Author’s note: In this story, Alex and Nina are around 8-9 years old. (Convenient as I have their body doubles running around the house!) This story goes out to Ryan, Paul and Sasha (who is a friend who happens to be a girl, not a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrlfriend.)

       “‘…but I won’t deny that I am a werewolf.’”
       “Whoa.” Nina’s eyes were wide as saucers as she lay on the heaps of pillows next to Alex as his nanny read to them from the third Harry Potter. “Is he really, Tia Avery? Really?”
       Alex snorted. “I knew he was ages ago,” he said smugly. 
       Avery raised one eyebrow. “Now, Alex,” she chided gently, “you know very well that we’ve been reading these books for months now. Nina is your guest so be nice.”
       “I saw the movie though,” Nina chirped up. “Cassidy took me.”
       “I’ve got that on DVD,” Alex boasted.
       “Really?” Nina sat up. “You’re kidding! That’s not going to be on sale until May! They said so on TV!”
       “Mom and Dad got an early release copy,” Alex answered with a shrug as if this happened all the time. He glanced over at his visitor who was bouncing with excitement. “You wanna see it later?”
       “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” Nina launched herself at him and nearly strangled Alex in an exuberant hug. Pillows flew in all directions.
       “Get OFF me!!” the young Xanatos protested but without much conviction.
       Placing a bookmark in the book, Avery just shook her head and laughed at the two children rolling around on the floor. Her visiting niece, Nina, was accustomed to being part of the huge Bishop clan and treated Alex with the same rough and tumble affection she gave to any of her cousins. It mortified Owen, who felt Alex should conduct himself with princely decorum, but Avery knew it was good for Alex to just be a regular kid from time to time.
       “Nina,” Avery said with a no-nonsense edge to her voice, “let him go. He’s a boy, not a entry in a sheep-wrestling contest.”
       “Awwww!!”
       Alex sat up, his red hair standing up in static clumps. “You wrestle sheep?”
       “Sure!! It’s fun!” At nine years old, Nina stood just slightly taller than the younger boy and looked all lanky legs in her blue jeans. “Dad and Uncle George are going to let me do calf-roping next. I’ve been practicing!” 
       “I’ll have to get out my old rope and have you show me your stuff later,” Avery commented. “We’ve got to keep that championship belt in the family you know.”
       “Do you suppose we could have a pizza and movie night, Avery?” Alex asked earnestly. 
       “Yeah, like a slumber party!” Nina chirped up. “I bet Dad and Cassidy wouldn’t mind.”
       “You’ve been to a slumber party?” Alex asked wistfully. 
       “Yep! Once at my cousin’s house and twice with just girls from school.” Nina peered at him curiously. “What, you’ve never been?”
       “No.” Alex punched the pillow next to him. “Too big of a security risk.”
       He was trying to put a positive spin on it but Avery could still hear the disappointment in his voice. She took a pad of paper from the shelf and turned with pencil poised. “Well then, it’s high time you had a sleepover of your own. I’ll talk to Dennis but I’m sure he’ll say yes. What kind of pizza do you want to have? I’ll make a list right now.”
       “Ham and pineapple, double cheese,” Alex glanced at his guest, “and--”
       “Taco pizza!”
       “Eeeeeeuuuw.” Alex gagged as he made a face.
       “Yum,” Avery commented. “With extra sour cream and salsa, right?”
       “Yeah!”
       “And ice cream floats for after,” Alex ordered. “Okay?”
       “Sounds good,” Avery replied as she finished writing. “Can you guys entertain yourselves while I run downstairs? This won’t take very long.”
       “No problemo!” Nina gave her aunt a thumbs up.
       Alex was thumbing through the book that Avery had just finished reading to them. Nina flopped down on a bean bag chair. “That’s got to be one of my favorite Harry Potter books so far.” She giggled. “I love it when Daddy reads it – he says that he can relate to Lupin because his hair went gray early too.”
       “Avery says that too,’ Alex agreed. “It’s a shame that we have to wait until the next book comes out. Even Dad couldn’t get an advance copy and that’s saying something.”
       “I wonder what’s going to happen.” Nina looked around the room thoughtfully. “I know – let’s pretend that we’re making up the next Harry Potter book.”
       “Isn’t that what the author’s for?” Alex asked skeptically.
       Nina hurled a pillow at him. “Haven’t you ever played pretend? It’s a lot better than the book sometimes.” She jumped to her feet and snatched up a pencil decorated with silvery holographic foil. “I’m Hermione and this is my magic wand!”
       “That’s a pencil with a broken lead.”
       “Oh, hush up!” Nina continued, snatching up a notebook and gesturing grandly, “And this is my spellbook that I’m going to write up all of the spells.” She jumped up on the windowseat. “See? This is Hogwarts Castle – we can pretend to try to get into the forbidden corridor on the third floor or sneak into the dungeons or whatever we want. C’mon, Alex – it’ll be fun!!”
       “Well…,” Alex was beginning to get excited in spite of himself. “Avery did say we were to entertain ourselves.”
       Nina shrugged and rolled her eyes innocently. “Can’t get in trouble if you’re doing what you’re told.”
       “All right then,” Alex said, clapping his hands together.  “I’ll be Harry.”
       “Hey… why do you get to be Harry?”
       Alex blinked, thinking quickly. “Well, I can to do magic, my mom has red hair like Harry’s mom, and my dad’s hair sticks out just like his dad. That’s three reasons.”
       “Everybody’s dad has hair that sticks out,” Nina pointed out. “That’s why they look so grumpy in the morning.” 
       “Anyway,” Alex continued, ignoring her, “who can play the part of Ron?”
       “I know!” Nina’s eyes lit up. “Rojolito!”
       “Crim?” Alex wrinkled his nose. “He’s not red-headed.”
       “No, but he’s red.” She grabbed Alex’s hand and they ran out into the small courtyard just off of the nursery. Tucked inside its protective walls were the smaller residents of the castle, the Hatchlings. The four young gargoyles stood on the low wall of a round flowerbed with Bronx, the clan’s beast frozen in a fierce pose nearby. Nina came up to the smallest gargoyle and patted him affectionately on the beak. “Hey, little cuz – wanna come out and play?”
       Alex looked up at the sky. “It’s not going to be sunset for a long time.”
       “Crim doesn’t mind. He’s always been an early bird.”
       “He’s too young to play right.”
       “But he’s brighter than the rest of the Hatchlings!”
       “He’s still a baby.”
       “Aleeeeeeeeeeeeex!” Nina put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Then age him up a bit. He’ll think it’s fun.”
       “But---”
