October arrived before anyone realized it. Damp, chilly air spread across the grounds, seeping into the castle through cracks in the doors and windows.
A sudden wave of colds swept through both staff and students, leaving Madam Pomfrey run off her feet.
Her Pepperup Potion worked instantly, but whoever drank it would have smoke puffing out of their ears like chimneys for several hours.
During one of her experiments, Pandora had an accident while grinding the horn of a Longhorn Water Serpent: a raincloud materialized above her head and followed her everywhere she went.
"I don't think it was supposed to do this..." she said in bewilderment, her hair soaked through, turning to a dumbfounded Snape.
The professors were equally helpless in the face of the strange cloud. No one could explain the cause.
The raincloud hovered over Pandora for days before vanishing as suddenly and silently as it had come.
After being trailed for two days by Filch, who carried his bucket and mop while muttering non-stop and glaring at her with his furious fish-like eyes, Pandora finally couldn't hold out and caught a cold.
Snape forced her to drink some Pepperup Potion. As a result, steam continuously poured out from beneath her bright golden hair, making her head look like it was on fire.
Bullet-sized raindrops hammered against the castle windows for days without end. The lake swelled with the onslaught of rainwater, and the flowerbeds turned into a muddy mess.
Hagrid's pumpkins, however, thrived in the storm, growing madly until each was the size of a garden shed.
Not until mid-October did the skies finally clear, and sunlight once again flooded Hogwarts.
A notice went up in the common rooms, announcing the date of the first Hogsmeade weekend of the term: it was to be this weekend.
Snape had thought that after the ghoul uprising, they wouldn't be allowed to visit Hogsmeade. Now, knowing they still could, he was naturally delighted.
After such a long rainy season, the chance to leave the castle and breathe fresh air, even for just a few hours, was enough to lift anyone's spirits.
What's more, a few days earlier, after being splattered in the face with rain by an owl, Snape had received an invitation from Madam Rosmerta. Her letter promised that the finest mead was waiting for him.
"Who sent you a letter?" Abbott asked curiously.
"No one." Snape, recognizing the handwriting, quickly folded the parchment and stuffed it into his pocket.
He had to admit, the allure of mead was simply irresistible.
On the morning of the Hogsmeade trip, a gale howled outside, battering the windows mercilessly. The weather had lost all trace of its recent warmth.
"Pandora," Snape asked as soon as he sat down to breakfast, "are you coming to Hogsmeade with me later?"
"Of course," Pandora's eyes lit up, and she said excitedly, "I want to drink a hot, frothy Butterbeer."
"Uh... I'd like to drink something too." Snape nodded slowly, adding his own words.
But all the way on the walk to Hogsmeade, Snape felt uneasy.
On one hand, even though he had wrapped his scarf tightly around the lower half of his face, whenever he bent against the wind, the exposed skin quickly stung and then went numb.
On the other hand, Pandora's presence beside him made him uneasy in a different way. He kept telling himself that he only wanted to drink a few glasses of fine mead, after all, that stuff wasn't cheap.
At the fork in the road leading into the village, Abbott suddenly spread his arms wide, blocking Snape's path.
"Hold up," he said with a mischievous grin. "Aren't you going to invite me in for a drink? Aren't we best friends?"
"I never said that," Snape shot him a glare, replying irritably.
"Always so hurtful," Abbott chuckled. "But I think you're not here for the drinks at all, are you?"
"You... you... what are you talking about?" Snape's face flushed red.
"Don't think you can hide those little schemes of yours from me."
"What schemes? Fine then, you can come in with me."
Snape threw an arm around Abbott, trying to drag him into the Three Broomsticks. Hah, who didn't know who better?
"No... I've got something to do..." Now it was Abbott's turn to squirm, his grin slipping.
"You're too much. I invited you, and you still want to leave? Has some woman bewitched you?"
"I'm begging you, let me go, I was wrong."
"Then tell me what's so urgent."
"Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop..."
"Oh, that's a nice place, but it's a long way off. You probably won't make it in time."
"Please..." Abbott looked at Snape pitifully.
The two wrestled for a while before Snape finally let him go.
"Fine, go on then."
When Snape turned back, he saw Pandora still waiting at the pub entrance, gazing at them with an affectionate expression.
"Don't look, don't look. It's freezing out here." Snape said irritably. "The young girls of the United Kingdom these days... their heads are full of strange things... clearly they don't have enough homework."
He pulled open the door and hurried inside with Pandora.
The pub was packed wall-to-wall, noisy and hot, thick with smoke.
The enchanting landlady, Madam Rosmerta, had a vivid red scarf draped over her shoulders and was serving a rowdy crowd of wizards at the bar.
By the right-hand window near the fireplace, there was one small empty table.
As Snape pushed through the throng, the stench of tobacco and firewhisky wafting through the air, his eyes fell on a scruffy, bearded, disheveled, ginger-haired little man in a ragged coat, looking utterly seedy.
Mundungus?
The same unreliable scum who had fled the battlefield and caused Mad-Eye's death, and who later looted Number 12, Grimmauld Place?
Snape frowned and clutched his pocket tightly, pulling Pandora along through the crowd until they reached the back of the pub.
"What do you want to drink?" Pandora asked. "I'll go get it."
"No, I'll go." Snape said. "I know you want a Butterbeer."
Just as he rose, Madam Rosmerta appeared with a tray, smiling warmly at him.
On it rested a finely crafted wine bottle, two glasses, and a steaming tankard of Butterbeer.
That bottle had to be her oak-matured mead, Snape thought.
A pair of sparkling teal-green high-heeled shoes glinted in and out of sight among the crowd, coming their way.