Chapter 9

River woke up early the next morning after a night of troubled sleep. All she had been able to think about was Mid-Knight… then Sirius… then Mid-Knight… then Sirius again. Trying not to sit around and worry, she began to change.

There was only one person in the common room when she came down the stairs. They sat with their back to her, facing the fire. The fire was always lit; there were no windows in the common room. As she headed towards the entrance wall, she noticed a familiar curtain of greasy, black hair shielding the stranger's face.

"Sev, what are you doing here?" she asked, pausing with her hand on the wall.

"This is my common room. What did you expect, Taunton? Now leave me alone," he said roughly, still staring into the green flames. River moved her hand off from the wall and went over to sit near him.

"For your information," she said just as roughly as Severus, "This happens to be my common room as well, so I'll thank you not to order me around." River folded her arms and crossed her legs, trying to look more angry than amused at the sour expression on Severus's face. "Now are you gonna tell me why you've been so gloomy and pubescent these last few days, or what?"

"I haven't!" Severus snapped angrily.

"Well you're doing it now!" River argued. She then lowered her voice and tried to sound calm. "Look, tell me what's wrong. I can help you… unless it's hormones. Then, I'm afraid, there's nothing that can be done."

"Oh God!"

Severus flopped in his armchair and groaned, closing his eyes and running his hands through his hair. River watched him with interest, then after a few long, silent minutes:

"You're in love aren't you?"

Severus opened his eyes and stared blankly at River.

"How would you know?" he asked her quietly. She shrugged and looked into the fire like he had been doing previously.

"Maybe I'm in love too," she confessed. She could feel his eyes on her.

"With who?" he asked warily. River looked back at Severus. He seemed so eager to know.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," she bargained. He leant forward in his seat.

"You love Sirius Black, don't you?" he asked.

"Well done," she sarcastically congratulated, a bit pissed off that he had guessed it so easily. She sat there, jogging her memory for a few seconds before the answer hit her.

"Lily Evans," she concluded. Severus sat still in shock.

"How did you guess that?" he said in amazement.

"Oh come on, Sev!" River sighed and sat up in her chair. "I've seen the way you look at her. When she was talking to you on the train on our first day here. Every time she said your name your whole face would light up. Whenever she comes over to our table in Potions to ask for the wolfsbane, you rush to her needs straight away."

Severus smiled. River didn't think she had seen him smile before. He looked quite harmless when he did so, and all of his features looked ten times better. She gaped at him for a few minutes before she realised he was speaking to her.

"Do you happen to remember everything that occurred on the train that day?"

"Pretty much. I had nothing better to do than to sit and eavesdrop."

"But you had your magazine!"

"Did I look entertained?"

They stared at each other and then suddenly cracked up laughing.

River spent the rest of the day lying in the shade of a random beech tree situated in the middle of the grounds, dwelling in a puddle of her thoughts. At around five in the evening, Regulus came over, shifted some dead leaves aside, and sat down next to her.

"Just been watching our team practice back at the Quidditch pitch," he told her breathlessly. "They're quite good. We might win the cup this year."

River said nothing, but sat up against the trunk of the tree and stared into the distance.

"You worried about tonight, River?" Regulus asked, lowering his voice.

"I don't have a clue who this Mid-Knight person is, or what they want me to do," she confessed. "You're damn right that I'm worried. It's all I've been able to think of apart from…" Her voice trailed away. She had nearly let slip of Sirius' name. Regulus looked her anxiously but she pretended that she had nothing more to say.

"I'll come with you if you want," he offered, but she shook her head.

"No. I'll be immediately exposed if they know that you are in on this as well."

"Oh yeah…"

They sat pondering for a while before Regulus stood up and announced that they should go to dinner.

The Great Hall was as noisy and chaotic as usual, filled with the sound of cutlery clanging on plates and students chatting and laughing. As River entered the Great Hall with Regulus, Sirius came strolling up to her, holding a black bundle in his arms. The two brothers quickly glanced at each other and then Regulus walked off to the Slytherin table.

"Er, you left this at the Three Broomsticks yesterday," said Sirius, passing the cloak over to River. Their hands met as she took it from him, but she resisted the urge to hold it. They did not look at each other.

"Thanks," she said to Sirius, who nodded and headed back to the Gryffindor table. River went and sat down next to Regulus. She hated this subdued atmosphere between her and Sirius. It was full of awkward moments. And she hated awkward moments.

