Even years after being rebuilt from the great battle, many students feared walking the halls of Hogwarts Castle at night. The truth was the castle had never been safer. With the Dark Lord defeated and his curses destroyed many of the dangerous secrets and lingering specters disappeared from the castle and were at last at peace. However, as is often the case, the truth is not always known to everyone and even the most innocent of rumors is harder to get rid of than the most stubborn of ghosts.
It was a story like many shared only in the late hours of the night, where the only light is that of a candle flickering in a soft wind that blows out the flame just at the scariest part of the tale. A girl from Slytherin House wanted to confess her love to a boy on the last day of the school year, a year her senior he was graduating just after winning the last point needed to give Slytherin the House Cup over Gryffindor.
In a twist of fate, the boy never got the note asking him to meet her. Rather it fell into the hands of another girl who also had her eyes on the same boy. Writing a false letter in reply, she sent it back to the girl, calling her all manner of foul names and despicable words which don't belong in civilized conversation. Crushed, her hopes dashed, the girl hid herself away and waited for all the other students to leave.
Alone in the Slytherin Towers she ran to the window of the highest tower, the south tower, and there planned to jump to her death. However, word reached the boy from one of the girl's friends, and after rejecting the girl who wrote the false reply he learned about the letter he never got. Breaking back into the school, he ran through the halls and towers and found her just as she was about to jump. But as he stormed into the room to stop her, the surprise caused her to lose her footing and she fell to her death.
And that is the story of why no Slytherin student goes into the Southern Tower. Nobody believed it that first year until Mr. Filch got into a series of strange accidents while cleaning that very tower: the curtains caught fire far away from any candle, the ceiling collapsed on his head, and he swore that he was pushed down the stairs by a ghostly hand causing him to break his leg. After that, nobody doubted the truth, the Southern Tower was haunted.
Kiba laughed recalling the story, as he turned into a hound to avoid eyesight until he got to his destination. 'The advantages of being an animagus' he was careful to not bark out a chuckle. He waited until he was in the "lost toad's passage" to transform back and pull out the marauder's map. He remembered the day Naruto had first shown it to him. His friend had gotten it from some graduating student, but he did not keep the fun to himself sharing the map with his roommates, including Kiba. Of course that was five years ago and the map had kept them one step ahead of any attempts to discipline them all that time, but tonight it had another purpose.
"Lumos" Lighting the tip of his wand Kiba unfolded the map and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The parchment paper soon revealed the hidden lines of ink and floating names of students as they rested in their rooms. Tonight Kiba was going to follow the "lost toad's passage" as he had countless times before to sneak into the Slytherin commons. Years of pranks between Gryffindor and Slytherin had ensued after the school was rebuilt, though things were apparently much friendlier than they had been… though from all the black eyes he had given out and received over the years he sometimes wondered about that.
Reaching the end of the passage, Kiba ducked around a few corners, staying in the shadows to avoid the watchful eyes of the paintings on the wall and made it to the stairway leading up to the Slytherin's Southern Tower. His mind was on one thing this night, "Why is Karui in the Southern tower?"
A rather odd member of house Slytherin, and a year older than he, she was graduating this year and he had never had the opportunity to get to know her. There was something about her scent. More than once he had woken up in the infirmary with fresh flowers beside his bed, but there was always a scent that was unconnected to any of the flowers that lingered in the bouquet. Being an animagus had heightened his sense of smell, a trait Headmaster McGonagall had told him was uncommon but not unusual. Sure enough, as Kiba began ascending the staircase he smelled that same scent in the air.
Finally reaching the door outside the room, Kiba was about to give a quick tap of "Mischief manage" to the map before walking in, but the door opened and a wand pointed at his throat before he could. A dark face in the dim light stared at him, and two pairs of golden eyes stared him down. The wand rose up under his chin and pulled him into the room as the girl with the cat on her shoulder walked backwards into the room. A flick of her wand closed the door behind him and locked it as the cat jumped from her shoulder to the floor.
"I pray thee tell me. What brings a Gryffindor to Slytherin's part of the castle at this time of night?" Her wand lowered to the map as a dangerous smile crossed her lips. "And what may I ask is that?"
