Emma groaned. A small, rough tongue was licking her cheek. Opening her eyes, Emma was met with a pair of brilliant emerald eyes. (AN. No, not Harry's! But wouldn't it be soooo great if it had been? Dreamy look)

'Jasper!' She cried. Her kitten stared back at her, a look of hunger in his eyes, Emma couldn't blame him, even she was famished after missing dinner. It was pitch black. Glancing at a glowing clock over by Lorna's bed, Emma saw it was half one in the morning. She turned back to her feline. 'What is it, mate, you hungry?' she whispered.

Jasper mewed.

'Oh, ok, you want food?'

'Mew!'

'Right, let's go.'

Emma stood up from her bed. She looked around. The others were fast asleep. Janine had put her head under her pillow. Emma made a note in her head to ask Janine if she had snoring problems. Lorna was sleeping soundly, her tabby cat, Tiffany was curled on top of her staring at them with curious yellow eyes. Rachel wore a pampering mask over her eyes and had both her hands clasped together in a posh manner. The remaining girl was still huddled under her duvet.

Slipping on slippers and a gown, Emma tried desperately to remember what Draco said the year before when he was describing how easy it was to get from the Slytherin Common Room to the kitchens.

/Flashback/

'Draco, don't you get bored? I mean, don't you run out of stuff to do at Hogwarts?' Emma asked, admiring her brother having breakfast.

'Emma, first of all quit staring!' Draco said, dropping his fork, 'If I'm only back for the Christmas holidays, what will you be like when it comes to the summer! Second of all, Hogwarts is huge and is filled with activities which sometimes,' he smirked, 'may be against the rules…'

Emma's eyes widened. 'Really?'

Draco leaned back in his chair, 'Sure! For instance at night, if your hungry like Crabbe and Goyle usually are, there's a painting of a fruit bowl on the third floor near the library. If you tickle the pear a passage way will open and you are in the kitchens! And the house elves will give you whatever you want!

/ End flashback /

Emma's stomach moaned. She had to go.

'Come on, Jasper,' Emma said quietly. She and her kitten crept to the doorway. Emma's hand closed over the door handle when a voice made her jump.

'Where are you going?'

Emma gave a small yelp and turned to the speaker. Her eyes landed on a girl with very long dark hair. It was the only girl in the dormitory that Emma had not yet met, the girl hidden under the duvet. Only now she stood in blue pyjamas at the foot of her bed. Her arms were crossed and she was staring curiously at Emma.

'Pardon?' Emma gasped.

'Where are you going?' the girl repeated.

Emma glanced at the door where Jasper was waiting. 'Um,' she whispered. 'The kitchens to get food, my kitten and I haven't eaten since before we got on the train to Hogwarts…'

The girl's eyes softened. 'Your hungry to, are you? I'm the same, I was really nervous about coming here and I couldn't eat dinner.' She stepped up to Emma and shook her hand. 'I'm Kirsty. I know your name already, Emma. Your brother…' she stopped, probably trying to find the right words, 'well, he made quite a scene.'

Emma smiled slightly, 'I'll bet loads of people will be saying hello to me tomorrow because they heard him at dinner…' her thoughts were interrupted by her stomach making a loud moan. 'Hey, if you're hungry too, why don't you come with me?'

Kirsty looked unsure, 'well, it isn't really allowed and we could get caught, plus how do we now where it is and we probably wouldn't be able to get anything. It is after twelve, remember?'

'My brother has told me otherwise', Emma grinned, 'don't worry, we will be able to get food and the hose elves wouldn't tell, I think we'd have to be careful, though, the caretaker, Filch, apparently doesn't sleep. What do you say?'

Kirsty judged up her hunger with her respect of the school rules. Hunger won.

It was quarter to two and on the seventh floor of Hogwarts castle, two eleven year old girls and a black kitten were trying to find a stairway to the lower floors.

They turned the corner in a corridor and pressed themselves into the shadows so they were out of sight.

Emma was no longer tired. She was wide awake very alert. Kirsty continued to rub her eyes and yawn. 'Are we there yet?' she asked.

'I told you, its several floors down, on the third floor. We need to find a stairway.' Emma said.

'You mean like that?'

Kirsty pointed straight ahead. At the end of the corridor was a staircase. 'Exactly!' Emma smiled. They ran to the stairs. They stared down into darkness.

'You first.' They said together. Luckily, Jasper decided to go down, saving them the trouble of pushing each other. Together, Emma and Kirsty descended the steps.

Suddenly, they felt the stairs beneath them jerk. 'What's happening!' Kirsty cried.

'The staircase, it's moving!' Emma stammered.

'Oh no, Dumbledore mentioned that. They like to change…' Kirsty said, grasping the banister hard.

'Oh that's very nice!' Emma said sarcastically.

Finally, the stairs stopped moving. Using this opportunity, they ran to the bottom.

'Ooh, I wish it wasn't so dark down here!' Kirsty cried.

Emma suddenly had an idea. Whipping out her wand, she said 'Lumos' Light shone from her wand.

