"Gosh, fourth-year now, Xander," Lydia whispered as her cat got under the sheets with her. "I hope you're enjoying school as much as I am. I bet you're famous all over Hogwarts by now, especially with the other cats."
"Waa," Xander explained.
Although it was warm outside for early September the tower dormitory felt cool. Xander shuffled his sleek, furry back up against Lydia's tummy. She stroked his head and his cheeks and he purred in response. Even with the hangings closed around her bed she could smell the scented candle Maisie had lit, a present from Tina. Tina looked so different without her glasses. She acted with more confidence. Lydia had already noticed boys looking at Tina differently. Not many people had their eyes magically corrected. It was a highly complex procedure requiring great skill of the Sight Healer. That sort of magic was rare and had a reputation for being risky. It was not cheap, either.
It had been funny at the Sorting Ceremony watching all the little firsties being put into their houses. Admittedly, Lydia was still equal smallest in their year but even she felt tall looking at the new intake. And it seemed an odd, outdated idea to sort into houses. That one decision, by a hat, would set their friendships and their ideas, probably for the rest of their lives. Professor McGonagall could be stern, straight-laced and old-fashioned. But she had done a good thing in setting up their Joint Common Room. Lydia loved her Ravenclaw classmates, especially Shona and Maisie of the girls; Oddy and Dean of the boys. And Jimmy, of course. Jimmy was often with them these days. He smiled, laughed, made people feel good, sorted out disputes, and persuaded people not to be too serious. Jimmy had been there back in the days when they were unpopular. Back when they first met Sophie.
Lydia was wondering whether Sophie and Jimmy would ever go out with each other as she fell asleep. She dreamed about Jimmy taking Elsa, Sophie's cat for a walk. Perhaps it was the other way round, as Elsa was holding a lead and Jimmy had a collar on. They were walking in a meadow, in a valley surrounded by wooded hills. Elsa stood on her hind legs. She was as tall as Jimmy now. They skipped across the meadow, scattering flowers as they went. Then they were dancing together, going round and round. They kept dancing across the meadow until they found themselves in the trees.
The trees looked different, close to. They were older and more gnarled than she had expected, like they were in places in the Forbidden Forest beyond Hagrid's hut. She looked around for Jimmy and Elsa, but they had gone. As she walked on through the trees, it was getting darker. She turned to go back to the meadow, which must be downhill. There was no downhill. Every direction she turned took her uphill. She came across a stream. She knew the stream would flow downhill, so she would follow the stream back to the valley. But whichever way she turned, the stream flowed away from her, uphill. She decided to see if she could find the top of the hill. She plodded on, ever upwards.
After what felt like a long time, yet no time at all, she found herself out in the open. Ahead, there was a ruin. It was a tall-walled stone building which could once have been an abbey, a minster, a palace. The windows were eyeless empty holes and it had no roof. There were tall, leafless trees growing inside. Their bleak branches described a kind of roof, a lattice of twigs. Lydia felt, even knew, she was being watched. She did not know where the watcher was: back in the woods or ahead in the ruin. The wind began to blow and the rain lashed. The blue sunlit sky was now dark as a bottomless pit. She hurried towards the ruin for shelter.
"You'll be late for breakfast if you don't hurry up," Shona said. "Come on, Lydia."
Lydia sat up. Xander was not there and Shona was looking through the parted hangings around her bed.
"Thanks, I'm getting up."
At breakfast Lydia found herself sitting between Shona and Jimmy. Opposite them were Tina and Lorcan Flynn. Lorcan would usually have been joking and laughing with Jimmy, Martin and Wyn. Today he and Tina were talking to each other. Tina was twiddling with the ends of her hair. Lorcan was sitting up straight, making the most of his broad shoulders. Lorcan had joined Dean as a beater on the Ravenclaw team. He'd only been a reserve last year, but Dean thought he was probably going to be on the A-team after the try-outs were held in a couple of weeks. Lorcan was explaining something and using his hands a lot. Tina was tilting her head and smiling. She picked up a piece of fruit from her breakfast and nibbled it, still listening and nodding. Then she picked up another piece and placed it in Lorcan's mouth. He held Tina's hand still while he took the fruit between his teeth, winked, and ate it.
