The plan was to meet in the library at ten after breakfast and figure out the riddle by mid-afternoon. But when do things ever go as planned?

Turns out, researching in the library was pretty helpful; within the first hour, we had marked out all the homophones and replaced them with their correct alternatives. After that, however, we had a difficult time figuring out the rest of the message. By four o'clock, I was rather uncertain whether it was meant to be solved at all.

Elinor, Victoire, and I were huddled around a table now covered with books about linguistics, transformation spells, and counter-curses, among other things. Teddy had to leave two hours ago for an emergency quidditch practice, but honestly, he wasn't missing much.

I closed the book about birds in front of me with a sigh. Glancing across the table, I could tell Elinor and Victoire were getting just as tired as I was. Clearly there's something we're missing, I mused. I scanned the message again with a particularly discerning eye.

"Dark dream slew," we had deduced, had to refer to nightmares of some kind. According to the last couplet, there was a key and a curse hidden beneath a "flying box," wherever that was. If only the parchment had made a map appear instead of a riddle.

"The term's barely begun — how's it that you three already have loads of studying to do?" We looked up to see Kyle Illia, a Hufflepuff in Elinor and Teddy's year, stroll up to our table. His eyes flitted suspiciously at the books strewn across our table.

I looked around and saw only one other table in the library was occupied. Cadence Leo was similarly surrounded by stacks of books, but I suppose that wasn't too strange for the smartest student in the school. I had hoped it wouldn't be weird for our trio either.

"Can we help you with something, Kyle?" Elinor replied emphatically, clearly annoyed at his presence.

Instead of going away, he leaned closer. "What's that you're looking at?" He jutted his chin in the direction of the riddle.

"They're just helping me with some homework from my muggle studies class," I replied as Victoire quickly grabbed the parchment from his view.

He fake gagged. "Gross. And here I thought you might be up to something fun for a change." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Anyways," he continued, "Teddy wanted me to let you know he wants you three to meet him in the quidditch pitch. Like right now."

The moment Kyle was out the door, we all scrambled to make our way out to the pitch. We got there just as Teddy was exiting the changing rooms.

"Perfect timing," he declared at the sight of us. "I knew Kyle would take his time fetching you. Come on, the pitch is empty now." He led the way onto the field.

Just as he'd said, there was not a person in sight as we walked into the stadium. I never really cared much for quidditch, but I will admit, seeing the goalposts in the sunset was stunning. Still, we weren't here to admire the view. Teddy led us near the center before turning around to explain.

"Before I had to call an emergency practice," he began, "I was trying to figure out the fifth line of the riddle — the one that goes 'There beneath flying box disguised.' And I dare say I wouldn't have gotten it, had Kyle not run straight into the solution during practice." He pointed up beside us to one of the viewing towers in the stands. This one in particular had a large bronze horn lying on the first row of seats.

"The commentary box!" Victoire exclaimed. "Of course — not a box that flies but a box that watches fliers."

We made our way over to the bottom of the box, underneath the stands. It was getting difficult to see as the sunlight continued to fade, but it was obvious there was only dirt beside the wooden stairs, same as always. "Lumos," I casted, watching the shadows as my wand lit up. The others followed suit and began scrutinizing every inch of the small space.

Disguised. Whatever we were missing, it was hidden in plain sight. I stared down at the ground by my feet, the space directly in front of the bottom step. "Revelio." My voice was barely above a whisper as I recited the charm. To my surprise, a steel handle appeared, flattened into a space in the ground.

Elinor, having heard my gasp, quickly ran over, followed soon after by Teddy and Victoire. I grabbed the handle and pulled, and a square section of the ground pulled up like a dirt trap door. Shining my wand into the shaft, we could see a dark tunnel stretching down beneath the pitch.

I looked back at my companion's faces of fear and resolve. I guess none of us really believed these clues would lead us to anything until this moment.

After climbing down, we walked along the tunnel until coming to a single door with no other route but the way we came in. The door was strangely ornate for being underground: it was thick and painted a deep red with gold vines along the edge that matched the border on the original parchment. A large golden lock sat on its bolt.

"The riddle said, 'Both key and curse to brave,' not that'd we couldn't get in without a key," Teddy mumbled, crossing his arms.

"Maybe we should backtrack and search the pitch for the key?" I mused.

"Or we could just do this: Alohomora!" Elinor pointed her wand at the lock and it clicked open. "Might I remind you all that we're wizards?" she smirked, sliding the lock off the bolt. She set it beside the doorway before pushing the door open.

I couldn't help but think that using magic was way too easy, but there was no going back now.

The small room behind the door made the lock seem like overkill. It was basically empty, save for a few books on a table in the corner and a nice black quill on the windowsill, which Elinor pocketed. Somehow, even though we were at least one story underground and it was most definitely dark on the surface, the windowsill was flooded with light. What use would anyone have for an enchanted windowsill anyways?

Victoire opened the cover of one of the books, and quickly waved Teddy over. "Look Ted," she called, "these are your father's books!" At that we all rushed over, and, sure enough, "R. Lupin" was scrawled on the first page of each book in the stack.

