The castle was eerie after dark, almost unnervingly so. Gone were the cheerful ghosts and chatty students, and in their stead was looming shadows and the echoes of footsteps. Thus far, Alice hadn't been spotted by any prefects or professors, nor did she intend to be. In just a few more minutes she would be back in the Gryffindor common room and safe from the reprimands of missing curfew. She hadn't meant to miss it (she so rarely did) but she had gotten so distracted with her charms homework that time had just slipped away. Her favored hidden corner of the library was too hidden, it seemed, if the librarian had missed her in his sweeps.

A few more minutes. Luck would remain on her side for just a few more minutes.

There were no lit torches down the next corridor, so Alice had no choice but to draw her wand and cast lumos. Despite knowing the path back to her dormitory as well as she knew the farm back home, she wasn't keen on being surrounded by blackness. Without the small light from her wand it was as though she was walking through an endless tunnel, one that would swallow her whole if she allowed it.

She made it maybe a quarter of the way down the corridor before feeling the hair rise on the back of her neck. Someone was coming, from which way she didn't know but her grip tightened on her wand all the same. Alice wasn't talented at DADA, but all of Edison's recent help had given her a new confidence in the subject during times like these.