“That’s a very good question,” said Dr. Fletcher. “We generally have a two-prong approach for dealing with this. Most everyone who knew Rosemary remembers her as Simon Corbin. So we first have to take care of that.”

  “You mean going in and changing people’s memories?” asked Miriam.

  “Nothing that intrusive,” assured Dr. Fletcher. “Instead, we work with normal memory distortion.”

  “Memory distortion?” asked Naphtali.

  “Yes,” explained Dr. Fletcher. “We tend to think of our memories as being perfect records of things that we’ve seen, heard, experienced. But that’s not how human memory actually works. Our memories tend to warp a bit over time. This phenomenon is called ‘memory distortion’, and it isn’t metapsychology. It’s regular psychology. Mundie scientists know about this.”

  “Okay?” said Naphtali.

  “What is specific to metapsychology,” explained Dr. Fletcher, “is that we have ways of nudging memory distortion in a desired direction when necessary. Within an hour or so after we’re done here, if I get the clearance, I can have the United States Bureau of Magical Health release a memory mist that, over the next four years, will operate on everyone without magical sight. Their memories of Simon will over time get transferred to Rosemary. So by the time it’s done its work, nobody without magical sight will remember Simon Corbin and those who once did will remember Rosemary Corbin instead.”

  “What do you mean ‘without magical sight’?” asked Miriam.

  “I mean mundies,” said Dr. Fletcher, “except those like you that have been granted magical sight. You know, with those beans that let you see things that otherwise only witches and wizards can see? Since you have magical sight, it won’t affect you. I mean, we all experience memory distortion, but yours will just go whatever way it would have without the mist.”

  “And you mentioned some clearance you need for that,” said Miriam. “What does that take?”

  “I’ll get to that in a minute,” said Dr. Fletcher. “We still need to talk about that trip up North you’re about to take. And for that matter, any place Rosemary might go where she might meet mundies who know her from before for until the mist’s done doing its job. And that includes Oak Ridge.”

  “Okay?” said Naphtali.

  “Well,” said Dr. Fletcher, “if you’re going to Boston by car, it’ll be a few days till you get there. But that still won’t be long enough for the memory mist to have much of an effect at all. Showing up with Rosemary and not Simon will definitely risk exposing magic. For this reason, for the next few years, Rosemary will need to wear something called a ‘glamour charm’. I’ve got one with me that I’ve already configured for her. All it will do is influence people without magical sight in its vicinity to not question Rosemary’s presence or Simon’s absence. If she’s wearing it, your relatives, when they see Rosemary, will assume that she’s a relative whom they don’t remember because they haven’t been paying her enough attention. And as for Simon, they’ll assume he just has a good reason for not being there with you.”

  “That’s it?” asked Miriam, incredulously.

  “Yep,” said Dr. Fletcher. “Since the mist will be so fresh, they might ask where Simon is, or something like that. Just tell them that he couldn’t make it — and leave it at that. No justifications, nothing.”

  “And they’ll accept that?” asked Miriam.

  “They should,” said Dr. Fletcher. “Write to me if you have any problems.”

  “We can’t,” protested Miriam. “We didn’t bring the liquid spell bottles with us. We weren’t expecting to get any news like this.”

  “That’s okay,” said Dr. Fletcher. “While you’re on the trip you’ll have Rosemary with you, right?”

  “For the most part,” said Miriam.

  “Then just make sure you address the envelope right,” said Dr. Fletcher, “and have her send it for you. She can do it without the liquid spell.”

  “And what about birth certificates and other documents that list her as male?” asked Miriam.

  “The Bureau of Mundie Magical Relations will take care of that,” said Dr. Fletcher. “They’ll even obtain official copies of whatever you need to keep yourself. You can pick those up next time you’re at the Magical Levels beneath Lenox Square as long as you give them a week. Two since it’s the holidays — and an additional two weeks if any of those documents are from foreign governments.”

  “Some of them are,” said Miriam.

  “Then give them four weeks,” said Dr. Fletcher.

  “We could even make a trip together to the Magical Levels,” offered Karen Lawson, Clara’s mother.

  “Yes, I would very much appreciate that,” said Miriam.

  “There’s a plan,” said Dr. Fletcher.

  “One more question,” said Miriam. “You said you would need clearance before you can release the memory mist. What will that take?”

  “Actually, it’s for any of this that I’d need clearance. But that just takes a couple of things,” said Dr. Fletcher. “First thing is from Rosemary.”

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  He turned to Rosemary. “Now Rosemary,” he said. “if we do this, this will be the biggest step you’ve taken in your transition. It is not irreversible — but it is not something that you can just go back on by yourself. Even your physical transformation, you could if you wanted let it expire without involving anyone else. You’d probably have to wait for a while before your last renewal runs out, but you won’t need anyone else’s help to do that. This is different. Just as you need to go through the Department of Magic to do it, you will need to go through the Department of Magic if you ever decide to undo it. Do you understand?”

  “I do,” said Rosemary.

  “And you still want us to go ahead with this?” he verified.

  “Yes, I do!” insisted Rosemary.

  “Very well,” said Dr. Fletcher.

  He then turned to Rosemary’s parents. “And are you two okay with this?” he asked.

  “If that is what will make our child happy,” said Naphtali, “definitely.”

  “Of course,” added Miriam.

  “Okay then,” said Dr. Fletcher. “It’s a done deal. The memory mist will start within two hours after we leave here. By the time you get to Boston, it won’t have much of an effect yet, nothing that’s by itself noticeable, but it’ll be enough to make the job of the glamour charm that much easier. Speaking of.”

