Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle

Chicken

Detention with Mr. Journey turned out not to be so bad, although Alexandra grimaced a little every time he called her "Starshine," and then glared at David, as he found it highly amusing. Much worse was the fact that she and David had to see the Rash twins and Larry Albo every evening, as they all arrived to serve their detentions.

Journey seemed to be the only custodian and groundskeeper for the entire academy, though as he explained to David and Alexandra, he got a lot of help. "Usually from misbehaving students," he said with a wink.

But much of the work was also done by house-elves, or had been, until recently. Now, Clockworks did many of the routine chores such as dusting, sweeping, mopping, polishing, hauling trash, and cutting the grass on Charmbridge Academy's extensive lawns.

The metallic golems were not very smart, though, and Journey explained that while for certain routine tasks they could be left unsupervised, anything that might present a challenge either confused them enough to make them freeze up, or else they would continue doing what they were doing irrespective of the difficulty, often with disastrous results.

"Some kids like to leave Disappearing Stains and Apportating Puddles around when the Clockworks are cleaning," Journey said. "The little fellers will chase them until their gears wear down if someone doesn't deal with that nonsense. They're also terrible at de-gnoming."

"De-gnoming?" Alexandra was curious about this. She'd seen gnomes back in Larkin Mills, but had never considered trying to get rid of them.

"Don't worry, I won't make you do that. It's usually a job for some of the older kids. Clockworks are too slow to do it, and not smart enough. Never thought I'd be dealing with something that could be outsmarted by a gnome." Journey chuckled.

"Neither did Troublesome's teachers," whispered Larry, just low enough that the custodian didn't hear him. The Rash twins snickered.

"I thought jarveys are good at getting rid of gnomes," said David. "That's what Angelique says."

"I'm sure she'd like Honey to be good at something," Alexandra snorted.

"Your mother would like you to be good at something," Larry whispered. Alexandra turned on him with a murderous look, but he adopted an expression of studied interest in the clockwork golems as Journey marched them out.

"We don't use jarveys, not anymore," said Journey.

Each of them was put in charge of a group of Clockworks. David was sent with his Clockworks to clean the cafeteria, while Alexandra supervised her cleaning golems as they scrubbed floors and walls in corridors outside the sixth-graders' dorms. Albo and the Rashes were sent to the aviary and the stables. This was how they spent each evening for the rest of the week, while the other kids changed out of their school clothes and went outside or to one of the student lounges.

Darla and Angelique waved, with sympathetic expressions, as they passed by. Constance and Forbearance nodded to her, looking guilty. Alexandra shrugged. Anna would come by to chat with her in the hallway, but one of the teachers patrolling the hallways usually chased her off, saying, "Miss Quick is serving detention, not socializing!"

Then there were the kids who smirked and said, "Make sure you don't miss that spot over there, Troublesome!"

After the first evening, it didn't bother Alexandra so much. No doubt having to stand there in full view of the rest of the school was supposed to be part of her punishment, but soon it was more tedious than anything else. All she was really doing was watching Clockworks clean. The work was simple enough that she suspected they didn't really need her supervision. Only once did she have to direct one around an obstacle. Mostly she seemed to be there to prevent other students from messing with them.

By the time she returned to her room each evening, it was almost time for bed. She heard Darla and Angelique talking about wizard chess or exploding snaps or musical wands, while Anna seemed to spend her evenings studying.

Alexandra had never spent much time studying, but she did read a lot, and her textbooks were as interesting as the books of mythology and fairy tales that she read at home. She also had a burning desire to escape her remedial magic classes and the stigma thereof. With this incentive, she actually did her homework diligently, and even read ahead in her textbooks. Her parents and her teachers back at Larkin Mills Elementary School would have been amazed.

It seemed to Alexandra that she was much smarter and more talented than the other kids in her classes, but she usually thought that in Larkin Mills as well - she just didn't care enough about grades or schoolwork to worry about it. Now she resented the fact that she was learning magic more slowly than if she were in a regular class. She was sure that even Mr. Hobbes, Mr. Newton, and Mr. Grue had to be noticing her efforts. She wasn't so sure about Ms. Grinder, who continued to go off on tangents in her Wizarding World History class, complaining about the Department of Magical Education, the Wizards' Congress, or the Governor-General, who was apparently an insufferable, hidebound, sexist pig.

In Practical Magical Exercise, they continued playing games that involved using their wands to move or transform things. Alexandra noticed that the older kids were often playing similar games, but with much more impressive results. She also heard a lot more talk about Quidditch and Quodpot. Team tryouts were in a couple of weeks. David was determined to go out for Quidditch, despite the fact that they wouldn't even be having their first broom lessons until Friday. Alexandra was uninterested in team sports until she found out that Quodpot involved an exploding ball.

At dinner, near the end of the week, she and David were talking about broom games. Benjamin and Mordecai Rash walked past and chanted in low voices:

"Troublesome's wicked, high-headed, and vain,
Troublesome's awful, a trial and a pain."

Constance and Forbearance blushed and looked down as the Rash twins continued on to their table.

"We're plumb sorry," Constance said quietly.

"It's all right," Alexandra said, cutting them off before they could begin another back-and-forth volley of self-abasement and apologies.

"Why are you so interested in this Quidditch thing anyway?" Alexandra asked David. "Anna said it's mostly played in Europe."

"It's played here too. It's just that Quodpot is more popular. Why are you so interested in Quodpot?"

"Because it has an exploding ball!" Alexandra replied enthusiastically.

"Do you even know the rules to Quodpot, or just that it has an exploding ball?" David asked sardonically. Angelique giggled a little, across the table.

