Nimue, Kat and Marvo enter the Third Year Common Room and see the others.

Marvo glances around looking extremely concerned.

'So we've not the only ones. Well. This is most peculiar. I think something very.... strange... is going on here. Obviously this isn't natural. Some sort of Spell...'

He takes out his wand

'OSTENDO TENDERE CRESCO MAGICUS' <A rather complex spell>

Green mist slowly pours from Marvo's Wand and surrounds him, then dissipates

'Mmmm. Yes I see...'

He looks to the others. 'Looks like an extremely complex spell was cast over the School last night, or early this morning. I don't know what it was, but it was VERY powerful... I... I don't know how powerful, or when it may wear off. And I also don't know why you weren't effect. This is MOST perplexing'

"Well I know why we weren't effected" spoke up Nimue, "though I wish Achel was here to tell it as it was his idea."

She paused and looked at Egreen and the others. Egreen nodded his head at her - he too had been privy to the 'plot'. "Well Achel had got this idea in his head after Morticia's dream and the other things that were happening that something very bad was going to happen after the Yule Ball. He didn't know what it might be and so he prepared a sort of all- purpose antidote potion" she stopped, "I helped him a little."

"Anyway... basically he spiked our drinks and some of our food. He wasn't able to make that much and he didn't want to say anything about doing it because he didn't want to alarm any of us you know in case nothing happened or well, in case his antidote didn't work. He was going to put something in the Professors drinks, Snape however caught him and threw the rest away - though it was some sort of joke..." she trailed off.

"As for the spell that has been cast..." she took a deep breath, "I think it might be an old European one - it's called 'The Briar Rose spell.' used on castles mainly and it… creates an enchanted sleep which last erm a hundred years.

You mean that everyone else in this school will sleep for 100 years? We'll all be really old by then. Maybe we should contact the MoM and get help. I mean what can we do? And more to the point why has this happened? Who is behind it?" Kat was shocked.

Andy's mouth dropped. "But I don't understand..." said Andy. "Why...Who...Wa..."

Once again Andy was speechless. 100 years is a very long time. How were they going to fix this one?

"Well if it is the spell... and I'm not sure it is - we won't be able to get out - there will be some sort of impenetrable barrier or something" said Nimue, "We certainly won't be able to get word out at all. I guess in a few days or a week someone will come to investigate but if this was set by that man who took you last night, I don't think there is going to be all that much time."

Nimue looked around for Marvo or Egreen to help her out here.

Marvo pats Kat on the head. <In a nice way :-)> 'I think that us getting older is not our main concern here. And I have a hunch the owls are sleeping too. I'm sure whoever is behind this would have made sure that, not only is their no way of getting a message out, but most likely no way of getting in either, for a short while anyway, depending on what they want to do.'

He looks over to Nimue. Wanting to add 'you should have told me' but realising that, given the timing they hadn't been talking.

'I think the first thing we should do is find out who is awake, and then work out what to do next. I would surmise that time is of the essence here, whoever... or whatever... did this will probably expect everyone to be asleep, and may arrive at any moment to... well... do whatever it is they wanted to do. What could they want? Why Hogwarts... and why now?'

Madison recognised the boy walking down the hall. "Lee!" she called out. Lee turned, stopping to let Madison and Adrana catch up. "Whew! You're okay...I was really worried that you'd be asleep, too."

Madison quickly introduced Adrana to Lee, then got back to business. "What's going on here?" she asked.

Lee shrugged. "I don't know...but everyone is asleep, and they won't wake up. I was about to go find you...C'mon, we should get to the common room and see if anyone else is awake."

Madison nodded, and the three of them hurried to the Third Year Common Room. "What is going on here?" she asked when she saw the others gathered in there.

Wandering down the halls, Niki comes to a door that seems to have some movement behind it, and she can hear voices.

"I think the first thing we should do is find out who is awake, and then work out what to do next. I would surmise that time is of the essence here, whoever... or whatever... did this will probably expect everyone to be asleep, and may arrive at any moment to... well... do whatever it is they wanted to do. What could they want? Why Hogwarts... and why now?"

