{1:00 AM}

The hours had dragged on the entire day. Classes had been complete torture for Bellatrix Dark because they had gone by agonizingly slow. Transfiguration, practical homework; Arithmancy, essay; Charms, practical homework; History of Magic, essay. On top of that, she still had one or two pieces for Astrology and Potions to finish up! Her study break hadn't been enough earlier that day. In fact, most of the Astrology and Potions homework assignments she had done during that short relief from class, but she had ended up with more than she could chew afterward. Bellatrix had to skip dinner in order to start on all the work she was bound up with and went straight to the library to grab some books. It took her over two hours to track down the helpful books and jot down almost an entire scroll of parchment for notes on the various subjects. When that was all done, she rushed herself to the Slytherin Common Room and didn't move from the corner table since.

There was a drowsy atmosphere around the 5th year that was hard to resist. She had no idea what time it was, but it must have been really late because everyone else had gone to bed. The girl gave a wide yawn, forced her eyes open, and redirected her attention to the rather dull chart of planets and stars. There were far too many mistakes for it to be acceptable, but what could she do? It was due on Wednesday!

"This is...so ridiculous," she mumbled tiredly.

If only there was something for her to jinx! She was cranky, tired, and angry at having let herself slack off this much. Of course, even if there had been a target for her anger, she didn't have enough energy in her to do something as simple as lift her wand. Bellatrix was frustrated to the point that she was ready to ditch homework and get another few points taken from the house or take the detention. It would buy her some time, but her grades would be even worse.

Slowly, her gaze shifted to the careless flames in the distant fireplace. It was warm in the common room that didn't aid the Slytherin in her fight against rest and a temporary peace of mind. Just as she started to try and clear her mind, her thoughts drifted back to the homework and the horrifying consequences of failing her classes. If that happened and she didn't get her grades back up, she'd be expelled for sure. Another groan emitted from between her lips.

'Ugh. I should have listened to Bee.'

Those words would never come out of her mouth; they would stay in her mind where they belonged. Still, she couldn't help but think her conscience was right: if she was more like her sister, she wouldn't have a problem of the huge pile of homework surrounding her. It was driving her insane--or at least, more insane than Bellatrix's natural mentality.

It was indeed very late and, this being a boring sort of school, most everyone was in their beds. Except for Bellatrix, of course, and except for Erin.

Now, it wasn't that he had homework to do, and it wasn't anything so routine as insomnia. Erin was, however, a night person by default. There was only so long he could stare at the canopy over his bed until he snapped and stumbled out of bed to the nice, empty common room. Morning classes were going to be hell anyways; they always were. He might as well be restless in front of the fire as well as anywhere else.

It was unfortunate, really. He was too awake to blame fatigue for the sharp shock of seeing Bellatrix in the common room and thinking, for just an instant, that it was Beatrix. He stopped dead in the doorway until he realized that a, different hair colors, b, Bellatrix lived here, and c, he was an idiot.  It had been almost two weeks since - no. It was too late at night to be embarrassed. Erin didn't even pretend to wonder why he was thinking about Beatrix but trudged into the common room and threw himself down in front of the fire.

From the space between the carpet and his mouth came the mumbled words, "Whoever decided to schedule classes before noon should be Crucio'd."

Another wave of sleepiness swooped over Bellatrix and this time, she actually started to nod off on top of her astrology chart. She was exhausted. Her head collapsed on to the table with a hard bump that would have further angered her had she the energy to be infuriated. At this point, however, rage and feeling altogether were out of the fifth year's reach.

"Whoever decided to schedule classes before noon should be Crucio'd."

It was a strangely familiar voice that Bellatrix couldn't place her finger on. A great amount of effort was put forth in to opening her eyes and more still to recognize the boy sitting in front of the fire. The girl growled under her breath, but not because she finally acknowledge who was in the room with her but because she was obligated to respond to the conversation. At least, however, it was keeping her awake.

"The whole of Hogwarts should be Crucio'd just for the hell of it," she snarled.

It was obvious that she was in another foul mood this time brought on by her own doings. Taking it out on her housemate would have been fitting--if she could spare the concentration from her homework that she was now slumped over. She stopped her calculations due to a moment's lack of sufficient brain power and decided to start up a casual conversation with the boy. It was extremely late so there was no reason to uphold her reputation and usual moodiness and she needed something other than the pieces of parchment and textbooks in front of her to keep her awake.

"You've finished your Astrology homework for last week, haven't you? I want to take a look and see what you got for Mars."

There wasn't a tone of pleading in her voice nor did she even say 'please'. It was a simple demand, one that wasn't used with force but instead an easy-going "do it or else". Bellatrix was watching Erin closely to make sure he did as she commanded...as nicely as she possibly could.

"The whole of Hogwarts should be Crucio'd just for the hell of it."

