Briallen Bevin and the Snatcher's Cave

Chapter 21: Lockdown

Briallen, Marisol and Toby trudged through the slush on their way to the greenhouses for their first Herbology class of the spring semester that Friday, an auror leading them and the rest of their class. It had been only a few days since Noah Pierce was taken and the disappearances at Bergamot made public. Parents had owled the school, angry and desperate, demanding answers and threatening to remove their children from Bergamot and send them elsewhere. Some of the more nervous parents had removed their children from the school. The result was that classes were emptier and the school was quieter.

Bergamot was like a prison under lockdown, with Aurors as its prison guards. The students (those that were still at school, anyway) were not allowed to go anywhere outside of the school without an Auror present, and all trips to The Village, as well as Quodpot and Quidditch matches, had been indefinitely postponed. A new rumor was heard every day, providing a reason for the disappearances. Many Muggle-born students believed it was aliens, half-blood students blamed a zealous pureblood dark wizard, and the pureblood students blamed an angry half-blood since most of the students taken were purebloods. Tension was high and the school had split into many factions.

"You know what this whole thing kind of reminds me of?" asked Toby as they entered the warmth of greenhouse five. "Star Wars."

Briallen chuckled as she shook her long hair free of her winter hat and cloak, and hung them on the hooks near the door.

"Star Wars?" asked Marisol, confused. "What's that?"

"Never mind," said Toby coldly as he glared at Marisol. He was still angry with Marisol and while he tolerated her company, he pretty much ignored her. Then when he did speak to her, he was rude. Marisol made a sad sort of twittering sound. Briallen that he was more sensitive than he let on when it came to his friends. The fact that he knew Marisol was keeping a secret from him, and that their opinions differed extremely on what they should do regarding the disappearances, obviously made Toby feel betrayed by Marisol. And he was too stubborn and ornery to just forgive her and move on already.

"I just can't believe everything that's happened, even after all we've been through and all we've seen," whispered Briallen. "I'm still not really used to being a witch and now we're told that we're in mortal danger and there are Aurors everywhere. It just all so... unreal, right?" Marisol nodded in agreement.

"Class has begun!" shouted Professor Stalkes. All of the Withers and Wenlocks that had been huddled in the middle of the greenhouse, conversing in whispers, quieted quickly and turned their attention immediately to the Professor. They had all learned long ago that is was best to just do as Professor Stalkes said than it was not to. "Today we will be discussing the herb, lovage, and collecting some for use in your Potions class. Can anybody tell me the properties and uses of lovage?" Cass Elwood raised her hand. "Yes, Elwood?"

"Lovage is used in the forgetfulness potion and the confusing and befuddlement draft. Alone it can create a sense of vertigo or nausea, if too much is ingested, however, in small doses it can sooth medical conditions such as colic, indigestion and sore throats. Its seeds and stalkes are common food in southern Europe."

"Very good, Elwood. Very, very good. I'm sure you've all realized by now the reason for our collection of lovage."

"We're going to be brewing befuddlement drafts?" asked Dante Garcia, sounding frighteningly excited about making a potion that confuses people.

"No. You don't learn to make befuddlement drafts until your fifth year. You will each be collecting a bag of lovage for use in a forgetfulness potion," explained Professor Stalkes as he walked over to a long table with a couple of large, fully grown lovage plants. "You will need a pair of scissors - do not forget your gloves! - to remove the leafs. I believe that three leafs each will be enough. The equipment is located in the cupboard against the wall on my left. Once you've collected your leaves, come back here and we will all go to greenhouse three together to collect the remaining plants needed for your potion."

Briallen, Marisol and Toby each got a pair of gloves, scissors and a pouch from the cupboard and then went over to a large lovage plant. "Why do you think we need to know how to make a forgetfulness potion?" asked Toby as he cut off a leaf and placed it in his bag. "You could just use a memory charm. It'd be easier."

"A forgetfulness potion provides only temporary memory loss while a memory charm permanently erases a memory," Cass explained. She tied her bag shut before she went back to the middle of the greenhouse where several students were already finished and waiting.

"How can she remember all the stupid stuff we need to know for this class when she never studies?" complained Marisol. "It's not fair."

