บท 12: The Morning After
2nd Sept 1991
I woke up precisely at 5:45 a.m. Years of forcing myself to get up at this ungodly hour have thankfully turned it into a habit. I took a moment to recognise the unfamiliar surroundings, before yesterday came crashing to the forefront of memory. Oh yeah, I wasn't at home anymore. I was now in Ravenclaw tower of Hogwarts. For a second, I just wondered how surreal it all was, then deciding not to procrastinate any further, I slowly got up from the bed.
After performing my morning ablutions, I went to my trunk and took out my tracksuit. Now unlike other protagonists, I did not learn martial arts or fencing. I was learning hardcore magic anyway. But I did start exercising from the age of 8. And the best thing, I didn't have to do it alone. As an Auror, Dad made sure that he kept in shape so that in a proper fight he wouldn't get caught with his pants down. Every morning, we would go out for run at 6 o'clock. We'd cover about 5 miles around Richmond park along with some push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups. For years that had been our routine.
Now unlike other boarding schools, Hogwarts didn't have a track field. It didn't even have a gym, because wizards were lazy morons. I suppose I could go to the castle grounds, but I don't want to stand out just yet. So I decided to pay an early visit to the most mysterious room at Hogwarts.
Before setting off, I cast the disillusionment charm on myself. It was one of the few 5th year charms I had learnt, but also one of the most useful. Soon my body became completely transparent, and the only way to tell I was there was if someone clearly saw me moving fast. The Room of Requirement was a strategic asset and I wasn't going to reveal it's existence on the very first day of school.
I made my way from the West tower where the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw dorms were situated to the astronomy tower in the East wing of the blissfully empty castle.
Now you may ask, Ben, Hogwarts is a f*cking maze. There are stairs that lead to different destinations on different days, there are doors that are actually walls, walls that were illusions and places that needed to be tapped in specific ways for them to open. So, how can you navigate through the school on your first day?
Well the answer, of course, my friends is magic. More specifically, a handy dandy spell I picked up from the Spatial Magic section of the Grimoire. Clairvoyance was an apprentice level spell that tapped into the aetheric connection between all things and used your knowledge of what you are looking for to tell you exactly where it was. A master of the spell could hear a detailed description of an object, cast the spell and mark its probable location on a map for you. It would be years before I could reach that level, however. So for now, I had to know exactly what I was looking for and I had to travel the path the spell made for me.
So here I was, following a golden thread visible only to myself. My Magesight enabled glasses allowed me to see through the various illusions the castle tried to put in my way. They also allowed me to take a number of shortcuts, several of which were slides hidden behind tapestries, so my journey to the 7th floor was both quick and fun.
Eventually, I was standing in front of Barnabas the barmy, who was trying to teach trolls how to dance. But my attention was occupied by the opposite wall. With my specs, I could see that the amount of magical energy was off the charts. I walked back and forth before the wall three times, thinking of a place to exercise. The energy of the wall changed and settled into a door, which I opened to find a long room with the set of weights close to the door. Ignoring the weights, I limbered up, then put on my walkman headset and started running.
The Room of Requirement was every bit as magical as advertised. If I wanted to practice spells, training dummies would appear. It was even possible to run laps at increasing levels of gravity. Spell books appeared that I believe must have been copied from the library. I really wanted to see the limits of what this room could do, but breakfast time was approaching and I didn't want anyone to find out where I had gone.
I made my way back to the common room, once again using the Clairvoyance spell to save time. The castle was so huge, it would be good to have a map of the place. Maybe I could interface the Clairvoyance spell with the wards of the school, and instead of just enchanting a piece of parchment, like the Marauders did, I could link the spell to my spectacles. This will not only allow me to see a detailed structure of the school, it will be like having a minimap I could use anytime with a thought.
Sure, it wouldn't show me the location of every living thing at Hogwarts, but I didn't need it to. I wasn't such a creep that I would invade the privacy of children. But it would make dealing with secret entrances, illusions and tricky staircases a piece of cake. Also any portraits or ghosts drawing power from the school would also show up, and would therefore be easy to avoid.
