"Ashley."

Alli pushed the side of Ashley's arm with her hand hoping it would wake her up. It didn't. Alli sighed and then smiled as an idea formed. Alli giggled as she pulled the pillow out from underneath Ashley's cheek and brought it down through the air with a soft whack on Ashley's head. Ashley groaned and opened her eyes.

"What," she growled sleepily.

"Get up," said Alli.

"It's the weekend," Ashely said as an explanation. Alli rolled her eyes.

"It's already seven o'clock. It's time to get up and start the day."

"Seven o'clock? Bloody hell, Alli. Could you have woken me up any earlier? Go back to sleep."

"No, I want to tell you something," Alli whined.

"Is it about a dream you had?" Ashley asked rubbing her eyes and sitting up a little. Alli was silent. "Exactly."

"Well, this is an— "

"An important one?" Ashley finished cutting her off.

"Yeah!" Alli exclaimed excitedly as if she did not expect Ashley to guess.

"You always wake me up for this," complained Ashley.

"Because you said it yourself," said Alli, "it's important."

"I didn't say that."

Alli waved her hand in the air dismissing Ashley's comment. Alli continued telling Ashley all about her dream of entering Dumbledore's office and Draco handing her the same key.

"The important thing is that I dreamed of Draco again," Alli said in a serious tone. "And I… well, I think, I know that…" Alli paused and inhaled slowly. "I can't be done with Draco. Not yet."

"Alli," Ashley sighed, "be reasonable. Draco is dead."

"I know he is," said Alli.

"Besides, what about Taylor?" Ashley told her. "I mean Colton."

Alli nodded looking at the floor.

"You said you fancy him. Right?"

"Did I?" Alli said looking up. She was unable to hide her small smile. Ashley returned her smile and laughed a little. Alli's cheeks flushed pink. "I can't help it! Just because Draco is gone it doesn't make Colton any less gorgeous or charming," she admitted.

"So, you still love Draco, right?" Ashely said. Alli nodded. "But you think Colton is gorgeous and charming and you like him."

Alli couldn't help but nod again in agreement.

"Yeah," Alli said quietly still smiling at the thought of Colton.

"You're going to befuddle yourself, you know, about all of this. You won't focus on your studies. I know you."

Alli rolled her eyes.

"School is the least of my worries right now. Especially because of what I saw in my dream last night." Then, Alli opened her eyes wider and her lips parted. "I'm going to do it."

Ashley narrowed her eyebrows.

"Do what?"

"I'm going to check this out. I want to see if what I dreamed of is true."

"You mean you're going to have a peak into Dumbledore's office?" asked Ashley nervously. Alli nodded.

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean," she said.

"That's impossible, Alli," Ashley told her. Alli smirked.

"Is it?"

Alli plopped down into a chair at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. She looked at her plate which was now filled with two fluffy blueberry pancakes complete with a small stack of fresh blueberries and whipped cream on top. Alli groaned and pushed the plate away. She looked up. The sight of Colton reading the morning's Daily Prophet newspaper distractingly caught her eye.

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked Alli as she sat down beside her. Alli broke her gaze away from Colton.

"Huh?" Alli replied distantly. Ashley nodded to Alli's breakfast plate.

"What's wrong with your pancakes…" Ashley stopped speaking and practically bounced off the edge of her seat.

"I'm allergic to blueberries," Alli said quickly. Ashley squealed. "What… what are you doing, Ashley?"

"Merlin!" Ashley exclaimed.

"What?" Alli said again.

"There's a quidditch match today! I completely forgot."

"Oh," Alli replied dully.

"It's a really big game," Ashley explained in a serious tone. "It's us against Gryffindor today with that Weasley bloke as a keeper. We're going to murder them," Ashley laughed. Alli groaned. It was another quidditch match she would be forced to watch. Fantastic.

The grounds were hardly busy when they made their way to the soon-to-be full stands around the quidditch pitch. (Ashley begged Alli to come with her early because she wanted to "get a proper seat"). Alli regretted agreeing to this the moment she left the common room but her feelings changed when she spotted Colton on the grounds. He was headed back toward the school with his gray schoolbag over his shoulder. Alli locked eyes with him. He smiled and met Alli halfway.

"Hello," Colton greeted Alli. Alli realized he strangely had not extended this greeting to Ashley.

"Hey," Alli said breathlessly. She was breathless not because she had been walking fairly quickly after Ashley for a while but because she couldn't help the heat rising up in her chest when she saw Colton. Ashley pursed her lips and gave Alli a sideways glance.

"I'll, err, see you in the stands, Alli," Ashley said. She looked at Colton's face and smiled lightly. Her eyes traveled to the Hufflepuff crest embroidered on his robes and her smile dropped and she wrinkled her nose in disapproval. Hufflepuffs weren't all that honored in the eyes of Slytherin students but Ashley just nodded her head once and dismissed herself. Alli watched and waited for her to get a farther distance from them before she turned her attention back to Colton.

"Um, sorry, about her," Alli apologized.

"No harm done. I understand," said Colton, "I'm more surprised that she even bothered to acknowledge the fact that I am here to talk with you. I assumed she would attempt to drag you away."

"Well, she knows that I like you and—" Alli stopped and her cheeks slowly formed a dark pink tint. Colton's blue eyes shined and his cheeks, too, turned slightly pink. Alli noted that he seemed surprised. It was possible that she had just imagined his eyes turning bright and his lips curving upward into a different sort of smile he had greeted her with. "Well," Alli started to cover up what she had said but Colton chuckled cutting her off.

