Alexandra Quick and the Thorn Circle

Field Trip

That was the last snowfall of the season. After the girls' night in the woods, it became gradually warmer. By the beginning of March, all the snow had melted.

Journey didn't report them to the Dean, although he still gave Alexandra knowing looks in the hallways and shook his head, on the rare occasions that she saw him. Almost always, he was either being tailed by Thiel, or trying to find his unhelpful assistant.

Larry was infuriated by having victory snatched from him, and he and his friends taunted her even more frequently. For the most part, she ignored it. Alexandra was starting to enjoy her classes, and she particularly enjoyed Practical Magical Exercise, now that she was allowed to ride a broom again. David had missed tryouts for Quidditch, but he frequently played informal games with other students. Alexandra thought he was only a so-so flyer; in fact, she thought she was much better. She didn't say this to him, though.

Constance and Forbearance remained rather cool towards David, though they claimed to have accepted his apology. Alexandra had not realized, with all the taunting and name-calling she had been subjected to, that the Ozarker girls were in fact mocked quite a bit themselves, for their speech, for their old-fashioned mannerisms, for their homemade clothes, and for not fitting in with any of Charmbridge's cliques. She thought this was terribly unfair. While she didn't exactly like being known all over school as "Troublesome" or a girl supposedly obsessed with the Dark Arts, she sort of understood it. The Pritchards, however, were never anything but nice, and didn't deserve such treatment.

On March 22^nd, an owl came to the window of Anna and Alexandra's room. This was how the mail was delivered in the wizarding world, and Alexandra wasn't surprised, when she opened the window, to find that the letter the owl bore was addressed to her, from her parents. Of course her parents couldn't send owls, but Alexandra's understanding was that somewhere, the Muggle post office exchanged letters and packages with the Owl Post, and so mail managed to pass between the Muggle world and the wizarding one.

Anna looked curiously at the card Alexandra opened. Alexandra smiled and rolled her eyes, as she withdrew a pair of bills folded inside.

"Money," she said. "That's what they always give me for my birthday."

"It's your birthday?" Anna squealed.

"Yeah." Alexandra was twelve today, but she hadn't really thought about it until the owl came. At home, her mother usually bought a cake on the way home from work, and if they weren't too tired, she and Archie would sing "Happy Birthday" and then give her some money and tell her she could buy whatever she wanted at the SuperMart.

Anna hugged her. "Happy birthday, Alex! You didn't tell me!"

Now Alexandra was thoroughly embarrassed. "When's your birthday?"

"December." And when Alexandra looked even more embarrassed, she said, "Don't worry about it. It was during Christmas break, and we don't celebrate Christmas at home, so my Christmas presents were like birthday presents to me. Anyway, we have to tell everyone else -"

"No!" The last thing Alexandra wanted was all her friends singing "Happy Birthday!" to her in the cafeteria. "It's no big deal, Anna, really." She looked at the paper money. "I don't know where my parents think I'm going to spend Muggle money around here, though."

"Well, they don't really understand that you're somewhere where Muggle money isn't used, do they?" Anna pointed out reasonably. "But you can always spend it or exchange it on our field trip next month."

"Field trip?"

Anna shook her head. "You've been forgetting to read the notice board again, haven't you? The entire sixth grade is going to Chicago for Muggle Awareness Month."

"Muggle Awareness Month?" Alexandra made a funny face.

"You've probably noticed, a lot of wizards aren't exactly sympathetic to Muggles... or Muggle-borns." Alexandra snorted at that, and Anna went on. "The Department of Magical Education said all schools have to start teaching Muggle Awareness. I guess they're trying to get rid of the old pureblood prejudices."

"Good luck with that." Just the other day, Ebenezer Smith had asked in their Wizard Social Studies class whether it was really proper to talk about Muggles and wizards as if they were both "people." Mrs. Middle had given a benign, textbook answer, while Alexandra and David had both been clenching their wands tightly under their desks. Even Darla had looked appalled, perhaps on account of her Muggle grandmother. But most of the class found the question quaint but not offensive.

Walking to Charms class that morning, they were surprised to see Ms. Grimm strolling through the hallway. It wasn't unheard of for the Dean to walk the hallways while school was in session, but so formidable and intimidating was her presence that she generally stayed in her office. Alexandra thought she stayed in her office and out of sight to make it more intimidating when she appeared. It was certainly the case now. Students flowed around her, greeted her in hushed, fearful tones from youngest to oldest, and no one met her eyes. Except Alexandra.

