Prelude to Moondance

The next few weeks flew by like a blur, and the students of Hogwarts were well into the month of October before they knew it. Homework was piling up everywhere, and classes were becoming rougher. Quidditch was underway, with Gryffindor in the lead, followed by the exceptional Hufflepuff team, Slytherin in third, followed by Ravenclaw. The days were becoming longer and colder; frost covered the Hogwarts grounds each morning. The seventh years were drowning in the heaps of homework that they had been bombarded with; it hadn't been this bad since O.W.L. year.

"So," said Acantha Ellis, as she, Lily, Sariyah, James, Remus, Sirius, Lethe Robinson and Frank Longbottom sat down and began helping themselves to food at the Gryffindor table at lunch, "Hogsmeade weekend coming up. I hear Zonko's has loads of new stuff, I can't wait to go."

"They always have fantastic stuff there. I'm more of a chocolate person myself...I could spend hours in Honeydukes," said Sariyah dreamily, thinking of chocolate frogs.

Remus laughed at her. "Forget chocolate, what about Ogden's Old Firewhiskey?" he joked.

"You've had it?" Sariyah asked Remus in a skeptical tone. "Remus Lupin, are you telling a joke?"

"I've been known to let one slip every age or so," Remus chortled, winking audaciously at Sariyah.

"Had firewhiskey?" Sirius chuckled in a playful manner. "Remus has been known to stumble around drunk as a daisy after one flagon."

"Now I know you're lying," laughed Sariyah.

"You guys aren't worried, are you? I mean, with all of these raids..." asked Frank, who was putting great dollops of mashed potatoes onto his plate.

"Raids?" asked Lethe, a look of fright in her brown eyes. "What do you mean, raids?"

"Haven't been reading the Daily Prophet, eh?" asked Frank. He reached over and pulled a copy out of his bag and showed them the front page. "Raids--meaning the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters have been attacking wizard towns at random."

"They haven't caught anyone yet?" asked Sirius, looking at the paper, which showed a dated picture of the Dark Lord. He skimmed over the article, which said that Voldemort and his followers were going through streets in wizard towns, in broad daylight, and mercilessly killing whoever was on the street or in the shops at the time. They left smoldering ruins of insides of shops, and also left a kind of calling card--a large skull with a snake coming out of its mouth in the air.

"This is horrible," mumbled Sariyah, taking the paper from Frank. "They're just killing random people?"

Frank nodded grimly. "They say he's gaining more power, and more faithful followers."

"That's frightening," squeaked Peter in a very small voice.

They sat in silence for most of the lunch break, only talking about the Dark Lord and the large amounts of homework they had to get done. As lunch ended, the group picked up their bags and left the hall among the milling students, trying to get to the castle doors to get to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.

Sariyah was in the back of the group, being jostled by many students as they all tried to get to their next class. The main hall was less filled, and they walked towards the front door.

Sariyah was immersed in the Daily Prophet article, glancing up now and then to see where she going. Suddenly, she felt herself run into someone, knocking both of them backwards and the paper out of her hands. She grabbed it before it fell to the ground and looked up to see whom she had run into.

"I'm really sorry," said the person. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, it was my--" she stopped in mid-sentence, as she saw who she was talking to. Every nerve inside her was suddenly thrilled, especially in her stomach region, as she saw Lachlan Avery standing across from her.

"Hello," he greeted her, his turquoise blue eyes twinkling as he smiled. "Sorry for running into you."

"No, I think it was my fault," Sariyah said, smiling stupidly back at him, her stomach bubbling with nervousness. "I was just reading the paper, I wasn't really paying attention to anything er--in my way, I guess."

"Yeah, I saw that in the paper," he said, glancing at the front cover, shaking his head. "It's very upsetting, I can't believe they haven't caught anyone."

She nodded. "It's awful, they're just killing innocent people."

"Erm--where are you going now, Sariyah?" he asked, taking a fleeting glance at the front door. "Herbology, right?"

