Forever, I Promise

The Arrival

The Slytherin common room was cold and dark, the waters of the Black Lake shining eery green light across the stone floors. It was silent, as it usually was when I appeared at Hogwarts at the beginning of the term. No one had come yet, they were all still on the train. Yet, there I was sitting on the freshly cleaned and polished leather sofa. It was cool to the touch, no matter how long you sat on it. This coolness was a comfort, a release after the pulsing hot car ride with my mother. The tension in that car could have been sliced with a knife. Not that it was typically any other way, but today was particularly awful.

My mother and I had gotten into another disagreement about why I couldn't ride the train like the rest of the kids, her only reason being that she had never ridden the "filthy" train. Nevertheless, I was shoved into the back seat of my parents' new Lotus Esprit and hauled off to Hogwarts with no friends and no candy trolly.

But all of that was over now, and the cool touch of the sofa was a reminder of that. It was over. Four months of peace until the Christmas holiday. Perfect.

Even Draco's parents weren't so cold-hearted as to not allow him to ride the train. I guess my mother was just a particular kind of evil. Lovely.

But it wasn't all bad, I had already unpacked everything and had started one of my new books. I'd clipped up my broom and washed up for supper. The first supper of the year was always my favorite, with the candles and the starry sky. It was always so beautiful.

I wondered if anyone's younger siblings would be in Slytherin this year, perhaps Pansy's younger brother. But their whole family was rotten. Hopefully, he'd stay out of my way.

As a frown began to perch on my lips the grand Slytherin common room door opened wide and Professor Snape sauntered in. He seemed in an exquisitely bad mood that evening so when he called for me I rose without retort. He escorted me to the Great Hall without speaking. The echo of his shoes rang out sharply against the stone walls, he always was one for dramatics.

We reached the Great Hall quickly and I took my place next to him beside the great golden doors. They shone in the night light and reflected the fire of the floating candles. Looking straight up almost seemed to burn my eyes. I blinked rapidly and turned to face the corridor as the hustle and bustle of rain-soaked students burst through the front doors. We could hear as they laughed and greeted their friends, all the while my skin buzzed with excitement. It was almost irresistible, that first night chatter. Seeing what everyone did over the summer, even if it was nothing. Finding faces among the crowd that you hadn't seen in months. There was nothing like it.

"You may go, Miss Astor," Snape ground out through his teeth. I turned to face him, shock pouring over my face.

"Really?"

"Please, go. You clearly have the patience of a child," he sneered. But I knew he didn't mean it. Although he was moody, he still favored me in class and was regularly over for family dinners in the summer. After all, he and my mother were old school friends.

"Thank you," I breathed, quite literally sprinting down the stairs. I could hear the talk getting louder and louder as I rounded the staircase and, suddenly, I was swarmed with hundreds of dripping-wet students covered in sticky black robes. They formed puddles of water on the stone floors and some boys howled like dogs as they shook their wet manes on their friends. I beamed, pushing into the pond of people. A flash of ginger in the crowd became my new target and I surged forward. I pushed two drenched second-years out of the way and stumbled on, to my disappointment, the Weasley twins. But their nasty attitudes could not ruin the first night's excitement.

"Looking for us, Astor?" George cooed, shoving his brother as they snickered.

"Your brother and sister actually. Have you seen them?"