First Chapter

Author's Note: 

This book will contain a dyslexic main character, and words such as: star-ted' are going to be common as they represent the main character sounding out the words in his head, and if you can't stomach that, then this book probably isn't for you. Now, I have not written such words to demean dyslexic people, it serves a purpose, and if you can hang in there, it'll get better. He will oftentimes get things right, then wrong again, and he finds conjunctions to be somewhat complex, so be prepared for 'did not' and 'would not'. 

Now, this way of thinking and sounding out words is usually strictly within the perspective of the main character, and will not be present in chapters where other character's points of view are the main focus. 

There will be heavy divergence from the original movie, whom's script I am basing this book off. 

Again, a reminder- this is an eleven year old boy whose understanding of dyslexia is nonexistent. 

Any constructive criticism, I repeat, any constructive criticism, is welcome, however, don't expect me to take your opinions into account if there is not a suggestion that would lead to positive change. Things like "This story's trash" aren't constructive criticism. 

Go for: "This story's trash, because:" and so on.

Now, that aside, I hope you enjoy the story, be sure to comment often, and this should be one of the only Author's Notes I include, as I think it takes away from the immersion. Any replies should be expected in the comments. 

Expected Posts: For a chapter this size, around 5k words, about a week, maybe less, or if you, the viewers, would prefer, a more palatable 2 chapters of 2k+ words per week. 

I sat on the train, trying to calm myself down, like Grannie told me to. She said that I have a habit of being a little 'intense' what-evr' that means. Sometimes she used all these big words when we talked, and it always ended up with my nodding to whatever she said.

I did not even get why it was a bad thing to be ex-sigh-ted'! Magic was real! 

And I was going to learn it! 

Grannie told me to be careful, but I could not wait to get off this train, and into the school. I was basic-ly already there. 

If Grannie could read minds and she read mine, she'd be like: "Yup, he's old enough to use magic" in two seconds. 

I even used one of her big words, basic-ly'. 

But I sort of missed Honey, my best friend. She's cool, but ever since her dress got muddy that one time we were playing outside, her Mom did not  let her come over that much. 

Anyways, the train…uh.. sitting place? I do not know the word for it. 

Right, well, it was sort of full, but nobody was talking to me. That was alright, I liked thinking by myself. Sometimes, when I was playing pretend, I could see pretty colors everywhere. 

But Grannie told me that was just me using my i-magi-nay-shun'. 

She taught me to sound out the words. 

I did not really care about that, which might be why I was doing not-so-good in school. 

I felt sad for a little bit, 'cause Grannie said I probably will not see my friends a lot from now on. I was going to miss them a lot, special-ly' Honey. She was the nicest out of all my friends. 

She did not  bully me 'cause I did not  know some words, and she was not  scared to play outside like all the girls, who screamed when t' saw a itsy-bitsy spider. 

Someone walked in to the train thing-a-ma-bob, and was looking kind of crazy. 

She was a little smaller than me, and she had a lot, a lot of frizzy brown hair. She reminded me a little bit of Honey. 

I looked at her, and wonder-d' what she was doing. 

I got up, and walked up to her, and wonder-d' if she would like to be friends. 

"Hi." I said, and the girl did not  even look at me. She was too busy looking at the floor. 

"Did you drop something?" I asked, and she fine-a-ly' looked up at me. 

"I'm looking for a toad, have you seen it?" She asked bossily. She did not  seem too nice…

I shook my head, and she imme-de-at-ly' turned away from me, looking at the floor again. 

"I can help look, if you would like?" I asked, rember-ing' what Grannie told me since forever: "Treat others like you would like to be treated". 

Maybe this girl was not  nice, but maybe it was 'cause nobody was nice to her. A circle of not-nice-ness.  

The girl looked at me, and bit her bottom lip, I do not know why, then nodded. 

"Okay. I'm looking for a toad. His name is Trevor, and he is green, with brown spots scattered throughout his back." She said, and to be honest, she lost me at s-ca-ter-d', but we were looking for a toad, and that was all I needed to know. 

I looked back at my bag, a gift from Grannie, and grabbed it real quick, before catching up with the girl.

We began to walk through train thingy through train thingy, before we came across a nearly empty one, with a boy with red hair and blue eyes, and a smaller boy, with his back facing us, that looked even smaller than the girl. 

The boy had a wand out- and I began to get excited. I wanted to see some magic. I could not get a wand myself 'cause Grannie said I was too little, but I think it's because we're poor. 

