Trinity

Chapter 9

Sarah

"Students, your attention please..."

It was lunchtime on the final day of Term Three. All around me, my fellow students were either talking about the upcoming tournament, eating, or - in the case of the Grade Twelve students - studying like mad for the CAME exams that would be taking place one week after the tournament ended. At the table beside me, Taylor and Miriam were bent over a sheet of parchment, quills in hand, talking quietly to one another about their plans for the prank war that would be taking place alongside the Quidditch tournament. The two of them were spearheading the whole exercise - Atitjere House had failed to make it to the final of the Powerball season, which would be played between Nyapari and Kalkaringi, and so they had all the time in the world to wreak havoc on the school.

It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone quietened down enough so that Mrs. Heinemann could make her announcement. "Thank you everyone. I know that you are all excited about the tournament beginning tomorrow, but there are a few announcements that need to be made beforehand. You will all be able to return to your lunch afterwards.

"The Twofold Bay students will be arriving at the school at around ten o'clock tonight. They, along with their principal and Heads of House, will be residing in three of the vacant towers during their time here, and will be welcomed to the Academy during the assembly that is scheduled to be held after breakfast tomorrow morning. You are all expected to wear full winter uniform, excluding cloaks, to the assembly; that includes ties, boys. A uniform inspection will take place during dormitory check. The first match of the tournament, between Atitjere House and Chaldercot House, will begin at nine-thirty on Sunday morning - while attendance is not mandatory, it is nevertheless encouraged.

"As you are all no doubt aware, one of the main reasons behind the annual tournament is to build relationships between our two schools. And part of this, the faculties of Twofold Bay School and Southern Cross Academy have come to realise, is an inter-school practical joke war. While either school does not condone this sort of behaviour, it is plainly obvious that we cannot stop it taking place. Therefore, all students should keep the Academy Code of Conduct in mind over the next few weeks, specifically the following - 'remember that you are not the only person who matters', 'consider what effect your actions have on others', and 'your actions cannot endanger yourself or anyone else'." Her tone turned stern. "Allow me to assure you all that there will be severe punishments for anyone who chooses to tarnish the good name and standing of the Academy. These range from being excluded from the tournament, to an in-school suspension, to expulsion, depending on the misdemeanour. I do not wish to expel anyone, but I will not hesitate to do so if the behaviour of the student in question warrants such extreme measures.

"That is all for the time being. Anyone who has any queries about the tournament, please do not hesitate to speak to your Head of House." With that, Mrs. Heinemann returned to her seat, and the noise level in the dining hall shot up a few notches.

Taylor and Miriam put their quills away, and Miriam rolled up the parchment and wound a rubber band around the resulting scroll. The two of them got up from their seats and walked down the aisle between tables, Miriam pulling on my plait as she passed behind me. That had become the signal between us over the past six months - if Miriam wanted to talk to Taylor or I, all she did was pull on our hair and we'd follow her. Taylor and I also made use of it, though not as much as Miriam did. It had taken Taylor quite a long time to get used to having his hair pulled on, as according to him the other boys in his dorm at his home school would yank on his rat-tail if they felt like tormenting him for whatever reason. I got up from my seat and followed them.

Upstairs in the Atitjere Common Room, I found Taylor and Miriam sitting on the floor, the sheet of parchment they had been writing on downstairs spread out on the rug in front of them. "You know the prank war that's starting tomorrow?" Miriam asked me as I sat down with them.

"Yeah..."

"Us two want your help setting up a prank in week four."

I frowned. "Why week four? Why not tomorrow?"

"One, we need that long to figure out just how we're going to do it. And two, there's an accepted way of orchestrating the war. We pull simple pranks in the first week, ones that won't do a lot of damage. Second week is the slightly more elaborate pranks, and third week is the time we pull the elaborate ones. Week four, it's the school versus school free-for-all, and the only time the rules go right out the window. The rest of the time, all the teachers keep a very close eye on us to make sure we're nice as pie to the Twofold Bay kids, but come the final week they turn a blind eye." She pulled her quill out from behind her ear, gave the tip of her wand a flick, and started sharpening her quill. "Basically, our prank can only be played in week four, because we're pulling it on the other school."

"I see. So what do you need me to do?"

Miriam tapped the parchment with the nib of her quill, and I bent down over it. Things like 'thin wire', 'firecracker', 'cornflakes', 'flashbulbs' and '12 volt battery' jumped out at me, but there was one thing that I had never heard of before. "What's a solenoid?"

"It's a switch in a circuit," Miriam explained. "So what do you think? We're planning to spring it on the Twofold Bay Grade Eleven girls."

I cocked my head to one side and studied the complicated diagram. "It's certainly elaborate," I hedged.

Miriam grinned. "That's the whole point! And that's why we need the whole tournament to figure out how we're going to pull it off. So are you gonna help us?"

I sat back and thought for a little while. While the prank in question was elaborate in nature, it was pretty much harmless. The 'victim' would probably get one hell of a fright, but there wouldn't be any injury involved, unless they fell down on their backside out of sheer shock.

"Sure," I agreed. "Why not?"

* * *

I screwed the last of the showerheads into place, giving it a tap with my wand to make sure it would stay in place. It had been Miriam's idea for me to pull this particular little prank, purely because for all intents and purposes, I was the new kid. And nobody, according to Miriam, expected the new kid to spring a simple but suitably demonic prank on her roommates.

The prank was that I had put raspberry cordial in the showerheads. Taylor had done the same in the boys' bathroom. The resulting effect was that instead of clean water streaming down, a torrent of sticky red liquid would come gushing out on the unsuspecting victim's head. I had left two showers untouched, being that they were the showers that Miriam and I would be using this morning.

