The ichlings had adored Hagrid. They flocked onto him and played in his beard. He tried to shoo them away from him, but they weren't leaving. It wasn't until one that had been assembled from a badger's skeleton and had fish hooks set into its jaw like teeth snarled at him and refused to budge from his lap, that Hagrid seemed to soften. Fang had retreated as soon as he had seen them and watched the whole mess from under a large endtable.

Harry was so glad to rid of the ichlings that he forgot to ask about Hagrid's magical creatures until he had said goodbye and was on his way back to the castle. It was early morning and freezing cold, so he continued on in hope of getting an hour or two of sleep before breakfast. The halls were empty, but he went carefully anyway. He didn't want to have to explain to anyone where he had been all night.

Luck seemed to be on his side, but as soon as he reached the Fat Lady painting, he heard a soft voice call his name. There was a transparent ripple and Ron appeared out of nowhere, pulling Harry's invisibility cloak off.

"I didn't think you'd mind," he said, nodding to the cloak. "Now that Raye is back, no one is allowed to leave the houses, so I thought I'd come wait for you to get back. Hermione is covering for us."

"You're a genius," Harry said. "I guess that means no sleep though."

"I brought this too," Ron looked a little sheepish as he held up the Marauder's Map. "Hermione didn't want us to get caught."

"How much of my stuff did you go through?" Harry asked, half teasing. Ron looked awkward until Harry laughed and they both remembered to be quiet. They spread the map out on the wall and looked carefully. There was still a commotion in Ficus' room with Argus Filch, McGonagall, Dumbledore and a few others that the boys didn't recognize. Snape was on the move down a hall way toward Lorelei, and Lorelei herself was on a lower floor with Marcus Glenn.

Then, before their eyes, Sirius Black and Esme Zephyr appeared on the map at one of the north doors. They folded the map and wrapped the cloak around both their bodies and went down to meet them. Harry tried to explain about the World's Door on the way. They met with Sirius and Esme at the same landing Harry had seen her fight Ficus in.

Esme heard them coming and dropped a hand in her pocket. She squinted into the empty hallway until Harry called out to them and pulled off the cloak again. Esme relaxed visibly and whatever she had in her pocket clicked when she let go of it. Harry made a mental note not to sneak up on a vampire hunter again.

"We can't go inside without being caught, so we came to help look some more," Harry explained. He introduced Ron to Esme. Ron nodded politely and Esme offered her good hand to shake. Something brushed Harry's leg and he looked down to see Crookshanks milling around his ankles.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. “Did Hermione send you?” Crookshanks purred like a rusty windmill, butting his head against Harry’s calf. The cat’s bright eyes were focused on Esme, who was rubbing her arm.

"We won't even know if we should keep on looking until we can find Lorey," she sighed. "And if the Ministry is around we'll have to be doubly careful." Crookshanks wrapped around Harry’s ankle a little tighter and he nudged the cat off.

"There's an easy way to keep out of their sight," Harry said. He pulled out the Map and Esme and Sirius leaned in to look. Harry had to push Crookshanks away again as they moved closer. The cat hung on and moved to stand completely on his foot.

“There’s Lorelei!” said Esme, pointing at her sister’s name floating on the map. “Hi Lorey.”

“I suspect you may be fond of her after all,” Sirius said.

“Maybe a little,” Esme admitted. She shrugged, then winced and rubbed her arm again. Sirius’ teasing expression became more concerned.

“Seems to be a lot of ‘fond’ going around,” muttered Ron, raising an eyebrow at them. Harry elbowed him and tried not to laugh.

“Maybe we should go wait in Lorelei’s room,” Esme said. “The only person likely to go there is her surly new gentleman friend.” A snort of laughter came from Sirius. “He’s not what I would’ve expected as Lorey’s type either,” Esme smiled. “But if being in the Elmskill Drama Club all those years taught me anything, it was that relationships are weird.”

“You were in a Drama Club? That explains a lot.” said Sirius.

“We both were,” Esme pointed at Lorelei’s name again. “Our best was the musical Les Miserables.”

“What’s that?” asked Ron.

“A musical,” said Esme helpfully. “About the unluckiest people ever and the relationships they were in. Lorey played Fantine.” They all looked blank, so she went on. “This woman who’s life is a series of unlucky miseries until she finally dies.”

“Sounds fun,” said Harry. And a little familiar, he thought.

“It was!” Esme waved her good arm in a theatric gesture. “She was great. I played Eponine.”

“How does she meet her messy fate then?” Sirius asked, grinning.

“She falls in love with someone she can’t have, and dies trying to help him,” Esme chuckled. “I got to die in his arms. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

“Well hopefully, you’ll fare better in real life,” he said.

“I can only hope,” she said with a smile.

“How long are we going to talk about this?” asked Harry. The two adults grinned at each other and then turned to go. Harry took a step to follow Sirius, but tripped over Crookshanks and landed flat on his face, narrowly missing hitting his head on the wall. Behind him, that cat’s purr rose in self-satisfied volume. A few inches from his nose, under a carved design along the base of the wall, something glinted. He reached for it and felt cold metal in his palm as Ron and Sirius helped him up.

"Graceful," chuckled Esme. Harry's face split in a grin to match hers.

"Lucky," he replied and held up a key.