Lost in the Mist
The Fifth Years’ study sessions were approaching their crescendo. There were study sessions each day and all day on Fridays. The top students from each class would take the lead during the session. Stacy led the Transfiguration group; Morwena took Arithmancy; Umberto, Runes; Dave Evans, Defence; Sadie, Charms; Liam, Potions.
Liam’s reputation for Potions was such that he had both Slytherins and Gryffindors in his session. Otherwise, the rival Houses kept separate. Gryffindors did not study with Slytherins, nor Hufflepuffs with Ravenclaws. Morwena, Umberto and the others attended sessions with the Ravenclaws to prepare for Defence. Tess, Pauline and Rhiannon attended Sadie’s Charms group, but Morwena didn’t bother, and neither did Calliope or the rest of the Ravenclaws.
Liam ran a study session for History as well. Ronald Reuel ran a competing session at the same time, and the Slytherins attended Ronald’s. With Liam were the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, plus Sadie. One benefit of the inter-House rivalries was that it kept the groups to a manageable size.
Outside, snow gave way to rain. The fluffy white mounds of snow turned to icy slush. The pathway to the greenhouse became a quagmire. The stepping stones sank into dark brown mud. Morwena cast a levitation charm on the stones, raising them out of the muck. She suspended them in the air an inch off the ground. The stones swayed and tilted slightly as the students walked on them. It was almost like walking on a boat.
Their hope was that the rain would let out just in time for the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year. It did, but instead of a clear and bright sunny day, a thick grey mist rose out of the cold ground. With visibility at less than a meter, the grey cloud quickly swallowed up students as they queued at the gate.
Aiden Thompson pulled up his hood and crossed his arms tight over his chest. Though it was not nearly as cold as it had been in mid-winter, the damp mist seemed worse. The cold seeped into his bones.
Though he was happy to be out of the castle and to have a break from the routine of school, Aiden was slightly on edge. Dennison had announced no plan for that weekend. He didn’t seem eager to go to any particular shop.
He has a plan, Aiden reasoned. He just hasn’t announced it yet.
Weeks had passed since Aiden had last woken in the middle of the night with a sense of dread, only to find Dennison reading, his wand-light illuminating the drawn curtains like a jack-o-lantern. The sense of dread had faded, but as he stood there in the mist, Aiden felt the echo of it.
I hope it’s just this gloomy mist that’s making me feel this way.
They made their way slowly through the line. The iron gate drew closer. Jones asked, “What are we doing today?”
“We’ll just wander around for a bit,” said Dennison.
“It’s so cold,” Jones whined. “We should get some butterbeer.”
The caretaker checked each face and name on the list before allowing them through. The five boys walked along the road to town: Dennison and Carter in front, Jones right behind them, Aiden and Terrill at the rear. Around them was an eerie silence as the mist seemed to swallow up even the sound of their own footsteps.
Ahead, Aiden could see flashing lights – yellow, red and orange – all that could be seen of the Weasley’s shop with its garish lighted marquee. Dennison headed straight towards it, picking up the pace. The other boys hurried to keep up with him.
There was an awning above the door, pink and green stripes. A group of Sixth Year Ravenclaw boys were exiting the store. Aiden and the others waited for them to pass. Condensation had beaded up upon Aiden’s cloak. He gave it a shake at the threshold, and water spattered onto the ground by the door.
Inside, the store was bustling, brightly lit and cheerful. Aiden quickly moved away from the door. He browsed the shelves idly. A glass vial caught his eye. He picked it up and read the label.
Peruvian Darkness Powder. Why would you want something like this? Well, if the Weasley’s sell it, somebody must be buying it.
“Puking Pastilles,” read one sign, “Handy for getting out of an exam!” You’re just avoiding the inevitable. You’re better off studying.
A shelf full of bottled Love Potions were marked 40% off. Post-Valentines’ Day sale, I guess.
A sense of anxiousness awoke in him and he looked around. Where’s Dennison? He scanned the rows, but the crowded shop made reconnaissance difficult. Aiden called out, “Terrill! Can you see Dennison?”
“No. Why?”
Aiden let out an exasperated huff. “We need to keep up with him. Look around!”
The two boys split up. Aiden found Jones looking at a book. On the cover was the title Great Figures of Wizard History. Inside the pages were pictures of scantily clad women.
