The afternoon corridors were full of bright sunlight. Now and then, curtains stirred by the wind let in scattered strips of warm orange light.
When Justin came out of the classroom, the other young wizards could all see the faint flush on his face.
"What did Professor Lupin want with you?"
Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We talked about some things involving Sean,"
Justin answered honestly.
"You two… Sean…"
Hermione frowned.
"And Professor Snape too,"
Justin added.
His gaze passed over the ivy-clad walls of Hogwarts and dropped toward the dim dungeons below.
It was almost as if he could see Sean just emerging from there.
"Stay away from Lupin. I do not want to see you with him anywhere—outside of class—Green."
Professor Snape's voice was still echoing through the dungeon.
Sean understood perfectly well why.
He walked silently down the empty spiral staircase underground, thinking about where Bloody Baron might be.
Just now, Peeves had brought Bloody Baron's invitation, but not his location.
At that moment, a line of pale gray figures came drifting through the wall, their upper bodies emerging first.
"We ought to forgive, we ought to forget, I say we ought to give him another chance—"
"But my dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves enough chances already? He's given us all dreadful nicknames. And honestly, he barely qualifies as a ghost at all—"
said a ghost in a ruff and doublet, sounding displeased.
Sean recognized him as Sir Nicholas.
"He'll improve—"
said a plump ghost dressed like a little monk.
"He won't—my dear Friar, just now he was trying to seal up the caretaker's door, and unless I'm mistaken, he was about to harass a professor as well—"
Sir Nicholas looked thoroughly offended.
"I know, peaceful coexistence, mutual cooperation, that is the key. We ghosts may belong to different houses, but we have always maintained the closest friendship.
Though Gryffindor and Slytherin compete fiercely, I have never in my life dreamed of going to quarrel with Bloody Baron.
But look at us—we don't even know which house he belongs to—"
"That's only because you're afraid of the Baron,"
another ghost teased.
Nearly Headless Nick looked deeply insulted.
"Afraid? I assure you that I—Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington—never once committed an act of cowardice in life! Noble blood runs through my veins—"
"What blood?"
the other ghost asked.
"Surely you don't still have any—"
"That is a figure of speech!"
Nearly Headless Nick snapped, furious, his half-severed head wobbling dangerously on his neck.
"Oh, Nick, you know he was joking."
The Fat Friar hurried to smooth things over.
"By the way, you are—"
The ghosts noticed Sean.
Several gray-white pairs of eyes turned toward him all at once.
And then, like mice who had just seen a cat, the ghosts began wailing and scattering in every direction.
"It's him—that Green boy—run—he's going to send you away—Merlin, I've already become a ghost and I still managed to get scared badly enough to flee—"
Sean heard them shouting as they fled.
He went a little blank.
He hadn't realized that, in the minds of Hogwarts' ghosts, his image had become this demonized.
He gently caught hold of one of them—though the ghost could have passed through his arm at any moment, he seemed too afraid to.
"I'm not going to send anyone away at random…"
Sean explained helplessly.
"Dear God—no—"
the Fat Friar shrieked, then began to cry.
"You've already sent away the ghost of your own Ravenclaw house, and now you're going to come after the Hufflepuff friar too—"
"Friar—"
Sean tried to keep his voice from sounding too frightening.
Though, truthfully, he had no idea what was supposed to be frightening about it.
"Green, good boy. I know you're the next headmaster, and Dumbledore indulges you—but think about it, how terribly dull Hogwarts would be without us!
If you truly don't want to see us, then once you take over, we'll leave on our own."
The Fat Friar was clearly terrified. He blurted out his plea for mercy in a trembling rush.
Sean was speechless for a moment. He stared at the Fat Friar for quite a long time.
He truly could not understand where so many of these rumors had come from.
It made sense enough that they might think he sent ghosts away, or didn't like ghosts. But "next headmaster" was sheer nonsense.
"Green, good wizard, I watched you grow up. Could you really bear to send me away?"
the Fat Friar said, teary-eyed, bracing himself like a man ready to die.
"Friar, the Gray Lady chose to leave on her own."
Sean said it plainly.
"That's impossible!"
the Fat Friar protested at once.
"Oh, of course I believe you, Green, good boy, but it's simply too hard to understand.
You do realize that only wizards unwilling to face death become ghosts."
Sean knew he wouldn't be able to make the Friar believe him right away, so he silently took out the Pensieve.
Three minutes later—
"Good child, Green, what a deeply moving thing you've done…"
The Fat Friar wiped tears with one hand and leaned on Sean's shoulder with the other, sobbing.
"We all misunderstood you, child. Can you forgive me? Forgive a plump little friar?"
"I forgive you, Friar. May I ask you something?"
Sean said, letting out a slight breath of relief.
"I shall tell you anything I know, child."
said the Fat Friar.
"Bloody Baron… where is he?"
That, after all, was why Sean had stopped him in the first place.
If there was anyone in Hogwarts who knew where Bloody Baron was, fellow ghosts like the Fat Friar were the best possible people to ask.
"Baron? I'd guess the Astronomy Tower. Up there humming and clanking to himself. It's his favorite pastime—"
said the Fat Friar.
"Sorry to trouble you, Friar."
Sean turned and left the corridor at once.
At the same time, he finally understood why he'd stopped running into ghosts these past few days.
"Oh, what a good child. Dumbledore was right to choose him as headmaster. And there's good news too—I must tell everyone, those days of fear and trembling are almost over…"
The Fat Friar hummed to himself and floated off as well.
Not far away, a cluster of ghosts huddled together, shivering, staring toward the place where the Fat Friar had just let out those terrible screams. Now they watched as he floated back out completely unharmed.
The top of the Astronomy Tower was veiled in thin mist.
Sean had spent many hours up here studying Astronomy.
Recognizing the courses of the planets, and reading from them the fate of things to come—
that was what the centaur teacher had taught him.
Now, for the first time, Sean took his eyes off the distant sky.
He saw a ghost in robes stained with silver blood, wearing shackles.
Its chains rattled softly.
And from this highest tower of all, Sean could see Ravenclaw Tower rising high beside it.
~~~
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