Lydia realised two things. The first was that Tina and Lorcan were flirting like crazy. The second was important and needed to be addressed immediately.
She turned to Shona. "Oi, Ogden! I've just remembered. It's Sunday morning. Why the heck did you wake me up?"
Shona smiled. "Lydz, it's like half past nine and everybody's just got back from summer holidays. Think of all the gossip to be had."
Lydia flicked a glance at Lorcan and Tina. "You've got a point."
Shona smirked and risked a glance across the table. Maisie, on the other side of Shona, asked her a question and Shona turned to talk to her. Lydia turned to talk to Jimmy.
"How were your holidays, Jimmy?"
"Grand as owt," he grinned. "Me and Wyn went over to Strandhill in Ireland to stay with Lorcan for a couple of weeks. It's a little seaside town. It's lovely round there."
"Lorcan seems to be enjoying being back at school, though," Lydia suggested.
"Aye," Jimmy grinned. "S'funny, all the lads were saying how good Tina looks without her glasses. That's nothing to do with it. The change is how confident she is, now. She's always been pretty but she didn't… let it out, y'know. Confidence makes all the difference. Watch out for anyone who tries to take your confidence away. Any road, we've got some lovely lasses in our class. Shona's gorgeous, Maisie's dead cute, Mel's a little cutie, too, and you're just glorious. I thought I fancied you a while back."
Lydia frowned a little. "What happened?"
Jimmy drew his head back and looked at her. "Really? I thought you'd have got it. Freddie happened."
Lydia had a feeling for a moment that something was going to hit her, though she did not know what. Then she knew.
"Oh," she said. "You do know he's not…"
Jimmy smiled. "Aye, I know. But, the other hand he's not not, if you know what I mean. He hasn't found that side of him either way, so to speak."
Lydia nodded and smiled. "I know. The funny thing is, I had a dream about you and Sophie last night…"
"Eh, up. Don't get all racialised on me, now."
"Oh, God, no. I didn't mean…" Lydia began, then realised Jimmy was chuckling. "Actually, you git, the dream was about you and Elsa."
"Her cat?"
"Yeah. You were dancing together through a meadow, scattering flowers as you went."
"See?" Jimmy pointed out. "You must've known about me all along. Sounds like a scene from a musical. Hey, I asked Freddie once if he liked musical theatre, guess what he said."
Lydia shook her head.
"He said, 'It's all right, but they do make such a song and dance about everything'. He was serious. Didn't realise what he'd said 'til I started laughing."
"He's a love. Maybe one of us will end up with him, when he makes his mind up," she joked.
That night, after a day of sitting on the lawns with the gang and swimming in the loch with Gertie the Giant Squid, Lydia dreamed. She dreamed about Freddie and Xander dancing through the streets of 1950s Manhattan. Freddie was snapping his fingers to the music. Xander's claws were all flick knives. Apparently, there was 'gonna be a rumble'.
At first it didn't strike Lydia as odd that there were so many trees growing down the back alleys of New York. It was a dream, so the normal rules were barely guidelines. Then she realised that, as the music had taken a darker turn, she was alone. The dark trees felt oppressive, as though they were closing in around her. There was movement ahead. A barely-visible figure was flitting from tree to tree. There was no sound, other than the wind in the branches above. Looking up, she could see stars between the skeletal twigs reaching towards the night sky.
There was a rustling in the undergrowth. It was coming for her. She could hear the Grey Watcher laughing.
"It is coming for you, child." The Watcher's voice was like the lid of a tomb being dragged open. "An ancient dread. Pull the covers over your head, little girl, and prepare to die."
Lydia sat up. She was in her bed. The sheets were damp and tangled. The hangings were parted. Xander leapt up and swaggered self-confidently through the gap and to her side.
"Watch out for anyone who tries to take your confidence away," she remembered Jimmy saying. She smiled as she put her hand out to stroke Xander.
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