Briallen Bevin and the Snatcher's Cave

Chapter 17: The Last Day

"That. Was. The. Worst," grumbled Marisol and she and Briallen left the greenhouses, having just completed their last final, which had been for Herbology. They had had to list the other two names for aconite, along with properties and uses and then, to Briallen's great dismay, they had to water, weed, and move a puffapod without causing it to bloom. Every other time Briallen had worked with puffapods in Herbology, she had dropped it, then it had bloomed, and Professor Stalkes had taken away points. Her final was no exception.

"I now know for sure that Professor Stalkes hates me. And Miss Winsome too, of course," said Briallen gingerly. Toby guffawed.

"Okay, that is it," said Marisol as she came to a halt and turned towards Toby. "Why do you laugh every time Briallen mentions Miss Winsome?"

"You just had to be there. I'm so sorry, Briallen, but even you have to admit that if it happened to somebody else you would've laughed too." Briallen scowled at her shaggy-haired friend but Toby continued, "Miss Winsome just wanted us to do a couple of simple things, which was a surprise because you know how she is and you know what she asked anyway because you've taken her final too. So, Briallen called the broom to her and got on it, hovered and was gently raising the handle to go higher but somehow she flipped upside-down and flew upside-down right to the lake!

"Of course, she didn't remember to let go until just then and so she fell into the lake. Lucky for her, Mr Eldred was out there doing who knows what in one of the boats and he shouts at her - by then the entire class had run to the shore, by the way - and so he shouts at her as she's sputtering in the middle of the lake trying to stay afloat, 'Have you lost your damn mind, girl?! You're right above a nest of Grindylows!'

"So Briallen starts freaking out and pretty much attacks Mr Eldred's boat. Mr Eldred gets angry, pulls out his wand and starts trying to push her away, but it doesn't work so he starts screaming that if she doesn't let go of the boat, he'll make her bald. Well, she doesn't let go and so he cast some spell and Briallen was bald! Miss Winsome was actually laughing and I had to walk baldy here to the hospital wing. It was really, really funny."

Toby was doubled over and in tears by the time he finished the story and Briallen was glaring so hard her eyes were barely open. Marisol stared at Toby as if he were the stupidest boy on the planet.

"That's more sad than funny," said Marisol slowly.

"You just had to be there." Toby wiped his eyes and shook with silent laughter once more.

"Briallen!" shouted a voice from near the hedge maze. Briallen turned and saw Lucan standing by the entrance of the hedge maze, waving her over.

"I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?" said Briallen, annoyed.

Marisol nodded and giggled knowingly before she dragged Toby to the front doors. Briallen walked slowly over to Lucan. He wrapped his winter cloak tighter around himself and fell into stride next to Briallen as they walked into the hedge maze.

"How were your finals?" he asked, attempting to start a casual conversation.

"Alright, I suppose. I don't think I did very well in Flying or Herbology, but I knew I wouldn't. I don't think I did well in History of Magic either... " She grimaced as she thought of how poorly she believed she did in those classes.

"I don't think I did well in Astronomy. Professor Black is insane to expect us to know the name of every star in every major constellation. What's the point? I doubt I'll need that information for what I want to be."

"And what do you want to be?" asked Briallen as she looked at her surroundings warily.

Ever since what happened on Halloween night, she had been having nightmares of the fight in the hedge maze, though she knew that what happened in her nightmares was not what really happened that night. She kept dreaming that Lucan had suddenly turned on her and shot her full of arrows. Then the snatcher removed his hood and she saw her grandfather there, staring sadly at her and shaking his head while saying 'You weren't supposed to see this, Briallen.' It bothered her but she was wary to share it with anyone because of how strange it was and who it involved.

"I want to be Minister of Magic. I want to be just like our current Minister, Caspian Everard. He's a great man. Did you know he was a Captain in the Great Lakes War of 1934? He single-handedly fought off a dozen kelpies when he was suddenly tossed into Lake Michigan during a storm. And it was his brilliant war strategies that helped us win the war against the Canadians."