"Miss Quick."

Alexandra slowed to a stop. All of her friends jerked to a halt behind her. Alexandra elbowed Anna, who looked like she might faint.

"Good morning, Ms. Grimm," Alexandra said. Her friends all echoed this, in hushed tones.

"I understand it is your birthday today, Miss Quick."

Alexandra blinked in surprise. "How did you know?"

"I know all my students. I like to know everything about them." Ms. Grimm took a few steps down the hallway, walking past and around her, and she felt her friends unconsciously pressing closer to her, as if they were being circled by a hungry predator. "I'm always keeping an eye on my charges. Especially those who have at times been... troublesome."

Alexandra's eyes narrowed.

"Well," the Dean said pleasantly. "I hope you have a very happy birthday, Miss Quick. I know you've had a difficult first year at Charmbridge, but it's over halfway through and I'm pleased to see you've managed to avoid my office lately. I'd say you're almost out of the woods, so to speak. Miss Chu, do you have a cold?" Anna was shivering, and Alexandra elbowed her again.

"No, Ms. Grimm," Anna stammered.

"Good. Well, happy birthday again, Miss Quick." The Dean gave her that cat-like smile.

"Thank you, Ms. Grimm," Alexandra muttered.

"Oh," Ms. Grimm added, taking a step away from them and then stopping. "Miss Quick, I do hope you'll be cooperative and helpful during next month's field trip? Since you've had a Muggle upbringing, you'll be more familiar with the Muggle world than most of your classmates."

"Yes, Ms. Grimm," said Alexandra.

"Excellent." The Dean smiled and continued down the hallway.

"Why'd she single you out?" David demanded. "I grew up in a non-wizard household too! I know just as much about the Muggle world as you!"

"If you're jealous 'cause she pays more attention to me, I'd be happy to trade places with you," Alexandra retorted.

"Happy Birthday, Alexandra," said Constance.

"Happy Birthday!" echoed Forbearance.

"Thanks," Alexandra said, embarrassed.

She was more embarrassed when they all announced her birthday in Charms class, and sent up showers of multi-colored sparks from their wands. This happened whenever someone's birthday was revealed, but most kids avoided it, and it annoyed Mr. Newton a great deal. In Transfiguration, Anna transformed a rat into a cupcake, and Constance turned a quill into a candle and stuck it on top. Forbearance lit it with a small wave of her wand.

"Very well done, Miss Chu, Miss Pritchard!" Mr. Hobbes praised them.

"Yeah, good job," said Alexandra. Then whispered, "But I'm not eating that! It's still a rat!"

---

The sixth grade field trip was the third week in April. They were scheduled to take a walk through Chicago's streets, then visit the Territorial Headquarters Building in downtown Chicago as part of their wizarding civics lessons, and finally ride the subway to a Muggle baseball game, before being bussed back to Charmbridge.

For Alexandra, this was all rather exciting. On one of her trips to Chicago, she and her mother had ridden the subway, but she barely remembered it, and she had never been to a baseball game. She was also interested in seeing what a wizard government office looked like.

For her classmates, however, at least those who had never set foot in the Muggle world, the upcoming trip was both highly anticipated and highly dreaded. To hear Darla and Angelique speak of it, walking among Muggles, even for a few short blocks, would be like walking among headhunters. The subway train was an incomprehensible Muggle contraption of metal and wheels and gears and electricity that would surely send them all to their deaths, and baseball was some quaint Muggle pastime that would no doubt look very crude and unsophisticated to wizards' and witches' eyes.

"Are they for real?" David asked Alexandra one afternoon. It was his familiarity with Muggles that had Constance and Forbearance finally speaking to him again. He had just reassured them that they would not have to watch any human sacrifices after the game. Some eleventh-grader had told them that Muggles made the losing team march under a pair of golden arches to be broiled alive.

"Be nice to them, David. They never even left the Ozarks before they came here, and they've never been among Muggles."

Even Anna was nervous. Although she lived in San Francisco, she said it was a much more wizard-friendly city. "We can wear regular clothing there, and the Muggles hardly even notice."

Part of their preparation for the field trip was studying Muggle fashions, so they could all dress appropriately for Chicago. This was made a part of their Transfiguration class project; each student was responsible for altering at least one outfit into something suitable for their outing. Alexandra was rather enjoying being consulted by her classmates as an authority on Mugglewear. For the first time, being "Muggle-born" was not seen as a disadvantage, and she and David (and to a lesser extent, Anna) were suddenly the most popular kids in their class.

