It was late by the time Charlie and Artemis arrived back at Hogwarts. They made their way through the darkened grounds and hallways of the castle in complete silence, hoping that they wouldn't encounter any of the teachers, Mr Filch the caretaker, or his cat, Mrs Norris. Luckily, their path to the basement was unobstructed. Artemis hurriedly knocked on the barrels that formed the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room and pushed Charlie inside, breathing a small sigh of relief as the circular wooden door shut behind them.

"Come on," she said, already on the move again. "The girls' dormitories are this way."

Charlie's cheeks flushed between his freckles. "Er, I'm not sure I-"

"Hurry up, Charlie!"

Artemis led Charlie down the tunnel-like corridor to the dormitory, ignoring his obvious discomfort, which only seemed to increase as she opened the door of the dormitory to reveal Penny, Tonks, and Chiara all dressed in their nightclothes. At the sight of him, Penny grabbed a blanket from her bed and held it in front of her bare legs.

"Oh, no. Boys aren't allowed in here," she said indignantly, and Artemis rolled her eyes.

"It's only Charlie," she reasoned. "He doesn't count."

"Great. Thanks for that."

"Wotcher, Charlie boy," said Tonks, jumping off her bed as Penny put down her blanket. "What brings you here on this fine evening?

Charlie glanced sideways at Artemis before removing the prophecy record from his satchel, and holding it on his outstretched palm. The girls all gathered around to look at it closely, peering at the milky substance within the orb.

"What is that?" Penny asked. "A tiny crystal ball?"

"Sort of. It's a prophecy record."

Chiara's eerily pale eyes widened and her lips parted to form a perfect "O" shape.

"I've heard about these," she breathed. "I looked into them for my Divination homework. Oraclers record and store the original prophecies after they've been made. May I?" she held out her hands and Charlie passed her the prophecy record, which she slowly and carefully began to tilt. "Yes, see here? The label has the details of the prophecy, who made it and when. This white stuff inside, that's the memory of the person who recorded the original prophecy. Memories can only be stored in pure crystal or Pensieve dishes, otherwise, once they are removed, they just fade away."

"How do you know all that?"

"My mum is an Obliviator. She removes and modifies memories for a living," said Chiara. "As for the prophecies, well, I've just always loved Divination. There's something reassuring about knowing that there's a plan in place for all of us."

"I dunno," Artemis frowned. "I'd rather be able to make up my own mind and do what I want, not what the universe or someone else says I should."

"Ah," Tonks put a blanket over her head, snatched the orb from Chiara, and screwed up her face, changing her features into those of Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher. "But the great tides of fate move us all in mysterious ways, my children..."

"Tonks, be careful with that."

"What? I'm just holding it. Charlie and Chiara were allowed to hold it, why can't I?"

The other girls exchanged looks, all three of them all too aware of Tonks' clumsiness. Tonks rolled her eyes dramatically and pretended to almost drop the prophecy record, cackling to herself as the others gasped.

"Maybe no one should hold the crystal ball," Charlie said diplomatically. Tonks pulled a face, but put the blanket and prophecy orb down on her nightstand before flopping back down onto her bed. "Chiara, what else do you know about all this stuff?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. After all, the world's largest store of prophecy records is said to be held in the Department of Mysteries, and it's not like anyone is allowed to..." Chiara's lyrical voice faded away, and she frowned deeply. "Hang on. Where did you two say that you got that orb?"

Artemis grimaced and Charlie shrugged.

"We didn't."

"Right," said Chiara, and her lips twitched slightly before she started to frown again. "You know, they say that if a record is made of a prophecy, only the person who it refers to can retrieve the record. So, which of you is this prophecy about?"

Her eyes drifted to the prophecy record, its label still just about visible, and then back to Artemis, who nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "It says Hexley on it, and I picked it up off the shelf. So, it's about me, we think."

"And what does it say?"

"This is the problem. We don't know what it says, because it's all in French. That's why we brought it back here, because you speak French, don't you, Penny?"

"Oh, well," Penny's cheeks turned a little pink. "I know a little. Enough to get around, you know?"

"So, can you translate the prophecy or not?"

"Maybe. I can definitely give it a try, at least."

"That'll have to do," said Artemis. "Tonks, pass it here. And for the love of Merlin, try not to-"

SMASH.

