---

She had been silently eating her breakfast and re-reading her sister's last letter, when an owl had unceremoniously dumped a letter in her plate. She raised her eyes to the letter, saw nothing she could recognize and decided to dump it in her school bag. She'd read it later.

After she had finished reading  theletter, she found herself in a panic. She had been looking at the mask and slowly caressing it's features while fear had started to raise up in her. What was it? Who was it? Who could possibly know something so intimate about her? After 30 minutes she was still in shock, sitting with the letter in one hand and the mask in the other, she decided she will go, if only to find out who had been digging in her head for such information and Obliviate him or her.

---

At 9:30 PM she left the Slytherin common room, and stealthily made her way to the location pointed on the map. She had her mask hidden inside the cloak resting on her arm. She was calm on the surface, but a deep anxiety was unsettling her mind. She had followed the directions on the map, until she reached a door that looked like it had not been open in years. She put her cloak on, and then her mask, and opened the door calmly.

There was no one inside. The room looked like an old dungeon perhaps used for Potions in the past, with an eery ambiance caused by the only source of light in the room, some glowing fungi in the jars on the shelves. There were stools stacked on tables, so she took one, and placed in on the dais. She seated herself, with one leg over the other and crossed her arms in waiting.

She was always early, but the waiting now, was driving her insane. Just what was happening? And why in the first place would anyone take an interest in her? What was it that made everybody around tell her she is incompetent as of lately?  Had she been slipping? Had she been unable to control her facade? Were there others in this little get-together? Who was orchestrating this? She hoped all her questions would be answered in precisely 16 minutes.

Katy sat on the edge of her bed with the mask in her lap.  Her own worst enemy, the letter had said.  The words had been floating around in her mind for two days since she'd opened that mysterious envelope at breakfast.   Reddish brown parchment, no markings or address, it just landed on the table next to her.  At first she thought the owl might have made some mistake.  Of what importance was drive to a Hufflepuff, she wondered?  But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that there had been no mistake.

She'd always thought that, as a witch, she would finally be equipped to deal with the world that constantly berated her and put her down, making her feel inadequate.  She'd always thought that she'd finally be able to defend herself and her loved ones as fiercely as she'd always wanted but couldn't because she lacked the physical strength.  But magic had proven itself to be as self-limiting a form of defense as any other.  The people were every bit as dismissive of her and the lessons in school simply dragged by at a glacial pace. 

And so Katy learned what she could in class and from her books but she was so unused to being around other people and interacting with them that she got flustered and snippy.  Her knowledge failed her then and she usually made a fool of herself.  Partner work always turned out like that if the other person had the wherewithal to challenge her even a little bit. 

This letter, this mysterious invitation, seemed to offer a solution to these problems she had.  Katy wasn't a fool.  She knew enough to know just how much she didn't know and the dangerous possibilities loomed.  At the very least, enchanted items like the mask in her lap could do just about any gruesome thing to the wearer with the right spell, not to mention the added cloak.  Then there was the fact that she was being invited to some sort of secret meeting in the dungeons.  In the end it could all just be a cruel joke performed by her classmates.  She had no way of knowing if others had been called to the same meeting or not,  she knew only that she had been.  Anything could await her beyond the safety of the common room.

Gripping the mask in nervous anxiety, Katy shoved it beneath the cloak and left the room.  She kept it hidden as she crossed the sparsely populated common room, not that anyone would speak to her.  She stopped in a shadowy portion of the hallway once she left the common room and whipped the cloak around her shoulders.  She put on the canine mask and lifted the hood of the cloak to cover her hair then proceeded to the location on the map.  She pushed the door open and saw  a long empty classroom with a figure seated on a stool at the dais on the opposite end of the room.  She wiped her hands on her trousers and entered as calmly, quietly, and confidently as she could.

Ten minutes had passed, when she heard movement outside the door, her entire body went rigid, her heartbeat quickened and a wave of adrenaline surged through her body. Her hand instinctively went to her wand as she waited for the door to open. She got up on her feet as a silhouette clad in black, wearing a traveling cloak much as the one she was wearing, entered the room. She took a few seconds to take in the appearance of the intruder: she -for it was a she, by her movements and also the few ambiguous curves you could see under the billowing cloak- was wearing a  mask of silver, a match to her own, only hers was in the image of a dog, perhaps a pit bull by what Amara knew about dog breeds.