       “Good heavens! Are you a wizard or not?”
       Rolling his eyes, Alex grumbled and waved her out of the way. “Oh-kay… let’s see here…” He scrunched up his face and concentrated the way Owen taught him, visualizing the end result in his mind. Latin phrases came unbidden to his memory and he began to mutter them under his breath.
       Cracks began to ripple over Crim’s stone shell, outlined from within with a deep, pulsating glow. Nina threw her hands over her face and stepped back as bits of stone skin began popping off of her cousin. There was a sudden burst of light and Crim began to straighten up from the crouch he’d been sleeping in to stand up…
       And up….
       And still further up until he was towering over Nina and Alex. Yawning, Crim stretched out both his arms and his wings, curling his tongue like a dog. Alex’s spell had accelerated Crim’s growth rate and increased his resemblance to his father Brooklyn; In addition to his height, Crim’s beak and horn buds had become more prominent and his soft golden curls had tumbled past his shoulders. He blinked, smacked his beak, and said, “Gosh, is it time to get up already?”
       “Uh… uh…” Nina backed into Alex and clutched his arm.
       Crim frowned at her. “What’s wrong, cuz?” 
       “Hoo boy – Owen is going to kill me,” Alex muttered. With a show of bravado that would have impressed his father, he plastered a confident grin on his face. “Hey, Crim – Nina and I are going to play Harry Potter. Would you like to join us?”
       “Would I?” An impish smile curled around Crim’s beak. “Sure!” He jumped off the low wall and teetered on his toes, falling awkwardly forward. There was a nasty ripping sound as the T-shirt and jeans he had on popped their seams. “Whoa! What happened?”
       “Oh, it’s all my fault!” Nina burst out, nearly blubbering. “I had Alex wake you up and had him make you a little older, so you could play Ron.” She held out her hands to help him up. “I never meant to hurt you, little cuz!”
       Crim stood up with Nina’s help, slapping his tail firmly on the ground to help him balance. He stared into her eyes in amazement. “Hey!! I’m the same height you are!” He glanced over at the other Hatchlings still frozen in their stone sleep. “Cool – Austin and Moraine are still the same, but I’m bigger than Omaha!” Sticking his tongue out, he called, “Baby this! Nyaaaah!!”
       “You’re okay with this?” Alex asked hopefully. “‘Cause I bet Owen could---”
       “Are you kidding? This is great!” Crim flipped his wings out and made what was left of his shirt drift off over the garden. A particularly large scrap of fabric fell rakishly over Bronx’s face. “Um, but I might want to change clothes. These are a little breezy.”
       While Crim rummaged around in Alex’s closet, Nina and Alex began to plan out their adventure a little further. “So, do we want to continue on where the book left off or do something on our own?”
       Alex flopped back on his bed. “I really liked the bits where Harry was finding out about the secret passages. I wish there were some around here.”
       “But there are!” Crim called out, his voice slightly muffled. “Hudson says there were lots of secret passages back in the old days.”
       “Yeah, but that was then,” Nina sighed. “Who knows if there’s any left? If any grownups found them, they probably just filled them in.”
       “Wait a minute!!” Alex yelped, sitting straight up. “I just remembered something! Owen is always popping up just when you don’t expect it. When I was really little, I remember him taking me with him. We went behind this tapestry in the Great Hall and we came out somewhere near his office.”
       Crim came out wearing a pair of Alex’s jeans and a cartoon t-shirt, newly altered for wings and tail. “Do you remember where?”
       “No-o-o-o-o,” Alex drawled. He snapped his fingers. “But I’ll bet anything that Owen has them on his palm pilot. He has all the floor plans in there.”
       “Right,” Nina made a fist and smacked it against her palm. “It’ll be just like getting the Marauder’s Map out of Filch’s office.” She was halfway across the room when she yelled back, “C’mon, let’s get on with it!”
       Crim pounced across the room after her on all fours, still not quite used to the center of balance in his bigger body. Alex caught up with them in time to steer them in the right direction at the next corridor.
       “C’mon, Owen’s office is just off of the Great Hall.”
       Sneakers squealed as they slid around the corner dividing the Xanatos residence from the business areas. Too late they realized that it was also a very public part of the castle as they nearly crashed in David Xanatos talking to a group as they made their way across the Great Hall. Crim made a last minute dive just as Alex’s dad began to turn and slid behind a sofa, only managing to dislodge some papers on a neighboring table. 
       “Alex?”
       “Dad! How are you?” Alex put on his biggest ‘I’m-not-up-to-anything’ grin. 
       “Fine, thanks.” Xanatos merely cocked an eyebrow. “You’re in a kind of a hurry, aren’t you?” The businessmen behind him chuckled.
       “I guess so.” Alex scuffed his shoe on the marble floor. “We just wanted to see if the pizza is here.”
       “We’re gonna watch movies,” Nina chirped up, “and eat pizza and play video games and--”
       “Oh, I see,” Xanatos nodded. “Well, don’t worry about it. I’m sure Ms. Bishop will bring the pizza up as soon as it gets here. Why don’t you two go play someplace else, okay?” 
       “Could we wait here?” Nina asked. “My dad’s supposed to be bringing me my backpack.” She tilted her head coquettishly and smiled sweetly. “Pleeeeeeeeeeze?”
       “Well,” Xanatos re-considered under the influence of a pair of big brown eyes, “I suppose that will be all right, but no running around and yelling.”
       Smiling, Nina grabbed Alex by the arm and plopped them both down on the sofa Crim was hiding behind. “We’ll stay riiiiiiiight here.”
       “And no smooching, you two.” Hiding a grin as his son went into strangled hysterics, Xanatos turned back to his associates. “Kids… shall we take this down to the conference room in the labs, gentlemen? This way…”
       Alex and Nina sprawled on the sofa, watching as the grownups went into the elevator. As soon as they had disappeared, Alex edged carefully away from Nina. “How come he bought your story but not mine? The minute Dad does that eyebrow thing, I know I’m doomed.”
       Crim spoke up from behind the coach. “It’s a girl thing. Moraine does the same thing to Hudson.” 
       Nina ignored them both. “So where’s Owen’s office?”
       “Right over there.” Alex stood up and looked around. “You’d better stay here, Crim. There’s no telling who might come through here.”
       “No problem – I’ll check these tapestries behind the couches. There’s one that Bronx always sniffs at when he comes through here.”
       “Probably piddled on it,” Nina commented sagely like a true country girl.
