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Back to Chapter 6
"Finite Incantum." Erik severed the spell on his pocketknife. The knives had been a bad idea all along: what was he thinking, needing to be friends with people so much that he'd talked to them over the equivalent of an open radio channel? He never should have trusted Charles and Moira in the first place, not when Dumbledore had a perfectly good plan without the involvement of children. Taking the opportunity of knowing exactly where Shaw was, Erik crept out of the dorm and towards Dumbledore's office.
The stairs were being particularly obnoxious tonight, twice directing Erik down to the Great Hall rather than Dumbledore's office, but it did give him the opportunity to spot one of the Slytherin prefects, Professor Black's son, escorting Emma Frost up the stairs towards an area of the school where Erik hadn't been before. His plan had originally been to hide in Dumbledore's office until the professor arrived, but this was too much of an opportunity to pass up. Neither of them seemed to have the slightest awareness of Erik's presence, even when he moved up quite close behind them to make sure he could stay on the same staircase.
They arrived at the Divination classroom, a weird round room painted all white, and walked through it to Professor Black's office.
"I didn't realise you learned Divination here at Hogwarts," Emma said to Orion Black, her thin eyebrows raised. "Don't you find it a little old-fashioned?"
"I'm taking a NEWT in Divination, actually," Orion replied.
"Fascinating." Emma's tone suggested the exact opposite. "I suppose there'll be a great deal of reform in the future."
Orion looked puzzled, but it confirmed Erik's suspicions that Shaw was planning to stay. It was a surprise to feel how angry he was about that; not just that Shaw was out in the world doing what he wanted, but that he would dare come here, where Erik was welcomed and felt safer than he could remember. Maybe that's how Dumbledore felt, too, for all he was lauded as a war hero.
Professor Black's office was crowded with shelves of carefully labelled bottles, not to mention Raven sitting on a narrow couch holding a mug of what smelled like hot cocoa. She saw Erik perfectly clearly, and her eyes widened. Before she could speak, he put his finger to his lips and glared at her. She glared back, but took his warning.
"Ah, Miss Frost," Professor Black was saying. "What a pleasure to meet one of the Boston Frosts here at Hogwarts. I was sorry to hear of the loss of my cousin Ara – your great-aunt, I believe?"
"Yes, that's correct. My great-aunt on my father's side. I didn't know her well, but thank you for your condolences."
"And will you be gracing us with your presence for long?" Professor Black waved at Orion, who backed out of the small office, nearly bumping into Erik, and made his way out of the classroom.
Emma sat herself neatly on one of the chairs, crossing her legs daintily. "I do hope so. My guardian, Mr Shaw, is hoping to find a staff position here."
Professor Black laughed. "Defence Against the Dark Arts perhaps? It's a popular position these days." He started to chat about other people who had applied for the job, while Erik saw Emma frown just like Charles did when he was trying to find out something. Something caught Erik's eye: there was a small, ornately framed mirror on the desk, and the more Emma concentrated, the more it glowed. Professor Black must have a magical device to protect him from people like Charles and Emma, or, to be fair, from experienced Legilimens.
Raven also saw the glow and quickly sloshed her hot cocoa onto Emma's white skirt. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"You silly girl!" Emma snapped, and dabbed at her stained skirt. Professor Black's gaze swung from Raven to Emma to the mirror, and he nodded politely at Raven.
"Never mind, Miss Frost. A spell will see to that. Scourgify!"
The brown mess vanished from Emma's skirt, and from the intricate carpet under the desk.
"Well, thank you," Emma sniffed, only to have Professor Black grab her wrist.
"You, young lady, were trying to read my mind. I'm no fool – I can protect myself against a curious Legilimens and put a stop to it."
Erik wasn't so sure how true that was, considering that it had been Raven who distracted Emma, but he appreciated that Professor Black started from a position of strength.
Professor Black stood, towering over Emma with his dark robes and heavy eyebrows. "Did Shaw put you up to this?"
"N-no," Emma was trying to maintain her cool composure with only partial success. "I'm a natural Legilimens, I was only trying to find out if you were likely to hurt me or not…" Her eyes brimmed with glistening tears, which Erik didn't believe in the slightest.
Professor Black didn't seem impressed, either. "I understand why you and young Mr Xavier had your collision at lunch. There's a lot of you talented young people in this generation: Legilimens, a metamorphmagus…"
Something flashed with incredible brightness in Emma's hand and Professor Black slumped to the floor, his eyes wide and unseeing. Raven shrieked, and Emma turned to her.
"You're the metamorphmagus, aren't you? I picked it up from your brother's memories and told Shaw all about you." Whatever she was holding was still glowing so brightly that Erik could barely see anything else in the room.
"What does he want?" Raven's sounded as if she was about to cry.
"He wants to help you understand your power," Emma told her. "He wants everyone to understand their power, and that's why he wants to teach here. Hogwarts is stuffed full of Muggle-borns and orphans and foundlings like you and Shaw wants to help."
Muggle-borns and orphans and foundlings was a perfect description of the Jewish and Gypsy children Shaw had "helped" at the camp. Erik's fists clenched and he stepped forward without thinking, swinging a hard punch at Emma's gut.
He connected and she immediately saw him in the bright light of the object she held, a huge diamond.
"Who are you?" she gasped, staggering against her chair. The gem she had used to take down Professor Black had fell from her hand, its light immediately extinguished, and she fumbled for her wand. Too late, as Raven suddenly turned blue, grew three feet in height and used her newly elongated arm to smack Emma in the face with her cocoa mug. Emma slumped to the ground alongside Professor Black.
"What are you doing, you maniac?" Raven yelled at Erik. "You're supposed to stay hidden!"
"Shaw can't teach here! He can't! We have to tell Dumbledore."
Raven sighed. "But what about Emma Frost? We can't just leave her here. What if she wakes up first and attacks Professor Black again?"
"Can you change into Healer Yaxley?"
Raven demonstrated a perfect copy, though her voice remained high and girlish. "Oh, of course, I'll just carry her! No-one will stop the Healer if he's got a patient. Is Professor Dumbledore's office far?"
"No, not very, and with any luck we won't even run into anyone on the way." Erik reached for the now dull gem that Emma had dropped, but pulled away at the sharp sting when he touched it. It must be attuned to Emma herself, meaning it was useless to him. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and picked it up that way instead, shoving it into a deep pocket. At least Emma wouldn't be able to use it again.
Raven scooped up Emma and followed Erik through the Divination classroom to the hallway. They met only one group of people on the way – that short Ravenclaw prefect that Charles liked leading a group of fourth-years down from Ravenclaw Tower to the library – and Raven's brisk stride as Yaxley left them with obvious curiosity, but no chance to ask questions. Erik followed silently behind, careful not to bump into anyone.
Three-quarters of the way up the stairs to Dumbledore's office, Professor Merrythought headed towards them, her wand out and glowing a faint blue. Raven glanced down at Erik but before they could decide to brazen it out or flee, the professor's gaze focused on Erik and she called out to them.
"Erik! Yes, I can see you, Dumbledore gave me the counter-charm. We need you in his office immediately. Healer Yaxley, what on earth happened to Miss Frost?"
Raven couldn't manage to hide a giggle at fooling the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but she managed to hold her shape.
"Raven Darkholme, I presume? You'd better keep that form to carry Miss Frost up the rest of the stairs." Professor Merrythought didn't seem put out at all, though she kept her wand out as she escorted them the rest of the way. Erik had to tell her all the details about the attack on Professor Black, as Raven had quite enough to do climbing stairs and holding her large shape intact.
Dumbledore arrived at his office at the same time as Erik's group did, and he did not seem pleased. Erik quailed a little, but steeled himself with the thought of that powerful anger as a weapon against Shaw. Dumbledore hurried them all into his office and closed the door firmly, muttering a charm as he did so.
"Erik, I am tremendously disappointed in you. I am most surprised that you would tell half of your class about our plan, and now you have endangered it greatly. Shaw is aware of your presence here and we have lost the element of surprise."
Erik tried to keep matching Dumbledore's hard gaze through his shame: Dumbledore was right, and he should never have trusted a bunch of children.
"Shaw doesn't know much!" Raven had unceremoniously dumped Emma in an armchair and was standing in front of Dumbledore in her natural blue form, her arms folded across her chest, grown a foot taller in anger. "We never said a word about you or whatever your plan is. Mr Shaw thinks he knows everything, he's just that type. And we've captured one of his students, which is more than you did!"
Professor Merrythought looked like she was about to laugh, and even Dumbledore's mouth quirked slightly.
"Raven, I was not questioning your bravery, merely your communication method. You're quite correct: Miss Frost may be able to help us a great deal."
"Well, good," Raven replied, her outrage simmering down. She patted Erik's arm. "See, aren't you glad you let me into your club?"
"I'm really not sure," Erik managed, turning his attention to Dumbledore and Merrythought. She must have been Dumbledore's ally all along. It was no coincidence that she had taught the first year students spell-detection just on the very day Charles had needed it to protect him from Shaw.
The two adults had removed Emma's wand and tied a faded silk ribbon around her forehead. If Erik squinted at it he could faintly see moving runes, but he had no hope of reading them.
"Rennervate," Merrythought said, and a bright flash of red leapt from her wand to Emma's chest. Emma immediately woke and, instead of running, carefully surveyed the room, just as Erik would have done. He saw the same flicker of concentration on her face as when she had tried to use her Legilimens talent on Professor Black, but it immediately dissolved into confusion.
"What have you done to me?" Emma asked, her voice wild. "What have you done?"
"Nothing permanent, I assure you, Miss Frost." Dumbledore's voice was much warmer than it had been with Erik, and Emma's panic looked to be receding a little, though her gaze still flicked about like an animal scrabbling in a cage.
Professor Merrythought smiled, too, though she wasn't quite as successful as Dumbledore at appearing harmless. "We're simply protecting ourselves from your extraordinary talent, Emma. We can protect you from Mr Shaw, too."
Emma pressed her lips together. "I don't need protecting from Shaw. We are in perfect agreement. Wizards and witches should rule over Muggles; the powerful over the weak."
"You know he thinks you're weak." Erik had heard all of this before. "He won't kill you, but he'll use you up. I was there with him long before you were."
"He's teaching me to be strong." Emma shook her head, but it wasn't hard to see the tension in her pretty face.
Dumbledore put a hand on Erik's shoulder before he could speak again. "Emma, we know that Mr Shaw is here to persuade Headmaster Dippet to give him a teaching position. Professor Merrythought and I are not going to allow that to happen."
"Because he's after her job!" Emma smirked at Professor Merrythought, then quickly clamped her mouth shut again.
