The nightmares only got worse as the week went on. It wasn't just Nathaniel. The following night, two Hufflepuffs and a Slytherin woke up screaming. The next: at least three from every house and a professor as well. More and more people ended up in the hospital wing — so many that Madame Pomfrey was running low on potions of dreamless sleep. There wasn't enough for everyone to take a dose before bed, so it wasn't strange to find a room full of students pretending to be asleep, just waiting for the first screams to fill the night.

We prefects had our hands full with extra people on patrol, escorting student after student to the hospital wing. Even in the daytime we couldn't escape it. It was all anyone was talking about, if they were awake enough to do so, that is. Those who had the nightmares before were terrified of falling asleep again. Those who had yet to be a victim were similarly full of dread. Everyone else simply had to get used to sleeping through the sounds of screaming every hour. It wasn't uncommon either to find exhausted students dozing off in the most random places.

Unfortunately, there was nothing our foursome could do about it until Saturday. We met every morning before breakfast that week to go over the plan and share any new information, but we all agreed that the best time to check out the room again was during the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor match that weekend.

"Obviously, we missed something when we were there the first time," I asserted.

Elinor nodded in solidarity. "We need to find that key."

"But does it have to be during the match?" Teddy complained. Of course, if we went then Teddy wouldn't be able to take part in the search.

"We wish you could be there too, Teddy, but that's the only time the whole school will be occupied, " I pointed out. "That way, when Elinor, Victoire, and I find the key and figure out where the second one is, we can explore the school without anyone stopping us."

"Wait, there's a second key?" Teddy puzzled absentmindedly.

Victoire whacked him in the arm. "Yes, we've been over this. 'Transformed two.' 'Hidden pair.' Two keys. Remember?"

We laughed as Teddy rubbed his arm and I shook my head. "Well keys aside, even though no one would likely stop two prefects and the Head Girl, we still don't want to look suspicious. We'll sneak off into the tunnel when the match begins and get out as soon as we find the key."

"Hopefully the match lasts long enough," Victoire voiced.

"With as many points behind Ravenclaw as Hufflepuff is," Teddy added, referring to the House Quidditch Cup, "I sure hope so too."

When Saturday finally made its sluggish arrival, the school was full of sleep-deprived students and exhausted teachers. Even the quidditch players were less than eager to make it out to the pitch, but they and the whole school trudged out anyways. I guess when everyday is a living nightmare, it's good to have something to cheer for.

Teddy seemed the least awake of his team when Elinor and I ran into them as they were leaving the Great Hall. Last night, he explained, Victoire was one of the ones plagued by the dark dreams, so he stayed awake as long as he could with her in the hospital wing. That meant, Victoire, who was currently asleep in the hospital wing, wouldn't be joining us today either.

No one was cheering, or talking really, as Elinor and I walked into the stands and took seats by Jo, Langley, and the Scamander twins. In fact, the pitch was pretty quiet until Cadence Leo started up her commentary and the players flew into the field. Charles, sporting his Gryffindor quidditch uniform, waved at us as he flew past. I had completely forgotten he was on the team.

"The players line up to shake hands before Madame Hooch starts off the game," Cadence relayed over the loudspeaker. It wasn't difficult to focus on her voice as the tired crowd was only a fraction of its usual volume. It was almost unsettling. "It's hard to believe that Gryffindor won't win this match with almost their whole team as seventh-years. But then again, Hufflepuff captain and keeper Teddy Lupin has shown quite some impressive game the way his rag-tag team's played this year.

"And they're off! The seekers immediately rise to the edge of the pitch, trying to spot the elusive snitch. Kyle Illia has the quaffle! He weaves around Gryffindor chaser Charles Nether towards the goal..."

As the match started to ramp up, the students in the crowd began to stir, the excitement of quidditch momentarily pushing aside their sleepiness. Deftly, Elinor and I slipped out of the row and down the stairs to the landing, where we walked down and across until we were directly under the commentary box.

We could hear Cadence boom loudly above us, "Olivia Kendal's well-timed bludger knocks Gryffindor's Natalia Li way off course! Now both seekers have lost track of the snitch..."

The sounds of the match were muffled as we entered the tunnel and shut the trap door behind us. The room was just as we'd left it — that is, the door was half-open and nothing was left inside except for the lone table and enchanted window. After twenty minutes of Elinor and I pointing our wands at every surface and saying "Revelio", we were pretty much out of ideas.

"The key has to be here somewhere," I sighed. "Wait, Elinor, let me see that parchment again."

Elinor took out the original riddle again, and we spread out the paper on the table. After a few more minutes of staring at the message, I turned to Elinor and wondered aloud, "If Teddy's dad used to come here to read during quidditch games, how come he never triggered the curse before?"

