Once again, Jade found herself sneaking out of her dormitory and into
the castle. Alana was with her, and West, who had hidden under the bed
during Professor Sprout's curfew check, was there as well. The three
were cloaked in their pajamas and slippers, and the ears of Jade's
unironic pink bunny slippers flapped against the marble floors and they
headed towards their first destination- the library.

"I'm
excited," Alana squealed, reaching into the pocket of her pajama shirt
for something. "I like sneaking out to find something for a greater
good, as opposed to just doing it for the heck of it." Finding what she
was searching for in her pocket, she triumphantly revealed- a handful of
cookie crumbs and melty chocolate chips. "Aww, dang! It broke!" She
popped a linty chocolate chip into her mouth.

"Gross!" West laughed and snatched a chip as well. "Not bad, actually. Do you always keep crumbly food in your pockets?"

Alana
laughed sarcastically. "Never! Except...well...potato chips don't
count, right? Or chocolate bars? Or jelly beans? Because I have those in
all of my pockets. Want one?"

"I already brushed my teeth,
Alana," Jade sighed, shushing her best friends. "Plus, you guys need to
be quiet- it's like midnight, and we don't want to get caught."

West flapped a hand dismissively. "Caught-schmaught. Besides, you only live once. Have a jelly bean, come on."

Jade
shook her head. "Seriously, be quiet. If I get in trouble again,
Headmaster Thornbeck is writing to my parents. I don't want to get in
trouble with them until I come home this summer and tell them in
person."

The girls proceeded to the library, with only minor
scuffling and giggling. West popped a jelly bean and spit it out behind
the bust of Alvar the Awful, which had already been defaced. Jade
stopped to read the carvings and drawings around it.

"Sisa was
here. Saoirse was here, too. HI! From, Peggy. Don't tell me to write my
name! -Lena. DANCING QUEEN, ONLY SEVENTEEN! -Kate. Don't write on the
bust, guys. -Claire. Eel + O.H.A + Tortoise + Groot + Kate = BFFs." She
tore herself away. "Guys, these kids sound like us. I wonder if there
are any dates."

"I wonder what O.H.A means," West said
softly, fingering the carvings. "Those girls probably went here years
ago. That girl Kate's carving, that's an ABBA song. I've heard it
before, it came out in-"

"Nineteen seventy-six," Alana finished, her tone mildly reverent. "This is super cool!"

"We
should get going, you two." Jade was fascinated as well, but she needed
to figure out where her compass was. The third and final task was next
weekend, and she would prefer not to die.

"Right." West hopped in place and started to walk down the hall again. "Okay, you usually leave it in the library..."

The
three pajama-clad, slippered and jelly bean-toting girls walked towards
the school library. As they walked, an ominous cold chill crept up
Jade's spine, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Alana
squealed as an invisible breeze sent her hair fluttering around the rear
of her head. Goosebumps appeared on West's arms, and she rubbed them, a
look of intense concentration appearing on her face.

Something
shifted in front of them, and then the rug was out from under their
feet and the girls were sprawling on the icy ground. Jade bounced up a
bit before falling again, this time on top of West. Both girls got the
breath knocked out of them, and West hiccuped. Above the
girls, floating in a haze of dark green light, was a ghost- but he
seemed more solid than ghosts that they had encountered before. He had a
devilish face with a smile that carried menace in its very aura.

"Helloooo," the ghost crooned, his pointed beard waggling as he spoke. "What are you students doing out of bed?"

"We..." Jade flinched at the very idea of herself lying, even to an irritating ghost. "West left her asthma potion in the bathroom, and we had to help her get it. It's really important that she take it every day so she doesn't, like, run out of breath and explode." Alana high-fived her behind their backs.

"Look, West's having an attack right now." Alana pointed to West, who was meditatively chewing on a piece of cookie. Alana kicked her in the shin. West jumped. "I said, West is having an asthma attack right now!"

West obligingly swallowed her cookie, clutched at her throat, and took panicked breaths, falling to the floor and gasping like a goldfish with no water. She flopped onto Jade's feet, and made a weird rattling noise, like a snake that couldn't breathe.

"Good thing her attack is over," Jade announced, shifting her foot under West and making her roll over onto her stomach. Instantly, the smaller girl stopped hyperventilating and sat up perkily.

"I'll be watching you, little students," the ghost leered, and floated upside down through a classroom wall.

"That was close," Alana sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Thanks to West and her lovely, acting skill, we made it out without detention."

West took a deep breath. "Those, acting skills? Please, I'm offended that you think that even close to acting. I gagged on a bit of cookie at first, and then that rattling was me finally swallowing it."

The girls laughed, too loud and too long for the joke, but they were a bit hysterical from their brush with 'danger'. After a moment, Jade pulled the other two up, and they continued to the library.

Her Compass wasn't on any of the tables, or even behind the librarian's desk. The girls looked under carpets, in between books and even inside them. The classrooms yielded nothing, though in her eagerness to help, Alana knocked over three desks and broke an inkwell all over her white pajamas.

Around three in the morning, Jade finally gave up the ghost. "Come on, you lot. We're not going to find it." The walk back to the dormitory was less eager, less cheerful, with not a cookie crumb in sight. West split off to the Gryffindor Tower, and Jade and Alana continued to the Hufflepuff Basement.

The girls bid one another good night, and Alana fell asleep instantly, her snores providing a soft soundtrack for Jade's sleep. However, a lump under her pillow made comfort impossible, and she pulled it out.

Even in the waning moonlight, the Compass of Right was obvious as it glimmered in her hand. Jade clicked it open and the needle spun, as if it was happy to see her. It had been polished to a gorgeous shine, every sculpted vine and swirl on the shell brought to full resolution. Tucked into the side of the compass was a square of paper. Jade pulled it out and opened it, flakes of the parchment crumbling onto her. In spidery, delicate writing, a few sentences crossed the page.

I had to borrow your Compass. Tell West I said hello.

-Z