Being a part of the sacred 28, the Greengrass family had always been highly respected among the Wizarding community, and they came from a long generation of Pureblood wizards and witches. This was something that Diana Greengrass's family took pride on, and so did she.

The morning after receiving her Hogwarts letter, Diana paid a visit to Diagon Alley along with her mother. The first thing they did was to go to Gringotts and take some money out of their vault, which was located in the deeper parts of the bank.

    "Here, you go get your school books," said Mrs. Greengrass, handing Diana a few Galleons. "I'll go and look at the quills. Your brother said he needed a new one for work."

    "All right," Diana mumbled before taking the golden coins from her mother and making her way toward Flourish and Blotts Bookseller shop.

    Although before she had even reached the shop, Diana groaned to herself when a familiar voice called her from behind. Trying to ignore the annoying voice, she kept on walking, hoping that he would give up and leave her alone.

    "Diana! Hey! Wait up!" The boy called again, finally catching up with her.

Sighing miserably, Diana turned around, only to see Evan Rosier standing right behind her.

    "You weren't trying to avoid me by any chance, were you?" Evan asked, an arrogant smirk playing at the edge of his lips, which always made Diana want to beat it off with her own Beater bat.

    "Oh, no. I would never dream of it," Diana said sarcastically, glaring at his direction.

"So what did you do this summer?" Evan questioned, ignoring her witty remark. "I sent you two letters and I got no response. Where have you been?"

"Hiding away from you," Diana said with a grin before starting to walk on again, hoping that he would let her go. But Evan just followed after her.

"Ouch. Why do you always have to be so harsh with me?" Evan said mockingly, pouting.

"Um, have you met you?" Diana scoffed as she kept on walking, not even bothering to look back at him. "You're not a likable person."

"Either that, or you just hate all people."

Diana shrugged carelessly. "That too."

    Evan smirked. "Playing hard to get, are we?"

    "No," Diana shook her head smugly, "I'm just too hard to please."

Evan gritted his teeth together furiously. "Well, then I guess calling you the heartless bitch of Slytherin would suit you perfectly."

Diana smirked proudly. "And I wear that title like a crown."

With that, she picked up her pace and left Evan behind, finally reaching Flourish and Blotts Bookseller to buy her Hogwarts books and get it all over soon.

     Diana entered the shop with her Hogwarts' book-list in her hand, looking around. The only new ones she needed to buy were The Standard Book of Spells Grade 5 for their Charms class, The Dream Oracle for Divination, and The Essential Defence Against the Dark Arts by Arsenius Jigger.

    Although Diana took a look around the shop to check out other books, mostly the ones Wizarding history and some about Ancient Runes. She even came across a book named Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst is Coming, which had a picture of a Grim on the front page.

Grinning to herself, she picked up the book and looked through it, shaking her head at the stupidity of those people who actually believed in omens.

"You're not going to buy that, are you?" Diana turned around at those words, only to see two middle-aged witches, looking at her worriedly.

"No, I won't." Diana shrugged. "But that's just because I don't like spending my money on rubbish."

"Oh, but it's not rubbish!" the shorter woman exclaimed. "My brother-in-law once saw a huge black dog that looked like the Grim, five years ago. He was faced with a troll the next day and ended up in St Mungo's!"

"And did he die?" Diana asked blankly, as though she was talking about the most boring topic in the world, like the weather.

"Well... no," said the witch, caught off guard by Diana's response, "but he was severely injured."

    "Merlin... And I swear I saw a black cat with big yellow eyes just last week! It's bad luck! Eveyone knows that!" the other witch said worriedly.

    "Hopefully it wasn't a death omen." Her friend nodded in agreement, throwing one last anxious look at the dark Divination book.

    "Idiots..." Diana mumbled to herself and rolled her eyes, before moving along and leaving the two women behind.

    Diana knew that Divination was the stupidest branch of magic there was, and there was nothing real about it. Although she had taken the class back in her third year because of her friend's insisting, who kept saying that it was an easy class in which getting an Outstanding was very simple; all they had to do was to make up fake scenarios and predictions.

     After getting the books she needed, Diana went and stood in the line for the payment. She kept tapping her feet on the floor, waiting impatiently for the wizard in front of her to pay quickly and leave. Diana felt as though the man was moving in slow motion.

    When her turn came, Diana moved forward and handed the money to the man in charge of the shop. Then, hugging her books to her chest, Diana turned around to leave the shop.

  But just as she was about to turn a corner inside the store, Diana suddenly bumped into someone, causing all her books to fall down.

   "Shoot! I'm so sorry." The boy started apologizing immediately. "That was completely my fault."

    Before she could respond, the boy bent down to pick up the fallen books along with her anyway. Diana managed to pick up her Defense Against the Dark Arts and Divination book, meanwhile the boy took the Charms book off the floor.

    Diana looked up at him, and recognized him immediately. He was the boy who always hung out with Sirius Black and James Potter, who were both in the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

     The boy had sandy brown hair and kind eyes, though there always seemed to be dark circles beneath his eyes, with old scars and fresh wounds covering his face. Diana had never stood this close to him, and so only now she realized that he smelled like chocolate.

   "There you go," the boy said softly, handing her the Charms book.

    And then, everything happened quickly.

    Diana raised her hand to take the book from him, but the moment her hand brushed against his, she gasped and dropped the book to the floor.

  In that split second when their hands briefly touched, darkness covered her vision. It was a kind of darkness she had never experienced, as though all the lights in the world had ceased to exist for a moment.

  The coldness she had felt in that moment was nothing like the one that came with winter each year; it was a bitter coldness as though each and every cell in her body had turned into ice, as though warmth had never even existed, and as though she could never feel happiness again in her heart. She felt pain, sorrow, and guilt, as though the inevitable darkness had haunted her soul.

    Diana took a step back from the boy the next second with the Charms book still on the floor as she stared at him in horror, her blue eyes wide in horror.

    "Are — are you okay?" the boy asked her in concern, watching her warily.

    "What did you do to me?" Diana asked in a mere whisper, feeling out of breath as her heartbeat sped up like never before.

    "What?" The boy seemed confused. He then tried to shake the matter away as he bent down to pick up the book off the floor again. "Here." But she didn't take it.

  Diana only took another step away from him as she kept breathing heavily. The next moment, without a warning, she turned on her heels and ran out of the shop with her two books, having no idea what had just happened.