Success and the Squib

Time seemed to move unbearably slowly while they waited for Ethelina to return. Although no one said anything, Bert knew every member of the party feared the worst. The plants in the garden were waving in the nighttime breeze, but Bert noticed one moving differently. He poked it with a stick and a small grass snake slithered out. The others noticed instantly. The snake looked at him and hissed, long and low.

"S'all right," Rose said, "they're not poisonous. You probably annoyed it by jabbing at it."

The snake slithered a little closer to him, looked at him and hissed. It was very unusual behaviour for a snake.

"Eth's in trouble," Bert said softly. "I know she is. She sent the snake."

Rose snorted. "Stop worrying... and Willy, take that look off your face, even Ethelina can't talk to snakes."

"But she can," said Bert. "She..."

"She what?" Cassandra said, looking interested.

"None of you would hurt her, right"

"Get to the point," Rose told him. "Of course none of us would hurt her."

"She can make a potion... and she definitely had one of the ingredients on her. Maybe she keeps some of the potion with her too." He stood up. "I'm going to get her. Who's with me?"

All four others looked at each other. He wasn't part of their team. However, Ethelina was. As one they all stood up. Bert swallowed. He had the people - now he had to make a plan. They'd have to think of something en route.

As they walked, the group discussed what to do.

"We don't even know how to get in," Rose said. She was by far the most practical member of the team - but unfortunately, it meant she saw every problem.

Perkins, usually quiet, said, "I can do that."

"How?"

"Duh! I'm part Brownie. We're able to open locked doors, windows... anything you like, really. They just aren't locked to us. How d'you think my dad got in to clean my mum's house?"

"That's very useful," Rose said. "All I inherited was the ability to be very ugly... so, you get us in. Which door?"

"The kitchen," Cassandra supplied. "They probably don't go in there a lot."

"Uh-uh," Rose said. Old wizarding family, sure to have a house elf, and I don't fancy being on the receiving end of from some defensive magic if he thinks we're attacking his people."

"The chapel," Bert said.

"What?"

"It's an old house, it has a private chapel attached. And at Magna Hall it's well and truly attached, it's got one door to the outside, one to the main part of the house. I doubt it gets used for anything other than burying people in the family crypt."

"Where does it join the house?"

"Dunno. Cass never mentioned it." No-one had been invited to Cassius' funeral - of course, as his family claimed he'd been at Durmstrang, there was no reason for anyone from something as socially embarrassing as a school for Squibs to be allowed to attend.

"Sounds good," said Willy. "I can't imagine anyone would alarm a chapel."

"It's the best suggestion we've got," Rose admitted. "It's not as though there'll be much in there to steal, so with any luck only the doors and windows will have much protection on, there shouldn't be too many Charms guarding items... Watch out Perkins, there's bog in that direction," she sniffed. Without torches, Rose's half-hag senses were especially useful.

Perkins changed the direction in which he was walking. "Didn't inherit anything! That big old nose of yours is brilliant."

"Mmph. What I'm smelling right now is trouble..."

Bert turned to look at her. "Rose, if we get out of this, you are going to have the finest meal of your life, and every bit of it will smell like the best thing you've ever sniffed."

Perkins glared at him, but Willy chuckled. "That's an expensive claim you're making. You've never seen her go truffle hunting."

"My sister's worth it."

"Yup, that she is..." Willy looked wistfully at the few lights visible from Magna Hall.

Bert sighed. Why was it that despite Ethelina being about as approachable as a wasps' nest, so many apparently brave and intelligent men fell for her? He was sure Kingsley Shacklebolt was keen on her too.

As they got closer to the house, the five tried to move as quietly as possible. They had a fairly easy approach - the de Laceys clearly put faith in their anti-Muggle charms to keep most people away from the house, and the herb-pickers' experience with plants meant they avoided the more lethal parts of the garden with ease. They were lucky they knew one thing from another; an attack from part of the shrubbery could easily have killed one of them. Cassandra, far and away the most skilled herbologist of the group, spent a few precious minutes noting some peculiar hybrids.

She scrawled a message to the others on her notepad. 'Illegal crossed plants. About 20 years' worth.'

Bert shivered. Had Cassius been clever enough to make these on order from his family, or was it the work of some other de Lacey?

Cassandra held up a hand and the team stopped. The others grinned, clearly enjoying not being caught out by something. Bert felt confused. 'Poison ivy,' Willy scrawled. 'American, Muggle. One to get wizards.' Everyone edged round the patch very carefully.

A little later it was Rose's turn to stop the group. 'No crossing lawn,' she wrote. 'Statues bad'. None of the others had noticed anything, but there was something in her wizard-hag heritage that made Bert feel she had extra senses.

'How get round?' Willy replied.

