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

The Full Moon

It was with great relief that Bagsy heard Teresa's excited shout from the next room.

'It's hatching!' she called. Neve, Itsuki and Jon got up to go see what Teresa was wailing about at nine in the evening. As they moved into the girls' dormitory, Bagsy hesitantly got up to follow. Her muscles were stiff from Thaumathletics – Kim was still convinced they needed more fitness preparation before they could move onto the magical elements and Bagsy was starting to get frustrated with the waiting. It was nothing on the other students, though, who were grinding their teeth in annoyance. If Bagsy had one thing other pupils often didn't, it was patience.

'What's this?' Jon asked, as he ducked into the girl's dorm, following Teresa's voice.

'Hey! No boys!' Rebekah said angrily. Neve shrunk down timidly.

'Who cares,' Teresa shot unsympathetically at Rebekah, who huffed and left the room, shoving past Jon.

Itsuki looked uncomfortable. 'Maybe we shouldn't be in here,' he offered.

Teresa looked unconvinced. 'It's not like anyone's changing right now. If anyone has a problem with it they need to grow up. Anyway, we're not here to discuss people being silly, we're here because look!' Teresa held out a large terrarium, inside of which was a strange creature. It was long, like a centipede, with multiple pairs of wings, each with the pattern of a human skull upon them. 'It's my death's-head hawk moth! It finally came out.'

While the others inspected the strange creature, Bagsy was busy eying the chrysalis in the corner of the box. She was sure Teresa wouldn't mind if she took it, but Mezrielda didn't want Teresa to know about their project and Bagsy wasn't sure how she could ask for it without being suspicious. Guilt crawled along her skin as she realised she'd have to steal it from her.

As Teresa moved the moth from the terrarium into a netted bag she explained it would need a larger habitat that Belta Zotova had set up for her, given how large it could grow. She claimed it could get up to the size of a horse, though Bagsy wasn't sure if she was exaggerating or not. Teresa left the terrarium at the edge of her bed. Bagsy couldn't take her eyes off of it.

That night, Bagsy decided she would sleep in the girl's dormitory with the others. She got a few questions and odd looks, but she shrugged them off and said she'd had a bad dream the night before and wanted company. When asked where she usually slept she kept quiet – it wasn't as if she could have said anything in answer, even if she'd wanted to. The fidelius charm saw to that.

When night came Bagsy was lying in her bed, wide awake and sweating with anxiety. She hated what she had do, but she wasn't about to let months of hard work go to waste. Teresa wouldn't care if she lost her chrysalis. Teresa was queen of 'get over it' and 'don't let it bother you', so she wouldn't bat an eyelid if Bagsy stole it, would she?

Bagsy's thoughts chased themselves around her head all night, and she failed to pluck up the nerve to complete the act.

The following night was a similar story, as was the next. It was a full week before, in a fit of exhausted insanity, Bagsy managed to throw the covers off of herself and sit on the end of her bed. She'd been so preoccupied worrying over the coming theft she'd have to commit, that not even the random appearances of Mr Mortem from the ministry, and his continually failing inspections of Winifred and Robin, had caused her any real concern.

Bagsy looked over at the terrarium. Teresa had placed some ants in there and had used the left-over chrysalis as decoration. Palms sweaty, Bagsy stood and crept over to the end of Teresa's bed. She opened the box slowly and reached inside, taking a hold of the chrysalis and pulling it out. She shut the box swiftly so no ants could get out and turned to sneak to her private room, so she could sulk in her shame in peace.