Rose was confused by the sound of male voices as she woke. What were her cousins doing in her dormitory? The previous night came back to her slowly as she sat up, watching Aunt Luna go around the room and gently wake the others.

Once she was awake, however, she was full of jitters. A nervous energy pervaded the room, which she though might have something to do with the fact that they had more or less broken Lorcan out of the hospital a few hours earlier.

"I need to go speak with Professor McGonagall," said Aunt Luna as the children pulled their robes on over their clothes. "You can all eat while I try to explain what happened last night. This morning. Lorcan, we can figure out the Quidditch game after, alright? Please refrain from telling your classmates about our tiny adventure, I'd hate to cause any undue issues with St. Mungo's."

Albus' eyes widened at the mention of the match. Rose had also managed to forget the fact that it would be starting in only an hour or two.

"Let's get going, then," said Albus anxiously.

They only passed two students on their way to the Great Hall, which was similarly deserted. Most of the students had apparently already eaten and left for the match. Albus' anxiety quickly morphed into panic as he looked around for a timepiece- something that the Great Hall, oddly enough, was lacking. Rose was only now noticing that the magical world was poorly stocked with such items when they seemed most needed.

"James!" said Aunt Luna, spotting him sitting at the Gryffindor table with a pile of bacon.

"Aunt Luna?" said James, looking up with confusion. "Al, there you are, I was worried. C'mon, let's get your stuff and head down."

"He needs to eat," said Aunt Luna, "and I need to speak with Professor McGonagall."

"She already went down to the Quidditch pitch," said James with a shrug, "check out there."

Aunt Luna sighed rather dramatically and swept out of the room. Albus went to sit with his brother, but Lorcan had caught sight of Hugo at the Hufflepuff table and was making a beeline for him.

"What's going on with-"

"Lorcan!" snapped Lysander, chasing his brother. "You're supposed to be eating, cut it out!"

Lorcan had stopped across the table from Hugo, but Rose saw now that it wasn't her brother he was staring at but his companion, Taylor. The Muggleborn looked back at him, confusion clear in her wide brown eyes.

"You," breathed Lorcan, unblinking. "It's... it's not you. But- but it has to be. It has to be you. I don't- I don't understand!"

There was a sound akin to a thunderclap, and the magical ceiling above the Great Hall flashed to black. Some of the students screamed, but none as loud or as long as Lorcan, who seemed glued to the table with pain. When he released his death grip on the wood, Lysander caught him as he crumpled onto the bench. All of the students in the Hall turned to watch him, some standing to do so.

Scorpius ran over from the Slytherin table. Rose hadn't spied him amongst the stragglers when she had entered, focused on Lorcan and Albus.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly. "What happened to Lorcan? And the ceiling?"

"I don't know," replied Rose. "We need to get our aunt. She came back from the hospital with us."

"We should get him outside," whispered Lysander, his eyes flitting around the room. "Everyone's staring."

"I'll meet you out there," said James, running out of the Great Hall as they helped Lorcan to his feet.

Rose ignored the eyes on her and her cousins as they hurried Lorcan into the corridor. His eyes were fluttered shut but he was breathing steadily, which she was taking as a good sign. However, the floor of the castle seemed to be trembling slightly beneath her shoes. She wished to believe she was just imagining things, but she knew better.

Lysander and Scorpius maintained their hold on Lorcan as Rose stepped forward to open the main doors of the castle. She frowned; they seemed to be stuck. With an extra push she managed to get one open.

To Rose's credit, she did not scream, or faint, or panic. She merely released the handle of the door, let it swing shut, then turned and leaned against it.

"New plan," she whispered, feeling the blood drain from her cheeks. "Outside, no longer an option."

"What?" said Lysander. "Why not?"

"We no longer appear to be on the grounds," said Rose primly. "My best guess is somewhere on the shore of the Atlantic. But I could be wrong. Most likely wrong. Really, it's a beach. And an ocean. A rather large beach, with a rather large ocean. And now a rather large castle."

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then Albus muttered, "Do you think the Giant Squid is in the ocean, or did it stay in the Black Lake?"

Rose gaped at his ability to joke at a time like this. It was usually his job to panic, but maybe they were beyond the point of panicking at this point. Perhaps they were at the point of insane jokes and awkward silences.

They were saved from the next awkward silence by Hugo and his friend Taylor who emerged from the Great Hall. Both still looked spooked and stayed a few feet back from Lorcan, who had begun to regain consciousness. As a group they moved over to the stairs so Lorcan could sit. He blinked slowly, as if waking from a long sleep, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ouch," he muttered, "that sucked. Everyone else alright?"

