New Witch at Hogwarts

I woke up next morning to the sound of trains passing through.
“Ughh,” I groaned as they just kept rattling on by. It was really annoying and not to mention incredibly loud. I threw the covers off of me and got out of bed. Yawning, I made my way over to the mirror. I brushed my hair before changing into a pair of skinny jeans and crisp white shirt with a collar and an adorable little black vest. There was nothing for me to do in my room and I was hungry, so I decided to go downstairs for breakfast. Downstairs there was a lot of commotion. Especially some red-head boy and bushy-haired girl. They wouldn’t shut up about the girl’s cat chasing the boy’s rat. I wanted to chuck my cereal bowl at their heads, but I knew it would only cause more trouble, so I refrained from doing so.
“Hello Harry,” the bushy-haired girl said as her friend walked downstairs.
“Hey Harry,” the red-head grinned. I turned around to see that they were talking to Harry Potter. Half of me wanted to go over there and half didn’t. I mean come one, he’s famous, but I knew it would just be awkward and weird and so I just sat there and ate my cold cereal.
“Excuse me dear,” someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around to see a rather plump lady with blazing red hair smiling at me, “but you seem kind of lonely here. Would you like to come over and join my son and his friends?” she gestured to the red-head boy - who was most likely her son, the bushy-haired girl, and the famous kid.
“Um, that’s okay,” I smiled, “I’ll be fine right here.” She smiled her motherly smile.
“Well if you do get lonely, just come right on over.” I smiled and nodded. She was incredibly nice, but let’s face it, I’m rather shy. Or at least when I don’t have any friends with me I am. Whenever I have friends with me, it’s like I’m fearless and will do anything……..almost. Well, I finished breakfast and went back upstairs to gather my things. I wanted to get to the train station early today so I could find a good seat. Well, trying to carry all of my stuff by myself was nigh impossible, so I pulled out my wand.
“Locomotor (I think that’s the right spell),” I commanded and the trunks lifted up into the air. I walked downstairs with my trunks floating behind me and out the door. As soon as I stepped outside, I let the trunks fall lightly to the ground so any muggles wouldn’t gawk as I headed for the train station.
“Platform 9 ¾,” I read my train ticket. Mum had told me before they left that I would have to run into the pillar between platforms 9 and 10 to get to the correct platform. So I found platforms 9 and 10 and ran at the pillar in between, closing my eyes. I felt a weird sensation before opening my eyes to see a scarlet train in front of me with "Hogwarts Express" written on the front. Handing over the pitch black owl I had bought to the man at the front, I heaved my luggage onto the train cars and began to search for a compartment. I kept walking till I was at the end of the train and sat down in the empty compartment on the right. My luggage was as heavy as ever, so I had to use the ‘Locomotor’ spell to get it up into the luggage rails.
It was early, only 10:30 and the train left at exactly 11:00, so I had about half an hour left until the train would leave. To kill time, I pulled out my iPod and turned it on and then dug out my book that I was reading. It was nothing special, just book with some spells in it that might be useful. I flipped through the pages, trying to find the place where I last left off.
“Let’s see; healing spells, prank spells, cooking spells, cleaning spells, transfiguring spells,” it seemed like I was father on in the book than I thought as I flipped through page after page. I just gave up and skipped way ahead in the book. Well, I flipped too far and so I had to go back. A page caught my attention. ‘Patronus Charm’ was the title at the top of the page. There was a picture of a person under it and it looked like there was mist or something coming out of the person’s wand. The mist turned into some sort of animal as the person muttered, “Expecto Patromun.” I read the paragraph under it and in short, the patronus charm is used to repel something called dementors. Even the word ‘dementor’ sent shivers down my spine.
The playlist on my iPod ended, so I put my book down with the page still open to the patronus charm and found a new playlist to listen to.
“I see you’re reading up on the ‘patronus charm’,” a voice said. My head snapped up to see a man with grayish, shaggy hair next to me. I jumped a little out of surprise and reached into my pocket for my wand out of instinct. “Oh, I’m sorry for surprising you,” he said gently. I pulled my hand out of pocket, but was still wary of the man.
