The rest of September passed without incident, other than the AA celebrating Hermione's thirteenth birthday and Harry, while walking down a corridor after dinner one day, hearing a voice saying what sounded like, "Come...come to me...Let me rip you...Let me tear you...Let me kill you..." When he jumped in surprise and explained what he heard this however, his friends all informed him that they hadn't heard anything.

"Well, other than our conversation about how to deal with Lockhart's stupid classes," Dean amended. "And none of us certainly said anything about wanting to rip, tear, or kill Lockhart or anyone else, though Ron did say that he would like chuck Lockhart's books in the bin and burn them into ashes."

Hermione, who had been arguing with Ron over how book burning ought to be a crime, even if the books were written by someone as idiotic as Lockhart, still looked highly disapproving. "Seriously, no book should ever be burned."

"Oh, what about some of the books the Ministry confiscated that Dad told me about?" Ron retorted. "There was one that burned your eyes out. Anyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading. You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And -"

"All right, Ronald, I've got the point," interrupted Hermione. "Though perhaps burning cursed books should only be used as a last resort if the curses on those books can't be removed.

Harry sighed. "All right, so none of you heard the voice that I did. Then does that mean that I was hearing things?"

"Probably," answered Daphne. "Maybe you're just really think the plot to be carried out no matter what, even though the Professor Dumbledore's been warned and the staff are on guard, and you imagined a voice saying that they wanted to rip and kill someone."

Harry accepted this explanation and put the incident out of his mind. However, a week later, on the first of October, he heard the voice again, saying pretty much the same thing it had the first time. This time, only his Slytherin friends were with him, and they didn't hear the voice, only the sound of their footsteps and their conversation about the Potions essay that Professor Snape had assigned that day. Harry, feeling frustrated, wondered if he was starting to go crazy, since hearing voices that nobody else could was not good in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, and debated telling his godparents about it. He finally decided that if he did hear the voice again, he would do so.

The next day, Harry completely forgot about the incident, as another matter caught his attention. Luna Lovegood walked into the Great Hall with Liam at breakfast time and took seats at the Gryffindor table, where the AA was sitting as well. Lavender happened to look down and then exclaimed, "Luna! Why aren't you wearing shoes?"

Liam, looking startled, turned to glance down at Luna's feet. "Why are you barefoot, Luna? I know you sometimes like to do so in the warm weather, but you never do so in cold weather or when out in public."

Luna replied serenely, "I couldn't find my shoes this morning. I suppose the nargles took them and hid them."

Ginny, who happened to have walked in with Colin and overheard the response, exclaimed, "You couldn't find your shoes!? I don't think nargles were involved in their disappearance. And not because I don't believe in their existence. It's because Agatha and Darren are still rude to you."

The AA frowned and Anthony and Hermione got up and went over to the Ravenclaw table. Agatha Foster and Darren Twycross maintained that they had no idea that Luna couldn't find her shoes, though they also added that she was such a silly and loony person that she must have misplaced her shoes herself. Penelope Clearwater and Robert Hillard said that they would keep a lookout for the shoes and a closer eye on the two troublemakers.

"Well, you can't go around school barefoot, Luna," said Hermione upon her return to the Gryffindor table. "It's gotten cold out and parts of the castle are drafty."

Parvati nodded and asked Luna's shoe size. As Susan also had the same size, she stuffed her last bite of toast in her mouth and then rushed down to the Hufflepuff common room to grab a spare pair of shoes to lend to the younger girl. When she returned, she saw that Liam was now quite upset. He was going through his schoolbag and had just discovered that his Transfiguration and Charms homework was missing. As he had gone over the homework the previous night to make sure that he'd written down the correct answers and then placed it in his schoolbag, there was no reason for it to suddenly go missing.

"What am I going to do?" he wailed, his eyes looking frantic behind his glasses. "I've got Charms and Transfiguration today! I've never missed turning in an assignment before and having my homework go missing isn't going to be a good enough excuse to show up in class without it! Especially as I can't prove that I did it before it went missing!"

"Calm down, Liam," Terry said. "Why don't you go back to your dorm room and check that you didn't accidentally leave it there?"

"There's no point!" snapped Liam. "Before I came down for breakfast I made sure that none of the stuff I need for classes today was lying around. I've always done that, and didn't need the prefects suggesting it to us to cut down on our having to go back to our common room for things we forgot." He glanced at the Ravenclaw table and his eyes narrowed. "I think I know what happened to my homework," he said grimly and marched over to Darren, who was snickering about something with Agatha.

Words were exchanged and Liam clearly lost his temper, for he shouted, "DARREN TWYCROSS, STOP LYING! I KNOW YOU TOOK MY HOMEWORK!"

