The Past and Present Collide

            It was not until Sinistra and Mandy arrived at the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room that the Professor spoke again. Mandy had been expecting the speech, because throughout her days at Hogwarts, Sinistra had been something of a mentor to her. Part of this was because Mandy excelled in Sinistra's class, Astronomy, and since she had confessed that her dream was to be an astronomer, the Professor had taken it upon herself to guide her to that goal. As Sinistra spoke, she grabbed Mandy's shoulders and looked her in the eye.

            "Listen to me, Mandy. I saw what happened in the Great Hall tonight. I let you off with only a deduction of five points because I know how upset you must be. But I trust that it will not happen again, even if it means that you will stop seeing Adrian." She shook Mandy's shoulders, and Mandy looked back up at her. "I know that you're fond of him, and maybe he feels the same about you, but I think it would be best if you stopped seeing him." She paused as if she was going to say more but then thought better of it (usually Sinistra was an off-hands type of professor when it came to relationships and giving advice about them, part of this was because of a rumor that had spawned a long time ago about Sinistra and not having a love-life). "Now get some rest. You've had a long night."

            Mandy nodded, silently, and then Sinistra walked away. Mandy turned around to face the entrance to the common room. A portrait of a young professor, sitting at his desk surrounded by globes, maps, books and parchments, hung over the entranceway. The man in the painting looked up and smiled.

            "Hello, Mandy. Password?"

            She smiled wearily at the painting. "Calliope."

            The picture swung away, and she walked through the tall doorway behind it. The lights of the common room were welcoming after the endless darkness of the halls, as was the sight of leaping flames in the fireplace. Mandy sighed as she crossed the room and collapsed into a high-backed blue velvet armchair close to the fire. She took off her shoes and lifted her feet close to the flames, trying to restore feeling to her toes.

            The Ravenclaw Common Room was grand and beautiful, with gleaming desks of mahogany and armchairs like Mandy's scattered across the room. A large bookshelf was set up against the wall opposite of Mandy, and the other wall, which was opposite the portrait hole, displayed a tapestry with the Ravenclaw emblem embroidered onto it. The ceiling was high, and a mural of Rowena Ravenclaw standing in the Forbidden Forest, with an eagle perched on her arm was painted on it. The floor was less awe-inspiring, simply adorned with lush blue carpet. The spiral staircases leading up to the dorms were positioned on each side of the Ravenclaw tapestry.

            None of this mattered to Mandy, as she had seen this everyday of her entire past at Hogwarts. All she cared about was returning feeling back into her numb body. As she rubbed her fingers zealously, her best friends, Terry Boot and Padma Patil, came running over.

            Terry was tall and broad-shouldered, with short, sandy hair and glasses. Padma was beautiful like her sister, Parvati, and she had plaited silver ribbons into her long black braid.

            "Where've you been, Mandy? The Slytherins said you went to go drown yourself in the lake, and when I told them that was a load of rubbish, Malfoy tried to hex me. You should've seen it. He accidentally hit Padma's food and her pie sprouted tentacles," Terry explained, in his deep, husky voice.

            Mandy laughed and shook her head. "If I was going to drown anyone, it would have been Adrian. But I just went for a bit of a walk, and sort of ended up at Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party."

            Padma's eyes widened partly because of Mandy roaming around the corridors at night - alone! - and partly because not many living people got the opportunity to see a deathday party, and she sat down in the chair next to Mandy's. Terry followed suit. "Tell us about it, Mandy," Padma ordered.

            So Mandy breathlessly described the party, from the candles to the orchestra to the cold, and then stopped when she got to the part about walking alone with Patrick.

            "Patrick and I were walking along, probably headed here, and it was so strange...His eyes looked blue, and he seemed more solid than the other ghosts. Obviously he wasn't that solid, seeing as how I walked right through him, but even then, it was as if he had more substance to him. D'you think it's just because he hasn't been dead all that long?"

             Terry frowned. "I've never heard anything about ghosts fading as they age, but it sounds plausible. Does it really matter?"

            "No, no, it doesn't." She started to say something else, but was cut off by a yawn. A quick glance at the clock told her it was near ten, and though that was rather early, Mandy stood up. "I think I'm going to try to get some sleep."

