Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle

A Confederation of Wizards

Alexandra decided not to share her suspicions with everyone else, but she did feel that David had a right to know, since he'd almost been killed too. But he was no easier to convince than Anna.

"If the Dean wanted to kill you," he asked skeptically, "don't you think she could just make you disappear any time?"

"She wants it to look like an accident," Alexandra said. She was not about to let go of her new theory.

David rolled his eyes. "You create your own accidents," he said. "I'm sure she could arrange to make one of them fatal."

"I didn't make the Invisible Bridge disappear, and that would have been fatal if not for Charlie!" Charlie made a coughing sound in agreement.

They were out on the lawn for Practical Magical Exercise. Charlie, who was still free to come and go from Alexandra's room at will, had taken to visiting her during P.M.E. class, and was now sitting on her shoulder. This annoyed David, as he could only allow his falcon out after school. He gave the raven a sour look, and turned back to the Quidditch field. Alexandra, Anna, and David were watching the Quidditch players fly Bludger-blocking drills. Most of the other kids were staying away from Alexandra now. Her raven familiar made them uneasy, as did her growing reputation for being a nexus of trouble. Some kids were saying she was jinxed by more than the Dean's punitive curse.

Darla and Angelique wandered over. "I'm surprised Ms. Shirtliffe hasn't made you send your familiar back to your room," Darla said.

"You really are going to get a Dark reputation if you keep skulking about the Quidditch field with a crow," Angelique agreed.

Darla and Angelique still sat at the table with Alexandra in the cafeteria, but otherwise tended to avoid her nowadays, except when they had an opportunity to offer helpful advice on social self-improvement. Alexandra and Charlie both gave Angelique haughty stares.

"Charlie is a raven, not a crow," Alexandra said, and Charlie leaned forward, beak opened wide, and screeched disparagingly.

"And you're the last person who should be criticizing other people's familiars," said David.

Angelique flushed. "At least jarveys aren't favored by Dark wizards," she said.

"Jarveys aren't favored by anyone with a brain," Alexandra muttered, and Angelique flushed again.

"Whenever you see a murder of crows, they're spies for the Dark Convention," said Darla.

"A what of crows?" David demanded.

"That's what you call a group of crows - a murder," said Alexandra, who had read quite a lot about corvids since acquiring Charlie as a familiar. "And I don't know what the Dark Convention is, but that sounds like a stupid superstition."

Darla and Angelique both looked affronted. "You don't even know what the Dark Convention is, so how can you say it's stupid?" Darla scoffed.

"Because we already know wizards believe lots of stupid things, like about Muggle-borns and house-elves," David said.

"Oh, God," Darla said, rolling her eyes. "You really are turning into such a goblin, David!"

"I suppose goblins are bad too?" Alexandra asked.

"She means I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd." David held up his fingers to make air-quotes. "They call kids who join ASPEW and believe in respecting the rights of non-humans and Muggles alike 'goblins'."

"What do they call stuck-up girls who butt into other people's conversations?" Alexandra asked.

Darla and Angelique gasped, and then Darla retorted, "Gone!" with her nose in the air, and they both flounced off.

"Way to be tactful," said David, but he didn't actually look upset.

"I wonder what they say about an unkindness of ravens?" Alexandra said.

David gave her another look. "A what?"

"Crows gather in murders, ravens gather in unkindnesses," Alexandra said. "Muggles generally don't have a good opinion about them either." Then she added, "And as for your familiars, it's a cast of falcons, and a parliament of owls, just in case you're interested."

Anna grinned. "I knew that." She looked at Charlie, and said, "Ravens are bad omens in China, too. But, they also say, 'The raven has an evil voice, but a good heart.'"

"Yeah, that fits," David muttered. Alexandra looked surprised, then she and Anna exchanged looks and hid their smiles.

---

Now that David was talking to Alexandra again, he began talking a lot about the various causes taken up by students at Charmbridge - abolition of elf slavery, recognition of the rights of ghosts, a lifting of wand restrictions, and outlawing Obliviation. He was becoming quite passionate about these issues, especially ASPEW.

"You've still never actually talked to an elf," Alexandra pointed out.

"That's because they keep the elves out of sight here at school. Why don't you come to the ASPEW meetings? Anna said she would."

Anna nodded, looking a little embarrassed. They were eating lunch. Darla and Angelique were sitting a little further down the table, trying to ignore them.

"I would," Alexandra said sincerely. "But I still have to do detention every evening."

Alexandra and Anna did both start wearing ASPEW buttons, Anna because David asked her to, Alexandra because David asked her to and because it made most of the other students and a lot of the teachers scowl disapprovingly.