"This is how I found you." Holding the map back from her attempt to grab it, Kiba decided press what little advantage he had. "Now what is a Slytherin doing in the Haunted Tower?"
Her laugh was rich, as though she had just taken a bite of something delicious. "Haunted? What, lover's tower? It's amazing the stories the younger students believe."
"Lover's tower? That's not exactly wha-"
"Come here." Gesturing to the window, Karui led him to see stones surrounding the glass, in each one was chiseled a pair of initials in a heart with two numbers indicating a year. There were a few dozen of them around the window, and Kiba's eyes now saw there were a few others around the two other windows as well.
"So the ghost story?"
"Like all good stories, there is a bit of truth to it." Karui found one stone in particular and lit it with the end of her wand. The date was from the 1998, the year Hogwarts' reconstruction was completed. "This is the couple from the 'story'. For the most part the story is true, except the boy managed to reach her in time and save her from falling. They both disappeared, leading the rumors that they both died, but the truth is that she dropped out of school to live with him in Germany after… getting pregnant over the summer. The school kept the scandal very quiet."
"And the accidents?"
"I've seen you pull at least fifty pranks of Filch. Tell me, how hard do you have to try?"
"Not very. The man is so clumsy he's practically a walking disaster… oh."
"Now you get the picture." Karui's robe was already half off, but she now let it fall to the floor. Kiba noticed that her shoes were already off as she sat down on the single bed. Her cat jumped up from the floor into her lap. "So now that your curiosity is satisfied, and you yet remain in 'Lover's Tower,' I must ask again. What are you doing here?"
"Should I ask you the same question? This is not the first night I've seen you in this tower, and yet every night I've noticed you here you have been alone."
"Well some magic is conjured by wands, other magic is brewed in cauldrons, but I find that the best magic is the kind we create through our actions." Pulling out a miniature bottle of perfume, she sprayed a little on her wrists before dabbing it on the sides of her neck. The scent caused Kiba's spine to straighten yet he knew his knees nearly buckled underneath him.
"A love potion?" Kiba asked, swallowing hard.
"Not exactly. I distilled this from my natural pheromones; it's supposed to enhance my scent. It's a completely neutral scent to everyone, except for certain conditions. Body chemistry is a fascinating subject; the relationship between brain chemicals and attraction, but where the magic comes in is that…"
"It draws the attention of someone who would honestly love you, but would not otherwise notice you."
"Don't think me some lovesick girl Kiba. At first it was an experiment, but you can imagine my surprise when it didn't work on any of the boys in Slytherin. But I soon came to appreciate that it actually kept the boys away, gave me time for my studies."
"And the flowers?"
"You remember the first one? It was after you had that bad fall during your third year, I've never seen a beater take a worse spill, but you scored the winning point in that game regardless. That first bouquet was an accident. I had pre-scented several note cards to send out, but I accidentally sent one of those cards instead of a normal one. After that, when I saw you sniffing at the air and following, even into the Slytherin Commons one time, I… well, I didn't expect the stuff would ever work in that way."
Taking off his cloak, Kiba sat down on the bed next to Karui and pet the cat as it went into his lap. "So, what now?" The talk about the perfume still felt like some sort of enchantment, but he had a nose for magic. A part of him thought that her story sounded ridiculous, yet his gut said that she smelled too honest for him to ignore.
Karui stood up and walked to the window, holding her wand in her hand she almost reverently scratched a "K" into one of the stones. Taking his own wand from his sleeve, Kiba set the cat on the floor and stood behind Karui. Running his free hand through her hair, he found the back on her neck and massaged it with his hand. Breathing deeply in her scent, he kissed the crown of her head before looking to the wall. Adding his "K" to hers, he completed the heart and year as she turned and wrapped her arms around him.
He heard her wand fall to the ground and his own did the same as he embraced her. Leaning forward, his lips met hers as the candles in the room dimmed and the fireplace started burning a low, warm fire. Breaking their kiss to chuckle, she said, "Lover's Tower, right?" Reaching down, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed as the bed curtains magically drew themselves around them as the night closed in.