Constance and Forbearance were rather distraught that their bonnets would not pass as everyday Muggle apparel.

"Well, you can wear them," said Alexandra. "But girls don't really wear those anymore, so Muggles will look at you funny."

"Our parents would be shamed at us if we bared our heads like foreigners!" said Constance.

"We can't indecent ourselves for our education!" said Forbearance.

Alexandra crossed her arms. "I guess I'm an indecent foreigner, then?" she snapped.

As usual, the twins blushed and looked away when subjected to Alexandra's temper.

"That hain't fair, Alex," said Forbearance quietly.

"We got ourn ways, and we don't chide you none over yourn," said Constance.

Alexandra's expression softened, remembering her admonition to David. "Okay," she said. "Muggle girls don't wear bonnets, but that doesn't mean you can't wear anything on your head." She helped them find pictures of fashionable hats, and after that the Ozarkers began practicing transfigurations on their bonnets enthusiastically.

The next day, Darla and Angelique came to her.

"Oh Alexandra, what do you think?" asked Darla.

"Do we look like Muggles?" asked Angelique.

The Pritchards looked over her shoulder, and their mouths dropped open as they turned bright red. Alexandra turned around, and her own mouth dropped open as well.

Darla and Angelique had acquired a pair of leggy Muggle dolls with exaggerated proportions, and transformed their clothes according to what the dolls were wearing. Darla was now squeezed into a spaghetti-strap tank top that left most of her belly exposed, and a skirt so short and tight she could barely bend over (and wouldn't want to). She had bangles and bracelets and charms dangling from her wrists, to match a pair of truly extravagant earrings, and a pink feather boa wrapped around her plump, bare shoulders.

Angelique, who was rather proud of being the most developed girl in the sixth grade, was wearing a tight sequined blouse with a few too many buttons undone. She had turned her pants into tight red shorts. Both girls had transformed their shoes into ridiculously elevated high heels. Their legs were entirely bare.

Alexandra was speechless for several seconds. She exchanged a glance with David, who was also gaping at them.

"Great!" Alexandra finally managed to blurt out. She made a thumbs-up gesture. "That's perfect! You totally look like Muggles!"

Darla and Angelique beamed, and turned around to prance off and practice more transformations - or they would have pranced, if they weren't wobbling so unsteadily on their unfamiliar high heels.

Alexandra and David both covered their mouths, trying not to burst into laughter. David almost doubled over, and Alexandra made strangled choking sounds as she clutched her own stomach. They had tears in their eyes, and only stopped laughing when they looked up to see Anna standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at both of them.

"Oh, don't worry Anna," Alexandra said. "You don't really think any teachers will actually let them go to Chicago like that, do you?"

Constance and Forbearance both looked appalled, and sighed, shaking their heads.

---

Darla and Angelique stopped asked Alexandra for advice after that. In fact, they still weren't speaking to her by the time they all got on the bus for their trip to Chicago. They sat at a different table inside the magically expanded interior of the short bus. Alexandra didn't really mind.

She and David were wearing the clothes they came to Charmbridge in. Constance and Forbearance were wearing long dresses, sweaters, and sun hats. Anna was wearing a plaid skirt and white shirt that made her look like a Catholic schoolgirl. All the students, and the staff, were dressed in outfits that would look perfectly normal in the Muggle world - but not all at once. When they got off the bus in Chicago, on a secluded side street not far from the Goblin Market, Alexandra thought they didn't exactly look like a typical group of schoolchildren on a field trip.

"Wands, everyone," Ms. Shirtliffe said, as they disembarked, and with only a few grumbles, each student dropped his or her wand into a chest that sat on the ground as they stepped off the bus. Some of the sixth-graders had protested bitterly when this rule was announced, and a few parents had even sent angry owls to the Dean, but the administration had decided that only adults would be allowed to carry wands on this excursion. For many of the young witches and wizards, it was their very first time among Muggles, and dozens of sixth-graders carrying wands through downtown Chicago was deemed to present too great a risk of an untoward incident.

Shirtliffe was watching every student to make sure no one tried to sneak off the bus without surrendering his or her wand. Two students tried, but the teacher caught them immediately. Alexandra dropped hers reluctantly into the chest with the rest.