I got back to the dome at about 7:05 and took a hot shower, before coming down to the common room. Hermione was already sitting down in one of the armchairs reading a book in preparation for classes.
"Good Morning, Hermione", I called out as I came down. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long."
"Good Morning, Ben. And no, I just came down a couple of minutes ago", said Hermione, picking up her bag stuffed full of books.
"Do you have to bring all these books? I don't think you will need them as we don't have classes for all the subjects this morning", I said, casting a dubious glance at the obviously heavy backpack.
"But what if I need to check something quickly? Then I will have to run back to the dormitory," she said. Okay, sound argument. In fact, I also have all my books with me, but my backpack had space expansion and feather light charms on it. Maybe I could give her one as a gift for Christmas. I made a mental note as we made our way to breakfast.
We arrived at the Great Hall, which was mostly empty, a few minutes later, before sitting down at our table and breaking our fast. I helped myself to some toast, omelette, bacon and hash browns. What can I say, exercise is good for appetite. But once again my choice of drinks was limited to tea and that god awful pumpkin juice. That's it! I am marching down to the kitchens as soon as breakfast was over.
A little while later, more students begin entering the hall. Some were bright-eyed, but most had to drag themselves around so early in the morning.
When Harry and Neville entered, I waved at them and beckoned them over.
"Over here, Harry, Neville. Come on."
Harry and Neville exchanged glances and looked around the hall for a moment, before joining me and Hermione at our table.
"Good morning, guys", I said.
"Good morning, Ben, Hermione." said Harry. "Aren't we supposed to sit at our house tables?" He asked.
"Nope. There is no rule that states you have to sit at your house table all the time", I replied. "In fact, the only time you are required to sit at your house table is during formal occasions, such as the welcoming ceremony, the halloween feast and the end-of-the-year celebrations", I explained to the Gryffindor duo. "Anyway, since Hermione and I came down before you, you are joining us at our table. We will join you at yours if you come down before us."
"We will?"/"You will?"/"You will?"
All of them asked at once. I looked at them, "Of course. We became friends before we were gryffindors and ravenclaws. There is no way we are going to let house loyalties stand in the way of our friendship. Besides from what I have seen, Hogwarts could you some inter-house unity and cooperation."
"10 points to both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for promoting inter-house unity", a voice sounded out from behind me.
I turned around and saw professor Flitwick and McGonagall standing there. "Thank you, Professors", I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw professor Dumbledore beaming happily in our direction and professor Snape looking at Harry with his usual calculating look.
"Here is your schedule, Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom", said professor McGonagall, with a faint hint of a smile. "Be sure not to be late."
"Thank you, Professor", Harry and Neville responded.
"And these are yours, Ms. Granger, Mr. Carter." Professor Flitwick handed over our schedules. "I hope to see good things from you two", he cheerily commented.
"We will try not to disappoint, sir", I replied with a smile.
Both the professors went off to their respective tables to pass out the rest of the schedules. I took a look at the timetable and I was surprised to see that on an average, we only had to attend 2 to 3 hours of classes everyday. By my calculations, the time allotted to classroom studies was only 14 hours a week; 15 if you added the weekly flying lesson with Madam Hooch.
It made sense given that Hogwarts only had one teacher per subject, and they were required to teach students of all seven years. This suited me just fine, as it would give me more time for my projects. From third year onwards, the workload will undoubtedly increase, but there was still 2 years before that happened.
Once the professors had left, Hermione reached across the table and took Neville's schedule to compare with her own. I give Neville a wry smile, which he mirrored and simply leaned over to look at Harry's schedule.
"We have transfiguration first thing with the Gryffindors this morning", declared Hermione, handling Neville's schedule back to him with a thanks.
"We still have quite a bit of time left before then", I said looking at my watch that showed it was 8:17 a.m. right now.
"I just hope I do okay in class", said Neville.
"I am sure you will do fine, Neville", offered Harry.
