The light in the dormitory was horrible. I could hardly see my own reflection in the mirror, the candles were so dim. I was by myself, and severely in need of aid. The tie refused to go around my neck, and my shoulder was stuck fast in the arm of my jacket. I looked like a chicken pacing back and forth on the floor. I wrestled with the cloth, hoping that I wouldn’t tear it. Then, I heard the door open, and I looked up at the ceiling in silent gratitude.

“Help!” I shrieked. “Whoever’s there, I need help!”

I felt hands on my back, pulling the jacket up and straightening it out. It came off at first, and then was slipped roughly on again. I thought I felt something pop in my arm, and I gritted my teeth and let out a small grunt.

“Oh, stop whining,” said a familiar voice. I felt myself choke on my own saliva. He released me, and I turned around to see Ron standing there, smirking at my misfortune.

“You better fix that tie,” he told me. “Slughorn’ll tease you all night.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, thanks.”

There was an awkward silence that followed. I pulled at my tie and secured it around the collar of my shirt. I tugged too much, and it grew tight, nearly choking me. I wrestled with it as Ron continued to look at me, just standing and waiting for me to say something.

“You get an invite?” I asked him, and he shook his head.

“Nah, but it’s all right,” he said calmly, and he was being serious. “I think I might head down to the Three Broomsticks for a bit. Think about things.”

“Things?” I questioned him, but I knew what he was talking about. I didn’t say anything.

“Yeah…” he told me, “I’ve…er…I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.”

“Right,” I murmured, “Yeah.”

We stared into space for a few moments, just gazing past each other. I felt like the floor was going to drop out from beneath us at any given moment, and I almost hoped that it would. It would at least give us means for conversation, or remove us from the agonizing situation.

“Did you have a chance to meet the new guy?” Ron asked me suddenly. I shook my head.

“Didn’t exactly meet him, but I saw him,” I told him. “He was kind of…staring at Hermione the other day at breakfast.”

“He…he was?” Ron blurted out anxiously. “Did she talk to him? Did he walk up to her?”

“No,” I said, “my face sort of told him to stay away.”

“Oh.”

“Did you meet him?”

“Yeah. He’s in my Transfiguration class. He um…he’s in Slytherin.”

“Figured that.”

“Name’s Valil.”

I merely nodded at that.

“Kind of a weird bloke,” Ron continued. “He sticks to his little corner of the room. Almost like he’s afraid to step into the light or associate with any of us.”

I laughed at that. “Yeah,” I remarked, “He stuck himself in a corner that day at breakfast too.”

“That’s more than a bit odd then,” Ron chuckled. I joined him.

“Yeah,” I replied. “You going to Broomsticks alone?”

“Seamus might come,” he said, “but between you and me, I don’t want him to. He’s getting on my nerves a bit. Never stops talking…and the accent is enough to drive you mad.”

I smiled softly as he raved on about Seamus. It was nice, talking with him like this. We had hardly spoken in the last few days, and I had thought that perhaps our friendship was dwindling due to the rift that had formed between him and Hermione. Now, it was like old times. We were back to being best mates again.

“Yeah, his nose is a bit flat,” I tossed in as Ron began to talk about the physical aspects of Seamus.

“He’s cool, though,” Ron interjected, hoping to throw off the negative vibe he’d created. “I mean, it’s not like we can’t talk or anything. He’s just…just…”

Not me, I thought, and I turned away to look at my tie one more time. Ron cleared his throat and stopped talking. I worked to smooth my hair down a little, but there really was no use in it.

“Something fancy going on at Slughorn‘s?” he asked me.

“Just a dance,” I said. “He wants us to forget last year’s events and have some fun.”

“Oh,” Ron observed, his eyebrows raised in interest, “sounds like it’ll be entertaining.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “We’re all just supposed to forget…you know.”

There was another space filled with silence, and then he nodded as if to say “Goodbye.”

“Have fun,” he encouraged me, and he meant it. He was headed for the door, and then he turned.

