With the exam season fast approaching, the Hufflepuff Common Room had turned from a cosy den to a hub of activity. Every armchair, sofa, and table had been commandeered by groups of fifth and seventh year students, their piles of books and scrolls competing for space with the usual decor of scatter cushions and pot plants.

Artemis and her girlfriends were one such group, however, the textbooks in front of them had yet to be opened, and their hushed conversation had nothing to do with schoolwork.

"So," said Tonks, the armchair groaning softly as she jumped onto it. "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

Artemis didn't even consider her answer. "Good."

"Ah. Well, I bumped into Moody in Hogsmeade this morning and they've still not found out who is passing information to the Cabal from the Auror office-"

"That's the good news?"

"- but they're still telling people false leads," Tonks shrugged. "So they've got it under control. They've got plenty of time."

"What's the bad news?"

"We've not got plenty of time. You two" - she gestured at Penny and Artemis - "and Badeea are looking to go to the Portrait Vault soon, before anyone gets stuck in a portrait again, and then we'll need to get cracking on the final Vault before the statue curse hits."

"You're just full of cheer, you are," muttered Artemis.

"At least the dragon guarding it the Portrait Vault is dead already, so that should be easy."

Beside Tonks, Penny sighed loudly.

"Well, yes, it should, but none of the others have been easy so far," she said, fiddling with her silver charm bracelet as she spoke. "And besides, we still don't have any way of getting there."

Artemis' eyebrows furrowed deeply. Penny made a very valid point. Two years ago, she and her fellow curse-breakers had travelled to the fourth Cursed Vault using a portrait of the Vault itself, which had been turned into a Portkey. After the expedition had taken a turn for the worse, the portrait had been left inside.

"Maybe we could Apparate," she suggested. "Rakepick and Jacob both Apparated out of there, it would make sense if we were able to Apparate in."

"Would it? Apparition requires an accurate destination, and without knowing exactly where the Vault is..."

"Or if it is even a real location," murmured Chiara, a curious look in her pale blue eyes. "You were only able to get there by a painting of the Vault. What if it only exists inside the painting?"

"But then we'd need another portrait to get inside!"

"Oh!" Penny gasped. "We could get Badeea to paint one for us! She really is very talented, you know."

"Would that work?" asked Artemis, and Chiara shrugged her shoulders. The girls fell quiet for a few moments, until Tonks slammed her hand down on the arm of her chair.

"Ow!" She winced and rubbed her hand, but her smile didn't falter. "I've got it. I've only bloody gone and got it."

"Got what, Tonks?"

"Okay. So, what if you don't need that one specific painting to get in? Didn't you say that last time, you were able to climb in and out of the paintings in there?"

"Yeah, but-"

"And, didn't you say that your brother was leaving you a trail to follow from one Vault to the next?" Tonks raised her eyebrows expectantly. When none of the girls indicated that they understood her meaning, she sighed. "Come on, Artemis. Remember what you found inside the Forest Vault the first time we went there?"

"The tiny jumper," said Artemis, and her eyebrows raised as she realised what Tonks meant, "and the painting of the dragon! Tonks, that's brilliant!"

"Still not the foggiest what that jumper was about, but I bet you anything that if we turn that painting into a Portkey-"

"-it'll take us into the painting where the dragon lived, and then we can go through the frame and into the Cursed Vault itself!"

"You're going into a Cursed Vault?" said a small voice from behind Artemis, and all four girls turned to see Beatrice Haywood standing by them. "The one with the portrait curse?"

Artemis knew that there was no point in lying. "Yeah. The Circle of Khanna is trying to go back and break all the curses, for good this time."

"I want to help."

"Absolutely not," said Penny, shaking her head emphatically. "Bea, you can't-"

"Why not?" Beatrice pouted and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I'm an honorary member of the Circle of Khanna. Bill taught me how to make a Patronus last year, and I could do it better than some of the actual members, even though I am younger."

"Exactly. You're too young."