Briallen was shocked to hear such admiration in Lucan's voice. Usually he was thoroughly apathetic, occasionally he was sad or angry and once, on that Halloween night, he had sounded brave. "That's very ambitious."

"You don't think I can do it?"

Briallen shrugged. "Honestly, I don't really know you well enough. I will say this - you're not very likable. In fact, the only people I know that like you are Christian and Cora. I think that the people who are in charge, you know, are supposed to be really friendly and likable. That's just not you."

Lucan looked as if he wanted to say something but instead he pursed his lips and led Briallen silently through the hedge maze until they finally came to the lake shore where they took a seat on a small stone bench.

"Did you talk with Rudolf Brodzki?" asked Lucan abruptly.

"Yeah. He basically thinks it was his fault. Remember when we were all in the Bubbling Cauldron and they had the fight up by the bar?" Lucan nodded. "It was because Izolda wanted to go back to the school and go through the hedge maze. Rudolf wanted to stay in the pub. So they fought and she went back by herself. In the darkness of the hedge maze, Izolda and Marisol looked a lot alike because of their costumes... Rudy is so upset still... he really thinks it's his fault."

"It was, really. It's only lucky for Marisol they had that fight and that both she and Izolda looked like homeless people." Briallen gave Lucan a look and he shrugged. "What? They did. So did you. And Davis. Who were you three supposed to be anyway? A bunch of hobos? I didn't get it."

"We were Wynken, Blynken and Nod, from the nursery rhyme! Anyway. It was Izolda that was fighting the snatcher that night because Marisol told me that she and Toby went through the entire maze and were only stopped once and that was by some guy in a hockey mask with a chainsaw."

"What?"

"The guy wearing a white mask with holes and holding a loud buzzing machine?"

"Oh, right." Lucan rolled his eyes. "That was lame."

Briallen heard something rustling in the bushes behind them and spun around quickly to look behind her. "Lucan, do you think it's safe to be here? What if the snatcher comes back? What if he's listening to us right now?"

"Don't worry, Briallen," he mumbled. He nearly wrapped his arm around her but paused and choose instead to rest his hand on her back and pat her gently. Briallen was too distracted by fear, and too desperate for comfort, to say anything about the awkward moment. "I think things are going to be quiet for a while."

"What makes you so sure? Three people have disappeared in the last three months. Two of them in a little over a week of each other."

"The kidnapper grew eager and arrogant. He saw you the night Takashi was taken and decided he needed to get rid of you and your friends and so he attacked on Halloween. His impatience is what messed up his plan, however. I had been looking out for him since Halloween because I knew he saw you and I was afraid he'd try to get you. But he attacked during an inopportune time and now everybody knows there is somebody out there attacking and kidnapping students. He won't make the same mistake again."

"So you really don't think anything will happen for a while?"

"No. We should have a quiet Christmas." Then Lucan actually smiled. It wasn't very large and it looked awkward on him but Briallen liked it. She thought he looked like a different, even better, sort of person when he smiled.

"Can I ask you a question?" asked Briallen as she removed a box with a chocolate peach from her robes' pocket. She gave a couple of chocolate peach slices to Lucan, who nodded. "Why do you think you're in Platt?"

"I don't like mudbloods." Briallen's eyes snapped to him and she was ready to tell him off when she saw that he was still smiling at her. "My family has always been in Platt. Or something like it, at least. And my family does believe that pureblood witches and wizards are better than the rest. We don't really like Muggles."

"My mom is a Muggle. Does that mean you don't like her, even though you've never met her?"

Lucan sighed as he bit into the chocolate. "My family wouldn't."

"I asked you, though."

"I... have a distaste for Muggles. But I don't hate them. I just try to avoid them. And I do think that pureblood witches and wizards are stronger than Muggle-born witches and wizards and half-bloods, like yourself."

Briallen was disliking this conversation more and more as it went on. She was half tempted to toss Lucan into the lake, hopefully into the nest of Grindylows she nearly intruded upon a few days earlier. "So you think that you're more powerful than me just because both your parents are magical?"

"Magically, yes, I do. I am the one that saved us on Halloween."

