Charlie the Thief

“Accio broom!”

The broom sitting atop a log by the riverbank wobbled, and then fell off, where it lay unmoving on the cold, hard ground. Alexandra held her wand out at arm's length, willing the broom to keep coming towards her, but it didn't. After several seconds of futile effort, she groaned in frustration and dropped her arm to her side.

It was late January, and the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow, from the flurries that had fallen the day before yesterday. The winter had been mild so far; cold but unusually dry. Maximilian, Martin, and Beatrice had brought Alexandra down to the river again for more dueling, but so far she had spent most of the afternoon practicing Summoning Charms.

“Well, at least you pulled it in the right direction that time,” said Beatrice. She and Martin were growing impatient.

“Yeah. Big deal. I could have done that with a Levitation Charm.” Alexandra stared at the broom angrily, as if it were to blame for lying inertly on the ground, like a broom.

Maximilian clapped her on the shoulder. “I told you, most students don't learn Summoning Charms until tenth grade. Just because they seem simple doesn't mean they're easy.”

Alexandra pointed her wand again, and repeated, “Accio broom!” in a louder voice. The broom shivered, but didn't move.

“You can't pester it into obeying you.” Maximilian didn't even raise his wand, as he said, “Accio broom!” The broom leapt off the ground and flew into his other hand. Alexandra scowled at him.

“You could practice this indoors, you know,” Beatrice suggested. “Not that watching your little sister try to move a broom isn't a thrilling way to spend an afternoon.”

“Fine.” Maximilian cut her off, as Alexandra flushed. “How about boys against girls?”

Martin chortled. “Boys rule the sky, girls prepare to die!” He summoned his own broom to his hand, while Maximilian tossed Alexandra's to her.

Beatrice rolled her eyes and snorted. “Great, Martin. We're back in sixth grade.” All four of them got on their brooms, and rose into the air.

They all knew, of course, that the boys were going to rule the sky, at least in this contest. Beatrice was good, but Maximilian was better, and Alexandra was no match for any of the older teens. So the girls were at a serious disadvantage. They had just started dueling on brooms – something that was strictly forbidden without adult supervision, and which a seventh grader would never be allowed to do anyway. The Stormcrows had all gone easy on Alexandra so far, and she expected that Martin and her brother would be holding back a little now, too.

She expected wrongly. As soon as she and Beatrice wheeled about to face the boys, they were gone.

“Below!” Beatrice cried out, and rolled aside to duck a hex that Maximilian sent sizzling in her direction from underneath her. Alexandra didn't even look, just dived, and almost flew into Martin ascending from below. This interrupted his attempt to jinx her, but almost caused them to collide fifty feet above the ground. Martin cursed as he rolled out of the way, and shouted, “Watch where you're going, Troublesome!”

She responded by throwing a Strangling Scarf Curse at him. He gagged and tore away the scarf around his neck, which was suddenly constricting like a noose. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw flashes and pops where Maximilian must be engaging Beatrice.

“Okay, want to play rough, Quick?” Martin grinned, and said, “Accio broom!”

Alexandra yelped as her broom suddenly spun out of control, flying towards Martin. She couldn't stop it, so instead, she leaned forward and accelerated, adding to the broom's velocity as Martin's Summoning Charm yanked her towards him. His face turned white and he dropped out of the sky, barely falling out of the path of broom and girl, both of whom were tumbling erratically through the air.

“You lunatic!” he shouted, as Alexandra laughed. It took her several seconds to regain control of her broom. No sooner had she done so than she was walloped from behind by a hex that stung her entire backside and knocked the breath out of her. Wheezing, she spiraled towards the ground and almost fell off her broom before she'd even touched down, and lay there, groaning, too numb to move.

Martin landed nimbly next to her, with a smirk.

“Think about your next move before you try crazy stunts like that,” he gloated.

With a shriek, Beatrice came plummeting out of the sky, without her broom.

