“Yes,” said Rosemary. “I accept.”

  “Very well then,” said Professor Brown. She turned to Sarah. “So, I suppose it won’t do to have Rosemary wait by herself for the search to finish,” she continued. “I can’t change her room assignment till the tower’s out of lockdown — but if you let her stay in your room as a guest in the meantime, then I’ll explain the situation to Detectives Harrison and Griswold, and I’ll just fetch Rosemary when she’s needed for the search of her room. Will that work?”

  “Okay, thanks,” said Sarah.

  “Thank you,” added Rosemary.

  “And,” said Professor Brown, “while y’all are at the infirmary after this is done, I’ll handle the room transfer.”

  “Oh, one more thing,” said Sarah. “We’ve set it up that her cat has access to my room too. Not just hers.”

  “Well,” said Professor Brown, puzzled, “there ain’t a rule against that — but it’s still kinda irregular.”

  “Maybe,” said Sarah, “but that’s why we were able to stop the kidnapper. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known till it was too late.”

  “Then it’s good that you did it,” said the Professor, “but you’ll have to undo it before I can reassign Rosemary’s room. Any chance you can take care of that while waiting?”

  “Sure thing,” smiled Sarah.

  * * *

  As soon as the two of them were in Sarah’s room, Rosemary saw a black bird perched on a small horizontal rod mounted on top of Sarah’s bookshelf. She accepted that there was a chance of her having simply not taken much notice of the rod the previous time she had been in this room — but she was pretty sure she would have noticed such a prominent live bird.

  “Oh Rosemary,” said Sarah, “meet Edgar, my raven. He was out last time you were here.”

  “Hi, Edgar,” Rosemary said to the bird.

  “Hey there, Rosemary,” said the raven. “Nice to meet you.”

  Rosemary stepped back in shock.

  “He actually — s-speaks?” she asked Sarah, with a slight stammer.

  “Oh yeah,” said Sarah. “Ravens can mimic human speech. The non-magical ones can’t make any meaning of it — but familiars like Edgar can.”

  “True that,” said Edgar.

  “Well,” said Rosemary to Edgar, now fully aware that he understood, “it’s nice to meet you too.”

  “Rosemary’s going to be rooming with us,” Sarah explained to Edgar.

  Edgar made some clicking sounds, one eye focused on Sarah.

  “Now now, Edgar,” said Sarah. “You always knew that half of the furniture in any one-person room is only there in case of a possible future roommate in the first place.”

  Edgar made more clicking sounds at Sarah.

  “Yes,” said Sarah, “she has a cat. But you already know Luna. She’s been here plenty in the last two days. You two have gotten along great, haven’t you?”

  Edgar clicked some more.

  “Yes,” said Sarah. “That’s exactly why she’s moving in here.”

  Edgar followed up with some more clicks.

  “You should tell her that,” answered Sarah.

  “I’m sorry,” Edgar said, now turning his eye toward Rosemary. “I was worried when I heard we’d be getting another human roommate. But now that I know you’re the human Luna was worried about, I’m glad you’re here.”

  Sarah got to the task of disabling Luna’s access to the room. “Don’t worry about trying to help me undo the secondary cat access,” she told Rosemary. “I’ve got it. You just go do a renewal on your transformation so you’ll be ready when we’re clear to go to the infirmary.”

  Rosemary did as Sarah instructed. A few minutes after she was done with it, a knock was heard on the door.

  “It’s me, Griswold,” said a voice on the other side of the door. “Can I come in and have a look?”

  “One sec,” said Sarah, getting up and heading to the door to let Griswold in.

  Griswold came in. “Professor Brown explained the situation to me,” she said. “I’m going to check around here, and then I’m going to need Rosemary to come next door with me so I can check there. And don’t worry, I’ll bring her back when we’re done.” She turned to Rosemary. “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you by yourself,” she assured.

  She proceeded to look around, checking around the room for anyone who might be hiding anywhere. She even opened the closets to shine a small flashlight into them, asking Sarah for permission before opening hers.

  “Can I quickly check your bathroom?” she finally asked Sarah.

  “Go ahead,” Sarah replied.

  As soon as Griswold was done inspecting Sarah’s bathroom, she came out and spoke to Rosemary.

  “Okay now,” she said. “We need to go take a look at your room.”

  Rosemary went with Griswold to the door of her own dorm, just next-door to Sarah’s dorm. Slowly, she pushed down the handle, and pushed the door open. As she went in, she switched the lights on. Griswold followed, and checked her room the same way she had previously checked Sarah’s.

