The acting troupe turned mute in an instant, their heads swivelling like owls to look at Mezrielda as she walked into the room. Greenda was a few paces behind.
Her mind was already mapping out the next few moves. What would the acting troupe do? How could she respond? She wouldn't have time to cast the stone transfiguration spell before she was hit with a killing curse so her first move was to throw the sealable substance onto the ground at her feet. It burst out in spiky structures, forming into a towering stalagmite on the floor and blocking the flashes of green that had been hurled her way.
Sealable substance could block the killing curse, then, like any wall or column could. She pushed the thought of how that could have gone very wrong from her mind. There would be time to panic later.
A crystal shot past Mezrielda's head as Greenda threw it at the acting troupe. Then another. There were more flashes of green and Mezrielda and Greenda stayed ducked behind the formation the sealable substance had expanded too.
'We need to get to Bagsy,' Greenda said.
'Really?' Mezrielda grit out dryly. 'I hadn't realised.' She lurched out from behind the structure, pointing her wand at the tiled wall on the other side of the room and hoping to Merlin it had stone beneath it. 'Rocushift!' she bellowed, pushed every ounce of magic she had into her spell.
Crackles of power surged down her arm and into her wand that sung from the energy. There was a popping noise, a gush of light, and then the wall snapped like a Venus fly trap. It closed around half of the acting troupe and buried them from view.
Mezrielda threw another orb of sealable substance at her feet and ducked down as a chorus of 'Avada kedavra!' and green jets of light shot towards her like lightning. She took a second to breathe. She'd used more magic than she'd ever used before. The power behind her spell had been something else entirely. The power of the corvid family was rushing through her blood. It certainly wasn't bad news.
Mezrielda looked at Greenda, who was stuck behind the first sealable substance formation as green jets of light struck the front of it. Philip was walking towards Greenda, intent on rounding the obstacle.
Greenda grabbed a vial from her pocket and threw it over the formation. It shattered on the floor at Philip's feet. He coughed uncontrollably, his flat cap falling off from his violent jerks.
'Why aren't you healing?' one of the stunt workers asked as Philip moved away from the acidic potion.
'I'm trying,' he hissed. 'It's those damn crystals! Clear them up!'
Mezrielda stepped out from behind her cover and pointed her wand at the painting on the ceiling. She'd intended to transfigure it into acid or lava or something to fall on the acting troupe but, with a sense of dread, realised she hadn't relearnt the spells to do that.
Cursing at her own stupidity, she ducted down behind the stalagmite as the acting troupe cleared away the crystal dust with their wands.
'Mezrielda!' Greenda called to her, gesturing at the talk-board. Mezrielda looked down. Someone had desperately scrawled help. A second later, the letter E appeared.
'Emmeline,' Mezrielda realised.
They really were running out of time.
'Fuck this.' Mezrielda stepped out from behind the formation, pointing her wand at the acting troupe. They'd try and hit her with more killing curses, but that didn't matter. As she began to cast her spell, her other hand was already throwing down another sealable substance.
'Avada kedavra!' Philip ground out like a hissing snake, a jet of green shooting like a spear at her.
It burst into dust on the sealable substance that formed, just in time, in front of Mezrielda, who'd let it solidify around her hand, so that the tip of her wand was poking through it at the moment it completed a spell movement.
'Rocushift!' she all but yelled, the air around her whipping into a storm from the force that surged from her wand.
The whole room shifted like the waves of an ocean, with Bagsy at its centre, the only calm space in the chaos. At Mezrielda's command the stone surged up and fell over the acting troupe, Philip included.
The troupe wailed and flailed and tried to run, tried to dodge the impending stone closing around their bodies, but Mezrielda didn't let them. Just like that, Philip, and the rest of the acting troupe, had been dealt with. Encased within the stone.
