The Arising Dawn | Book 1 of the Hogwarts Series |

First Match

It was already the first week of November. Along with November, came the cold and the incredibly snowy days and nights.

A few days ago, the students and the Hogwarts staff celebrated the Hallowe'en in the Great Hall, which was decorated with bats, hovering from place to place, and huge, flying pumpkins. They had candles inside them, which would lit the entire Great Hall. Flaming orange streamers were swimming across the ceiling. The usual bewitched starry sky ceiling, was charmed to look like a stormy night, in purple mist, filled with raging lightning. The room was filled with the laughter of the students, teachers and staff, who were feasting on a delightful banquet.

After the meal, the ghosts performed an act, gliding and dancing in the air.
It was a very pleasent night, but what was really on everybody's minds was certainly the first Quidditch match of the year. Gryffindor against Slytherin! Rivals since the begining of time and now they were able to sort things out on the field, this afternoon.

Not only the students, but also the teachers, were excited for this phenomenon. Professor Melchior even made a bet with Caput, which was very surprising. Whoever loses has to wear the most embarrassing set of clothes from Professor Ackerley, on Christmas night. Aurora couldn't imagine Professor Caput wearing those weird suits. Just the thought of it made her laugh.

Slytherin and Gryffindor were the two best teams of Hogwarts, winning countless times the Quidditch Cup for many years, not one has been a total let down. Every single person alive (and dead) has been eagerly anticipating for this showdown.

Aurora was dashing through the corridors looking for Leo. The corridors were being invaded by the seniors, especially the seventh and sixth years, who were shouting and caroling the Hogwarts school anthem. It was a rampage! Aurora almost wouldn't survive all that flutter. She had never ever seen such a big amount of people being happy about a game. Hell! Even she was happy! She had never seen a Quidditch game in her life. She wouldn't even know it existed if she hadn't seen a photograph of her mother in a Beater suit. Such a dangerous and, at the same time, fun game.

A seventh year, from Gryffindor house, grabbed her and danced with her an happy waltz, twirling around and around like she was some kind of spinning top.

After, finally, fleeing away from that tumult, she headed to the Great Hall, which, for her discontent, was also in a state of ruckus.

Slytherins and Gryffindors staring across the room with their eyes glimmering with thirst for victory. What a day it's going to be!
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were also excited, even though it wasn't their match yet.

Aurora spotted Leo, amongst the commotion on the Slytherin table, and wasn't looking very pleased with his surroundings. She knew he would be like that. He doesn't like noise, especially now that he must be terrified and really nervous.

"Hey!" She spoke, sitting next to him.
He jumped, surprised. "I didn't see you there."

"You must be nervous, huh?" Of course he would never admit that.
"Not really." He spoke, sternly. However, Aurora noticed a small trembling on his voice.

"I'll be watching on the front row. I'll be watching you." She said.
He gave her a tender smile, as if he was thanking her for being there. Even if she wasn't the substitute, she would still be there for him. The fact that she was the Chaser substitute gave her the obligation to go to every practice. She saw how hard they trained and so did she. Leo, before training with the real Snitch, had to be able to catch speeding golf balls, which was surprisingly easy for him. It seems everything he does is a piece of cake. Aurora had to do broom-laps around the field, 30 times, so to increase her speed and then she had to go up and down several times. Just after that, she was able to train with the Quaffle and the annoyingly destructive Bludgers. They almost broke her broom or hit her face. Either one would be very painful. She didn't quite favoured getting her face splashed by a ball or by the floor itself.