And that was how Penny's time at the Bowland Institute began. Over the coming days the stares and whispers gradually faded as the other students got used to her appearance. Only a few—most of them apparently friends of Terrence, Edgar, and Susan, and some others—still sniggered and made jokes, many of them quite crude. Penny and Abigail tried their hardest to ignore them, but they were old enough to feel humiliated when that lot made snide remarks about Abigail petting her pussy.
At least when classes were in session, Penny didn't have to endure the insults and nasty comments of Terrence and Edgar's gang, and after her placement tests, she was quickly moved up to second year, much to the delight of Abigail and the disgruntlement of Obi. Penny pointed out that at least Obi had been given the opportunity to start first year a year earlier, as he would have been in sixth year at primary school if he hadn't been raised at the Institute given his age.
"...but you're not even eleven yet—not for weeks and they put you in with the second years," Obi had grumbled after classes one afternoon.
"That's only because I was already doing second year work in fifth year at primary school, but the school system didn't want to advance me to the local Secondary School at my age," said Penny briskly. "As I'm already here, there wasn't much point holding me back in first year—"
Obi cheered up a bit when a few weeks later Penny had earned enough points to get a little portable stereo, and Abigail was just as thrilled to have something to listen to during their off hours when they weren't doing homework. Abigail's marks also improved considerably thanks to Penny's influence. And with friends and schoolwork to distract her it was easier for Penny to stop herself from being too miserable about her parents being dead and desperately missing Meg.
Meg had been with Penny every step of the way for nearly two months while child services sorted things out with her parents' will and insurance and bank accounts and property and had her evaluated by the NHS—where the doctors were baffled by her unusual "condition"—and had tried to get her placed in foster care. Meg had been her rock, the only one who hadn't treated Penny like she was completely mental for talking about Magi and magic.
As it had occasionally when she was little, at odd moments Penny's mind drifted toward the enigma that was the larger Magi community. She had visited the Bureau of Magi Affairs and the Council of Elders only once on a day trip to London with Mum and Dad.
She had met other Magi children at the summer festivals in Devon and Cornwall, but by and large, she rarely came across any Magi children, as she and her parents had lived in a Dorset suburb where there were no other Magi. There were the twins who lived in Bournemouth, but they had never got on particularly well with Penny, and all of her friends had been Normals.
Mum and Dad had been going to register her with a Magi secondary school over the summer, but that was months and months away, nearly a whole school year, and now they would never get the chance to. From what Penny had been told, Magi children attended Normal primary schools with the Normals to ensure a proper education in the fundamentals as the Magi secondary schools focused primarily on Magical subjects.
Mum and Dad had taught her a bit of Magi history and a few basic spells of course, but now Penny wondered if she would ever get to attend a Magi school before she was 18. And what about Obi and the other boy? She still hadn't met Septimus, as he was in third year, and he kept to himself after classes.
Most of the teachers were alright—a few were strict but not as mean as the Monitors—and were used to the occasional "odd" orphans.
The weather grew wetter and colder as the weeks passed, and she finally turned eleven a week after the beginning of November, and by the time December drew nearer Penny had earned enough points for a little television, much to the delight of Abigail and Obi, who had both been going a bit stir crazy stuck inside (but at least Obi had been happy enough to hang out in Penny and Abigail's dorm after classes, where she could be a girl to her heart's content without being harassed).
Every so often during those weeks, Terrence and Edgar's lot would have a go at Penny, but as horrid as they were, Edgar at least kept his hands to himself, apparently not willing to push his luck with Obi again. And at lunch one day, Penny learned firsthand why the gang avoided harassing Septimus, despite clearly having it in for the "freaky" kids.
With his sullen expression and long black hair covering half of his pallid face, Septimus cut a morose figure and the other students tended to give him a wide berth. It was Susan's bad luck to have not been looking where she was going while chatting to Angela Tipton, another snooty girl in Susan's year.
"I don't think I'll ever get algebra," Obi was griping as he dug into his shepherd's pie.
"Well at least yours is simple—you're just in beginning Algebra," said Abigail a bit shrilly, "We've got an exam on Friday and I still can't make heads or tails of quadratic equations—and you know how strict Miss Farthing is."
