Her fingers on the staff twitched and her lips suddenly felt dry. Then... there!

Someone ran past the door - seemingly incredibly rushed. Loreley couldn't make out much. Just the flutter of green and black and that it was a boy...

'A Slytherin! I knew it!' she thought, and her eyes immediately narrowed. She was already starting to follow him and confront him.

At that moment, another bang suddenly sounded - then the door to the library flew wide open and slammed against the stone wall several times as if guided by an angry hand. The same sound rang out several times - this time also somewhere in the corridor around the corner of the library.

Then hurried footsteps approached. A figure in a long cloak darted through the hallway in front of Loreley and disappeared from her sight as quickly as he had appeared. Only a moment later, footsteps drumming ended abruptly, and Loreley could hear the figure turning around.

Bracing for anything, she backed away a few steps and extended her arm to the side. "Get behind me, Sophie!" hissed Loreley, instantly on alert. What kind of man had that been? Was there an intruder at Hogwarts? Had this guy perhaps done something to her mother?

The wand tingled in her hands. The cedar and its lindworm core were pugnacious. She could feel him responding to her magic, ready to put it to work. Tiny, restless impulses transferred from her into the wood - or was it perhaps the other way around?

At that moment, the stranger came bending around the corner. A threatening glowing wand pointed at her as a tall man crossed in front of the intermediate passage between the bell tower and the library. The shadow of the passageway shrouded him in shadow, and he stopped, considering the dust in her hand.

"Drop your wand!" growled a dark voice.

Loreley froze and swallowed once harder.

"Not until I know who you are!" returned Loreley. She tried hard to make her voice sound firm and hide her uneasiness. But it was not fear, or at least respect, as might have been appropriate. It could be a teacher or even an enemy. She felt like a bow being slowly but surely spanned - long ready to fire. Inside her, an explosive mixture of frustration and helplessness had been building up for months, crying out to be discharged.

Her counterpart now took a step forward, and Loreley demonstratively raised the staff a little higher while at the same time taking a step back. Sophie pressed into her back, her hands pulling at the cloak, but she backed away with her sister.

"Make no mistake, child!" warned the man who now stepped into the dim light of the tower.
He wore what must once have been an ornate, now worn cloak, along with a slider cap that cast a shadow over his eyes. Underneath, a few dark-brown strands of hair hung down into his face, falling like a veil, even half-long, onto his shoulders. Nevertheless, the brown of his eyes flashed earnestly and firmly underneath.
"Lower your staff, or I will be forced to take action." A long scar marked his face, from one temple to the nose to the cheek on the left side... and that's when it hit Loreley like a blow.

"Talon!" Tension escaped with the word, hissing like steam from a cauldron.

Behind her, Sophie blinked, emitted a noise that sounded like a soft squeak, and broke away from her - to run to said man and embrace him.

The menace of the moment seemed to shatter as 'Talon' let out a grumble. "I'm on duty, Sophie," he grumbled, quickly squeezing the little girl before his gaze went to Loreley again. "What's this nonsense, Loreley? First playing such a childish prank and then raising your wand against an agent of the Ministry?" Lack of understanding made the Auror's rough voice lose some of its harshness.

"Prank?" Loreley mirrored the lack of understanding by letting out a snort. "I didn't do anything at all! The stubborn doors popped open on their own." Loreley lowered the staff and now also approached the man to shake his hand.

Talon Aves had been her mother's colleague and helped her settle in England. He was a friend of the family - at least the closest thing they had.

"Are you deployed here to look for our mother?" asked Loreley immediately, and the man screwed up his face as if she had stuck him with a needle. "The goings-on here at Hogwarts are kept in the strictest of secrecy, Loreley. You know that," he said, glancing briefly sideways over his shoulder, where the still-complete armor was meanwhile struggling to reassemble its comrade, part by part. Then he directed his gaze back to the two girls, especially Loreley. "So you had nothing to do with the doors?" he asked again - and this time, he sounded far more professional. After the Auror, not the family acquaintance.

"No, I didn't do the stupid doors," Loreley insisted, noticeably harder. "And we have a right to know more. After all, she disappeared here!"

"Loreley, you know the Ministry's guidelines. You're lucky they didn't ensure you kept this to yourselves..."

But Loreley couldn't give up. Since her mother's disappearance, no one from the Ministry had shown up. The only time a cold, sinister man had been with them was to suggest they keep quiet about what they knew and what had happened. Otherwise, other methods would have to be taken to ensure secrecy.

"Strange things are going on at Hogwarts, aren't there?" Loreley didn't let up. She couldn't! Talon had to understand, didn't he? He just had to tell her something! "Why else is the library locked? Is that where she disappeared?"

"Shh!" Talon's hand went forward and settled over Loreley's lips. Dark eyebrows drew toward each other. "Dogwood's standing guard around the corner," he hissed.

His colleague was not precisely known for his understanding nature; besides, that one hated students and children. Since they were here, Dogwood was even more irritable than usual. And there was no doubt he would back up the threat he had already made to the children.

"We must not reveal anything. Even if we knew something." Sighing, Talon shook his head. "Now go to your classroom." The man pushed them both in the right direction - toward the door that led into the long hallway that would take them to the greenhouse. "You guys are already late. We'll figure out what the doors were all about."

He opened the gate for them and waited until they stepped through. "And Loreley?"

Talon waited until she stopped. You could tell he would have liked to say more as his shoulders slumped a little. "Don't go anywhere alone for the time being. And don't hang around in the corridors more than necessary."

Loreley couldn't help a bitter laugh as she turned.

"That's exactly what we were going to do."