No Time To Die

Chapter one.

𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝑫𝒊𝒂𝒓𝒚,𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝑰 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝑯𝒐𝒈𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔. 𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒎𝒆. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍. 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒐, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕. 𝑹𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕?

I double-checked that I had everything I was going to need for the school term. "Merlin, child hurry up! We haven't got all day" came echoing up to my bedroom, it was my stepmother, the person who singlehandedly ruined my life. "Coming Celine" I quickly shouted back to her as I slipped my shoes on and grabbed my owl and trunk. I reached the gates and turned to look back at the manor one last time, it was different now, it was no longer my father's. It was her's. Taking in a deep breath, I turned and walked out to where our family elf (Erin) was waiting to apparate me to the train station. I'm not old enough to apparate alone just yet because I'm only 16. I didn't mind having Erin take me to the platform, she's the only person I have now that my father has passed.

"Ready Miss Riverwood?" she squeaked, I held out my hand, "I think so" she gave me a reassuring smile and took ahold of my hand. Suddenly my whole body felt as though it was inside out as I was being twisted and pulled from all directions moving rapidly through black space. In no time we arrived at the station and I gave Erin one last hug. "Promise you'll write to me" I looked down and said to her, she winked and said, "It would be my pleasure" and apparated away. Once again I was alone. I lifted my trunk onto a trolley and begin searching for platform 9 and 3/4.

"Just run through it" I said to myself as fear and doubt began to overwhelm me. I held on tight to the handles of the trolley, closed my eyes, took one last breath, and ran towards the wall in between platforms 9 and 10. I had made it through. There before me stood a magnificent, deep red steam train. The Hogwarts express. I was surrounded by enormous crowds of people that consisted of muggles, witches, wizards even elves! I began approaching the train, got on, and started to find an empty compartment. I was weaving in between girls gossiping about the boys they kissed over the summer and the boys seeking about quidditch until I found an empty compartment towards the end of the carriage. I walked inside, placed my owl and trunk on the overhead racks, and sat on the seat nearest to the window. It wasn't long until we began moving and the faint shouts of goodbyes from parents faded. The scenery was amazing, forests and mountains that hid in the clouds. I could feel my eyes getting heavier. No matter how hard I tried to keep them open, they managed to close and I fell into a deep slumber.

I was woken up by the sounds of a few male voices. My eyes started to flutter open and my head filled with confusion as to whom was speaking. "oh look who's awake" I heard one of them say "she has pretty eyes" someone opposite me said which resulted in a chorus of laughter from all three. I finally came to my senses and sat in front of me were two red-headed boys, two identical red-headed boys might I add, and a dark-skinned boy to my right with dreads reaching his shoulders. "Do you mind if we sit here? All the other compartments are full" the boy to my right asked me. "Sure," I said back, but in reality, I wanted nothing more than to tell them to piss off and go find someone else to sit with. I'm not here to make friends, I am here because she made me. I was pulled out of my thoughts when one of the two red-headed boys introduced himself as Fred and said his brother opposite me was George. Did they think I was that stupid? "so you're Fred" I said pointing to the boy opposite me "and you must be George then". Their faces dropped and the dark-skinned boy spoke up and said"wow she's good at this already. I've known them for almost six years now and I can barely tell them apart." I let slip a small giggle, he held out his hand "I'm Lee Jordan by the way, what's your name?" I took his hand and replied, "Oh um I'm Celeste, Celeste Riverwood". The conversation quickly shortly ended after, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't much of a conversation in all fairness. I went back to staring out of the window and out of habit began fiddling with the locket around my kneck. It was a sort of weird oval shape with a deep green emerald clasped tightly in the center. 

"so, how come we've never seen you around the school before?" George asked me "it's my first time here, I've been homeschooled up until now. I should be in my sixth year I think", "oh cool, we are in the year above" Lee Jordan added on "thought about which house you want to get placed in? We're all in Gryffindor"  Fred said. "houses?" I questioned "yeah there's four you see Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, the best house Gryffindor orf course, and then the worst, Slytherin, You don't want to get sorted into Slytherin trust me" they all laughed. George pulled up his sleeve and looked at his bare wrist before saying "I think it's time for us to change into our robes" and they all left the compartment. I figured I should probably get changed too, so I grabbed a small bag from my trunk that had my robes in and went to go and find the girl's lavatory. 

I changed into my uniform and looked at myself again in the mirror. I noticed that I'd lost quite a bit of weight since my father has passed. I don't eat on purpose, it's just that sometimes I forget and because I liked to try and avoid my stepmother with any given opportunity. I rolled my skirt up so it came midway up my thigh and tie loosely around my neck, it was still black and white because I haven't been sorted into a house yet Fred explained that to me earlier. I'm not sure which house I'd like to be put in but I wouldn't mind Gryffindor because then I'd know a few people. I made my way back down to my compartment but was taken back when I walked into something hard that almost knocked me to the floor. God this is so embarrassing, I didn't want to look back up. "watch it mudblood" a voice came rumbling down to, filled with so much hate and aggression. 

I didn't need to look up to know who I had walked into. Malfoy. Words can't describe how much I loathe this boy. My family and his are quite close due to our parents, well, let's just say professions. My father and stepmother are deatheaters and so are his. Once a month we would dress in our most formal attire and go to Malfoy Manor for the evening. I've never actually engaged in conversation with him, but I could tell he was such a spoilt mummy's boy and I want nothing more than to slap off his usual smirk. I was pulled back from my thoughts when he spoke to me again, annoyance lacing his voice this time "hey! look at me when I'm speaking to you" he shouted I slowly gathered my things, stood up, took a step closer to Malfoy and finally made eye contact with him. "well well well, what do we have here? Little Miss Riverwood finally comes to Hogwarts" he smirked at me wearing his annoying smirk. I didn't have the time for him so I took a step closer, our noses almost touching, and said "piss off Malfoy" only loud enough so he could hear, and with that, I barged into him and walked back to my compartment. 

I must have been gone for a while because I was one of the only ones left on the train, so I quickly grabbed my trunk and got off. I was soon greeted by a rather large man at least four times the size of me in height and width "ello, you must be Celeste?" I gave a small nod "well because its yeh first year you'll be ridin in the boats with the first years, I'm Hagrid, by the way, gamekeeper at Hogwarts" he smiled down at me "okay" I smiled back to him as he pointed in the direction of the boats. I got onto a boat by myself and in no less than five minutes, they began to move on their own. Slowly gliding through the glistening water and I could see all maters of creatures below. it was mesmerizing. We reached the shore and started walking up to the castle.