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An: Hi! I just wanted to tell you that I have TikTok account where I post edits of my fanfics (sometimes even spoilers). You can check it out if you want to - gabri_wp- . Hope you'll enjoy this chapter. - Gabi ❤
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry’s first thought was that this was not someone to cross.
,,MINNIE!" „Mr Black, Mr Potter-"
‘The firs’-years, Professor McGonagall,’ said Hagrid.
‘Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.’
She pulled the door wide. The Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the Dursleys’ house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right – the rest of the school must already be here – but Professor McGonagall showed the first-years into a small empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.
‘Welcome to Hogwarts,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘The startof-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
‘The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
,,Same speech as I always." „It's a great speech, why change it?"
‘The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.’
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville’s cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron’s smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
,,You can't. I tried really hard. You can't smarten them up." said Euphemia looking at Fleamont, James and Harry's hair.
‘I shall return when we are ready for you,’ said Professor
McGonagall. ‘Please wait quietly.’
She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.
‘How exactly do they sort us into houses?’ he asked Ron.
‘Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking.’
Harry’s heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn’t know any magic yet – what on earth would he have to do? He hadn’t expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she’d learnt and wondering which one she’d need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He’d never been more nervous, never, not even when he’d had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he’d somehow turned his teacher’s wig blue.
,,I love accidental magic." laughed Sirius.
He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.
Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air – several people behind him screamed.
‘What the –?’
He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, ‘Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –’
‘My dear Friar, haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?’
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years.
Nobody answered.
,, Look at their faces, they're so scared." laughed someone.
‘New students!’ said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them.
‘About to be sorted, I suppose?’ A few people nodded mutely.
‘Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!’ said the Friar. ‘My old house, you know.’
‘Move along now,’ said a sharp voice. ‘The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start.’
Mothers of future generations got excited even though they already knew their children houses.
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
‘Now, form a line,’ Professor McGonagall told the first-years, ‘and follow me.’
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.
Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, ‘It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History.’
,,Lily told us the same thing.
It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn’t simply open on to the heavens.
Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard’s hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn’t have let it in the house.
Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing – noticing that everyone in the Hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began to sing:
‘Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,
But don’t judge on what you see, I’ll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall, For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all.
There’s nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can’t see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you’ve a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You’ll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don’t be afraid!
And don’t get in a flap!
You’re in safe hands (though I have none)
For I’m a Thinking Cap!’
The Great Hall bursted into applause.
The whole Hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. ‘So we’ve just got to try on the hat!’ Ron whispered to Harry. ‘I’ll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll.’
The future generation looked at each other.
Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn’t feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
‘When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,’ she said.
‘Abbott, Hannah!’
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment’s pause –
‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
'Black, Cassiopeia!'
Cassi walked to the chair and sat on it. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on her head. 'Ah I didn't have Black here for quite long time! Your father was the last. Hmm where do I put you?' 'Whenever you'd think I do best.' After few moments of silence the hat shouted: 'SLYTHERIN!'
The Slytherin table cheered and clapped as Cassiopeia went to sit down.
Blacks had satisfied smiles on their faces.
‘Bones, Susan!’
‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
‘Boot, Terry!’
‘RAVENCLAW!’
The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
‘Brocklehurst, Mandy’ went to Ravenclaw too, but ‘Brown, Lavender’ became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron’s twin brothers catcalling.
‘Bulstrode, Millicent’ then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry’s imagination, after all he’d heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot.
He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during sports lessons at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.
‘Finch-Fletchley, Justin!’
‘HUFFLEPUFF!’
Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide.
‘Finnigan, Seamus’, the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
‘Granger, Hermione!’
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
‘GRYFFINDOR!’ shouted the hat. Ron groaned.
A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you’re very nervous. What if he wasn’t chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he’d better get back on the train?
,,Oh Harry..."
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted ‘GRYFFINDOR’, Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to
‘MacDougal, Morag’.
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, ‘SLYTHERIN!’
,,Wow that was really fast." said Rabastan
Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle and his cousin, looking pleased with himself.
There weren’t many people left now.
‘Moon’ ... ‘Nott’ ... ‘Parkinson’ ... then a pair of twin girls, ‘Patil’ and ‘Patil’ ... then ‘Perks, Sally-Anne’ ... and then, at last –
‘Potter, Harry!’
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
‘Potter, did she say?’
‘The Harry Potter?’
