Disclaimer: I don`t own Harry Potter. I am but a bored fan wanting something different. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and various publishers.
A/N: My first fic please be gentle. I am not very good with french, so if any of my french phrases are wrong, feel free to correct me. And if you know any good on-line translators please inform me either by review or e-mail. Thank you.
Visions of Paradise
by Solstice
In the memory you'll find me
eyes burning up
the darkness holding me tightly
until the sun rises up...
-"Frgt/10", Linkin Park
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter one: L'enfant de la nuit
A figure stood outside a massive castle. She had all her luggage set down to either side her. She had an aura af dread all around her as if death itself was coursing through her veins at this very moment. Hogwarts, she thought would be boring, old and well, uninteresting. [Well, let`s get this over with.] She thought. [This place might be old but considering how much time I`m going to have to spend here, I guess it`s alright. It`s better than my old school, at least here, there is a certain someone I would love to get my hands on for what he did to us.]
A rather tall looking man in black robes appeared through a set of large double doors that stood before a girl in dark blue robes standing outside a castle any other person who walked by would describe as scary, but not for her. She was tall but shorter than the man, she had long black hair and eyes just as dark.
The man obviously used to deception calmly let his face and all expressions therein slip into a casual, welcoming, cool but more importantly less suspicious facade.
"Ah, you must be Gwen, welcome to Hogwarts, school of withcraft and wizardry. I will be one of your professors here, I`m..."
"Severus Snape, professor of Potions and head of the Slytherin house. Yes, yes I know who you are. And I happen to know your past very, very well. So are you going to let me in, or are we going to chit-chat all night?"
She interrupted the professor holding both threat and boredom in her voice. Her eyes never leaving their cold stare.
The potions master`s expression changed instantly from his previous attempt at smiling to a look of anger and utter disbelief. The facade had officially fallen.
"Your a feisty one are you, well will see how feisty you`ll be after I deduct 20 points from whatever house your sorted into for showing disrespect to a professor." His tone was firm and no doubt more applicable to threatening than preaching.
"You should know that we have rules here, and don`t think you`ll get any special treatment just because of your backround. Be grateful that I didn`t deduct more, but since your new, we anticipated a little rule-breaking once you arrived. Just remember that this is a once in a life-time pardon that you will get from me or any other professor. Be reminded that we do not tolerate ignorance in abiding by our rules. Do you understand?" He said with enough malice to make even the bravest shudder. But Gwen didn`t instead she just kept staring at the huge double doors just pass the professor`s shoulders.
No answer.
"I said, do you understand?" His voice on the verge of screaming at the disrespectful demeanor of his future student, one he was not use to encountering.
When the girl didn`t reply the tall greasy looking professor leaned forward and whispered to the young witch`s ear.
"You might have had control over me before, but now your in my domain and no matter what you do you will be punished for your insolence." He said this time not bothering to hide the threat that he intended for her to hear.
The girl looked up at him, from the doors she was staring at, her features unchanged by the professor`s idle efforts to scare her.
"Is that one of your empty threats I`ll be hearing while I`m here because if it is, I suggest you brush up on your terrorizing skills."
She said with a lazy drawl, her eyes challenging but with a hint of boredom and amusement.
[I can get used to this.] She thought her face almost forming something indicative to a small smile. Almost.
Snape looked like he was about to explode, but decided against it. He knew better than to let his emotions get the better of him.
"Why you little..."
Just then another figure wearing light blue robes and half-moon glasses emerged from inside the big double doors behind them and said,
"Ah! Severus nice to see your getting to know our students. And of course Ms. Riddle how nice of you to entertain our potions master."
"My pleasure headmaster, actually I was getting a bit cold standing out here." Her emotions, if she had any, showed nothing of the dissapointment of not having another battle of words she was winning over Snape.
[Alas, all good things must end.] Her cynical mind concluded. [We must not dilly-dally.Excuse the cliche, but I`ve got bigger fish to fry.]
"Why of course come in, come in I`m sure your other professors will be happy to know you`ve arrived safe and sound."
And with a last look of triumph towards professor Snape, Gwen Riddle entered the vast castle that was Hogwarts.
*******************
The Great Hall.
