Another City, Not My Own

"ANOTHER CITY, NOT MY OWN"
Chapter Twelve
"Gabrielle in the Crystal Lock"

Gabrielle has heard it said that, for a veela, opening a crystal lock is like going down a ladder in the dark. Now that she is here, she believes it.

There are twelve disks in a crystal lock, all hovering around an iron bar. Each of these disks is separated from the one below it by a Levitation Charm. To open the crystal lock, you must break the Levitation Charm that exists between each disk. To break the Levitation Charm, you must line up the enchanted crystals on each disk with those on the disk directly underneath it and connect the crystals with a Linking Spell. To do that, you must first determine which crystals on each disk are enchanted, and which are not. To do THAT, you must first "read" each disk with your mind using the tarot crystal, and determine the sequence of crystals on each disk.

So she begins by reading the individual crystals on the first disk, which is set into the bottom of the crystal dial on top of the vault doors. It takes her a few minutes to get the sequence of crystals on the disk. She has to concentrate very hard, because her veela senses are extremely perceptive here. In her mind, she "sees" and "feels" everything inside the crystal lock: The hollow metal case under the crystal dial that holds the twelve disks. The magnetic pull of the disks toward each other. The Levitation Charms that separate the disks. The bolt deep inside the door. The iron bar around which the twelve disks orbit, which acts as a pin to hold the bolt closed.

With an effort, she controls her veela senses, focuses them and "directs" them to concentrate on the first disk in the crystal lock, instead of everything at once. She sends a mental query down through the tarot crystal to the first disk, probing it, feeling it, stretching her senses to encompass it. It has nine crystals on it.

She examines each crystal on the first disk, one by one, with her mind, sensing the differences in color, texture, shape, hardness, and crystal structure to determine what type of crystal it is. Five minutes go by before she gets the sequence. There are two topaz, three emeralds, a bloodstone, a fire opal, a turquoise, and a blue lapis lazuli. Then she moves down to the second disk.

And here is where she "gets it." It IS like going down a ladder in the dark. Instead of putting your foot down carefully to feel the next rung, you must "put your mind down" carefully to read the next disk in the crystal lock. At the same time, you must keep in mind the combination of crystals on the previous disk, so you can find the enchanted crystals on both disks and match them together.

The second disk has twelve crystals on it--three topaz, two rubies, two emeralds, a coral, a beryl, an agate, a carnelian, and a jade. There were two topaz and three emeralds on the first disk. Now she has to line up the two disks so that their enchanted crystals will connect with each other. Gabrielle twists the crystal dial right and left. Using the tarot crystal, she sends mental commands down through the crystal dial, establishing Linking Spells between the crystals on both disks.

She tries one of the three emeralds on the first disk. It won't connect with either of the emeralds on the second disk. She tries the second emerald on the first disk. It too refuses to connect with either emerald on the second disk. She tries the last emerald on the first disk. It refuses to connect with the first emerald on the second disk, but it connects with the SECOND emerald on that disk. Confidently, Gabrielle tries the two topaz crystals on the first disk. One of them connects very easily with a corresponding topaz on the second disk.

The Levitation Charm between the two disks is broken. The second disk slides up the iron bar and magnetically clicks onto the bottom of the first disk.

Two disks down. Ten to go. Gabrielle cautiously "puts her mind down" to the third disk in the crystal lock--again, as if she were stepping down a ladder in the dark.

She has been wondering all day how she would act when she got here. Would she panic? Would she freeze in terror and be unable to move? Would she be so scared or so nervous about entering a Death Eater's house that she wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to open the crystal lock?

Now that she is here, she thinks of none of that. She does not think of where she is or what could happen to her if the evil people upstairs discover them down here in the wine cellar. She thinks only of the task at hand, of the crystals inside the lock.

One nagging fear does persist in the back of her mind--a fear of failure. She has three heroes in this world, and she does not wish to fail any of them now. One of her heroes is standing guard under his Invisibility Cloak just outside the wine cellar door. The second, her sister, is up in England, fighting the good fight alongside her red-haired boyfriend and his father.

The third is a very kind lady who is now lying in a bed up at Hogwarts school, fighting the effects of a poison that--Gabrielle prays--is inside the secret chamber that she is trying to open. If Gabrielle can open the crystal lock, they will steal the sample of Chimaera's Root from the chamber, and the people at Hogwarts will use it to make an antidote, and the lady will live.

If Gabrielle can't open the crystal lock, the lady will die.

She concentrates very hard on the third disk inside the lock now. She will not fail that lady. She MUST succeed.

* * *

"Look for the differences in their molecular structures," Fleur once told her. "Try to sense the variations in the structures of each crystal, the way the molecules and atoms are stacked on top of each other in a certain sequence. That is how you can tell one type of crystal from another."

When Gabrielle was only six years old, her sister Fleur had started to teach her about crystals and how to use them. Veelas used crystals for a number of different types of magical applications--for healing, for relaxation, for improving concentration, for divination and fortune-telling, for keeping their hair and skin young and beautiful. The ancient knowledge of crystal magic was passed down from generation to generation, from veela mother to veela daughter.

But Maman didn't have much time to teach Gabrielle about crystals. There was so much going on with

Comme par Enchantement these days that Maman barely had time to sit down. So she had asked Fleur to teach her sister.