       Alex made a face and quickly led the way to Owen’s office. He put his hand on the palm lock and the door clicked open. He caught the question on Nina’s face and answered it. “This is one of my safety zones if anything happens in the building. That’s why I’m authorized to come in here, so Owen can protect me.”
       “Do you know how weird that sounds?” 
       “Hey, I think it’s weirder that you wrestle sheep.” Alex walked around Owen’s polished desk and began pulling drawers open. He tossed Nina a candy wrapped in silver foil. “Here – Owen has a drawer full of these. He loves chocolate.”
       “Yeah, but where’s his palm pilot?”
       “Here!” Alex held it up triumphantly. He froze in place for a second as his eyes took on a faraway look. He slapped the drawers shut and barreled around the desk, stuffing the palm pilot hurriedly in the side pocket of his cargo pants. He handed Nina a fistful of chocolate.  “Act guilty!” he hissed.
       “Huh?”
       The door swung open. “Master Alex,” Owen Burnett intoned as he stood in the doorway, “what have I told you about snacking before dinnertime?”
       “Yeah, but this is special,” Alex said guilelessly. “Nina’s sleeping over and Avery’s off ordering pizza and ice cream. Can’t we have a little snack while we wait?”
       Owen looked them both over suspiciously, his thin nostrils twitching. 
       Nina smiled up at him and fluttered her eyelashes. 
       Alex acted like he was putting his arm around her and made faces at Owen to convey a man-to-man message about impressing girls. He raised his eyebrows pleadingly.
       For a brief moment, Puck looked out from the depths of Owen’s eyes and laughed but Owen himself merely cleared his throat. “I see.” He stood aside and pointed out the door. “Take your treats back up to your playroom, Master Alex, and I’ll have healthy snacks sent up to tide you over until the pizza arrives. Good afternoon, Miss Nina.”
       Nina waited until they were out of earshot. “How’d you know he was coming?” 
       “It’s kinda complicated. I just know how to listen for Owen. He’s sneaky.” Alex shrugged and looked around. “Crim! Where are you?”
       A three-fingered hand crept out from behind an embroidered scene of battles and swooning maidens and waved at them from across the room. Casually, Nina and Alex strolled over to meet him.
       “Crim!” Nina hissed. “How’d you get all the way over here?”
       “Hey, no one was looking!” Crim hissed back. “I caught a whiff of Bronx’s scent and followed it over here. There’s some claw marks on it too and guess what’s behind it?” The reddish gargoyle grinned as he pulled the tapestry back to reveal a stone slab that was pivoted away to serve as a door.
       “Ooooh.” Nina and Alex were quick to follow him in.
       Flipping the palm pilot on, Alex’s face was lit eerily in its pale teal light. “Okay, let’s see here.” He took the stylus out and quickly went through its menu.
       “Can you really use that thing?”
       “Sure, Owen lets me play with it whenever we’re out doing something boring like the symphony or opening the stock exchange. He’s got all kinds of things in here.” Alex grinned suddenly. “Here it is! And look – here’s the Great Hall and here’s an X where this tunnel is.”
       “Where does it go?”
       Crim peered over Alex’s shoulder. “It seems to head over towards the tower.” He squinted into the darkness, his eyes looking like a pair of glowing white headlights. “That way, I think.”
       “Y-you can see in here?” Nina asked nervously.
       “Sure!” Crim held out his hand. “I see great in the dark. You just hold onto me, cuz, and Alex can hold onto you, and I’ll lead the way.”
       The passageway was dank and narrow, reeking of ancient dust and mildew. Dead bugs crunched under their feet and live bugs skittered along the walls. Despite growing up on a ranch, Nina screamed when they turned a corner and nearly walked straight into a colossal spider’s web. The boys were just glad her high-pitched screech covered their own yelps of terror.
       “C-crim?” Alex gulped. “You don’t see any giant talking spiders up there, do you?”
       “No-o-o-o,” Crim answered slowly, “but thanks for bringing it up. I feel SO much better now.” He sank down on his haunches and lowered his head until it was almost on the floor. “I can see some light on the other side of this. We might be able to crawl under…”
       “Oh, ick.”
       “I’ve got a better idea,” Alex said and handed the palm pilot to Nina. He threw his hands out like a martial artist from one of his favorite cartoons. "Fulmenos venite!"
       Crim yelped and flattened himself on the floor. The crackling lightning bolt certainly cleared their way – but the tinder dry webbing caught fire in a spectacular cloud of sparks that exploded against the ceiling. Fortunately, once everything flammable was burned up, the fire died out quickly in a shower of feathery ashes. Crim and Nina were both glaring at Alex when he joined them in the corridor outside the hidden passage. 
       “Do you use elephant guns on crickets TOO?” Nina snapped. “You could have caught the castle on fire!”
       Crim was scowling and fingering the singed hair curling over his brow ridges. “Forget the castle, you nearly set ME on fire!”
       “Well, I didn’t and that’s the point,” Alex retorted. He took the palm pilot back and checked the map. “Now where’d we come out?”
       “Omigosh – what’s that?” Nina pointed. There was a large bulging shape in the shadows ahead. As they got closer, they could tell it was one of the adult gargoyles paused in mid-step at the stairs at the foot of the tower.
       “Oh, that’s just Uncle Broadway,” Crim snickered. “Auntie Angela has him on a diet but she was out visiting her mother last night. I’ll bet anything he was on his way back from the kitchens when the sun caught him.”
       “Hmm…” Nina looked at Alex and found him giving her the same evil look back. “Thinking what I’m thinking?”
       Alex grinned and raised one finger, which already had shimmering sparkles swirling around it. “Pink, it is.” In less than a heartbeat, the deal was done and they were on their way. 
       “And that’s the entrance to Gryffindor Tower,” Alex said, marking it with the stylus. “Guarded by a fat gargoyle.”
       Glistening like a freshly painted Easter egg, Broadway merely stood there, blushing pink in his sleep. Crim chortled. “Oh, Aunt Angela’s gonna have a cow!” He staggered away after the two humans, barely controlling his giggles.
       “So where to next?” Nina asked “Is there another secret passage on the map?”
       Alex chewed on his lip. “Yeah – there’s another X at the base of the tower where it meets the big wall--”
       “The battlements,” Crim said helpfully. “That’s what Hudson calls them.”
       “Yeah.” Alex skipped down a few steps and looked out a window to get his bearings. “This way!”

