Harry, Ron, and Hermione had come in from their classes and were getting ready for dinner. Hermione finished before the boys and went down to the common room to wait for them. She met Chloe there, sitting by the fireplace and shuffling a pile of letters.

“Mail from home?” she asked. Chloe shook her head so that her earrings chimed. Ron and Harry came jostling down the stairs in time to hear the answer.

“From Raye’s home,” Chloe said. “They sent her parents an owl about everything that’s been going on and they are planning to come get her. Thomas in Weaver is taking care of Newton.”

“How is Raye?” Ron asked. Chloe got up and dusted off her skirt.

“Come and see,” she said. “I was just going to take these to her. Maybe if it’s not just me, she’ll talk.” She lead them out into the hallways. Harry hesitated, but went along too. He fell into step with Ron while Hermione walked beside Chloe. The hallways were fairly empty as most of the students were getting ready for dinner.

“Do...they know what’s wrong?” Harry asked carefully. He didn’t know what the official story was. It was probably anything but the truth.

“They say she’s in shock after a boggart scared her,” Chloe shrugged. “Personally, I thought Raye was stronger than that, but maybe a strong person would have even stronger fears.”

“Maybe all that vampire-hunting left a fear in her,” Hermione suggested. Harry had told her and Ron the story, of course.

“Maybe,” sighed Chloe, stopping at the infirmary door. “But it gives me the creeps to see her this way.” She knocked on the door once and then opened it. Raye was still in her place in the corner. She sat on the edge of her bed, neatly dressed. Her braid was perfect and the bed was made. She didn’t look up, even when Chloe sat down beside her.

“Good evening, Raye!” Chloe said. “I’ve brought you some extra visitors today.” Her voice carried a forced cheerfulness, but slowly, Raye’s eyes raised to look at them.

“We’ve missed you,” Hermione said. “How are you feeling?” Raye didn’t answer, but her blank expression became a touch uncertain.

“Hello, Raye,” said Ron. He looked awkwardly at Harry for help.

“Hi, Raye,” Harry added. There was a long silence and then Chloe opened one of the letters.

“This is from your parents,” she said, unfolding a thick parchment. “Um, you can read it later if you’d rather, but they say they will try to be here for you before Christmas.” Something flickered in Raye’s eyes. She turned her head to look. Chloe held up the letter. “It says.... it says they are having trouble getting the portal working at home...” She squinted at the letter to read it more closely before remembering it wasn’t her letter. “Oh! And that’s why they haven’t been able to come before now. You got two other letters as well...I don’t know about that one, but this one is from Newton. He even drew you a picture. See?”

Raye glanced at the crayon drawing of her and her little brother holding hands. It was the third envelope she reached for, though. It was a plain brown envelope, with only her name written across it in block letters. She didn’t open it, but kept it in her grip. After another moment of silence, she looked up and pinned Harry with her eyes. He almost flinched. Her eyes blazed, two points of flame in her expressionless face. There was mixture of obsession and rage and triumph there, and then it was gone. Her dark lashes lowered and her gaze fell to the paper in her lap.

“Newton wants to come see you after dinner,” Chloe said, getting back to her feet. “And I’ll be back tomorrow, ok? See you later, Raye...” With that, all four of them hurried out.

“How do you do that every day?” Ron asked.

“It’s like visiting my great-uncle in the rest home,” Hermione said. “What could have scared her that badly?”

“Maybe it’s something else,” Harry said. He felt a suspicion curling in his gut and didn’t like it. Crazy or sane, Raye was trouble. He was sure of that much. “Have they checked her for spells yet?”

“I don’t know,” Chloe said. “I wonder what’s wrong with the portal. Maybe that’s why they haven’t evacuated Hogwarts.”

“Hogwarts is the safest place to be,” Harry began.

“Against magic maybe,” Chloe cut in. “But the Morthahg won’t be stopped by it. Hogwarts will be destroyed just like Elmskill was if it attacks directly.”

“Maybe,” said Hermione before Harry could argue. “That wisp of the Morthahg that came through the portal when you all first arrived is what’s wrong. Maybe it nullified the magic in the portal.”

“I’m surprised it didn’t kill your Professor,” Ron added. Chloe nodded.

“Ms. Zephyr has always been strange,” she said. “And things have only gotten worse since we came here. I wish we could go home. Don’t think that I haven’t had a great time,” she added quickly as Harry’s expression darkened. “I just don’t like being so far from home and so close to the Morthahg.”

“At least here, we have Dumbledore,” Harry said. “He’s the greatest wizard ever, and if anyone can keep us all safe from the Morthahg, it will be him. If there is any danger to us, he will move us somewhere safe. You can be sure of that.”

