For a few heartbeats, Loreley stared at the open door. Then she groaned softly, pushed her legs out of bed, and reached for her wand under her pillow. Measuring 16 inches, the long wand was several inches longer than the English counterparts of her fellow wizard students. The handle was made of softly polished marble, its golden ornaments spilling over onto the midnight-black wood and holding a small, shimmering blue Labradorite in its delicate setting at the pommel. It lay cool and familiar in her hand. The cedar wood it was made of was hard and unyielding - just like her - and the core was made of lindworm tooth. A faithful companion in the past years and also today.

With firm, quick steps, Loreley crossed the distance to the gate, wrenched the door open a little further, and stepped through the arch.

In the tower corridor, it was utterly silent. The wooden stairs spiraled down to her right and up to her left. Shadows lay black and sinister in the corners like lurking predators. A cast-iron lantern alone contained a magic flame, its dim light illuminating the stairways just enough to keep one from falling over one's feet and down.

But other than shadows and lantern light... there was nothing. Well, that and silence.

"What kind of stupid prank is this?" she hissed into the darkness, narrowing her eyes into tight slits. The long cotton nightgown tickled her calves as she gripped the wand tighter.

Annoyed, the young witch curled her lips. She wasn't up for pranks, certainly not since the summer. Perhaps she would have shrugged her shoulders and gone to bed some time ago. But this silly prankster had been getting on her nerves for the past year.

In her last semester at Hogwarts, the door to her room had opened several times as well - and it took almost two months for Septima and Astoria to believe her that she was telling the truth and not taking them for fools. This nonsense happened constantly, and she had hoped that whoever thought this crap was funny would lose the fun if she stopped caring. Apparently, however, she had been wrong - and now she was additionally tired and irritable.

Therefore, her hands were ice cold, but her blood, on the other side, felt like it was on fire. It was a disturbing and crude mixture of fear and anger. Secretly, anxiety couldn't entirely be dispelled. Frosty worries that something might be lurking there. In addition, possibly the same something that had already robbed them of their mother. At the same time, anger smoldered within her that perhaps there were simply Ravenclaw classmates who thought this nonsense was funny. If the latter proved true, she would have to do some punitive work one day - because then she would teach these idiots a rather rude lesson.

"Show yourselves, cowards!" she demanded into the faceless darkness, sending a "Lumos!" into the darkness in a firm tone of voice. A low, barely audible hum sounded, and then a white glow formed, shining from the tip of her staff into the stairwell and driving back the veils of shadow. Like a flashlight, the light glowed, and Loreley swung it around alertly, hoping perhaps to spot a telltale shadow.

"Revelio!" she commanded, and moments later, she felt the small, subtle blast wave glide through the tower. The spell fumbled against walls and railings across the floor and bumped humming against a rock before dissipating into the distance at the edge of her range, as waves did on a sandy beach.

Tensely, she concentrated on the feeling of the tingling magic that echoed in her staff like an encouraging murmur - ready to cast the next spell if even the slightest sign of a person revealed itself.

But she hoped in vain. To her frustration, no cloaked wizard, none of the house elves, or anything remotely comparable revealed themselves. Just a plain, disappointing nothingness. Yet she fervently hoped for something. A giggle, perhaps, or the creak of a floorboard as someone carelessly shifted their weight.

Disgruntled, Loreley frowned. Bummer. So, it seemed, the prankster had escaped - again.

"Loreley! What's all that noise about? By Morgana's robe, it's the middle of the night!" it hissed disgruntledly from inside her bedroom.

Her bare feet left a soft creak on the wooden floor of the stairwell as the witch turned on her heel. "Someone has opened our bedroom door again," she murmured more quietly into the darkness where Astoria had propped herself on her elbow. Loreley recognized the black curls that now fell wild and tousled around her chubby face.

"Again?" the other Ravenclaw sighed, sinking back into the pillows with a groan. Her voice was steeped and weighted down by sleep, so it seamlessly faded into a long, drawn-out yawn. "Cast a Colloportus and go back to bed."

Loreley didn't feel particularly satisfied or reassured as she closed the wooden door again, finished the light spell with a "Nox," and then pointed the wand at the lock. "Colloportus."

The door lock obeyed without resistance.

>>Click<<

Loreley reached for the copper handle and pushed it down once, pulling on the wood - the door remained locked. Just as it should. Satisfied, the witch turned away again and, a short time later, let herself sink back into her bed. Astoria had already fallen asleep again, and the nerve-racking silence had returned.

Although nothing more happened, Loreley lay awake for a long time. She stared at the underside of the bed above her, turned to the side, and let her eyes wander into the room through the now half-open curtain. Only a little rain later dared cautiously to knock on the window panes and accompany her to sleep with the sounds of wind whispering and raindrops.

When Loreley was awakened the following day by the shrill ringing of her alarm clock and made her way, yawning, to the girls' washrooms, Astoria and Septima were already gone.

Had she been awake a little earlier, she would have caught what the two girls were talking about in whispers as they descended the steps of Ravenclaw Tower for breakfast. Namely, that early in the morning, when Septima was the first of the three Ravenclaws to awaken, she had found the door of her room wide open.