* * * * *

       “Okay, kids,” Avery called out as she came back into the playroom. “The pizzas will be here by sunset, the ice cream and sodas are in my fridge, and Dennis is on his way with your stuff, Nina.” She walked through the room straightening things automatically until she noticed the lack of response. “Nina?” She looked around. “Alex?”
       She went into Alex’s room – no kids but the light was on in the closet. Avery gave it a brief glance and was reaching for the light switch when a scrap of cloth on the floor caught her attention. Dropping to one knee, Avery picked it up and looked at it intently. It was plain white t-shirt material but mildly gritty to the touch. She sniffed it, closing her eyes for a second. In a flash, her eyes went from amethyst to scarlet.
“Crim?”
       Avery bolted outside to the Hatchlings’ courtyard. More bits of t-shirt were blowing around, some caught on plants and one big scrap hanging from Bronx’s ear. She went around to each of the sleeping gargoyles and checked them carefully.
       “Austin… Moraine… Omaha… no.” Avery paused at the gap in the circle. “CRIM!!” She gave the walled courtyard a thoroughly search. Crim frequently did wake up long before the rest of his rookery but his wake-up cycle never began until the sun was a certain distance from the horizon. There weren’t any signs of struggle – just odd scraps of Crim’s clothing and remnants of his stone shell.
       “Oh, great – now what?” Avery muttered as she headed back inside. She spied Owen coming up the corridor. “Owen!” she called as she ran towards him, “Owen, have you seen the kids?”
       “Master Alex and your niece were just in my office,” Owen replied blandly. “I just spoke to Mr. Xanatos and it would seem that they were in the Great Hall before that.”
       “Was Crim with them?”
       Owen frowned. “No – why would he be with them? It’s far too early for him to be awake, isn’t it?”
       “Look!” Avery brandished the scrap of cloth. “I just came from the courtyard. Crim’s missing and there’s bits of his shirt all over the place but this I found in Alex’s closet.”
       “Oh, dear.” Owen took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just a moment – I’ll check.” He closed his eyes and for a brief moment he seemed blurred, as if two people were overlaid in one spot. His eyes were pure blue without pupils when he opened them. “It seems a certain young man is doing unsupervised magic again. I can sense several hotspots in the castle where he’s been spellcasting. The fallout is making it difficult to pinpoint actually where Alex is.” He took the scrap of cloth and stared at it with unfocused eyes. “Yes, I can see the traces of his spell on this. I think you’re right. Alex must have woke Crim up.”
       Avery let out a deep breath. “Then that must mean that they’re together.”
       “That would seem logical.” Owen tapped his glasses on his chin. “Whatever they’re up to, it would seem to be harmless; otherwise I would have switched into Puck by now.”
       “But why would Crim’s clothes be shredded like this?” Avery asked. “And why wake him up? Alex and Nina were perfectly happy when I left them.”
       “What had you been doing with them?”
       “Well, just reading Harry Potter. We’d just got to the bit about the werewolf in the Shrieking Shack and Alex told Nina that he had an advance copy of the Sorceror’s Stone movie. They were going to watch it later once the pizza got here.”
       “I knew there was a reason why I should have read those books.” Owen sighed and put on his glasses. “No time like the present.”