“May I?” he asked, pointing to the book. I nodded and handed it to him. “Yes yes, the patronus charm. Wards off dementors with a sort of mist-like spell created from a happy memory one has had. Normally it takes form of an animal that suits the person’s personality. My my, it is such a difficult spell to learn.” I just kinda stared at him, but I mean come on. He was a random stranger that wants to see my book and then starts talking about stuff that leaves me feeling like I know absolutely nothing.
“Here,” he said, snapping me out of my thoughts and handing my book back to me. I took it and placed it back into my bag. “Would you mind if I sat here?” he asked me. “Most of the other places are already filled up.” I debated over whether to tell him yes or no. I mean, he didn’t exactly seem like the kind of man that would be the most comfortable to be around, but I may be wrong. And plus, he was a complete stranger. “All I need is a nice long nap,” he promised, “You don’t have to worry about waking me either. I’m a heavy sleeper.” If what he said was really true, I couldn’t see the harm in just letting him stay here.
“Sure,” I said finally.
“Oh, and my name is Professor R. J. Lupin and I will be teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts class this year,” he smiled at me before sitting down in the seat across from me and pulling out a small blanket which he draped over himself. It seemed that he had fallen asleep instantly as he closed his eyes. He made not a sound and stirred only at the slightest, which was only to move into a more comfortable position before becoming still again. Well, knowing that he was a professor gave me a little peace of mind, but it also made a little more wary of him at the same time because he’s is gonna be the one who controls my Defense Against the Dark Arts grade.
I noticed that he hadn’t put his trunk away. It was rather shabby, but small enough that I could get up and lift it up onto the luggage rack by myself. The train was filling up really quickly with students old and new for the long ride to Hogwarts. It was getting pretty loud so I shut the door. It blocked out most of the noise and I could understand why he wanted to come all the way down here at the end of the train.
Well I had to use the little girl’s room and change into my school robes so I left the compartment momentarily. As I entered the bathroom, I heard the whistle blow, signaling that everyone had better get on the train or else they would be left behind. After I had relieved myself and changed, I made my way back to the last compartment on the train.
“Who do you reckon he is?” I heard a male voice ask from inside the last compartment as I approached. I stopped in the doorway to see the Potter boy, the red-head, and the bushy-haired girl in there.
“Professor R. J. Lupin,” the girl and I answered at the same time. We paused for a moment and stared at each other before looking away.
“How do you know that?” the red-head accused.
“He told me,” I answered at the same time as the girl said, “It’s on his case.” We looked at each other again, before blushing slightly and turning away.
“I’m Hermione Granger, by the way,” the girl said.
“Ron Weasley,” the red-head said, sitting down in the train seat that was across from the one I sat in.
“And I’m-” the Potter boy was about to say before I cut him off.
“I’m pretty sure there isn’t a witch or wizard in the world who doesn’t know who you are, Harry Potter,” I state matter-of-factly. He closed his mouth and didn’t say anything further.
“Well, I’m Selena Riko. Nice to meet ya,” I said, sitting back down in my seat as everyone went through some more preparations to make themselves comfy; after all, it was supposed to be a very long train ride.
“What were you going to tell us?” the boy named Ron turned to Harry and asked. Harry hesitated and looked at me.
“Umm, I’d prefer to tell you in private,” Harry said quickly. All three of them turned to look at me. I got back up and walked outside the door before stopping and turning around.
“You have the time it takes for me to walk all the way up the train and back to talk in private,” I said before closing the door and beginning my journey. I’ll say that it was a much longer trip than I thought it would be. “They had better be done talking,” I said when I had finally returned from my very long expedition up and down the train. “Ready or not, here I come,” I said before barging back into the train compartment. Inside were three more people. The one standing in the middle, and from the looks of it, the ring leader, was a blonde boy whose hair was slicked back and had a condescending look on his face. He was having a bit of a stare down with Harry. The other two boys were both fat and looked like they didn’t have a clue as to what was happening.