Grannie sometimes though I could not  understand that, but I was not one-hundred per-cent' dumb. 

The girl rushed forward, and I followed.

"Have you seen a toad? A boy called Neville' lost one." The girl said, and she had the same tone that Grannie used when she was getting annoyed by something. 

The orange haired boy seemed confused. 

"Hmm… No." 

It seemed she just noticed the boy's wand. 

"Are you doing magic? Let's see then." She said, and I realized that this girl was seeming less and less like Honey with every word she said. 

The boy frowned, then cleared his throat, even though his mouth was full of candy, it looked like, which I felt sort of jel-o-us' about. Grannie never let me eat that much candy in one sitting. 

Not after my 7th birthday, when me and Honey ate so much candy that we threw up. 

I would not have thrown up if she did not, just saying. 

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" He said, and both the girl and I were e-ger-ly' looking at the rat. But nothing happened, even after a few seconds of waiting. 

The two boys look-d at each other, shrugging, while the girl spoke. 

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it?" She said, her face did not look im-press-d', as Grannie would say. 

"Of course, I've only tried a few simple ones myself, but they've all worked for me." She said, and I frowned. She was not  very nice. She seemed like all those kids who were making fun of me 'cause I do not  know how to spell very good.  

She took out her own wand, even though she did not  see the looks the two boys were giving her, and sat down across from them, and I did the same, just 'cause I hoped she would turn out to be a little more nice. 

"For example-" She pointed her wand at the boy's face "- Occulus Reparo!" She said quickly, and his glasses fixed all on their own, every crack!

I looked at the girl, yup, she was definitely cooler than Honey. Sure Honey was nice, and my best friend, but this girl could do MAGIC!

 "That's better isn't it?" She gasped, "Holy Cricket, you're Harry Potter, I'm Hermione Granger." She in-tro-du-sd', before looking at the red-haired boy. 

"And you are?" She asked. 

"Ron Weasley" He spoke through a mouthful. She had Grannie's not im-press-d' face on. 

"Pleasure." She said, her eye-br-ows' nearly making a triangle with how t' pointed up.

"And you?" Ron said, pointing to me. 

I smiled, and introduced myself like Grannie told me to. 

"I'm Quentin, nice to meet you. I hope we can all be friends." I said, looking at them all. 

Harry smiled. 

"Me too." He added, and I smiled even more. Things were looking better by the minute. I had at least one new friend. Also, I'll be learning magic! I gotta remember what -Her-my-nee, was it?- said. 

Ock-u-lus something. Also, she looked smart. Maybe she could help me find out how to learn better. I just could not get things stuck in my mind. 

I reached into my bag and pulled out a pencil and black leather journal Grannie gave me to write down things, and thought it was a good idea to write down their names and that one spell Her-my-nee used. 

I began to write into my notebook, but Her-my-nee stopped me, with a horrified look on her face. 

"What are you doing? Pencils are contraband. You ought to have brought quills and ink!" She said, before I looked down at my pencil in con-fu-shun'. 

There had been a nice lady that had come over when I got my letter, and she offered to bring me to buy school supplies, but Grannie said that she would do it instead, and all she got me was a couple of journals, a vocab-u-larry' book, and the school uniform. 

"Oh. Um. I knew that. I just… wanted to keep something from home with me." I said, nodded when I was done talking. Good save. 

"By the way, how do you spell your name?" I asked, pencil at the ready, even though Her-my-nee still did not look all that happy. She huffed, but still talked. 

"H-e-r-m-i-o-n-e-" She stopped for a second, I guess to see if I wrote it all down, then talked again when I stopped moving my pencil. 

"- G-r-a-n-g-e-r"

"There. All done. What about you, Harry?" I asked, even though I could prob-ly' guess. Maybe it could be spelled weird, like 'Hair-y'. 

I spent the next couple of minutes writing down their names, and wis-per-ing' them over and over under my breath. 

Her-mio-ne. Her-mio-ne. Her-mio-ne. 

Hermione. Hermione. Hermione. 

Her name was tough to learn, but I needed to learn how to write her name in case I had to write her a letter. 

She got up before I could ask her for the spelling of the 'ock-u-lus' spell. I got up too, and moved out her way. 

"By the way, you two better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." She said, before talking a step forward. 

She paused, though, before turning back, and talking again, to Ron. 

"You got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know? Just there." She pointed out, on his nose. 