"Quidditch sounds like a sissy game," said Alexandra. "Who wants to chase a 'Golden Snitch'?"

David scowled. "Don't even start with me, Troublesome. And for your information, Quidditch is dangerous too. Players get chased around by these homicidal balls called Bludgers that come after you like guided missiles."

"What's a missile?" asked Darla.

"Like a cross between a Bludger and a Quod," said David. "They chase you and then explode."

"And Muggles play games with them?" Darla asked, sounding dubious.

Alexandra and David looked at each other, and shook their heads.

"You know," Darla said airily, "I'm not sure they even let students in remedial classes play team sports."

"Especially not if they're doing detention," Angelique said. "Nice essays, by the way." She giggled again. David and Alexandra both flushed.

Their essays on the importance of proper behavior for young wizards and witches had been posted on the notice boards in all the dormitory corridors for grades six through twelve, along with similar essays by Larry Albo and Benjamin and Mordecai Rash. Alexandra had had to "revise" hers several times. Her first draft had concluded with: "Even if some stupid arrogant jerk really, really deserves to have his face pounded in, it's wrong, especially in public, because even if it would teach the ugly, nasty, bad-smelling idiot a lesson, doing it front of witnesses is really stupid and also makes Charmbridge Academy look bad."

Miss Marmsley informed her that this was not quite the level of contrition the Dean was expecting, and it took several more tries before Alexandra's essay was deemed suitable.

"We'll be out of detention next week," said David, but he looked a little worried.

"And I'll be out of remedial classes soon," Alexandra declared confidently.

David looked at her, as surprised as the other kids, and demanded, "Says who?"

Alexandra shrugged. "I'll bet if I retook the SPAWN right now I'd score better. They can't make us stay in remedial classes forever, can they?"

"Only a Dean can get you out of remedial classes," said Anna.

"Then I'll ask the Dean," said Alexandra.

There was silence at the table, and then David chuckled. "Yeah, right."

Alexandra glared at him again.

"Oh, come on," David said. "There is no way you're going to go ask the Dean."

"Wanna bet?" she replied, defiantly.

"It's only been a week," said Darla. "You wouldn't dare go bother the Dean this soon, especially not now." She laughed, but the laugh turned uncertain when Alexandra fixed her gaze on the other girl.

"I'm not afraid of Ms. Grimm," Alexandra said.

"Everyone's afraid of Ms. Grimm," said Anna.

"I'm not!" Alexandra said.

"Yeah, right," snorted David, no doubt remembering their encounter in the Dean's office, when Ms. Grimm had loomed over them like an angry spirit of retribution, radiating thunderbolts and malice.

Alexandra's face turned stormy. It was a look Brian Seabury would have recognized.

"Okay, do it," David said. "Prove you're not chicken."

"Chicken?" Alexandra exclaimed angrily.

David sighed and shook his head. "I'm just kidding. Come on, you know -"

But Alexandra wasn't hearing any more. "Tomorrow," she said. "You just watch."

"Heck no I'm not going to watch!" David stared at her. "Don't be stupid, Alex. I was joking!"

"Why would she have to prove she's not a chicken?" asked Darla, confused. But Alexandra was already leaving the table, done with dinner and determined to spend what little time she had before they had to meet Ben Journey for detention studying her textbooks.

"Hard-headed," David sighed, shaking his head as they all watched her go.

"Troublesome," whispered Constance and Forbearance.

---

When Alexandra got to her room, she opened her desk to get out her textbooks and writing parchment, and immediately noticed something missing: the locket she had also left there.

"Charlie! Where's my locket?" she demanded.

The raven cawed and flapped its wing, agitatedly.

Alexandra looked around and in and under the cage, and then searched the room she shared with Anna, and finally rounded on her familiar angrily. "I told you you could hold onto it, not hide it!" she said. "Now give it back!"

Charlie cawed again, this time with a more shrill and angry tone as it leaned forward, its beak jutting out at her.

Alexandra scowled, studying her desk and then looking back at Charlie. She hadn't thought to lock her desk drawer, but she wasn't sure if Charlie was actually strong enough to pull it open. On the other hand, she knew ravens were smart, and maybe Charlie was still a little stronger than normal after the charm she had cast at the Invisible Bridge.

"I really want my locket back, Charlie," she said. "It's one thing for you to play with it, but it's important to me and you shouldn't be stealing things from me."

Charlie made a low, trilling sound, looking at Alexandra from a head tilted sideways.

She frowned unhappily. "I'd hate to have to start locking your cage," she said, and carried her books out of her room, into the sixth grade lounge.

She was only able to read a chapter from "Beginning Potions" before it was time for detention. She ran back into her room, and noticed Charlie was gone when she tossed her books back into her desk, but so was the locket, still. Then she ran to Ben Journey's office for that evening's duty babysitting Clockworks.

---

Alexandra was the very model of diligence and attentiveness in her classes the next day. David said little but seemed bemused by her uncharacteristic placidity in remedial charms and transfiguration. After a week, Mr. Newton was still spending much of the class drilling them in basic wand positions and motions, but he was beginning to talk about incantations and promising that next week they might be permitted to actually cast a few spells.

Even Mr. Grue could find no fault either with her behavior or with her worksheets, on which she correctly listed the six ingredients found in all Sixth Grade-Level potions and the properties of eleven of them (one more than he had asked for). She was impatient, though, because they had yet to actually lay hands on anything but their books. Grue's supplies cabinet remained locked and his cauldrons stayed cold and on the shelves during remedial alchemy class, though Alexandra knew from what David had told her that the regular sixth grade class was now actually mixing their first Minor Medical Tinctures.