  “Alright then,” she said, “we’re done here. But before we go back, there’s a few things I need to talk to you about.”

  “Okay?” said Rosemary, tensing up, unsure what bad news Griswold was about to drop.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “How about we sit down,” Griswold suggested. She gestured to Rosemary’s seat, and Rosemary sat down. Griswold pulled up the spare seat to face Rosemary and sat down as well.

  “I’ve been told,” said Griswold, “that it was your familiar who alerted your friend Sarah when you were being carried off. Is that right?”

  “I don’t know,” said Rosemary. “That’s what Sarah says, but I didn’t see. Why?”

  “Because,” said Griswold, “it’s possible that I might have to interview your familiar too.”

  Rosemary turned and saw Luna in the corner, cautiously examining Griswold. “But Luna’s a cat,” she said. “She can’t talk — not with her voice. She can only talk to people she knows well.”

  “I know,” said Griswold. “And that’s the case with a lot of the familiars we have to interview. That’s what Sentinel parrots are for.”

  “Sentinel parrots?” asked Rosemary.

  “Yes, parrots,” said Griswold. “The Sentinel Operations Department specifically trains parrots to serve as interpreters in cases like these. I can send for one to come here and translate if I have to interview your cat.”

  “You hear that, Luna?” Rosemary asked Luna.

  Luna growled, not taking her eyes off of Griswold. Through the growl, Rosemary could sense the intention of the words, “I hear that.”

  “Did you see anything I didn’t?” asked Rosemary.

  “I may have,” replied Luna with another growl. “I probably did.”

  “Will you let her interview you?” Rosemary asked. “Once the parrot gets here?”

  Luna remained silent for a moment, cautiously approaching Griswold, who let her smell her hands. “Okay, I will,” she finally flashed at Rosemary with her eyes.

  “She says she will,” Rosemary said to Griswold with a smile.

  “That’s great,” said Griswold. “Now, there’s one other touchy subject we have to discuss?”

  “What?” asked Rosemary, as Luna jumped onto her lap for some attention.

  “We’ve heard,” said Griswold, “that the school found out just this week that you’ve been under a somamorphic spell since early September to — turn yourself female. Is that right?”

  “Yes,” answered Rosemary. “I had an accident and went to the infirmary, and they found out.”

  “And today — actually by now it’s yesterday — you presented as a girl for the first time?” continued Griswold.

  “Well, I’ve been doing it for a whole week,” said Rosemary, “but until Halloween was over, I had Halloween as an excuse.”

  “That’s what I meant,” said Griswold. “But anyway — there’s a lot of people who now know about your — change — who didn’t know about it before. Do you think that might have had anything to do with what happened tonight?”

  “I don’t know,” said Rosemary, reflecting the uncertainty with her voice as much as with her words. “Are there people who would do that?”

  “Well,” said Griswold, “magical society is typically far more accepting of these things than mundies are — but you know, there’s always going to be those who want to take things back to the dark ages.”

  Rosemary froze in fear.

  “Do you know of anyone who might have it in for you for that?” asked Griswold.

  “I don’t know,” said Rosemary. “Melissa Langford said some mean things to me about it. But I know it wasn’t her.”

  “Who’s Melissa Langford?” asked Griswold.

  “A girl in my class,” explained Rosemary.

  “Yeah,” said Griswold, “based on your description, I think we can rule out any girl in your class. But I think I’ll ask her a few questions just to cover all our bases.”

  “Please don’t,” said Rosemary.

  “Why not?” asked Griswold.

  “I’ll never hear the end of it from her if you do,” explained Rosemary. “She’ll make things even worse.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Griswold. “I’ll make sure I don’t give her any idea that you put me up to it.”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary, though she didn’t feel in the least bit assured.

  * * *

  As soon as Rosemary was back in Sarah’s room, she sat down on the spare bed, didn’t move, and didn’t speak.

  “Did something bad happen?” asked Sarah.

  “Yes,” said Rosemary, morosely. “She said that the person who tried to take me away may have done it because I changed from a boy to a girl.”

  “It’s possible,” said Sarah. “But do they know that that’s why?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Rosemary. “Am I putting myself in danger by changing?”

  Sarah sat down opposite Rosemary and clasped her hands between her own. “Look at me,” she said.