She waited until the girl took her first step inside the room, before she pointed her wand at her. She analyzed her looks from head to toe looking for some other information on who she might be, but the disguise was truly efficient, she stopped for a second to be grateful for her own disguise, she would not like to be recognized in such circumstances.

"Are you the one that summoned me here?" she said in a voice not her own, much deeper, almost neutral, androgynous. She was surprised for a second, there must be some sort of enchantment on the mask she thought. Another precaution she found admirable. "I am sorry for my behavior," she said giving her wand a nudge "it is only a precaution. Once I have established your purpose here, I will withdraw it."

As the members of the Gwyllion Fae are unknown even to each other, for this early meeting the Hexy Level can be considered BLUE

---

It had taken all of her muster for Hexy to stay silent for how she was hidden. The other girl had not been the only one to arrive much earlier than requested in the letter. Hexy had barely been able to get into place before the other girl had arrived.

Her hand was over her mouth to steady her breathing. A self inflicted Silencing Charm might have been helpful but to do that she would need to know how to remove it nonverbally. Something to look into later.

Finally the last arrived. Her unknown partner in waiting suddenly had her wand trained at the other girl. A reasonable reaction in the face of the unknown.

"Expelliarmus!" The spell came out of nowhere as the extended wand sailed away to land on a table.[1] After that Hexy removed the invisibility cloak (that had arrived at Halloween) from her own catlike mask and traveling cloak, giving the effect that she had stepped out of immaterial shadows in the darkness of the room.

"She's here by the same right as you are. As we all are." She paused after hearing her voice as distorted by the mask. Not only was it off pitch it sounded rather sultry. Hexy shook off the unusual feeling and continued. "If you're under the same level of surprise," she gestured to the newcomer, "does that mean I was the only one to get multiple letters in my envelope?"

1.	cleared with Amara

She entered the room, only to be accosted by its suspicious occupant.  Katy lifted her wand in self defense, prepared to cast every spell she knew if it came to that.  The person, female she assumed from what she could see beneath the cloak, was on edge because she too had been summoned here without being told what was happening.   Caution was understandable and, in this case, acceptable. 

Then, a voice came from the shadows followed by a figure.  The original girl's wand flew from her grasp and landed on a table out of her reach.  Her heart clenching, Katy whipped around to aim at the other. 

"She's here by the same right as you are. As we all are."

Katy lowered her wand.  She didn't want it to be taken from her and she could reasonably assume the new person wasn't going to hurt her if they were defending her right to be here.  And it seemed that this person knew more about this situation than they did.  Katy walked further into the room, the soft soles of her shoes making only a soft padding noise on the stones.  "I received only a summons," she said.  Her voice was different coming out of her mouth.  The octave was different and her Welsh accent was less pronounced.  Clever, strange, but clever.  She left out the part where  her letter had contained rather pointed and personal motivating though.  These people might be students at Hogwarts but right now they were strangers and they couldn't be trusted.

"What did the second letter say?"

It was hard to concentrate on what was happening around her: her wand suddenly flew from her hand, another person dressed the same as herself and the other girl suddenly appeared in the room, the dog-masked girl was pointing a wand at her, then at the other girl. Her confusion settled down, but she kept a cautious stance while watching the exchange of words between the other two. When finally there was a question coming from the girl with the silver dog mask, followed by a calm silence, she wandlessly Accio-ed her wand back in her hand and pointed it at the cat-masked girl.

"Pardon my manners, Miss, but as I see yours are lacking, I will have to follow suit. Disarming a wizard or witch equals amputating one of their limbs, and despite hearing me saying I had no intention of harming unless threatened, you still took my wand away". She sat back down on the stool and crossed her legs. "Proper etiquette dictates that in a possible duel, all bystanders are to refrain from any sort of action, or were you not instructed in the wizarding ways?" she looked at both of them for a moment, then slowly put her wand back in her holder.

