But before he can speak to them a rustling in the bushes is heard to one side and from them comes a man dressed in deep black robes 'So...' His voice, a deep hiss, seems to cut through you like a glass shard. 'So, my pets were correct. There are children in the Forest. Bad children... Were you not told this is 'out of Bounds' for little boys and girls?' He laughs and pulls back his hood, revealing a not un-hansome, somewhat familiar face.

Egreen goes very pale. 'F...Father? Father? No! You’re not.... You can't be here!'

The man looks at Egreen and a look of Disgust crosses his face. 'I have NO son!' He spits and looks away from Egreen towards Marvo

'So, It is true... The Ministry of Magic is using children now.... And the Traitor’s son no less.... Such a pity you have to die, I should have liked you to tell your father he is next... Perhaps I shall 'port your body to him... Piece by piece.'

Again he laughs, 'And you my Child, come, come to where you belong... By my side' He beckons...

Niki moves behind someone, and seems to be shaking quite violently. She drops her wand because her hands are so shaky, and drops to her knees in the green mist, trying to pick it up. She keeps glancing up at the man, and moving backwards a little bit.

Morticia stares at what seems to be Mr Gedward with an expression that's almost impossible to read. Is he angered that someone should take Egreen away from her? Is it fascination to meet a powerful and obviously dark wizard? (After all, there are a LOT of nasty rumours about the Lagrands...) Or is it just fear?

Glueclaws, who's been at her heels since the speak-incident stretches, yawns and wanders a bit toward the stranger and sniffs. Then he walks back, rubs against Morticia's legs and purrs. Absentmindedly, Morticia picks him up and pets him a bit.

Winifred gasps. She looks at Egreen and then at his father trying to make some sense of the situation. Who was Egreen's father addressing when he said 'child'? It didn't seem likely that it was Egreen. She continued to stand there, not knowing what to do.

Achel was stunned! He had known Mr Gedward and, even though he was not what is would call a 'good man'. He knew he would not stoop so low as to threaten children. He may have been a supporter of 'You Know Who' but never an open one, never a Death Eater, or anything like that! So why was he here now? Talking like He's 'You Know Who' Himself!

He looks over to Nimue and takes her hand.

Egreen remains silent.

Suddenly, Niki feels sick. From where she crouches, she looks around frantically for her brother, but can't see him. Was that who Mr. Gedward was addressing? Her fingers close around her wand, and she sinks lower to the ground, a head and shoulders sticking out of the green mist.

"Gah, what is all this green stuff, oh well, I guess that big evil looking guy is causing it, who is this Egreen character he keeps talking about anyway, guess its one of the people here, the only one I recognise is Kat. I wonder what spell that guy was talking about, he seems to be the leader of the group, I guess the spell is what is causing the sudden lack of alertness by the majority of hogwarts residents, gee I wish this place would stop spinning."

As he finished mumbling, Insanius wrapped his left arm around his head, and rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand. "Everyone here looks sick or something, that floating head over there seems to be on its knees. From the looks of it you'd think something around here was scary or something. Oh, I get it now," the realisation finally hit him. "It must be the big evil looking guy over there that's scaring people. Oh well, he hasn't even looked at me yet, so I'm probably way down on his 'people to kill or horribly maim' list."

Madison looked at the others' confused faces...and smiled. Her whole attitude changed instantly, and she seemed to enjoy the confusion and shock as she took her place by the man's side.

"Fools..." she said, turning to face the others. "All trying to play hero...didn't do a very good job, did you? And Josslin...didn't even know what hit her. Silly girl thought she had it all figured out. I gave her quite a surprise..." Madison laughed, taking pleasure in the shock and anger radiating from the others. "You all thought you were so smart...playing detective when the killer was right in front of you the whole time. This body was a perfect disguise, and it's stronger than the girl gives it credit for." She looked up at the man. "How did I do?" A snapping twig behind her interrupted her.

Madison whirled around, looking toward the bushes. "You!" Muttering a spell, she reached out toward the bushes, as if holding something by the neck. Niki's brother Hadrian was dragged out, choking. He was flung down onto the ground in front of Madison, coughing.

"Hmm... hero complex must run in the school..." Madison grinned, her eyes glittering evilly. "I guess I'll just have to make an example out of you...don't worry, it'll be quick." Muttering another spell, she looked down at Hadrian.

Before he could do a thing, he was lifted into the air, his feet barely touching the ground. Madison smiled. "Hmm... Let’s see what to use...ah! I've got it..."

She muttered yet another spell, keeping her eyes on the boy in front of her as he screamed in pain. A green glow surrounded him like a fire, until the screaming stopped. He fell to the ground with a dull thud. Dead. Madison clapped her hands together, as if dusting them off.

"Now," she said, grinning. "Anyone else want to play hero?"

Winifred's jaw dropped. Madison is working for Egreen's dad? Upon seeing her kill Hadrian, Winifred covered her mouth with her hand and turned away from the scene. She wanted to run. Run far away from the forest and get away from this whole mess. How did she get involved in all this? If she just hadn't taken a drink of that potion, she would be in a nice, peaceful sleep for the next hundred years. She hoped that someone else would take some initiative soon...

