Curiosity Kills

Hermione woke up to a banging on their door. Jane’s voice echoing through the door. “30 minutes until we leave for the great hall.” Hermione pulled back her curtains and saw the rest of the girls do the same, slowly rolling around in their beds as they stirred themselves. She promptly grabbed her things and shot towards the bathroom. There were three showers and five of them and hell would ice over before she missed out this morning.

She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to shower at home again. Magical showers were just on another level of amazingness. The entire ceiling was the shower head, and the temperature control was beyond perfect. She could have stayed there all morning if there weren’t other roommates waiting to use them before breakfast.

The first in, she was also the first out of the bathroom and had the dorm room all to herself as Padma, the only one yet to shower waited in the bathroom, regularly banging on doors and yelling empty threats. Even though it was their first morning, their room already looked like a small bomb had gone off. No one had possessed the energy to put their belongings away the night before so this morning trunks had been ripped open and belongings scattered everywhere as people tried to find clothes and supplies for the day.

Really though, the room was the best she could possibly expect from a dorm room shared with four others. A dresser and a desk sat on either side of each bed, every girl’s area separated from the others by large windows granting a beautiful view out onto the mountains of the highlands and the lake. Luckily for their feet, the cold castle floor was covered with a thick dark grey carpet and the hangings around all the beds were a nice dark blue with subtle bronze embroidery around the edges. Based on most people’s almost cultlike devotion to their house, it seemed like a surprisingly understated design.

In her opinion though, the coolest part of the room was the walls. They had double high ceilings, it made the room feel quite airy, very apt for the eagle house, and starting at the ceiling above the door was the year 967, followed by three sets of initials. A tradition that then wrapped around the room over and over. Over a thousand years of first year Ravenclaw girls, making their mark on their shared dorm room.

Fifteen furious minutes of preparations, the five of them filed down the stairs, Lisa Turpin still looked half asleep, but luckily Padma knew a charm to dry hair, so they all avoided appearing like drowned rats. Jane was sitting in a large circle of seats along with all the boys and an older boy who introduced himself as Oscar Anderson, the other fifth year prefect. Hermione immediately didn’t like him; he was kind of twitchy and weird.

Jane took the lead again; it was clear which of the prefects was in charge. “I am going to take you to the great hall by the simplest route. This is much slower than some other ways, but it’s better to get somewhere slowly than not at all.” She guided them out the door and took a left, “I’ve talked to Professor Flitwick who is the charms professor and our head of house. He’ll give you your schedules during breakfast, but he said that you all have charms with him first. Although both of us have class during that period I’ve arranged for a sixth year to guide you to the classroom. She’s fun, you’ll all like her.”

Hermione dropped back in the pack until she was level with Terry and Michael. Terry as all ways was quietly following, but Michael looked like he might explode any minute, brimming with energy. Michael preempted her question “Did you sleep well?” He was almost bouncing up and down. “I did, I’m really excited to start classes. Do you think I’ll be good? My parents never let me practice even after I got my wand.”

“You’d think sleeping well wouldn’t involve racing around the room at 6:00.” Terry grumbled. “I slept well Michael thank you for asking. I needed it after how exhausting yesterday was. Even though we didn’t really do anything, discovering so many new things is just exhausting. I’m sure you’ll be great in classes, by having read the book you’re probably already ahead of most people.”

Suddenly Michael was tumbling forward, barely managing to catch himself before he face planted onto the hard stone floor. “Watch out for the suits of armor, they will try to catch you out.” Hermione stared at the suit of armor which, despite its lack of face seemed to smirk at her and then moved, throwing her a cheeky salute. Magic was… well magical.

The great hall was already packed when they arrived, and Jane led them to the end of their house table closest to the professors. “This is probably the one of the busiest mornings we’ll have this year. After the first week a lot of people stop going to breakfast as regularly.”

Hermione sat down and was flanked by Terry, Michael going around to the other side of the table to sit across from them. A second later Morag slid in next to him. Hermione was happy to see that, the Scotish girl had been very quiet ever since they had arrived but she had been too occupied trying not to put her own foot in her mouth with the friends that had seemingly fallen onto her plate to really look into it.

If she was being honest, she was still a little shocked at how easily it had happened. In earlier years making friends had always been a struggle for her. Most people had either not been studious enough for her tastes or they had objected to something in her. There were always a few groups of friends she had hung out with, but she never felt like she was really a part of any of them.

She was just praying that she got lucky with her compartment and her house, but there was more than a little bit of doubt kicking around in the back of her mind. Was it just a bit too good to be true? She had seen people do cruel things. Was she maybe just being drawn in, conned into complacency for some more nefarious reason.

