A/N: This is my very first Fanfiction, so reviews and constructive criticism would be veeery welcome ;) Have fun reading!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine and I am not earning money from this.
It was a cold night for this season, I thought as I shivered and pulled my cloak tighter around my slender body. In the pale moonlight I could see Fred's red head coming closer, so I grabbed my suitcase and rushed forward to meet him. Whilst being jostled around by others and helping some confused first-graders out the way, I noticed some quick movement from the corner of my eye. I looked around and stopped just in time to prevent myself walking straight into the tall figure dressed in expensive robes of Draco Malfoy.
With a greasy grin he moved forward to block my way. He took a step toward me and threw an insult defiantly my way, "I'm surprised you still have the balls to return to this place, Johnson..." I was just looking for a suitable counterpoint when Fred finally reached me through the crowd. "What was that, Malfoy?" Furious, he glared at the blonde. Malfoy answered this with only his most innocent smile, and darted a less compassionate look at me before he turned and disappeared. Fred and I exchanged a blank stare before we took the next coach up to the castle.
"It's fairly cool tonight, don't you agree?" The voice was soft and tender, but I still jumped and looked directly into the clear wide eyes of Luna Lovegood. Without waiting for an answer, she continued, "This year will probably be quite different than the last. It will probably hold great changes." Her huge eyes studied me. With her pale skin and light blonde hair, along with the bright moonlight, she looked like a ghost. I shuddered and swallowed, Malfoy's words still in mind: "Um, how do you know that?"
"Oh," she leaned forward a little, lowering her voice as her expression became serious, "The Nargles told me." Next to me, Fred rolled his eyes and sighed. I smiled then, not being able to hold it back anymore.
Then went the evening, like every year before that. One of the first grade students had made an, despite Hagrid's many warnings, (involuntary) swim in the icy Black Lake. And as every year, Peeves had thrown what looked like charge tuber worms at the new students (quite amusing too see that even the second graders cried out and shot off in all directions). And the crowning glory before we had even reached the Great Hall, was Neville losing his toad, Trevor, and creating an uproar of laughter.
The hall looked exactly the same as before; the long benches and tables the same, which were already covered with food of all kinds, the thousands of candles that floated above our heads, the star strewn ceiling and of course the fully packed teacher's table at the back.
No sooner had the giant doors of the hall opened, had crowds of students flocked to their house tables and found the friends they had failed to on the train beforehand. Soon, everyone had taken their seats, and the first years had lined up behind Professor McGonagall. They watched the older years apprehensively, their wide eyes peeking out from behind the teacher.
McGonagall told the first years to wait behind the podium and picked up the Sorting Hat. She explained what would happen next and called the first one forward: "Matthew Adams!" He took his place on the stool on top of the podium and waited anxiously to see what would happen now until he had finally the Sorting Hat on. The Hat's face remained smooth and unreadable for a few seconds as it thought, and then suddenly it shouted, "Hufflepuff!" The cheers from the next table over were near deafening. Matthew breathed a sigh of relief and hurried back quickly to his table. McGonagall then called forward the next, and so on, until finally the last one, a Slytherin, had taken her place at the table.
Next, Dumbledore rose from his chair and approached the podium. "Welcome," he began as all the conversations and laughter died away, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. I have decided to share some important information with you, some of which is very serious, which is why I think it is best, if all of you listen especially carefully..." On his last words he gave me a sharp glance, and I knew it was probably best if I didn't interrupt him.
Dumbledore turned his gaze back off me, and my more or less guilty look in his conjecture confirmed I would stay silent. He quietly cleared his throat and continued: "Now all of us here in this room know Lord Voldemort and his followers are at large and gaining power. But not only are his Death Eaters a threat to us, but there is also another kind of danger he has recruited. This danger is of course the werewolves. I want to tell you, actually, I want to warn you, not to under any circumstances leave the school building after six o'clock," he paused, his blue eyes gliding over our school, before continuing, "Well, on a lighter note..." That was my cue to let my ears wander off and devote my attention to observing the funny behaviour of students at other tables.
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"...And I'm sure you're all very hungry, so I shall let you get on with the feast!" ended Dumbledore's opening speech. The emerging sound of conversation woke me up, out of my half-sleep. And now I realised it too, the rumbling feeling in my stomach; hunger. Real hunger. I then realised the usual delights of the long tables. My eyes darted from pudding to pizza, and spaghetti Bolognese and cucumber salad. Just when I had decided on the spaghetti, I felt a strange feeling in my stomach and one thing was clear: this was not hunger. It was like an emerging restlessness inside me. I looked around but nobody seemed to have noticed anything. Everything was as usual, so I tried to continue to focus on my food and go on normally. I even managed to distract myself and think of something else, but the feeling would not shift from my stomach.
And suddenly I heard it; this rasping growl, followed by whining and whimpering and the unmistakable sound of screws falling out. I sat stock still. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me, he was close by. My anxiety grew with every passing second and within minutes there was an eerie silence throughout the hall. Dumbledore turned to stare suspiciously at the door. Suddenly the high windows of the hall shattered and tiny shards of glass showered down on us. Everything broke into complete chaos, people ran every which way as shots of coloured flashes of light zoomed in over our heads through the broken windows. They were followed by hundreds of masked figures dressed in black; Death Eaters. Now, they could compete against anyone, but I was still sitting stiffly in my seat. I couldn't move even if I wanted to, something inside was holding me back.
The doors to the Great Hall swung open after a painfully loud thump. And what I saw surprised and shocked me less than I had feared. At the entrance stood around maybe a hundred wolves. But I wasn't the only one who knew these weren't normal wolves. Some of them were pretty ordinary, but the others were taller; had a longer snout and rather long, thin limbs. As soon as everyone in the hall noticed the pack they froze. The herd was divided as a great black wolf moved forward. Even I could admit he was breathtaking; pitch black hairs covered his upper torso which then blended into a dark brown below. He raised his head and sniffed. Suddenly, his clear, fierce eyes fell on me. His eyes locked onto mine and I stared back, mesmerised. I forgot everything else around me, the fights from the Death Eaters and the cries of the wolves, who fell at once into the fight. For me at that precise moment, all that existed were those eyes. But then they were gone, swallowed by the darkness that engulfed me and everything else. The last thing I remember feeling was hot breath on my neck and sharp claws on my body.
Hope you like it! I would very appreciate it, if you give me a little feedback! I really want to know what you think about this story! ;)
AND OF COURSE A GREAT 'THANK YOU!' TO THE LOVELY iLOVEFenrir, who translated this story into English! Thank you! :)