The sky was gray and overcast, with only a sliver of sunlight peeping through the clouds, but the weather was surprisingly warm for February. After being confined inside the castle’s cold stone walls for far too long, Imani decided to bask outside in the fresh air. By the looks of how populated the grounds were, she wasn’t the only student who decided to seize the unexpected warmth of the day. A few younger years played a game of gobstones in the grass, a fifth year couple took advantage of the lack of professor supervision to snog passionately on one of the courtyard benches, and Imani could see the outline of several brooms zipping about the cloudy gray sky above the pitch. She abandoned her Hogwarts uniform in favor of a warm blue sweater, black skinny jeans, worn but comfortable ballet flats, and a brown knit hat to cover her head, but her curly dark ringlets of hair managed spilling out of her hat and cascading wildly down her back. As always, her satchel filled with art supplies, books and candies slung faithfully across her thin shoulders.

Fortunately, her favorite spot outside was unoccupied: the grand oak tree standing directly across from the Black Lake, which had been her friend since she was eleven, providing her comfort and shade, a place to read, draw, think and even cry on more than one occasion. The lanky Hufflepuff girl flopped underneath the tree atop the soft grass, leaned against the lofty oak trunk, and stretched her seemingly mile long legs out. Between classes, her studies, decorating the castle for Valentine’s day, orchestra, art club and acting as the official Badger Mum to her friends, she hadn’t had much time to herself lately. She supposed being so occupied was a good thing, because it took her mind off being single at Hogwarts for yet another Valentine’s day.

Ah, well. Even if she didn’t have a real life boy to snuggle and take her on Hogsmeade dates, at least she had Wulfric Graymoon, the mysterious muscle-bound werewolf hero from her new favorite romance series, Lover’s Moon. Throughout the books, Wulfric battled his dark animalistic side and his love of the young, beautiful witch who wanted to save him and find a cure for his lycanthropy. The books were complete trash of course, with more descriptions about ‘heaving bosoms’ and the main character’s hard muscular body than any sort of actual plot, but Imani devoured the novels hungrily. She was never the reckless type, preferring happiness and safety to danger, but these books gave her the opportunity to escape and live in Wulfric’s dark, exciting, erotic world, far removed from the simplicity of her life of Potions essays and being in bed before curfew.

Imani pulled out her tattered copy of Lover’s Moon, and flipped excitedly to where she left off last. The young witch was being held captive by an organization of vampire assassins, and Wulfric was engaged in an epic duel with his sworn enemy, the head vampire assassin. He was shirtless the entire time, of course.

Imani sighed dreamily. Why couldn’t men in real life be as daring, handsome and romantic as Wulfric Graymoon?

As the brilliantly grey day offered no more poor weather, in popular opinion, the castle populace appeared to be doing its best to make the most of the weather. The kinds of days that made Ligeia keep her dark lacy parasol wide and dark glasses tight to her face. But then this was how she went outside nearly everyday.

As she passed through the courtyard she pondered the goings on around her. She was a prefect by badge but Ligeia tended to ponder about why gobbstones weren't made to shoot acid anymore (only stink-sap) or if the snogging couple was turning red from the passions of love or the lack of oxygen making way to their locked faces. Her ariel view blocked by the parasol also missed a third year almost knocking his head against a gargoyle as he flew upside down on a broom.

Ligeia did know of a distant but shrill clash of shriek and yowl but that was only her pet vulture Buzzard, longtime forest denizen, and Yomiel the cat, her recent rescue from the ministry, having another spat. Their jealousy over Ligeia's affection could be sorted out among them.

Instead, Ligeia soon noticed the dark skinned Imani Lynott and what she was reading on a bench. Though it was in the middle of lunar cycles the embroidered grey 'WL' stood out on her white dress.

"Isn't that the one where Wulfric and Scaramange the Crimson decide to duke it out to the honorable death by eventually scratching at each other with their claws?" she asked as she stopped, catching the worn cover of Imani's Lover's Moon.

Imani was so engrossed in the epic duel between the strapping werewolf and his sworn bloodsucking adversary that she remained unaware of Ligeia’s presence until the girl spoke. The Hufflepuff abruptly shut the novel, cheeks burning from embarrassment at having been caught in the act of reading such filth. However, her embarrassment quickly subsided when it became apparent that the Ravenclaw prefect was also an unabashed fan of the controversial werewolf romance series. Her brown eyes widened in delighted surprise, a smile lighting up her face brighter than a Lumos spell.