"Now, everyone stay together," Mrs. Speaks said. She was wearing a city bus driver's uniform. Gwendolyn Adams, helping Speaks chaperone the students, was wearing a taffeta dress. Darla and Angelique were wearing cheerleaders' uniforms, in different colors. Ebenezer Smith was dressed entirely in black and looked like a goth. Ms. Shirtliffe, Mrs. Minder, and Miss Gambola were all accompanying them, along with Dean Price, wearing a purple dress and a large purple hat. As the line of sixth graders stretched down the street, wearing jeans, three-piece suits, formal dresses, sports uniforms, T-shirts, sweatshirts, leather jackets, fur coats, and everything else that could be found in Muggle magazines, people looked at them curiously. Mrs. Speaks and Mrs. Price both walked ahead, nodding politely at the Muggles on the street, while the other teachers walked on either side of the double-column of students.

Alexandra and Anna were at the center of one knot of students, and David was in another, as their classmates peppered them with questions about taxis, mailboxes, streetlamps, manhole covers, cell phones, fast food restaurants, skateboards, sunglasses, and everything else they saw on the street.

The walk was only four blocks through downtown Chicago, but Alexandra realized it was like running a gauntlet through an alien landscape to many of her non-Muggle-born classmates. Constance and Forbearance were alternately fascinated, by motorcycles and streetcars and the storefront of an electronics shop, and terrified, by a policeman who frowned in puzzlement at them from behind dark sunglasses, and a young man who wolf-whistled and made lewd kissing noises at the girls as he walked by, and the skyscrapers towering overhead. The young witches and wizards craned their necks to look up at the high-rise buildings that lined Chicago's business district, and the elevated tracks of the "L."

Alexandra wanted very much to stop at a burger joint for a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda, but this was to be a walking excursion only, with no deviations permitted. However, when a vending machine just inside a drugstore caught her eye, she whispered to her friends, "Cover for me, I'll be right back!"

"What?" gasped Anna.

"Alexandra Quick!" scolded Constance, as Alexandra slipped between them, gave a quick look over her shoulder at Gwendolyn, who was bringing up the rear and being distracted by an overly-friendly Muggle boy her own age, and over her other shoulder at Miss Gambola, who seemed to be trying to work out the timing sequence at a crosswalk, and darted into the drug store.

She went to the counter, used one of the bills her mother had sent her for her birthday to buy some candy and make change, and then went to the vending machine and bought as many cans of soda as she could fit into her pockets. By the time she stepped outside again, the line of Charmbridge students had moved on, but they didn't seem to have noticed she was gone. She hurried to catch up, slipped deftly past Gwendolyn, who was staring through the window of a hair salon, and darted back into her friends' midst with the triumphant expression of a raider returning from a foray behind enemy lines.

"See, easy!" she said smugly.

Constance and Forbearance looked aghast and admiring. Anna had grabbed her own hair with both hands, and was pulling at it anxiously.

At the end of their four-block tour of The Loop, the students were all chattering so excitedly that Dean Price had to yell repeatedly to get everyone's attention. "Children! We're about to enter the Territorial Headquarters Building. I'd like to remind you again, this is where Very Important Wizards and Witches are doing government business, and if we're lucky, we might even see the Governor himself! You are all representing Charmbridge Academy so I expect to see you on your best behavior..." Her voice trailed off as she noticed Alexandra was silently mimicking her, word for word, as this was the same speech she'd given them at least a dozen times since their field trip was first announced. Anna elbowed Alexandra, who cleared her throat and adopted an expression of innocent attention.

The Sixth Grade Dean's eyes narrowed, and she continued. "Single file line, mouths shut, follow myself and Mrs. Speaks." She continued to eye Alexandra as they walked through the double doors of a tall bank building.

The lobby within was deserted, and there appeared to be a layer of dust on everything, except for the well-polished floor. They walked silently to the elevators, where Mrs. Price pressed the 'up' button, and the doors opened immediately.

The students filed into the elevator. Like many wizarding spaces, it was much larger on the inside than on the outside. The dozens of sixth-graders squeezed inside as easily as they had in the Charmbridge bus. Although from the outside it was a normal office elevator, the interior looked more like an old-fashioned caged department store elevator, like the ones Alexandra had seen in black and white movies, complete with manual levers to operate it. There was no attendant, however. Alexandra looked at the plaque next to the levers, and saw a list of offices and departments from level B4 up to the 13^th floor, where the Governor's Office was located. The Department of Magical Education, the Department of Magical Transportation, the Wizard Justice Department, the Bureau of Magic Obfuscation, the Muggle Relations Commission, the Artifacts and Enchantments Regulatory Board, and dozens of others blurred together, but one caught her eye in particular: 'Territorial Census Office,' in the bottommost basement.