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
‘Hmm,’ said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting ... So where shall I put you?’
Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, ‘Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.’
Slytherin looked offended
‘Not Slytherin, eh?’ said the small voice. ‘Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you’re sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!’
,,Wait you were almost in Slytherin? Oi my son almost in Slytherin." „James, you know, I was in Slytherin too?" James looked shocked. „Wait really? Why didn't you tell me, mom?"
Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole Hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily towards the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, ‘We got Potter! We got Potter!’ Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he’d seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he’d just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.
He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs-up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognised him at once from the card he’d got out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore’s silver hair was the only thing in the whole Hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.
And now there were only three people left to be sorted. ‘Turpin, Lisa’ became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron’s turn.
He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, ‘GRYFFINDOR!’
Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.
‘Well done, Ron, excellent,’ said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as ‘Zabini, Blaise’ was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.
Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.
Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.
,,Now, what will he said?" said Marlene with smirk.
‘Welcome!’ he said. ‘Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
‘Thank you!’
,,Of course."
He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn’t know whether to laugh or not.
‘Is he – a bit mad?’ he asked Percy uncertainly.
‘Mad?’ said Percy airily. ‘He’s a genius! Best wizard in the world!
But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?’
Harry’s mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs.
The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he’d never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if it made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the humbugs and began to eat. It was all delicious.
‘That does look good,’ said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.
‘Can’t you –?’
‘I haven’t eaten for nearly five hundred years,’ said the ghost. ‘I don’t need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don’t think I’ve introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower.’
‘I know who you are!’ said Ron suddenly. ‘My brothers told me about you – you’re Nearly Headless Nick!’
‘I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy –’ the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.
,,Please don't ask how..." said Griffyndor students
‘Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?’
,,Yikes."
Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn’t going at all the way he wanted.
‘Like this,’ he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell on to his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back on to his neck, coughed and said,
‘So – new Gryffindors! I hope you’re going to help us win the House Championship this year? Gryffindor have never gone so long without winning. Slytherin have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron’s becoming almost unbearable – he’s the Slytherin ghost.’
,,Good work Slytherin!" yelled past Slytherin students.
Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn’t look too pleased with the seating arrangements.
‘How did he get covered in blood?’ asked Seamus with great interest.
‘I’ve never asked,’ said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.
When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of icecream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding ...
As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.
‘I’m half and half,’ said Seamus. ‘Me dad’s a Muggle. Mam didn’t tell him she was a witch ’til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him.’
The others laughed.
‘What about you, Neville?’ said Ron.
‘Well, my gran brought me up and she’s a witch,’ said Neville, ‘but the family thought I was all Muggle for ages. My great-uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me – he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned – but nothing happened until I was eight. Greatuncle Algie came round for tea and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my great-auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced – all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased. Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here – they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great-uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad.’
Alice and Frank didn't look pleased at what Neville said.
On Harry’s other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons (‘I do hope they start straight away, there’s so much to learn, I’m particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it’s supposed to be very difficult –’; ‘You’ll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing –’).
Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin.
,,Is that!" „Oh please no." „Tell me he's not your professor." The Marauders looked at Harry. „He was."
It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell’s turban straight into Harry’s eyes – and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry’s forehead.
,,What the hell did you do, Snivellus!"
‘Ouch!’ Harry clapped a hand to his head.
‘What is it?’ asked Percy.
‘N-nothing.’
The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had got from the teacher’s look – a feeling that he didn’t like Harry at all.
‘Who’s that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?’ he asked Percy.
‘Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he’s looking so nervous, that’s Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn’t want to – everyone knows he’s after Quirrell’s job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.’
Harry watched Snape for a while but Snape didn’t look at him again.
At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor
Dumbledore got to his feet again. The Hall fell silent.
‘Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered.
I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.
‘First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.’
Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.
‘I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.
‘Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.
‘And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.’
,,I don't think you should tell children not to do something... They're going to the opposite." said Andromeda
Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.
‘He’s not serious?’ he muttered to Percy.
‘Must be,’ said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. ‘It’s odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we’re not allowed to go somewhere – the forest’s full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us Prefects, at least.’
‘And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!’ cried Dumbledore.
The Great Hall groaned. ,,Not the song please." begged Theo.
Harry noticed that the other teachers’ smiles had become rather fixed.
Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words.
‘Everyone pick their favourite tune,’ said Dumbledore, ‘and off we go!’