"Alright," huffed Penny, her whiskers quivering and furry ears twitching as she rolled her eyes, "I'll help you both tonight—but that means no television—"
"Oi—watch where you're going!" Susan's sharp voice carried across the dining hall, startling all three of them.
They glanced up to see Susan suddenly looking frightened; her lunch tray had tipped, and mashed potato and gravy were sliding down the front of Septimus's school blazer.
"You did that on purpose," Septimus snarled.
"No—no," she squeaked, "I-I'm sorry—I didn't see you—"
"Liar!" shouted Septimus, his face twisted with fury, "I know what you lot think of me—you've been planning this for ages—thought you'd have a good laugh at the freak, didn't you?"
"No, I promise I didn't—please—"
A shriek of terror filled the dining hall. Penny gaped in horror when maybe a hundred or more spiders, some of them as large as tarantulas, appeared out of thin air and swarmed all over Susan. The sixth-year girl flailed around screaming and sobbing, trying to knock the spiders off with her hands as her friend Angela dove out of the way. There were more shouts and yells; students leapt out of their seats and scattered as dozens of the enormous arachnids scurried towards their tables.
Vivian and Richard, the two Monitors dining with students that day, looked just as horrified as everyone else and were frozen in place.
"THAT'S ENOUGH, SEPTIMUS!" Miss Hastings bellowed as she stormed into the dining hall, stomping on several of the spiders. "Stop it this instant, or so help me, you'll be in the Time-Out room for a week!"
Septimus's eyes widened, and for a moment he looked almost as frightened as Susan, who was still shrieking. The spiders all vanished instantaneously, and Susan collapsed to the floor, shaking violently and sobbing.
"It wasn't my fault," said Septimus defiantly, jutting out his chin. "Look what she did to me!"
"That's no excuse!" snapped Miss Hastings. "A bit of mashed potato on your front is hardly an offence deserving a nuclear response—"
The deputy headmistress shot a severe look at Vivian and Richard who were still frozen in shock.
"You two," she barked, "Do your jobs! Vivian, take Miss Spencer to the infirmary at once—and Richard, you will please escort Mr. Reed to the Time-Out room..."
"No, wait, please," said Septimus, looking terrified again. "I didn't mean it—it won't happen again! I promise!"
"You'd best hope not, or next time it will be a week," said Miss Hastings severely. "You're lucky I'm only chucking you in there till this evening—then it's off to your dorm for the night."
Septimus didn't say a word; he gulped, his nostrils flaring as he meekly exited the dining hall with Richard.
Penny's heart raced, her bushy tail wagging wildly as she watched both Susan and Septimus departing the hall; she wasn't sure who to feel sorrier for.
There was no love lost between any of the trio and Susan, but all three of them were unnerved to see her still looking scared out of her wits; her nose was running, and her ashen face glistened with tears. But Septimus's fear at the mere mention of the Time-Out room was unsettling as well.
"Why is he so frightened?" asked Penny quietly. "What do they do to you in the Time-Out room?"
"Nothing as far as I know," said Obi, shrugging. "It's just a really small empty room—more like a closet really—with a little cot. A Monitor guards the door if there's anyone in there and that's it. I should know—I spent a whole night in there after I gave Edgar a black eye... It was worth it though."
"Maybe he's got claustrophobia," Abigail suggested.
Penny frowned, her furry ears flicking; the dining hall faded and she was in the dark cellar again, alone and terrified, listening to the roar of the inferno blazing through her house, ashamed that she had run down the stairs to escape the explosion and the two figures she had seen at the other end of the hall just past the flames billowing from the doorway of her parents' bedroom...
"Hey—hey, Penny—"
Penny blinked, surprised to find herself trembling and her face wet. Obi had his arm around her and Abigail was stroking her tail.
"There were two of them," she whispered.
"What?" Abigail looked puzzled, but Obi had an odd expression on his face.
"Two men—I think—maybe Shadow-Mages. ... I only just remembered. I-I think they were the ones who... the ones who..."
"The ones who blew up your house?" suggested Abigail.
Penny nodded slowly and bit her lip, feeling ashamed all over again as more tears trickled down her cheek.
"I ran away—I left them... I left my parents—I should have tried to save them when the Shadow-Mages vanished, but I was too afraid they would come back. ... I should have tried to get to Mum and Dad—"
"It was too late," said Obi quietly, giving her a gentle squeeze. "There was too much fire—you couldn't've got through—there was no way! You'd've burnt to a crisp."
