Thanks to LouiseBlackweather for spellchecking!
"Fey?"
"Mmmm?" Fey rolled over in bed and pulled back the curtain. Mara's head peeked out from the bed next to hers, the green quilt pulled up around her. Tonight was a big change from the night before, the mood had been dampened by prospect of the upcoming Transfigurations test and the horrible, cold weather.
Mara's large green eyes contrasted brightly against her tangle of black curls, her delicate features appearing sharper in the dim light.
"I can hear something, Fey."
Fey groaned silently; she was too tired after that day's gruelling Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson to talk to Mara right then.
"It's probably the nargles." Fey referred to the strange creatures Mara was always blaming anything mysterious or unusual on, hoping she'd just roll over and go to sleep.
"No Fey, I really can hear something."
Fey was about to come up with a witty retort when a glance at her friend told her she was being perfectly serious.
"I'll go look." Fey swung her legs over the side of her bed and, pushed aside the heavy embroidered curtain and made her way around Mara's bed to the door. Making sure none of the other girls were awake, she pushed it open and stepped out onto the small landing that overlooked the common room. A giant tapestry of the Slytherin emblem was displayed on the other side of it.
Rubbing her hands together to try and stay warm, she strained her ears. A soft sound, like crackling flames, was coming from the opposite side of the landing, but there was nothing but a sold stone wall there. Fey made her way across the small expanse of space and, slowly reaching out, placed the tip of her wand on the stone. It picked up every vibration, and if Fey had thought the sound was soft, the vibrations were anything but that. They jerked up her arm violently, caused her hand to tremble and her heart beat to quicken.
And suddenly, they stopped. Fey slowly turned to the side of the landing that looked over the common room, her right hand on the railing, the other extended forward, gripping her wand. "Lumos," she whispered.
The common room looked as tidy and unwelcoming as ever. It appeared even more hostile at night, without light to brighten the dark oil paintings and morbid black furniture.
Her head jerked to the left as she heard footsteps. She realised only too late that they were descending the boys' stairs to the common room, and before she could say 'knox' she was staring into the same dark brown eyes of the boy she'd found herself staring at the day before, when they'd both been doing their potions homework.
"Fey isn't it?" his voice sounded double the age of his body.
"Fey." she confirmed, wondering how he knew her name. But then again, he seemed like the type of person that would like to know everything about everyone.
"Knox," she whispered as she tiptoed back into her room. Mara's eyes widened when she saw her.
"Who were you talking too?" she whispered.
"Just another boy who came out to see what the noise was. Someone left the fire burning. We put it out. That's probably what you could hear." Fey smiled warmly at Mara. No need to worry her; if the rumours were true, she had enough to worry about at home. Mara smiled back but Fey could tell it was forced, and that Mara felt bad about being such a pain.
Fey sighed as she slid back into bed. Now that she thought about it, the boys' bathrooms were what lay on the other side of the wall she had heard the sound through. Fey told herself to think nothing of it, someone, probably that boy, had probably left a tap running. Worrying about strange sounds at night wasn't going to help her pass her Transfigurations test the next day.