The other nodded.

"Right through my head," he explained, "right through... Taylor, who is Sophie?"

Taylor froze, looking much more terrified than she had when Lorcan was screaming. Her mouth worked silently, and she shook her head, her braids fanning out around her and threatening to smack her in the face.

"It's alright," Hugo reassured her, "he's my cousin. Whatever it is, you can tell him."

Taylor just shook her head more and clamped her mouth shut.

"Something might be wrong with her," said Lorcan. Rose knew that voice- he was struggling to remain patient with the younger girl. "I need to know who she is so I can figure out how to help her. Do you want me to help her?"

"I- How do you know about Sophie?" said Taylor, her voice small.

"He Sees things," explained Hugo excitedly, "like with Professor Trelawney and Divination. She's teaching him extra, 'cause he's good at it."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully, examining Lorcan. She then took a deep breath and began to explain.

"Sophie is one of my sisters from the group home I was raised in. She's my best friend. When I found out I was a witch, Professor Evariste told me I couldn't tell any of the others, but I knew I had to tell Sophie. I couldn't just pretend that I was being sent to some special school and not tell her why she couldn't come with me. She'd never believe me. So I told her everything.

"At first she thought I was a loony. I tried hiding her in the closet next time Professor Evariste came to talk, but he could tell she was there and made her leave. But that helped convince her I wasn't losing it. After that, we started planning ways that she could come with me. He told me none of my friends could come, but none of my other friends were smart like Sophie. I knew that whatever they taught here, she could figure it out better than I could, and she could help me with it like with our old school.

"When Professor Evariste took me to Diagon Alley, I knew I had to find a way to buy something that would get Sophie to school with me. The school gave him money for all of my things, since it's not like the home was interested in footing the bill. He was watching me really closely until we ran into you two."

Here, she looked at Albus and Rose, whose chest tightened. She suddenly remembered the moment in their conversation with Professor Evariste when he realized that his young ward had gone missing. They had served as the perfect cover for her escape.

"I ran back to a potions shop we had stopped in," continued Taylor, "but they didn't have any kind of invisibility potion. But I found a street vendor who said he had what I needed, and I had enough money so I bought it. I told Professor Evariste that I had gone to look in one of the windows and lost sight of him, and kept the vial in my pocket."

"He's going to hate this story," groaned Albus.

"Go on," said Lysander.

"Getting to the train station was the hardest part," continued Taylor. "The head of the home agreed to drive me, and I had to get Sophie into the car after she had taken the potion. But I said I needed help with my bags and she got in the back with me and we went to King's Cross together. She held my hand as we ran through the barrier after my guardian had driven away."

Albus' mouth was open in shock. Lysander locked eyes with Rose, who was baffled. She hadn't realized that a Muggle, even an invisible one, would be able to get through to Platform Nine and Three Quarters if they happened to run into the right wall at the appointed hour. Surely that was a flaw in the station's security.

"But the platform was a mess," said Taylor, her voice small once more. "They wanted all of the first years together. I tried to keep track of Sophie, but— but I lost her. I was planning on sitting by myself, so no one would sit on her, or bump into her or anything, but then all of the other first years were there, and— I know she made it onto the train, and I kept hoping and hoping that she'd make it to the school, but- but Professor McGonagall announced after we were Sorted that they found her and sent her home, remember?"

Rose's stomach sank in that remarkably uncomfortable way which she hated. She did, in fact, remember that speech of McGonagall's.

"No," she said slowly, "that's not what she said."

Taylor glared at her, frowning. "Yes it is," she said, "I've been thinking about it all year! They sent her back without me, and I keep writing but I think she's awfully cross, or- or got in loads of trouble and they sent her to a different home, and I'll never get to see her again!"

Her voice was getting louder as her eyes watered. Scorpius suddenly gasped and hit Rose's arm.

"I know, Scorpius," groaned Rose. "Taylor, the girl Professor McGonagall was talking about getting sent home was our friend Adella."

Taylor froze, then slowly looked up at Rose. "What?"

"Last year, Albus' younger sister snuck herself onto the train as a bit of a prank," explained Rose. "She convinced Adella Longbottom, Professor Longbottom's youngest to try the same thing this year. That's who Professor McGonagall was referring to. They found her before the train even left. I think if they had found two people hiding out on the train, Professor McGonagall would have said something more than the warning she gave."

"Rose," said Lysander warningly.

"But- then what happened to Sophie?" said Taylor, her voice low and wavering. Hugo reached out and took her hand. "If they didn't find her, then she— she— you're saying she's in the castle? She can't be!"

