All Nightmare Long

It didn’t start during my first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Most stories would start from the beginning, but for me, my first year was the only year I endured that didn’t put my life in terrible risk. It was the year that everything could be normal. It was the year that you wouldn’t find me like I am right now, sitting in the forbidden forest with a group of monsters waiting to devour me.

What’s worst about this situation is that I asked for it. I keep coming back for more, and they keep welcoming me. And what’s even worst than that is my boyfriend is about five minutes from finding out, and possibly being killed.

But we’re going to start this story from the beginning.

+Flashback+

“Well it’s about bloody time!”

I rolled my eyes as my mother grabbed the envelope out of my hands and basically tore it open. She’d been waiting for any excuse to get me out of her hair, and the acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was just the golden ticket. “Perfect! Get your coat Keelan, we’re going shopping. School starts in a week.”

I did as my mother asked and grabbed my Metallica hoodie from my bedroom. The only part of the Muggle world my family let me be a part of was the music, mainly because metal was the only thing Muggles could do right. I agreed.

Diagon Alley was something I’d grown up in, and I wasn’t particularly thrilled to join my upcoming classmates in stumbling along the streets, collecting school supplies. Mom took me first to Madam Malkin’s, where I acquired some black school robes and traveling cloaks. While she paid, my eyes skimmed the shop and landed on a boy. Now normally, I wasn’t interested in checking out the opposite gender when I went in public. There was something different about this boy, however. I wasn’t quite sure, and before I was ready, mom led her out of the shop and into Ollivander’s.

“First year, I presume?” the old man asked with a smile.

I timidly nodded and returned his smile with a sheepish grin. He disappeared into the back, returning seconds later with a long box. Once opened, he pulled out a rather short wand and handed it to me. “Try her out.”

I took the wand into my dominate hand, the left, and gave it a wave. After numerable pages on a seemingly vacant shelf burst into flame, Mr. Ollivander snatched it back and returned it to the box. He went back into the back of the store and returned with yet another box. “Not to worry, plenty of wants to choose you. Give this one a try.”

Once more, I accepted the wand from him and waved it around. A nearby dwarf gave a yelp and rubbed the back of his head furiously, enticing me to place it hurriedly back on the counter. Mr. Ollivander disappeared once more while mom held back a laugh, and returned this time with about thirteen boxes in his arms. After five more unsuccessful attempts, he began to speak. “Well aren’t you a curious case. Here, try this one: thirteen inches, phoenix feather core.”

I took it and hesitantly waved it in the air. Instantly, a good amount of rose petals fell from the tip of the wand and gracefully to the floor, with romantic-era music filling the air. Mr. Ollivander smiled and said, “We’ve finally found a match. Interesting. Usually the shorter people require the shorter wands, and this wand is one of the longest I’ve sold in months!”

He wrapped up the purchase and sent us on our way. As we entered the Apothecary for potion ingredients and a cauldron, a strange feeling of being watched came over me. I looked around the store almost uneasily until my eyes came upon the source; the same boy from the robe shop was staring at me from across the store, standing with whom I assumed to be his mother and father. They all possessed bright blond hair and piercing gray eyes, quite a contrast to my black hair and emerald eyes. We broke gazes when my mother took me by the arm and walked out of the store. “It’s not polite to stare, you know.”

I shrugged. “Sorry. There’s just… something about him, I don’t know.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “You’ll have plenty of time for boys after Hogwarts.”

“That isn’t what I meant, mother,” I snapped. “Whatever, let’s just get my books and call it a bloody day.”

As we entered Flourish & Blotts, we noticed an abnormally large crowd and a single disheveled looking witch behind the counter. My mother insisted I wait outside, so I sulked out and leaned against the wall. After a few seconds of staring at my Converse, I noticed a shadow standing slightly to the left of me. I looked up and noticed the blond boy standing there casually. “We seem to be seeing a lot of each other today, huh?”

I smiled and said, “Yeah, I guess. Hogwarts?”

He nodded. “First year. You?”

“Same.” I extended my hand to him and said, “I’m Keelan.”

He shook it with a smile and introduced, “Draco. Draco Malfoy.”

“Oh, well excuse me. I’m Keelan Howell.”

We both smiled at each other. “So, Keelan Howell, which house do you suppose you’ll get?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have a care, really, as long as it isn’t Gryffindor. How about yourself, Mr. Malfoy?”

“I’m going to be in Slytherin,” he smirked. “My whole family has been, I’m basically guaranteed for it.”

“Well aren’t you cool,” I mumbled with a smile. “Yeah, I’m kind of hoping for Slytherin myself. All the greats, you know?”

“Definitely,” he said. “Well, I see my father is getting impatient, so I’ll have to be going. I’ll see you on the train?”

I smiled. “Yeah, of course. See you soon.”

He walked off, and not too long afterward my mother came out of the shop with a pile of books in her arms. “Let’s get out of here, it’s turning into a bloody zoo.”

I nodded and grabbed onto her arm as she apparated us back home.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The first night of Hogwarts was one full of excitement. After the train ride with Draco and his two friends Crabbe and Goyle, we were led to some boats to cross the beautiful lake to the school. The view was amazing. We were led through the castle to the Great Hall, which was filled with excited chatter and an air of anticipation. After instructions from McGonagall of how we’d be sorted, we all waited in anticipation for our moment. We were all astonished when Draco was called up for his sorting. The hat barely touched his head before exclaiming, “Slytherin!”

I smirked as I clapped while he winked over at me and ran to the Slytherin table. A few more individuals were sorted into the other three houses before it came upon me. The wait sent my nerves through the roof. My sorting was a bit more astonishing than Draco’s, however.

McGonagall cleared her throat and started to read, “Keelan How-“

“Slytherin!”

My eyes grew extremely wide as I walked past the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to Slytherin, everyone of the other houses’ faces possessing mistrustful looks. My house, however, was looking at me as if they’d struck gold as they applauded maniacally for my arrival. I sat across from Draco, who smirked dreamily at me and said, “Welcome.”

I laughed and thanked him, looking up to watch the rest of the sorting. There was a peculiar boy sitting at the very end of the table; a good twenty feet away from the rest of us. If I was paying attention correctly, I believed his name to be Jason. He was sitting slouched over, staring at his hands folded on the table. I began to wonder why he wasn’t over with the rest of us, and if he even had any friends for that matter, but soon he was joined by someone by the name of Matthew Tuck. He sat across from Jason and began talking quietly with him. They looked out the nearest window occasionally, as if searching for something or trying to find something in the sky. They, too, were joined eventually by two boys both named Michael. There were no new Slytherin first years after them, giving it a total of seven boys and five girls, myself included. As the feast began, I tried my hardest to listen to their conversation while making myself seem interested in Draco’s. All I heard was something about having a few weeks still, and notifying the professors so they wouldn’t get in trouble. I then decided I’d rather not know.

The Slytherin common room was beautiful, the dormitory even more so. There was emerald green bed sheets made of silk on all the beds; silver drapery on the walls; emerald curtains surrounding each bed for privacy; the emblem of the noble house of Slytherin on the wall. It was just dark enough to feel like home. A home I wouldn’t be seeing much if in the time to come.