The Monster Within

Chapter 1-Astrophile

I take a deep breath; shaking my arms like it will shake the nerves out of me. The doors into the dining hall are larger than I ever imagined. I run my fingers across the cold stone walls. I am finally here; my whole life I have been waiting for this moment.

I hear heels coming closer to me. I turn around and see an older lady in a witch hat.

"Hello Ms. Ridds, I am professor Mcgonagall. I have heard so much about you, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person," she says with a warm smile.

I smile back. Severus has told me about Mcgonagall. "Thank you professor. I am very happy to finally be here."

She walks in front of me and opens the grand doors. Turning back towards me, she waves for me to follow. As I step into view, I see hundreds of eyes turn to face me.

"Attention everyone," a tall man with a long beard tries to regain attention in the front of the room. "We have a new student joining us. So please let us all welcome Ms. Amelia Ridds." Everyone bursts out clapping, turning their attention back on me. Mcgonagall guides me forward. I start walking down the aisle. Trying to radiate as much confidence as possible, I paint a small smile on my face and make eye contact with as many people as possible.

"Welcome to Hogwarts Ms. Ridds," the man in the front greets me as I walk onto the front stage. "I am Dumbledore." He turns back towards the other students. "Ms. Ridds is a fourth year transfer student, and will now undergo the sorting ceremony."

I take a seat in the large wooden chair in the middle of the stage. Dumbledore sets a heavy black hat on my head.

"Hmm very interesting. There is something about you-something very familiar. It connects you to slytherin in some type of way," the sorting hat declares making me shudder at the thought of being put in slytherin. "You are wise, that is obvious. I can also hear your kind heart speaking to me. However, the most prominent reading I am getting from you is your bravery. Any house would fit you nicely, but I place you in...GRYFFINDOR!"

An eruption of cheers and applause comes from one of the middle tables to the left. Assuming those are the gryffindors, I head over to them. I can't help the smirk that spreads across my face. Severus had prepared me to by in slytherin, but I told him I would never be sorted there. I am nothing like my family-and being sorted into gryffindor further proved that.

I shake hands with more people than I can count. I end up sitting right in between two boys that have the same flaming red hair.

"I'm Fred," the one on the left introduces himself as. "And I'm George," says the one to my right. "Welcome to gryffindor!" they greet me in unison.

Both of them talk my ears off, introducing me to people and telling me how much I will love Hogwarts. They catch my attention when they tell me the names of Harry, Ron and Hermione-three other fourth years. I lock eyes with Harry-the Harry Potter. I decide to act like I don't know him, or any of them for that matter.

"Hello," I say warmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

I become overwhelmed by the mass amount of food in front of me. We all make small talk for a little but they soon realize how exhausted I am and begin talking like they usually would. I get to hear all of the gossip and drama currently going on at Hogwarts. Apparently just a few weeks ago, Dumbledore announced that two other schools would be staying at Hogwarts for the whole year to celebrate the Triwizard tournament. The other schools are supposed to come at the beginning of next week-which was only two days away!

Once we all finished eating, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I decided to head back to the common rooms to hangout. They were all so giddy and excited; I couldn't help but feel the same way. As we are leaving through the huge doors, I glance back to try and find Severus. I see his black cloak leaned over a boy at the slytherin table. I stop walking to try and get a better look. He is whispering something into the ear of a boy with the blondest hair I have ever seen. The boy must have sensed my eyes on him because he looks up. We make eye contact-his grey eyes seem to burn straight through me. Immediately I realize that I am staring into the eyes of the one and only Draco Malfoy. Severus has told me lots of stories about him.