* * * * *

       “Crim, stop eating those bugs.”
       The adobe-colored gargoyle picked another tidbit off the ivy and popped it in his mouth. “They’re not bugs,” he mumbled, “they’re snails, and besides they’re breakfast.” 
       Nina wrinkled her nose. “That’s so gross.”
       “Not so,” Alex commented as he continued digging through the ivy that had grown over the entrance indicated on the map. “I had snails when we went to Paris. You eat ‘em with a fork and a pair of pliers.”
       “What? You don’t eat the shells?” Crim was appalled. “That’s the best part – nice and crunchy.” He twisted his face around, sucking at something stuck in his teeth.
       “Yuck!” Nina took a swing at Crim, who laughed and dodged nimbly out of the way. “You’d better stop talking about that or I’m gonna throw uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhp!!!” She lost her balance on the second swing and fell into the ivy – and kept going.
       Alex and Crim eagerly dove through the hanging vegetation after her. Nina was looking up at them from the dirty floor with a very disgruntled expression on her face. “Found it,” she said grumpily.
       “Atta girl, cuz,” Crim said cheerfully as he helped her up. 
       “Hmm, this is interesting.” Alex had brought the palm pilot back out and was checking their position. “Owen has some notes on the tower. They’re dated from when Dad had it brought over from Scotland.”
       “Yeah?” Nina looked over his shoulder. “What’s it say?”
       “Apparently, there were some parts of the tower that they couldn’t take apart so they brought it over in big chunks. Owen says here that the Magus and those that came before him had hidden rooms where they performed magic.”
       “You’re kidding.”
       Alex showed her the view screen. “See? It says so right there.”
       “Hudson said the Magus was the one that made them all sleep for a thousand years. I asked Dad and he said the Magus wasn’t all that bad, just kinda scared,” Crim said as he walked into the shadows and looked up. “There’s a staircase here. Do you think it goes all the way up?”
       “Let’s find out.”

* * * * *

       It was the most singularly fascinating thing Avery had ever seen Owen do. She’d been watching as Owen sat in her rocking chair devouring all four Harry Potter books. He was turning the pages so fast that it was a wonder that they didn’t catch fire from the friction. She wasn’t sure if Owen had blinked or much less breathed in the past half-hour. As it was, she’d had time to change out of her nanny outfit of navy slacks and jacket to jeans and a wing-friendly shirt – just in case.
       The phone rang. Avery lifted it to her ear to hear Xanatos say, “Anything?”
       “Nothing yet,” she said reluctantly. “Anything on your end?”
       When told that his errant son was wandering the castle casting spells, David Xanatos took a more practical approach. He’d had security seal off the castle from the rest of the building and was having people carefully screened and searched on the lower levels.
       “The lobby cops haven’t turned up anything. Alex knows better than to go downstairs without one of us along, especially when he has a guest over.” He sighed bitterly. “I haven’t told Fox yet. She’s been taking bed rest pretty badly these days and the last thing she needs is this.”
       “Well, Owen hasn’t gone Puck on us yet so wherever the kids have gotten off to, they’re still okay. We’ll find them.” 
       “Fascinating.” 
       Avery jumped at the sound of Owen’s voice.
       “What is it?” Xanatos demanded in her ear.
       Owen stood up. “I think I may know what they’ve been up to,” he said calmly. “Tell Mr. Xanatos to meet us in the Great Hall.”

* * * * *

       “You know,” Crim said thoughtfully, “I’ve never been up in this part of the tower. Hudson and Goliath always make us go up the outside.”
       “Me neither,” Alex said. He studied the map on the palm pilot and clicked on it with the stylus. “The layout for this level is mostly blank except for the stairwell. Weird.”
       “There’s a lot of dust on the floor,” Nina observed. “Do you suppose nobody’s been in here ever?”
       Crim made his voice sound spooky by resonating it against the high arch of his beak. “Nobody but us ghosts!”
       Nina whapped him.
       Ignoring the battling Bishop cousins, Alex walked along the inner wall with his hands, feeling around for another hidden door but unlike before, there didn’t seem to be any obvious openings. The hidden stairway had led them far up into the tower. From time to time, they could see out through open chinks in the outer wall so they knew that they were nearly to the top when they reached a barren antechamber at the top of the stairs.
       The hair on the back of Alex’s neck tingled. There was something here – something familiar and yet otherworldly. He closed his eyes as Puck had taught him and focused his energies on that feeling. Warmth spread from his shoulders down to his fingertips as they brushed against the rough stones. Like a magnet on a string, Alex felt himself being drawn away from the outer wall, traveling widderskins to the center of the tower.
       “Alex?” Crim said softly. “What--?”
       He caught the movement of a taloned hand out of the corner of his eye and snapped, “Don’t touch me!” He took a deep breath. “It’s okay – I think I’m on to something.”
       From his other side, Nina asked softly, “What is that thing glowing on the wall?”
       “I’m not sure,” Alex answered. “It’s definitely feels magical, but very, very old.” He closed his eyes against. “It’s like – like a puzzle, or a knot.”
       “A lock?” Nina suggested.
       “What would a sorcerer want to keep locked in a tower?” Crim wondered. There was an audible silence as the two cousins looked at each other. “Alex, wait!”
       But it was too late.

