The feast
Ravenclaw!”
The Ravenclaw table erupted into cheers, whilst the other tables’ students looked down dejectedly. As he went over to his new table, he caught a glimps of the teacher’s reactions, most were neutral with two exceptions, a dark haired man with a hooked nose and the headmaster, both of which looked at Harry with a strange curiosity and he felt as though they could look right through him like trough one of the many windows of the great hall. His head of house, professor flitwick, looked neutral at first but the longer Harry looked, the more he could make out that strange glint in his eyes which shone brightly everytime the small professor looked at him. A glint that reminded him of his younger cousin eating a cake.
An older girl -one of the ravenclaw prefects- introduced herself to him as Milly Geiner and welcomed him into Ravenclaw with a soft smile on her lips, “you are going to love it here”, she said, going on to show him all the professors and which subject they teach,“Professor Flitwick, our head of house teaches charms, he gives out snacks during the written exams. Prof. Snape over there is quite the opposite, he teaches potions and is very strickt but if you do good in class- and I mean REALLY good, you won’t have to worry too much. Prof. McGonagall is a mix of the two, not as strict as Snape but not as wholesome as Flitwick, she teaches Transfiguration. History is taught by a ghost, Mr. Binns. Honestly, even we don’t attend those classes, not that he will notice if you are gone, just use those periods as study time and you’ll have more free time. Oh- that over there is Prof. Sprout, she’s very nice, doesn’t deduct any points unless you actively fight in her class, she teaches herbology. Those two, at the opposite ends of the table are Mr. Hagrid and Mr. Filch, groundskeeper and housekeeper respectively. They can’t deduct any points but Filch does hand out detentions rather freely. That there is Prof. Under, this years DADA teacher. We think there is a curse on the position, each year someone new teaches that class, one Professor even died when I was in my second year”
Harry listened as closely as he could, making small mental notes as she kept on rattling off the Professors. It was made hard though by the burning gaze of Prof. Snape which he could feel on himself, making him feel quite self conscious, had he tied his tie wrong? Why was he staring at him like that? Those questions -sadly- wouldn’t get answered any time soon, as they were quickly distracted by the mountains of food which had just appeared out of thin air.
There were pork chops, ham, chicken wings, chips, fish, peas, beans, salad, mushed potato’s, various kinds of soups, Burgers, cheese, grapes, apples, haggis and so much more, all laid out before them. There was even already some food on their plates, different for each person, always something that they liked to eat. For Harry it was Chicken drum sticks with mashed potato’s, peas and a cup of apple juice.
Harry felt a finger tapping on his shoulder, “could you pass me the wings?”, Cho Chang asked.
“Sure”, he shrugged, handing over the plate which stood in front Milly, to his right. Cho gave a haste ‘thank you’ and went back to eating, making quiet conversation with another first year girl whom Harry did not know the name of. Something about quidditch, if he heard right, nothing that interested him too much.
“Say, Milly”, Harry turned to the prefect next to him, “what spells will we be taught first? There are a lot in the books”
“Depends”, Milly looked at the teachers table in thought, “Charms always start with lumos and nox, the wand lighting charm and its counterpart. Transfiguration will start either with a toothpick to needle, match to needle or marble to button, really depends on how Prof. McGonagall is feeling. DADA, I can’t say, there were some years that were purely theoretical and others that were a majority of practical excercises. Herbology has a few spells but only from the third year on. In your first year, you’ll mostly learn about the non-dangerous stuff, magical apple trees and so on. In Potions you’ll most likely spent the first few lessons on a lot of theory, but the first potion Prof. Snape brews with the first years is almost always a burn curing potion, bloody useful stuff, that is.”
“Sounds good”
And so, the feast went by, laughter and conversations ringing up to the high ceiling, where the floating candles danced freely and joyously. Quidditch seemed to be everyone's favorite topic, quidditch and Harry. Not that he was surprised, he was in quite a few books after all but still, the attention was something he woul have to get used to. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just one he wasn’t used to, like a new dish that you haven’t tasted before. Unusual but not unpleasant.
Eventually Milly stood up, together with the other prefects and announced that she would lead them to their dorm rooms. In a neat line, the first years went to follow the prefects, leaving the older students behind so they could converse a bit more. They moved up the grand staircase. Harry tried to memorize the way, left, right, straight, straight, left… but he lost track at some point, when the staircase they were on just disappeared and they were suddenly standing on a completely different one, disorientating everyone.
“That can happen sometime”, the Prefect next to Milly explained, “just follow the blue arrows”
Now that he pointed it out, Harry could see various blue-bronze arrowheads engraved on the wooden frames of the paintings, pointing them towards the ravenclaw common room. Eventually they came to the entrance, where a door with a bronze eagle knocker stood. As soon as the knocker was used, it asked a question, a riddle, “What has to be broken before you can use it?”t
“See, you have to answer a riddle each time you want to go in”, Milly explained, before turning to the door, “the answer is an egg”
The door swung open on it’s own, revealing a wide, circular room with big, arched windows on every side, despite the impossibility of a few as fantastic as this being in the direction they just came from. The ceiling was domed and spirel staircases went down below the room. Bookcases were neatly lined up next to circles of compfortable looking, blue leather chairs and bean bags. A baby blue crystal drowned the room in light from above, as the sun had already set. Traveling down the spiral staircases, they soon arrived at the first year’s dorm rooms, for they were only one flight of stairs down, “The boys’ rooms are on the right, the girls’ on the left. Each of you has their own room but if you want you can always visit each other for a slumber party”
Harry picked a room for himself and looked around, it was bigger than his room at the dursley’s but not by that much. A midnight blue bed was at the right side of the room whilst a dummy was located on the left side, probably to practice spells on. The walls were painted like a cenamatic night sky, with 2d birds enchanted to fly around in it. His trunk was already inside.
Soon his tiredness overtook him and he fell into a deep, comfortable sleep.