Chapter SEVEN

Repercussions

Rick had a rather restful night, void of nightmares about hairy beasts or vengeful ghosts out to kill him. Indeed, the only one giving him trouble the next morning was Colin Anderson, who apparently was still cross with him and gave him a harsh glare as he passed him on his way to breakfast. Rick ignored him and went down to the Great Hall where Rigel was waiting for him.

"There you are." He greeted Rick, a mischievous glint in his eye. "I thought the Baron had gotten you already."

"Funny." Rick replied dryly.

"Did you see the notice board this morning?"

"No, why?" Rick asked as he scooped up beans and sausages.

"Flying lessons start on Tuesday." Rigel said excitedly. "I've been looking forward to that all summer, I'm hoping to get on the team next year." Rick knew that each house had its own quidditch team and played the other houses for the quidditch cup. First years weren't allowed to join, a fact Rigel never stopped complaining about. Rick let Rigel rant on about the flying classes and quidditch and the reasons why they should allow first years to join the team. He had never flown a broom before and didn't know what to expect but if he could believe Rigel, it was the best feeling in the world.

After breakfast, they planned to head to the common room for a game of Exploding Snap but they had hardly crossed the Entrance Hall when Rigel elbowed him in the ribs and pointed across the Hall where the Bloody Baron floated along, making his way to the dungeons. The Baron spotted them but didn't show any sign of recognition and floated along looking as sullen and morose as always.

"Seems like the Bloody Baron didn't mind my antics after all." Rick said smugly.

"You lucky sod." Rigel responded almost admiringly. They spent the rest of the day in the common room playing games and Rick had put the entire debacle with the Bloody Baron out of his mind until he and Rigel walked back to the common room after supper. Rigel was just in the middle of giving Rick some pointers on flying – Rigel had been flying since before he could walk if you could believe him – when Rick was doused in ice cold water.

"Aaahh!" He cried out, gasping for breath and looking around for the source. A cackle above their heads betrayed the culprit. "Peeves!" Rick yelled and the resident poltergeist replied by throwing another balloon at Rick's head. It burst on Rick's shoulder, dousing him in cold water a second time, and Peeves laughed again before launching another balloon.

"Stop that!" Rick yelled but Peeves didn't listen, he just kept hurling water balloons at Rick. Not being able to get rid of him, Rick and Rigel ran back to the common room for safety where Rick received some hateful sniggers from Anderson and Sanders at the sight of his sodden appearance.

"Tossers." Rick muttered under his breath.

"What did you expect?" Rigel replied with a shrug. "You called them cowards. I imagine they're having a great laugh at your expense right now."

"You'd better change." He added and it was only then that Rick noticed that apart from a few spots here and there, his friend was completely dry.

"Why aren't you soaked?" He asked incredulously. Rigel shrugged.

"I didn't get hit." Sulking at his misfortune and cursing Peeves, Rick went upstairs to change and as soon as he was warm and dry again, he dismissed the incident.

As night fell, however, and the Gryffindor boys had gotten to bed, Rick began to question if Peeves really had it out for him. The Poltergeist had managed to infiltrate the first years' dormitory and chatted away the entire night, resulting in some very tired and aggravated Gryffindor boys in transfiguration class the next morning. Professor Rowlett made even less sense to Rick than she had before and he sorely wished he could go back to bed. The only positive thing about the class was the absence of Peeves, who apparently did not dare to interrupt professor Rowlett's lesson. As soon as class was over, however, he was back and with a vengeance. The poltergeist clearly singled out Rick as he besieged him with ink and books and Rick could do nothing but duck and dodge. By noon, everyone at Hogwarts seemed to know to avoid that first year Gryffindor who had somehow managed to incur the wrath of Peeves. Even Rigel took to leaving a bit of space between them at all times.

"I don't get it." Rick complained, dodging another eraser aimed at his head. "What did I do wrong to Peeves?"

"I bet the Bloody Baron had something to do with this." Rigel replied wisely. "He's probably the one who put Peeves up to this."

"I didn't know anyone could put Peeves up to anything. He just does what he wants, doesn't he?"

"He does, for the most part but you remember what Crusher said, don't you? The only one Peeves is afraid of is the Baron and since you ticked him off..." Rick felt his annoyance grow. Had everyone known about this but him?

