A/N: Really sorry about the delay guys, I planned on posting this chapter much sooner, but some things came up. Next one will be up faster, Scout's Honor.

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"Thank you for enlightening us, Ron," Hermione said nastily as she sat down upon her trunk.

Ron glared at her and was about to retort, but seemed to change his mind after seeing the murderous look on Harry's face. Instead, he brought his own trunk slowly back to the ground and sat down on it as well.

For what seemed like an eternity, nobody spoke. Parvati and Lavender followed Hermione's example and sat down on their trunks, but everyone else remained standing, Harry included, who was staring out the window above Dean's shoulder blankly.

Hermione was the first to find her voice.

"We can't be the only ones still in the castle. The teachers are probably still here, and what about the ghosts? And Peeves? They don't leave for the summer…."

"The teachers left on the Express," Seamus said slowly. "They were all wearing their traveling cloaks in the Great Hall, remember?"

"Nevertheless," Hermione said, now standing up and pacing back and forth, "someone would have noticed that we didn't get on the train. Flitwick was checking everyone's names off."

"So let's just wait until someone comes and blasts the door open, " Ron said, getting up and stretching lazily.

Half an hour later, the sun had set and the only light was that coming from the blue fire Hermione had conjured in the grate. Everything was bathed in an ghostly blue glow, making them feel even more miserable.

"I think it's safe to say that no one's coming to get us," Harry said desolately, still staring out the window.

There was a stifling silence as the truth sank in. And then-

"We're going to die!" Parvati shrieked shrilly. "We're going to starve, and they're going to come back in September and find nothing but our rotting corpses!" She let out a wail and began sobbing hysterically into Lavender's shoulder, everyone staring at her.

"It's okay," Dean said, stepping forward and patting her awkwardly on the shoulder." We'll get out of here."

Unnerved by Parvati's outburst, Seamus began pacing the room with Hermione, while Neville had began subconsciously arranging the contents of his trunk by color, shape, and texture, nervously looking up every once in a while as though expecting the chandelier above them to come crashing down.

"All right," Hermione said. "I think we should try to get the portrait hole open again. There are some spells I think might-"

But she was interrupted by a strangled cry from Seamus. He had last been leaning against the portrait hole, but was now nowhere to be seen. Harry tore his gaze away from the window and walked to the now open portrait hole with the others, staring amazed at the dim corridor that was now visible.

"Oh, now it opens!" Seamus said angrily, rubbing a banged knee and looking very harassed.

Harry looked past him into the corridor.

The torches along the walls were still lit, but faintly, ending the passage in complete darkness. He noticed with a jolt that none of the occupants of the portraits were moving. The Fat Lady was completely stationary, poised with a handkerchief halfway to her lips, wearing an uncanny and almost sinister smile. Harry waited for a ghost to drift through the motionless portraits, even the sight of the Blood Baron would have been welcome. But it looked as deserted as ever. There was something eerie and unnatural about it; in all of his nighttime wanderings, Harry had never seen Hogwarts look so abandoned.

He looked back at Hermione and Ron, who were staring back at him with wide eyes. The hallway did not look welcoming; Harry half wanted to step back into the common room, where things still looked relatively normal. Back to some familiarity. He didn't like this new Hogwarts, and from the looks on everyone's faces, neither did they.

"Well," Harry said, speaking for the first time in half an hour, "it's open." Trying to look somewhat confident, he looked back at the others. "Let's get out of here."

Neville let out a whimper, his eyes fixed on the unmoving Fat Lady. Taking a shaky breath, he grabbed his wand from the perfectly arranged objects on the common room floor and stepped over the threshold of the portrait hole. One by one, the others followed, though Harry saw Ron look back wistfully at the common room before slowly closed the portrait hole, leaving them in more darkness and desperation.

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After taking a few moments to compose themselves, the group slowly walked down the dim corridor. Harry noticed that Harmione was clutching Ron's arm tightly and even in the seriousness of their current situation could not suppress a grin.

"So…where are we going?' Lavender asked in a shaky voice as they reached the end of the torchlight and were beginning to descend into darkness. Harry muttered Lumos and heard several voices do the same behind him.

"We should probably check the main entrance first. They may have kept it open," Ron said, though even he sounded doubtful.