They all looked thoughtful for a bit. Perkins had some magic, but it was a domestic, Brownie magic. Rose had a hefty dose from both her parents, but thanks to laws on part-humans had never had formal training and wasn't allowed a wand. She frowned, then wrote 'follow me - but wait 5 mins. V. important.' She sidled along to a thick, harmless hedge that formed a wall around the formal garden and butted onto the chapel. She held out her hand to it, screwed up her face and the plant began to wither and die, then crumbled to dust. She created a tunnel through the ancient hedge, and they all followed her through it, single-file, but keeping a sensible distance.

She created an opening at the other end, then relaxed and looked slightly embarrassed. 'What that?' Perkins wrote.

'Hag magic,' Rose scrawled back. 'Ages things. You do door.'

The chapel was a small one, the sort of thing that early Tudor grandees would have had built for private family use. As such, it had a small but sturdy oak door with heavy iron door furniture. Perkins opened it as easily as if it had been unlocked and made of cardboard and the other four rushed in behind him.

Inside, the chapel was dusty and clearly untouched. Not pleasant if you were just looking around, but ideal if you needed a bolthole. Bert worked his way round the interior, looking at the effigies and tombs of de Laceys of yore. A particularly large tomb celebrated the memory of Mortimer de Lacey, complete with 12 small statues of children, one for each of his own offspring. Nine of them were holding small skulls to show that they had pre-deceased him. Bert wondered if Mortimer had weeded out the weak ones or their siblings had done it for them. Mortimer's statue lay on the top, in full robes, but thanks to age minus his nose and a couple of fingers.

Cassius had a simple slab in one corner. At least they gave him that, Bert thought. He touched it, almost as though trying to reach his friend.

"How come you're still alive?" a voice said.

Bert looked round in shock. Cassius stood there, still a teenaged boy, shining with a pearly blue light. The rest of the group were staring over, looking equally surprised.

"Oh, don't worry, it's quiet in here," Cassius told him. "We can talk. I'm the only ghost in the house, and the walls keep sound out of the main house. The family don't like to see me."

"Bu... bu..." Bert stammered. "You're dead."

"Yes, I'm dead. I've been dead for 20 years. I've been dead and you're alive and you didn't even come to my funeral," Cassius said irritably. Bert recalled how bad-tempered Cassius had been when they first met, hating other Squibs because he hated himself. The warmth and friendliness of St Jude's had changed that - but a couple of decades with only his family had done him no good at all. "So, why have you ignored me for 20 years?"

"Because your parents told everyone you went to Durmstrang, you tosspot!" Bert exploded. During his life he'd often thought of all the things he thought he'd want to say to his friend if he could only meet him once more, and this was how it was turning out. "What was I supposed to do, gatecrash the funeral?"

"Figures," Cass said morosely. "So now you've broken in." He looked at Willy, Rose, Cassandra and Perkins. "Oh look, I know you, little Willy Orr. What are you up to, stealing the family treasures? Want a hand?"

"Don't you ever leave this chapel?" Rose asked.

"You haven't met my family, have you?" Cass answered. "I prefer them when they're dead. Funny, they thought they'd like me better dead too..."

"Your family have my sister," Bert told him. We're... we're trying to find out if they're Dark wizards. Death Eaters, even."

Cassius blinked ghostly eyelids, then creased up in peals of laughter. Bert walked through him in disgust, which stopped it. As he reached the plant hunters, Bert said, "You were friends with Eth once, I don't know why you think it's funny."

"It's not that," Cassius said seriously. "But it's like you're jumping into a lake to see if there's water there... of course there are Death Eaters here."

"Good," Rose said. "What we need..."

"Uh-uh," Cassius interrupted. "I will help you on one condition. I want you to get this slab up, take some of my dust, and put it with Honey." He looked seriously at Bert. "I can't sleep without her. I'm going to be stuck here with my relatives until Honey and I are together, and I won't have her grave moved to this filthy place."

Bert sighed. "You've gone all Wuthering Heights, Cass."

The ghost shook its head. "Heathcliff died and was at peace. C'mon Bert, you can do it. Use one of the candlesticks to lever up the slab."

Cassandra held out a plant-sample jar. Bert grabbed a candlestick and started tapping away at the stone. Cassius smiled, and it was the sort of smile that it had taken him six weeks to manage as a boy - a genuinely happy smile. "Great. I'm going to make myself useful and find Ethelina."

"Tell her we're here!" Willy said excitedly.

"No," Bert said. "Right now, Willy, we're in the fridge again and we're safe. The fewer people who know we're here, the better. Cass, just find her, see what's in the way, and we'll work out how to get her out from there."

Cassius drifted out through the door to the house and Willy joined Bert with another candlestick. "Looks like we're rescuing two people," Willy said happily. "It feels good to be repaying Cass in kind."