chapter two
The hall erupted into cheers, especially from the Ravenclaw’s who were more than thrilled to have THE Harry Potter in their house. Everyone had assumed that he would be sent into Gryffindor or at least Hufflepuff, what with his family background. Most of the Potter’s had been in Gryffindor, with a few outliers in Hufflepuff and of course, there were Slytherins and Ravenclaws in his extended family, as a formerly pureblooded family, they were connected to pretty much all other purebloods. Anyways, Harry was sorted into Ravenclaw and the blue table went wild.
Harry put down the Sorting hat and happily walked over to the Ravenclaw table, where the students were waiting for him, ready to congratulate him. He didn’t engage with them all too much, it would just be exhausting to try and socialize with literal children, so he simply didn’t. He just sat there and watched as the other children were getting sorted. No one except himself was sorted any differently from canon. Draco still went to Slytherin, Ron and Hermione still got into Gryffindor.
As the last boy got sorted, a dark skinned boy by the name of Blaise Zabini, the feast officially began. After Dumbledore’s 'speech' of course, “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts, before we begin our banquet, I have some quick words for you. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you”
Harry silently scoffed at the eccentric behavior of the old Warlock, before once again shifting his intention towards the table, which was now filled with all manner of delicious food, roast beef, duck, chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, salad, tomatoes, shrimp, rice, pasta(both with a cream sauce and a tomato one) and so much more, most of which he didn’t know the name of, though everything looked so good.
Harry stuffed his face greedily, it had been a long day and food hit the spot just right.
After the delicious feast and subsequent dessert, the Headmaster told the prefects to gather their first years and show them the way to the ravenclaw common room.
The prefects who guided them looked rather unremarkable in Harry’s opinion, Brown hair and eyes, both pale englishmen/women, both wore the same school robes with the prefect badge over their hearts. They were so plain looking that he really couldn’t be bothered to remember their names. He knew one of them was named Tom, though he only really took note of that name due to Voldemort’s name also being Tom, a coincidence at most.
“Here we are, are all of you still here? Great”, Tom explained, “now, the entrance to the common room is just past this door, the eagle will ask you a riddle and you have to solve it in order to get in. The riddles aren’t all too difficult though and most of the time multiple answers are possible, here let me show you”
The door asked Tom the question:”Sam’s parents have three kids, Huei, Duei and…?”
“easy, Sam”
Harry was astonished by the simplicity of the riddle, it was nothing like he imagined it to be. He thought there would be a riddle like those in the books, vague, mysterious and philosophical but no, the riddle they got was one you would find on a ‘15 riddles for your kids’ website. It was rather disappointing.
Anyways, they all gathered into the common room, which was a tall, dome like room with windows to all sides and statues of important looking wizards and witches. There were also bookshelves filled with colorful tomes. It looked calming and inviting, Harry liked it. The groups split up between the boys and the girls, each following their respective prefects to their dorm rooms. Each person got their own room. Blue banners with the ravenclaw eagle hang in front of the windows and big beds stood near the wall opposite to the windows. The luggage was already laid in front of the beds, trunks from each child sitting at the far end of the bed. There was also a stand for Owls, so that the children who had an owl could keep them with them. Naturally, Hedwig sat on the stand in Harry’s room, sleeping. He spent the next few minutes watching the sleeping snow owl, before finally getting out his books. He had a lot to catch up on and he was determined to do so.
Harry read till deep in the night and practiced whatever he could whenever he was done reading the theory on the spell.
Of course, he didn’t only read up on spell casting but also on potioneering and astronomy, the latter of which was basically just memorizing planets and moons, which didn’t take long at all. It was well past midnight when Harry retired to his bed.
The next morning, he was awoken by Tom gathering up all the first years to take them to the great hall for breakfast. None of the others looked anywhere near as exhausted as Harry felt. They probably all got a good night's rest, which he didn’t get due to his long study session. He didn’t regret it one bit though. Everything to be the best.
Tom and the other prefect took the first years down to the great hall, telling them all the while what to look out for. Disappearing stair steps, moving stairs, looping corridors and so much more. The castle was a real maze which took every step to make it more difficult to navigate. In the great hall, the other first years and some of the older students were already there, eating cereal and toast, drinking milk and pumpkin juice, with the occasional glass of water sprinkled in. Some of the teachers were present, mainly the heads of houses, Dumbledore and a few no name professors he didn’t recognize.
The heads of houses were walking around handing out the time tables to everyone already present. As the other students filled in, they too were handed their time tables. The food was good and the atmosphere was relaxed.