"Because he tortures and murders children." Dumbledore corrected her as calmly as he would correct the pronunciation of a spell in the classroom. "I don't want that to happen to you. Don't be afraid, Emma: I won't send you home to Boston, either. You are very welcome to stay at Hogwarts, as are your friends."
Eyes wide, Raven stared from Emma to Erik, putting things together.
Emma's eyelids lowered for a moment and Erik thought she was going to give in. Instead, she mutely shook her head, and Erik lost his temper.
"Use the Pensieve on her! You can make her talk! Or truth serum!" he shouted, frustrated at the two adults who had so much power but were wasting time asking politely.
Dumbledore's grip tightened on Erik's shoulder. "No, Erik, we're not going to compel a child into what she considers a betrayal. That's a decision for Emma to make."
"Schmidt, I mean, Shaw would have made her talk!" Erik twisted out of Dumbledore's grip.
"Indeed I would have," came Shaw's smooth voice from the doorway. Despite Dumbledore and Merrythought's protective spells, the door had simply collapsed into splinters. "Delighted to see you, Erik."
Erik grabbed Raven and pulled them both behind Dumbledore's enormous desk, his body moving faster than his thoughts. He hadn't wanted to be weak in front of Shaw, but the instinct to hide was far too strong, his stomach churning with bile and his breath short. He peeked around the edge of the desk and saw that Merrythought had drawn her wand, though Dumbledore had not.
"How did you get in here?" she snapped.
Shaw smiled warmly and put a hand on Emma's shoulder, his wand nowhere to be seen. She beamed up at him but her smile was forced and taut.
"Wherever my children are, I may go." He pulled the runic ribbon from Emma's head. "And their power must be free. Now, Headmaster Dippet and I both agree I would be a marvellous asset to Hogwarts, and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot here. How about you stop bothering young Emma, and I'll forget whatever foolishness poor Erik has told you. He did go through a great deal in the Muggle war, you know."
Erik wanted to stand up and call Shaw a liar, but his legs weren't co-operating and he felt like he was going to be sick. Raven patted his arm gently.
"I'm afraid your memory charms were a little rushed in Erik's case," Dumbledore's tone was still completely calm, and Erik wondered if this is how he'd spoken to Grindelwald before battling him. "They had partially worn off when I found him, and it was easy to undo the remnants."
Shaw's smile was sharp. "Are you sure you were helping him, Dumbledore, or were you making this child one of your little projects? Is Erik happier knowing?"
Emma's gaze slid across to Erik and it was the immense tiredness in her face more than any fear or questioning that gave Erik back his strength. He stood up.
"You murdered my mother and you hurt me, and I remember every moment of it. And I've learnt more here in three months here at Hogwarts than I ever did with your training." Erik put as much contempt into the last word as he could.
"Oh, Erik. Dumbledore doesn't need memory charms to interfere with your perception. He's teaching you to be ordinary, to live inside the lines like everyone else. I was teaching you to be special – you can't even work magic without a wand anymore, can you?"
Erik twitched towards his wand instinctively, but Shaw was right: he'd been able to bend metal before, wandless and without instruction. It had to be better that he could do lots of different things, without the pain or suffering, didn't it?
Professor Merrythought took advantage of Shaw's distraction to shout, "Expelliarmus!" Instead of Shaw's wand flying from his sleeve, a flash of light knocked Merrythought against the wall and she stumbled and fell.
"I'm all right," she managed to wheeze, though she was obviously badly winded, before passing out.
Shaw tutted, a familiar and terrible sound. "We were having a perfectly civilised conversation, Merrythought, until you had to interfere. No wonder Dippet wants me to replace you." He smirked at her, then at Erik. "Now, as I was saying, Dumbledore – and Headmaster Dippet, to be honest – wants you all to be the same, to crush your instinctive talents and make you productive members of Wizarding society. I know, and you know, Erik, that younger witches and wizards have tremendous abilities. All I want to do is develop them, to make you into wonderful creatures of fire and power."
"I don't believe it's worth torturing and occasionally killing children," Dumbledore observed.
"And if I had free reign I wouldn't have to kill anyone!" Shaw threw his arms wide, his smile persuasive. "That little boy, Charles Xavier, he could be as strong as my Emma."
"Leave him alone!" Erik shouted. No matter how persuasive Shaw's argument sounded, Erik's soul hurt at the idea of Charles in Shaw's hands.
Shaw ignored him. "And that little girl who tried to run away, Gabrielle Haller! She changed herself into solid gold – oh yes, Erik, she was not hard to find once I knew to trace young Mr Lykos's flight path – and most adult wizards would find that impossible. I dragged her in this evening: someone has already worked on her potential but I'm sure I can find more."
"No, you can't!" Gabrielle's voice came from behind the desk and she stood up, her face stern. "You're evil, and when the Headmaster finds out you were having Emma spy on everyone, he'll throw you out!"
Even though Erik knew Raven's abilities perfectly well, he was still taken in for a moment, and Shaw was certainly shocked. He glanced out at the hallway then back to the angry little girl, and in that moment Dumbledore acted. His wand was swiftly at Shaw's temple, and with a neat gesture he twisted a long silvery strand from Shaw's head. Shaw lunged at him bare-handed, but he was too late: Dumbledore whisked the cover from a large stone bowl filled with silvery liquid and dropped the strand in, where it mingled with the rest.
Sounds and voices emerged from the bowl: a screaming girl, gunshots, the shriek of tearing steel, someone crying out for help in Yiddish, Shaw's soothing voice talking over the top of the other voices in his accented German.
"Pain and fear, Erik," he said, and at the same time, "Fear and silence, Janos, anger and pain, Emma." His amplified voice ran on and on, and Shaw glared at Dumbledore with a naked rage that knocked Erik two steps backwards.
Emma and Raven were both hiding behind the desk and Erik stumbled to join them, desperate to be away from Shaw's attention. He kept hearing a raw-voiced scream of rage that he knew was his own, at his mother's death, and he couldn't stand it. He didn't, though, realise that he was crying until Raven pushed her grotty handkerchief at him. Emma was crying too, but her expression was as cold and focused as ever, as if the tears gleaming on her face belonged to someone else.
"Don't worry," Raven whispered, patting his shoulder. "It will be okay as long as we stick together."
---
Moira had assembled Charles, Hank, Angel and Sean in the library, though they wouldn't have long until they were all sent to their respective dorms for the night. Shaw and the two boys with him had left swiftly after dinner, as had Professor Merrythought. They had heard nothing more from Erik or Raven, but at least they knew Raven was safe with Professor Black. The only group members absent were Alex and Armando, who had gone up to the dorm to check on Erik since they could no longer safely use their penknife radios.
"I'm sure he's doing just fine," Moira told Charles, patting his arm. In fact, Moira thought nothing of the sort, but Charles was always such a worrywart that she had developed a habit of calming him down.
Sean was fidgeting, as usual. "Do you want me to check if Raven's in the Hufflepuff dorm? There's some Hufflepuffs going with a prefect right now."
"No! The last thing we need is more of us wandering off. We don't know where Shaw is, or what he's heard, so we have to stay close."
"Do you think he knows about Gabrielle?" Angel asked. "We didn't say anything specific about her, but Erik definitely mentioned Karl once or twice. Do you think she's okay? I mean, she can't be hurt while she's solid gold, can she?"
Moira was starting to feel as if she was herding cats. "There's nothing we can do about it at the moment!"
"Shh!" said Madam Fletcher as she passed by, a group of anxious Seventh Year students following in her wake.
It was good that the library was busy with club meetings and illicit dates since everyone had to travel in groups, and their little group wouldn't attract attention; it was equally bad, because it was hard to find anywhere private enough to talk about Shaw. Moira spotted her opportunity and bustled everyone towards a table that the Seventh Years had just vacated.
"Now stay here: we don't have the time to find you if you wander off."
Of all people, Cain Marko spotted them. "Hey! You guys are always hanging out together. What are you up to?"
"Homework," Charles told him with immense dignity and Cain rolled his eyes.
"Typical. You seen Raven? She wasn't at the dorm."
"What do you care?" Moira snapped. She'd heard about Cain's bullying ways.
He muttered something and headed off towards his even larger friend Fred Dukes.
"What did he say?" she asked Hank, who had excellent hearing.
Hank replied, in some bemusement, "He said 'Hufflepuffs stick together.'"
"Well!" Charles said, as if he was a forty-year-old man rather than a boy with the manners of one.
"Look, it's Armando and Alex!" Hank was by far the tallest of them, and could see over the heads of all the other students, whereas Moira was stuck staring at black robes. She hoped they had Erik with them, but she wasn't entirely sure of how Professor Dumbledore's spell worked, so perhaps he wasn't visible to Hank yet.
Much to Moira's annoyance, Erik was nowhere to be found.
"He wasn't in the dorm," Armando explained. "Karl had been with him in the afternoon but he came down to dinner, so there would have been no-one there to see where he went. I asked the Fat Lady – that's the portrait outside our dorm – but all she could tell me is that he stomped off down the hall in a terrible rush."
"At least he was by himself," Alex added, darkly. "He'd left his pocketknife by his bed, even though he'd taken the spell off. It's still a knife, he should have kept it."
Moira gave Alex a stern glare – she'd often seen him playing with his knife in class – but it had no effect whatsoever. Still, she supposed now wasn't the time.
Charles seemed energised by this news rather than upset. "Well then, we'd better find him. Do you think he's fled Hogwarts?"
"Because Erik's exactly the type of boy to run away from a fight," Angel muttered.
Charles, sounding horribly offended, told her, "No, I meant he might have gone to help Gabrielle, actually."
Moira stepped between them. "If he has somehow got out of the castle, he's out of Shaw's way and perfectly safe. Not that I know how he'd help Gabrielle, but at least we won't have to worry about him. I'm more concerned that he's gone to confront Shaw."
"Wouldn't he go to Dumbledore first?" Hank asked, nervously. "I mean, Dumbledore knows all about Shaw. And he defeated Grindelwald in the war, so he can probably defeat Shaw if he needs to. Or maybe-"
Sean interrupted Hank's theorising. "I know how we can find out!"
Everyone looked at him. Sean was a very enthusiastic participant in their planning, especially the practice fights, but he didn't usually come forward with ideas. The sudden attention turned him bright red under his freckles.
"Well, um, don't tell anyone, but our Quidditch Captain thinks that a few of us might be on the team next year, so she's been giving us secret broom training."
"That's not a secret! My Quidditch Captain found out what you were doing and now she's training me!" Angel argued.
"She is?"
"Yes, out past the lake just after dinner. She says I'm the best flyer in my year."
