A Bump in the Night

Chapter 1: Opening Feast

"A few announcements," Dumbledore called out over the rows of the chattering students. The Sorting Hat had been put away and everyone sat in their respective house tables. Silence swept over the Great Hall.

"I would like to welcome Professor O'Connell, your new Defense against the Dark Arts professor..." A man with auburn hair and brown eyes stood up and the students politely clapped. After a succession of ...er... rather interesting teachers no one wanted to take a chance in case this one turned out like the others. (Except of course Professor Lupin, who was liked by generally everyone but the Slytherins)

"Furthermore, Mr. Filch would like to express his extreme dislike in the items the ever popular Zonko's puts out. A list of banned merchandise is in the Entrance Hall. Now Bon Appetite!"

Luscious food appeared on the tables and everyone dug in. Happy eating indeed!

~*~*~*~*

Now Harry Potter, if you happened to glance at him at that very moment from where you were sitting, was staring at the head table.

"What's up, Harry?" asked Ron who was currently stuffing his face, but paused to stare at his peculiar friend...

"Oh, nothing", Harry said snapping "out of it" He peered discreetly back up at the head table. That new teacher looked awfully familiar. Suddenly the teacher looked up and winked at Harry. Was it him? It was him!

~*~*~*~

That night in the common room Harry sat with Hermione and Ron in a quiet corner.

"Sirius is here," said Harry thankfully getting to the point.

"What?" Ron asked stupidly.

"Where is he?" Hermione asked intelligently (not).

"He's Professor O'Connell."

"Are you sure?" that was Ron.

"Look I know it is! He just dyed his hair and changed his hair color."

"He did look a little familiar." Hermione answered thoughtfully.

~*~*~*~*~*

Hermione trudged up the stairs and sighed to herself. The first day had seemed like endless and there was so much to take in. Professor O'Connell had indeed been Sirius Black, but he was only there secretly to help protect the students of Hogwarts.

Hermione crawled into bed, wishing for a deep sleep. It did. However, not an hour later she was woken up by the sound of breathing. Sitting up she looked around. Her curtains were open and covers all the way at the end of the bed.

"I thought I closed these," she thought. She drew them shut and pulled the covers up and laid down again. No sooner had she closed her eyes, her sheets were ripped off her and the curtains yanked back. Hermione's heart pumped wildly. A chill rose in the air as the temperature in the room suddenly dropped. This was despite the magical heater in the middle of the room. It got colder and colder and with it came a raspy breath much like its owner had been holding his breath for a long time. She sat there frozen, as she hugged her knees to her chest. She didn't know what to do; what book could teach her how to handle this? She looked over at all the other beds. Suddenly a hand grabbed her in a death grip on her arm. It was cold and hot at the same time. Jerking around she saw a girl; her eyes out of focus and bloodshot, rolled up into her eyelids. Her face was rotten and green; pale-tinged blue. Fluids leaked from her body and her mouth produced the rasp.

Screaming enough to curdle blood, Hermione wrenched her arm away and sprang from the bed. Continuing her screams she stumbled over herself, but she quickly righted herself. Dashing to the door she ran, throwing it open, and streaking down the short hallway to the stairs. There she literally ran into a very startled Harry and Ron.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" asked Ron.

Hermione, naturally wanting to put as much distance between her and it as possible ran down the stairs. By this time others had waken up and come down to the common room.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry as the other years started to go back to bed as soon as they had seen no one was bleeding their eyes out.

"I, I saw..." she stuttered as she told them.

"Are you sure it wasn't a nightmare?" asked Ginny who had not yet gone to bed

Hermione felt something on her arms for the first time. She pulled up her sleeves and gasped along with the others. Crawling up her arms were long cut marks. As if she'd been cut by ropes or a knife. Ginny took hold of the girl's arms gingerly.

"Does it hurt?" she asked touching the bit where the cut started at her left wrist.

"A little," admitted Hermione as she slightly winced at Ginny's touch.

"Maybe we should go to Madam Pomfrey," suggested Ron in a shaky voice.

"No, I think I'm fine." Hermione answered. She sat down on at a couch and looked at the others. "Well, good night."

The others raised their eyebrows at her. "Well I doubt I'll sleep now. I won't go back up there." At this Ron, Harry and Ginny sat down too.

"Neither will we," confessed Ron for the others.

"The strangest thing is that no one in her dorm woke up," thought Ginny before she nodded off later.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning Hermione and Ginny cautiously went up the 5th year's dorm. In the room it was deathly quiet. Too quiet. Hermione and Ginny latched onto each other. Everything appeared to be normal. Hermione's bed curtains were closed. They were open when she had left the dorm. The girls crept over to the bed. Ginny reached out to shakily pull back the curtains:

"Clinkclinkclink" in fast succession sounded as Ginny wrenched back the red fabric.

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