"Now someone tells me." He grumbled as another eraser narrowly missed him. They entered the Great Hall for lunch and plopped down at the Gryffindor table. Peeves thankfully decided he'd had enough of erasers so Rick hurriedly began eating before he changed his mind. He was halfway through his meat pie when someone called him.

"I hear you're having a little trouble with Peeves?" Crusher said gleefully, clapping Rick on the shoulder. Doolan and Hurst joined him, identical amused smiles on their faced. Rick glared at them.

"As if you didn't know that would happen." He accused.

"We suspected." Doolan corrected.

"Tossers."

"Now, now, no need for name calling." Hurst admonished Rick.

"I say we were mild, we could have asked you to insult Atia Rydell." Crusher said.

"In which case, you probably wouldn't be alive anymore now." Doolan said grinning.

"Who's Atia Rydell?" Rick looked up to see Frank McCallum sitting in front of him. Where did he come from?

"Only the meanest, sneakiest and dangerous Slytherin around." Doolan explained. McCallum looked impressed.

"You'd have to be very brave to insult her." Hurst said. "Or very stupid."

"Of course, you'd gain eternal glory and respect if you did." Crusher remarked, apparently enjoying the rapt attention McCallum was giving them.

"You'd be a legend." Doolan affirmed.

"Forget it. We're not falling for the same joke twice." Rigel said crossly and Doolan held up his hands in an 'I surrender' gesture.

"Now, now, don't get your knickers in a twist." He said with a wink and the three older Gryffindors left, a devious twinkle in their eyes.

"Tossers." Rick repeated, more to himself than anyone else.

Peeves continued to cause trouble for Rick throughout the afternoon, throwing eggs and chalk at him and dumping dustbins over his head. By the end of the day, Rick was exhausted and he sincerely hoped that Peeves would leave him alone that night. His hopes were in vain for the first years had barely gotten into bed when Peeves entered the dormitory and started yammering away again. Cedric, McCallum, Sanders and Anderson soon decided that they would get a better night's sleep elsewhere and filed out one by one.

"Where are you going?" Rick asked when he saw Rigel leave as well.

"Sorry mate but one of us needs to be awake in class tomorrow." His friend replied tiredly. Rick plopped back down on his pillow in frustration and pulled it over his head in an attempt to drown out the sound and get some rest.

After another sleepless night – Peeves only left when light started to peak through the curtains - Rick decided to skip that morning's Potions class in favour of getting a little more sleep. A few hours later, however, Peeves was back and to get away from the poltergeist, Rick got up and set off for the Great Hall to find something to eat. Peeves followed him the whole way, taunting him with insults. Rick tried to ignore him, thinking that if he didn't react, perhaps Peeves would bore of him faster. He managed quite well until a few floors down Rick felt something wet and mud-like land on the back of his head with a 'SPLASH'.

"Oooh, you stink." Peeves laughed. Rick scraped the substance from his head to find that Peeves had hurled dung at him and he snapped.

"Why don't you leave...me...alone!" Rick yelled throwing the dung he'd scraped off his head at the poltergeist, who did a summersault in the air to dodge it.

"You throw like a girl." Peeves teased. Tired and frustrated, the insult rankled Rick and in his anger, he made one of the harnesses adorning the corridor fly at Peeves.

"Oops." Peeves dodged it, though with more difficulty this time. "Finally got you mad, did I?" The poltergeist jeered and Rick sent another harness flying at him but the poltergeist just dodged again and it crashed against the opposite wall, joining its brother. The clattering noise attracted attention, most notably that of professor Lloyd, who stuck his head out of his office to see what was going on.

"Mr. O'Connell, stop that immediately!" The professor admonished. For such an old man, he had no trouble making himself heard. "Peeves, away with you!" The poltergeist stuck out his tongue but obeyed nevertheless, dropping the rest of the dung on the floor and hovering away, cackling loudly. The amassed students pulled their noses at the stench.

"My office, O'Connell." Lloyd commanded. Rick marched inside, still breathing heavily in anger. "The rest of you, move along." Lloyd told the small audience of students. The professor closed the door of his office and turned to face Rick.

