Four

The alarm-clock woke her far too early the following morning. Hermione hit the snooze button with a grunt. She did this several times so by the time she finally rolled out of bed, she was running late. Very late. She cast a longing glance at the shower, but a few quick cleaning charms would have to do today. Trying to find a clean teaching robe took another couple of valuable minutes. Finally dressed, she dashed into the living room, only to realise that she would have to make a stop at her office to fetch her teaching materials.

'Oh, bollocks.'

Hermione briefly considered improvising, but abandoned the idea immediately as her first class that morning was a fifth-year double period. That was before she noticed she had put on two different shoes. A beige ballerina on one foot and a black court shoe on the other, she hobbled back into her bedroom, nearly falling over when she tried to take the court shoe off while she was walking. Frantic searching through the bottom of her wardrobe provided a pair of matching black ankle boots. One last charm to hold her hair in place, and she was ready to go.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the raven – happily munching away on what looked like the best titbits from the things Hogwarts offered for breakfast – as she hurried out of the door.

The stairs turned out to be especially uncooperative that morning, always swinging in just the opposite direction from where she wanted to go. By the time Hermione arrived at her office, which seemed to have moved from the third to the fifth floor, she was not only thoroughly out of breath, but also really, really late and grumpy. She pulled out her watch. Definitely no time for a cup of coffee before the lesson. With an annoyed huff, she marched into the classroom.

To make things worse, her first class contained Gryffindors and Slytherins, which was a volatile combination at the best of times, but nobody had listened to her when she had suggested in a staff meeting to either have each lesson contain students from all houses or at least pair Slytherin with Ravenclaw rather than with Gryffindor. Today, however, her students were no match for their teacher, who was in A Very Foul Mood. By the end of the lesson, both Slytherin and Gryffindor found that they had considerably fewer house points than earlier that morning.

Fortunately for the rest of the school, Hermione had a free period after that. The first thing she did when she arrived back in her office was to ask Blinky for a cup of coffee. It arrived almost instantly – with milk and sugar just as she liked it – together with a plate that held two slices of toast with apricot jam. Several sips of coffee later, Hermione was slightly mollified. Only then did she notice the raven. He was sat on her bookshelf again, watching her. Hermione frowned. 'When did you get here?'

The raven just looked at her, then at the chaos on her desk, then back at her.

'If that is a comment on how I work, you'll be out on your scrawny, feathery arse quicker than you can say "caw",' Hermione said.

In response, the raven fluttered to a higher shelf.

Hermione shook her head. 'It almost seems like you understand me.'

'Cr-r-ruck,' said the raven.

'Hmmm,' said Hermione. 'You're a bit of an odd one, aren't you?'

The raven tilted his head.

'And by the way, the rooms seem to have moved around again.' She frowned, only now realising what exactly had bothered her earlier. However, when she went out into the corridor to check, both her office and her classroom where exactly where they had always been.

Either she had been too deprived of caffeine and too much in a hurry this morning and had thus imagined things or – and Hermione was inclined to believe the latter – the castle had played another of its little pranks.

'This is becoming tiresome,' she remarked to no one in particular before she noticed a couple of first years staring at her oddly. 'Don't you have somewhere to be?' she snarled, causing the students to retreat quickly.

By lunchtime, Hermione had almost convinced herself that she had imagined the floor thing, especially as the rest of her lessons had passed without any incident. When she left for the Great Hall, the raven fluttered down from what seemed to have become his preferred place on the bookshelf and settled on her shoulder again.

'Fancy meeting the rest of the school?' she teased him.

A "caw" was the answer.

'Come along, then,' Hermione said, setting off for the Great Hall, the raven riding on her shoulder. As usual before any meal, the corridors were teeming with students hurrying between classrooms, their dormitories and the Great Hall, but very few seemed to notice the raven sitting on their Charms teacher's shoulder.

The stairs seemed to be in a more cooperative mood than earlier, Hermione noticed as the one leading to the ground floor swung obligingly in her direction. She descended it, turned a corner and found herself in front of the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom.

She groaned. 'Not again.'

