“Don’t thank me, either of you. I only brought the both of you along so that you could ask all the smart questions and make sense of what they show us.”

“Mr. Grey shuffled his feet. “I know what we was told, but it don’t feel right, Bistle. I has a sense about these things. Me mam always said so.”

“You painted all those characters into the paintings all over the school, and every one of them is a portrait of you, but in disguise. That’s how you’ve been watching us. You spread yourself out through all those paintings. And since you are the original artist, nobody else can ever destroy the portraits. It was your way of assuring you could always keep an eye on things, even after death.”

“No,” Ted said, returning his gaze to James, “I do need to tell you. As much for me as for you. Because I haven’t told anybody else yet, not even Grandmum. I think if I don’t tell somebody, I’ll go nutters. See, I couldn’t sleep because I was so hungry. I was starved! I lay there in bed the first time it happened, telling myself that this was just crazy. I’d had a nice big dinner and everything, just like normal. But no matter what I told myself, my stomach just kept telling me it wanted food. And not just anything. It wanted meat. Raw meat. Fresh-off-the-bone meat. You see what I’m getting at?”

“Ted shrugged. “Dunno. We got sent off to find you three while McGonagal was stil getting everybody together. I assume she meant to meet him herself. She was looking pretty peaked about it if you ask me.”

“How perfectly whimsical. I expect we’ll be roasting marshmallows over the fireplace and singing happy sing-alongs round about midnight, yes? Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of the dormitories.”

“I know you said your dad and his mates used to do this all the time, but one of them was a girl, remember?' 'Yeah, and she didn’t eat seven meals a day, either,' Zane said. The three of them shuffled down the darkened corridor, crammed under the Invisibility Cloak.”