Moony, Dora, I'll be home as soon as I can leave; I'm okay, just let me explain.

I went round to Strangeweale's house this afternoon (as you know). It didn't take long for his servant to entice Padfoot inside, since it was a cold, wet evening. I'd planned to see if I could get him complaining again, maybe get more information on the machines or where Strangeweale's holding his prisoners.

My hope was to be able to send one of us round to see him - or better yet, to change into myself right in front of him and offer him the chance to get away from Strangeweale. But before he started up a one-sided conversation, both Mulciber brothers came calling.

He told his furry guest to stay in the kitchen quietly while he went to see to the visitors. Next thing I knew, he dashed off a message to his master and Strangeweale himself came home not five minutes afterward. (They spent that five minutes disagreeing over which tactic to use with him: Corax wanted to ambush the man in his own home and Cadmus thought they could buy his cooperation. In the end they decided that they'd try to make him see the advantages of forming an alliance.)

From where I was in the kitchen with the Muggleborn (I learned later his name is Timothy), I could hear fairly well.

Cadmus Mulciber claims that the potion Strangeweale provided to him, which accounts for his improved health and apparently superabundant magic, is 'wearing off' and he wants more.

Strangeweale told him that he shouldn't need any more - and anyway, that what he has been able to store is for 'Our Lord Protector.'

Corax wanted to know exactly how the potion's made. Strangeweale was cagey about answering, but that's right about when he began to see the light. He told the Mulcibers that he needs a ready supply of muggleborns.

He told them a good deal more about his 'production line,' which I won't go into right now. But they came to a sort of deal: Corax Mulciber will find a way to get him 'more supply' and also use their influence to throw more funding his way in Mysteries' budget. In return Strangeweale will be setting aside more potion for both Cadmus and Corax.

It all makes me wish I'd changed back to a human before they arrived so I could have launched a surprise attack.

As it is, Timothy made his furry friend go into the root cellar so his master won't know there's an unauthorised dinner guest. I don't want to Disapparate away when he doesn't know there's anything special about the dog he's been hosting. So I'll have to wait until he comes back and I can convince him I need to go outdoors.

Curtis Reinman should be happily ensconced at Moddey.

We talked about going yesterday, but then Dora pointed out that today's Molly's birthday - Happy Birthday, Molly! - and decided it might be preferrable to wait until today, so that she could bring a new addition with her to introduce at Molly's birthday supper.

So once Dora woke up this afternoon, she and I went to Ely to collect Curtis Reinman.

It went so quickly that we decided to take a little side jaunt, out to Walsingham to see if we could close in on that device thing.

No guards this time, but it's certainly got about half a dozen different kinds of ward on it. We didn't get too close - you could feel the repelling charms - but we did cast a number of spells to try to determine what sorts of protections were on it.

Besides the repellent, there's an Impervius to protect it from the weather, there's a stablising charm on the base of the menhir and then, the worst one: There's a spell that burns anything attempting to go through it. (I threw a rock and it went through but was considerably charred when it landed.) We could tell there were another few spells as well but couldn't figure out just what without potentially tripping the wards we could detect.

But there's another thing. Dora reported last time that it's on a node of a ley line. There was a sort of ... energy ... emanating from the ring on the top. It radiated in two directions - sort of like a beam of light that gets sent through a focusing lens. I almost felt like we could mount brooms and follow the line. Not the ley line itself, but the energy passing through the ring. (It was running almost exactly northwest-southeast, by the way, almost parallel to the coastline.) So we went north a little bit from the plinth and ... well, there's no other way to put it: Things got rather odd.

Simple spells wouldn't work properly. Complicated spells worked too well. Curtis started kicking and fussing and we noticed that the trees were unusually lush for an area so close to the sea. (Also we both felt considerably twitchy and with Curtis crying, we figured we'd better retreat before someone heard him.)

Still, I think someone should definitely try flying north along that line of vibration and see where it goes.