The evening meal that night was great, even though it wasn't a special occasion. Even Harry, Ron and Hermione, fit to burst with sweets from Honeyduke's, managed to stomach a helping or two of most things.

The quartet climbed the moving staircase with Ron talking about Hogsmeade. "Honeyduke's sweet shop is good, but nothing beats Zonko's Joke Shop, we never did get a chance to go to the Shrieking Shack, though, have you heard that it's the most haunted-"

Rosalyn cut across, bored and jealous. -"Most haunted building in Britain, yeah I know."

The four of them realised something just then. Alot of Gryffindors were gathered around the Fat Lady's portrait, chatting and talking. Rosalyn, Ron, Harry and Hermione were on a moving staircase going towards that portrait, but at the moment it didn't really look like they were getting anywhere.

"What's going on?" Was all Rosalyn said.

Ron was quick with. "Ah, probably Neville's just forgotten the password again."

Rosalyn stamped on Ron's foot hard and he yelped in pain, Neville was right behind them, "Hey!" He reprimanded.

Rosalyn muttered to him behind Ron's back. "Don't worry, he'll always blame someone else if something goes wrong." She had grown up with Ron, and had seen this as a common factor in a catastrophe if he was there.

Neville seemed a little more cheered up as Percy said. "Guys let me through please, excuse me I'm head boy!"

"Havin' fun there, are you Perce?" Yelled Fred to his elder brother, Percy rolled his eyes, puffed out his chest and continued his shouting.

"Get back all of you, no one can enter this dormitory until it has been searched."

A few people screamed and when Rosalyn and the gang came closer, they saw why. The portrait that would normally open to let them into the common room was slashed, the canvas peeling in a horrible way that seemed, to Rosalyn, like a big animal had cut it with their claws.

Ginny then ran up in front of the golden quartet and said, distressed. "The Fat Lady, she's gone!"

Rosalyn looked a bit scared but Ron laughed, relieved it wasn't anything more serious. "Well that's alright, she was a terrible singer."

"It's not funny, Ron!" Hermione snapped.

Loads of other portraits had now picked up on the fact that there was something wrong and were dashing from frame to frame, doing some sort of evacuation.

Students from other houses had now came and joined in, but Percy was quick with sending them back. "Ravenclaws, back to your common room!" He yelled above the chatter. "Hufflepuffs I don't know! I don't know what's going on, now go!"

He got most of them away, and then Dumbledore and Filch came running up the stairs, Dumbledore running, robes billowing, Filch hopping behind, a quite amusing sight.

Students pressed themselves into the banisters to let the headmaster and caretaker through. Dumbledore went closer to the painting and Hermione and Rosalyn glanced round Filch to see what was going on.

Dumbledore looked at the scratches on the canvas and Filch glanced at the students, Mrs Norris too. It was as if they expected it to be one of them. Actually, Rosalyn thought, that was stupid, it was exactly what they expected.

Dumbledore had now finished his examination and was talking to the caretaker. "Mr Filch, if you would, round up the ghosts, tell them to search every painting in the castle to find the Fat Lady."

Filch was now looking at a painting across the corridor. "There'll be no need for ghosts, Professor, the Fat Lady's there," he pointed to the painting, and the whole crowd ran up the corridor to the Fat Lady.

Percy was yelling about his authority, but no one seemed to care. Everyone ran up and round the stairs to the portrait until Dumbledore and Filch, who were in the middle, were standing opposite the hysterical Fat Lady.

She was in a portrait with grazing cows, hiding behind a particularly fat one, crying her eyes out and howling so that everyone could hear her, Rosalyn didn't know why she hadn't heard her before.

"My Lady, who did this to you?" Dumbledore asked quietly

"Ey- eyes like the devil he's got, and a soul as dark as his name, it's him, headmaster, the one they all talk about, he's here, somewhere in the castle. Sirius Black!"

She gave a yelp and disappeared behind the cow, but they could still hear her sobs.

"Secure the castle, Mr Filch," Dumbledore said quietly, and then, louder, to the students who were screaming of running. "The rest of you, to the great hall!"

But Rosalyn stayed, looking at the portrait for a few more seconds. Had Sirius Black come for her? Why? She was at the feast, bit of a stupid time to come in, when everyone was in the same place. They said Black was deranged, but Rosalyn didn't think so. If he had been after her, he would've come at night, properly night, in the shadows. But then, if he hadn't been after her, who was he after? And why was he after them when they said he was after her?

She thought about all this as she went down to the great hall with Harry, Ron and Hermione, trying not to think of how close the person who had wanted to murder her was.