Mezrielda shifted the stone below the sealable substance holding her hand in place, breaking it into two pieces and freeing her arm. Instantly, she fell to her knees and let out a tired breath, feeling as though there was a heavy weight on her back. It took her a second to realise that there really was something on her back. She glanced over her shoulder to catch the smallest glimpse of reseeding feathers as if, for a moment, she'd had wings.
Greenda peeked out from behind her cover, eyes wide like dinner plates. 'Oh, my,' she murmured, seeing what Mezrielda had done. 'You... you took them all out?'
'They're trapped,' Mezrielda lied. She didn't see how the acting troupe could have survived that. Her guess was they'd all been crushed. She reminded herself that it was only Philip she'd harmed—no one else in the acting troupe was themselves anymore, they were all puppets. She'd finally released their bodies from the indignity of being playthings. The only people left standing in the now malformed room were herself, Greenda and Bagsy.
'We've got to get to Emmeline,' Greenda said. 'You grab Bagsy, I'll be right back!' With that, Greenda raced from the room. She only got a few paces before, with a yelp, she fell to the floor.
'Greenda?' Mezrielda said in alarm, looking at her.
Greenda let out a groan, rubbing her head. 'Did I run into a wall?'
Mezrielda's dragged in heavy breaths. The spell had taken a lot out of her. Placing a hand on her knee, she rose to her feet, her back feeling as though it was normal again. 'Stay there. I'll get Bagsy and then we can go to Emmeline together.'
Greenda nodded numbly.
Mezrielda looked at Bagsy, letting out a half-sob of relief, and stumbled in her direction. But after a few paces she, too, came to a stop. Her head collided with something solid in the air. 'Preposterous...' she muttered tiredly, eyes squinting at the pain in her head.
She reached out a hand, pushing it forward, and found it placed against something solid, cold and invisible.
'What's going on?' Greenda asked. Mezrielda turned around to look at her. Either Greenda had suddenly become an excellent mime, or there were four invisible walls around her.
'They're around me, too,' Mezrielda said. 'Invisible walls.'
'Did someone cast a spell on us?'
Mezrielda frowned, looking around herself quickly. 'I don't think so.' There wasn't another soul in sight except for herself, Greenda and the statue-still Bagsy.
Mezrielda's eyes fell to the floor, tracing the lines of the giant stone slabs. 'No,' she breathed. 'No...' Using her hands to feel the location of the walls, she realised they'd sprung up from the lines in the stone floor. 'It's some kind of safety mechanism to lock everyone in.'
'Mezrielda?' Bagsy's quiet voice reached her.
'Bags!' Mezrielda's eyes snapped onto her friend. She pressed her hands against the wall blocking her. 'Bagsy, it's me!'
'Bag...sy....?'
'Yes! Yes! That's your name.'
Greenda looked horrified. 'What's wrong with her?'
Bagsy's hazel eyes looked at Mezrielda's brown. They were slow to move, and unfocussed.
Mezrielda pointed her wand at the invisible wall. 'Rocushift!' Nothing. 'Alohomora!' Nothing. 'Palleos?' All that did was make the wall a colour she could see, blocking Bagsy from her view. That was worse so Mezrielda dismissed the spell. Maybe she could turn the wall into a liquid? 'Colliquify!' Still nothing. Maybe the unblocking charm could do it? It was typically used to aid those choking, but maybe it would unblock Mezrielda's path? 'Sursum!'
Mezrielda was thrown up and then down with a thud, the invisible walls still blocking her. She sat, like a rag doll, leant against the invisible wall, her entire body screaming in protest. 'Bagsy,' she croaked. There was nothing she could do. She sat like that, watching her friend sway from side to side, for what felt like hours, all the while she could hear Greenda pacing in her own invisible cell.
Greenda was trying spell after spell, pouring potions and ointments and crystals at the walls, but nothing was working. Her pacing stopped abruptly. 'Mezrielda. Look at the talk-board.'
Mezrielda did so. There was a new message.
Greenda, I'm sorry for all the fighting. I wasted so much time. Take care of Primrose for me.