“Who are you?” the blonde sneered at me.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said, staring back and forth from him to Harry. There seemed to be a rather hostile feeling between the two.
“Well, everyone knows about me,” the blonde boy sneered. “I’m practically famous at Hogwarts.” Harry, Ron and Hermione didn’t even bother to stifle their snickering. The blondey turned to glare at them, but they didn’t stop.
“Well not everyone can know you if I don’t. Cuz then it wouldn’t be everyone,” I replied simply. A scowl replaced the glare on blondey’s face as he motioned to his cronies and they walked out the compartment door. The trio of people still in the compartment just laughed even harder.
“Shhhhh,” I whisper as the professor starts to stir in his sleep.
“That was bloody brilliant,” Ron grinned. “Did you see his face?!”
“I know mate,” Harry grinned before trying to stifle another burst of laughter. “I’ve never seen him so pathetic-looking.”
“So what was his name?” I asked as the sound of rain was able to be heard over the roaring engine.
“Draco Malfoy,” Harry said the boy’s name with absolute loathing.
“I take it that you’re not in the best of leagues with him?” I asked, while sitting back down in my seat.
“We hate each other,” he said, rather frank in his response.
“Gotcha,” I said, holding my thumbs up with a bland look on my face.
“The other two are his cronies: Crab and Goyle,” Hermione said their names with much distaste and loathing. Ron looked rather livid now that he had stopped laughing and my guess was only that he and Malfoy didn’t get along that well either.
“I’m not going to take any crap from Malfoy this year,” he said angrily. “If he makes one more crack about my family-” he made a really rude hand gesture (otherwise known as flipping the bird) in the air.
“Ron,” Hermione hissed at him. She eyed the still sleeping Professor Lupin before beginning to breathe again. The rain began to come down harder and harder as we sped father towards Hogsmeade.
“We must be nearly there,” Ron said impatiently. It was pitch black out, but that was all you could see past the rain. Almost immediately after the words left his mouth did the train begin to slow.
“Aw great,” he mumbled, “I’m starving here!”
“We can’t possibly be there yet,” Hermione said worriedly, as she checked the watch on her wrist. The train slowed down more and more until it barely moved and the rain outside was thunderous as it hit the train. Harry decided to get up and peek his head out the door. All along the carriages, other heads were sticking out their doors to see what was happening. The train came to a violent stop that made everyone fall and made the luggage come crashing down. Thankfully though, it didn’t hit any of us.
“Ow,” several people in our compartment muttered at once as the lamps suddenly went out and everyone was plunged into the darkness of the night.
“Ouch Ron! That was my foot!” Hermione snapped.
“Sorry,” he answered timidly.
“Do ya think we broke down or something?” I asked, as I tried to feel my way around and find everyone.
“I don’t know,” came someone’s reply. A dim outline of a person found their way over to the window and was wiping a spot clear.
“There’s something moving out there,” came Ron’s slightly fearful voice. “It looks kinda like people are boarding.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” I said, making a face. Suddenly, everything started to become very cold. The rain on the window began to freeze and you could start to see everyone’s breath as they exhaled. Even my body began to feel like it was freezing. My eyes had become adjusted to the darkness now and it was a little easier to see.
“I don’t like this,” Hermione said.
“Neither do I,” I mumbled. The compartment door flew open and something landed on Harry.
“Sorry – d’you know what’s going on? – Ouch – sorry –”
“Oh hey Neville,” Harry said, trying to feel his way around and help the other boy up.
“Who’s Neville?” I asked, my curiosity about the new boy was my foremost emotion right now despite the situation we were stuck in.
“A friend we’ve had since we started here,” Harry said.
“Harry? What’s going on?” the boy named Neville asked, fear evident in his voice.
“No idea. Um, uh, sit down Neville,” Harry said. There was a loud hissing sound and then a yelp that sounded like cats fights. Apparently Neville had tried to sit on Crookshanks, Hermione’s ragged fur-ball of a cat.
