Hi guys! I'm in the middle of moving, so it'll be a while before I can update again. No internet where I'm going (they may not even have discovered the computer!). Here's a little something to be going on with. Still no Jo.
Evan being Evan, he organised a celebratory picnic in front of the castle that evening. The whole school gathered on the lawn – Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff not wanting to miss out – and the House-elves rose admirably to the occasion. As the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, baskets of every sort of food appeared. Hard boiled eggs, soft bread rolls, cold ham, beef and chicken, cold sausages, cheeses of every description (including one that had holes all through it and smelled funny), plates and plates of biscuits…
They gorged themselves in the chilly air, under the lilac sky, in front of the huge fire that burned magically bright, and there was a lot of laughing and making silly toasts with goblets full of butterbeer or lemonade.
Evan tried to insist that Wood was the real hero, but there was no doubt in anybody's mind that Gryffindor would have lost if he hadn't been playing, causing him to turn bright pink and quietly slip away from the festivities. He found a quiet spot beside the black lake and stroked Ptolemy's big head.
Finally the party broke up, and the teachers began shepherding the students indoors again. Evan watched them disappear, ignoring Ptolemy's determined effort to nudge him in the same direction.
"It's nice out here…for November," he murmured, shoving the cat away.
He sat and watched Gryffindor tower until the last light twinkled out. He grinned to himself half-heartedly. His parents would kill him if they knew the number of after-dark walks he had taken.
The moon –full and glorious – was peering out cautiously into the indigo sky, and the thick forest had darkened to a dense, black wall.
Except for some twitching blades of grass, all was still.
At least, it was until Evan's bright green gaze was caught by what looked like a man – a cloaked man – running, almost lurching into the forest.
He stopped, stared at the blacker than black that had swallowed the hooded figure up. The man looked unwell…maybe he needed help.
Ptolemy began to growl.
Evan took a slow step towards the trees, then stopped again, looking uncertainly at his cat. Oh, to hell with it. Somebody's in trouble.
The wizard was nowhere in sight when Evan slipped into the cover of thick blackness between the trees. "Lumos!"
He knew it was growing very late and very dark outside the forest. Exactly how dark he couldn't really say. The canopy shut the sky from view.
Slowly, he kept edging forward. And then, he heard a noise.
He wasn't alone.
He lifted his wand and spun, opened his mouth to cast…something.
Panicked eyes, pointing wand. Dark wood, he noticed. There was a flash of crimson light.
And after that, nothing.