I dried my hands on my pyjamas and picked up the empty cordial bottle, taking it to the nearest sink to rinse it out. It came from Miriam's personal prank cache, which she kept hidden in a second compartment of her school trunk. The cache contained several firecrackers, superglue, a bottle of potion she had mixed up that she intended to give to Taylor at one point, tissue paper, a large glass bottle of lemon juice, a cardboard box of bicarb soda, a small silver box that was filled with a brown powder that looked a bit like cocoa, a few bottles of fake blood that was often used by Muggle actors, a small rag doll, a bottle of Muggle dishwashing detergent, a spool of string, a length of rope, a set of plumber's tools, a bottle of what Miriam said was called methylene blue, several Muggle glow sticks, a money box filled with Knuts (according to Miriam, there was approximately ten Galleons' worth contained in her money box), two full bottles of Tabasco sauce, a shot glass, and a set of clothing. What she planned to do with it, I had no idea, but I had no doubts that she was going to have fun.

I took the rinsed bottle back up to the dormitory and stowed it away in my wardrobe. The other girls were still sleeping, though not for much longer - it was five minutes to five o'clock, and I had set Inanna's alarm clock to go off at precisely five o'clock, instead of the usual six-thirty. Part of it was because of the prank war, but otherwise I was being considerate. I wanted to give the girls a chance to calm down after their shower, and then enough time to have another shower, one without the benefit of cordial.

I had just started to make my way down the spiral stairs, my uniform draped over my right arm and my bag of toiletries in my left hand, when Inanna's magically amplified alarm clock went off. A chorus of moans erupted, and I snickered to myself all the way downstairs. Once in the bathroom, I chose the shower nearest to the doorway - that shower, and the one smack bang in the middle, were the only two that I had left 'untreated' - and hung my uniform up on the back of the door before turning the taps on. It wasn't long before the girls came trickling into the bathroom, all muttering murderously. And it wasn't long before the first shrieks started.

"Fucking hell!" I heard Kali yell. "What the hell is this shit?"

I couldn't help myself. I dissolved into giggles, and so did Miriam. The bathroom possessed rather nice acoustics, and the sound of Miriam and I giggling and our roommates cursing and shrieking was quite melodic.

"What did you put in the showerheads, Miriam?" Artemis demanded when Miriam and I, both clean as a whistle, were dressed in our uniforms. Artemis had popped out a circle of wood from her shower door, one big enough for her face and not much else; she had streaks of red all over her face.

"Oh, it wasn't me," Miriam replied. "It was my idea, though." She nodded to me. "It was Sarah who pulled the prank itself, and it was her who set Inanna's alarm clock an hour and a half earlier than usual."

Seeing the look of anger on Artemis' face, I told her exactly what I'd done. "Raspberry cordial," I replied.

To my surprise, instead of vowing revenge, Artemis chuckled. "Nice one, Sarah. Any chance of getting rid of it so we can have proper showers?"

"Just let the water run a little while."

Artemis nodded and drew her face back, repaired the door with a wave of her wand, and resumed her shower.

The dining hall was twice its normal size when we girls trooped in at the usual breakfast time. Instead of the usual four student tables, there were eight, with coloured banners emblazoned with some sort of emblem hanging from the ceiling. In addition, the staff table was twice its usual length.

"Which table's which?" I asked, confused.

Miriam scanned the tables, before pointing to our usual table. "There. That's the only thing I don't like about the tournament, the tables sometimes get switched."

"So how do we tell which is ours?"

"Look for the blue banner that has a platypus on it. Our House banners are blue with a platypus for Atitjere, red with a dingo for Tanami, yellow with a sulphur-crested cockatoo for Kalkaringi, and green with a green tree frog for Nyapari. For Twofold Bay...I think it's blue with an owl for Chaldercot, green with a python for Grosvenor, red with an eagle for Rathane, and yellow with a wolf for Telford. Stands for knowledge, cunning, bravery and loyalty, if I remember correctly."

The hall filled slowly, possibly because it was the first day after the end of term. And as I worked my way through a large bowl of cornflakes, something occurred to me. If I hadn't chosen to apply to become an exchange student, I would be in seventh year now.

"Sarah, are you all right?" I heard Taylor ask at my elbow. Turning to look at him, I saw that his usually bright blue eyes were stormy. "You've been quiet this morning."

"It's nothing," I replied. Then I cocked an eyebrow at him. "I could say the same about you, actually. You were quieter than usual yesterday."

"Well..." He shoved a finger under the casing of his watch and moved it around a little, as if he was scratching a mosquito bite or something of the like. "It's just...if I was still in America, I'd be in senior year now. That's all."

"Really?" I asked, and he nodded. "Me too. Only I'd be in seventh year if I was still back in England." I sighed quietly. "We make a fine pair, don't we?" I asked as I resumed eating my breakfast.

It was certainly an interesting experience, having a whole other school in the dining hall - it was even more interesting to note the contrast in uniform. Where we Southern Cross students wore dark green and light yellow, the Twofold Bay students wore maroon and light blue. Another difference was the stars that each Twofold Bay student wore on their robes. The number of stars ranged from one to six, and I figured that they denoted the student's grade. They were also the same colour as the trim on the cuffs and hem of each student's robes.

One other distinct difference? They were loud. Granted, there were more of them - approximately one and a half times as much, if I figured correctly, judging by the sheer number of students at each of their tables - but still...if I'd thought that Australians were loud when I had arrived, it was nothing compared to the Twofold Bay students.

