The third day of Tate's lessons dawned bright and cold, and the dew from last night had turned to frost. Tate woke to hear her friends conversing by the fire and got up to join them.
"So, have you guys heard anything about Ramira?" Tate asked as she sat down at one of the squishy yellow armchair by the sofa.
"Actually, yes. I was walking back from dinner and Professor Wells stopped me. Apparently she had searched for Ramira personally and she found her in the forest. They put her in the hospital wing, but she should be fine." Grace whispered. "They aren't really sure what happened to her. She was in a sort of daze when they found her."
"Well, in that case I think we should get ready for lessons and go see her. I owe her an apology." Tate said and she got up to get ready. She pulled on a white shirt and her grey cable knit skirt, socks, tie, and her robes. She quickly put her hair in a French braid and walked out of her nook, petting Poppy as she went. The cat kept her company while she was sleeping, and last night had been hard with multiple nightmares.
After eating their breakfast in the great hall, the girls walked to the hospital wing. In Tate's opinion, they already visited it too many times, seeing as it was only the third day of school. When they entered the hall, Madame Merryweather bustled over to them.
"Hello girls. Miss. Zander is in the bed closest to my friends office, I believe she is sleeping now, she had to take quite a few potions last night." She said, gesturing to said bed.
"Madame Merryweather, we were wondering wether you know where they found her." Sophie asked.
"I'm very sorry dear, but I do not. They just brought her in to me and didn't say a word. She does have some nasty scratches though." Madame Merryweather answered, looking at Ramira with a worried look on her face. "Well, I'll leave you three alone."
"Ramira, are you okay?" Tate whispered, for she could tell that Ramira was fake sleeping. Her eyes slowly opened, and a smile cracked her pale face.
"I'm fine." She said, her voice scratchy and lower than usual. " I think I just fell asleep and started sleep walking. And don't worry about the scratches, they're just from the trees." Seeing Sophie staring at the deep scratches.
"Look, Ramira, I'm really sorry about messing up our potion. I didn't know it meant that much to you." Tate said. But the truth was, Ramira had over reacted.
"No, it's fine. I think I was a little to harsh. I've been really nervous about coming to Hogwarts." Ramira said. As she talked, the scratches on her face opened up again and began to bleed.
"Ramira, are you sure those scratches are from trees? They look pretty serious." Grace asked, glancing at the blood that was trickling down Ramira's face.
"Yes, of course what else would they be from?" Ramira answered in an offensive manner. It seemed to Tate as if she was hiding something, but she decided not to press.
"Guys, I think it's time for lessons to start! We need to go!" Sophie exclaimed. The girls got up, said a quick goodbye, and ran out of the hospital wing. The day flew by, and potions, again, was a disaster. This time, Tate had been paired with Vivienne, a Ravenclaw girl. Instead of blowing up like las time, the potion turned a poisonous green rather than the ruby red that it was supposed to. Tate had successfully levitated her feather, and she had moved on to levitating books, with much praise from Professor Weasley.
The sky darkened quickly, and Tate settled down for the night, exhausted from the day's events. Tomorrow was finally a weekend.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The weeks sped by, and September slipped into October, which brought with it colder weather and more rain. Herbology was frequently cancelled, much to the dismay of Grace, as well as Care Of Magical Creatures, due to the flooding of the grounds. The girls found themselves swamped with more and more work as Halloween grew nearer, and some interesting announcements came along.
"Good evening, students!" Professor Wells called one night at dinner, "I have a few announcements for you this evening. First of all, the foreign students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institution will arrive Monday of next week. Second, this year we have decided that we will have an Inter-House exchange student program, where we will select a name from third through seventh year students and they will switch places with a student from a different house for one week. Finally, the first Quidditch match will take place on October the 22nd. Thank you for your attention."
Just two days after this announcement a notice came up on the notice board of the Hufflepuff common room.
"What does it say?" Tate asked, she couldn't see because of the mob of older students crowding the board.
"Let me go see." Grace said, and she shoved her way through the crowd. A couple minutes later she came back. "Well, it says that Quidditch tryouts are two days from now, on Monday the 10th. I'm trying out. You guys should too! Quidditch is so fun!" Tate and Sophie not shook their heads, they had found that they were terrible at flying, but Ramira answered "Sure." Grace ducked back down in the mob to sign Ramira up for tryouts, and then came back.
