On Saturday morning, Sybil awoke relatively late compared to the early hours she usually awoke at, even on the weekends. Peering out of her window, she noticed that it was a spectacular day outside, with the sun shining in its autumn splendor and the sky being as clear as ice, save for a couple of clouds. Touching the glass and unlatching the top window, Sybil also realized the temperature was cool, though it may have been simply due to the morning breeze. The tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest, which Sybil could see from atop the Ravenclaw Tower, had started becoming yellow, and the vegetation had less vibrant greens, due to the slowly-approaching fall.

Though fall was not Sybil's favorite season, that year she had strangely been anticipating the autumn months, excited for the cool atmosphere and Halloween.

Her favorite period of the year was actually winter, and she knew once October ended, the only thing she'd look forward to was winter holidays. It was ironic that her favorite season was the one in which there was the least nature, since she wasn't particularly invested in it. The snow and clear blue skies of December, January, and February excited her, and being a witch made everything better because it meant she could stay outside for hours with out getting cold with a simple heat spell.

Sybil honestly thought November and March were the least exciting months of the year. They were the transition months between seasons and had very boring weather. In November the leaves had already fallen, but there wasn't a lot of snow yet, and March had no snow and no flowers yet, because of the Scottish climate. Just because her birthday was in March didn't mean she enjoyed it all that much. The only good thing to come out of March in her opinion was Easter Holidays, apart from her birthday.

There was no one else in the dorm, so Sybil assumed everyone had gone down. She got dressed and left her long hair down, it's silky feeling from the previous night's bath making Sybil happy. With her favorite purple jumper on, she tucked her wand into her waistband and made her way to the Great Hall.

Downstairs, about half of the students were there. Sybil made to sit down in her usual seat next to Caroline, but Alithea startled her with a snappy remark, "So you think it's all fine now after three days without saying anything? Do you think I didn't see you talking to Nicholas last night in the hall?"

"I--" Sybil started.

"No! The fact that you spoke to him before anyone else really hurts Sybil. We are your friends and you have no right to ignore us for that long. Did you really think you could get away with it? And why did you even ignore us? Is it our fault? Do we not have your trust?" Alithea interrupted.

Sybil opened her mouth but Alithea stopped her before she cold say anything, "Shush! You even bailed on Caroline for Quidditch and-and I don't know. I am just really mad at you for what you did, you had no right--" she continued, waving her hands in the air.

"Sorry!" shouted Sybil not knowing what to say, since all the things Alithea had said were technically true, "O-okay? I'm sorry it's just that--"

Sybil was interrupted by a loud inhale from the person who was sitting next to her.

Caroline, whom Sybil thought had remained silent because she didn't want to intervene, had actually been reading the Daily Prophet, which had arrived at the exact moment that Sybil had walked in. Caroline's eyes were wide and her hand had flown up to cover her jaw-dropped mouth. The two girls sat there waiting for Caroline to explain, but the shocked girl was immobile as her eyes kept reading over something in the paper.

Alithea reached over the table and snatched the newspaper, quickly scanning to find the article which had rendered Caroline speechless.

"Wha—" Sybil started to question.

"—at?!" Alithea finished.

Sybil had had enough and grabbed the paper back, checking the excerpt that her friends had read:

TRESPASS AT THE MINISTRY:

Sturgis Podmore, 38, of number two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot charged with trespass and attempted robbery at the Ministry of Magic on 31st August. Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watchwizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o'clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

No. It was all coming back. Sybil had managed to forget about her father since waking, but it seemed that it was inevitable to erase.

"They published my address!" Sybil blurted out.

Immediately after talking, Sybil covered her mouth. Her face flushed an intense red and a couple of students who hadn't read the article looked over strangely. Out of all the things she could have said, she had probably chosen the worst possible thing to say.

Alithea raised her eyebrows and gave her a very quizzical look and Caroline wrapped Sybil in a hug. Sybil was as stiff as a plank, with one hand at her side clutching the wooden bench for support as her other hand still grasped the Daily Prophet.

After her foolish statement, the graveness of the article settled in. No, she wasn't worried about her dad's actual situation, the novelty of that had already worn off.

Sybil was ashamed that it was the first thing she thought about, but what would her classmates say? Would they think differently of her because her father was in Azkaban? When the whole thing first happened Sybil had excluded the possibility of it becoming public and being published, but as she thought, she was pretty daft to have not realized that the Ministry would've said something, like they always did.

"Oh Sybil why didn't you tell us?" Caroline sighed.

"I-I couldn't," she said, "it was too hard."

Sybil paused, trying to formulate words to explain her reasoning. "I had already dug myself a big enough hole by not telling you on the train. I was scared s-so I just kept it to myself. I shut down."

"How did you even do it? You're insane to not say anything." Alithea said, all traces of anger erased.

"I just did. I didn't give myself any other options."

"Was that letter from your aunt about, you know, his trial?" questioned Caroline.

"Y-Yeah."

Alithea said, making sense of the article, "Does this mean your father's trial was yesterday? Is that why you weren't in class or lunch?"

"Yes it was." Sybil looked down. Caroline had released her hug and was now contemplating.

By that moment, Armina, Natalie, and Soarise had read it as well, and they rushed to the Ravenclaw table. Soarsie crossed the hall and Armina dragged Natalie down the aisle.

"Sybil!"

"By golly you must be out of your mind!"

"I know, I know. Now please sit down I don't want to make more of a scene than I already have!" Sybil whisper-shouted, pulling all three of them down and onto the bench.

"What will you do?" asked Saorsie.