Still lying flat on his stomach, Erin smiled into the rug. Someone was in a foul mood, weren't they? But then, Bellatrix was hardly ever anything but. Erin didn't know her very well, for all that she was in his House and his year; she had those she deemed worthy to talk to, and those she deemed worthy of being put down, and otherwise she didn't associate with anyone much. Certainly not with him. Until this recent encounter with her sister, Erin hadn't ever thought much of it, and he hadn't ever thought much on her. However, if Bellatrix was as... entertaining as her twin, she might be worth some attention.

Besides, despite her air of constantly being in a murderous snit, Bellatrix was kind of hot. (Erin often had this opinion on Slytherin women. He liked a girl with a good sneer on her.)

"You've finished your Astrology homework for last week, haven't you? I want to take a look and see what you got for Mars."

Erin considered this. "I don't think so," he said, and rolled over onto his back so that he was staring at the ceiling instead. Now, if he lifted his head a little, he could see the girl at her table. He went on before Bellatrix had a chance to get angry, sounding very nonchalant and carefree as he said, "Haven't done it yet." It wasn't due until Wednesday, wasn't that right? And Erin really couldn't be bothered with doing it in advance. Astrology wasn't so hard; he could half-arse the chart tomorrow night if he felt so inclined. It was mostly math and positioning, which, although Erin wasn't particularly gifted when it came to academics, he found a damned lot easier than writing papers.

Besides, their Astrology teacher was a bit loony, wasn't he? One time, completely unable to concentrate on the homework he had due the next night, Erin had simply doodled all over the margins of the star chart, and the bloke'd written something about "entertaining squiggly bits" and "promising squids" on it and given him full credit.

So, suffice to say, he was not worried.

Why was he lying on the floor? Bellatrix couldn't comprehend it, not in the state she was in. Her quill went back to the star chart she was attempting to calculate when he gave her his answer.

"I don't think so."

There wasn't so much anger there as she wanted. Every fiber of energy coursing through her was keeping her awake and she was, unfortunately, incapable of regenerating more like her sister could. What anger she did conjure up twisted and contorted into a sour-puss pout on her lips. By the time her brain thought up an entire sentence to spout at him, he continued.

"Haven't done it yet."

Now she felt foolish for pouting at him and quickly returned her expression to that of someone who had just smelled something rather unpleasant. Bellatrix shifted in her seat to sit up straight more and poured over her star chart once again.

"Oh," was all she said and she left it at that.

Mars calculated 30 degrees northwest, parallel to Uranus. She was in the middle of doing her math when she realized she had no idea what all of this meant. Stupid reasoning of the fates, she supposed. Her eyes, glossed over from drowsiness, glanced at the astrology book to her left. She really didn't feel like opening it and looking it up.

"Give me something absurd for Mars and Uranus being parallel. I'm thinking it means 'attacks go awry' or 'war between visionaries'. What do you think, Harper?"

The fact that she was being civil--no, nice--to Erin Harper (or anyone) was escaping her attention completely. All she was truly worried about was getting this homework done and she would use anyone to help her, even that silly first year Nokia (or whatever her name was). Underneath Bellatrix's cruelty, there seemed to be some form of a, well, girl and a humane one at that. Who, besides Beatrix, would have realized it?

Erin was completely amused. Bellatrix must be awfully tired to be pouting at him. It was surreal. He'd seen her make a first year cry once just by glaring at her. It'd been impressive. And now this semi-pleasantness? He'd best just enjoy it while it lasted. In fact, it was giving him an idea. Mysti's party was soon, wasn't it? And Erin, who'd not cared at all until he realized he could've asked Beatrix, and then cared even more when he discovered she was going with Vincent, still didn't have a date. He gazed at Bellatrix with the dawning light of speculation. Was she going?

"Give me something absurd for Mars and Uranus being parallel. I'm thinking it means 'attacks go awry' or 'war between visionaries'. What do you think, Harper?"

"Hogwarts is going to be attacked by dragons," he said instantly. "Big ones. Welsh ones. On Thursday." This was not as random as it seemed. Erin was stroking his hip with one finger as he spoke, where his tattoo of a Welsh dragon was barely visible over the top of his pajama pants. It blew a spout of flame in sleepy protest.

His answer was brilliant. Absurd, of course, but brilliant. Why not have Hogwarts attacked by dragons on Thursday? Everyone would expect something bad to happen on a Monday, not a Thursday because events worth talking about never seemed to happen on that day of the week.

"Ingenious," she complimented sleepily.

Instantly, her quill set to work and began writing that down. Inspiration hit her. Why just Welsh Green dragons attacking Hogwarts? Why not something as insane as a student turning into an elephant? They had already turned into wolves. It only seemed logical to Bellatrix that someone would spike the Pumpkin Juice with polyjuice potion to turn them into elephants!