She was considering keeping her wand at stand-point, but this was already a bad start for extracting information. She silently analyzed both of them, by their approximate height and the way they had presented themselves so far, in form of behavior, she could tell they were both young ladies, surely both students. She was slightly disappointed The one with the cat masked, required precaution when dealing with, the way she had made her appearance pointed towards a sort of cunning; she despised the sort and considered them lowly. The other girl, however, seemed more... adequate, she had understood her caution in raising her wand, and had acted properly by lowering her own when Amara had explained herself.

"What is this of a second letter?" she asked calmly, in her usual cold voice, while slowly tapping her black varnished 4 inches high heels to the leg of the stool.

Slazar's Shiny Pate. Is that what it sounds like being on the receiving end of foppish prattle? Minus the bevy of hypocrisy Hexy didn't miss how the raven masked one had summoned her wand back to her hand. This beat out any kind of coin tricks and required dedication to emulate in the next cycle of summoning regimens.

"Nice trick." Her wand was also removed from sight when the other was holstered. "But save the 'amputee' speech. Never attended Dueling Club regularly, have you? Disarming is one of the most frequented methods to ending a duel with an opponent. Old form etiquette has nothing to do with it. When a duel is fought for speed over style the pattern locks down into the quickest ways of incapacitating your opponent from acting further and blocking those attempts when you are on the receiving end. You might want to update your handbook."

Seeing as one sat and one remained standing, Hexy shifted to lean against a table at her point of the triangle. A posture of illusionary blind sidedness, as she was confident to be quick enough to react should the other two act up. "I guess I'm the one with the intel then. The second, of the letters, does seem the kind to read out once everyone was here."

She had the letter in her hands, the familiar off color parchment to the previous invitations. Her voice read aloud the following:

To Canidae, Avialae and Felinae,

I congratulate you three for deciding to come. You each carry formidable qualities unlike others in your year. Alone, these outstanding qualities lack polish, but I believe together you can help each other and become truly legendary.

The society of the Gwyllion Fae was one never understood through centuries of myth. But the name is suiting for your arrangement. Only together would you be able to find what remains to be unlocked for you all to achieve greatness.

Your secret shall be safe with me,

Faithful servant to the Gwyllion Fae,
~ Donn Domovoi

"So, Canidae," the dog, obviously, "and Avialae," the bird, "has your curiosity been quelled or are we going to start pointing wands at each other again until someone has an owl pellet for an eye?"

Wandless retrieval, Katy noticed.  Impressive.  Doing so was supposed to be quite difficult and it was certainly not something Katy had learned to do at this point.  She was careful not to bat an eyelash at it though.  She felt with a sickening surety that she was well and truly outclassed in this secret meeting.  Invisibility and wandless wand summoning were both beyond Katy's most extra-curricular activities.  She was determined not to be shown-up though.  She may not be able to outshine anyone, but she could certainly keep up.

"There's a time and a place for the dueling etiquette of tradition," Katy said firmly.  The sidelong glance she aimed at the feline was the only indication of her irritation with the feline's behavior and pomp.  "When you're trying to establish trust, for example.  Disarming an unknowing opponent from the shadows, while flashy, is hardly the best possible first impression."

Katy paced quietly along the expanse of wall by her corner of the triangle they'd formed while the cat pulled out the second letter she'd received.  The letter, although brief, contained several jewels that tantalized Katy with their possible meanings.  First of them was the name given to their little group.  Gwyllion Fae.  They were an old Welsh myth.  Gwyllion were hideously ugly faeries that haunted nighttime roads causing mischief, that is, until they were welcomed into a home and kept close.  Once given a home they were supposedly completely loyal and protective.  It seemed as if their unknown benefactor intended for this room and this group of people to become some kind of home.  They weren't off to a stellar start.

The second of particular interest was that the letter did not offer them a blatant exchange of or increase in power.  Instead the letter spoke of the act of becoming.  Becoming legendary, achieving greatness.  These were basic qualities that existed regardless of raw power or vast knowledge.  How is it that someone unknown to them could assess their qualities of being that could lead to greatness?  Was it just an illusion created by the offhanded and unsubstantiated promise or was it the product of divination?  Was the author a Seer of some sort? 

At the end, the unknown author had promised that their secret was safe with him.  Safe?  At the moment the three of them didn't have a secret.  Individually they had secrets and Katy could only assume that those, too, would be safe with their benefactor.