"It is not allowed to destroy school property." He began.

"But Peeves, he..." Rick tried to defend himself but Lloyd wasn't finished.

"And I heard from professor Selwyn that you missed his class this morning." Lloyd interrupted. "May I enquire as to your whereabouts?"

"I was sleeping." Rick said. "Peeves..."

"Sleeping?" Lloyd interrupted again. "Did you miss your wake-up call?"

"No, but..."

"Or did you decide to just ignore it?" Rick did not answer and Lloyd shook his head. "I do not take skipping class lightly, Mr. O'Connell so you will present yourself to Mrs. Whifferdill Friday at six for detention." He said. "Be thankful I'm not deducting points for this and don't let me catch you skipping classes again." Lloyd warned. "You may head to your next class now, O'Connell." Angry and frustrated with Lloyd's unwillingness to hear his side, Rick marched to the first floor for his History of Magic class and dropped his books on a desk near the back of the classroom. He was still scraping the remaining dung off the back of his head when the other students filed in. Rigel took a seat next to him, surprised to see him.

"Hey, you made it. I didn't think you'd show up at all today." He said happily. "What's that smell?"

"Don't, just don't." And thankfully, Rigel picked up on Rick's foul mood and and shut up. Professor Creedon's long lecture on Uric the Oddball went completely over Rick's head. He barely heard anything Creedon was telling them, his anger and growling stomach making it impossible to focus.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Peeves'll tire of you eventually." Rigel tried to comfort him as they walked to the Great Hall for lunch, dodging the eggs Peeves was throwing at Rick.

"Eventually can't come soon enough." Rick grumbled as he swiped some egg yolk off his robes. That afternoon, Rick was quite thankful their classes took place outside of the castle, where Peeves couldn't get to him. They had their first flying lesson and the last thing he needed was Peeves trying to toss him off his broom for fun.

"Merlin, I can't wait to get back on a broom." Rigel said for what seemed the thousandth time as they crossed the terrace to where their flying lesson was to take place. "It seems like ages since I last flew!" Rick nodded absentmindedly, too nervous to talk. They had the class with the Slytherins and he was contemplating which was worse when you were twenty feet up in the air, Peeves haunting you or a Slytherin out for revenge.

Rigel was not alone in his enthusiasm, though. All of the first years were excited to fly. It seemed like every child with magical parents had flown before and most of them talked a lot about quidditch. Rigel had been ecstatic to learn that their instructor was Bertram Shaw, a player for the Appleby Arrows when he was younger. Apparently, he had been quite good before he retired from professional quidditch and came to Hogwarts to teach. Mr. Shaw was a rather short and stout man with square shoulders and short brown hair and his nose looked like it had been broken at least twice.

"Good afternoon everyone and welcome to your first flying lesson." He greeted the class. "Let's not waste any time as I'm sure everyone is excited to learn to fly." Rick saw Cedric and Frank give Shaw a dubious look. Both boys seemed rather nervous and Rick couldn't suppress a grin. Finally something Carmichael didn't know.

"Grab a broom from the broom shed and form a double line on the grass." Shew instructed them. There was a hustle as everyone tried to get one of the better looking brooms from the small shed. Rick was pleased he managed to get one that didn't look like it had been through a mangle.

"You're not going to go very far on that, McCallum." Mr. Shaw called out amusedly. "That's a mop, not a broom." The class sniggered and McCallum blushed furiously as he hurried back to the broom shed.

"Alright, lay down your brooms, hold your hand over it and say 'up'." Rick stood between Rigel and McCallum and held his hand over his broom as Mr. Shaw had instructed.

"Up!" His broom shot up in a flash and Rick caught it handily. He smiled in relieved surprise and looked around to see how everyone else had done. Rigel had succeeded on his first try as well but they were one of the few. Next to them, McCallum was still struggling and Rick couldn't help but feel a little smug when he saw Cedric and Lewis were struggling as well. Lewis finally managed after about a dozen or so more tries but Cedric took the longest of all. Of course, it did not help that across from him Mordaunt and Rydell were snickering at his every failed attempt, making him even more nervous. When everyone finally had their brooms in hand, Mr. Shaw showed them how to mount it and what was the right way to grip it.

