"And I woke up, 'cause there was a breeze, right? And he's standing there over my bed, staring down at me with this knife, and I yelled, and he just scampered."

When Ron finished his story, Harry frowned. He wasn't the only one.

"How could he have gotten in, though?" Blaise asked. After Hermione had told them what she knew, she had gathered Neville and Dudley and Harry had found Draco and Blaise, and they all grabbed a sleeping bag and formed a circle in a corner of the hall to listen to Ron's story. Harry thought Blaise had a good point, but there was a more pressing concern at hand.

"Why would he attack you, Ron?" he asked, and Ron shrugged his shoulders, clearly mystified.

"I haven't a bloody clue," Ron said. "Why did he run away? He could have finished me and moved on to the next bed."

"The lights are going out now," Ron's brother yelled importantly. "No more talking! Everyone in their sleeping bags!"

"How could he have gotten in?" Neville asked as he settled into his sleeping bag next to Dudley. "I mean, he couldn't have just walked through the front doors. Could he have apparated?"

"You can't apparate inside Hogwarts," Harry whispered at roughly the same time as Hermione, whose head was near his. Next to him, Draco snorted at them and shook his head.

"You would think he would have attacked Slytherin, though," Pansy mused softly, before Draco could comment. "I mean, even the teachers must think Black is after Harry, they've all been keeping such a close eye on you lately, have you noticed?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "They did seem to be wandering the halls a lot more than usual this year," he said dryly. "Yes, Pansy, I'd noticed."

"So if he's after Harry, why attack Ron?" Dudley asked worriedly. "You don't think he was aiming for me because I'm his cousin, and just got the wrong bed, do you?"

There was a short silence as they all contemplated this, prolonged as Percy prowled past, hissing at people to be quiet and go to sleep.

"I don't think so, Dudley," Hermione said comfortingly. "Although that does raise a few issues. I mean, he's only just escaped from Azkaban. How much does he know? Does he even know you have a cousin, Harry?"

Harry shook his head slowly. He had no clue what Black knew.

"Even if he did know I had a cousin, Dudley's a muggleborn," Harry said. "He couldn't have known he'd be at Hogwarts with me, let alone that he's a Gryffindor, unless he heard it somewhere, and how could he have learned that?"

"Well if you're going to say that, how could he know you're in Slytherin?" Blaise wondered.

"Your parents were in Gryffindor, weren't they? Maybe he just assumed you would be too?"

"Maybe Azkaban's addled his brains," Ron suggested.

"No, I think he has some idea of what he's doing," Hermione disagreed. "How could he have broken out of Azkaban, let alone broken into Hogwarts, and Gryffindor Tower, if he's completely insane?"

"She's right," Blaise said, and Harry could tell he was smirking, even though he couldn't see him. "Even I can't break into Gryffindor, and I'm certainly not mad."

"He used to be a Gryffindor, though," Harry pointed out, ignoring Draco, who was explaining to Blaise that there was nothing exciting about Gryffindor that Draco couldn't replicate with a lumos in the eye. "Maybe he just went there because he knew where it was. And maybe he knows about a secret entrance or something?"

They lay silently again and contemplated everything. There were so many questions that needed answering. Harry hated the uncertainty of it. If Black was after him, why not attack Slytherin? And if he had assumed Harry was a Gryffindor, there were still questions. What if Black figured out which House Harry was in? He'd broken in once, he could get in again.

"Harry," someone hissed nearby. Harry looked past Dudley on his right to see Anthony sliding along the ground toward them, still in his sleeping bag. He looked a bit like a purple slug. A blond girl followed him closely, creeping along in the same manner. They both paused when the Head Girl glanced their way, then continued.

"Hi, Anthony," Harry called softly, and he could see Draco shaking his head in bemusement out of the corner of his eye. Dudley scooted his sleeping bag out of the way, making room for the two new arrivals and greatly increasing the diameter of their little circle.

"Hello, Harry," Anthony whispered as he settled in next to him. "I meant to talk to you earlier about this, but Luna found me."

Harry glanced past Anthony to see the girl gazing at him with protuberant eyes.

