Chapter Text
Today was like any other day; the night sky hung above in the great hall while idle minded students chatted and ate amongst themselves. Hermione and Ron were bickering like usual and sitting up on the high table sat the professors. The professor who drew my attention however, was Professor Lupin. He was sitting next to Snape and seemed to be having a one sided conversation with the man.
Professor Lupin seemed to be the most favored professor in just the few short days he's been here. I've yet to have class with him so I haven't interacted with him since the train ride here. Speaking of the train ride Hermione and I speculated as to why a professor chose to travel by train rather than arrive at Hogwarts via aparation or floo. While Hermione thought it was suspicious I simply thought it was for sentimental value. "What if he used to go here?" I tried to appeal to her. "Maybe he wanted to ride the train one more time?" Her expression told me she found it highly doubtful but her only response was "If you think so Harry."
Just as I thought to butt into Hermione and Ron's argument something strange flashed in the corner of my eye. A sudden spark so insignificant I would've shrugged if off if it wasn't for the fact that it happened again. I turned to look in the direction it was coming from. In the middle of the hall sparks of golden light that looked suspiciously like lightning started to form a ball. It started to grow so big that eventually the students closest to the ball had to back up.
"Bloody Hell! What is that thing?" exclaimed Ron
Unable to answer I looked towards the professors table only to find them all standing with their wands at wand point towards the glowing ball of light. Out of nowhere I heard the crack of thunder and my first thought was to look up at the ceiling. I looked up only to see the moon and the stars with no sign of rain or thunder in sight. I heard it again, louder this time and finally I turned to look at the ball of lightning that seemed to have grown three sizes since I last looked at it.
When I finally settled my eyes on the golden ball in the middle of the hall I had to force my eyes to squeeze shut. The glow coming off the ball of lightning seemed to grow to the point where I could see it through my eyelids. When I felt the offending light die down I dared to open my eyes. As my eyes adjusted I looked towards the middle of the great hall only for my eyes to widen in shock.
Lying in place of the ball of lightning lied a ginger haired male. While this piece of information might seem insignificant, considering there were millions of ginger haired males out existing in the world, what was significant was the fact that the mans left ear was missing and in its place lied a gaping hole.
TBC