“Oh, yes! And Wulfric tragically loses his sight in one eye from the duel, but then he gets to wear a very cool, very manly eye patch from then on. And even though Scaramange dies, I heard rumors the author is bringing him back in the next novel!”

She clutched the beloved worn book to her nearly nonexistent chest. They were in the same year, but Imani hadn’t had many interactions with Ligeia before, the pale and elegant girl who seemed to step out of Victorian times with her manner and dress, who kept ghosts for company and always seemed to have her parasol in hand. The white-haired Ravenclaw intrigued Imani, and she was thrilled at the prospect of not only speaking with her, but that they had something in common!

Imani nodded her head to the unoccupied space beside her. “Would you like to join me? It’s always exciting to meet a fellow Wulfric fan. I even thought about starting a book club for Lover’s Moon and other romances, but given the certain.. um… nature of the books I didn’t think the professors would allow it.” She gazed down at the cover of Lover’s Moon; Wulfric stood in front of the silhouette of a full moon, his long black hair blowing in the wind, his muscular chest perfect enough to have been sculpted by the gods themselves. He winked up and smiled dashingly at Imani, and even though he was only a picture, she found herself blushing.

“I heard the model who poses for Wulfric will be signing books at Flourish & Blotts soon. I don’t know if I could handle seeing him in person, I’d probably faint.”

In truth Ligeia had not known anyone else in their year to gush about the Lover's Moon series as much as what Imani was doing in this moment. Ligeia was a fan but kept her satisfaction to unusually (for her) demure smile the rest of the night after bedtime reading. To her own gushing related to vampires that was commonly reserved for the creatures project she had involving elementally diseased Fumos Bat Flamers.

"I had a feeling that might not be the last seen of Scaramange the Crimson. I wasn't sure if Wulfric staked him properly at the end of their duel. I suppose his vision got to him with that missing eye. And those garlic plants he planted around where Scaramange's corpse was buried aren't going to last forever."

Ligeia took the offered seat, raising the height of her parasol and setting the handle between them, where the shade remained balanced. "Did you now?" Ligeia said in response to Imani's wish for a book club. "I suppose 'Romances with Non-Humans' is a slight narrow of genre, especially if you asked a male professor."

Ligeia imagined her own Head of House, Professor Trishna, mumbling embarrassedly before saying no to that kind of request. "What you would need that day is copious amounts of caffeine or a Nerves Tonic, something to keep you from going unconscious. When is that book signing happening at Flourish & Blotts? It would be capital if it was over the Easter holidays when we could go."

Ligeia had been doing her own club management efforts with revitalizing the Hogwarts Players. "You know, if it wasn't limited to romance I wouldn't see why a school book club would be a bad thing. As long as it isn't epics out of the Restricted Section." Part of Ligeia's fifth year History of Magic projects had her looking old tales darker than Beedle the Bard's on account of containing instructions to hatch a basilisk or cursing a woman's ghost to be trapped in a mirror. "Perhaps what you need is a wider sample of titles, perhaps a few with academic leanings to convince all the staff. The simple act of reading is not harmful, and a group like that tacked onto a study session could jointly make reading comprehension and analysis more enjoyable."

It was a good day for drawing. Well, in Zeta's opinion, every day was a good day for drawing. Especially the nice ones where she could wander around outside with her backpack full of art supplies, and grass and dirt smeared on the bottoms of her bright pink shoes. She was holding a pad of paper up in front of her as she walked, occasionally stopping to pull a pencil out from behind her ear and adjust a few lines.

She was drawing, or well, trying to draw, the tree her and Ambrose were taking care of for herbology[1]. It was just off in some way she couldn't quite figure out, and so she just about walked into Imani in her inattentiveness.

"Aaaah! I didn't see you!" She jerked back, clutching the pad to her chest, and then her face burst into a wide smile as she really noticed Imani and the Ravenclaw with her. "Hi!" Then she tipped her head to the side, trying to see the book Imani held.

1.	Bright and Early on a Tuesday Morning