Early days
DAN
The next morning it took someone shoving my shoulder roughly in order to raise me from sleep. I groaned and turned over to the side, tempted to pull my pillow over my head, I definitely wasn't a morning person. As soon as my eyes stopped refusing to open I looked around at the dorm room, I hadn't had the chance to properly look at last night. I sat up pushing my hair out of my eyes and squinted around the room. It was cast in a brilliant green sort of light. The next thing I noticed was the huge arch shaped windows that I had assumed looked out onto the campus when I'd followed the other Slytherins into the dormitories the night before. However the light streaming through them was distorted and flickered slightly.
I pulled myself out of bed to take a closer look and saw that we were under water. Literally, our dorm room was under water looking out onto the great lake I had somehow missed the night before. Trying to make it seem like I saw this every morning I turned from the tinted windows back to my bed. My trunk was sitting at the foot of it, open with my clothes lying crumpled up. Looking quickly around at the 5 other boys in the room who were mostly dressed I began to follow their example, pulling on my black trousers, socks and dress shirt. I tugged my jumper over my head. I then paused, some of the boys had ties on some didn't. Did I wear a tie? I picked it out of the mess of socks and trousers and slung it over my shoulders. I'd have time to do it later and if I chose not to wear it I could always shove it into my bag.
I noticed PJ, the boy I'd met the night before, pulling his sheets up over his bed.
"Hey PJ, could you tell me where the bathroom is?" I asked crossing the dorm to his bed.
"Oh yeah, it's just through those doors on the left." PJ said easily pointing in the direction of a door at the end of the room. I gave him a small smile and went back to my bed, shut my trunk, pointed my wand at the sheets which arranged themselves neatly and made my way to the bathroom. I didn't notice the other boys looks of surprise.
Once in the bathroom I found an empty basin away from the other boys frantically brushing teeth or getting out of the shower and pointed my wand at my head. I squinted at the mirror and muttered 'stradio inporcus' a few times before I was satisfied with my hairs’ straight-ness. I adjusted my hair a few times before shoving my wand into my pocket and leaving the bathroom, dodging boys rushing around in towels and in some cases nothing.
I was pleased to see PJ waiting for me by the door out of the dorm when I got back from the bathroom and quickly ran over to my bookbag which I had slung over the back of my bed.
"You won't need it." He said gesturing with his hand. "We don't get our schedules until after breakfast and if you don't hurry all the good food will be gone!"
At the mention of food my stomach grumbled loudly and dropping the bag I followed PJ out of the dorm room and up what seemed like miles of stairs, making our way out of the green hue of the Slytherin dungeons.
"It’s good to have someone taller than me around.” PJ said as we made our way to the Great Hall, I noticed I was taking huge strides and quickly slowed my pace.
"yeah.” I muttered, silently sizing him up, he didn’t look that much shorter than me.
"Don't worry about it, how old are you?" He asked adjusting his robes over his shoulder.
"16" I said, 'You?"
"Same."
Our conversation remained pretty basic as we made our way towards the Great Hall, I found out that he had chosen to take Care of Magical Creatures like me. In my head I sighed, glad that at least there was one class were I wouldn't be alone.
The huge doors to the Great Hall were open as they had been last night and inside was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. The four tables were lined up as they had been last night and were mounted with the most glorious assortment of breakfasts.
I gave a visible sigh and grinned. I followed PJ over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to him. I recognised a few of the other boys from my dorm but didn't know their names and decided not to make the effort to talk to them just yet.
I reached for the buttered toast and was glad to see that there were little butter dishes dotting the table in case one wanted more than was lathered on the bread already. I grabbed one and used my knife to dump a ridiculous amount of butter on top of the steaming bread, I was glad to see it melt quickly. I saw PJ raise his eyes at me as I took a huge bite of the bread and closed my eyes at the warm buttery goodness. On the table there were also sausages, baked beans, rolls, fruits, some sort of cereal the looked more fit for owls than people and mountains and mountains of toast.