"Oh. Well, my point is, because it's secret, we train up in the air near Ravenclaw Tower, so the tower blocks everyone's view. To get up there we use the big vine that grows up the eastern wall. It's enchanted so it carries you up, but it's a bit slow so you can look in all the windows as you go. You can see most of the teacher's offices if you stand in different places each time, and heaps of the staircases and corridors."
"Brilliant!" Moira clapped Sean on the back. "All of us together will be able to check every floor without anyone knowing we're there."
"We just have to get there," Charles pointed out. The prefects were still escorting students from place to place, and a group of first years would never be allowed outside on their own.
Angel snorted. "Oh, that's easy! There's tunnels from the Slytherin dorms all over Hogwarts. There was a Head Boy from Slytherin a few years ago who was always searching for hidden corridors and chambers, someone said, and he had friends who told the rest of the house, so we all know where they are."
"Lead on!" Charles told her, and Angel hustled them all to the bottom floor of the library, a section on magical hydraulics that was boring even to Moira. Angel put a finger on one particular book and had to stretch her arms as far as possible to reach another.
"Can we help?" Moira asked.
"No, the Head Boy set it all to be locked unless you're a Slytherin." She got her fingertips on the second book and a section of the bookcase swung open, revealing a shallow staircase leading downwards. They all hurried in and Angel let the door swing closed behind them.
Hank looked worried – and in the glaring white light of his Lumos spell, practically sick. "Doesn't that mean that only you can get us out?"
"Better stick close, then!" Angel smirked at him, and Hank promptly did, dogging her footsteps.
The tunnels were meandering and awkwardly shaped, presumably to bend around classrooms and offices, but helpful Slytherins had written directions on the walls in glowing light at most of the junctions. Occasionally they could hear voices or footsteps echoing through the tunnels, but there were so many that they never actually ran into the Slytherins using them.
"Oh, that's the girls' bathroom that's haunted!" Moira pointed to one sign.
"Yeah, but it doesn't actually lead there. It's blocked off by another tunnel or something." Angel led them onwards, until the sign read "East Wing."
"I'm not sure where this tunnel actually comes up, so we'll have to go carefully," she warned as she opened the door. "Hank, you go first. You're a big suck-up so if a teacher sees you they'll go easy on you."
While Hank spluttered, Moira peeped out of the opening to see nothing more exciting than the History of Magic classroom. Nobody was there at this time of night, so she ventured out and gestured for the others to follow her. They all emerged from the tunnel just in time for Professor Binns to float in through the door.
Moira turned towards the tunnel, but Angel had already closed it, and everyone was frozen in place, hoping Professor Binns didn't glance their way.
He did, floating directly towards them, but instead of apprehending the out-of-bounds students, he floated through Armando's arm – Armando managed to stifle his horrified shriek – and started writing a series of dates on the blackboard.
Everyone stared at each other in shock, but Armando wasn't staying put for further ghostly encounters: he scurried for the classroom door at a rapid pace and the rest of the group dashed after him.
"Is your arm okay?" Moira whispered to him once they were safely in the corridor.
"So cold!" Armando gasped. Alex grabbed his arm and rubbed it roughly, restoring some warmth.
It wasn't far from the History of Magic classroom to the door out into the grounds, and fortunately the corridor was otherwise unoccupied. The door was barred, but since they were on the correct side to lift the bar, this posed no obstacle.
Moira gasped as the bitterly cold outdoor air rushed in: none of them had thought to bring a coat. Still, with any luck it wouldn't take long to find Erik. She stomped out into the light snow, followed by Sean, but the other students hesitated.
"Oh come on! There's hardly any wind and we'll be inside in no time! It's going to take you longer than five minutes to freeze."
"Do you think Gabrielle's really okay if she's outside in this?" Charles asked, but did what Moira said and moved out into the chilly night.
Armando shrugged. "She's probably survived worse. And if she's still transfigured into gold I suppose she'll be fine anyway."
"This way to the vine!" Sean pulled at Moira's arm and led them to the huge, still-leafy vine that he'd described. "Just climb on a leaf and it will carry you up to the top." He demonstrated by stepping onto a broad leaf that was touching the ground. The leaf immediately stiffened into a solid platform and began to slowly slide up the main trunk of the vine. The vine was so huge that there was a lot of lateral movement as well as vertical, and Moira understood what Sean meant about getting to look in lots of windows.
"All aboard, come on!" Moira started pushing the others onto more of the broad, accommodating leaves, until everyone was taking a varied path along and up.
There were several classrooms on the east side of the castle, but many more teachers' offices and storerooms. Moira was terribly tempted to duck in a window and liberate a Potions textbook from a storage room stacked high with second-year texts, just to get a head start for next year, but she restrained herself: Erik might be in serious trouble.
Sean, the highest up of the group, pointed into one of the tall windows: as Moira got closer she saw Healer Yaxley and the caretaker, Mr Pringle, running up a staircase: if they had glanced up they would have seen seven faces at the windows, but they were in far too much of a hurry.
"That's the way to Professor Black's office!" Charles whispered from the next leaf, sounding horrified. "Do you think something's happened to Raven?"
"I'm sure Professor Black will take care of her!" Moira patted Charles's arm. "He's probably called them for Emma Frost – he'd stop her if she tried something silly."
Charles didn't look very comforted by this, but before he could speak again, Alex pointed urgently into another window, then hauled the window open and climbed in. The rest of them scrambled after him, stepping across from leaf to leaf, and Moira tried not to think about the long fall beneath them.
Alex's keen eyes had spotted a gold statue propped up against a wall. It was Gabrielle Haller, frozen in place with a horrified expression. She was still wearing her school uniform, but underneath she was cold metal. Karl had been carrying her when she had transformed, and her toes were pointed downwards, meaning that her statue couldn't stand up by itself.
Moira shuddered: Gabrielle's mouth was open in a scream and she was trying to cover her face with her hands. Despite her hard, golden gleam, she looked terribly vulnerable in that moment.
Angel shrugged out of her long black robe, despite shivering with cold, and Moira did the same, understanding what Angel meant to do. Angel put her robe on the stone floor for Gabrielle to lie on, and the two girls started to lower the statue to the ground. It was incredibly heavy, but the five boys had hurried over to help and all together, they managed to lie her down and drape Moira's robe over her, to give her a little privacy in her moment of fear.
A loud crack sounded from an open door further along the corridor, and a bright orange light lit up the hall for a moment.
"Come on!" Charles drew his wand and ran towards the door. Moira tried to grab the hem of his robe – surely they should make a plan first – but he pulled free and the other boys raced after him, Angel right behind them.
---
Charles had been expecting to rush in and save Erik from Shaw's clutches – he was a little vague on the details – but he didn't even make it in the door. The long-haired boy who had been with Shaw was there, and he cast a spell to create a great gust of wind that sent Charles flying backwards into Hank and the rest of their group, all of them crashing to the floor. Before anyone else could act, the other one – a ruddy-faced boy old enough to have a stubbly beard – was blocking their way, his body crackling with red energy.
Moira was the only one left standing. "We don't want to fight you!" she called out.
"Then stay where you are," the stubble-faced boy told her. "Mr Shaw is having a meeting and doesn't want to be interrupted."
Charles wriggled out from underneath Sean's leg. "We just want to find our friend."
"The metamorphmagus? She'll be fine. Shaw thinks she's great." There was a sneer in the boy's voice that Charles really didn't like, but he took a deep breath and didn't argue. If Shaw had Raven as well as Erik, he had to keep his wits about him.
"Actually, that's my sister. Maybe Shaw wants to meet me, too."
"Charles, no!" Moira called out, but this only seemed to be more convincing to the boy.
"So you're a metamorphmagus too? No, wait, you're the one who knocked out Emma. I bet she'd like to see you."
He glanced into the room – still glowing orange – and as he did Angel called out "Flipendo," pushing the long-haired boy off-balance, whereupon Alex punched him in the face and knocked his head against the wall.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Armando shouted at the same moment and the stubble-faced boy fell flat on his face. They all pointed their wands at the boy.
He raised his hands. "Fine. Go to Shaw. I hope you get what you want."
Charles opened his mouth to reply when the boy vanished in a puff of red smoke. He reappeared next to the other boy, dragged him free of Alex and the pair of them disappeared again.
"That's the weirdest Apparating I've ever seen!" Armando said, his mouth hanging open. "And wandless!"
"I read about Shaw: he thinks we should all have one powerful ability, instead of learning different kinds of magic with a wand. That's why he needs children, to train them young." Hank explained.
"Well, he's not getting Erik and Raven!" Charles ran towards the open door.
The door was not so much open as destroyed, splinters littering the hall. The orange glow filled the doorway and Charles bounced off it with a surprised yelp.
"Stop, it's enspelled!" he called out and the others screeched to a halt behind him, except for Moira who was hanging back, her arms folded angrily.
"What are you planning to do when you get in there?" Moira demanded.
Sean butted in. "Can you see inside? Or hear anything?"
Charles peered through the orange light. There were two adult-sized silhouettes and a big dark block that must be a desk, but it was difficult to make out anything else. "There's people in there, but I can't hear them at all."
Angel poked at the orange glow with her wand. "Shaw wouldn't have had those boys guarding the door if there was no chance of breaking the spell. Let's try."
"Wait!" Moira said again. "Then what? We can fight two kids, but what are we meant to do against Shaw?"
Alex was uncompromising. "Take him out. There's seven of us, plus Erik and Raven. He can't hit us all at once. Me and Angel can distract him and the rest of you can get his wand."
Angel looked a bit dubious at her part in the plan, but nodded. "Yeah, strength in numbers."
Moira didn't sound any happier. "Still, we should check that Erik and Raven are actually in there and we're not walking into a wizard duel for nothing. You can do that, Charles."
"Oh! Yes, yes I can." Charles leaned his head against the bright glow and tried to find the minds inside. Fortunately, the barrier didn't seem to interfere, and Charles reached out carefully. The moment he did, he recognised Raven's mind: she was intensely focused on calling to Charles himself, and that made her easy to find and read. She was scared but defiant and unhurt. Emma Frost was near her somewhere – her mind was closed off to Charles like the teachers' minds – and Erik nearer the two adults.
"Raven's definitely in there – she's okay but she's trying to summon us for help – and Erik's there too, plus Emma Frost and two adults."
"Must be Dumbledore and Shaw," Armando noted. "Can you talk to Raven at all? We'll work on the barrier."
"I'll try to reach out to her." Charles closed his eyes to concentrate as shouts of "Finite Incantatem" echoed around him and the orange barrier shuddered under the repeated assaults.
"Hello, Charles." Emma's voice felt cool in his head but he could feel the fractured terror underneath.