Michael was going on about charms, his wand in one hand and a sausage speared on a fork in the other. Both flying around rapidly as he gestured. “We’ll probably start with something basic. Lumos maybe, that seems like a simple one. I think I’ll probably be able to do it, I mean there is no reason it should be difficult and we’re Ravenclaws were supposed to be the best.”

Finally realizing that he was a wizard he thrust his wand forward firmly saying the incantation. A small light appeared at the tip of his wand. For once he was silent, just blinking at the glowing tip before it faded. “I think you’ll be fine mate.” Was Terry’s response as he spread jam on his toast.

Hermione decided that uncertainty had no place in the magical world. They had all taken a character test that said they were curious and intelligent, they weren’t Slytherins. She had been dropped straight into a group of other intelligent people who seemed fun. She needed to stop overthinking and enjoy.

Terry and Morag pulled out their wands to try the spell. She wasn’t sure how as a group, none of them had tried casting the first minute they arrived at the castle. She guessed they had just been too caught up in how new everything was. Personally, she was going to wait to do her first try in class. She knew intellectually that nothing bad could happen practicing a first-year spell, but she couldn’t help the little bit of anxiety she felt about it. Maybe not growing up around magic was affecting how scared she was about it. She pulled the bowl of eggs closer to her and settled in. They had a big first day today, wouldn’t do to be hungry.

Their conversations weren’t interrupted until the hall began to empty. “Welcome to Ravenclaw first years! I’m Professor Flitwick, I will be your head of house, hopefully for the next seven years.”

The diminutive professor was standing on a pillar Hermione assumed he had conjured at the end of the table. The added height was enough to bring his upper body above the edge of the table making him clearly visible as he addressed them.

“Now, in a few minutes I will have the honor of teaching your first class at Hogwarts but before we get to the classroom there are a few things I have to tell you. We are the house of the curious, something that you should all be proud of, but seventy curious students is too many questions for one professor to answer. So please, before you come to ask me a question ask an older student. I have great faith in our prefects.” He let out a high-pitched laugh. “That’s why I picked them. And I try to be present in the house but as you’ll hear during the house meeting tonight, the eagles might be the highest maintenance house of them all so your prefects will be in charge of most things.”

He brandished his wand and a stack of papers appeared in his left hand. “Here are all of your schedules!” With another wand the papers floated gently from his grasp, one settling down in front of each of them. “You’ll see me in a couple of minutes and more tonight. But for now, enjoy the end of your breakfast and don’t get lost on your way to class.”

With a final wave of his wand, the pilar disappeared from beneath him, but instead of crashing down to the ground he gently drifted down before striding off, or as much as someone of his stature could stride.

Only a few minutes later a tall redhaired girl came over to them. “Please finish up, we’ve got to move in a couple of minutes to get you to charms on time.” Hermione noticed that the Slytherins who they would be sharing the first class with were nowhere to be seen in the hall. The girl had her hair pulled back into a ponytail; a pair of glasses pushed up resting on top of her head. “Try to pay attention on our way, I’m going to show you all some short cuts.”

Hermione knew that Hogwarts was a magical castle, but nothing had shown that more clearly than the absolute adventure the girl, her name was Caroline, took them on. It started off relatively normal until instead of continuing with the corridor, Caroline continued straight, walking right through a wall as if it didn’t exist. “Only try this one on weekdays or you’re going to look like an idiot.”

It only got crazier from there. At one point she brought all of them into a room and then closed the door, only to open it again onto a completely different corridor. Hermione was pretty sure that Sue was close to having a heart attack when Caroline walked off of the side of a free-standing staircase, just to float down to a set going a different direction a good twenty feet below. “They have these safety charms on the stairs, but you can use them to hop around quickly! Don’t do it when there are professors watching though. They’ll probably tell you off for it.”

A few minutes later the Slytherin first years were greeted with the sight of ten traumatized first years and an almost skipping sixth year. “Someone else will come to pick you up after class and take you to wherever else you’re supposed to be.” There was an almost unanimous sigh of relief. “Now enjoy your first class!” She turned and opened a door a disappeared into a corridor. Hermione was pretty sure that was an exterior wall.

A few moments later the door swung open to allow them into the classroom. The room was just like rooms she had back in primary school. A few rows of desks facing towards the front of the room with a large desk for the teacher and a blackboard. The only differences were that the teacher was half goblin, and the room was in a castle with honest to God torches burning on the walls.

