Trish looked over at Benjy. They'd been sitting in silence for a few seconds and now she was getting curious. He was a pretty okay looking guy, with light green eyes and short brown hair. And sure, he was a year younger, but that didn't really mean much, did it? And perhaps–

Okay. This dare was driving her insane.

"So, what brings you out here, anyways?" she asked.

He glanced over at her. "I come out here a lot of times at night," he divulged. "I'm a bit of an insomniac."

Trish winced. "That sucks. I love my sleep."

"Yes, most people do," he laughed. It was silent for a second longer before he asked, "I know we don't particularly know each other, but can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she agreed hesitantly, knowing what the question would be: Why did you ask Garwin to skinny dip? Or, th ever present, Do you want to skinny dip with me? Or, hey, why not even, Do you want to sleep with me? Trish had definitely heard that one a few times today.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked instead.

'Wh–what?" Trish asked, completely off-guard.

"I mean," he continued. "Regularly, I wouldn't find it weird if a bird was sitting around the Lake, but after what happened...well, I figured you'd want to stay holed up inside."

"I was," Trish told him. "But my roommate was driving me bonkers. I had to get out of there."

"So why here?"

"It's where my feet led me, I suppose," was the only answer she could give.

—x—

"So," Robert said once he and Eliza had pulled away from their hug. "What is our first order of business as friends?"

"What?" Eliza asked, still reeling from the major turn of events.

"Come on," he coaxed, bumping his hip to hers. "Now that we're friends, we've got to do something to commemorate this occasion. Like...toast!"

"We're going to eat toast...to commemorate our friendship?" Eliza asked wryly.

Robert shook his head with a grin. "No, we'll toast with champagne. Or, you know, fire whiskey. Whatever works."

Eliza smiled. "I think I can work with that."

The two made their way to the kitchens quietly. Once there, they were attacked by the small house elves.

"Miss! Mister! Is nice of you to be joining us! What is you wanting to eat?" the once in front asked, the bow on top of her head flopping over into her eyes.

"Um," Eliza started, shooting a look to Robert. "We'd like some champagne, if you have any."

"We do, we do! I is getting it for you now." The house elf hurried off while the others stared up at Eliza and Robert dreamily.

"Er..." Eliza started. "You can go about your business now."

The one in the front blinked up at her.

"Now," she added, getting a bit spooked. The house elves scurried and Robert looked over at her with a grin.

"Well, you're certainly kind," he commented.

"They kept staring," she mumbled. "I don't like being stared at."

The two sat down at one of the many small tables littered throughout the kitchens quietly. Robert surveyed the house elves with rapt attention while Eliza stared uncomfortably down at her bitten nails. She glanced up at him a few times, but his attention could not be swayed.

After a few tense moments, the house elf with the bow returned. "Here is your champagne," she said, carrying two glasses filled with the bubbly drink.

"Thank you," Robert accepted graciously. The house elf scurried off while he handed one of the champagne chutes to Eliza. "Here you are."

"Thank you," she muttered, accepting the drink.

He held his glass out to her, drawing himself up to his fullest height. "To us," he announced, holding out his glass to her. "To our new-found friendship and your ability to get over my stupidity." He grinned at her.

Eliza mustered up what was sure to look like a grimace. "I'll drink to that," she joked lamely, tapping her glass against his and taking a sip.

Robert downed his in a hurry and placed the drink lightly back on the table.

"Whoa there, cowboy," Eliza commented.

"Nasty stuff, that," he said, before hopping to his feet. "Well, come on then. Let's take a walk."

Eliza put down her still-full glass. "You're like a motor boat," she told him as she followed him out of the portrait. He called a 'thank you' over his shoulder at the house elves and laughed at Eliza's comment but didn't comment.

"You know," he said after a moment of silence. "They're quite fascinating, house elves."

Eliza groaned. "Please don't tell me you're one of those people."

He shot her an amused albeit slightly confused look. "Those people?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know," she said, gesturing with her hands. "Those people who trip over themselves for house elf freedom even though there's no indication that house elves dislike their duties."