“Think you could help me with my Patronus tomorrow?” he asked me. “It’s…it just doesn’t exactly feel like me when I cast it. It’s like…like something’s wrong. I think I’m not doing it right.”

I nodded. “Yeah, no problem,” I said, and he smiled at me in gratitude. Then he turned, and I heard him go down the stairs. He bumped into something down in the common room, and then I heard the slight sound of the portrait hole swinging open. Taking a deep breath, I walked down into the common room and plopped down onto the couch. The smoke from the fire formed spindles as it twirled up the chimney. I thought I saw the shape of a snake in the ashes, and ignored it at first. Then, I looked again.

The serpent was resting next to the grate, coiled into a tight ball and moving it’s head ever so slightly. I squinted to get a better look at it, and it came alive as I moved. It lifted it’s head up to study me, and I saw that it was black, with a trace of gray running along its back. I couldn’t explain its presence in the fire, but I knew that it was some sort of sign that would only add to those I’d already been given.

“ What do you want?” I asked it in a whisper.

“Be weary of the shadows,” it hissed, and my brow furrowed in confusion.

“What shadows?” I demanded.

“You talking to someone?” I heard a voice behind me ask. Feeling my breath catch in my chest and the heat rush to my face, I turned slowly around. The serpent went out of my head completely as my eyes took in the sight of her.

She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. Her dress was short and black, and her hair was pulled halfway up in a way that I had never seen on her before. She smiled shyly as she saw my reaction, and it only made her look that much more like an angel. Her bag swung back and forth as she played nervously with her hands.

“You…you look amazing,” I felt myself say, and Hermione looked down at the floor in happy embarrassment.

“Thank you,” she said. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

“Well thanks,” I replied.

“Was there someone down here with you a minute ago?”

“What?”

“You were talking to someone when I came down.”

My memory was clicking, and it caught on the vision of the snake coiled in the cinders. I forced myself to pull my eyes off of my date and back into the fire. But the snake was gone, disappeared into the flames that were crackling there. I huffed in annoyance and decided not to tell her about what I had seen.

“It was nothing, really,” I explained. “Just some things I was sorting out in my own head.”

“Ah, well then,” she said, “did you get them all figured out?”

“I think so,” I lied.

“Good,” she said, and she offered her arm. “Shall we go then?”

I gazed at the bracelet that dangled off of her porcelain wrist, and I felt a strange sensation wash over me. I couldn’t explain what was happening to me. Suddenly, any pain left over from Ginny was gone. I didn’t have a single care in the world. The battle with Voldemort was gone, the image of Dumbledore’s body. For an instant, I was just another teenage boy escorting a girl to a dance. A beautiful girl. A girl that I considered my best friend. A girl that had dated Ron. A girl that I…

“Slughorn’s probably wondering where we are,” she reminded me, and I was forced out of my thoughts. I locked my elbow around hers, and felt my stomach fly down into my toes and back into place as her perfume wafted through my nose. The portrait opened as we made our way out.

“I heard you talking to Ron,” she told me. “Did you tell him about going to the dance with me?”

“Nope,” I told her truthfully, “forgot to mention that part.”

The lights were flashing brilliantly as we entered the dungeon. The dark, dank walls had been transformed with brilliant colors. Decorations hung from the ceiling, and one streamer wrapped itself around Hermione’s curls. I put my fingers gently in her hair and extracted it. She seemed to grow uncomfortable as my hand grazed her ear, but she didn’t let me know it with her words. Instead, she let me carry on until the streamer was on the ground.

“Thank you,” she said, and I shrugged and grabbed her arm again. We entered into the crowd of people that awaited us. Cormac McClaggen spotted us, and he attempted to come over. Hermione tugged me in the opposite direction, and we hid behind a rather tall Slytherin who was standing behind the punch table. The music was blaring where we were, and it was hard to grab at any thought whatsoever.

“Let’s go over there!” Hermione said, pointing to the far wall. There seemed to be space to move over there, and so I followed the pressure of her hand as she pulled me through the crowd.