“Maybe I should go ask the driver what’s going on,” Hermione said. I could see her dim silhouette stand up and walk over to the door. The door slid open and then two loud squeals sounded throughout the compartment.
“Who’s that?” Hermione asked.
“Who’s that?” a softer, but more frightened voice asked. The person sounded like a girl and she sounded younger in age than us.
“Ginny?”
“Hermione?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for Ron.”
“Well come in a sit down,” I said. “Some more company could really calm me down right now.”
“No not here!” Harry said hurriedly as he saw the silhouette of the girl named Ginny walk very close to him. “I’m sitting right here!”
“Who are you Ginny?” I asked, as she stood in the middle of the compartment, not being able to find a seat in the dark.
“She’s my little sister,” Ron said in a what would be bored fashion had he not been filled with fright from the current situation on the train.
“Come here Ginny,” I said, scooting over in my seat to make room for the girl.
“Ouch!” Neville said as Ginny had accidentally tread on his foot in her hurry to sit down.
“Quiet!” a very hoarse and ragged voice commanded. I looked over where the old professor had been sleeping to see that he was no longing napping and was now standing up, wand out and ready to strike if anything went wrong. A squeak sounded from Ginny and she decided to sit down next to Ron over in the corner, where she was closest to. There were suddenly some small crackling noises and a fire appeared to be burning in the professor’s hand, but not actually burning his hand in the slightest bit though.
“Stay where you are,” he commanded us in that still raspy voice. He slowly edged his way towards the door, but it slid open eerily before he could reach it.
At first glance, it looked like a cloak was floating in the doorway; but when I squinted my eyes and looked closer, I could tell it was something much, much worse than a flying cloak. There seemed to be a figure underneath the cloak and the garment was ragged and threadbare. It had no feet and was simply suspended in the air. Its arms and hand were sticking out slightly from underneath its cloak. It was hard to see clearly in the darkness; but what I did see, I never wanted to see it ever again. The hands were grayish and covered in what looked to be scabs; it looked like the thing was left to die and rot in a body of water. The sight of the creature alone was enough to chill me to the bone, but the feeling that emanated from it made me feel even worse.
It felt kind of like the world was coming to an end. I felt nothing but sadness, and like I was all alone in the world. I felt as if I could never be happy again and I would die a lonely and heartless person.
I began to shiver. I didn’t know why, but I just did. Maybe it was because I saw a sight I never wanted to see again. Maybe it was because it felt like everything happy was being sucked out of me. Maybe it was because it felt like I was slowly being eaten away at by little invisible beings until there would be nothing left of me. Maybe it was all three. Or maybe it was none of them.
I doubled over in my seat and began to shake like mad. I was moving so violently that I fell over onto the floor and began to writhe and twitch around like a live chicken about to have its head hacked off. Suddenly there was a rather bright, mist-like light and my body fell limp. Harry had fallen unconscious; but I was still conscious, just lying on the ground. I tried to move, but the feeling of control over my body was momentarily gone. My eyes were unfocused and hazy; you’d think that I had already died had it not been for the fact that my heart was beating 50 (or so it seemed) times faster than normal. I was pretty sure everyone was able to hear it. It also seemed that my hearing was momentarily lost at the moment too as everything sounded so far away and distant. The professor dude lit some lanterns and so the bright light brought my hazy eyes back into focus as I blinked and looked around the crowded compartment. The train began to move again and a little bump caused my body to move. Being jostled around a little helped to get the feeling of control back as I moved my arms and legs slightly. I was about to get up, but another bump caused me to fly up a little, only to be brought back to the floor of the train with a painful ‘thud’ that made me just want to lay on the ground until my bones stopped throbbing.
“Harry! Harry! Are you alright?” my hearing was beginning to come back to me as I heard a sharp slap and imagined someone slapping Harry straight across the face and then a red mark of that person’s had appearing later.
“W-what?” I turned my head to the side to see Harry look around at everyone before pushing his glasses back into their proper spot on his face.
“You okay mate?” Ron asked.
“Yeah,” Harry said, sweeping his eyes over the still crowded compartment again. “What happened? Where did that – that thing go? Who screamed?”