He shook his head at her. "What a pureblood," he joked.

"I'm serious," Eliza continued. "Trish is like that and Jesus, is it obnoxious. She brought up the topic of clothes with one of them and it practically ripped its ear off getting away from her."

He chuckled, leading her over to the staircases. "Well, that's just one case. How do you know that all house elves feel the same way?"

She stopped walking. "Hey," she called after him. When he turned, she gestured to the doors to her right. "You wanna go outside?"

He looked down at his watch. "It's almost curfew," he said slowly.

Eliza grinned. "Come on, Robby," she persuaded. "Live a little."

—x—

Mandy and Sirius swayed in the air on the broom. After their fast riding, they'd slowed to a stop to watch the large moon in the sky.

"It's pretty," Mandy whispered to the boy behind her.

"It's almost full," he told her.

"Does that make it any less pretty?" she asked, turning herself to raise an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged. "Depends on your take on it," he said. "Do you like werewolves?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her and grinned.

She chuckled. "Please. I severely doubt that there are any werewolves around here, also known as Hogwarts, also known as the safest place to be right now."

"So, werewolves are dangerous then?" he debated.

"I wouldn't know," Mandy shrugged. "That is what you're told when you're young, though."

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, that and all about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."

"Why, Mr Black," Mandy joked. "You, in all your pureblood glory, have heard of the Easter bunny?"

His eyes darkened a bit but he grinned anyways. "Remus," he said, and she nodded knowingly in return. "What's your excuse?"

"My mum's a muggleborn and my dad's a Muggle."

"So, basically, you're like the ultra-Muggle witch?"

She grinned. "Something like that, yeah."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, looking up at the sky once more. The scenery here was so much different than Mandy's home back in London. You could see the stars here so perfectly, something that she desperately missed during the summertime. It was nice to finally be able to see them again.

"So, can I ask you a question?" Sirius asked, lazily steering them around aimlessly.

"If you must."

"What in Merlin's name," he started, "were you hanging from a wall for?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," she said.

"Almost like you killed yourself, you crazy lady," he commented.

"I was...helping a friend," she hedged.

"The crazy Slytherin," he filled in.

"That would be the one," she said, leaning back into him a bit more. Her eyes scanned the millions of trees below her to her right. The forest was larger from up here.

"I'm assuming Jess Morgan?" he asked.

She looked over at him. "How'd you know?"

"Well, first of all, she's insane." At this, Mandy laughed loudly. "Plus, you four House unifiers are almost as legendary as the Marauders." He grinned smugly at himself and dusted his shoulders.

Mandy shoved him. "Whatever!"

He chuckled. "Really, though. You guys are insane."

"We're unique," she rectified, lifting her chin.

"Eh," he muttered. "I don't like Slytherins."

"Or Hufflepuffs, or Ravenclaws?"

"Eh," he said again. It was quiet for a moment before he asked, "So which one of them likes me, anyways?"

Mandy blushed deeply. She had forgotten that she'd told him that. Her friends didn't seem to mind (they were also immersed in their own lives, anyways) but it only made her job of making him love her a bit harder.

She coughed loudly, banging against her chest. "I never said it was one of them."

"But I'll bet it is," he said.

"You," she said, her eyes shifting uneasily, "will just have to find out on your own."

—x—

She had to have been lying there for at least twenty minutes before he came. His roommates had been easy to get rid off–just a little pocket changed tossed their way and they were gone. However, Mandy liked to talk a lot while she was hanging from a ledge. And blah stinkin' blah about her falling, and then finally–finally–Paul was there.

His first words?

"Oh, my God!" His arm immediately went to shield his eyes from the sight in front of him. A grimace was lying across his face. His cheeks must have been as red as Jess's "Really Red" (lame name, if you asked her) nail polish.

For, there, lying across his bed, was Jess Morgan in all her naked glory.

"Hey, babe," she purred to him, propping herself up on her elbows.