She turned fast, her hair almost hitting me in the face, and walked off. I looked at Ron for a second, and he wiped at his nose, looking down and sort of red in the face, like my Grannie when she told the nice lady that she would buy me my things. 

I turned too, though, and followed Her-mio-ne (still working on that) as she looked for the boy's toad. 

I decided to draw Her-mio-ne later. I drew Honey one time, and she really liked it. It was the reason we be-kame' friends. 

I smiled a little bit when I thought about Honey. I wonder if it was her first day at school too. 

I felt a little bit sad after, but I kept looking for the toad. 

Her-mio-ne kept talking while she looked, and I wondered how she talked so fast. Sometimes, when I tried using big words, I had to think of the sen-tin-se', and say it in my head before I could say it. 

We found the toad, and brought it back to the boy Her-mio-ne called Ne-vil. 

I asked him how he wrote his name as well, before I followed Her-mio-ne to where she was sitting. 

When I sat down, she looked at me like I was doing something silly, as Grannie said.  

"Are not you going to go back to your seat?" She asked. I thought about what to say.

"No. Why? Am I not suh-posed to be here?" I asked back, feeling a little silly. Was there a rule I did not know about? 

"Um-" She be-gan', until I sighed, and got up, feeling even more silly. 

"No! I mean, no, it's alright. I was just confused." She said, her eyes big and wide. Her voice did not sound like Grannie's annoyed one anymore. 

"Oh! Good. I all-most' thought I broke a rule." I said, and sat down again. 

"I want-ted to ask, how do you spell the Ock-u-lus spell you did?" 

"You mean Oculus Reparo?" She asked, and I nodded, taking out my notebook. 

"Didn't you read about it?" she asked, looking at one of her books that she had on the table. 

My face be-came a little hot, and I looked away. A-nother' thing Grannie could not buy me. 

I thought for a second. 

"No, I must have skipped right over it trying to get to the cool stuff." I said. It was not the right thing to say, since she huffed again. 

"Boys." She grum-bl-d', before spelling it out for me. 

"You know, it's not a hard spell, maybe you could try it right now." She said, seeming a little less annoyed. 

I nodded, and looked down at my journal, making sure I was saying it right in my head.

I closed my eyes, and imagined the gold color or light that came out Her-mio-ne's wand.

I pointed my finger straight a-head', and tried to say it. 

"Ocku-lus Ruh-paro!" I said, and felt… something. It was warm, but I only felt it for a second, before I felt tired. 

My hands felt a little heavy, and I sunk a little bit more into the chair. 

"Are you mad? You're supposed to use your wand!" The girl said, her eye-br-ows' pointing down, like Grannie's when I did something silly. 

I did n not say anything, my face feeling warm, and my neck itchy. 

"I knew that. I just wanted to try it. Can't you do magic without a wand?" I asked, hoping that it was something that happened, 'cause I didn't like feeling this dumb. 

"Well, yes, but only the strongest and most talented wizards can do that?" She ex-play-n-d'. 

"Makes sense." I nodded, and smiled, feeling like it was a little funny. 

"Where's your wand?" She asked, and I had to think again. It took a few seconds, but I thought of something. 

"My Grannie gave it to the teach-ers' 'cause she thought I was too little for magic." I said, which was a little bit true. Grannie did think I was too little to use magic. 

The girl gasp-d', her brown eyes going wide. 

"How horrible!" She said. Did I say another wrong thing? I sighed, and thought for a-nother' few seconds. 

"Uh, that was when I was nine. I'm going to be twelve soon, so I'm a lot older." I said. Another good save, as she seemed to calm down, and nod. 

Su-den-ly', there was a wis-le' and the train began to slow down, and I looked out the window. It was already night time? The time really passed when I made new friends, huh?

As the train slow-d' down, I heard a loud voice. 

"Right then. First years, right this way please!" 

Ev-ry-body began to get up, as well as Her-mio-ne, and I did too. 

Soon we were all crow-d'ed' at one of the doors, and I grabbed on to my bag even tightr'. 

I kept my eye on Her-mio-ne, and followed her. 

"Come on, now, first years, do not be shy. Come on now, hurry up."

Tall boys and girls opened the doors, and ev-ry-body walked out, and I saw something that I never thought I would see. 

A GIANT!

He had a flash-light as big as my head, and a beard longer than my hair!

I saw Her-mio-ne 'a-head' of me, and I hurried in front of her, worried he might be a monster. Grannie had told me that story of Jack and the beanstalk when I did  not buy her news-payper' and used it for sweets instead, and I knew just how evil giants could be. 

