When Luna walked into breakfast the next day, a strange hush lay over the Great Hall.

They've all been talking about me, Luna thought, laughing behind my back. They're all in on it. After all, one of the girls in my dormitory had to have helped – boys aren't allowed in, and who else knew where the book was?

But even as her humiliation filled her with paranoia, Luna's logical mind knew that such a dramatic change in the usually cheerful atmosphere of breakfast could not possibly be attributed to a first year prank. Perhaps something had happened last night at the Quidditch game she had been too embarrassed to face?

Gryffindor had been playing Slytherin. Luna glanced quickly at the tables of each of two Houses involved. Of all the tables in the Hall, the Slytherins looked by far the most relaxed, and the pale haired Seeker Ginny had warned her about was laughing with his friends.

Gryffindor, on the other hand, looked despondent. Had they lost then? But the reaction seemed excessive for a minor setback so early in the year, even if the game had gone spectacularly badly.

Luna's eyes sought out Ginny, and she was shocked to see how distraught her friend looked. Even more alarming was the realisation that nearby, Ginny's brother had his bushy haired friend sat alone, wearing serious expressions.

Harry Potter was nowhere to be seen.

Luna was filled with worry – had he been injured? She felt horribly selfish, moping in her room over a stupid prank while someone Ginny cared about could have been seriously hurt. She wanted to run over to the Gryffindor table straight away and ask if her friend was alright.

But she couldn't. Biting her lip, Luna took her seat at the Ravenclaw table.

None of the other first years were talking; all looked grim.

"So," Luna hazarded, "how did the Quidditch go?"

Cordelia frowned and shot Luna a confused look before answering.

"Gryffindor won."

Then what…?

"For God's sake Loony, show a little heart why don't you?" Daniel hissed. "Or do you think this was those stupid Nargles of yours as well?"

"I…?"

"Leave her alone, it's not like she did it," Cordelia muttered.

"She's been saying all week it was a hoax, and now look at her!" Daniel was practically spitting. "Even after what's just happened, she's asking about Quidditch. Like nothing's wrong!"

"What happened?" The urgency in Luna's voice seemed to surprise Daniel, and he turned away from Cordelia to face her.

"A muggleborn was attacked." His low voice, full of anger, came out sounding like a growl. "Paralysed, like the cat. The Heir of Slytherin got him. You know – the one you said was a myth?"

Luna wondered why he was so mad at her. It had been unlikely that the message was real – but obviously, the threat had been serious. The evidence had changed, and the cold realisation that the Heir of Slytherin might be among them made Hogwarts feel suddenly more dangerous than she had ever imagined it could.

But there was no point in saying so – not when saying anything would only aggravate Daniel further, and a far more important question was already springing to her lips.

"Who?"

"Does it matter?" Daniel glared at her, like wanting to know if someone she knew was in the Hospital Wing was somehow a crime.

"A Gryffindor in our year," Cordelia answered. "I think his name was Creevey."

"Colin." The word came out as a gasp. Suddenly, Luna could picture him all too clearly, laughing and smiling and taking pictures of her and Ginny outside Potions last week.

Frozen solid, unable to smile or laugh or move at all, still clutching the camera that he never seemed to put down.

The vivid image of the kind, friendly boy lying petrified in a hospital bed turned Luna's stomach to icy cold marble, and her head began to spin.

"He took Potions with us," she told Cordelia, suddenly feeling that it was vitally important that the girl should know. "When I lost those House points in our first lesson, he stuck up for me. He was nice."

"Glad to hear he was worthy of your sympathy," Daniel sneered. "It's okay for us to feel bad now, because Loony thought he was nice. Good to know you're so concerned about all of this, Pureblood."

Cursing herself for her slow thinking, Luna suddenly realised why Daniel was so mad: he was muggleborn. The news of the attack must have terrified him even more than it did Luna – he was a potential target for whatever madman was doing this, while she only had to fear a direct attack as much as anyone else trapped in the hunting grounds of a psychopath. She couldn't take this rage personally – Daniel was just lashing out at her to hide his own worries.

Luna wished she could somehow tell him that everything would be alright.

But there was nothing she could say, other than she hoped the teachers would catch the maniac before they could hurt anyone else, and that seemed so obvious as to be utterly useless – and, before she had time to think of something better, Daniel seized his bag and stormed away, his mood still as dark as the clouds roiling overhead.