"I'll be fourteen in August. That's older than you were the first time you went into a Cursed Vault-"

"Yes, but-"

"And I'm the only one here who has actually been cursed before," Bea raised her eyebrows. "I'm the one who got stuck in a painting for almost a whole bloody year. You have no idea what that's like, Penny, none of you do." She shuddered, before telling them, "It was horrid, like a nightmare you can't wake up from. I still dream about it sometimes, even now."

Penny blinked as if she wanted to cry and reached out to her sister.

"That's why I am going and not you. I just want you to be safe," she said, her voice quietly pleading. Bea rolled her eyes.

"I don't need you to keep me safe. I need to keep me safe," she turned to Artemis. "Please let me come with you. I need to see it for myself, or I'll never be free from it, not really."

Artemis looked from Beatrice to Penny and back again. Slowly, Penny nodded her head, her cheeks pale and eyes wide as she did so.

"Okay," said Artemis. "If you think it will help you, you can come with us." Bea wrapped her arms around Artemis' shoulders before running away to find her friends, and once she was gone, Artemis turned back to Penny. "You sure you don't mind?"

"Not really," Penny laughed shrilly, and returned to fiddling with her bracelet. Chiara leaned across the table and placed one hand on her wrist.

"You know," she said, in her softly lilting voice, "it might be really good for her. What happened to her was awful, but maybe going back and seeing it again will help her realise that the Vault doesn't have any power over her anymore."

Penny sniffed and smiled, and when Chiara removed her hand, she stopped playing with her bracelet. Artemis frowned as she considered Chiara's words, before standing up and walking away from the table.

"Oi! Where do you think you're going?" Tonks called after her, and she shrugged in response.

"To see if someone else needs to see the Cursed Vault for themselves again," she replied, before walking out of the Common Room and out into the underground corridor outside.

***

She made her way through the dungeons towards the Slytherin Common Room, and once there, knocked loudly on the concealed stone door that formed its hidden entrance. She waited, and after a  few moments, the door slid open to reveal a surprised-looking Barnaby Lee.

"Hello," he said brightly.

"Hi," replied Artemis. "Um, is Merula there?"

"Where?"

"In the Common Room. Your Common Room," she added for good measure, and Barnaby nodded.

"Yes, she is."

Neither Barnaby nor Artemis spoke for several seconds. Eventually, Artemis sighed.

"So, can you go and tell her I'm here? I want to talk to her about something."

Barnaby smiled good-naturedly and nodded his head, before disappearing back into the Common Room. Nearly three minutes later, Merula came outside and stood in his place.

"What do you want, Hexley?"

"Tonks thinks she might have figured out a way for us to get back into the gallery room outside the Portrait Vault. Bea Haywood is going to come now, too."

"So?"

"I thought maybe you might want to come with us to break the curse."

Merula's expression had not been friendly to begin with, but at Artemis' words, she looked at her with even more contempt than before.

"Why?" she asked, in a scathing voice.

"Because of what happened there last time. I know it was really horrid for you, what with Rakepick-"

"Exactly. Why the hell would I ever want to go back there?"

"So you can see that it doesn't have power over you anymore," Artemis told her. Merula scowled and turned to go back inside her common room, but Artemis wasn't ready to give up. "No, wait. Look, Merula, I know how you feel."

"Really, Hexley? You've had the Cruciatus Curse performed on you, have you?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then you can shut up."

"I felt it, though. I did, when Rakepick used the curse on you. Because of my Legilimency. And it's not like Rakepick's not hurt me, is it? Look at what happened to me in the Vault, when she wanted to kill me, and in the forest last year, with Rowan..." Artemis swallowed. "Rakepick was our teacher and our mentor, someone we both thought could trust, but she betrayed both of us, and hurt both of us. And that affected both of us, right? I mean, we've both changed because of it, haven't we?" Merula said nothing, but she looked less confrontational, so Artemis continued, "I know I have, anyway. I didn't realise quite how much it was Rakepick who had that hold on me until we were in the Vault of Fear again, and I saw my Boggart."