* * * * *

       The elevator doors opened and Dennis Bishop stepped out into the Great Hall in a comfortable slouching amble like he’d just returned from a day in the fields back home in Texas. He changed a lot in the past five years – his brown hair was heavily shot with silver but he had regained the health he’d lost during his bout with leukemia. Swinging a brightly-colored backpack from one hand, he took a few moments to get his bearings as he walked across the marble floor. As result, he was right there when everything happened.
       Owen and Avery came out from the east corridor at exactly the same time that Xanatos came out of the express elevator behind Dennis. Startled, the Texas musician swiveled to look at them and opened his mouth to speak but that was far as he got.
       “Owen!” Xanatos demanded. “What did you find out?”
       “Just a moment, sir,” Owen replied, striding to a tapestry across the room and twitching it aside. “Yes – Ms. Bishop, can you confirm this? Could these footsteps belong to Master Alex and Miss Nina?”
       “What?” Dennis’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. 
       Avery dropped down to her knees and examined the floor carefully. “Yes, Alex’s new sneakers have a slash/dot pattern like this. Nina’s, I’m not so sure. Dennis, what kind of shoes was she wearing?”
       Xanatos pulled a picture off the wall and opened the palm lock on the panel hidden behind it. “You think that the kids have gone exploring?”
       “Yes, Mr. Xanatos. I believe that Alex, Nina and Crim are acting out events in the Harry Potter books. Earlier, I caught Alex and Nina in my office and when I checked just now, I discovered my palm pilot missing, not unlike the Marauder’s Map in Filch’s office.”
       “And Crim was with them,” Avery added tensely. “Here’s a set of talons and the tail trailing through the dust.”
       “What does your office have to do with Harry Potter?” Xanatos came up with a high-powered flashlight and a lethal-looking handgun. “Why would Alex do this?”
       Tired of feeling like a spectator at a tennis match, Dennis finally stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave an ear-splitting whistle. “HEY!! WOULD YOU PEOPLE CALM DOWN!?!”
       Xanatos, Owen, and Avery all looked at him like he was insane.
       “Look, let’s not sweat the details,” Dennis continued calmly. “I don’t know what’s going on but there’s no point in wondering why the kids did whatever they did. Let’s just find them and ask them.”
       Clearing his throat, Xanatos gave Owen a meaningful look. “He’s got a point.”
       “Hey, I’ve been a dad longer than any of you. Find ‘em now, panic later.” Dennis tossed Nina’s backpack onto a sofa and peered into the hidden tunnel. “I don’t hear anything. Where’s this come out?”
       Owen raised an eyebrow. “Somewhere near the kitchens, I believe.”
       “I called down to the kitchens,” Avery said quickly. “They weren’t there.”
       “Are there any more hidden passages?” Xanatos asked. “I remember we discovered several of them when we moved the castle to New York.”
       “Yes,” Owen replied slowly. “There’s several on the battlements, one that went down to the old rookery, and one in the tower but it doesn’t go anywhere.”
       “All right then,” Xanatos said decisively. “I’ll take the one in the old rookery –it’s been turned into a storage facility for the Steel Clan robots and I’ve got the security codes. Owen, you and Dennis take the battlements, and Avery, I’d like you to follow their trail.” He glanced into the dark tunnel. “There’s always the chance that they may have gotten hurt or stuck in there and you can get through there a lot faster than the rest of us.” He handed her the flashlight.
       “Right,” Avery agreed grimly. She nodded at Dennis. “See you on the other side.” She tucked her wings tightly around her and disappeared into the bowels of the castle.
       Leaving in different directions, Dennis found himself trotting along behind Owen. “So what was the deal with Harry Potter?” he asked the stoic majordomo. “The kids go off playing make believe or something?”
       “I suspect so, yes.” 
       His answer was curt and unemotional but Dennis thought Owen looked more haggard than he'd been in the past. “How are you holding  up, Owen?” he asked mildly. “I was sorry to hear about Natty.”
       “Thank you.” True to form, Owen’s expression gave nothing away. “I … am coping with my loss.”
       “No, you’re not – I should know, I’ve been there,” Dennis said sagely. “But you will be.”
       Owen refused to comment.

* * * * *

       Dimly, Alex could hear the voices of his friends like he was deep underwater but whatever they were saying was unimportant. All of his attention was focused on the golden pattern of energy coiled on the wall like an elaborate Celtic seal. Glowing lines of force curled and circled around each other, one ring inside another and inside another. As he watched, they repeated the pattern and subconsciously his hands began to trace their motion. 
       The patterns on the outer rim of the design began to change, forming words. Alex’s eyes widened and without knowing why, he began to speak with an eerie double echo to his voice.
       “Expedio… acerbus… latitas… ferocitas!”
       Winds swept past Alex, whipping his hair and his clothes around him. Crim had just enough forethought to grab Nina as they both were knocked to the floor. The young gargoyle dug his talons into the floor to anchor them in the roaring gale that followed.

       “What’s he doing?” Nina screamed. “Is he nuts?”
       “I don’t know,” Crim yelled back. “Alex, wake up!”

       With those words, the outer ring spun to a stop and the edge of the design flared in a brilliant white light to rival the sun. It washed over them in a blast wave that grew and spread with each passing second. Magical energy hit the wall and passed between the stones to the castle beyond.