Elinor put a hand on her chin then answered, "Maybe the curse wasn't there yet?"

I snapped my fingers. "Exactly! Someone must have placed the curse to protect the key..."

"...which means the key could be placed somewhere obvious in the room and not have been in Remus Lupin's way!" Elinor finished.

"Quick — do you still have that quill you found on that windowsill?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course." Elinor pulled the black quill out of her bookbag. "But fair warning: I tried to use it for my charms essay and it writes terribly."

I smiled. "I mean, that makes sense — just look at the riddle again: 'Beware the transformed two.' It's not meant to be a quill in the first place!"

I placed the quill on the table by the parchment. "Reparifarge!" I shouted, pointing my wand at the quill. Both of us watched as the quill shimmered and twirled until a gold key sat in its place. "It worked!" I exclaimed. "The quill was the transfigured key!"

"Alex, look!" Elinor pointed to the parchment where an outline of a key appeared to the left of the riddle. Cautiously, I placed the quill-turned-key on the outline. Another couplet wrote itself at the end of the original message. Now the last stanza read:

Their beneath flying box disguised

Both key and curse two brave

A second drawn in framed faint

No truth withheld to save

"The second key!" Elinor and I blurted simultaneously. Grabbing the key and the parchment, we rushed out of the room and back up to the pitch, only to discover the stands were empty and the match was already over. So much for having the castle to ourselves.

We found Teddy sitting in the Great Hall with a now-recovered Victoire. Turns out, Gryffindor had been leading most of the match but Hufflepuff pulled out a quick win by catching the snitch. Afterwards, most people had gone back to their dormitories or fallen asleep in some less-comfortable places around the school. No wonder the halls were practically silent. Teddy was looking pretty exhausted himself, but he said the Hufflepuff victory celebration had given him a burst of energy.

"Anyways, what did you guys find?" he asked.

Elinor and I quickly recounted what had happened in the secret room, then added the missing part of the riddle to my notebook so they could see.

"'In framed faint', huh?" Victoire pondered. "Isn't there a painting like that in the Hufflepuff common room?" We turned to our resident Hufflepuff.

"Oh yeah, Wally's portrait," Teddy confirmed. He led us down to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, which was in the basement by the kitchens. After tapping one of the barrels five times, the passage opened up into a common room decked in yellow furniture and hanging plants. Confetti from the earlier celebration littered the floor, and only a few students remained talking. They didn't even look up as we entered.

We followed Teddy over to a portrait tucked in the back corner of the room, facing away from the entrance. Inside the frame was a lanky young man dressed in a gray suit jacket with a yellow handkerchief in the pocket. His short chestnut hair was gelled back like he was on his way to an important meeting.

"Friends, I present to you, Wallace Wilmington, a former Hufflepuff and little-known magic theorist," Teddy introduced, but Wallace didn't look much happy to see us. In fact, he looked down-right terrified.

"Theodore Lupin, why have you brought these intruders into my corner?" Wallace grumbled. I noticed he was shaking a little.

Teddy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "My name isn't Theodore."

As Teddy tried to explain our presence, I scanned the background of the painting for anything resembling a key or a quill. Elinor looked over and I shook my head. Taking the cue, she walked closer to where Teddy was standing and addressed the portrait, "Mr. Wilmington, do you mind if I—" She didn't get very far because as soon as Wallace noticed her approaching, he let loose a high-pitched squeal and fell backwards. The three of us stared in concern.

Teddy grinned apologetically. "He's a little sensitive (some trauma from another time) but he'll be okay," he explained. "That's why we call him Woozy Wally."

"Oh, 'a framed faint.' I get it now," Elinor voiced to no one in particular.

Taking advantage of the situation, I started lightly feeling around the surface of the painting and around the frame. Nothing. I shrugged. "Are you sure this is the only painting in the castle like this, Ted?" He said he was sure.

I pulled out my notebook again and frowned at the riddle.

Then Victoire mentioned, "Did you two already switch the homophone in that new line? If not, maybe it means 'feint' instead of 'faint.'"

Once again, she was right. We crossed out the incorrect spelling, and immediately, I knew where we had to go next. I led our foursome up to the Trophy Room, where one random award from Hogwarts's old enchanted fencing team sat. "Last month," I explained on the way, "I had to supervise Riley Clopple's detention there when Mr. Filch had him polish all of the awards in the trophy case without using magic."