  He put his briefcase on the table, opened it up, and got out a black necklace presentation box. Holding the necklace presentation box, he turned to Rosemary. “The moment I open this box, its spell will activate,” he explained.

  “Okay,” said Rosemary.

  He opened the box and revealed a thin silver-gold necklace with a multi-color butterfly pendant. “I picked the butterfly symbol because it’s popular with people going through the kind of journey you’re going through,” he explained. “It stands for metamorphosis. They start out as caterpillars, which are basically little worms — and then they spin a cocoon, and when they come out, they’re these beautiful creatures. But if you don’t like it, I can arrange for you to swap it for something else this summer when you come to the Magical Levels.”

  “No,” said Rosemary, taking the necklace and smiling. “I like it.”

  “Let me help you put it on,” offered Karen Lawson. She took the necklace, put it around Rosemary’s neck, and clasped it in the back.

  “Like that bracelet that you keep your wand in,” explained Dr. Fletcher, “it’s designed so you don’t have to ever take it off. And both can in the same way be magically concealed, when necessary, from people without magical sight and from metal-detection machines.”

  “How?” asked Rosemary.

  “It’s all in this book,” said Dr. Fletcher, taking a small booklet titled ‘Travel with Magical Jewelry’ out of his briefcase and handing it to Rosemary.

  “How long does she need to wear it?” asked Miriam.

  “Whenever she’s around mundies for about the next four years,” explained Dr. Fletcher.

  “About?” asked Miriam.

  “Yes,” said Dr. Fletcher. “The memory mist’s job is usually pretty much done in about three years. Four is just to be thorough.”

  “I see,” said Miriam.

  “Anyway,” said Dr. Fletcher, “The glamour charm will gradually decrease in potency over the next four years. It will cease to be a magical artifact and become just a cute butterfly pendant necklace exactly four years from the moment that I opened the box. At that time, if it’s already under one of the magical concealment spells in that booklet I just gave you, it’ll stay that way until the six hours are up or until you shut off the concealment — but you won’t be able to put it under a new concealment.”

  * * *

  As soon as the meeting was over, Rosemary went into one of the changing rooms. She took off her boy’s uniform for the last time, and put on her shirt with the picture of balloons on it, as well as fitted jeans and a likewise fitted denim jacket and the cute sneakers that she had gotten from Amy and Lacy. She also put one drop of the girl’s liquid hairdressing spell on her head and smiled intensely as her hair grew out — knowing that this time she would never have to revert to a boy’s hairdo again.

  It wasn’t long till the Corbins sat in Miriam’s station wagon and started heading toward Massachusetts. However, before even leaving town, Miriam insisted on stopping at a department store to get a coat for Rosemary. She had brought a coat for her from home — but that coat was clearly a boy’s coat. She insisted that she needed to get a girl’s coat for her.

  Once they had Rosemary’s new coat, though, they got back on the road and stopped only at the occasional rest area, as well as twice at roadside restaurants for meals. Finally, in the evening, they reached their hotel in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and checked in.

  Once they were in their hotel room, after making sure that the “do not disturb” sign was displayed, Miriam brought Rosemary a grayish off-white box about four inches long, two inches wide, and an inch-and-a-half high. At the top, it had a tiny square hole, and on the side were some square reliefs.

  “I gave your sister one of these for Stella before we left,” she explained, “but this is for Luna.”

  “For Luna?” asked Rosemary.

  “Yes,” said Miriam. “You were worried about what would be with her when we went on the trip — but apparently you are not alone. There are many witches who need to bring their familiars even to places that are not for pets. This is a travel dock for cat familiars. Just insert the pendant form of her cathouse in the top, and remove the key. It will grow into a feeding port and a cat door. She’ll know not to leave the room it’s set up in. It can summon her in the morning before you pack it up, and there’s a simple spell you can cast then to fix any damage she and Stella do overnight so when we leave, nobody will know that we brought cats here.”

  Rosemary placed the box on the floor, inserted the cathouse pendant, and then twisted and removed the key. As Miriam said it would, the box grew somewhat in size. Rosemary added some cat food from one of the extra boxes of cat food that Serena had brought for Rosemary from Oak Ridge — and she changed Luna’s water with fresh water from the bathroom sink. It wasn’t long before Luna came out the cat door and began exploring the room. Stella, Serena’s cat, did the same shortly after Serena set up her travel dock.

  And so, Rosemary kept Luna’s company despite being on the road. After opening the muriphasy alarm box and setting it on the dresser, she went to sleep. In the morning, she again fed Luna and added a bit of water to her bowl. She then took the necklace with the key to the cathouse, inserted the key in the keyhole, and turned it. Within a few minutes, Luna was back in her cathouse, and only then did the travel dock eject the cathouse pendant and shrink back to its original size.

  As soon as Stella was likewise put away, Miriam gave Rosemary a note from Karen Lawson with the instructions for the spell that would undo any cat damage. Rosemary then finished packing and placing most of her bags in her magical shopping cart, which she then collapsed into a walking stick and stashed into her flying sidepack.

  Serena also put most of her bags in a similar shopping cart, and likewise stashed it into a flying sidepack — though unlike Rosemary’s, Serena’s sidepack had a more leather-styled exterior. Serena didn’t even have a flying broomstick, but she still used a flying sidepack to stash her shopping cart — and also used it as a regular purse.

  After they were done packing, the family went to the hotel lobby for breakfast. And after breakfast, they loaded Miriam and Naphtali’s bags into the car and continued on their journey to Massachusetts.