            "You'll miss the party, and that's supposed to be bad luck," Padma warned. "Besides, you didn't get to eat at the Feast, so unless you ate some moldy peanuts at the deathday party, you'd better stay and grab something to eat before you go to bed."

            Mandy shook her head. "I'm alright. The maggot-stuffed salmon at the party must have taken my appetite away." She smiled and started to walk up the stairs.

            "You really should have tried it, Mandy. I've heard it's a rare delicacy in France!" Terry called after her. She gave a chuckle as she turned around and waved.

            "Goodnight."

            The dorms were considerably cooler, and as Mandy changed into her pajamas, she found herself shivering again. Just after she'd thrown herself into bed and drawn the covers up to her chin, a tapping noise at her window jerked her away from the newfound warmth. She sat up and saw Hunter, her brown barn owl, sitting on her windowsill with a note tied to its foot. Mandy sighed and heaved the window open, gritting her teeth as the freezing October air swept in.

            She untied the letter and looked at Hunter with sad eyes.

            "I don't have anything for you. You'll have to go to the Owlery for some food. Sorry."

            Hunter gave her a resentful look and took flight, making sure to smack Mandy in the face with his wing. Ignoring the owl's hostility, Mandy sat down and unrolled her letter. It wasn't from whom she expected.

                        Mandy-

It was very nice to meet you tonight at the party. I am sorry if I got you into any trouble. It's been awhile since I was a student, and my brain is a bit rusty when it comes to Hogwarts' rules. If you are interested, I would like to see you again. Would you meet me in the Owlery tomorrow night at 7? You don't need to owl me back; I'll just wait.

            Patrick

Mandy smiled and slid the note onto her nightstand. Then she picked up her schedule, and on the square reserved for November 1^st, she scribbled, "Seven o'clock: meet Patrick at the Owlery." Then she set the schedule and pen back down, closed the window, and pulled the sheets over her head. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

* * * * *

Daylight was streaming through the gap between the curtains and the window. Mandy rolled over and grunted. Morning was not her favorite time of day.

"Get up, Mandy. It's almost noon."

Padma's voice was unwelcome to Mandy's ears. Mandy turned over again and pulled the covers up over her head. Padma rolled her eyes and grabbed her friend's shoulders, trying to shake her awake.

"Geroff me, Padma. I said get off!" Mandy flailed her arms, trying to smack Padma, and only succeeded in flinging the sheets off herself. Padma laughed and walked over to the mirror and began to braid her hair. Mandy got up, grumbling, and blindly pulled on her jeans and a sweater. As she fought with the hairbrush, she spoke to Padma.

"How was the Halloween party? Did I miss much?"

Padma finished her braid and began to spray perfume on herself. "Not really. Cho managed to get her hands on some Butterbeer, and some of the first years drank so much they passed out. But other than that, it wasn't more exciting than any other year."

Mandy nodded. "Is it really almost noon? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

Padma shrugged and moved on to her make-up. "I thought you'd want to sleep in late, since we only have one class toda-OW! Ow, ow," she whimpered. "I stabbed myself in the eye with the mascara brush. It hurts, oh, it hurts..."

"Now you see why I don't bother with make-up," Mandy grumbled. "And what do you mean? We only have one class today? I thought today was supposed to be normal."

Padma gritted her teeth and pointed her wand at her eye, then muttered a simple spell to dull the pain and reduce the redness. "Thanks for caring about my pain. Professor Flitwick came up last night and told us that `In light of recent events, all morning classes for November 1^st are cancelled.'"

"'In light of recent events'? What recent events?"

"Honestly, Mandy, you are so dim. How you got into Ravenclaw is beyond me," she paused and shook her head in disapproval. "Last night, someone-or something, I think-" she corrected, "broke into Trelawney's and Snape's classrooms and completely destroyed them. Bottles broken, chairs ripped in half, desks reduced to splinters, posters torn into pieces, papers strewn everywhere...the whole deal. All the teachers are pitching in to help magically repair them. We still have our afternoon class, though, because all the teachers are taking the afternoon off of cleaning up so they can teach and no one has Divination or Potions in the afternoon on Fridays."