I pulled out the plaque from the display using the secret password Headmistress McGonagall taught me. It was a framed wooden slab with a black and gold engraving that read: "The Enchanted Fencing League presents VIOLET QUILL of HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY with the PLAYER OF THE YEAR award for her all-around excellence in enchanted fencing, 1990-1991." Below the inscription was an icon of two figures crossing sabers.

"Weird, right?" I said, as the others passed the award around. "Enchanting fencing isn't a real sport, I don't think, but it makes sense now."

"'Violet Quill,'" Teddy read, chuckling. "You do the honors, Elinor."

She smiled, taking the plaque from his outstretched hand. "Reparifarge." The award shimmered and spun in her hand, and soon another key rested in its place. This one was solid black, a shadow of the first.

Immediately, we spread out the parchment on the floor. On our hands and knees, we were rewarded with another outline of a key on the right side of the riddle - well Elinor and I were, since we were still the only ones who could see it. Elinor placed the key on the page, but this time, instead of adding more lines of text, the entire riddle disappeared. I gasped. Victoire and Teddy widened their eyes and leaned forward. "What happened?" Victoire pushed.

"Shh-shhh," Elinor hissed, waving her hand at them. They sat back again as Elinor and I watched. A drawing of a tower slowly appeared in the center of the page, then a dark sky littered with stars. Finally, one phrase marked the center of the tower: "The lock is the key."

"'The lock is the key,'" I read aloud for our two friends.

"'The lock is the key'?" Victoire echoed. I nodded.

"The key to what?" Teddy asked.

"The astronomy tower," Elinor supplied, taking the clue from the drawing.

"We've gotta go back to that room and grab that golden lock," I declared.

Victoire looked at her watch and shook her head. "Not today — it's nearly curfew."

In that moment, I made an executive decision that I was sure would land me into some kind of trouble. "Victoire and Elinor," I began with resolve, "you guys head up to your dorms. Teddy, you and I are going to get that lock before curfew."

Immediately, the others protested, but I shut them up with a stern look. "Guys, two people look way less suspicious than all four of us, and if we get caught, Teddy and I won't get as harsh a punishment."

"Um, excuse me, but I've gotten far fewer detentions this term than Teddy," Elinor argued.

"But Teddy is way better at talking his way out of a situation," I proposed. "Especially, when the Head Girl is backing his alibi."

They reluctantly agreed, but Elinor still pouted. Quickly, I folded up the parchment and pocketed the black key. Victoire headed up to the Gryffindor common room while Elinor split off to Ravenclaw tower. Teddy and I fast-walked (basically jogged) towards the grounds. It was twenty minutes until curfew.

We were almost at the door leading outside when someone called out behind us. Both of us turned to find Professor Sulcan walking towards us with a puzzled look on his face. "And where might you two be headed?" he asked, shifting his gaze between the two of us.

"Oh, Professor, nice to see you!" I feigned. "Lupin and I are just headed out to the quidditch pitch."

"Oh? And what business do you have out there right before curfew?" he countered, narrowing his eyes at me. I felt my face grow warmer. I was never good in these kinds of situations.

"I lost my wand," Teddy provided, saving me. "Or rather, it was taken from me. As a prank." He rolled his eyes. "Louis and Fred Weasley thought it'd be funny to take my wand while I was playing in the match today and only had the sense to tell me five minutes ago that it was actually still at the pitch. Alex is just accompanying me to make sure I get back alright."

It was pretty convincing. Still, I wasn't sure if Sulcan would buy it, and his stern face seemed to confirm that fact. It didn't help that he wasn't too fond of either of us, despite the high marks we have in his class. His eyes darted between the two of us as we smiled back awkwardly in the silence. Finally, he straightened the cuff of his robe and said, "Just as long as you're quick, you two. Don't think for a moment that you're above the rules, simply because you're prefects." He walked away, and I let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding.

Teddy and I quickly ran across the grounds with only twelve minutes left now. With his longer legs, Teddy got to the trapdoor first and swung it open. He jumped down and I followed suit moments later. The fall stung my legs a bit but that didn't stop me from sprinting down the tunnel with my wand now lit. I reached the red door panting as Teddy came out, having just checked the inside.

"Where did we leave the lock?" he asked, hurriedly. His eyebrows were etched with worry.

"Right there, I thought." I pointed to a spot beside the door where there was nothing but a vague imprint in the dirt. "It's not inside?"

Teddy shook his head. "I can't find it anywhere. There is a random cauldron though."

In the dim light of our wands, we both checked again, even checking the length of the tunnel just to be sure. But it was gone. I sat on the step next to the trapdoor in disbelief. Teddy ran a hand through his messy turquoise hair. It wasn't until a scream rose in the night that we were shook out of our stupor and headed back to the castle empty-handed.