“Levicorpus!” Maximilian shouted from above, and Beatrice suddenly jerked to a halt in midair, dangling upside down. Her chestnut hair had come loose from its tight bun, and was almost dragging on the ground. A second later, her broom hit the ground ten feet from her and bounced.

Maximilian landed, sprung off his broom, and looked at Alexandra. “You all right?”

“I'm fine,” she mumbled, though her back and butt were getting cold, lying on the ground. With an effort, she sat up.

“What about me?” Beatrice demanded. “Get me down!”

Maximilian grinned at her, reached out to take her hand, and waved his wand. “Liberacorpus.”

Beatrice somersaulted in mid-air, with Maximilian's help, and landed on her feet, then stumbled a little.

“You almost killed me,” she accused.

“Never, Bea.” Maximilian squeezed her hand, then released it.

She staggered over to where Alexandra was sitting, and leaned against a cold, dry rock that didn't have any ice or snow on it.

“Do the girls need to take a rest?” Martin asked mockingly.

“Yes, the girls do,” Beatrice snapped, before Alexandra could object. She was clutching her side, and her face was – literally – green.

“Come on, Martin. One on one.” Maximilian swung onto his broom, and rose into the air again. Martin smirked at the two girls and followed.

Alexandra struggled to her feet, and looked at Beatrice, who had turned greener.

“Seasickness Curse,” she gasped. “Your brother fights dirty.” And she turned around to throw up. Alexandra winced, watching the other girl heave violently. After a minute, Beatrice stood up, and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. She sighed and sat back down on the rock, while she picked up one of the water bottles they'd brought along.

“Do you ever win?” Alexandra asked.

Beatrice smiled. “Sometimes. Less and less often, the last couple of years.” She took a large gulp of water, and then several more.

Alexandra sat down next to her, and studied the junior. Beatrice Hawthorne was not particularly pretty, but she was athletic and very shapely, which boys seemed to like. When not in uniform, she usually wore waistcoats or petticoats and long skirts; today she had on knee-high leather boots and leggings beneath a long brown skirted overcoat.

“You really like Max?” Alexandra asked her.

The older girl gave her an odd look. “We're friends, Alex. We've been friends since we were eleven.”

“But you've never, like, dated?”

Beatrice raised an eyebrow. “Not that this is any of your business, but no. It wouldn't work, between us.”

“Why not?”

The other witch looked off into the sky. Maximilian and Martin had disappeared over the trees, apparently engaged in an aerial chase. Alexandra would have liked to see Martin sent flying into a tree.

“My family wouldn't approve, for one thing,” Beatrice replied at last.

“Why not?”

Now Beatrice looked annoyed. She gave Alexandra a disapproving frown. “If you want to know about your brother's romantic affairs, you really should ask him.”

“He probably won't tell me. But he butts into mine. I mean, not that I have any.”

Beatrice smiled thinly. “You mean besides your boyfriend?” Alexandra turned a little red. “I heard about your clever little scheme. So, how is that going?”

Alexandra shrugged. “I haven't really talked to David much outside of class, the last couple of weeks.” On the other hand, she hadn't seen him spending much time with Angelique either.

Beatrice chuckled. Alexandra waited for her to stop, then pressed on. “So your family wouldn't approve of you dating Max, because he's Abraham Thorn's son?”

The other girl sighed, and nodded. “Yes.”

“Why would you let your family tell you who you can date?” She felt inexplicably disappointed. Beatrice was brash, and bold, and as tough as any of the boys. Alexandra didn't think she was the sort of person to let other people tell her what she could do. But the eleventh grader looked at her in exasperation.

“It's easy to say you'll do as you please when you're twelve. I said the same thing, believe me. But when you get old enough that you have to start thinking seriously about your future, what your family and society thinks starts to matter.”

Alexandra shook her head. “I'll never let anyone tell me what to do like that.”

“No? I hope that's true.”

Alexandra scowled, looking up into the cold, gray winter sky. A figure on a broom came zooming above the treetops, heading in their direction.