"Unbelievable. That had nothing to do with how powerful either of us are but how much we know! Of course you know more spells than me because you grew up in a magical family! That is the only reason you were able to save us!"

Lucan glared at Briallen. "Oh, really? Because I seem to remember you trying to knock the kidnapper away from Izolda and he barely moved!"

"Did you cast that exact same spell? No! Mr Hoody is strong and we're only first years! Magic grows stronger with age."

"No, magic is inherent within us. You either have it or you don't. You're either powerful or you aren't."

"And I don't and ain't then, huh?" Briallen stood up, removed her wand from her shoulder bag and pointed it at Lucan. "Balbutio Balo!" Lucan tried to argue with Briallen but somehow could not form the words. Instead, he began to speak gibberish. Briallen smiled confidently. "Take me back to the school and maybe I'll remove the jinx."

* * *

Briallen folded the last of her sweaters, set it in her trunk and then looked back at the open drawer of her dresser. She was going home for a month but she was hesitant to pack everything because she knew she would just have to unpack it all again later. She settled on only bringing with her a few books, her normal clothes and some small trinkets.

Chante Nguyen sat on her own bed that was next to Briallen's and smiled. "I heard you cast a Babbling jinx on Lucan Stone this morning."

"He deserved it."

"Did he break up with you?"

Briallen snorted as she attempted to shove her self-shuffling deck of cards back in their case. She was used to people teasing her about Lucan by now and had given up arguing against it. "Yes, Chante, Lucan dumped me. But I got real angry when told me to return the engagement ring."

Kimmy Moseley, who had been packing her trunk silently, (and whose sunburn had finally faded to the point where she was now so white she was almost transparent) suddenly gasped. "What? So you and Lucan were dating?"

"No! I'm twelve! I don't want or need a boyfriend, or anything, right now and if I did, I would not choose Lucan... Maybe someone more like Gavin Ellison... " Not that Briallen had had any romantic experience at all with boys. And it wasn't really because she didn't have the time but more that the thought of having a boyfriend made her nervous. She didn't have much experience with boys in general and not one had ever shown any interest in her until she came to Bergamot. Suddenly being surrounded with friends constantly asking which boys she thought were cute and who she'd like to go out with was overwhelming.

"Why not?" argued Kimmy. "I think he's handsome, and brave, and powerful and he's really rich... "

"Unless you're a pureblood, Kimmy, you don't have a chance." Briallen rolled a pair of socks into a ball and tossed them into her trunk, having given up on the self-shuffling card deck. She decided to leave them in her dresser drawer where they could shuffle all they liked for all of winter break. Besides, she knew her parents were wary of anything magical anyway and would probably have locked them in her father's filing cabinet along with her wand.

"I am a pureblood... I think. Are you still a pureblood if one of your grandparents is a Muggle?"

Chante shook her head. "Pureblood means you have no Muggle blood at all. You're a half-blood. I'm a pureblood, though. I have a chance with Lucan."

"What? But you said... " Kimmy was at a loss for words, which was something that happened very rarely. Briallen stopped her packing, secretly hoping to witness the first fight ever between the two friends.

"I know what I said but I've realized you're right, Kimmy. He is pretty cute, isn't he? And brave and loaded. And he's quiet. He's perfect, really," said Chante as she slid delicately off her bed to the floor and left the room. Kimmy looked heartbroken.

Briallen was disappointed that there hadn't been a fight. She didn't think it was fair, the way Chante treated Kimmy and wanted to see Kimmy finally stand up for herself against her domineering friend.

Suddenly Cass Elwood appeared from under her bed where she had been retrieving several photographs that had fallen from the wall behind her bed. Her normally strawberry-blonde hair was covered in so much dust that it now looked reddish-gray. Briallen was surprised Cass was even in the room because she hardly ever saw her there. Though, where Cass normally was, Briallen had no clue. "Kimmy, you would be better off with a Summerbee. They're more your type."

Kimmy looked offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Simply what I said: they're more your type. Platts are cruel, and only think about themselves. Basically, they're the complete opposite of you."

