WHEN YOU READ THIS STORY, I WANT YOU TO REVIEW.NOW, LETS TALK ABOUT WHAT REVIEWING IS.MANY PEOPLE CONSIDER REVIEWING TO CLICK A BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN(WHICH IS TRUE) & TO TYPE COMPLIMENTS TO THE AUTHOR OF THE STORY. ALSO, I BELIEVE, THERE IS SUCH A THING AS BEING FLAMES. I AM NO ORDINARY STORY TELLER(YOU WILL SON SEE)SO LIKE IT OR NOT I'M DIFFERENT. OTHER AUTHORS WOUL GET OFFENDED AT THE ARIVAL OF A FLAME, I AM NO OTHER AUTHOR. INSTEAD, I ASK YOU TO FLAME ME. I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT NOBODY BUT ME HAS EVER HEARD OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISM. THEREFORE, I AM LED TO THE OPINION THAT, FLAMES HELP MORE THAN REVIEWS. REVIEWS GIVE THE WRITER A BURST OF CONFIDENCE OR PERHAPS A REMINDER OF THEIR GOOD WORK. BUT FLAMES, FLAMES TEACH ME WHAT MISTAKES I HAVE MADE, AND HOW TO FIX THEM. ALTHOUGH THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT REVIEWS ARE UNWELCOMED. IN FACT, REVIEW FOR EVERY CHAPTER YOU READ! BUT I JUST THINK YOU OUGHT TO KNOW THAT I WELCOME BOTH REVIEWS & FLAMES WITH MUCH, MUCH ENTHUSIASM!
p.s: you probably think that i'm really boring and all that but, i was just showing off...all u need 2 kno is 2 read, review, &(most importantly) flame! that will be alldoes a little bow
SILVER SILENCE
It was a stormy night out on the Hogwarts grounds. Athick fog hovered over the area, spreading a mingledfeeling of horror anda fearful aprehension. Frail bars of glowing moonlight filtered through the dense mass of twirling clouds, casting mystical reflections on the wildly bucking lake. Rain danced around in a heavy and mad frenzy as it fell. The wind screamed and howled tremendously, seeming to slice the very air into painful slivers. It whistled along the surface of the bone-cold lake, causing waves to swell up from the rumbling depths of the waters. Lightning reached down its many fingered limb and raked the land, leavingsteaming burns upon the earth's face. Wild thunder growled out triumphant, booming howls of raw power, shaking the groaning castle and all of the soaked recipiants huddling inside.
Inside the entrance hall a pack of first years, all sopping wet, stood shivering togather(both in fear as well as in the feirce cold).
A young Sirius Black stood amongst them, shivering despite himself, looking around at the grand castle's decoritave walls. Everyone else had found someone to talk to and were conversing the future sorting, but he was a shy creature and was too preocupied with what had just happened. He rubbed his hands against his soakedarms for warmth as he reviewed past events. Hogwarts was a giant castle and he had been accepted into it's interior. But first they had to cross the lake on magically propelled boats. Apparantly, this was an unbreakable tradition. So, as a welcome greeting, all of the fourth years and above had shoved first years into boats that were barely staying afloat in the black and blood freezing cold depths of the lake. Sirius frowned as the memory of being tossed into the lake by a large gang of students resurfaced in his mind. He hadn't found anyone to attach himself too, unlike the rest of the first-year population(it seemed), so he walked alone off of the train. Therefore, he was made an easy target. He blew a long ebony black srand of his slick hair(from the water) out of his face as he tried to get a bright side to his situation. He supposed that the cackling students who had picked him off of his feet hadn't meant for him to miss the docked boats, and that it was an accident that he was tossed into the water itself.
A nervous voice roughly shook him out of his thoughts. Startled, he looked around to see who had made the noise.There next to him was a girl with honey blond/brown hair and forest/hazel green eyes was looking at him intently.
"Uh... sorry, what did you say?" he asked, sort of embarrassed that someone had been talking to him and he didn't know it.
" I said, whats your name?"she said, not at all detered by his lack of concentration.
"Oh...Sirius," he said, than almost as if on a second thought, he added,"Black. My name's Sirius Black. What's yours?"