“Jones!” said Aiden sharply.
Jones shut the book closed with a clap. “What?”
“Have you seen Dennison and Carter?”
“Aren’t they right over there?” He pointed to a row over. Aiden checked. Some Gryffindor Fourth Year boys glared suspiciously at him.
Aiden returned to Jones. “I don’t see them anywhere.”
“He was just here! He showed me that book,” said Jones. “They’re probably in the loo.”
“Come with me,” said Aiden, sternly. Jones was too much of a follower to argue. They made their way through the crowded store. In the hallway leading to the bathrooms, they met up with Terrill.
“Haven’t seen him,” said Terrill.
“He’s here,” urged Jones. “We just can’t see him. He’s probably in the loo.”
A quick check proved this to be incorrect. A cold dread was rising in Aiden. He went back down the hallway to the main part of the store. In the crowd, he saw Q with her girlfriend, Stacy. Knowing Q’s techniques as he did, Aiden looked around and found Jim a discreet distance away.
“Jim!”
“What?” said the older boy, suspiciously.
“Dennison and Carter have ditched us.”
“No, they haven’t!” argued Jones. “They’re here somewhere.”
Jim drew his wand. Dave Boar was quickly at his side. Jim whispered an incantation and his wand began to spin. It made several rotations without settling on a direction. Finally, Jim clamped his hand over it. “They ditched you,” said Jim, firmly.
Aiden’s heart sank. “Now what?”
“You need to report this to Umberto,” said Jim. “You’ll find him at the Three Broomsticks.”
“I bet that’s where they are,” said Jones. “They probably just went to grab a pint of butterbeer.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Aiden. “Come on.”
Aiden led Terrill and Jones out of the store. Outside, he peered down the main street of town in both directions. The mist had lifted only slightly. He could see the looming shapes of the nearby buildings. The castle and the school grounds were lost behind the curtain of grey.
They crossed the street and walked quickly to the Three Broomsticks. The restaurant was quiet at that hour of the day. A few students sat in groups at tables. Aiden looked from one end of the restaurant to the other. Dennison and Carter were not there. He saw Umberto and Gordon sitting in a corner that gave them a good view of the door and the other tables. Aiden went straight to him.
“Why do we have to talk to them?” asked Jones.
Aiden ignored the question. Umberto’s eyes were on them, his glare stern. Aiden could see Umberto’s mind was already calculating what was wrong and what there was to do about it.
“Dennison gave us the slip,” said Aiden.
Umberto’s look of disappointment was worse than any verbal lashing. “When did this happen? How long has he been gone?”
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. We went into Weasley’s. I looked around for a bit and they were gone. Jim did his spinning wand thing, but it didn’t point anywhere.”
“They’re using counter-measures then. The fog, too, is giving them cover. Whatever it is, it’s serious.” Umberto turned his glare to Jones. “What do you know about this?”
“They didn’t tell me anything! I thought they came here to get a butterbeer.”
“Did they say that’s where they were going?”
Jones shook his head. “No.”
“What exactly did they say?”
For the first time in Aiden’s hearing, this spell failed to have its desired effect. “They didn’t tell me anything,” repeated Jones. “I didn’t hear anything about whatever it is they’re doing.”
“It tells you something, though, doesn’t it? That you are not with them? They consider you a step below them, not to be included in certain conspiracies.” Umberto gave a long, irritated sigh. “There’s nothing to do now. If they get into some mischief, at least the three of you will have an alibi. They will not. But the three of you must not vouch for them!”
“We won’t,” said Aiden.
“Can we at least get some warm butterbeer?” asked Jones. “I’m freezing!”
The three younger boys made their way up to the bar. Aiden’s mind raced ahead, trying to guess what Dennison was up to. Berto is furious with me. I let my guard down for a moment and they gave me the slip. All I can do now is wait for them to come back and try to figure out what they’ve done.
Dennsion and Carter were not too far away. As soon as they had distracted Jones by showing him the pictures of the girls in the Figures book, they slipped out the door, using a crowd of Fourth Year Slytherin boys as cover. They made their way quickly down the street and were soon lost in the mist.
“Where are we going?” asked Carter.
“Back towards the school. If anyone asks, I forgot something and went back for it.”
“What are we really doing?”
“Going for a walk.”