"How do you know she doesn't study, Marisol? You're not a Withers," snapped Toby before joining Cass and the others that had collected their leaves.

Marisol turned to Briallen and whispered, "How long do you think he'll be angry at me?"

"I don't know. Until you tell him what he wants to know, probably. I've never seen him like this. He's acting like a girl!"

Marisol giggled lightly but it sounded forced. She wasn't in the mood for laughter. "Do you think he's right?"

"About what? You being a snobby little princess?"

"No, about whether or not we should tell the teachers what we know... wait, did he really say I'm a snobby little princess?"

"I think I agree with you. The Daily Prophet, The Village Chronicle, The Wizard Times... they all only talk about Noah. Nobody seems to care about the other missing kids, except when it comes to numbers," said Briallen, changing the topic. She'd meant her princess comment to be a joke but Marisol didn't find the humor in it apparently. And Briallen didn't think her friend needed to know what Toby had actually said about her, which was much worse. "Did you see today's headline?"

The class was now being led out the door by Professor Stalkes and an Auror to greenhouse three. Marisol nodded and kicked at the muddy slush overwhelming the pebble walkway, getting her new winter boots even dirtier. "They're really ripping on your abuelo. I can't believe some people think he should take an "early retirement." Like anybody else could do any better than he's done during this crisis."

"Carey Stone wrote a really nasty letter to the editor too. My grandpa is really mad at him, because he mentioned me. Not my name or anything, but the fact that 'Calhoun Bevin's granddaughter is now at Bergamot,' and saying that grandpa plays favorites with me... I mean, yeah, right! I had practically had detention everyday for three months! That is not playing favorites."

"That's so stupid," agreed Marisol. "But Carey Stone has a lot of friends, you know. And even before all of this there were people who weren't happy with Dean Bevin. I heard there's even a few teachers who wouldn't mind having a new dean."

Briallen grumbled, and they all ambled into the next greenhouse. She could hardly feel her ears or toes and was looking forward to the end of class when she could go back into the castle where it was warm, hopefully where there were no newspapers condemning her grandfather's leadership. With the new restrictions put on them, sitting in front of the fireplace, studying, was really the only thing she had to look forward to anymore.

* * *

The only sound to be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment as Briallen, Toby and a few others worked quietly on their homework in one of the library's study rooms later that evening. Nobody was in the mood to talk and laugh anymore, and so they were all concentrating entirely, and studiously, on their homework, which wasn't really as common as one would normally expect.

The unexpected sound of the study room door creaking opening broke everybody's concentration just then, and a half dozen pair of eyes looked up from their homework to see who was the cause of the interruption. Marisol looked apologetically at all the students as she made her way to a seat at the end of the table, between Briallen and Toby.

"Where've you been?" asked Briallen in a whisper, not looking up from her History of Magic essay; not that she thought she could write much more on Gorse the Gross, the first troll to learn to speak English.

"Sorry. I had a meeting with Professor Conleth about my grade on that quiz on water magic from Wednesday, and then I had to stop by my room for a few things. She should not have marked wrong my answer for fourteen, because I've been using that incantation all the while and it's always worked just fine!"

A Wenlock sitting at the opposite end of the table shushed Marisol. Marisol ignored the girl and pulled her out her own History of Magic book, a quill, a roll of parchment and a box wrapped in brown paper from her bag.

"What's in there?" asked Briallen as quietly as possible, tapping the box with her quill.

"Some candy my abuela sent me. She heard that Bergamot is under a lockdown so she sent me some goodies. I don't know what's in it, but you and Toby can have some if you want," offered Marisol as she noisily unwrapped the package, no longer caring if she annoyed the other people in the room.

With a huff, the Wenlock that had shushed Marisol, plus two others, left the study room.

Briallen squealed with glee as she looked inside the box. "Tinking Toffees! Those are my favorite! They're so much fun!" Briallen unwrapped a Tinking Toffee and put it in her mouth. Seconds later, Briallen's hair had gone from a dark-brown to a bright sky-blue. She raised some of her hair to her eyes and smiled. "I was hoping I'd get hot pink again." The color only lasted a minute before it began to wear off.

"Just wait until the Forth of July," said Marisol with a giggle. "Then they release special Tinking Toffees that make your hair tink red, white and blue for hours! It's really cool!"