Anna was not a goblin, however. She was one of the students who spent most of her time in the library or study hall. She was terrified of getting less-than-perfect grades, and so she joined the other students who were called "wyrms" for their endless book-learning. Alexandra didn't pay too much attention to the cliques at Charmbridge; as at Larkin Mills Elementary School, she was aware they existed, but was an outsider to all of them. She knew that the athletes who played team sports were called "brooms" and were quite popular, especially with girls like Darla and Angelique. And there were other extracurricular organizations that students divided themselves into, such as the Wizard Rangers and Witch Rangers, and the Junior Regimental Officer Corps, and the Magic Band. Alexandra could not participate in any of these, since she and Larry Albo were still spending every evening cleaning floors and hallways with their Clockworks.

She did learn that much of wizarding society divided itself roughly into "Old Colonials" and "New Colonials." Old Colonials included Ozarkers, Highlanders, Palatines, Salem Traditionalists, Plymouth Traditionalists, and numerous other divisions she couldn't be bothered to remember. Darla and Angelique were New Colonials (they called themselves simply "Colonials"). Then there were Muggle-borns like David and Alexandra, and students like Anna who were from traditional Chinese or Native American wizarding families. There were other students who didn't fit into traditional wizarding society: Radicalists and members of the New World Druidic Order and other designated "Cultures" whose non-standard wizarding practices were recognized (reluctantly) by the Department of Magical Education.

But it was in her Wizarding World History class that Alexandra next heard about the Dark Convention.

Ms. Grinder had finally started, grudgingly, teaching from their book, and the current unit was "Wizards in the New World." In fact, it was almost entirely about America, but it wasn't an America Alexandra recognized, as names like Alta California, Deseret, New Amsterdam, and Arcadia were unfamiliar to her. She didn't see how any of this was immediately relevant to learning magic, so Alexandra wasn't paying much attention, particularly when Ms. Grinder went off on her frequent tangents.

It was the beginning of November. Alexandra had been thinking about Larkin Mills lately. She would never have admitted to homesickness, but she had lingered a bit over the last letter from her mother, even though it contained nothing but banal details about her new boss at the hospital and how Archie was repainting the kitchen. Their Wizarding World Studies classroom had a window facing the outside, where Alexandra could see the autumn leaves piling up under the trees that surrounded the academy's lawns.

"I hope you're thinking about something very important, Alexandra," Ms. Grinder said, cutting into her daydreaming. Alexandra blinked and sat up, while the other students snickered.

"I don't blame you for not being particularly interested in the first Governor-General of the Confederation," the teacher went on, "but since this is standardized material we are required to cover in our standardized classes, it just may be on your standardized test." She sounded more disgruntled about what she was teaching than about Alexandra's lack of interest in it.

"Can anyone tell me what they notice about this list, from Governor-General Calvin to the present day?" she asked.

"They're all men?" Alexandra suggested. She hadn't even looked at the list, but by now she could predict Grinder's tangents.

"Exactly!" Grinder said. "Congress hasn't appointed a single woman Governor-General! Almost every other country in the world has had witches as Ministers of Magic. Britain had one over two hundred years ago! Yet we've had only a handful of women as Territorial Governors and in the Wizards' Congress."

Alexandra nodded, mostly to make it seem as if she were paying attention, though she did think that it was awfully unfair, what Ms. Grinder was saying.

"Why, maybe Alexandra Quick will grow up to be our first female Governor-General! Wouldn't that be something?"

Alexandra turned a little red and refocused her attention, as the other kids snickered again.

"Not unless the Dark Convention takes over," someone sneered, behind her.

She frowned. "What's the Dark Convention?" she demanded aloud.

"Not part of our standard course material," said Ms. Grinder briskly, and continued talking about Governor-Generals and the first Wizards' Congress.

When the class ended, Alexandra approached the teacher and repeated her question. "Ms. Grinder, what's the Dark Convention?"

The elderly teacher tilted her glasses and looked down at Alexandra.

"Depending on who you ask, they're an evil cabal of warlocks intent on destroying civilization as we know it, or they're just another group of men who feel disenfranchised by not being in charge, so they want to take power away from the men who are in charge."

"So there are no witches in the Dark Convention?"

Grinder sighed. "I'm sure there are, Alexandra. But I wouldn't take your classmates' teasing seriously."

"I'm not. I'm just curious who they are. Is it true that crows spy for them?"

"No. That's superstitious nonsense. You know, there are books in the library, and newspaper archives, that will answer these questions. Make use of them, young lady, and pay more attention during class to what will be on your SPAWN."

