Hermione could not sleep, not matter what she tried, how she moved or how many pillows were stuffed unceremoniously under her tangle of hair she could not sleep. After several attempts at forcing sleep to overtake her, she decided to go on a walk down to the place where she felt most calm; that wonderful room of knowledge, the library. However, this being Hogwarts, trips down to the library at one in the morning are in fact frowned upon. Hermione assured herself that any sixth year is surely responsible enough to manage their own bed time. Sneaking out proved to be simple, as it turns out Gryffindor girls sleep like bears in hibernation. After a rather stern word with the Fat Lady she managed to negotiate the portraits silence for the night. Hermione always liked how peaceful and wondrous the castle seemed at night. The vast walls, intricate corridors and soldier pines of the forbidden forest standing guard over it all. Whether sneaking out with her best friends under Harry's invisibility cloak with Ron's awkward lanky frame always threatening to reveal them, or simply going and sitting by the waters of the lake as the squid playfully swam laps around its moon drenched surface. It all seemed like Hogwarts itself wanted one of its oldest rules to be broken.
However most rules have a reason for being; and this one, like any other was no exception. You see there are things in Hogwarts that only its oldest residents know about, and they are some that have lain dormant since they were silenced so long ago. Every student has heard the gallant stories of the Founders, their adventures; their famous feuds. Romanticised stories however rarely tell the truth. Horror stories of the past are always fun to tell to young children, but there are some stories so terrible that they were forced out even of myth and legend; for fear that even a whisper of them may bring them screaming back into the world. This is how the founder's story is told, for those willing to listen. It still seems like just another story though, just another scary tall tale to amuse parents and frighten children; but rules have a reason for being and so there is a reason why students should not roam the corridors of Hogwarts at night.