"Trace Office," said Mrs. Price, and the levers moved by themselves, the elevator creaked and groaned, and it jerked and rattled noisily as it strained to bring them all to the seventh floor. Alexandra wondered why so many of the students were worried about the subway.

They all poured out in front of the Trace Office, and were greeted by a fashionably-dressed witch with elaborately braided hair who introduced herself as Alcina Kennedy. Alexandra faded behind the Pritchards, hoping she wouldn't be recognized.

Ms. Kennedy took them on a tour through a room full of crystal balls sitting on what looked something like seismograph machines, with quills magically hovering over scrolls that cycled endlessly. Occasionally a quill dipped to write something on the parchment below it. A clockwork golem tore off the scroll and crumpled it into a ball, then stuffed the ball into a tube which sucked the wadded up parchment somewhere else, while another Clockwork replaced the scroll.

"You can see we're in the midst of an impressive modernization effort," Ms. Kennedy was saying. "Our response time to incidents of unauthorized use of magic in Muggle communities is down to an average of forty-three minutes."

"Except during blizzards, fortunately," Alexandra muttered.

They continued to the Juvenile Magical Offenses Division of the Wizard Justice Department. They were introduced to a bare-headed elderly wizard in black robes named Carlos Black, who introduced himself as Chief of Juvenile Inquisitions.

"He's a little scary," whispered David. Black had a fiery gleam in his eye, and seemed eager to find some fault to prosecute as his gaze swept the students.

"Not as scary as Dean Grimm," muttered Anna.

Alexandra had to agree with that, but she was less concerned with the Chief of Juvenile Inquisitions than she was with Ms. Shirtliffe, who was standing behind them, between the students and the door. Shirtliffe was much more alert than the other teachers, and Alexandra didn't think she'd be able to slip past her unnoticed.

"If anyone asks, I'm in the bathroom, okay?" she whispered to Anna.

"What?" Anna whispered. "Oh no. Not again..."

"Thanks, Anna!"

"Alex!"

Black was talking about a bill before the Wizards' Congress that would make it legal for Territorial Governors to launch special inquisitions which could treat underage wizards and witches as adults. He seemed very enthusiastic about it. Alexandra squeezed her way to the back. Shirtliffe was watching her with narrowed eyes.

"Ms. Shirtliffe, I have to go to the bathroom!" she whispered.

Shirtliffe sighed and gestured curtly over her shoulder. "Hurry up, and do not wander, Quick!"

Outside the Juvenile Magical Offenses Division, Alexandra didn't wander - she went straight to the elevator, and stepped inside. The doors rattled shut, but the elevator didn't move.

She hesitated, cleared her throat, and then said, "Territorial Census Office."

The lever jerked all the way forward, and the elevator descended so quickly that Alexandra felt her stomach rise a little before her feet settled flat on the floor again. The needle above was now pointing to B4, and the elevator doors opened with a ding.

The basement was lit only with torches, not even proper lanterns, and half the torches were out. Alexandra stepped out onto a bare concrete floor. There were a few other offices on this level: she passed the Department of Creature Relations, the Voluntary Wand Registration Bureau, and the Office of Lycanthropy Research, before reaching a wooden door with 'Census and Records' printed on it. She opened the door, and stepped inside.

The room inside was immense, much larger than she expected from the tiny door at the end of the corridor outside. There were stuffed filing cabinets, newer metal ones closer to the door, older wooden ones as she looked further back, lining the walls and stretching back into the dark corners of the cavernous room. Shelves overflowing with folders and boxes of scrolls dominated the rest of the room. They were very tall, stretching to a ceiling that was much too high overhead, considering there were supposed to be floors just above them. Alexandra heard fluttering noises, and when she craned her head, she saw bats hanging upside down from the ceiling.

"Are you lost, young lady?"

The voice was a raspy whisper. She started and looked around to see a very pale wizard with dark, unkempt hair wearing a very old, shabby suit beneath a black cloak, watching her unblinkingly.

"I don't think so," she said. "I'm looking for the Territorial Census Office."

He continued to stare at her. He ran his tongue over his lips. "This is the Territorial Census Office."

She found him a little unnerving, but plunged ahead and said brightly, "So do you keep records of births here?"

The wizard nodded slowly.