"So," said Colton. He cleared his throat and his face resumed its normal color. Alli couldn't help but letting out her own small laugh as well. "Are you, err, going to the quidditch pitch? You know there's a game today."

"Uh, yeah," Alli replied trying to hide her dreaded feeling of enduring another quidditch game. "Well, Ashley was sort of making me go out there early."

"I was curious," Colton said, "The game doesn't begin until ten-thirty."

"I know," Alli sighed.

"You don't particularly care for quidditch, do you?" Colton pointed out. Obviously Alli's attempted hiding of her disgruntled attitude had not worked on him. Alli shrugged.

"No," she said. "Not really."

Colton let out a small laugh.

"And, oddly, I thought everyone enjoyed the game," Colton said. "I was mistaken."

"Wait, do you not like quidditch?" said Alli in shock. Colton shrugged.

"It's alright I suppose."

"Wow," said Alli casually crossing her arms. "And, oddly, I thought everyone enjoyed the game. I was mistaken," she repeated with a giggle. Colton returned her reaction with his own laugh. Was Colton flirting with her or was Alli imagining this also?

The original quick greeting and chat on the grounds turned to conversation. It was complete with smiling, laughing, and Alli's decision that he was indeed flirting with her which Alli had accepted full heartedly.

"Well, I'm a prefect, if you must know. I have to set a good example," Colton continued. "I'll actually be patrolling the corridors tonight after hours. At least I will until a little after midnight."

"Prefects can do that?" Alli replied.

"Mmm."

"Who knew they had so much power over the rules?" she giggled, "Especially for a Hufflepuff. Don't y'all generally follow rules and stuff?"

"Yeah," he laughed. But, then, Alli fell silent. Colton was patrolling the corridors at night… tonight. This gave Alli a most brilliant idea. Colton was out after hours.

Alli tried not to sound conspicuous as she asked: "So, which part of the castle will you be looking after tonight?" Colton eyed her and Alli added a charming, flirty smirk to her question.

"Around Professor Dumbledore's office, that corridor just around the corner."

Perfect. Alli's lips parted. Her plan had been set. Perfect, perfect, perfect!

"WEASLEY IS OUR KING! WEASLEY IS OUR KING!"

The Gryffindor students chanted and cheered. The expressions occupying the faces of all Slytherin students (with the exception of Alli) were every sort of defeat and rage. Gryffindor had won. Ron Weasley played an exceptional match surprising even Harry and Hermione. Ron had unknowingly been slipped a drop of Felix Felicis before the game. It was a placebo effect, of course. Ron was really that good at quidditch. It was just a bit of confidence that had held him back. Confidence that nearly every student was sure he lacked. But nonetheless, Gryffindor had won. The Hogwarts students and staff marched back towards the castle. Ashley groaned and sweared to Alli as they left the field complaining of wrong calls and unfair plays granted by Madame Hooch in Gryffindor's favor. But, Alli had a mission. She sought out Harry amongst the crowd and left Ashley in mid-sentence of another angry complaint.

"Hey!" Ashley called after her.

"Chill!" Alli called back. She turned around just to tell Ashley that she would listen to her annoying comments about the game later. Ashley rolled her eyes at this and Alli ignored it. She was on a serious mission.

Alli jogged over to where Harry stood outside the Gryffindor tent still dressed in his crimson quidditch robes. He was chatting excitedly to Ginny Weasley about Ron's significant improvement in keeper techniques.

"Harry," Alli said out of breath from her run. She tugged on his elbow. "I need something."

Ginny gave Alli a look of annoyance and disappeared into the tent.

"It's great to see you, too, Alli," Harry replied.

"Yeah," Alli said quickly. "Can I ask you a favor?" Alli didn't wait for his reply. "Can I borrow your invisibility cloak tonight?"

"How do you know I have an invisibility cloak?" Harry replied curiously. Alli waved her hand in the air.

"It doesn't matter. I don't even remember how. Can I borrow it?"

"Err…" Harry paused.

"Please?" Alli gave him a charming smile. "I promise I'll bring it back. It will look nice and I might even wash it for you."

"Why do you need my invisibility cloak?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes. Alli let out a deep sigh.

"I had a dream last night. I mean, you probably know what I'm talking about, right? You had one, too."

Harry looked at her curiously.

"No," he said. "I didn't. It's been quiet the past two months.

"Wait, what?" Alli said shocked.

"I didn't have a dream last night at all. You did?"

"Yeah." Alli explained to Harry her dream of the key in Dumbledore's office.

"Strange. Why would you be having dreams and I'm not?" Harry wondered aloud. Alli shrugged. "Unless," Harry continued, "it has nothing to do with Voldemort."

"Harry, I want to get into Dumbledore's office tonight. I need to find that key."

"Alli, what if it's just a dream? It probably has nothing to do with Voldemort. I didn't have one."

"Well, I did," Alli said in a serious tone. "This could be important. I can't pass this opportunity by."

Harry thought for a moment.

"Please," Alli added. "I really feel like I need to do this."

Harry sighed.

"Alright, then. Follow me. There is a victory party in the Gryffindor common room," Harry told her. Alli wrinkled her nose.

"I'm not going to a fucking Gryffindor victor party for a quidditch game I don't even care about," Alli said narrowing her eyes.

"Did I say you were invited?" Harry said matching her tone. "I'll bring it out to you."

Alli grinned excitedly.

"Thank you so, so, so much!" Alli squealed. She wrapped her arms around Harry tightly and let him go awkwardly. Then, she followed Harry bouncing on her toes the whole way with the excitement of possibly finding out the meaning of what she had been daydreaming about the entire day. The key that was hiding in Dumbledore's office could be the answer of the mystery she so desperately wanted to solve.