"Hello, Emma. Are you all right? Is Raven? And Erik?" Charles tried to stay as cool, but it was impossible to hide things, mind-to-mind. He'd never spoken to anyone like this before and it was both dazzling and terrifying.
"Professor Dumbledore did something to Mr Shaw and Mr Shaw's really mad. He was planning to come here and teach but now I think he's going to hurt Professor Dumbledore." She didn't have to say "and me."
"Can you help Professor Dumbledore?"
"Your horrible sister and I are behind this desk and that's where I'm staying! Mr Shaw might forgive me for hiding, but he'll never forgive me for turning against him."
"Where's Erik?" Charles' relief about Raven and terror for Erik made his heart thump.
"Shaw's making him help."
"Finite Incantatem!" came everyone's voices at once and the barrier collapsed, spilling Charles forward into the room, which turned out to be Professor Dumbledore's study.
Shaw was standing in the middle of the room, a smug expression on his face, while Dumbledore was near the window, his arms folded and no wand in sight. Professor Merrythought lay in a corner, her robes giving off thin threads of green smoke. Erik was standing near Shaw, half-hidden from Charles, though Charles could see Erik's fist was clenched.
"How delightful!" Shaw crowed. "An audience! Come in, children. I would very much like you to see this."
"See what?" Charles demanded. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Raven peep around the corner of the desk, give him a thumbs up, and retreat again.
"See exactly what you're missing when you learn to suppress your natural magic in favour of an education. Oh, and for those of you thinking about attacking me, cast your eyes over Merrythought and think again. She saw plenty of combat in the war, but she was still no match for me."
Alex, who had edged up close to Charles, moved back a little. Merrythought wasn't dead, but she didn't look well, either. Talking about attacking Shaw was very different to actually doing it.
"I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve," Dumbledore said, his voice as calm as if he was in a classroom. "The Pensieve is heavily warded against magical attacks, much more so that my door was." He was gesturing towards a large stone bowl that had a smaller metal bowl inside it. The surface was covered with swirling white mist. Charles didn't know what it was, exactly, but it felt old and powerful.
Shaw smirked. "And that's exactly what I want to show these children. Erik, destroy the Pensieve."
"No," Erik said, very quietly.
Shaw glanced over at Charles and the other students with him. "My dear Erik, you know what will happen if you don't."
His expression had been mild, but Erik obviously understood what Shaw was talking about. He abruptly turned his back on Charles and reached his bare hands out towards the Pensieve, shaking with effort. He had no wand and had cast no spell, yet the metal bowl shivered and clanked against the stone, then suddenly began to fold in on itself, the metal shrieking as it collapsed.
"What's he doing?" Armando whispered.
"Using his natural ability rather than his wand," Hank answered, sounding fascinated despite himself.
"I killed someone with my natural ability!" Alex spat, and ran at Shaw, an ominous red glow forming on Alex's chest. Angel and Armando followed just a step behind. The red glow coalesced into a circle of red light that launched from Alex to Shaw and had no effect whatsoever. A sweep of Shaw's arm send Alex flying towards the wall, and the other two students bounced off him as Charles had bounced off the barrier at the doorway.
"Aresto Momentum!"
Alex's flight slowed and stopped with his head inches from the stone wall. Dumbledore's wand was out, and he gestured to set Alex down with utmost care.
"That's enough, Shaw. These children are not your enemies."
"No," Shaw replied, smiling fondly. "They will be my pupils." He looked down at Alex, who seemed dazed despite Dumbledore's neat catch. "You killed someone, you say?"
A heavy candlestick suddenly flew at Shaw's head, bouncing off his skull. He staggered only slightly, but he glared at Erik as a second candlestick barely missed him. "Enough!" He seized Erik by the throat and marched him backwards across the room, lifting him off the ground as Erik kicked and fought to break free.
Charles, Moira and Sean pointed their wands at Shaw, Charles desperately running through his few spells trying to work out which would most likely stop Shaw strangling Erik.
"No!" Dumbledore called, "Don't use magic on Shaw! You'll only make him stronger!"
"O ho! Figured it out, have you?" Shaw laughed, bashing the struggling Erik against a wall to punctuate.
"Incarcerous Arbore!" Dumbledore pointed his wand not at Shaw but at the floor by his feet, and rope-like black vines erupted upwards. Unlike Alex's attempt at a magic, this seemed to have an effect, and Charles thought it must be because the spell hadn't been cast directly on Shaw.
As the vines wrapped around Shaw, he dropped Erik, who fell, gasping. Charles chanced running between Shaw and Dumbledore and skidded to the floor beside his friend.
"Erik, Erik, are you all right?"
Erik was still trying to protect his bruised throat, but he grabbed Charles' arm with his other hand, as if to assure himself that Charles was real. "You have to get out of here," he wheezed.
"Not without you. Come on." Charles hauled Erik to his feet, and across the room he saw Raven dash from behind the desk to stand at Moira's side, near the door. Armando and Angel were pulling a dazed Alex with them. Even Professor Merrythought was struggling up from her prone position in the corner. Shaw, however, was bound to the floor by thin black vines, and immobilised.
Dumbledore stood over Shaw, his wand drawn. "I will not allow you to harm more children."
"You're the one using children to fight your battles," Shaw snarled as the vines tightened. Charles couldn't help but notice that Shaw's body was starting to glow the same red as Alex's magic, mostly hidden under the vines.
"Professor!" he called out to Dumbledore, but it was too late. Shaw burst free of his bonds with a wild laugh, twisted his body and launched himself at Dumbledore across the floor. He grabbed the Professor by the ankles and red light glowed from them both before Dumbledore's eyes rolled up and he collapsed in a heap. Another blast of light from Shaw's hand at Merrythought and suddenly the room was silent but for Erik's rasping breaths.
Charles stood in front of Erik as Shaw got to his feet. "You can't have him!"
"Charles Xavier, isn't it?" Shaw's calm voice was even more chilling after the violence he had just committed. "That's fine. I'll have both of you. And the metamorphmagus, plus that boy who claims to be a killer. What a wealth of power there is here!"
Charles could feel Erik shaking so hard that it was making Charles shake too. "How are you going to explain what you did to the Professors?"
"Hmph. Since Erik helpfully destroyed the evidence Dumbledore was after, with you and Emma at my side I'm sure we can concoct something easy for the Headmaster to believe. He'll get rid of his most troublesome staff members and find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in one fell swoop."
"You can't do this!" Moira shouted from the other side of the room. She was standing protectively in front of Raven.
"What about Professor Black?" Raven called. She had grown two feet in height, which Charles knew she only did when she was either showing off or truly terrified.
"I'm sure we can come to some agreement. It was just Emma being silly, wasn't it, my dear?"
Emma reluctantly stood up from behind the desk as if Shaw was pulling the strings of a marionette.
She smoothed out her skirt, thoroughly downcast. "Yes, I'm terribly sorry, Mr Shaw. I'll apologise to Professor Black, as soon I as I possibly can."
Striding across to the other students, Shaw shoved Moira out of the way and grabbed Raven by the arm, hauling her over to where Charles and Erik stood.
"Leave her alone!" Charles shouted, as Sean and Moira tried to pull Shaw's arm away to no effect.
Raven, however, was not a girl to be dragged around. She promptly bit Shaw on the thumb, morphing down to her regular size in an attempt to make him let go.
Shaw was bleeding. "You little animal!" He pulled back his other hand and slapped Raven across the face so hard she went limp in his grasp.
"Claudisi!" Charles yelled, the stumbling jinx, the first spell that came to mind. Armando, Moira and Sean cast spells as well, lines of light flashing into Shaw's body, but Shaw didn't so much as flinch. If anything, he looked pleased.
"Enough of this. You children will do as you're told." He shook Raven by her arm. "Especially you."
Charles heard thundering footsteps and had a moment to think how familiar they sounded before Cain hurtled into the room and crashed right into Shaw. Cain was not as tall as Shaw but considerably wider, and with momentum on his side his tackle was spectacularly successful. Shaw, still clutching Raven, skidded across the room to hit the wall beside Charles and Erik.
"Drop her!" Cain bellowed, advancing on Shaw, though his attack had thrown Raven just as far.
"Impedimenta!" Emma shouted and Cain stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Thank you, Emma," Shaw said, though he sounded slightly winded.
Erik suddenly pulled his hand from Charles'. "Here," he whispered, "Take this."
Charles opened his hand to see what Erik had given him: it was an enormous diamond, and while it had left red burn marks on Erik's fingers, it felt pleasantly warm in Charles' grasp. "What does it do?" he asked, as it began to glow brightly.
"That's mine!" Emma shrieked, and Charles held it up towards Shaw. He wasn't sure what Erik wanted him to do – it's not like magic worked on Shaw – but he trusted his friend.
"Enough!" Shaw bellowed, pulling himself up to a seated position and letting go of Raven to reach for the diamond. It was glowing so brightly that the rest of the room was cast into shadow: Charles couldn't see anything other than the diamond and its reflection in Shaw's eyes. He could feel power building between him and the gem, but he had absolutely no idea how to focus it to attack Shaw without hurting Raven or Cain.
"Erik, help me!" Charles gasped out, but Erik was already moving, his wand out, though he must know that it was useless against Shaw.
Shaw's focus was still on the diamond, reaching out to take it from Charles, when suddenly Erik leapt between them, a dark shadow, with his wand held high. He plunged it deep into Shaw's eye socket, driving him to the floor. Erik pulled his wand back and stabbed him through the eye again with a terrible wet, tearing sound, and Charles dropped the glowing diamond in shock. The room was suddenly cast into gloom.
Shaw was lying on the ground, gasping and bleeding, while Erik knelt over him stabbing into his skull again and again.
"You want to take my wand! Here you are! Take it!" Erik shouted. "You killed my mother! You can't have my friends!"
Charles grabbed Erik by the shoulders. "Stop it! Erik! Stop it!" He knew that it was too late: Shaw was dead and Erik was laughing, a sound Charles had never heard. Charles took Erik's arm instead, covered in blood and what must be brain matter, and pulled as hard as he could, desperate to stop both Erik's attack and his terrible laughter.
Other people clustered around them – Moira, Cain, then some adults – but all Charles could hear was Erik laughing. Someone pulled Charles away from Erik, and as hard as Charles tried to hold on, he couldn't.
"Erik! Erik!" he shouted and finally the laughing stopped.
"You're safe now!" Erik called out to him, even as the groundskeeper pulled him away from Shaw's body, blood dripping from Erik's hands. "We're all safe now!"
Charles had never felt less safe in his life.