“There’s a lot of people here!” Hermione shouted over the music. “A lot more than there were last year!”

“I think it’s his way of meeting new people!” I bellowed back. “He picks new students out and looks at how they interact with others! Besides, who doesn’t know about Slughorn’s little parties? I’m sure there’s a few here who don’t actually have an invitation! It’s not that hard to sneak into the dungeons!”

“True!”

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around to see Ginny and Neville. Ginny looked nice, dressed in a bottle green dress that complimented her eyes. Neville wore a matching tie. And I felt myself smile at them.

“How are you?” I asked them both.

“Great!” Ginny replied, and Neville gave an agreeing nod. “How about yourself?”

“We’re hot, but we’re doing fine!” I said loudly.

“It’ll get better in a minute!” she assured me. “Slughorn mentioned something about an evaporating wall or something, so I think we’re going to have a bigger space!”

“That’ll be nice!” Hermione said, and I laughed in agreement.

“We’re going to get punch,” Neville told us. “You want anything?!”

“I’m fine!” Hermione replied. “Harry?”

“No, I’m good!” I said. “You guys have fun!”

“You too!”

And as fast as they had come, they were part of the crowd again, moving toward the table that we had just left. Hermione turned to look at me.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Perfectly fine.”

And it was true. For the first time since the break-up, I felt no kind of sadness or bitterness. The jealousy that usually stirred at the sight of them had remained dormant, and it was as if nothing had ever happened between us. We were friends again, nothing more. And I felt okay with that. Finally.

“Well, we came to dance,” Hermione said, and she gestured out toward the open floor. “What do you say?”

“I’m ready if…”

“Excuse me.”

There was someone coming toward us, demanding our attention. I looked over to see who it was, expecting Cormac or Neville again. I was disappointed. Standing before us was a boy taller than me, with long, black hair and a dark cloak drawn around his shoulders. At first, I found myself unable to recognize him at all. And then I saw the eerie blue eyes and the white skin. He smiled at me as if he was ready to murder me.

This was Valil. And I am ashamed to say that he terrified me in every possible way. Everything about him sent a chill running along my spine, and I held myself back from shivering in front of him. His eyes snapped from me to Hermione. I felt her move slightly closer to my side.

“Pardon my intrusion,” he breathed, and I could barely hear him, “but I realized that we haven’t met.”

“And you approach us out of the hundred or so people here?” I snapped, but he didn’t turn away like I hoped. His gaze was fixed on Hermione in such a way, I was surprised she wasn’t splitting in two from the intensity.

“Some people are more noticeable than others,” he told me, and he took her hand up and brought it to his lips. She tried to pull away, and his eyes locked onto hers. She didn’t resist anymore, but rather let him carry on.

“Valil,” he said, and he gave a small bow that disgusted me. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms…”

“Hermione,” she said, still trapped by his eyes. “Hermione Granger.”

“Unique name,” he said. “I dare say I’ve never heard it in the Wizarding World.”

“I’m Muggle Born, actually,” she told him, and I looked at her in awe. She never divulged her origin if she could help it, and here she was telling a perfect stranger about it. I was amazed and knew instantly that something wasn’t right. Carefully trying not to look suspicious, I slipped a penny out of the pocket of my pants and dropped it to the floor. Stepping forward to pick it up, I pressed my heel down into Valil’s toe. He looked down to see what was happening, unlocking his eyes from Hermione. I watched her blink and shake her head, and then she looked at me.

“It’s a bit stuffy in here, Harry,” she said. “Why don’t we…why don’t we get some fresh air?”

“Allow me to escort you to the terrace,” Valil said, shooting up off of the floor. “It’s just up the stairs.”

“We know where it is, thanks,” I told him sternly, and he shot me a look, trying to lock his eyes with mine. It worked for a moment, but then he looked as if something was burning him and his gaze was diverted away. I began to pull Hermione with me toward the closest stairway. He trudged after us, and he caught her hand.

