George was sitting at midnight in the Common Room. He was lounging at his favourite spot, the couch below the window, with a blue quill and a pot of lilac ink. Aurora, his mom's favourite owl, was perched on his shoulder, nearly drooping off to sleep. George whistled once. Aurora woke up with a start, and seeing George wink at the tiny blanket beside him, got the signal and went off to sleep down there. George stroked the owl for a while and resumed writing his letter. He hadn't written to Dad for a long time down there in London. By 'a long time', he meant 8 months.

George was on his third paragraph, when he heard a creaking noise not far away from him. He ignored it. As he finished marking the last stroke of a letter, another creaking noise sounded. George looked up. A shadow was clearly visible beside the window in the dark. "Hello?", George called softly. No one answered... except for his candle. Just when he decided that things couldn't possibly get any worse, his candle went out.

Now George was left alone in the dark with a blown-out candle, a piece of parchment, a quill, an inkpot with ink in it, and a sleeping owl as his only weapons against the mysterious shadow, which radiated a 'something-big-and-hairy-coming-to-eat-you' kind of aura. George tried Lumos, but he hadn't yet learned the wand movement or the pronunciation in Charms yet. "Lumos! Lumos! LUMOS!", he half-shouted. This time he decided that things couldn't, no way, get any worse. Well, his owl went wild in the dark. "Aurora!", George called. Aurora stopped her half-mad activities.

George got up. "H-h-hello?", he said in a trembling voice. "Who's there?", he asked to the unknown somebody. A low moan came from the shadow. He crept softly towards it, when a flurry of movement told him that Aurora went crazy again. "Aurora, please!". The owl looked at him and hooted in a I'm-so-scared sort of voice. "Either help me or stay still.", George reprimanded her lightly. "Here," He handed her a few Owl Treats. As she nibbled on them, George advanced towards the unknown entity behind the shadow. He groped for the candle and his fingers struck something hard. He found a whistle. "Tunc Sibilus!", he cried. The whistled turned into a watch. 1:15 at night. "Reparifarge.", he said. The watch Untransfigured into its original form.

This time he finally found his candle. He was about to take his wand out, when he tripped on something. His mental resistance finally broke. "What the- oh heck no. OH HECK NO! AHH!", he screamed as he fell. A red jet of light streaked past him and hit his spare exam quill. "NO!", he yelled. "Aguamenti!", he shouted. It didn't work. He didn't know how to do it.

"Incendio!" Another red streak of light soared past him and the unknown somebody finally struck their target, whoever it was. The candle lighted up and finally George got up gasping. He looked at the shadow, but this time he saw a girl with long dark blue hair and brilliant blue eyes.

He simply stared, open-mouthed, and settled on his couch. Aurora hooted happily next to him. The girl just stared at here. She then walked over and then said, "Hello! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She smiled. "I'm Julia, Julia Evans. Nice to meet you! Can I take a seat?" she asked, already sitting down. "Er, sure, of course!", George agreed.

He watched Aurora finish the last of her Owl Treats. He then tied the letter to her leg and sent her away. He watched her fly for a while and dance around in the air before finally disappearing from sight. He then turned towards Julia. It looked like he had earned another friend at Hogwarts, after all.