Something Wicked This Way Comes

CHAPTER ELEVEN

All hell had broken loose while we were trying to get back to our respective dorms. Somehow Gryffindor couldn't get into their respective common room and by the time we got to our dorms a portrait screeched nearby, "Let it be known no one may enter!"

We stared at each other in confusion trying to ask the portrait what was going on, but he just kept screeching and shrieking. Some of us had to cover our ears with our hands it was such a piercing noise, and the prefect came over to us, "We are all directed to go and stay in the Great Hall for the night!" He shouted. I hissed as we were all crowded and couldn't move quickly or far enough away in time so all I could do was holler, "Why?! What is happening?!"

As the students shuffled along back down the stairs we all made enough room between us and the screeching portrait to ease our aching ears. The prefect, with his fingers in his ears, somehow understood what I was saying, "Sirius Black broke into Hogwarts!!"

I regretted that moment that I even asked, which came out much louder than it needed to be, the other students heard and began to scream incoherently about Sirius Black, and how he was going to kill us all. I held my ears tight shut, trying to shut out the noise as much as possible. Too much noise. Too much. I tried to slow my breath and keep myself calm, but with other lower-classmen shoving me I had enough, "SHUT IT!" I screamed, my face red. The students began to quiet down, "We won't die! The staff will make sure of that! Besides don't you think it's stupid to scream?! If you're afraid of him finding you you're doing a rotten job!"

The prefect even seemed to take a moment to breathe, taking his fingers out of his ears.

"Now listen to your prefect!" I shook my head, letting the prefect have the floor... well technically the stairs. He nodded, silently thanking me, "Everyone stick together, and calmly make your way to the Great Hall, where you will be accounted for!"

Two by two down the stairs the students went, the prefect and I basically at the back. I could see Amie, John, and Ellie, who looked quite concerned as they kept looking back at me. Before all hell had broken loose they had tried staying with me from what I gathered afterward, but the students pushed them so far to the middle. It was alright, I didn't blame them for what the others pulled.

I took a moment to gather myself as we wandered down the magical staircase, after about 10 minutes we all made it to the Great Hall, where multiple teachers stood and took names. As I stood basically at the back of the line, the prefect now in front of me, I wondered more and more about Sirius Black. Why was he here? I had been trying to look for something in that newspaper I got from, I figured out his name a few days ago, Seamus. But not much helped with just that. I meant to go to the library, but with all of this going on I couldn't find myself sitting peacefully without information. I grumbled to myself. This wouldn't do. I felt like a sitting duck. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.

No one was watching, so I slipped away. It's not like I cared whether or not Sirius Black found me. What was he going to do? I was only wanting info, and maybe I could have peace of mind before he killed me on what he did and why he did it. I tiptoed through the dark halls, thinking every so often I could hear the taps of paws on the tile, but every time I looked back, there was nothing. That was to be expected, it was too dark.

Then there in all of its glory, sat right in front of me, was the library. I had mentioned that the one place no one would bother me was the Whomping Willow, but this was the second place I felt safest. I had gathered a list over the years. Within the walls contained towers and cathedrals of pages and words. I could get lost in there forever and never once complain.

I took out my wand and spoke in a whisper, "Lumos..." The light from my wands glowed dimly in the dark of the vastness of knowledge before me. Something in here must have contained something about Sirius Black. He was a friend to James and Lily Potter after all, and they were all students here, I at least knew that much. I walk down the narrow corridors between the shelves reading off the sections, I knew this place well enough to know that the transcripts and books on the school's history laid in between aisles JCL1 and MB2.