Eternal Despair (Harry Potter/OC)

𝟝: Back At Hogwarts

"I think the feast's already started," murmured Enzo, dropping his trunk at the base of the front steps. He crept quietly to peer through a brightly lit window.

"Hey, come and look - it's the Sorting!"

Harry and Ron hurried over. Together with Enzo, they peered into the Great Hall.

Innumerable candles floated in midair over four long, crowded tables, casting a warm glow on the golden plates and goblets. Above, the bewitched ceiling, mirroring the night sky outside, twinkled with stars.

Enzo's gaze fell on a line of nervous first years filing into the Hall. His sister, Aurora, was among them.

Professor McGonagall, a stern-looking witch with her hair in a tight bun and glasses perched on her nose, was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers.

"Hang on," Harry muttered to the boys. "There's an empty chair at the staff table. Where's Snape?"

Professor Severus Snape was their least favorite teacher. In return, Harry and Enzo were Snape's least favorite students.

"Maybe he's ill!" Ron said hopefully.

"Maybe he's left," suggested Enzo. "The bloke missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again, didn't he?"

"That would be the dream," Harry chuckled.

"Or he might have been sacked!" Ron said eagerly. "I mean, everyone hates him."

"About time," Enzo muttered.

"Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why you three didn't arrive on the school train."

Enzo spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Severus Snape. He was a thin man with sallow skin, a hooked nose, and greasy, shoulder-length black hair. At this moment, he was smiling in a way that made it clear they were in very deep trouble.

"I honestly can't think of a rebuttal," Enzo sighed.

"Follow me," Snape ordered.

Not daring to look at each other, they followed Snape up the steps into the vast, echoing entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches.

The delicious smell of food wafted from the Great Hall, but Snape led them away from the warmth and light, down a narrow stone staircase into the dungeons.

"In!" he commanded, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway and pointing inside.

"So," he said softly when they entered, "the train isn't good enough for the famous Harry Potter? Not enough for Lorenzo Black? And their faithful sidekick, Weasley. Wanted to arrive with a bang, did we, boys?"

"No, it was the barrier at King's Cross, it -" Enzo began, but Snape cut him off.

"Silence!" Snape said coldly. "What have you done with the car?"

Ron gulped.

"You were seen," Snape hissed, showing them a headline: FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES. He began to read aloud: "Two Muggles in London, convinced they saw an old car flying over the Post Office tower at noon in Norfolk, Mrs. Hetty Bayliss, while hanging out her washing Mr. Angus Fleet, of Peebles, reported to police. Six or seven Muggles in all. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office?" he said, looking up at Ron and smiling even more nastily. "Dear, dear... his own son."

There was a long silence.

Then Dumbledore said, "Please explain why you did this."

It would have been better if he had shouted. Enzo hated the disappointment in his voice.