"Ginny!"

Luna had only realised that Ginny had left her seat as she had been leaving the Great Hall, and she had to race across the Entrance Hall to catch up with her friend.

Ginny spun around, and Luna realised just how pale her friend was. She looked even more shaken by the attack than Luna felt.

"Luna…"

"I heard about Colin," Luna said. "I – oh, Ginny!"

At the boy's name, Ginny had begun to sob, tears running down her cheeks in huge streams.

Luna hugged her, and was scared to feel her friend shaking against her.

"Come on," she said, pulling Ginny gently out of sight of the main doorway, towards a quieter corridor. "Do you want to go to the hospital wing?"

"No!" Ginny shuddered. "I – I'll be fine, just –"

"Okay, okay," Luna said soothingly. "We'll stop here. Come on, sit down – that's it."

Ginny curled up tight on the floor, burying her face in her knees. The hard stone slabs didn't make for the most comfortable place to sit, but this corridor was the only one near here in which there weren't likely to be any passers by, and Ginny had looked a little like she might faint if she tried to walk much further.

"I can't believe it," Luna's friend gasped in between sobs. "I can't – I –"

"I know," Luna told her. "It's horrible. I can't believe anyone would do that to Colin."

Ginny sobbed harder.

"But he'll be alright!" Luna reassured her. She had been told as much by some of the older Ravenclaws. "They have a cure, it'll be ready in a few months. Colin will be fine!"

Ginny took a couple of deep, shivering breaths, and finally the tears seemed to stop. She finally relaxed and uncurled slightly, leaning her head against Luna's shoulder. Her shudders had stilled to a gentle quivering, which disappeared completely as Luna wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"It's not just Colin," Ginny said eventually. "I – I'm scared what's going to happen. Who's going to get hurt next."

Luna bit her lip. There were a lot of muggleborns at Hogwarts – the thought that they might all be in danger was impossible to deal with, on any level. But it was also hard not to be afraid for herself and Ginny. Someone was attacking students – they seemed to be targeting muggleborns, but would that stay true? And, even though she and Ginny were both purebloods, their families weren't the most respectable. Would that measure up to the Heir's standards?

Luna felt guilty for even wondering.

"It'll be okay," she told Ginny again. "They'll put a stop to it soon. No-one else will get hurt."

"But…" Ginny sighed. "I can't believe it was Colin. He was fine yesterday, joking around after the Quidditch match. He said he was going to sneak out to visit Harry in the Hospital Wing…"

"Harry's in the Hospital Wing?" Luna asked.

"He broke his arm at the match, Ron said he'll be fine by this afternoon." Ginny gave a watery chuckle. "He still caught the Snitch. You should have seen Malfoy's face. I'll have to show you the pictures that -"

Ginny broke off suddenly, and Luna realised that, in the face of everything that had happened, even Quidditch wasn't much of a distraction.

"Why would anyone hurt Colin?" she asked to fill the silence.

"Maybe…" Ginny said slowly. "Maybe they didn't want to."

Now Luna shivered. Every wizarding child had heard of the Imperius Curse. The idea that someone could take you over, control your every action, make you do unspeakable things, was even more terrifying than the thought that one of their fellow students had decided to persecute muggleborns of their own free will.

"I don't know," she said, every word fighting her unwillingness to even consider the possibility. "This is Dark Magic, but – Ginny, that's really Dark."

"Can you see anyone we know choosing to do that to Colin?" Ginny asked. She sounded almost desperate to believe that their fellow students were not the ones to blame. Luna could understand wanting Hogwarts to feel safe, but, to her at least, the idea of someone they knew being under the Imperius seemed just as dangerous.

"Not everyone in this world is nice," she reminded her friend.

Ginny shuddered again.

"What do you think will happen to them?" she asked quietly. "When they catch them?"

Luna shook her head. "I don't know. They'll probably be expelled. They might even go to Azkaban."

Slowly, Ginny sat up, meeting Luna's gaze with reddened eyes.

"I hope they catch them soon," she said slowly. "I hope they put a stop to it. Whatever it takes."

"Me too," Luna told her friend.

The sooner this lunatic was caught, the sooner Hogwarts could start to feel safe again.