Teddy grinned widely. "This must have been one of the secret places he came to read." He laughed. "Probably during quidditch games too!"

He gathered up the books and we headed back out through the tunnel. We hadn't been out there more than a couple hours, so we headed towards the Great Hall for dinner. Elinor noticed I was hanging back a little and joined my pace, letting Teddy and Victoire pull ahead. We shared a melancholy smile. Honestly, I was bummed that we didn't find much else, but it was nice that Teddy had found something connected with his father. I guess if the adventure had to be a bust, I was glad it was a bust with friends.

The following week, I was on rounds again, patrolling the sixth floor with Charles Nether. Since Aiden was out of the hospital wing now, he and Victoire were paired up again, and the Headboy and I were back to working together. Outside of his frustrating "charm," we'd been pretty good friends since the past year. This year, strangely, we hadn't hung out with each other all that much. That is, outside of classes and monthly check-ins with the Headmistress.

"Solo rounds weren't too tough, were they?" I teased. Despite the fact that Charles had begun to hang out with our friend group, there was still that initial awkwardness that came with not having seen someone in a while.

"Just boring like usual," he shrugged. "Except, Professor Potter asked me the other day to keep an eye on his son — you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

I smiled innocently. "Huh, weird," I replied, avoiding eye contact. The night after Victoire and I had spotted James Potter out after curfew, I may have subtly suggested to Professor Potter to have someone (perhaps a certain Headboy in his house) keep a close eye on the first-year, just in case he found himself in any trouble.

Charles stared at me a moment longer, scanning my face for any sign of sarcasm, then shrugged again. "I actually don't mind it anyways. He reminds me of how I was back then."

I was caught off guard by his comment but quickly I shined my wand towards a suit of armor to cover up my shock. No one, let alone Charles, talked about his early years at Hogwarts. He was a completely different person now and everyone knew it. "Hopefully back then you and your mates didn't get into as much trouble as those Weasley-Potter boys," I replied, trying to go along with whatever he was getting at.

He chuckled a little but then his face fell. "Actually, I didn't have many friends at all then."

We stopped walking for a moment. I stared at the ground when I spoke, "Me too, actually. I didn't really have any real friends until Elinor and I started hanging out."

He looked over at me. "You guys are really close, huh?"

I smiled a bit. "Yeah, I guess we really are." At that, he smiled back. I thought I caught a glimmer of melancholy in it, but I didn't pry.

I opened my mouth again to tell him to join our group more often but it never came out. Instead, a scream pierced through the silence. Charles and I looked at each other then sprinted towards the stairs. It sounded like it was coming from Gryffindor Tower, so we rushed to the portrait hole, which opened with Charles's password. When we stepped into the common room, a small crowd of girls had formed around the stairs leading up to the boys' dormitory. Charles hurried up, while I attempted to calm the worried students enough to get them back up to their rooms. When Professor Longbottom appeared, they finally filed back up the stairs, just in time for Professor Potter and Charles to make their way down with a second-year boy who looked terrified out of his wits.

Seeing me, Professor Potter nodded, "Charles, will you and Alex make sure to get Mr. Hayes here down to the hospital wing? Madame Pomfrey will take care of him there. Meanwhile, I need to go talk to the Headmistress."

Charles agreed, and Professor Longbottom elected to stay in the tower and keep watch over the students. "But Professor," I inquired, as we descended the tower stairs and emerged from the portrait hole, "what happened?"

Mr. Potter look back at the frightened boy and responded, "Just a bad nightmare, Ms. Powers. But I haven't heard of one quite as disturbing as this since I was a student here."

I stopped in my tracks and watched as he disappeared down the hall towards the Headmistress's Office. Quickly, I doubled back and caught up with Charles, who was walking in silence with a guiding hand on the second-year's back. Neither of us said a word the rest of the night.

When I finally lied down in my bed, an emptiness ran through my stomach - not exactly a result of what had happened that night but because I had a dreadful feeling I knew what all this meant.

I'm not even sure what time I actually fell asleep that night, but as soon as the sun peeked through the window, I jumped out of bed and rushed downstairs to wake up Elinor. It was barely seven when she met me, now fully dressed, in the common room.

"I suppose you're gonna tell me why you got me up so early on a Tuesday?" She complained, rubbing her eyes.

I leaned in over the table between us. "Everyone will likely know this before noon," I said in a hushed tone, "but last night, Charles and I had to take Nathaniel Hayes to the hospital wing."

Elinor scrunched her eyebrows. "The Gryffindor second year? What happened?"

I looked around the common room again to make sure no one was listening, then I whispered, "Nightmares."

The shock in her eyes told me her mind immediately went to the same place mine did last night. I nodded grimly. "It has to be," I agreed. "Whatever that boy dreamed about was enough to disturb a seasoned auror who lived through the Second Wizarding War."

Elinor rested her chin between her hands. "I did think it was strange that we didn't find the key or the curse beneath the commentary box." I guess that answered that .

Elinor sighed. "So what do we do now?"

I looked her in the eyes and said urgently, "We need to figure out the rest of that riddle."