Chapter 2: rough first day

This was my first day at Hogwarts… It wasn’t exactly the best time of my life; on one hand I had James ignoring me as well as his friends. On the other hand ALL my house mates were making snide comments or just being plain horrible. There was only one thing I could do… hope it was all a dream? No. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that. I had to make a decision… looking back, however much it may have worked for me at the time, it wasn’t exactly the right one for me in the long-term.

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The Hogwarts castle was so quiet at this time of night; you could hear a pin drop or the rustle of wings from a distant owl. The sky was inky black and full of stars. The full moon shone brightly through the clouds of rain that had come to rest there earlier that afternoon. No one was awake… except for one little girl. The same little girl who had been extremely happy while she was awake this time the night before. Now she was extremely unhappy.

Leah sat quietly on the window sill in her dorm. It had only been her first official day as a Hogwarts student. One day. That was all she had endured so far. Already she didn’t feel she could take it.

Been put in Slytherin was one thing… being completely shunned to the side and forgotten about was another. Well… not completely forgotten about. There were still the odd few Slytherins (her dorm mates mostly) that enjoyed giving her nasty looks and snide remarks every time she passed them. The next seven years did not look good for Leah. At all.

She sighed as the thought back to how the day had been. It had been a disastrous first day and nothing how she had imagined it being…

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Leah sat at the breakfast table early that morning. She had purposefully gotten up, dressed and down to breakfast by quarter to eight that morning. She didn’t want to face her house mates or her brother after what had happened the night before. She was ashamed and embarrassed about what she had said to Lily. She hated herself for it. She had never been prejudice because of blood status and she certainly wasn’t going to start now.

There was no point in thinking about what if she hadn’t said it, because she had. Even if she hadn’t her brother wouldn’t have changed his views of her. The problem with James was he chose pride over everything. Leah had thought that family had been everything to him, but she was wrong.

She sighed finishing her breakfast and stood up. The early risers were coming in for breakfast now and all of their eyes were on her. She may have just been paranoid but she also thought that they were all whispering about her. She quickly took the schedule she had been given and grabbed her bag. She ran out of the great hall and down to the double doors.

As she stepped outside she felt the light September breeze whip around her. Slowly she walked over to the black lake, dragging fallen autumn leaves with her feet. When she got there she sat under the tree that was not far from it.

What am I going to do about this whole mess? This is awful! All I have ever wanted was to come to Hogwarts and have a great time. Now my who dream has been shattered! The next seven years are going to be the worst of my life!

After a few minutes she looked down at her watch and was surprised to see that it was five to nine. Great, now I won’t make it to class on time and probably get a detention or something. The icing on the cake.

She got up and ran back to the castle. She looked down at her schedule, her first class was potions. That’s not too bad, I know where that is. We passed it on our way to the common room last night. She ran as quickly as she could towards it and just made it in time as everyone was going in.

Leah sat at the front on the Slytherin table but as far away from the Slytherins as she could. She looked around to see that they had this class with the Gryffindors. This only made her feel more depressed than she already was. Were the teachers trying to mock her and remind her that she could never be what her parents wanted? Or maybe they just want to see her suffer.

As the lesson progressed Leah found that she quite enjoyed this class. It was interesting and their teacher (Professor Slughorn) was kind enough, even though he kept bragging about all the famous witches and wizard he knew.

As the day progressed Leah avoided people as much as possible. Once, she saw her brother in the corridors and tried to speak to him but he completely ignored her. This caused Leah to break down into a fresh wave of tears in the girl’s bathroom. What she didn’t know was that she had ventured into the girls bathroom on the second floor… and it was haunted.

“Ooo, what do we have here?” moaning myrtle asked. “A little first year crying her eyes out. What’s the matter is someone bullying you?” she asked sympathetically, that was after all the reason she had died in the first place, as well as a case of wrong place wrong time.

“My brother is completely ignoring me and al my house mates hate me!” Leah said quietly. She had no idea why she was telling this to a ghost.

“Don’t worry. I know exactly how you feel; Olive Hornby was always teasing me.”

“It’s not like that, you have no idea how I feel!” Leah shouted out of frustration.

“No need to shout,” Myrtle said before going back down her toilet.

After a few moments Leah calmed down enough to walk back to her dorm. She knew she had missed dinner but she decided she wasn’t hungry anyway. She walked back into the common room to find most of the Slytherins lounging around on the sofas as if they owned the place.

“Hey, look who it is, little blood traitor!” someone yelled as she crossed the room.

“Seen much of your brother lately? I hear he hates you now,” another shouted. Leah recognised him as Severus Snape. Leah was determined to ignore them. She rushed up the stairs to the girls’ dormitories before anyone could see the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes again.

As soon as she got into the room she ran to her bed and threw herself on it. She quickly shut the curtains incase any of her dorm mates came up. What she didn’t realise was that someone was already in the dorm watching her every move.

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Leah sighed again and looked back towards the black lake. It was odd being sat on the ground floor staring out of the window. Leah usually did that from her bedroom window which was high up.

I can’t live like this anymore. It has only been a day and I hate it. I would much rather be home-schooled than have to deal with the prejudice I am getting here. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Even though I doubt it will happen. Dad still works and mum is often working too. There isn’t much else I can do. I mean, my brother hates me more than Snape! That is saying something. Even though I hate Snape even more after what he said to me today.

I can’t avoid my housemates forever, or the whole school for that matter. I need to accept what I am and deal with it. I need to be the perfect pure blood Slytherin. It is the only way to get them to stop.

Starting from tomorrow I am going to let go of everything and be the way I need to be.

Like I said, it isn’t the best decision in the world but it was the one I had made, then I had to live with it. Like that muggle phrase, ‘I've made my bed and now I have to sleep in it’. That was basically it. That one decision had affected my whole life.

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AN: aww i feel really sorry for her... sory this chapter took a while to get out, my pen just wouldnt go to paper (well.. you know what i mean :P) anyway, please review and ttell me what you think :)