A/N: It was very entertaining to read your comments from the previous chapter bc y'all are soooo mad at Oliver HAHA I'm surprised no one's annoyed that Jessica didn't spill the truth either tho? But tbh I'd do the same 🥴

On the 31st of October, the castle had been decorated with enchanted bats and pumpkins, orange streamers, gloomier-looking skies, and the ghosts were more active than usual. For the past few weeks, everyone had been anticipating the scrumptious Halloween feast and they were all ecstatic that the day had finally arrived. Countless confectionery-filled pumpkins, cauldrons with giant lollipops, and goblets full of colored sweets were scattered all around the Great Hall that evening. The tables were also lined with roast chicken and beef, boiled and roasted potatoes, peas, carrots, and gravy to name a few of the dishes in sight.

Jessica stuffed herself with food until she could barely breathe, but she didn't care because there was no way she was missing out on any of the food within her reach. Besides, after weeks of trying to act normal around Oliver, this was one of the few ways she could release some of that added stress.

As the feast drew to a close, the students trickled out of the Great Hall one by one, all of them feeling full and sleepy from such a heavy meal. Jessica walked alongside Bethany behind a trail of other Gryffindors, both of them complaining that they were going to fall into a food coma the moment they reached their dorm. However, the sleepiness quickly left their bodies when they saw a crowd gathering in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"What's going on?" Harry was asking some of the boys from his year.

"Probably Neville forgot the password again," said Ron.

"Hey!"

"Oh, you're there," Ron said sheepishly when he realized Neville was right behind him.

Jessica frowned at the commotion and was about to step up when Percy Weasley pushed himself to the front.

"Let me through, please," he said firmly. "Excuse me! I'm Head Boy!"

The whispers only grew louder despite the Head Boy's arrival, though. When the crowd parted just a bit, Jessica's eyes widened — the Fat Lady was gone, and her canvas had been left all ripped and scratched up.

"Get back, all of you! No one is to enter this dormitory until it's been searched."

The portraits lining the walls around the Gryffindor common room entrance were also creating a ruckus. They were shouting at one another and traveling between paintings, only adding to the chaos. And then, Dumbledore and Mr. Filch entered the scene.

"Be quiet!" Percy raised his voice at the Gryffindors. "Make way! The headmaster's here."

"Come on, move," Mr. Filch hissed. He and Dumbledore came running up the steps in a hurry, the students pressing themselves against the railings to give them space.

"You heard — move!"

Dumbledore stared curiously at the torn painting with a small frown etched on his face. Meanwhile, Mr. Filch's eyes scanned all of the portraits within his sight, hoping to spot the Fat Lady in one of them.

"Mr. Filch? Round up the ghosts. Tell them to search every painting in the castle to find the Fat Lady," Dumbledore ordered.

"There's no need for ghosts, professor," Filch said, raising a hand to point at something in the distance. "The Fat Lady's there."

Almost at once, all the Gryffindors dashed towards the portrait that the Fat Lady had moved to because they just couldn't contain their curiosity. Of course, this agitated Percy, who was trying so hard to keep everyone calm and ordered, only more.

"Hey, mind where you're going! Slow down!" Percy tried, but nobody paid him much attention. "You listen! I'm Head Boy! Come back here!"

Even though a crowd had formed again, Dumbledore was still able to make his way to the Fat Lady. The poor woman was hiding behind a painted animal against the backdrop of a savanna.

"Dear lady, who did this to you?" Dumbledore asked her in pity.

"Eyes like the devil, he's got, and a soul as dark as his name!" she answered, her voice quivering. "It's him, headmaster — the one they all talk about. He's here, somewhere in the castle! Sirius Black!"

The crowd broke out into gasps and murmurs of surprise. How in Merlin's name did Sirius Black manage to sneak into Hogwarts with all the dementors stationed outside? The mere thought of it sent a chill down Jessica's spine.

"Secure the castle, Mr. Filch," Dumbledore said. "The rest of you, to the Great Hall!"

All the Gryffindors gathered inside the Great Hall again within minutes and were soon followed by confused Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Dumbledore announced to them. "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 glanced at Percy, who looked extremely proud for being acknowledged like that. "Send word with one of the ghosts."

Jessica sent Bethany a look, knowing that they'd have to separate for the night. She began making her way to where the other prefects were meeting up when Dumbledore paused on his way out the Great Hall.

"Oh, yes," he added as if he had just remembered. "You'll be needing..."

He waved his wand and all the long tables pushed themselves against the walls. After another wave, the floor was covered with hundreds of purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," said Dumbledore, and then he was out the door. The moment he left, the hall buzzed with great interest, all the non-Gryffindors wanting to know exactly just what happened. Jessica sighed, knowing that nobody was going to sleep any time soon. This was going to be a long night.

★ ★ ★

The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black following the break-in on Halloween night. Every day that passed brought a new list of theories as to how he had entered Hogwarts without getting caught by the dementors or staff, each of them wilder and crazier than the last.

