Title

Among the Serpents

Chapter 1

By

Adrienne Black

Hermione Granger who resided in muggle London, 413 Yule Avenue, was thoroughly surprised to receive a letter from a strange, but prestigious school called Hogwarts. True, the name sounded dreadful, but the letter that arrived for her looked official enough; with heavy cream colored parchment with neat emerald green lettering and a red seal with four creatures on the back. The letter was strangley addressed, stating not only her name and street, but also the room she resided in. "Second floor, third door on the left", it read, and Hermione thought this rather odd. This, however, was nothing compared to the shock she encountered after reading the letter's contents.

Ms. Hermione Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all nessecary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await you owl no later than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Minivera McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Hermione must have reread this letter at least two dozen times before it actually sank in. She was a witch. It never crossed the youths mind that this might be a joke, a horrible, cruel joke. She was much too naïve to think this was evil trickery, for who would wish to do that to an eleven year old girl?

Almost immediately after coming to the conclusion that she simply had to be a witch she ran downstairs to bring the news to her parents. To her shock, they neither seemed stunned nor confused, although looking back on it now, they did seem disconcerted. It seemed they had been expecting this for quite some time, how long Hermione did not ask. The young, bossy Hermione insisted her parents take her to this Diagon Alley at once, for she had to begin to prepare for school, she was probably light-years behind. They obliged and for the next two months their daughter could speak of nothing else.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger saw their daughter on to the train, leaving her the moment she set foot on the train. Hermione sat on the train apprehensively, only leaving her compartment to help a pitiful looking boy search for his toad- Trevor. While poking around the train she heard things about a hat who supposedly 'sorted' the students. Sorted them into what was beyond Hermione and thinking about it only made her more nervous. Nothing was mentioned about this in Hogwarts, A History.

Soon Hermione, and who she assumed were her other classmates were rowed to the magnificent castle by a rather large scraggily looking man who took up an entire boat all to himself. They were sternly greeted by a strict looking women and were then escorted into the Great Hall.

Then Professor McGonagall (the stern woman) brought out a wretched looking wizard cap and began to call out names. The hat's brim moved most curiously and screamed out odd names, which Hermione supposed were the categories she had heard of on the train. "… there's not a wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin…" Hermione overheard a rather gangly red-haired boy saying to another astonishingly handsome young boy. Well I certainly wouldn't want to be in Slytherin then… Hermione thought. Then, it was her turn.

"Granger, Hermione!" shouted the professor.

Nervously Hermione walked up to the stool and the cap was placed on her head. The hat seemed to be musing to itself aloud in her ear, or perhaps it was her in mind, it wasn't to be certain. "Brave, yes, feisty hmmm… thirst for learning, it's all there, Muggle-Born curious… very curious… This should be interesting, lets see how you fair in…. SLYTHERIN!"

"Oh bother" murmured Hermione as she made her way to a rather glum, ugly lot on the far right of the dinning hall.