"All visits to Hogsmeade have been canceled!? What in the bloody hell for!?" Pete exclaimed with irritation. He turned to Patrick, who shrugged in response.

The small group, including: Pete, Patrick, Gerard, Melanie, and Spencer stood just outside of the great hall looking at the posted announcement. They were all up with the sun for the prospect of visiting the small village not far from the school but, thanks to the note, it seemed that the trip wouldn't be happening. It seemed to be an urgent message, but there was little context to it.

"Do you think something happened?" Melanie asked. She had fingers laced with both Spencer and Gerard, in an attempt to help her fellow Hufflepuff feel better.

"Maybe we're all being punished for that prank the seventh years pulled." Spencer suggested.

"I mean, if you weren't there, it wasn't that bad."

"Pete, they blew up a staircase on accident." Patrick reminded his boyfriend, softly.

Pete pursed his lips, "Still... The rest of it was pretty cool."

"Maybe the Daily Prophet will have something about it." Melanie suggested, swinging Gerard and Spencer's arms slowly. "C'mon, if we get into the great hall quick enough, we can claim one of the free copies."

The small group began to move towards the dining hall. Meanwhile, up in the Ravenclaw common room, some students were barley waking up. Ray pushed a brush through his fro of hair with a yawn as Kenny rolled off his bed with a tired exclamation of confusion. Ray laughed loudly, falling back on his bed with the kick of his feet. The last boy in the dormitory, who was hidden under his bedding, began to stir at the sound.

"I was dreaming I was on a broom..." Kenny mumbled as he slowly rose from beside his bed, rubbing his head.

"Crash landing, I presume?" Ray asked once he had made it through his laughter, sitting up with stifled giggles.

Kenny flipped him off before standing up completely. He fumbled with the buttons on his pajamas while walking around the bed. "Maybe I should try out for the team." He mused, "Or at least borrow a school broom just for a joyride or two."

"I took you for more of a caring for magical creatures type of guy with your grade in that compared to flying lessons." Ray said, setting his brush down on his bedside table. "How did you manage to crash that far into the forbidden forest?"

Kenny's cheeks reddened at the memory of first year flying lessons. "It was my first time on a broom..." He knew he was definitely far from the best flyer, but that didn't mean he couldn't become a decent flyer if he worked at it.

"Hey, Dallon's waking up." Ray frowned as his friend shifted under his bedding again, "Maybe we should head out into the common room so we don't have to listen to him talk endlessly about Brendon..."

"That does get a bit tiring." Kenny nodded with a soft tone. Both boys carefully got dressed and crept from the room as Dallon continued to adjust under his blankets. Dallon was slowly waking up, but today was different from past weeks. When his eyes opened, there was no immediate thoughts running through his head; there was only a groggy fuzziness.

Dallon threw the blankets to the side, allowing light to cast over him. He shut his eyes tightly, blinded by the sudden change in brightness. After a moment, he tried to adjust by blinking in the light. He yawned, sitting up with his hair sticking out in every which direction.

My head hurts. That was the first clear thought to go through his head. He looked around at the empty room. Wait, what day is it?

Carefully, he sat up and slid his legs off the bed. He walked over to one of the windows that let light into the upper tower of the castle. He sheilded his eyes from the light as he leaned against the brick wall. The sun was still relatively low in the sky, indicating that it was still morning. He turned his head to look back around the empty dorm.

He felt so strange. He couldn't pinpoint specifics from previous days as he tried to decipher as to why he was feeling this way. He instead shook his head, deciding to go out into the common room.

Breezy sat with one of her comic books next to the fireplace, reading while absentmindedly talking to Kenny. Ray had already left for breakfast.

"After my mom died, I grew up fairly muggle." Kenny said as he leaned over the arm of his chair to read the comic spread out on the ground in front of where Breezy was resting. "I can still kind of remember her, but I was six when it happened..." He shook his head, "Anyway, she was a real good quidditch player. She trained the Ireland team at one point!"

"That's so cool!" Breezy rolled onto her back to look up at him. Her dark hair fanned out on the oxford blue carpet. "I'm sorry about your mom, though. I couldn't imagine loosing my link to the magic world... If I had one, you know?" She offered him a sheepish smile, earning a laugh in response.

"Yea, I can imagine..." He sighed. He turned his head, surprised to see Dallon walking slowly into the common room. The taller boy was rubbing his eye with a look of confusion on his face. "You alright, Dallon?"

Breezy rolled back onto her stomach, looking over at the dorms with a sadness behind her eye. Dallon looked towards the two, pushing his hand up his forehead and through his hair.

"Hey, guys..." Dallon's voice came out crackled and dry, as if it had been ages since using it. "Have I been sick or something?"

"Do you feel sick?" Breezy asked, worriedly, pushing herself up into a sitting up position. "Do we need to walk you down to the hospital wing?"

Dallon didn't reply as he walked over and sat down on the ground in front of his two friends. He was looking at the ground in contemplation. "I don't know... My head hurts and my memory is so fuzzy." He shifted his gaze up to look between his two friends, "Have I been acting weird?"

Breezy & Kenny exchanged a quick look before Breezy scooted over to him. "Do you... Is anything on your mind?" Breezy shifted her question with the tilt of her head.

