The figure in the night was barely visible. They were dressed all in black, and they stuck to the shadows to avoid being seeing by anyone.

It was 2am, after all, and if any teachers arrived, it would be detention for a month.

The figure slipped down the stairs, and outside to a spot just a hundred metres away from the Whomping Willow. It was safe enough if you always kept one eye open, but most students wouldn't dare going that close to the tree, not unless it was urgent.

Not unless they had something they wanted to hide.

Or unless they wanted to find something, like the person in black.

They knelt down in a spot illuminated by moonlight, marked barely noticeably by two large rocks pilled on top of another. Pulling at the earth frantically with long, thin fingers, they dug and dug and dug, and then eventually...

They found it.

A scroll of parchment, tied together with string. They unrolled it carefully, reading over the words as if to check the scroll's words were still there.

Dear Piper, it read. I've been thinking about the kiss...

The person sat back, rolling the parchment back up and then tossing it between their fingers slowly. They opened it again, and looked down, obviously reading through it again.

They whispered something to the wind, and it took the words from their mouth and sent them hurtling over the Whomping Willow, flying to God-knows-where.

It's a Hogwarts tradition, anyway, that students sometimes come out in the middle of the night and whisper their secrets to the Whomping Willow. The wind takes them away, and they return to their beds, safe in the knowledge that nobody knows what they've done wrong.

The figure buried the parchment again, digging with those slim hands. They stand up once they've finished, looking down at the patch of ground.

It looked just the same, if a little battered. If anyone saw it, they would assume that the Whomping Willow had a long-reaching branch that hit the spot, if they even saw it at all.

The person hesitated, then whispered once more to the wind.

"I'm sorry," were the words they said. "Merlin, I'm sorry."

Then they turned, and returned to the castle, a shadow slipping around in the night.