Guys, I'm here. I am not dead, do not panic. I just have commitment issues. Here is the start of the third year. Enjoy!
Please do not kill me.
Also, disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Harry Potter. All characters (except for Y/N) and the whole HP universe belong to J.K. Rowling.
"Y/N, come, I've made breakfast."
"Coming, mum."
I entered the kitchen and saw my mum putting down a plate of pancakes while my dad was reading the newspaper and drinking his coffee.
"I made pancakes, your favorite."
"Thanks, mum." I said as I sat down.
She kissed me on the head and sat down across from my dad, putting down her plate of pancakes and a mug of coffee.
"So, ready for the new school year?" Mum asked.
"Yes." I answered while munching a chunk of a chocolate covered pancake.
"You got everything you need? Books, notebooks, pencils?"
"We don't use pencils, dad. We use quills."
My dad sighed. "Right. Forgot the wizarding world hasn't changed since the dark ages." He said to himself.
"Dad!"
He just looked at me, took a sip of his coffee and returned to his newspaper.
"Anyway, are you sure you want to go back to Hogwarts, sweetie?" My mum asked.
"Mum, we've talked about this."
"I know, but you can't expect me to be calm when there's a chance a troll or one of your teachers might kill you!"
"Mum, it will be fine, trust me. That won't happen again. Last year was normal, this one will be too." I said in a reassuring tone.
I hadn't told my parents what had happened last year. If I had... they wouldn't have allowed me to go back to Hogwarts this year. I know it was stupid of me not to tell them, but I can't leave Hogwarts. I don't want to. Because that would probably mean I'd have to say goodbye to the wizarding world too, and live the rest of my life as a muggle, amd that's something I don't think I can do anymore.
]
"Hey guys!" I greeted my friends.
"Hey!"
Susan and Hannah hugged me, and led me to sit between them.
"Hi." Justin said, sitting across us.
"Hi."
The door of our department opened. "Can I sit with you? There aren't any empty ones left." Ernie said.
"Yeah, mate, of course." Justin said and patted the sit next to him.
Ernie sat down and looked at me for a moment.
"Thought you'd be with Potter."
I stared at him, puzzled.
"Why would I be with Harry and not with you?"
He shrugged, but didn't answer. No one said anything until Hannah broke the silence and showed us some pictures of the latest fashion trends.
...
A few hours had passed and the sun had just setted when suddenly the train stopped.
"What's going on?" Susan asked.
"Maybe some problem with the engine?" Justin said.
"Is it getting colder all of a sudden, or is it just me?" I asked, looking at the steam coming out of my mouth with every word.
The glass on the window and the door started freezing and forming crystals. Then, a dark figure stopped just outside of our department, looked at us, and resumed its way down the hallway. None of us said or did anything. We were frozen in place from our fear.
After a while, the train started moving again, the windows unfroze, and the temperature rose to normal.
"What was that?" Justin said in a hushed voice.
I looked at Ernie, expecting him to answer, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he kept looking at the doors.
"I don't know, but I didn't like it at all." Hannah answered.
The rain hitting against the window filled the silence for the rest of our journey.
]
We were in the Dining Hall again, and Dumbledore was announcing the new teachers. This year, our professor in D.A.D.A. would be a man named 'R.J. Lupin', and Hagrid would be our new professor in Care of Magical Creatures. It did suit him. If anyone knew how to handle and care for magical creatures, it would be Hagrid.
"I just hope Lupin will last for more than a year, unlike the others before him." Susan said.
"I know, right? I mean, this position has to be cursed or something." Hannah answered.
"Finally on a more disquieting note, at the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until such a time as Sirius Black is captured." Dumbledore announced.
"Of course, that's what that thing in the train was! A dementor!" Susan said.
"And it was looking for Sirius Black!" Hannah continued.
Justin and I looked at each other.
"Who's Sirius Black?" I asked. I hadn't heard that name before.
"Haven't you two heard? He's-"
"The Dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now, whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day to day activities... a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures. They'll not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving."
"If the dementors are so dangerous, why are they letting them be near kids?" Justin asked.
"I don't know." Hannah answered.
They were both looking worried, and for a good reason. Maybe hiding the truth from my parents wasn't a good idea. Maybe I should have told them what had happened last year and live the rest of my life as a muggle. I'm a muggleborn anyway. It's not as if the wizarding world will miss me.
No. No, Y/N wake up. You're a witch, and you belong here.
I mean, how much harm could a dementor do? They wouldn't release them near children if they were that dangerous, right?
"Y/N? Y/N???" I heard Susan's voice as she was shaking me.
"What? What is it?" I said, a bit distracted.
"I called your name a thousand times! Ernie is telling us about the dementors." She said and motioned to Ernie, who was staring at me.
"As I was saying," he said, "dementors are dark creatures who literally feed on human happiness, so they leave those around them with feelings of depression and despair. They can even consume someone's soul, leaving them in a permanent vegetative state, like empty shells."
Ok... so they are that dangerous. Interesting...yeah not at all interesting just straight up horrifing. Oh, good Lord, I'm gonna be a vegetable.
"Close your mouth, you're going to swallow a fly." Ernie said, and that's when I realized my mouth was open the entire time.
...
We were outside our common room and I was about to go in when a hand grabed me and pulled me on the side.
"Talk." Ernie said.
"What? What do you want me to talk about ?"
"What were you thinking before, when I was talking about the dementors?" He asked.
I was taken aback. "Uh, about the dementors. I was thinking about how dangerous dementors could really be." I said.