Tonks swore loudly, and Artemis' stomach lurched as the little orb slipped from Tonks' fingers and landed heavily on the wooden floorboards, the crystal cracking and shattering into a hundred shards, the wispy white smoke floating upwards out of the detritus, swirling in mid-air to form a cloudy figure of a witch dressed in old-fashioned robes. The smoke-witch opened her mouth, and her voice echoed out across the dormitory.

"Une saison se termine et une autre commence,
Et ce faisant, elle apporte une nouvelle naissance.
Les Voûtes de la Vérité seront ouvertes et ainsi il y aura la connaissance
de ce qui se trouve à l'intérieur; de la plus grande puissance.
Mais cela nécessitera un sacrifice
Et pour les voûtes, une vie est le prix.
La dette doit être payée par l'un plus cher
Pour trouver et se laisser guider par la lumière.
À travers l'obscurité profonde,
L'héritier dirigera la Ronde,
Ainsi en sera-t-il de leur héritage, et de la fin de la guerre."

With that, the white fog dissipated, aided by the batting paws of Fergus the cat as he tried to catch the wispy smoke. All eyes turned to Penny.

"Who... What was that?" she asked, her blue eyes wide.

"Never mind who it was, what did she say?"

"Um, I'm not sure," Penny shook her head. "It was all over so quickly, I didn't manage to catch it all. Can you get her to say it again, a little slower?"

Chiara shook her head. "The memory has gone."

"What bits could you understand, Penny?"

"Um, well," Penny bit her lip, "there was something about the seasons and a birth. Something about truth, knowledge, power... and vaults..." She sighed heavily. "Really, Artemis? The Cursed Vaults again? Why can't you just leave them alone?"

"Because apparently it's my destiny not to," Artemis half-snapped, and Penny pursed her lips tightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to... What else did it say?"

"That there was a sacrifice and a price to pay. An expensive one. A life. Then it said about going through the darkness and finding a light, and leading, um..."

"Leading what?"

"Well, 'la Ronde'. That means round."

"So, leading around somewhere?" Artemis asked, her nose wrinkling. Penny shook her head again.

"No, as in literally round, like a circular movement."

"Oh," Artemis frowned. "Did it say anything about... a cabal? Or R? Anything about leading those?"

"No. Just the 'Ronde'."

"I mean," said Tonks, her pink eyebrows raised, "that does begin with the letter 'R'. We never found out what 'R' stood for did we?"

"No, I guess not."

"Well, maybe it stands for 'Ronde'."

"Oh, like the Knights of the Round!" Penny gasped, clapping her hands together. "My mum used to read the stories about Merlin and Morgana and Arthur's knights to me when I was little."

Artemis considered it for a moment. If the Cabal wanted Jacob to be their leader because of this prophecy, and the prophecy said that the person to open the Cursed Vaults would lead the Ronde...

"It makes sense, I guess," she nodded. "Especially with all the stuff about the sacrifice. That's exactly what Rakepick said when she attacked us in the Buried Vault back in fifth year, and Duncan did say that's why he died, because of R thinking the Vaults needing a life. Rakepick just thought that his was the wrong life, but that's not true. It's because it was the wrong people trying to open the Vaults. It should have been Jacob and R, according to this."

"Should it?" Chiara asked, looking down the shattered orb. "Because Jacob wasn't the one to pick up the prophecy. You were."

Her voice was soft, but her words seemed to fill the air ominously, and Artemis felt suddenly as if she had the eyes of everyone not only in the room, but in the whole world, on her.

"No," she said quickly, shaking her head. "No, I don't want to."

"It looks like you might not have a choice."

"I do have a choice," said Artemis. "These are the people who killed Rowan. I'm not going to lead them. I'm not going to have anything to do with them." She glared at the prophecy, and added, "Anyway, the prophecy is smashed. That means it can't come true."

Chiara said nothing, but the look in her pale eyes made her thoughts on the matter clear. Artemis avoided looking at her, or any of the others. The dormitory was quieter than it had been in a long time.

"Maybe it could still come true, just not in the way you'd expect," said Tonks, her voice cutting through the tense atmosphere. "Maybe you just need to think outside the box. Or the crystal ball, in this case."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Tonks turned to Penny, "didn't you say that 'ronde' meant 'circular'? Like, as in a circle?"

As Penny nodded her head and Tonks raised her eyebrows pointedly, Artemis finally realised what she meant. Tonks was right, maybe she did have a choice.

After all, she already had a perfectly good circle of her own.

