Aurora Rosier & the Year of the Snake

Exceeding Expectations

"Did you see him?"

"No, where was he?"

"With the tall kid with red hair."

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers about Harry Potter filled the halls of Hogwarts the next day. Students would line up outside of classrooms or walk back and forth through the halls, just in hopes of catching a glimpse of the famous eleven-year-old. They clogged up the corridors, making it even harder for the other first-years to navigate the already confusing castle.

"Stupid, famous Potter," Draco had groaned, nearly tripping over a group of fourth years that had decided to camp out in the middle of the corridor, waiting outside the Great Hall in hopes of spotting the first year. "He must love this."

Aurora shrugged in response, not really listening as she dodged a second year, who had already passed by earlier, his head swiveling to try and be the first to spot Harry. Aurora considered herself to be as unlucky as the rest of Hogwarts. She hadn't been able to see Harry or Hermione or any of her other friends from the train earlier.

On the other hand, and compared to some of the other first-year students, Aurora was extremely lucky to have Cedric's wealth of Hogwarts knowledge at her fingertips. Over the summer he had given her plenty of tips and tricks on how to survive and navigate the castle that she had started writing them all down:

Hogwarts had one hundred and forty-two staircases, but many had tricks stairs that would disappear at random

one of the massive library doors was completely normal most days, except for the second Wednesday of the month and quarter moons when it would turn to solid stone

never gossip on the second landing of the grand staircase, there is a portrait of a shepherdess who loves to wander and spread rumors

And that was just the beginning. With this backlog of knowledge, Aurora felt confident that she could navigate the castle with ease...most of the time.

Beyond the normal twists and turns of the castle, the Slytherin first years also had to deal with navigating the even deeper and darker twists and turns of the dungeons. Another Slytherin prefect had led them from the common room to the Great Hall the next morning for breakfast, and Aurora had felt practically dizzy as she stepped into the sunlit stone hallway. She couldn't be certain, but she could've sworn they hadn't taken so many turns the night before, and wondered if the prefect had taken them a different way on purpose.

The ghosts were an entirely other obstacle. They flew in and out of walls and doors at will, often scaring unsuspecting students. Aurora learned quickly that the Bloody Baron was unreliable; he was much more likely to keep floating by than he was willing to stop and offer assistance. But where he was harmless, it was Peeves the Poltergeist she had to keep an eye out for. It was bad enough passing by him in the halls under normal circumstances, but if you were late? Peeves guaranteed to be an inconvenience of the highest degree: dropping waste baskets on heads, juggling spilled school supplies, or sneaking up behind, invisible, grabbing your nose and screeching, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

Somehow worse than Peeves was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Aurora had been warned about him as well, Cedric much too familiar with Filch's strict code of conduct. She had passed him a few times in the halls, always holding her breath, both for safety and for body odor. After breakfast on her first day of classes, Aurora had seen Filch threatening a Ravenclaw first year she could've sworn was one of the Patil twins (though which one, embarrassingly she wasn't sure) after the girl had accidentally tripped and knocked into a suit of armor that had been moving on its own.