┏ ೋღ : 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂. ೋღ ┓

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊;
𝔭𝔞𝔫𝔰𝔶'𝔰 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔫

┗━━ ೋღ : ©-fictophilic : ೋღ ━━━┛

𝕳OWLING WAS HEARD IN THE GREAT DISTANCE, followed by the sound of the clinging and clanging of the Hogwarts castle gate shutting close. Mechanisms throughout the castle sent an eerie sound all the way to the Great Hall, where every student was stuffing themselves into sleeping bags under the orders of the headmaster.

Students quietly chatted and gossiped, worried about their own safety. Others weren't as worried, thinking the whole ordeal was funny.

Most people stuck with their houses, each house getting its own corner of the Great Hall, but a few students strayed away from their houses to chat with their friends from different ones.

While all the students were situated in the Great Hall, the professors were doing rounds in the castle, patrolling and keeping an eye out for a certain murderer.

You were deep into your sleeping bag in an attempt to hide your shaking figure from the embarrassment of being visibly afraid.

"You really think Sirius Black's somewhere in the castle?" Cho whispered worriedly from beneath her sleeping bag, tucking it up to her chin.

"Well, I would sure hope not," Isaac remarked, sitting himself against the stone wall as he didn't want to lie down yet.

"But you saw the claw marks," you noted with concern, turning yourself onto your side under your sleeping bag with your back facing the wall.

"Perhaps it was a different creature?" Luna inquired optimistically, staring up at the ceiling where the floating candles were near extinguished.

"If we get attacked tonight, I shall sacrifice myself so that my comrades may live," Kyra chimed in with jokes from in front of you. "He would sure rather kill an amazing muggleborn than a measly like half or pureblood."

"Oh, shut up," you whispered harshly, though still with a hint of playfulness. "We're not gonna get attacked... At least, I hope not."

The rest of the floating candles were extinguished with a loud whoosh and McGonagall stood at the front of the hall, tucking her wand back into her robes. "Everyone to bed. I don't want to hear a peep until the morning."

The students quieted down, laying themselves flat against the hard floors and pulling their sleeping bags up past their necks to get warm and cozy.

You kept your back against the wall, and despite McGonagall's orders to sleep, your eyes were wide open in fear of getting attacked while you slept.

Your heart beat like crazy out of your rib cage, your limbs shaking out of both fear and the cold, and your breaths came out slow and rigid.

The figure in front of you shifted and turned around to face you. "Sleep," Kyra mouthed to you.

You furrowed your brows and gave her a concern-filled expression.

She shook her head and swiveled her finger in the air, gesturing for you to turn around. "Sleep. Don't worry."

You let out a breathy and quiet sigh before turning around to face the stone wall that your back had previously faced.

Your eyes trailed over the cracks in the walls and little details of the stone until you eventually fell into a deep sleep surrounded by silence.

Halloween.

Everyone loves Halloween.

Not you — at least, not this year.

It was still the weekend. Yesterday having been Saturday, October 30th, the day the school found out Sirius Black had snuck onto school grounds.

What an eventful Halloween Eve.

But now, it was Halloween, and the professors have still yet to catch the infamous Azkaban escapee.

Your nose was stuffed into yet another good novel you had just picked up recently, but your mind was on high alert, your body tensing up every time a noise resounded near you. With your back against a hard tree trunk and dry, dead leaves scattered around your legs, you attempted to take your mind off the events of yesterday and you turned to the next page of your book.

It was cold and chilly. Not winter cold, but autumn cold. Your current outfit did the job of keeping you warm while you rested and read outside.

You wore black, baggy jeans paired with white sneakers. Your large, oversized black and orange knit sweater draped well beyond your hips and the long sleeves covered your slightly cold hands. The white polo from beneath your sweater served as an extra layer, keeping you warmer than if it was just the sweater alone.

Resting against your thigh was your canvas bag that held all your essentials, including your wand in case something happened.

You turned the page again but flipped back to reread the last sentence then continued on with turning the page. As your eyes trailed over the printed words, the fingers of your right hand occasionally rose up to your neck, fidgeting with your dangling gold earrings.

The dim sunlight filtered through the gray clouds then through the thick, barren tree branches that loomed over your head. The wind blew in the distance and dead leaves on the ground floated for a second before resting back on the ground.

On the other side of the tree, you heard the crunch of gravel from beneath someone's feet. You paused your reading, practically freezing in place. Your hand immediately shot into your bag to grasp your wand.

Soon enough, the gravel crunching ceased and was replaced with the crunching of dead leaves, coming closer to where you sat. You were now painfully aware of your heavy, deep breathing, which you attempted to control and keep quiet.

Softly and quietly closing your book, you gently set the book down on your lap and hone your senses on the approaching person.

Another dead leaf crunched and the mystery person slowly appeared from behind the tree.

"Hey, (Y/n)," Cho said in surprise, but nonetheless with a smile.