Alexandra was still in a confident, cheery mood when she and the other sixth-graders gathered for Practical Magical Exercise. She saw that most of the students were gathered around a large bronze statue. It was towering over them all, and Alexandra thought the fat, bearded man looked familiar, then realized he was the same warlock whose portrait hung over the entrance to the Delta Delta Kappa Tau hallway.

Alexandra was surprised to see Ms. Shirtliffe as well. She hadn't seen Shirtliffe since her SPAWN, and was not sure what class she actually taught.

Still clad in black leather, Shirtliffe smiled tightly at the gathered students.

"Good afternoon. I understand that you've spent this entire week playing games in which you practiced moving things. That's good practice for today's challenge, which is simple: move this statue."

"Is she kidding?" David murmured, looking up and down at the bronze statue, which must have weighed as much as a good-sized car.

"No, I am not kidding," Shirtliffe said. David started, though Alexandra thought she might have been responding to the looks of disbelief and dismay reflected on many of the students' faces. "Of course I don't expect many of you to be able to move it at all, and I don't expect any of you to be able to move it very far. Even many juniors and seniors will have trouble with this task. However, it's good to take on a daunting challenge now and then. So everyone take a turn. There's no shame in failing, only in not trying."

One by one, the younger students, from grades six through eight, lined up and pointed their wands at the bronze statue. The seventh and eighth graders used incantations, trying to cast Hover or Lightening Charms, with very little effect, while the sixth graders, who had had little opportunity to learn many charms, mostly just concentrated and pointed their wands, with even less effect. Darla and Angelique gave up after a few moments. David concentrated until sweat broke out on his forehead, but the statue barely wobbled. Anna tried levitating the statue, and then uttered an incantation in Chinese. She was the most crestfallen of all at her failure.

Constance and Forbearance stood together in front of the statue and pointed their wands at the same time. "Levostatua!" they said in unison. Some of the older students had tried that incantation, and it seemed the Pritchards were imitating them, but the statue moved, just a couple of inches.

"Well done!" said Ms. Shirtliffe.

"They cheated!" Larry protested. "It's supposed to be one at a time!"

"This isn't a contest, Albo," said Shirtliffe. "Why don't you give it a shot?"

Alexandra smirked at him as Larry raised his wand. He spared her a sneer, and then said, "Accio Statue!" The bronze figure teetered a little in his direction, and then sunk back onto its base.

"Good thinking, Albo," said Shirtliffe. He smiled, but failed to note the sarcastic tone of her voice. His smile faded when she went on. "Did you think about what would happen if that had actually worked? There's a reason why Summoning Charms aren't taught until ninth grade."

He slunk back into the crowd amidst nervous laughter. Next the Rash twins stepped forward, looking at Constance and Forbearance with irritation before raising their wands and bellowing at the top of their voices, "LEVOSTATUA!"

It wobbled, but didn't move. Constance and Forbearance looked away, their expressions carefully neutral. Alexandra laughed out loud, causing the Ozarker boys to turn in her direction, red-faced, still clutching their wands.

"Well, Quick, let's see what you can do, then," Ms. Shirtliffe said sharply. The Rashes lowered their wands and stepped back, smirking.

Alexandra was conscious of everyone watching her as she looked up at the heavy bronze statue. She stared at it a moment, then raised her wand and said:

"This big old statue weighs a ton,
Moving it is not much fun,
But it'll be easier when it's smaller,
So shrink until I'm much, much taller!"

Everyone laughed, but many kids were startled when the statue actually shrank down to the height of Alexandra's knees. She stepped forward and picked it up, with some effort as it was still pretty heavy, and carried it over to Ms. Shirtliffe.

"You didn't say how we had to move it," she said.

Ms. Shirtliffe smiled thinly at her. "No, I didn't."

A lot of kids were still laughing, though. "She used doggerel verse!" someone said.

"That's baby magic!" said Larry.

Shirtliffe gestured with her wand, and levitated the statuette out of Alexandra's hands and back to its spot on the ground, then with another charm, restored it to its previous size. "Keep practicing!" she said to the other students.

"What's doggerel verse?" Alexandra asked Ms. Shirtliffe.

"Casting spells using an impromptu rhyme, as you did," said the teacher. "It's not usually done except by small children and the occasional uneducated hedge witch."

"I don't see why it's not proper magic if it worked!" Alexandra said, annoyed.

Shirtliffe looked down at her.

"Thinking outside the box, Quick, is a valuable talent," said the teacher. "And doggerel verse or not, that was quite impressive, especially at your age." She looked up and watched some more eighth graders trying to move the statue, succeeding in budging it a few more inches. "But as irritating as the drive towards 'standardization' may be, there are reasons for it. If you tried that same spell again, do you think it would work?"

Alexandra thought a moment, and said, "Probably not. I have to make up a new one each time I want to try to do something."

Shirtliffe nodded. "Maybe in a few more years when you're taking Advanced Magical Theory, you'll understand why. In any case, a properly-trained witch could move that statue with a word or two, rather than a nursery rhyme. And if you continue to rely on doggerel verse, it will become a crutch. Don't let me hear you using it again, or I'll make you write another essay."

Alexandra looked disgruntled as she rejoined her friends.

Anna looked sympathetic, rather than impressed. "You really don't want to be seen using doggerel verse. It's considered..."

"Low class," said Darla.

"Or babyish," said Angelique.

"What kind of a rhyme was that, anyway?" asked David.

Alexandra rolled her eyes. "You weren't complaining about my rhyming when it saved your life," she pointed out.

