The rain was battering against the windows of the train. I didn't even remember the last time I'd taken a train.

"After all, it's only for a year," I tried to calm myself down.

It was only for a year. Twelve months of an exchange period of Hogwarts. One day the headmaster of my school just called me in and told me I was to go there. Apparently, this was a big deal for the school, no one had ever been sent to Hogwarts before. I was in my last year and was considered a good student - an excellent one, in fact.

It's funny how excellent students are frequently the saddest. I almost never went out anymore - just sitting inside, cramming my head full of charms and spells. I used to be very sociable and had in fact been quite popular around the campus - but no longer. Sixth year, I had quite a sad incident. I had developed some feelings for a teacher who seemed as quiet and book-loving as me, but decided not to act on them. However, one day when I was walking through the corridor, the teacher himself pinned me to the wall and started kissing me, the quietness all gone, as I realised I wasn't as calm and composed as I thought when it came to him.

Unfortunately for both of us, someone saw. The teacher was gone and I was sent home for a year - they wanted to expel me, but apparently someone said a kind word about me in the Ministry or something, because my punishment was softened. Still, it was a blow to me. Nothing helped - not my parents' plea to keep me in the school, not my friends testifying that I never made any advances towards the teacher. I wept openly as I dragged my suitcase out of the gates, my parents running towards me as everything seemed like a blur.

The year was tough. I got depressed and at some point was suicidal. My dear parents did the best they could to help me - they did not believe for a moment that I was to blame. My mother cried with me, cooked my meals and tidied my room every day, while my father would always come home from work and hug me from behind, kiss me on the cheek and always say the exact same words:

"You'll show them, Lennie. You'll show them."

Several months afterwards, I could finally face the outside world again. The buzz about my "affair" with an illustrious professor had died down, and no one bothered me about it anymore. The few friends I had from school, I struggled to keep in touch with them - but they were soon overwhelmed with schoolwork and I was left alone in the darkness of my own thoughts and crushed feelings.

Because I did still care a lot for the man who was the cause of my suffering. In spite of all that had happened, that moment when he turned me around in the darkness and pressed me to the wall was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Months later, my best dreams were still about that night. I had no idea when they would stop.

A year after my exile, I came back to school, wary and mentally patched-up. I trusted no one. I didn't get any new friends, although people treated me with respect because I studied hard and did not become cocky because of it.

None of the new students knew about the affair. It was all hushed up. The teachers, however, treated me with disdain. Not all of them, of course. But there was a kind of distrust towards me. The headmaster genuinely felt I owed it to him for staying in the school, even though I was a year older than the other students.

Seventh year, August the 30th, I entered his study, mentally bracing myself.

"Sit down, Miss L/N, "- he ejaculated as I sat carefully down on the chair in front of his desk.

"So. The purpose of my bringing you here is to inform you, that, of all the seventh years, you have been chosen to represent our school as an exchange student at one of the finest schools in the world. Their first semester starts in two weeks. "

"Beauxbâtons, sir?"

"Better. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"But isn't that... terribly far off?"

"It's only for a year and I am sure you will make the school proud. Your grades have been good all these years."

"Thank you sir, I will, but..."

"But what?"

I didn't know how to tell him that I didn't want to go. I looked up at his cold, unkind eyes and shook my head.

"Nothing, sir".

"There were other students we could have sent, you know", - the headmaster continued. - But it was strangely only you that the Hogwarts board wanted to see."

I could feel his hatred towards me resurfacing. I prayed the interview would come to an end.

"Normally, Miss Limber, you would have the right not to go...But I doubt it's in your own interests to turn down such an opportunity to make the school proud".

My head sank even lower, hoping he wouldn't go any further.

"Considering your reputation."

The tears were coming. It was almost as bad as I thought it would be. As bad as some of my nightmares back home - a particularly ghastly one was where the teachers would each come over to me and force-kiss me, each time wiping their mouths and saying "well, she's NOT thAT bad!"

The headmaster smiled, having achieved his desired effect on me.

"You may go now. I have already signed my consent. Your parents have been informed. Good day."

I rose, my face contorted and walked out of the room. I was just about to turn the door handle, when -

- Oh, miss Limber? One last thing. I hope your behaviour at Hogwarts will be impeccable if you know what I mean by that. There are a lot of - shall we say - gentleman teachers there. Good day!

I left for Hogwarts on September the 1st. My parents sent me letters, instructing me on how to make friends and socialise. Hogwarts was a big leap for me. I never even dreamt I'd go there.

As I looked out into the gloom and tried to make something of the world outside the train, I felt strangely comfortable. I was going into the unknown, but anything would be better than the awful world I left behind. A world, where every single auditorium and corner reminded me of something related to the man who nearly got me expelled. Of course, I was still scared and I had no idea what tomorrow would bring. But then, who does?

I snuggled up in my blanket and looked out into the darkness again. We were going over a bridge. I could see the water somewhere down below. How big was the world? And how do some of us manage to feel so alone in it?

Suddenly I lurched forward, hitting my forehead on the window sill. I cried out in pain and confusion as I realised the train had stopped.

Was this my stop? I thought. I sprang up, my hands rubbing the glass so the warmth would make them transparent. But there was no stop. We seemed to be right in the middle of nowhere.

I kept looking out into the darkness when all of a sudden, everything seemed to become colder. I looked at my hands on the glass and realised that the glass was slowly turning to ice.

Horrified, I drew back, engulfed by a panic as icy as the glass in front of me. I darted out of the compartment, expecting to find crowds of people there.

Instead, I found no one.

I pressed myself against windows in the corridor, dying to make something out of what was happening. The panic seemed to be growing inside me - but at the same time, it was almost as if something was making me scared - as if a spell had been cast upon me. Then, just as I was already starting to tremble with fear, I heard a metallic clink.

Looking up, I saw the lights go out, one by one. A voice started screaming in my head: "why did you even go to Hogwarts? You should have stayed where you were!", while another voice cried "she couldn't, you stupid thing! That teacher thing ruined everything!"

As I was having this fight within me, I saw all the lights go out. A couple of voices cried out in terror from the other compartments. I decided to try and drag myself to sit with someone else, as I was terrified of being left alone in this. But I felt myself unable to move.

Clinging to the window, I saw something dark go by it and gasped. But the dark thing was gone. I closed my eyes and began talking to myself:

- Lennie... This is just... a spell.. Or... the train has broken... down... Don't... worry... do not... cry...

Tears of fright had started to pour down my cheeks, and I usually did not cry when I was scared. I felt childish and almost happy no one could see me. Suddenly, I heard another noise.

It was almost as if someone had got on the train.

I tried to remember which carriage I was in. I was not far away from the driver. Did we change drivers, maybe?

I turned around, to face the direction where I'd heard the noise coming from.

The door to the carriage opened. I almost thought there was no one behind it, but my panic intensified and I knew someone had to be there... and someone was.

A completely black, menacing shape, almost three times higher than me bended into the door frame and I saw they had a black hood over their head and that there seemed to be no face behind that hood. They did not have hands - instead they had some sort of claws the size of wands. The black figure went - or rather flew, or swam - the air seemed to be as thick as water for them- towards me as I finally screamed out in horror. I thought maybe someone would come and help me - but no one did. I screamed as the black figure towered above me and suddenly bore down on me as a piercing pain shot through my heart and I fell to the floor, as if with that scream my life had gone out of me.