I did NOT want my new friend being eaten. 

But, I saw Harry in front of me, with Ron, and the giant talked again. 

"Hello 'Arry"

"', Hagrid" Harry re-spon-d'ed, and I sighed. He must be one of the good ones. 

Her-mio-ne walked in front of me as the giant (Hag-rid, that was a easy name), told us to follow him to some boats. 

I stuck right behind Her-mio-ne, just in case, and I no-tis-d' we were beside a red bench, that spelled Hogsmeade'. 

I took out my journal and wrote it down, thinking that may-be' I could write about it to Grannie. 

In a few minutes, we were on boats that were driving it's own self! It was like watching a bike ride itself on the street! I looked all around the boat to see if there was anything pushing it, but no. 

Doing magic was going to be so cool. 

I could not stop myself from smiling. 

But then I looked at Her-mio-ne's hand, it was holding her wand really tight. 

It made me less excited when I thought about how I did not have a wand. T' were prob-ly' too ex-pen-si-v' for Grannie to buy. 

I sighed, but then looked at the huge castle in front of me, and it went away pretty quick. 

May-be' this was the same castle from Jack and the beanstalk. It was big e-nuff' for giants, that is for sure. 

Maybe there was a magic golden harp, and a golden goose! 

I opened my journal, and began to hum as I closed my eyes and thought about how a golden goose would look. 

Would it have a or-ange' beak, or would it all be gold, even the eyes?

I will prob-ly' find out soon. 

I felt a poke, and saw Her-mio-ne look at me with the same annoyed look Grannie gave me. 

"Wake up!" she wis-per-d', and I just looked at her. Did it look like I was sleeping? 

The castle was getting closer, so I did not think about it too much, and soon, we were at the bot-um' of a lot stairs. 

Kids were wis-per-ing' a lot as we walked up the stairs, and I just made sure to walk near Her-mio-ne. Honey used to be real clumsy in her dresses, and the uni-form' was nearly as long as one, so I did not want her to fall, spe-cial-ly' on these stairs. 

By the time we made it almost all the way up the stairs, ev-rybody' was talking loudly, and I wanted to join in, but I could not think fast e-nuff' before sum-one' said sum-thing' diff-rent'. 

I noticed ev-rybody' began to be quiet as we noticed a tall lady in a pointy hat waiting at the top of the stairs. 

I could not  help but say sumething'. 

"You're the nice lady!" 

I smiled at her, and waved, until I heard people begin to laugh. Not the good kind of laugh. I looked to Her-mio-ne in con-fu-shun'.

Her eyes were wide open, and her mouth was too. 

Did I do something wrong?

I looked back at the nice lady, and wonder-d' what it was. 

"Indeed, Mr. Thorne. Now, Welcome to Hogwarts." She said, ig-nor-ing' all the giggles, even though t' were already stopping as t' saw her stone-like face. 

"In a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses."

Ev-rything' went quiet as she looked down, before going on. 

"T' are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now, while you're here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points, while any rule breaking… and you will lose points." She stopped, and look-d' to see if we undr-stood'. After a few seconds, she talked again. 

"At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house c-"

"TREVOR!" A familiar boy to Her-mio-ne's side shouted, before quick-ly grabbing a toad.

Ne-vil. 

I heard some giggling, and he look-d' up, and froze when he saw the nice lady's not-so-nice face.  

"Sorry."

He got up, and I noticed Ron and Harry were smiling. I did not like that one bit. It re-mind-ded' me of the bull-ees' at home. 

"The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily." The nice lady said, and I nodded, even though she lost me at mo-ment-air-ily'. 

She walked away, and I heard a voice in the group. Her-mio-ne leaned forward, and I was blocked by her poofy hair. 

"So it's true then, what t' were saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts." 

Ne-vil look-d' confused, and started wis-per-ing', until the person began to talk again. 

"This Crabbe, and Goyle." I heard one of them take some steps, their shoes going click-clack like my dress shoes, at least, before I was too big for them.  

A golden haired boy walked in front of Harry, where the nice lady was, and introduced himself.

"And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." 

I saw Ron giggle, like something was funny, and I frowned. I did not see what was funny. Dray-co got angry, turned to Ron. 

"Think my name's funny, do you? I've no need to ask yours. Red hair, and a hand-me-down robe? You must be a Weasley."

Ron looked down, and I frowned even more, because it look-d' like t' were both being nasty to each other. 

But like Grannie says: Treat others like you want to be treated. 

