November Snow

f i f t y - s e v e n

Note: For the last volume, I'm changing the POV from November's to third person.

You may have been told that Hogwarts is a place to be, a great school and a cosy home. You may have been told that the teachers are friendly, the students are lively and meals are never boring. Whatever you've been told, now it was no longer the truth. Hogwarts now, to many students and teachers, was a prison.

Neville Longbottom hurried to his next lesson: Charms. He had never felt nice about Hogwarts ever since the beginning of his seventh year. He glanced around, everyone was having their heads down, not looking into anyone's eyes. There was no one who didn't feel the tension that lurked everywhere in the castle. In their mind, they had already figured out some parts of the story.

Neville walked past Luna Lovegood and she gave him a small smile, to which he gladly returned. Luna didn't skip her way to class anymore, she had been going in a boring, dull way like others. She definitely missed Fred and George Weasley who had always brought laughter to the school. People rarely cracked a smile these days, even someone who rarely cared that much like Luna couldn't ignore that fact. Not only that, even Slytherins didn't bother calling her Looney anymore. 

Luna turned at the corner and bumped into Ginny Weasley, the stunning redhead of Gryffindor. Ginny gave her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder as an assurance, then they parted ways to their classes. Ginny sighed at the silence in the halls. She remembered those days when students weren't afraid of laughing and joking on their ways to class. Now, everyone seemed to be scared to even open their mouth. But Ginny knew that without Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and her brother Ron Weasley at school this year, she would be one of those who would try to keep everyone together.

Ginny made her way into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to find Juliette Tughorn, a Slytherin, crying in front of a dusty mirror. Juliette saw Ginny, and she crashed into the ginger's arms while sobbing. She had been crying a lot lately, not because her family was in trouble or anything, but because of her best friend, November Avery, who had returned to school and yet never turned up to any class or even go back to the common room. She feared what was worst.

Juliette was told by Ginny to go back to the common room and rest for the day, and she did. The moment the door under the Slytherin dungeon opened, she saw her boyfriend, Blaise Zabini, standing in front of the fire. She looked at his furrowed eyebrows and he looked at her smudged make-up, then they crashed into a hug. Zabini had been worried as well. He knew about November. She was never a close friend of his, but he never hated her. Then his thoughts drifted to Drao Malfoy. Draco hadn't been back from summer either, and he had a bad feeling about the reason. He kissed her on the forehead and headed to Transfiguration.

Zabini apologized to Professor McGonagall for being late before settling down between a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin as the Professor continued the lesson. Professor McGonagall didn't even bother taking points from Zabini for being late, she just went on with the subject half-mindedly. She had been wondering about the Order whose work had been inconsistence lately, she worried about Harry Potter and his two friends who didn't return for their seventh year, and she thought about the lives of her students. She couldn't do much, after all she was still a teacher, not a Headmistress.

After her class, Professor McGonagall didn't feel like having dinner in the Great Hall, so she met up with Madam Pomfrey, Professor Flitwick and Madam Sprout for a little meal in her office. They weren't happy people either, now that they didn't have to pretend they were in front of the students to assure them. Hogwarts weren't the place it used to be when Dumbledore was still alive, its spirit had gone to the grave with the greatest Headmaster in the history of the school.

Late at night, students no longer dared walking down the corridors. They were no longer afraid of Peeves, of course, they had something more terrifying to be afraid of. With Snape being the Headmaster, Death Eaters were allowed to roam freely in the castle at night. He thought they didn't know, but they knew well enough to fear for their own life.

Argus Filch patrolled the halls with his dear cat, Mrs.Norris, just like every other night. School had started for three months, and he had grown to hate patrolling at night time. He hated it. He was afraid of it. He didn't want to do it, but it was order from the Headmaster.

You know why he was afraid?

Those screams.

Those blood curdling screams that echoed the halls at night. Those painful cries that bounced off the walls. Those shouts of terror that found their ways to every corner of the castle. The girl who made those sounds, even Filch had his blood cold every time he heard her voice. It was torture, to both him and the girl.

The Professors knew about that too. The screams they heard every night when they had a private meeting. They couldn't help but flinch at the sound of horror whenever it reached their ears. They had no right to question about it, and they didn't want the students to be afraid. But they, themselves, were terrified.

They didn't have to tell, some of the students already knew. Neville and his group of friends who took refuge in the Room of Requirement every night knew. They shivered, they whimpered, they cried at the sounds, and they cried with the girl. Because they knew. They wished they didn't, but they did.

They didn't know where it came from, though they knew who it belonged to.

And that was what made them so afraid.

Because they knew it was hers.

She was no ghost or poltergeist. She was a geniune human.

She was November Avery.