found by Ms. Fletcher.

"Someone Stunned me," she said. "Someone was down there in the basement with me."

Ms. Grimm's eyebrows drew together. "Ms. Fletcher said she found you unconscious."

"I saw someone. I heard her cast a Stunner Spell."

"Her?"

Alexandra frowned. "I'm pretty sure it was a her. No, I am sure -- and I know who it was. It was Darla."

"Miss Dearborn's wand is still locked in Dean Cervantes's office."

"Maybe she has another wand."

"Miss Quick..." Ms. Grimm folded her hands and regarded Alexandra coldly. "Disciplinary matters concerning other students are not your business, but I can assure you that Miss Dearborn is not more clever than myself or Dean Cervantes."

"Someone Stunned me!"

"Then hopefully Ms. Shirtliffe, Miss Gambola, and Ms. Fletcher will find the culprit. But you will leave any investigations to us." She cut off Alexandra's protests. "Go back to your room, Miss Quick. Now."

Alexandra closed her mouth, and thrust her wand into her pocket. She stalked out of the Dean's office, ignored Miss Marmsley's disapproving stare, and it was only when she got halfway down the main hallway that the full weight of what had happened, and the realization that she had failed, hit her again, and she had to stop and lean against a wall, taking deep breaths to calm herself. There were still a few students walking around; they looked at her warily, but no one said anything.

She got to her room, and collapsed onto her bed. She pressed her face against her pillow, until Anna came over and sat down next to her.

"Alex?"

Alexandra didn't answer at first. She felt Anna's hand on her shoulder, and she rolled over, to show her friend that she wasn't crying.

"Are you all right?" Anna asked.

Alexandra closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She knew she was going to have to explain eventually.

"I tried to use a Time-Turner," she said. "I stole a Time-Turner from my sister, and I tried to use it to go back and -- and someone ambushed me, and Ms. Fletcher found me, and Dean Grimm has my Time-Turner and it's not even that it didn't work, Anna! I didn't even get a chance to try!" She opened her eyes, to find Anna staring at her, with a shocked expression on her face.

"I was going to do it, Anna," she said hoarsely. "I was going to go back and stop me and Max from going to the Lands Below. I was -- I was..." She choked down her grief and her bitter disappointment.

"Troublesome," Charlie clacked, from the cage. The raven sounded as disapproving as Anna looked.

Anna shook her head slowly. "You stole a Time-Turner from your sister?"

Alexandra nodded. "I guess she's going to be pretty angry at me."

"You think?" Anna was looking at her very oddly. "I suppose you're in trouble again." Her voice was flat.

"Nothing unusual, for me." Alexandra shrugged.

"I guess not." Anna looked at her a moment longer, and then got up. "We'd probably better go to bed."

Alexandra noticed Anna's stiff expression, as they both prepared for bed, and before turning out the lights, she said, "Maybe I should have told you, Anna. I'm sorry. I just thought, if it worked, everything would be different anyway, and if it didn't --"

"Then it would be like every other time you've done something like this?"

Alexandra was surprised at the bitterness in her friend's tone.

"Anna --"

"It's all right, Alex. I know, you wanted to save Max. Good night." Anna clapped her hands, and the lights went out, leaving Alexandra lying in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about Max, and the mysterious intruder who had Stunned her, and Anna's angry reaction.

I really screwed up, she thought, but all she could think about was the fact that she'd failed. That's what she dreamed about that night -- Maximilian, plummeting into a pool of darkness, while staring at her accusingly. She could hear his voice, and Julia's, and Ms. King's, all of them saying, "You failed!" over and over.

---

Anna was still cold and distant the next morning. Alexandra tried to apologize a couple more times, and each time, Anna just shook her head and told her to forget about it.

Alexandra followed her unhappily downstairs, only to find, as Ms. Grimm had warned her, that she was being called to the office before breakfast.

Both of the Grimm sisters were waiting in the Dean's office. When Alexandra entered, Lilith Grimm was holding Galen in her lap, while Diana Grimm paced the office, staring down the portraits. The Special Inquisitor turned to face Alexandra, and gestured at a chair. The Dean frowned slightly, but didn't object, so Alexandra sat down.

"Well," Diana Grimm said. "I'd like to thank you, Miss Quick, for turning in an illegally smuggled Time-Turner. Very responsible of you."

Alexandra scowled. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Not at all." Ms. Grimm's expression wasn't at all humorous. "But you can thank my sister that I'm allowing her to handle your stunt as a school disciplinary matter." She held up the Time-Turner, clutched in her hand. "The situation for your sister, Valeria, is much more serious."

Alexandra sat up straighter in her chair. "Is she all right?"

