Preface
IT WAS nearing the midnight hour. Hedone shut the book and kept it on her bedside table. She should really be sleeping. She closed her eyes and turned to the side as she attempted to fall into the hands of Morpheus and escape the clutches of reality for a night. Alas! She was unsuccessful. She decided to leave the comfort of her sheets and wander through the vast and lonely corridors of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It was a pity that they did not allow the students to wander out of their common rooms at night. Everything from the Quidditch Pitch to the Astronomy Tower looked so much more mesmerizing at night. It was at moments like these where she would wish she was in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. What she would give to admire the view from those towers.
Salazar Slytherin had great taste in decor but it turns out he has quite a bad taste in locations. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, both had tall towers that look down upon the school and Hufflepuff, with dormitories next to the kitchens, free to sneak some food in whenever they please but the great house of Salazar Slytherin, the goddamn dungeons.
What he was thinking when he chose to house the prideful, cunning and ambitious children of Slytherin in the dungeons, she shall never know.
She slowly crept her way to the gigantic double doors that controlled the flow of people in and out of the school. She quietly wandered out of the castle and went into the open grounds till she reached the Black Lake. It was quite idyllic. The serenity and the soft glow of the water as the light of the crescent moon fell on it. People who cannot appreciate the simple beauty of moments such as these are quite foolish. There is beauty in anything and everything. Sometimes the beauty is buried deep in it and sometimes it is out in the open. It is just a matter of finding it.
After a well spent few minutes of gazing into the vast grounds and the still waters of the lake, Hedone headed back into the castle. She felt as though she was a princess, wandering through the wide, lonely castle looking for a way to escape. She liked that feeling. She navigated her way back to the dungeons. As she was about to speak the password, a voice called out.
"Hedone?"