. Mrs. Norris stalked the kids, circling her master. The two were the trouble maker busters, enjoying getting kids in detention. Filch's arch enemy was Peeves, the trouble making ghost, who never seemed to leave, and loved pranking and tormenting the kids. They followed the stream of students up to the castle doors, magnificent oak, much taller than necessary. The hall was light, as usual, by smokeless flames on the wall, making the light flicker. The walls were all stone, obviously centuries old, and there were suits of armor that Peeves liked to possess, making them jump out at the smaller kids. John followed his friends into the Great Hall, where all of the meals were eaten. There were five long tables, four vertical and next to each other, and one for each house. There were four houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. The fifth sat on a raised floor, horizontal, for the staff to eat. John didn't like the staff staring down at him while he was trying to enjoy his food, but he had kind of gotten used to it by now. They took their seats in the table, next to some six years he didn't know the names of. As they were waiting for the first years to be sorted, John scanned the staff table for any new faces. Everyone was still there, but he spotted a new professor, not replacing anyone which was odd, maybe there was a new class. The poor guy sat by Snape, and he looked young. From what John could see, he had dark, curly hair, and pale skin. If he didn't know better, he'd say he could be Snape's son, although he doubted Snape had a family.

"Who's that?" John asked his friends, pointing to the strange professor.

"I don't know, maybe he'd replacing someone." Greg shrugged.

"There's no one missing, maybe a new class then?" Sara pointed out. All of the other professors were chatting to one another, even Snape, who was having a conversation with Dumbledore across McGonagall's empty chair. She had always led the first years to the sorting, and this year was no exception. But the strange teacher just stared blankly at the far wall, obviously lost in his own mind, not talking to anyone. John thought whoever it was, he was very odd. Before he could point this out to anyone though, the doors opened and McGonagall led two lines of terrified looking first years, carrying a stool and a dusty old hat. That was the Sorting hat, not looking special, but it could talk, which made John very surprised when he first saw it. The sorting began; each kid came up by alphabetical order, sitting wide eyed on the stool and getting the hat placed on their head. Then it would call out a house and that would be where the kid was for the rest of their Hogwarts career. John clapped along with the other Gryffindors as they gained more members of the house, making up for everyone lost. When it was done, to John's relief, he was starving; the once empty golden plates and goblets were not empty any more, food appearing in the blink of an eye. John loaded his plate with chicken, potatoes, and vegetables, wolfing it all down. The rest of the kids also ate like wild animals; the first day was always the hungriest. When the food was finished and the dessert gone, Dumbledore stood up and read off the rules and stuff, all the ordinary, no Forbidden Forrest, no getting in Filch's way, a list of forbidden items that everyone had, and all this other crap that no one cared about. But all rules had exceptions, and of course John was able to go in the forbidden forest. No one knew except Dumbledore and McGonagall, but he had wondered into the forbidden forest one time, alone, going on a dare from Greg, third year. The forest was filled with all sorts of monsters, but he wasn't going very deep in. When he was turning around to go back, he heard all sorts of cracking noises, and turned around to be face to face with a Werewolf. Of course it didn't end well, and even though he survived, he was cursed to turn into a ferocious beast every full moon. He was terrified of himself, what he might do, he had no control of himself and if he wasn't prepared, he could change and attack his friends. When he had told his parents, they almost pulled him out of the school, claiming it was unsafe and stuff, but it was the only chance John had at learning to control it. So far, every full moon, he made an excuse and went down to the Forbidden Forrest, where he was unable to hurt anyone except small animals. This was a curse he could never bear to live with, even Greg didn't know, and he hated himself for being so stupid. There was nothing he could do to control it, but he never told his parents that. When there was a full moon in the muggle world, they would drop him off in deep woods. His parents were terrified of the creature, but they tried to hide it. Harry of course, never missed an opportunity to call his a beast or a freak, but she was just jealous. Being what he was didn't slow him down one bit though, he still was captain, still had top marks, and had friends. But if anyone found out about his dark side, he would be ruined. After Dumbledore finished, the prefects lead the houses to the common rooms. Gryffindor common room was behind a portrait of a very fat lady, who asked for the password. Now it was umqra, but it would probably change. When the prefect said the password, the picture swung off the wall, revealing a hole in the wall, leading to the common room.