On to Epilogue
"Finite Incantum." Erik severed the spell on his pocketknife. The knives had been a bad idea all along: what was he thinking, needing to be friends with people so much that he'd talked to them over the equivalent of an open radio channel? He never should have trusted Charles and Moira in the first place, not when Dumbledore had a perfectly good plan without the involvement of children. Taking the opportunity of knowing exactly where Shaw was, Erik crept out of the dorm and towards Dumbledore's office.
The stairs were being particularly obnoxious tonight, twice directing Erik down to the Great Hall rather than Dumbledore's office, but it did give him the opportunity to spot one of the Slytherin prefects, Professor Black's son, escorting Emma Frost up the stairs towards an area of the school where Erik hadn't been before. His plan had originally been to hide in Dumbledore's office until the professor arrived, but this was too much of an opportunity to pass up. Neither of them seemed to have the slightest awareness of Erik's presence, even when he moved up quite close behind them to make sure he could stay on the same staircase.
They arrived at the Divination classroom, a weird round room painted all white, and walked through it to Professor Black's office.
"I didn't realise you learned Divination here at Hogwarts," Emma said to Orion Black, her thin eyebrows raised. "Don't you find it a little old-fashioned?"
"I'm taking a NEWT in Divination, actually," Orion replied.
"Fascinating." Emma's tone suggested the exact opposite. "I suppose there'll be a great deal of reform in the future."
Orion looked puzzled, but it confirmed Erik's suspicions that Shaw was planning to stay. It was a surprise to feel how angry he was about that; not just that Shaw was out in the world doing what he wanted, but that he would dare come here, where Erik was welcomed and felt safer than he could remember. Maybe that's how Dumbledore felt, too, for all he was lauded as a war hero.
Professor Black's office was crowded with shelves of carefully labelled bottles, not to mention Raven sitting on a narrow couch holding a mug of what smelled like hot cocoa. She saw Erik perfectly clearly, and her eyes widened. Before she could speak, he put his finger to his lips and glared at her. She glared back, but took his warning.
"Ah, Miss Frost," Professor Black was saying. "What a pleasure to meet one of the Boston Frosts here at Hogwarts. I was sorry to hear of the loss of my cousin Ara – your great-aunt, I believe?"
"Yes, that's correct. My great-aunt on my father's side. I didn't know her well, but thank you for your condolences."
"And will you be gracing us with your presence for long?" Professor Black waved at Orion, who backed out of the small office, nearly bumping into Erik, and made his way out of the classroom.
Emma sat herself neatly on one of the chairs, crossing her legs daintily. "I do hope so. My guardian, Mr Shaw, is hoping to find a staff position here."
Professor Black laughed. "Defence Against the Dark Arts perhaps? It's a popular position these days." He started to chat about other people who had applied for the job, while Erik saw Emma frown just like Charles did when he was trying to find out something. Something caught Erik's eye: there was a small, ornately framed mirror on the desk, and the more Emma concentrated, the more it glowed. Professor Black must have a magical device to protect him from people like Charles and Emma, or, to be fair, from experienced Legilimens.
Raven also saw the glow and quickly sloshed her hot cocoa onto Emma's white skirt. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"You silly girl!" Emma snapped, and dabbed at her stained skirt. Professor Black's gaze swung from Raven to Emma to the mirror, and he nodded politely at Raven.
"Never mind, Miss Frost. A spell will see to that. Scourgify!"
The brown mess vanished from Emma's skirt, and from the intricate carpet under the desk.
"Well, thank you," Emma sniffed, only to have Professor Black grab her wrist.
"You, young lady, were trying to read my mind. I'm no fool – I can protect myself against a curious Legilimens and put a stop to it."
Erik wasn't so sure how true that was, considering that it had been Raven who distracted Emma, but he appreciated that Professor Black started from a position of strength.
Professor Black stood, towering over Emma with his dark robes and heavy eyebrows. "Did Shaw put you up to this?"
"N-no," Emma was trying to maintain her cool composure with only partial success. "I'm a natural Legilimens, I was only trying to find out if you were likely to hurt me or not…" Her eyes brimmed with glistening tears, which Erik didn't believe in the slightest.
Professor Black didn't seem impressed, either. "I understand why you and young Mr Xavier had your collision at lunch. There's a lot of you talented young people in this generation: Legilimens, a metamorphmagus…"
Something flashed with incredible brightness in Emma's hand and Professor Black slumped to the floor, his eyes wide and unseeing. Raven shrieked, and Emma turned to her.
"You're the metamorphmagus, aren't you? I picked it up from your brother's memories and told Shaw all about you." Whatever she was holding was still glowing so brightly that Erik could barely see anything else in the room.
"What does he want?" Raven's sounded as if she was about to cry.
"He wants to help you understand your power," Emma told her. "He wants everyone to understand their power, and that's why he wants to teach here. Hogwarts is stuffed full of Muggle-borns and orphans and foundlings like you and Shaw wants to help."
Muggle-borns and orphans and foundlings was a perfect description of the Jewish and Gypsy children Shaw had "helped" at the camp. Erik's fists clenched and he stepped forward without thinking, swinging a hard punch at Emma's gut.
He connected and she immediately saw him in the bright light of the object she held, a huge diamond.
"Who are you?" she gasped, staggering against her chair. The gem she had used to take down Professor Black had fell from her hand, its light immediately extinguished, and she fumbled for her wand. Too late, as Raven suddenly turned blue, grew three feet in height and used her newly elongated arm to smack Emma in the face with her cocoa mug. Emma slumped to the ground alongside Professor Black.
"What are you doing, you maniac?" Raven yelled at Erik. "You're supposed to stay hidden!"
"Shaw can't teach here! He can't! We have to tell Dumbledore."
Raven sighed. "But what about Emma Frost? We can't just leave her here. What if she wakes up first and attacks Professor Black again?"
"Can you change into Healer Yaxley?"
Raven demonstrated a perfect copy, though her voice remained high and girlish. "Oh, of course, I'll just carry her! No-one will stop the Healer if he's got a patient. Is Professor Dumbledore's office far?"
"No, not very, and with any luck we won't even run into anyone on the way." Erik reached for the now dull gem that Emma had dropped, but pulled away at the sharp sting when he touched it. It must be attuned to Emma herself, meaning it was useless to him. He pulled his sleeve over his hand and picked it up that way instead, shoving it into a deep pocket. At least Emma wouldn't be able to use it again.
Raven scooped up Emma and followed Erik through the Divination classroom to the hallway. They met only one group of people on the way – that short Ravenclaw prefect that Charles liked leading a group of fourth-years down from Ravenclaw Tower to the library – and Raven's brisk stride as Yaxley left them with obvious curiosity, but no chance to ask questions. Erik followed silently behind, careful not to bump into anyone.
Three-quarters of the way up the stairs to Dumbledore's office, Professor Merrythought headed towards them, her wand out and glowing a faint blue. Raven glanced down at Erik but before they could decide to brazen it out or flee, the professor's gaze focused on Erik and she called out to them.
"Erik! Yes, I can see you, Dumbledore gave me the counter-charm. We need you in his office immediately. Healer Yaxley, what on earth happened to Miss Frost?"
Raven couldn't manage to hide a giggle at fooling the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but she managed to hold her shape.
"Raven Darkholme, I presume? You'd better keep that form to carry Miss Frost up the rest of the stairs." Professor Merrythought didn't seem put out at all, though she kept her wand out as she escorted them the rest of the way. Erik had to tell her all the details about the attack on Professor Black, as Raven had quite enough to do climbing stairs and holding her large shape intact.
Dumbledore arrived at his office at the same time as Erik's group did, and he did not seem pleased. Erik quailed a little, but steeled himself with the thought of that powerful anger as a weapon against Shaw. Dumbledore hurried them all into his office and closed the door firmly, muttering a charm as he did so.
"Erik, I am tremendously disappointed in you. I am most surprised that you would tell half of your class about our plan, and now you have endangered it greatly. Shaw is aware of your presence here and we have lost the element of surprise."
Erik tried to keep matching Dumbledore's hard gaze through his shame: Dumbledore was right, and he should never have trusted a bunch of children.
"Shaw doesn't know much!" Raven had unceremoniously dumped Emma in an armchair and was standing in front of Dumbledore in her natural blue form, her arms folded across her chest, grown a foot taller in anger. "We never said a word about you or whatever your plan is. Mr Shaw thinks he knows everything, he's just that type. And we've captured one of his students, which is more than you did!"
Professor Merrythought looked like she was about to laugh, and even Dumbledore's mouth quirked slightly.
"Raven, I was not questioning your bravery, merely your communication method. You're quite correct: Miss Frost may be able to help us a great deal."
"Well, good," Raven replied, her outrage simmering down. She patted Erik's arm. "See, aren't you glad you let me into your club?"
"I'm really not sure," Erik managed, turning his attention to Dumbledore and Merrythought. She must have been Dumbledore's ally all along. It was no coincidence that she had taught the first year students spell-detection just on the very day Charles had needed it to protect him from Shaw.
The two adults had removed Emma's wand and tied a faded silk ribbon around her forehead. If Erik squinted at it he could faintly see moving runes, but he had no hope of reading them.
"Rennervate," Merrythought said, and a bright flash of red leapt from her wand to Emma's chest. Emma immediately woke and, instead of running, carefully surveyed the room, just as Erik would have done. He saw the same flicker of concentration on her face as when she had tried to use her Legilimens talent on Professor Black, but it immediately dissolved into confusion.
"What have you done to me?" Emma asked, her voice wild. "What have you done?"
"Nothing permanent, I assure you, Miss Frost." Dumbledore's voice was much warmer than it had been with Erik, and Emma's panic looked to be receding a little, though her gaze still flicked about like an animal scrabbling in a cage.
Professor Merrythought smiled, too, though she wasn't quite as successful as Dumbledore at appearing harmless. "We're simply protecting ourselves from your extraordinary talent, Emma. We can protect you from Mr Shaw, too."
Emma pressed her lips together. "I don't need protecting from Shaw. We are in perfect agreement. Wizards and witches should rule over Muggles; the powerful over the weak."
"You know he thinks you're weak." Erik had heard all of this before. "He won't kill you, but he'll use you up. I was there with him long before you were."
"He's teaching me to be strong." Emma shook her head, but it wasn't hard to see the tension in her pretty face.
Dumbledore put a hand on Erik's shoulder before he could speak again. "Emma, we know that Mr Shaw is here to persuade Headmaster Dippet to give him a teaching position. Professor Merrythought and I are not going to allow that to happen."
"Because he's after her job!" Emma smirked at Professor Merrythought, then quickly clamped her mouth shut again.