Mandy blinked. Padma didn't seem the least bit concerned about the fact that an escaped convict (the Sirius Black incident from third year was still fresh in Mandy's mind), some ancient monster (who could forget the basilisk?) or even You-Know-Who himself (though that was a bit of a stretch, she thought, but still possible) could be loose in the castle. In fact, her friend seemed more concerned with the lipstick on her teeth than the fate of the world. Mandy rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

"Bloody hell, Mandy, where are you going? Help me get this lipstick off my teeth. It tastes disgusting."

"I want to talk to Professor Sinistra. I'll be back later." She walked down the stairs, taking them two at a time, and headed for the portrait hole.

Terry was sitting at a desk in the common room, working on homework. As Mandy passed, he called out to her.

"Hey, Mandy, I need to talk to you. Could you spare a minute?"

"Actually, I was just looking for Professor Sinistra now. Want to come with me? We could talk on the way," she replied.

He nodded and gathered his stuff, shoved it into his bag, and began to walk with her towards the Astronomy Tower. They were silent for a good five minutes, and then Terry turned and began to talk again.

"Did you hear about what happened to Trelawney and Snape?"

"Yeah, Padma told me about it. She didn't even sound worried. Are you?"

He nodded fervently. "Anything that can cause that much damage and avoid being caught isn't human. I'm surprised the teachers haven't taken more precautions, but maybe they know what's happening and how to deal with it. I sure hope they do..." He paused for a second. "But you know, I was thinking-"

"On a morning when the classes have been cancelled, Terry? How could you?" Mandy grinned.

"Well, I didn't mean to. But anyway, I was thinking, why Snape and Trelawney? I mean, his classroom is in the dungeon, and hers is in the North Tower. So, wouldn't you think that whoever did this would chose classrooms on the same floor to avoid the risks of being caught? I mean, you'd have to travel across the entire castle to get from the North Tower to the dungeons, and by the time someone had found the first crime scene, the whole castle would be on alert and there wouldn't be much of a chance of getting to the second crime scene or getting out of the castle. So my theory is that whatever did this can fly or become invisible, or there's more than one. Maybe both.

"But then I thought, if whatever it is isn't human, why would it seek out those two teachers in particular? Why not just trash everything in view? Or did they enter those two rooms first, and then never make it to the halls? It's all so confusing."

Mandy raised an eyebrow. "You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Well, it's important, isn't it? I mean, you never know who could be behind this."

"You're not going to try anything, are you?" Mandy asked, looking apprehensive.

Terry shook his head. "You know me. I'm a thinker, not a doer." Then he grinned. "Why, are you worried about me?"

Mandy rolled her eyes and smiled. "You know I am. If you don't stop over-analyzing everything, your brain's going to swell up and eventually explode from all the extra effort."

Terry laughed swung his arm around Mandy's shoulder. They walked in silence again until they reached the Astronomy Tower. Professor Sinistra's office was at the base of the tower. Mandy walked up to it and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the reply.

            Mandy pushed open the door and smiled tentatively at Sinistra. The Professor's desk was covered in papers, quills, and ink, and plates of sandwiches and a jug of pumpkin juice.

            "Did we catch you at a bad time?" Terry asked.

            "No, no, I'm just on my lunch break from helping with the classrooms...You've heard all about that, I assume?"

            The two students both nodded.

            "Actually...I came to ask you about that. Well, not about that, exactly...Anyway. Last night Patrick sent me an owl asking me to meet him tonight in the Owlery. D'you think it's safe if I go? I'd like to see him again, but with all this going on, I don't want to get into any trouble," Mandy explained.

            Terry shifted uncomfortably behind her, as if he wanted to protest, but didn't.

            "Well, Mandy...when did he say he wanted to meet?"

            "Seven P.M."

Professor Sinistra sighed. "Well, I'd say that if you were back at your common room by nine, it would be alright. Just go straight there and straight back." She paused, and Mandy nodded and turned to walk out the door with Terry in tow. "And Mandy..." Mandy looked over her shoulder. "Don't get too involved with him. Remember: He's a ghost."

Mandy nodded, but the words might as well have fallen on deaf ears.