Merula frowned. "Your Boggart was Rakepick?"

"Sort of, it was her, then me and my brother both turning into her. It didn't use to be. I'm not sure when it changed exactly, but now..."

"What was it before?"

"You-Know-Who," said Artemis, and Merula snorted derisively. "What's so funny about that?"

"Because it's stupid. Why would you be scared of You-Know-Who? He's dead."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"What?"

"Nothing, just something Dumbledore said once about him not really being gone," Artemis shook her head. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. It's not him that I was scared of, not really, just that he was the worst wizard I could think of. Now, Rakepick is worse. To me, anyway, because she is real and has actually hurt me."

She wasn't sure what it was she had said, but something seemed to have struck a chord with Merula, who now looked more thoughtful than anything.

"Did you manage to see off the Boggart?" she asked, and Artemis shrugged.

"Just about."

Merula was silent for several seconds before nodding her head.

"Okay, Hexley. You win. I'll come with you."

"You will?"

"Yeah. Rakepick hasn't got power over me. Even if she doesn't know it, I do."

***

Being interested in art, Badeea Ali was fascinated by the portrait Artemis had found in the Forest Vault the first time she visited. The painting depicted a vast field, charred in places, but no longer occupied by the dark-scaled dragon who had sat in the centre of the image when she first discovered it. Bill Weasley had managed to turn the portrait into a Portkey for them, and as the group of curse-breakers waited for the Portkey to transport them towards the next Cursed Vault, Badeea examined the painting closely.

"It's masterfully done," she said, tilting her head one way then another. "The way the artist has played with light and shadow. It looks very realistic, and it's obviously aged remarkably well. Did you say you found this inside a Cursed Vault?"

"Yeah, my brother put it there," replied Artemis. "This and a tiny jumper."

The meaning of the small jumper was still unclear, even after Artemis had rummaged in her trunk to find it the night before and looked at it closely. She supposed that it was small enough to fit either a large house elf or small child - most likely the latter, judging by the pattern of cartoonish blue Kneazles across the chest - but its significance was still as much of a mystery to her as it had been three years earlier.

Badeea, despite being good friends with Andre, did not seem overly interested in the jumper, significant or not, and instead continued to admire the portrait Portkey until it set off, spinning in the air with all five curse-breakers clinging on for dear life.

The Portkey carried them not to the gallery room that acted as a large antechamber to the Cursed Vault, but to a vast grassy plain, where they landed on the burnt ground beneath a bright blue sky. Artemis quickly scrambled to her feet and looked around. The landscape of the painting extended as far as the eye could see in all directions, and she had no idea where it ended.

"Great," muttered Merula, also surveying the land. "Now where do we go, Hexley?"

Artemis glanced at Badeea. Being somewhat of an art expert, and having spent so long before they left looking at the painting, she might have an idea of how to get out of it. But Badeea looked at lost as Artemis felt. Beside her, Penny was gnawing at her lower lip, her blonde eyebrows knitted together.

"That way."

Artemis turned to see who had spoken. Behind her, Bea Haywood was staring into the distance, her face pale and her eyes slightly glazed.

"We need to go that way," Bea repeated. "I can feel it."

Without another word, she began to walk. Artemis shrugged at the others before following her, and though her friends looked sceptical, they all did the same.

The grass plains felt as if they went on forever, and Artemis wasn't certain how long the had been walking - it might have been minutes or hours - before Beatrice stopped and pointed her finger again. Further across the plains, a large rectangle appeared to have been cut out of the air, as if there was a window floating in the distance. At first, she thought it might be a mirage, but as she squinted, she could see that through the gap, a painted wall and a pile of rubble were visible.

"That's it, Bea! That's where we'll find the Vault!"

Beatrice did not respond before she started to walk once more, only stopping when they reached the window. One at a time, they stepped through the air and down onto a marble floor. Behind them, the landscape through which they had just walked was now no more than a large, gold-framed painting.