With breakfast concluded, the whole lot of us headed into the magically-expanded auditorium and sat down wherever we felt like. As it wasn't officially term time, the usual rule about sitting with our housemates didn't apply. I therefore found myself seated between Taylor and a pretty dark-haired student from Twofold Bay. Judging by the colour and the number of stars on her robes, she was a Chaldercot Grade Eleven student. I took a quick peek at her feet - I've always been able to tell a lot about a person just by the shoes they wear - and saw that she wore scuffed brown leather Quidditch boots instead of black leather shoes.

So she played Quidditch. I guessed she was either a Seeker or a Chaser, judging by what I could tell of her build, being that it was mostly hidden beneath her robes.

I was about to open my mouth to introduce myself, when Mrs. Heinemann stood and moved to the lectern. I delivered a well-placed elbow to Taylor's ribs, a signal for him to shut the hell up, and paid attention.

"Welcome, students, to the twenty-fifth annual Inter-School Quidditch Tournament," she said into the magical microphone that had been affixed to the onstage lectern. "And a special welcome to our guests, the students of Twofold Bay School of Magical Arts. Judging by what the principal of our guest school has said, the Southern Cross Quidditch players have quite a battle on their hands when it comes to defending their title this year. That being said, allow me to call the teams up onstage. Southern Cross Academy students first, if you please."

To be honest, the whole assembly was a little boring. More than once I found my mind wandering, and it was an immense relief when we were dismissed.

Taylor and Miriam caught up with me as we headed back upstairs, and we grinned at one another. It was time to show everyone what happened when you combined the Abernathy-Chambers-Kennedy triplets with an all-but-officially-sanctioned prank war. They weren't going to know what had hit them.

* * *

Taylor

The next morning, I struck again. Well, technically, I had put my second prank into motion the previous evening. It had two parts to it. The first part was something that my friend Matthew had devised before I had left Amargosa, which he had called a Polar Opposites Jinx - his instructions were that I should cast the jinx on someone that I disliked, and then on something owned by said person. The jinx itself was on a time-delay of about eight to ten hours, and the result was supposed to be that the object would shift approximately four feet in the opposite direction when approached, making it impossible to grasp unless the correct counterjinx was cast. What the counterjinx was, I had no idea - Matthew had quite conveniently forgotten to tell me how to end the jinx - but apparently it would wear off after about four weeks.

The second part, well...it was rather devious, and it wasn't even my idea to pull it off. It had come from Miriam, and according to her from her cousin Craig before her - it was a potion that would, in Miriam's words, 'show who the true wankers in Atitjere House are'. She had given the bottle to me just before dinnertime, with instructions to pour the contents into the jug of water that always stood on our House table. I had done so, pocketing the bottle afterward so that I escaped suspicion. Now all that there was to be done was to wait for the morning, to see who were the victims of my prank.

I was still half-asleep when the first complaints started. Valerian was the first to notice.

"What the...why the hell are my hands purple?"

I chuckled to myself without opening my eyes. One down, three to go.

Soon, all my roommates were awake - all of who, by the sound of it, had purple hands, and were more than likely purple somewhere else. I decided that the time was right to see the results of the first half of my prank, and I untangled myself from my blankets.

Three seventeen-year-old and one sixteen-year-old murderous-looking boys were looking directly at me.

"What the hell are you lot looking at?" I asked, squinting at them through a curtain of hair.

"Show us your hands," Valerian demanded.

I raised an eyebrow. "Merlin, what crawled up your ass and died?"

He raised his wand and aimed it right at my face. As I expected, his wand hand was a brilliant shade of violet. "Hands," he said in a clipped tone of voice. "Now."

"Or you'll do what?" I taunted. "Poke me to death?"

"Conjunctiva," Valerian hissed, and my eyes started stinging. "Now show us your hands, or I'll do much worse."

"Okay, okay!" I held my hands up, and through a veil of unshed tears of pain I noticed that my hands were the same colour they'd always been.

"Finite," Valerian said, sounding disappointed, and the stinging stopped. I immediately reached for the box of tissues that I kept on the shelf next to my bed. "Why aren't your hands purple?" he asked.

"Couldn't tell you," I said, doing my best to sound innocent.

Miriam was waiting in the common room when I ventured downstairs. She looked up eagerly as I sat down next to her. "Well?"

I nodded. "All four of them have purple hands."

"Yes! It worked! I gotta owl Craig and tell him."

"You have to tell who what?" I heard Alexei ask, and Miriam and I looked over our shoulders. "Oh, don't tell me it was you two who did this..."

"Did what?" Miriam asked in mock-innocence.

"This!" He pulled one hand from a pocket of his jeans and held it out for us to see. "All of our hands are purple, all except his." He nodded at me, before muttering, "Wanker."

"Il-qahba milli jkollha taghtik," I shot back at him.

{What did you say to him?} Miriam asked.

One thing that Miriam, Sarah and I had discovered about ourselves was that we all had one power, aside from the obvious one, in common. The three of us were all telepaths. And after a little experimentation, we had realised that we could use telepathy to talk when none of us were in close proximity to one another - I could be in class, in my dormitory, or even swimming around in the lake, and I could hold a perfectly normal conversation with either of my sisters. Of course, it also came in handy when we didn't want anyone else to hear what we were saying to one another. It was a little rough, but it was fine for short bursts.

{'It takes one to know one'.}

Miriam let out a snort of telepathic laughter. {That's fucking brilliant.} I sent her a telepathic grin in return, before getting to my feet and heading into the bathroom for a shower.