Toby looked up from his homework to glance at the two girls; one had flaming orange hair and the other had dull moss-green hair. He glanced at the box of candy. He was still angry with Marisol but he was also still just a normal kid who loved candy and was dying to have some. Marisol noticed Toby looking at the box. Briallen desperately wanted Toby to forgive Marisol already so that the three of them could go back to being friends as normal, and Marisol had told her she wanted the same thing. She missed them all laughing together, especially right now, with the school under lockdown.

"I think my abuela may have put a couple of pecan gnomes in here... " said Marisol as she dug through the Chocolate Frogs, chocolate peaches, Cauldron Cakes, Lisping Lollipops, and Tinking Toffees for some pecan gnomes to give to Toby. "A-ha. Here, you can have these - I know you like them and I've never really been a big fan of pecans or caramel, so... " Marisol shoved the pecan gnomes towards Toby.

Toby hesitated only briefly and then mumbled a thanks as he slid them into his bag and quickly went returned to his homework. Marisol looked over at Briallen for help, but she merely shook head, her temporarily tinsel-silver hair swaying behind her. She'd already tried to get Toby to forgive Marisol, but all he'd done is yell at her and then not speak to her for a whole day. The room was silent again. Seconds later, Toby left.

"Pecan gnomes. His favorites. And still nothing," mumbled Marisol, dropping her head onto the table.

"Maybe he's just sick of hanging out with us?" Briallen wondered aloud. "He's always saying how he needs to make more friends with guys."

"I won't have that! He was my friend first!" said Marisol, pouting. "If he makes friends with a bunch of guys then he'll stop hanging out with us. I should just tell him where I was and end this already. It's so stupid. He's stupid."

"But then it won't be a surprise party!" said Briallen. She had opened a Chocolate Frog, holding the frog under the strength of her hand as she slid the card out from under it: it was Gwil Finn, one of the Bergamot founders, and a card Briallen had multiples of already. She groaned inwardly and threw it on the table.

"If he's still angry with me by then, which I'm starting to think he will be, he won't even show, and then it won't matter that it's a surprise party since we'll have no one to surprise."

Briallen shook her head sadly. It was going to be a long, boring weekend.

* * *

Ashley, Anthony and Briallen walked slowly up the stairs of the Astronomy tower to their weekly Tuesday night Astronomy class. The twisting stairs went up for three stories from their start on the seventh floor, across from the doors to the infirmary. The trip was made all the more difficult by the fact that they had to haul their telescopes and book bags up the narrow stairway as well.

"I understand that we need darkness to see the stars and planets and stuff," groaned Ashley as huffed and puffed her way up the stairs, "But do we really need to have this class every Tuesday at midnight, at the very top of the stupid tower?"

"Well, this is the Astronomy tower," replied Briallen, grumpily. Her bad mood was due to multiple reasons: she was sick of her friends fighting, and she was sick of being trapped like a prisoner in her school, and she was sick of not being able to eavesdrop on anybody having any important conversations about the mysterious disappearances of so many students. Even though Marisol and Toby weren't speaking, she still wanted them to help her continue with their investigation of the missing kids, but it was difficult to coordinate the two angry friends to work together.

"We could just as easily have this class at ten at night, in a classroom. We could learn the position of the stars and planets and moons and asteroids and all that junk from maps and just come up here some of the time. Not to mention, that during winter, it is freezing cold up here," Ashley complained. Her bangs were stuck to her head with sweat and her chubby cheeks were pink like a Cherub's, though her expression was opposite that of her angelic look-a-like.

"I kind of like it up here," said Anthony as they reached the top of the tower and walked outside. "You can see almost everything."

The three of them went to one of the ledges and set up their telescopes. "See what? It's dark and even with a full moon there's not much to see around here other than trees, a lake and a creepy cemetery. And this tower is so dirty," Ashley continued to complain, as she wiped her hands on her robes after having touched the ledge when she looked over it. Anthony rolled his eyes, but was smiling.