David actually looked abashed. "Yeah, that's true."

The class hour ended,. Normally this gave them a little time before dinner, but Alexandra hurried off in a different direction than towards Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall.

"Where are you going, Alex?" David called after her.

"To see Ms. Grimm!" She marched on towards the academic office, leaving her friends staring at her back.

---

Miss Marmsley was not amused. "Have you been sent here to be disciplined again already?" she demanded, from her portrait above Alexandra's head.

"No," said Alexandra. "I want to see Dean Grimm."

Miss Marmsley looked taken aback. "You want to see Dean Grimm? What for?"

"I want to talk to her about my classes." As Miss Marmsley stared down in disbelief, Alexandra straightened up and tried to look properly supplicating. "I mean, it doesn't have to be right now, Miss Marmsley. I could make an appointment."

"Of course it won't be right now!" snapped the secretary. "Surely you don't think you can expect to see the Dean at your convenience? But the Dean of the Academy does not get involved in individual student schedules. If you need to talk about your classes, then the Dean of your grade level is in charge of that. Are you absolutely certain you want to speak to Dean Price, young lady? If this is a waste of her time she is not going to be any more pleased than Dean Grimm would be!"

"I'm certain," Alexandra said.

Marmsley gave her a cross-eyed look from her position overhead, then sighed. "Very well." She turned towards the desk painted behind her, and opened a drawer to withdraw a scroll, which she unrolled and peered at, through her glasses. "Mrs. Price has Monday morning available. Be here after breakfast but before your first period class."

"Yes, Miss Marmsley," said Alexandra, and turned to head back for the dorms.

Anna was waiting, nervously.

"Relax," said Alexandra. "I made an appointment. Miss Marmsley wouldn't let me see Dean Grimm. She said I have to talk to Dean Price."

"Oh," said Anna, looking relieved.

Before they left for dinner, Charlie cawed at her. Alexandra noticed something sitting at the raven's feet. Her locket.

"Thanks, Charlie," said Alexandra. She reached for it, and this time Charlie didn't fight her for it as she took the locket away, though the bird's beady black eyes tracked the glittering gold piece greedily. Alexandra put the locket in her pocket. "Don't take things of mine anymore, okay?" Charlie made a raucous, ugly sound.

---

Technically, the detention Alexandra was serving with David, Larry, and the Rashes ended each evening when their designated areas were clean. For each of them it took about the same amount of time. But that night, Alexandra's Clockworks seemed to be slower than usual, and worse, their cleaning was haphazard. They left streaks on windows and dirty puddles on the floor, which they kept mopping over and over again to no avail. Alexandra tried to direct them to clean properly, and even took a mop into her own hands, which earned her extremely odd looks from passing students.

One thing Alexandra had noticed in her brief time at Charmbridge Academy was that wizard children didn't seem to do a lot of work, even to the extent of cleaning their own rooms. Apparently even in those wizarding households that didn't have elves or Clockworks, nearly everything was done with a wand and a few charms (usually by their mothers). Even Anna had looked at Alexandra like she was crazy when asked if they'd have to do their own laundry. Anna took it for granted that their dirty clothes would magically disappear from the hamper and magically reappear clean and folded in their dressers. Whether this was done by elves, Clockworks, or a laundry witch never even crossed the other girl's mind.

Now Alexandra was trying to help her Clockworks finish scrubbing Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall, and after working for an hour, the walls and floors were still dingy and streaked. The time that they were normally finished came and went, and Alexandra feared she'd be there all night when Ben Journey finally came looking for her.

"Hey there, Starshine," he said kindly. "Your friends are all done. What's keeping you?"

"These stupid Clockworks aren't cleaning right!" she said. "They're just slapping the mops around and they keep forgetting to pour out the dirty water and get clean water, and it's taking forever!"

"The enchantments on these fellers sometimes need to be adjusted," Journey said. "And so do their gears. I'll take a look at 'em. In the meantime, no sense in you cleaning the same spot for the rest of the night." He winked at her and took out his wand, which was long and surprisingly slender.

"Scourgify!" he said, repeatedly pointing his wand at puddles and streaks and smears. They vanished one by one.

Alexandra's mouth dropped open. "If you can just clean everything with a few spells, why do you need Clockworks?"

Journey chuckled. "Well, you can't expect me to spend all my time cleaning up after you kids. Besides, what else would misbehaving students have to do?" The hallway was now not exactly sparkling, but at least clean. "All right, you can run along now, Starshine. I'll take the Clockworks back where they belong."

"Thanks, Mr. Journey!" she said, waving to him as she returned to her room.

She spent the time she had left until lights out studying. Even Anna was impressed, as usually Alexandra was playing with Charlie (trying to teach the raven to talk) or reading about Quodpot or magical creatures while the other girl was studying. Alexandra was determined to be ready, once she persuaded Mrs. Price to let her retake the SPAWN.

However, the next day was Saturday, and unfortunately Alexandra's detention included the weekend. She was able to spend the first part of the day with David and Anna (Darla and Angelique were socializing with other, more popular children, and Constance and Forbearance rarely ventured into the common areas during non-study time), but after dinner she and David once again had to go collect their Clockworks and cleaning supplies, and scrub the halls and kitchen, respectively.

Alexandra noticed Larry and the Rashes smirking at her as she and her golems marched off. Larry in particular looked a little too smug.

That evening, cleaning Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall was again a nightmare. It seemed to Alexandra that the Clockworks were actually making it dirtier, and she spent all her time micromanaging what each one of the mechanical workers did, instead of leaning against a wall daydreaming as she usually did while the Clockworks cleaned.