Fleur had started by teaching Gabrielle the basic types of crystals--Aquamarine, Garnet, Emerald, Ruby, Topaz, Amethyst, Diamond, and so on--and how to tell them apart by their molecular structures. She had then taught Gabrielle the different uses for each type of crystal. Crysolite was for getting rid of headaches, and could also help you to improve your memory for facts and dates. Beryl could calm your nerves and keep your body warm if you were cold. A sapphire could cheer you up if you were depressed. Pearl and jasper helped to slow the aging process and keep wrinkles out of your skin.

Gabrielle had learned her crystals well, and Fleur had been proud of her. It had pleased Gabrielle that her sister was so proud, because there was no one in her life more important to her than Fleur. Her big sister was her hero. Fleur could do no wrong.

Gabrielle wished that Maman and Papa would see this. Their fights with Fleur were becoming more frequent now. Every week, it seemed, Fleur had a new boyfriend, someone that she had stolen away from one of her classmates at Beauxbatons. Of course, this meant that every other week, Fleur discarded another boyfriend in order to find a new one. But Gabrielle thought that it was only natural that all these boys should fall for her sister, who was, after all, the most wonderful person on earth. Maman and Papa just didn't understand that.

* * *

"I am so excited!" Fleur had said when she announced to her family that she had been chosen to go to England with Madame Maxime for the Triwizard Tournament. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I were chosen as champion for Beauxbatons? What a thrill that would be!"

Of course, Fleur HAD been chosen as champion for Beauxbatons. Maman and Papa had been shocked when they'd heard the news. Gabrielle had not been the least bit surprised. She knew, instinctively, that her sister was a champion. She had little doubt that Fleur would win the Triwizard Tournament with no trouble.

But when Fleur's letter reached them, describing the first event of the tournament, Gabrielle was surprised to hear that her sister was now in third place! Third place? Fleur?! How could that be?! Those stupid English judges must have given her a bad score on purpose!

Maman and Papa were more horrified to learn that Fleur had been fighting a dragon in the first task of the Tournament. But this only increased Gabrielle's admiration for her sister. To think, Fleur had fought a dragon for its egg, and she had WON!

Then in December, just before Christmas, a wizard from the French Ministry of Magic had come to the Delacour house in Paris, accompanied by a fat English wizard dressed in flashy, yellow-and-orange robes. The English wizard had blond hair, a squashed nose, and a red, puffy face. He smiled in a smarmy manner that Gabrielle didn't like, and his hand was particularly greasy when she shook it. The French wizard had introduced the English wizard as "Monsieur Ludovic Bagman."

Monsieur Bagman was there to talk about the Triwizard Tournament. He spoke to Maman and Papa for over an hour in English, a language that Gabrielle had not yet learned. She couldn't understand much of what was being said, but knew that they were talking about Fleur, and she heard them mention the word "Hogwarts" a few times. She also heard her own name being mentioned several times in the conversation.

After Monsieur Bagman and the French wizard left, Maman and Papa looked worried. They explained that, for the second task of the Triwizard Tournament, each of the Tournament champions would be required to rescue a friend or loved one, someone that they truly cared about, from an underwater kingdom of merpeople. Monsieur Bagman, who was one of the organizers of the Tournament, had come to ask if Gabrielle would serve as Fleur's captive in the second task. According to Monsieur Bagman, special arrangements had been made so that none of the captives to be rescued would be in any danger during the second task.

Maman and Papa told Gabrielle that she did not have to do this if she didn't want to. If she wished, they would tell Monsieur Bagman to go jump off the Eiffel Tower. But Gabrielle was resolute. She wanted very much to help her sister to win the Tournament. She told Maman and Papa that she would do this for Fleur.

And so, two months later, on a cold February day, the day before the second task, Gabrielle boarded the train from Paris to London with Maman. They were met by Monsieur Bagman at King's Cross Station, and he accompanied Gabrielle up to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. (Maman had stayed behind in London, at The Leaky Cauldron, since parents weren't permitted to attend the second task of the Tournament.) It was an uneasy train ride, since Monsieur Bagman couldn't speak French, and Gabrielle couldn't speak English. Every time she spoke to him or asked him a question, such as where the bathroom was on the train, he smiled and nodded stupidly at her as if she were a cute little pet poodle, barking for his amusement.

When the train reached Hogsmeade, Monsieur Bagman had snuck Gabrielle in through the gates of Hogwarts, past the Beauxbatons carriage, which was parked on the front lawn. Inside Hogwarts castle, they were greeted by a brown-haired lady with a stern face named Madame McGonagall, who thank-God-in-Heaven spoke fluent French. Monsieur Bagman left, and Gabrielle accompanied Madame McGonagall to her office, where there were three other people waiting--a tall, red-haired boy with freckles, a short, Asian girl with dark hair, and a girl with curly brown hair. Madame McGonagall had introduced each of these people to Gabrielle--one minute later, she had forgotten their names--and had explained that they would be serving as "captives to be rescued" for the other three Tournament champions.

The other three captives started to talk amongst themselves in English. Gabrielle began to feel very out of place. Madame McGonagall noticed this and sat down beside her, talking with her in French. It would be all right, she explained. The captives would be in no danger during the second task. But Gabrielle could tell that Madame McGonagall was not happy about the fact that friends and loved ones of the champions were being used as hostages for this event.

Then the door of the office opened, and an old man with a long, white beard stepped in. He was accompanied by a somewhat sinister-looking wizard with greasy hair who carried several bottles of potions. They were followed by a very short dwarf wizard with a white moustache, a plump witch with dirt under her fingernails, and a tall witch with algebraic figures all over her robes.