At about quarter to midnight, River headed down the staircase and across the common room. She didn't know how she was going to get to the Astronomy Tower without being noticed, but she really had no choice. She pushed past the entrance wall, and stepped out into the cold dungeon corridor, withdrawing her wand from her pocket, just in case it was needed. She hurried along the passage breathing heavily, expecting a teacher to burst out any minute from a door to her side. She came up to the Entrance Hall, which luckily for River, was clear. She quickly ascended the marble staircase and managed the rest of the way without any problems. Until she reached the sixth floor.

River knew that someone was there the moment she stepped off the staircase leading up to the sixth floor. At the very end of the corridor and around the corner, was the sound of shuffling footsteps. More than one pair of feet. She quickly hid behind a nearby suit of armour, waiting with bated breath to see who would emerge from round the bend.

The shuffling was growing louder and louder, but no one was to be seen. Whoever it was, they were coming closer… and closer… River was sure that they were walking past her right now... and then the shuffling faded away. River stepped out from behind the armour and frowned at the direction in which the footsteps had gone, her arms hanging limply by her side.

"What the hell?" she muttered to herself in awe. The suit of armour let out a wheezy laugh, dust flying everywhere. "Shut up!" she snarled, accidentally speaking a little louder than she intended to. And then something very strange happened.

Suddenly a hand materialised on her left shoulder. For a split-second, River stood there, ogling down at the pale, white hand and then let out a scream so loud that she could have woken up the whole castle. Then another hand, identical to the one on her shoulder appeared out of thin air and covered up her mouth, so her voice was muffled. Next thing River knew, everything got darker and her eyesight became dotty and unclear. A voice was calling from down the stairs.

"I know you're up there, you filthy students… Show yourselves!"

It was Filch. River stopped screaming into the palm of the hand. She realised that it wasn't her eyesight that had gone fuzzy. A translucent, black cloak had been thrown over her and the rest of the hand's body appeared behind her. She tried to turn her head round and see who it was, but the grip on her mouth was so tight that she couldn't move it. There were another couple of people under the cloak too, but she couldn't see them either.

"Don't make a sound," a very familiar voice whispered in her ear. It was Sirius and no doubt his mates' too. Filch came stomping up the staircase holding a grubby lantern and looked around. For some reason, his eyes seemed to completely pass over them; River thought that a bunch of people, standing in the middle of a corridor, with a cloak thrown over them, would have been quite obvious. Filch came closer to them, sniffing the air.

"I know you're there somewhere...," he growled. They all scuffled backwards as quietly as possible, away from the caretaker. Sirius withdrew his hand from her mouth and placed it on her other shoulder. After a few minutes, Filch decided that he was imagining their presence, and hurried off back down the stairs. As soon as everyone was sure he completely gone, Sirius pulled the cloak off of them. In the ray of moonlight streaming down through the window, River saw that he was accompanied by James and Peter.

"God, try not give us all a heart attack next time," James whispered to her in a distressed tone.

"Sorry," she apologized. "But what exactly is that?" she asked, pointing at the cloak in Sirius' hands.

"It's James' invisibility cloak," Peter informed her excitedly. James and Sirius groaned.

"Thanks a lot, Peter," said James grudgingly. Had she the time, River would have asked why he had an invisibility cloak, but time was running out and it was two minutes to midnight.

"Listen, I have to go now," she told them. James shrugged and began to walk off in the other direction. Peter gave River a guilty look and tagged behind him, but Sirius, however, remained firmly on the spot.

"Where are you going at this time of night?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. He's concerned about me! River could have melted inside.

"Well, I could ask you the same thing," she said. As much as she wanted to talk to Sirius, now wasn't the time for questions.

"Point taken." And he hurried off to join James and Peter, who were waiting for him and the invisibility cloak by the stairs.

As quickly as possible, River ran up to the Astronomy Tower without managing to collide with any problems. It was cold up at the tower and the night was a deep blue dotted with hundreds of bright, white stars. River wrapped her robes tightly around her body and looked around. Nobody was there. She strolled over to the battlements and sat down on the edge, facing the door. Maybe they had run into trouble on their way. River half-hoped that they wouldn't turn up, but never-the-less, she sat and waited. A couple of minutes passed by and nothing eventful happened. River stood up, turned around and leant over the edge of the battlements, staring down at the grounds.

The lake was still and glossy, reflecting the full moon which was high up in the sky. A strong breeze came along and rippled the water slightly, also causing the treetops of the Forbidden Forest to sway. On the other side of the grounds, the Whomping Willow's branches creaked and the tree bent forward, shielding itself from the wind. Suddenly it froze and three large figures appeared from out of the ground beneath its roots. A stag was leading the way and behind it was a big, shaggy dog. In fact, River was quite certain that it was the dog she had seen in Hogsmeade. But before she could ponder how it had gotten into the school, River realised what the animal following was. A werewolf.