Long past her usual finishing time, she saw Larry and the two Rashes stroll through the juncture at the end of the hallway, heading towards the seventh and eighth grade dorms. Larry paused to wave at her. "Have fun cleaning, Troublesome. We'll be thinking of you while we're enjoying the rest of the evening."

Then he looked around furtively, and seeing no one else was in sight, whipped out his wand and said, "Creohumus!"

Dirt sprayed from the end of his wand, and spread across the floor that Alexandra and her Clockworks had just, finally, cleaned. With a nasty laugh, Larry turned and hurried down the opposite corridor. Alexandra had her wand out, and would have cast a spell after him except that she found herself looking up at the stern warlock whose portrait hung over the opposite end of the hall. He was looking down at her disapprovingly.

"Did you see what he did?" she demanded.

"Obviously not, since you're facing down the corridor and I am facing in the opposite direction," the warlock intoned pompously. "But I can see what you were about to do. Is that proper behavior for a young witch?"

She gritted her teeth and put her wand away. Nearly an hour later, Journey came to to find her again.

"I think Larry and Benjamin and Mordecai sabotaged my Clockworks!" she said. She wasn't going to tattle about the shower of dirt, but having to work with cleaning golems that didn't clean was just unfair.

"I think that's unlikely, Starshine," said Journey slowly. "You don't think we thought about what kids might do with these fellers?" He chuckled. "I'm sure you'd enchant them to do all sorts of things if we didn't put protective charms on them. And tampering with a Clockwork isn't easy magic, anyway. They're awfully complicated. Heck, most wizards my age don't even understand 'em." He shook his head.

"But my Clockworks were working fine until last night!" she insisted. "They did something, I know it!"

"I'll check 'em out, but I think you'd be a lot better off if you let bygones be bygones," he said gently. "Wouldn't it be better to make friends with those boys instead of staying enemies? Wizards shouldn't be fighting other wizards, Starshine, not even at your age."

Alexandra nodded, but her face didn't do a good job of hiding her true thoughts. While Journey once again used his wand to clean up the mess, Alexandra watched silently, and plotted revenge.

Back in the room she shared with Anna, she told the other girl about her suspicions.

"Well, Mr. Journey is right," Anna said. "You have to be a Master Artificer to enchant a Clockwork properly. Larry Albo's only in the eighth grade, and the Rashes are just seventh-graders. I seriously doubt they're that good."

"They did something," Alexandra said stubbornly.

"Well," Anna said thoughtfully. She looked at Alexandra hesitantly.

"What?" Alexandra demanded.

Anna sighed. "Maybe they didn't put a hex on your golems, but on your mops and buckets and sponges," she said. "That wouldn't be so hard to do."

Alexandra's eyes widened. "That's it! That's what they did! I'm sure of it! Anna, you're a genius!"

"What are you going to do?" Anna asked nervously.

"I'm going to get even."

"Oh, I shouldn't have said anything!" Worry lines crossed Anna's face.

"Don't worry. I won't get in trouble," Alexandra said confidently.

"You always say that," Anna muttered.

---

Alexandra spent the first part of Sunday in the library. Mrs. Minder was surprised when Alexandra asked for books about artificing, but admitted they had a few. "I can't give you any books with actual enchantments," the librarian said. "You're not old enough. But we have some educational books about artificing." Mrs. Minder was delighted whenever a student was interested in some subject independently of his or her classwork, and it never occurred to her that Alexandra's motives might not be strictly educational.

Golems and Gears: The Enchantments that Will Revolutionize Our Future! was much less interesting than its cover promised. On the cover, a squad of Clockworks performed a complicated choreographed dance number. However, once Alexandra opened it, she found that the volume was practically a book-length advertisement for Tockmagi ® Clockwork Golems. There were a few chapters about the charms that were put on their gears and joints, and how the clockwork pieces were put together, but by the time came to serve her detention that evening, she hadn't found anything in the book to help her.

Larry, Benjamin, and Mordecai leered at Alexandra and David when they arrived.

"The sixth grade hallways are looking kind of dirty," Larry said.

"I wonder if they're as muddy as the kitchen floor," said Benjamin.

David growled, but Journey appeared with their Clockworks.

"All of your Clockworks have brand new cleaning supplies," he said mildly. "I wouldn't want anyone to have any trouble getting done on time."

Alexandra thought he gave a meaningful look to the three older boys, but they were unfazed, and she wondered why Journey didn't actually do anything if he had discovered that her mops and sponges were jinxed.

Hardly anyone was in the hallways on Sunday evening. Alexandra was alone with her Clockworks. The only person to talk to was the old wizard's portrait hanging over the hallway entrance, and she didn't think she liked him much. So instead, she watched her Clockworks carefully as they cleaned. They seemed to be doing an adequate job.

Monday morning, she ate breakfast quickly. Anna looked worried, but Alexandra had made her promise not to tell anyone else about her appointment with the Sixth Grade Dean. "I'll see you in P.M.E.!" she said to her friends, and hurried to the administrative offices.

Dean Price's office was next to Dean Grimm's. Alexandra sat on the bench for several minutes, long enough to notice a black cat slinking down the hall from the outer office. Surprised, she leaned forward and reached her hand out to beckon to the cat, making a purring sound. The cat gave her the most disdainful look imaginable, and padded on past her, nose and tail held high.

Dean Price opened her door. She looked down her thin nose at Alexandra, then opened the door wider. "Come in, Miss Quick," she said curtly. As Alexandra entered her office, Price walked back around her desk and sat down. Unlike the head Dean's office, which had been neatly arranged and intimidating, Price's office was filled with cabinets stuffed with scrolls, her desk was overflowing with rolls of parchment, and the pictures on her walls appeared to be both family portraits and student and teacher group photos.

