Chapter Three

Despite their invisible disappearance, someone did sense their return. That someone glanced skyward, shaking their head in a solemn gesture as the invisible one successfully slipped back into the school without being stopped.

Once inside the castle, the figure quickly rushed to their common room, barely making it to their bed to pretend sleeping. The figure was quite glad they had been careful with the time since their friends and roommates were just now wandering from their own beds to the bathroom. Still groggy with sleep, they called out to the pretending figure, "You awake yet?"

Back outside the castle, a shadow quickly glided forward, "Maya! Where'd you go?"

"O'er here, my sister."

Identical redheaded sisters grinned at each other. Raja hurried to her sister's side just as the Ground's Keeper, Hagrid, opened his cottage door, yawning quite loudly, to let his dog, Fang, out. "Oh, hello Professors."

"Hello, Hagrid. May we enter?" Excited, the half-giant ushered his early guest inside. Times like this made him quite glad he was an early riser with Fang.

But there was another who was berating themselves with being such an early riser. Head pounding quite painfully and annoyingly, Potion Master and Head of Slytherin House as well as the Potions Professor at Hogwarts, Severus Snape groaned as he forced himself to a sitting position.

Stumbling through his private rooms, Severus hurried to his personal cabinet of potions. In a soft yet sounding very loud voice, he spoke his voice-activated password, "Evil, sarcastic, black bat."

Inwardly, he chuckled at the choice of words. Not one of his students realized that he had spells all over the castle that allowed him to overhear his students' conversations. Nor did they know he had the same in his classroom, which kept him from having mercy on most of the houses.

Speaking of mercy, he filtered the various vials for a hangover cure. Gulping down the cool liquid, he sighed in relief at the swift coolness of sobriety as Severus slowly walked back into his bedroom.

Not noticing the other figure buried beneath the dark blankets, Severus flung himself back onto the bed, barely missing the sleeping figure. "Stop moving."

The sleepy mumble took a few moments before it fully registered that Severus wasn't alone. Jumping from the warm bed, he yanked the sheets down and away to reveal the sleeping curled body of War Mage Osiris, "War Mage!"