Campus was swarming with students, as usual. Nobody knew where anybody else was going - there were a variety of dorms, far too many buildings you had to know how to get through to get to your classes, and uncountable things to do for fun. Unless you had classes with somebody it was often quite a surprise to bump into them.

Laura knew this firsthand - she was always bumping into people and she never ceased to be surprised by it. Especially Padfoot. He had a habit of turning up at the very oddest times.

Now, for instance, he had just tripped over something invisible and careened in front of her.

"Hey, Laura," he said, picking himself up off the sidewalk and grinning rather sheepishly. He was in his stupid Domino's Pizza T-shirt again.

"Hello," said Laura. She kept walking, but Padfoot had gotten up and fell into step beside her.

"So what's up? We haven't talked in a while. Since last week, I think. How's tricks?" he asked her. "Good grades? Bad grades? Hard classes? Easy ones? How are the roomies? Any good parties? Bad parties? Any parties at all?"

"A few, they're fine, and no." Laura, stared at the sky, still walking. "Look, I have a class to get to..."

"That's okay, me too," said Padfoot cheerfuly. "RFW 245, boring as anything. Hey, there's a party tomorrow at Waldo Hall, you want to -"

"What's that?"

"I said there was a party..." started Padfoot, but trailed off as he saw the expression on Laura's face. She was staring across the street at something huge and black. My god, he thought. It's a guy in some kind of cloak... that was so tacky. Even tackier than that big duffel bag Laura was always carrying around. We were talking really really tacky here.

Who was he?

"Let's go find out," Padfoot suggested hopefully. Maybe it would be fun.

Laura shook her head slowly.

"I don't think that thing is... safe."

"Oh, come on," said Padfoot. "What's he gonna do? Hit you with his big scary sleeves? Oh, I'm the Cloakmeister, feeeear meee..."

"Shut up," laughed Laura. "I just... don't feel good all of a sudden."

"Come on," repeated Padfoot, and dragged her across the street.

It was indeed a guy in a cloak. A big, black cloak - they couldn't see his face or hands, but got the impression that he was very old indeed.

Then he straightened, and spoke, and it was replaced by the impression that he was not much older than they were.

Laura would never remember exactly what he said - the mere sound of his voice was strangely hypnotizing. Slowly and carefully, he led them on an aimless-looking path around the campus, stopped in front of a building they had never noticed before, and led them into that.

It was a strange building on the inside. The front door opened into an entrance hall, decked out in four different bright colors, all randomly fading into each other. Red, yellow, green, blue...

"What is this?" Padfoot asked incredulously as the door closed behind them. "Some kind of raver thing?"

But Laura's mouth was hanging open in shock and sudden recognition.

"Oh God..." she said, stepping backwards unconsciously. "Oh god, anywhere but here..."