"My curiosity is far from satisfied," Katy murmured, stopping in her pacing.  She swiveled around, which caused her cloak to flare out around her and fixed the feline with a narrow look.  "You say it was signed Donn Domovoi?  Is that a name?  Who would do this?  How would they know?"

She listened to the impudent reply of the cat-masked girl and chuckled at her obvious lack of manners, and attention it seemed. She was however impressed with the other girl, she seemed well-educated and did make a valid point, underlining the establishment of trust, which also indicated quite an intellect. Amara was slowly forming her opinions on the two girls and one was far from agreeable.

"Maybe you ought to pay more attention to your actions and the words of those around you, Miss. You did hear me say "bystander", I assume? Then, wouldn't you agree, that in a three person assembly, given as there were two wands pointed at each other, with no knowledge of a third there is no possible way you could qualify as an "opponent", or even as a "second" to either of us, if you would like to interpret it as such? Therefore, wouldn't you only be a bystander with no right of interference?" she said in a bored tone, while  intently watching the cat-masked girl with a hint of amusement and condescension.

She turned her eyes away, as to indicate that she had no interest whatsoever in hearing another "clever" remark. She listened to the cat-masked girl while reading the letter, but her eyes were fixated on the dog-masked one, there was something about the girl that Amara liked, but she couldn't quite put a name on it.

"Canidae, Avialae and Felinae?" she thought to herself. "Well, I understand the connection, but, still... that's rather insulting... addressing someone by the naming of a clade. She listened as the girl continued her reading. "Help each other? Now that is insulting! she continued her line of thought. But the name, the name truly bothered her: "Gwyllion Fae".  Was it some sort of metaphor? Did the sender mean to say that only together, in this place will they find peace of sorts? Not to mention the implications it had to them individually, did the sender mean to say that by themselves they were ugly, vicious and  hateful? She did not like the accusation.

The name of their "benefactor" didn't ring any bell, and she was growing impatient. What did this Donn Domovoi know about her? And how did he find himself in possession of information about her? She silently nodded in approval at the dog-masked girl, she wanted answers as well, but she had a feeling she will not find them here. This was getting ridiculous.

"I can only assume that you two are mere puppets in this -this children's game, and therefore have no more information on this Donn Domovoi than I do. I want nothing to do with this charade" she said while slowly standing. "I came here for answers. I received none that I deem satisfactory."

She gave them both a small nod to indicate her departure, and started walking towards the door.

This was a damn stranger version of an out of body experience than even the day of switched bodies a few days ago. Hexy was momentarily unsure if she hadn't split again and another half of her psyche was under the opposing mask. There might be a valid point to those criticisms of character.

"All that being said..." Hexy said with clenched teeth. Even dueling was starting to sound annoying given the Raven's persuasion. "This isn't dueling club. Heck, the 'honorable' system in dueling is only a product of a sport. Nobody in real life fights a 'fair duel.' They take every advantage they see. The wizarding war wasn't fought like that and neither was the attack on St. Mungo's and I fought in that."[1]

However, it was irritating that the others had a point. A bid to establish a hierarchy of ability wasn't working as they were unimpressed and the politician of the group (the Raven) had a speech ready for everything. Possibly compensating for something. "Donn Domovoi is probably as much a real name as Felinae or Canidae. At least DD-whoever is being discreet or would you rather to tell us who you really are? My only guess is that this person is rather observant and therefore lives in the castle or else they couldn't observe us everyday unless they were an advanced diviner or something. It seems a lot of effort was put in to keep us our privacy for what otherwise could be blackmail. DD probably wants the same in return." She paused, reflective. "Although there's something about this handwriting style..."

And just great, one of them was about to leave. The confusion was understandable but neither of them were all that familiar with the parts of a pact said and unsaid. Playing along until you gleaned the information you needed was less riskier than ignoring an unknown friend or enemy that made an advance. Although what could she do to encourage Avialae to stay?

Goad her relentlessly, because that's how Hexy would do it if she was the one being stubborn. "Let me guess, doesn't play well with others? And given your demeanor you value yourself as being the most intelligent student in the room and therefore everyone else is below you. And I bet that means you've never had somebody properly argue with you because you always believe yourself to be right whether or not you are. They probably fold to your whim. So rather than, I don't know, learn something or come up with a better argument you think walking away will keep you in the right. But you're never going to know for sure. All you will know is that you ignored a challenge and did nothing."