“You fainted; it left; and no one screamed,” I said, answering all his questions in one sentences.
“But I heard someone screaming-” Harry started to say, but broke off from his sentence as he saw everyone’s scared and confused looks.
“No one screamed,” I repeated, looking around at everyone’s pale faces for verification. They all nodded, showing that they thought I was right. I turned back to Harry to see a confused look on his face. A loud ‘snap’ made everyone jump slightly. We all turned to look at Professor Lupin, who was breaking a giant piece of chocolate into smaller pieces.
“Here,” he handed Harry a particularly large piece. “It’ll help.” Harry took it, but didn’t eat it. Professor Lupin handed a piece out to everyone else. I immediately bit into mine when he handed it to me and I felt much, much better. I could feel the yummy taste of the chocolate give me a happy feeling as my body started to warm up some.
“What was that thing?” Harry asked the professor.
“It was a dementor,” the professor replied, “one of the dementors of Azkaban.” Everyone stared at him as he got up and strolled to the door. “Eat,” he commanded Harry, who was the only one who hadn’t eaten his piece of chocolate. “It will help. I need to speak to the driver. Please excuse me.”
“What happened?” Harry asked, once Professor Lupin had left.
“Well….that thing……the dementor…….just sorta stood there and looked around, or at least I think it looked around; you couldn’t really see its face, and you…….you……” Hermione tried her best to explain, but it wasn’t going so well.
“You looked kinda like you were having a fit or something. You went rigid and fell out of your seat.”
“Y-y-you started to – to – to – to……sort of t-twitch and s-sh-shake,” Neville added, his voice incredibly shaky and jumpy. I moved over and put a relaxing hand on his shoulder, even though I felt like breaking down as well. He looked at me, but it did seem to calm him down some.
“But not nearly as bad as Selena,” Ron added. I just turned my head and looked at him and he sort of shrank at my gaze, probably thinking I was mad at him for his comment.
“Well, Professor Lupin stepped over you and walked over to the dementor,” Hermione continued, “and he said, ‘None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.’ But the dementor didn’t budge an inch. So Professor muttered something and a silvery light came out and the dementor ran – or more like glided – away.”
“I-i-it w-wa-was hor-ri-rible,” Neville’s voice was higher than it should be and still pretty shaky. Apparently my comforting attempt had pretty much failed as he began to shake some more.
“It felt like I would never be cheerful again,” Ron’s eyes were starting to dart around the compartment like he was expecting something to jump out and attack him. There was a small whimper in the corner of the compartment and Ron jumped slightly as we turned to look at Ginny huddled up in the corner. She gave another small sob/whimper and Hermione went over to put a comforting arm around Ginny’s shoulders.
“But none of you…….fell out of your seats did you?” Harry asked awkwardly.
“I did,” I volunteered, raising my hand slightly. That seemed to make him feel a little better.
“And Ginny was shaking like mad,” Ron added.
"But none of you...fainted. Did you?" Harry asked, we all just kept kind of silent. Harry looked down and it looked as though he was ashamed of himself. I was about to ask him about the look on his face when the compartment door flew open again and Professor Lupin stood in the doorway.
“I haven’t poisoned the chocolate you know,” he said with a small smile. Harry looked at the piece of chocolate before taking a big bite of it. He looked surprised as the color returned to his face from the effect of the chocolate and we all turned back to Lupin.
“We’ll be arriving in Hogsmeade in 10 minutes,” he said before sitting back down in his seat. The remainder of the ride was pretty much filled with silence. Ginny and I would get a shake every now and then, Hermione would let out a small squeal – only to blush from embarrassment afterwards, Ron looked very timid and anxious, and Harry couldn’t stop thinking about why he was the only one to faint. The train finally arrived and everyone was eager to get out of the train, onto the carriages, and in Hogwarts as soon as possible. I followed the trio out into the freezing night’s air as the rain came down to greet us. The only thought that was in my head as I stared at the enormous castle off in the distance that would be my new home for the rest of the school year was:
Almost there