The evening air was cool as Bentley made his way towards the library. As unenthused as he might be about the pairs assignment Professor Babbling had set his ancient runes class, it did serve as a convenient excuse to absent himself from the Slytherin common room.

Sebastian was restless. He was usually somewhat restless, but tonight more so.  

Margot Davies followed despondently behind the rest of her classmates as they headed to their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Her robes, which she had never grown into despite her frugal father’s insistence that she would, trailed their last few inches in the dusty path. From behind her long fringe, she surveyed her classmates.

Monday, September 2^nd, 1985

Potions Dungeon, Hogwarts

Monday, September 2^nd, 1985

The Great Hall, Hogwarts
 

‘Potions first. Fantastic.’

September 1^st, 1985

10.37 am

Lorwood Park, Derbyshire

There was a loud CRACK! which echoed around the vaulted ceiling of the grand entrance hall. Bentley Thorpe didn’t even flinch. He was quite used to it. Lorwood Park, the ancestral home of the Thorpe family, had always echoed a bit, but the effect had been multiplied in recent times, because the house had become somewhat emptier of late.

September 1^st, 1985

11:00 am

Hogwarts Express

‘Well, I had better be off – they want me in the prefect’s car.’ Bill Weasley sighed and stood up, as the train began to pull away from the platform. ‘I’ll catch up with you guys later.’

September 1^st, 1985

10:54 am

King’s Cross Station

Hortensia Green, fifth-year Ravenclaw, considered her intelligence, organisation and punctuality to be her most admirable qualities. Words simply could not express how thrilled she was to be returning to Hogwarts, where she might actually be able to exercise some of these skills.