You released the breath you had been holding in and you removed your hand from within your bag, leaving your wand in its place. "Cho... Hey."

"Are you alright? You seem a bit on edge," Cho pointed out, her Glaswegian accent coming out thick. She leaned down, setting herself beside you, and rested her back against the base of the tree trunk.

"Yeah," you sighed out. "It's just the whole Sirius Black has got me all... I don't know..."

"Tense?" Cho finished for you before continuing to list off more words. "Nervous? Worried? Anxious?"

"All the above?" You stated, though with a questioning tone, and you scoffed out a few bitter chuckles. "I just want to close my eyes and sleep, but I can't seem to do that either. Scared Black'll murder me in my sleep or something."

"Well, if it gives you any piece of mind, I could keep lookout for a short while when you sleep," Cho suggested kindly with an absentminded shrug.

"Yeah?" You asked, thinking she was joking to ease the tension in your shoulders.

"Yeah," she confirmed. You glanced over at her and saw no intent of being funny — she was serious.

You blinked owlishly and looked away with a smile slowly spreading across your face. "Thanks."

In History of Magic, students were feeling awfully chatty today. Well, it was understandable since Sirius Black made his presence known on Halloween Eve.

Alana couldn't stop talking about it, muttering things to you and Kyra about how the Gryffindor common room looked after Sirius' claw marks appeared on the Fat Lady's portrait.

"It was insane," Alana commented lowly, avoiding Professor Binns' pestering eyes as he gave a wordy lecture about the International Warlock Convention of 1289. "There were claw marks all over the common room. Thankfully, my dorm was left unharmed."

"Well, aren't you lucky?" Seamus chimed in, his tone sounding slightly bitter. He gestured to himself then to his friends beside him — Dean and Neville. "Our dorm room was in bits, though Ron's side took most of the damage."

"That sucks," you breathed out sympathetically.

"Did you guys get your room fixed?" Kyra inquired, swiftly pretending to take notes when Professor Binns sent a quick glance over to your table.

Seamus sighed and nodded, keeping his head down low to avoid getting caught chatting by Binns. "Dumbledore's fixed the place up with a spell, repairing all our damaged belongings as well."

"I don't get it," you mumbled, mainly to yourself, though your table had also heard you. "How does Sirius Black get into school grounds undetected? There are dementors guarding every entrance and Dumbledore's an all-powerful wizard. Surely, he must've at least caught him by now."

"Don't know," Alana replied and shrugged, equally as confused as you were.

"You'd think at least someone would've seen some old bloke in prisoner's clothing," Seamus pointed out.

"From what I've seen from the newspapers, he'd stick out like a sore thumb," Kyra added, nodding her head in agreement.

"What if he's got someone helping him?" You questioned, trying to piece things together in an effort to ease your mind. If you knew what was going on, if you knew who to avoid, things would be so much better than worrying that every person you talked to could've helped Sirius sneak onto school grounds. "Sneaking into Hogwarts isn't an easy feat."

"My bet's on Snape," Seamus whispered. "I never liked the guy."

"That's because you're a Gryffindor," said Kyra with a slight narrow of her eyes.

"No one likes Snape," Seamus scoffed, defending himself of his claim.

"Putting the blame on Snape's too easy," Alana countered. When Professor Binns looked over, she flipped her notebook open to make it seem like she was turning to a new page to take notes on. Once she saw that his eyes were turned away again, she let out a sigh of relief and turned to the group to continue talking. "If this was some big conspiracy, everyone would be thinking it's Snape who did it."

"Well then, who do you think did it?" Seamus questioned, curious as to who Alana would find guilty.

"Filch," she answered simply and confidently as if she had solved the big conspiracy that was created just moments ago.

"Filch?" Kyra repeated with both astonishment and confusion. "You think Filch let Sirius Black onto school grounds?"

"I mean, think about it. Filch is almost everywhere on school grounds since he's the caretaker and he's almost always up at night to patrol the corridors for students," Alana explained, seemingly convinced she was right about this topic. "It'd be so easy for him to sneak someone in."

"Filch's a coward," Seamus scoffed. "He'd be too afraid to let a notorious murderer into Hogwarts."

"I don't know," Kyra sighed. "Lan's got a point."

"I think if I had to choose out of all people, it'd have to be Snape," you answered quietly as you shrugged.

"Thank you!" Seamus whisper-yelled, seeing as Binns was still very much going on a long and boring tangent. Seamus avoided Professor Binns' eyes when he glanced over yet again from the noise of the conversation.

"Snape seems the most likely to do it," you claimed, though you were mostly just joking. "He's a Potions teacher who could create various poisons. Him and an infamous murderer would be a terrifying duo."

Seamus sighed in relief that he wasn't alone on the topic. "At least someone gets where I'm coming from."

Sitting in absolute dread, you rested your cheek against your fist that was propped up by your elbow. You carefully dropped ingredients into the cauldron that was situated between you and Mattheo, watching as the potion bubbled before calming down.