“Let go of me!” she demanded of him, and she tried to wrench it away, but he held fast to her. I turned around, refusing to release her.

“Let go of her or I swear, I’ll hex you so fast, you won’t know what hit you!” I bellowed at him.

“Is that supposed to frighten me?” he asked me.

“You don’t know what I’m capable of,” I told him. “You don’t know what I’ve seen.”

“Why don’t you show me?” he demanded. “Make me let her go!”

But Hermione was faster than I was. Drawing her hand out of my grasp, she balled it into a fist and took a swing at his face. She hit his nose, and he let go of her hand, giving us an opportunity to run. I thought he shouted something up at us as we went up the stairs, but I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t care. And we ran all the way out to the first floor terrace.

Both of us heaved in gasps of air as we rested against pillars outside. Hermione’s breath was shaking from fear, and I put out my hand and grasped her shoulder.

“You all right?” I asked her.

“Yeah,” she told me, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just…just frightened, that’s all. He…he scared me.”

“Me too,” I replied, and I gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze. She walked back over to the pillar and out of my reach, resting her head against the cold stone. I followed her over to it and looked at her.

“What did you feel when you looked into his eyes?” I asked, and the snake from the fire was flashing across my memory.

Be weary of the shadows.

“I was…I was numb,” she reminisced. “I couldn’t think. At least, I didn’t think like me. Every thought that was running through my mind wasn’t my own. It was everything that he wanted. I would have done anything he asked me to do in that moment. I would have followed him out of that dungeon and jumped from the tallest tower if he had ordered me to. It was like possession…like hypnotism.”

I stood there, my mind full of worry. Why had he wanted her so much? Why had he singled her out? And what would have happened if I hadn’t been there to break his gaze?

“Do you think he’ll bother you again?” I asked, and I saw her smile.

“Maybe after his nose heals,” she joked, and I gave a worried laugh. She looked up at the stars, and we heard music leak out from beneath our feet.

“I just want to forget about it,” she told me. “It’s a nice night out and we’re supposed to be having fun. Let’s not dwell on something that could be nothing.”

“Nothing?” I asked her. “You think that was nothing?”

“Harry, not now, okay?” she demanded, and I gave in. I didn’t want to think about it anyway. She was right. We were there for the party. And we were going to have fun.

“That band is really wailing tonight,” she said, and I chuckled as the music flooded from the dungeons onto the terrace where we stood. It was slow, lulling almost, and I felt myself moving closer to her. I nudged her elbow, and she returned the gesture.

“You wanna dance?” I asked her, and I opened my arms up. She swung out from the pillar and came into my arms. She brought her hand up by my neck, and I secured my arm around her waist. We started.

I felt like my feet were in the wrong places, like my head was going to spin off from the nervousness I was feeling. I didn’t want to trod on her feet, and I was afraid that I would spin her too fast and send her crashing into the pillar or out onto the lawn. But she knew what she was doing. When I lost the lead, she picked it up without a word. She didn’t tease me or rush me…she just let the dance go on. And as I grew more comfortable, and as she began to feel more in step with me, I felt her head go up against my chest. And we just stood swaying gently as I breathed in the scent of her, and I found myself trapped in my own confused thoughts.

It’s been a week since Ron, Harry.

It doesn’t seem like she minds.

But you know that she does.

What about Ginny?

Ginny who? It’s not like she’s coming back to you, mate.

She’s your best friend.

Is that really all you want her to be?

Kiss her.

Let it die.

You wanted to protect her for a reason…you didn’t want him touching her for a reason.

Because she’s my friend.

Harry, be realistic.

I heard the song end, and she pulled her head off of my chest and looked up at me.

“You can’t dance to save your life, can you?” she asked, smiling. I returned her smile halfheartedly. And she sensed something was wrong with me as she backed up to look at me completely.

“What’s bothering you?” she asked. “If it’s Valil, think about it later. We just talked about this.”

“No,” I said, “it’s…it’s not Valil.”

“Ginny?”

“No, Hermione. No, it’s not Ginny at all.”