"My name is Jaquetta Turnomville." she said," You're more wet than any of us, what happened?" she added, looking him over.
"Well, I...uh, I fell in the lake." he said quietly, feeling embarrassed, he didn't want her to think he was real clumsy!
"Oh...wel hard not to, wasn't it. What with all of those giant waves out there." she said laughing. Herlaugh was contagious, and he found himself smiling too. He liked this girl, she was nice, and she had swiftly altered his feeling of shame to one of boldness. So the two immediatly became friends. (just goes to show u, first impressions do count!)
Just then, a severe looking woman marched gracefully through the doorway. She adjuusted her square-rimmed spectacles and cleared her throat while staring down all of the students one by one, all in a matter of seconds. The group of soon to be students were immediatly silenced. Sirius stopped in mid-word, cuasing Jaquetta to hold in another short burst of laughter. Sirius realized what he was doing and shut his mouth quickly, also trying not to laugh. The moment passed when the straight-backed woman spoke.
"My name is proffessor McGonagal and I am to lead you not only to the Dining hall, but lead you through your years here at Hogwarts." she swiped some dust off of her green robes,"You will all be housed into either Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor. Please walk through the two large doors ahead of you, in a line." the still quiet students fearfully lined themseles up, trying their hardest to do so quietly, so as not to disturb the woman who gave every sign of severeness.
Inside the great hall there were four long, wooden tables in front of a horizontal table lined with teachers. The walls were lined with glass windows that displayed the ever increasing ferocity of the storm outside of the warm room. Above them floated white candles which gave off the faint scent of cinnamon and honey. When one looked past these, they would be met with a towering ceiling that showed the rolling clouds, the stinging rain, and the spearing lightning all booming down upon the room beneath.
Then, their attention was snapped back to the front of the room, right before the teacher's table, to a dusty,old hat that Proffessor McGonagal was placing tenderly on an equally old footstool. The room was silenced as the eager students watched the hat in anticipation.Amazingly, a tear near the brim opened wide, like a mouth and sang out its heart. It sang of a time when its voice was a new as their faces, a time when peace rolled comforingly over the green land. It told the story of how Hogwarts came to be, and why they would be sorted into where. All in all, it inspired a sense of purpose into the oncoming first-years. As the lost wavering note thinly dwindled down into silence, booming cheers erupted from the seated students. Sirius clapped politly along with them. He turned to Jaquetta who, he was surprised to see, was standing with her eyes closed as if listening to the song all over again. He hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to open her eyes and look at him.
"Sorry, sometimes I just get so cuaght up in music." she smiled at him, making him unconsciuosly smile back.Then he heard his name called. This made him snap his neck around to see Proffessor McGonagal searching through the mob of students, looking for his face. He quickly walked through rows of mingled students to find himself at the front of the line. He walked up to the hat and placed it over his head. Even though the hat fell down over his black/blue eyes he could still feel the whole room's eyes boring into him. He waited with bated breath. Then a loud, yet rusty voice yelled out...
" GRYFFINDOR!"
He lifted off the hat and looked about the room, his eyes finally stopping at the table of students that were waving at him cheerfully. As soon as he had walked over to the table he was bombarded with slaps on the back and many congratulations from people he didn't even know. He sat, feeling extremely depressed. He wondered stonily, what his parents would think about him being sorted into Gryffindor. So, trying to take his mind off of things he sighed and waited for Jaquetta to be sorted. Andhe was disapionted when she wassorted into Hufflepuff. His only friend...in Hufflepuff! This wasn't good. He was then greeted by an extreme felling of lonliness. He looked around at his fellow Gryffindors, who were all watching a boy named James Potter being sorted. Sirius wondered if Jaquetta knew anyone in Hufflepuff. He hoped so, he didn't think anyone should feel this lonely.All of a sudden, an applause erupted about him. James had been sorted into Gryffindor!
Before he knew it, the feast had started, and the golden platters were filled to the brim with intoxicating foods of every type. As he began reaching for a loaf of bread a voice stopped him.
"Hi. I'm James Potter.Whats your name?" inquired the boy next to him. Sirius met his eyes and smiled.
"My name is Sirius Black."