Druscilla's mind was far from the bustle and chatter of her immediate environment. It was focused on an isolated farmhouse. An isolated farmhouse in the middle of a forest. The forest of Anyskai. She went back into a place she had not been for nearly eighteen years. In her mind she took a step over the threshold and entered the rather damp and gloomy interior. She saw the musty yellowing sofa and the immense wall hangings. She smelled the decay mixed with the leaves and the aromas of the forest, bountiful and fecund.

She had successfully put this place out of her mind for so long, so why now, why this sudden nostalgia, this uncharacteristic yearning for what was dead and gone?

Perhaps because it was neither.

Perhaps because of the prophecy.

A traitor.

She knew Daiva's choice, but for once could not agree. The girl was too good, too much a de Black to be a Danuliete.

No, there was another option, one which even Daiva did not know about.

The Headmistress sniffed a long and ugly sounding sniff. Swiftly, a resolution forming, she ate the porridge mixture, shovelling large spoonfulls down her mouth and washing it down with a nameless, colourless cordial from her own personal goblet.

She scraped back her chair on the cold stone floor and strode away to her office.

However something stopped her, made her pause one moment in her black winged stride. The three trainee teachers were sitting together huddled at the far end of the staff table. They looked rather out of place in their new environment. But the Quidditch Coach, always perhaps the boldest of the three, rather unwisely chose that moment to fling back her head and roar with laughter.

"A word Miss Taurus!" the Headmistress barked and gestured with one long bony finger to her office.

She laughed at the joke Amanda had just told her but froze instantly the moment Danuliete spoke to her. Her legs turned to jelly, her feet, hands and spine went cold and she bit her trembling lip. She got up carefully, the scrape of her chair on the stone floor barely heard over the rabble of talking students. She tugged on a now almost black ringlet and she walked over to the Headmistress with her head down, not daring to look at Danuliete.

"Yes, Headmistress" She said, now braving to look up a little bit, catching the cold glint in Danuliete's eyes.

She sat in the clawed, hard backed chair and stared hard at the Taurus girl with her big beedy dark eyes. The child (for Druscilla was finding it difficult to consider her as a trainee Professor) had let the ridiculous hair colours which she normally sported grow out and her hair was almost as black as Druscilla's own.

For once, however, if this were possible, the Headmistress seemed to be having difficulty in beginning her sentence. Three times she cleared her throat and made a motion as if to speak. But three times she said nothing at all.

Finally she said,

"I want to talk you to about your training... that is... about your knowledge of... coffee?" she barked finally, leaving Gem to wonder whether it were a question or an offer of a drink.

"My training Headmistress?" She then asked tentitivly, shrinking back in her seat as Danuliete fixed her with one of her looks. She could almost see herself crying 'mummy' as Danuliete kept looking at her. Not that calling that would be any help, her mother was gone, dead. Gem did not like it, but she had accepted it. Though, any talk of mothers still made her feel weak at the knees. She looked Danuliete back and decided she would not let the Headmistress scare her, for once. She was (supposedly) an adult now, and an adult could deal with Danuliete, couldn't they?

"What do you know?" she barked, "What is your knowledge? Tell me, tell me about your Defence Against the Dark Arts training.. it's always necessary to be prepared."

"Well come on girl," she said sharply sitting back in her chair and staring at the Quidditch Coach.

Gem set about answering the question in her head before she blurted out what came to the tip of her tounge. She knew some Defense, a near seven years worth of it. Afew spells she had picked up here and there, but so far her Quidditch training had helped her dodge particulary nasty spells. Truth be told, she knew more Dark Arts Spell, or the dangerous sort, than how to block them.

"I know what this school has taught me," she said finally. "But this school doesn't teach defense against any of the more evil of the Dark Arts."

She then remembered something she had done, while in Mozambique. Her father had taken her out to a large green field full of musty lemon yellow flowers and insects. He had devoted the whole day to teaching her Dark Arts, spells and curses to take out any one in her path. He had then told her how to stop the curses from ever being used on herself.

"But, what I have not learned here, I know from...other places. I've studied most books in the library on Defense. I could protect myself, if it was nessecary from all but the most unforgivable curse."

The Death Spell. No one could protect themselves against that. She surprised herself suddenly of all the things that she could do. Those three years in Mozambique had probably taught her more than she knew.

She shifted in her chair uneasily as she thought more about the Question. Prepared. Prepared for what? Did Danuliete know something the rest of the world didn't, did she have information that others had not yet received?

She knew better than to try to read Danuliete's mind, apart from her oath, Danuliete knew her power and would most probably have been taught to block her mind. Brooke had said something about it once.

She could not understand why Danuliete was so angry with her. As far as she knew she had done nothing wrong, nothing in the way of breaking school, or the MoM's laws. But she would hold out and see where this conversation was leading.

Then, abruptly, and with no warning the Headmistress changed the subject. She seemed somewhat on edge, constantly shifting position, folding and refolding her arms.

Now she pointed her wand at the far filing cabinet and an extremeley large and unwieldly file marked, "Taurus, Gemini" settled itself down on the desk in front of her.

Flicking it open and no longer looking at the specimen of girl in front of her she said suddenly,

"Tell me about your father Miss Taurus."

"He had been married three times" She said "His first wife was my sister Betheny and my brother Charlie's mother. His second was my mother." She stopped, bitting her lip. "His current wife is Freya, but I have not seen her yet. I have not been home, I felt it was better to stay here, at Hogwarts" Gem moved quickly forward on the chair so that she was practically perched on the edge of it. "I... He..." She began but couldn't seem to find the right word "...you know of his connections, where he comes from, Headmistress. If you want to know more I will give you all the information I have but I do not know much about him."

Once more, however and with no explanation, (for what need she of explanation? She was the Head and who would dare to question her choices or perogatives? None if they knew what was good for them.) she changed the subject matter.

"Tell me of the Unforgivable curses," she said.

Gem thought of shouting at the Headmistress, to tell her not to laugh at her mother and an array of other thoughts came into her head, she felt her cheeks get hotter and she clenched her fists under the table until her knuckles were white. Danuliete had never met her mother, Danuliete could not assume... But no, this was her temper getting the better of her again. She would not let Danuliete do that to her, she would keep her temper. She wouldn't say anything. Instead she glared, the dim notice of a flame in her eyes.

"You know the Unforgivable curses as well as any, Headmistress." She looked into Danuliete's eyes to show her that she was not a child any longer.

And yet. And yet. Strength of character was important. The air of wilful defiance to legitimate authority, whilst trying under these circumstances, could, in another situation be profoundly useful.

So in a dismissive tone of voice she merely said,

"Five o'clock. Tuesday. I will expect you here. Now leave."

Druscilla turned over another page of the Taurus file and continued to read.

Danuliete had been about to say something back, she could tell. But she hadn't. It was possibly a good thing she hadn't that could have caused Gem to loose her temper on the Headmistress. Not a wise thing to do. Why on earth did Danuliete want to see her? She shuddered at the thought of another solitary meeting with the solemn headmistress. She'd have to go to see Brooke to pity her on being related to the 'dragon'.

"Yes, Headmistress," she said, in reply to the arranged meeting time. She then closed the door behind her and went away up the corridor, back to the Great Hall. She had never missed a meal, she would not start now.