After our Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, everyone was talking about Neville’s Boggart and it didn’t take long for this news to reach Father.Father himself now hated Professor Lupin, which left me in an uncomfortable position, since I enjoyed Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions equally.

***

In Divination, I became good friends with Holly Burton and Kaya Adams, the two Ravenclaws I had met in my first lesson.Trelawney still seemed to think that I had the Sight, even though all I did was ‘see’ the Grim and other ill omens.

Today, Holly and I were looking into each other’s tea leaves and Kaya came over to our table. She looked into my cup with a smirk and an expression of mock horror. “Oh, Jade, I can see a skull…” Her smirk intensified. “…and the Grim!”

Kaya seemed to think that this whole thing was a joke. Holly took it more seriously. “Kaya, you know what I saw in Jade’s cup?”

She raised her eyebrows. “A duck?”

We all burst out laughing, which got us a few stares.

Holly’s face turned serious again and she shook her head. “I saw…I saw the Grim.”

Kaya gaped. “For real?”

Holly and I nodded together. “For real.”

Kaya frowned but said nothing.

I glanced into my textbook. “I believe that a duck is a sign of failure, so you wouldn’t want that anyway.”

Holly giggled.

***

In Care of Magical Creatures, lessons became depressingly boring. All we did was feed lettuce to these stupid worms called Flobberworms.Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence, and therefore Draco Malfoy was generally in a great mood.

***

Finally, the Quidditch season began approaching. Our team began training to win the Quidditch Cup.

One lunchtime, Alex came over to the Slytherin table, looking excited. “Guess what?”

Anja turned right around in her seat. “What?”

Alex grinned. “I got into the Ravenclaw Quidditch team! I’m a Chaser!”

“Well done!” Anja exclaimed, and I nodded.

“Just like your sister.”

He looked solemn. “Yeah.”

Alex’s sister was Angelina Johnson, one of the Gryffindor Chasers.

***

One evening, Sirius Malfoy and Gemma Farley, the 7th-year Prefects, pinned notices around the Common Room.

Within a few seconds, each notice around the room was surrounded by 5th, 6th and 7th years.

“What does it say?” I asked, trying to get a better look.

Sirius turned to look at me. “The first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up. On the 31st of October. Hallowe’en,” he clarified.

I sighed.

I really, really disliked Hallowe’en.

On Hallowe’en in my first year, a troll had attacked Hermione and me, and I had encountered a three-headed dog that seriously injured my father. In my second year, Ginny, possessed by Tom Riddle, had Petrified Mrs Norris using the basilisk, the first of the attacks.

Hopefully this year would be better.

“You do have a permission form, don’t you?” Sirius asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I nodded. Father had signed Anja’s and my forms as soon as we got back from school, then taken them to his study. So I didn’t have to worry about handing mine in.

“Of course.”

***

On the morning of Hallowe’en, Blaise, Anja and I met Alex at the gates. We left without any trouble.

I thought that maybe this would be a good day after all.

None of us really knew what to expect. Alex had heard a little from Angelina, but not that much. Blaise’s parents had been there, both being magical, but Blaise was an only child. As for Anja and me, Father hardly ever talked about his school days. I knew they hadn’t exactly been great, from his outburst about Sirius Black.

Sirius Black…now he was a mystery.I hadn’t thought any more about what Father had said – that Black was never a Death Eater.

“What’re you thinking about, Jade?” Blaise asked quietly.

“Sirius Black,” I told him simply.

He nodded. “Thought so.”

Blaise knew me too well.

I didn’t reply to him, we just walked along in silence.

Anja and Alex mysteriously disappeared as soon as we got into Hogsmeade.

Blaise grinned. “Gone to have a passionate make-out session.”

I grinned too, looking around.

Hogsmeade was filled with students. “Well, where shall we go?” I asked Blaise casually.

He shrugged, glancing around, then pointed at a shop further on, which I could faintly see was called The Three Broomsticks. “Let’s go in there. Mum says it has great butterbeer. That’s a drink,” he added at my confused look.

I raised my eyebrows. “I figured. Okay, let’s go in there.”

We entered and it was instantly warm. It was mid-autumn, but that was still reasonably cold.

Blaise and I bought some Butterbeer and sat down at a table.

Later, we visited Zonko’s, a joke shop I had heard talk of before.

Next we visited Honeydukes, as well as an assortment of other shops.

Finally, we went to go have a look at the Shrieking Shack, which was apparently inhabited by particularly violent ghosts. Personally, I thought it was a repeated prank, because the strange noises only occurred for 7 years – coincidentally, the number of years that Hogwarts taught.

I had read into the Shrieking Shack quite a bit, and had found out from Father that those were the years that he had attended this school.

I remembered that day…

“Those were the years that I attended school,” he told me. “Why?”

“Those were the years that shrieking was heard in the Shrieking Shack,” I explained.

Father l0oked as if he was on the verge of revealing hidden information, then his face went strangely blank.

“Oh, how curious,” he said emptily and distantly.

I knew that he knew something he wasn’t telling me, but didn’t press him for information.

I jerked back to the present. Blaise was looking at me with a rather odd expression on his face, but as soon as he met my gaze, the odd expression disappeared.

“What?” I asked quickly.

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

We decided to go find Alex and Anja.

We found them, but rather wished that we hadn’t.

They were wrapped around one another, pressed so tightly together it was hard to tell who was who.

Making out.

Just as Blaise had said.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and the two quickly broke apart.

“We were –” Anja began explaining, but Blaise cut her off with a smirk on his face.

“We could see perfectly well what you were doing.”

Alex looked worried for a few seconds, then he turned to me. “This is, um, okay with you, right? Me dating your twin sister?”

I grinned. “Anja Lily Snape does whatever she damn well likes.”

Alex looked back over at Anja, who gave a tight nod.

That seemed to be enough for Alex.

***

At the Hallowe’en Feast, there was a huge spread of food, and all of it was delicious.

Overall, the day had gone brilliantly. Especially for Hallowe’en. I had honestly begun to think that there was a curse on the 31st of October.

We were heading back to the Common Room as a house group when Father appeared behind us.

“You will not be sleeping in your dormitories tonight,” he told us firmly.

One glance at the Senior Prefects informed us that they had no idea what was going on.

“Um, Father,” I asked, “what happened?”

His face was cold as he turned to me.

“He’s gotten into the castle. Sirius Black.”