---

It wasn't so easy to learn about the Dark Convention, though, as Mrs. Minder didn't think it was an appropriate topic for sixth graders.

"Why would someone your age want to know about such nasty people?" she asked.

"Research," Alexandra said.

The librarian looked askance at her. "What exactly are you researching?"

"Dark wizards. I'm worried about them so I want to know how to recognize them," Alexandra said.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about Dark wizards," Minder scoffed. "Some people see Dark wizards behind every tree, but if they were half as numerous and powerful as conspiracy-theorists say they are, they would have brought down the Confederation long ago. The Dark Convention is a bunch of bitter old cranks boiling death-draughts in their cellars, if you ask me."

Alexandra discovered that while nearly everyone in the wizarding world seemed to know the Dark Convention existed, few were willing to talk about them openly.

"It's sort of a taboo," Anna explained, clearly nervous herself. "No one likes to speak their names or discuss them."

"Then how is anyone supposed to recognize them?" Alexandra demanded.

"Well, you can't recognize them because they usually don't identify themselves. That's how they stay hidden."

"And they want to take over just because they're Dark?"

Anna shrugged. "I don't know. My father said they tried to take over, just before I was born. A lot of wizards were killed and a lot of others went to prison, and now no one likes to talk about it."

When Alexandra went to serve her detention that evening, Mr. Journey told her and Larry that they were going to be working outside that week.

"I love this time of year," Journey said. "All those leaves, turning orange and brown and gold." He said this as he showed them the rakes and wheelbarrows their Clockworks would be handling.

"All those leaves making huge piles that need to be raked up, you mean," said Larry. "One charm could sweep it all away. For that matter, you could just cast a Leaf Repelling Charm on the grounds."

Journey sighed and shook his head. "Just because you can do something with magic doesn't mean you should, Youngblood," he said. Larry frowned, no more fond of Journey's nickname for him than Alexandra was of "Starshine." Journey went on. "Nature needs to be respected."

"Then why don't we just let the leaves stay there?" Larry asked.

Journey laughed and handed him a rake. "Get going, Youngblood!"

Alexandra waited as Larry slouched off across the north lawn and moved well away from her. They had hardly said a word to each other since the cat incident in the attics, which was an improvement.

"Mr. Journey," she asked, "what do you know about the Dark Convention?"

Journey looked startled, and stared at her. "Why would you ask about the Dark Convention, Starshine?"

"Because I heard about them but no one will talk about them. I figured since you're pretty old you must know at least as much as Ms. Grinder or Mrs. Minder does, and you might tell me." There were times when Alexandra was a shameless liar, and other times when she was as guileless as she was tactless, and this time was the latter. Journey's eyebrows went up, and he looked both bothered and amused.

"It depends on who you ask, Starshine," he said, his eyes gazing off at the woods on the borders of Charmbridge's grounds, with the late afternoon sunlight casting a golden glow around the brown and yellow crowns of the trees. "The first thing you should know is that 'Dark' is a word most of the wizarding community uses to mean 'magic we don't approve of.'"

"So Dark wizards aren't evil?"

Journey looked at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling a little in thought.

"Some of them are," he said slowly. "But some just get called Dark because they oppose the Governor-General."

"Why do they oppose the Governor-General?"

Journey was silent again for an unusually long time, then said, "Years before you were born, Starshine, there was a Dark wizard who nearly took over Britain. Now, he was a real Dark wizard, as bad as they come. And a lot of folks here were afraid he might have followers in America, or that someone might try to imitate him. So the Governor-General said we needed to protect ourselves, and the Wizards' Congress went along. And so anyone even suspected of having Dark sympathies got questioned and sometimes imprisoned."

"Well, maybe there really were Dark wizards here and maybe there weren't, but a lot of people felt the Governor-General and the Wizards' Congress were just making things worse. So all of a sudden he really did have enemies."

"But they lost?" Alexandra asked.

"Those who weren't killed or imprisoned went into hiding," Journey said. "Then, about the time you would have been a baby, that Dark Lord in Britain returned, and took over. Over here, there was panic and paranoia again, and no one trusted anyone else. It was a bad time, Starshine." He shook his head.

"What happened?"

"In Britain, they got rid of their Dark Lord. Here, the Dark Convention was driven into hiding again."

Alexandra mulled this over. It was a little confusing, and not at all like anything she'd heard either from her fellow students or in Ms. Grinder's class.

"So who were the good guys and who were the bad guys?" she asked at last.

"That's a good question, Starshine," Journey replied. "Now, I think you have some leaves to rake."