***

The first day of the Easter holidays marked a year since the Circle of Khanna's first meeting. It seemed only fitting to reform the group on the anniversary, and so Artemis had invited all of the members to join her in the Hog's Head that morning.

Thankfully, they had all agreed - though Andre had expressed reservations about the choice of venue - and most were already present when she arrived with Tonks and Penny in tow. She ordered a round of drinks for herself and her dorm-mates, before taking a seat at the three tables the others had pushed together in order to all sit together. By the time Andre, Badeea, and Tulip arrived, they made up such a large group that they almost had the bar to themselves.

"I think that's pretty much everyone," Penny whispered, her face still lined with scepticism. Until the night Artemis had found the prophecy record in the Ministry of Magic, she had been so against her even mentioning the Cabal or the Cursed Vaults that Artemis half-suspected that she had only agreed to come to the meeting out of fear of missing out on a social occasion. "Of course, Alanza is back in Brazil, Bill will be away with Gringotts, and Chiara will get here once she's done at the Hospital Wing, but otherwise..."

Artemis nodded before clearing her throat, and fourteen pairs of eyes came to rest on her. She stood up, not really sure why she felt the need to do so.

"Um, right," she said, suddenly regretting not having planned out what she was going to say in advance. "Hello, everyone. Thanks for coming. So, I'm guessing that you've probably all realised that everyone here was in the Circle of Khanna last year..."

"Oh, yes," said Barnaby Lee, a look of realisation passing across his face. "That's a coincidence."

"Yeah, sort of. Well, not really. No," Artemis sighed. "Look, there's a reason I asked you all to come here today. I know it's been a year since we first started all this, and..."

Her voice tailed off as a familiar flash of white-blonde head of hair appeared in her peripheral vision, and Chiara Lobosca approached from the other side of the bar, an apologetic smile on her face.

"Sorry I'm late."

"That's fine, Chiara. Take a seat."

"Here, you can have mine," Jae said, rising from his own chair with so much enthusiasm that it toppled backwards and he fumbled to pick it back up. Beside him, Charlie placed his head into his hands.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Artemis continued, before she could start to laugh and ruin the mood entirely, "I asked you to come here today because I wanted to ask you something. Something else, not to come here, I mean."

"Artemis, darling," said Andre, still staring at his untouched Butterbeer bottle with a look of mild disgust, "I don't want to be funny, but can you just spit it out? I feel like the longer I'm sitting here, the harder I'm going to need to work to get the smell of goats out of my clothes. And this jumper is hand-wash only."

"Sorry, yeah. Okay, the thing is... I want to reform the Circle of Khanna and break the curses again."

There was a quiet murmur through the group. Eventually, Ben spoke up.

"But we already broke the Statue Curse," he said. "We sealed the Sunken Vault, remember?"

"Exactly," Artemis nodded. "We sealed it. We didn't open it. That means that the Sunken Vault, all of the Cursed Vaults, they're still there. They aren't doing anything, but they still could."

"Like dormant volcanoes," whispered Ismelda. "Just waiting for the opportunity to erupt, to kill and destroy everything in their wake."

"Sort of like that, yeah."

Liz Tuttle slowly raised her hand before asking: "Um, I'm sorry, but... but if we go b-back and start messing with the C-Cursed Vaults again... Won't that just release the Curses?"

"That's exactly what I thought," said Penny. "Artemis, I know that this prophecy-"

"Prophecy?"

"What prophecy?"

"I was about to get to that," Artemis told her friends, many of whom were now frowning in confusion. "A few weeks ago, the Aurors who have been investigating R, they caught someone working for them. Tulip and Merula know about this because they were there, so they can tell you that it's true. Anyway, he said that R were wanting to open the Vaults again, they were just waiting for their leader to join them, because of this prophecy."

"So, you want us to form a rival group and get there first?"

"Um, not quite."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Charlie and I broke into the Department of Mysteries and stole the prophecy record-"

"How did you do that? I thought that only the people in the prophecies could take a record," said Badeea.

"Wait," Merula looked up at Artemis with a look of mingled mistrust and anger in her violet eyes. "Does that mean you're the one that R wants to lead them?"

There was no point in tiptoeing around the question, so Artemis nodded her head. The others fell so quiet that she would have been able to hear a fairy's wings flutter.