Dennison had given Carter only a brief heads-up. When Aiden was in the bathroom and Terrill and Jones were getting dressed, Reginald had come over to Jason and said, “Wear warm clothes. We’re going to ditch the rest of them and go off by ourselves.”
Closer to the lake they went, the thicker the fog became. They stuck to the road, making long, quick strides. With his hood drawn, Jason began to sweat.
The gate loomed. The gatekeeper and the other teachers were gone. Everyone who was able to leave campus had already gone to the town. The two boys passed through the gate, but instead of continuing on towards the castle, Reginald turned sharply and began to walk beside the stone wall that marked the edge of campus. The mist cloaked them; the damp grass soaked their pant legs. The sweat on Jason’s brow now began to chill him.
“Where are we going? To the Forest?”
“Not all the way to the Forest.” Dennison’s pace had slowed. He was gazing at the stone wall as if searching for something. Ahead, dark shapes loomed: the outlier trees at the forest’s edge.
“Here!” said Dennison. He ran his hand along the stone wall. There was a loose stone. He shook it and it came free. “I saw this place in a vision.”
Out from his cloak he pulled a leather pouch. “What is that?” asked Jason.
A mischievous grin lit Reginald’s face. “The forbidden book: Wicked Vengeance.”
“You still have it? I thought you put it back over Christmas Break!”
“I didn’t have a chance. Dad was in his office the whole time.” Reginald slid the book slightly out of the leather pouch, just enough for Jason to see what it was. “The prefects searched for it once and didn’t find it. I was lucky. If they try again, they won’t find it. Not out here. The pouch is enchanted. It should keep the book safe from rain, insects, whatever. The book, too has its own enchantments. It protects itself.”
Reginald slipped the book deeper into the leather pouch and cinched the top. Gingerly, he slid the pouch into the open space left by the stone. Then, he covered the space with the loose stone. It poked out some from the rest of the wall, but not dramatically. Jason thought that, in a pinch, he could find the spot again and recover the book.
The job done, the two began a hasty walk back to the gate. “Do you think they’ll miss us?”
“Oh, they miss us,” said Reginald, the sly grin still on his face. “The truth is, we’ve done nothing wrong. We just went on a walk by ourselves.”
They struck the main road and hurried back to town. The mist was burning off, but the sky above was grey and the air was still cold and damp. They headed straight for the Three Broomsticks, as they were both hungry and cold from their adventure in the mist.
As they approached the restaurant, they crossed paths with Morwena and her friends, heading to the Three Broomsticks after a morning of shopping. “Where have you two been?” she asked suspiciously.
“Just out for a stroll,” said Dennison, breezily.
“Have you been walking in the fields?” she asked accusingly. “Your pantlegs are wet, and grass is plastered to your shoes.” The boys looked down. It would have been easy to use magic to dry their pantlegs and clean their shoes. In their haste, they had neglected to do this basic step.
“Umberto was looking for you earlier,” continued Morwena. “You’d better pray there’s nothing amiss in the castle. If there is, you won’t have an alibi.”
She stepped aside and allowed them to enter the restaurant first, where they faced a similar interrogation from Umberto. By this time, Dennison had perfected his excuse. “Jason and I wanted to get away from everyone for a bit and just talk. Something we’re perfectly within our rights to do, I might add. We ended up in a field. I was trying to avoid spies, especially the kind you sic on me.”
Finally, they sat down with Aiden, Terrill and Jones. They ordered sandwiches and a pitcher of butterbeer.
“You left me with these two,” complained Jones. “They ratted you out to Calais first thing.”
“I reported that you were missing to our prefect. You could have told me you wanted to go on a walk by yourselves.”
“And have you alert Calais’ spy network? You’d have every word we said published in The Quibbler.” Carter and Jones laughed sycophantically.
Later in the day, as they made their way back to the castle, Aiden gazed out and wondered what field Dennison and Carter had gone wandering in. As he passed through the gate, he noted the tall grass of the fields flowing down from the Forbidden Forest. Maybe they checked out the forest. Wouldn’t be the first time some kids took advantage of a Hogsmeade weekend to do that.
He didn’t look at the wall, but there was nothing he could have seen from his vantage point. The partially dislodged stone was too far away to notice. The wall looked as it always did, except now there was a short stretch of stone where no bird landed, no squirrel hopped, and no forest creature crawled.