Price looked down at a roll of paper, and Alexandra saw "SPAWN Results" printed across the top. Then she looked up at Alexandra. "Well, why did you request to see me, Miss Quick?"

"I want to retake the SPAWN," Alexandra replied.

Price blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"I don't think the first one was fair," Alexandra said, undaunted. "I wasn't given any study guide beforehand and I got a bad score for Alchemy when I didn't even take that test, and I got bad scores on Charms and Transfigurations even though I can charm and transform as well as any other sixth grader, just no one told me I'm not supposed to use 'doggerel verse.' So now I have five remedial classes!"

"The purpose of remedial classes is remediation," Price said, very slowly and deliberately. "It is not a punishment, Miss Quick."

"But I'm learning more slowly than if I were in a regular class!"

Price sighed. "Your SPAWN scores indicate that you're not prepared for regular classes -"

"How can they tell? It's a stupid test!"

"Do not interrupt me, young lady! And mind your tone! You've been at Charmbridge Academy for less than two weeks and already every teacher knows your name. That usually only happens when a student is either exceptionally gifted or exceptionally troublesome."

"Maybe I'm both," she said sullenly. She knew she should have kept her mouth shut, but the word "troublesome" provoked her.

Price's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Miss Quick," she said, "do you enjoy detention?"

"No, Mrs. Price," Alexandra muttered.

The Dean rolled up the SPAWN report. "We do not change schedules mid-semester except in exceptional cases, and none of your teachers have indicated to me that you're exceptional. You may retake the SPAWN when you return from Christmas vacation, before the beginning of the next semester."

Alexandra stood there a moment, and Price fixed her with a beady-eyed stare. "That will be all, Miss Quick. Don't be late to class."

"Yes, Mrs. Price," Alexandra said, barely audibly, and shuffled out of Price's office.

Feeling defeated, she attended her classes that day with considerably less enthusiasm than she'd shown the previous week.

Practical Magical Exercise class was a welcome diversion, though. Miss Gambola and Ms. Shirtliffe were both waiting for the sixth graders with a row of brooms. Everyone murmured excitedly.

"That's right, broom lessons begin today," said Ms. Shirtliffe. "Let me remind you all that a broom is not a toy, and despite the safety and braking charms put on these training brooms, flying is an inherently risky activity. You will all do exactly as you're told, and no horseplay will be tolerated. Anyone violating these rules will be grounded for the rest of the semester at the very least."

Alexandra was as eager as anyone to begin flying. However, Shirtliffe and Gambola spent most of the hour teaching them how brooms flew and how to control them, while the brooms themselves remaining tantalizing out of reach, sitting untouched on the rack.

Finally, with ten minutes left before the end of the period, the teachers allowed each student to take a broom off the rack, and get on them just long enough to rise a few feet into the air. Alexandra held on, letting her feet dangle loosely, and silently urged hers upwards and upwards, until Shirtliffe saw her and snapped, 'That's high enough, Quick!"

Although they were disappointed not to be able to zoom about as they could see some of the older kids doing, everyone was in high spirits when they left P.M.E., and David grumbled, "If we didn't have detention, we could practice after dinner."

Alexandra had other plans. She was still reading "Golems and Gears" in the little time she had between dinner and detention, and in the last part of the book she finally found a little bit of information about how Clockworks were given their orders. It was very vague, however. They weren't truly intelligent, and so could only obey commands that fell within the narrow range of orders they were enchanted to understand.

During her detention that night, she tried ordering her Clockworks to dance, and found they would do so, clumsily. The order "play dead" only made them stop moving entirely, while her attempts to stage kung fu battles between golems failed miserably; she had to give instructions for every step they took, and getting one to perform a kick only resulted in it falling over.

So it went for the rest of the week. Alexandra paid lackluster attention in class, except for P.M.E., in which they were finally allowed to take to the open air outside. Older kids were playing broom games, and David began imitating the maneuvers he saw the Quidditch players practicing. Alexandra felt quite comfortable on her broom, and chafed at the restrictions Ms. Shirtliffe put on them, wanting to go higher and faster.

In detention each night, she continued experimenting with her Clockworks. She concluded that she didn't know enough about how their enchanted brains worked to accomplish the sabotage she had in mind... unless she cheated.

And so it was that Thursday evening, she arrived early to detention, early enough to find the waiting Clockworks before the custodian or any of the boys had arrived.

She remembered what Ms. Shirtliffe had said about using a crutch, but she wasn't going to let the opportunity pass to get back at Larry Albo and the Rash twins. So she took out her wand, and held it in front of the row of Clockworks that would be going with the older boys to the stables.

"There's dirty things for you to clean,
Here's the dirty things I mean:
Benjamin, Mordecai, and Larry,
Need a good scrubbing, make it scary!
Only when you're in the stables,
When they give orders, turn the tables,
Use every sponge and broom and mop,
Until they're begging for you to stop."

She put away her wand quickly as she heard the boys arriving.

"I guess Troublesome thinks if she gets started early, she might actually finish by bedtime," Larry snorted.

"I think I'll be done before you tonight," she said.

"Yeah, right." He rolled his eyes. The twins and David were next to arrive, and then Ben Journey came into the storage room. "All ready and eager to get working?" he asked, eyes twinkling. "Only one more night, isn't that right, kids?"

"Yes, sir," they all replied.

Alexandra was whistling as she marched off with her Clockworks.