E
There was a soft thud as Greenda fell to her knees. Numbly, Mezrielda put the talk-board back in her pocket. Everything was going wrong, but she didn't want to stop looking at Bagsy's blank face. She was beginning to regain feeling in her fingers and her toes, and was struggling back to her feet, when something in her friend changed.
Bagsy's eyes were the red of sunset.
Mezrielda knew Bagsy's eyes. Those weren't them.
'My, my, my,' Bagsy tutted. 'When you exterminate the vermin, you've gots to be sure you get all of 'em, or they'll come back to bite ya.'
Mezrielda's voice caught in her throat.
'What are you talking about?' Greenda asked. 'Stop messing about, Bagsy, we need to figure a way out of here!'
Bagsy burst into laughter, throwing her head back and placing her hands on her belly for a hearty chuckle. 'Bagsy! Oh, what a name. I'll have to get used to it, I s'pose, unless I can find my body amongst the stones and take its memory, I'm stuck with this form.' Bagsy paused, as if considering something. 'No, wait, she has two forms I can use. Maybe three. It's certainly better than nothing. And, with enough time, the number of forms could become endless. It was the reason I wanted her to begin with, after all.'
'Forms...?' Greenda murmured in confusion.
Mezrielda's brow furrowed. 'Philip.'
Bagsy clicked her fingers and pointed proudly at her. 'Got it in one, darlin'. Aren't you just the brightest wand in the store.'
Instinctively, Mezrielda pointed her wand at Bagsy.
Bagsy held up her hands in warning. 'Woah, there, missy. You hurt me you hurt your friend.'
Mezrielda's face twisted as she tried not to cry. 'She's already gone. Isn't she?'
Bagsy's face turned downwards, but her eyes stayed fixed on Mezrielda at an odd angle that sent shivers down her spine. 'You'll never guess what else is gone,' she rattled out like the shiver of leaves in a forest. She took a step forward and over the stone line in the floor.
'The walls!' said Greenda. 'Mezrielda, I trust you can deal with whatever is going on with Bagsy. I'm going to find Emmeline.' Greenda ran to the edge of the room, exploding a door with her wand before rushing into the dark corridor.
Mezrielda didn't bother asking her to stay. A cold sensation was crawling over her. She'd failed.
Bagsy took another step and Mezrielda saw something glimmer in those eyes. If the roles were reversed, Bagsy wouldn't give up on her, would she? That's why Bagsy was a Hufflepuff. No matter what, she kept pushing. Mezrielda had to do the same.
'Rocushift!' Mezrielda cast, hoping to trap Bagsy until she could figure out how to get Philip out of her head. What she'd failed to realise was that Bagsy's hands were now gloved.
'Ooooh my,' Bagsy drawled as she easily caught the spell in her spell-sponge glove. 'This body's got cat-like reflexes. That'll come in handy.'
Mezrielda took a step back. 'Rocushift,' she cast again, but her energy was draining. Bagsy blocked it more easily than the first.
Mezrielda tried to cast one more spell, aiming somewhere too far away from Bagsy to catch, but Bagsy kicked off the floor and collided with her in a sudden burst of thaumaturgic speed. Mezrielda let out a gasp, her wand clattering onto the floor as she was pinned.
Bagsy loomed over her, a deranged smile on her face. 'It took me centuries to build that troupe up,' she hissed, her voice sounding more and more like Philip's by the second. 'I'll make this slow...' Bagsy's strong hands closed around Mezrielda's neck and squeezed.
Mezrielda resisted, but she was so much weaker, and her wand was beyond her reach. She fumbled for it, and then she kicked out, and then she hit against Bagsy's arms, all the while her face reddened, and stars began to dance in her vision. She was running out of time and worse she was running out of air to think with as her choking noises filled the room.
'I would add you to my troupe,' Bagsy ground out, squeezing even tighter as a mad rage overcame her, 'but people like you don't deserve the air you steal from good folk like me.'