Filled with excitment and anxiety from students waiting for the feast to start so that their new year at Hogwarts could begin. Four long tables were set representing the four houses. Gryfindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, all filled with chattering students all wondering what`s taking so long. And with one long table up front containg the schools professors.
"I think that the Quidditch players need a lot more room on the pitch, I mean think about it. Wouldn`t it be interesting watch players doing several stunts and not have to worry about hitting other players and stuff. Come to think of it, I think it would be for the best if they were a little higher. Don`t you agree?" A tall boy with blazing red hair could be heard telling another boy but with jet-black hair to his left and a girl with long brown hair who was sitting across from him.
"Ron, please don`t shout, not all the students here want to hear your opinions about how big a Quidditch pitch should be." the brown-haired witch said a little annoyed.
"I`ll stop talking all together if you close that book your reading and actually make eye contact.
Oh yeah, I forgot the book your reading.Hogwarts: A Historty, you`ll never put that book down even if you memorized every single word, punctuation or little smudge marks on it. Oh no, not Hermione Granger, not the obviously head-girl-to-be.Gasp! What would the students think, if their own Head Girl didn`t know why people can`t apparate here or why the ceiling looks like the sky or what word starts every chapter or what that little thing on the cover there, the one next to that porridge.."
"I think we get the idea, Ron" Harry Potter said trying to calm his now really, really red-from-talking-too-fast-without-breathing, best friend.
Hermione looked up from her book, a little color on her cheeks.
"Ron, do you really think that I`ll obviously be Head Girl?"
The boy-who-lived just sighed, [Here we go again with the bickering, the nagging, the sarcasm. Boy, I missed this place. Last summer was the weirdest ever.The Dursleys were as cold and abusive as ever but remembering Cedric`s death just made it all slip away. The things Dudley does to me just doesn`t seem important enough anymore. And Professor Dumbledore`s letters via owl were getting faker each time.At first of course all he was doing was trying to clam me down a bit. The letters after that he would just keep telling me that everything`s fine and that Voldemort was not a big issue, blah, blah, blah. But I know the truth, it is an issue, a really, really big one. He wrote telling me not to tell anyone that he has risen. And that I should display myself as happy and worry-free so that no one would be too scared. Nothing just seems real anymore. Not the deaths not the letters not even the...] Harry`s thoughts got disrupted by a sharp piercing scream. It was unbeareble.
Harry covered his ears as best he could, closed his eyes and ducked under the table.
"And another thing..." Ron was cut mid-sentence by Harry`s sudden interest on the hall`s floor.
"Harry, Harry, are you alright?" Hermione`s voice ringed with concern.
"AAAAHHHH!" Was all Harry could reply.
"Bloody, he`s gone mad" Ron said.
"Harry, Harry, Harry...."
Hermione`s voice fades away as the shrill scream echoes in Harry`s ears. His vision blurs, even as his eyes are closed he can feel his vision slowly whirling behind his eye lids. Harry collapses on the floor as his own screams are drowned out by the enthusiastic murmur of his fellow schoolmates all blabbing away unaware of Harry`s torment. The screams refused to stop and Harry was losing his battle for conciousness.
"I think we need to take him to the infirmary." came Ron`s concerned and probably terrified-that-something-is-not-right voice.
"No,no, this...this...this could have something to do with You-Know-Who. We...we need to take him to Dumbledore."
Then, just as the screams were winning against Harry, they stopped. Just as suddenly as they had appeared. Harry, confused at the abrupt change in his sanity, opened his eyes and looked around. He got up and sat down again still dazed. He blankly stared in front of him as all the sounds of Hogwarts came back. The chattering and the voices, even the scenery shifted back.
"Harry, are you alright? Can you hear me hello..."
"Hermione, back-off. Harry is fine, look he`s blinking that`s good...right?!"
"Shut up Ron. Harry, do you feel okay? Do you need to go to the Infirmary?" Hermoine said leaning from across the table.
Harry shook his head trying to shake off all the mental debris from his head.
"I`m fine, Hermione. I`m okay...I just got a... headache, that`s all." [What in the bloody hell was that!]
"Harry, it has nothing to do with You-Know-Who, does it?" Ron said panicky-like.
"No,no...it`s not my scar. Don`t worry." Harry said.[At least that was true. But if it wasn`t Voldemort. What on God`s green earth could that be?]
