The next morning I awoke and took the opportunity to simply lie in my bed for a while staring at the blue curtains and let my mind wander. I thought about what happened in Hogsmeade and I wondered what happened to those Death Eaters. I thought about class work and all of the homework I still had to do today. I thought about Potions and Professor Snape and how he wasn't at dinner last night. What if he really was a Death Eater like Susan accused him of being? I thought about Professor Dumbledore and the nervous expression on his face. What was Dumbledore worried about? Did it have anything to do with what the man in Hogsmeade said about something strange happening? Did Dumbledore have the same feeling and what was the strange thing would I ever know?

My bed curtains were pulled open. Susan stood fully dressed with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Are we going to go to breakfast today or are you going to lay in bed all day?" She asked as she pulled my covers off.

"What time is it?" I asked slightly annoyed at Susan for interrupting my thoughts.

"Late, breakfast is almost over." She said and tugged at my arm. "Let's go! I'm starving."

I rolled out of bed and started to dress. "Why didn't you just go to breakfast without me?"

"I woke up early so I've been doing homework and waiting for you to wake up but I've lost my patience."

As soon as Susan and I entered the Great Hall a rather large barn owl carrying a Daily Prophet swooped down and began pecking at me. I rushed over to the Ravenclaw table removed the Prophet from the owl and placed a Knut into the pouch on its leg. It pecked my hand one last time before taking off.

"I told you we were late to breakfast." Susan said as I rubbed my hand.

I laid the still rolled up paper next to my coffee and scooped some bacon onto my plate. Melody Waters scooted down the bench to the space across from me.

"Do you believe it?" She asked me with a look of eager excitement on her face.

"I'm sorry, do I believe what?" I shook my head at her sudden conversation.

She gestured at the paper.

"Oh, I haven't even looked at it." I said absentmindedly rubbing the hand the barn owl pecked.

Melody's face fell.

"I'll…read it now…" I offered reaching for the paper and laying it out next to my plate.

On the front page in large bold letters was the title: THE BOY WHO LIVED. Underneath was a picture of a sleeping baby not much more than a year old. On the infant's forehead was a mark in a shape that resembled a bolt of lightning. The description under the picture read: Harry James Potter, age 15 months, becomes the first known survivor of the killing curse.

It felt like any other Halloween in Godric's Hollow but became a tragic night when an attack was brought on the home of James Potter and his wife Lily Potter (neé Evans). He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named targeted the Potters and their young son making the trip to Godric's Hollow himself. James put up a brave fight to hold off You-Know-Who from getting to his wife and young son. James, like many others, met his demise at the hands of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The Dark Lord then made his room to the nursery where Lily kept guard over her infant son, Harry, and made her last brave efforts to save her boy. No one could have expected that when You-Know-Who raised his wand at this child and the room filled with green light that Harry Potter would have been the one to come out victorious with his life with little more than a mark on the forehead. The spell cast rebounded and struck its caster rather than its intended recipient. Reports confirm that the Dark Lord has indeed vanished. It is yet unclear what caused this happy turn of events but one thing is certain; we can all expect great things from Harry Potter. The boy who lived.

I immediately read the article one more time. And then one more time again just to make sure I completely understood what was being reported. I looked up at Melody and her eyes rested on me eagerly and I was sure she had been staring at me the whole time I had been reading.

"So? Do you think it's true?" She blurted out as soon as I made eye contact.

I hesitated, "I would hope it's true…but I'm not stupid enough to whole heartedly believe it." Her eyebrows raised at me as if I was crazy, as if I was the first person to be apprehensive about accepting that You-Know-Who might really be gone. "Not just yet anyways. We've been tricked by him before. This would be something he would do wouldn't it? Get our hopes up that he was gone and let our guards down and then attack when we least expected it."

Melody started to look disgusted with me. "What about James and Lily and their son, you're saying that he killed them and let the baby live? That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, I don't know. It seems clever to me. Everyone knew that Lily and James were competent pair. He kills them and lets their infant son live to create a story of his defeat. Think about it the boy can't exactly tell anyone what really happened, he's just a baby."

Melody's jaw dropped and she stood up again and sat back down with her usual group of friends. She started talking to them and they all turned to look at me with the same accusatory looks on their faces. As if my scenario turned out to be true that it was my fault. I looked to Susan for back-up to what I said. She was staring at me with a forkful of eggs half way to her mouth; her eyes wide.

"What?" I demanded.

"Most people would have just stopped after saying they hoped it was true…but blimey, Ruby." She said lifting her eggs the rest of the way to her mouth.

I felt something hit my head and I looked and saw a piece of bread crust sitting the table. Melody and her friends started giggling.