“Go easy on Max,” Beatrice said softly. “It really does bother him when you get angry at him. He wants you to trust him, and respect his opinion.” Alexandra's forehead creased, and she opened her mouth, but Beatrice went on. “I know he can be overbearing. I think he'd drive me crazy if I were his little sister, too. But he loves Julia, and his mother, more than anything else in this world.”

Alexandra turned her head to look at Beatrice, and the older girl gazed back at her seriously.

“He'll do anything to protect them,” Beatrice told her. “And you, too, I'll wager.”

Alexandra looked away, then watched as the figure on the broom resolved itself into two – Maximilian, holding onto Martin, as they both flew on Maximilian's broom. Martin was moving very strangely – his arms kept jerking in odd directions, and his head was twisting around at an impossible angle. His clothes were also quite a bit worse for wear, torn and scorched. Maximilian had a few light cuts and scrapes along his face, as if he'd been scratched by tree branches.

“Looks like Max rules the sky again,” Beatrice sighed. Maximilian set Martin down, leaning against the rock Beatrice and Alexandra had been sitting on, and pulled a potion out of his pocket.

“You knew you were going to use that curse on me!” Martin complained, as he tried to point a finger at his friend and wound up jabbing it into the rock. His knees twitched and bent sideways. He resembled a broken marionette.

Maximilian grinned as he poured the potion into Martin's mouth. “Just sit still and drink this.” The other boy gagged, and made an awful face as he forced himself to swallow the antidote to Maximilian's curse.

Alexandra liked seeing Martin humiliated. She thought he was smug and condescending, and she still thought he'd been cruel to Darla, though he insisted that any 'flirtations' had been entirely in Darla's mind.

They were all becoming chilly by the time Martin was able to stand again. As they prepared to return to Charmbridge, Charlie descended from the sky and landed on the end of Alexandra's broom.

“So what exactly is a raven familiar good for, since it won't deliver messages?” Martin asked.

“Big fat jerk,” said Charlie.

Beatrice burst into laughter. Alexandra snickered, and even Maximilian smiled.

Alexandra's amusement faded when she saw that there was something in the raven's beak. “What do you have now, Charlie?” she asked. Charlie hopped back out of reach when Alexandra reached for the bird.

“Charlie! Give it here!” she ordered.

“Accio jewelry,” said Maximilian. The shiny object flew from the bird's beak and into his hand.

“An earring,” he observed, shaking his head. “I hope the owner wasn't wearing it when Charlie took it.” He tossed it to Alexandra, who caught it and looked at the small silver earring, then at her familiar.

“I told you to stop stealing things, Charlie!” she scolded.

Charlie cawed and took off, flapping away into the sky.

“Better get your familiar under control, or you'll be required to keep it locked up,” Martin warned.

“How do you control a raven? Charlie only listens to me sometimes,” Alexandra replied.

“I know the feeling,” Maximilian commented.

Alexandra gave him a dirty look, while behind her, Martin and Beatrice snickered, as they mounted their brooms and flew out of the valley.

Alexandra kept a closer eye on Charlie for the next few days, and even tried looking up charms to prevent thievery in the library. Unfortunately, most anti-thief charms were only useful for protecting objects from being stolen, and her problem was that she couldn't know what Charlie might steal ahead of time. Bran and Poe helpfully found her a book on 'beast training,' but Alexandra found that it mostly taught how to use punishing curses. She was appalled by the idea of putting a curse on her familiar that would inflict pain every time it stole something. She wondered what kind of a wizard would do something like that.

She looked at the little card in the back of the book, showing who had checked it out last, and found Angelique Devereaux's signature. She sighed and shook her head, glad that Darla had not discovered this book. Just that morning, she'd heard Honey calling Darla some particularly foul names. Angelique might be a spoiled princess, but at least she wasn't willing to use Dark magic.

