"So what did you do here all by yourself? You didn't go visit your family at all?" Myra asked after the friends had exchanged greetings and gifts. They were sitting on Lorelei's bed in a circle.

Lorelei was attempting to wrangle Jester into the sweater Beth had knit for her. She was thankful for an excuse to hide her face, she hated lying to her friends. "No, I didn't visit my family. They sent me a gift though."

"What did they send you?" Beth asked.

"A couple potions books and some new gloves." Lorelei nodded her head towards her dresser where the books were stacked. "There!" Lorelei held up Jester triumphantly. "Look how cute she looks!"

The bald cat did not look amused.

"I should have made her some little ear warmers." Beth laughed at the idea.

Jester looked daggers at Beth.

"Be careful Beth, Jester looks like she is planning your murder." Myra said. The girls all laughed. Jester scurried off under the bed.

"What do you keep looking at, Lorelei?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I'm not looking at anyone." Lorelei stammered.

Myra narrowed her eyes. "For the last 2 weeks I've been seeing you smiling or making little gestures at someone when you think no one is looking. What are you hiding?"

Lorelei got defensive. "I'm not hiding anything, and even if I was it's none of your business anyways."

Myra huffed. "Fine then. Keep your secrets." She looked at Beth. "Come on, I have homework."

Beth looked apologetically at Lorelei and left with Myra. Lorelei felt horrible keeping the secret of her and Filch from her friends. If she knew how they would react and not report her and Filch, she would tell them. It was for their own good that they didn't know, at least that's what Lorelei kept telling herself.

When she joined Myra and Beth later in the dorms they acted like nothing had happened, although there was still tension between them.

"Did you just see that?" Myra whispered to Beth on their way back from a late night study session in the library.

"See what?" Beth asked.

"I swear I just saw Mrs. Norris walk out of the girls dorm room."

"So? She was probably checking something out for Filch or hunting rats." Beth replied matter-of-factly.

"I wonder if Lorelei saw her, she should be in the dorm."

Lorelei looked up from her book as her friends walked in. "How was the studying?"

"Oh you know, just thrilling." Beth said sarcastically.

"Hey Lorelei, did you happen to see anything in the dorms while we were gone?"

"What do you mean?" Lorelei asked. She almost seemed anxious to Myra.

"Like see any cats wandering around?"

"Just Jester sleeping in her usual spot. Why?" Lorelei smiled nervously.

"I swear I saw Mrs. Norris leaving the girls' dorm."

"Really? I never saw her. Maybe it was a different cat."

"No, it was definitely that mangy old fleabag."

"She's not mangy." Lorelei snapped.

Myra gave Lorelei a weird look. "Fine, whatever. Did you see her in here then?"

"No I did not see her. I've been reading." Lorelei held up her book as proof.

"Come on, Myra. Leave it be. She obviously didn't see Mrs. Norris." Beth put her hand on her friend's arm.

Myra sighed. "Okay. Well I'm going to get ready for bed. Goodnight you two."

The girls said goodnight and went to their beds. 'I'll have to tell Mrs. Norris to be more careful.' Lorelei thought. She glanced around to make sure her friends weren't looking before pulling out the message Mrs. Norris had brought her.

Meet me tonight at 12. F.

Lorelei smiled to herself and tucked the note in her book.

"Beth, wake up." Myra was shaking Beth.

"But I'm so warm." Beth snuggled deeper into her blankets.

"It's an emergency, Beth!" Myra hissed. "Lorelei is gone."

Beth opened her eyes. "Gone? She probably just went to the bathroom, Myra."

"But she didn't! I followed her out and she went a different direction." Myra insisted.

Beth sat up at that. "Where would she be going at this time of night?"

"I don't know but I have a feeling if we follow her we will know why she has been acting so weird lately." Myra handed Beth her school robe. "Here, put this on."

Beth begrudgingly got out of bed and into her robe. "Let's go. The sooner we figure this out the sooner I get to go back to sleep."

Myra led Beth out to the corridor and looked around carefully before heading the direction she had seen Lorelei go.

"How long ago did you see her leave?" Beth asked.

"I came to wake you up as soon as she turned this way." Myra said. "She can't have gone very far."

"I hope not." Beth shivered. "It's kind of spooky out here at night. I wonder why Lorelei would be wandering around?"

"That's what we're going to find out. Wait!" Myra held out her arm to stop Beth.

"What is it?"

"Shh! I think I heard someone." Myra closed her eyes and listened. She could hear the sound of two voices echoing faintly down the hallway to their left, along with the sound of a cat meowing. "This way, slowly."

