A/N The last Tardigrade assignment! It has been a fantastic half year, with lots of amazing stories and wonderful fellow contestants. This is my very last Tardigrade entry, I hope you enjoy it.

This week's assignment: write about you or your character going into the world of a fandom. Obviously I chose Harry Potter as the fandom, cause I'm a massive Potterhead. XD And I decided to go with Alex from After the End as a character this time. :) I've tried to make everything as clear as possible for those who haven't read After the End. Enjoy!

One year.

It had been just over one year since Alex died. A whole year she'd been wandering the earth as a lost soul, with nobody able to hear her or see her.

At this point, she didn't even know where she was going anymore. Or where she was, for that matter. Somewhere in the north of the UK, she figured. It rained a lot here.

It had been a lonely year. Sure, there were more souls just like her, people who could see her and talk to her. But they were scared. They were on the run, just like Alex.

The Reaper was after them.

If they stayed in one place for too long, the Reaper would find them and take them away, into the unknown.

And so Alex was on the run, visiting all of the most beautiful places on earth. Yet her trek had eventually brought her back to her home country. Perhaps she'd visit her little brother soon. Not that he would ever know.

Her feet, which never tired, took her ever onwards, until she reached a massive, dark lake. A gasp escaped her lips when she spotted the enormous, beautiful castle on the other side of it. Never before had she seen such tall towers, sticking proudly into the heavens.

As she came closer, she spotted the people, scattered around on the grounds. Was this castle inhabited?

She drew closer still and it turned out those people were all children. Some her own age, some closer to her little brother's age. What could all these kids be doing in a castle? Did they have a school trip or something?

And why are they wearing such strange clothes?

For some reason, all these kids seemed to be wearing long, black, coat-like costumes. Robes, maybe.

Alex looked around wide-eyed as she made her way across the grounds and towards the entrance doors. She could've sworn one of the kids, a girl with curly brown hair and three books in her lap, looked straight at her. The inside of the castle was just as massive as the outside. The halls echoed with people's footsteps and faraway voices.

"Hello there, are you lost?"

Alex wheeled around to see a man with old-fashioned clothes, as if he came straight out of a middle ages play. Her eyes were drawn, however, to his neck, which seemed to be severed.

"Uh, h-hi. I'm just... looking around, I guess. What is this place?"

"Why it's a school, of course!" said the strange man, gesturing around himself with both arms, a bright smile on his face. "My name is Sir Nicholas. And yours, milady?"

"Alex. Did you say school?" Surely she must've heard that wrong. Hadn't she?

"Indeed so." Nicholas nodded, causing his head to swivel dangerously on his neck, as if it was about to fall off. Alex thought she'd be sick, if she'd still had a body. "You are in Hogwarts, school for witchcraft and wizardry. The best school of magic in all of Europe."

"I'm sorry... Magic?" Her head spun. Was he messing with her?

"Oh my," said Nicholas, his smile faltering."You're a muggle, aren't you? I must say, we don't get many muggles here. Not even dead ones." She'd barely opened her mouth to ask what on earth a muggle was when, he added, "Non-magical person. No matter, I'll show you around!"

"Oh," said Alex, unsure what to think of all this. "You mean, actual magic?"

Nicholas laughed. "Yes, actual magic. You can't be too surprised, surely, considering you're still walking around after your death."

Yeah, and that was hard enough to wrap my head around, she thought.

"I'll show you all the best places in the castle," said Nicholas, eyes gleaming at the prospect. "And I'll introduce you to the other ghosts that live here. They'll be thrilled. We don't get new ghosts around here very often."

"Hang on," Alex interrupted him as he lead her through the huge hallways towards a set of stairs that seemed to be moving of its own accord. "You live here? Like, for long periods of time?"

"Well, of course!" said Nicholas. "This castle has been my home for hundreds of years."

Alex' jaw dropped. "Hundreds of years? But hasn't the Reaper come to get you yet?"

His eyebrows knitted together. "The who now?"

"The Reaper! The one who takes souls away!"

"Er... No?"

"Hello, Nick!"

"Oh hello there," said Nicholas to a red-haired boy who passed by.

"Wait, they can see you?" said Alex, her voice raising.

"'Course they can! They can see you too!"

"No, they..." She hadn't even finished the sentence when she spotted the boy staring at her, tilting his head to the side.

"Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you before."

"I... Y... Wh..." Alex had so many questions, but the words wouldn't come out.

Nicholas had already waved the boy off when she finally found her tongue. "I thought living people aren't supposed to be able to see us!"

"Ah," said Nicholas. "You see, this castle is so full of magic that us ghosts become almost corporeal. Not quite though... Which is a shame..."

"But... That's amazing!" For an entire year Alex had felt lonely and scared. With the Reaper after her, she hadn't had a second of peace. She hadn't spoken to anyone in months. And now, here she was, in a place where she wasn't merely safe, but where she wasn't alone. All these kids could see her and hear her. It was everything she could wish for.

"So where does this Reaper take you?" said Nicholas, breaking into her thoughts.

"Oh, well nobody really knows. Onwards, is what they say. But no one knows what that means. Some think he takes us to hell, others think it might be to oblivion. You know, where you literally stop existing."

"Onwards," Nicholas repeated, staring into the distance. "That sounds... Nice. You and I, we have a lot to talk about."