With Maximilian no longer harassing her about David, JROC drills became less arduous, and even fun at times. There was still a lot of boring routine, and endless drills and uniform inspections, but Ms. Shirtliffe let them fly impromptu air skirmishes to practice the maneuvers they'd learned the previous semester. It was a lot like the wizard-dueling Alexandra had been doing with Maximilian and his friends, except less intense. Alexandra thought of it as a game, though Shirtliffe insisted that they treat the little balls of light they were shooting from their wands to simulate offensive spells as if they were the real thing.

With JROC and classwork taking up most of her time, Alexandra almost forgot she was supposed to have a 'boyfriend.' She and David talked every day in class, but David was involved in his ASPEW activities or Quidditch practice after school, while Alexandra, when not studying with Anna or being tutored in magic by her brother, was more likely to be playing games in the rec room.

Thus, she was caught off-guard when David approached her after dinner one evening and said, “I think we should break up.”

She blinked. “Okay.” Then she grinned. “Dumping me for Angelique, a week from Valentine's Day? Nice timing.”

David didn't smile back. “I don't think Angelique fell for it. She's hardly talking to me at all.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Alexandra was actually more sorry that she was going to have to listen to her brother saying, 'I told you so,' than she was for David.

“Actually, none of the girls are talking to me, and a lot of the boys aren't either. Constance and Forbearance don't approve, Anna thinks we're being idiots, and all the other kids in our class...” He paused.

“What about them?” Alexandra asked.

“I think they're afraid of you,” David muttered.

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “Oh.” She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

“So anyway, you can stop telling people I'm your boyfriend.”

“I haven't been telling people you're my boyfriend, actually. I think the kiss was enough.”

“Yeah.” David coughed and looked away uncomfortably.

“So, do you want to have a fight? I'll even let you be the one who breaks up with me,” Alexandra offered magnanimously.

“Actually, I am the one breaking up with you,” David pointed out.

“Whatever. But no accusing me of sneaking around behind your back with other guys.”

“What?” David exclaimed, staring at her. “Girl, you watch way too much TV when you're at home!” He shook his head. “No more drama. I don't want to tell people we had a fight. Let's just go back to being friends.”

“Okay,” Alexandra agreed. And impulsively, she leaned forward, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “You weren't bad, for my first boyfriend.”

“Knock it off!” David blushed a little and made a half-hearted attempt to push her away. She grinned at him, and then walked away, pausing when she saw Darla ahead of her, at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Delta Delta Kappa Tau hall.

She didn't say anything, just gave the other girl a challenging look as she approached, and took a certain amount of wicked satisfaction in seeing Darla back away and let her go up the stairs first.

When David joined the girls that weekend to play Wizardopoly, he was greatly relieved that Constance and Forbearance were no longer snubbing him. But he was still complaining.

“Everyone still thinks I'm your boyfriend! Even though I said we broke up. It's like I've been marked or something,” he grumbled, as he pulled a card from the mouth of a little pewter gargoyle and moved his piece.

“Property of Alexandra Quick,” Anna giggled, amused.

Constance shook her head, while Forbearance looked smug. “What your wand works can't be undone with words,” Forbearance informed him.

“I didn't work anything with my wand!” David protested.

Alexandra wasn't sure why the Pritchards were blushing suddenly, but Constance stammered, “It's just a sayin'!”

“Stupid saying,” David muttered. “I just wanted Angelique to like me.”

“How do you know she don't?” Forbearance asked.

“I dunno.” David shrugged.

Constance shook her head. “If you wanter sooth what someone's feelin', David Washington, you oughter ask her! Not play triflin' games.”

“Are you going to be like this from now on?” Anna demanded. “Seventh graders shouldn't be obsessed with dating and who wants to kiss who! It's bad enough that it's all the older kids ever talk about!”

“So you ain't sweet on no one?” Constance asked Anna.

“No!” Anna snapped, looking annoyed, as she handed some gold to a small brass goblin, and two more castles rose on the Wizardopoly board. “Are you?” The Pritchards blushed and stammered denials, and everyone changed the subject.

Alexandra thought that was the end of it, until the next day, when David came to her after class, with a strange look on his face.