The man with the long white beard, Madame McGonagall explained, was Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. The others were also professors at the school. Professor Dumbledore spoke briefly in English to the four captives. Madame McGonagall translated his words into French for Gabrielle's sake. He thanked them, he said, for participating in this, the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. He explained in great detail what would happen to them tomorrow morning. They would be put into an enchanted sleep, he said. and would be given certain potions that would allow them to breathe underwater while they slept, and which would also protect their bodies from hypothermia. They would then be taken by the merpeople to the bottom of the Hogwarts lake and tied to the tail of a great statue in the merpeoples' underwater city. The Tournament champions would be required to swim down to the lake bottom, rescue their hostage, and bring them back to the surface within an hour's time.

Professor Dumbledore assured them once more that they would be in absolutely no danger during the second task. He had made special arrangements, he said, with the merpeople in the Hogwarts lake to ensure that none of the captives would be harmed. If, by any chance, a Tournament champion failed to rescue their captive within the designated hour, that captive would be brought back to the surface by the merpeople. Only when they reached the surface of the lake would they awaken from the sleeping spell. As long as they remained underwater, they would remain safely asleep.

Finally, Dumbledore had this to say. He had not been happy with Mr. Bagman's idea for the second task, but had been overruled by a higher authority. He had agreed to this competition only on the condition that he himself would be given full control over it, so that none of the captives would be harmed. But, he said, the decision to participate was still theirs. If any of them did NOT wish to participate as captives for the task, they were still free to refuse to do so. He had an alternative option ready in this case. The greasy-haired wizard had stepped forward at this point, with a gray-colored bottle of something that Madame McGonagall called "Polyjuice Potion."

If any of the captives did not wish to participate, Dumbledore said, all they had to do was to give up a single hair from their head. One of the professors present would put that hair into a cup of Polyjuice Potion and drink it. That professor would then TURN INTO that captive, and take their place in the second task. Dumbledore said that he himself would be willing to take the place of any one of them as a captive, if they so wished.

Gabrielle watched as Dumbledore asked each of the other three captives in turn if they wished for him or another professor to take their place. Each of the three captives refused. Then Dumbledore had asked Gabrielle, in perfect French, if she wished for someone to take her place. Gabrielle said no. She had come to help her sister win the tournament, she said, and that was what she intended to do.

The four captives had then been taken up the stairs from Madame McGonagall's office to the hospital wing of Hogwarts. There, they were each given an empty bed and a glass of sleeping potion to drink. Once they took this potion, Dumbledore said, they would not wake up until after the second task was over.

And it was here that Gabrielle's nerve failed her. What if something DID go wrong? Fleur's letters had described this "Professor Dumbly-dorr" as being something of a kook, a crackpot. What if he didn't know what he was talking about? What if something went wrong and she or one of the other captives woke up underwater and drowned? Or what if the merpeople had tricked Dumbledore and really intended to carry the captives into deep underwater caves and eat them for dinner?

Gabrielle had sat on the edge of her bed for a full five minutes, with the sleeping potion in her hand, wondering if she should take it. Then, sensing her nervousness, Madame McGonagall had once again sat down next to her.

"You don't have to do this," she said, in French. "If you like, I will take your place in the second task myself. All you have to do is give me one hair from your head. I will drink the Polyjuice Potion, and I will take your place as a captive."

It wasn't until days later, when she had told her mother about what happened that night, that Gabrielle learned how significant this offer had been. It was extremely risky, Maman said, for an adult of Madame McGonagall's age to transform into a child of Gabrielle's size. The stress involved in the transformation, the compression and re-shaping of the body into a smaller form, was often more than an older wizard could handle. Numerous older wizards had died using Polyjuice Potion to transform into younger wizards, because their aged bodies could no longer handle the experience. Also, Maman explained, the effects of Polyjuice Potion only lasted for one hour. If Madame McGonagall had turned herself into Gabrielle, and then had not been rescued from the bottom of the Hogwarts lake within one hour, she probably would have turned back into herself while underwater, and might very well have drowned.

A few months after the Tournament was over, Gabrielle learned from her sister Fleur, that Madame McGonagall was actually an Animagus who could turn herself into a cat. The Hogwarts professor was therefore quite used to changing her form into a smaller size, and would have had no trouble in transforming herself into Gabrielle. And surely Professor Dumbledore, with his absolute insistence on safety for the second task, would have had some kind of magical safeguard in place to ensure that McGonagall would not be harmed if she had taken Gabrielle's place underwater.

But still--Gabrielle knew that wizards, even great ones like Albus Dumbledore, are not infallible. It was no small matter for an adult wizard to allow herself to be transformed into a child and then to be taken to an underwater city. If McGonagall had taken Gabrielle's place, SOMETHING could still have gone wrong. And McGonagall, Gabrielle knew, must have known the risks involved when she'd made her offer--which made that offer all the more meaningful in Gabrielle's mind.

Sitting on the bed in the Hogwarts hospital wing, the beaker of sleeping potion clutched tight in her hand, Gabrielle had looked at Professor McGonagall for a long time, and finally shook her head. "Fleur needs my help. I want to help my sister to win the Tournament. I will do this for her."