"That's it, Bailey, very good." He complemented Rigel on his grip, who looked very smug about it.

"McCallum, turn around, you're going to fly backwards that way." Rick and Rigel couldn't help but snicker at seeing McCallum's non-plussed face when he found himself staring at his broom's tail instead of the handle.

"Alright, I see everyone's getting the hang of it. Let's try and take off, shall we?" Mr. Shaw announced. "When I blow my whistle, you will push off from the ground and hover for a moment before leaning forward to land again."

"Do you think McCallum'll even get off the ground?" Rick whispered to Rigel, nodding to their portly housemate, who made for a comical figure on the slender broom. His friend snorted amused.

"I'll have to see it to believe it."

"Everyone ready?" Shaw blew his whistle and Rick kicked off hard and realised Rigel was right. Flying was easy, flying was fun, flying was amazing! He wanted to fly higher and experiment with a few turns but Mr Shaw quickly made them land again to discuss good grip and technique. They practised taking off and landing a few more times and even got to fly a few yards before class was over. All in all, Rick thought it was the most interesting class they had had so far and he was disappointed it had to end so soon. Rigel, on the other hand, was far less pleased.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I had expected a little more from that class." He said sullenly as they walked back to the castle.

"I thought you would've enjoyed it?" Rick replied surprised. "After all, you couldn't shut up about it."

"I did, but I thought we were going to do more than hovering and practising good grip." Rigel complained as they entered the great oak doors. Rick was just going to say he agreed when they rounded the corner and ran straight into a group of Slytherins. Mordaunt was among them, his cousin Martin Rydell with him as always and they were accompanied by a few other first years Slytherins Rick recognized from class. They were huddled around something and Rick wondered what they were doing when one of them noticed them.

"Nothin' to see here, move along." He said menacingly but Rick and Rigel didn't move because behind the boy, Rydell was holding a terrified looking Cedric at wand point against the wall.

"Let him go." Rigel demanded bravely. Mordaunt turned and looked Rigel up and down repulsively.

"Are you going to order us around now, you foul bloodtraitor?" He hissed, turning away from Cedric to confront Rigel. "You want to help your pathetic boyfriend?" He took a step closer, standing nose to nose with Rigel in an attempt to intimidate him. Rick saw his friend glance at the other Slytherins and hesitate. He seemed to realise that if they picked a fight, they'd be outnumbered four to two. Mordaunt seemed to have realised this as well.

"Thought as much." He smirked. "Behold the courage of Gryffindors." The other Slytherins laughed hatefully and Mordaunt faced Rigel again. "Better transfer to Ravenclaw, Bailey, they don't mind cowards there." He sniggered and shoved Rigel on the shoulder. In a flash, Rick stepped forward and shoved Mordaunt back.

"You filthy mudblood, how dare you touch me!" Mordaunt raised his wand and Rick did the same, though he did not have a clue what he would do with it. He did not yet know any real spells. He thought of the leg-locker curse Rigel had taught him but he didn't know how much good that would do. Rigel came to stand next to him, wand at the ready while the Slytherins did the same. At that moment and perhaps luckily, Mr Shaw came around the corner.

"What's happening here? Put down your wands!" He yelled and everyone lowered their wands except Rick and Mordaunt. Shaw came to stand between them. "Duelling's forbidden outside of class. Ten points from each house." Rick wanted to object but Shaw intervened. "Now I suggest you forget about this before you make it worse and head to your common rooms, off you go." The Slytherins left reluctantly, still glaring and grumbling angrily while Rick, Rigel and Cedric walked away in the opposite direction.

"Thanks guys." Said Cedric, jogging to keep up with them and adjusting his glasses so they were on straight again.

"No problem." Rigel waved it off, looking more relaxed again. "Why did Mordaunt and his cronies come after you anyway?" He inquired. Cedric shrugged.

"Just because he can, I guess."

"You need to stand up for yourself, Carmichael. Don't let Mordaunt just walk over you." Rigel advised him.

"I'm not!" Rick and Rigel gave him an incredulous look. "I mean, I try not to." He added sheepishly and Rick shook his head at the reply. "So, do you guys want to go over that Transfiguration essay together?" Cedric asked when they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, apparently under the impression that the incident with Mordaunt had made them friends.