“Did you tell Darla we broke up?” he asked.

“No,” Alexandra replied. “Why would I tell her that?”

“She kissed me.”

Alexandra blinked, and frowned, trying to read David's expression. She wasn't quite sure whether he was bragging or complaining.

“So?” she said finally.

He shook his head. “There's something wrong with that girl.”

“What do you mean?”

She was confused by David's uncomfortable, almost scared expression. “It was the way she kissed me.”

“What way?”

He looked away, and rubbed his mouth with his hand. He didn't answer directly. “She didn't like it when I said I didn't like her like that.”

“You didn't make a crack about skinny white girls, did you? Not that Darla is skinny –” Her voice trailed off, when she saw how disturbed David was.

“She was pissed,” he said.

“Well, what do you want me to do about it?” Alexandra demanded. “Go beat her up for trying to kiss my ex-boyfriend?”

“This ain't funny,” David said. “That girl is messed up. I think you'd better watch your back, Alex. She already tried to kill you once.”

“She wasn't really trying to kill me. Darla is an idiot, and so are you if you're afraid of her.”

David sighed and shook his head as Alexandra stalked off. The next time she saw him, he was in the infirmary.

David's friends heard from his roommate at breakfast that he'd woken up that morning with his body breaking out all over, and that by the time he got dressed, he could barely move. Alexandra didn't know how an outbreak of acne could send someone to the infirmary, but she went there before class, with Anna and the Pritchards in tow. Now she was staring at David, lying on his back in bed, with covers pulled up to his chin. Only his face was visible, but that was enough.

“That's...” She was at a loss for words.

Next to her, Anna said, “Revolting.”

David's face and head, down to his neck and below, was an enormous, bubbling mass of oozing, red and purple pimples.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

Alexandra's eyes flashed. “Darla did this!” she hissed, while David winced.

Constance burst into tears. Forbearance, equally wide-eyed and horrified, patted her sister on the back.

“There's no need for that, Miss Pritchard,” said Mrs. Murphy, as she brought over a jar full of smelly, pungent lotion. She looked at Alexandra. “What do you mean, 'Darla did this'?”

Alexandra shuffled uneasily. She knew someone had to do something about Darla, but she was no snitch. She hadn't meant to blurt that out while Mrs. Murphy was coming.

Everyone else was staring at her, and Mrs. Murphy said, “Miss Quick, this is the worst case of the Pustulant Pimples Curse I have ever seen. Someone is throwing around curses they ought not to even know, let alone cast. Now, do you want to tell me what you know, or shall we go directly to the Dean's Office, where she can pry it out of you?”

Alexandra sighed. “Are you going to tell her, or should I?” she asked David. He groaned and shook his head.

She took a breath, realizing how awkward it was going to be to explain Darla's jealousy of her pretend-boyfriend. She saw Anna and the Pritchards looking at her in a way that made her feel even worse, as if somehow she and David had provoked this with their little game.

“David and I were kind-of, not really, a couple,” she stammered. “And Darla thought we really were, and she was jealous and she tried to kiss David, but he said he didn't like her that way, and that made her angry, so she did this to get back at him. And me.”

Mrs. Murphy paused, in the process of scooping some of the pungent goop into the palm of her hand. She looked at David. “I couldn't even follow all that, but is this true, Mr. Washington? Did Darla Dearborn curse you?”

“Maybe,” he mumbled. “Dunno.” Even his tongue, Alexandra noted, with horrified fascination, was covered in grotesque pimples.

“Do you have any actual evidence that it was Miss Dearborn? This is a powerful curse for a seventh grader to cast.”

David made a muffled sound in the negative.

Alexandra frowned. Maybe the time had come to tell someone about the Mors Mortis Society. Except that Maximilian had pleaded with her to keep quiet about it. But he'd also promised no one would be hurt, and now Darla was cursing her friends. Her frown deepened. She didn't know what to do.

“I'll talk to Dean Grimm,” said the nurse. “Now, you girls will have to go.”

