The Founders

Chapter 35

As term started up again, the castle now feet deep in snow, a routine developed. Kyra went back to the DADA library a few days after they had arrived and reacquainted herself with the spells that she wanted to master.

With Oscar's help she had managed to haul a few piles of these books down to the kitchen, where Oscar was never left to bake alone. Accompanied either by Kyra, Grace or Kat, Oscar was rarely left alone.

He suffered these ministrations with some amusement and more impatience, but nevertheless allowed his friends to do what made them feel most comfortable. Kyra often sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace in the kitchens, where they had discovered Helga Hufflepuff's chamber just a few months ago, catching up on her homework and practising jinxes.

Occasionally, she found the odd book on herbology in the library, which she used to research uses of praesidio plants. None of this research comforted or helped her much, since all the potions in which it was used were designed to stabilise very volatile, and very nasty, potions. As far as she could tell, the plants were most often used to release, or entrap dangerous essences.

What she really needed to do was to find a book which listed specific potions that it was used in. The ones in the DADA library, and in the public part of the school library, all described praesidio plants and their uses in the abstract. What she needed was instructions, specifics, and that would only be found in the restricted section.

Rationally, she knew she should feel more afraid of the attacker and the threat they posed to her. Yet, since Oscar's torture, she was far more afraid of the possibility that her loved ones were now the targets.

She thought back to how she had shut down emotionally after her own attack, and realised that she could never, ever do that when there were people that needed her. She needed to be able to better protect her friends and for that, she needed preparation.

She forcibly directed any thoughts away from Alexander, and continued to avoid him in lessons. She wasn't sure what exactly his involvement in the events was, but he certainly knew more about the attacks than he was letting on. He had only ever lied to her, whereas she had spilled her innermost secrets and feelings. She realised how naïve and stupid she had been.

There was just one time that Kyra almost approached him. It was early February, and people were spilling out of the great hall after dinner. Kyra had been crossing the entrance hall with Grace to join Oscar in the Hufflepuff common room when she'd caught sight of Alexander, standing at the base of the staircase.

It was his expression that caught her attention, though. His face white, his stance a strung bow and there was complete devastation in his eyes. He stood like someone on the edge of a cliff. Their eyes met for a moment as he reached out to steady himself against the stone banister, and she quickly resumed her step, face flushed.

Grace gave her a questioning look and she shrugged as they climbed through the Hufflepuff portrait hole.

Over the next few days, though, news began to filter through the school that there had been some kind of scuffle in the Ravenclaw common room. The Ravenclaws had returned to find it trashed, the wand on the famous statue broken off, and a first-year girl collapsed on the floor.

Kyra went cold when she heard this, sitting in Herbology the next day and listening to a Gryffindor girl gossip in hushed, eager whispers. The girl had apparently been found with rope looped around her neck, jagged shards of wood around her.

Kyra saw the impact of this news on the teachers. During breaktime, they began huddling in groups of two or three, talking in low voices, or they disappeared into the staff room. Lessons became tenser and even Professor Lingard stopped being sarcastic, leading his class in sombre, clinical instruction.

By the next week, there was a curfew of 8 o'clock and quidditch practice had been cancelled, to the outrage of everyone. Professor Brockett had to fight her way out of a complaining crowd after she had pinned the notice up on the common room board.

There was one small, guilty part of Kyra that was glad. Glad that it hadn't been her friend who had been attacked, and glad that it at least meant that the teachers were now doing something. Glad that it was no longer just her problem.