Paragraph 7 - 25 : The Rogend

Judith's bad mood persisted as she was lamenting everyday that her beloved little box had vanished. But soon blue embroidery printed itself on the back of her tie, followed by gold and green threads, as Eleanor was coordinating with the others for the four of them to meet. For once, Judith was the last to validate the meeting's chosen place and time. And on Saturday, she walked more slowly than usual to their spot on the banks of the lake. Ann noticed immediately Judith's gloom, and enquired about it. Judith explained what she was going through. Eleanor and Ann tried to comfort her, and their diplomacy worked more or less. Ann even offered to drink one day an Intuition Potion to try and retrieve the box. In the meantime, they would have to take care of something else. Eleanor had requested a meeting because Edward Songer, who had agreed to keep Eleanor posted on his clearer than reality dreams, had told her that he had had a dream which developed the story of the couple whose woman was losing her ability to control her powers. Eleanor reported as accurately as possible what Edward had detailed to her. In the dream, the man received an owl, carrying a letter which read :

Dear Mr. Grithe

I became recently aware of your plight. Note that you should not mention this correspondence around you, for I could suffer regrettable consequences if this communication were to be known. Since there is no ordinary cure for your wife's illness, a more arcane one will be needed. This entails the use of the 'Cambius Extrema' spell. Please practice it. In five days, at 10pm, you and your wife will go to the prairie that lies behind a mansion called The Farthing. There you will cast the spell on the Rogend you will find there. Since this exchange requires anonymity on my part, just give your answer to the owl, it will be able to find me. Good luck

Eleanor paused here. Ann respected briefly the pause, allowing Judith and Sigismond to take in the new pieces of information, then, displaying her typical eagerness to act, went straight to the point :

What are 'Cambius Extrema' and a Rogend ?

Much to her surprise, Judith on the spot answered the second part of the question :

A Rogend is kind of a magical horse. It is always black, but its mane and tail are a glowing white. It doesn't need to breathe, because it sources the energy it needs to function from magic. Therefore it can walk earth and survive in environments where oxygen is scarce or unavailable, including high altitudes, fumes or Muggle toxic products, but also swim to the bottom of the ocean

Ann resumed :

Err, where did you find all of this? Is this some fourth-year stuff ?

Judith innocently answered :

That was in the book I read when I was looking for the box

Ann built on Judith's reply :

You are telling us that you read something about Rogends a few days before we first heard about them and discovered these creatures were important for our investigation

Judith, who now was understanding that something weird and improbable had happened, said :

Err…Yes

Eleanor supplemented Ann's reasoning :

Sigismond drank the Intuition Potion to find something about this mysterious illness. The potion directed him to The Ogre's Buffet. Then you lost your very valuable box, which made you go straight to some crucial information about the afore-mentioned illness. So…Maybe there is a direct connection between what happened at The Buffet and the rest. In other words, you may have lost the box there, and the potion knew in the end that losing the box there would allow you to find what a Rogend was right on time

However, none of them knew what kind of spell was 'Cambius Extrema'. The only thing they could surmise was that it was shady, therefore possibly related to dark magic. Given that they had already ran into complications that had led to them being labelled as dark magic adepts, they couldn't overtly, in a risk-free fashion, borrow books at school that dealt with anything pertaining to dark magic. They then settled for a simple plan of action, that would hopefully circumvent that hindrance. They would ask Sigismond to get some noteworthy books about the life of Lord Voldemort delivered by owl. Since You-Know-Who was supposed to have undertaken all things dark, there would probably be something about 'Cambius Extrema' in these books. Within two days, each of them had a book about Lord Voldemort to read. Since keeping those in their dormitories, among their belongings would have defeated the purpose of having acquired them stealthily, they had kept them in the Arch Room. There, they could read the books without having to fear much being found and exposed. The process didn't yield the expected result. There was no documented evidence of Lord Voldemort using 'Cambius Extrema'. Sigismond had yet something in store for them to keep going. He had noticed that three of the four books had a bibliography. He thus candidly offered to purchase among all the books in the bibliographies, those the title of which looked promising. Eleanor was in awe with the idea, whereas Ann was feeling like moaning - 'Still more reading'. As a result, Ann did at first her best to evade the bulk of the task, which fell on the three others. She quickly changed her mind, though, remembering how generous Eleanor had been at The Ogre's Buffet. She ended up doing her part. And this time, in some obscure academic work, they got a hit. To be more precise, Ann did. She first read the explanation, which was too abstruse and lengthy to her taste. In spite of this, she gathered the main point of the article. At the end of the chapter, she said :

Found it. I am glad we didn't ask Professor Snape about it

The book where Ann had spotted the spell's description changed hands, as each of the three others read in turn the relevant chapter. To make a long story short, the 'Cambius Extrema' spell opened a connection that allowed to channel magical powers from a magical being to another. There was a ranking of the creatures according to the features of the connections Cambius Extrema would imply when cast on them. Rogends were listed. The table said, regarding them : 'Long range connection.' There was a catch, though. When powers were passed from a magical being to another, they were unfairly collected, with the result that the recipient would progressively become more and more evil. The four friends knew what to do, it was obvious. Thanks to the letter, they knew the name of the man, and they had to send to him as soon as possible their own letter, pleading for him not to perform the scheduled operation, with details explaining why it was not an adequate and ethical solution. Eleanor wrote the letter on the spot, with inputs from the three others, and they then went up to the owlery, where they watched Eleanor's owl depart for Mr. Grithe's dwelling.