"What? How do you know that?"
"I-I dunno really," said Obi, looking as bewildered as Penny felt. "I just... I saw it all in my head somehow when your eyes sort of went blank and you started to shake."
"You're a Telepath!" Penny's eyes widened.
"What?"
"A Telepath," said Penny, a thrill shooting up her spine. "Most Magi have to study it and practice telepathy loads to be any good at it—it's supposed to be really hard, but you must be a Natural Telepath."
"Oh!" A look of surprise crossed Obi's features. "But I've never even done that before. Wouldn't I have done that before if I'm a natural?"
Penny shook her head. "Not necessarily. The Encyclopedia of Sorcery says a Natural Telepath can have their first real waking experience triggered any time between about six and twelve—before that, they usually only have experiences while they're dreaming."
"Wow!" said Abigail, looking a bit envious. "That sounds amazing."
"Actually," Penny continued, in her schoolteacher tone of voice, "it can be quite scary if you don't know what's happening—especially if the dreams or thoughts of the person you're tuned into are frightening," then Penny looked at Obi with concern, "Are you alright?"
"Sure!" said Obi, nodding. "I mean, yeah, it was really weird—but I could tell straight away it was you. I could see everything—looking through your eyes. I could feel everything you felt, too. And I'm, er... I'm sort of used to nightmares—I was more worried about you, really—that's about the worst I've ever felt."
"Even in your nightmares?"
"Yeah—they were kind of bad when I was little, but now they're just... sort of there. It's more like I'm just watching a television now, rather than in them—"
"What do you see in your nightmares then?" asked Abigail, unable to restrain her curiosity.
"Not too different from Penny's really," said Obi, shrugging. "Fire—people screaming—some horrible looking guy chasing them... Maybe it's some sort of memory too—I really don't know—I can't really remember much from before I was three or four."
A crease formed between Penny's eyebrows and she chewed her lower lip pensively, not sure what to make of that. It seemed relevant somehow, but she wasn't really sure why and she filed it away in the back of her mind.
~o0o~
Several more weeks went by and a blanket of white lay across the grounds on the last day of the Autumn term. Snow covered the roof and icicles hung from the eaves of the Institute, and the ponds and fountains were frozen over. Most of the students were packing to return home for the Christmas holidays, including Abigail.
Penny glumly watched her dormmate haphazardly stuffing a few clothes into a backpack after classes, struggling to restrain her tears. She wasn't sure she could bear to face Christmas without Mum and Dad, and she wouldn't even have Abigail to keep her company at nights.
Abigail gave her an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could take you home with me," she moaned. "I think it's really mean that they won't let you and Obi leave the Institute."
"They're probably afraid we'll get into trouble somehow with our magic—not that I've really got much besides being half-cat," Penny grumbled miserably, "Well, not much besides a few little spells anyway..." she hesitated, her chest tightening.
"At least Obi can change form with his magic," Penny concluded, her tail twitching.
"That's it," said Abigail brightly. "Maybe Obi can sneak out of his dorm at night and keep you company. I don't think there are very many Monitors over the holidays as far as I know."
"Do you really think so? I don't want him to get in trouble."
"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Abigail, giving Penny a hug. "Just ask him when you see him. I'd better go now—Mum said she'd be here to pick me up at four and it's already ten after."
"Bye then," said Penny. "I'll miss you..."
The Institute was almost empty when Penny and Obi ate dinner in the dining hall that evening. Besides them, there were perhaps only a half-dozen students left, including Terrence who was sitting by himself and scowling. Penny finally worked up the nerve to ask Obi halfway through her roast chicken and scalloped potatoes. She needn't have worried though.
"Yeah, of course I'll sleep over," he said eagerly.
"You're sure? I really don't want you to get in trouble."
"It's not a big deal—really. There's usually only a couple of Monitors over the holidays, so there aren't any night patrols..."
After dinner, Penny returned to her dormitory. It felt hollow without Abigail to fill the void. Penny opened a drawer to find her nightclothes. She halted, her eyes lingering on the Hello Kitty nightie that she hadn't worn once since coming to the Institute. It was the nightie that Meg had bought for Penny out of her own money to replace the one she had been wearing the night of the fire—the one which had been scorched and burned by flying embers.