She really had no idea whether her charm would work. She knew her rhymes didn't always have the desired effect, and she had rarely used one so long and complicated. Still, she hoped at least Albo and the Rashes would suffer some inconvenience.

She got her answer when they all returned to the custodian's office that night. Larry, Benjamin, and Mordecai looked battered, bruised, and disheveled, not to mention soaking wet. They were glaring at their Clockworks, but those were nothing compared to the glares they gave Alexandra when she appeared. She smiled sweetly at them, while David just looked confused by their appearance.

When Journey came out of his office, he looked shocked.

"What in Merlin's name happened to you boys?" he exclaimed.

Alexandra and Larry made eye contact. She held his angry glare, looking back at him coolly and triumphantly.

"We had a fight," said Larry. "Over who was going to clean what."

"Fighting?" Journey raised an eyebrow, and shook his head. "You could get more detention for that, you know. I'm sorry to hear you fellers can't get along."

"We're fine now," said Larry. Benjamin and Mordecai nodded. Their gazes were fixed on Alexandra too.

"Well, that's good. Promise me you're going to remember we're all wizards here. And witches." He nodded to Alexandra. "We've got to get along. It's important to be unified. You understand what I'm saying?"

"Oh, we're unified," Larry growled.

"Good. No more of this squabbling. Last thing the wizarding world needs is more division." He smiled and waved good-night as they all departed from the maintenance corridor.

"Sentimental airy-fairy Radicalist!" Larry said contemptuously, under his breath.

Alexandra couldn't hide her pleased expression. David was looking at her suspiciously.

"You two Mudbloods are so dead!" Larry hissed.

Alexandra caught David before he could lunge at the older boy.

"You'd better watch that dirty mouth, or it might get washed out with soap," said Alexandra, and now Benjamin and Mordecai had to grab Larry as he lunged in her direction. She pulled David along with her down Delta Delta Kappa Tau hallway, leaving Larry and the Rashes glowering after them.

---

David found Alexandra's sabotage hilarious. He went off to bed after she swore him to secrecy, but she immediately told Anna when she returned to her room. Anna was impressed and appalled.

"You can't enchant Clockworks to do that!" she exclaimed.

"I guess I can," Alexandra retorted.

"If you keep using doggerel verse, you'll never learn proper charms," Anna scolded. "And if you keep doing things like that, you'll get in trouble again. Larry and his friends could have told on you!"

"Yeah, but then they'd be tattletales and they'd be admitting that I beat them," Alexandra replied, not a little smugly.

"So instead they're going to try to get even and you'll keep doing worse and worse things to each other. And what if the Clockworks had done something really bad? What if you got caught? Did you even think about what could have happened?"

Anna was concerned, but she sounded an awful lot like Brian, which made it hard for Alexandra to listen to her. The fact that she had a point was just more infuriating.

"What if you get caught? What if something happened? What if you get in trouble?" Alexandra mimicked Anna, waving her arms in the air in mock hysteria. "Do you ever do anything besides worry about what might happen? What if you do nothing but study all day and never take any chances and just worry about what your parents and your teachers will think and don't do anything when jerks pick on you?"

Anna looked hurt. Alexandra put her arms down, but it was too late.

"Well, then at least I won't be spending my sixth grade year taking remedial magic classes and doing detention," Anna said stiffly, and turned her back on Alexandra, climbing into bed without another word.

Alexandra got into bed herself, feeling angry and sad, but unwilling to apologize or admit that she was wrong.

She never meant to hurt her friends, but she was proud, and stubborn.

---

Anna still wasn't speaking to her the next morning, and Darla and Angelique, taking turns to use their shared bathroom, sensed the tension between them and asked what was wrong with very concerned voices. Anna and Alexandra both shrugged, and went to breakfast that way, indifferent and nonresponsive.

"What'd you do?" David whispered to Alexandra, in Remedial Charms.

"What do you mean, what did I do?" Alexandra whispered back.

"Why is Anna all upset?"

"She's too sensitive!" Alexandra scoffed. "All she could say after I told her about getting back at Larry and Benjamin and Mordecai was that I shouldn't do things like that and what if I get in trouble -" Her voice was rising as she imitated Anna's tone again, and Mr. Newton called on Alexandra to demonstrate the Seven Basic Wand Positions. David sighed and shook his head.

In P.M.E. class, they were allowed to do some free-flying for the first time, with Shirtliffe and Gambola watching them as they turned and spun and dived on their brooms.

Nearby, the juniors and seniors were playing Quodpot. Suddenly Anna cried out as Larry Albo swerved very close to her, causing her to flinch and nearly tumble off her broom.

Then the Rash twins shot past Alexandra, trying to cut so close to her that she would also jerk away and possibly lose her balance, but Alexandra merely sat on her broom without reacting or altering her course. She tracked them with her eyes as they wheeled around for another pass.

Larry seemed to be arrowing towards David now. Alexandra looked over her shoulder at Ms. Shirtliffe and Miss Gambola, but Shirtliffe was lecturing Anna on how to steady herself and Gambola was watching another group of fliers. Neither of them seemed to have noticed what Larry and the Rashes were doing. The boys were flying in a borderline-reckless manner, but just carefully enough that it wasn't obvious that they were deliberately maneuvering too closely. Once again, someone could have called their behavior to the attention of a teacher, but they would have protested innocence, and while the teacher would probably have told them to fly further away, the complainer would look like a whiner and a tattletale. And so no one said anything.

But as the Rashes came closer, Alexandra swerved into the airspace occupied by the Quodpot players.

"Get out of the way!" one twelfth grade boy yelled at her. Alexandra seized the ball out of the air, and went veering back in the direction of the Rashes.

