Dorcas walked in arm and arm with another Ravenclaw. Heidi waved and moved a cape from the seats next to her to make some room. Lydia made it with some time to spare and sat next to them and the room continued to fill in with students from every house and every year. There were so many professors that some of them were mixed in amongst the students knowing the room would be so full that they might have to stand otherwise. Lydia caught part of a comment that Dorcas' Ravenclaw classmate made about the Great Hall being a more suitable location for this event. Something to the effect that the Great Hall could knowingly accommodate everyone and Lydia silently agreed. She had never seen so many people at Hogwarts outside of the Great Hall or a Quidditch match in the same place and the smallness of the classroom made it seem like there were many more people than that still.

She glanced about the room, catching eyes and nodding occasionally at the Slytherins. McGonagall had also lifted her eyebrows and smiled. Dumbledore stood up and the din and the room settled down. They were all there for an elective lecture. Lydia wasn't sure what it would be about but she was not going to miss it. Initially it was for third years and up but the prefects and house girls and boys had refused to remain behind to babysit in Slytherin house and even people who might not have cared to attend in the first place ended up going so they just let everyone go. The Hufflepuffs thought it unfair, unjust that anyone who wanted to attend couldn't so they all decided to go in solidarity. The Ravenclaws insisted that they not be denied education at an educational institution. If the first and second years didn't get the lecture then maybe there might be another later and the first they hadn't understood would be put into context later and half the Gryffindor first years went on a dare and the reminder figured that if they got kicked out then they could at least say they tried so effectively all of Hogwarts was crammed into a classroom, a large one but a classroom all the same. Some people were packed so closely there were people practically sitting on each others laps. Some stood in the corners so they got the bulk of the lecture from the back of Dumbledore's head. Many more seats had been magicked precariously to the wall and fortified discreetly by the professors in attendance. Students sat stock still from their perch looking down at everyone else from high up where many of the ghosts were floating high above. Dumbledore paced a little before he began, his signature style. He gently cupped and rubbed his own hands together. The teachers older students knew what that meant and a ripple of electric anticipation went through the room. He stopped standing almost exactly center of the front of the room saying nothing. His head bowed a little before he looked up and began. This was going to be good.

The door to the classroom burst open and an eruption of voices and groups of students left clustered together in discussion. Some of the students were drilling professors, asking questions about what the lecture had meant. Lydia left in something of a daze. She really wanted to be a cursebreaker now. She went in the direction of the library with the friend that Dorcas had come in with. Heidi had gone off with a number of people to mull over what Dumbledore had said. She was sure she could convince an elf or two to open up the kitchen for some treats. She would be more than happy to make them herself but this should be discussed over good food, she thought.

"That was a remarkable lecture!"

"I cannot wait to take his course."

"What was that familiar, what what?"

"Local, common and familiar."
"Brilliant, just so true"

It seemed like every student was talking at once. Dorcas had filed out with everyone else, like Lydia she had found the lecture brilliant and unsettling but she instead stalled a little as students splintered off to go to their common rooms. She caught pieces of more conversations as she walked very slowly, aimlessly away from the crowds being borne away faster or slower depending on the rush of students exiting the class to go wherever they where all going so intentionally.

"But what was the thesis, really?"

"I can only tell you what I got from it…"

"Well…"

"You'll tease for the rest of my life but I just think he was saying that the most important-"

"I'm glad we ended up coming, if I had to learn about this second hand I-"

"I thought he was going to go in a completely different direction!"

"I thought it was going to be a lecture, did you get that sense?"

"…I'm glad it wasn't. I was starting to think babysitting the first years might have been preferable."

"Imagine the sorting hat being so eloquent!" and a smattering of laughter and the sound of talking echoed in the halls and became quieter until Dorcas was left with her own footsteps.

"Really beautiful lecture. He's a very talented orator."

Dorcas spun around to face the Grey Lady, her house's ghost.

Dorcas nodded. "It was very good."

The Grey Lady drifted silently by and Dorcas shivered with coldness even though the Grey Lady had gone around her.

She wandered the halls and knew soon it would be mealtime and the halls would be filled again. She could make out from the windows that the sun had started to set and she felt she just wanted to be alone. She could already make out distant chatter and passed a Slytherin with his hands in his pockets who nodded at her. She nodded back and turned around. Slytherins generally didn't even acknowledge each other in any case. He turned and looked over his shoulder and they caught each others eyes. He smiled turning his entire body around to face her and walking backwards, he nodded again and winked, looked her up and down, turned back in the direction he was originally facing again his hands out his pockets and hustled in the other direction.

Not now, Dorcas thought. She just wanted to be alone. No, that wasn't true. She wanted to hide. She just wanted to be hidden. She made her way to the corridor and the echo of peoples' voices became louder again. The halls had been so quiet and she would not be able to escape the contents of this lecture for a while; she knew it. Some of it was coming back to her already. She wouldn't be able to walk away from it or tell anyne not to bring up or anything like it. She heard a voice closer than she would have liked looked around and saw no ghost or student or professor but she ducked a little ways away and looking over her shoulder, she would be at a window. She could pretend to be thinking about the lecture but that would be silly. Maybe know one would even notice. She walked toward the window looking over her shoulder as the voices became louder and when she turned to look over the other she noticed an enormous arched, wooden doorway opened it and went inside.

It was dark inside and quiet.

"Hello?" No one responded. "Hellllooo?"

This classroom wasn't familiar to her.

There was a lone candle perched on some books. She got closer and saw a chair. She sat and glanced around as her eyes adjusted better to the light. The room was filled with books and objects silhouetted in the gloom. She stood up again, blew out the candle and the room was plunged into darkness. She made towards the door, breathing heavily and when she felt for the handle, she instead collapsed against the door, crying. She sat on the floor and cried and cried and cried.