"What are you doing?" he practically screamed.

"Well," she said as if telling a conspiracy. "I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?"

"No!" He was definitely yelling now. "No, I don't! What are you doing in here? How did you get in here? Is this what the guys meant about a surprise? Why are you naked? I have a girlfriend!"

"Was that last one a question, too?" she asked innocently, standing up slowly from the bed.

"Sit down!" he commanded when he heard the noise. "Sit back down!" He motioned with his hands for her to get as far away from him as possible.

Jess ignored him as she sidled up closer to him. "Don't deny this, Paul." She laid a finger on his arm and dragged it down.

He jumped away from her and slammed himself against the door behind him, as far as he could go without seeing anything. "Of course I'm denying this! I've got girlfriend. Alice," he stressed.

"Forget Alice," Jess commanded.

"Put your clothes on," he shot back.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why?" he demanded.

"Because I threw them out the window," she said lightly. It was true, too. The moment she got into his room and his roommates were gone, they'd gone straight out the window. She had figured she wouldn't need them.

"Why would you do something like that?" he asked.

"Because what we're going to do doesn't require clothes," she whispered in his ear.

He pushed himself farther into the door. "What we're doing is arguing and I'm positive that requires clothing," he responded.

"Not always."

"Get out," he told her. The force of his voice made her take a small step back but her pride wouldn't allow her to leave.

"What for?" she asked, going along with her act. "You know you want this. I'm not leaving."

He growled under his breath, groping the wall behind him for the door knob. Once he found it, he slid himself out, saying, "Fine. I'll leave."

The door slammed in her face. She pulled back and balanced on the balls of her feet, blinking at the sight before her.

This hadn't happened to her before. Never in her entire life (ever!) had she offered a man sex and he had declined (eh-ver). Is this what it felt like? Being rejected? Was this how it was for everyone else?

Jess kept blinking. Once her eyes started to go blurry, she looked down at herself. She hadn't asked herself this question before in her life but–what was wrong with her? What it her body? Her hair? Her personality?

She sighed angrily and stomped over to the window. "Mandy!" she screeched.

—x—

Trish stood uneasily at the edge of the Lake. Her stomach was filled with knots and her hands were sweaty enough to start an ocean. How had she gotten herself into this? Why was Jess so stupid? And why, why, why had she agreed to this in her eleven year old innocence?

"You coming?" Benjy asked her.

He was in the water. His clothes were on the ground next to her. He was in the water naked.

"It's warm!" he coaxed.

She was about to skinny dip with Benjy Fenwick.

She gulped loudly, swiping her palms against her thighs. "Is it, now?" she squeaked.

He grinned at her. "Yeah, it is."

She was so permanently embarrassed that her lame comment and his apparent amusement to it didn't even faze her. The only thing that was fazing her was that she was expected to get into the water with him. Naked.

And he wouldn't stop watching her.

"Come on," he said, swimming closer to her. She bit her lip anxiously. "This is what you wanted, right?"

No. This was not what she wanted. This was that Jess wanted her to do. This was what her friends wanted her to do. All she wanted to do was curl up under her covers and never come back out. This was the exact opposite of what she wanted to do.

"You scared?" Benjy asked, a bit taunting.

Trish bit her lip harder. She had to do this. No way was she going through with any of Jess's consequences. And no way was she going to chicken out when he was already in the water.

Her hands inched to her shirt. His grin widened. She peeled it off. It widened even more.

He threw himself onto his back, floating there and looking up at the sky. "That's more like it," he said.

Trish averted her eyes from his naked form. As quickly as she could while he wasn't looking, she took off the rest of her clothes and waded into the Lake with him.

"You lied!" she yelped, getting farther in so it covered her to her shoulders even though her instincts were yelling at her to get out of the water and go home. "This water's freezing!"

Benjy smiled and swam closer to her. "Well, I had to get you in here somehow."

"You could have just told me to get in," she chattered, hugging her body for an ounce of warmth.