"Alexandra Quick!" bellowed Ms. Shirtliffe. Alexandra ignored her. The Rashes had turned away from David now, and were watching her. Their expressions changed from loathing to alarm as she zoomed at them and hurled the Quod at Benjamin's head. He rolled and would have fallen off his own broom if his brother hadn't caught him, and the two of them dipped and angled away from the Quod just before it exploded.

Alexandra barely had time to see Larry coming at her before she dived out of his way. He spun about and came at her again. She took off across the field, with Larry in pursuit. Alexandra descended until her feet were almost dragging against the grass, laughing over her shoulder. She leaned forward and increased her speed. Larry did likewise.

Almost at the edge of the forest surrounding Charmbridge Academy, Alexandra pulled back hard on her broom handle. She felt the sudden deceleration pulling her backwards as her broom creaked and bent, while she made a hard hundred-and-eighty degree turn while simultaneously forcing herself forward on her perch to make the broom keep accelerating. Larry tried to imitate her, and almost went tumbling, but managed to stay on his broom.

"Chicken!" she yelled at him, and made a rude gesture before launching herself forward.

Yelling in fury, Larry dogged her tail as she closed on the Quidditch and Quodpot fields again. She was laughing gleefully, completely carried away by the thrill of eluding and bedeviling the other boy.

"I'm going to plow the lawn with you!" he yelled, yards behind her. Alexandra grinned, and saw the Quidditch players pausing to watch them. She also saw the Bludgers, the metal balls that chased the players, circling lazily looking for new targets. The Quidditch players started yelling at them now, but Alexandra ignored them, rose higher, and made directly for the Bludgers.

With Larry almost on her, he didn't see the Bludgers until one nearly took his head off. He yelped and rolled, while dipping in an upside-down position on his broom. Alexandra had to admit that he wasn't a bad flier. But now the Bludgers were chasing the two of them. Alexandra arced away from the field and Larry matched her trajectory.

"You crazy little brat!" he yelled at her.

"Chicken!" she yelled back.

The two of them were circling high above the ground now. The faces of the other kids and the teachers were just indistinct blurs. The Bludgers were still chasing them; there were no Quidditch Beaters to knock them away, as the Quidditch players were all watching the two younger students engaged in their aerial duel.

Larry had almost reached Alexandra again, but he was more concerned about the Bludgers that were hot on his tail than trying to grab her or her broom. Alexandra too had to stay alert and keep zig-zagging back and forth, as while they could keep ahead of the flying balls over the long haul, the Bludgers were capable of brief bursts of acceleration when they got too close to one of the fliers, during which time they could make a sudden attack capable of overtaking either one of them and knocking them off their brooms.

"You're going to get us both killed! Or expelled," Larry gasped, as he finally pulled even with her.

"You started it," she retorted. A Bludger swooped at the two of them, and they both rolled aside. Alexandra began arcing downward and accelerating.

Larry followed her, as if he fell behind, the Bludgers would both focus on the nearer target.

Alexandra was descending at a steep angle, directly towards the ground outside the open doors of the P.M.E. gymnasium. Her speed increased, owing both to her constant forward lean and gravity. Larry had no choice but to match it, but his face became a little pale as he saw the speed at which the ground was approaching.

"We have to head towards the teachers, or the Beaters on the Quidditch team!" he yelled at her.

"Go ahead, chicken!" she yelled back at him.

Larry groaned, and held onto his broom.

Alexandra kept zooming towards the ground. Wind whipped through her hair and roared in her ears. She saw the terrified faces of her classmates, but they were just blurs, rapidly growing in size. The ground was getting closer and closer. She heard Shirtliffe yelling at her, and Gambola too, sounding more like a scream, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

Larry's face was white. He wasn't sure how quickly his broom could stop or how sharply he could turn it at full speed. He looked over at Alexandra and saw nothing but fierce determination on her face. She was gripping her broom and leaning forward as if locked into that position, and despite the fact that they were seconds away from slamming into the ground hard enough to make craters in the packed dirt, there wasn't even a flicker of hesitation in her eyes.

Larry had no choice but to follow Alexandra into the ground or turn aside. With a curse, he chose the latter, and pulled back on his broom, braked, and caught a Bludger hard in the back

In the corner of her eye, Alexandra saw Larry chicken out. The ground was a heartbeat away when she leveled off. A sudden swerve and deceleration at the angle she was descending would only have buried her in the dirt up to her waist, so instead she cut her descent to a sharp downward plane that carried her into the gymnasium, through the open doors, and by the time she had slowed down enough to get off her broom, she'd had to raise her feet and tuck her knees under her, sitting sideways on her broom with the ground almost scraping her knuckles. She came to a halt just before bumping into the far wall, and hopped off her broom.

There were cheers and applause from almost a hundred students, who'd seen Alexandra's daring flight, if not what had led up to it. But the cheering died abruptly when Ms. Shirtliffe's amplified voice rang over the din.

"MISS QUICK! MISTER ALBO! GET OVER HERE!"

With students from all grades watching, Larry and Alexandra silently dragged their brooms to the angry flying instructor. Larry was limping a little and rubbing his lower back.

"Chicken," someone muttered as Larry trudged past, and laughter and snickering rippled through the crowd, much more than when someone whispered, "Troublesome" at Alexandra.

Ms. Shirtliffe glared down at the two students, and seemed ready to launch into a long, angry tirade, but then she just shook her head and bit off whatever she was going to say with an audible clacking of her teeth. Instead, she pointed at the building behind them.

"Dean's. Office. Now."