"I mean I can't do anything really..." Sybil stated, "He'll be released in March."

"Do you have any idea why he did it?" Natalie said.

"No he'd been acting weird for most of August, by he never gave any indication."

Not one of her friends knew about the Order so she couldn't explain the circumstances of the event. Sybil hoped that no one questioned that.

Sybil was bombarded with questions thorough the rest of breakfast, mostly by her friend group. Not much after the Hufflepuffs and Slytherin came over, so did Anthony to comfort her. A couple of his friends asked her questions, but throughout the entire morning Sybil could feel the increase in stares from others.

Her friends were much more forgiving and kind than Sybil thought they'd be. She couldn't help but notice though, that every time Azkaban or You-Know-Who was mentioned, Natalie tensed up and stopped talking. She wondered if it related to the fact that she was a pure blood or that Natalie also hadn't spoken back on the train when they talked of Cedric. With all the events of the week she hadn't had the chance to talk to any of her non-Ravenclaw friends about anything other than school. She would have to ask when things settled down.

After they had all finished eating, Saorsie and Sybil decided to go into the library to avoid any more questions while everyone else went outside. As they marched out the wide arches of the Great Hall, Harry caught up to them, running ahead of his friends.

"Hey, Sybil, do you have a minute?" he said, raising his arm to catch her attention.

"Uh sure, hey wait a minute Sersh." she said, gesturing to Saorsie and turning to face him, "what's up Harry?"

"Well uh, I wanted to say that I'm sorry for your dad." Harry said.

"Thanks Harry, I've come to terms with it by now though, strangely."

"Yes well, at breakfast, Hermione, Ron, and I were thinking about your dad's situation. Ron thought that maybe it was a frame-up from the Ministry."

"Are you trying to say that the Ministry wanted to put him in Azkaban?" Sybil's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Yeah, he thought that the Ministry may have lured him into getting caught. At the station Moody seemed annoyed that he hadn't shown up." he said, lowering his voice so no one could eavesdrop.

Sybil said unconvinced, "I don't know..."

"The Ministry might've thought he was in the Order."

"It honestly seems kind of far-fetched Harry."

"That's what I thought, but I wanted to tell you just in case you knew anything more." he said.

"I don't know much more than the article said. Thank you though, I appreciate it." Sybil said.

"No problem." he smiled before walking away.

The idea was far fetched to Sybil, but it honestly was more than she had been able to conjure up since she had found out. Maybe she could add to the theory...

"What did he want to talk about?" Saorsie asked when Sybil got back.

"He was just asking about my dad."

"Oh, well let's get going."

~~~~~
The buzz from the Daily Prophet article seemed to be a lot bigger in the library, contrary to what Sybil and Saorsie had thought when they had made the decision to spend the day there. Anyone with a good sense of hearing could tell that the level of whispers increased tenfold when the two walked in.

Thankfully, they stashed themselves away in a corner of the library, and only ventured out when they wanted to look for a book. It was very nice to spend the morning with Saorsie, as they took the time to catch up on all the new developments in their lives. Saorsie always listened to Sybil and they exchanged knowledge and emotions honestly. They were both there for each other when either was feeling down.

Sybil felt she could rely on Saorsie anytime, even if they hadn't talked in a while. She had been friends with Saorsie only since fourth year, when they sat together in Arithmancy, as opposed to Alithea and Caroline, whom she had been friends with ever since first year. Natalie and Armina, on the other hand, had become her friends through the alphabetical nature of their last names, Podmore, Prokes, and Patel. Anthony and Sybil had been friends since Sybil's second year, when she acted as a guide to Anthony. Their mothers had been friends, so they knew each other as toddlers, but once Miranda passed away, their parents lost touch.

Right as Sybil was in the middle of spontaneously researching the disputes over the recipe for the perfect Butterbeer, someone tapped her on the shoulder. Sybil turned to Saorsie, but she was sitting right next to her, so she twisted her head to see a Hufflepuff uniform and tie, please let it not be someone who wants to know about my father, she thought.

Finally focusing on the student's face, she realized it was actually Ashish Patel, Armina's twin brother. They were one of the two sets of twins, both from Indian descent, and also with similar last names, Patil and Patel, whom attended Hogwarts.

"Hi Sybil, sorry to bother you, but Professor Flitwick wants to see you, he's at the entrance." he said.

"Oh! Thanks Ashish, thank you so much." she said nervously. He nodded and walked away.

"Saorsie! What do you reckon Flitwick wants with me?" said Sybil in an aggressive whisper to her friend, which had also witnessed the request.

Saosie's eyebrows furrowed, "I don't know Sybil, could it be something about the classes you missed?"

"Oh no, I bet that's it. No, no, no, what will I do?" she replied, biting her lip.

"I suggest you don't stall, first of all."

Sybil nodded, "Yeah I can't not show up. Wish me luck?"

"If you need it." said Saorsie, shrugging.

Sybil took a deep breath, stood up, and smoothed out her robes. "I'll be back."

Saorsie shot her a sympathetic glance before returning to her book.

Sybil was pretty sure she knew why Professor Flitwick had requested to see her, and she was worried of the consequences she'd have for skipping class, even though she technically had a fair excuse. Maybe they had news on her dad? Or maybe it was even an interview from the Daily Prophet for her?

She sucked in her teeth, she'd have to wait and see.

Unfortunately she was never one for courage.

~~~~~

A/N: Sorry this is so late! Anyway here is a chapter! Also happy birthday to Amandla Stenberg, who is the faceclaim for Alithea!