Chapter 8 - Suspicious Activity

The Great Hall was abuzz with chatter at lunch that day, and not just because Ronnie was back, and of course she had picked up some "hospital wing drama" that all the Slytherins wanted to hear. No, everyone was still chattering about the events of the 1st Year Ravenclaw's History of Magic class on Tuesday. Regina's family swarmed her with questions. The Hogwarts staff were giving each other nervous looks, and seemed to be questioning students and writing urgent letters. And of course, there was Henri. Two things had happened to him that day. First of all, he had befriended Tara and Regina. Second of all, he seemed even scarier than before. If someone irritated him in the smallest way, he would lash out and his eyes would flash a terrifying green and black, but then he would calm down and instantly apologize, saying, "I don't know what came over me,", at least to Regina and Tara.

And as for the letter Eris had dropped off, it turned out to be addressed to Rose Granger-Weasley, Tara's mother. Eris must have heard the R and gotten confused. But Regina was happy she had, because otherwise they would have been stuck with a possessed witch as a History teacher. After "Professor Meyers" woke up, she said she had no memory of the incident, and that her name was actually Gia Davis, and she worked in Hogsmeade's Hog's Head Pub.

Regina didn't really care. She was just super interested in finding out who "The Dark Lady" was. Tara said she had never read about anything like that, and if she asked Henri, he would just look at the floor and wouldn't answer. So he obviously knew something.


One day, Regina, Tara and Henri were sitting in the library, taking turns doing their homework while the other two played chess. "Ha! Checkmate!" Tara laughed as her knights cornered Henri's king. Henri rolled his eyes and picked up his bag to get out his books as Tara shifted the chess board to play with Regina. But his hand slipped and his books spilled everywhere Tara and Regina helped him clean them up when Regina spotted a book that didn't seem to be one of their standard textbooks.

"What's this, Henri?"

"Oh, just… extra reading."

Tara snatched the book out of Regina's hands and started to read the cover aloud. "The Dark Lady's guide to -"

"Give it BACK!" Henri yelled and snatched the book back and stuffed it in his bag. He stomped away out of the library. Regina noticed the evil flash of green and black in his eyes again. This was a mystery she needed to solve.


The next couple of weeks were uneventful, with no more strange things happening, just normal school days. She even got to meet Professor Lawrens, who seemed pretty nice. But the staff were still obviously freaking out, and Regina was getting more and more suspicious that this had something to do with her. She once walked in on the Headmaster in the owlery, telling an owl to deliver a letter to Amy Potter, with a note of urgency in his voice. Amy Potter was Regina's mother.

Thankfully, she had a day to take her mind off it all and relax. It was the end of the 8th week of school, and the Ravenclaw Prefects had the amazing idea to set up an all-night party in the common room.

Regina and Tara hadn't seen Henri all day, and they walked back to the common room from Friday astronomy without him.

"What has to be broken before you can use it?" The Ravenclaw door asked.

"An egg." Regina answered after a few seconds and they stepped into the common room. The Prefects had really gone all out. There were pretty starry lights projected all over their dome ceiling. Small tents were scattered all around the room, with blue and bronze crepe paper hanging on the walls.

She spotted Claire waving at her and Tara, standing next to her friends Lorenza Benenati, Kirsten Rosenblatt and Parminder Kulkarni, along with Regina and Tutra's roommates: Leola Benton and Andrea Rhodes. Next to them was an elegant, but very small tent on the floor. "We're not all going to be able to fit in that, are we?" Regina asked.

"Undetectable extension charm," Tara elbowed her. "Use your brain. Nearly every tent here has one."

The two tiptoed to their, careful not to step on any tents or get trampled by older students. "Henri still hasn't showed up." Regina said as they passed the reading nook.

"Not worried. He probably skipped class and came in here early so he could stay hidden down in his dormitory. Besides, he couldn't stay in a fort with other people, even if he wanted to. Girls aren't allowed to share forts with boys, and none of the boys in our house like him, anyway."

"You have a point." Regina finished as soon as they reached their spot.

"Gina! You're here!" Claire jumped up and gave Regina a squeeze. "Leola did you and Tara the favor of bringing your pillows and mattresses from your dormitory into the tent, and Parminder did us all the favor of lending us this beautiful tent! Come on, Gina and Tara, take a look inside!" Claire crawled through the small entrance hole to the tent, beckoning for Regina and Tara to follow.