"Oy, Waters, don't make me come over there." Susan shouted at them before standing up and dragging me with her out of the great hall; her eyes stabbing them with an icy glare.

It always surprised me how protective this girl was of the people she cared about. She was quiet and timid but if someone picked a fight with one of her friends she would react with the ferocity of a wild animal. It was one of the things I really liked about her.

"Where are we going?" I asked still being tugged along by my elbow.

"We need to study so we are going to get our books and head to the library. Your little trip yesterday really threw off my schedule for us."

We gathered our supplies. Susan needed less than I did because she actually worked on her homework the night before when I was thinking about Hogsmeade and she used time this morning when I was still asleep. The sight of her loading just one book and a single roll of parchment into her bag while I piled my Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions homework into my bag until it looked as though it was about to burst made me feel even more overwhelmed and behind than I already did.

Crippled by the weight of my bag I made my way to the library with Susan. The library was pretty well occupied but Susan and I were able to find a table near one of the far walls. I began laying my books out on the table and decided to do Transfiguration first. I always saved Potions for last as sort of a treat after I got the rest of my work done. Susan told me it was the oddest thing about me.

I got about five minutes of work done before someone came over to our table. "Can you believe the news about You-Know-Who?"

I shrunk in my chair at the memory of the last exchange I had about that topic. Susan was better at handling small talk than I was and the boy eventually went back to his own table. I was only able to work for another five minutes before someone else came over to talk about the same thing. Again I let Susan handle it while I pretended to continue working even though I couldn't concentrate with the talking.

I finally got into a good rhythm when Mark came over to the table. "Hey, can you believe what they are…"

I cut him off with a disgruntled groan and began roughly packing my books back into my bag. I made a dramatic show of flinging my bag over my shoulder, almost knocking myself over under the weight, and stomped to the silent part of the library. I heard Susan explaining to him what happened this morning. I walked quicker.

The silent part was the furthest space back and consisted of individual cubby desks with high sides to block out distractions. Each one was enchanted with its own sound proof bubble. Once a bubble had an occupant another person could not come in. I laid my bag on the floor and pulled out my Transfiguration homework and spread it out in front of myself. I reveled in the fact that they only sounds I could hear were my own breathing, the scratching of quill on my parchment, and the occasional page turn.

In the near complete silence and without interruptions I was finally opening my potions book. I breathed out a sigh of contentment as I settled in to finish the work for my still favorite subject despite the man who was now teaching. I penned the uses of and spent time discussing the vibrant blood-red color of Ptolemy. I even wrote a little about the wizard after whom it was named. By the time I was finished I had twelve and a half inches of parchment all about Ptolemy.

I rolled up my parchment and put it in my bag with my other completed homework but decided I wasn't quite ready to leave my silent bubble so I instead opened my potions book to a random page and began to read. Twenty odd pages later a paper airplane landed next to my book on the desk and unfolded itself. In shimmering gold text it read: Dinner?, as I considered the question scarlet words appeared saying: Tell me you are NOT reading your potions book again!, I turned in my chair to see Susan with an accusing look on her face with Mark standing next to her. I made a clumsy show of pretending to hide my book and Susan smiled.

I put my book back in my overstuffed bag and left my quiet bubble.

"I was wondering if you were going to skip dinner too." Susan said enthusiastically linking her elbow with mine. "I tried to get your attention for lunch but I couldn't get through the bubble. The paper airplane was Mark's doing. He's so good at little stuff like that." She looked admiringly at Mark. "How long have you been done with homework?"

I shrugged.

"So you've just been sitting there reading your potions book?" She inquired with a disgusted tone. "Honestly, Ruby!"

"I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever do that." I defended.

"No, I'm sure you're not. I'll bet Professor Snape did the same thing when he was in school." She bumped me playfully with her hip.

I scrunched my nose. "Don't compare me to him."

"Maybe you and Snivellus should get maaaaaarried."

I stopped walking. "Susan, you take it back!"

"Ruby and Snivellus sitting in a tree…" She teased.

I began stomping away.

"Ruby, stop! I'm only joking. I'm sorry. I'll be nice, I promise." Susan pled.

I accepted her apology and we walked the rest of the way to Ravenclaw Tower. Mark waited for us outside the portal while Susan and I put our bags away.

We were walking to the Great Hall in silence when I thought of something. "You know, if Professor Snape isn't at dinner again tonight I think I might have to accept your theory that he was one of the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade."

Susan and I laughed until we entered the Great Hall where were noticed that Snape was still missing from his place at the table. I looked nervously to Susan and back at the table where I noticed that Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid were all missing too.