Now, they were in a gallery, with no sunlight on their faces and no breeze in their hair. The walls of the gallery were covered in large scorch marks, and several piles of rubble were dotted around the hall. In the centre, an ancient-looking dragon lay motionless as if fast asleep; the only clue that it wasn't merely sleeping was the fact that its chest did not rise and fall. Artemis glanced at Merula, who swallowed hard before rolling her eyes and walking away.

"This is incredible," said Badeea, her mouth agape as she turned back to examine the painting closely, placing her hand straight through the canvas and out again, before meandering around the edges of the room to look at some of the others. Beatrice also walked over to a painting, but with purpose.

The painting Bea had chosen was unlike all the others in the room, and unlike all other magical paintings Artemis had ever seen. This one was completely still, like a Muggle picture, depicting a woman - or perhaps a witch - in very old-fashioned robes, with long red hair crowned with a ring of amber stones and a small bird perched on her index finger.

"She's hiding the Vault," said Beatrice, as Artemis approached her. "She doesn't want the wrong people to find it."

"Who doesn't?" Badeea asked, also having made her way across to the painting that disguised the entrance to the fourth Cursed Vault. "Morgana?"

Artemis did a double take. "Who?"

"Morgana. You know, Morgan Le Fay. That's her in the painting."

"How do you know that?"

"Because of the iconography," said Badeea simply. She seemed to notice Artemis' confusion, so she explained further. "The bird represents her Animagus form, and if you look behind her, there's a lake and an apple tree. Those symbolise her as the lady of the lake and Queen of Avalon."

"Queen of what?"

"Avalon. It was said to be a magical island that was her legacy and greatest secret."

"Right," Artemis nodded. "What else do you know about her?"

"Not an awful lot really, I know more about the paintings themselves than the people they depict," said Badeea, still looking at the painting of Morgana. "If you want to know more, you'd be better off asking some of the portraits of other wizards and witches from the era. Merlin, for example. Why?"

"It doesn't matter," Artemis told her. "Not right now, anyway. We came here to break a curse, right? Revelio!"

The portrait of Morgan Le Fay faded away, and in its place stood a large wooden door with a brass knocker in the shape of a dragon.

"My," murmured Badeea, "that is interesting. Very clever, too, if you think about it."

"What is?"

"Well, Bea said that Morgana doesn't want the wrong people finding the Vault. It's interesting that the Vault is behind the only Muggle painting in the whole room."

"Yes, it does rather stand out," said Penny, with a little high-pitched giggle.

"Yes and no. A lot of witches and wizards wouldn't even think to look at a Muggle painting. Notions of blood purity and magical supremacy didn't just start with You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters, you know."

"Yeah, sure," Artemis made a non-committal noise, all too aware that behind her, Merula was clearly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. She looked at the door. "Whatever you do, don't knock. The dragon is dead, but knowing the Vaults, it might be enchanted so it comes back to life if we touch the door. It has to be done with Legilimency."

She stepped to the side so that she was face to face with the dragon-shaped knocker, and looked it in its carved brass eyes.

Open, she told it. Go on, open up...

With a click and a loud creak, the door swung open. Beyond it lay a narrow candlelit corridor, the walls of it covered with yet more smaller frames. Artemis stepped up and through the door, followed by Bea, Penny, Merula, and finally, Badeea, who stopped and lingered at each and every painting lining the walls of the corridor.

At its end, the corridor opened into a heptagonal room, containing a single glowing column: the Cursed Vault. Each wall of the Vault bore a framed portrait of the Vault itself, so that looking at the portraits on the walls, it seemed that the Vault went on forever. Artemis avoided looking at the endless Vaults surrounding her, instead focussing her eyes on the golden column in the middle of the one she stood in. Like she had with the door, she stared at it and, using her Legilimency, willed it to open.

It did not.

She blinked and shook her head, ready to try again.