"So, what do you guys want to do?" Ramira asked, it was a weekend and they had finished all of their essays. It was snowing lightly, which was odd for this early in winter, so going out side was not an option.
"Well, we could decorate for Halloween. We could probably find some decorations or something around." Tate said, Halloween was her favourite holiday, and she was getting more and more excited as the days flew by.
"Sure, and we can ask an older student if they can help us decorate. I love Halloween!" Sophie said, jumping up and down.
"Ooh! I have an idea! Maybe, we can ask the headmistress if we can do something where we go around the school to each room and trick-or-treat! It would let us get to know the Professors better and it would be really fun!" Ramira added.
"Sure! And we could make costumes! That would be great. I'll go talk to the headmistress." Grace said, Tate knew that she loved Halloween as well, in fact that was how they had met each other in Tate's old village.
"I think we should all go and talk to her about it, she would probably do it if it was more of us." Sophie put in, so all four girls got up and walked to headmistress' office.
They came to a large Griffin statue and stopped walking.
"Uh, hi?" Tate asked, for she felt a bit silly talking to a statue.
"A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid." Said the statue.
"Oh! It's a riddle! I think I remember this one. It's from an old muggle book, The Hobbit." Sophie said. She sat down on the ground for a minute, and then jumped back up again. "Got it! Eggs." She said to the statue, and it spun around, revealing the first five steps of a spiral staircase. The four girls stepped on, and the staircase started rising up. Finally, they reached a landing with a oak door. They stepped off, and Grace stepped forward and knocked.
"Come in!" Said a calm voice. Grace pushed the door open and the girls walked into the headmistress's office. It was a grand circular room with a loft level and one level slightly sunk into the ground. Portraits of old headmasters or headmistresses lined the wall, as well as numerous bookshelves and cases that held strange silver instruments and glass vials filled with a milky strand of what looked like half liquid, half air.
"Good morning, girls. Good morning Ramira, I am glad to see you recovered." Said Professor Wells from behind her desk that was in the centre of the room. She looked very majestic but kind, sitting in her high backed chair and wearing long, sweeping, ruby-red robes that shimmered in the bright light that was reflecting off the thin sheet of snow outside. Her long, black hair flowed over her shoulder in thick sheets and her bright green eyes flickered with a misty glow.
"Thank you, Professor." Said Ramira, "We came to ask you a question."
"Carry on." Said Professor Wells. She sealed a letter that she had been writing and handed it to a large black owl, who took the letter in it's beak and flew off.
"We, um, we were wondering if it would be possible to do an activity on Halloween day where the students go around to each classroom and trick-or-treat." Ramira said, staring intently at the professor as if entranced by her.
"Well, girls, that is a wonderful idea, an I will ask the other Professors if they are interested. Is that it?"
"Yes, ma'am." Answered Grace.
"Well, you may leave, but I would like to talk to you for a moment, Ramira. Do you mind staying for a moment? Miss. King, Miss. Grey, Miss. Wood, you may wait outside my office or you may go back to your common room, whatever you wish." Professor Wells said, and Tate, Grace, and Sophie looked at Ramira, puzzled.
"It's fine, you guys can wait outside." Ramira said, so the three girls walked out of the office. Grace and Sophie began planning their costumes, but Tate just stood, not really paying attention. Unintentionally, she began hearing small bits of the conversation inside of the office.
"…Transformation? I was worried." She heard Professor Wells say, but then she heard no more for a while.
"… Think Tate suspects. I trust her, it's fine." Ramira said, and Tate listened closer.
"Good, just next time come see me sooner. You may go now." Said Professor Wells, and Tate heard footsteps coming closer to the door. It opened, and Ramira walked out.
"Hi guys, thanks for waiting for me." She said, and they walked down the stairs to the main halls.
When they got back to the common room, they saw older students already enchanting candles to float in midair like in the great hall, and some students carving pumpkins. Hufflepuff was really getting in the mood for Halloween, and Tate suspected that they world be delighted at the opportunity to trick-or-treat around the castle.