Varius tiptoed to the secret passage off the dungeon corridor. It was awesome being a Hufflepuff because you were on ground level anyway, so if you needed to sneak out past curfew (like Varius was tonight) you had this lovely passage or the entire, not very well lit, dungeons. Not to mention if you go UPstairs, it's much easier to run away going down the stairs in a bid to escape than to be hill climbing.

BUT ANYWAY. Varius wasn't really one to break rules and he probably wouldn't be out of bed, out of hours if he hadn't owled Professor Bunbury and asked her to meet him here. He was certainly surprised when she obliged, but he had said the situation was life or death in the owl... it wasn't entirely true, but this was what he was preventing! Right?

He paced the the passage, nervous, jumping at every little sound, scared it was another Professor or a prefect who was going to catch him out, deduct a million points and send him off to his bed - not only would this whole venture be pointless, but he would have lost precious beauty sleep in the process!!!

Where was she? He asked himself impatiently, staring down at his watch. 30 seconds late! For Merlin's sake! Did this woman have no shameeeee?