She looked at me questioningly. And I wanted to shoot her for being so blind. She was so smart, so intellectual. How did she not see what was happening to me? I ran my fingers through my hair as a nervous habit, and I turned my back to her and gazed up at the moon. Its light burned my eyes ever so slightly, but I couldn’t look back at her. I couldn’t look back at her because she was my best friend. I couldn’t look back because Ron was thinking about things at the Three Broomsticks. But then I felt her hand on my shoulder. The hand that was forcing me to turn around. And as her face came into my view and I beheld the sight of her again, I couldn’t stop myself. She opened her mouth to say something, but I never heard it. I never heard it because in that moment, I did it.

I kissed her. I kissed her, and I kissed her, and I kissed her again.

The taste of her was something of wonder. It was something sweeter than butterbeer and more warming than firewhiskey. I was in a strawberry field, and then flying on my Firebolt over a luscious valley filled with sugar cane. I had come to heaven, passed through to the other side without fulfilling my destiny. And then I felt her pull away, and my body felt as if it were dying as my lips met open air again. I opened my eyes to see her standing in shock up against the pillar. Her hands were clasped around it, as if she were holding herself away from me.

“Hermione,” I said, but she shook her head.

“No,” she told me. “No, Harry. This…this isn’t right.”

“How is it not right?” I begged her. “Can you tell me something that’s wrong with it?”

“I…neither of us are ready for anything like this! It’s not…this isn’t…”

“Not what?” I demanded. “It’s not what, Hermione? You can’t tell me that you didn’t feel anything in that kiss!”

She didn’t answer me. Her eyes were full of the fear, the confusion I had only felt moments before.

“It…it’s all right if you don’t…I’m sorry I…” I began, and she turned away from me and pushed herself out to face the night as I had faced it. I watched her stare at the moon as if to search for advice.

“It’s too soon, Harry. I…there’s still…I don’t know if…Ron…”

And then she stopped talking. And she came at me again, and wrapped her arms around my neck as she brought her lips to mine. And I was back in paradise as I lifted her up into the air and brought her back down again. The music was playing below us, but we didn’t seem to hear it. Life had stopped in that moment. Nothing else mattered.

And then I happened to turn toward the opening of the terrace to see Ron, a bouquet of freshly picked flowers held firmly in his hands, his face ashen.

I cannot begin to describe the falling out between Ron and me. Memories of that day are too painful to recount. I can say that the walls of the Gryffindor dormitory shook that night with such a force that I was surprised none of the stones came out. Hermione threw in her own words before we took it up to our own dormitory, but they had no impact on Ron except to make him angrier. By the time we were both too worn out to carry on, my nose was bleeding and my eye was swelling. I had refused to punch back. I wouldn’t hurt him. He was still, after all, my best friend, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it. But I wasn’t his best friend any longer. The respect and trust between us had evaporated for him on that terrace.

“You told her that you didn’t love her anymore!” I reminded him as he left to sleep out in the common room. “You told her she was a complication!”

“I WAS MISTAKEN!” he hollered back, and then swept down the stairs, leaving behind him a trail of smoking words and his own broken heart. I let him go with the last word, hoping that Hermione had gone to bed already. And I remember changing into my pajamas hurriedly and climbing into bed, my mind focused on one thought.

You’ve lost him forever. You’ve lost him, and you may have lost her. How alone will you be now? And how can life get any more complicated?

But the night had not drawn its curtain yet. As Ron steamed in the common room and I lay in my bed with a black eye and a wrecked friendship, the lock on the girl’s dormitory was raising slowly with a spell cast by a skilled master of darkness. The magical boundaries had disappeared, destroyed before the summer had died. And as the young girl sat staring at the curtains of her four poster, she heard the words “ Muffliato!” and saw the shadow appear by her bedside. His hand went over her mouth, and his grip was like that of stone upon her arm. He drug her to the window, caught a broom in his hand, and took to the sky with her struggling in his grasp.

I didn’t even hear Hermione scream.