"Can I call you Tori? You know Tori, I'm a great friend."
"I don't get it, why are you being nice to me?"
"Maybe I don't want to see you friendless."
When Victoria Silvers, who comes from a long line of Slytherins, is sorted into Gryffindor her life...
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Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the Hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," He added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."
Professor Dumbledore paused, about to the leave the Hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."
One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the Hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.
"Sleep well," Professor Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him. The Hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.
"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" Percy shouted. "Come on now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"
"C'mon," Fred said to George, Lee, and Tori; they seized four sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.
Tori looked at her friends, horrified. "We could have been in there. Merlin's beard! He could have killed us!"
All around them, people were asking each other the same question: "How did he get in?"
"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," said a Ravenclaw a few feet away. "Just appear out of thin air, you know."
'Disguised himself, probably,' said Hazel Doe, a fifth-year Hufflepuff.
"He could've flown in," Dean Thomas suggested.
"He can't," Tori replied, "There are all sorts of enchantments on Hogwarts, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here..."
"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking."
The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the Prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the Hall.
About an hour later Tori twisted and turned around in her sleeping bag, unable to get any sleep. She flipped over on her right facing Fred. He was wide awake as well. "You know," Tori whispered so Percy couldn't hear them, "I'm starting to miss normal Halloween days."
Fred chuckled, his face being illuminated by the fake galaxy above. "Ditto. I wonder how Sirius Black got inside the castle." Tori thought about it for a moment, oblivious to the look Fred was giving her as she glanced up at the stars above. "I wonder what he wants. You don't think—"