"Hey, you're a natural blonde, right?" Miriam yelled out as I headed down the corridor that led to the bathrooms.

I stopped walking and turned around, raising an eyebrow at her. "Yeah I am, why?"

"Just wondering," she replied nonchalantly.

I thought nothing more of her question until I was standing in front of the bank of sinks in the boys' bathroom, a dark blue towel wrapped around my waist, with another towel wrapped around my hair. My wand lay on the countertop next to the sink, its tip pointing toward the wall. I took it in hand and aimed it at the ceiling. "Accio cargo pants, Strikers shirt and Airwalks," I incanted, before quickly aiming my wand at the floor and evaporating my wet footprints. I dressed once my clothes had landed, and removed the towel from my head, Banishing both towels to a nearby towel rail. After I had replaited my rat-tail, it was only then that I looked at myself in the mirror again, and I nearly fainted.

My hair was blue.

"Holy fucking Merlin," I breathed as I ran my fingers through my hair. It was then that I realised why Miriam had asked me if I was a natural blonde. Whatever it was, it obviously had a rather vivid effect on fair hair - not that I welcomed the change, of course.

"Miriam!" I yelled as I stalked back into the common room. She looked up at me, the most innocent of looks plastered on her face, and I pointed at my hair. "What the hell did you do?"

"What are you talking about?"

"My hair is blue, in case you hadn't noticed. Come on, spill - what did you do?"

Much as she tried to keep a straight face, it didn't work, and she dissolved into giggles before pulling from her pocket a small, clear bottle that was half-filled with a blue liquid. I yanked it telekinetically from her hand and into mine, and took a closer look. The label marked it as being 'methylene blue'. "You put this in my shampoo, didn't you?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yep."

"How?"

She shook her index finger at me, as if she was scolding a recalcitrant child. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" She took the bottle back and tucked it back into her pocket. "It suits you, actually."

"I don't care; change it back!"

"At least leave it until the end of today's match. It's Atitjere versus Chaldercot, remember? You'll fit right in - nobody'll guess who you're barracking for, because both teams wear blue. Though I daresay they'll probably be wearing different colours for the tournament so they don't mistake a member of the opposition for one of their team-mates."

"Speaking of which, we should get down to breakfast," Alexei said.

"Oh, hang on a tick," Miriam said, and she dashed upstairs. She returned, walking much more slowly, with one of the saltshakers from our House table held carefully in hand. "Okay, let's go."

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Salt," Miriam replied, as if it were obvious. "What's it look like?"

We went down to the dining hall, which was awash in colour, in contrast to the sea of dark green that filled it during term time. Miriam carefully levitated the salt shaker onto the table and sat down in her usual place, keeping one eye on it as she worked her way through a breakfast of bacon, sausages, tomatoes, baked beans and - for some very strange reason - cornflakes with blueberry yogurt. I wrinkled my nose at the last item and reached for the stack of banana pancakes.

"Pass the salt, please," Valerian said as he sat down. He looked extremely frustrated, and I noticed that he didn't carry his wand. I hid a grin - Matthew's little jinx was undoubtedly a success.

"Where's your wand?" Ares asked as he passed to Valerian the saltshaker that Miriam had brought downstairs.

"In the dorm somewhere," Valerian replied. "I had a hard time trying to grab it - every time I tried it, the damn thing shot off in the other direction. Now I don't know where it is." He dished out bacon and eggs onto his plate and started shaking salt on his breakfast - or at least, he tried to. Nothing was coming out. He started shaking harder and harder, all the while cursing.

With an almighty pop, the lid of the saltshaker came loose, and a shower of yellowish foam came pouring out on Valerian's breakfast. We all sat there for the briefest of moments, silently staring at the spectacle, before bursting out laughing. Miriam laughed the hardest of all, tears streaming down her face.

That was all it took for Valerian to stand up, glare at us and stalk from the hall, hands balled into fists.

"I think you pissed him off," I said as I eyed Valerian's retreating figure. "I think we all did."

At the conclusion of breakfast, both schools headed out to the Quidditch pitch, the students climbing up into the magically expanded rings of seats that enclosed the playing field. I found myself sitting near the middle, three rows from the sidelines, at the left-hand side of the pitch with my fellow Southern Cross students. The Twofold Bay students sat on the right-hand side, all of them chanting and yelling their support for Chaldercot. A few of the more sneaky members of Atitjere House had set to work filling up Muggle water bombs not with water, but with a substance that the Grade Twelves had named 'liquid lightning'. It was basically a clear, water-based potion (the actual ingredients that went into the potion were a closely guarded secret) that was charged with - you guessed it - lightning. The end result was a highly volatile liquid that shocked whoever touched it, and exploded without even a moment's warning.

To my surprise, it wasn't the usual commentator, Christine, whose voice sounded over the magical microphone - it was Mrs. Richards'.

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first match of the 2000 inter-school Quidditch tournament," she said. "I would like to welcome two very special guests to the school - refereeing, we have Jadon Dempsey of the Antipodean Quidditch League, and commentating we have Talia Shyamalan, Chaser from the Coober Pedy Opals Quidditch team. Both have taken time out from their busy schedules to assist us with the running of the tournament, so please make them feel welcome."

Applause erupted from the stands, and a few greatly amplified wolf whistles sounded, presumably directed in Talia's direction. Once the applause had died down, a voice I assumed belonged to Talia sounded over the microphone.