☆☆☆

The Gryffindors were soon all in the great hall, which, for one night only, had been transformed into a giant tent, with hundreds of purple sleeping bags on the ground.

The teachers soon left to search the castle, so the hall was left under the supervision of the head boy and girl, and Rosalyn knew Percy would take it seriously.

Rosalyn, Harry, Ron and Hermione chose four sleeping bags in a square, sitting on them.

Ron sighed. "Pity we can't get beds, I've never liked sleeping on the floor."

Rosalyn rolled her eyes. "Ron? Seriously? A mass murderer might be in the castle and all you can think of is how nice the bed's going to be?"

Harry and Hermione laughed and Ron looked sour, but just then, the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherin, who had clearly been told about what was going on, as they looked pretty scared, joined them. The teachers were clearly going all out on the search. They sat down and talked as well, and then Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ginny and the quartet started talking about Sirius Black.

"Maybe he disapparated," Ron suggested to the group. "You know, disappear and appear out of thin air."

"You can't do that inside the grounds, Ron!" Hermione said, and Ron looked a little disappointed that his idea didn't go down well.

"He might've flown in," Seamus contributed.

"No, they'd've seen him," Ginny said quietly.

"What if he diguised himself, you know, incognito?" Dean said, using his muggle roots.

"What?" Asked Ron and Ginny, who were both pureblood.

But Hermione took another side of disdain. "As a student? Not likely... and all the teachers aren't as stupid, he couldn't've used any magic to do it, or could he..."

"Lights out now!" Percy called out, Rosalyn was right, he seemed to be loving his authority.

She clambered into her sleeping bag, knowing eerily that Sirius Black could still be near, and even if he wasn't, he had been.

One thing that did make her wonder, though, was how did the slashes get on the portrait? Because if it wasn't an animal, and it was Sirius Black, then how did Black slash the Fat Lady's painting? It looked like it was made with talons, or even claws, but was it?

The next few hours were agonising for Rosalyn, as she stayed awake whilst others slept. She couldn't sleep, and didn't want to either, she wanted to think, to work this mysterious puzzle out.

The teachers came back in staggered lots at around one in the morning, and Rosalyn was still awake. She knew better than to announce this, however, because she wanted to hear what they had to say. She had her eyes opened slightly, in slits, so that she could see whatever went on.

Snape, Dumbledore, Filch and Flitwick all came in, striding down the gap in the middle of the sleeping bags, talking in hushed but carrying voices.

"I've searched the astronomy tower and the owlrey, sir, and there's nothing there." Filch walked up to Dumbledore with the expected but disappointing news.

"Third floor's clear too, sir," said Flitwick, who Rosalyn could see perfectly, as he was so small.

"Very good," Dumbledore said politely.

"I've done the dungeons, headmaster, no sign of Black there nor anywhere else in the castle," Snape seemed mildly angry, but he was always like this, so Rosalyn didn't hasten to find out why.

"Well I didn't really expect him to linger," Dumbledore said what everyone was thinking.

They walked on, closer to where Rosalyn was listening from. "Remarkable feat, don't you think, to enter the castle on one's own, completely undetected," Snape said smoothly.

"Quite remarkable, yes," Dumbledore played along.

"Any theories on how he managed it?"

"Many, each as unlikely as the next," Dumbledore said, Rosalyn smirked, knowing that if she was the one talking to Dumbledore, she would ask which one was the most likely, but Snape didn't.

"You may recall, prior to this term, I expressed my concerns about your appointment of Professor-"

Dumbledore was so much more faithful. "Not a single Professor inside this castle would have helped Sirius Black enter. This castle is safe, and I'm more than willing to send the students back to their houses."

"What about Potter, should she be warned?"

What?

Rosalyn was completely baffled. Warned about what? Yes, of course, Sirius Black was after her, but Snape said it as though there was something more, something deeper.

"Perhaps," was what Dumbledore said, and he said it calmly. "You know, Severus... I talked to the Fat Lady earlier tonight and... she said that there was a woman with Black."

Rosalyn was more confused than ever as she heard Snape turn to the headmaster.

"It can't be-"

"I do not know, Severus, I do not know. But, as for Rosalyn, well... for now, let her sleep," Dumbledore stood right over her, and Rosalyn had to shut her eyes fully to avoid being sniffed out. "For in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own. We can swim, in the deepest ocean, or climb the highest mountain."

Rosalyn decided to obey her headmaster's command, and sunk into her very own world. She wanted to find out more, to know what was going on as it was being hidden from her unjustly, but for now, she tried to sleep, and was very, very glad for it.

But that didn't stop her going over things in her head.

A woman? Black was with a woman? And why had Snape seemed so surprised?

And, most of all, who was it?