"She was Petrified last year; I'm tutoring her so she doesn't fall behind too badly," he explained with a shrug.

"Hello, Harry Potter," she whispered. "It's very lovely to meet you."

Harry blinked. "Nice to meet you too, Luna."

She smiled vaguely and her head disappeared past Anthony's sleeping bag.

"Hello." He could just barely hear her still. "Your name is Dudley Dursley."

"Er, yeah," Dudley said, nonplussed. "Yours is Luna?"

"Luna Lovegood, actually, but thank you. You were closer than most."

"So what did you want to tell me?" Harry asked, turning his attention away from the new girl and leaning closer to Anthony so that they could talk quietly.

"Well, I had wanted to talk to you about the snakes."

"Oh?"

"Yes." He fell silent as a ghost floated past.

"Goodnight, Friar," Luna said.

"Goodnight, Luna, dear," the ghost said, and floated on its way. Neville snored.

Anthony continued. "I was thinking, we should have them meet each other. Mine and yours, you know? I brought Douglas with me this year so that I'd be able to practice without you at school as well, and -"

"You named your snake Douglas?" Harry interrupted, amused.

"We had a lengthy discussion, and concluded that Douglas was best," Anthony informed him. "He was quite adamant about it, though he also quite liked Liegia, no matter that I said it was a girl's name. He spent weeks deciding between the two. But that's beside the point. What do you say?"

"Well sure," Harry said. "I don't see why not. They'll be aware of each other by now, anyway, if you've had him here since September."

"Yes," Anthony agreed thoughtfully. "And I thought we should test that, how far away they can get before they lose awareness of each other. It could be useful."

Harry agreed. "The basilisk could hear me from at least several floors down, remember? They seem to have pretty strong senses."

Anthony nodded thoughtfully. "I thought it could be useful for you. I mean, they can sense more than just snakes from a distance."

It seemed that the rest of the group had been shamelessly eavesdropping on this conversation, because Draco cut in at this point and said, "Do you think they'd be able to keep an eye out for Black then, in case he tried to sneak up on Harry?"

"Figuratively speaking, yes," Anthony responded. "I mean, clearly he has other motives at the moment, aside from attacking Harry, but it couldn't hurt to have a lookout for him that has a more reliable method of detection than mere sight and sound."

"But they need to have some idea of what Black smells like in the first place," Harry said, seeing a flaw in the logic of Anthony's idea, never mind his 'other motives' comment, which Harry would question him about later.

"What about Ron's dorm?" Hermione suggested. "He was definitely in there; the snakes should be able to tell, shouldn't they?"

Ron yawned. "You can let your snakes sniff around in there, but you're holding onto them and you're not letting them roam about in my bed, d'you hear?"

"Well, Black wasn't in your bed, Weasley," Draco said. "So that wouldn't help the snakes anyway. Unless there's a part of that story you forgot to tell us?"

"Shut up, Malfoy."

Draco snickered at him, as did most of the rest of the group. They all fell silent after a bit, and laid quietly under the stars. Harry listened to his friends fall asleep, one by one. Draco raised his eyebrow at Harry as Pansy sighed and cuddled up against his arm. Harry couldn't help but wink at him, and he could see that Draco had blushed, even as dark as it was in the Hall. Eventually, they could hear the telltale muttering from Blaise that meant he was dreaming. Once, last year, Harry and Draco had broken the charms on Blaise's curtains and talked him into a dream where he was being chased by owls that wanted to steal his trousers. Harry considered doing something similar tonight, but a glance to his side showed that Draco had fallen asleep already. Harry gazed up at the stars for a while until a quiet voice roused him from the half awake state he had fallen into.

"I don't think you have to worry about Sirius Black," Luna said, propping her chin up on a sleeping Anthony's chest, the better to observe Harry. Harry frowned.

"Everyone says he's trying to kill me," Harry told her. "And from the facts, it's certainly looking that way."

Luna shrugged. "Sometimes the people who make up the facts are wrong," she said simply. "I don't think he's after you at all."