“Welcome everyone to your first lesson in magic!” Some of the Slytherins actually seemed offended by that comment as they filled into the room, naturally splitting down the aisle by house. “Now, charms are the very basis of modern magic. The majority of the spells you will use in your daily life you will learn in this class or learn on your own using my teachings.”

A wave of Flitwick’s wand closed the door behind the last of them. “You will likely all be very disappointed to learn that this year we will not learn that many spells. Instead, we will be focusing on building your knowledge of how spells work which is going to be the most important thing for preparing you to cast more advanced spells.”

The excitement that had been hanging in the room took a palpable hit. “But we have a long year ahead of us. Today we will be trying the wand lighting charm!” And they were back, chatter breaking out across the room. “First I’m going to take attendance and then we will jump right into it.”

Hermione took a deep breath and focused. Flitwick and every book ever talked on how important intent was. She pictured the tip of her wand lighting up brightly and firmly spoke out the incantation. Despite seeing all of her friends manage at least something first try over breakfast, she was still shocked when the tip of her wand lit up with a warm bright glow before fading away. There was no way. It couldn’t be that easy. She was breaking the laws of science it should take more than just a thought.

Evidently she had been staring for too long because the Slytherin girl across the aisle from her snickered, she thought her name was Pansy, she hadn’t paid much attention during the attendance though. “Have you never seen magic before?” She turned to the girl next to her dropping her voice as if she was trying to whisper but not at all trying to hide her comment from Hermione. “Muggles am I right.” The blonde next to her gave the slightest nod and Pansy looked momentarily annoyed at that response, but she didn’t have long because Hermione was not going to just take that insult. She had done well; she was good not that she had any reason to be.

“I’m sorry, I was just surprised at how easy it was after watching you struggle.” That probably could have been said in a more subtle way or deeply cutting way, but it would do. The Slytherin turned red and seemed about to retaliate until in a surprising display of self-control she sniffed and turned away. The other girl whipped out her wand and Hermione was briefly concerned that she was about to be cursed until she said with dedication, “Lumos” a light appearing at the end of her dark wand. Hermione noted with satisfaction that it was definitely still dimmer than her attempt, but Pansy didn’t seem to care about that, shooting her a satisfied smirk.

Hermione tried the spell again, the light coming out brighter and remaining for longer as she focused on it before eventually dimming and flickering out again. She couldn’t believe her earlier trepidation about trying magic, not only was it easy, but it was beyond anything she had ever seen before. Who would have ever thought that Hermione, the bookish girl who liked to read during recess would have the power to defy physics and bend light to her will.

She needed to step back; she was romanticizing. She needed to get out of her own head and the brief The second she got back to the tower she was trying every spell in her first year books and then hitting the library.

She didn’t even notice the looks that Pansy was shooting her for the rest of class as she focused first on improving her lighting charm, she was very proud that hers was one of the stronger in the class, and then on Professor Flitwick’s lecture on the importance of clear intent.

From charms, the day only went downhill in terms of excitement. Potions with the Hufflepuffs was interesting, when she had heard she was a witch the first thing she had thought of was brewing potions, but it didn’t have the same excitement that charms did. She could appreciate how useful potions were and the power they had, but their creation had none of the glamour that using a wand brought.

Their professor also didn’t do much to make it interesting, solely sweeping around and making corrections when students made mistakes. Hermione and Morag’s potion turned out the color and consistency it was supposed to be, so she didn’t have any concerns about the subject. Maybe in later years they would learn potions that would be more useful to her, but for now potions was low on her priorities to learn.

After that they had lunch, so far Hermione was going to rank it as the worst of the Hogwarts meals, it just wasn’t anything special, before heading off to Herbology which despite Pansy’s attempts to burn a glare through her was the most boring class she had taken to date, and that included muggle subjects. Herbology was literally just gardening while the plants moved. Made it slightly more engaging, but no less useless. You could buy all the potions ingredients you needed for minimal processing cost and without having to deal with the dirty and hot greenhouse.

After Herbology a fifth-year boy led them all up to history and their first class with the Gryffindors. As it turned out, the house they had history with was completely irrelevant to anything. Binns, the ghost who taught the class did not interact with them at all or answer any raised hand for a question. He simply started talking when they entered the room, his breezy voice immediately putting them into a drowsy state and continued talking even past the bell at which point a prefect from each house stuck their head in and gestured for them all to leave.