Breakfast seemed to flash by and soon I was finishing off my final piece of toast and already wondering what there was going to be for lunch. Before I knew what was happening a stack of timetables flew over to our end of the table and I looked up to see the Headmistress
using a hover charm to dispatch timetables out to the students. A pile landed softly near us and PJ lunged for it before anyone else could get their hands on it. After reading out a few names he handed me mine.
I hastily scanned my subjects, first off today I had History of Magic and Transfiguration before lunch and Charms and Care of Magical Creatures before dinner. It was going to be a fairly busy day by the looks of things.
As though everyone’s mental clocks started going off, people started pushing out of the tables benches scrapping loudly against the floor. I followed PJ out of the Great Hall looking around at the floods of students. Among them I saw a tall boy with dark hair and followed him with my eyes before I lost sight of him.
As we made our way back to the Slytherin Common Room I made sure to take in all the details of the corridors we were walking through, three rights, one left, down two flights of stairs and then another two lefts and then we had the extra-long flight of stairs that lead down to our common room. I figured I should be able to remember how to get to the Common room if I ever had to find my way to or from the Great Hall.
Some of the boys had made it back before us and were already unpacking books and quills from their trunks and into their book bags.
"What do you have first?" PJ asked walking to his own bed and picking up his book bag to remove some of the books he wouldn't need.
"History of Magic." I said after a quick look at my timetable.
"Ugh me too." he grumbled shoving his timetable into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. He gestured for me to hurry up.
I picked out my history of magic book and pushed it into my black book bag, I grabbed two refilling no smudge quills that i'd bought only a week earlier and placed them next to my books.
"Ready?" PJ asked fiddling with the straps of his bag, which I noticed were dotted with shiny little badges, some of which appeared to be moving.
"Yep." I said keeping pace with him as we departed the dorms and common room.
When lunch came around I was tired and hungry and not really in the mood to talk to anyone. PJ wisely stayed quiet and went over his homework as he ate. I sat down at our table, dumped my book bag under it and immediately pulled a plate towards me and started loading it with food. I then noticed the long black ink stain lining the side of my left hand. I stared at it for a few seconds in annoyance as though the power of my glare could make the ink disappear.
"I had being left handed." I muttered.
"Oh bad luck." PJ winced seeing the smudged ink.
"It's actually such a pain in the ass." I grumbled picking up a napkin and dunking it in my goblet and wiping furiously at the smudged ink. When I'd bought these refilling no smudge quills I'd thought they'd also stop the ink getting on my hand but apparently it just stopped the ink smudging on my page. When the ink refused to budge, I whipped out my wand and pointed it at the side of my hand. PJ stopped chewing for a moment to watch me warily.
"You know it's probably not a good idea to try spells on yourself unless you're really-"
"Evanesco." I said and watched as the ink disappeared in a little 'woosh'.
"-confident." PJ finished staring at my now clean hand. I shrugged, smiled a little and dug into my food.
"What do you have next?" I asked PJ through a mouthfull of food.
"Charms." He said after a quick check of his timetable.
"Oh cool me too." I said.
"You're going to love the professor, I'm literally twice his size." He said indicating the professor’s height, I glanced up to the teachers table at the front of the hall, searching for a small man. I saw none and turned my attention back to PJ who was rattling off all the charms that had gone wrong. He was a really nice guy and we got on pretty well. I nodded at his stories and laughed along with him.
"Hey guys." A voice said from behind my shoulder and I turned to find Phil.
"Hi Phil." PJ said happily.
"Hi." I said quietly.
"So Dan I was hoping we could meet up some time over the next few days to discuss your tutoring."
"You're going to be more tutor." I said trying to keep the surprise out of my voice, in case it came across as offensive.
Apparently it did, Phil's smile drooped for a moment before quickly regaining its light. "Yeah, is that ok?"
"Uh yeah." I said feeling my cheeks heat at the looks of other students around me. 'Let's all look at the new boy who was home-schooled and has to get tutoring' I thought to myself sarcastically.
"Well would it be alright if we meet up later this week to organise a day and what subjects you need help with?" Phil said standing awkwardly waiting for a response.
"Uh yeah ok." I said.