“He does seem nice,” Chloe admitted. “He was out talking to some of the younger kids the other day. You know, I haven’t even seen our Headmaster for days now.”

“Maybe he’s helping with the big ritual,” Ron said uneasily, glancing at Harry. No one wanted to say that Ficus was probably skipping over the countryside in a dozen different wolves. If the staff hadn’t come out and said that Ficus was dead or missing, then it probably wasn’t a good idea to spread the story around.

Full of such secrets, the children went into dinner. Afterwards, they went back to their rooms with some stolen food for Sirius. He was staying in his dog form most of the time, so Harry kept his bed curtains drawn and the other students had gotten used to Harry and Ron’s hidden conferences. Harry was always into some kind of trouble, and Ron was directly related to Fred and George after all. A little weirdness was practically expected from them. Sneaking Hermione is wasn’t as easy, but she had learned to keep her voice down and her opinions on the state of the boys’ dorm to herself. Just to be safe, they still waited until the room cleared out before they went in.

They found Padfoot spread out on the bed, studying the Marauders Map with his usual intense stare. The three piled up on the bed with him and pulled the curtains closed behind them. He shifted back to Sirius and took the food from them with only a nod of thanks.

“No sign of Esme?” Harry asked. Sirius shook his head, mouth too full of potato to speak. He swallowed and waved a hand at the map.

“No,” he said. “And I don’t really expect there to be. The Bind has no reason to bring her back here.”

“What are you looking at then?” Hermione leaned forward to look more closely. Sirius tapped a finger on a small section. The boys leaned forward to see as well, and they could see a cluster of names in the infirmary. Snape was there, as was Pomfrey, Hooch, Dormire, McGonagall, Madame Yaga, Neville Longbottom, and Lorelei.

“Something must have happened,” Harry said. Sirius nodded this time, then swallowed the mouthful noisily.

“Longbottom came there first. I saw his name tear down the hallway and meet Snape’s,” Sirius said. “Then Neville ran the other way and Snape ran after him and then Neville turned and came back again, but Snape kept going. Neville must’ve been raising some sort of commotion, because Hooch and Dormire came running from this closet here.”

“What were they doing in a closet?” Ron wondered aloud. He and Harry traded looks. Sirius snickered.

“The map only gives names,” he said, grinning at the way Hermione was ignoring this tangent. “Not details. Everyone else just sort of poured into the infirmary and then Snape and Lorelei showed up again.”

“Raye isn’t there anymore,” Hermione said suddenly. Harry looked closer and she was right. Of all the names milling around the infirmary, Raye’s was missing. “I’m going to go see,” she said, hopping up suddenly. “I wanted to ask Professor McGonagall about the portal anyway. I can look in and see if Neville is hurt or if it’s something worse. I’ll come back and tell you as soon as I know something.”

She ducked under the red curtains and was gone. Sirius finished his dinner in only a minute or two while the boys checked over the map. After a moment, Hermione’s name appeared and went floating down the drawn corridor. Sirius sat back against the headboard with a sigh and Harry looked at him more carefully.

“You look tired,” he said, taking in the bloodshot eyes and drawn expression.

“I was up all night at the Door,” Sirius said. “They haven’t gotten the spell to work yet. The nullifite is resisting the portal magic.”

“What about the World’s Door?”

“Dumbledore has it.”

“Have they even tried to use it?”

“Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because only a Zephyr can use it and Lorelei hasn’t been well enough to make the attempt and no one knows where Esme might go except for Tanner.” Sirius rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “And Tanner can’t keep a sentence together long enough to answer anything.”

“I haven’t seen him since that night,” Harry said. “Do you think Esme used the World’s Door to escape?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius groaned. “It makes my head hurt, all of it.”

‘There’s Raye!” Ron said suddenly, pointing at the map. “Down by the halls to the quiddich fields. And Hermione has found her. There’s her name there.... What is that?”

They all looked at something that had just appeared on the map at the door from the outside. It looked like a blur of ink. It moved like a name on the map, but the wizards couldn’t read it. It looked like two or three words all scribbled on top of each other. It reached Raye about the same time as Hermione’s name did. Eight inches away, Tanner’s name suddenly came charging out of his room. The howl of a wolf rang out. Every name on the map froze in place at the sound.

Ron, Harry, and Sirius tangled with each other trying to get out of the bed curtains first. “Padfoot!” cried Harry, as Sirius hadn’t changed shape yet as they went. In a flash, his godfather was a black dog and Ron grabbed the map, folding it messily as the three bolted from the room.