And she had drunk the potion. Madame McGonagall held her hand as she lay back on the bed, and stayed with her until she was asleep. Gabrielle drifted away in full confidence that her sister Fleur would rescue her from the merpeople before any of the other champions even reached the bottom of the Hogwarts lake. Fleur would win the Tournament with her help, she was sure. Fleur would not let her down.

The next thing she knew, she was being dragged across the surface of the Hogwarts lake through freezing, ice-cold water by two boys. One was the red-haired boy that she had seen earlier in McGonagall's office. The other boy had dark hair and a scar on his forehead.

And her sister Fleur was nowhere to be seen!

* * *

"'Arry," Gabrielle whispers at the wine cellar door. She cannot see him, but she knows he is there. "I 'ave a problem. I need to call Maman on ze shell phone."

Harry Potter's head appears from under the Invisibility Cloak, at the level of Gabrielle's waist. He is obviously sitting with his back to the wall outside the wine cellar door. His disembodied head floats up as he stands; then his body reappears as he removes the Cloak.

"What kind of problem?" he whispers, as he follows her into the wine cellar and shuts the door.

"I 'ave...found somezing strange on one of ze disks in ze crystal lock. Is difficult to explain. Please, let me 'ave ze shell phone."

Harry hands her the conch shell and the clam shell and pulls out his wand. "What do I say again?"

"First, you say 'Suscito,' for ze dial tone."

"Suscito," Harry says, tapping the conch shell in Gabrielle's hand with his wand.

Gabrielle holds the shell to her ear and hears the dial tone. "Now you say 'Signum...Gaston Delacour...Ze Maquis Mouse II.'"

"Signum...Gaston Delacour...The Maquis Mouse II," Harry repeats, tapping the conch shell again.

Gabrielle hears the phone ringing through the conch shell. Her mother answers, very quickly, as if she were sitting by the phone. "Bonjour?"

"Maman?" Gabrielle says into the clam shell.

"Gabrielle? Where are you?" her mother says in French. She sounds very frightened.

"I am all right," Gabrielle says, in French. "I am inside the Chateau Malfoy."

There is a buzzing sound on the line inside the conch shell. "Gabrielle? Are you there? I can barely hear you?"

Gabrielle winces. The thick stone walls of the chateau must be interfering with the signal. Darn these shell phones! She moves quickly to another spot in the room.

"Can you hear me now?"

"Gabrielle?"

She moves to another spot in the room. "Can you hear me now?"

"Gabrielle? Bonjour?"

She moves to another spot in the room. "Can you hear me now?"

"Bonjour? Gabrielle? Are you there?"

She moves to yet another spot in the room. "Can you hear me NOW?"

"Oui, Oui! I can hear you now!"

"Good!"

"Gabrielle, what is going on? Are you all right?"

"I am fine. Maman, please listen. I can't talk very loud. We are inside the Chateau Malfoy. We managed to sneak in under 'Arry's Invisible Cloak. We are in the wine cellar But there are people upstairs. They don't know we are here. So I have to talk very quietly."

"Maman, we have found the secret chamber with the crystal lock. I have been working on it with the tarot crystal. I am down to the seventh disk in the sequence. But I have a problem. There are no crystals on the seventh disk that match up with the crystals on the sixth disk!"

There is silence on the other end of the line. Then Madame Delacour says, "How many crystals are on the sixth disk?"

"There are ten crystals. Two amethysts, two garnets, two sapphires, an aquamarine, a peridot, a coral, and a topaz."

"And on the seventh disk?"

"There are five crystals. Two rubies, a tourmaline, an emerald, and a diamond."

Silence again on the line. "Are you sure of that, Gabrielle? Check again, just to make sure."

Gabrielle has already checked the sixth and seventh disks in the crystal lock three times. But just to be sure, she puts the shell phone on the floor, kneels down on the steel doors covering the secret chamber, and puts her tarot crystal over the crystal dial again. She mentally checks the disks within the crystal lock once more. The sequences of crystals on the sixth and seventh disks are exactly as she has described them to Maman.

"It is just as I said, Maman," she says into the shell phone. "The crystals do not match on either disk."

Silence again on the conch shell. Then Madame Delacour asks, "On the seventh disk, you said one of the crystals is a diamond? What type of diamond?"

Gabrielle puts the shell phone down just long enough to check the seventh disk again with her tarot crystal. "It is a blue diamond, Maman."

"What is the sequence of crystals on the eighth disk?"

Using the tarot crystal, Gabrielle probes the eighth disk in the crystal lock with her mind. It takes her several minutes. "Seven crystals. All different. A beryl. A garnet. A bloodstone. A carnelian. An alexandrite. A topaz. And a chrysoberyl. None of the crystals on the eighth disk match the crystals on the seventh disk either."

"What does that blue diamond on the seventh disk tell you, Gabrielle?" her mother asks.

Gabrielle thinks hard for a moment. Then her eyes widen. "It is a channel crystal?!"

"I would think so," says Maman. "A blue diamond is one of the more common channel crystals. You should be able to connect a crystal on the sixth disk with a crystal on the eighth disk by channeling the Linking Spell through the diamond on the seventh disk. It would either be the topaz or one of the garnets on the sixth disk that needs channeling. Call me back if that doesn't work."

"Okay. Thank you, Maman."

"Gabrielle...be very careful. Come home safe."

"I will, Maman. I love you." Gabrielle hangs up the shell phone and gives it back to Harry.