"Actually, what I was wondering," she went on, as if she'd come down here to do a school project, "is if someone is born in a Muggle hospital, but she has a father who's a known wizard, would you have a record of that?"

He cocked his head and regarded her. His gaze was really quite unsettling. He never took his eyes off her, and Alexandra wondered why there was no one else working in this office.

"What is your name?" he said slowly.

"Alexandra. Alexandra Quick." She stared back at him. "I'm a Muggle-born, but I think I'm a half-blood. That is, I'm pretty sure my father was a wizard. But I don't know his name. So my mother is a Muggle, and - anyway, it's a long story. But the Registrar's Scroll at Charmbridge Academy registered me under my mother's name, which is actually her maiden name, before she got married to my stepfather. So I was hoping maybe there'd be a record of me here." She kept talking, filling up the silence, doing what had worked so often in the past.

He still hadn't blinked. He didn't reply immediately, then said, "The Registrar's Scroll?"

She nodded. "The Dean told me since it registered me as Alexandra Quick, which was my Muggle mother's name, then if my father was a wizard, the scroll must not have known who he was."

"The Registrar's Scroll records the names we send," said the man.

Now Alexandra blinked. "But, I thought it magically knows the names of students who are being registered?"

He shook his head. "It magically transcribes the names we send it."

Alexandra hissed a bad word about Ms. Grimm.

"That's not appropriate language for a young witch," admonished the pale-faced wizard slowly.

"She lied to me!"

His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

"Can you look up my real birth record?" she asked.

"Not if I don't know your real name," he said, still studying her in that unsettling manner.

She hesitated.

"It might be Thorn."

His face twitched. "Surely not."

"Can you check?"

He paused again, then said, "This way." He began to walk back among the shelves and cabinets. She followed. When they reached the 'T's, he looked up and scanned a row of boxes on a shelf above her eye level. She saw some shields that looked like family crests. Alexandra wondered why the Census Office didn't have a more efficient retrieval system, like the Card Catalog at the Charmbridge library.

"No Alexandra Thorn," he said. He looked down at her. "Any Thorn files are probably Classified."

"How could I see them?"

He didn't answer. She waited, and then turned around to look at him. He was still staring down at her, and now she was definitely uncomfortable.

"Okay," she said, taking a step away from him. "I guess I should go."

He suddenly grabbed her shoulders and leaned over her. "Why did you come here?" he rasped.

"I told you!" she exclaimed, trying to back away from him, as the pale wizard tightened his grip. "Let go of me!" His fingers were digging into her shoulders now, painfully.

"You shouldn't have come here," he said, "alone."

When Alexandra had been trapped in the form of a rat, and Galen had been stalking her, she thought she'd known what it was like to be looked at like a meal, but the pale man's gaze was greedier, hungrier, and went right through her in a way that chilled her to the bone.

"You're so... young," he breathed. "And warm."

"Let go!" she yelled, trying to twist out of his grasp and kicking at him, but he was far too strong. She wished desperately that she had her wand. He was lowering his head towards her neck, and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her or whisper in her ear, and the thought of either made her skin crawl, and then she saw him open his mouth, revealing a pair of sharp fangs! She gasped.

"Let go of me, you creepy vampire!" she exclaimed. And she head-butted him right in the nose.

He pulled away from her then, shuddering, and for the first time he blinked several times. But his nose barely twitched and she didn't think she'd really hurt him very much. His eyes were wide and he almost looked frightened now as he stared at her.

"Out!" he bellowed, startling her, and with one hand still on her shoulder, he squeezed hard, turning her around and steering her out of the records section and past the front counter towards the door, taking long, hurried steps that forced Alexandra to run and almost stumble in order to keep up. "You shouldn't have come here! I am powerless over my craving! It's one thing to deal with adults, but - a child!" He opened the door and practically threw her out into the corridor, and then rushed past her.

"I need to call my sponsor," he muttered. And over his shoulder, yelled at her, "Go back where you belong, little girl!"

Alexandra was left alone in the corridor, leaning against the wall and rubbing one shoulder with her other hand. She stared after the retreating wizard, or vampire, and realized quite to her displeasure that she was actually shaking a little. She took several deep breaths, until she felt calm again.

She swallowed hard, and then looked at the door to the Census Office, and back down the corridor, where no one had yet emerged from any of the other offices. She pushed away from the wall, and reopened the door and stepped inside.