Just then a stern-looking woman appeared through the double doors with several first-year students in tow.All looking self-consious and scared. All wondering the same things all new students wonder about.[What house will I be in?][Will they like me?][Are the teachers scary...Oh, probably that one with greasy hair is. Hasn`t he ever heard of good hygiene? Probably not...] They walked all the way to the front. The other students abruptly stopped talking and watched as the new students marched to their destination. Professor McGonagall stepped up to the platform and announced.
"Students, I apologize for the wait. It seemed that Peeves the Poltergeist has switched all the first-years names and we had to arrange them, again. Now, let the sorting begin. Ablexa, Morgana." The sorting began and once all the students were seated Dumbledore stood up and announced.
"This year we will have a new student joining our school, she has transferred from both Durmstrung and Beuxbatons."
Gasps could be heard from the younger years, with a few snide remarks from the Slytherins. Once the commotion calmed down the headmaster continued.
"Now, before I tell you who she is... Let me tell everyone that just because of her background you needn`t panic. She has taken the truth serum and she has no intent of hurting anyone." At this the Headmaster snuck a peek at The-Boy-Who-Lived then back at the crowd. "But as a precaution..." Dumbledore looked at Professor Flitwick and nodded his head. Suddenly all the doors in The Great Hall magically swung closed. Most of the younger students gasped and all the students started to murmur and some were starting to get get scared. For what can be so important or dangerous that the Headmaster had to lock them in.
'Headmaster is this really appropriate?' whispered the woman who led the first years earilier.
'Minerva, this is just a precaution. We cannot have the students running away at the start of school. You do know that they are all terrified with the whole Vol-'
Professor Mcgonagall cringed.
'The whole You-Know-Who issue. And the last thing we need is a rampage this evening.' Dumbledore reassured her.
'I wish you know what you`re doing Albus.'
'I do.'
Headmaster Dumbledore raised his hands to tone down the students` voices.[Here goes...] And once again addressed them...
"And now she has decided to start her 5th year here at Hogwarts. Let me present Ms. Gwen Cryptaviscus Riddle."
End of Prologue
A/N: What do you think? Please Review.
A/N: My first fic please be gentle. I am not very good with french, so if any of my french phrases are wrong, feel free to correct me. And if you know any good on-line translators please inform me either by review or e-mail. Thank you.
Visions of Paradise
by Solstice
In the memory you'll find me
eyes burning up
the darkness holding me tightly
until the sun rises up...
-"Frgt/10", Linkin Park
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter one: L'enfant de la nuit
A figure stood outside a massive castle. She had all her luggage set down to either side her. She had an aura af dread all around her as if death itself was coursing through her veins at this very moment. Hogwarts, she thought would be boring, old and well, uninteresting. [Well, let`s get this over with.] She thought. [This place might be old but considering how much time I`m going to have to spend here, I guess it`s alright. It`s better than my old school, at least here, there is a certain someone I would love to get my hands on for what he did to us.]
A rather tall looking man in black robes appeared through a set of large double doors that stood before a girl in dark blue robes standing outside a castle any other person who walked by would describe as scary, but not for her. She was tall but shorter than the man, she had long black hair and eyes just as dark.
The man obviously used to deception calmly let his face and all expressions therein slip into a casual, welcoming, cool but more importantly less suspicious facade.
"Ah, you must be Gwen, welcome to Hogwarts, school of withcraft and wizardry. I will be one of your professors here, I`m..."
"Severus Snape, professor of Potions and head of the Slytherin house. Yes, yes I know who you are. And I happen to know your past very, very well. So are you going to let me in, or are we going to chit-chat all night?"
She interrupted the professor holding both threat and boredom in her voice. Her eyes never leaving their cold stare.
The potions master`s expression changed instantly from his previous attempt at smiling to a look of anger and utter disbelief. The facade had officially fallen.
"Your a feisty one are you, well will see how feisty you`ll be after I deduct 20 points from whatever house your sorted into for showing disrespect to a professor." His tone was firm and no doubt more applicable to threatening than preaching.
