Bates opened the door. There was a tall woman in the doorway, her clothing seemed to flicker. The timeline
was still adjusting. Her former pink car coat had become black leathers. Bates recognized her from Parents
Day, and wondered just how good his curse had been. It was Mrs. Higgenbottom.
"Ah, Mrs. Higgenbottom, how can I help you?" Bates asked, as his hurdy gurdy music droned to a halt.
"You know me?" she asked suspiciously. She pushed herself into Bates' room and looked around.
"W?" Bates asked unsure what to do.
She looked around the room. "No nothing familiar. Have I been here before? How do you know me?"
"Uh, oh, no you've never been in my room before. I think you were at Stonewood for the Founders Day
Ceremonies, weren't you?"
Bates knew that Malfoy had gotten the job as RA because his parents were former alums.
Mrs. Higgenbottom seemed lost in thought. She muttered to herself, "Yes, I suppose."
Bates noticed for the first time that Monkeyboy was not standing where he had been. Bates looked around the
room and out the open window. Where had Monkeyboy got to? He needed to distract Mrs. Bates and get her out of
his room, so he could find Monkeyboy.
"Yes, I think you were with Mr. Higgenbottom?" he said.
"Mr. Higgenbottom?" she asked.
"Yes, tall man with a bowler and umbrella?"
She was strangely silent.
John Higgenbottom had been an agent in the service of the Ministries of Magic. He had vanished overseas while
obtaining key information about the Union of Soviet Socialist Convens.
A voice from the open doorway said, "Not Mr. Higgenbottom, but me. John Diamond - it's easy to remember
"What's harder than steel? Diamond. I was Mrs. Higgenbottom's escort to the Founder's Day soiree last year."
The man looked a lot like Higgenbottom, but he was an inch shorter and his jaw was less rugged.
"Oh, sorry I just assumed you were-"
"Never mind," Diamond said glancing at his watch, "Mrs. Higgenbottom, we are needed."
"Oh, well, then I'm off. Sorry to have bothered you -" she paused scanning the room and spotting what she
needed, "Mr. Bates." Then she left.
Bates closed the door. Leaned his back against the door, sighed in relief, and glance upward at the ceiling.
There was Monkey boy high up in a gable lodging himself in place with his feet.
In the hallway, Diamond asked, "Alright, Mrs. Higgenbottom, what's going on? Why are you here at Stonewood?"
"I wish I knew, Diamond, I wish I knew. I think I had a premonition, but I cannot recall it now. I am certain
that boy is involved somehow. He lied about knowing me."
"Oh, come now, Mrs. Higgenbottom, he must have seen you and me at the soiree last year. You are a striking
woman, and he's just an underclassman. You certainly would have made an impression on me if you had turned up
while I was school. I bet he fantasized meeting you, and when you showed up at his door, he was astounded and
confused. Fantasies don't usually come true." As he talked, he walked briskly leading Mrs. Higgenbottom
through the labyrinthian maze of corridors that make up the Stonewood Academy.
"You present a powerful argument, but my woman's intuition tells me I'm right and you're wrong. So why are you
here? I didn't even know I was going here until I got here. Were you following me?"
"Your woman's intuition may have something. The Ministry of Magic transported me here to investigate an
anomaly. And by good fortune, I find you here too."
"What sort of anomaly?"
"That's part of why we are here to investigate."
"So I'm on the case?"
"Apparently, ahead of me as usual. I suppose, we should go visit your old friend the dean."
"You never answered my question about the anomaly, Diamond?" Higgenbottom pointed out as the arrived at the
main door to the Dean's rooms.
"No, I didn't. Because no one can remember what it was just that there was something, and we all forgot what.
So we are here to find out what we forgot. It must be important."
"Someone rewrote the timeline," Higgenbottom said decidedly, "That's why I forgot my premonition."
"Most likely. But the problem now is to figure out what was rewritten and whether it should be undone or not?"
"Not undone? Why not?" she felt a definite certainty that it had to be reverse.
"Well, we don't remember what happened, but maybe it was a terrorist attack on Stonewood. Perhaps all the
students were killed. That might be why your conversation with Bates was so disquieting, perhaps he should be
dead."
"Perhaps. Let's test that theory," she said reaching out and yanking an underclasswoman out of her chair. She
demanded, "Who are you and what has been going on here?"
The wide eyed girl stammered, dropped her books and started to cry.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Professor Brewster suspected I was cheating because my marks improved, and of course
he was right. I used a set of enchanted pencils. I put one in the brightest kid's desk, and then my other
pencil copied all his answers on the test."
"Mrs. Higgenbottom, so good to see you. Thank you for clearing my calender by so expeditiously extracting a
confession from Miss Wandstrom. You will turn over the pencils to Mr. Brewster, and then you will retake all
your exams with an automatic one letter grade markdown without the aid of magic. Now get going, Miss
Wandstrom." As the bouncy coed gathered her books and rushed off, the dean turned his full attention to Mrs.
Higgenbottom and Mr. Diamond.
"Now Mrs. Higgenbottom, as much as I appreciate your interrogation skills, why are you here. Business or
pleasure?"
"It's always a pleasure to see you, Dean, but I'm afraid it's business this time."
"Ah, I was afraid so."
"Miss Wandstrom involved?"
"No. And no, Diamond, there's not the same feeling I had from Bates. So there goes your theory about Stonewood
being destroyed."
"Destroyed?" asked the dean with alarm.
"Don't fret, Dean, we're here because we don't know. Mrs. Higgenbottom is just being a tad melodramatic, and
I'm afraid I contributed. Somehow the timeline has been changed, and Stonewood Academy is the epicenter of the
disturbance. The magic was done by powerful wizard or wizards unknown. It was effective enough to obscure what
was altered, but no enough to mask the ripples completely which reach back decades."
"He said he saw me with Mr. Higgenbottom," Mrs. Higgenbottom said firmly, and he didn't seem to recognize you.
"But John Higgenbottom was lost over two decades ag- oh," the dean stopped lecturing with a sudden
realization.
"Do you suppose agents of the Soviet Coven are at work?" the dean asked.
"Some nefarious deed or deeds have been committed. We'll find out who and what or I'll wager I'll heat my
hat," Diamond said emphatically.
Higgenbottom smirked and tapped Diamond's bowler. It made a metallic ping.
"I'd almost be willing to fail just to see you try to eat that hat!"
"It's a figure of speech, woman!" Diamond protested.
Back in Bates' room, Bates was lying with his head in his ape man's lap, while the ape man plucked grapes and
fed them to his master. Bates had been so distracted by Mrs. Higgenbottom's appearance, he hadn't noticed that
the grape going into his mouth was dropping from between the ape man's big toe and 2nd toe. The ape man's
hands were occupied with a magic tome. The hurdy gurdy hadn't erased all of Malfoy's memories. If he
concentrated the part of him that remained could still read. He was going to improve his master whether his
master wanted it or not. A spell to make him exercise would be a good start. He plucked another grape with
his toes and fed his master, as he turned the page.