It was the 31st of October, the night of Halloween and majority of the Hogwarts students were out and about in Hogsmeade village, enjoying the weekend. Gaia, Malia, Ryker, and Aisha were among those students who chose to spend their Saturday in the wizarding village. The group of friends was walking back to Hogwarts after a day of chilling around in the village.

"No but really, how did you get Cedric Diggory to hang out with you?" Malia asked Ryker who just rolled his eyes.

"Not like it's a date. But I already told you, we were only studying. He was helping me," Ryker answered, a faint blush painting his cheeks.

"In Hogsmeade?" Aisha raised an eyebrow, "You are aware of the library at school, right?"

"Besides, you could've asked me for help studying," Gaia teased with a grin.

"First of all, we were in the Three Broomsticks. And by the way, you don't have Care of Magical Creatures!" he exclaimed.

"Neither does Cedric," Aisha quipped making Gaia and Malia laugh loudly at the redness of Ryker's face.

"And who chooses to go to Three Broomsticks to study," Malia snorted.

"Whatever," Ryker mumbled, looking down at the pavement to avoid meeting his friends' eyes.

"Lighten up, Lion. We're just teasing," Gaia said, bumping her shoulder with his and making him stumble a bit.

"We should head back," Malia suggested.

"Why? It's barely 5:00," Aisha asked.

The three of them – Gaia, Malia, and Ryker – exchanged looks among themselves. It was unusual that Aisha wanted to stay at Hogsmeade past 3:00, more the less 5:00.

"Which is already late for us, Badger. You usually want to leave earlier," Gaia answered, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Well-" Aisha stammered, looking around, "I've had a change of heart. Why not stay longer?" She started rambling about all the reasons why they should stay longer.

"You alright, Badg?" Malia asked, putting a hand on the Hufflepuff's shoulder and making her jump slightly. She looked at them wide-eyed while they stared at her in concern.

"Yeah! Uh, yeah. Let's just go," Aisha mumbled in reply, walking in front of the three to go back to the castle. Malia immediately followed after her leaving Ryker and Gaia standing in the middle of the streets in confusion.

"What's up with her?" Ryker said slowly, looking at Gaia in confusion.

Gaia continued to stare at Aisha, who had her head down, and Malia, who was guiding her.

"I have no idea," she answered.

✧✧✧

"You alright, Gaia?"

Gaia's head snapped to her right, where Fred sat.

"Hm?" she hummed absent-mindedly. She looked around and noticed that the dinner feast was almost ending, some students already done with their plate, "Yeah, 'm fine. Why?"

"Well for one, you haven't even questioned where Harry or your sister is the whole time - they're at Nearly Headless Nick's death day party," George answered, quickly informing Gaia of her sister and her cousin's whereabouts when he noticed the panicked expression that covered her eyes.

"And you've been staring at your plate the whole time," Fred continued.

Gaia looked down at her plate and saw that it was still full with the food she had put on it earlier. She grabbed her spoon and lifted it up, a dazed sort of look still on her face as she thought back on recent events.

"Aisha's acting weird," Gaia answered, slowly scooping up food into her mouth.

"Weird how?" Fred asked, resting his head on his hand.

"Y'know how she hates staying too late at Hogsmeade?" Gaia asked them.

"Yeah. We were surprised when you four came back past 5. Doesn't Aisha hate being out past 3?" George answered with his own question.

Gaia nodded in reply, "Exactly. But earlier when we told her we should leave, she didn't want to. And it was already 5 at that time," she said.

"She probably just realized she wanted to stay longer," Fred suggested.

"I dunno." Gaia shrugged, "I just feel like it's something else."

A few minutes later, it was already time to go back to the common rooms. Gaia looked around and noticed that Lele still wasn't with Hufflepuff and Harry still wasn't with Gryffindor – neither were Ron and Hermione.

"Hey Fred," Gaia called, the ginger humming in reply, "What time does Nick's party end?" she asked.

"No one knows for sure," Fred answered with a shrug.

"Don't worry, they're probably fine," George comforted, noticing the worry etched on Gaia's expression.

"Yeah," Gaia mumbled, still feeling nervous.

Bidding them goodbye, she stood up and headed back to the Ravenclaw table, following her housemates to our common room.

"Alright, Gaia?" Kaleb's voice startled her, making her jump as her hair turned into a mix of gray and violet, "Sorry, didn't mean to give you a scare," he chuckled.

"I haven't seen Lele or Harry the whole day," Gaia answered, nearly tripping on the stairs if it weren't for Kaleb grabbing her arm.

"I'm sure their fine," Kaleb reassured her.

He started rambling on about Lockhart, which Gaia was thankful for the distraction from the fact that her younger sister and cousin were missing - albeit she knew where they went, but it was still too late for her liking!

Simultaneously deep in thought and engrossed in Kaleb's rant, Gaia failed to see that the students in front of her had stopped. She bumped into an older student, who turned around to her and asked if she was okay, although his eyes kept looking back above his shoulder nervously. The other Ravenclaws were whispering among themselves, a few seeming paler than usual.

"Yes, I'm fine. Why'd you stop?" Gaia muttered, looking up at the tall 7th year Ravenclaw – Gaia could faintly recall that his last name was Gurney.

"There's something on the wall," he answered, shuffling a bit to the side to let her see.

Gaia squinted and stood on her tiptoes, gasping when she caught sight of what all the fuss was about. Harry, Lele, Ron, and Hermione were all standing in front of the wall, staring at the other students who had stopped before them. But that wasn't what caught everyone's attention. No, far from it.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

"Enemies of the heir, beware. You'll be next, mudbloods!" Draco Malfoy shouted, grinning as he took in the sight before him.

"Shut it, Draco," Malia's voice cut through the crowd. The older Slytherin glared heatedly at her cousin just as Argus Filch came through the crowd.

"What's going on here? What going on?"

The chilling message was written on the wall - was that blood? On a torch bracket, there was a cat hanging by its tail. Gaia furrowed her eyebrows and gasped silently. It can't be. Was it really –

"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris!?" the old man screeched in horror. He looked at the four, second-year students with a murderous glint in his eyes.

"You!" He screeched, the four students looking at him warily, "You! You've killed my cat!" He started making his way towards them menacingly.

"Hey!" Gaia shouted, pushing through the crowd and getting in between the caretaker and the students.

"You've killed my cat!" Filch continued screeching, raising his hand as if to hit the younger students as Gaia hugged the younger students to her - well, as much as she could seeing as there were 4 of them and her arms weren't exactly long.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill-"

"Argus!"

Gaia snapped her head towards the voice and saw Professor Dumbledore making his way through the crowd, followed by a number of teachers. He detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket and turned to Filch.

"Come with me, Argus," the old wizard said before turning to the groups of 2nd years huddled up against Gaia, "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, Ms. Eruditus, come with me as well," he said.

Gaia let go of the younger students and stood up straighter.

"You mean Lele, professor?" Gaia asked.

"Yes. The rest of you, return to your dorms at once," Dumbledore answered, the crowd of student parting to make way for the teachers.

After a few moments, prefects started calling out for their respective houses to follow them. Gaia stood there, staring at the wall for a moment before a light touch on her shoulder shook her out of her thoughts.

"C'mon Gaia," Jewel said softly as she steered Gaia to the direction that the rest of the Ravenclaws were going.

"Hey, on the bright side, at least you've found Lele and the others," Kaleb comforted.

Gaia glared at Kaleb slightly, her eyes still not completely focused.

"Thanks, Kaleb. That makes me feel so much better."

✧✧✧

Edited 09/06/2020