Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Inferno Conscription (The Bagsy Chronicles 3)

The Secret to the Missing Hufflepuff

Bagsy tapped out the rhythm to Helga Hufflepuff on the barrel before crouching her way into the Hufflepuff common room, Mezrielda close behind her. Soon they were standing, silent, in the middle of the room, surrounded by comfy armchairs, dancing cacti, ferns peacefully swaying from side to side, and oak desks piled high with different school books and quills.

'Well?' Mezrielda folded her arms expectantly. Bagsy was desperately trying to point at the round door hidden behind the armchair and the ferns, but it was as if she were a statue, unable to move. 'Bagsy?' Mezrielda pushed.

'I'm trying to show you where – I'm trying to point, but it's not – I don't understand what's going on...' Bagsy wondered if she'd been hit by some terrible curse.

'You didn't brew it in your dormitory?' Mezrielda asked. Bagsy nodded her head. 'And you didn't brew it out here?' Bagsy nodded her head again. 'But you did brew it somewhere in the Hufflepuff burrow?' Bagsy nodded. 'But not in anyone else's dormitories, either?' Bagsy nodded a final time. Mezrielda placed her hands on her hips and paced around the room. She poked bricks on the wall, peered out windows, peaked below sofas, and even, to Bagsy surprise, pulled the ferns back behind the armchair and stared directly at the round door, yet didn't seem to see it. Mezrielda came back to Bagsy. 'Did I go near where you brewed the potion?' she asked. Bagsy found she couldn't answer. 'Don't worry, Bagsy,' Mezrielda said confidently, the hint of a smirk gracing her lips. 'I think I've figured out the issue, here. I need you to do one more thing for me to be sure. Go into the place you brewed the potion, grab it as quickly as you can, and come back out.'

Bagsy nodded and, taking a deep breath of fresh air, ducked behind the armchair and through the hidden door.

'I knew it...' she heard Mezrielda hiss from behind her as she entered her private room. Almost instantly her skin began to prickle, and her throat recoiled at the stench of the potion. She grabbed the filled cauldron from her desk and hurried back out. At first Mezrielda's eyes seemed to slide past her until Bagsy took a few steps forward and they locked onto her face.

'Here,' Bagsy coughed, holding the cauldron out to Mezrielda who took it, looking curiously at Bagsy's paling hands. Mezrielda didn't seem to react to the potion's fumes at all.

'Evanesco,' Mezrielda cast, swirling her wand above the cauldron's contents which disappeared, as if melting into the air. She handed the cauldron back to Bagsy.

'Thank you,' Bagsy sighed in relief.

'Bagsy,' Mezrielda began, 'have you ever heard of the fidelius charm?' Bagsy shook her head. 'To over-simplify, a secret keeper is chosen who is given information, like the existence and location of a hidden room, and only the secret keeper, and people the secret keeper tells, can know and interact with the hidden room. People who've been informed by the secret keeper can't, even if they want to, tell other people about the room.' Mezrielda gestured in the general direction of the door hidden behind the armchair and ferns. 'When you went into that hidden room you disappeared from my sight, vanished into thin air, because the secret keeper hasn't told me about the room.'

'That's why I can't talk about it or tell you where it is!' Bagsy exclaimed, understanding now, and feeling relieved she hadn't been cursed. 'That's why everyone gets so confused where I've gone when I go to my room...' Bagsy trailed off, finally grasping a context she'd been unaware off previously.

Mezrielda was nodding in satisfaction. 'Sometimes my genius amazes even myself.'

'Alright, Merlin,' Bagsy joked, 'don't get too big for your boots or you'll have to walk bare foot.'

'Don't you see?' Mezrielda went on. 'We need a dark, secluded place that we can guarantee won't be disturbed.'

Bagsy frowned. 'Why?'