"Cool, I guess I'll see you then." Phil said rocking back on his feet once before trotting away back to his table. No he didn't literally trot, but there was a certain buoyancy to his steps.
"Phil's really cool and really smart, you'll like him." PJ said finishing off his lunch and standing up to leave.
"Yeah I guess, I don't know it's just not going to be fun having tutoring when no one else needs it I guess?" I said adjusting my hair nervously.
"Nah don't worry there are a bunch of kids who get tutoring from older students." PJ said and I was happy with his attempt to reassure me.
"So off to charms?" I said grabbing my book bag.
PJ grinned, "Off to charms."
The Charms class room involved going up 5 flights of stairs and then an extra one because the stairs changed last minute. These stairs were going to be difficult to get used to navigating I thought to myself as we jogged up to the classroom, slightly late. By the time we reached the door and walked inside I was trying to cover up my obvious panting, I wasn't used to walking this much in a day, let along running to class.
I joined PJ at a desk and looked at the boy on the other side of him. He had a mess of brown hair that had fallen over his eyes and appeared to be charming little paper people into walking off the desk. Slightly morbid but still cool.
"Chris, this is Dan." PJ said to the boy, Chris, who looked up from his work and stuck his arm over. "Dan this is Chris, he's a Hufflepuff." I looked sideways at him but said nothing as I shook his hand.
"Pleasure to meet you." He said with a limited amount of sarcasm so that it was difficult to tell whether or not he was taking the piss.
"Girls and boys listen up." Someone said from the front of the classroom and it took me a moment to realise that someone was actually up there. From the corner of the room a stool was sent into the air and spelled over to the front of the class. A moment later I was able to see a very short man with his wand already in the air.
"Welcome back to your 6th year." Someone whooped and he gave them a short piercing look.
"This term we will be learning about elemental charms, now this isn't weather this is pure elements. Meaning fire, water, earth and air. For example." He said pointing his wand to the ceiling, the next thing we knew soft snowfall had begun and was landing on our heads like dandruff.
I brushed it out of my hair and eyes. It was cool sure but I'd seen my parents do charms like this during my last year of home-school. I was relieved to find that I had already covered the topic before. Perhaps this would be a class were I could do limited work and not worry about falling behind. I know bad mentality, but I needed at least one class to cut me some slack.
Professor Flitwick started to explain the simple snow charm to the class and I watched as they began taking notes feverishly. People were really serious about their subjects here.
When it came to demonstrating they weren't all as good as they were at taking notes. Now I might have been a little judgemental, I guess for their first time it was quite good. But there were still students who managed to send the classroom into semi-blizzard state before the professor got it under control. He went off to scold the girl who was the cause of it and I turned my attention to PJ and Chris, both of whom were trying to encourage any sort of snow out of their wands.
"This is stupid." PJ complained dropping his wand on the desk.
"Oh you have to be joking." Chris said and I looked at him confused. "I hate this." He said showing me his left hand.
"Ayyee lefthandism." I said out of nowhere and they both laughed.
"Oh Dan you have to show Chris the thing you did this morning when your hand was covered in ink!" PJ said gesturing to my wand which lay on my desk.
I shrugged and picked my wand up reaching past PJ to point it at Chris's hand.
"Ho there boy." Chris said drawing his hand back. "Ain't nobody pointing a wand at me." He said sassily dissolving into laughter. “Wand.” He said again through snorts of laughter.
"Less laughter more spells!" Flitwick said as he walked past our table. "We are not snowing on one another Mr Howell but rather into the air." He said lifting my wand away from Chris and up into the air. "Show me now."
I kept my wand pointed at the ceiling and the next moment a torrent of snow was raining down on our heads.
Flitwick nodded not revealing anything about whether he was surprised, impressed or just plain indifferent. As soon as he turned away and continued making his way around the classroom I was ravaged by Chris and PJ demanding they show me how to do the charm.
"Oh man you gotta-" "that was unreal" "how did you know how to do that" "He didn't even take notes!"
I grinned and talked them through the theory and pronunciation of the spell. I tried not to show it but I was pretty pleased that I was able to show my knowledge on something that I actually knew how to do. Maybe this term wouldn’t be all that bad.