“Will he be all right, ma'am?” Constance asked quietly.

“Mr. Washington will recover, though his complexion will take a while to return to normal.”

“How long a while?” Anna asked.

“Oh, a few weeks,” she replied. David made a croaking sound. The nurse set the jar on a tray next to David's bed. “Now, since Mr. Washington is unfortunately afflicted all over his body, I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you leave now.”

David made an angry, strangled noise of protest, and the four girls blushed and hurried out of the infirmary.

“Do you really think Darla did this?” Anna whispered when they reached the hallway.

“Yes.” Alexandra nodded.

“All on account o' you'un's feistin' around!” Forbearance accused.

Alexandra flinched. She wasn't sure it was entirely fair to blame her for Darla cursing David, but she was very conscious of how she'd put her friends in danger in the past.

“Well, if Darla did do it, she'll be expelled,” said Anna. “She's already on probation.” She looked at Alexandra. “You weren't planning to do something to Darla yourself, were you?”

“Of course not,” Alexandra replied, in a way that convinced no one.

“Don't start no fractions,” Constance pleaded.

“Or conjure no curses yourself,” Forbearance admonished.

“Let Ms. Grimm handle it,” Anna begged.

“Fine,” Alexandra scowled. And she waited.

It was Darla who confronted her that evening, in their suite. She thumped on the door between their bedrooms until Alexandra opened it, and as a startled Anna and a frightened Angelique looked on, Darla pointed a finger accusingly in Alexandra's face.

“Did you tell Dean Grimm I cursed David?”

“You did,” Alexandra snapped back at her.

“I did not! How dare you accuse me like that?”

“We both know you did it, and why.” Alexandra scowled at her, but Darla shook her head, and held up her wand.

“Dean Grimm examined my wand,” she sneered, “and cast Prior Incantato on it.” She looked smug. “And I was proven innocent. You think you can go around accusing me of everything, just because of one mistake? My uncle, who's a Congressman, is going to make Dean Grimm apologize –”

“We'll see who apologizes,” Alexandra shot back, “when I tell Dean Grimm about the Mors Mortis Society.”

Anna sucked in a breath. Angelique's eyes went wider than they already were. Darla stared at her, and then stepped closer to Alexandra, until they were practically nose to nose.

“Maybe you'd better talk to your brother first,” she hissed. “Because I promise, if I get expelled, that's the least that will happen to Max!”

Alexandra's eyes narrowed.

“Get out of our room,” she growled, in a very low voice.

Darla swallowed, and tried to look dignified as she retreated. Alexandra slammed the door shut in her face, and turned to look at Anna.

“What are you going to do?” Anna asked.

“Talk to Max,” Alexandra replied.

She did, the next day, after JROC drill. She and Maximilian were still in uniform, so she followed him to the equipment locker as he put away their brooms.

“Darla probably didn't do it,” he said. “She's not good enough, for one thing, and she knows she'd be caught, for another.”

“So she had someone else do it for her.” Alexandra watched her brother store their brooms. “Do you know who?”

“No. If I'd heard her talking about cursing someone, Alex, do you think I would have done nothing?”

Alexandra hesitated, for a fraction of a second, and then shook her head. “No. But you must have some idea who did it now.”

Maximilian sighed. “Why did you and that boy have to play these stupid games in the first place?”

“That boy is my friend!” she retorted angrily. “And it's not his fault Darla's lost her mind!”

Maximilian turned around slowly, looking weary.

“It was John, wasn't it?” she asked. “Or maybe Wayne or Tony.”

Her brother was silent. Alexandra folded her arms across her chest. “If I have to go to Dean Grimm, I will. You promised no one would get hurt. You promised you'd turn them in yourself if they did anything to other students.”

“I don't know for sure that they have,” Maximilian replied.

“Okay. You want to be that way?” Alexandra started to march off, but he stopped her. He didn't grab her, but just laid his hand on her arm and gently caught hold of her jacket.

“I'll try to find out,” he promised.