"For Atitjere House, we have Keeper Isaac Mason, Beaters Drew Miers and Daniel Smith, Chasers Karyn Clarkson, Rebecca Simpson and Leah Anders, and Seeker and team captain Kali Miller!" Talia announced, and the Atitjere House team, clad in their regular uniforms, rocketed out onto the pitch to applause and cheers from the Southern Cross, and hisses and general derision from the Twofold Bay students. "And for Chaldercot House, we have Keeper Felicity Noonan, Beaters Simone Hawsell and Nathan Pinterisch, Chasers Morgan Braddock, Bradley Dawes and Melania St. Clare, and Seeker and team captain Alexis Copeland!" Seven more blue-clad players flew out onto the pitch; this time, it was the Southern Cross students deriding the Chaldercot players. It was easy to tell the teams apart - even though all the players were dressed in the same shade of royal blue, the Southern Cross players wore green bandannas on their heads, and the Twofold Bay students wore maroon bandannas.

After a short conference between the referee and the team captains, I saw Kali fish a Galleon from a pocket of her Quidditch robes and hand it to the referee. I had seen this particular Galleon before - she had bought it in Dead Heart Sports a few weeks before the end of Term 3. It was a specially-minted coin that was both weighted and charmed so that it would always land in her favour. The referee flipped it, completely unaware of the underhanded tactics that Kali was using. A few well-placed Amplifying Charms ensured that everyone in the stands could hear what each team captain called out - either heads or tails - and the subsequent result of the coin toss.

"Heads," Jadon pronounced, and I saw Kali cheer. "Miss Miller, you have the honour of selecting which goal your team will be guarding."

Kali seemed to think for a moment, before pointing over her shoulder at the northern goals. "We'll take the north goals." She took her Galleon back and tucked it back in her pocket, giving her pocket a pat for good measure, before mounting her broom and kicking off from the ground.

The game was much more fast-paced than the usual term-time matches; I put that down to each team having had six months to train any new members of their teams and to polish any moves they wanted to make use of. Atitjere performed the Wollongong Shimmy flawlessly, and Chaldercot showed off what Miriam said was their signature move - it was called the Launceston Switch, a move that called for two Chasers to fly up alongside an opposing Chaser, shadowing that Chaser's every move, until finally the opposing Chaser found themselves on a completely different broom to their own, utterly Quaffle-less.

It was just after one o'clock in the afternoon when the game ended. Chaldercot was up one hundred and eighty points to one hundred and fifty, when a blue blur came rocketing down out of the sky, closely pursued by a second blue blur. The chase ended almost as abruptly as it began, and as I watched one of the blurs slowed down just enough to display a flash of copper-streaked, plaited brown hair capped with a forest green bandanna, a small golden ball with frantically fluttering silver wings held loosely in her fingertips.

Kali had caught the Snitch.

The Southern Cross students erupted in a roar of cheers, yells and shrieks of joy, while the Twofold Bay students glowered in our direction. Some of the students were soaked, their hair frizzy and standing on end - they had been the targets of the Grade Twelves' liquid lightning attack.

"Kali Miller has caught the Snitch!" Talia called. "Atitjere House wins three hundred points to one hundred and eighty, securing their place at the top of the tournament ladder!"

Atitjere Tower was going to be the scene of one hell of a party that evening, I realised as I followed my fellow Southern Cross students down out of the stands and across the grounds to the homestead. Hell, all of the houses. For this wasn't just an Atitjere House victory. It was a victory for the whole school - and proof that in some aspects, elementals most definitely had the upper hand.

* * *

Miriam

The prank war was now well into its third week. Much to the annoyance of my housemates, I had so far escaped being pranked. Thus far, I had filled a saltshaker with lemon juice and bicarb soda and watched as Valerian fell victim to my prank, assisted the Grade Twelves in the creation of their liquid lightning, turned Taylor's honey-blonde hair a vibrant blue, dared Taylor six Galleons to drink a shot glass of Tabasco sauce (which he did, and I paid up willingly - it had been worth parting with some of my money just to see the look on my brother's face when he had downed it), had Taylor assist me in pulling a long-overdue prank on the other Grade Eleven boys, and - through Sarah - had pranked my roommates using the old raspberry-cordial-in-the-showerheads prank. The time was now ripe to pull a prank I had been wanting to play for years.

I pointed my wand at the rag doll that lay on the dormitory floor. "Engorgio," I murmured, and the doll grew to roughly the size of an average Grade Eleven student. It looked frighteningly lifelike. "Kali, pass me those clothes," I said, tucking my wand into a pocket of my jeans.

When the newly-formed dummy was dressed in some of my old, spare clothing - faded jeans, a white long-sleeved shirt and a dark green T-shirt - I rummaged around in my prank cache and pulled out the bottles of fake blood and the rope. The rope was tied around the dummy's neck and the fake blood was quickly enclosed in six globes that were designed to shatter only when dropped from a great height; these globes were tucked here and there inside the dummy's clothing.

I was just about to instruct Kali to open the dormitory window that was nearest to Sarah's bunk when the door opened. "Hide it!" I hissed when I saw Mrs. Chatham standing in the doorway. "'Afternoon Mrs. Chatham," I said nonchalantly.

"Good afternoon, Miss Kennedy," Mrs. Chatham replied. "Mrs. Heinemann and Mrs. Richards need to speak with you and Miss Abernathy immediately."

"Why?" I asked. This was unusual to say the least; if the principal and vice-principal needed to speak with me, usually they waited until the next student council meeting. That, and the fact that they wanted to speak to Sarah as well, meant something was up.

"That's not for me to say, Miss Kennedy." She glanced at what I wore, before adding, "I would advise you to dress appropriately."

I nodded. "Yes, Mrs. Chatham."