"Dear me, isn't she the little condescending one who thinks she's pulled the wool over our eyes. Although since I didn't know her, and wasn't aware I was in a situation where I was playing detective, I guess she didn't pull it over mine, that's a sort of victory I guess." Insanius was once again at his incoherent mumbling.

"And now she seems to be trying to pick a fight or something, trying to call one of us out for a duel or something. Tricky move that, because the people who obviously thought they knew her style, have now hit a wrinkle and don't know what to expect. Guess it's time someone turned the tables on the conspirators"

Insanius stepped towards Madison, turned around, and aimed his wand at the group, "Um, yeah, what she said!" he said in a clear voice.

Madison eyed Insanius, arms crossed and an amused look on her face. She turned to Egreen's father. "It's your call...Stage is all yours. Hmm, how did I do, by the way?"

'Marvo looks totally shock at Madison's 'revelation' and when she takes Hadrian he screams 'NOOooo!'

He tries to rush forward, to do something to help, but his feet are tangles in a mass of weeds!

Marvo looks around and sees everyone is bound the same way, some people more than others are, some cannot even raise their wands!

Apart from Nimue and Achel, who are standing at the back holding hands, their other hand facing the group, palm out.

Nimue sees Marvo looking confused 'He is controlling the Forest Marvo!' Nimue screams out. 'We're holding it back the best we can. Please... DO something!'

Marvo looks to the group, fear and confusion in his eyes, He sees the new arrival stand up next to Madison and his fear turns to anger! 'Grrraaaah!'

His left eye starts to glow RED and then POPS from his head and with great speed, and darting from side to side spins around the three of them.

'Madison is controlled!’ He shouts, 'As is Egreen's Father!'

Marvo knew of only one quick way to break the control of such a powerful forbidden Spell, but he knew that he was not really powerful enough to use it, it could kill him! And even if it didn't he knew there would be serious consequences.

He pulls at the weeds binding him, trying to get free.

Morticia groans. Tears run down her face, but she looks concentrated and calm. She had pointed her wand at Madison and Egreen's father when the weeds got hold of her, but she manages to move her fingers a few inches until they point at Marvo because he's standing in the right angle.

"Don't move!" she shouts, which is quite unnecessary as Marvo can't move much anyway.

She points her wand at the weeds and mutters a spell, but so silent that it can hardly be heard - and to those close to Morticia it is totally unintelligible, no spell they've learned at Hogwarts and not even based on the usual Latin.

Purple, vicious looking sparks leave her wand and hit the weeds so hard that they are pushed back a bit, but they still cling to Marvo. Where the sparks have touched them, the green withers, and a foul smell fills the air. Some of the sparks, though, have rebounded and hit Morticia's outstretched arm. Her robe smokes and is burnt in some places, and although the weeds make it impossible for her to move, she cringes and sniffs and seems to be in great pain.

Kat watches. She is stuck and seeing first Madison walk over and then Insanius, she is a little surprised. She knew that someone had been trying to take-over Madison, so she was no so surprised that they had succeeded. Nor was she surprised that 'Madison' had killed Joss. She did not feel anger, more pity that the real Madison was not here.

If she carried on watching then Marvo was going to do something stupid and get himself killed. "He has far more training than the rest of us, but not enough. I'm not going to let him end up like his other friends. But what can I do?" she thought to herself. "And as for Morticia, she seemed to be trying to make it her turn next!"

Well there is only one thing Kat was really good at. Mind control. But she wasn't going to fight whoever was in the minds of Mr Gedward or Madison. No, she had to be smarter than that. She closed her eyes and reached out....

And barged her way into Nimue's mind... 'Nimue, listen to me. We need to get help. Stop fighting me! Now, you remember what you learnt when we shared minds? Well follow me, we need help...'

She let her essence leave Nimue's body and reached with it in the direction she had last seen the spiders go.

She found them huddled and confused in another clearing. She pushed her essence inside the head of the leader, and looked around. "The world looks really weird from here! But at least that spell won't effect me like this!" She looked around to see another large spider looking round slightly confused.

"This way." She called. It sounded more like clicking noises though... They made their way back to the clearing where Mr Gedward, Madison and Insanius were standing.

"OK, We need to kill them, so that he will leave. Then we need to get them revived again as quickly as possible, so BE CAREFUL"

To everyone else in the clearing all that can be heard is the spiders clicking noise. You can see the spiders waving their legs around, but they are not trying to attack you... Why? If you care to look you will also notice that both Nimue and Kat have gone white and look vacant. You can get no response from them.

Marvo has not yet seen the Spiders (thankfully!) and pulls himself free from the decaying weeds, with a nod of thanks to Morticia. He sees the look of insane glee in the faces of the three before him.

'This will not do' he says and takes a deep breath. He knows what he is about to do is not only forbidden, but very, very dangerous. But he will not let anymore people die... not even Madison, not even Egreen’s Father.