"All right. I'm done with Astrology. Now, uh, I'll try History of Magic."

With as much caution as her insomnia would allow, the Dark girl rolled up her Astrology chart and set it aside. The toad she owned jumped up on to the table and croaked at her. She threw a nasty glare at it while she tugged her History of Magic essay towards her. It croaked again more aggressively and caused the teenager to sigh exasperatedly.

"Fine, Duke, since you insist on being such a pest."

Bellatrix dug around in the inner pockets of her Slytherin robes that were hanging on the back of the chair to remove a small box of Fudge Flies and a bag of Cauldron Cakes. The Fudge Flies she poured out on the table in front of her toad; he immediately started to slurp them up with his oddly cut tongue. If anyone really ever noticed Bella's frog, they'd see the toad had a good number of scars on his body and a pair of different colored eyes, one of which was glossed over as if he was blind. Bella herself took a bite of her own snack and set off in a refreshed manner to finish her essay. The textbook for that class was open and she was fully prepared to copy answers straight from it if she had to.

Erin watched with great interest as Bellatrix got back to work, sleepily mumbling to herself- wait, no, to her toad. Weird-looking thing it was, too. Made Erin wonder where his cat'd gotten off to lately. While she was occupied with that, Erin slunk off the floor and slid into a seat on her other side, so that when she turned back from giving treats to her toad there he was, blue eyes fixed on hers  and a smile that someone less sleep-derived and paying more attention might even call sly.

"Say, Bellatrix," he began, playing it off very casually. "You've heard about Ketteridge's party, haven't you?" He tilted his head to the side, pondering exactly how sleep-deprived she'd have to be to say yes to what he was about to suggest, and continued, "Would you want to go with me? Can't say I'm too keen to go into that den of Hufflepuffs alone."

Somehow, most likely because of her lack of sleep, Bellatrix turned around only to peer into the blue eyes of Erin Harper and it caught her off guard. She wasn't used to being so close to a boy and it made her somewhat uneasy, especially since he was smiling at her. Since when did this annoying Slytherin sit this close to her? Her own blue eyes narrowed at him suspiciously, though they were beginning to glaze over from being sleepy.

"Say, Bellatrix. You've heard about Ketteridge's party, haven't you? Would you want to go with me? Can't say I'm too keen to go into that den of Hufflepuffs alone."

Shocking! It was mind-boggling that Erin Harper would...well, that is to say, that it was perfectly unreasonable for anyone to ask Bellatrix to a party. Not just any party, really, but a masquerade of all things! It was absurd! Who in their right mind would ask her as a date? The initial astonishment of it all clouded her mind and introduced a vacant glaze to her eyes.

"You're asking me to go...with you? I mean, you're actually asking me to be your...your date?"

The following reaction was unexpected, even for her: she sat up straight, squared her shoulders, and picked her head up as if she was completely offended, glaring at her housemate angrily. It wasn't his fault. She just wasn't sure how to accept things like being asked to a party as a date or, as evidence of her encounter with Vincent Pennyapple and Xavier Tawse at the ball, compliments. The entire thing wasn't quite as ridiculous as she thought. Why shouldn't she be asked to go to a masquerade party? Her sister got an offer or two, didn't she? Why couldn't Bellatrix be asked, too?

"Y-yeah, all right. I'll go with you. I'm sure I've got somethin' in my trunk."

Indeed, she had a dress, but no mask. She would have to write home for this one, just as she had done for the Halloween ball. There were many things that she and her sister collected over the summer holidays every year and they had them stowed away in their closets for just such occasions.

Still, it was unnerving that he had asked her. Did he fancy her? No, they clashed too much for that. Besides, even if he did, her own tastes were... Wait. Did she even have a taste in boys? The idea of dating and relationships was new to Bellatrix. She hadn't given much thought to it during her years at Hogwarts and now it was as if everything was hitting her at once. She flicked her eyes slowly over the 5th year at her side and evaluated him. He was cute, she couldn't deny that, but he was also... Well, he was infuriating to Bellatrix. There was something about him that just rubbed her the wrong way, more than lots of other students that she didn't like (which was, honestly, the majority of Hogwarts). He wasn't like Xavier Tawse who, although intolerable, was...

'Irresistable,' said a secondary voice.

Blast it all! Xavier Tawse was intolerable and that would be the end of it! Erin Harper would suffice as a date to Ketteridge's birthday masquerade. After all, no one else had asked her and she didn't want to have to force anyone to dance with her again. It would be quite unexpected if Bellatrix showed up with a man people thought she hated. Besides, to see the look on Xavier's face when she arrived with someone else... It brought a smile to her lips that she hid by leaning closer to her History of Magic essay that she was trying to complete.

"Er... Is there anythin' else or are you goin' to bed?"