"What do you think they want?" Kali asked as I rummaged in my wardrobe and found a clean set of non-uniform robes.

"Couldn't tell you." I opted to leave what I was wearing on and pulled my robes on over the top, gave my hair a quick brush, and headed downstairs to Mrs. Heinemann's office.

Sarah was already in the office with Mrs. Heinemann and Mrs. Richards when I arrived. "Sorry I'm late," I apologised as I sat down beside Sarah. "I needed to get changed."

"That's all right, Miss Kennedy," Mrs. Richards said. "Now...I understand that the two of you have a...relationship with a fellow student?"

Sarah nodded. "Yes, with Taylor Chambers. He's our brother."

"I see." Mrs. Richards leaned forward in her seat so that she could rest her hands on Mrs. Heinemann's desk. "Sarah, Miriam," she started, using our first names for the first time, "your brother has been taken to St. Althea's Hospital in Sydney, after being struck with the Drowning Curse."

"The what?" Sarah asked, voicing my own confusion. I'd never heard of it before, but if Taylor had been taken to Sydney because of it, it had to be serious.

Instead of explaining what it was, Mrs. Heinemann rose from her seat and walked to her bookshelves, pulled out a thick book and placed it on the desk before us, open to the page headed 'The Drowning Curse'. Sarah and I pulled our chairs forward and read the text to ourselves.

The Drowning Curse

Incantation: Aquis Suffocatus

This curse causes the victim to drown immediately the moment they are completely submerged in water. It is particularly effective against water elementals that possess the additional ability of breathing underwater. The curse is fatal if medical treatment is not obtained as soon as possible.

"Is he all right?" Sarah asked immediately after she had finished reading.

Neither Mrs. Heinemann nor Mrs. Richards spoke for a little while. "His current condition is critical, as you can both likely guess," Mrs. Richards said finally. "They were working to stabilise him when last I heard from St. Althea's."

"Can we go and see him?" I asked.

"I've informed the hospital as to your relationship, and they have consented to allowing one of you to visit and stay with him until he recovers enough to be relocated here," Mrs. Heinemann replied.

"Why can't both of us go?" I asked, sounding - much to my distaste - like a petulant child.

"Miss Kennedy, please, control yourself," Mrs. Richards said sternly. "The reason that you both cannot go is that in cases such as these, only one family member at any time is permitted to visit a patient; Taylor is in the magical equivalent of a Muggle intensive care ward."

"His family couldn't come?" Sarah asked.

"I'm afraid not," Mrs. Heinemann said. "They have, however, been notified as to the nature of this incident, and they are understandably worried."

I don't blame them, I thought. Sarah and I were worried for our brother, but it didn't come even close to the worry that Taylor's parents must be feeling at the moment, not to mention his sister. Elissa was in seventh grade at Amargosa Valley College and, from what Taylor had told me, was quite attached to her big brother.

"So who's going?" I asked Sarah.

"I think you should," she replied.

"Why me?"

"I think he'd appreciate you being there more than he would me, that's all."

I thought for a moment. Sarah and Taylor had been spending an inordinate amount of time together this year, that was true - and that didn't even include the fourteen-hour plane journey from Los Angeles to Sydney, and the few days they had spent in Sydney together before the school year had started under Miss Collins' supervision. Might do us both some good, I mused. "Okay," I agreed. "I'll go. But make sure you keep me updated - I don't want to come back to school and find out that our House team got flattened."

"You'd better do the same for me," Sarah said in reply.

"I will," I promised, as the four of us rose from our seats.

"Miss Kennedy, please go and pack your things," Mrs. Heinemann instructed me. "Your Head of House will be waiting in the front hall for you. You will be Apparating to St. Althea's; they will be expecting the two of you at three-thirty sharp."

"Yes, Mrs. Heinemann," I said, and headed upstairs.

"So what happened?" Kali asked as I re-entered the dormitory and made for my wardrobe. I pulled out my backpack and started piling clothes, a couple of books, my wallet, my almost-finished History of Magic project and a set of quills and inks into it. My wand was slipped into the holster I had taken to wearing around my left shin, and I draped my summer cloak over my robes.

"I have to go to Sydney," I told her. "One of my cousins is in St. Althea's," I added, lying so smoothly that I surprised myself.

"Oh no!" Kali said. "Will they be all right?"

"I think so. I should be back before term starts."

"Is there anything you want while you're away?"

I shook my head. "I think I've got everything under control," I replied. "Sarah's promised to keep me updated."

When I was packed, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed downstairs to the front hall, where Mrs. Chatham was waiting.

"You know how to Apparate, I trust?" she asked as I stepped down the sandstone stairs from the main corridor to the lower level of the front hall.

"Yes, but I don't have my licence yet," I replied.

"That's no matter," Mrs. Chatham said. "I'm sure that the Ministry will make an exception in this case. Please give me your backpack; it will be waiting for you at St. Althea's."

I nodded and slipped my backpack from my shoulders, handing it to Mrs. Chatham, who set it on the wooden floor; with a wave of her wand, it vanished from sight.

After following Mrs. Chatham out of the school homestead, down the stairs and out through the grounds, we came to a small garden near the iron gates that closed off the school grounds from the desert; the gates and the sandstone wall were invisible from the outside world, which explained why I never saw them from the outside. As I stepped into the garden, I felt a slight buzz that signalled one thing in particular - this little garden was entirely outside the school's magical 'territory', and therefore outside the school's anti-Apparation wards. That made it the perfect site for Apparation.

"After you, Miss Kennedy," Mrs. Chatham said, and I nodded. Fixing the waiting area of St. Althea's Hospital firmly in my mind, I turned on my left heel and felt the extremely unpleasant sensation of a series of steel bands tightening around my upper body.