"I had been for the past twenty minutes."

Her cheeks reddened a bit. "I was getting ready," she defended herself.

"Cold?" he asked, a small smile on his face as he watched her hug herself.

"Freezing, obviously," she muttered.

"Well, let me warm you up." And with that very cheesy, obviously rehearsed line, his lips pushed themselves onto hers. She had the distinct feeling of being an object. So much for Benjy Fenwick being a good guy.

His slimy tongue entered her mouth. One hand went behind her back while the other stayed by his side, slightly grazing her leg.

She hoped he couldn't tell she hadn't shaved in a few days.

—x—

Eliza stared while Robert talked. He'd only been talked for a few seconds but her mind was already wandering. She watched as his lips moved to form words. They were a bit small, and she didn't really like it. His nose was a bit angular, and she didn't really like that either. However, his eyes were a nice blue. She focused on those for a few seconds. It was then that she noticed he had stopped talked.

She smile. "Yeah, totally," she said, attempting to act as if she was interested in the conversation.

Robert smiled. "But then I went to my little brothers baseball game," he continued. "He's amazing at it, you know? He's only eleven and he's not coming here because he's a Muggle, but I'm so proud of him..."

He kept talking but Eliza focused on his eyes again.

He went to his little brothers baseball games. He was smiling and attentive in conversation. He admitted to being proud of someone.

How was he so nice? Couldn't he tell she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him? And didn't he know she was using him?

"Eliza?" he asked.

She shook her head wildly. "Sorry, what?"

"Am I boring you?" he teased.

She shook her head again. "No, no, I'm sorry, I just zoned." She shifted on the bench they were sitting on so she was completely facing him. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you had any siblings yourself."

"Oh, no,"she answered, her attention swaying once more."But Trish, Jess, and Mandy might as well be. We've known each other all our lives."

"Oh, really?" he asked. "That's so awesome, I..."

And the zoning continued...

—x—

Jess scurried her way down the rope she'd just conjured herself. The one that she'd used previously was laying strewn by her clothes and Mandy was no where in sight.

"Where did she go?" she grumbled, glancing around her surroundings. She didn't see Mandy anywhere nor did she see anything else other than darkness.

Finally, she reached the ground. She vanished the two ropes for no particular reason and grabbed her clothes. Just as she was about to stuff her legs into her school skirt, there was a sound behind her. Just a slight rustle. But it was enough to make her paranoia rear its head.

She froze, one leg lifted to put in her skirt. Her breathing stopped as she strained her ears to hear anymore.

Was it just her or was there breathing behind her as well.

Alright, J. Stay calm. On the count of three, you're going to–

A growl broke her train off thought.

Three! She thought wildly, throwing herself into a run in the opposite direction. More rustles behind her, more breathing–that thing was following her!

Her instincts were screaming for her to book it out of there. Despite that, she needed to see what it was that was chasing her. Call it her Slytherin morbid curiosity, but she knew that she needed to know and she needed to know now.

She took a quick glance behind her. All that she could see was two glinting yellow eyes before she fell to the ground.

Her mouth took in a bunch of grass while her knees scraped against the ground. She pounded her fists and jumped up as fast as she could. "This is so horror movie!" she screeched, trying to find the best place to go. The doors to the castle were in the opposite direction from where she was running. She could do a big loop of the castle, but that was so long and she was so not in shape for that. But where else was there to go?

"Mother fucker!" she yelled desperately. "What the hell did I do to deserve this, God?"

You're trying to steal Paul from Alice, for one, a voice sounding scarily like Trish said in her head.

"Oh, suck it, Trish!" she yelled out loud.

A tree was coming up on her right. Not giving herself any time to second guess her plan (a moronic one, just like the last one she came up with) she threw herself behind it and gasped for breath.

Nothing whizzed past her. Nothing came and ate her alive. Nothing happened.

There was no sound.

"I," she gasped, "am so dead." Preparing herself, she inched her way around the tree to take a look at where the thing would be coming from.

