The Gryffindor fourth year boys' dormitory was always a chaotic, messy disgrace of a room: ties and dirty socks lay around the floor and no one was actually sure whom they belonged to; jumpers were slung and draped over the ends of the four poster beds; books and scraps of parchments were scattered across the floor and on desks and miscellaneous sweet wrappers and objects such as quills or plastic bottles had been shoved underneath chest of drawers or beds.

The scent of cologne and deodorant always lingered in the air as well as whatever the next concoction Charlus Potter was making with his potion supplies - the smell depended on how gross or pleasant his homemade substances were.

It was clear that the dormitory was lived in by boys, that was for sure, and it was a massive contrast to the neat and tidy fourth year girls dormitory on the other side of the tower.

Sunlight poured in through the slightly open curtains on an early Wednesday morning, about a week after Florean and Minerva had discovered Midnight the kitten and it was now the first week of October.

The boys in the Gryffindor dormitory were just waking up for the day - a series of alarm clocks had sounded through the room and a varied amount of groans and sighs echoed from behind all five four poster beds shortly after the alarm clocks had gone off.

Lyall Lupin was the type of boy that practically leaped out of bed as soon as his alarm clock went off and this morning was no different as he did exactly that.

He was just buttoning up his shirt when some of the other boys actually started stirring and getting up, including Alastor and Charlus, much to the unfortunate luck of the other sleeping boys as those two always made lots of noise in the morning.

Zachary and Edward, the remaining boys in the dormitory, both yelled at Alastor and Charlus to shut up as the two started singing a rendition of the muggle song Baby It's Cold Outside.

"I am trying to sleep," Edward called sleepily from behind his closed curtains on his four poster bed but Charlus and Alastor ignored him, dancing around the messy dormitory whilst getting changed, singing at the top of their voices, terribly out of tune but even Lyall was laughing at their antics.

"I really can't stay..." Charlus sang in a very high pitched feminine voice, a Gryffindor scarf wrapped around his head to indicate long hair.

"But baby it's cold outside..." Alastor responded, placing his arm around Charlus, who threw it off with a dramatic flourish, stalking off to the other end of the dormitory where a very disgruntled Zachary stood, not very impressed that he had had to get up because of the racket the two were making.

"I've got to go away," Charlus practically screeched and Lyall placed his hands over his ears whilst chuckling.

"But baby it's cold outside," Alastor sang back at him with a pout, running across the room to embrace Charlus, who turned his back on the blonde boy and flicked him in the face with the scarf that he still had wrapped around his neck and head.

"Ow! You could've taken my eye out!" Alastor exclaimed and Charlus laughed, throwing the scarf off and onto the already messy floor, adding to the piles of clothes lying randomly around the room.

"Aw...poor Al. Let Charlus kiss it better," Charlus cooed over Alastor, who had his hand covering his eye, wincing over-dramatically and making noises of fake pain.

"So when they aren't singing at the tops of their voices, they're being bloody dramatic," Edward muttered with a yawn gracing his words before he and Zachary both left the dormitory, grumbling about how on earth people could actually be that energetic and loud in the morning.

Lyall sighed and sat on his bed whilst he waited for his friends to stop mucking about, his eyes drifting to the grounds outside and he spotted two figures walking across the grass, one of them skipping and the other trailing behind a little hesitantly.

Squinting a little more at the figures in the distance, he saw that it was in fact Euphemia and Eileen, obviously on their way to breakfast but they had gone outside for a breath of fresh air beforehand.

"I'm...uh...I'm going to go," Lyall suddenly announced and Alastor and Charlus looked up from where Charlus had been pretending to patch up Alastor's slightly red eye whilst the latter winced in mock pain, the two of them laughing.

"Bored of us already?" Charlus asked with a raised eyebrow and Alastor scoffed, "As if anyone could actually get bored of us!" Lyall smiled a little fondly before he added with a shrug, "Mia's out on the grounds so I thought I'd keep her company," he said lightly, trying to act as if his heart wasn't hammering madly in his chest as he relished in his great idea.