It was currently partner work in Potions, everyone working in pairs with the person they sat next to. As you sat next to Mattheo, he was naturally your Potions partner.

He didn't bother helping, instead carving more drawings into the table while you read the textbook and followed the instructions of the potion you were meant to brew for the graded assignment.

This wasn't the first time this had happened. It's happened quite a few times actually, and during none of those times did Mattheo help you with the potions that Snape had assigned.

You didn't mind. In fact, you preferred it this way. At least you wouldn't have to talk with the person who caused your best friend fear.

Nearly done with completing the potion, the hurried glances and not-so-subtle nods that Pansy gave Mattheo didn't go unnoticed.

She stared him down and Mattheo glanced up at her. Pansy looked over to you and nodded at you, very obviously hinting for him to talk to you.

In your mind, you thought this was some kind of elaborate, manipulative Slytherin scheme.

In reality, it was just Pansy trying to get the entire friend group on talking terms with you so it'd be easier to welcome you into the group, which would make it easier for Lorenzo to talk to you if you were at least acquaintances with all his friends.

So really, it was an elaborate Slytherin scheme — and you were correct, just in the wrong way.

Mattheo furrowed his brows and slowly shook his head, inwardly telling her to bugger off. Pansy was adamant, continuing to gesture towards you with a glare targeted at him.

A grumpy sigh escaped his lips and he gave Pansy a forced, tight-lipped smile before pivoting in his chair and swiveling to face your direction.

Mattheo watched with a blank face as you crushed Shrivelfig leaves into the cauldron. "Just toss them in whole."

Your eyes flitted in his direction and your brows furrowed in slight surprise and confusion at the fact that the boy spoke to you.

Were you imagining things?

Did he actually just speak to you?

Mattheo took the confusion differently, thinking that you hadn't understood what he said, so he reiterated, "The Shrivelfig leaves. Just toss them in whole. No need to crush them."

Sending sneaky glances over your Potions textbook, you read what the text specifically said. "Crush Shrivelfig leaves into the cauldron."

Your mouth went agape as you tried to figure out what to do. Listen to the book? Or listen to the boy who got your best friend petrified?

Book?

Or the scary boy?

Book?

Or the very scary, terrifying, and basilisk-releasing boy?

"I'm not lying," Mattheo added upon seeing you hesitate.

You gave an awkward, tight-lipped smile and forced out a chuckle. "Uhm, well, it's just that the textbook says—"

"The textbook's a load of rubbish," Mattheo interrupted with a slight scoff of a laugh towards the end of his phrase.

"Yeah, but this potion's graded and—" You attempted to start, only to get cut off again.

"We'll get a higher mark if we keep the leaves as is," Mattheo urged and shrugged. "The potion will end up better than if you keep sticking to the book."

"Uh... It's risky, so—"

"I've done it before. Nothing explodes, no one dies, and the potion's better," Mattheo droned monotonously as if he was already done with this conversation. You inwardly sighed at being interrupted yet again.

Wanting to be done with this already, you just listened to Mattheo's words and dropped the Shrivelfig leaves into the cauldron whole. Instinctively, you gave him an exaggerated and sarcastic tight-lipped smile.

Mattheo returned the same sarcastic smile and went back to whatever he was carving into the desk. To himself, he widened his eyes for a split second as if in annoyance and produced a sound that resembled somewhat of a mix between a grumble and a sigh.

Mindlessly and subtly rolling your eyes, you carried on with brewing the potion. No one else had noticed your tense figure or your annoyed aura, but Pansy did as she was keeping a close eye on how her plan was unfolding.

She turned her head back around and pressed her hand into her face in disbelief and discontent.

'Oh, for Salazar's sake, he had one job,' Pansy thought to herself. 'He had one job, and he messed that up! This is going to take some work.'

"What in the bloody hell was that?" Pansy questioned incredulously, giving Mattheo a good smack on the shoulder.

The notorious group of Slytherins had just exited the Potions classroom and were headed towards their common room in order to put their stuff away and get ready for dinner.

"What are you on about now?" Mattheo groaned, not even bothered by the sting of Pansy's hit to his shoulder.

The crowded corridor was loud with the idle chatter of students, but the crowd parted like an ocean wave once they saw the infamous Slytherin group walk by.

"I told you to make friends with her, not annoy her," Pansy reprimanded and Mattheo rolled his eyes and scoffed.

The group turned the corner into a quieter hallway. It was a different route than the normal one all Slytherins would take to the common room, but they were discussing a rather private matter.

"Enzo, remind me why you like her again?" Mattheo inquired, ignoring Pansy's heated glare.

"Godric, please, no," Draco pleaded with a groan but was ignored.

Lorenzo smiled, Mattheo's mischief going unnoticed by him. "She's smart—"

"Debatable," Mattheo interjected and Lorenzo narrowed his eyes at him. "Continue."

"She's helpful—"

"Not really," Mattheo countered. "Very stubborn