Nervously, she knocks on the door. "Umm... Hello? I'm awake. What's going on?"

Pushing open the door, since she hears nothing from inside the room, Niki sticks her head in. "I couldn't help hearing," she adds, pushing her hair out of her face, "that you mentioned a 'Briar Rose' spell? I don't know much about this, but in the Sleeping Beauty story, you have to kiss someone."

Stepping inside and closing the door to the third year common room behind her. "If we know who the spell was cast on, could we try and kiss them?" she asks with a grin. "Of course, that would mean kissing what is probably a large number of people..."

Nimue looked over the new girl, she wasn't one of the 'Scooby gang' but then she wasn't sure who exactly had received Achel's potion.

"That's a good observation and you are right there is usually one person or thing which is sort of a 'key'. But before you guys get all excited about it - the 'logical' person to be the key is 'Kat' - after all she was in the hands of the man we assume is the caster and maybe that is what he had in mind. But... because of Achel's formula Kat's awake and the key has to be asleep. ... Therefore without knowing it by rescuing Kat rather than just waking up and finding she was sleeping somewhere and emmm I guess Marvo being 'Prince Charming', we may have sort of have well 'locked ourselves in'...."

Nimue looked at Kat with a weak smile and mouthed - 'sorry - it does make some sort of sense'....

Winifred slowly opened her eyes and just lay in her bed for a while. She enjoyed the peace and quiet for a few moments until something struck her. It was *too* quiet. She sat up straight and looked around the room. Morticia wasn't there, but everyone else was asleep. Looking at the clock she gasped. How did it get to be so late? She rushed over to Riala's bed and tried to wake her. She didn't even move. Something was wrong. She pulled on a robe over her pyjamas and quickly pulled a brush through her hair. As she made her way through the Slytherin common room, she shivered. The fire was out and no one was there. Continuing, she quickly made her way upstairs to the third year common room.

Winifred entered the common room in time to hear about the Briar Rose spell. This whole situation has left her quite perplexed. Who cast the spell and what did Morticia's dream have to do with it? She wanted to send an owl home, yet Astenus (her owl) would be asleep. She decided to sit down in a chair and try to clear her mind.

Marvo (predictably) blushes over the mention of kissing. 'Erm...okay...well...'

He suddenly turns to the new girl 'Oh. Hi.' He looks at her carefully 'I...haven't seen you before. Let me introduce you. This is Nimue, Kat, Morticia, Egreen, Andy, Madison, Lee, and Adrana, who I also don't know. Oh and here's Winifred. And I'm Marvo...erm... Welcome to Hogwarts.'

He smiles hoping he has distracted everyone from Nimue's 'Prince Charming' remark.

"My name is Nicola Pheidippides," Niki explains. "I got here last night, because Papa and I just got here. He's the Greek ambassador to the British Ministry of Magic.

"Nice to meet you all," she adds, "you're the first people I've seen for a while."

Morticia gives an excited shriek. "Ah, so you're a Pheidippides!" To the surprise of all, she doesn't stumble over the long and weird name. "My dad has told me about your dad, he's the French ambassador. I think I even saw him once during a party, your father."

"Oh," Niki says. "You're a Lagrand... Which one?" she asks with a grin. "I hope Papa didn't say *too* much about me," she adds.

"What's this about a potion in the drinks?"

"Morticia. Morgaine, my twin, and my older brother Nathan are in Beauxbatons." She notices that some students grimace at the telling about Nathan. "Well... Nathan visited us here, and.... it was rather unpleasant. Never mind."

"Nice to meet you Niki." said Kat. "I think there are going to be a few people awake that you might not expect Marvo. I mean if Achel added his potion to drinks and food it is possible that he added it to the wrong drinks or that people picked up the wrong glasses. Either way I think maybe we need to make sure that there are no others awake. I can go and check Ravenclaw; we are still missing Sarah, Lunar, Kali and Teresa. Someone should check Gryffindor and Slytherin."