Well, it was definitely much larger on the inside. It looked to be just as large as Regina's living room at home, with mattresses and pillows for each girl scattered around the floor. There was a skylight at the top, so Regina could see the lovely stars being projected onto the common room ceiling. Regina found her bed and was making it nice and comfortable when a loud voice rang through the common room. "Hello, Ravenclaw House!" Regina quickly ran out of the tent to find where the voice was coming from, to find an older girl standing on a podium in the center of the common room, with her wand to her throat magnifying her voice. "My name is Katya Flora, and I am a 6th Year Prefect in Ravenclaw House!" There were scattered cheers from the students around the room. "Headmaster Longbottom and Professor Lovegood have granted us permission to have a stay-up-all-night party! We'll just start by just having free time and let you all get settled into your forts. At midnight, though, we will open up our roof and we will all stargaze. Have fun!" Katya stepped down from the podium, and after a few seconds, all the kids were back to chatting and being loud.

"Let's play truth or dare!" Andrea suggested.

"Boring." Tara said firmly. Andrea scowled.

"How about Kiss, Marry, Crucio?"

"Boring." Tara said again.

Claire, on the other hand, squealed with excitement. "Perfect!" Claire's friends nodded. "What do you say, Gina?"

"Umm…" Regina looked at Tara, who was shaking her head no, but Andrea looked at her with pleading eyes, and it seemed like everyone besides Tara was happy to play. "Sure?"

"Yay!" Andrea said happily.

Tara groaned. "Gina, this game is boring and petty. So, for voting that the group plays it, I say you should go first as punishment!" She grinned.

Regina inhaled deeply, and responded, "Fine."

"Excellent!" Andrea thought for a moment. "Okay, lets see. How about that awful Boris Crabbe, Dylan Weasley, and -"

"That's my second cousin!" Regina interrupted.

"Oh, right! Ok, instead, Benjamin Church, and… that awful Malfoy boy. What's his name… Henri?" Andrea wrinkled her nose while saying his name.

Both Regina and Tara were annoyed. Even though they were friends with Henri, the rest of the school thought he was creepy and weird.

Lorenza chuckled. "This will be a hard one!"

Regina rolled her eyes. This would be easy. "Well, first of all, Boris Crabbe bullies people, so that's a Crucio. Henri Malfoy is my friend, and he's really not that bad." She emphasized the last four words. "So that's a marry."

"Oooooooh!" Tara squealed. Regina's face went pink.

"I thought you said this game was boring and petty." Regina said to her, glaring.

"Well…"

Regina rolled her eyes and continued. "I don't even know who Benjamin is, and all the other spots are taken, so that's a kiss. Done."

Andrea and Leola clapped, but at the same time she could see that they were not convinced Henri was a nice person. Tara was smiling smugly at Regina. I hate this game, she thought as the night went on.

Finally, the game ended, and the girls just sat talking for a while until a loud voice rang through the common room again. "Hello, Ravenclaw! This is Deirdre Hendry, and I am a prefect! I'm here to tell you that we are about to open the roof to stargaze!"

Regina looked at Claire. "Deirdre is a prefect?" She asked in shock.

"You mean you didn't know?"

"Of course I didn't know! She literally sleeps in all of her free time!"

"Yeah. I don't understand it either." Claire admitted.

There was a creak of metal and the sound of a spell, and suddenly the large dome-shaped roof that covered the Ravenclaw common room started opening up so that everyone could see the starry sky above them.

"Did the Ravenclaw common room used to be an astronomy tower?" Tara asked. Claire nodded.

They explored the stars with their telescopes, and Regina was able to fill out her Astronomy homework as she did.

Next, there was a scheduled chess tournament. Regina made it fairly far thanks to all her training, and Tara made it to the semifinals but lost to a 7th Year.

To celebrate Tara's near-victory, Parminder took out some cookies, and Kirsten had cupcakes, so the group of girls stuffed themselves silly with sugar, which kept them up for the rest of the night.

Finally, the windows opened to watch the sunrise at about 6 in the morning. Regina stepped out of the tent and looked out the window with Tara, but at the first beam of light from the sun, Regina heard, "Oh, there's Henri!" and then all went black.