* * * * *

       They’d just reached the top of the battlements when Owen stopped in his tracks. Dennis passed him, realized he was running alone, and skidded to a stop. 
       “Hey! What’s up?”
       “Oh, no…” Owen’s pupils suddenly became a clear, robin’s egg blue as he stared up at the tower. “No, Alex! Stop--!”
       There was no time to react – in one second, all the stones of the tower were outlined in a brilliant white-gold light and in the next, a invisible force wave swept over them, hurling them head over heels along the flagstones. Owen rolled up into a ball that uncurled into his true form.
       “Oh, yeah,” Puck muttered. “That did it. What has that fool boy gone and done now?”
       Dennis moaned. Puck spared him a backward glance as his feet left the ground and what he saw made him hover in place to take a second look. The shirt on Dennis’s back was in tatters and a pair of steel blue wings were slowly unfolding. He struggled to his feet, swaying with the effort of keeping his balance and looked up with glowing white eyes.
       “W-what th’ devil are yeuw lookin’ at?” Dennis growled. “Go take care of that! If one hair on my daughter’s head is hurt, I’m gonna kick yer scrawny butt.”
        “Manners, manners,” Puck chided but he knew where his priorities lay as he turned and shot off towards the tower. “Interesting spell – I must get the recipe.”

* * * * *

       “Oh, this is just swell,” Avery grumbled to herself as she followed the trail of sneaker prints along the suffocating confines of the passageway. “When I find those kids, I’m giving them SUCH a time out!”
       A hot wind rushed through, knocking Avery down in a billow of dust. Choking and coughing, she covered her mouth and nose with her shirt and tried to see where she was going but it was no use. The flashlight just reflected off all the particles in the air. She cast the beam up to see if the dust was starting to settle and froze.
       A cluster of tiny red eyes glittered at her from the shadows and began to scuttle down the wall.

* * * * *

       The second ring of the pattern began to rotate counterclockwise, slowly at first but spinning faster and faster. As it spun, it became apparent to Alex that parts of the second ring were designed to match up with the first. Eagerly, he reached for it with both his hands and his mind, twisting it this way and that, trying to make it fit.

       “Alex!!” Nina screamed as she clung to Crim’s back as he fought to keep his grip on the floor. “Whatever you’re doing, you’ve got to stop!! Something’s wrong!”
       “He’s not listening!” Crim threw an arm out and pulled them a little closer to their friend. “I think we’ve found something that we should have left alone.”
       “What can we do?”

       “There!” Alex cried out in fierce satisfaction as the pattern fit into place. More words came into being and he was compelled to say them.
       “Ex purus…”

       “Quick, cuz!!” Crim clawed his way up the floor to Alex’s sneaker clad feet. “Grab him quick! You’ve got to make him break eye contact with it, now!!”
       “…magus…”
       “Oh-h-h-h!!” Nina scrambled over Crim and tackled Alex, throwing both her arms and legs around him as she toppled him to the floor. 
       “…claus-OOF!!”
       “Shut UP, Alex!!” Nina whimpered and clamped a hand over his mouth.
       The gold design on the wall stopped spinning. The wind died. 
       Crim raised up cautiously. “Do you think—?”
       Blood red light burst from the center of the mystic seal, smashing through the back wall. The dying sun cast shadows in strange colors. Silvery mist began to seep from the edges of the design, coalescing into a vague, humanoid form.
       Nina looked into Alex’s panic-stricken eyes. “Are you okay?” she whispered. He nodded and she took her hand away from his mouth.   “What did you DO?”
       “I’m not sure,” he said numbly. “It was like it was hypnotizing me or something, making me say the spell.”
       “Um, guys?” Crim hissed urgently. “GUYS!!”
       They looked up.
       The bearded figure before them stretched out one gnarled finger and beckoned to Alex. “Come here, boy,” it said silkily. “You aren’t finished yet.”

* * * * *

       Dennis loped to Brooklyn’s roost just as the last rays of the setting sun dropped below the horizon. The red gargoyle had just time enough to gape at the musician’s new transformation before Dennis grabbed him and pointed up at the tower. “Quick, you’ve got to get up there! The kids are in trouble!” 
       Brooklyn blinked. “What, Crim too?”
       “Yeah, Alex and Nina got it into their heads to wake him up.”
       “Dennis?”
       The demi-gargoyle rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I got wings, I don’t know why, and if I knew how to fly, I wouldn’t be yapping at you.”  He stuck his chin out stubbornly. “Can we go? Please?”
       “Geez, you’re nearly as bad-tempered as my wife,” Brooklyn quipped. He cupped his hands and bellowed to Hudson. “Trouble in the tower! Get Goliath and Broadway!” He held a hand out to Dennis and hauled him up to his perch. “The fastest way to get up there is to catch the thermals.”
       “Like flying an ultralight.”
       “Something like that.” Brooklyn shifted, turning his beak this way and that as he tested the air currents. “Ah… here we go. Just follow me.” Without saying another word, the red gargoyle dived off the side of the building, swooped and soared back up past Dennis.
       “I must be outta my mind,” Dennis muttered and threw himself off into the air, half-expecting to smack into the Eyrie Building on the way down. Without thinking and acting on instinct, his wings spread and caught the air, just like they did in the hallucinatory dream he’d had when he’d been hospitalized for leukemia. He yelped when the thermals tossed him upwards. Unlike Brooklyn, Dennis flew like a drunken seagull and he was relieved that Avery was not around to see it.