"Oh, I'm sure she is. Her plane was across the Atlantic before Lilith called me this morning." Diana glanced at her sister, who gazed back at her evenly. "The Trace Office now has her on their special watch list, should she ever reenter the country -- she'll have to be thoroughly searched and interrogated every time she enters and leaves, assuming she's not simply detained indefinitely."

She looked at the Time-Turner again. "This is an impressive piece of work -- I'm not sure we even have Time-Turners like this. Our Artificers will certainly want to take it apart and study it. We may eventually return it, after we've made Academy officials answer some hard questions, and extracted a pound of flesh from their Ministry."

"Is this really necessary, Diana?" The Dean's long, thin fingers were scratching the top of Galen's head, but her voice was not nearly so relaxed. She looked irritated.

"You're right," the Dean's twin said. "Valeria White's fate is not my concern. I only care about what she was up to while she was here. You're going to tell me everything about her visit, Alexandra, everything she told you about Time-Turners and what she was researching, and every single thing you did from the moment you got your own hands on this Time-Turner."

The Special Inquisitor strode across the room in two steps, until she was towering over Alexandra. "I'm allowing my sister to sit in, as a favor -- I'm under no obligation to allow her to witness your interrogation, and if you resist me or lie to me, even a tiny little bit, I'll haul you all the way back to Chicago, and you won't leave the Territorial Headquarters building until we've gone over your every waking moment since you returned from the Lands Below."

Alexandra's eyes darted to the other Ms. Grimm, sitting behind her desk. The Dean met Alexandra's gaze coolly and just nodded her head, ever so slightly.

It was painful, and more than once she wanted to scream at Diana Grimm, or shut up and force the Special Inquisitor to carry out her threat. What did it matter, now? But the guilt that had begun gnawing at her last night after Anna's shocked, disappointed reaction, and which was now chewing her up inside, had finally penetrated her gloom and sense of failure, making her feel all the worse. She told Ms. Grimm everything. She didn't think there was anything she could say now that would make it worse for Valeria or herself.

The entire time, the Special Inquisitor stared at her with such intensity that sometimes it almost felt like a physical pressure -- Alexandra wasn't sure whether it was a subtle use of Legilimency, or just a psychological trick, but either way, it made her even less inclined to hide anything. What was the point?

She kept her attention on Diana Grimm, mostly, but now and then she glanced at the Dean, who listened quietly, occasionally raising an eyebrow.

When she was done, she slumped in her chair, and glowered sullenly at the Special Inquisitor.

Diana Grimm turned to her sister. "Have you determined who this mysterious 'shadowy person' was who Stunned her in the basement?"

Alexandra bit her tongue -- she didn't miss Ms. Grimm's skeptical tone. Lilith Grimm merely shook her head. "We have, of course, questioned Miss Dearborn. She had no wand, and she couldn't have been down there -- she was in the library at the time Miss Quick was descending into the basement."

"Do let me know if you learn more." Diana Grimm turned back to Alexandra. "Whoever it was, if indeed there was someone down there, did you a favor. Your plan would never have worked -- and worse, you'd have had to relive the next six months concurrently with yourself. I'm not sure what happens in situations like that, but from what little I know of time travel, you'd likely have disappeared completely."

"What do you mean, concurrently with myself?" Alexandra asked.

"When you went back eleven hours in Blacksburg, how long did it take for you to return to the time that you'd left?" Ms. Grimm asked.

Alexandra frowned. "Eleven hours."

"Exactly. Time-Turners can only send you back in time -- there is no way to jump forward again. If you'd gone back to May, you'd have been stuck there -- you'd have had to relive the next six months."

Alexandra's frown deepened. She hadn't thought of that. She hadn't cared. And it wouldn't have mattered -- if she could save Max, she didn't care if she had to live six months over again. Though doing so concurrently with herself -- that did sound confusing.

"But, Valeria --" She stopped.

"Valeria what?" Ms. Grimm demanded.

Alexandra hesitated. "How could she observe history, if going back years or centuries means being stuck there?"

"My understanding is that Historicists create a viewing area that they send back in time -- or perhaps they send an image of themselves back in time, an observer of sorts who's not actually present." Ms. Grimm shrugged. "I don't know exactly how temporal magic works, only that wizards who go too far back in time are never heard from again, not even in history." She gave Alexandra an unpleasant smile. "You really should ask your sister about that. It is her area of expertise. Of course, that didn't make any difference to you before, did it?"

Alexandra winced.

"Is that all, Diana?" her sister asked. "Would you like to talk to Miss Dearborn? Or perhaps there's someone else you'd like to interrogate? As long as you're here."

The Grimms stared at one another, and neither of them looked exactly sisterly. Alexandra thought Galen must be feeling the tension, too -- the cat meowed and began twisting about in the Dean's lap; Ms. Grimm released her familiar, and Galen leapt to the floor and slunk under the desk.

"No, I need to get this Time-Turner back to headquarters, and then brief my office. I'll let you get back to running your school and managing your students, Lilith."