"She's right," said Lysander, frowning. "Muggles can't really function that well inside Hogwarts, Rose. It doesn't make much sense. Besides, the potion would have worn off right after she got here, if not sooner. Someone would have found her right after the feast."

"Then why is Lorcan having visions about her when the castle acts up?" questioned Rose.

"You know what the professors have been saying," said Albus with a sigh, "it's just this whole Centennial Portal thing-"

"Which still doesn't make any sense!" exclaimed Rose. "If the Centennial Portal really was supposed to appear this year at Hogwarts, wouldn't they have figured it out before now? Wouldn't someone have set, I don't know, some sort of timer? Like hey, it's five years until this crazy magical occurrence, you should start preparing! But no one did."

"So some things fell through the cracks," said Albus. "That doesn't sound too out of the ordinary for Hogwarts."

"But nothing of this magnitude," argued Rose, "and it still doesn't explain how Lorcan knew about Sophie."

"Do you have anything of hers?" Lorcan asked suddenly. "Anything you brought with you from home?"

Taylor nodded, chewing on her lower lip.

"I still have a picture from a trip we took to the shopping plaza," she said. "We all went to get our winter things, and there was this photo booth by the shops. We were just messing around with it— we didn't have extra money after getting our coats— but it just— I wanted it to work, and it did. The picture's up in my room."

"We can go get it," said Hugo tentatively, looking to Rose for confirmation.

Rose, in turn, looked to Lorcan. His face was pinched in concentration, and after a moment, he nodded.

"It's up on the third floor," said Taylor eagerly, getting to her feet with Hugo. "C'mon!"

The Hufflepuffs led the way as Rose, Lorcan, Lysander, Albus, and Scorpius trailed a few paces behind.

"I still don't know what you're looking to find," said Albus, the warning clear in his voice. "Professor McGonagall said-"

"Professor McGonagall has been distracted all year," said Rose, "and if she wasn't outside waiting for that cursed Quidditch match to begin, I think she would agree that we need to try and follow through on this. It might be nothing, but the Centennial Portal theory just doesn't line up for me, and this… this just might."

Albus paused for a moment and looked back over his shoulder, as if suddenly remembering that he was supposed to be playing Quidditch, not on some new crazed quest with his cousins.

"Can't get out there anyway," Rose reminded him, "so come on."

Taylor and Hugo led them to an immense still life of a fruit bowl on the third floor. Rose recognized the entrance to the kitchens from her poorly-timed adventure there the previous year with James. She was so busy reminiscing that she did not notice how Hugo activated the door to the Hufflepuff common room. One moment she was staring at the fruit, and the next she was blinking at a wide, circular opening behind a stack of wooden barrels, through which her younger brother was disappearing.

It only took a few moments for Taylor to retrieve the photograph. It looked like it had begun to fade before someone had thought to use a preservation charm, but not so much to make it unclear. Rose's stomach dropped uncomfortably as she saw that Sophie, grinning happily next to Taylor, was wearing her blonde hair in low pigtails.

"That's her," murmured Lorcan, stretching his fingers out but not quite touching the picture. "That's Sophie."

Taylor gave him a look as if to say, well of course it is. Before anyone could respond, however, James' voice echoed down the corridor.

"Oi!" he called.

Rose and Lysander groaned as one. But if there was ever a time for James to be riding a broom throughout the castle... well, this was the time. He did a gratuitous spin as he reached them, then hopped off the broom.

"Oh," he said simply, looking at the photo in Taylor's hands. "I have a feeling this is gonna suck."

"Hugo, you should go wait in the Great Hall," said Rose, biting her lip. She didn't know what she and her cousins were about to get into, but she certainly didn't want her brother involved. It was bad enough to have one first year along for the trip- they didn't need two, and Rose couldn't afford to be distracted by him.

"But-"

"Ari could use some help," said James, nudged his hovering broom towards Hugo. "She's the only prefect left inside, and she's trying to not worry about Louis being out... well, out wherever," he said, gesturing vaguely, "while keeping everyone in the Hall controlled. I think she'd really appreciate some support."

Hugo grinned at his older cousin and nodded, mounting James' broom and looking back to his friend.

"Taylor, you'll be alright?" he asked. When she nodded, he zoomed off down the corridor, disappearing around the corner.

"James Potter," said Albus, cocking a brow, "that was downright near responsible of you."

"Eh, kid needs to stay out of this sort of thing," said James with a casual shrug. He met Rose's eyes long enough for her to give him an appreciative smile. "So, what have I missed?"