"You should know that we have rules here, and don`t think you`ll get any special treatment just because of your backround. Be grateful that I didn`t deduct more, but since your new, we anticipated a little rule-breaking once you arrived. Just remember that this is a once in a life-time pardon that you will get from me or any other professor. Be reminded that we do not tolerate ignorance in abiding by our rules. Do you understand?" He said with enough malice to make even the bravest shudder. But Gwen didn`t instead she just kept staring at the huge double doors just pass the professor`s shoulders.
No answer.
"I said, do you understand?" His voice on the verge of screaming at the disrespectful demeanor of his future student, one he was not use to encountering.
When the girl didn`t reply the tall greasy looking professor leaned forward and whispered to the young witch`s ear.
"You might have had control over me before, but now your in my domain and no matter what you do you will be punished for your insolence." He said this time not bothering to hide the threat that he intended for her to hear.
The girl looked up at him, from the doors she was staring at, her features unchanged by the professor`s idle efforts to scare her.
"Is that one of your empty threats I`ll be hearing while I`m here because if it is, I suggest you brush up on your terrorizing skills."
She said with a lazy drawl, her eyes challenging but with a hint of boredom and amusement.
[I can get used to this.] She thought her face almost forming something indicative to a small smile. Almost.
Snape looked like he was about to explode, but decided against it. He knew better than to let his emotions get the better of him.
"Why you little..."
Just then another figure wearing light blue robes and half-moon glasses emerged from inside the big double doors behind them and said,
"Ah! Severus nice to see your getting to know our students. And of course Ms. Riddle how nice of you to entertain our potions master."
"My pleasure headmaster, actually I was getting a bit cold standing out here." Her emotions, if she had any, showed nothing of the dissapointment of not having another battle of words she was winning over Snape.
[Alas, all good things must end.] Her cynical mind concluded. [We must not dilly-dally.Excuse the cliche, but I`ve got bigger fish to fry.]
"Why of course come in, come in I`m sure your other professors will be happy to know you`ve arrived safe and sound."
And with a last look of triumph towards professor Snape, Gwen Riddle entered the vast castle that was Hogwarts.
*******************
The Great Hall.
Filled with excitment and anxiety from students waiting for the feast to start so that their new year at Hogwarts could begin. Four long tables were set representing the four houses. Gryfindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, all filled with chattering students all wondering what`s taking so long. And with one long table up front containg the schools professors.
"I think that the Quidditch players need a lot more room on the pitch, I mean think about it. Wouldn`t it be interesting watch players doing several stunts and not have to worry about hitting other players and stuff. Come to think of it, I think it would be for the best if they were a little higher. Don`t you agree?" A tall boy with blazing red hair could be heard telling another boy but with jet-black hair to his left and a girl with long brown hair who was sitting across from him.
"Ron, please don`t shout, not all the students here want to hear your opinions about how big a Quidditch pitch should be." the brown-haired witch said a little annoyed.
"I`ll stop talking all together if you close that book your reading and actually make eye contact.
Oh yeah, I forgot the book your reading.Hogwarts: A Historty, you`ll never put that book down even if you memorized every single word, punctuation or little smudge marks on it. Oh no, not Hermione Granger, not the obviously head-girl-to-be.Gasp! What would the students think, if their own Head Girl didn`t know why people can`t apparate here or why the ceiling looks like the sky or what word starts every chapter or what that little thing on the cover there, the one next to that porridge.."
"I think we get the idea, Ron" Harry Potter said trying to calm his now really, really red-from-talking-too-fast-without-breathing, best friend.
Hermione looked up from her book, a little color on her cheeks.
"Ron, do you really think that I`ll obviously be Head Girl?"
The boy-who-lived just sighed, [Here we go again with the bickering, the nagging, the sarcasm. Boy, I missed this place. Last summer was the weirdest ever.The Dursleys were as cold and abusive as ever but remembering Cedric`s death just made it all slip away. The things Dudley does to me just doesn`t seem important enough anymore. And Professor Dumbledore`s letters via owl were getting faker each time.At first of course all he was doing was trying to clam me down a bit. The letters after that he would just keep telling me that everything`s fine and that Voldemort was not a big issue, blah, blah, blah. But I know the truth, it is an issue, a really, really big one. He wrote telling me not to tell anyone that he has risen. And that I should display myself as happy and worry-free so that no one would be too scared. Nothing just seems real anymore. Not the deaths not the letters not even the...] Harry`s thoughts got disrupted by a sharp piercing scream. It was unbeareble.