Diana Grimm strode out of the office, without another glance at Alexandra, who remained seated in her chair. Galen peered at her balefully from beneath the Dean's desk.

The Dean turned her head slowly to fix Alexandra with an equally baleful look.

"Is all that stuff she said true?" Alexandra asked. "Is Valeria -- is she going to be in trouble?"

"I imagine her superiors will be quite displeased with her," Ms. Grimm said. "They entrusted her with a Time-Turner, and she allowed her little sister to steal it and cause a humiliating international incident. All witches and wizards from the Academie de Magie who come to North America will be subjected to extreme scrutiny, now. Your sister might not even find it safe to leave Europe."

Alexandra looked down.

"Did you think about that before you did what you did?" the Dean asked.

"I did -- a little," Alexandra admitted, in a very quiet voice.

"But you chose to do it anyway."

Alexandra nodded.

"Well, you'll have to ask your sister directly. I suggest writing a letter of apology, sooner rather than later. And be prepared to accept whatever response you get, including no response at all. There are some things for which an apology is completely inadequate."

Alexandra looked down again, and when the Dean didn't say anything else, she rose slowly from her seat, assuming she was dismissed.

"Alexandra."

Alexandra looked up.

"You aren't the first witch to lose a loved one, nor the first to pursue whatever means you can find to bring him back. You need to stop this. Stop trying to change things. It will only bring you to more grief."

Alexandra started to turn away, and the Dean's voice rose sharply. "Manners, Miss Quick?"

Alexandra paused, and clenched her teeth. "Yes, ma'am," she gritted.

"Better. You may go."

Alexandra's day didn't get any better after that. No one knew the details of what had happened the previous night, but everyone knew that Alexandra Quick had gotten in trouble and that a Special Inquisitor had come to the school again.

Anna spoke to her only about classwork. The Pritchards, with whom Alexandra had not yet shared the full story, nonetheless knew that she'd done something reckless and irresponsible again, and told her so.

They also told her that she obviously needed to apologize to Anna. Alexandra agreed, but she wasn't sure that Anna wanted to hear an apology, and she wasn't even entirely sure where her apology should start. She was still struggling with disappointment and failure, and she knew that while Anna's feelings might have been hurt, it was Valeria -- and Ms. King, and Julia, and Triss -- whom she'd really betrayed.

She sat at her desk after class the next day -- Ms. Shirtliffe had, of course, told her she was out of the Dueling Club -- trying to write a letter of apology to Valeria, while explaining herself. Nothing she tried to say sounded adequate. In her mind, her cause had been just, but she knew it would never excuse what she'd done. And writing letters to the Kings was going to be at least as hard.

Anna came into the room. Alexandra turned, and started to speak to her, and Anna said, "Darla's cat is missing."

Alexandra started. "What?"

"Her cat is missing. She's very upset."

"Darla's cat is missing," Alexandra repeated slowly.

Anna's lips turned downward in a small frown. "I know you don't like her, but I think we should help try to find her cat. I mean, you saved Angelique's jarvey --"

"Yeah. You're right." Alexandra got up. She glanced at Charlie -- who, like Anna, was still behaving stand-offishly towards her -- and Nigel, before heading out the door.

Several girls were walking up and down Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall, knocking on doors and checking stairwells. Upstairs, Alexandra heard Innocence calling: "Tshaa! Tshaa! Kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty!"

Angelique was standing with a tearful Darla outside their door, trying to comfort her.

"I sent David outside to look for him," Angelique said.

"How could Mr. Whiskers have gotten outside?" Darla asked, distraught. "Our window wasn't open!"

"Well... he can't search up here on the girls' floor," Angelique said, a bit lamely.

"Maybe you should have sent him downstairs," Alexandra said. Both girls looked up as she approached. "Maybe Mr. Whiskers is down in the basements."

Darla turned a little pale. "Why would he be down there?"

"I don't know. Why were you down there?" Alexandra demanded.

Angelique and Anna were both looking nervous now, but not as nervous as Darla.

"What are you talking about?" Darla asked.

"You were down there last night! I know you were, just like you've been sneaking around down there all semester --"

"What?" Darla glared at her. "I heard you were the one caught in the basement last night!"

"Alex," Anna said, but Alexandra stepped up until she was nose-to-nose with Darla. Innocence had just descended the stairs from the floor above, and stopped in her tracks, mouth open.

"I don't even know what happened last night, but I know you blamed me for something, again," Darla said. "Dean Grimm had our room searched!" She flushed indignantly, and next to her, Angelique nodded, giving Alexandra a dirty look.

Alexandra said, "Yes, you're perfectly innocent, I'm sure."

"It's my cat missing!" Darla cried. "What are you implying?"