Professor McGonagall left the staff table and was at the Ravenclaw table in a flash, Professor Flitwick not far behind. "What's going on here?" the former demanded.

"My homework!" Liam snapped. "I just checked my bag and the assignments for Charms and Transfiguration aren't there. I know I put my homework in my bag last night, and I checked to make sure that nothing I needed for classes was lying around in the dorm room before coming down for breakfast."

"Mr. Stanley, what makes you think that Mr. Twycross is behind your missing homework?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"He and Agatha Foster were laughing about it when I realized that my homework was missing. Besides which, they're already making fun of Luna Lovegood just because her father is editor of The Quibbler and she believes most of the stuff published in it, and because I'm friends with her, they don't like me either."

Robert Hilliard spoke up, reminding Professor Flitwick that the Ravenclaw prefects had mentioned Darren's and Agatha's behavior before, and added that Luna's shoes had gone missing this morning. After several minutes of thorough investigation (which included questioning the other Ravenclaw first years), it turned out that the two, plus Nicola Elliot, who had been cowed by Agatha into going along with things, were behind the missing shoes and homework. Darren had taken the homework after Liam was asleep and tossed it in the common room fireplace, while Agatha had taken the shoes and hidden them in Nicola's trunk.

"I am most disappointed and upset with your behavior," said Professor Flitwick, looking quite angry. "Fifty points will be taken from Ravenclaw, and Mr. Twycross and Miss Foster, you both have a week's detention. Miss Elliot, since you were bullied into going along, you will just have one detention, and in the future, if Miss Foster tries to get you involved in something like this again, please report it to me or one of the prefects. Now, go and return Miss Lovegood's shoes."

Professor McGonagall added, "As for you, Mr. Stanley, you will not be penalized for not having your homework today. Just see me after class and I will ask you a few questions to make sure that you understood the information from the assignment."

Professor Flitwick said the same thing regarding Liam's Charms homework, and the whole matter was settled. As breakfast ended and everyone left for their first class of the day, all the students were talking about what had happened. Many Ravenclaws were quite upset with the loss of fifty points and unhappy that Agatha and Darren had persisted in bullying Luna and her friends despite several warnings.

At lunchtime, the AA extended a standing invitation for the quartet of first years to join them in the Room of Requirement, though they were free to do their own things and not have to mingle with the older group. Hermione and Anthony also offered to place locking and protective spells on Liam's and Luna's trunks and school bags to keep unauthorized people from meddling with their belongings (since Agatha and Darren didn't look as if they had learned their lesson and would probably just be sneakier about bullying). Fred and George, overhearing all this, offered some of their joke items so that Liam and Luna could also booby-trap their things when they went to bed.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not get in trouble," said Liam. "And what if Luna and I forget about the booby-trap one morning and set if off when we open our trunks?"

The twins looked a bit disappointed, but acknowledged that he had a point. "Well, if any of the Ravenclaws, not just that Agatha and Darren, try to bother you guys again, let them know that we'll target them for some pranks," Fred said seriously.

"Don't worry, it won't be anything really horrible, just a few harmless things that will get some laughs, like turning them purple for an hour," George added. "We'll run any ideas by you guys or the AA first to make sure that we don't let things get out of hand."

Ginny thanked her brothers without indicating if her quartet would take them up on the offer. After that, the quartet started hanging out in the Room of Requirement, though they normally kept to themselves in one corner of the room. Occasionally they would interact with the AA, but it was mostly for help regarding homework or learning a new spell. When they weren't busy with schoolwork, the four would be found huddled together, talking in whispers and writing in something.

When Theo asked what they were doing, Luna said, "Oh, we're just writing in our diary."

"It's really fun!" Colin exclaimed. "Tom-"

Ginny nudged him and he fell silent. Susan, an eyebrow raised, asked, "Tom? What, did you name your group diary or something?"

"Yes," said Ginny firmly. "We felt it would be better than just writing 'Dear Diary' for each entry."

"Our diary is private, so we don't want to talk about it anymore," Liam added, and the AA nodded and left the quartet to it.

Harry had a nagging feeling that there was something more to the diary, but he couldn't figure out why he had this feeling. On the face of it, there was nothing sinister about the quartet writing in a private diary or journal. Even giving it a name wasn't anything unusual, since other people had done the same (or addressed each entry to an imaginary friend). For example, he knew that the historical personage Anne Frank had addressed her diary entries to 'Kitty'. (Lia had gifted Hermione with a copy of A Diary of a Young Girl for her birthday.) However, Harry still felt bothered and he was half tempted to get his hands on the diary that the quartet was writing in and take a peek inside. He resisted the temptation, though, as he didn't want to invade their privacy and the rest of the AA didn't think there was anything strange about it. Eventually he decided that he was being paranoid, and dismissed the matter from his mind.