St. Althea's Hospital had a rather unusual location - it was entirely underground, occupying the area around and including Platforms 26 and 27 at Sydney Central railway station. These platforms, known as 'ghost platforms', had never been open to railway traffic, making it an ideal location for a magical hospital. There were smaller hospitals in each of the other state and territorial capitals, but St. Althea's was the main 'hub', so to speak. It was also the only magical hospital in Australia equipped to handle serious cases, such as curse-related injuries.

I staggered a little as I popped into 'existence' in the St. Althea's waiting area, rubbing my ears when I had regained my balance. Apparating had the nasty side-effect of giving me a double earache for a little while. Beside me, Mrs. Chatham popped into view, and immediately strode up to the main desk. I followed dutifully behind her, marvelling at the lack of patients - there were only a flustered-looking young witch holding tightly to the left hand of a little girl I guessed could be her daughter or younger sister (the little girl was floating in the air, a Billywig held tightly in her right hand), a middle-aged wizard who kept switching back and forth between visibility and invisibility, and a witch sporting the floppy ears and furry paws of a rabbit.

The witch sitting behind the main desk looked up as we approached. "Welcome to St. Althea's, how may I help you?" she rattled off. I guessed that she was merely a receptionist, as she wasn't dressed in the pale blue robes of a qualified Healer, or the pale pink robes of an Apprentice Healer.

"My name is Lillian Chatham; I am a teacher at Southern Cross Academy. One of my students was admitted earlier today."

"Ah yes..." The mediwitch started tapping away at what sounded like a keyboard. "Taylor Chambers?" she asked, and Mrs. Chatham nodded. "He's in the St. Alexius Critical Care Ward, third floor." She looked up at me. "And this is..."

"Miriam Kennedy; she is Taylor's sister."

"I see." She disappeared behind her desk, coming up with my backpack. "This must be yours, then," she said as she handed it to me. "Go on up; I'll let them know you're on your way."

"Thank you." Mrs. Chatham stepped away from the desk and led the way to a nearby elevator.

It had always amazed me how readily the Australian magical community had adopted Muggle technology, adapting it so that it would work just as well, if not better, when powered by magic rather than electricity. The Australian Ministry had long ago granted the magical medical profession a licence that allowed them to adapt Muggle technology as they saw fit, which had paved the way for complete assimilation of Muggle medical techniques and practices into magical medicine; this also extended to the modification of Muggle computers, which held patient records. St. Althea's had been rather advanced when I had last visited, during Grade Eight after I had suffered what could only be called an overdose of Fizzing Whizbees, so it would be interesting to see how much things had changed.

After the elevator ride (being powered by magic, it had been a far smoother ride than what I usually experienced when I caught the train to Circular Quay at the end of each term and decided to take the elevator down to ground level rather than the stairs), Mrs. Chatham and I stepped out into a softly-lit corridor; blocks of milky quartz crystal set into the corridor walls and ceiling at regular intervals provided the light.

An Apprentice Healer seated at a battered wooden desk looked up as we approached the entrance to the ward. "Mrs. Chatham!" she said in surprise. "I didn't know you were coming today."

"Hello Ophelia," Mrs. Chatham greeted her. "We're here to see a patient; the front desk should have told you we were coming."

"Taylor Chambers, right?" Ophelia asked, and we both nodded. "Yep, I just got the message. I'll show you through; it's been quiet today, so I don't think anyone will mind me leaving my post for a little while."

"Actually, I need to get back to the Academy," Mrs. Chatham said. "This is Miriam Kennedy; she is Taylor's sister, and has permission to stay with her brother until he recovers."

"Yeah, of course. I'll make sure my replacement knows what the situation is."

"Thank you, Ophelia." Mrs. Chatham then turned to me. "Miss Kennedy, I must ask you not to use your Healing here," she said. "I do not doubt your abilities, but you are not a trained Healer. Please leave the Healers to do their work."

I nodded. "I understand, Mrs. Chatham."

She studied me for a little while, before giving me a smile. "We will find out who did this to your brother, Miriam."

"You'd better send them to Fort Denison," I said harshly. "Otherwise I don't know what I'll do to them when I get my hands on them."

"Miss Kennedy, that's quite enough. It will be up to Mrs. Heinemann what happens, though suffice to say their punishment will be the severest possible." She gave my left shoulder a gentle squeeze, before turning on her heel and walking back down the corridor.

I let out a small sigh, and Ophelia rose from her seat. "Come on, Miss Kennedy. Let's go and see your brother."

Nothing could have possibly prepared me for the sight that greeted me when I stepped up to my brother's bedside. He lay there completely motionless, save for the slight rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, his face pale. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes, and I could see a faint mark encircling his neck just beneath his chin.

"He's looking much better now than he was when he was brought here this morning," Ophelia said from behind me. "Not to be blunt, but he looked like hell." She carefully pushed aside a few locks of Taylor's hair aside and pointed to the mark I'd noticed. "Whoever did this to him tried to strangle him using a Muggle garrotte before cursing him."

"Oh my God," I whispered. I pulled up a nearby chair and sank down onto it, tentatively reaching out my left hand; I ran the pad of my thumb across his cheek. "Is he going to get better?" I asked, dreading Ophelia's response.

"I don't know, Miriam. I honestly don't know."

* * *

A few days later, I was taking a much-needed nap after worrying myself into insomnia when a package was dropped on my head, startling me out of a doze. I opened my eyes just in time to see a small owl winging its way back down the ward. I had Transfigured the chair I had been sitting in for great majority of the past few days into a camp bed, and had curled up on it.