And the school bellowed:
‘Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they’re bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we’ve forgot,
Just do your best, we’ll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.’
Everyone winced.
Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand, and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.
‘Ah, music,’ he said, wiping his eyes. ‘A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!’
The Gryffindor first-years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase.
Harry’s legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much further they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.
A bundle of walking sticks was floating in mid-air ahead of them and as Percy took a step towards them they started throwing themselves at him.
‘Peeves,’ Percy whispered to the first-years. ‘A poltergeist.’ He raised his voice, ‘Peeves – show yourself.’
A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.
‘Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?’
There was a pop and a little man with wicked dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.
‘Oooooooh!’ he said, with an evil cackle. ‘Ickle firsties! What fun!’
He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.
‘Go away, Peeves, or the Baron’ll hear about this, I mean it!’ barked Percy.
Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville’s head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.
‘You want to watch out for Peeves,’ said Percy, as they set off again. ‘The Bloody Baron’s the only one who can control him, he won’t even listen to us Prefects. Here we are.’
At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.
‘Password?’ she said.
‘Caput Draconis,’ said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it – Neville needed a leg up – and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs.
,,Wow it looks so cosy in there."
Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase – they were obviously in one of the towers – they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep-red velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.
‘Great food, isn’t it?’ Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. ‘Get off, Scabbers! He’s chewing my sheets.’
Harry was going to ask Ron if he’d had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.
Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell’s turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully – and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it – then Malfoy turned into the hooknosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold – there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.
He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn’t remember the dream at all.
,,You have wierd dreams, Harold."
sʟʏᴛʜᴇʀɪɴ
ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴏɴ ʀᴏᴏᴍ
The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.
Cassiopeia went up the stairs to her shared room. Her roommates were Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass. They weren't there at the moment, but when Cassiopeia started to unpack her things, two girls entered the room. All three of them smiled at each other, they already knew each other. At the end, their families were at sacred 28. 'Ohh who's this?' asked Daphne, when she noticed black cat on Cassiopeia's bed.
,,Looks like you." whispered Evan to Regulus. „You read my mind, Evan." whispered Barty Jr.
'That little devil is Regulus.' answered Cassiopeia.
Blacks and few other looked at human one Regulus sadly.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.
Then there were doors that wouldn’t open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren’t really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.
,,That's true." „This school is a living being of its own."
The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other and Cassiopeia was sure the coats of armour could walk.
The ghosts didn’t help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Peeves the poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.
,,That's always the worst."
He would drop waste-paper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose and screech, ‘GOT YOUR CONK!’
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch, he was a squib and didn't like children that much.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch’s. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she’d whisk off for Filch, who’d appear, wheezing, two seconds later.
,,Kick it." whispered Walburga who didn't like the cat at all by this description. No one heard her except Orion and Cassi, who smiled mischievously.
Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs Norris a good kick.
,,Do it." whispered Walburga again.
Cassiopeia kicked her several times in the first week.
,,Yes! You're my favorite granddaughter!"
And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the lessons themselves.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.
,,I always loved astronomy." said Cassiopeia II. „We know." said the rest of future generations. The Blacks smiled, after this book ends they'll ask Cassi about her life. And get to know her.
Cassiopeia loved astronomy.
Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learnt how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi and found out what they were used for.
,,I love Herbology." said Neville and Alice synchronised. The mother-son duo smiled widely at each other.
Easily the most boring lesson was History of Magic, which was the only class taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff-room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first lesson he took the register, and when he reached Harry Potter’s name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.
Professor McGonagall was again different. Cassiopeia was sure that she wasn’t a teacher to cross.
,,No one mess with queen Minnie."
Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they had sat down in her first class.
‘Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,’ she said. ‘Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.’
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn’t wait to get started, but soon realised they weren’t going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After making a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.
By the end of the lesson, only Cassiopeia Black had made any difference to theirs matchs; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver, shiny, pointy and sharp and gave Cassiopeia a rare smile.
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell’s lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he’d met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren’t sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
At Friday morning Cassi, Daphne and Pansy went to Great Hall for breakfast. They didn't get lost not even once thankfully.
,,Congrats. It took me two weeks not to get lost." said James.
‘What have we got today?’ Cassi asked Pansy as she grabbed some food.
‘Double Potions with the Griffyndors,’ said Pansy annoyed.