Still, nobody had a better plan, and it was worth a try. They now came to a descending staircase and using nothing but the light from their wands, carefully climbed down. As they came to the landing, Harry saw a golden glow and was relieved to see that the next corridor was lit.

"Wait a second," Dean said suddenly. "D'you hear that?"

They stopped and listened. An odd noise was coming from the door down the hall; someone was singing.

Thinking that this could not possibly get anymore bizarre, Harry walked down the hallway, everyone staying close behind him.

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and took a cautious step toward the door, all the while wishing someone else would.

"Oh My God!" Lavender gasped suddenly. "That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!"

And it was. The off-key singing, however, was not Myrtle's usual droning, and it was quite obvious it wasn't her. It did sound familiar though, and Harry approached the door feeling slightly more relieved, though still holding his wand steady; the fact that Myrtle was not in her infamous bathroom made him uneasy.

The singing reached a crescendo as he pushed open the door. Seamus made a face and covered his ears. Neville gave a nervous laugh. Everyone seemed a little more relieved, which heartened Harry as they reached the stall the singing was coming from.

With a sudden shock, he realized it was a rendition of "Weasley Is Our King." Ron seemed to have noticed this too, as his ears were now reaching the shade of his hair. And the voice seemed even more familiar, Harry was even smiling when he pushed open the door to reveal-

"Luna."

Wearing her usual dreamy expression, she stared vaguely back at them. Harry got the idea that she hadn't yet realized that the train had left and the castle was nearly empty.

"Oh, hello there," she said, looking around at them.

"Luna," Ron said, "What're you doing here? Why weren't you on the train?"

"Has the train left, then?" She asked, though she didn't seem remotely interested, having just caught sight of a jumble of writing scribbled on the stall door.

"Yes," Hermione said exasperatedly. "Why weren't you on it?"

"Well, I came in here to use the toilet before the train left, I gave my trunk and things to Cho Chang to put on the train for me…I wonder if she did, she said-"

"And why'd you stay in here?" Harry interrupted, not in the mood to discuss Cho Chang.

"I didn't stay on purpose," Luna said, though she was still turning her head at odd angles to read the writing on the door. Harry glanced at it, wondering what could possibly be so interesting, and saw his own name coupled with a threat of death by rampaging hippogriff.

"I tried to push open the stall door and it wouldn't move." Her eyes widened. "I bet it was a Yugoslavian Iddlenat, their saliva is extremely sticky and they like to jam doors ."

"Luna," Hermione said wearily. "you have to pull these doors to open them."

"Oh," she said blankly, having finished reading the death threats and stepping out of the stall.

"Well, nobody's here except for us, we expect even the ghosts are gone," Hermione told her. "We were going down to the entrance hall to see if we could get out that way."

Luna nodded, now humming an off-key version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Parvati and Lavender rolled their eyes, and walked over to Dean and Seamus, who had been conversing quietly in the corner. Harry looked over at them angrily, about to tell them off for acting so immature during such a dire situation, when he felt a sudden rush of air. The lamps extinguished, and complete darkness fell.

Luna stopped humming abruptly. The girls screamed, Lavender squealed "Won-won!" at the top of her lungs, and Harry could feel Ron stumble into him as it seemed she had grabbed his arm.

"Ow- Lavender, get off.!"

Harry took a step back, and waved his hand in front of his face, but couldn't see anything. Someone whimpered at his right. Then there was a flash of light so sudden and quick that Harry couldn't tell where it came from, followed by a loud thud. As suddenly as the lights had gone out, they lit up once more.

Everyone was looking pale and frightened, so still they might have been Petrified. Nobody seemed hurt, though. Harry realized he had been holding his breath, and inhaled sharply. Then he heard a petrified scream.

Parvati was clutching her hand over her mouth, pointing a shaking hand towards the stall Luna had recently vacated.

Being nearest, Hermione edged over to the stall, also shaking uncontrollably. She looked in and let out a cry, and slid to the ground. Neville and Ron rushed over to her, and Harry, dreading every step, walked over to the stall and peered in. .

Seamus lay slumped against the wall, eyes glassy and dull.

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A/N: Awww, poor Seamus, first to die at the hands of our psychotic killer. So you now know that the Gryffindors (and Luna), are not the only ones within the castle. Unless of course, one of their own is the murderer. But who? I'd love to hear some guesses, and of course, reviews, no matter how short, are always greatly appreciated.