Later that night

I lay awake in bed for ages, waiting for all my roommates to fall asleep. I considered putting a spell on them to make them fall asleep, but decided that if anyone found out…. Finally, after Allie and Ann had assessed every last boy in the school (if Charles is cuter or raggier before or after summer break, if John really is dating a girl from Switzerland, and if Joe had actually gotten bitten by a werewolf), and I had thought of a hundred ways to kill them both, the dormitory fell silent except for the sounds of snoring and sleep-talking. You'd be surprised at the things you could learn from listening to Allie talk in her sleep! I waited ten minutes to make sure everyone was actually asleep, and then slipped out of bed. I had gone to bed wearing a pair of soft dark blue pants, and an off-white silk shirt. That way in case I got caught, I wouldn't get caught wearing my pajamas. At the foot of my bed underneath a pile of dirty clothes, I had laid out my invisibility cloak, inherited from my great-grandmother. "There's always a time when a girl needs to be invisible" she had told me. And however corny that line was, she was right. This cloak had come in handy countless times. Like now.

Barefoot, I padded silently down to the common room, wand in hand. Once I was almost there, I heard soft, high-pitched voices coming from the center of the room. The voices were soon accompanied by swift, small shadows moving toward the fire. What was this, I thought, more bewildered than scared, an army of midgets? As I crept closer (pretty pointless since I was invisible) I was able to make out the voices.

'Thump!' "You is needing to stop it Pinkie!" exclaimed a high pitched house-elf voice, "You will be waking up the Sirs and Misses!"

"Ouch! That is my toe you is being dropping the fire-wood on!" another house-elf voice cried out.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Only a stupid house-elf. Useful for nothing more than taking out the garbage, making beds, and cooking treacle tarts. Making beds! The audacity of it! I, myself, had never made a bed in my life. I intended to keep it that way, too. At my parent's house, we had over fifty house-elves all of whom were very good at making treacle tarts, or sweets of any kind.

Okay, maybe I was getting sidetracked, and maybe house-elves were good at cooking, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I needed to get past these accursed house-elves and to the potions store room to look for, and hopefully get, some part of a thestral.

Ignoring the house-elves useless squabbling, I walked past them, around several black leather, high-backed chairs, and pushed the worn stone that would let me exit the common room.

Once outside, I glanced around the dimly lit corridor that led to the other dungeons, one of which was the one that Potions class was held in. I had barely been walking ten minutes when I heard a noise. As I rounded a corner I discovered its source. Peeves. He was situated halfway along a short but wide corridor, fixing a portrait (despite the complaints of its occupant) so that it would fall on the next person who walked there. As I started to walk towards him he froze

"Who's there?" He questioned

Rather than answering him, I pulled out my wand, pointed it straight at peeves, and said "Waddiwasi!"

The portrait he had been 'fixing' practically flew off the wall, landing on top of Peeves and pinning him to the ground. Smiling, I put away my wand and continued on my way.

When I finally arrived at the potions classroom, I took out my wand and disabled any security charms that might have been placed in the room. I then pointed my wand at the door. "Alohomora" I whispered, and the door unlocked itself. Not wasting time with the store cupboards (because I knew they weren't there) I proceeded directly to the back room, my way guided by the pale silver light that my wand produced. Once there I pushed open the door and cast my wand about the room.

An hour or so of searching through what felt like hundreds of racks, barrels, and shelves, and I had found nothing. I did find a jar labeled "Thestral Hairs", which, ironically, was empty.

I swore under my breath. Great, just great, now I would have to acquire thestral bits by myself, and that meant going into the forest. If I lost my prefect badge for this… what the heck, I would do it anyway.

Treacle: A sticky, syrupy substance related to molasses. It can be used as jam or icing.