"Because he tortures and murders children." Dumbledore corrected her as calmly as he would correct the pronunciation of a spell in the classroom. "I don't want that to happen to you. Don't be afraid, Emma: I won't send you home to Boston, either. You are very welcome to stay at Hogwarts, as are your friends."
Eyes wide, Raven stared from Emma to Erik, putting things together.
Emma's eyelids lowered for a moment and Erik thought she was going to give in. Instead, she mutely shook her head, and Erik lost his temper.
"Use the Pensieve on her! You can make her talk! Or truth serum!" he shouted, frustrated at the two adults who had so much power but were wasting time asking politely.
Dumbledore's grip tightened on Erik's shoulder. "No, Erik, we're not going to compel a child into what she considers a betrayal. That's a decision for Emma to make."
"Schmidt, I mean, Shaw would have made her talk!" Erik twisted out of Dumbledore's grip.
"Indeed I would have," came Shaw's smooth voice from the doorway. Despite Dumbledore and Merrythought's protective spells, the door had simply collapsed into splinters. "Delighted to see you, Erik."
Erik grabbed Raven and pulled them both behind Dumbledore's enormous desk, his body moving faster than his thoughts. He hadn't wanted to be weak in front of Shaw, but the instinct to hide was far too strong, his stomach churning with bile and his breath short. He peeked around the edge of the desk and saw that Merrythought had drawn her wand, though Dumbledore had not.
"How did you get in here?" she snapped.
Shaw smiled warmly and put a hand on Emma's shoulder, his wand nowhere to be seen. She beamed up at him but her smile was forced and taut.
"Wherever my children are, I may go." He pulled the runic ribbon from Emma's head. "And their power must be free. Now, Headmaster Dippet and I both agree I would be a marvellous asset to Hogwarts, and I don't want to get off on the wrong foot here. How about you stop bothering young Emma, and I'll forget whatever foolishness poor Erik has told you. He did go through a great deal in the Muggle war, you know."
Erik wanted to stand up and call Shaw a liar, but his legs weren't co-operating and he felt like he was going to be sick. Raven patted his arm gently.
"I'm afraid your memory charms were a little rushed in Erik's case," Dumbledore's tone was still completely calm, and Erik wondered if this is how he'd spoken to Grindelwald before battling him. "They had partially worn off when I found him, and it was easy to undo the remnants."
Shaw's smile was sharp. "Are you sure you were helping him, Dumbledore, or were you making this child one of your little projects? Is Erik happier knowing?"
Emma's gaze slid across to Erik and it was the immense tiredness in her face more than any fear or questioning that gave Erik back his strength. He stood up.
"You murdered my mother and you hurt me, and I remember every moment of it. And I've learnt more here in three months here at Hogwarts than I ever did with your training." Erik put as much contempt into the last word as he could.
"Oh, Erik. Dumbledore doesn't need memory charms to interfere with your perception. He's teaching you to be ordinary, to live inside the lines like everyone else. I was teaching you to be special – you can't even work magic without a wand anymore, can you?"
Erik twitched towards his wand instinctively, but Shaw was right: he'd been able to bend metal before, wandless and without instruction. It had to be better that he could do lots of different things, without the pain or suffering, didn't it?
Professor Merrythought took advantage of Shaw's distraction to shout, "Expelliarmus!" Instead of Shaw's wand flying from his sleeve, a flash of light knocked Merrythought against the wall and she stumbled and fell.
"I'm all right," she managed to wheeze, though she was obviously badly winded, before passing out.
Shaw tutted, a familiar and terrible sound. "We were having a perfectly civilised conversation, Merrythought, until you had to interfere. No wonder Dippet wants me to replace you." He smirked at her, then at Erik. "Now, as I was saying, Dumbledore – and Headmaster Dippet, to be honest – wants you all to be the same, to crush your instinctive talents and make you productive members of Wizarding society. I know, and you know, Erik, that younger witches and wizards have tremendous abilities. All I want to do is develop them, to make you into wonderful creatures of fire and power."
"I don't believe it's worth torturing and occasionally killing children," Dumbledore observed.
"And if I had free reign I wouldn't have to kill anyone!" Shaw threw his arms wide, his smile persuasive. "That little boy, Charles Xavier, he could be as strong as my Emma."
"Leave him alone!" Erik shouted. No matter how persuasive Shaw's argument sounded, Erik's soul hurt at the idea of Charles in Shaw's hands.
Shaw ignored him. "And that little girl who tried to run away, Gabrielle Haller! She changed herself into solid gold – oh yes, Erik, she was not hard to find once I knew to trace young Mr Lykos's flight path – and most adult wizards would find that impossible. I dragged her in this evening: someone has already worked on her potential but I'm sure I can find more."
"No, you can't!" Gabrielle's voice came from behind the desk and she stood up, her face stern. "You're evil, and when the Headmaster finds out you were having Emma spy on everyone, he'll throw you out!"
Even though Erik knew Raven's abilities perfectly well, he was still taken in for a moment, and Shaw was certainly shocked. He glanced out at the hallway then back to the angry little girl, and in that moment Dumbledore acted. His wand was swiftly at Shaw's temple, and with a neat gesture he twisted a long silvery strand from Shaw's head. Shaw lunged at him bare-handed, but he was too late: Dumbledore whisked the cover from a large stone bowl filled with silvery liquid and dropped the strand in, where it mingled with the rest.
Sounds and voices emerged from the bowl: a screaming girl, gunshots, the shriek of tearing steel, someone crying out for help in Yiddish, Shaw's soothing voice talking over the top of the other voices in his accented German.
"Pain and fear, Erik," he said, and at the same time, "Fear and silence, Janos, anger and pain, Emma." His amplified voice ran on and on, and Shaw glared at Dumbledore with a naked rage that knocked Erik two steps backwards.
Emma and Raven were both hiding behind the desk and Erik stumbled to join them, desperate to be away from Shaw's attention. He kept hearing a raw-voiced scream of rage that he knew was his own, at his mother's death, and he couldn't stand it. He didn't, though, realise that he was crying until Raven pushed her grotty handkerchief at him. Emma was crying too, but her expression was as cold and focused as ever, as if the tears gleaming on her face belonged to someone else.
"Don't worry," Raven whispered, patting his shoulder. "It will be okay as long as we stick together."
---
Moira had assembled Charles, Hank, Angel and Sean in the library, though they wouldn't have long until they were all sent to their respective dorms for the night. Shaw and the two boys with him had left swiftly after dinner, as had Professor Merrythought. They had heard nothing more from Erik or Raven, but at least they knew Raven was safe with Professor Black. The only group members absent were Alex and Armando, who had gone up to the dorm to check on Erik since they could no longer safely use their penknife radios.
"I'm sure he's doing just fine," Moira told Charles, patting his arm. In fact, Moira thought nothing of the sort, but Charles was always such a worrywart that she had developed a habit of calming him down.
Sean was fidgeting, as usual. "Do you want me to check if Raven's in the Hufflepuff dorm? There's some Hufflepuffs going with a prefect right now."
"No! The last thing we need is more of us wandering off. We don't know where Shaw is, or what he's heard, so we have to stay close."
"Do you think he knows about Gabrielle?" Angel asked. "We didn't say anything specific about her, but Erik definitely mentioned Karl once or twice. Do you think she's okay? I mean, she can't be hurt while she's solid gold, can she?"
Moira was starting to feel as if she was herding cats. "There's nothing we can do about it at the moment!"
"Shh!" said Madam Fletcher as she passed by, a group of anxious Seventh Year students following in her wake.
It was good that the library was busy with club meetings and illicit dates since everyone had to travel in groups, and their little group wouldn't attract attention; it was equally bad, because it was hard to find anywhere private enough to talk about Shaw. Moira spotted her opportunity and bustled everyone towards a table that the Seventh Years had just vacated.
"Now stay here: we don't have the time to find you if you wander off."
Of all people, Cain Marko spotted them. "Hey! You guys are always hanging out together. What are you up to?"
"Homework," Charles told him with immense dignity and Cain rolled his eyes.
"Typical. You seen Raven? She wasn't at the dorm."
"What do you care?" Moira snapped. She'd heard about Cain's bullying ways.
He muttered something and headed off towards his even larger friend Fred Dukes.
"What did he say?" she asked Hank, who had excellent hearing.
Hank replied, in some bemusement, "He said 'Hufflepuffs stick together.'"
"Well!" Charles said, as if he was a forty-year-old man rather than a boy with the manners of one.
"Look, it's Armando and Alex!" Hank was by far the tallest of them, and could see over the heads of all the other students, whereas Moira was stuck staring at black robes. She hoped they had Erik with them, but she wasn't entirely sure of how Professor Dumbledore's spell worked, so perhaps he wasn't visible to Hank yet.
Much to Moira's annoyance, Erik was nowhere to be found.
"He wasn't in the dorm," Armando explained. "Karl had been with him in the afternoon but he came down to dinner, so there would have been no-one there to see where he went. I asked the Fat Lady – that's the portrait outside our dorm – but all she could tell me is that he stomped off down the hall in a terrible rush."
"At least he was by himself," Alex added, darkly. "He'd left his pocketknife by his bed, even though he'd taken the spell off. It's still a knife, he should have kept it."
Moira gave Alex a stern glare – she'd often seen him playing with his knife in class – but it had no effect whatsoever. Still, she supposed now wasn't the time.
Charles seemed energised by this news rather than upset. "Well then, we'd better find him. Do you think he's fled Hogwarts?"
"Because Erik's exactly the type of boy to run away from a fight," Angel muttered.
Charles, sounding horribly offended, told her, "No, I meant he might have gone to help Gabrielle, actually."
Moira stepped between them. "If he has somehow got out of the castle, he's out of Shaw's way and perfectly safe. Not that I know how he'd help Gabrielle, but at least we won't have to worry about him. I'm more concerned that he's gone to confront Shaw."
"Wouldn't he go to Dumbledore first?" Hank asked, nervously. "I mean, Dumbledore knows all about Shaw. And he defeated Grindelwald in the war, so he can probably defeat Shaw if he needs to. Or maybe-"
Sean interrupted Hank's theorising. "I know how we can find out!"
Everyone looked at him. Sean was a very enthusiastic participant in their planning, especially the practice fights, but he didn't usually come forward with ideas. The sudden attention turned him bright red under his freckles.
"Well, um, don't tell anyone, but our Quidditch Captain thinks that a few of us might be on the team next year, so she's been giving us secret broom training."
"That's not a secret! My Quidditch Captain found out what you were doing and now she's training me!" Angel argued.
"She is?"
"Yes, out past the lake just after dinner. She says I'm the best flyer in my year."