Ron did not seem to want to be treated well, since he laughed at Dray-co. 

"We'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You do not  want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He said, sticking out his hand for a hand-shake. 

I thought about what he said. He was not the right sort, if that is what he meant when he said that. Both him and Ron were a little bit like bull-ees'. 

"I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks." Harry said, and I wondered if he did. After all, he was friends with Ron. 

The nice lady returned, tapping Dray-co on the shoulder, with a frown on her face. 

Dray-co walked back, and she spoke. 

"We're ready for you now."

She turned, and began walking, and ev-ryone' followed. 

We walked in to a huge room with four, really, really long tables that seemed to be full, and fly-ing candles! T' were all on fire too, and I felt worried that there would be hot wax raining on ev-rybody'.

But that did not happen as we walked through the cent-r' of the room. 

"It's not real, the ceiling. It's just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History." She said, and I gasp-d' a little. I did not even notice the see-ling', I was too fo-cus-d' on the candles.  

Next thing I knew, we were nearly in front of a small stage, with a little stoll with a… hat? 

I was a little con-fus-d'. 

"Alright, will you wait along here, please?" 

We all got even clos-er' to the stage, and waited. 

"Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words."

Dumb-l-door'?

"I have a few start of term notices I wish to announce: The first years, please note- that the Dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students. Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch-" I took a look at the person Dumb-l-door' looked at, and saw a scary, dirty man. I felt goosebumps, and looked back. 

  "-has asked me to remind you that the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds, to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death."

I froze, and looked at Her-mio-ne. There was an evil giant! There had to be! That's the reason the lunchroom and halls were so big!

I felt cold, and stuff-d' my hands in to my pockets. 

"Thank you." He said, and sat back down. 

I look-d' at Her-mio-ne, and note-ise-d' that she was biting her lip. 

I did not know what to do, but thankful-ly', the nice lady helped cheer us up. 

"When I call your name, you will come forth, and I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses." She told us, while holding up a dirty hat. 

I frowned. I did not care for a little dirt, but Grannie had been brushing and combing my hair all week to get it perfect. I did not want to ruin it. 

"Hermione Granger?" The nice lady called out, and I look-d' at Her-mio-ne, and noticed her gasp a little. I frowned. I did not want her to feel nervous. 

She step-d' forward, and I tried to think of what I could do to help. 

"Do not  worry, Her-mio-ne." I said, even though I did not know if that helped. 

She look-d' at me, and smiled a tiny bit, before looking back to the dirty hat. But when she walked, I heard her grum-b-l' something a-bout relaxing. 

"Mental, that one." Ron said, and Harry nodded. I frowned. Maybe Dray-co had a point. 

Her-mio-ne sat down, facing us, and I made sure to give her a big smile. I knew that when Grannie smiled at me, it made me feel a whole lot better. 

"Ah, right then….hmm…right." The HAT spoke, and that near-ly scared me, but Grannie was right when she said that I was 'going to get used to it'. 

"Okay… RAVENCLAW!" The Hat shouted, and I wondered what that meant, but given the smile of re-leaf' on her face, she was happy. She got up, her poofy hair boun-sing', almost, as a table to the side cheer-d'. 

She walk-d' over and sat down, but not before smiling back at me. 

"Draco Malfoy!" The nice lady called out, and Dray-co sat down, but not even a se-cond later, it shouted out:

"Slytherin!" 

Next went Suzan Bones, a red haired girl who I couldnot  help but think was really pretty. 

The Hat wait-d' for a second, humming, before shouting out: 

"Hufflepuff!" She smiled pret-ti-ly', and ran to a table on the 'op-pos-it' side of the room from Her-mio-ne. 

Next went Ron, and I did not bother to pay a-ten-shin', and looked back to Her-mio-ne, who seemed to be much more relax-d', talking about magic, prob-ly'. 

The hat shouted Gri-fin-door', and Ron went to a table in the middle. 

Next was Harry, and I did not real-ly' care about where he went. Ev-rybody' look-d' happy to go wher-ever' t' went. 

I look-d' up at the see-ling', and fo-cus-d' on the night sky. Back at home the skies were not easy to see. Too much light, Grannie said. 

After a few minutes, Harry went to Gri-fin-door', and everybody in the table that Ron sat at scream-d', in happy-ness I guess, but it was too loud. I had to cover my ears, and wait. 

Next a few students went, but I noticed that Ne-vil went to Gri-fin-door'. I felt a little bit bad, because Ron and Harry did not seem to be very nice, and he would have to be with them all year. 

