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

Old Feuds, New Feuds

Starrett ended the lesson there, despite Bagsy's protests. She'd snapped that she'd never assist Bagsy again if she didn't get out of her hair, to which Bagsy had swiftly exited the Charms room. She had been so stunned because it had seemed that she'd cast a spell, and a powerful looking one at that. She was so shocked that as she walked down the halls she forgot what it was she needed to do.

When she saw Killian and Fiona sitting in one of the windows overlooking the courtyard, each flicking through a copy of Witchment Enrichment, it came jolting back to her. All thoughts of having cast a spell pushed from her mind.

Still in her quidditch gear, Bagsy dumped her bags next to Fiona. 'Can you watch these for me?'

Fiona said, 'Sure.'

'Also, I need page four from those,' she added awkwardly. 'Please.'

After some convincing, Killian and Fiona tore the pages out and handed them to Bagsy, who sprinted off, forcing thaumaturgy into her exhausted legs.

She scouted the library, tearing papers from student's hands, before doing rounds of the great hall, the areas around each common room, and even the few students who had been brave enough to sit outside in the cold.

Soon, she had a massive collection of crumpled newspapers messily held in her arms. With difficulty, she knocked on the door of the girl's toilet, where she expected Mezrielda to be. 'It's me!'

She heard someone get up and walk over to the door. The next second, Mezrielda was looking at her with a sour expression. Evidently, she'd found out what had been in the most recent edition of Witchment Enrichment.

In a second, though, her expression changed to puzzled. 'What are you doing?'

'Want to burn these?' said Bagsy.

Despite how she must be feeling, Mezrielda's lips quirked upwards disobediently. 'To quote a dear friend; oh, merlin, yes.'

From then on, Bagsy tried her hardest to stay at Mezrielda's side. When she didn't, her friend often returned to her with "blood mouth" written on the back of her robe in white sticking-chalk, or with stories of people shoving her or calling her names.

'This is getting ridiculous,' Bagsy complained. 'We should tell a teacher.'

'No. That will only make it worse.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes. I bet you half, if not more, of the teachers agree with those students. Vampires aren't popular beings even among adults.'

'Still...'

Mezrielda fixed her with a look. 'I don't want to tell the teachers.'

Bagsy left the subject there.

She often heard people talking about Mezrielda the bloodmouth. In fact, after Tod had started publishing her horoscopes, it was more common for Bagsy to have people asking her if Mezrielda drank her blood than if she had a premonition for them. That was why for once, Bagsy couldn't allow herself to postpone the confrontation.

The day after she found out about the article, she cornered Tod in a corridor as he was making his way to breakfast. From the resignation on his face, he knew what was coming.

'Go on ahead, Hamley,' he told his friend, who walked off.

'Didn't you learn your lesson the first time?' Bagsy hissed. 'You shouldn't go writing stories like that without people's permission.'

'Calm down,' Tod responded, looking her up and down as if her emotions were a stain on her clothes. 'Think about it from my perspective. My value to my family was the influence my power allowed me to wield over other people. My power is gone, and so is my influence. To be valuable to my family I needed to find something to substitute that power. Witchment Enrichment is doing just that.'