Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

A Dynasty of Sacrifice

Bagsy's work-shop at the Alden estate was crammed with books. She could barely move without having to step on piles of them or cling to the walls for support, but it was all worth it.

She had found books upon books on restoration of all sorts of things. Artefacts, paintings, buildings, clothes; there was an entire field of magical study into recreating or restoring ancient things that had become broken, rusted or, in the case of the receipt, mushed.

After spending hours poring over restorations of buildings, which weren't relevant to her task but Bagsy found deeply interesting, she refocussed onto her mission. Slowly but steadily she developed potions that were meant, with long exposure, to return a paper to its original form.

Jars filled with water and paper lined the room. One by one, she'd take pre-prepared mushy pieces of paper and test her potions on them. Some caught fire, others disintegrated, and some grew legs and danced the foxtrot. Bagsy's least-favourite was the piece of paper that continued to multiply over and over, threatening to fill the room entirely except for the fact that Bagsy had managed to poor the potion that disintegrated the paper over it before it had crushed her against the walls.

'How's it going?' Tod asked on the penultimate day of her stay.

Bagsy shrugged. 'It's going.'

'I'm making lunch, what do you want?'

'Making? I thought you'd sooner die than lift a finger?'

'Y-yes, well, I thought it'd be nice to make you lunch before we go back to Hogwarts.'

'Aw, Tod. That's so sweet of you!'

Tod smiled crookedly. 'I'm just getting better at being a friend, I guess.'

'You sure are. And I'll have a sandwich, please.' If Tod had never cooked anything before she didn't want to risk asking for something that could set fire to the house.

'Coming right up.' Tod threw in a small salute before walking off to make lunch.

Bagsy went back to her work, turning to a crucial page in one of the books. It contained information on how to un-smudge smudged writing. Unfortunately, the writing on the page was smudged beyond recognition.

'Darn,' Bagsy bit out in annoyance. Hoping the library might have an extra copy, she navigated her way out of the room, only knocking over one pile of books on her way.

On her way to the library she couldn't help but notice a door to a room she hadn't been in before was open a crack. Curious, she inspected it. Someone had locked it but, in their rush, had failed to notice the door wasn't properly shut. The locking mechanism stuck uselessly out the side of door, not connected with the door frame, and doing nothing to keep it closed.

Looking up and down the corridor and seeing no one was around Bagsy popped inside, the temptation too great to resist.

There were a lot of books, paper and record drawers. Curiously, she glanced over them and noticed that, in the corner of this very organised and ordered space, was a gap in the records.

'Huh,' Bagsy said to herself, walking over. There was an entire file's worth of space that was empty.

'Hey,' Tod said from the doorway, holding two plates of rather sorry looking sandwiches that were oozing unappetising sauce. 'What did I say the first day we got here?'

Bagsy startled. 'The door was open already,' she defended herself.

'What did I say?' Tod placed the plates down on a console table in the corridor before moving into the room.

'Not to be nosy...'

'Exactly. We need to get out of here–' Tod saw the empty space Bagsy was looking at.