Violet Summer: Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter 27: Day of Reckoning

 On Monday morning, the rush of weekend adventure and carefree spirit quickly vanished with the bizarre and frightening news.

Ron and Harry had informed Toni of what Ron had seen in the middle of the night, leaving her deeply unsettled. Without any doubt, Ron claimed to have seen Sirius Black standing over his bed with a knife. The idea of a wizard using a knife was strange to Toni, but she understood that Black likely had his wand taken away when he was in Azkaban, making the knife a plausible weapon of choice. However, what disturbed her even more was Hermione's assumption that Black had mistakenly stood over Ron's bed, hoping it was Harry's.

The news cast a dark cloud over the Gryffindor table during breakfast. Even Professor McGonagall seemed visibly panicked and afraid, an expression Toni had never witnessed before. This added to her unease about Harry's safety and the threat of Black being on the loose.

Amidst the gloominess, the sight of a purple colored Filch marching towards Dumbledore at the front of the room elicited stifled laughter from the students. Filch's face was flushed with anger and displeasure as he glared evilly at everyone, almost studying their reactions. Fred, George, and Toni sat close to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and when Filch passed them, they exchanged knowing glances. Ron couldn't believe what he was seeing and had a wide, disbelieving smile on his face. Hermione, on the other hand, scolded the mischievous trio.

"I thought you three were done with your pranks by the end of the weekend!" Hermione hissed.

Fred chuckled mischievously. "We are."

"Then what was that?" Ron asked, still watching Filch.

"That was from last night," George explained in a low whisper.

Harry couldn't help but grin, turning his head down. "How on earth did you manage that?"

"All thanks to Toni, really," Fred said, giving her a playful nudge.

George proudly announced, "Toni managed to sneak a special potion into Filch's cup, courtesy of yours truly, myself I mean."

Hermione sighed in exasperation. "Are you three planning to keep doing this for the rest of the year? Shouldn't you be focusing on your classes?"

"Don't worry, Hermione. We've got plenty of time for school work," George assured her.

Fred chimed in, "Yes, between our pranks, we've designated a whole fifteen minutes a day for studying."

Toni couldn't help but chuckle along with them, appreciating their sense of humor even in these uneasy times. But despite the pleasure of pranks with the Weasley twins, the dark looming atmosphere was far more pressing. Her time of fun pranks had to be placed aside as the works of Black were still a pressing matter.

It wasn't long before the owls began to fly into the Great Hall, students from all the Houses looked upwards in anticipation. Toni was surprised to receive more than one letter this morning. Three letters had arrived before her, and she took them gratefully before letting her family owl fly off to the school owlry for safekeeping. Her eyes then noticed Neville, who had a very displeased look on his face, holding a red envelope - a Howler. He swallowed hard before fleeing the hall, opening the envelope as he went. The laughter from the Slytherin table for Neville's fleeing earned Draco a disapproving glare from Toni.

"Hagrid wants us to go to his place," Harry shared, looking over his letter. Toni leaned in closely over his shoulder to read.

"Just you and Ron it seems. He probably wants to hear about what happened," Toni said, giving Harry and Ron an empathetic look before turning her attention back to her own letters.