The three girls had made haste and now stood in front of the entrance to the castle.
"Where do you have to go now?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, see, I rummaged the note down to the bottom of my rucksack," Lil lied and added: "Just go, the letter says exactly whither we shall go and whom we shall meet. We'll find that. Thanks for your help!"
Ene put on a discontently puzzled expression. Hermione didn't notice and said: " Now, we'll meet again later. By the way, I belong to the house Gryffindor. If you're looking for me ask someone who also belongs to Gryffindor; he'll find me. See you!" And with this Hermione disappeared through a giant old wooden door through which pupils streamed by scores. Lil went a little aside from the entrance, followed by Ene and some nerved-sounding questions.
"What should this be? Now, here we are – all dressed up and nowhere to go. Hermione would just have taken us jolly good along..."
"Yeah, great!" Lil replied, "and she would have taken us straight to some teacher who knew at once what we're up to, and then? I didn't want to get Hermione into trouble – did you? If she had taken us into Hogwarts, trouble in indefinite measures would have been predetremined for her, right?"
Ene nodded. "Pheew, quite sure, but we can't stay here. We have to go inside. And we will have to confide in someone at school or where did you want to sleep? In the classrooms that will definitely be empty at night? Who knows what kind of stuff stands around and what monsters crouch around there! I won't doss there. I want a bed! And you know: It's all your fault!"
"Yes, thanks so much for this conversation, I'm glad we had such an open discussion about it!" Lil said coolly. "That Professor Dumbledore always seemed so fatherly to me; I'd like to confide our little problem to him."
"Little problem?" Ene asked, "now, this is the understatement of the year."
She stopped. "We're being observed," she whispered and her glance pointed behind Lil. Lil turned her head. Two young men stood there, one with dark and the other with glaring red hair.
"Sorry," said the carrot head, "but a little while ago you came here with Hermione Granger, correct?"
"Yes, why?" Lil asked.
"Well, look, I'm Ron Weasley, Hermione's boyfriend. This is Harry Potter," and he pointed to the dark haired beside him, who nodded slightly. Ron continued: "I surely don't want to quiz you, but please tell me what mood Hermione is in now! If I don't find the right words in the next half hour, her looks will send me sinking under the table at the first banquet of this school year – I don't see it a good start. Please, please, please!"
Ene chuckled and only managed to utter: "That quickly a macho becomes a pansy".
Ron seemed to pump up like a May beetle with indignation.
Lil grinned and said: "Well, Ron, Hermione is slightly peeked because of your remark upon the elective. You have to give her a broad wink that you don't see her as your future cooking-cleaning-washing woman."
Ron pulled a face. "Hmm, yeah, I surely know what she can do," he replied subduedly.
"Well, then go and tell her! And say you're sorry! And don't be sparing in your praise!" Ene told him in an peremptory voice.
Ron turned to the door and said: "Harry, let us go! I have to try to make good weather in love land!" He raised his hand in Ene's and Lil's direction: "Bye, you!"
"Yes, bye!" Harry added and off they went.
Ene picked up her rucksack. "We better go inside now, too, and make ourselves scarce in some corner till it's more quiet. Out here we attract just more attention. And when the door is shut we'll look quite clueless."
Lil agreed silently and then they both entered the castle. They felt like being in the Dark Ages. Walls made of big grey-brown square stone, occasional wall decorations like banners in rich colors, and paintings in which the portrayed people really moved. The portrait of a noble lady kept her eyes on Ene and Lil. "So much for the topic 'unnoticed entering' in these ruins," Lil murmured to Ene.
From the right, sounds which indicated a gathering of people reached their ears.
"That should be the Great Hall," Ene said. "If they gather around there already we should unobtrusively stay in the background till the party is over. We can't have a conversation in strict confidence there with Dumbledore."
"Yes, but standing about here in the hall we look like unwanted goods," Lil replied. "We'd better go into one of these hallways down here. I do not trust the stairs. You remember the movie?"
Ene nodded and then they slipped away into the corridor diagonally left of them. It seemed very bare and in the dim light of torches not even inviting.
"Ooff," Ene groaned, "no matter! I just sit down on the floor and have a smoke." She let herself drop down and started to roll a cigaret.
Lil sat down beside her. "You know what I'm thinking about? These heavily laden tables over there. I'm famished," Lil said wistfully.
Ene lighted her cigaret, took a breath, and blew a lot of smoke into the corridor. "Yep," she said, "a wonderful opportunity to start a diet."
Lil looked at her in horror: "You're sick! In 'diet' you find the word 'die'. I won't do that."
"Who died?" a high-pitched male voice asked suddenly. Ene and Lil winced. Out of the hallway's left wall a whitish and transparent head peeped out, almost looking like fog. Ene coughed some smoke clouds.
"Are you the Nearly Headless Nick?" Lil asked the ghost who now floated out of the wall entirely.
"Certainly, but due to politeness you might bring yourself to calling me 'Sir Nicholas'!" the questioned one answered in an exaggerated tone and looked down on Ene. "And who are you? Someone who can't soon enough rush towards lung death?" He laughed like a fruitcake.
"Na, at least my head doesn't tip over when I smoke," Ene replied maliciously.
"Oh, aren't we a little arrogant, here? These things might happen sooner than you think. We have a very pretty guillotine in the cellar..." Nick said piqued.
"Please, forgive my impudent changing of topic but do you know if the party has already begun?" Lil asked.
"No, not yet. Or do you think I'm uninvited?" Nick replied and looked defiantly at Lil.
"Oh, I'd never dare," Lil said, "for I'm hoping for your help."
"Help? From me?" Nick sounded flattered.
"Well, yes, if it is in the range of possibilities my friend and I would like to have a short talk with Professor Dumbledore before the party starts. Would you mind bringing us to him?" Lil tried to sound as charming as possible.
"Now, if we hurry it should be possible. But, however, whether you're ... ehh ... friend," he looked disparaging down on Ene, "will make a good impression, there, I'd rather doubt.."
"I'm sure it will work for a really short conversation," Lil interposed quickly as she saw Ene taking a deep breath.
"So, then follow me!" Nick summoned the two girls and glided through the next best wall.
"Ehm, Sir, aren't there wall-free ways?" Lil called. Ene stubbed her cigaret out on the stone floor.
Nick came back. " Oh, I forgot. Certainly. Follow me!" He floated along the hallway and Ene and Lil hurried after him with their rucksacks.
After several halls and stairs which had been illuminated as badly as possible Nick pointed to a door and said: "This is the room of Professor Dumbledore. And now please excuse me, I have to escort my dinner partner to the Great Hall." Flupp, he got chewed up by the next wall.
"I knock, you talk," Ene told Lil and: "Don't forget, it's all your fault!"
"Yeeeeeaah," Lil said drawling, "how could I forget as long as you spread it on my bread every thirty minutes?"
Ene knocked three times.
"Come in!" a voice sounded from inside. Lil and Ene looked at each other, then Ene pressed down the door handle and opened.