He looked at me, likely thinking if he should believe me or not.
"Right...ok. I'll believe you, for now." he said and entered the common room.
What in the wizarding world was going on? Why was Ernie behaving like this? He seems even worse than last year.
After I organized my staff in my assigned room, I went to the common area to drink a glass of water before turning in for the night.
"Where are you going?" A voice startled me. I turned and saw Ernie sitting in his armchair staring at me.
"Nowhere! I just want to grab a glass of water! Why were you hiding?" I said in an exasperated tone.
"I wasn't. You just didn't notice me."
"Yeah, because you were hiding!"
"It's your word against mine."
"ERNIE!" I yelled, and I startled myself.
I sighed and made my way to him.
"What's going on with you, Ernie?" I asked in a soft, hushed voice while getting on one knee in front of him.
"Why are you acting like this? Last year, you were distant and cold, and now the year hasn't even begun, and you're paranoid -"
"I'm not!"
"You've been questioning my actions all day. A couple of hours ago, you asked me what I'd been thinking, and you thought I was lying to you."
"You're reading too much into it." he said, then opened the book he was holding and pretended to be reading it.
I talked to him, but he continued ignoring me. In the end, I just gave up, drank my glass of water, and went back to my room.
That night, I couldn't sleep. My mind kept racing - worrying - and unfortunately, it was definitely not the last time this would happen.]"Welcome, my children. In this room, you shall explore the noble art of Divination. In this room, you shall discover if you possess the Sight!" Our new professor said before stumbling onto the table in front of her.
"Hello, I'm Professor Trelawny. Together, we shall cast ourselves into the future. This term, we shall be focusing on Tasseomancy, which is the art of reading tea leaves. So please, take the cup of the person sitting opposite you."
We all were seated on top of stools, in tables of two. The classroom was... unique. It was filled to the brim with rugs, tapestries, tablecloths, and curtains. Each and every one of our tables had a teapot full of some weird tasting tea and two teacups. Our teacher, well, she didn't look like a bad person, but she was definitely radiating crazy-person energy. She had curly blond hair and big glasses, and her clothes reminded me of a grandma.
Susan and I looked at each other's cups.
"Hmm..." she said.
"What? Do you see something in my cup?"
"Yeah, I see..." she looked up at me with a sinister smile. Well, as much of one as Susan could master. "...romance."
"Ha ha, very funny Susan, you should persue comedy. You're a natural." I said sarcastically while she was laughing.
"Ok, fine. But, to be honest I can't make out a shape, so it could be anything." she said.
I laughed and I saw her watching me with uncertainty like she wanted to say something.
"Everything alright?" I asked.
"Y/N, is there anything going on with you and... Ernie?" she asked and I admit, I was taken aback.
"What? No! Why would there be?" I asked, unfortunately a little higher-pitched than I should have and Hannah looked our way for a moment.
"I saw you, yesterday before entering the common room. He pulled you to the side and there seemed to be some... tension?"
"Tension? Susan, for Merlin's sake stop reading romance novels. We're thirteen. We were just arguing."
"Oh, sorry." she said, laughing awkwardly.
I took her cup and started examining it, trying to find shapes.
"So, in your cup, I see a-"
"What were you arguing about?" Susan asked.
I sighed. She was never going to drop it. Not before I "accidentally" dropped her novels into the fireplace anyway. Not that I would ever do that, of course.
Then we had Care of Magical Creatures. This job really suited Hagrid. The books were terrifying and heavy, and they just woudn't open.
"You know, you have to stoke the spine to open it, right?" a Ravenclaw student told Justin.
And sure enough, it opened. Then we saw a beautiful creature.His name was Buckbeak and according to Hagrid, it was a Hippogriff. Very proud creatures, easily offended.
Hagrid asked us if anyone of us wanted to pat him, but noone, neither from the Hufflepuffs nor from the Ravenclaws was in a 'I'd like to risk my life' mood.
"Yeah, well, ok then. Next time, I guess.
]
"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" a girl from the Slytherin table asked him.
From what I'd heard, when Gryffindor and Slytherin had Care of Magical Creatures, Malfoy got too confident with Buckbeak and the poor creature scratched his arm in self defense. Malfoy was taken to Madam Pomfrey and now he had apparently elected himself a war hero.
"It comes and it goes. Still, I consider myself lucky. If it weren't for Madam Pomfrey another minute or two and I could've lost my arm. I can't possibly do any homework for weeks." he said, and I wondered how could he do it with a straight face.
"Listen to the idiot. He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?" Ron said from beside me.
I hadn't really seen them since yesterday, and now I was seated in the Gryffindor table, talking with Harry, Hermione and Ron.
"Yeah. But at least Hagrid didn't get fired." Harry said.
"Yeah, but I hear Draco's father furious. We haven't heard the end of this. " Hermione said worryingly.
There was a tiny moment of silence and only then did I notice two eyes staring at me from across the room. Ernie. Seriously, what was wrong with him. He's my friend but, it's only been a few days since the start of the school year and I already wanted to punch him in the face.
"He's been sighted! He's been sighted!" Seamus said, holding a newspaper.
"Who?" Ron asked, as we all gathered around him.
"Sirius Black!" Seamus answered.
"Dufftown?" Hermione asked."That's not far from here."
"You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts, do you?" Neville asked, his voice full of fear.
"With dementors at every entrance?" Another kid asked.
"Dementors? He's already slipped past them once, hasn't he? Who's to say he won't do it again?" Seamus said.
"That's right. Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands." Another boy said.
So, we've started the third year. Let's see when it's going to end.