It takes several minutes of twisting the crystal dial back and forth to move the seventh and eighth disks into position. Gabrielle tries one of the garnets first, channeling a Linking Spell from a garnet on the sixth disk, down through the blue diamond on the seventh disk, to the single garnet on the eighth disk. It doesn't work. So she twists the dial again until the second garnet on the sixth disk is aligned with the diamond on the seventh disk and the garnet on the eighth disk. The Linking Spell still won't hold.

It must be the topaz, she decides. She twirls the crystal dial right and left, left and right, checking her progress with the tarot crystal each time, until she is sure that the single topaz on the sixth disk is aligned with the diamond on the seventh disk, and with the single topaz on the eighth disk. She sends a Linking Spell from one topaz to the other, channeling the spell through the blue diamond.

The two topazes connect through the channel crystal. The Levitation Spells between the sixth and seventh disks, and between the seventh and eighth disks are broken at once. The seventh disk slides up the iron bar and magnetically snaps onto the bottom of the sixth disk; a half-second later, the eighth disk slides up the iron bar and magnetically snaps onto the bottom of the seventh disk.

Two for the price of one, Gabrielle thinks.

"Is everything all right?" Harry Potter asks. He's been watching her anxiously for fifteen minutes now.

"Oui," Gabrielle says, smiling. "Everyzing is fine now, 'Arry. You can go stand guard outside ze door again, if you wish."

* * *

Gabrielle couldn't stop herself. She knew that Fleur felt horrible about failing to rescue her from the merpeople, but she was angry with her sister. She yelled at Fleur for half an hour in Fleur's room in the Beauxbatons carriage. All the time, her sister sat sobbing on her bed.

"I came all the way up here to help you!" Gabrielle screamed. "And you couldn't save me because of a bunch of stupid grindylows? What if the danger had been real? What if I had drown? What if the merpeople hadn't been friendly? Or what if those two boys hadn't been there to pull me up?"

Maman had come up from London, and had asked Gabrielle to wait outside the carriage while she tended to Fleur. Gabrielle waited for over an hour. She could hear her sister sobbing inside as Maman comforted her. She could also hear music and laughter coming from one of the dormitories in Hogwarts castle. It sounded as if one of the Hogwarts champions was celebrating their victory with their classmates.

While she waited, Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, had come up to Gabrielle outside the carriage. "You know, your sister really tried her best to rescue you today."

"She should have done better," Gabrielle said, coldly.

Finally, Maman came out of the carriage. "Fleur wants to talk to you. Gabrielle, I know you are angry with her, but please--"

"It is all right, Maman." Gabrielle had sullenly climbed back into the carriage.

Her sister had looked at her with red eyes. "Forgive me," she sobbed.

Gabrielle went to Fleur and put her arms around her sister's neck. Only then did she start to cry herself. "I do forgive you, Fleur. But please don't ever let me down like that again. I couldn't bear it."

"I promise," Fleur whispered. "Never again."

* * *

Only later did she find out the name of the boy with the scar, who had dragged her up from the bottom of the Hogwarts lake.

Harry Potter! The Boy Who Lived!

The boy whose name was in her 'History of Magic' schoolbook as having brought down He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when he, Harry, was only a baby. The boy whose triumph was considered to be one of the ten most important magic events of the century.

She hadn't realized who he was when they were floating through the deep-freeze ice-bath of Hogwarts lake. She'd been too pre-occupied in wondering where the hell her sister was.

She hadn't even known that Harry Potter was one of the champions in the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts. In her letters home, Fleur had simply referred to him, disdainfully, as "this little boy."

After the second task, Gabrielle had seen Harry again only once. He'd smiled and waved to her as he came into the waiting room next to the Great Hall at Hogwarts on the last night of the Triwizard Tournament. Maman was talking to Fleur, and Fleur was eyeing a tall red-haired boy with a pony tail who was standing with his mother near the fireplace.

Madame McGonagall was there, too. She introduced herself to Maman, who thanked her for offering to take Gabrielle's place in the second task. Gabrielle hoped that Fleur would formally introduce her family to Harry Potter after the third task of the Tournament was over.

By the time the third task started, Gabrielle knew that her sister was probably not going to win the Tournament. Fleur was in last place after all, and barring a miracle in the run through the obstacle maze, she would not be able to come from so far behind. But maybe Harry Potter would win. And that, Gabrielle thought, would suit her just fine. After rescuing her from the merpeople when he thought she was in real danger, she thought that he deserved to win the Tournament.

She met only one of the other Triwizard champions at Hogwarts that day. Just before the start of the final event, Fleur had introduced Gabrielle and Maman to Cedric Diggory. He was a handsome boy, and Fleur said that she and Cedric had become very good friends over the year--although she was still puzzled by the fact that Cedric had turned down an invitation to be her date at the Yule Ball in favor of that Cho Chang girl.

Gabrielle liked Cedric. He had a pleasant smile and even spoke a bit of French to her. She thought it would be a nice thing if Cedric came in second in the Tournament, behind Harry Potter.

But that night had turned out to be one of the most horrifying nights of her life. It was a night that neither she, nor anyone else who attended the last event of the Triwizard Tournament, would ever forget.

It was the night that her sister was carried unconscious from the maze on a stretcher, having been stunned by an invisible assailant.

It was the night that Cedric Diggory was carried from the maze, stone dead. Cedric, who only a few hours before had been alive and talking to her in French and smiling with her. Cedric, with his lifeless eyes, staring up at her in horror. Eyes that penetrated straight into her heart. Eyes that she would remember until the day she died.