With that, he grabbed his bag and walked briskly out of the dormitory, leaving Charlus and Alastor to sit in a stunned silence before Charlus suddenly jumped up, "Did he say Mia is on the grounds?" he asked Alastor quickly and his best friend nodded at him with a knowing smirk.

Before Alastor could even blink, Charlus gabbled something about "needing some air" and rushed out of the door after Lyall, leaving a baffled Alastor alone in the dormitory.

"Well, this should be fun," he muttered sarcastically underneath his breath as he descended the stairs to the common room, watching as the tail of Charlus' robes disappeared around the wall of the portrait hole, evidently following Lyall to the grounds.

Minnie and Eugenia were both seated at a table in the common room, the pair of them looking as confused and exasperated as Alastor felt.

~~~

Later that day, Charis Black was wandering along the corridors with her small group of friends who all admired and looked up to her because she was a member of one of the most powerful pure blood families.

Despite this, Charis always made sure to tell them that she was 'nothing special' and she was 'just ordinary' which did mean that she had more genuine friends compared to the doting followers of Druella's. However, they couldn't stop admiring her and it did irritate Charis quite a bit.

Her friends were full of the gossip about the latest fling in Slytherin House, between Edward Nott and Adrianna Warren so Charis was free from some of their awe-filled looks for a while, meaning that the brunette could relax for a few moments.

The short lived peace was incredibly short lived though, because she soon saw Druella standing at the end of the corridor, beckoning Charis forward - her older cousin evidently wanted to talk to her. And when Druella Rosier wanted to talk to you, there was no way you could say no.

Faye, one of her closest friends, hissed in her ear, "She looks like she's going to eat us," and Charis laughed a little weakly before she ushered her now slightly terrified and frightened friends away, muttering that she'd see them later.

"If you survive, that is," Mandy muttered as the group of girls walked away and Charis faintly heard Sally say, "Charis is Druella's cousin - she wouldn't hurt her!" rather indignantly before her friends' voices faded off into the distance and it was just Druella and Charis standing alone in the corridor.

Blood relations means nothing in the Black Family, Sal Charis thought to herself with a bitter smile gracing her normally serene features.

"What do you want, Druella?" Charis asked politely, smiling in a strained fashion as Druella leaned back on the nearest wall, her arms crossed and her expression serious.

"Not here," Druella muttered and she grabbed hold of Charis' arm, tugging her towards a tapestry that opened to reveal a little alcove, a place frequently visited by couples.

"I am perfectly capable of walking, Druella," Charis snapped and she yanked her arm out of her cousin's grip, following Druella behind the tapestry.

"Right. Spit it out, what is it?" Charis asked, squinting up at the gloomy shadow of Druella in the dimly lit alcove.

"Why are you so feisty today, Charis? I remember you always being the sweet one," Druella chuckled and there was a hidden threat in what she said which made Charis shiver madly.

"I heard what you and Orion did to Euphemia," Charis responded coolly and she saw Druella roll her eyes, "That was an accident. And it was because she was eavesdropping on something she was not meant to hear," Druella retorted, equally as cold and collected as Charis.

The two cousins were actually more similar than they thought they were - both had a very good tendency of becoming harsh and cool when they were irritated or pissed off.

"And what exactly was it that she wasn't allowed to hear?" Charis questioned, a funny feeling in her stomach as she thought of her vulnerable cousin being attacked by the ruthless and cruel force that was Druella and Orion combined.

"That's what I'm here to discuss with you today," Druella said with a satisfied tone, "Glad we finally got to the point."

Charis ran her hands up and down her bare arms, the goosebumps forming there in strange patterns as shivers ran races all over her body - the alcove that Druella had picked to speak to her in was not exactly the warmest place by far.

It also didn't help that her robes were in her bag, which her friends had taken with them to the library so they could use her Transfiguration essay as 'inspiration' for their own. Great.

"I need to know I can trust you," Druella said darkly in an undertone, her voice so low that Charis had to strain her ears to actually hear what her cousin was saying.

Intrigued, Charis nodded, "You know you can trust me," she assured Druella, being reminded of when the two would play hide and seek during their childhood and Druella would entrust her with where she was going to be hiding as long as she didn't tell the other cousins who were playing the game.

"Swear on Callidora's life," Druella suddenly hissed and Charis felt something unusual stab at her heart as she was reminded of her older sister, who was incredibly miserable nowadays because her twin, Cedrella, had been disowned and forgotten from the family when she married Septimus Weasley instead of a 'respectable' pure blood.

"Why Callidora?" Charis half pleaded with Druella - she knew that if she broke her promise that Druella would actually kill Callidora and Charis didn't want her sister being murdered. Because Druella Rosier was definitely that ruthless....

"Cedrella is dead to all of us anyway so Callidora is the only one that I can use as a threat," Druella waved a hand casually and Charis nodded miserably.

"I swear I won't tell. Just tell me!" she promised Druella and the older cousin nodded severely before leaning closer to Charis in order to relay the information that she had.

"Some time in February, an attack will take place. I won't tell you the date as it is not confirmed yet but if you get a note under your pillow saying 'Walpurgis' one night then that means the attack will take place the very next day. You will be expected to stay out of danger and possibly aid us. Do not speak of this to anyone or I will kill Callidora and I will not hesitate," Druella whispered all of this in Charis' ear and the girl felt her blood run cold as she realised what she had gotten herself into. Damn.

"Does Euphemia not know about this?" Charis asked carefully, a knot developing in her stomach and she saw Druella shake her head slowly in the darkness of the chilly alcove.

"Unfortunately, it seemed to have slipped her memory when she fell down those stairs," Druella cackled and Charis felt extremely close to despairing - what if this attack was something to do with Mia?

"You're not planning on hurting her, are you?" Charis asked in a slight whisper and Druella patted her on the shoulder, "Don't worry, this is all for her own benefit and she'll thank us later. Trust me," Druella winked and exited the alcove, the sudden beam of light from the corridor shocking Charis' eyes, seeing as they had become accustomed to the darkness.

Once she was sure that Druella had definitely gone, Charis slid down the wall, sinking to the floor and placing her brunette head in her hands as she mumbled, "Jesus Christ, what the hell have I agreed to?"

But there was no turning back now. Or else some of Charis' loved ones could potentially lose their lives...