A portrait of a knight named Sir Cadogan and his gray pony replaced the Fat Lady's ripped canvas. Nobody was pleased with this change because he never let anybody into the Gryffindor common room properly like he should have.

"He's a mad man," Bethany ranted one day. "It takes ages to get into the common room! Can't we get someone else?"

"None of the other portraits wanted the job," Jessica had to explain. "They're all too scared after what happened to the Fat Lady."

"So, Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer?" Alista asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately."

To add to their worries, the weather was steadily getting worse — dark skies, frequent showers, and the occasional thunderstorms. This made the mood inside the castle considerably gloomier, and it also became a pain to practice Quidditch in those conditions. Those were the first times Jessica ever had to play the sport in the rain, and it was so much messier and more difficult than she had ever imagined. Still, that didn't stop Oliver from making them train during every free slot they could snatch. Their first match would be against Slytherin, after all, so they couldn't risk slacking off one bit. Besides, it wasn't like Oliver would let them rest — he had always been passionate when it came to their trainings, but he was even more intense that year. Perhaps it was a combination of it being his last chance to win the Quidditch Cup for his House and because it served as a good distraction for whatever happened between him and Jessica on the night of that party.

It was finally the Gryffindor Quidditch Team's last practice session before their game on Saturday. That Thursday afternoon, Jessica found herself sitting on the bleachers of the Quidditch pitch surrounded by Harry, Katie, Angelina, and Fred and George.

"Don't take too many electives — waste of time, in my opinion," George was telling Harry. As the team waited for Oliver to arrive and start off their training, they decided to give their youngest member some advice on his classes.

"You should spend more time causing mischief," Fred added with a grin. "You know, make more memories at Hogwarts!"

"Harry already goes through enough trouble as it is — er, not that it's your fault," Jessica said to the boy quickly, causing the twins to snicker.

"You're taking Divination this year, though, aren't you?" Katie went back to the topic. Harry nodded at her question. "To be honest, I never really liked that class."

"Ancient Runes is a much more interesting subject, you know," said Jessica.

"Arithmancy's a pain, but it's pretty useful, too," Angelina piped up next.

"I suppose I can try one of those next year," Harry said thoughtfully. "Hermione's taking them all, so I can ask her about it, too."

"Granger's taking all those subjects? Even Care of Magical Creatures?" Jessica said curiously. Harry nodded again as if it wasn't a big deal to him. "How does she attend all of them? I'm pretty sure some class times overlap —"

Jessica stopped short when Oliver Wood stormed into the pitch. The rest of the team also stopped talking and watched their captain with confused expressions.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he said angrily. Jessica exchanged looks of shock with her teammates. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" everyone chorused.

"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured," Oliver said through gritted teeth.

A few weeks prior, it was the topic of gossip (alongside the issue of Sirius Black, of course) inside the castle that Draco Malfoy had gotten injured by Hagrid's hipprogiff, Buckbeak, during one of their lessons. The third year Gryffindors who witnessed the scene all said that it was just a scratch, but Malfoy and many of his fellow Slytherins insisted that it was much more serious than that. Alista said that Malfoy only made it a big deal outside the Slytherin common room, so it was pretty clear that he was only faking everything.

"But it's obvious why they're doing it," Oliver went on. "Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances..."

Jessica had to agree; it had been windy and rainy all day, making it a bad time to have a match at all. While that was already troubling, it was even worse now that they wouldn't be playing against Slytherin because for the past few weeks, their practices consisted of strategizing and going over techniques that specifically targeted the Slytherins.

"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously. "He's faking it!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," Oliver sighed. "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory —"

Angelina and Katie suddenly giggled. Oliver narrowed his eyes at how they were not taking him seriously.

"What?" he demanded.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" said Angelina.

"Strong and silent," Katie said next, and then they started to giggle again.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently.

"Just because he's extremely good-looking doesn't mean he can't be smart," Jessica pointed out. She was quite familiar with him, so she couldn't help but defend his name. "Not to mention the fact that he's a prefect, too."

Oliver's bad mood only intensified. First, Slytherin had backed out of the match, and now, Jessica was praising the Hufflepuff captain and Seeker too much for his liking. He understood Angelina and Katie doing it, but it irked him a hundred times more when Jessica did it.

"I don't know why you're worried, Oliver," Fred said lightly. "Hufflepuff's a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"

"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Oliver nearly shouted. Jessica jumped in her seat, taken aback at how riled up he was getting. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" said Jessica, reaching out to grab his arm. Oliver stopped flailing like a mad man, but her touch did little to calm him — in fact, it just made his heart beat faster. "We aren't letting our guard down, okay?"

"Yeah," Fred agreed, still looking slightly wary of Oliver after his outburst. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."

A/N: Would you guys be interested in reading a sequel for this book? That's been my original plan this whole time — to have a sequel that takes place from GOF to DH — because I really want to write about Jessica and Oliver outside of Hogwarts :)

Let me know what y'all think!!