1.	When Trouble Comes Knocking - A chaotic day at St. Mungo's was orchestrated by the Wizarding Blood Alliance, a group disinclined towards muggleborns and muggles. There would be no official mention of what a student was doing while having visited a family member.

Katy pursed her lips with anger.  She resumed her pacing and crossed her arms over her chest.  These two were no different than the rest of the school population, ignoring her and her contributions.  They were wrapped up in one another, clearly used to standing out in their own rights, in some way.  Here, with the two of them in a single group the vied for attention and status. A strange feeling inflated within her chest like a combination of righteous irritation and foolish disappointment.  That she could think, even for a second, that this would somehow be any different was the epitome of wishful thinking.

She was tempted to leave as well but that would solve nothing and a large part of her was disgusted that the raven would give up and stomp out like a spoiled child who hadn't gotten her way.  On the return path of her pacing, she glared at the departing back and registered the cat's goading words.  She was right, of course; perceptive in a way that was common to all of them.  The ability to see through masks to the heart of the situation must have been one of the qualities that had prompted their benefactor to bring them together.  She couldn't trust anything to coincidence here.

All of a sudden Katy became overwhelmingly and unbelievably upset.  She growled in her throat and  pulled her wand once more from her sleeve.  Her fingers clenched around the handle.  A number of spells ran through her mind for this situation, including locking the door to prevent the offended cat from leaving.  However she seemed to have lost her voice to her ire. Her teeth ground together and she abandoned her pacing to stride purposefully to the center of the room.

"Bickering like children will get us nowhere," she snapped, giving the cat a pointed look.  Then she gave the raven one as well and told her, "If you came here looking for answers then leaving will do you no good whatsoever.  Clearly we were brought together for a purpose and it's not because we are weak, not because we need help."  Katy was not a puppet, she felt that in her heart.  The implication that she would allow herself to be used wormed its way into her and wouldn't let go. 

"We're all just similar enough to cause problems but different enough to bring out qualities in each other that wouldn't be exposed otherwise, both good and bad.  This has to be one of the reasons we were brought together. And-"

Katy paused, nervous and uncertain. 

"And if it would help, we could always show our faces and establish a kind of  mutual trust."

She lifted her hands to her face, ready to bring the mask and hood down.  The secrecy, while enough to bring them together, couldn't last forever.  In her mind, it might as well be sooner than later.  Unless they were too scared to do so, of course.  She wouldn't be the only one to reveal her identity but if they were willing to follow then she wouldn't think twice.

She turned on the spot and looked at Felinae. This girl was getting on her last nerves and she wasn't about to let anybody, much less a girlie such as this one, insult her as this.

"I'm afraid you misunderstand, Miss. This—this, whatever it is, isn't a challenge. This is, as I've already said a children's game. And I do not believe myself above others, with no reason to. Not ever. But you are right on two things. No, i do not play well with others, and no I do not have arguments, not usually, because as you've already stated, my social interactions are close to zero" she gave the girl a cold look and turned to look at the other girl.

 "And as Miss Candidae has put it, I came here for answers, period. I have no interest in whatever that letter was promising. I merely want to find out how the author of the letters had come into possession of some particular information. And as we have already established, neither of you seem to have the knowledge that I seek. So I plan to go and investigate on my own."

She saw the girl's hand move to her dog mask and Amara quickly moved to her in three big steps. She grabbed her hand, obviously angry and lowered it. "Don't be ridiculous, girl. We were given a disguise for a reason" she spat at her. She let go of the girl's wrist and wiped her own hand on the cloak she was covered in. The skin contact made her cringe on the inside, she would wear gloves from now on."I trust no one. It is more productive this way, we can avoid any sort of consequences by not knowing the true identities of each other. I'm not saying it will ever come to that, but still, remember the mishap with the Edgecombe girl and Dumbledore's Army?" she told her in a calm, cold tone.