"You're right," sniffed Kimmy. "They are different from me... you know what? Dax Rieger is really cute. I like his eyes, they remind me of the grass by my house."

Briallen opened the top drawer of her nightstand and rummaged through it to see if there was anything she should take home for the holidays. Then she saw a photograph, that is, a wizard photograph in which the people moved. It was of her, Toby, Marisol, Ashley Price and Anthony Boesche on the day before Halloween, when Takashi Wu was kidnapped. Briallen sat down on her bed and smiled as she looked at the photo. It was taken during a Withers versus Almerick Quodpot match and so they were all waving small violet flags with horses on them. Toby and Anthony had even painted their faces in Withers colors, even though Anthony was a Summerbee.

Then Briallen noticed who was in the background: Lucan Stone. What was it that Cass said about Platts? Cruel, calculating, vengeful, only think about themselves. Does that describe Lucan? she thought. She was unsure of his motives regarding everything: his feeling for her, his actions towards her, and his involvement with the case of the snatcher. Shaking her head, Briallen put the picture back in the nightstand and went back to packing her trunk, putting aside her questions about Lucan.

* * *

"Well, we're almost done with our first year of Bergamot. One more semester to go," said Marisol sadly as she put her trunk on a trolley so that the attendant could put it on the train. She and Toby were both on the train to Chicago and from there he would go to Des Moines, Iowa and she would go to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Secretly, Briallen was jealous that her two friends got to ride the train together.

"And another six years!" added Toby as he shook his head and placed his trunk on the trolley next to Marisol's. "How are you getting home Briallen?"

Briallen shrugged. "I'm staying at my grandpa's house with my parents this Christmas."

"Wait - you're staying in The Village for break? Lucky!"

"Not for the whole month. Just for Christmas and then we're going to Williamsburg to see my mom's side of the family for the New Year."

"Still," said Marisol with a smile. "You get almost two whole weeks to explore The Village! I'm so jealous!"

"Yeah, I'm going to be stuck in a town that's going to be pretty much dead."

"But Benjamin Beauvais lives here! And Cass Elwood does too. And Hayden Van Vlerah, and I'm pretty sure I heard Tinna say she lives here..."

"Don't the Price's live near here?" asked Briallen, hopeful. She really liked spending time with Ashley and Mindy, even thought lately Mindy had been spending more time with Benjamin.

"No, they're up by Washington D.C somewhere."

"And Cass Elwood won't be here," added Toby. "I was talking to her yesterday and she told me her family was going on a safari somewhere in Africa."

Briallen's eyes widened. "Cass's family is going on a safari for winter break? You know, I shouldn't be surprised. She does live in Hoadley's Hollow - I bet they're millionaires." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Anyway," said Marisol. "Benjamin will be here. And I know there are a few other kids from Bergamot that live here. Or near here. I'm sure you'll have fun."

"Not as much fun as you guys. I wish I could ride the train with you... "

Marisol looked sad. "It's really not that fun, Briallen. Well, it'll be a pleasant trip since Dante Garcia is going south... not that he's bothered us at all since Halloween." Marisol then leaned over and hugged Briallen. As she pulled away she looked behind Briallen and laughed. "Looks like one of your other best friends is here to pick you up!"

Briallen turned around to see a grumpy looking Mr Eldred sitting in a small horse-drawn cart. "Bevin! Come along, girl, I've got to drop you off at your grandpa's place and I ain't got all day! Still gotta clean up that damned Doxy infestation in the clock-tower! They've been driving Reynard crazy, you know, and it's not like that man's in the right state of mind to begin with..." Mr Eldred began to trail off, muttering to himself.

"Guess I'd better go," groaned Briallen as she rolled her eyes.

"See you in a month," said Toby happily, patting Briallen on the back. After one more goodbye hug from each of her friends, Briallen picked up one end of her trunk and dragged it over to Mr Eldred's cart. Mr Eldred barely moved, aside from waving his wand, to get the trunk into the cart. Briallen pulled herself up to sit in the only other seat available in the cart, which happened to be right next to old groundskeeper. She waved goodbye to her friends as the cart took off with a jerk and began the short trip to the outskirts of the north end of The Village where her grandfather lived.

