Midnight Stories [On-Going]

Chapter One - The End Has Just Begun

Nick walked down the Great Hall's staircase, dressed to the nines along with the other Hogwarts students attending the Yule Ball.

He scanned the crowd for his date, Emily. A fellow Hufflepuff and fourth-year.

She was there, waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase. The light hit her black and gold dress in a way that made the glittery leaves on it shine.

As Nick approached the bottom of the staircase, the location started to shift. The crowd started to dissolve. Soon, he found himself in the great hall, dancing the night away with Emily.

The orchestra played a steady waltz as everyone looked on.

"You look beautiful tonight," Nick smiled.

Emily blushed. "You don't look too bad yourself, love." She rested her head on his shoulder.

Nick could feel his heart racing as he held her close.

Emily sighed happily. "I'm glad you asked me to the ball, Nick. Honestly, I thought I'd have to ask you myself." She held his hand and started to twirl.

But then, it's as if all time had just stopped.

Nick blinked and looked around. Everyone had frozen in place, including Emily, mid twirl.

"What's going on here?" The boy asked, letting go of the girl's hand. "Guys, this isn't funny!" He started running and slipped on someone's dress, landing flat on his back.

The Great Hall's ceiling started to collapse in on itself. It faded away to reveal... the Hufflepuff Common Room?

The fourth year quickly sat up in bed, panting. "Wait, that— no. How could the story just end there?" He muttered and looked around his dorm.

Everyone else was still sound asleep, save for him.

I've got to figure out what went wrong, he thought while slipping out of bed. He made sure to grab his wand before heading out to the main area of the common room. "Lumos," he whispered.

A faint ball of light illuminated from the tip of his wand.

Suddenly, a pair of footsteps could be heard from the girls' dormitory. The door opened to reveal Emily, dressed in a pajama set. "Nick?" She gasped. "What are you doing up? It's half past—"

"Midnight. I know. I just... the stories stopped." He lowered his wand a bit so as to not blind the girl. "Any ideas on what we could do?"

Emily sighed. "Well, we can't be the only ones that noticed—" A sudden noise on the stairs made her instinctively grab Nick's hand. "Maybe it's another student." Her eyes landed on his again as she felt her cheeks getting warm.

Nick chuckled and smiled back. He and Emily had always been close friends. But lately, they'd been closer than normal.

"S-sorry." Emily sheepishly pulled her hand away as the noise came again. She quickly whipped out her own wand and cast Lumos.

To their surprise, it was only Emily's tabby cat Milo, who'd followed her downstairs. It completely ignored her and rubbed against Nick's ankle before letting out a soft meow.

He knelt down and stroked the cat's back. "We should probably check on the other houses."

The pair slipped on their house cloaks, walked out of the common room and up to the entrance hall, wands lit.

Meanwhile, Jenna, a 4th year Gryffindor, had journeyed out of her own common room, running into a fellow 4th year, a Ravenclaw named Raven.

They trekked downstairs and ran into Nick and Emily. "Hey, guys? Did you hear what happened?" Jenna asked. She'd been best friends with the two Hufflepuffs since they met at the Start-Of-Term feast during their first year.