Barely quelling her annoyance, Hermione retraced her steps and chose another staircase, only to find herself back in the Charms corridor. With a sigh, she tried again. This time she made it to the entrance of the Great Hall.

'Third time's the charm, eh,' she murmured.

She caught snippets of conversation from the students that indicated that they too had taken a few detours before finding the Great Hall. The familiar niggling feeling about all the incidents reasserted itself. During all this time, the raven had been sitting quietly on her shoulder, seemingly happy to accompany her wherever she went. As Hermione entered the room, he suddenly seemed to stiffen, and she could feel his claws momentarily tighten on her flesh before he took off. He swept once around the vast room and then landed in an alcove right beneath the ceiling that allowed him to keep the whole hall in view. Hermione watched after him and shook her head slightly. "Odd" really didn't quite begin to describe the bird.

Upon reaching the High Table, she saw that the only other teachers present were Neville and Wilhelmina. 'Where is everyone?' she asked.

'No idea.' Wilhelmina shrugged. 'Been busy with the Thestrals. Came in through the back, and nobody's here. Thought I'd missed a note or something, but then Neville here tells me I didn't. Weird.'

'You can definitely say that,' Hermione answered, noting that the Care of Magical Creatures teacher seemed to be ruffled by the current events, too, as she rarely used so many words in one go.

Wilhelmina nodded, casting a look through the Great Hall.

'So how many attempts did it take you to get here?' Neville asked.

'Three,' Hermione said. 'You?'

Neville made a face. 'Five.'

'New familiar, Hermione?' Wilhelmina interjected, inclining her head in the direction of the raven, who was still perched on his lookout beneath the ceiling.

'I don't know. He sort of... found me.'

While Hermione proceeded to tell Wilhelmina about the raven, the tables filled up slowly with the missing students and teachers – Minerva arrived wearing a deep frown – and by the time Hermione had finished her tale, nearly everyone was present and accounted for, and food had begun to appear on the tables.

'Like to take a look at your raven, some time.'

'Why?' Hermione asked, feeling oddly protective of the raven.

'Just a hunch,' said Wilhelmina.

Hermione said nothing, but cast a swift glance at the raven, who was still perched on his vantage point. His eyes swivelled in her direction, and she was sure that whatever Wilhelmina's "hunch" was, it was wrong.

*****

Just before pudding appeared on the tables, Minerva stood up. The students started to notice only gradually. It was almost like a wave of silence was sweeping the Great Hall as the general chatter died down, and everyone turned their attention to the Headmistress. She waited until it was almost completely quiet...or as quiet as a vast room filled with students was likely to get. 'The first period after the lunch break is cancelled,' she announced.

Immediately, excited whispering began at all the house tables whilst the teachers looked at each other with bewildered expressions.

Minerva raised a hand. 'Silence. Prefects, you will escort your houses back to the common rooms. Everyone is to stay there until classes resume, and no one...' She cast a glance round the hall, briefly looking at one or two known troublemakers in particular, '...I repeat, no one is allowed out in the corridors or the grounds. Is that understood?'

There was general nodding at all tables before the whispering started again. This time, Minerva let it pass and turned to the staff. 'I'd like all of you to stay behind after lunch for an impromptu staff meeting. I've asked the ghosts to attend as well.'

The teachers exchanged looks. Apparently, they hadn't known about the staff meeting, either, Hermione concluded, as they all looked slightly confused; nobody seemed to be paying much attention to the plates of Spotted Dick that had just materialised.

*****

The ghosts had started to float in during pudding, the Fat Friar and Nearly Headless Nick casting longing looks at the food. As soon as the tables were cleared and all the students had left the Great Hall, Minerva closed the doors with a flick of her wand before she waved the ghosts over to the High Table, conjuring extra chairs for them. The expressions on the ghosts' faces showed how much they appreciated the gesture, even though technically it made no difference to them.

'I've asked you to this meeting because, for once, we've all made it to the same place at the same time.'

There were a few sniggers around the table, though they quickly died down under the stern glare of the Headmistress.