Penny felt a lump in her throat and blinked back tears. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then reached into the drawer for it. Once she had changed, Penny had an odd sort of feeling; wearing the nightie made her feel sad, but it also made the room feel a bit less empty, as if her parents and Meg were with her. She turned on the radio, which was tuned to BBC1—the station that Abigail and Obi seemed to prefer—and switched it to BBC3.
Despite the soothing music, Penny grew more anxious while she waited. It was almost an hour and a half later when she heard a tap on her door and found Obi in his pyjamas and slippers on the other side, grinning and waiting to be let in. Penny let out a sigh of relief.
"See, no problem," he said as his hair lengthened and his features rounded. And it doesn't really matter if anyone spots me in the corridor as long as they don't see me coming in and out of your dormitory—they'll just think I had to use the loo."
"That's a good point," said Penny. "Do you want to watch a bit of television? I think Luther is on in a bit—or maybe Black Mirror."
"You sure you don't want to watch The Great British Bake-Off ?"
"Prat!" Penny swatted Obi with a pillow, but she felt her face breaking into a smile.
Obi's blue-green eyes flickered towards the radio, from which strains of Stravinsky could be heard.
"Or we could just listen to music for a bit, if you'd rather," she offered.
"Oh, yes—alright then." Penny made to turn the station back to BBC1.
"No, just leave it," said Obi quickly.
"What?" Penny shot Obi a puzzled look, her hand still hovering over the button. "Really? You don't mind listening to classical music then?"
"Not tonight," Obi replied, her voice gentle. Penny bit her lip and her furry ears flicked, catching on.
"You don't have to," she said quietly.
"I want to," said Obi firmly.
"Er... Okay."
Penny didn't know why, but all of sudden she felt really shy and she blushed. The pair of schoolgirls sat on Penny's bed, leaning on her pillows against the wall. Chopin followed Stravinsky, Beethoven followed Mozart, and Penny purred contentedly as Obi absentmindedly stroked her bushy tail...
~o0o~
Penny stirred, blinking blearily, surprised to find her arm curled around Obi's waist. Obi's soft snores mingled with the sound of mellow piano and flute emanating from the radio and Penny wondered when they had fallen asleep. Her eyes caught the clock on the wall.
"Psst..." she whispered in Obi's ear, not wanting to startle her. "Psst... Obi..."
"Mmm... Penny?" Obi murmured, stirring.
"Yes, I just thought you should know—it's nearly six."
"Oh..." Obi yawned and stretched. "I probably should go back to my dorm before anyone else wakes up. Thanks Penny."
"Thank you," Penny beamed. "I feel loads better now."
Obi turned slightly pink and smiled. Her features altered slightly as her messy black hair shortened. He carefully cracked the door open and peeked down the corridor, then looked back at Penny and grinned.
"All clear. I'll see you at breakfast then..."
The next few days passed peaceably. Penny and Obi built a snowman, had snowball fights, and explored the frosty white grounds of the Institute, which felt like a different world when it was covered in snow.
The few other students at the Institute over the holidays kept to themselves by and large as well. Septimus was nowhere to be seen and Terrence moped around in the distance, looking more miserable than Penny had ever seen him look. He caught her eyes and scowled, stalking the other way.
"I wonder if he's alright," Penny said quietly, her breath clouding in the air. "He looks so sad."
"I suppose," said Obi, shrugging as he hurled a snowball which struck a statue of an Admiral square in the face and exploded. Penny frowned, her tail wagging.
"Does he stay at the Institute every Christmas?"
Obi dropped the handful of snow he had just scooped up to form another snowball and gave Penny a funny look.
"Yeah—he does, come to think of it. You're not actually sorry for him, are you?"
Penny's frown deepened.
"I am actually. Nobody should be alone at Christmas if they've got family. Maybe that's why he's so horrid to us all the time—maybe his family doesn't like him."
"Oh!" said Obi as if the thought had never occurred to him. "I guess that would be pretty horrible."
Penny stared at Obi a moment, her whiskers quivering with emotion.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
"What? Why?"
"You've never had a family to share Christmas with."
"Yeah, that's true," said Obi indifferently; then his brows knotted in consternation and he took Penny's hand. "But I can't really miss what I've never had. I get it now—why you feel sorry for Terrence—really."