Professor Snape was a Head of Slytherin house. Many says he always favours them, but he just acted to Slytherins as everyone acted to Griffyndors.
Just then, the post arrived. About a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners and dropping letters and packages on to their laps.
Draco got letter from his parents. His mother Narcissa send him some sweets.
,,Mama's boy."
Cassi also got letter. It was from her aunts. Cissy and Andy.
ᴅᴇᴀʀ, ᴄᴀssɪᴏᴘᴇɪᴀ.
ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀᴠɪɴɢ ғᴜɴ ᴀᴛ sᴄʜᴏᴏʟ. ɪ'ᴠᴇ ʜᴇᴀʀᴅ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ɪɴ sʟʏᴛʜᴇʀɪɴ, ʙɪɢ ᴄᴏɴɢʀᴀᴛᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴs. ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛs ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴜᴅ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜ.
ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴜɴᴄʟᴇ ʟᴜᴄɪᴜs ᴡɪsʜᴇs ᴄᴏɴɢʀᴀᴛᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴs ᴀs ᴡᴇʟʟ.
ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴜs ʟᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ sᴏᴏɴ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʜᴏᴡ ʜᴇ ɢᴇᴛs, ᴡʜᴇɴ ʜɪs ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴏʀ ɪ ᴀʀᴇɴ'ᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ.
sᴛᴜᴅʏ ʜᴀʀᴅ, ʙᴜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ғᴜɴ.
ʟᴏᴠᴇ,
ᴀᴜɴᴛ ᴄɪssʏ.
,,Thank you, Cissy, for looking after her." thanked Regulus, Narcissa smiled at him „Of course, she's a family."
ᴅᴇᴀʀ, ᴄᴀssɪ.
ᴄɪssʏ ᴛᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ɪɴ sʟʏᴛʜᴇʀɪɴ! ᴄᴏɴɢʀᴀᴛs! ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄʜᴏᴏʟ sᴏ ғᴀʀ. ɴʏᴍᴘʜᴀᴅᴏʀᴀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴅ sᴀʏ ʜɪ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡɪsʜ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ʟᴜᴄᴋ.
ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜʀsᴇʟғ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴅᴏ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪʀʀᴇsᴘᴏɴsɪʙʟᴇ, ᴇᴠᴇɴ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʀᴏʙᴀʙʟʏ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ.
ʟᴏᴠᴇ,
ᴀᴜɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅʏ.
ᴘs: ɴʏᴍᴘʜᴀᴅᴏʀᴀ sᴀɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ʜᴇʀ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴏʀ sʜᴇ's ɢᴏɴɴᴀ ғɪɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ.
,,Thank you, Andy." Avyanna said to the Tonks woman with little Nymphadora in Andromeda's lap. ,,Mama, the book mentioned me!" said happily little Tonks her hair changed the color from her natural brown to bubble gum pink.
Cassiopeia smiled at both of the letters and decided she'll write to all of them after school.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry Potter’s name.
‘Ah, yes,’ he said softly, ‘Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.’
,,Jelous much?"
Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid’s, but they had none of Hagrid’s warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
‘You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking,’ he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.
‘As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.’
,,Drama queen."
More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn’t a dunderhead.
‘Potter!’ said Snape suddenly. ‘What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?’
,,Hey! How can he know that? He's just a first year and he didn't even know a month ago anything about his family being wizards?" said James angry and looked at Severus.
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione’s hand had shot into the air. Cassiopeia raised her hand too.
‘I don’t know, sir,’ said Harry.
Snape’s lips curled into a sneer.
‘Tut, tut – fame clearly isn’t everything.’ He ignored Hermione’s hand and looked at Cassi knowing she knew the right answer. Cassi put the hand down and smiled.
‘Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?’ continued Snape.
Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn’t have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.
‘I don’t know, sir.’
‘Thought you wouldn’t open a book before coming, eh, Potter?’
Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys’, but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?
Snape was still ignoring Hermione’s quivering hand.
‘What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?’
At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling.
‘I don’t know,’ said Harry quietly. ‘I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try her?’
A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus’s eye and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.
‘Sit down,’ he snapped at Hermione.
'Cassiopeia?' asked Snape. ‘Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite.' answered Cassi with a smirk. Professor Snape nodded.
,,Good job, Cassi." Regulus praised his daughter.
'Five points to Slytherin for the right answers. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?’
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, ‘And a point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter.’