She wished there were elves or even Clockworks to help her. It appeared that the vampiric records clerk was the only one who worked here. However, she noticed a ladder leaning against one shelf. It was a very tall ladder, reaching up past the tops of the tallest shelves. She picked it up, groaning a little as it turned out to be quite heavy, and dragged it to where the man had been standing before, when he nearly assaulted her. She leaned it against the shelf, which was quite far back from the front desk and almost hidden in shadows, and climbed up it until she was at eye level with the boxes and scrolls on a shelf marked 'T.'

Sure enough, one folder was labeled 'Thoreau,' and next to it was a rack of scrolls on a stand labeled 'Thorneycroft,' with a fancy wax seal over each scroll, and between them was just a white card that said, 'Thorn - SEE CLASSIFIED RECORDS DIVISION.'

She sighed heavily. "Well, I don't suppose they'd have anything on Quick," she said aloud, and suddenly the ladder began moving by itself. She stifled a startled yelp and held on as it lifted off the ground and whizzed down the aisle between the shelves, levitating in its upright position with Alexandra clinging two-thirds of the way up. It rounded the far end of the shelves so quickly that she would have been thrown off if she hadn't hooked one leg through the rungs, and then it flew down another aisle, before stopping with a jolt in front of the 'Q's.

Cautiously, she straightened up and looked at the shelf in front of her, and there was a folder labeled 'Quick,' wedged between boxes labeled 'Queen' and 'Quinnan.' It was quite thin, unlike most of the expanding folders sitting on the shelves. Alexandra grabbed it and opened it, and found only two pieces of paper inside. One was a sheet of parchment with a drawing of a family tree (with printing along the top edge saying, 'Standard Wizard Census Family Record Form 7-7'), but there were only two entries. 'Claudia Carolina Quick, 1974 -' was the first one, and there was a picture of her mother as a younger woman. A wizard picture; her mother was looking apprehensive in it, and blinked uncertainly at the camera. The gray border around her image was explained in the legend at the bottom: 'Muggle.'

Alexandra stared at this in shock, before her eyes moved down to her own entry.

Here was a baby photo, and Alexandra supposed it was of her, though she couldn't really tell, as she thought all babies looked alike. 'Alexandra Octavia Quick, 1996 -' was surrounded by a red border, indicating that she was 'half-blood.' And in the space above, where her father should have been, there was a black ink mark that blotted out whatever had been there.

She narrowed her eyes at this, and then looked at the second piece of paper. It was a hand-written note.

"Muggle Subject C. Quick interviewed 3/25/96 (see rel. file). No knowledge of pater. whereabouts (poss. Obliv?) Per case handling instructions, will follow up. BMO conducted post-interview Obliv. Signed: Diana Grimm."

Alexandra was so shocked, she almost didn't hear the voices down the corridor outside. She hastily stuffed the folder back where it had been and jumped off the ladder. As soon as her feet hit the ground she was running for the door, and she made it out just as Ms. Shirtliffe came around the corner with another wizard.

"Quick," Shirtliffe said, her tone unsurprised, her expression foreboding.

"This is one of your students?" the man with her asked. "He almost caused poor Thomas to relapse!"

"Poor Thomas?" Alexandra repeated, astonished.

"Quiet, Quick!" Shirtliffe snapped. She turned to the other man. "I'm very sorry. I'll see to it Miss Quick doesn't wander any more." She beckoned to Alexandra with one finger.

Alexandra followed the teacher, and they were both silent until they reached the elevator.

"Are they crazy, letting a vampire work down here?" Alexandra asked. "He almost made a meal out of me!"

"Would you care to explain how a trip to the bathroom brought you eleven floors down, to the Census Office?" Shirtliffe asked.

"I got lost?"

Shirtliffe scowled down at her. "I am not even a little bit amused, Quick."

Alexandra tried to look abashed. "I thought maybe I could find out something about my father."

"Ah yes, your mysterious father who might have been a member of the Dark Convention?"

Alexandra looked startled, and Shirtliffe smiled thinly. "Oh yes, teachers do hear the rumors that go around school. Also, the Dean told me about your little... obsession."

"Well, there's a lot she hasn't told me!" Alexandra said hotly.

"Really?" Shirtliffe didn't sound sympathetic. "Well when we get back to the academy, you'll have a chance to ask her about that."

"Good!" Alexandra retorted.

Shirtliffe shook her head, as they ascended back to the seventh floor.

---

"Don't look at me like that, Anna," Alexandra said, as the students all trailed out of the elevator back towards the street. The tour of the Territorial Headquarters Building had ended shortly after Alexandra rejoined the group.