  Rosemary tried to look at Sarah. Even in the best of times, keeping strict eye contact with people was difficult for her, but at this moment, that was especially true.

  “If they did this because of your change,” said Sarah, “they’re putting you in danger because they’re a jerkwad. You’re not putting anyone in danger by being you.”

  “But if they wouldn’t attack me if I didn’t change …” Rosemary began to say, but trailed off.

  “If you’re concerned about this,” answered Sarah, “this sounds like something you should talk to Professor Thorn about next time you see him. He should be able to tell you what to do to protect yourself.”

  Rosemary smiled.

  * * *

  As soon as the lockdown was lifted, Sarah and Rosemary put on house shoes, and together they headed to the infirmary. When they got there, Madam Sutton was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a somewhat younger man with dark hair and glasses sat back in a chair at the nurse’s station.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, as the two of them came in.

  “Yes,” said Sarah. “I’m Sarah Mitchell, and this is Rosemary Corbin.”

  “Oh,” said the man. “She needs me to check her somamorphic status?”

  “Where is Madam Sutton?” asked Rosemary.

  “This isn’t her shift,” said the man. “Even us nurses have to sleep. But I can help you. I’m Mr. Maxwell — and I may not be the head nurse, but somamorphic scans are something I can definitely do.”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary.

  “Very well,” said Mr. Maxwell, getting out of his seat, and rummaging through the table. Moments later, he stepped forward from the nurse’s station holding a clipboard. He took a look at the clipboard, and then withdrew a wand from a ring that he wore on his left middle finger in much the same way that Rosemary would, when needed, withdraw hers from her bracelet. He pointed it in the air and chanted: “Somamorpho censeo.” He then pointed it at Rosemary and chanted “Et hic subiectum.” After swishing it around for a few moments, he finished with a quick jabbing motion, and then returned his wand to his ring. He looked at the clipboard for a moment before taking a pen from the clip and writing something quick down on the top page that the clipboard held.

  “We’ll need to see you back here tomorrow,” he said, looking up at Rosemary, “any time before ten in the evening.”

  “Isn’t it practically tomorrow already?” asked Rosemary.

  “No,” said Mr. Maxwell. “It’s early Saturday morning. Tomorrow is Sunday.”

  * * *

  When Rosemary and Sarah arrived back at Hemlock Tower, most of the SODs had left, except for a detail of just a few of them who remained patrolling the hallways. When they reached the ninth floor, they found Professor Brown waiting for them.

  “I’ve made the arrangements,” she said as soon as they arrived, “and reassigned Rosemary to your room. And the SODs told us how the would-be kidnapper got into Rosemary’s room, so we’ve also put up anti-phasing wards in your room so nobody can phase in through the walls or through the door unless it’s open. That should keep Rosemary safe at night when she’s in the room.”

  “And the rest of the time?” asked Sarah.

  “Oh yeah,” said Professor Brown, “would you mind escorting her to Professor Thorn this afternoon for a special lesson at two-thirty — and please keep her with you at all times between now and then?”

  “I will,” agreed Sarah. “And it’s good that Rosemary will be seeing Professor Thorn today, because she has important questions for him.” She turned to Rosemary and continued. “Don’t you?”

  “Yes,” affirmed Rosemary.

  “Good,” said Professor Brown. Then turning to Rosemary, she continued. “The kind of spell that was used to immobilize you? Professor Thorn will teach you how to protect yourself from it. And I’m sure he’ll also be happy to answer whatever other question you have for him. Oh, and one more thing, since you’re going to be visiting the infirmary a lot for the next few weeks, we’ve decided to give you another one-week extension on your detention. Those can now be deferred to the week of November the eighteenth.”

  “Thank you,” said Rosemary.

  Professor Brown watched as Rosemary opened the door to her and Sarah’s room, and left only once the door was open. Rosemary turned on the light, and the two girls stepped inside. Luna, who was already curled up asleep on the spare bed — now Rosemary’s bed — got up and stretched. Rosemary walked over and began petting her.

  After a few minutes, Sarah handed Rosemary the same two business cards that she had earlier gotten from Harrison and Griswold. “You forgot these here earlier,” she explained. “You might want to put them away now — now that your stuff is all here.”

  “Thank you,” said Rosemary, taking the cards.

  A few minutes later, Sarah told Rosemary to throw her nightgown into the cauldron and go take a shower. She did so, and after the shower had a freshly cleaned nightgown to change into as she went back to sleep after a very stressful early morning.