"No." Rick was quick to reply. He and Rigel had planned on playing a bit of wizard chess. Rigel was teaching Rick some basic strategies so he might actually stand a chance against him and it was far more fun than homework.

"Are you planning to hand it in this time, Rick?" Cedric asked again. "I could help you, if you want?" So far, Rick had failed to hand in a single piece of homework, not because he did not understand the material, but because he was terrible at writing it all down and it was a waste of time anyway. How would writing an essay help with casting a spell? Homework was for nerds and teacher's pets and he was neither of those. He was, however, annoyed that Cedric was being so meddlesome.

"That's really none of your business, is it?" He snubbed. "You just make sure yours is done and leave me alone. Off you go." Cedric's face fell again and he slinked off.

"That was a little harsh, wasn't it?" Rigel admonished. "He was just offering to help."

"He needs to mind his own business." Rick replied peevishly. "And I don't need help from a little know-it-all."

"He's really not that bad." Rigel argued but Rick just gave him an incredulous look.

"Don't tell me you enjoy him sticking to us like glue?" Rigel shrugged.

"I don't know." He replied evasively. "I kind of like talking to him." Rick stared at him, completely stunned. "I sometimes like theorizing with him on the Fundamental Laws of Magic." He explained and Rick didn't really know how to reply to that. He had thought Rigel was cool but now he was starting to think that maybe he was just as big a nerd as Cedric.

"Come on, let's play some chess." Rigel changed the topic.

As Rigel had predicted, Peeves became bored harassing Rick and the night after their first flying class was the first good night of sleep Rick had had in three days. The rest of the week passed without incidents as well and the tension that had existed between Rick and the other first year Gryffindor boys after the Gryffindor challenge dissipated somewhat, though Rick was still not very popular with his house-mates. This was primarily due to Rick getting behind on homework more and more, causing Gryffindor to lose more and more points and that didn't sit well with his house-mates. Anderson, Sanders and McCallum hardly spoke to him and older students glared at him whenever he passed, muttering words like 'sluggard' and 'sponger'. Rick ignored them mostly. He felt they were overreacting. Besides, it wasn't like he did it on purpose. It was just that things kept getting in the way. Every time he decided to put quill to paper, something distracted him like other students playing a game in the common room or a deck of cards with which he could build a card castle and before he knew it, the next class was there and he had not done his homework.

All in all, when Friday came around, Rick was more than ready for the weekend to begin. Before he could start enjoying the free time without nagging students and teachers, however, he still had his detention with Whifferdill. A couple of minutes before six, Rick made his way to her office on the ground floor.

"Come in." Whifferdill replied when Rick knocked on the door. Upon entering, Rick saw that he was not alone, a girl was sitting on the chair in front of Whifferdill's desk. She had dark brown hair messily tied into a ponytail and looked quite plain. Rick recognised her, he had seen her before in class and in the Gryffindor common room though he could not recall her name.

"O'Connell," Whifferdill acknowledged him. "Excellent, we can get started." Madame Whifferdill was an older lady, grey streaking her dark blond hair. She had quite broad shoulders for a woman and a sturdy frame and she didn't look like you would fool her any day.

"Come along you two." She commanded and Rick and the girl followed her to the third floor where she showed them into a room where all the walls were lined with shelves full of all sizes of trophies, plaques, statuettes, shields and medals. There were thousands of them, so much that everywhere you looked, you could see something glittering.

"Welcome to the trophy room." Whifferdill said matter-of-factly. "You'll be cleaning all of these tonight so I suggest you get to it. Here's your rag and cleaning product. Oh and... no magic." She took up post on an old chair near the entrance and calmly took up a piece of knitting. Resigned to their fate, Rick grabbed the rag and set to work at one end of the room while the girl was ordered to start at the other end so they could not talk. It was very tedious and hard work, some of the trophies looked like they hadn't been cleaned in ages and required lengthy scrubbing before Madame Whifferdill was satisfied. After what had to be at least four hours of cleaning, just when Rick's arm began to seriously cramp up and he wondered how much longer he was supposed to clean, the girl called over to him.