* * * * *

       “Come here, boy.”
       Alex gulped and backed into Nina who in turn backed into Crim. All three children were staring in dismay at the ethereal figure standing before them. 
       “I-is that Voldemort?” Nina whispered in Alex’s ear. 
       “I think,” Alex gulped, “that it’s someone much worse.”
       “Clever, clever boy,” the specter crooned. “I knew you would be of use to me when I first felt your magic.” He gestured and Alex found himself suddenly rising into the air.
       “Alex!!” Nina grabbed his legs and dug her heels into the floor. Crim growled and bounded forward, swiping his talons through the ghostly wizard’s arm. 
       “Foolish children.” The specter extended his arms and gale force winds blew out of his voluminous sleeves. Crim tumbled head over heels out of the gaping hole in the tower. Nina shrieked and tightened her grip on Alex.
       “Well, well – what do we have here, mmm?” 
       Floating in mid-air, Puck’s expression was less than merry as he leaned forward to study the apparition. His eyes followed the Celtic patterns on the wall. “The first thing to do, good sir, is to release these two precocious imps.” He snapped his fingers and Alex and Nina fell back to the ground.
       “P-puck?” Alex stammered. “Who is this guy?”
       “No idea,” the fey trickster answered, “but whoever he is, we’ve got to put him back wherever he came from.” He uncrossed his legs and stood up next to Alex. 
       The ghostly wizard’s face distorted, becoming more inhuman. “You’ll find that easier said than done, elf!” He raised his arms and lightning crackled around the edges of the seal.
       “I think not.” Puck narrowed his eyes and threw up a ward to shield them from the lightning. “You’re just the spirit of an ancient mage, someone who was so nasty in real life that your successor felt it was necessary to bind you body and soul to this spot.”
       He stepped forward and forced the specter to back into the Celtic design on the wall. 
       “No!!” the spirit bellowed. “I won’t go!” He glared at Alex. “Free me, boy!”
       A cold chill went through Alex but then he felt Puck’s hands on his shoulders.
       “Don’t listen to that old windbag,” Puck said firmly. “What we need to do is to reverse the spell that freed him. I want you to concentrate on that, all right?”
       “But--”
       “This is human magic and it’ll take a human to cast it. I will be with you all of the way though, blocking out his influence.” A steely tone entered Puck’s voice. “We can do this, Alex.”
       “I don’t remember how.”
       “Think of it as a puzzle, Alex,” Nina spoke up behind them. “I was watching. Everything you made things match up, something happened. Just toss it all back in the box and shake it up.”
       Taking a deep breath, Alex took a magical grip on the Celtic circle and gave it an enormous push, forcing the rings to spin clockwise and jumbling the pattern. A tremendous pull began to draw power back into the seal. The specter wailed as wisps of his body became sucked back into the mystic pattern. Alex slumped to the ground.
       Crim clawed his way back into the room. “Nina! You’ll never guess what happened!”
       “Everybody all right in here?” Brooklyn called. He pulled Dennis into the room, his shirt in tatters.
       “Daddy!” Nina rushed over and hugged him. She pulled back and made a face. “What happened to you?”
       “Darned if I know,” Dennis answered. “One minute, I sprouted gargoyle wings, the next I’m dropping to the ground like a rock. Luckily, your uncle was around to catch me.”
       “Just as well,” Crim giggled. “He flies like a lead duck.”
       Brooklyn was giving his son a hard look. “Is it just me,” he asked finally, “or has he grown?”
       Crim and Nina both looked at Alex. He sighed. “I am SO grounded.”
       “Indeed you are,” said Owen crisply, “but for now, I think we should all go downstairs and re-group. Mr. Xanatos and Ms. Bishop will be anxious to see that you’re all right.”

       Xanatos met them in the ivy-covered courtyard at the foot of the tower. He initially had them in the sights of his blaster but he tossed that aside when he saw Alex. As he swept Alex into a big hug, he shot a meaningful look at Owen, who merely gave a small smile and nodded.
       “Son,” Xanatos said solemnly, “the next time you want to impress a girl, I’d rather you’d borrow the limo, okay?”
       “DAD!!!”

       A bedraggled figure staggered out of the castle. Dusty and battleworn, Avery was dragging an enormous dead spider nearly half her size. She threw it down at Xanatos’s feet and blew her bangs out of her eyes as she glared at him. “You need to call an exterminator.” There was a scarlet glint in her eyes that brooked no-nonsense.
       Xanatos nodded slowly. “Right away, Ms. Bishop.”
       She nodded curtly and turned her attention to Alex, checking him and then Nina for injuries. 
       “Boy, Mom sure looks mad.” Crim stuck his thumb under the hook of his beak and leaned against his father. “I’ve never seen her like that, have you, Dad?”
       A deep rumble like the purr of a giant cat answered him.
       Crim looked up curiously at his father. “Dad? Why are you growling like that?”
       “I’ll explain it when you’re older, son.”
       “Oh, no!” Avery gasped and seized Crim by his rounded cheeks. “What happened to you?” She turned his head this way and that. “You’re— you’re--”
       “Mom?” Crim said in a muffled voice. “Mom, you’re hurting my head!”
       “Avery…” Brooklyn reached over and gently pried his wife’s hands loose. “He’s okay, babe. We’ll find a way to fix it.”
       “I don’t wanna be fixed!!” Crim protested. “I wanna be the same size all the other Hatchlings are!”
       “Um, excuse me,” Broadway spoke up from the shadows, “but what’s going on?”
       Everyone turned to look and burst into hysterics. It seems that Alex’s paint job wasn’t stone skin deep – Broadway looked like he had overdosed on strawberry milkshakes, he was so pink.
       “What?” Broadway made a face at them.
       Brooklyn wiped his eyes. “Oh, man – wait until I tell Lex!”
       Owen raised an eyebrow at Alex. “The Fat Lady of Gryffindor Tower?” he asked dryly.
       Sheepishly, Alex nodded -- but not without exchanging a knowing smirk with his two playmates.
       Sighing, Owen shook his head. “I can see that I need to drop a note to this Rowling person or these Harry Potter books will be the death of me.”

The End…?