The girls crept along the passageway and carefully peeked their heads around the corner. A ways up the hallway they could see two figures; one holding a lit lantern and the other was wearing a cloak with their hood up. The first figure was clearly Filch; Mrs. Norris was twining herself around his legs.

"Do you think Filch caught Lorelei sneaking around?" Beth asked Myra.

"I don't know. I can't tell who the other person is. I wish they didn't have their hood up."

As if on cue, the second figured lowered their hood.

"Oh no! It is Lorelei!" Beth whispered.

"Shush! Let's just wait and see what he does. If he tries to hurt her we will step in, I promise."

Much to their shock, they watched as Lorelei and Filch wrapped their arms around each other and kissed.

"What?!" Myra gasped, a little too loudly.

Lorelei and Filch jumped apart and looked in the direction of the noise.

Myra and Beth ran back to the dorm as fast as they could. Myra threw herself onto her bed and screamed into her pillow.

"Shhh! Don't wake any of the other girls up." Beth sat down next to her, still processing what she had just seen.

Myra lifted her head and looked at Beth with disgust. "You saw that too right?"

Beth nodded, chewing her lip.

"Lorelei kissed …" Myra gagged at the thought. "This has to be some kind of sick joke. Or maybe he brainwashed her and that's why she has been acting so weird. That's it, Beth! Lorelei is brainwashed."

"I don't know, Myra. It didn't seem forced to me." Beth sighed. "There's only one way to find out; we have to ask Lorelei ourselves."

"What was that?" Lorelei jumped back in surprise at the sudden noise, her heart pounding.

Filch held up his lantern. "I don't see anything." He started walking towards the source of the sound. Lorelei followed close, holding his hand for safety. They got to the corner and Filch held his finger up to his lips. Lorelei nodded, if someone was hiding they would surprise them.

Filch counted to three in his head before springing around the corner. "Ah! Got you!"

The only thing Filch 'got' was the empty hallway.

"Is anything there?" Lorelei asks, still hiding around the corner.

"Nothing." Filch grunts. "It was probably just Peeves. He likes to torment me some nights."

Lorelei sighed in relief. "Thank goodness it wasn't a teacher or student."

Lorelei snuck back into the dorm unnoticed and turned to climb into bed only to find Myra and Beth sitting there.

"What are you guys doing up?" Lorelei said nervously.

"I could ask you the same thing." Myra said, arms crossed.

Beth only looked at Lorelei with concern.

"I just had to go to the bathroom."

"Funny, I didn't know the bathroom was that way."

"Were you following me?" Lorelei started to feel angry. Couldn't her friends just trust her?

"We were worried about you, Lorelei." Beth said quietly.

"And for good reason it seems! How could you kiss him?" Myra burst out.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lorelei lied, her face turning bright red.

"Oh come on, we saw you two. Did he force you? Brainwash you to do it?" Myra asked.

"No! Argus would never do something like that!"

"Argus? So you're on a first name basis huh?" Myra got up. "I should go to Professor Snape right now."

Beth looked between her two friends, conflicted on what to do.

"Wait please! Don't do that!" Lorelei put her hands out. "Please, let me explain. I would've told you both but I was worried this would be your reactions."

Myra sat back down after a moment. "Fine. But if I don't think you're telling the truth I'm going to Snape."

Lorelei explained to her friends how she had first met Mrs. Norris and they had become friends. And then how one night she had ran into Filch and he wasn't as scary as everyone had made him out to be. She would smile at him in the hallways if she saw him and occasionally talked to him when she was with Mrs. Norris. She told them how her and Filch had become friends and he would take her with him on his patrols around the castle and show her new places.

"Okay but how did you go from friends to …" Myra gestured wildly, "that?"

Lorelei explained what Filch had done for her over Christmas break and how her feelings for him had been growing silently until then, and how she had confessed to Filch and he had accepted her feelings. She finished by saying how he wasn't what he looked like, to not to judge a book by its cover.

Beth had tears in her eyes when Lorelei finished. "It's kind of sad and beautiful at the same time."

Myra gave Beth a weird look. "I still think it's gross." She sighed. "But I guess as long as you say you aren't brainwashed, I won't tell."

"You mean it?"

Myra nodded.

"Oh thank you!" Lorelei tackled her friends and gave them a hug. "I'm sorry I kept it a secret from you both for so long."

"Yeah, well you better tell us everything now." Myra grumbled, trying not to catch Lorelei's infectious happiness. "Well, maybe not everything." She still gagged at the thought of Lorelei kissing Filch.

"Deal!" Lorelei agreed.

Beth yawned. "Can we all go to bed now?"