Briallen looked around to see which of the Withers and Summerbees had already arrived their class. Chante and Kimmy were at the ledge opposite of Briallen, chatting with a Summerbee girl that Briallen recognized as Jade Ackland, though she'd never really spoken to the girl herself. Dante, who had been quiet since last Halloween, but was quiet anyway without his friends to back him up, was standing in a corner by himself, scowling at his telescope. Noelle, Cass, and Abraham had set up their telescopes in a cozy little corner near the door. Briallen frowned at them, wishing she had thought of going to the corner first. There was one person still missing, however.

As she wondered where Toby could possibly be, she pulled out an unfinished map of the eighteen major constellations that they had all began last week.

Loud clapping caught everybody's attention just then. "Okay, students," said Professor Black in almost a whisper. "Tonight I want you all to finish the maps you began last Tuesday. They're due at the end of class, no exceptions. I will visit each of you to see how you're coming along." After a brief pause in which the students realized he had no more to say and had began work on their maps, Professor Black made his way over to Chante, Kimmy and Jade.

Briallen grimaced and stared sorrowfully at the her map. The only constellations she'd finished were the Ursas, Orion and Aries, which meant she was nowhere near finished, and she knew that she couldn't draw the remaining constellations before class ended.

I shouldn't have been messing around last class, thought Briallen. Oh well, it's not like I was getting a good grade in this class anyway.

She pulled her telescope up, figuring she might as well do what she could, and reached to the side to tighten a screw that would fix the telescope in an upwards position. The screw would not hold, however, and her telescope fell so that it pointed downwards again. Briallen groaned loudly. Silently cursing the telescope, she managed to resist the temptation to kick it, and instead moved her hand back to the screw and began to turn it over and over.

"Briallen, I don't think there are any stars in the north wood," said Anthony playfully as he poked Briallen in the arm with his pencil.

"And you're supposed to be writing with a quill not a pencil."

Anthony shrugged. "I'll go over it with my quill when I'm done. I only have Cygnus and Libra left to do anyway."

Briallen was about to roll her eyes when what Anthony had said fully registered in her mind. The north wood, thought Briallen as she remembered the strange things she had seen going on in that forest. Maybe I can see what's down there from up here! Or if there is anyone in the woods! There's a full moon so I should be able to see something...

She eagerly put her eye to the finder scope and focused it. She searched the wood for a couple of minutes and was about to give up because she couldn't see anything when her eye came across movement not far from the north wood's wall, inside of the forest. She refocused the telescope and squinted. There was definitely something moving down there and it was not alone. Three large and mysterious shapes moved quickly in and out of a large clearing near a strange rock formation.

"Briallen?" asked a quiet, stern voice behind her.

Briallen frowned and turned slowly. "Professor Black... I-I was having trouble with one of my screws. I can't get the lens to stay up."

Professor Black motioned for Briallen to step aside and did something to the side of the telescope. He then raised the lens so that it pointed towards the sky and this time, it did not fall down. "Your telescope is now fixed, however, you should have come to me earlier with this problem. You won't be able to finish the assignment on time now. We only have a half an hour of class left."

"Sorry, Professor Black," mumbled Briallen as she stared at the ground. He had chastised her during their last class for horsing around and only completing a handful of constellations, and though he suggested she complete more outside of class, Briallen hadn't found the time to return to the Astronomy tower.

"Let me see your map." Briallen handed Professor Black her map and he looked it over with a frown. "You haven't added anything to what you completed in the last class, Briallen. I will take this, as is, right now. Next week, you are to turn in an essay detailing the locations, ages, and histories of every constellation you did not map, to make up the work you missed because of your broken telescope... You can pack up your things and go now." Professor Black folded Briallen's map, and put it in his robes' pocket before he turned his attention to Anthony and Ashley.

Briallen was so excited by what she had seen in the north wood that the extra homework she had been assigned did not affect her mood in the least, especially since the professor had been so kind as to allow her to make up the work. She bounded quickly down the steps of the Astronomy tower and entered the seventh floor hallway, eager to find somebody she could talk to about the strange creatures in the north wood.

A voice from the infirmary, complaining about gross medicine, caught her attention, though, before she could reach the portrait hall. She stopped to listen. Curious and yearning for an adventure, no matter how small, she snuck quietly into the dimly lit infirmary.

Briallen's jaw dropped as she laid eyes on something she had never seen before. "No way," muttered Briallen in disbelief.