Glittering lights dancing on the walls. Silver confetti all over everything. The floor spelled to make foggy mist drift up through the cracks in the cobblestones. A pulsing beat that thumped through your chest and made your heart seem to dance in time with the music.
A school dance at Hogwarts.
Harry's worst nightmare.
Five weeks earlier:
"Ron, who is she?"
Ron looked up from his Honeydukes chocolate, smeared all over his fingers and now staining his untouched homework. "Who?" he asked Harry innocently.
"You know who!" Harry retorted. "The new sixth year. The girl who was put in Gryffindor earlier this week."
Ron smiled teasingly. "Well, she lives in this tower. Why don't you ask her?" But responding to Harry's death glare, he added, "All right, her name is Morgan Faye; according to rumor, she's an orphan who was sent here by her spinster Muggle aunt who was ashamed to have her witch niece seen in the neighborhood. Sound kind of familiar? She comes here from America." This last remark he said with a suggestive grin, as if to say, you know what they say about American girls. "Why are you so anxious to know about her anyway?"
Harry sighed, not wanting to admit the real reason. "Well, you know…just curious is all," he lied, avoiding the knowing look on Ron's face that saw right through him. He didn't add that there was something about the way she had looked at him across the Potions classroom on her first day, a look that had twisted his stomach in knots. She had stared right through him, no, into him, stripping him down to his bones. He had been overcome with a strange fear: she could see his soul, his secrets. She looked at him like she had known him for ages…Harry shook off the disconcerting memory. It was ridiculous. He had never seen her before in his life; she had just moved there from another continent.
"Paranoid," he whispered to himself. "You're just paranoid."
"What did you say?" Ron asked, his chocolate now all over his mouth and chin.
"Nothing," Harry said. "Wash your face. I'm going to bed." And with that he strode up the stairs to the dormitory, leaving Ron glaring questioningly after him.
I know it's short but keep going it gets better!