It was the night, they said, that Harry Potter had met the Dark Lord somewhere in the center of the maze--and had once again survived!

* * *

Sometimes, crystal locks can be very frustrating. Take this particular combination right here. The ninth disk has fifteen crystals--two beryls, three onyxs, an aquamarine, a tourmaline, and eight sapphires. The tenth disk has thirteen crystals--two onyxs, four aquamarines, a beryl, three tourmalines, and three sapphires.

So many different types of crystals! And there's no way to know which crystals on the ninth disk will connect with which crystals on the tenth disk, except to go through them, one by one, and test each crystal with a Linking Spell. So Gabrielle starts by testing the aquamarine on the ninth disk with each of the four aquamarines on the tenth disk. None of the aquamarine crystals will link. She tries the tourmaline on the ninth disk, trying to match it to one of the three tourmalines on the tenth disk. None of the tourmaline crystals will link.

Each test of a crystal on any particular disk inside the lock requires her to turn the crystal dial left and right, clockwise and counter-clockwise, then check the disks with the tarot crystal, then turn the dial some more until the crystals on both disks are aligned, then check them with a Linking Spell.

Gabrielle starts to get annoyed. Her fingers fumble with the tarot crystal. It slips from her hand and clatters noisily across the steel vault doors of the secret chamber. She picks it up and looks at it quickly in the moonlight. She is relieved to see that it is undamaged. Any cracks or chips in the polished crystal and it will be useless for probing the crystal lock. They might as well put the Invisibility Cloak back on and go home.

She looks toward the wine cellar door, where Harry is once again waiting outside in the stairwell, under his cloak. She remembers what he said to her. "Take as much time as you need, all night if you have to. Don't rush, don't hurry. Just make sure you do it right."

She takes a deep breath. The fourth disk, she remembers, had nine beryl crystals in it. She puts the tarot crystal down on the dial. With a mental search, she locates the fourth disk again. Beryl can be used to calm your nerves when you are apprehensive. She draws the power up out of the beryl crystals, through the tarot crystal, into her fingers. She feels a warm feeling wash through her body, as pleasant as her mother's kiss.

Just take your time, she tells herself as she absorbs the power of the beryl into her veela aura. We have been down here for over an hour and no one has yet bothered us. Harry is outside the door, if anything happens. Remember what he said. Be calm. Take your time and do it right.

Once more, she begins to probe the crystals on the ninth and tenth disks inside the lock. Eventually, she finds that three sapphires and an onyx crystal on the ninth disk will link with three sapphires and an onyx crystal on the tenth disk. The tenth disk slides up the iron bar and magnetically clicks onto the bottom of the ninth disk.

* * *

After the Triwizard Tournament and her graduation from Beauxbatons, Fleur had returned to England to get a job as a secretary with the English Ministry of Magic. To her chagrin, she had been assigned to one of the lowest offices--the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. She'd been ready to quit until she'd learned that the head of the office, Arthur Weasley, was the father of that cute boy with the ponytail that she had seen at Hogwarts on the last night of the Tournament.

She had gotten to know Bill Weasley very well. Wanting his father's approval, she had put her organizational skills to work and had turned the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office into one of the most efficiently-run offices at the English Ministry.

And then there had been a power shift. It was revealed that Cornelius Fudge, the English Minister of Magic, had instigated a cover-up of the news that the Dark Lord had returned. The loss of Azkaban to the newly-revitalized He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been a disaster for the wizard world. New measures were called for. Fudge was ousted, and a new government, headed by a council of wizards, had taken power at the English Ministry. Arthur Weasley had been promoted to the head of the Office of Magical Law Enforcement. And he had taken Fleur and Bill there with him.

Fleur was now training as an Auror. She did this, she said, not simply out of her love for Bill Weasley, but because she knew that she was needed. "We are facing dark times," she told her family. "If I can help in any way to defend the magic world against the Death Eaters, then I must do it. I do this not only for myself, but for all of you. I will defend my family and my world."

Gabrielle was overjoyed. Her sister was a hero again. Bill Weasley reported that she was an invaluable aid to his father's efforts, and that she had already helped them in effectively facing down and arresting several Dark Wizards. She had disarmed them, Bill said, using her veela charms. Faced with a veela's power, the Death Eaters simply dropped their wands and allowed themselves to be led away in handcuffs.

When she came home for Christmas, Maman and Papa had told Fleur how proud they were of her--not only because she was training to be an Auror, but also because she had found a special young man and was NOT trying to win him with her veela powers. They had also told her that, as an Auror, if she ever needed their help for any reason, she should call them immediately.

That call had come the previous night, when the Delacour family was in Sardinia.

They had spent the day in the small town of Oristano, watching the Corso dell'Anello--the horse-and-sword competitions of the Sa Sartiglia festival. It had been a good day. The masked riders had been in rare form, piercing sixteen stars with their rapier swords as they galloped down the sanded track on the Via Duomo. (Each time a masked horseman pierces a star with his sword at Sa Sartiglia, it is considered to be an omen of good luck for the autumn harvest.)

