The noise that echoed around the enchanted ceiling of the Great hall at breakfast time was not dissimilar to that of a jumbo jet taking off. The four Hogwarts house tables were all packed with seven years worth of students, each table had innumerable conversations going on around it, which in turn made everyone raise their voice in order to be heard.

Vaila Rosewood, sitting at the Ravenclaw table in between a conversation about a Potions essay and a heated argument regarding the fastest racing broom on the market, was one of the few students not contributing to the din. She was sitting hand in hand with her boyfriend Matt Indreve, staring into his eyes and causing several wolf-whistles from several particularly boisterous 7th years further up the table.

Vaila sighed contentedly, raising her head slightly and briefly catching sight of a familiar red-haired girl across on the Slytherin table: Talida Morserbis. The two girls had been friends since Talida had arrived at the school in the third term of their second year, but they had recently stopped talking to one another when Talida had started to, well, be a Slytherin. Vaila noticed with a glimmer of satisfaction that Talida was sitting alone.

*

Across on the Gryffindor table, Lavender Brown was sitting with her best friend, Parvati Patil as usual, and was in the middle of their customary early-morning gossip session. Lavender looked up and giggled, catching a glimpse of the student who was their target for that particular morning – Fyora Occulo of Hufflepuff. Lavender turned back to Parvati, beginning her sentence before looking directly at her friend.

"And I heard yesterday…"

Lavender tailed off. Parvati wasn't moving. She wasn't even breathing. With a thrill of fear, Lavender realised that the entire hall had fallen silent. She looked up and down the table and realised that everyone was sitting there, completely motionless. Nobody moved, nobody spoke. She looked over the heads of the people in front of her and saw the rest of the hall had suffered the same fate. Even the teachers' table was still. Professor Dumbledore held his fork partway to him mouth, loaded with scrambled egg. Professor McGonagall had a Goblet to her lips and Professor Snape sat frozen, his eyes towards the Ravenclaw table, halfway through scolding a student for some crime of other.

The hall felt suddenly cold and Lavender began to worry. If she were the only one still able to move, to speak, to even think possibly, then maybe it would be up to her to put it right. Or even worse, what if the person who had caused this came in and she was the only one who was still moving?

A tiny movement caught Lavender's eye across the hall. She looked up very quickly. Maybe she wasn't the only one after all…

*

Yes, wait, there it was again. Someone on the Gryffindor table was definitely still moving, thought Fyora Occulo as she scanned the hall, desperately trying to find someone else who wasn't in the dreamlike state that seemed to have descended on the room.

Knowing that, if the spell caster were in the room, she would be taking an enormous risk, Fyora got gingerly to her feet before calling out, "Is anyone else still awake?" The sound echoed eerily through the hall. "Stand up if you're still conscious."

Very slowly, not one but three heads appeared in Fyora's line of vision, one at each of the other house tables. Not far in front of her was Lavender Brown at the Gryffindor table. Vaila Rosewood stood next to the Ravenclaw table and, although she wasn't sure, she thought she could see the flame-haired head of Talida Morserbis over the other side of the hall.

"Is this it?" Fyora called out.

"Looks like it," replied Vaila. "Has anyone got any idea what's going on?"

Before anyone could answer however, Fyora felt a strange shiver run down her spine. As she looked up, a mist began to obscure her view. It started off quite thin, but gradually became thicker and thicker until it obliterated her vision completely. Fyora felt her feet leave the ground, and then a strange sensation, almost as if she were falling. After what felt like an age, Fyora finally felt ground under her feet, but the mist did not clear.

Away from Fyora, three more pairs of feet hit solid ground, each separated far from the others, and each person heard the same echoy voice ringing through their ears.

"This is where the quest begins."