"I--yeah, there," she answered. I must sound so stupid, she thought to herself.

"Can I walk you to the greenhouses?" he asked, nervously scratching the back of his head.

She nodded her head, and they proceeded out of the door and towards the greenhouses.

"I've been meaning to talk to you more after I saw you the first day back," he explained as they trekked through the grass towards the greenhouses. "I heard about your rat though, in Transfiguration."

She slapped a hand against her forehead, her face burning red. "Oh--that--I'm really bad at Transfiguration. I've never gotten the hang of it."

He laughed in a cheery manner. "Don't worry, I thought it was funny. It seems like something I would do in Potions."

She smiled as she looked up at him. "What do you have right now?" she asked, wondering why he was walking her to her class if he might be late for his.

"Care of Magical Creatures. I've been late a million times, I don't think it'll matter that much if I am again. Anyway, this is more important," he said as they neared the greenhouses.

"More important?" she asked, a little bewildered, stopping in front of the greenhouse door.

"Well--er--you see, I was sort of wondering if you'd want to...um...go with me to Hogsmeade next weekend?" he asked in a bashful tone, looking at her and sliding a hand through his curly brown hair. "Just as friends, you know," he added quickly, his own stomach doing flip-flops.

Sariyah's voice caught in her throat. "I--would--sure," she responded in a croaky voice, feeling like no other words could form a coherent sentence in her mind.

"Okay," he said. "I'll see you on Saturday, then?" Lachlan restrained himself from running his hand through his hair again and smiled at her, relieved that she had agreed.

"Yeah, Saturday," Sariyah replied, blushing a deep red. She turned and walked into the nearby greenhouse, feeling like someone had cast a Levitation charm on her and she was floating in air.

She scurried across the greenhouse to stand beside Lily and Remus at her usual spot in Herbology.

"Did you get lost?" asked Lily, nudging Sariyah with her elbow.

Sariyah smiled. "I'll tell you later," she whispered.

A knowing look dawned on Lily's face. "No, no you have to tell me now!" she whispered back.

Sariyah leaned closer to Lily and told her about Lachlan asking her to Hogsmeade. Lily clapped a hand on her mouth as her smile grew wider.

"That's fantastic!" Lily squealed. Sariyah nodded, grinning excitedly.

"Ahem," coughed the little African professor. The lesson began, but Sariyah's mind was elsewhere. She couldn't help but notice that the blue flowers on the plant she was trying to mate with another were the same color as Lachlan's eyes. She was haphazardly rubbing together two blue flower buds when Remus grabbed her hands and pulled the flowers away.

"Sariyah what are you doing?" he exclaimed. "They'll start letting off fumes if you do that. You're supposed to rub together the yellow ones and the blue ones."

"Huh? Oh...yes. Of course, I should have known that," she murmured. Lily giggled softly, and Remus only shook his head in disdain at both of them and went back to mating his own plants.

The rest of the class passed without incident, and several dirt-sodden Gryffindors headed back to the tower. They gave the Fat Lady the password and entered the tower, tired from the long day they had just been through.

Sirius, James and Peter were already seated by the fire with large piles of homework scattered around the table. After the others had washed up, they too joined the group and began working on the mounds of homework they had.

About an hour into the work, Sariyah felt like she had accomplished nothing. She got up from her chair and stretched out her arms. "I feel like I've gotten nothing done," she sighed.

"That's exactly how I feel," stated Sirius. "And I'm hungry."

The others murmured in assent. "I suppose we could go and get some food. Take a break for a bit. But it would look really strange if a bunch of us were out wandering the halls this late," James said, scratching his head with his quill tip.

"Well I can just go," said Sariyah helpfully. "I know where the kitchens are, and I could say that I was just patrolling the corridors."

"You don't have to go alone. I'll come too," Sirius voiced.

"Okay," said Sariyah. "Let's go." They exited the common room and made their way down the halls of Hogwarts as quietly as possible.