There was nothing behind her.

She whipped her head around.

There was nothing in front of her, either.

She glanced in all directions.

Everything looked normal.

"I'm going crazy," she whispered.

Jess took a tentative step away from the tree. When nothing attacked her, she took another one. The fear was now settling in–this was the eye of the storm, wasn't it?–and she started sprinting again.

Nothing good could come from this. She was still running in the opposite direction of the doors to Hogwarts. She was coming up by the Lake, when she saw–were those...people?

—x—

Trish kept her eyes open while Benjy kissed her. This kiss was going down as the Worst Kiss of Her Life–and that included her first kiss, the one with Lucas Skylar, and he had a gland condition.

How does one get so bad at kissing? Trish wondered, sighing against Benjy's mouth.

He must have taken the sigh as a good thing because he pushed himself closer to her.

Of course, she thought, Just when I thought this couldn't get worse.

"Hello!" a voice suddenly called out. "Hello! Whoever you are, you have to get out of the lake right now! Hello!"

Benjy pulled away from her, sighing angrily. "Listen, lady," he started. "I don't give a rats ass about your prefect duties, I'm in the middle of–"

"I'm not a prefect!" the voice screamed. "There's something out here! You have to get out of the lake!"

Trish squinted into the darkness. "Jess?"

"Trish! Trish, come on!" Jess screamed. "Get out of the–are you skinny dipping? Go, T!"

Trish started wading closer to shore. Once she reached it, Jess jogged over to her. "I didn't know you had it in you," Jess whispered. "Who's the lucky–"

"What's out here?" Trish interrupted her, grabbing her clothes from the ground. "Why–Jess, are you naked?"

Jess looked down at herself unabashed. "So are you," she shot back.

Trish clutched the clothes to her wet body while Benjy came up behind her. "Can we help you with something?" he asked Jess.

"Benjy Fenwick?" she asked, squinting at him before shaking her head at herself and glancing over her shoulder. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. The point is there's–"

They heard a scraping of something behind Jess, who froze and widened her eyes at Trish. Whatever was out there exhaled loudly and they could hear it taking off.

"I told you!" Jess yelled when all three of them broke into a run.

They could hear it following them now. Jess didn't dare look back again. This night was going down in history.

"Shit, Jess, what'd you get yourself into now?" Trish demanded as they ran. Benjy was a few steps ahead of them being the Quidditch player that he was, and even Trish was ahead of Jess.

"Me?" Jess screeched. "You're the one skinny dipping with Benjy Fenwick of all people!"

Trish huffed. "It was for the dare and you know it!"

"I can't even–Slow down, will you?" she screamed.

—x—

His eyes had already lost their luster. She'd only been staring at them for five minutes, maybe ten or fifteen, or–fine it was a half an hour–and they were significantly less blue than they were at the beginning of the night.

And he was still talking about his little brother.

"Joe's a really good kid, you know," he was saying now. "Doesn't get in trouble like I did when I was that age." He chuckled, but Eliza could not remember one instance when he had gotten in trouble. "And have I told you how good he is at baseball?"

"Yeah," Eliza said tonelessly. She sighed and glanced down at her nail beds. "You told me."

"Well, he's really good," Robert said. "His team went to the championship last year and I was so proud–"

Blah, blah, blah. That was like the eighth time he'd said he was proud of his little brother, Joe.

"Please, for the love of God, tell me that isn't Eliza!" someone yelled from behind her.

Eliza whirled around, her heart jumping at the chance of getting out of this conversation. Not to get her wrong, Robert was an infinitely nice guy, but holy shit was he boring.

"Who's that?" Eliza called out. Jess. Mum. Tree with talking abilities. Anyone...

"It's us!" someone yelled again. Three figures were starting to get closer to where she was sitting and the only thing she could tell was that they were all holding something weird and whoever was calling to her sounded vaguely like Trish...

A disgruntled noise was made. "E, get up! Jesus, you need to start running!" And that sounded like Jess...

