When I awoke in a cushy bed in the hospital wing, I was sure I had only been asleep for a few seconds. There was nobody standing around me, just some pretty flowers on the table next to me, and Madame Pomfrey in the corner tending to a boy with large antlers coming out of his head. I opened my eyes and was surprised to not be on the floor of my History of Magic classroom, the drone of my teacher going in the background while Dennis and Janelly stared at me. I wondered how they got me up here so fast. I sat up, feeling completely fine except for a weird feeling that I was really heavy, and looked around the room.

"I am such an idiot," I groaned, causing Madame Pomfrey to look round at me and smile.

"Dear child, what did you do to yourself? Seems you ate a spiked pastry- spiked with a badly made sleeping draught, of course. If it hadn't been for the improper overdose of Mandrake leaves you could have been Petrified! Do you know who gave you that muffin?"

"How do you know I was eating a muffin?" I asked, still rather confused, and slightly insulted.

"Your friend told us, a certain Ms. Dumonde, I believe. She saw you eating it in class. Do you know who made it?"

"Uh, yeah, that was me," I said nervously, my entire face flushing red. "I made it- but I didn't mean to!" I added hastily, seeing the look on Madame Pomfrey's face. "We made sleeping draughts in Potions today- I made mine really badly, I spilled some into a muffin I was carrying around… The flask and the muffin were in the same pocket, see, and the flask broke… Why I ate the muffin anyway was a mystery, really." Madame Pomfrey shot me a funny glance before smiling again and telling me I could go, and the feeling of being made out of rocks would go away eventually.

"So I go back to History of Magic, then?" I asked, and I watched the smile wipe from Madame Pomfrey's face, only to be replaced by a confused look rather, I assumed, like mine.

"History, dear? No, it's Sunday. No one has classes now."

"But how? I was in History of Magic just a second ago, so it can't be Sunday," I pointed out, not understanding at all.

"It's a new day, Ms. Kinna," said Madame Pomfrey cheerily, shrugging. "You came in here on… let's see, Friday. Now it's Sunday. You may go to dinner." And she smiled and walked off.

"I missed almost the entire weekend?" I muttered to myself, still rather puzzled. "I am never eating a muffin again… Whether I've done dangerous things to it or not."

By the time I arrived at dinner all the students were just clearing out and most of the food was gone. Quickly, I grabbed as many of the rolls as I could, trying to prevent them from disappearing. While I was chugging rolls and pumpkin juice, over the in corner I noticed a girl who was sitting all alone. She hadn't left with everyone else and was the only person left in the hall besides me. She was intently reading a book, immersed in its pages, where little moving illustrations danced and twirled. I could see them from where I sat. I still hadn't fully gotten over the fact that it was Sunday, and that I had missed out on the whole weekend. How would I ever get all my homework done? I wondered wistfully if any of my teachers would accept the excuse of "I was in the hospital wing all weekend because I knocked myself out with a muffin." Probably not.

The girl closed her book abruptly and walked out of the room. I watched her leave. Her white-blonde hair was pulled back into an intricate design involving pigtails that I could see now that she had her back to me. I'd seen her around before, but I'd never paid that close attention to her. She was pretty quiet, and I didn't know whose house she was in. As soon as she was out of sight I went back to staring at where she had been a few seconds before. Suddenly my eyes caught something on the floor near her chair and my heart leapt into my throat.

She had left a book behind.

I scrambled up and over to where the gold-bound book lay closed on the floor. I picked it up and looked at the title. It was called Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them, written by Newt Scamander.

And then a tiny voice echoed through my head.

Remember how much trouble picking up random books has gotten you into, it said.

But I love books. I love adventure, I argued with it.

It's just a textbook, anyway. Wouldn't be any fun, but I wouldn't take any chances. Now put it down or go return it to that girl, the voice squeaked.

"Fine, I will," I said aloud, glad I was alone in the lunch hall. I walked through the doors, lugging my schoolbag behind me, while searching in the book for identification.

This book property of Solas Havana.

I looked up and saw a platinum pigtail whip around the corner. I chased it and turned the corner, running my hand along the stone wall for balance-

-and crashed right into the girl.

"Owww," she exclaimed, her schoolbooks splattering onto the floor. I fell backwards sharply, smashing my head against the corner. The book went skittering out of my hand. "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry!" I stammered, trying to get the little popping lights out of my eyes. "You forgot your book- here it is." I scooped it up off of the floor and handed it to her.

"I could have gotten it myself! I'm a very powerful witch and I have the gift of sight! I would have felt its missing presence anyway!"

I snorted despite the pain in my head. "Who told you that, Professor Trelawney?"

"No!" she roared. I fell silent. "It wasn't worth one lousy book! Now everything's ruined- everything! My schoolbag and books are all ruined!"

So much for her being quiet. "Um- if you're so powerful, couldn't you just fix them?"

"No! It wouldn't be the same!" I was aware of some people stopping and staring, but I got the feeling that I wasn't the main object of ridicule right now.

"Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes as she shoved her perfectly fine books into her perfectly fine bag. Now at least I knew what house she was in- only a Slytherin would act like that. The pain in my head subsided and I looked up, hearing a few people giggle and whisper things like "Hey, that girl was only trying to help," and "Wow, what a snob!" as the girl, Solas, stalked away. Slytherins, I thought sarcastically, oh, they're so nice. I watched the girl's robes flutter out behind her as she walked away, and suddenly my amusement turned to sickening disgust.

The girl's robes were blue-trimmed.

She was a Ravenclaw.