Hogwarts (Next generation & New characters) *Year 1*

Chapter 5

All Gryffindors were sitting in the common room, talking, doing homework, or just nothing at all. I was doing homework, but I wasn't getting much done because of the other people around me. Every time I started back on my homework, I always recieved a distraction. Like paper airplanes drifting in front of me and bursting into flames, Devin's tiger cub chasing after a group of other people's cats, and James trying to get me to try some of his pranks.

The fire crackled and the flames licked the wood inside it. It was dark out and all of our classes had been inside today. We hadn't been updated on the Death Eaters yet. Dementors were searching Hogwarts grounds, and the halls when all of the students were in their dorms and common rooms. I was sitting at a table at the back of the common room, alone. I finished my Transfiguration homework and ran up to the girls' dormitory. I tossed it onto my bed really quick and went back to the Common Room.

"...sorry for the owls who come here at this time," Fred is saying as I approach him, Paige, Brody, James, and Scorpius. I sat down on the floor by them.

"Why?" James asks him like he said something stupid.

"The dementors," Brody answers.

"Oh, gosh don't even bring that up," Paige turns her head away in disgust. Then, Scorpius changed the subject, and I listened to their coversation about which teachers they like and dislike.

"I think that McGonagall-----" James is cutt off when the fire in the fire place flicks out, and so does the other lights. Everyone goes quiet, so the only thing you can here is the rain batting on the window and the thunder booming in the sky. A chill goes up my spine, and a wave of cold rolls over me, and it is no longer warm in the common room at all. I glance around, people are quiet and wide eyed. Devin's tiger cub is sitting up against his legs with it's head held high up in the air. The rest of the cats are no where to be seen.

The cold air seemed to be coming from the large frame in which we enter and exit the common room. Devin and Brody are the first ones to move. They get up off of the couch and walk toward the frame. Then, Scorpius gets up and does the same thing. No one else does.

I pick myself up off the floor and follow them. It is freezing by the frame, even standing five feet away from it. I hear a low growl behind me. The tiger. I don't think the growl was meant for me, though. The four of us-well five if you include a wild animal- get closer to the passage way, with all eyes on us.

Scorpius gently pushes the frame open, and we all lean close to see out in the hall. He pushes it a little further and in front of the passage was a dementor. The skinny, tall figure's ripped up cloak flowed as if wind was hitting it. It covered it's whole head, except a hole right where the mouth should be.

All four of us screamed, and then before it got through the passage, Scorpius slammed it shut. We stumbled back, and I tripped over Devin's tiger. I hit the cold, hard wood floor, then gained an additional weight on top of me. Everyone had trippdd and I was at the bottom of the pile. I pulled myself out, and stood back up on my feet.

We told everyone what we saw. It was about 15 minutes before the lights flickered back on. The cub still hadn't loosened up and Devin had to pull it away from the frame. Which looked kind of difficult, because this was a big cat, not a house cat.

McGonagall entered the Gryffindor common room, "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes, but Young, Marlatt, Malfoy, and Markel saw a dementor in the hall!" A short kid, whose name I don't know, shouted from the back of the room.

"You were roaming the halls at this time of night?" Professor McGonagall turned to us. She folded her arms across her chest and looked intently at us.

"No, Professor, we weren't roaming the halls. We just opened the passage way because--" Devin gets cutt off.

"You were curious?" She finished.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall." I say to her and nod.

"Ten points from Gryffindor. Now off to bed, all of you!" She tells everyone. All of the kids do as she says and go quietly to the dormitories. I slump my shoulders and drag my feet up to the girls' dormitory. I quietly get my pajamas on, then stand by the window and watch the rain, and lighting. Then, someone starts speaking to me.

"Great. If you keep this up, we're never going to win House Cup," Rose says directly to me. I don't say anything, but turn my head back to look out the window. The storm only got worse and worse. I scanned the school grounds that I could see. The green houses, Hagrid's little cabin, then the Forbidden Forest. Something caught my eye, though.

A Death Eater, staring directly at me. Its black design on its silver mask, and the long black cloak, are how I could tell it was a Death Eater. My eyes went wide because it was staring into the window that I was staring out.

Lighting flashed, distracting my eyes. Then I looked back, and the Death Eater was gone.

"Paige! Paige!" I whispered and shook her from her slumber.

"What?" She yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"There's a Death Eater outside! It was staring through this window! I saw it!" I exclaimed.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Come here, I'll show you where it was standing," I drag her out of her bed, to the window. I start to point to the spot, but I trail off when I see it again. Paige sees it, too.

The same Death Eater is standing a few yards closer, its wand pointed directly at the window that Paige and I are standing at. A flash of green, flicks toward us, and glass breaks.