"It's Trish and Jess!" the other voice yelled.

Which made total sense.

"And Benjy!" a male voice yelled as well, which didn't make too much sense but Eliza didn't need to dwell on it. She stood and watched the three approach her and full speed. Robert stood next to her.

It was then that she noticed something large behind them.

"Is that..." she started at the same time Robert asked, "Are they..."

It was then that the three passed them and it was then that they started to run.

—x—

"You know...I don't think I thanked you for catching me," Mandy said, directing her and Sirius in smalls circles and zig-zags on his broom.

Sirius grinned. "It was implied, I suppose," he commented.

She did a slow loop-di-loop. "Well, still. Thank you. I would have broken my arm or something. But they can fix those easily now," she mocked.

He looked at her oddly. "Who wants to break their arms?"

"That's what I said!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "But no, no one wants to get me another rope or anything, just because they're too busy being naked and being a ho."

Now he was looking at her really oddly. "What the hell does Jess do in her free time?" he asked her incredulously.

"Well, you know, Slytherins and all that..." Mandy started, but she noticed that Sirius' attention was no longer on her. He was looking down at something on the ground with his brow furrowed and his lips slightly puckered.

"What're you looking at?" she asked, glancing down as well.

It was then that she noticed the five people tearing through the lawn of Hogwarts. One of them seemed to be screeching something while two of the others kept pushing each other.

"Are they...high?" she asked.

Sirius snorted. "You think?"

"Should we..." she hesitated, "go see?"

"No way," he denied. "It's probably Jack Turner and his band of idiots."

"Yeah, you're probably–"

"Stop pushing me!" one of the people down below yelled.

They sounded kind of familiar...

"You!" another one of them screamed.

"Oh, God," Mandy said to herself.

"What?"

Mandy sighed, rubbing her temples. "Well, it's not Jack Turner, that's for sure."

"How do you know?"

Mandy didn't respond, instead aiming the broom towards the ground. Sirius kept a hold on her from behind and she sighed loudly one more time.

She pulled up next to the five people, keeping pace with them on the broom.

"What are you idiots doing?" Mandy demanded, looking over to stare at her friends. Her stupid, stupid friends. She expected this from Jess. She could picture this for Trish. But Eliza was completely out of her element, and who were those other two people?

"Mandy?" Eliza yelled, glancing over at her. "Oh, Mandy! You have no idea how glad I am to see you!"

"What are you–" she went to ask again.

"Lemme on that broom!" Jess screeched, hysterical, attempting to grab the back of the broom with her fingertips. "Lemme on!"

"Chill out!" Mandy yelled. "Stop running and we'll talk!"

"Can't stop running," someone else said, obviously male and obviously completely out of breath. "Can't let it get us."

"It?" Sirius asked. "What's 'it'?"

"It!" Trish yelled. "The thing that's been following us for the past half an hour!"

Mandy sighed again while Sirius mumbled, confused, behind her. She pulled the broom to an abrupt stop and he slammed into her back. She stepped off the broom and Sirius slipped it out from under his legs.

"Guys!" Mandy yelled. "Come back! Nothing's chasing you!"

It was Eliza that stopped first. She must have been at least forty years away, but she slowed to a stop and jogged back to where Mandy was waiting impatiently.

"There's nothing," she whispered. "Guys!" she yelled. "There's nothing!"

The others were persuaded to a stop. Once they were all together, Mandy surveyed them, exasperated.

"Oh, jeez!" Sirius yelled, lifting his hands to cover his eyes. "Dude, put some clothes on!"

Benjy sheepishly covered his hands over his goods, but he had a comeback anyways. "Whatever, man," he said. "Can't help it if I was getting some when this happened.

Trish snorted. "If that was your idea of getting some then you really suck at it."

"What? You were so digging it."

"If you mean wanting to dig my own grave, then yes."

"How could you–"

"Guys!" Eliza yelled. "This isn't exactly the place. That thing is still out there."

"But where?" Jess asked, glancing anxiously.