"Psst!" Rick looked over his shoulder at Whifferdill to see the concierge had fallen asleep. "How's it going on your end?" The girl whispered.

"Slow." He said whispered back, careful not to wake their supervisor. "You?" The girl shrugged.

"The same." There was a small pause. "So what did you do to land you in this mess?"

"Failure to attend class and destroying school property." Rick replied dully.

"Bold." The girl replied, sounding impressed. Rick wasn't really sure how to answer that.

"Thanks... I guess."

"I'm here because she caught me trying out a Dungbomb." The girl said with a nod to Whifferdill. Rick briefly wondered what a Dungbomb was but decided not to ask. He did not want to look stupid, he would ask Rigel later.

"So, are your parents wizards?" She asked again. Rick felt himself getting annoyed with this girl asking all these questions.

"You are quite talkative aren't you?" Rick replied rather snappily.

"I'm just trying to make conversation." She replied with a shrug. "Polishing plaques and trophies for a few hours gets pretty boring. Terri Thompson's the name by the way and I never knew about magic until a few weeks ago. Now I'm here at Hogwarts, the best school for learning magic. Wicked, isn't it?"

"Sure." Rick replied off-handly. He did not think magic school was all that great. So far he'd found it exceptionally strict and he didn't feel like he was learning magic at all.

"So are you pureblood, halfblood, muggleborn or am I to guess?" The girl pushed.

"Oh for heaven's sake! You're impossible!" Rick's voice rose and Whifferdill grunted. Both Gryffindors went silent and watched anxiously as the concierge went back to her soft snoring.

"Yes, but I got you talking, didn't I?" The girl whispered and she smiled mischievously. Rick could not help crack a smile at her reply and he faced his shelf again to keep her from seeing it. He grabbed the next plaque to clean. It was a photograph of seven people, all dressed in the same robes, each holding brooms except for the person in the middle who was holding a cup. The people in the picture were moving, all smiling, one or two even crying tears of joy. As he scrubbed the frame, Rick's eye fell on the girl in the middle of the front row, smiling at the person who took the photograph. Her hair was tied into a long ponytail and she looked no older than four- or fifteen but she looked eerily familiar. He read the inscription at the bottom of the plaque. 'Gryffindor Quidditch Team, 1978'. Under it were the names of the players and next to Seeker was the name Angela Aplin. Rick's eyes strayed to the girl in the picture and with a jolt he realised that she was his mother. A younger version perhaps, with longer hair but most definitely his mother. Rick glanced back at the name, Angela Aplin. His mother always went by Angela O'Connell but Aplin could have been her maiden name. His mind was going a mile a minute. Could his mother have attended Hogwarts? Could she have been a witch? Why did he not remember this? Surely he would have remembered his mother waving around a wand in their house?

"That plaque should be cleaned, not stared at!" Rick jumped a foot in the air at Whifferdill's voice right behind him. He did not know how long he had been staring at the photograph but apparently it had been long enough for Whifferdill to have awoken. Rick hastily placed the plaque back on the shelf and proceeded to the next one but it would not stop haunting his thoughts. When they were finally allowed to stop about half an hour later, Rick and Terri made their way back to the Gryffindor common room through the empty and dark corridors of the castle.

"Are you alright?" Terri asked. "You seem quiet. Not that you were particularly talkative before."

"I'm fine, just... just tired, that's all." Rick lied. He did not feel like talking when there were so many questions on his mind. How could his mother have attended Hogwarts and not tell him about it? Taking the hint, Terri thankfully refrained from speaking until they reached the common room, which was abandoned this time of night.

"Well, it was nice to get to know you, well, the little I did get to know." Terri smiled as they reached the top of the stairs to their respective dormitories. She held out her hand and Rick shook it. "Until next time."

"Right." Rick replied absentmindedly.

"Well, goodnight." And she turned around to head to her dormitory.

"Goodnight." Rick replied and he went did the same. The other Gryffindor boys were already asleep when he came in so he tried to undress quietly and quickly got into bed. His whole body ached and he longed to sleep off the stiffness in his arm but as it was, he was wide awake. Why had his mother never told him she was a witch? The question burned in his mind and an hour later, when it became apparent that sleep was as near as an answer to his questions, Rick decided he'd had enough. Quietly, he snuck out of bed and crossed the dormitory on tiptoes, not wanting to wake the others.