"Artemis," Bea's voice came from behind her. "Can I try?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Beatrice," said Penny, before Artemis had a chance to answer. "Artemis' brother got stuck in here when he tried to open the Vault."

"He did?"

"Yeah," Artemis nodded, and pointed her finger at the portraits of vaults lining the walls. "In those."

"I always thought I could feel something living in the portrait with me," said Bea. "I couldn't see them, but I knew they were there. At first, it scared me, but then I got used to it and it felt... nice, I guess. I liked knowing that I wasn't alone." Her voice was soft and monotone as she stared at the crystal column and continued, "Sometimes, I felt other people, too. Coming closer on the outside. Not in the portrait, but in other places. But it wasn't me they were close to, it was the Vaults. They're all connected, I think. Maybe I'm connected to them too, now."

"Bea-"

"I don't want to be connected to them anymore." She looked at Artemis, and the trancelike tone to her voice disappeared as she told her: "Show me how to open it."

Artemis did so, positioning Beatrice in front of the glowing column and instructing her to stare at it, to feel it and connect with it in her mind before telling it to...

Open.

Bea's lips mouthed the word silently, once, twice, three times. And then, the sides of the column sprang apart, and the light inside flooded into the Vault around them.

Bea's eyes widened, and a smile spread across her face. Behind her, Penny burst into tears.

"You did it!" she said, throwing her arms around her little sister. "Bea, you did it!" She released her hold slightly and looked Beatrice up and down. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I think I am. I will be, anyway."

"I know," said Penny, pulling Beatrice into another hug, one which Bea returned, burying her face into Penny's shoulder. "I know you will. I love you."

Bea's words were muffled as she replied: "I love you, too."

***

Later that evening, after they had apparated back to Hogsmeade and returned to the castle, Badeea took Artemis to the portrait hall, where they stopped next to the painting of Merlin, who was twirling one finger through his impossibly long white moustache.

"Excuse me, sir," said Badeea, and Merlin frowned before looking down at her from his frame. "My friend and I were just wondering if you might be able to help us."

"Might, indeed," said Merlin. Artemis frowned deeply, not sure whether this was an affirmative response. "With what do you require assistance?"

"We would like to know about Morgan Le Fay."

"Morgana?" Merlin's white eyebrows furrowed. "Why, I am surprised that you do not know about her already. The Lady of the Lake, the Queen of Avalon... She really was the most formidable and infamous Dark Witches of our age."

"What about before?" asked Artemis.

"Before?"

"Yeah. Before she became un-famous. We always get told about her being this all powerful dark witch, but she can't always have been like that."

"Can she not?"

"No," Artemis shook her head. "No one is born bad, are they? I mean, you don't get evil babies. So, when did she become the Dark Witch Morgana, and stop just being... a witch?"

"I am afraid that I cannot tell you for sure," said Merlin. "However, I can tell you all about our duel at the-"

"What about how there got to be a portrait of her inside one of the Cursed Vaults? Can you tell us about that?"

Merlin blinked, clearly disconcerted by Artemis' question.

"You know about Morgana's involvement in the Vaults of Truth?" he asked quietly.

"Sort of," replied Artemis. "The centaurs told us that she foresaw a great darkness, and a way to put an end to it. We know about the prophecy she made about the person who could break the curses for good, and the enchanted arrowhead she gave the centaurs to protect them against the curses until then. What we don't know is why there's a portrait of her guarding one of the Vaults when she wanted to destroy them."

Merlin shook his head, his white eyebrows knitting together.

"Sir, we aren't asking out of pure curiosity," Badeea told him. "We are curious, of course, but mainly we are trying to do something good and worthy, like you. There are dark witches and wizards trying to access the power inside the Vaults and use it for their own gain. We are trying to get there first, and we have nearly reached our goal. If you help us, we might well achieve it."

"I do not shake my head because I do not wish to tell you about Morgana - though I do have my reservations about doing so," said Merlin, with a deep sigh. "I shake my head because you have misinterpreted the information you have received."