'Your very right Kat. Who knows who might be awake? But I don't think you should wander off on your own <'not again' He thinks>. I don't think any of us should be alone from now on... Just in case'

"OK. Who should I take with me? There are no other Ravenclaws here. How about you, Nimue?" asked Kat.

"Yes, I will. I think that pretty much all the Gryffindors are here. It's the Ravenclaws that seem a little thin on the ground. We seem to be missing Slytherins as well. Oh and Achel's not here either - he would have tried his own potion wouldn't he?" asked Nimue.

"Come on then." Kat led the way as she and Nimue headed for the Ravenclaw common room. They look in all the rooms, and all the dormitories. They found Kali in the boys’ 3rd Year dorm. They had wondered about whether they should have looked in the boys’ dorms, but decided that if none of them woke up then they wouldn't know. He didn't stir.

"I guess Kali won't be joining us. He was obviously so nervous about Winifred that he avoided drinking anything!" said Kat.

In the 3rd year girls dorm they found Sarah, Teressa, and Lunar. They tried waking them....

Nimue found Sarah peacefully curled up in bed deeply asleep. "Looks like Sarah was too busy with her new beau for Achel to give her a drink. "

The returned to the common room having found no one else awake.

Yvette smiled and stretched, opening one eye. A curtain was open, allowing the sunlight to stream through. Her hair was in frizzy disarray and she managed to wrestle it into a loose ponytail. Rolling over, she flung off the sheets and stuck her feet into her slippers.

Her eyes focused on the illusion book, resting innocently on the bedside table. She gave a little shriek and flung it away, suddenly shivering. The book hurt her...but she was awake! It had let her stay awake!

The girl stared at it, daring it to misbehave. With a deep breath, she picked it up, trying to use her mind to shove back the tiny, invisible fingers pulling at her magic. Lucky for her, the sun was bright, and it wouldn't regain it's full power...yet.

She shrugged on her bathrobe and hugged the book to her, trying to keep it's harmful touch out of anyone's way. She peered into a nearby mirror and smiled at her freckled, sleepy face and curly, untamed hair. Now she could leave...

Stumbling down the hallway, she shivered again, and proceeded to the Third Year's common room.

However, a very bizarre feeling came over Yvette as she walked and a small voice in her head said: 'Pinch yourself.... you're still dreaming....'

When Yvette did this she found, she was still in bed with a note by her bedside:

*Yvette, if you wake up - please come down to the Third year Common Room right away. Get dressed first. Nightie is exquisite but we don't want to give Andy a shock. Don't worry I have your book with me. If you don't wake up...then see you later, I hope...love Nimue. *

Yvette giggled and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a baggy sweatshirt. Looking down at herself, she grinned.

"If mother saw me now!" She could just imagine the look of horror. But, there were things to do...Nimue sounded urgent, almost. She stumbled down the stairs and peeped into the Common Room.

Niki looked at the newcomer. "Hi," she said. "My name's Niki. I guess I'm new here... I'm a little younger than you guys are, I guess. I'm twelve.

"Oh, merde!" she says suddenly. "My brother! I totally forgot! Can someone show me where the Slytherin boys would be sleeping?"

Yvette smiles sleepily. "Heyas, Niki! I'm Yvette Monclere."

Niki looks around. "Does anyone know where I'll find my brother? He got here last night, like me..."

"I'll show you to our common room." Morticia smiles at the others. "Won't take long. Come, Niki!"

She leads Niki to the Slytherins, tells her the password and shows her the boys’ bedrooms.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Adrana, who was thoroughly confused at this point.

"What do you mean, what have we been talking about?"

"Well, I just got here, everyone is asleep and won't wake up, you guys are talking about some potion, and then someone just blurted out something about Sleeping Beauty! What's going on?"

Madison tried to explain as best as she could. "It is confusing...from what I think they're saying, everybody is under a spell that would keep them asleep for a hundred years. We're immune to it because Achel spiked our food and drink with an antidote..." She looked to the others. "Did I get it right?"

'Well, as far as we can tell, yes Maddie, that seems to be exactly what has happened. The question is, who and why'?

He paused. 'The 'who' is probably the same person who took Kat, and possibly had something to do with the murder of poor Joss.'