Anna looked away from her. "Do you always have to get into trouble?" she asked.

"You're lucky Ms. Shirtliffe isn't leaving you on the bus," David said.

"Did you know they have vampires working here?" Alexandra asked.

"What?" David exclaimed. Anna just looked at her wide-eyed.

While they walked from the office building to the subway station, Alexandra whispered to David and Anna a brief recount of what had happened in the Census Office, leaving out what she had discovered in the "Quick" folder.

"That's crazy!" David said.

"And they acted like it was my fault he wanted to bite me!" Alexandra finished.

"You shouldn't have been there," Anna said quietly.

Alexandra glared at her. "Oh, so I deserve to have a vampire bite my neck because I was in the wrong room?"

"Of course not!" Anna said. Her voice rose, and other kids were looking at them, so she lowered her voice to a whisper. "But Alex, this is what I keep telling you. The wizarding world isn't like the Muggle world."

"No kidding!" said David. "We don't have vampires working for the government!"

Anna gave him an annoyed look, and went on. "There are all kinds of dangers wizards just sort of know exist."

"So you would have just sort of known that creep was a vampire?" Alexandra scoffed.

Anna shook her head. "No. I would have known not to go wandering around in off-limits basements where wizards keep secrets."

"You'd never find out anything!" Alexandra said scornfully, and Anna frowned and looked away.

Back outside, Mrs. Speaks and Mrs. Price led the students to the nearest L station, while Miss Gambola and Gwendolyn brought up the rear of the column. Shirtliffe was suddenly right behind Alexandra, and whispered in her ear, "I'm watching you, Quick!"

On the elevated train platform, Muggles stared at them. Dozens of sixth graders dressed in mismatched outfits, chattering about subways and skyscrapers and staring back at the Muggles with equal curiosity attracted attention. As did the students who thought the trash cans should magically suck in anything tossed in their general direction, or who kept staring at billboards and posters and asking why no one moved.

The tracks rattled, and then a train rolled into the station. Constance clung to Alexandra's arm, and Forbearance held onto David's, before she blushed and let go.

"It's just like the Wizardrail," said Anna reassuringly. She had ridden the subway in San Francisco with her mother, and was even more used to Muggle trains than Alexandra.

The Charmbridge students flowed onto the train, nearly filling up one car. The few Muggles who rode with them were wearing baseball caps, apparently bound for the ballpark also.

Alexandra, who had initially been very excited about riding the subway and seeing a baseball game, now scarcely noticed the ride, and was hardly even paying attention as they got off several blocks later, and walked to the stadium.

"Alex, are you all right?" Anna asked her, while the teachers handed everyone tickets to get into Wrigley Field.

"I'm fine," Alexandra said, but the words on that piece of paper in the Quick census folder kept running through her head.

"You've been awfully quiet." Anna looked almost suspicious.

Alexandra shrugged.

"I never 'spected there was so many people in the world!" gasped Forbearance, after they had entered the stadium, climbed the steps to where an entire section had been reserved for them, and emerged onto an upper level, to the sight of thousands of Muggles screaming and cheering and waving pennants and gigantic foam hands and balloons shaped like baseball bats.

Excitement stirred through the Charmbridge students. David was now the center of attention, as he was the most knowledgeable about baseball. Some kids were asking Alexandra questions as well, but she brushed them off. She watched the players take the field, but was not excited even by the first crack of a home run.

She waited until a break between innings, when the teachers began escorting groups of students to the restrooms. She tried to slip away, but Anna caught her hand. "Oh no, not again! Alex, you can't!"

"I just want to call my mother."

"To tell her you're about to be expelled?"

Alexandra glared at her.

"Going somewhere, Quick?" Shirtliffe was behind her, and the color drained from Anna's face.

Alexandra turned slowly, and looked up at the teacher.

"I just want to use the payphone. Right over there." She pointed. "It lets Muggles talk long-distance, like -"

"I know what telephones are, Quick. And the answer is no, absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Alexandra demanded. "I just want to call home while we're here."

"You can send an owl from school, like every other student."

Alexandra opened her mouth to argue, and Shirtliffe cut her off.

"End. Of. Discussion." She folded her arms and stared down, as if daring her to keep arguing. Sullenly, Alexandra returned to her seat.

All she could think about, as the game went on into the evening, was that note in her family folder, and the picture of her mother, right after Alexandra had been born, blinking apprehensively at one Diana Grimm, before an Obliviator erased her memories.