7:00-8:30 PM

The misty, moonless night chased the lavender and lemon glows of twilight into the horizon's shadowy ridge just as a raven-haired Slytherin prefect crossed the Hogwarts Castle back towards the dungeons. The young wix's stride continued to carry her over a bridge while her hands rose to weave kinky locs between lithe fingers that darkened in the fading light. The night  began to cast her in cool shades of indigos and blues that cascaded down her surroundings: the towering castle stonework, the gaping dark ravine, and the secluded boathouse bay. It was the perfect moment for Naomi to magically collect and set aside her thoughts for the chaotic month back.

The returning term swamped the student populace with the task of juggling academic routines alongside the inevitable drama and social obligations that Hogwarts couldn't shelter them from. The ensuing misery enticed Naomi to start going out of her way to offer to organize the younger years' thoughts, knowledge, and experiences into dreams that helped them stay on task--easy enough to do… at least with first years. But, once word got around to the older years, Naomi started getting requests and had to start charging people (like Harold Knight) to help organize their minds around more challenging subjects. What made things even more difficult is that some minds just lacked the knowledge and experience to make the requested dream, so Naomi either had to help fill in the blanks, tell them to study more or work with what she got.

Despite the brain-freezing moments of awfulness, there were some highlights: Naomi got to spend time with her friends, like Kelvin, by helping organize experiences with tough classwork around silly and nonsensical dreams; she had an interesting session with a panicky fourth year Ravenclaw, who had plenty of knowledge but few reassuring experiences; and then she had a run-in with the overly-persuasive Osha, which may have been a bit too much for the Slytherin.

So, as Naomi finished braiding her hair and picking through her mind, she committed to giving herself a calm, underwhelming, and dreamless night. She put some finishing twists on her hair and smiled towards the bay.

Tonight, she would sleep like the dead.

She gave a firm nod, turned to continue her jouney, and then froze.

Naomi's green gaze shot back to the bay, which rippled with the warm reflection of the castle lights and cool night sky with… some massive black form gliding beneath it and out towards the lake.

A swarm of merfolk? The giant squid? This close to the school?

The metamorph schooled her expression with a quirked eyebrow and wry pout, which portrayed a calmness that was not mirrored in how quickly her feet carried her back to the Slytherin dungeons.

Once the stone wall parted to let her enter, Naomi was welcomed by the sleepy green flames and rippling rays of twilight that haunted the common room and beckoned her to the giant lakeview windows.   

Naomi walked by the studious and restful forms of her housemates as she approached the windows and focused her gaze on the view: the water surface rippled far above, the lake's dark abyss rested below, and marine ocassionaly life swam by… but nothing resembling the massive shadow she'd seen earlier.

She lingered a moment longer before and then dragged herself away from the window and towards her dorm.

Without any fanfare, Naomi entered the room, shut the door, opened her trunk, threw her bag on the bed, swapped things between the trunk and bag, swapped her day clothes for some pants and a teal black-colored hoodie, and then started to--

THOOM.

Naomi's head whipped towards the dorm window as another boom thundered through the walls of her dorm.

Where there had just been nothing but a vast expanse of calm waters, there was now a swarm of shadows, churning the surface waters into a funnel of dying twilight. It was hard for Naomi to tell what she was looking at until crisp shadows were suddenly outlined by brigh flash on the surface.

THOOM.

Were those fins? Merfolk? Casting magic on the lake?

THOOM.

Were those teeth?

The Slytherin's left hand tightened around her wand as she took a step forward for  each flash that lit up her hoodie and each boom that thundered through the room, again and again, until Naomi's fingertips were pressed against the window.

Suddenly, the swarm scattered. The waters calmed. Only the silhouette of a boat was left floating on the surface. Naomi's eyes darted around for the squid.

Finally, a familiar, massive shadow rose from the deep.

Wisps of darkness crawled after the hulking form  as in ballooned to the surface, unfurled its body and enveloped itself around the boat. But, rather than gently push it back to shore, what happened next knocked Naomi's wits back into her.

CRAAAAACK--

SNAP!

BOOM.

Now Naomi knew what she was looking at. The creature was crushing the massive hull of the ship, then tore it into pieces, and finally dragged it down into the abyss that dyed the lake black.

The Slytherin let out a breath.

The hot air fogged up the window as Naomi moved closer, trying to get a better look, but the darkness whirled away from her and began to dissipate with the bobbing and whirling currents of waters and bubbles. The dying rays of twilight rippled through the surface again until the lake water returned to normal.

But it was not devoid of life.

Covered in barnacles, sponges, and sea urchins, ship debris was slowly falling towards the lake's abyss. There were sinking barrells and wooden boxes with items trailing behind them like bottles, nets, wrapped items, and scrolls written in an ideographic (or was that logographic?) script. Then Naomi saw a large, empty deck fall from the surface and rattle with rows of…  broken shackles and rattling chains.

Naomi loosened her grip on the wand.

So this was just a dream.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure shot up in front of her, causing Naomi to lean back and grip her wand again as it spun around with bulbous crown that unfurled into a writhing mass of giant, fleshy tendrils.

Naomi sized up the figure, who was taller (longer?) than her--and the figure mirrored her assessment.

It took another moment of them staring at each other for Naomi to finally take another step closer.

"Lumos"

The light glared against the window as it illuminated the face and body of a long-haired merperson who quickly swam away.

Naomi's gaze followed the swimming figure and the Slytherin's rolling fingers dimmed the wand tip with the vanishing rays of twilight.

As the the night plunged the lake into darkness, Naomi tried to remind herself what was dream or reality. She tried to make sense of what the creature was, or the ship was, and where merfolk played a role in all this. She tried to be as calm and logical as possible.

But something was moving in the window again. Mimicking her again. Writhing again. And she could feel it.

Her free hand reached for her block-colored hood.

Her fingers grasped a writhing mane of tendrils.

Her eyes shot to her reflection.

She pushed away and woke up.