Hermione wasn’t certain she could be more disappointed in an educational institution. Flitwick was a wonderful teacher, engaging, informative, he had gotten everyone to the point of an at least acceptable lighting charm by the end of the period, even the two gorillas that walked around Malfoy. Snape while curt and clearly didn’t like his job knew what he was talking about and if you watched him, you could tell he was paying rapt attention to make sure no one was at risk. Sprout was more like a babysitter than a real academic, but that made sense seeing as her subject was gardening. But Binns. Binns was useless. At times you couldn’t understand what he was saying due to antiquated language and the goblin war he was talking about wasn’t even on the syllabus for the course. Something that was quite an issue because their OWLs while in over four years followed the ministry curriculum.

Hermione was looking forward to trying out spells back at the tower before she was pushed out of the procession of Ravenclaws into a side corridor. Michael was pushing her, and Terry was pushing Morag. “Come on, its exploration time.”

“We have work we have to do, and don’t you want to try out the other spells for charms. We should really stick with the group.”

Michael counted off on his fingers as he talked. “First off, the work isn’t due for two days, we can try spells out another time, and didn’t you want to be a Gryffindor? You’re scared of exploring?”

Hermione knew she was being bated but she really didn’t care. “Forget I said anything.” Michael looked over at Morag who just shrugged. “Nowhere better to be.”

She had to wonder why Hogwarts was so big. Roughly 40 or 50 people a year plus teachers totaled out to about 350 people. And yet there were probably hundreds of unused rooms around the castle. They spend the entire time until dinner just exploring the east wing. It seemed like many of the rooms had been used for different purposes over the years, many containing random instruments that Hermione couldn’t place and a few clearly having been taken over by students to use as gathering spaces over the years. And, just by poking at everything their group managed to find a couple secret passages around the wing.

It was pretty obvious what they had been up to when the showed up to dinner covered in dust, luckily nobody seemed to care that they had slipped off. Ravenclaw seemed kind of hands off, or maybe that was just what boarding school was like. They had barely sat down before Anthony turned to Michael. “Great that you’re here. We are having a house meeting in the tower after dinner.”

Hermione hadn’t talked much to Anthony but she wasn’t really a fan of his. She didn’t think he was doing it intentionally, but he just seemed to ignore any girls in a room with him, making no effort to involve them in anything. He drew Michael and Terry into a conversation and Hermione turned over to the other girls. “Hermione where were you? We were trying out new spells, Sue managed to use the cutting charm!”

The shy girl ducked slightly, “It was only a little nick in a piece of parchment.”

Hermione joined into the conversation. “That’s still really impressive,” she had no idea if it really was, so far spells had been pretty easy, “I was just off exploring the castle, I can show you all some cool things later.”

After dinner they followed the pack of Ravenclaws back up to the tower to find the common room reorganized. Many of the couches around the edge had been replaced with almost pew like benches on either side of a small platform. They all filed into the seats and Flitwick came in, hopping onto the small platform, likely with the help of magic as it was around as tall as he was.

“Now, please sit down quickly and quiet down so we can begin and get this meeting over with.” The hubbub died down as everyone finished taking their seats. “If you’re attentive this will be done quickly. The first announcement is going to be from Grace and Elliot.”

Two seventh years, or Hermione assumed they were seventh years, made their way to the front. The girl must have either been Flitwick’s cousin or cursed by genetics, probably the shortest seventeen-year-old Hermione had ever seen. She was even shorter than some of the people in her year with light blonde hair and glasses. Standing next to her, looking even taller by comparison was a black-haired boy clearly over 6 feet tall.

The girl started them off. “Hello, for all the first years who don’t know us, we are this year’s debate captains. We’ve been trying for a few years to get other houses to start debating as well but haven’t had any success so for now it remains a solely within Ravenclaw activity. For those of you who want to participate this year, each of us will be assembling a team within the next few weeks.”

The boy picked up from her. “If you want to try out, put your name on the list that will be posted on the board, and we will make contact with you to see if we want you. Just because you had a place last year does not mean you will get picked again.”

The girl finished, “And just know that a lot of solicitors and others at the ministry from Ravenclaw did this so for upper years it looks good on an application.” Hermione was definitely going to try to do that. It sounded fun.

The rest of the meeting was honestly just much too long for the amount of stuff covered and she had to wonder if there was a reason it couldn’t have just been a posting on the board. Quidditch try out dates meant nothing to her and she didn’t care about a book club, she didn’t have enough time to read novels right now. The fact that they had mandatory study sessions with an older student did apply to her, but she doubted she would ever need any real help at them.

It took a while, but eventually they were allowed to retire to their dorms, you would have thought that magic could make a bench more comfortable. Hermione pulled out her book and joined the circle of girls on the soft carpet. She definitely wasn’t competitive, but if she couldn’t do a better cutting charm than Sue by the time she went to sleep she would be very disappointed.