Muttering invectives to myself, I sat up and examined the parcel. Quilled on the front in dark blue ink in Sarah's handwriting was:

Miriam Kennedy

St. Alexius Critical Care Ward

St. Althea's Hospital

Sydney

I frowned as I carefully tore the wrapping from around the parcel. Out tumbled a crystal globe the size of the palm of my hand, a wand, and a crookedly-folded piece of parchment. I settled the wand and globe in my lap as I unfolded what I assumed was a letter.

Miriam,

THEY CAUGHT HIM!

It was Valerian who cursed Taylor. Can you believe it? I never would have guessed that he, of all people, would be capable of a curse like that - and a Dark curse at that. He's been expelled and his wand's been broken - Mrs. Heinemann snapped it into three pieces and burned them right in front of him. And there's a good chance he's going to be arrested. He's not of age until November so if they do arrest him and charge him with attempted murder, or whatever they decide to charge him with, until he is of age he'll only be sent to juvenile detention or whatever it is you have here in Australia.

I've included Taylor's wand - which Valerian used to cast the curse, the coward - so that he has it for when he wakes up, and something I bought in Alice Springs called a Optisphere. It's like a Muggle video camera - I recorded the whole thing, sound and all. Valerian's interrogation, that is. Mrs. Heinemann and Mrs. Chatham both asked me to be present, so I would be able to tell you what happened. I likely would have insisted on being there, anyway, so I could make sure the pillock got exactly what he deserved. When you decide to watch the film, tap it three times with your wand and say 'Recenseo'. It'll project what I recorded so that you can see what I saw.

Owl me as soon as possible and let me know how he is, okay?

Missing both of you like crazy,

Sarah

I stared at the letter in my hands for ages, barely daring to believe what Sarah had written. Valerian had done this? I'd known Valerian since the beginning of Grade Seven, and he had never given any sort of indication that he was even capable of something as horrific as attempted murder, let alone that he even knew of the existence of the Drowning Curse.

I got to my feet and placed Taylor's wand on his nightstand, but not before closely inspecting it. It was just a little more than the length of my forearm, with shallow grooves in the handle. I figured that they were there to help him keep a grip on his wand. Holding the Optisphere in the palm of my left hand, I returned my former chair to its original state and settled down in it, drew my own wand and activated the globe.

The Optisphere made a muted clicking sound, and a stream of light blossomed out over my fingertips, coalescing into a scene that looked almost real. The scene slowly surrounded me, until it seemed that I was no longer at St. Althea's - I was in Mrs. Chatham's office at the Academy. Mrs. Chatham and Mrs. Heinemann were both seated behind Mrs. Chatham's desk, with Valerian sitting in a hard wooden chair in front. I couldn't see Sarah anywhere, which likely meant that I was seeing the scene from her perspective.

"Mr. Underwood, do you know why we have called you in here this morning?" Mrs. Chatham asked Valerian, and he shook his head. "Mr. Underwood, I would advise you to speak. Please answer the question."

"No, Mrs. Chatham."

"I think you do, Mr. Underwood." Mrs. Chatham raised her wand, and levitated what looked like Taylor's wand about ten centimetres above her desk. "This wand belongs to one of your roommates, Taylor Chambers. It was found on the shore of the school lake, not far from where Mr. Chambers was found. The wand not only holds your fingerprints, but also your magical signature." She lowered the wand to the desk once more. "Now, do you wish to change your answer?" He shook his head again. "Mr. Underwood, be advised that we have obtained express permission from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, and from Minister West himself, to administer Veritaserum if you continue to hamper this investigation. Now please, tell us - why are your magical signature and your fingerprints present on your classmate's wand?"

"I would have used my wand if someone hadn't jinxed it against me," Valerian muttered, speaking for the first time - and pretty much started to dig his own grave, as it were.

"Why did you attempt to murder one of your classmates?" Mrs. Heinemann asked, speaking for the first time.

"Do you want the long or the short list?"

"Do not be impertinent, Mr. Underwood."

I listened, horror-struck, as Valerian listed his reasons for trying to kill Taylor, each reason giving me a strong urge to strangle him with my bare hands. The most shocking reason was that Taylor was not Australian.

"He shouldn't even be here at the Academy," he said, spite filling his tone. "And neither should she, for that matter." He nodded in my - and Sarah's - direction. "Exchange students have no place here."

"That is quite enough, Mr. Underwood," Mrs. Heinemann said, warning in her tone. She stood up and took her wand in hand. "Your time here at the Academy has been little more than one misdemeanour after another. You have been warned time and time again about your substandard behaviour, and it is my opinion that suspension is no longer an adequate punishment. You are therefore expelled from Southern Cross Academy."

"You can't do that!" Valerian protested. "Do you know what my family has done for this school? We dragged it up out of the dirt after the last principal stuffed things up. And you have the nerve to expel me!"

"Mr. Underwood, you will hold your tongue," Mrs. Heinemann said sternly. "Give me your wand."

"Go to Hades," Valerian spat.

"Accio Valerian Underwood's wand," Mrs. Heinemann said simply, and Valerian's wand flew from wherever it had been hiding into Mrs. Heinemann's hand. She broke it into three neat pieces, before incinerating it with a quick Incendio.

The scene melted away, and I found myself sitting in the hospital once more, staring at the opposite wall.

I slipped the Optisphere into my pocket and twisted around in my seat, reached over to Taylor and carefully tucked his hair behind his ears. "Please wake up," I whispered. "I miss you so much..."