"Oh. Well, my point is, because it's secret, we train up in the air near Ravenclaw Tower, so the tower blocks everyone's view. To get up there we use the big vine that grows up the eastern wall. It's enchanted so it carries you up, but it's a bit slow so you can look in all the windows as you go. You can see most of the teacher's offices if you stand in different places each time, and heaps of the staircases and corridors."
"Brilliant!" Moira clapped Sean on the back. "All of us together will be able to check every floor without anyone knowing we're there."
"We just have to get there," Charles pointed out. The prefects were still escorting students from place to place, and a group of first years would never be allowed outside on their own.
Angel snorted. "Oh, that's easy! There's tunnels from the Slytherin dorms all over Hogwarts. There was a Head Boy from Slytherin a few years ago who was always searching for hidden corridors and chambers, someone said, and he had friends who told the rest of the house, so we all know where they are."
"Lead on!" Charles told her, and Angel hustled them all to the bottom floor of the library, a section on magical hydraulics that was boring even to Moira. Angel put a finger on one particular book and had to stretch her arms as far as possible to reach another.
"Can we help?" Moira asked.
"No, the Head Boy set it all to be locked unless you're a Slytherin." She got her fingertips on the second book and a section of the bookcase swung open, revealing a shallow staircase leading downwards. They all hurried in and Angel let the door swing closed behind them.
Hank looked worried – and in the glaring white light of his Lumos spell, practically sick. "Doesn't that mean that only you can get us out?"
"Better stick close, then!" Angel smirked at him, and Hank promptly did, dogging her footsteps.
The tunnels were meandering and awkwardly shaped, presumably to bend around classrooms and offices, but helpful Slytherins had written directions on the walls in glowing light at most of the junctions. Occasionally they could hear voices or footsteps echoing through the tunnels, but there were so many that they never actually ran into the Slytherins using them.
"Oh, that's the girls' bathroom that's haunted!" Moira pointed to one sign.
"Yeah, but it doesn't actually lead there. It's blocked off by another tunnel or something." Angel led them onwards, until the sign read "East Wing."
"I'm not sure where this tunnel actually comes up, so we'll have to go carefully," she warned as she opened the door. "Hank, you go first. You're a big suck-up so if a teacher sees you they'll go easy on you."
While Hank spluttered, Moira peeped out of the opening to see nothing more exciting than the History of Magic classroom. Nobody was there at this time of night, so she ventured out and gestured for the others to follow her. They all emerged from the tunnel just in time for Professor Binns to float in through the door.
Moira turned towards the tunnel, but Angel had already closed it, and everyone was frozen in place, hoping Professor Binns didn't glance their way.
He did, floating directly towards them, but instead of apprehending the out-of-bounds students, he floated through Armando's arm – Armando managed to stifle his horrified shriek – and started writing a series of dates on the blackboard.
Everyone stared at each other in shock, but Armando wasn't staying put for further ghostly encounters: he scurried for the classroom door at a rapid pace and the rest of the group dashed after him.
"Is your arm okay?" Moira whispered to him once they were safely in the corridor.
"So cold!" Armando gasped. Alex grabbed his arm and rubbed it roughly, restoring some warmth.
It wasn't far from the History of Magic classroom to the door out into the grounds, and fortunately the corridor was otherwise unoccupied. The door was barred, but since they were on the correct side to lift the bar, this posed no obstacle.
Moira gasped as the bitterly cold outdoor air rushed in: none of them had thought to bring a coat. Still, with any luck it wouldn't take long to find Erik. She stomped out into the light snow, followed by Sean, but the other students hesitated.
"Oh come on! There's hardly any wind and we'll be inside in no time! It's going to take you longer than five minutes to freeze."
"Do you think Gabrielle's really okay if she's outside in this?" Charles asked, but did what Moira said and moved out into the chilly night.
Armando shrugged. "She's probably survived worse. And if she's still transfigured into gold I suppose she'll be fine anyway."
"This way to the vine!" Sean pulled at Moira's arm and led them to the huge, still-leafy vine that he'd described. "Just climb on a leaf and it will carry you up to the top." He demonstrated by stepping onto a broad leaf that was touching the ground. The leaf immediately stiffened into a solid platform and began to slowly slide up the main trunk of the vine. The vine was so huge that there was a lot of lateral movement as well as vertical, and Moira understood what Sean meant about getting to look in lots of windows.
"All aboard, come on!" Moira started pushing the others onto more of the broad, accommodating leaves, until everyone was taking a varied path along and up.
There were several classrooms on the east side of the castle, but many more teachers' offices and storerooms. Moira was terribly tempted to duck in a window and liberate a Potions textbook from a storage room stacked high with second-year texts, just to get a head start for next year, but she restrained herself: Erik might be in serious trouble.
Sean, the highest up of the group, pointed into one of the tall windows: as Moira got closer she saw Healer Yaxley and the caretaker, Mr Pringle, running up a staircase: if they had glanced up they would have seen seven faces at the windows, but they were in far too much of a hurry.
"That's the way to Professor Black's office!" Charles whispered from the next leaf, sounding horrified. "Do you think something's happened to Raven?"
"I'm sure Professor Black will take care of her!" Moira patted Charles's arm. "He's probably called them for Emma Frost – he'd stop her if she tried something silly."
Charles didn't look very comforted by this, but before he could speak again, Alex pointed urgently into another window, then hauled the window open and climbed in. The rest of them scrambled after him, stepping across from leaf to leaf, and Moira tried not to think about the long fall beneath them.
Alex's keen eyes had spotted a gold statue propped up against a wall. It was Gabrielle Haller, frozen in place with a horrified expression. She was still wearing her school uniform, but underneath she was cold metal. Karl had been carrying her when she had transformed, and her toes were pointed downwards, meaning that her statue couldn't stand up by itself.
Moira shuddered: Gabrielle's mouth was open in a scream and she was trying to cover her face with her hands. Despite her hard, golden gleam, she looked terribly vulnerable in that moment.
Angel shrugged out of her long black robe, despite shivering with cold, and Moira did the same, understanding what Angel meant to do. Angel put her robe on the stone floor for Gabrielle to lie on, and the two girls started to lower the statue to the ground. It was incredibly heavy, but the five boys had hurried over to help and all together, they managed to lie her down and drape Moira's robe over her, to give her a little privacy in her moment of fear.
A loud crack sounded from an open door further along the corridor, and a bright orange light lit up the hall for a moment.
"Come on!" Charles drew his wand and ran towards the door. Moira tried to grab the hem of his robe – surely they should make a plan first – but he pulled free and the other boys raced after him, Angel right behind them.
---
Charles had been expecting to rush in and save Erik from Shaw's clutches – he was a little vague on the details – but he didn't even make it in the door. The long-haired boy who had been with Shaw was there, and he cast a spell to create a great gust of wind that sent Charles flying backwards into Hank and the rest of their group, all of them crashing to the floor. Before anyone else could act, the other one – a ruddy-faced boy old enough to have a stubbly beard – was blocking their way, his body crackling with red energy.
Moira was the only one left standing. "We don't want to fight you!" she called out.
"Then stay where you are," the stubble-faced boy told her. "Mr Shaw is having a meeting and doesn't want to be interrupted."
Charles wriggled out from underneath Sean's leg. "We just want to find our friend."
"The metamorphmagus? She'll be fine. Shaw thinks she's great." There was a sneer in the boy's voice that Charles really didn't like, but he took a deep breath and didn't argue. If Shaw had Raven as well as Erik, he had to keep his wits about him.
"Actually, that's my sister. Maybe Shaw wants to meet me, too."
"Charles, no!" Moira called out, but this only seemed to be more convincing to the boy.
"So you're a metamorphmagus too? No, wait, you're the one who knocked out Emma. I bet she'd like to see you."
He glanced into the room – still glowing orange – and as he did Angel called out "Flipendo," pushing the long-haired boy off-balance, whereupon Alex punched him in the face and knocked his head against the wall.
"Locomotor Mortis!" Armando shouted at the same moment and the stubble-faced boy fell flat on his face. They all pointed their wands at the boy.
He raised his hands. "Fine. Go to Shaw. I hope you get what you want."
Charles opened his mouth to reply when the boy vanished in a puff of red smoke. He reappeared next to the other boy, dragged him free of Alex and the pair of them disappeared again.
"That's the weirdest Apparating I've ever seen!" Armando said, his mouth hanging open. "And wandless!"
"I read about Shaw: he thinks we should all have one powerful ability, instead of learning different kinds of magic with a wand. That's why he needs children, to train them young." Hank explained.
"Well, he's not getting Erik and Raven!" Charles ran towards the open door.
The door was not so much open as destroyed, splinters littering the hall. The orange glow filled the doorway and Charles bounced off it with a surprised yelp.
"Stop, it's enspelled!" he called out and the others screeched to a halt behind him, except for Moira who was hanging back, her arms folded angrily.
"What are you planning to do when you get in there?" Moira demanded.
Sean butted in. "Can you see inside? Or hear anything?"
Charles peered through the orange light. There were two adult-sized silhouettes and a big dark block that must be a desk, but it was difficult to make out anything else. "There's people in there, but I can't hear them at all."
Angel poked at the orange glow with her wand. "Shaw wouldn't have had those boys guarding the door if there was no chance of breaking the spell. Let's try."
"Wait!" Moira said again. "Then what? We can fight two kids, but what are we meant to do against Shaw?"
Alex was uncompromising. "Take him out. There's seven of us, plus Erik and Raven. He can't hit us all at once. Me and Angel can distract him and the rest of you can get his wand."
Angel looked a bit dubious at her part in the plan, but nodded. "Yeah, strength in numbers."
Moira didn't sound any happier. "Still, we should check that Erik and Raven are actually in there and we're not walking into a wizard duel for nothing. You can do that, Charles."
"Oh! Yes, yes I can." Charles leaned his head against the bright glow and tried to find the minds inside. Fortunately, the barrier didn't seem to interfere, and Charles reached out carefully. The moment he did, he recognised Raven's mind: she was intensely focused on calling to Charles himself, and that made her easy to find and read. She was scared but defiant and unhurt. Emma Frost was near her somewhere – her mind was closed off to Charles like the teachers' minds – and Erik nearer the two adults.
"Raven's definitely in there – she's okay but she's trying to summon us for help – and Erik's there too, plus Emma Frost and two adults."
"Must be Dumbledore and Shaw," Armando noted. "Can you talk to Raven at all? We'll work on the barrier."
"I'll try to reach out to her." Charles closed his eyes to concentrate as shouts of "Finite Incantatem" echoed around him and the orange barrier shuddered under the repeated assaults.
"Hello, Charles." Emma's voice felt cool in his head but he could feel the fractured terror underneath.