Marvo looks up and around. "Come to think of it. Has anyone seen Joss? Or any of the other ghosts?"

Egreen nodded in agreement on the who, "Don't get too concerned with the link with 'sleeping beauty' though the spell itself has been nicknamed 'Briar Rose' for last few hundred years because it crept into 'fairies' stories that way."

Egreen looked as though he were ready to expound how wizards of the classical world had utilised the spell abut then changed his mind, looked around the room and said:

"But Sleeping Beauty will do, I guess. Sounds nicer that what it is - a death-like sleep, which removes the site from not only the real world but also double enchants it. Hogwarts already looks like an old ruin to muggle eyes and now it will likely look like a ruin to the wizarding world as well.

Regarding 'why' - I think Joss' murder is linked. Would her ghost or the other ghosts be affected though?"

Morticia and Niki return from the Slytherin common room. Morticia has heard Egreen's last few words. "Joss? No, haven't seen her since... that incident at the Yule Ball, but neither have I seen any of the other ghosts. Does anyone of you know some passwords to the teachers' rooms? We should check on some of them, Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall... some of them just HAVE to be awake, I mean, they're powerful witches and wizards, right?"

Marvo seems a little unsure as to what he should say. "I... Erm... I know them." For some reason he looks a little embarrassed to have to admit this.

"Marvo, this is serious! Something bad is going to happen, and there aren't any teachers or other adults around! We MUST try and find someone. Hagrid, Filch, anyone!" exclaims Morticia.

"I dunno... That doesn't mean they're definitely awake. I mean, this is a pretty powerful spell, isn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are awake, though. Probably Dumbledore. Papa says he's the most powerful wizard ever." Said Niki.

'Yes Morticia, you are right. I'll go and check on Dumbledore. If anyone, apart from us, is still awake, it's sure to be him.'

With that Marvo turns and 'sweeps' out of the room.

There is a 'slight' hint that Marvo is torn between being very worried, on the point of being scared, and being excited at the 'adventure'.

Andy turns to Marvo quickly. He rushes after him. "I'll go with you just in case something happens."

After the others were out of hearing distance, he spoke, "Oh my gosh! I can’t believe this is happening. I don't want to sound childish, but I'm freaked out Marvo."

'Well Andy... I wish I could give you a good reason NOT to be 'Freaked out'... But I can't'.

Then Marvo pauses and Looks straight into Andy's eyes. "But I promise you. I'll do everything in my power to make sure no one is hurt and to try and sort this mess out"

Andy and Marvo arrive at the statue leading to Dumbledore's Office.

Marvo give's Andy a 'Don't tell anyone' looks and whispers to the Statue 'Savoury Snails' and it swings to one side revealing a long staircase.

They make their way upstairs and Marvo tentatively knocks on the door. There is nothing but silence all around.

Marvo knocks again... and again, until, after what he 'hopes' is long enough he tries the door.

It opens revealing a lavish Office... and Dumbledore's slumped at his desk! Marvo rushes in and over to the unconscious Headmaster. 'Thank the Source! He's only asleep!'

Looking closer They both see Dumbledore's arm is stretched out on the desk, still holding a quill resting on a piece of parchment.

On the parchment is scrawled one word, the last letter of which is almost unreadable, with a line running down the page as if he fell asleep before his could lift the quill from it.

'FOREST…’

'Oh Sh...' Says Marvo.

Andy looks at Marvo. "Forest..." said Andy. "The forbidden forest! What could it mean?"

Andy tried to wake Dumbledore up, but it was useless. "What do we do now?"

Marvo Ponders for a moment. He looks around the room, thinking to himself 'Imagine what interesting things there may be in here...' but he stops himself. Not only would it be wrong to take anything from here, but also there were far more important things to do.

"Come on Andy. Let’s go tell the other." He sees Andy looks a little worried, and Marvo feels exactly the same. But he put on a brave face.

'Oh NO! The house elves are all asleep! Where and I going to get my Bacon!'

He smiles at Andy hoping his attempt to lighten the mood may have helped a little as they leave the Headmasters Office and return to the Common Room.