Harry covered his ears as best he could, closed his eyes and ducked under the table.
"And another thing..." Ron was cut mid-sentence by Harry`s sudden interest on the hall`s floor.
"Harry, Harry, are you alright?" Hermione`s voice ringed with concern.
"AAAAHHHH!" Was all Harry could reply.
"Bloody, he`s gone mad" Ron said.
"Harry, Harry, Harry...."
Hermione`s voice fades away as the shrill scream echoes in Harry`s ears. His vision blurs, even as his eyes are closed he can feel his vision slowly whirling behind his eye lids. Harry collapses on the floor as his own screams are drowned out by the enthusiastic murmur of his fellow schoolmates all blabbing away unaware of Harry`s torment. The screams refused to stop and Harry was losing his battle for conciousness.
"I think we need to take him to the infirmary." came Ron`s concerned and probably terrified-that-something-is-not-right voice.
"No,no, this...this...this could have something to do with You-Know-Who. We...we need to take him to Dumbledore."
Then, just as the screams were winning against Harry, they stopped. Just as suddenly as they had appeared. Harry, confused at the abrupt change in his sanity, opened his eyes and looked around. He got up and sat down again still dazed. He blankly stared in front of him as all the sounds of Hogwarts came back. The chattering and the voices, even the scenery shifted back.
"Harry, are you alright? Can you hear me hello..."
"Hermione, back-off. Harry is fine, look he`s blinking that`s good...right?!"
"Shut up Ron. Harry, do you feel okay? Do you need to go to the Infirmary?" Hermoine said leaning from across the table.
Harry shook his head trying to shake off all the mental debris from his head.
"I`m fine, Hermione. I`m okay...I just got a... headache, that`s all." [What in the bloody hell was that!]
"Harry, it has nothing to do with You-Know-Who, does it?" Ron said panicky-like.
"No,no...it`s not my scar. Don`t worry." Harry said.[At least that was true. But if it wasn`t Voldemort. What on God`s green earth could that be?]
Just then a stern-looking woman appeared through the double doors with several first-year students in tow.All looking self-consious and scared. All wondering the same things all new students wonder about.[What house will I be in?][Will they like me?][Are the teachers scary...Oh, probably that one with greasy hair is. Hasn`t he ever heard of good hygiene? Probably not...] They walked all the way to the front. The other students abruptly stopped talking and watched as the new students marched to their destination. Professor McGonagall stepped up to the platform and announced.
"Students, I apologize for the wait. It seemed that Peeves the Poltergeist has switched all the first-years names and we had to arrange them, again. Now, let the sorting begin. Ablexa, Morgana." The sorting began and once all the students were seated Dumbledore stood up and announced.
"This year we will have a new student joining our school, she has transferred from both Durmstrung and Beuxbatons."
Gasps could be heard from the younger years, with a few snide remarks from the Slytherins. Once the commotion calmed down the headmaster continued.
"Now, before I tell you who she is... Let me tell everyone that just because of her background you needn`t panic. She has taken the truth serum and she has no intent of hurting anyone." At this the Headmaster snuck a peek at The-Boy-Who-Lived then back at the crowd. "But as a precaution..." Dumbledore looked at Professor Flitwick and nodded his head. Suddenly all the doors in The Great Hall magically swung closed. Most of the younger students gasped and all the students started to murmur and some were starting to get get scared. For what can be so important or dangerous that the Headmaster had to lock them in.
'Headmaster is this really appropriate?' whispered the woman who led the first years earilier.
'Minerva, this is just a precaution. We cannot have the students running away at the start of school. You do know that they are all terrified with the whole Vol-'
Professor Mcgonagall cringed.
'The whole You-Know-Who issue. And the last thing we need is a rampage this evening.' Dumbledore reassured her.
'I wish you know what you`re doing Albus.'
'I do.'
Headmaster Dumbledore raised his hands to tone down the students` voices.[Here goes...] And once again addressed them...
"And now she has decided to start her 5th year here at Hogwarts. Let me present Ms. Gwen Cryptaviscus Riddle."
End of Prologue
A/N: What do you think? Please Review.