I stalked the halls in a solemn kind of solitude. I was always in solitude. My heart craved companionship with a dead grasp, a ghostly hand that reached for the stars but fell. I fell. My heart fell.

The lights flickered on my hideous face only momentarily, the candlelight licking the grimy stone walls in an echo-like sense. It was no longer there. It was gone forever.

I paused immediately, sensing footsteps. I felt my deformed face contort to an vicious smile. A student out of bed, perhaps? Oh, life is bliss! Humans! Breathing, living, caressing forms of skin and flesh! How I longed to be one of them. We were so similar; all united by our opposable thumbs and bulky brains. And yet, I wasn't part of their clan. I was a wanderer. I wandered those halls without any human companionship. I was not lovable in anyway. I was alone.

The footsteps were a sign. I felt my heart beat in rhythm to them. The emotion of dead air froze as the footsteps grew closer in a hurried sense. They were running TOWARDS me. No one had ever run towards me!

A felt the flicker of a cat tail on my ankles. Ah, my one and only. The only oxygen breather who sneaked behind my iron curtain. A mere feline. What a strange partner.

The footsteps then turned a corner and bashed into my spoiled overcoat, knocking the vicious smile off my face and into the echo of past that still rang in my ears.

I recognized them immediately as a student. There was punishment to be had! There was something so pleasurable about other's pain. A long lasting shriek that stayed with you for so long. It was such ecstasy! If they could not accept me, they could die in harsh slow motion.

The red hair blazed the pale, frightened skin perfectly. He stared at me with a look of terror, and I felt a bang of sympathy. If I could only just this once-NO. I smiled cruelly, hiding my tenderness.

"Well, well. out of bed, I see? Thought you'd pay me a little visit?," I hurt myself with my painfully sardonic words. "You'll be properly punished if it is the last thing I DO!" Feeling the words cut across my throat like a knife, I thought it just might. What was it about this time? How could I NOT punish him for what the human race had done to me? Turned me into a monster. Stalking the halls with the mere pleasure of smelling blood. And I had a right, did I not? I could almost feel a cool blade slit across my filthy skin at the thought of what I had become. But no time for this! I grabbed the boy's arm and quickly began running names through my mind. He was a Weasley, no doubt. Not Fred or George, of course. It wouldn't registered right away. It came to me then.Ronald. I recalled several occasions when I had to punish him and Harry Potter. Of course. The forgotten sidekick. I felt a sort of warmth towards him, but shrugged it off with the hideous thought At least he has a companion.

I dragged this boy into my office as he stuttered on to me about some wild story. Likely, indeed. I stole gentle, understanding nods when he wasn't looking at me, but his feet. Probably dragged in by some troublemaker. Yes, I knew the story well. Not from a lying snitch or a murderous trickster, but from a faithful tag along. From a good friend. From me.

I shuffled through papers, letting out fake, psychotic giggles of satisfaction, having caught someone. I wanted to let him run away from a breast like me. I wanted to aid him from the pain I had suffered. I hid my empathy, forgetting what I should do. I paused, looking at him for a moment. He WAS beautiful, wasn't he? I shook my head quickly, seeing his strange look. I was thinking crazy things!

"Go," I whispered gently.

"Er. what?" His voice was beautiful too.

"Go!," I said harsher, pointing to the door. "Flee, now, before I change my mind!" He stood, stunned for a few moments. I knew if he was in my office any longer I would embrace him. "GO NOW, GOD DAMN IT!" He rushed out quickly. I let out a sigh of relief and fell in my chair, leaning against my desk in pain. Life shouldn't be this way.