Harry felt intrigued despite himself. "And why not?" he asked. Luna smiled at him.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" This phrase coming from Luna's mouth sounded a lot less superior than when Hermione said it, though in her defense, Hermione usually had the right to sound superior when she found need to use that phrase. "You're Harry Potter. Everyone in the wizarding world knew about it when you were sorted into Slytherin. People still talk about it. And he attacked Gryffindor."

She made a good point, Harry thought as she continued. "And besides, he's just trying to prove his innocence."

"Innocence?" Harry asked, his shock causing him to speak a bit louder than he'd intended. He glanced around guiltily, but none of the patrollers were nearby. He hadn't ever really considered the notion that Black could be innocent. "What do you mean?"

Luna just looked at him, her head tipped slightly to one side.

"Have you ever heard of the Hobgoblins?" she asked finally. Harry considered this a very sudden and unwelcome change of topic.

"No," he said, humoring her rather unwillingly.

"Stubby Boardman was their lead singer, he was quite good. He had an alias, 'Sirius Black'." She paused thoughtfully. "Or maybe Sirius Black was his real name and Stubby Boardman was his stage name. I'm not sure, I'll have to ask daddy. Either way, I don't think he did what they said he did."

Harry stared at her. She didn't look to be pulling his leg, so he nodded a bit. "Alright," he said uncertainly. "Thanks Luna," he said, turning his head back to look at the sky again.

"Goodnight then," she said, and her head disappeared as she lay back down on the other side of Anthony. Harry stared at the stars, feeling more confused than ever. He couldn't help but go over the strange conversation in his mind, and wondered if there was any truth to it at all. He'd have to ask Hermione to look into it. He'd ask Blaise too; Blaise liked music, he would know about Stubby Boardman.

That night, he dreamed that a gaunt Sirius Black in prison garb had discovered that the only way to save yourself from a dementor was to play music until they began to dance, which meant they would do whatever you told them to. In his dream, Black built a guitar out of toothpicks and his own hair, and used it to escape to the tune of one of the latest Weird Sisters songs.

The next morning, Harry woke, disoriented and confused on the floor of the Great Hall, with 'Magic Works' still stuck in his head.

He looked to his side, where Anthony and Luna had slept the night before. Anthony was still there, though Luna was gone.

"That girl was a bit strange," Harry told Anthony. Draco, next to Harry, had overheard.

"Harry, I think this is the first time we've ever agreed about something like this," he said, sounding relieved. "Thank Merlin."

Harry frowned. "I didn't mean that necessarily in a bad way," he said, causing Draco to roll his eyes in exasperation. "Where did Blaise go?"

"So," Draco said that day after classes were out, at the second to last Quidditch practice before their first game. "My father bought me a new broom in celebration of my new spot on the team." Harry and the rest of the team nodded appreciatively at the Nimbus 2002 that Draco showed them. "He also bought all of you new brooms."

Draco smirked at the dropped jaws that surrounded him. Harry shook his head and took the Nimbus Draco handed him with a grin.

"Really, Draco?" he asked, laughing a bit as the rest of the team crowed over the new broomsticks. "The entire team? Not that we're not grateful or anything…"

Draco flushed the slightest bit. "He was in a generous mood when I told him. My family doesn't do things halfway. Also my mum might have suggested it."

"Well then," Harry said, looking down his nose at the new brooms with mock disdain, "In that case, I'm curious as to where my Firebolt got to, Draco."

Draco looked around conspiratorially, and leaned forward when he was certain no one else was listening. "To be honest, I talked them down from that. Can you imagine what kind of damage Warrington could do to himself if he got hold of a Firebolt? He can barely control his Comet. Bole and Derrick aren't much better."

Harry nodded. Warrington had proved Draco's point at the last practice, when he attempted to throw the Quaffle to Draco and ended up going with it. Flint had pulled Harry aside after that practice and told him to catch the snitch quickly in the match against Gryffindor on Saturday.

Harry examined his new broom critically. It was nice, to be sure, but he liked his old broom just fine. There wasn't really a need for a new broom, but of course, Draco would be hurt if he tried to use his old Nimbus 2001. Harry therefore resigned himself to the extra Wednesday practice Flint decided was necessary to get them each used to their new Nimbus'. Draco grinned at him as they left the changing rooms to try them out, and Harry grinned back.