“And then what? Whoever did this should be expelled, and Darla too, if she arranged it, which you know she did!”

Maximilian's face was almost impassive, but he had a troubled look in his eyes. “Is Washington going to be all right?” he asked.

“Other than having pizza-face for the next couple of weeks? Yeah.” She glared at him.

“Alexandra...”

“Oh, no. You're going to ask me to keep quiet and trust you, aren't you? You have your 'mission,' and expelling all those Dark dorks would ruin it!”

Her brother wore a pained expression now. “Darla acting like a spoiled, jealous child has nothing to do with her being in the Mors Mortis Society. She would have done something like this even without their help.”

“Yeah, but she wouldn't have gotten away with it!”

He looked down at her, and shook his head. “You do what you have to do, then, Alexandra,” he said slowly. “I'm not going to threaten you or plead with you, just like I wouldn't with Darla.” He let go of her sleeve.

She grabbed her hair with both hands, as if to pull it out. “You really drive me crazy!”

He raised an eyebrow.

She dropped her hands to her sides, and said, more plaintively, “I can't let my friends get cursed because of me.”

Maximilian blinked slowly, and then put both hands on her shoulders.

“It was Darla's fault, not yours. I'll see to it that she doesn't do anything like that again.”

“How are you going to do that?” she demanded, frowning.

“Trust me.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Are you going to curse her?”

He shook his head, with a smile. “No. How big a bully do you think I am, Alex?”

Alexandra snorted, then grew more serious.

“David thinks there's something wrong with her. I don't think she should be in the Mors Mortis Society, Max. It's...” Alexandra frowned, realizing she was in the awkward position now of being worried about Darla. “It's not good for her.”

“I wish you'd listened earlier when I told you it wasn't good for you.”

She glared at him, and he held his hands up. “If my own sister won't mind me, do you really think Darla Dearborn will?”

“I'm serious, Max.”

“All right.” He nodded. “But so am I. I can't do much about Darla, other than make sure she stays away from you and your friends.”

Alexandra sighed.

“So can I assume David Washington will not be taking you to the Sweethearts' Dance?”

She glared at him again. He grinned a little.

“Are you going? Why don't you ask Beatrice?”

His grin disappeared. “I told you, Alex –”

“I know. You're just friends. 'Cause you're both stupid.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Do you know what 'hypocrite' means?” he asked, rather crossly.

Alexandra flushed.

“Drop it, Alex. Bea and I are perfectly capable of finding dates, if we want, and if we don't, it's none of your business.”

Alexandra would have liked to argue the point, but the accusation of being a hypocrite stung, so she dropped it, and watched as couples became even giddier and sillier than usual in the following week. The Sweethearts' Dance was open to all students, though sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were only allowed to stay through the first part of the evening, and not many went at all. None of Alexandra's friends were going; when Alexandra asked David, half-seriously, whether he was going to ask Angelique, he gave her an ugly glower, made even uglier by the angry red and purple bumps still splayed across his face.

The five of them played games throughout the evening. Alexandra heard afterwards that all the Stormcrows went to the dance together, and that Maximilian and Martin had danced with half the girls in school. From the sounds in the next room when she and Anna went to bed that night – angry screeching from Honey, sniping from Darla, and weary remonstrances from Angelique – it didn't appear that anyone had asked the other two girls either.

An icy state of detente existed between Alexandra and Darla. For the most part, they did not speak to each other, or even acknowledge one another. Alexandra's eyes narrowed dangerously whenever the other girl passed by, and Darla's eyes flashed in response, but they sat as far apart as they could, in the cafeteria and in class. Anna and Angelique, like small satellites trapped in the orbit of greater powers, tried to remain civil to all concerned, but it made for very tense mornings and evenings, when the four girls had to negotiate use of their shared bathroom.

David, his pock-marks and scars still not completely faded even by the end of February, declared that he was through with girls entirely.