'Bags...eee...' Mezrielda groaned hoarsely, her voice barely audible. She felt heat burning against her neck. Bagsy's gloves were filled with magic that was about to explode out. If she didn't die from strangulation her neck would be obliterated by a burst of energy. 'Plea...se...' Her arm shaking so violently she could barely control it, Mezrielda roughly placed her hand on Bagsy's face. There was a wetness there.
Bagsy was crying.
Bagsy let out a pained screech, lurching off Mezrielda and aiming her hands at the main doors. There was a burst of light as the gloves let out all the magic they'd caught. The force sent Bagsy into a wall.
Mezrielda vacuumed in a harsh breath, rolling onto her side. Spit rolled out of her mouth as she coughed and hiccoughed.
'No!' Bagsy was screaming as she got to her feet, stumbling from the impact she'd taken. 'No! I'm HUMAN!' She shook her head from side to side like a dog trying to relieve itself of an incessant fly. 'NO! NO!'
'Bagsy,' Mezrielda croaked, shakily getting to her feet and fumbling over to her. Her friend began to shift. First, she was Bagsy. Then, she was Primrose. Then she was a tiny child, looking no older than eleven. Then she was Bagsy again.
'Who am I?' Bagsy cried. No matter who Bagsy shifted into, tears fell from her eyes. 'WHO AM I?'
Mezrielda put her hands on Bagsy's arms. For one, she was struggling to hold her own weight, but for another, she needed to be as close to her as possible. 'You're Bagsy. You're polite and kind and gentle.' Mezrielda's words were rushed, each syllable like rubbing sandpaper over her voice box. 'You stammer when you get worried, and you don't like confrontation. You work hard and you practise more than you blink. You're always inventing something or helping someone or thinking your way through puzzles. You hardly ever sleep. Once, you fainted for a whole week because you made a potion to keep yourself awake twenty-four seven.' Mezrielda let out a weak laugh of panic. 'Remember? And in some ways you're a coward but in others you're so impossibly brave. Bagsy? Can you hear me?'
The skin below Mezrielda's hands was grey and then pale and then scaled and then grey again as Bagsy shifted, shaking her head in disbelief.
'It's all a lie,' said Bagsy. 'It's all a lie. When Philip was in my head it didn't matter... he was controlling this parasite of a body... but I had to kick him out or you would've... I would've... but now it's just me in here. Just me in here with all these lies...' She put her arms around Mezrielda, hugging her so tightly Mezrielda was scared she'd choke all over again. 'I'm not a real person. I don't think I ever was.'
Mezrielda pushed Bagsy off of her so she could look her in the eyes, holding her face in her hands and wiping tears from her cheeks. 'Do you trust me?'
Bagsy jolted in unsteady breaths as she held back sobs.
'Bagsy!' Mezrielda said, feeling a heat below Bagsy's skin as her cells kept shifting. She worried her friend would turn to dust after all, just as Pepsini had wanted. If this shifting kept going, Mezrielda had little doubt what fate would await her friend. 'Do you trust me?'
Bagsy was silent for a second, searching Mezrielda's face with panicked eyes that were hazel now, not red. 'Yes.'
Mezrielda's grip on Bagsy tightened. She shook her as much as she could with her weak arms. 'I know you're Bagsy. I know that's who you are. Being a doppelganger couldn't ever change that.'
The heat cooled. The shifting slowed. There were a few flashes of scales, a wave of grey, and then there was Bagsy, looking at Mezrielda, her hair a ragged brown halo around her head.
Mezrielda thought she might cry as she pulled Bagsy into a hug. 'I've missed you so much.'
Slowly, Bagsy's arms found their way around Mezrielda, hugging her back. 'What... happened?'
Mezrielda pulled away suddenly, rubbing her sore neck from where she'd been choked. 'There's no time to explain. Follow me. We need to leave.'