Dallon shook his head, weakly. "I can't think of anything that would be." His brow furrowed as he looked back at Breezy, "You seem sad, though. Is something on your mind?"

Kenny looked over at Breezy to see tears in her eyes. Before anyone could react, she shot forward. She wrapped her arms around Dallon's neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck.

"It's been so long since you've even asked simply that..." Her voice was muffled as she held him tightly.

Dallon held her back with confusion. He looked over at Kenny, who gave him an unsure expression. He just didn't know how to respond. How could Dallon not remember his utter infatuation with Brendon?.. It had to be some kind of magical mischief.

"I'm really thirsty." Dallon spoke up, quietly. "Can we go get some pumpkin juice or something?"

"How about breakfast on top of it?" Kenny suggested as Breezy pulled back from her embrace of Dallon with a sniffle, "Our treat."

Breezy nodded, encouragingly, "Yeah! Let's go right now." She smiled as she reached out to grab hold of Dallon's wrists, "Let's see if we can outwit the staircases."

Dallon still seemed confused, but agreed. His friends encouraged him to his feet and eased him into conversation. He found that the more he interacted with them, the more he felt like himself. The strange feeling was fading away into nothing more than a mere memory.

---

During the time that was happening, however, Melanie, Gerard, and Patrick all sat at their house table, looking over the Daily Prophet with worry.

"Dementors in Hogsmeade?" Patrick whispered, "I thought Professor Howell said there was nothing to worry about!"

"They're not in Hogsmeade, just spotted quite close." Melanie said with an uncertain expression. She was biting her lip as half of her hair became a dingy yellow.

"You're scared." Patrick spoke in a soft voice, "What can they do that's so scary? Why do we need to defend ourselves against them? I thought they guarded a prison."

"The professor also told us that there were some rogue ones." Gerard spoke up for the first time all morning. Both Melanie and Patrick looked at him with surprise as he continued, "They can't be killed, that we know of, only deflected. Which is why we need to know our patronus charm."

"Why wouldn't the headmistress say something about it, then?" Patrick asked with nerves spewing from his tone, "If it will keep us safe-"

"They think the castle is safe enough." Gerard whispered, looking at the photograph on the Daily Prophet. It showed a hooded figure floating off the ground, shrinking and flying back in fear as a patronus charm in the form of a mountain ram ran at it full force. It looped several times over the course of his staring at it. It was almost mind numbing to watch. Even a mere photo sent a wave of hopelessness washing over him.

Although, that really wasn't a hard thing to do in his current state of mind.

"We're a certain level of safe here." Melanie reasoned, attempting a smile. "We have some powerful witches and wizards as professors to protect us."

"That won't stop chaos if it comes this way."

The three Hufflepuffs turned to see Josh standing behind them. He flashed a quick, nervous smile before his expression fell to seriousness. "On my way over to get Tyler from the Slytherin table, sorry for interrupting."

"It's alright."

"You have a fair point, though." Gerard said, "Chaos won't simply stop because of powerful magic. That could be attracting it for all we know."

"Things were so much simpler when there wasn't a whole new world full of magical murder I knew about." Patrick mumbled, pushing his fingers through his hair.

Josh shrugged. "The bliss of being muggleborn." He laughed, "Once I was old enough to understand, my mom held nothing back about magic. The good, the bad, and the really bad... Made me ask my dad to double check under my bed every night, despite him not knowing what most of the creatures I was afraid of even were."

"Still, Hogwarts is safe." Melanie pressed, looking between all three boys. "It has to be."

"Didn't they have a huge battle here just a few years ago?" Patrick asked.

"He has a point too." Gerard mumbled, looking down at the table.

"We don't have someone like Voldemort around anymore!" Melanie exclaimed, causing the group to quickly fall into a hush. Melanie gulped as her hair and cheeks became a deep crimson color after her words.

"So... That's his name?" Patrick asked after a tense hush. His eyes flickered between everyone, trying to gauge a response.

"We're not supposed to say it." Josh mumbled, looking at the ground with a pained look in his eyes. "It's taboo. It's bad."

"It holds no effect." Melanie spoke as she reached up, grabbing a strand of her hair to nervously run her fingers down. "There's no reason to fear the name of a dead man."

Josh's eyes shut tightly. "There is completely good reason." He spoke as if trying to hold back anger, "A name can still hold power, especially his." With that, he hurried away from the Hufflepuff table. He quickly grabbed Tyler's hand once he got to the Slytherin table and pulled him out of the great hall.

"This situation just doesn't get better." Patrick frowned, "I have no idea how to feel about any of this..."

Gerard shrugged. He wished he could act like he cared more about the situation, but even glancing towards the Slytherin table reminded him of Frank.

The relationship he had lost.

One of his first friends at the school, and definitely the first person he had felt a special way about.

Gerard shut his eye as a tear made its escape. He didn't want to cry anymore for Frank. He only wanted to have some kind of closure. Some kind of reason. Some kind of idea as to why things had changed so drastically.

"What chaos could be coming?" Patrick whispered, fearfully, as he pulled the paper towards him. "What could possibly bring it here?.."