Briallen had never seen her grandfather's house before and wasn't even sure exactly where it was and so when Mr Eldred took a left on Dickens Drive instead of going straight or turning right, Briallen was confused. "Mr Eldred? Doesn't this road lead up to the mountains of West Virginia?"

"And to your grandpa's place. It's just up here, around that bend there."

Briallen squinted and sure enough she could just make out a thin pebble drive turning into the trees off of Dickens Drive.

No wonder I didn't see his house while trick-or-treating, thought Briallen with a grin. He's hidden himself out in the north wood!

The trees were thick along the lane and not until the lane curved right was Briallen able to get her first look at Cal Bevin's house.

It was a grand building, in the Tudor style with a brick lower story and two black and white cement and wood upper stories. It was larger than the homes found in Merlin's Court but smaller than the plantation-homes in Hoadley's Hollow, which made it large but not gauche. The lane circled in the front of the house and another even thinner pebble walkway led to the double-door front entrance. The cart hadn't even stopped when Briallen jumped off of it and ran to the front doors. She paused when she reached the doors, however, because they were both shut and there weren't any windows near enough for her to peek inside. She shrugged and raised her fist to knock.

Briallen's fist met no resistance though, because just as she brought it down the door opened. "Young Miss! Oh, Master Cal says you was coming today! And just as pretty as I's thought!"

Briallen looked down, for that was the direction from which the squeaky voice was coming, and screamed. In front of her was a creature with large ears, each decorated with small golden hoops, a long yet bulbous nose, and large eyes, wearing a crisp pink dress with a big white bow in the back. The creature screamed as well.

"Oh, calm down, girl! It's just a house-elf! Hey you, go fetch the professor and tell him I've got his granddaughter." The house-elf, after catching her breath, nodded enthusiastically, curtsied, and took off through a doorway off to the side of the foyer. "Come on, I haven't got all day now, remember!" Mr Eldred walked into the foyer with Briallen's trunk floating behind him. Briallen followed her trunk and shut the door behind them.

"Briallen, dear! Mrs Whibbles tells me she gave you a bit of a fright. So sorry about that... I'd forgotten that you've never seen a house-elf before!" Briallen nodded in response and stared at the strange creature that had frightened her and who was now balancing a tea tray on her head and wearing a lopsided grin. "There are four other house-elves running around here also, just as a warning. They are all very kind and very helpful and mostly do the cooking and cleaning, though, Mrs Whibbles has generously offered to help you whenever you need."

The house-elf put the tea tray on a side table and looked fondly at Briallen. "I can unpack for you, Miss Briallen! I'll do it right now!" And the house-elf snapped her fingers and disappeared along with Briallen's trunk.

"Where'd she go?" asked Briallen, as she looked all around her, frantically, alarmed that her luggage had disappeared.

"Up to your room," explained Cal Bevin before turning to Mr Eldred. "Ira - thank you so much for bringing her here." Mr Eldred grunted, nodded and then left without another word. Cal turned back to Briallen. "Your parents should be arriving on Monday. Why don't I give you the grand tour?"

Briallen nodded, still shocked by the appearance and idea of house-elves, and followed her grandfather as he led her into the room he had just come out of.

"This is the living room... I apologize for not having a television but, as you know, electronics don't work in locations where there is an abundance of magic. You'll find there are not any telephones either. There are several wizard wireless devices, that is, radios, throughout the house, though - I put one in your room as well. There are many wonderful programs on, including stories and music and news. I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

Briallen nodded impassively, having already known about wizard wireless (Kimmy had it on in their room all the time) and was more disappointed than impressed by the fact wizard's had yet to invent their own form of television. Her grandfather led her through another door in the living room. "Now, this is the dining room and just through there is the kitchen... "

Her grandfather's 'grand tour' took over an hour - he was obviously excited to finally get to show his only grandchild the house he had called home for years. Finally, he let her go and disappeared into his office on the first floor. She went into the room Cal had made up for her and sat on the bed. Briallen was depressed.

It was going to be a long a break without her best friends to keep her company.