"This is the thing, I don't want to lead them," she said, desperately wanting to fill the silence. "Why would I? These people have caused so much pain, they had Rakepick working for them, who tried to kill me and did kill Rowan. I can't join them, let alone lead them."

Badeea's neat eyebrows furrowed beneath the hem of her headscarf. "If it's in a prophecy, what choice do you have?"

"There's always a choice," said Artemis.

"But-"

"The prophecy didn't specify R. Well, it did, but it called them Ronde. It means circle."

"Like the Circle of Khanna," said Barnaby, nodding his head sagely.

"Exactly," Artemis looked directly at Badeea. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't have a choice but to go back and open these Vaults. But I refuse to believe that I don't have a choice in who helps me. And if that choice is between the Cabal and all of you, I'm going to choose you."

On the other side of the table, Merula clapped her hands together slowly, just three times. Artemis sighed before turning to glower at her.

"What, Merula?"

"Well, that's hardly saying much, is it? You just said all the awful stuff they've done."

"Fine, yes. But even if I didn't know all of that, I'd still pick you. All of you. You're my friends, and you've all been there for me in the past when I've needed you."

"So, this is you emotionally blackmailing us to get involved in your crap again?" Merula asked, raising her eyebrows so high they disappeared under her orange fringe. Artemis shook her head.

"No. I mean, obviously I would like you all to help me, but if you don't want to, I understand why. I know it's a lot to ask, so I won't judge you or resent you if you say no."

"Hexley might not," said Merula, her eyebrows still raised as she looked around at the others. "I will, though."

Artemis frowned. "Wait, what?"

"Think about it, dogface. The whole reason we formed the Circle of Khanna in the first place was to open the Cursed Vaults and to stop R from getting to them. That was how we wanted to honour Rowan, by making sure no one else ever got hurt like she did because of this. And now we have a chance to do that, so are any of going to chicken out? No, because that would be pathetic."

"Merula..."

"She's right, Artemis," Ben said, and Merula gave him a barely perceptible nod of recognition. "Trust me, if anyone knows about chickening out of things, it's me." He gave a wry smile that made a few quiet chuckles echo around the table. "I'm serious. This is our chance to do what we always wanted to do. For Rowan, and for all of us. Right?"

Charlie shrugged his shoulders, and beside him Tonks raised her Butterbeer so fast that it spilt over her hand. Around the table, the other members of the Circle of Khanna were nodding their heads and saying words of agreement.

"Right."

"Well said, Ben."

"I'm in."

"Me too."

"And me," said a quiet voice from beside Artemis, and she turned to see Penny staring at her hands, her eyes wide, sincere, and dewy.

"You really don't have to, Penny," Artemis whispered back to her, but Penny shook her head.

"I do. What if we don't try and the Vaults are opened again another time? More people might end up like Bea, or worse, like Rowan." She blinked back her tears and reached out to take Artemis' hand under the table. "We have to try, don't we?"

"Yeah, we do." Her hand squeezing Penny's, Artemis turned back to the others. "Okay, it looks like everyone's in."

"So, where do we start?"

"At the beginning, of course." Artemis nodded at Charlie, who pulled a scroll of parchment from his satchel and unrolled it on the table in front of him. "There are five Cursed Vaults in total, and we've opened four of them before." Charlie used a quill to draw a large cross in the centre of the parchment and quarter the page as Artemis continued, "The Ice Vault on the fifth floor, the Boggart Vault in the library, the Forest Vault, and the Buried Vault with all the portraits. The only one that no one has ever opened before is the Sunken Vault, the one under the lake."

"So, that's the one we need to focus on?"

"Not yet. Because we sealed the final Vault, we have to start over."

"Why?"

"Because," Merula said with an air of boredom, "Hexley's brother told us that the Vaults can only be opened sequentially."

"You have to do them in the right order-"

"Yes, Hexley, that's exactly what I just said."

"- so we will have to start with the Vault of Ice and work our way from there," Artemis explained. "Each Vault is different, they all have enchantments and things protecting them. Some of them are easier than others, like the Boggarts in the library, but others... Well, we don't need to worry about the dragon in the Buried Vault anymore, but there's still an Acromantula guarding the Forest Vault.

"The other thing with the Vaults is that once they're tampered with, they start to release their curses. So, once we open the first one, we need to get to all the others as quickly as possible, before anyone can get hurt. Especially with the Sleepwalking Curse, because we don't want any students sleepwalking into an Acromantula den."