"So she said he might be this Stubby Boardman person," Harry explained. Hermione raised an eyebrow, which Harry was certain was an expression she'd stolen from Blaise, as he did it exactly the same way. It normally meant 'Are you kidding me?' when Blaise did it, so Harry took a wild guess at what her immediate reaction was going to be.

"You didn't really believe her, did you?" Hermione asked, shaking her head and going back to her book. Today wasn't a study group day, but of course, Hermione was in the library anyway. Harry assumed these were her quiet days away from Dudley, Neville and Ron. He glanced over at Anthony's table, where Luna sat reading alone, swinging her legs under the table in strange patterns.

"Well I don't know," he said, uncertain again. Luna looked up and waved. Harry waved back tentatively. "She seemed pretty sure of herself, and what do I know about these things? I'd never even heard of the Hobgoblins before, let alone Stubby Boardman."

"Well that's the point right there," she said when he looked back at her. "How many books and newspapers have you read about Black in?"

He shrugged. "Quite a few?"

"Exactly," Hermione said, skimming through her book again. "And not a one of them mentioned Stubby Boardman. It's unlikely they have anything to do with each other, although if you really want me to, I'll look into both of them for you."

Harry sighed. "Would you? I know it sounds ridiculous, but I don't want to not pursue something because it sounds like rubbish, and have it be exactly right."

"You're the worst kind of Slytherin," she muttered. Harry's eyebrows went up.

"What was that?" he asked. She looked up from her book with a winsome smile.

"Nothing."

Harry looked at her through narrowed eyes. "Right." He decided to change the subject, and lit upon her stacks of books. "How much homework do you have, anyway?"

There were two stacks of about five books each, and while this was nothing unusual, the spines were facing Harry and he had been able to read them and realize that they were all from different subjects. Hermione squinted at him and turned the books around so that he couldn't see the titles anymore.

"How can you be taking all these classes?" he asked curiously. Hermione, it appeared, was very absorbed in her textbook and was unable to answer. Harry looked at her closely and noticed a slight strain he hadn't really seen before.

He picked up the top book out of one of the piles, which had no library markings on it. He glanced through the pile and realized they were all Hermione's, which said something for the strength of her bag, not to mention her back.

"I forgot you were taking Divination," he commented, flipping through the comparatively short book. The others in her pile looked to be, on average, at least twice the size of this one. "Oooh, palm reading. How're you faring in that class?"

"Fine," Hermione said shortly. Harry paused, having apparently hit a sore spot. He honestly hadn't meant to, and he frowned, wondering what the problem could be.

"Aren't Ron and Neville in that class with you?"

Hermione nodded unwillingly.

"How're they doing at it?"

Hermione frowned severely. "They've taken to making it all up," she said, annoyed. "Why bother taking the class at all, if you're not even going to do all the work?"

Harry felt mildly guilty as she spoke. She clearly had a large workload if she was taking as many classes as he thought she was, and yet here he was, piling more on with this Black/Boardman business.

"Hermione, you don't have to look up that stuff about Stubby Boardman, if you don't want to," Harry offered. "I'll do it if you don't have enough time."

Hermione looked at him in wonder for a moment, and Harry felt even guiltier for having used her as his primary research method.

"No, Harry," she said, shaking her head slowly, eyes still a bit wide. "I have plenty of time, though if you'd really rather that I turn it back over to you, I will."

Harry blinked. He felt as though the entire conversation had suddenly reached new heights that he hadn't been informed of.

"I suppose I have a bit of research to do then," he tried, and Hermione beamed at him.

"Thank you, Harry," she said, sounding incredibly relieved. "It'll be so nice not to have to do this alone. I mean, I know the school year only started two months ago, but it's been adding up, you know? I can't be faulted if you've looked into things yourself, and it'll be nice to have someone to talk to."

Harry nodded at her, smiling, and bid her goodbye. She looked much more cheerful than she had before, and Harry supposed that was what counted, even if he was still clueless. He'd figure out what she was going on about later. Surely research wasn't that great of a burden for her?