Chapter Two:

The Castle at Night

The first couple of months flew by in a blur. Among the classes and learning how to navigate the moving stairs we found time to enjoy ourselves. Jason and his friends had taken to sitting so that all we had to do was turn around to talk to each other. They all decided to not just have my back but take care of Brittany and Trent too. Everyone helped me learn how to properly fly on a broom too as my first couple of lessons went terribly. Overall everything was going better than I could've hoped for. The only real issue was the assignments, I tended to stay up way later than I should've to finish them.

"Hey, here's some hot chocolate. It always helped me stay up and stay warm when I was working late. Try not to stay up too late though." A fifth year said placing a cup in front of me.

"Oh, thank you." I said giving him a smile.

The Hufflepuff common room was always filled with people like that, just people wanting to help others in whatever way they could. Normally helping people involved food since the kitchens were so close. The atmosphere is one of the things that made me so comfortable in the school so quickly. The common room was small with lots of tables for people to share and fireplaces to talk around. It just felt cozy. Plants were everywhere too which were also somehow calming. I sometimes saw when someone was panicking an older student would snip off a piece of one of the plants and hand it to the panicking students who would quickly calm down. Hanging from the ceiling throughout the common room were rectangular lanterns which gave off more light than one would expect.

By the time the common room had emptied I only had one subject left to work on, my worst subject; Defense Against the Dark Arts. I rummaged through my bag looking for my book and to my horror realized I didn't have it with me. This sheet was due tomorrow. I felt my heart beat quickening and took a few calming breaths. If there was anyone else around I would ask to borrow theirs but another quick glance confirmed I was completely alone.

"Where did you leave the book you idiot?" I whispered to myself.

I mentally went back through my day and realized I had left it in the library. I had set it down to grab some research material and forgotten to pick it up after I found what I was looking for. I banged my head on the table in disbelief that I could be so irresponsible.

"Ugh you idiot!" I muttered.

I thought about it for a minute and realized I was just going to have to go and get my book. I was already struggling in that class and couldn't miss a paper just because I was an airhead. So, I quickly got up and slipped out of the common room.

"Lumos" I whispered, flicking my wand, it lit up.

It wasn't hard for me to wander around silently; I was becoming a bit notorious for accidentally sneaking up on people. A few people had taken to calling me 'Ninja' or 'mouse'. It was nice to know when I needed to be quiet I could be. The worst part was the anxiety spike I got whenever I thought about how I was breaking a rule, I had to just keep distracting myself from that fact.

Getting to the library was harder than I thought it would be, the stairs would move in unexpected ways and the castle was crawling with people who wanted to get students like me in trouble. I almost got caught by Peeves twice but hid and put out my light before he could really find me. Finally I somehow made it to the library and sighed with relief when I saw my book right where I had left it. As I picked it up with a satisfied smile I thought I heard some chuckling but as I looked around worriedly there was no one in sight. I had heard rumors that some of the books were known for making noises or talking so I shrugged and made my way out of the library.

Sprinting back towards the dorms I heard the familiar shuffling feet of Filch and ducked around a corner.

"Nox." I whispered and I held my breath as his footsteps grew louder.

His footsteps stopped and I squeezed my eyes shut, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Then he continued on his way and his footsteps faded. I sighed with relief and started my way back to the Hufflepuff common room. I found my way back quicker than I had expected.

Then my downfall; as I tapped on the barrels in order to get in, a hand touched my back. I squeaked and turned around to find myself face to face with Professor Snape.

"What are you doing out of bed so late Miss. Vuturo?" He asked.

I had never understood how a monotone voice could sound so terrifying. I tried to remain calm but if there was one teacher I didn't want to run into it was him.

"Um, I had left my book on this barrel so I just stepped out here to grab it." I said shakily.

"Oh? So the student sneaking around the castle that we've been told about wasn't you was it?" He asked, clearly he didn't believe my lie.

"No, it must be someone else." I said, wishing I was dead.

"So, when I saw you down the hall here that was part of you just 'stepping out' to grab your book?" He asked.

My whole body slumped. I was caught and there was nothing I could do about it. My eyes filled with tears but I knew they weren't going to affect him at all. In fact, he probably enjoyed seeing me distressed, he was a horribly mean teacher. I just had to accept whatever punishment I was going to receive.

Professor Sprout clearly wasn't used to having to punish students from her House. Hufflepuffs were known for being just and fair, you know, following rules. Despite that Professor Sprout made it known how disappointed she was in me and I lost my house 10 points. She promised that if I was found doing something like that again I was going to do a lot more than just lose my house some points.

Brittany was the first to find out and she was shocked by my behavior; she wasn't the only one.

"I can't believe you would do something so reckless just for a few extra points in a class." Jason said the next day at lunch.

He was being louder than necessary and by this point more people were starting to pay attention to the drama we were causing.

"It's not a few extra points! It's not like it was extra credit and it was for DADA. I would've gotten an F on the paper had I not gotten my book!" I spat back.

"So you get an F on one small assignment then! You know this makes me look bad too right? Plus now they'll be looking out for Margarite when she gets here!" Jason said angrily.

He was totally blowing this out of proportion. I lost my House ten points so what? Plenty of kids had already done much worse and lost more points.

"Well sorry that my one small mistake made you look so freaking awful! No one will even remember this by next semester!" I growled.

Everyone around us looked pretty uneasy, they had given up trying to calm either one of us down by now. They knew when we got like this we were not going to calm down until it was out of our systems. The conversation hadn't started off so bad. I told them what happened and Mark and Trent, who had snuck over to hear my story, actually seemed pretty impressed by how far I had gone without getting caught. That just made Jason even more angry.

"It wasn't just some small mistake! I'll remember. Mom will probably remember too." Jason said.

I felt myself turning red, I was angry and now I was starting to feel bad. Mom was going to be pretty disappointed in me and he was going to rub that in my face.

"Why does it bother you so much that I broke a rule really? Is it because you would never have the guts to break one yourself?" I asked, just trying to think of anything I could say to deflect the attention off of myself.

Suddenly a ruckus broke out at the Gryffindor table. The commotion caught all of our attention, food seemed to be moving all on its own. It was getting progressively more energetic, going from some jiggling to jumping up into someone's face. Among the chaos my eyes found the Weasley twins, both were trying to hide their laughter. As the food started to fling itself every which direction George and I made eye contact and my breath caught. I felt like that moment lasted forever but I know I looked away quite quickly. I actually turned my attention back to my brother who was now preoccupied by the possessed food. I wondered if it was just luck or if by chance the twins had started it to help me out. I was happy that my brother and I could make up over food being flung at Thomas' face though.

Of course the teachers quickly went into action to stop the food fight that had begun but the damage was already done. A couple students got into trouble for actually throwing food in an attempt to have an old school food fight from the movies. Even though I had my suspicions on who enchanted the food the culprit was never caught.

That day stuck with me through the rest of the year. I kept sneaking out and got really good at it. As terrible as it is at first it was to spite my brother but then I started to feel like I was doing some kind of righteous protest. If we lived in the school, if it was our home for so much of the year, shouldn't we be able to roam our home freely? I never got caught roaming the castle at night again, I suppose I had gotten really good at hiding and I had a decent amount of luck on my side.

The friendship between Brittany, Trent, and I only continued to grow. It was easy for Brittany and I to grow closer, we had all the same classes and we had the same common room so we were with each other practically all day. With my brothers group of friends vowing to watch over us and Mark being the only Gryffindor friend of my brothers, Trent and Mark got really close. So Trent got close with us because whenever the group hung out we had a lot in common being the only first years.