cheerful, adventurous, and resourceful; of all the family, she is most interested in their Scottish heritage and lobbies hardest to keep the castle, or at least as many of the furnishings as the family can. As far as the adults are concerned, the boggart's pranks are Emily's fault, since she is channelling her "adolescent anger" into paranormal manifestations: not a boggart, but a poltergeist. Although Emily is fond of the boggart, she needs to get him back to Scotland before she is institutionalised by the villain, Dr. Stigmore. Jessup Volnik is Emily's ten-year-old brother who prides himself on having the IQ of a genius. Jessup is a pretty fantastic computer programmer who spends most of his time with the "Gang of Five", a posse of older kids who also programmers. Jessup and his gang are developing a video game called Black Hole, which becomes very important to the story. Jessup also plays ice hockey, a sport that the boggart becomes involuntarily involved in. Tommy Cameron is a person who has known the boggart for years as a frequent nuisance at his family's general store in Port Appin, Scotland. Tommy grudgingly befriends Emily and Jessup when they come breezing into his hometown to look over Castle Keep, but he does not tell them about the boggart in their family's castle. Tommy sends Emily and Jessup a few postcards after they leave Scotland, and he becomes an invaluable resource when they need someone to explain what a boggart is and how to deal with it. Thirteen-year-old Tommy is also a computer whiz, and it is with his help that the boggart is finally shipped back home to his beloved Scottish castle. Maggie Volnik is Emily and Jessup's mother. She is, unfortunately, a very highly strung woman, and the sight of the boggart flinging furniture out the window or levitating expensive wine glasses in her antique shop sends her into near-hysterics. Maggie is apt to blame the children for the chaos that is taking over their house, and she is easily convinced by the evil Dr. Stigmore that Emily needs to be institutionalised. Robert Volnik is Emily and Jessup's father. He is a theatre producer at the Chervil Playhouse, and takes a more laid-back view of the world than Mrs. Volnik. Although Mr. Volnik also suspects the children are to blame for most of the pranks, he is very sympathetic when the boggart's