~~~

Astronomy lessons were always rather interesting - it was another lesson that Slytherins and Gryffindors shared along with Transfiguration and Potions.

The two rival houses had once done flying lessons together, way back in first year, but they didn't carry on after first year finished.

It was a good and a bad thing because lessons with both Slytherins and Gryffindors in often resulted in chaos or some sort of incident taking place.

Nothing usually happened during Transfiguration lessons because Professor Dumbeldore was the teacher and no one wanted to cross him - students were either afraid of him because he beat Grindelward or they were in awe of him for the exact same reason.

Potions was always a dodgy one but Slughorn could mostly keep control over his house and nothing major ever really happened in his lessons.

The only exception to this was the time that Heather threw a dung-bomb in Zachary's (from Charlus' dormitory) cauldron and his Shrinking Potion exploded everywhere and shrunk everything within a few metres of Zachary's workplace, including a few of the students themselves who had unfortunately been seated near the exploding cauldron.

However, Astronomy was where a lot of the students took advantage of the darkness and the old teacher and they chose to muck around and cause trouble, whether good or bad - it depended on the people causing it.

For example: one time in second year, Charlus and Alastor coloured in all the Slytherin's telescopes with black ink so that when the students pressed their eyes to it to see the stars in the sky, they were left with black rings around their eyes.

Whereas another time, during third year, Aaron Simons, a Slytherin boy who was considered cute by a lot of the girl population, put some sort of toxic goo down the telescopes of the Gryffindors which then spurt up and hit several of them in the eye, landing loads of Gryffindors in the hospital wing for a few days.

Naturally because of this slight rivalry started up between the two houses, Mia couldn't actually sit with her Gryffindor mates during the lesson which did suck quite a bit.