"How so?"

"Morgan le Fay did not seek to destroy the Vaults. Morgan le Fay created the Vaults."

Badeea's brown eyes widened and Artemis frowned, her mind reeling. Merlin continued:

"She and I attended Hogwarts together in our adolescence. We were here at the very beginning, you know. Taught by Salazar Slytherin himself, some of the very last students to have been taught by him, before the schism."

"The schism?" Artemis asked.

"Don't tell me that you don't know about the schism, girl," Merlin tutted. "Education these days... Salazar Slytherin left the school to the remaining three Hogwarts founders - Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff - over a dispute regarding which students were worthy of being taught magic, and which were... not."

"Muggleborns," whispered Badeea, her lips pursed tightly. Merlin nodded.

"Indeed. Slytherin did not wish to teach students who were not of magical lineage, Morgana included. She was the child of two Muggles - noble Muggles, mind you - but Muggles all the same," Merlin sighed. "Slytherin was not the only one to believe that those without magical blood were inferior to pure-blooded wizards. Even after he left the castle, Morgana had to work twice as hard as our peers to be considered half as competent." He paused and smiled wryly, before adding, "In truth, with her talents and power, she surpassed all of them. All but one, perhaps."

"Who was that?"

"Well... me," said Merlin, bowing his head as if he were making a modest comment. "I dare say that she was my equal. But this could be wishful thinking on my part. She truly was a most remarkable sorceress. We shall not see her likes again, for better or worse.

"I think it was her wish to prove herself and be recognised for the great witch she was - because she was a great witch, even if she was not a good one in the end - that drove her looking for greater powers, ones that exist at the very limits of what magic can achieve. And because of the snobbery she faced by her fellow witches and wizards, she was willing to look beyond the limits of the sort of magic to which our kind is more more accustomed."

"She went to the centaurs, you mean?" said Artemis.

"Yes and no. She learned some noble and primitive forms of magic from the centaurs, including that of prophecy, as you mentioned," Merlin replied. "However, in her efforts to foretell the future, she foresaw this darkness of which you speak, though the darkness was not that of the Vaults itself. Or perhaps it was, looking back.

"You see, once Morgana foresaw this great darkness, she redoubled her efforts to find greater powers that might be used to prevent or fight against it. At that time, she and I were one another's trusted confidants, and thus I was the first she told after she found what she believed to be the greatest one of all."

"What was it?" Artemis asked Merlin. "The greatest power of all, what was that?"

"She called it the 'true' power, but what it was exactly, she would not tell even me. She wanted to keep it a secret, to protect it. That was why she started to create the Vaults, and the enchantments to protect them.

"At first, I tried to help her, but as time went on she became more secretive, more obsessive. Eventually, she the enchantments became curses, and dark and dangerous curses at that." Merlin shuddered before continuing, "I attempted to make her see sense, but it was too late. She said the only thing that mattered was keeping the power safe for the right time and for the right people. The wrong people would surely resort to dark magic in order to access the power within, it was only right to resort to such things herself to ward against them. She thought that the ends justified the means, that it was for-"

"The greater good," said Artemis, her jaw clenching slightly as the words echoed in her ears. Merlin inclined his head.

"I cannot help but wonder, however," he said thoughtfully, seeming to speak as much to himself as to the two girls, "was the darkness Morgana foresaw a reflection of her true self? Or maybe Morgana's 'true' power never was as good and pure as she believed it to be. The power it held over her drove her to darkness, after all. Perhaps, it was always just as evil and dangerous as she was herself, in the end."

"The centaur I spoke to said that no power is either good or evil, it's just the way witches and wizards use it that makes it so."

"I am not certain that I agree, but I could be wrong. After all, I was wrong about Morgan Le Fay."

Artemis tilted her head at Merlin. "What do you mean?"

But Merlin did not tell her what he meant. He just smiled sadly and shook his head, and said:

"It does not matter anymore. 'Tis but ancient history."