Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments): Arithmancy (Assignment 2)

Prompt: Write about someone keeping a secret.

Word Count: 600 (ish)

P.S. I'm so sorry I don't even know what happened I just didn't want to write a clichéd love secret and then this happened...

I have a secret.

His name's Aidan and he is utterly gorgeous. He sleeps under my bed and all the girls in my dorm love him. Every morning he wakes me up by licking my face and it is so adorable.

I should probably clarify: Aidan is my beautiful beagle.

You know, they don't allow dogs at Hogwarts. They don't seem to have any dogs in the wizarding world (except weird ones with too many heads.)

Only the girls in my dorm know about Aidan. If anyone found out he'd be sent home and that would be awful. My parents don't like Aidan, so when they found out I was going to some magical boarding school they told me that if I didn't take him with me they'd have to sell him.

I have to wake up really early every morning to take him for walks and then I have to smuggle him back inside. I love going for walks with Aidan. Once I get past the fear of being seen I feel so much braver with him. I know he's no match for even Mrs Norris, let alone the dangers of the Forbidden Forest, but I know he'd at least try and protect me (even if all he could do was bark at whatever monster was trying to kill me.

Food was a problem at first. I couldn't see a way of bringing enough dog food to last Aidan a whole term, and even once I'd learnt shrinking spells I wasn't allowed to use them at home. Now though, I have a contact. One of the older boys showed me the kitchens, and I found a house-elf willing to help me. Spinkie can apparate out of the grounds to my room, and I leave enough food in there for a term. It's hidden in a cupboard my parents would never bother looking in, so I'm safe. As well as the dog food I always try and sneak him some scraps from dinner. Everyone who doesn't know about Aidan probably thinks I'm incredibly greedy as I'm always taking leftovers up to my dorm.

Sometimes, late at night, when it's just me or some of the girls from my dorm in the common room I curl up in front of the fire with Aidan. I almost got caught like that the other day- I had dozed off with Aidan in my lap and a couple of first years came running in. Luckily the robes the make you wear here are so big that I could hide Aidan underneath my cloak.

The other girls think I just keep Aidan around because he's cute, or because it's cool to have a secret but they're wrong. Yeah, he's adorable, but it's more than that. When I first came here I was really homesick, and Aidan was my one piece of normalcy. He's not strange or magical, he's just a dog. He's straightforward and routine. I think it goes back even further than that though. Even at home I never felt I really belonged. I didn't have close friends and I couldn't tell my parents anything so Aidan became my confidant. I know he can't understand me, and probably wouldn't actually care, but something about his big brown eyes seems to say that he's listening, and that he's always there for me.