“Except as friends,” he amended quickly, when Alexandra rolled her eyes at him. The two of them were out on the lawn, where David was exercising Malcolm. Alexandra knew Charlie was somewhere around, too, but was probably staying out of sight while the falcon flew overhead.

There was more snow on the ground now, though much less than last year. Maximilian hadn't taken her outside for dueling practice lately, and there were no more trips down into the river valley, so Alexandra had been spending more time playing games in the rec room, or reading books in the library and occasionally visiting with Bran and Poe. Today however, she'd decided to take a stroll, as it was a rather warm day despite the unmelted snow lying on the ground. Charlie had accompanied her until they ran into David and his familiar, whereupon the raven had hastily flapped away.

She waited outside a while longer, after David called Malcolm back to him, put a hood on the falcon, and carried him back to the aviary. Across the blanketed white lawn, she saw Darla walking with John Manuelito, back towards the academy. Where they had come from, she wasn't sure. Alexandra frowned, and then looked away and pretended not to notice them.

Charlie cawed and landed on a high wooden post used by the Quodpot players, a few yards away. Alexandra held her arm up. “Come on, scaredy-bird,” she said. “Malcolm's gone.”

Charlie cawed again, indignantly this time. Alexandra laughed, and then saw something gleaming in the bird's beak.

“Oh no,” she groaned. “Charlie, what do you have there?”

The raven hopped once, and regarded her smugly from beyond her reach. Alexandra frowned. It looked like a coin.

“Charlie,” she remonstrated, “I've told you a hundred times you can't just grab anything you see that's shiny!”

In response, Charlie's black wings stretched out in preparation to take off. Alexandra drew her wand and pointed it, and with a deep breath, said, “Accio coin!”

The raven flapped, fighting against the spell, and then almost toppled off the post before regaining its balance. But the coin flew from Charlie's beak, and spun through the air and into Alexandra's hand. She laughed triumphantly.

“Hah!” she crowed. “It worked! So there, bird-brain!”

“Big fat jerk,” said Charlie.

She stuck her tongue out at the raven, then looked at the coin in her hand.

It was neither a Muggle coin, nor a Lion or Eagle or Pigeon. It wasn't an MMS coin either. It was made of silver, and looked very old. There was a sinister figure engraved on one side, some sort of bird-man with an angry, mask-like face. There was something that looked like a bundle of straw or sticks, above a flat-topped hill, etched on the other side. There were no letters or numbers anywhere.

“What the heck is this?” Alexandra muttered. She looked up at her familiar. “Where did you get this, Charlie?'

In response, Charlie took off, scolding her with loud, raucous caws.

“Bird-brain,” she muttered, studying the coin. She stuck it in her pocket, made a face at her raven, who was now flying off over the woods, and would probably not return until sundown, and headed back inside.

When she returned to her room, she found her roommate looking rattled. Anna had been working quietly on an essay about the influence of magnetism on magic for her Geomancy class, so Alexandra had left her alone to go outside. Now, however, Anna was shaken, and Alexandra could hear Angelique sobbing in the next room.

“Stop blubbering, crybaby,” said Honey, but the jarvey's tone lacked its usual sharp edge. It almost sounded as if Honey were trying to sound consoling, and just didn't have the vocabulary.

“Darla freaked out,” Anna whispered, answering Alexandra's unspoken question. “She's missing a coin or something. I didn't hear her say what was so special about it, but she was screaming and accusing Angelique of taking it, and threatening to curse her and rip Honey's tongue out! I heard her tearing their room apart, and then she pounded on the door and yelled that she was going to kill us –” At Alexandra's sudden ominous scowl, Anna added quickly, “Don't worry, she didn't come in. I told her neither of us had seen any coin and wouldn't have taken anything of hers, and she, well, she shouted some more bad stuff, and then stormed off.” The smaller girl exhaled slowly. “She sounded...”

“Out of her mind?” Alexandra suggested.

Anna nodded.

Alexandra sighed, sat down on her bed, and ran a hand through her hair.

Now what have you done, Charlie? she groaned to herself.