The Arising Dawn | Book 1 of the Hogwarts Series |

The Creature and The Light

The air was cold and dark. There was a rotten smell. Aurora was in a place she had never seen. A small scary room, with peeling walls and no windows to feel any light. Aurora was afraid to make a move, but she couldn't just stand there. She walked, slowly, investigating her surroundings. The smell wouldn't disappear, only get stronger. She felt her skin getting colder, with shivers running down her spine.

Aurora thought that she saw something laying down on the ground. It was too dark to see, so she stepped closer. Aurora stood there with her eyes widened and trembling. Her whole body shaking in fear. She saw a body, covered in blood. It was a small body with pointy ears and dark eyes. His face was deformed and his skin almost completely scarred. But to her surprise... It wasn't the only one. More and more bodies she saw across the room, piled on top of each other, like garbbish thrown away. Some didn't have arms or legs and others were completely decapitaded. She could only see blood, splashed on the walls, on the ground, everywhere. She screamed, with disgust. She was terrified.

Aurora sat up on the bed, almost automatically, with tears in her eyes, panting. Small drops of sweat covered all her body. She was in her dorm, still in her bed.

Aurora noticed the looks upon her, with confused and alarmed eyes. Her screams woke up the girls.

"Are you okay, Aurora?" Espen dared to ask.

Her heart was still beating furiously and her breath kept coming out in rush.

"I-I'm..." She stuttered.

Without finding the strenght to speak, she just nodded her head, really fast.

It was just a nightmare... It was just a nightmare... She kept telling herself.

Kimora jumped on her bed, running her tail around her arm. Her soft white fur calmed Aurora a little bit.

The other girls went to sleep.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Espen asked once again.

"I'm okay." Aurora replied, not believing her own words.

Espen, still not so assured, laid down on her bed, trying to sleep.

Aurora, somehow, hoped that she wouldn't and that she would stay up with her until she fall asleep, or maybe that she invited her to sleep together, so that Aurora couldn't fear anymore. But she was ashamed to ask.

Aurora couldn't sleep. Everytime her eyes closed, she was afraid that she'd see that place once more. It was far from a dream. It wasn't a nightmare, neither. It was a monstrosity...

Once green rays of light came from the window, Aurora immediatly got out of bed and changed from her pajamas to normal clothes. She chose to wear simple jeans and a black knitted sweater. It was cold down there.

After the nightmare, she didn't sleep at all. She just stood there, laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. The good thing was that morning seemed to come earlier.

Aurora grabbed her spell's notebook and went to the common room. Today was saturday, so almost everyone would go to Hogsmeade. Unfortunally, first years weren't allowed to go there, only when they reach their third year on Hogwarts. She decided to spend the day training spells and reading, untill it reaches night, where she will have to go to the Forbidden Forest, because of her unfair punishment. She hoped not to see Professor Fuscus soon in the morning.

Aurora decided not to wait for her friends, so, instead, she headed first to the Great Hall to have breakfast.

She walked across the dungeon corridors and then through the moving stairs, which were complicated as ever.