Chapter 10: Of Voices and Quick Thinking

Jade's POV:

I shivered as I crept towards the entrance hall. I did not like the nighttime. I liked color and light and being able to see. As in day. Not night.

You shouldn't be doing this. Great. The Voice was back.

Whatever. You know, I can't just keep calling you The Voice. How do you feel about Bob? I asked, hoping to distract it.

Bob? Fine, but stop changing the subject. You shouldn't be doing this.

And why is that? Give me three good reasons.

Because it's against the rules. Because you'd lose house points if you got in trouble. Because you hate the dark anyway.

Obeying the rules isn't always the right thing to do, you said so yourself. We won't get caught, and if we do Gryffindor and Slytherin will lose points too, so it will be almost even. I can get over it for a friend.

'For a friend'? How long have you known this girl? A month?

She's a friend. She helped Lily prank her brother. Lily's helping her sneak out. I'm sure if something came up with me they'd help. They're both very nice, and they don't mind that I talk a lot and sometimes act a little weird. Lily doesn't even seem to mind that I have a crush on her brother.

Well they don't know about me yet, do they? That was true, they didn't know about the newly dubbed Bob yet. But they wouldn't just abandon me for something like having a voice in my head, would they? While I had been talking to Bob I had arrived in the entrance hall.

"Opal." I jumped and spun around, the darkness putting me on edge. Lily was smirking at me from the shadows beside the doors to the great hall. She looked at home in the night, blending into the shadows despite her flaming red hair. It was almost supernatural.

"Viper!" I whispered. "That wasn't funny!"

"Yes it was. Where's Fire?"

"I'm here." We both turned to see Ava standing by the front doors. "Come on, are we doing this or not?"

You shouldn't be doing this.

Shut up!

Lily nodded and grabbed my hand. "Let's go. Be as quiet as possible. Stay together." I giggled slightly despite my unease.

"You make it sound like a spy mission!" She didn't respond as we reached the doors and eased them open. They squeaked on they're hinges and we all froze, but hearing nothing slipped into the night. It occurred to me that the doors didn't seem to squeak during the day. They must be enchanted so that they can catch people sneaking out. But why wouldn't they just enchant them to alert whoever's on duty? I shrugged it off and followed Ava and Lily towards the lake. The grounds were slightly less dark then inside, but the nearly full moon cast strange, creepy shadows and I wasn't sure I didn't prefer the dark. I tried to keep in the light as much as possible, in sharp contrast with Lily, who seemed to be in the shadows at every opportunity. I made a mental note to ask her about it later. Why would anyone want to be in the shadows? Ava was just walking a straight course to the lake, not really paying attention to the light.

We all halted at the edge of the lake, me in a shaft of moonlight, Lily in the deep shadow of a beech tree, and Ava halfway in between. We were silent in awe as we looked across the surface of the lake, a black expanse, rippling in the slight wind, reflecting the stars above. It was magnificent.

I'm not sure how long we stood there, marveling at the beauty of the water, before Lily broke the silence.

"We should be getting back," she said softly, not taking her eyes off the lake.

"We should," I agreed. Ava nodded but none of us moved from our spots. Lily glanced at the two of us and sighed. She walked over and grabbed our hands, pulling us towards the castle. We turned away reluctantly and followed her.

Once we were back in the entrance hall she stopped and turned to us.

"Leave now," she whispered. We nodded and turned to leave, but in the process I knocked over a suit of armor.

BANG! The sound rent through the night air and we froze.

"Who's there?" called a distant voice. I felt panic flood me, making my stomach clench and my mouth go dry.

"Shit," muttered Lily. Somewhere in my harried brain I was amazed that she was so calm. The rest of me was too busy trying not to hyperventilate.

I told you that you shouldn't have done this. I told you, but did you listen? Nooooo.

Shut up!

"What are we going to do?" I managed to squeak out through my panic.

"Sush, I'm thinking," whispered Lily, who had been swearing under her breath.

"We don't have much time," murmured Ava, sounding worried.

"Got it," said Lily suddenly. "Can either of you fake cry?"

"I can," I said, not entirely sure what this had to do with anything.

"Okay, so here's what you do . . ."

(Let's see, I could be really evil and leave it here . . . checking word count . . . nah, you lucked out, it's too short)

-DT-

Lily pulled Ava around a corner and out of sight moments before Professor Longbottem came into view. I was under control again once I knew the plan. Plans always made things much simpler. Sitting on the floor in a heap, I screwed up my face and worked up tears until I was crying rather convincingly.

"Who's there?" I gave a not entirely fake squeak of fright as Professor Longbottem came towards me and I burst into new fake-tears.

"Miss Summers? What's wrong? What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" He asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm sorry! An older student told me that there was a secret room that you could only get to at midnight, and I really wanted to see it, but everything looks different in the dark and I got lost and now it's cold and I was such an idiot and I'm so sorry!"

"Shhh, it's alright. Because this is the first time and you were tricked you won't get punished, okay? Why don't you let me take you back to your common room?" I let the tears trail off with a sniffle and nodded.

"Thank you," I said as he helped me up.

"It's no problem at all. I used to get lost all the time when I was your age, did you know that?" I shook my head, mildly surprised.

"I would also forget the password to Gryffindor tower and have to wait for someone to let me in. It got me in all sorts of trouble!" I giggled a little at the thought of confident Professor Longbottem waiting outside of Gryffindor tower. He smiled as well, an odd, almost wistful smile.

"Yes, I was quite the little idiot in those days. Who was it that told you that there was a door?"

"Henry Nott, I think." Lily had given me the name. I'll have to ask her about that later.

"I see. Well, I'll be having a talk with him in the morning. Off to bed now, and no more nighttime expeditions, okay?" I blinked. While we had been talking we had reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room without me noticing.

"Okay, Professor. It won't happen again."

I really meant it at the time.