"Hello, Emma. Are you all right? Is Raven? And Erik?" Charles tried to stay as cool, but it was impossible to hide things, mind-to-mind. He'd never spoken to anyone like this before and it was both dazzling and terrifying.
"Professor Dumbledore did something to Mr Shaw and Mr Shaw's really mad. He was planning to come here and teach but now I think he's going to hurt Professor Dumbledore." She didn't have to say "and me."
"Can you help Professor Dumbledore?"
"Your horrible sister and I are behind this desk and that's where I'm staying! Mr Shaw might forgive me for hiding, but he'll never forgive me for turning against him."
"Where's Erik?" Charles' relief about Raven and terror for Erik made his heart thump.
"Shaw's making him help."
"Finite Incantatem!" came everyone's voices at once and the barrier collapsed, spilling Charles forward into the room, which turned out to be Professor Dumbledore's study.
Shaw was standing in the middle of the room, a smug expression on his face, while Dumbledore was near the window, his arms folded and no wand in sight. Professor Merrythought lay in a corner, her robes giving off thin threads of green smoke. Erik was standing near Shaw, half-hidden from Charles, though Charles could see Erik's fist was clenched.
"How delightful!" Shaw crowed. "An audience! Come in, children. I would very much like you to see this."
"See what?" Charles demanded. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Raven peep around the corner of the desk, give him a thumbs up, and retreat again.
"See exactly what you're missing when you learn to suppress your natural magic in favour of an education. Oh, and for those of you thinking about attacking me, cast your eyes over Merrythought and think again. She saw plenty of combat in the war, but she was still no match for me."
Alex, who had edged up close to Charles, moved back a little. Merrythought wasn't dead, but she didn't look well, either. Talking about attacking Shaw was very different to actually doing it.
"I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve," Dumbledore said, his voice as calm as if he was in a classroom. "The Pensieve is heavily warded against magical attacks, much more so that my door was." He was gesturing towards a large stone bowl that had a smaller metal bowl inside it. The surface was covered with swirling white mist. Charles didn't know what it was, exactly, but it felt old and powerful.
Shaw smirked. "And that's exactly what I want to show these children. Erik, destroy the Pensieve."
"No," Erik said, very quietly.
Shaw glanced over at Charles and the other students with him. "My dear Erik, you know what will happen if you don't."
His expression had been mild, but Erik obviously understood what Shaw was talking about. He abruptly turned his back on Charles and reached his bare hands out towards the Pensieve, shaking with effort. He had no wand and had cast no spell, yet the metal bowl shivered and clanked against the stone, then suddenly began to fold in on itself, the metal shrieking as it collapsed.
"What's he doing?" Armando whispered.
"Using his natural ability rather than his wand," Hank answered, sounding fascinated despite himself.
"I killed someone with my natural ability!" Alex spat, and ran at Shaw, an ominous red glow forming on Alex's chest. Angel and Armando followed just a step behind. The red glow coalesced into a circle of red light that launched from Alex to Shaw and had no effect whatsoever. A sweep of Shaw's arm send Alex flying towards the wall, and the other two students bounced off him as Charles had bounced off the barrier at the doorway.
"Aresto Momentum!"
Alex's flight slowed and stopped with his head inches from the stone wall. Dumbledore's wand was out, and he gestured to set Alex down with utmost care.
"That's enough, Shaw. These children are not your enemies."
"No," Shaw replied, smiling fondly. "They will be my pupils." He looked down at Alex, who seemed dazed despite Dumbledore's neat catch. "You killed someone, you say?"
A heavy candlestick suddenly flew at Shaw's head, bouncing off his skull. He staggered only slightly, but he glared at Erik as a second candlestick barely missed him. "Enough!" He seized Erik by the throat and marched him backwards across the room, lifting him off the ground as Erik kicked and fought to break free.
Charles, Moira and Sean pointed their wands at Shaw, Charles desperately running through his few spells trying to work out which would most likely stop Shaw strangling Erik.
"No!" Dumbledore called, "Don't use magic on Shaw! You'll only make him stronger!"
"O ho! Figured it out, have you?" Shaw laughed, bashing the struggling Erik against a wall to punctuate.
"Incarcerous Arbore!" Dumbledore pointed his wand not at Shaw but at the floor by his feet, and rope-like black vines erupted upwards. Unlike Alex's attempt at a magic, this seemed to have an effect, and Charles thought it must be because the spell hadn't been cast directly on Shaw.
As the vines wrapped around Shaw, he dropped Erik, who fell, gasping. Charles chanced running between Shaw and Dumbledore and skidded to the floor beside his friend.
"Erik, Erik, are you all right?"
Erik was still trying to protect his bruised throat, but he grabbed Charles' arm with his other hand, as if to assure himself that Charles was real. "You have to get out of here," he wheezed.
"Not without you. Come on." Charles hauled Erik to his feet, and across the room he saw Raven dash from behind the desk to stand at Moira's side, near the door. Armando and Angel were pulling a dazed Alex with them. Even Professor Merrythought was struggling up from her prone position in the corner. Shaw, however, was bound to the floor by thin black vines, and immobilised.
Dumbledore stood over Shaw, his wand drawn. "I will not allow you to harm more children."
"You're the one using children to fight your battles," Shaw snarled as the vines tightened. Charles couldn't help but notice that Shaw's body was starting to glow the same red as Alex's magic, mostly hidden under the vines.
"Professor!" he called out to Dumbledore, but it was too late. Shaw burst free of his bonds with a wild laugh, twisted his body and launched himself at Dumbledore across the floor. He grabbed the Professor by the ankles and red light glowed from them both before Dumbledore's eyes rolled up and he collapsed in a heap. Another blast of light from Shaw's hand at Merrythought and suddenly the room was silent but for Erik's rasping breaths.
Charles stood in front of Erik as Shaw got to his feet. "You can't have him!"
"Charles Xavier, isn't it?" Shaw's calm voice was even more chilling after the violence he had just committed. "That's fine. I'll have both of you. And the metamorphmagus, plus that boy who claims to be a killer. What a wealth of power there is here!"
Charles could feel Erik shaking so hard that it was making Charles shake too. "How are you going to explain what you did to the Professors?"
"Hmph. Since Erik helpfully destroyed the evidence Dumbledore was after, with you and Emma at my side I'm sure we can concoct something easy for the Headmaster to believe. He'll get rid of his most troublesome staff members and find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in one fell swoop."
"You can't do this!" Moira shouted from the other side of the room. She was standing protectively in front of Raven.
"What about Professor Black?" Raven called. She had grown two feet in height, which Charles knew she only did when she was either showing off or truly terrified.
"I'm sure we can come to some agreement. It was just Emma being silly, wasn't it, my dear?"
Emma reluctantly stood up from behind the desk as if Shaw was pulling the strings of a marionette.
She smoothed out her skirt, thoroughly downcast. "Yes, I'm terribly sorry, Mr Shaw. I'll apologise to Professor Black, as soon I as I possibly can."
Striding across to the other students, Shaw shoved Moira out of the way and grabbed Raven by the arm, hauling her over to where Charles and Erik stood.
"Leave her alone!" Charles shouted, as Sean and Moira tried to pull Shaw's arm away to no effect.
Raven, however, was not a girl to be dragged around. She promptly bit Shaw on the thumb, morphing down to her regular size in an attempt to make him let go.
Shaw was bleeding. "You little animal!" He pulled back his other hand and slapped Raven across the face so hard she went limp in his grasp.
"Claudisi!" Charles yelled, the stumbling jinx, the first spell that came to mind. Armando, Moira and Sean cast spells as well, lines of light flashing into Shaw's body, but Shaw didn't so much as flinch. If anything, he looked pleased.
"Enough of this. You children will do as you're told." He shook Raven by her arm. "Especially you."
Charles heard thundering footsteps and had a moment to think how familiar they sounded before Cain hurtled into the room and crashed right into Shaw. Cain was not as tall as Shaw but considerably wider, and with momentum on his side his tackle was spectacularly successful. Shaw, still clutching Raven, skidded across the room to hit the wall beside Charles and Erik.
"Drop her!" Cain bellowed, advancing on Shaw, though his attack had thrown Raven just as far.
"Impedimenta!" Emma shouted and Cain stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Thank you, Emma," Shaw said, though he sounded slightly winded.
Erik suddenly pulled his hand from Charles'. "Here," he whispered, "Take this."
Charles opened his hand to see what Erik had given him: it was an enormous diamond, and while it had left red burn marks on Erik's fingers, it felt pleasantly warm in Charles' grasp. "What does it do?" he asked, as it began to glow brightly.
"That's mine!" Emma shrieked, and Charles held it up towards Shaw. He wasn't sure what Erik wanted him to do – it's not like magic worked on Shaw – but he trusted his friend.
"Enough!" Shaw bellowed, pulling himself up to a seated position and letting go of Raven to reach for the diamond. It was glowing so brightly that the rest of the room was cast into shadow: Charles couldn't see anything other than the diamond and its reflection in Shaw's eyes. He could feel power building between him and the gem, but he had absolutely no idea how to focus it to attack Shaw without hurting Raven or Cain.
"Erik, help me!" Charles gasped out, but Erik was already moving, his wand out, though he must know that it was useless against Shaw.
Shaw's focus was still on the diamond, reaching out to take it from Charles, when suddenly Erik leapt between them, a dark shadow, with his wand held high. He plunged it deep into Shaw's eye socket, driving him to the floor. Erik pulled his wand back and stabbed him through the eye again with a terrible wet, tearing sound, and Charles dropped the glowing diamond in shock. The room was suddenly cast into gloom.
Shaw was lying on the ground, gasping and bleeding, while Erik knelt over him stabbing into his skull again and again.
"You want to take my wand! Here you are! Take it!" Erik shouted. "You killed my mother! You can't have my friends!"
Charles grabbed Erik by the shoulders. "Stop it! Erik! Stop it!" He knew that it was too late: Shaw was dead and Erik was laughing, a sound Charles had never heard. Charles took Erik's arm instead, covered in blood and what must be brain matter, and pulled as hard as he could, desperate to stop both Erik's attack and his terrible laughter.
Other people clustered around them – Moira, Cain, then some adults – but all Charles could hear was Erik laughing. Someone pulled Charles away from Erik, and as hard as Charles tried to hold on, he couldn't.
"Erik! Erik!" he shouted and finally the laughing stopped.
"You're safe now!" Erik called out to him, even as the groundskeeper pulled him away from Shaw's body, blood dripping from Erik's hands. "We're all safe now!"
Charles had never felt less safe in his life.
On to Epilogue
Tags:
- big bang,
- fic,
- gen,
- harry potter,
- x-men