CLANG! Rick sucked in his breath at the pain his foot. He had forgotten about the stove in the middle of the dormitory. He listened for a moment with bated breath if anyone had awoken from the noise. McCallum was still snoring and Anderson and Sanders seemed to be sleeping still as well but Rigel was definitely tossing around in his bed and Rick decided to quickly make himself scarce before his friend woke up completely. He limped across the common room and through the portrait hole before he realised he did not know where he wanted to go to get his answers. A noise behind him shook him out of his thoughts. It would not be good to get caught wandering around the school at this hour of the night. He listened carefully but could not hear anything else and decided he'd probably imagined it. Making a decision, Rick set forth. He walked carefully along the empty corridors, taking a wrong turn once or twice but eventually he reached the trophy room again. It did not take long to find the photograph and confirm that he had not imagined his mother's name on it. He turned the picture around, looking for clues.

CLANG! Rick jumped almost two feet in the air when a trophy fell over about six feet away from him. Okay, he did not imagine that.

"Who's there?" He called out, fiercely hoping that it wasn't Peeves. There was no reply but he could hear hurried footsteps and saw the door open of its own accord. Rick frowned. Peeves wouldn't run away. Neither would any of the other ghosts, come to think of it. Rick put the plaque back on the shelf and chased after the invisible figure. He had scarcely run a couple of meters when he heard another voice speak, one that made his heart sink.

"Hello? Is someone there?" It was professor Griffiths. Judging from the light, he was just around the corner. If he caught Rick here now, there would surely be another detention in his future. Rick anxiously looked around for a place to hide but there was none. Griffiths was drawing closer. He took a few steps backwards. In a few seconds he would be spotted. Just then, a hand closed over his mouth and a piece of fabric was thrown over his head.

"Shh." A familiar voice whispered in his ear.

"Hello?" Professor Griffiths rounded the corner and Rick froze. The professor was standing right in front of him, so close Rick could see the light of his wand reflected in his eyes. There was no way Griffiths could not see him and yet, he did not seem to notice him. "Hello?" He called out once more. After about a minute, professor Griffiths apparently decided he had imagined things and went on his way. As soon as the coast was clear, the hand around Rick's mouth loosened and the fabric was pulled away.

"That was close." The familiar voice of Rigel said. Rick was dumbfounded.

"Rigel? What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you." He answered. "I heard you leave the dormitory and decided to see what you were up to."

"You were following me? Why?" Rick aske, both confused and slightly irritated.

"I thought you were up to mischief and I wanted in. Lucky for you I did or you would have been caught by Griffiths."

"Yes, why weren't we caught by Griffiths?" Rick asked, still not understanding what had happened. "I thought for sure we were done for. He was standing right in front of us."

"Because of this." Rigel said and he held up a light type of fabric. "It's an invisibility cloak." He explained.

"An invisibility cloak? You mean it makes you invisible?"

"Yeah. I got it from my uncle for my eleventh birthday. He made me promise not to tell my parents or they would take it away immediately."

"Where can I get one?" Rick asked enthusiastically.

"Dunno. They're quite rare. I don't even know where my uncle got one. They do come in handy for sneaking around though." Rigel said, grinning mischievously.

"So what were you doing in there?" Rigel asked with a nod to the trophy room. Rick hesitated to reply. He wasn't sure if he was ready to let him know what he had discovered, especially when he did not know himself what his discovery meant.

"I thought I forgot something earlier." He lied.

"In the trophy room?" Rigel asked a little incredulously. "Why would you go in there?"

"We had detention in there for Whifferdill."

"Oh, I see. So what did you forget that couldn't wait until morning?"

"Nothing." Rick replied without thinking.

"But I thought you said..." Rigel started.

"I was mistaken." Rick said, eager to drop the subject. "Let's get back to the common room, shall we?" Rigel looked suspicious but let the latter drop anyway.

Under the cover of the invisibility cloak, they easily made it back to the dormitory undetected. Rick wondered if he could get Rigel to lend it to him sometime, invisibility opened the door to a whole new range of interesting possibilities. Not tonight though, one experience of nearly getting caught was enough for one night.