"Definitely not," said Charlie, shaking his head. The four quarters of the parchment in front of him now were labelled with the words: ice, library, forest, and portraits. "Alright. So, my thinking was that if we want to prepare ourselves for the four different Vaults as quickly as possible, the best thing we can do is split into four teams. It's like Quidditch, we all have different strengths, and this way we can all play to them and concentrate on getting to the final Vault as quickly as possible. Anyone got any preferences?"

Badeea, with her love of art, and Penny, whose younger sister had been a victim of the portrait curse, quickly volunteered to help open the Buried Vault. Nature-lovers Charlie, Barnaby, and Liz all put their names down for the Forest Vault, as did Talbott and Chiara, who knew the Forbidden Forest well. Tulip and Tonks were both keen to return to the Vault of Fear.

"Do you reckon Madam Pince will fall for the Mandrake trick twice? Or should I try something different this time?"

"Personally, I always think that originality is the key to success," said Tulip, and Artemis could almost see her plotting behind her almond-shaped eyes. "Maybe you could try-"

"Why don't you both just focus on practising your Boggart banishing spells?" Artemis suggested. "We can come up with something for Pince later. Right, that leaves the Vault of Ice, which is the first one. Any volunteers for that one?"

Ben's hand was the first to rise.

"I want to see what's there," he explained, as Charlie wrote his name down on the parchment. "That's how I lost my memories, getting trapped in the ice."

"I got trapped in ice, too," said Andre. "Sign me up for the Ice Vault." He turned to Badeea and placed his hand down on her forearm as he asked her, "Wasn't I saying just yesterday that I didn't get as much wear out of my new padded jacket as I wanted to this winter?"

"Andre, you do realise that this a Curse-Breaking expedition, not a fashion show, right?"

"Of course I do, Charlie, but it's always better to be over-dressed than under-dressed. You never know who you might run into."

"I mean, we kind of do," Artemis told him. "There's an Ice Knight guarding the Vault. We're going to have to duel him to-"

"I'm actually a pretty good duellist myself," said Diego, and Artemis rolled her eyes as she turned to look at him sceptically. "I'm just saying that I'd be happy to help you out, show you how it's done."

"I don't need you to-"

"What a cracking idea," Tonks grinned and winked at Artemis, who scowled at her in return. Beside her, Penny was stifling giggles, using her hand to cover her mouth. Artemis opened her own mouth to protest, but Tonks immediately interrupted her. "Chiara, don't you think that this is a great idea?"

Chiara's smile was serene, but there was a wicked look in her pale eyes as she nodded her head and said: "Oh, yes. That is very chivalrous of you, Diego."

She lowered her gaze under Artemis' fierce glare. Behind her, Jae frowned before nodding and throwing his hand into the air.

"I'll take on an Ice Knight," he blurted out. Seeming to realise that everyone was now looking at him, he sniffed and cleared his throat. "I've heard people say that I can be quite chivalrous, too."

"What people?"

"Just people, y'know..."

"Sure they do," Merula muttered, and Ismelda scoffed at her side.

"Alright, you two. I haven't seen either of you offer to help out with any Vaults yet."

Both girls scowled at Jae, before Ismelda redirected her gaze to Charlie, and told him:

"I choose fear."

"Right you are," said Charlie, his eyes widening slightly as he added Ismelda's name to the parchment. "Er, Merula? We don't have many people going to the Buried Vault, did you want to-"

"No," Merula interrupted Charlie mid-sentence. "No, I don't want to go to that one."

The atmosphere turned tense with the coldness of Merula's tone. Artemis knew why Merula didn't want to return to the Buried Vault; that was where Rakepick had first betrayed them, and had tortured Merula mercilessly in her attempt to open the Vault for R's sake. Charlie clearly realised his error, because he grimaced slightly, his cheeks turning pink between his freckles.

"Sorry, I-"

"Don't apologise, Weasley. It's just that I've been to that one already. It's boring."

It was obvious that Merula was lying, but Artemis nodded her head.

"Fine," she said. "Which one do you want to go to?"

Merula seemed to consider it for a moment before plumping for: "Ice. If I'm going to have to work with Hexley, I'd like to get it out of the way as quickly as possible."

Artemis rolled her eyes, but she didn't argue. Instead, she cast her eyes across to the list of names on the parchment, which with the addition of Merula, was now complete. She swallowed hard.

"Okay, then. Let's do this."