Things didn’t improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils.
He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Malfoy and Black, who he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy and Black had stewed their horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon.
Cassiopeia and Draco's family had satisfied smiles on their faces.
Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus’s cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people’s shoes.
,,oh no"
Within seconds, the whole class were standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
‘Idiot boy!’ snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand.
,,Severus, you should call your students names." said professor Slughorn. „I'm sorry, professor."
‘I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?’
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
‘Take him up to the hospital wing,’ Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
‘You – Potter – why didn’t you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s another point you’ve lost for Gryffindor.’
,,That's not fair!"
This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.
‘Don’t push it,’ he muttered. ‘I’ve heard Snape can turn very nasty.’
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry’s mind was racing and his spirits were low. He’d lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week – why did Snape hate him so much?
Lily looked at Severus and then at James. „Yeah I wonder." said Remus under his breath.
‘Cheer up,’ said Ron. ‘Snape’s always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?’
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds.
Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid’s voice rang out, saying, ‘Back, Fang – back.’
Hagrid’s big hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘Back, Fang.’
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.
There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in a corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.
‘Make yerselves at home,’ said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
‘This is Ron,’ Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on to a plate.
‘Another Weasley, eh?’ said Hagrid, glancing at Ron’s freckles. ‘I spent half me life chasin’ yer twin brothers away from the Forest.’
Fabian and Gideon wickedly smiled.
The rock cakes almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry’s knee and drooled all over his robes.
Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch ‘that old git’.
‘An’ as fer that cat, Mrs Norris, I’d like ter introduce her to Fang some time. D’yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can’t get rid of her – Filch puts her up to it.’
Harry told Hagrid about Snape’s lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
‘But he seemed to really hate me.’
‘Rubbish!’ said Hagrid. ‘Why should he?’
Lily again looked at James.
Yet Harry couldn’t help thinking that Hagrid didn’t quite meet his eyes when he said that.
‘How’s yer brother Charlie?’ Hagrid asked Ron.
Five years old Charlie perked up at his name.
‘I liked him a lot – great with animals.’
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie’s work with dragons,
,,Dragons!" squealed litle Charlie. Molly and Arthur paled.
Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
ɢʀɪɴɢᴏᴛᴛs ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ-ɪɴ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ
ɪɴᴠᴇsᴛɪɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴs ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ-ɪɴ ᴀᴛ ɢʀɪɴɢᴏᴛᴛs ᴏɴ 𝟹𝟷 ᴊᴜʟʏ, ᴡɪᴅᴇʟʏ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴏғ ᴅᴀʀᴋ ʙʟᴜᴇ ᴏʀ ɴᴏᴛ ᴜɴᴋɴᴏᴡɴ.
ɢʀɪɴɢᴏᴛᴛs’ ɢᴏʙʟɪɴs ᴛᴏᴅᴀʏ ɪɴsɪsᴛᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʜᴀᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛᴀᴋᴇɴ. ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴀᴜʟᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴀs sᴇᴀʀᴄʜᴇᴅ ʜᴀᴅ ᴛᴏ ғᴀᴄᴛ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴇᴍᴘᴛɪᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ.
‘ʙᴜᴛ ᴡᴇ’ʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ ᴛᴇʟʟɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴀs ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ, sᴏ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ʏᴏᴜʀ ɴᴏsᴇs ᴏᴜᴛ ɪғ ʏᴏᴜ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴡʜᴀᴛ’s ɢᴏᴏᴅ ғᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜ,’ sᴀɪᴅ ᴀ ɢʀɪɴɢᴏᴛᴛs sᴘᴏᴋᴇsɢᴏʙʟɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴀғᴛᴇʀɴᴏᴏɴ.
,,Someone broke to Gringotts? That's impossible!" Four people from future looked at each other.
Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn’t mentioned the date.
‘Hagrid!’ said Harry. ‘That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might’ve been happening while we were there!’
There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn’t meet Harry’s eyes this time.
,,He knows something." muttered Druela.
He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?
As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they’d been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he’d had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn’t want to tell Harry?
,,Suspicious, really suspicious."
Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy. Still, firstyear Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn’t have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn’t until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room which made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday – and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.
,,Yes their first flying lesson!" said Evan happily. „Do you think your daughter will be a seeker just like you, Reg?" asked Barty.
„I still don't understand why are they still trying to get Slytherins and Griffyndors respect each other. It never worked with us." said Peter.