Penny nodded, her eyelashes fluttering downward. Obi looked at her awkwardly then pulled her closer and gave her a tentative hug. The next thing Penny knew she was embracing Obi tightly, crying quietly, burying her face in his shoulder.
After the hug and a hot cup of cocoa, Penny felt much better. She and Obi lounged in her dorm eating sausage rolls and cheese straws, and drinking eggnog while watching Christmas specials and comedies on her little television.
Other than the Christmas dinner and the holiday snacks (which were available from morning to night every day through the winter break) Christmas Day came and went with little fanfare. It was hard not to have spells of missing her parents, and Meg, and Abigail, but Obi managed to keep her spirits up most of the time.
~o0o~
It was the day after New Year's Day, late at night, just after twelve. Penny woke up, grumbling to herself when she felt the sudden urge. Obi stirred when she clambered out of bed.
"I just have to use the loo," Penny whispered, wrapping herself in a fuzzy blue robe. "I'll be right back."
Obi nodded and closed her eyes again. In her slippers and dressing gown, Penny padded quietly down the dimly lit corridor to the nearest bathroom. After she had finished and washed her hands, Penny began to head back to her dorm when a voice broke the silence.
"No! Please," a boy's cry carried down the hallway. "Please... don't make me—"
"Get a move on—don't make this harder than it has to be," said a gruff man's voice that Penny didn't recognize.
Penny's skin crawled at the panic in the boy's voice. It was Septimus. They couldn't be putting him in the Time-Out room, could they? In the middle of the night? It didn't make any sense.
Her heart pounding, Penny tip-toed down the hall as fast as she could and slipped into her room. She gave Obi a little shake.
"Huh? What?" said Obi sleepily.
"It's Septimus. Some man I've never seen before is taking him somewhere—I think to the Time-Out room."
"In the middle of the night? That's weird," Obi mumbled.
"Come on," said Penny, tugging the sleeve of Obi's pyjamas, "I want to see what's going on."
"Oh—alright then."
Obi rubbed the sleep from her eyes and got up. By the time they reached the hallway Obi was a boy again. They could still hear the voices echoing down the shadowy corridor. The curious pair scampered down the hall as quietly as possible; they were just in time to see the man and Septimus on the landing of the stairwell below.
"That's Mr. Burke," Obi hissed in Penny's ear, "He's the security chief—the one who tells the Monitors what to do. He's almost never here himself though—just comes to inspect things every once in a while."
Penny bit her lip and nodded, her furry ears flicking with agitation. Silently they both crept down the stairs and cautiously peered around the bannister. As they hadn't been caught out yet, they continued to follow the security chief and Septimus who now seemed resigned to his fate. To Penny and Obi's surprise, once they had reached the ground floor, instead of heading for the Time-Out room, Mr. Burke led Septimus to a black door under a nightlight at the end of a dark corridor behind the kitchen.
"The basement," whispered Obi. "I've never been down there. It's usually locked."
"Why would Mr. Burke take him there?" asked Penny, her trepidation growing with leaps and bounds.
"Dunno," said Obi, "Come on—let's go have a look."
"I'm not sure," Penny moaned. "Maybe this was a bad idea."
"Are you joking? You're the one who wanted to see what was going on."
"I know," Penny was torn between her growing fear and her anguish, "I felt bad for Septimus and I just wanted to make sure they weren't going to hurt him—"
"Oi—"
Penny and Obi both nearly jumped out of their skins and spun around to see Christine behind them in a thin dressing gown.
"What're you two doin' down here?" she asked, her voice low and a frightened look on her face.
"Er..." was the best Penny could manage.
"We heard voices and we wanted to see where Mr. Burke was taking Septimus," said Obi boldly. "You're not going to turn us in, are you?"
"'Course not! What'd'you take me for?" said Christine. "But you'd better get back to your dorms before Burke or one of 'is goons finds you down here."
"Why? What's going on?" asked Penny, finding her voice. "What's in the basement? They're not going to hurt him, are they?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Christine hissed. "But I don't really wanna find out. All I know is that once they start taking the ones like you two down to the basement, they're usually gone after a few weeks. I don't want that happenin' to you guys. ... Now go on—get back t'bed before they find you!"
There didn't seem to be much choice in the matter at this point. Obi and Penny climbed back up the stairs and returned to Penny's dorm room, both of them unsatisfied by the outcome of their midnight stroll.
