"Miss Goodwill, wake up, Miss Goodwill!"

The squeaky voice startled me out of my sleep. I opened my eyes sleepily, and then –

"Argh!" I cried. Someone – something – with very large eyes was breathing into my face. It moved away from the creature, and in the dim light, I realised it was only a house elf. I breathed a sigh of relief while it starred back at me with wide and worried eyes.

"Twinky is sorry!" the house elf squeaked, "Twinky only wishes to wake up Miss Goodwill, she is being called by Head Boy! Head boy is wanting her and other prefects to be in the common room in fifteen minutes."

This early in the morning? I thought. I looked out of the window; it was still a little dark outside.

"Are you sure, Twinky?" I asked her kindly, hoping to put her at ease.

""Twinky is sure, Miss Goodwill!" she replied happily, "Twinky must go now and wake other prefects. Good bye, Miss Goodwill!"

The house elf toppled out of the room. I watched her leave, bemused that anyone could be so active this early in the morning. Yawning loudly, I got out of bed, a quick shower and went to meet Percy in the common room. Trust Percy to wake us up this early! Talk about slave-labour.

Most of the prefects were already in the common when I arrived, all looking very sleepy, except for Percy who looked strangely awake, his Head Boy badge glistening on his chest.

"What did you wake us up for, Percy?" I muttered, as I slouched down into an armchair, "We stayed up until three thirty last night, couldn't you let us sleep?"

Percy straightened up his back and said proudly, "As prefects you are expected to serve this school at any hour of the day. And anyway, I didn't call this meeting, Professor Dumbledore did. He wants all prefects and Head Boy and Girl to meet him in the staff room for a special meeting."

"Stop being so proper, Percy, it's too early in the morning," I said. A few of the prefects (mainly those who were not still half asleep) laughed, and I added, "Anyway, why does Dumbledore want us all for? And at this time of the day?"

"I can only assume it has something to do with Black," Percy replied, just as the last prefect stumbled sleepily into the common room, "Ah, excellent, alright everyone, let's go."

By the time we reached the staff room I was feeling more awake, perhaps it was because of the long walk, or perhaps I was just curious about why Dumbledore would have gathered us all there, especially so early in the morning. Percy opened the door and let us all in. The room was long, with a table stretching along the middle of the room. The prefects of the other houses were already there, standing along the walls, some of them seated. Professor Dumbledore was standing at the far end of the table, wearing magnificent deep purple robes, and a few teachers were also present, Professor Lupin included. He was seated half way along the table, chatting seriously with Professor Flitwick. His lips were slightly stained from the coffee he was drinking; they looked darker, contrasting against his pale skin, though it only made him look more handsome. I remembered the conversation he over-heard two days ago, and looked away from him hastily, hoping that I was not blushing.

"Welcome," said Professor Dumbledore, smiling warmly at us as we stood along the wall next to the Ravenclaw prefects, "Right, that's everyone here. I do apologise for having you all out of bed so early, but this needed to be arranged before classes start, and is the only time that you would all be available."

A few of the students exchanged looks with each other; some expressions suggested they would rather be in bed, others, whose expressions probably reflected my own, seemed curious to hear what Professor Dumbledore had to say. The teachers were watching him curiously too; they seemed to be as uninformed as the rest of us.

"As I am sure you are all aware, last night, Sirius Black managed to breaking to the Gryffindor common room," he paused, looking grim, and then said, "What you may not know is that it is the belief of the ministry that Black had escaped from Azkaban with the intention of murdering Harry Potter."

I gasped, clasping my hand to my mouth, as did a few other students. Black was after Harry? Poor Harry, he must be horrified! And he had come so close last night…

"He came very close to achieving his objective last night – if it weren't that Black had chosen the wrong bed, Harry might have been killed."

There was a moment's silence as everyone took in what Professor Dumbledore had just said. I glanced at Professor Lupin; he was starring unseeingly at his coffee cup. He looked worried; I knew it must be hard for him, believing that his once best friend was after his dead best friend's son. And yet, even after last night, I still was not sure. Was Black really guilty? I kept mulling over all the doubts and issues my uncle had raised with me; the more I thought about it, the more confused I became. But there was no denying that, innocent or not, attacking the Fat Lady and standing over a student's bed with a knife were not acceptable act.

"The security in the castle is being tightened as we speak, but we also need the help of our prefects and Head Boy and Girl," continued Professor Dumbledore, nodding curtly towards the students in the room, "We will be increasing the number of hours of patrol after curfew. For the fifth and seventh years amongst you, you will still only be needed to patrol the corridors for one hour a week, I do not wish to over burden you just before your OWLs and NEWTs, however, the sixth years, I will kindly be asking you to do two hours of patrolling a week. Also, for your safety, you will no longer be patrolling the corridors with your fellow house prefect of the same year; instead each prefect will be pair with a teacher to patrol with. The new patrol timetable and pairing," he paused, flicking his wand, "is on the board."

On the blackboard behind him, neat, curly handwriting had appeared, showing the times and pairings for each students. My eyes scanned the list, and I finally found my name. My time slot was Friday nights, from eight to nine o'clock. That's good, I thought, I rarely study on Fridays anyway. I shifted my eyes towards the next list to see which teacher I had been partnered with. I finally found my name, and when I did, I could not believe what I was reading.

Eek! No. No way. This is not happening. I hurriedly looked at Professor Dumbledore, who I noticed was watching me, smiling serenely. He nodded towards me, and then said, to the students in general, "The pairings are also final, I'm afraid, and they cannot be changed, unless they clash with extracurricular activities such as Quidditch practise."

He did this on purpose! I thought, outraged. But how could he know that my student-teacher relationship Professor Lupin was on the rocks? Or perhaps this is his attempt to force me to talk to my Professor? My eyes flickered towards Professor Lupin, who was still scanning the pairings list. His eyes paused as he found his name, and he looked slightly surprised when he saw that I was his partner. He looked over at Professor Dumbledore, raising an eyebrow. Professor Dumbledore simply smiled, his eyes twinkling. Professor Lupin looked around the room; I knew that he was looking for me. My heart raced, and then finally, he found me, and smiled kindly. I smiled back nervously, hoping beyond hope that he was not thinking of the conversation he had over heard. No, I thought to myself, don't think about that, or do you want to look like you've had your cheeks replaced with tomatoes?

Everyone then stood up to leave, so I followed suit, but my mind was lost in thought. One hour. One whole hour, just me and Professor Lupin. Relax, I told myself, just relax, deep breath, it will be fine, just make sure if you run into a boggart again, it transforms into his worst fear, not yours…