'Cool, let me try. Lumos!' Another source of light appeared, Kirsty's wand.

Jasper mewed. 'Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce you' Emma said, 'Jasper?' the kitten looked up, 'Kirsty meet Jasper.'

'I already did.' Kirsty said embarrassed. 'I was first up in our dormitory and I felt sorry for him being in that cage so I played with him a little…but after seeing the others I went to bed, I get nervous around new people. That Janine girl, I don't like her...'

After finding two more sets of stairs (only one of them moved making them even more jumpy) they began checking the halls were clear. 'We're on the fourth floor, one more flight of stairs to go-'

'Ooohh I hear firsties!

Oh yes I do

And when I find them

They'll be stew!' a high voice sang.

Emma and Kirsty looked at each other, horrified. 'Who's that?' Kirsty mouthed. Emma gave her an 'I don't know' look and hurried into the shadows. Kirsty and Jasper followed. Not two seconds later, a small man hovering in mid air came whizzing into the corridor.

'They should be in bed,

And I bet they'll dread

That Filch will be lead

To them, they're dead!'

Kirsty whimpered. The man bounced off the walls and around the corner, away from them. 'Do you think we should still go?' Kirsty whispered, fear in her eyes.

Emma nodded bravely. She wasn't going to let a stupid little man get in the way of feeding her kitten. Jasper had crouched down, ears back. His eyes were wide with alarm. Poor thing, Emma thought sweeping Jasper into her arms. Slowly, she and Kirsty tip-toed around the corner.

Ahead of them was another staircase leading down. They stood onto it. They waited a moment to see if it moved. It didn't. They ran down. From the floor above the little man was cackling. He didn't know where they were but he was still searching.

'Come on!' Emma said. They ran down the hall. Since they were now on the right floor they now needed to find the library. 'I know the library is at the end of a corridor, but I don't know which one.'

'Oh that's great,' Kirsty replied sarcastically, 'how'd you know that?'

'My brother,

'Oh,'

They had been wandering on the third floor for ten minutes but it had seemed like hours. It wasn't until Jasper pounced out of Emma's arms and bolted down the corridor. 'Hey!' Emma cried.

They raced after him down the passage. It lead to a set of double doors. Jasper mewed up at the gold banner that read 'LIBRARY'

'You're cat isn't normal,' Kirsty breathed. Emma stared at the feline; she would need to check with Hermione about extra ordinary animals. But first she had to check the paintings on the wall.

'Look for a painting of a fruit bowl,' Emma said. Using their lighted wands they each took a side of the hallway and studied each painting. Emma wasn't having much luck.

'I found it!' Kirsty said, minutes later. Emma hurried to her. Surly enough they were standing in front of a picture of a bowl filled with bananas, apples, oranges and a small amount of grapes. 'What do we do?'

'Tickle it,' Emma answered simply. She was given a confused look. Kirsty stretched out her hand and scratched lightly on the green grapes. They jumped back as the grapes did a strange sort of wriggle and an opening appeared.

They stepped though in a nervous fashion. Jasper crept ahead of them. The opening closed behind them. They found themselves in a large room. There were several worktops, sinks and cookers. Vegetables were chopping themselves in mid air, meat was floating in and out of ovens and seven or so house elves were gazing at them.

'Our first visitors of the year!' one of them cried. It was a strange looking creature. No taller than the worktop that he was standing next to. The elves cheered and Emma and Kirsty were pushed towards a couple of chairs. They sat down. 'You want food? We shall make you your favourite, yes we will!' cried the elf.

Emma and Kirsty grinned.

Not five minutes later they were digging in to platefuls of food. Emma spooned cereal into her mouth while Kirsty was munching on eggs and toast. They both grinned like mad men. This had to be the best midnight wander any first year had ever journeyed on their first night. Jasper sat curled up on the floor chewing delicious chicken pieces.

Emma suddenly remembered something that Kirsty had said. She turned to her friend.

'Hey, you said earlier you didn't like Janine, why?'

Kirsty took her time to answer. She swallowed her food and took a large drink of pumpkin juice. Slowly, she replied 'I think she's weird, too weird for my liking. Can't see me getting used to her. Plus, I doubt she liked me when we met.'

Emma nodded.

After finishing their meal they stood. 'Thank you very much,' Emma said to the elves, 'the food was delicious, thank you for your help,'

The Elves smiled from ear to ear looking utterly delighted at the comment. 'Oh no,' said one of the creatures, 'we must thank you, we love guests and it was our pleasure!'

Kirsty and Emma said goodbye to them (Jasper mewed happily) and they left.

Taking the same route that they used to get to the kitchens they travelled upwards towards the common room. Once or twice they heard the laugher of the small man but luckily they never met him. They approached the fat lady, who jumped awake after hearing the password.

'Well, if it will leave me alone…' she said, swinging open.

Kirsty and Emma rushed upstairs and jumped into their beds. After a minute of silence they started giggling. From her bed, Rachel moaned in her sleep which quietened them slightly.

'G'night Kirsty…' Emma said.

'Night Emma.'

Silence

'MEW!'

'Goodnight Jasper…'