"Good evening, children." Dumbledore announced after all new first years had been sorted into their house. "Now, we have two changes in staffing this year. We’re pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank who’ll be taking Care of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave." Hagrid on leave? But, he'd never left the school, other than when he was accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets and sent to Azkaban. "We also wish to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dolores Umbridge. And I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing the professor good luck."

I looked over at the new woman among the professors, I knew her. She had been at my hearing, the woman in pink. She was the woman in pink.

"Now, as usual, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you…" Dumbledore was interrupted by the lady clearing her throat. He turned to look at her and she stood from her seat, walking over to the great wizard.

"Thank you, headmaster, for those kind words of welcome." She began. "And how lovely to see all your bright… happy faces smiling up at me. I’m sure we’re all going to be very good friends." Yeah right, she tried to stop me from going back to Hogwarts, I was going to ruin her. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance" She continued, stepping forward. "Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be prohibited."

What a lode of bollocks. It was ridiculous, the Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts. Probably trying to rid Dumbledore of his job since, according to Cornelius Fudge, he was after the Minister's job.

"Thank you, Professor Umbridge. That really was most illuminating." Dumbledore told the woman.

Bollocks. All bloody bollocks.

"Magic in the corridors is forbidden, as is the forbidden forest. That is all." Dumbledore finished. Food appeared on all tables in the Hall, students reaching out and snatching it up. I didn't eat much, just some chicken and chips. Everyone else, on the other hand, ate everything. The girl sat opposite me kept looking up at me every few minutes, it was really creepy. I recognised her to be one of Pansy's minions, but she hadn't been with Pansy on the train and she was sitting at the table alone, like me.

Eventually once everyone had eaten, Dumbledore told the prefects to take their houses back to their common rooms. Two new prefects had been chosen in our year, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.Great. I was going to get detention all the time.

The two of them and four older prefects lead us back to the common room, first years staring in awe at the room around them. I headed straight to my bed, grabbing my luggage among the piles of trunks and ignoring any stupid remarks I heard around me. If I had the chance to change houses, I definitely would. I wasn't evil, was I? Why was I a Slytherin?

The dorm room was empty, Pansy and her group had stayed in the common room to brag about Pansy's new prefect honour.

I dropped my luggage at the foot of my bed and perched myself on top of it, reaching into my pocket to pull out the envelope I had received in the carriage. The letter was slightly crumpled from me stuffing it into my pocket, but I didn't mind, what the letter read was more important. I opened the envelope to reveal a white letter, folded into three parts. Slowly, I unfolded the letter which was covered in Emma's scruffy handwriting and read from the beginning.

Elizabeth,

I found the ingredients needed to perform this spell, just remember how dangerous it will be. What you must do is to place these ingredients in a circle around Cedric's body and hopefully, the spell shall work.

You will need:

The body of the dead,

1. An item belonging to the dead,

2. An item related to a hobby of the dead,

3. The wand of the dead,

4. Blood of the dead's loved one,

5. Elixir of Life,

6. The tears of your enemy,

7. Calming Drought,

8. Painful memories of your family,

9. A powerful wand of another (In this case, the only wand powerful enough would be the Elder wand),

10. An important item to you,

11. An item belonging to the dead's father,

12. The heart of your arch nemesis,

Once you have everything you must place these objects in a circle surrounding the body, if you imagine a clock, think Cedric's head as 12 o'clock and his feet 6 o'clock, this way you will know where to place the objects based off their number in the list.

It has worked before, but with a five percent chance, so it is most likely not to work. I know this won't stop you. So good luck.

-Em

I lowered the piece of paper, this was not going to be easy. I didn't even know if it was going to work, but I had to try it.

And that was a lot of ingredients. Where was I going to start?

I scanned the list again, looking for the easiest thing to start with. Number 10, an important item to me. Surely that would be easy.

Right?

I reached over to my truck and opened it up, sifting through the things in it to find something important to me, but all I found was clothes and books. I slammed the trunk closed and planted myself on my bed when the door to the room flew open.

"Oh, there you are. Sitting alone crying about your dear boyfriend." Pansy's voice echoed from behind me. "He's never coming back you know. Ever. He's dead and left you all alone, with no one to care about you."

I didn't reply, I wasn't going to back down to her. But then I remembered the list in my hand and shoved into my pocket. She couldn't see it. No one could. And then I remembered one of the points on the list.

The tears of my enemy.

My enemy was Pansy.

A smile came to my face, an evil, demonic smile. I stood to face the brat, the smile still on my face.

"Pansy Parkinson. The girl who has everything. A boyfriend, a group of slaves, the perfect life. I will rip you apart and leave you with nothing but the hope that you were dead. This year's going to be your living hell. That's a promise. And it's a promise I'm going to keep."