"So, what was that all about?" said Obi out loud after turning back into a girl.
Penny didn't answer right away—it was more than apparent that Obi was being rhetorical. Her mental gears started whirring.
"Christine said the ones like us disappear a few weeks after they start going down to the basement," she said, "and you told me that the others that had been here over the years had been adopted. There must be a connection."
"Well," said Obi slowly, looking deeply disturbed, "that's what I was always told. But what if they're doing something really horrible to them and then killing them. Christine was really scared."
"That doesn't really make sense though. Why keep children like us so long before murdering them?" Penny pointed out. "Why would you still be here?"
"Oh, yeah, you're right," Obi agreed, nodding. "But obviously something fishy is going on."
"Obviously!" said Penny in the tone of voice she used when helping Obi and Abigail with their schoolwork. "If the security chief is involved, and it's happening late at night, it's not very likely to be anything to do with adoptions. It must have something to do with us being Magi—perhaps the government is taking us to a secret lab to study us. But then why would you be here so long?"
"Maybe... maybe it has something to do with the type of magic we have?" Obi suggested. "Maybe they don't think my magic is very good—me being able to turn into a girl doesn't seem very useful to anyone but me. They might be looking for kids with magic that can actually do real stuff, like... er..."
"...like stuff which could hurt people," said Penny in a small voice. "That does make the most sense. They must be using the basement to test whatever a particular Magus's Magical Expression is—"
"Magical expression?"
"It's the way a child's magic manifests before they're taught how to control it and make it do other stuff with spells," Penny explained in her school-teacher tone of voice again. "The Encyclopedia of Magic says that 'Magic Follows Intent.' So magical children naturally express themselves in various ways which follow their deepest natures. ... Septimus had a pretty awful time of it with his horrible father, right? And he's probably naturally drawn to dark feelings too. So, when he's angry..."
"...he makes horrible creatures appear, like snakes and spiders, and other creatures which most people hate. Of course!" said Obi, his eyes widening. "That's why I can turn into a girl without having to do a spell—because my deepest nature is to like being a girl... most of the time, anyway."
"Exactly!" Penny nodded. "I haven't expressed anything in particular yet—maybe because I was supposed to be a natural-born cat-shifter and got stuck this way instead. Though, I did do a little bit of telekinesis a few times when I really wanted something I couldn't reach, and I can do a few little spells."
"I bet you could do more powerful telekinesis if you tried then," said Obi. "You just never really needed to because your parents were usually around to get stuff for you."
"You know, I think you're right," said Penny, looking very impressed. "I never really thought about it like that."
"You'll just have to be careful not to use it around anyone here," said Obi worriedly. "I don't want anyone to find out you can do anything useful."
"Well, hopefully we won't be here long enough for anyone to find out anything."
"Wait—what?"
"We have to get out of here if we want to help Septimus and help ourselves too. We can't just stay here hoping that nobody figures out that we can do more than be half-cat or change gender at will."
"Blimey!" Obi paled. "You're right. But where would we go? I've never been off the grounds."
"Meg's!" said Penny without hesitation. "She was my social-worker and she's really nice. She looked after me for two months while things got sorted out after my parents died. I was only sent here because they weren't having much luck finding anyone who wanted to foster me. ... I know she'll help us, and I know her phone numbers."
"Okay—alright," said Obi, nodding. "So, how are we going to get out of here? And when d'you want to make a break for it?"
"Abigail will be back the day after tomorrow—her mum is bringing her back a few days before the beginning of the term. I really don't want to leave her without saying goodbye."
Penny didn't want to leave her at all; she had got very attached to her dorm-mate and Obi, and she wished she could take Abigail as well.
"And as far as getting out," Penny went on, trying not to think about leaving Abigail behind, "I know where all the security cameras are. And if you're right about my telekinesis being more powerful than anything I've done before—"
"I am," said Obi certainly.
"Er..." Penny was a bit taken aback by Obi's certainty, "Then maybe I could use it to disable the cameras and break the lock on the gates."
"That should work," Obi agreed, "And we'll only have Richard and Vivian to worry about. There won't be any other Monitors here until the beginning of term. So we should go at night when they're asleep."
"Okay! It's settled then. We'll go the night after Abigail gets back," said Penny...