Minerva continued, 'As you know, we've had a number of smaller incidents over the past week and... ' She paused and glanced at the raven, who had fluttered down from his elevated position in the window alcove and was now perched on the end of the Slytherin table.

' –-What is the raven doing here?' she asked.

Hermione said, 'He's with me.'

'Hm. In future, please let me know if you have a new familiar,' Minerva admonished her.

'He's not my...' Hermione began, but when she saw Minerva's look, she just said meekly, 'Yes, Headmistress.'

Minerva raised an eyebrow at Hermione's use of her official title, but apparently decided to let it pass. 'As I was saying, we have witnessed a number of incidents over the past week, and whilst each one seems harmless enough, we still need to investigate and preferably put a stop to them.'

There was general nodding around the table.

'I'm not sure they're all that harmless, actually,' Angelina said. 'I had a couple of very scared first years on my hands this morning. I had to spent most of today's lesson calming them down instead of teaching them how to Transfigure a match into a needle.'

Horace nodded. 'Yes, my second years were a lot more interested in discussing why they had ended up in the kitchen instead of in the Potions classroom than concentrating on the Hair Raising potion they were supposed to be brewing.' He added, 'Not that we need any more hairs to be raised.'

'And that's not the first time something has happened. I've had more calculations gone awry than usual and not just in any particular year. Not to mention the odd ways in which the castle keeps changing. I mean, we're all used to the moving staircases, but now we have rooms and corridors moving around as well,' Septima said.

Again, there was general nodding around the table.

'I fear it's only a matter of time before something more serious happens,' Horace announced in a gloomy voice.

'Possibly,' Minerva concurred. 'Which is why I want to find out what exactly is going on, and how to stop it. We've already run several magical sweeps of the castle, all of which have come up with nothing out of the ordinary. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm open to suggestions.'

Hermione said, 'I've done some research into the history of Hogwarts and other magical schools, but there is no record of similar incidents anywhere. Not even in the old handwritten records, which Irma kindly made available to me.' She nodded to the librarian. 'So whatever this is, it's either new or so obscure that we don't have any records of it.'

'The portraits in my office weren't able to offer any suggestions beyond what we've already tried, either,' Minerva added.

As usual, the ghosts looked to the Bloody Baron to be their spokesperson, but for once he chose to remain quiet.

Instead, Nearly Headless Nick said, 'We have noticed that something is going on as well. It almost seems as if the castle is playing pranks. We too have conferred about the occurrences...' He looked at the Bloody Baron for a moment before he continued, '... but none of us can remember anything similar happening.'

'So essentially, we're back to square one,' Angelina pointed out.

Minerva sighed. 'It looks like it. Bill should be back in a week; I'll ask him to look into it again. After all, he is our resident Dark Arts expert, no offence, Michael. I'm reluctant to request an official Auror enquiry at this point, but if things continue, we may have no other option.'

'I could ask Harry to investigate discreetly,' Hermione suggested. 'The MLE might have access to sources we don't.'

'Yes, do that. Any other suggestions?' Minerva cast a look around the table. 'If not, let's continue our daily routines, but let's make sure we stay alert and pay attention even if the incident seems insignificant. Meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone.'

*****

Rooms kept vanishing and reappearing over the next week, spells sometimes had unpredicted yet harmless results and the menu at meals wasn't always what it was supposed to be. Though nobody minded the steamed cod with spinach turning into fish and chips, the whole school seemed to be tense, waiting for something to happen.

The raven kept sticking close to Hermione. Wherever she went, so did he. The house-elves continued to make sure that he was well fed. Hermione was pretty sure that this wasn't a typical raven's diet, but whenever she tried to raise the topic with the elf on duty, they turned out to be very hard of hearing.

Everybody had soon become used to Hermione's new and very faithful familiar as the raven simply kept turning up whenever Hermione was around. The only exception was Wilhelmina, who kept throwing him suspicious looks. The distrust seemed to be mutual as the raven tended to mysteriously disappear whenever Wilhelmina was close.

On Saturday, the raven hovered near Hermione as she was getting ready to meet Ginny for lunch in Hogsmeade. She wasn't really all that surprised when he settled on her shoulder as she walked down to the gates.