I no-tis-d' that there were only three kids left, and my heart began to go a bit faster as the nice lady look-d' down at the paper. 

"Quentin Thorne." She said, and I walked up the stage, and sat down on the stool, and by now my heart was beating really fast. 

I even ignored how the dusty hat def-i-nit-ly' mess-d' up my hair. 

Su-den-ly', as I was hearing 'hmm' on the outside, a voice spoke in my head!

"An innocent mind? How refreshing. Though your grammar skills could use help. Right. Hm. You seem like a perfect Hufflepuff… but there seems to be something else… I canot  quite pinpoint it… how odd."

I fo-cus-d' on the voice in my head, and wondered how this was happening. I was not really scared, but I want-d' to know more. 

I wanted to know where it came from. 

Her-mio-ne's magic came from her wand, right? So if I follow-d' the voice, I could find where it was coming from. 

My mind felt foggy and I imagin-d' myself following a pale, brown, leathery trail, unti-

"HUFFLEPUFF" It shouted, scaring me awake. 

What happen-d'? 

I heard cheers, and I got up, patting my head, feeling more con-fus-d' than 'ex-sigh-ted'. 

I copied where Suzan went, and found myself a seat.

'Pe-ple' all around me said hi, but I could not fo-cus'. 

I took out my journal from my bag, and set it on my lap, where I sneak-ly' took out my pencil and tried to draw what I had been imagining. 

The problem was, that I 'felt' it more than I imagin-d'. It was a color and a sen-say-shun' all at the same time. 

I frown-d'. Ever since I start-d' drawing, I could al-ways draw whatevr'  I wanted. This was the first time I… could not . 

I tore out my paper, and stuff-d' it in to my bag.  

I did not feel very happy. 

"You okay?" I heard, and I no-tis-d' a plate of food in front of me. When did that get there? 

I look-d' to the voice, and saw Suzan. I smiled a little, but shook my head. 

"Why not?" She asked, and I shrug-d'. I could not explain why very well. 

"Is it because you got sort-d' into Hufflepuff?" She asked again, and I shook my head, feeling my heart beat go a little faster, and my mouth did not want to open. 

"Well, this is the house of loyalty, and friendship, so if something's bothering you, do not  hesitate to tell us." Another Huff-l-puff boy said, and I smiled a little bit wider now. This house seemed a lot better than the rest. 

"What's your name again?" Suzan asked me, and I finally felt like I could talk. 

"Quentin. You?" I asked back, feeling a lot better. 

"Susan Bones." 

"How do you spell it?" I asked, and she gave me a con-fus-d' look. I thought of what to say. I really did not want to look silly in front of her. 

"I'm not very good at re-mem-bering names." I said, and she smiled again. Whew. 

"S-u-s-a-n." She said, and I had to ask, while I had the chan-se'-

"Want to be friends?" 

"Of course, silly." She joked, and I smiled. Or at least, I hope she was kid-ing. 

Out of no-where, I felt a windy, gray, and almost rubber-y feeling fill the huge lunch-room.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw sum-thing' floating, and it was not  a candle… I turned a little, and froze. 

IT WAS A GHOST!

They were real?! 

One even had a sword! 

I held on to my journal so tight-ly that I am sure I left holes in it. 

I did not know if t' were evil or not, so I did not do anything, but that did not stop me from keeping an eye on them until it was time to go to our common rooms. I tried to find Her-mio-ne and wave good-bye, but she was not looking this way. I hoped I would see her again. 

I still need-d' to draw her. 

As we left, I stuck next to Susan, who talked about her fa-vor-it' subject, and when she asked me sum-thing', I just nodded and smiled. It helped me so far with Grannie and Her-mio-ne. 

We went down-stairs, and into a soft-ly lit yellow room with circle windows. The boys and girls were split a-part, and I had to go in to a se-par-at' hall-way, and in to a room that look-d' a lot like the main room. A small, circle window, and yellow paint. 

There were two bunk-beds, and I frown-d'. I did not like having my stuff around other pe-ple. Back in school, other kids used to take my drawings and scribble all over them. 

I saw my suit-case under the bottom bunk, and guessed that t' brought my stuff here from the train. 

I still had my bag though. 

That always stay-d' with me. 

I got into bed, and pulled the covers over my head, and held my bag tight. 

They turned the candles off at some point, and I still could not sleep. When I closed my eyes, I felt a shadow, and it felt… rotten.