However, she was perfectly happy with sitting with Eileen and she could still sit nearish to her friends so it wasn't much of a problem.

As the students started arriving for the lesson, Euphemia was listening to a story that Eileen was telling her about something that had happened the other day.

Mia was taking care to make sure she was actually listening instead of hardly paying attention, which had been what she used to accidentally do before she and Eileen fell out.

"And then she just jumped into the lake!" Eileen finished with a slightly shocked laugh and Euphemia raised her eyebrows in surprise as the tale was certainly extravagant and out of the ordinary - apparently a fifth year Hufflepuff had decided to be friends with the Giant Squid and had proclaimed this entire speech to him before jumping in the water.

"I can't believe that," Mia chuckled as they walked over to the telescopes, carefully inspecting them for any signs of black ink, which seemed to be what the majority of the other Slytherin students were doing as well.

A loud laugh and raucous chatter announced the arrival of Charlus and Alastor, who were talking loudly about a prank that they had just pulled on some poor unsuspecting first year.

Rolling her eyes, Euphemia turned around to watch them as they started to ascend the stairs to the top of the Astronomy tower, their presence being made well known because of their loud personalities.

Mia could've sworn that Charlus winked at her before taking his place on his stool beside his telescope, spinning around on it as Alastor told a joke to Lyall, who was sat next to him meekly.

Minnie and Eugenia arrived next, the pair of them flashing a smile in Euphemia's direction which she unfortunately couldn't return because Walburga and Heather were both staring at her, evidently talking about her whilst a miserable Mary near them hunched her shoulders and looked down at her lap timidly.

Minnie frowned when she saw this happening, "She shouldn't be frightened of bloody Walburga," she muttered underneath her breath to Eugenia and the blonde agreed, shaking her head sadly. "Who shouldn't?" Alastor asked curiously.

"Mia," Eugenia answered quietly, sparing a glance in Euphemia's direction, noting how the girl was nervously looking in the direction of Walburga and Heather whilst she talked with Eileen before the lesson started.

Both Charlus' and Lyall's heads snapped up upon hearing Mia's name and Minerva inwardly face palmed - this situation was just so damn awkward.

"F-fourth y-years! A-attention p-p-please!" Professor Gadsby stuttered from his desk in the centre - the poor man had a terrible stutter and he was also incredibly old (nearly as old as Headmaster Dippet) which meant he practically had no control whatsoever over the class of chatty teenagers.

The old man ordered them in his stuttering manner to adjust their telescopes and to start searching for the stars listed on the charts that he had placed near individual telescopes.

A lot of the Slytherin boys on the other side of the tower started mimicking his stutter which made Euphemia's blood boil.

"Oh, would you look at this," she mumbled to Eileen with a smidge of amusement lacing her tone, "My mother is on the list of stars to find for today's lesson. Ironic," Mia pointed out the name 'Cassiopeia' on the chart gifted to them all and Eileen chuckled, although it sounded a little strained.

The lesson carried on at it's usual pace, with the old Professor struggling to control the chattering class but the majority of the students did get on with their work, with minimal disruption.

Euphemia became incredibly tired but that was probably because the lesson was taking place late at night, so that the subject could be carried out effectively.

"Why do they actually think we should care about bloody stars?" Mia yawned, cupping her face in her hands as she tried to stop her drooping eyes from closing altogether.

"Well, you should care, Euphemia. Seeing as a lot of our family is named after them," Walburga suddenly appeared behind Mia and the girl jumped out of her skin, her cousin's abrupt presence surprising her as she had not seen Walburga creeping up behind her.

Euphemia didn't reply to Walburga, simply peering through her telescope and her cousin eventually gave up and stalked away with a huff.

Professor Gadsby finally called for them to pack away and go back to their dormitories, which everyone did very badly as practically all of the class was tired by this point and the majority of them just wanted to get into their beds and sleep forever.

Astronomy lessons always left everyone exhausted because of the late nights and also the concentration required in order for people to actually get a decent grade.