‘Typical,’ said Harry darkly. ‘Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.’
,,You're James son, you won't!"
He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.
‘You don’t know you’ll make a fool of yourself,’ said Ron reasonably. ‘Anyway, I know Malfoy’s always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that’s all talk.’
Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot.
He complained loudly about first-years never getting in the house Quidditch teams
,,My thoughts exactly!"
and told long, boastful stories which always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. However Cassiopeia always rolled her eyes,when she heard it, so Harry assumed he was lying again. But he wasn’t the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he’d spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick.
Even Ron would tell anyone who’d listen about the time he’d almost hit a hang-glider on Charlie’s old broom. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about football. Ron couldn’t see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean’s poster of West Ham football team, trying to make the players move.
Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life,
,,This is for sure foreshadowing." said Pandora
because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she’d had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.
Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn’t learn by heart out of a book – not that she hadn’t tried. At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she’d got out of a library book called Quidditch through the Ages. Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione’s lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the post.
Harry hadn’t had a single letter since Hagrid’s note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course.
Malfoy’s eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.
A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.
‘It’s a Remembrall!’ he explained.
,,I've got one too!" exclaimed Frank.
‘Gran knows I forget things – this tells you if there’s something you’ve forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red – oh ...’ His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, ‘... you’ve forgotten something ...’
,,Your robes!"
Neville was trying to remember what he’d forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.
,,Draco Malfoy!" yelled Narcissa
Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Malfoy’s got my Remembrall, Professor.’
Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.
‘Just looking,’ he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Cassiopeia who was with them whispered something to Neville, who quickly looked at his clothes and then ran away.
At three-thirty that afternoon, Cassiopeia, Draco and the other Slytherins hurried down the front steps into the grounds for their first flying lesson.
It was a clear, breezy day and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
The Slytherins were the first ones there. Twenty one broomsticks laid in neat lines on the ground.
Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk.
‘Well, what are you all waiting for?’ she barked. ‘Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up.’
Cassiopeia glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
‘Stick out your right hand over your broom,’ called Madam
Hooch at the front, ‘and say, “Up!” ’ ‘UP!’ everyone shouted.
Cassi's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Draco's broom jumped to his hand right away too. As did Potter's. Hermione Granger’s had simply rolled over on the ground and Neville’s hadn’t moved at all.
Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows, correcting their grips.
Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Draco he’d been doing it wrong for years.
‘Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard,’ said Madam Hooch. ‘Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle – three – two –’
But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch’s lips.
‘Come back, boy!’ she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle – twelve feet – twenty feet.
,,oh no Neville."
Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and –
WHAM – a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay, face down,
on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily towards the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.
Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.
‘Broken wrist,’ Cassiopeia heard her mutter. ‘Come on, boy – it’s all right, up you get.’
She turned to the rest of the class.
‘None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you’ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say “Quidditch”. Come on, dear.’
Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.
‘Did you see his face, the great lump?’ The other Slytherins joined in.
‘Shut up, Malfoy,’ snapped Parvati Patil.
‘Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?’ said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. ‘Never thought you’d like fat little cry babies, Parvati.’
‘Look!’ said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. ‘It’s that stupid thing Longbottom’s gran sent him.’
The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.
,,I'm sorry again."said truthfully older Draco
‘Give that here, Malfoy,’ said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.
Draco smiled nastily.
‘I think I’ll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect – how about – up a tree?’
‘Give it here!’ Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt on to his broomstick and taken off. 'Idiot' muttered the Black girl but still watched it with smile.
Draco hadn’t been lying, he could fly well – hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called,
‘Come and get it, Potter!’ Harry grabbed his broom.
‘No!’ shouted Hermione Granger. ‘Madam Hooch told us not to move – you’ll get us all into trouble.’
Harry ignored her. Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared, air rushed through his hair and his robes whipped out behind him – and in a rush of fierce joy he realised he’d found something he could do without being taught – this was easy, this was wonderful.
,,YES! THAT'S MY SON!" „MY GODSON EVERYONE!"
He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.
He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in mid-air.
Malfoy looked stunned.
‘Give it here,’ Harry called, ‘or I’ll knock you off that broom!’ ‘Oh, yeah?’ said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.
Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leant forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands and it shot towards Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about turn and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.
‘No Cassi or Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy,’ Harry called.
The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.
‘Catch it if you can, then!’ he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back towards the ground.
Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leant forward and pointed his broom handle down – next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball – wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching – he stretched out his hand – a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently on to the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.
,,YESSSS!" whole Great Hall clapped and cheered.
‘HARRY POTTER!’
,,Oh no... That's Minnie."
His heart sank faster than he’d just dived. Professor McGonagall was running towards them. He got to his feet, trembling.
‘Never – in all my time at Hogwarts –’
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously,’ – how dare you – might have broken your neck –’
‘It wasn’t his fault, Professor –’
‘Be quiet, Miss Patil –’
‘But Malfoy –’
‘That’s enough, Mr Weasley. Potter, follow me, now.’
,,But it's not his fault!"
Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle’s triumphant faces as he left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall’s wake as she strode towards the castle.
Draco looked at others Slytherin with smirk. When he looked at his cousin, he expected her to have disappointed look, but she had smirk on her face too. Little fun doesn't hurt anybody, right? Cassiopeia thought. Soon the lesson was over and everyone went to their dorms before it was time for dinner.
Cassiopeia was reading book, when her roommates came to their room. 'Did you heard?'
,,Heard what?" asked Avyanna.
'Heard what?' Cassiopeia asked. She put her book at nightstand and listened to her friends. 'Harry Potter was made a seeker.'
,,YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"
'You're joking, right?' asked Cassi in disbelief. Daphne shook her head. 'No,' 'Who told you? You know what? I don't even want to know. Of course the school rules can't be changed for Harry Potter, I'm not even surprised.' Cassi stood up, Regulus who was lying next to her also stood up. 'Let's go to dinner.' Daphne, Pansy and Regulus followed her. Theo and Blaise joined when they met in common room.
,,Walk them like a dog!" yelled Evan.
When the got to the Great Hall Cassi saw her cousin talking to Potter.
,,I snuffle some drama." said Sirius.
‘Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?’
‘You’re a lot braver now you’re back on the ground and you’ve got your little friends with you,’ said Harry coolly. There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.
‘I’d take you on any time on my own,’ said Malfoy. ‘Tonight, if you want. Wizard’s duel. Wands only – no contact. What’s the matter? Never heard of a wizard’s duel before, I suppose?’
,,I told you!" „Why wizard's duel? They hardly know any spell?"
‘Of course he has,’ said Ron, wheeling round. ‘I’m his second, who’s yours?’
Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up. He then saw Cassi near him.
‘Cassi,’ he said.
,,As you should." said Orion.
‘Midnight all right? We’ll meet you in the trophy room, that’s always unlocked.’
When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.
‘What is a wizard’s duel?’ said Harry. ‘And what do you mean, you’re my second?’
‘Well, a second’s there to take over if you die,’ said Ron casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on Harry’s face, he added quickly, ‘but people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway.’ ‘And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?’
‘Throw it away and punch him on the nose,’ Ron suggested.
,,Oh I want to see that so badly, please! Tell me what happened?" begged James looking at future generation. „No spoilers."
'Draco?' asked Cassiopeia when all of them sat at Slytherin table. Draco looked at her. 'Tell me I just heard wrong?' 'No, why?' 'You make me want to murder people... Mainly you...' Cassiopeia took a sip of her orange juice. 'Don't worry. There won't be any duet. I'll tell Filch and they'll get detention.' Draco said calmly eating his meal. 'You can't be...Ugr,' Cassiopeia wanted to stand up, but Draco stopped her. 'No, you won't tell them!' Cassiopeia had annoyed look on her face. 'Why can't you be just nice to people?' 'You're not nice neither.' 'Just to you and other people who don't deserve my great nice personality.' Draco rolled his eyes at her dramatic behavior.
After dinner everyone went to their dorms. And when Daphne and Pansy fell asleep, Cassiopeia went out to warn Ron and Harry.
,,She's not typical Slytherin." said Sirius. „You know, not all Slytherins are bad?" Regulus said angry.
The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once. The minutes crept by.
‘He’s late, maybe he’s chickened out,’ Ron whispered. 'Guys, it's a trap from my idiotic cousin. Filch will be there any second!' said Cassiopeia Black and came to the room. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville looked at her confused.
Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak – and it wasn’t Malfoy.
‘Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner.’
,,Oh uh."
It was Filch speaking to Mrs Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other four to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently towards the door away from Filch’s voice. Neville’s robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.
‘They’re in here somewhere,’ they heard him mutter, ‘probably hiding.’