They were in a restaurant on the Via de Castro in Oristano when Fleur's call came. In Sardinia, the restaurants flavor their entrees with herbs grown locally on the island. The Delacour family had just enjoyed a dinner of rock lobster flavored with fennel, lamb cakes with mint, chickpeas with saffron, and ravioli in a butter-and-sage sauce. They were topping it off with dishes of lemon sorbet and gelato ice cream when Papa's shell phone rang. He'd stepped outside into the alley behind the restaurant to get a better signal, and so the Muggle waiters and diners wouldn't be alarmed by the sight of a man talking and listening to two sea shells. Almost half-an-hour later, when his gelato was melted, he'd come back in, asked the waiter for the check, and told his family that they were going to Latrece because Harry Potter needed their help.

Later that night, when they were back on the "Maquis Mouse II" (which was docked at the marina in the neighboring coastal town of Bosa), Fleur called again. She talked for a long time with Maman while Papa was getting the boat ready to travel the next morning.

Gabrielle could tell that Maman was not happy. She was pacing around the salon with the shell phone in her hands, saying, "What? You want Gabrielle to--? But that is DANGEROUS! No, Fleur, I mean--! Yes, I know, but--!"

With a dismayed look, Maman handed Gabrielle the two sea shells. Gabrielle listened as Fleur slowly outlined all that had happened at Hogwarts. Madame McGonagall--the lady who had offered to take Gabrielle's place in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament--had been poisoned by a known Death Eater. They needed a sample of the poison--Chimaera's Root--to make an antidote to save her. Harry Potter had learned that the Death Eater--one Monsieur Lucius Malfoy--had a bottle of the poison tucked away in his summer home in Latrece. But it was inside a secret chamber guarded by a crystal lock. And Harry couldn't open the crystal lock by himself. He didn't have the Combination Spell.

"You have to help him, Gabrielle," Fleur said. "Bill says that 'Arry has an Invisibility Cloak. If he can sneak you into the Chateau Malfoy, you can open the crystal lock for him. You are his only chance."

"I will do it," Gabrielle promised. "I will help him."

After she hung up, Gabrielle went to her mother, who was sitting very tensely in the salon easy chair.

"I have to help him, Maman," she said, quietly. "He helped me when he thought I was in trouble, when he did not even know my name."

"I cannot let you do this, Gabrielle," Maman said. "I'm sorry. What Fleur wants you to do, it is too dangerous."

Gabrielle put her arms around her mother and held her close. "Maman, I know this is hard for you to hear, but...the choice is not yours to make. It is mine. He believed that I was in real danger when he helped me. If I HAD been in real danger, I would now owe him my life."

Her mother looked at her, almost sadly. "But you were NOT in any danger, Gabrielle. Are you going to do this to repay a debt when there is no debt? Are you going to help him because he saved you when you did not really need to be saved?"

"No," Gabrielle said. "I will help him because it is the right thing to do. I will help him because Madame McGonagall is a good and kind lady and she must be saved. I will help him because it is what Fleur would do...and because I know that 'Arry Potter would do it for me."

Standing beside her, holding her mother close, Gabrielle put her nose in her mother's silver hair. "Maman, I know that you worry. I know that sometimes you wake up at night at home, and you go downstairs and sit in the salon, and you cannot get back to sleep because you worry that something will happen to Fleur. I do not want you to worry about me as well. But try to understand...he needs my help! He needs OUR help! This is something that MUST be done. And I am the only one who can do it."

Her mother shed a few tears then. "I know," she said, nodding. "I know."

Gabrielle looked at her mother and smiled. "Now, when we see him tomorrow in Latrece, I want you to treat him kindly. Do not be resentful of him because I am going to help him. Remember, it is MY decision to help him, not his. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me."

That brought a half-smile to her mother's face. "Do not worry. We will welcome him as our guest. I know he is a good young man." She shrugged. "I have wanted to meet Monsieur 'Arry Potter for a long time. Now I will get the chance."

Then she reached up to touch her daughter's cheek. "Oh, my sweet girl. Just promise me you will be very careful when you help him."

* * *

The next afternoon, while Harry Potter was asleep in the guest stateroom on the "Maquis Mouse II," Gabrielle and her father had gone out to watch the Grande Parade on the Boulevard de la Soleil. They had both laughed heartily and had a wonderful time as the parade floats came down the boulevard, and the people on the floats began tossing doubloons and other souvenir trinkets to the crowd.

Then, out of the blue, Gabrielle asked her father, "What did Dumbledore say this morning when you asked him?"

Her father smiled at her. "Asked him what?"

"You know! You were speaking in French on the shell phone so that 'Arry couldn't understand you! You asked Dumbledore, 'Are the legends true about this boy?' What did Dumbledore say when you asked him?"

"He said, 'The legends don't do him justice. The real boy is a hundred times better than the legends.'"

Later, as they walked back to the Vieux Port, Gabrielle looked up at her father from under his arm. "I have to go with him, you know? Tonight? I know that you and Maman are worried, but I have to do this. He needs my help."

They walked in silence for a time. Then Papa said, "He may refuse your help, you know? He may not want it."

"I'll MAKE him want it!" Gabrielle insisted.

Her father snorted. "You are so much like your sister, Monkeyface. Stubborn! Pigheaded! And you never listen to anything your parents say!"

"That's not true! I listen to EVERYTHING that you and Maman say. I just don't DO anything that you and Maman tell me to do!"

They laughed for a long time at this. Then Gabrielle asked, "You'll let me go with him then? You won't try to stop me?"

"You think I could if I tried?"

"Yes, Papa, I think you could stop me if you really wanted to," Gabrielle said respectfully. "But I also think you know that this is something I MUST do. For 'Arry. And for Fleur. And for Madame McGonagall."