"I don't know," Alexandra said, flushed with anger and not sure exactly what she did think Darla was up to. She just knew the girl was up to something. "It's just funny how pets have a habit of going missing around you."

Angelique's eyes went wide. So did Innocence's. Alexandra could hear Anna suck in a breath. Darla's mouth dropped open. Her immediate reaction was shock and fear, but this was quickly replaced by a look of outrage. Her eyes narrowed, and her voice dropped until it was as low as Alexandra's.

"And it's funny how people have a habit of dying around you!" Darla said.

Anna wasn't the only one who gasped out loud at that. Angelique's eyes looked as if they might pop out of her head, and Innocence and all the other girls watching the confrontation stood frozen in place.

Alexandra saw only red for a moment, and then she drew her wand and advanced on the other girl. Darla backed away from her until she bumped into a wall, and could retreat no further. She gulped as Alexandra pressed the point of her wand against her throat.

"Go ahead!" Darla squealed. "Curse me! Show everyone what a wicked sorceress you are against a girl who doesn't even have a wand!"

"Don't call me a sorceress again," Alexandra snarled, and Darla whimpered as the tip of Alexandra's wand glowed brightly.

Alexandra leaned closer. "Max saved you last time. You know your wand didn't do you any good. Don't ever speak to me again. Don't mention my brother. Stay out of my way. Or I'll hang you upside down by your ankles again, and next time there will be no one to stop me from cursing you until your own parents won't recognize you."

Darla's eyes were squeezed shut. Alexandra glowered at her, and then looked around, to see everyone else, including Anna, staring at her in horror.

She clenched her teeth, and thrust her wand into her pocket. While Darla stood there trembling, Alexandra spun on her heel and stalked away, back down the corridor to her room.

Innocence looked as if she thought Alexandra had gone insane. But it was Anna's shocked, dismayed expression that bothered her the most.

Even Charlie was eyeing her warily as she sat down slowly on her bed. She looked up when Anna entered the room after her.

"Anna," she said. "I know I'm right about Darla."

Anna stared at her.

Alexandra started to speak again, but she was cut off when Anna took a deep breath and said, "What was that stuff about hanging Darla upside down, and Max saving her?"

Alexandra paused. "I know I shouldn't have said those things --"

"Were you talking about when you and Max fought her and John, down in the basements?"

Alexandra's brow wrinkled. "Yes. I was --"

"I thought you didn't remember that fight."

Alexandra paused. Realization and guilt flashed across her face. Anna twitched, and then her eyes filled with a look of hurt and betrayal.

"You've known," Anna whispered. "You've known all this time. You remembered everything and you kept telling me you didn't --"

"I couldn't!"

"Why, because I might tell someone?" Anna laughed. "I've never betrayed you, Alexandra! Never! I've kept all your secrets! I trusted you and I thought you knew you could trust me, but you never really have, have you?"

"That's not true --"

"It is true!" Anna shouted. Alexandra shut up, startled, as her quiet, timid roommate turned angry. "How many times have you actually told me what you were doing? And how many times have you lied to me? You just tried to go back in time with a Time-Turner, and... and... who knows what might have happened if you hadn't been stopped, but did you think about how it might have affected us? Did you even think of telling me? Of course not! Why should you care what I think? And obviously I'd go running straight to the Dean --"

"I didn't think that --"

"You don't trust me!" Anna cried. Tears ran down her face. Alexandra stood up, to reach for her friend, but Anna backed away from her with a furious look. "You won't even trust me with how you're really feeling! You've hardly talked about Max at all -- we all know you've been keeping all these feelings inside, and I just thought, sooner or later you'll be ready to talk about it, but I guess you just don't need anyone else, do you? You don't even notice your friends trying to help you! And you know what? You're not the only one with problems, Alex!"

Alexandra was in utter shock as Anna continued to rage at her. "Do you have any idea how worried Constance and Forbearance have been about Innocence? And when was the last time you asked about my father?"

"Your father..."

"Yeah, you know, my father in prison? Gosh, I wonder if a Time-Turner could help with that?" Anna laughed again, bitterly.

"Anna," Alexandra said. "I'm sorry."

"I know you're sorry, Alex." Anna's expression turned almost pitying. "You're always sorry. Until the next time."

She made a choking sound, and wiped at her eyes, and then turned and fled the room, leaving Alexandra alone with her familiars.

She sank back onto her bed, and then lay down, covering her face with her hands.

She heard a fluttering sound, and then Charlie emitted a scolding cackle, followed by, "Troublesome!"

"Do you hate me, too, now, Charlie?" Alexandra felt too miserable to even look up.

The raven's wings fluttered again, this time against her head. She uncovered her eyes, just enough to see Charlie standing on her pillow, gazing down at her with beady bird eyes.

"Sorry," Charlie croaked.

Alexandra reached for the raven, and stroked its glossy black feathers with her fingertips.

"I am," she whispered.