Step two: add a silver teaspoon of dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched for a full seven days. You then have to add the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth to the crystal phial as well. Then put this mixture in a quiet, dark place and leave it alone until the next electrical storm. And really leave it alone – don't even look at it. Don't even think about looking at it.

"Scared, L/n?" James asked.

Absolutely. We're going into the Forbidden Forest. There's all sorts of creatures in there. Acromantula, Centaurs, stuff like that, I wrote.

"Y/n, don't worry about it. We go through here all the time."

That's because you're animals. Literally, I wrote.

"Whatever," he muttered.

We put the cloak on, and James navigated us out of the castle and into the Forbidden Forest.

Every little snap and rustle had me jumping and turning my head. I expected to see massive spiders, or something ready to rip me to shreds, but there was never anything there. Only the slight feeling that I was being watched.

We continued into the forest, all the way until it started to get dark. I tapped James on the shoulder to get his attention. He looked to me, and I wrote on my chalkboard.

Are you sure we can use the wand light? I wrote. Isn't there supposed to be no light and no human touch for seven days or something?

"It's sunlight," James told me. "We did the same thing with the wand light. Trust me."

I decided to trust him. We walked all the way until we could only see a few metres ahead of us.

"Alright, grab some of the dew over there," James said. "Don't step on it."

I flipped him off before grabbing my crystal phial and the silver teaspoon. I knelt down next to the dew, and I leaned forwards. I scooped up a spoonful of the dew and deposited it into the phial.

"Alright, let's go now," James said quietly.

I walked back over to where I thought he was, and he threw the cloak over me. We made our way back to the castle, and I still turned around at every little sound.

When we reached the castle, we didn't go back to the Gryffindor common room. Instead, we trekked through the castle, all the way to the dungeons. We snuck into the Potions classroom and James opened the ingredients cupboard.

"Hawk Moth, Hawk Moth," James muttered, looking at the shelves.

I began looking too, trailing my fingers over the nametags on boxes.

"Found it," James whispered.

He grabbed the Death's-head Hawk Moth, and we left the ingredient closet.

We walked back up to our tower under the cloak, with James navigating his way around teachers. We reached the Gryffindor common room and stepped through the portrait hole. Remus, Sirius, and Peter were sitting on the couch.

I ran to Remus and wrapped my arms around his neck in greeting before scribbling furiously on my chalkboard.

You're supposed to be asleep! I know that you know that you need sleep. Full moon is in three days.

Remus read it and kissed my temple.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," he murmured.

"Ew," Sirius muttered.

I threw a pillow at him. It smacked him in the face, and he fell off the couch. I gave my boyfriend one last cuddle before shooing them all off to bed.

↢⋄↣

The night of the full moon arrived. After and entire month of keeping a Mandrake leaf in my mouth, I was ready to get rid of it. The only problem was I had nowhere to hide it from light and sound. And myself.

I held the Marauder's Map, walking the halls of Hogwarts, just looking for somewhere that no one would go.

I was wandering around the seventh floor, thinking hard.

I need to find a dark, quiet place to hide this bloody phial. Somewhere no one will find it.

I began pacing, trying to figure out where I could hide it. Where had the others hidden theirs?

I was about to give up when I saw a shimmer from the corner of my eye. I turned to the wall to see a door that I was ninety-nine percent sure wasn't there before.

I looked at the map to see what classroom it was, but there was no name. In fact, there was no room. It was as if the room didn't exist.

I opened the door to see a dark room. It was silent – almost too silent.

"Hello?" I called out. It was difficult to do, seeing as there was a leaf in my mouth.

There was no answer. I stepped into the room and looked down to the map to see my name had disappeared.

I looked around before stepping back out of the room. My name reappeared on the map. I stepped into the room, and it disappeared.

Perfect, I thought.

I left the door open so that I had enough light to see by. I took the Mandrake leaf out of my mouth and put it in the crystal phial, along with one of my hairs. I added the spoonful of dew and the Death's-head Hawk Moth before placing the phial on a small, round table that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

I bit my lip before walking to the door and shutting it firmly. I stepped back and watched as the door seemed to melt back into the wall, before disappearing.

"I hope the castle didn't just steal that," I muttered to myself.

The torches on the walls seemed to flicker in amusement.