"I don't know," Eliza stated calmly. "But I haven't heard anything in a while."

"Okay, can I just ask?" Sirius piped up. "Why are you three naked?" He pointed to Jess, Trish, and Benjy. "Were you guys having some weird orgy thing, or–"

"No!" Trish yelped. "No." She was crossing her arms and legs as well as one could while standing to cover herself up. "Benjy and I were skinny dipping."

Sirius gaze shifted over to Jess, who lifted her nose defiantly. "It is none of your business," she replied, not being as prudent as Trish and not bothering to cover up.

"Well, why are you running?" Mandy asked.

"There's something big out there," Jess answered. "It's been following me for almost an hour, and it wont go away."

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

"We don't know," Trish answered.

"I just want to get inside," another male voice said, drawing attention to himself for the first time.

"Robert?" Mandy asked, incredulous.

He whimpered.

"Okay, we–"

Something growled from behind them. It didn't take more than a second for Trish, Jess, Robert, Benjy, and Eliza to take off running. Sirius and Mandy both glanced behind them only to be met with a pair of gleaming yellow eyes.

It didn't take long for them to take off running either.

—x—

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes before Mandy glanced over her shoulder and saw nothing chasing her anymore. They were all now hiding crouched behind a clump of bushes and conversing quietly.

"What do we do now?" Benjy whispered.

"We find a way inside," Eliza answered.

"But how?" Sirius asked. "It's at least a quarter of a mile to the doors."

Jess sighed and pushed her face into the grass while Robert whispered–the only thing he seemed able to do lately.

"Okay, we need a plan," Trish commanded.

"No shit," Jess mumbled. Trish nudged her and glared.

"What if we..." Mandy started, her eyes roaming the vicinity for something of use. Twigs. Robert's almost dead body. The broom. The clothes that were currently not being used.

Wait a minute...

"The broom," Mandy whispered, excited. "We can fly there."

Sirius shook his head with a grimace. "We can't all fit."

"Nose goes!" Jess exclaimed, clamping a finger over her nose at the same time Mandy and Trish turned to each other with their fists out ready for a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

"No," Sirius vetoed. "We can't just leave someone here."

"I wouldn't mind," Eliza muttered.

"We just need to get to the doors. Then we're home free," Mandy said.

"I say we run it," Benjy said.

"You really want to run after all this?" Sirius asked. "Aren't you aching?"

"It's better than being eaten alive," was Benjy's response.

"Ahem."

"Who says we'll really get eaten alive?" Trish demanded.

"You haven't been running from it literally all night long," Jess shot at her.

"So you ran like ten minutes longer, big deal."

"Ahem."

"It could be right behind us," Benjy whispered.

"Shut up, Benjy," Trish demanded.

"Ahem!"

They instantly quieted. As if one, they all turned slowly behind them. The looks were classic: Trish with a bright red face, Jess with a grimace, Benjy with squinty eyes, Robert's whimpers kicking up in volume, Eliza with a small sigh and a strained face, Sirius sucking on his teeth, and Mandy's mouth in a small 'o.'

Because Professor McGonagall was standing behind them. In her bathrobe. Wand pointed. Angry expression.

"Shit," Jess whispered.

"You might want to stand," McGonagall snapped.

All of the teenagers rose to their feet. Robert glanced around nervously, still whimpering.

"Might I inquire what you are doing?" McGonagall asked.

"Well," Eliza started, "See, Professor..."

McGonagall shielded her eyes suddenly. "Please tell me you're all clothed!" she shrilled.

"Well...not exactly," Trish hedged.

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "In all my years of teaching, I have never..."

Mandy lowered her head for two reasons. One, she was sick of seeing Jess's naked body in her peripheral vision. Two, she didn't think she could watch McGonagall's face get all blotchy like it always did when she was mad. However, when she looked down, she realized that no longer was there someone standing to her right. All that was left was a broom.

"Guys," she said, interrupted her Head of House. "Where's Sirius?"