Eileen called for her to hurry up and Mia quickly jammed her quill into a space available in her bag before slinging it over her shoulder and following the Slytherin girl down the stairs, sending a smile in the direction of Minnie and the others.

It was this mere glance and grin towards them as a group that made Euphemia notice that Lyall was trying to get her attention, his eyes ablaze with whatever message he was trying to display to Mia.

Euphemia nodded slightly at him and saw that he mouthed 'Talk to me now' and she nodded again, understanding as a plan formed in her mind.

"Damn! I've forgotten my ink pot!" Euphemia suddenly muttered as she and Eileen reached the bottom of the stairs and she turned to the girl with an apologetic expression.

"I'll go back with you," Eileen offered and Mia shook her head, "No, no - go to bed, get some rest," she said gently to Eileen and the small girl nodded a little and walked off in the direction of the dungeons.

Mia ran back up the stairs, feeling a stitch build in her side as she tried to regain her breath - the stairs leading up to the Astronomy tower were incredibly steep and it took a lot of stamina to get up and down them.

Euphemia passed by Minerva, Eugenia, Alastor and Charlus as they came down the stairs and she panted something about going back for her ink pot before dashing past them, accidentally brushing against Charlus' arm as she hurried up the stairs, hearing a sharp intake of breath from him.

As she reached the top of the stairs, Mia saw that Lyall was seated on the top step, his feet resting on the step below as he leaned on his folded arms, which were placed on top of his hunched knees.

"Thank you for coming back," Lyall smiled at her before moving up on the step a little, gesturing for her to sit beside him which she did with a dramatic flop, shattered from the lack of sleep and also the strenuous battle that had been getting up those stairs.

The two sat side by side on the top step for a while, Euphemia glancing at Lyall occasionally to see whether he was going to talk or not.

Eventually, a yawn ripped from Mia's lips and that seemed to attract Lyall's attention as he jumped a little - he had evidently been lost in his own thoughts.

But there was no way Euphemia could have prepared herself for what happened next. "You wanted to talk..?" she prompted him and Lyall snapped to life, blinking madly.

"I've been doing some thinking lately and I've realised that.....that I really, really like you," Lyall said sincerely and Mia smiled a little uncertainly, patting him on the arm hesitantly.

"I really like you too, Lyall. You're a great friend," she told him, confused when his face dropped from his apprehensive, nervous but hopeful smile to a completely and utterly dejected, disappointed grimace.

"I mean, more than that! Like more than a friend!" Lyall said a little impatiently and Euphemia paled a little before blushing, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.

She felt so bad for him because she knew there was no way that she felt the same way, Lyall was nothing but a good friend in her eyes and she didn't like him in that way whatsoever. No way.

"Oh," Mia answered a little stupidly and she was about to say something else when Lyall leaned forward with alarming speed, with the intention of kissing Euphemia as smooth as the boy could manage - he had seen his friends flirt and kiss girls so he was sure he could do the same without any problems. However, Euphemia placed a hand on his chest and gently pushed him away.

"I'm sorry, Lyall. I just....I...don't like you in that way," she said awkwardly and something fluttered in her stomach as the fleeting image of who she did like flew into her mind.

Lyall looked utterly crushed and dejected and he stood up quickly, his face bright red before he ran off down the stairs, leaving Mia feeling like a terrible human being at the top of the stairs.

"Well, well, well. Isn't that a shame?" a voice from behind her sounded and Euphemia span around so fast that she cracked her neck and she had to massage it a little because an ache had settled there. Mia's mouth dropped open when she saw who was stood there...

For Merlin's sake - can this situation get any worse? Euphemia thought in utter despair as the owner of the voice stepped into the light, leaving Mia to stare in disbelief at the complete bad luck of the situation.

Phenomenal.

Just as a side note: the version of 'Baby It's Cold Outside' that Charlus and Alastor sing is the original version, released in 1944. It is not the Michael Bublé version, do not worry - I am aware of when stuff was released and I actually struggled to find a song that was popular in 1950 and still known of nowadays.