After what felt like an eternity, Asami released Sariah from the Hospital Wing. Sariah caught sight of her swollen cheek in the window's reflection as she left. Frowning, she untied her dreadlocks and let them fall around her face as camouflage. She wondered where Scorpius had learned to conceal his own bruises.

When she got back to her dormitory, she stood in the mirror, picking out small sticks and leaves that still clung to her hair. Soon, there was a pile almost big enough to pass as a shrub. Sariah didn't feel like talking to anyone, least of all Britta, so she pulled the yellow four-poster curtains shut around her bed. This was the best way avoid people; interrupting a Hufflepuff's nap was close to sacrilege. The clock on her bedside table read two o'clock.

*

After attempting her Potions homework, which had ended with her dozing off, she went up for an early dinner. Sariah checked her cheek anxiously in the mirror. It wasn't as swollen, so long as you didn't look too closely. Asami had said it would be almost invisible within 48 hours. She prodded it experimentally. At least it didn't hurt at all.

The corridor was lined with curiously empty picture frames. They looked like framed boards of slate. She climbed the stairs to the Entrance Hall and was surprised to find a crowd of students staring at the doors of the Great Hall, or staring above them.

Sariah shouldered her way closer, and felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. Someone had gratified the stone wall above the doors to the Great Hall.

Angry murmuring buzzed through the crowd. The portraits around the walls were absolutely packed with spectators from around the castle.

James Potter's words echoed in her head: "When is it not Slytherin?"

Enormous Wi-Fi bars had been painted over the stone in shimmering emerald green. They weren't just Wi-Fi bars though, she realized. The three scalloped bars were serpents, writhing on the stone. Hissing emanated from the wall.

She felt goosebumps rising on her arms. She looked around, half expecting a dragon to incinerate them all. Wi-Fi was at Hogwarts.

"Are we getting internet?" asked someone in the crowd.

"Well, one thing's certain, it's definitely Slytherin," Sariah heard Ethan Spritely say to his girlfriend.

Olivia rolled her eyes and unlinked their arms. "Are you sure, Ethan? However did you deduce that?"

Beyond the graffiti, the four house tables were loaded with food. Several Seventh years tried unsuccessfully to vanish the Wi-Fi bars. Begrudgingly, they entered under the graffiti. Sariah opted to follow them. The hissing became louder and more aggressive as she passed beneath it. She shivered, and took a bench just down from Ethan Spritely, knowing Britta wouldn't come within a ten meter radius of the Hufflepuff chaser.

Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw glared across at the Slytherin table for the entirety of the meal. The lone house seemed gloomier, their table emptier and quieter than usual. Even with it being early in the evening, there were a large proportion of Slytherin house absent. Scorpius was nowhere to be seen either, Sariah noted. She watched the table with interest, and wondered whether the guilty party was here, eating dinner at the scene of their crime.

As the first of the desserts appeared on the table, Olivia stopped by the Hufflepuff table. She slipped her arms over Ethan as she stood behind him. For a hug, Sariah thought it looked terribly uncomfortable.

Ethan leaned backwards against her girlfriend, "You're head honcho around here, what do you think? About the snake graffiti?"

"I'm worried for the students who aren't involved," Olivia said, looking over to a pair of small, Slytherin first-years. "Their classmates might blame them."

While she felt guilty for eavesdropping, Sariah thought it was an extremely sound judgement. She focused her attention on her orange jelly, hoping to hear more. But an unwelcome Ravenclaw sauntered over to the table instead. It was Rachel. Pretend she's not there, ignore her, Sariah thought, stirring the jelly aggressively in her bowl. Maybe it's a coincidence that she's moving towards you like a shark with brown pigtails.

Rachel stopped just behind her. "Better watch out, Sariah," Rachel said snidely, so that only she could hear it. "It's wizard's first around here, you're pretty much at the bottom of that list."

Sariah couldn't help herself, she turned to face her. "Wizard's what?"

"Wizards First. Honestly, if you haven't worked out what Wi-Fi stands for, you might really be a lost cause. Keep an eye out, okay? I'd hate for anything bad to happen to you."

"I'm sure I'll be fine. My Protego has been strong enough lately, hasn't it?"

Rachel's eyes flared like open coal pits, then she smirked. "Judging by that cheek of yours, it's just like the rest of you - not good enough."

Sariah's cheeks flushed. She glanced over to Olivia. The Head Girl was little more than a bench away, but was too engrossed with her boyfriend to notice that her younger sister was a bullying little snot.

She turned back to tell Rachel where she and her pin-sharp nose could stick themselves, but Rachel was already walking away, her leather shoes clicking maddeningly against the stone floor. The next spell she would learn from Scorpius, Sariah resolved, would be one to tie shoelaces together.

Wizards First. Just the idea sent chills down her spine. Rachel's comment had unnerved her. She was witch enough to get accepted into Hogwarts, surely she wouldn't be a target for Wi-Fi. 

For the first time, the idea of walking back to the common room alone didn't seem like a good idea. Sariah decided to wait for a group of Hufflepuffs to depart.

Waiting, she watched the efforts of Filch, who was trying to hang a curtain over the hissing serpents in the Entrance Hall. Impossibly, they resisted his efforts - nails unpulled themselves from the mortar, and curtains dropped from their rails. Filch's ladder developed an unnervingly magical wobble. It was almost hopping by the time he managed to climb down from it.

She noticed a sizable Hufflepuff crowd breaking away from the table and followed them to the common room. It didn't make sense to her. Why was Wi-Fi here at Hogwarts? Recruitment? Retribution? Part of her wanted it to be a misguided prank. One thing was certain, she wanted to get as far from the castle as possible. It would be dangerous, but the Anglia could drive with rust, so long as they didn't hit anything. What she needed to find as soon as possible was a tyre pump. She glanced down the torch-lit passageway, unwilling to leave the relative safety she felt following her fellow Hufflepuffs.

The serpentine Wi-Fi bars remained above the hall entrance on Sunday morning.

At lunch time, they were still there. She'd seen more than a few of her Professors staring up at them with concern. "The enchantments on them, they're beyond N.E.W.T. level," Professor Flitwick muttered, with something akin to awe in his voice. "Extraordinary."

Hoping to see Scorpius, she went to study at their usual nook in the library after lunch. He hadn't sent an owl that morning, and she hadn't seen him at breakfast either. The table was empty, she pulled her transfiguration book out of her bag.

Scorpius appeared like a ghost, suddenly sitting opposite her.

Sariah almost knocked over her ink well when she realized he was there. "Are you trying to scare me to death?"

"It's called paying attention to your surroundings," Scorpius said. "How's your cheek?"

"It's on the mend; should be gone by this time tomorrow," Sariah said. "Listen, I need help with a spell-"

"I need yours too," Scorpius said. "The Heads of Houses are trying to work out who defaced the wall."

"Well, I hope they catch them, whoever did it," Sariah said. "Oh, I found out what Wi-Fi stands for: Wizards First."

"That's good to know," he said. "I heard that they're interviewing everything from ghosts, to portraits, to house elves. That means they'll start asking students soon enough. In case they ask you, I need you to say that you were with me all day yesterday, studying here in the library."

"Until I fell onto a pine-cone in the library?" she looked around. "I forgot how many pine-cones there are in here."

"Say you needed to get some air," Scorpius said. "And after the Hospital Wing, you came back here, right up until dinner."

"Why do you want me to lie for you?" she asked, suspicious.

"I just need an alibi. Besides, you need an alibi for what you were doing yesterday morning too."

"I don't think I'm a prime suspect, Scorpius. But fine, if you'll teach me a spell."

"Which one?"

She told him.