After a moment, her father shrugged. "I'll let you go with him on one condition. TWO conditions! One, that you take the shell phone with you and promise to call us if you need help. And two, that you pay attention to him, and do exactly as he says."

"I promise, Papa."

* * *

Harry Potter sits beside Gabrielle on the floor of the wine cellar, next to the secret chamber. Five minutes ago, she poked her head out the door into the stairwell and told him that he'd better come inside. She is down to the last disk in the crystal lock. Soon it will be open.

Gabrielle thinks, with some amusement, that Harry has been "a very good boy" throughout all this. (When she was a little child, Maman used to tell her that she had been "a very good girl" after she had sat quietly for a time without making any noise while her mother was busy, or was talking with someone else.)

For the past hour or so, since he helped her to place the call to Maman, Harry has not once asked her any questions. He has sat quietly in the stairwell outside, waiting for her to finish. Gabrielle knows that for the last hour, he has probably been itching to ask her "How's it coming?" every five minutes. But he has been very patient with her, not wanting to pressure her or to break her concentration while she works on the crystal lock. For this, she is grateful to him.

It amazes her that they have been inside the chateau for almost an hour and a half now, and no one has bothered them. As far as she knows, the people upstairs still have no idea that they are down here. She prays that it will stay that way, that she and Harry will be able to sneak out of here under the Invisibility Cloak without being caught. With a smile, she imagines the Malfoys coming down to the wine cellar tomorrow morning, and gasping in horror as they see their secret chamber lying open. A pity that she and Harry can't stick around to see the looks on their faces when they discover that their bottle of Chimaera's Root is gone.

Right now, however, Gabrielle is having trouble with the last disk inside the crystal lock. On this final twelfth disk, there are nine crystals--four emeralds, two amethysts, a ruby, a tourmaline, and a moonstone. On the preceding disk, the eleventh disk, there are fourteen crystals--six emeralds, three amethysts, two beryls, an opal, a garnet, and another moonstone.

She has already made connections using Linking Spells between three emeralds and two amethysts on the eleventh and twelfth disks. But now there is a problem. No matter which way she turns the crystal dial, she can't line up the enchanted emeralds and amethysts on both disks at once. If she turns the dial four rotations to the left to line up the emeralds on both disks, the amethysts are out of line. If she turns the dial three rotations to the right to line up the amethysts on both disks, the emeralds are out of line.

It would be so much easier if that moonstone wasn't there on the twelfth disk, right between the ruby and the tourmaline. Every time she turns the crystal dial to line up the emeralds and amethysts on both disks, the asymmetrical moonstone gets in the way, and prevents the crystals on both disks from lining up correctly. Gabrielle starts to get frustrated again. She's so close now, and to have such a silly thing as a moonstone stopping her from opening the lock--!

Wait a minute!

There's a moonstone on the eleventh disk as well! Gabrielle twists the crystal dial until the moonstone on the eleventh disk is aligned with the moonstone on the twelfth disk. Using the tarot crystal, she sends a mental command down through the crystal lock, telling the moonstone on the eleventh disk to link with the moonstone on the twelfth. The two moonstones link together perfectly!

Gabrielle smiles to herself.

Le Charlatan! she thinks. A jester! A joker! A trick!

The moonstones on the two disks are the key stones in the configuration. Link them together and you've got the stones in the right order. Now, only one pair of emeralds and one pair of amethysts on both disks are aligned with each other. The other two pairs of emeralds and one pair of amethysts on both disks are dummies. They CAN link together, but they don't NEED to link up in order to break the Levitation Charm between the two disks.

With the tarot crystal, Gabrielle sends two final mental commands down through the crystal lock. She links the emerald on the eleventh disk to the corresponding emerald on the twelfth disk. She links the amethyst on the eleventh disk to the corresponding amethyst on the twelfth disk.

The twelfth disk slides up the bar and snaps onto the bottom of the eleventh disk.

The final Levitation Charm is broken. The iron bar is drawn up through the center of the twelve disks, releasing the bolt.

Gabrielle sits back on her knees and stares at the crystal dial in wonder for a few moments. The tarot crystal glows in her hand. Silently, she puts it back in her pocket.

I've done it, she thinks. The crystal lock is broken!

Without the slightest expression in her face, she takes hold of the two L-shaped handles on the steel doors and turns them to opposite sides. The bolt inside the steel doors slides back with a metallic clank!

The secret chamber is open.

* * *

Harry stared at the steel doors covering the secret chamber in disbelief. Did what he think had just happened really happened?

He looked at Gabrielle. Slowly, she smiled at him.

Harry smiled back at her, and began to laugh softly. She had done it! She had actually done it!

"Very good," he whispered in the moonlight. "Very good."

He held out his hand to her, and she shook it firmly. For a long moment, they sat there, savoring her triumph. Then Harry looked at the steel doors again.

"It's going to take both of us to pull these doors open. You take that side."

Harry got on his hands and knees on the edge of the secret chamber and reached over to grasp the handle of one door. Gabrielle crawled off the steel doors, onto the edge of the chamber across from Harry, and reached over to grasp the handle of the other door.

"Ready?" Harry whispered. "Okay, on three. One! Two! THREE!"

Together, they yanked the doors of the secret chamber wide open. The doors parted and fell back, landing flat on the stone floor on either side of the chamber.

A few seconds of silence followed. Then, the alarm went off!

BWEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEE!!