She remained there for a few seconds, pondering the pros and cons of all this. She, eventually, decided she will stay, if only three might work better than one, and leave as soon as she will have her answers. She moved back to the stool and sat on it crossing her arms and legs. "Very well then, I'll stay until I have my answers. You make a good point, Miss Candidae, and I obviously rushed to a decision" she said in an uninterested voice. "However, you and I will have trouble communicating efficiently" she said looking at the cat-masked girl. "My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever" she said quoting one of her favorite characters, but she would never admit to that.

"It's probably best to keep to the masks for now, by this point revealing ourselves would make the whole point moot." Although if the Raven headed one thought Hexy was being hypocritical, she was doing no better rushing to protect identity while revealing herself to be a particularly prideful antisocial sort. Given there were only a handful in the castle like that it left little guesswork to who she could be...

"Noted for the register," Hexy said sarcastically to the notice that she and Avialae were going to argue frequently. "As you haven't asked on Donn's other letters, nothing else about use could be used for identification outside of our phylum monikers." From behind the welcoming letter she spread out other pages. "They're more like lesson plans, things we won't be able to study until we're older."

"If it's a real challenge you're looking for, how about..." One was selected from the rest. "Casting a corporeal Patronus? They say it's difficult magic but that's rubbish, it's not cast by experience but by emotions and memory, so it's called difficult because not everyone can do it. But Potter could do it by his third year and," since the obvious DA reference was just waiting there, "he also taught others how to do it before they reached NEWT level."

"Does that interest anybody or shall we go back to bickering?"

Katy wasn't afraid of these two, no matter who they really were.  She wasn't at all nervous about taking off her mask and revealing herself if need be.  However, they both brought up good points.  Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to give them the means to hide themselves.  Perhaps, for now, it was best that they remained anonymous.  Because they could be anyone, their true identities might spark enough anger and mistrust that this whole thing would end here in now.

At least they were getting somewhere now, though.  Katy was beginning to appreciate the cat's acceptance of the situation, and her leadership tendencies.  The raven, on the other hand, was quickly becoming quite irritating.  She seemed quite set on making this whole thing a lot more difficult than it already was, inventing a rivalry with a complete and unknown stranger almost immediately.  She rolled her eyes, at the raven, thankful that the mask hid her expression.

The suggestion that they begin with a Patronus was an interesting one.  Harry Potter's ability to teach it to a group of students when he was only a student himself was nothing short of legend in itself and carried in it the implication that, with the right motivation, wizarding students were capable of far more than their professors allowed or taught.

However, there was more to it than that.  The Patronus depended on the caster's frame of mind and was said to require an extremely happy memory to drive away the fear of a dementor.  It might not be the best place to start, considering how they were currently treating each other.  But then again, perhaps it wasn't a horrible idea.  It was certainly better than nothing.

Katy nodded firmly, making sure to exaggerate it so that it would show with the cloak and mask.  "Perhaps if we can focus on learning to cast a proper Patronus, we can set aside our petty differences.  And it will certainly provide us all with a challenge."

"Does this agree with you?" she asked the Raven.  "Or shall we continue bickering?"

"I am already familiar with a corporeal Patronus charm. I could offer assistance if you so desire. But I want to believe that I have made my purpose here clear. If, in those lesson plans, there is something that could benefit me, then I will take advantage of the situation, but other than that and those answers, I have no interest in this little... club."

She eyed them both and was suddenly curious as to what background they might have. She knew the Patronus charm was very advanced magic, but she also knew that old and noble pureblood families have very high expectations of their progeny. Were they both of lesser descent? Or were their families not interested in the magical excellency of their children? Or what if her training was more advanced than others? And if so, why would she ever need to cast a Patronus at such a young age? She was suddenly filled with doubt. She had always known that she must excel at everything in order to look the part of the Báthory heiress, so she had complied with the extreme training and the vast amount of knowledge requested of her, but she had never once questioned, just why should she need all of them.

She buried the thoughts in the back of her mind and was suddenly hit with the realization that if she played nice, the instigator might just show himself. Showing these two and the puppeteer that she could be trusted could play to her advantage, and maybe she could even get something out of it.

"Might I have a look at those lesson plans? We should take the easier ones first, and if either of us is already familiar with the subject, it will definitely go faster and we will be more efficient" she got up and straightened her robe. "Also if it is not over my capabilities," she said looking at Felinae with a snort caught in her throat "might I make some suggestions as to make the best out of this little gathering?"