‘This way!’ Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run – he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armour.
,,Oh Neville." whispered Alice.
The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.
‘RUN!’ Cassi yelled and the five of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following – they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Cassi in the lead without any idea where they were or where they were going. They ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.
‘I think we’ve lost him,’ Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.
‘I – told – you,’ Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest. ‘I – told – you.’
‘We’ve got to get back to Gryffindor Tower,’ said Ron, ‘quickly as possible.’
‘Malfoy tricked you,’ Hermione said to Harry. 'I wanted to tell you sooner, Harold, but Draco didn't let me.' said Cassiopeia but Hermione continued with her speech. ‘You realise that, don’t you? He was never going to meet you – Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off.’ Cassiopeia rolled her eyes annoyingly at the Griffyndor girl.
‘Let’s go.’
It wasn’t going to be that simple. They hadn’t gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.
It was Peeves.
,,They've got the worst luck I've ever seen." said Andromeda.
He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.
‘Shut up, Peeves – please – you’ll get us thrown out.’ Peeves cackled.
‘Wandering around at midnight, ickle firsties? Tut, tut, tut.
Naughty, naughty, you’ll get caughty.’
‘Not if you don’t give us away, Peeves, please.’
‘Should tell Filch, I should,’ said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. ‘It’s for your own good, you know.’
‘Get out of the way.’ snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves – this was a big mistake.
‘STUDENTS OUT OF BED!’ Peeves bellowed. ‘STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHAR-' Peeves suddenly shuted up. Everyone looked at Cassiopeia, who said Langlock a moment before.
,,I've never heard of that jinx." said Lily Evans. Severus looked at the screen confused. How did that girl knew a spell he created?
Peeves couldn't talk now, but his previous shouting alerted Filch. Ducking under Peeves they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor, where they slammed into a door – and it was locked.
‘This is it!’ Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door. ‘We’re done for! This is the end!’
They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could towards them.
‘Oh, move over,’ Cassiopeia snarled. She grabbed her wand, tapped the lock and whispered, ‘Alohomora!’
,,I must say, your daughter is really good, Reg." said Barty.
The lock clicked and the door swung open – they piled through it, shut it quickly and pressed their ears against it, listening.
‘Which way did they go, Peeves?’ Filch was saying. ‘Quick, tell me.’ Thankfully Peeves couldn't talk due to Cassi's spell.
‘He thinks this door is locked,’ Harry whispered. ‘I think we’ll be OK – get off, Neville!’ For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry’s dressing-gown for the last minute. ‘What?’
Harry turned around – and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he’d walked into a nightmare – this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.
They weren’t in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor.
,,Oh no. Why them again?"
And now they knew why it was forbidden.
,,Tell us!"
They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog which filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.
,,WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT!" yelled Mary. „Dumbledore! How can you have this in the school?!" yelled Euphemia. „It's a hazard with children's safety!" yelled Andromeda. Other parents shouted at him too.
It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren’t already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.
Harry groped for the doorknob – between Filch and death, he’d take Filch.
,,Wise choice! Now get out of that!" yelled Lily.
They fell backwards – Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else because they didn’t see him anywhere, but they hardly cared – all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. Cassiopeia said them goodnight and left them be, she didn't want to be with them any other minute, they had the worst luck she'd ever seen. Griffyndors didn’t stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.
‘Where on earth have you all been?’ she asked, looking at their dressing-gowns hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.
‘Never mind that – pig snout, pig snout,’ panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling into armchairs.
It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he’d never speak again.
‘What do they think they’re doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?’ said Ron finally. ‘If any dog needs exercise, that one does.’
Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again.
‘You don’t use your eyes, any of you, do you?’ she snapped.
‘Didn’t you see what it was standing on?’
‘The floor?’ Harry suggested. ‘I wasn’t looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads.’
,,Yeah!"
‘No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It’s obviously guarding something.’
She stood up, glaring at them.
‘I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.’
,,She needs to sort out her priorities." said Molly.
Ron stared after her, his mouth open.
‘No, we don’t mind,’ he said. ‘You’d think we dragged her along, wouldn’t you?’
But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something ... What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide – except perhaps Hogwarts.
It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.
,,Wow. Maybe he has something else from you other than eyes, Lily." said Marlene.
⸻ᴇɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғᴏᴜʀ ⸻
,,Fifth chapter better be a normal one!"