"Harry's right, Neville. Your problem is that you lack confidence. Magic is all about intent. So use that Gryffindor stubbornness of yours and turn your intention into reality", I tried to boost his morale by saying so. Unfortunately, someone has just walked over to ruin the mood.
"Hah! Longbottom being good at magic? He is barely even a squib. He never should an ounce of accidental magic growing up. I don't know how he got into Hogwarts, but someone like him is never going to belong here." An annoyingly high pitched voice came from behind.
Turning around, I was not surprised to see ferret-face Malfoy and his two bookends Crabbe and Goyle.
"I am Malfoy, Draco Malfoy", the blonde Slytherin introduced himself once he saw he had gotten Harry's attention. "You will soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there", saying so, he held out his hand to shake Harry's.
Honestly, I wasn't even offended, more like amused. Right now I was remembering how Hermione had punched Malfoy in the face in 3rd year and sent him running. I suppose it would be a bit too much to punch Malfoy in front of the teachers right now, but that doesn't mean I am out of options. Hiding my right hand from the site of the teachers at the high table, I give a subtle wave and hit Malfoy with a wandless Flatulence Hex.
Harry recognised the boy he had met that day at Madam Malkin's. He hadn't liked him then and he didn't like him now. First the boy had insulted Hagrid, and now he was insulting the first friends he had ever made. he stood up to refuse the boys offer of friendship but before he could, he noticed a change in the boys expression. It shifted from arrogance to confusion to panic. And then Harry heard a funny sound coming from behind the boy -
PFFFOOOOO.....
There was a beat of complete silence before laughter erupted in the Hall. Crabbe and Goyle who were directly behind Malfoy, covered their noses and moved away, while Malfoy stood frozen in utter embarrassment.
"Dude, seriously? We are eating here, man. What's wrong with you?" I added fuel to the fire.
At this, Malfoy's shock gave way to anger, and he turned towards me. But I had already hit him with another Flatulence Hex. "How dare -
PFFFOOOOO.....
There was another great bout of laughter. Even some of the Slytherins were openly laughing now. "Oh, for Merlin's sake! That's it, I have lost my appetite. Come on, guys. Let's get out of here", I said to my friends. Turning back to Malfoy, I theatrically pointed a finger, "Don't you dare follow us, you weirdo." With that final parting shot, me and my friends exited the Hall and swiftly broke out into laughter.
After we stopped laughing Hermione, always quick on the take, asked, "Did you do that, Ben?"
"Do what?" I asked, innocently.
"You know what", she looked at me exasperatedly. "Did you make Malfoy flatulate?"
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't", I said non-committedly, leading them to the basement.
"But how?" she asked. "You didn't have your wand in your hand. I only suspected it because you waved your hand before Malfoy... let out the sounds."
She was really trying not to say 'fart'. Harry and Neville were also paying attention now. "As I recall telling you once Hermione, if you can shape the magical energy into the proper pathway by yourself, you don't need a wand to cast a spell."
As we were talking, we had arrived at a broad stone corridor, brightly lit with torches and decorated with paintings of mainly food.
"Aha! Here we are", I said, stopping in front of a painting of a silver fruit bowl. I stretched out my forefinger and tickled the huge green pear. It began to squirm, chuckling and suddenly turned into a large green door handle.
"My friends", I said turning to them, "Welcome to Hogwarts' kitchens", saying so I opened the door and ushered them in.
Inside was an enormous high-ceilinged room, large as the Great Hall above it, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end. There were four long wooden tables positioned exactly beneath the 4 House tables above in the Great Hall. And yet the thing that immediately drew our attention was at least a 100 little elves running around the kitchen, beaming, bowing and curtseying, all wearing the same uniform, a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest, tied like a toga.
My friends were momentarily speechless, before Hermione spoke up, "What...Who are they?"
I knew it was a loaded question that I needed to handle delicately. "They are Hogwarts' staff. More specifically, they are House Elves, a magical species. They are unique in the sense that unlike every other species, they are a symbiotic one. House elves cannot produce magic of their own and they cannot absorb magic from the world, so they either need to bond with a witch or wizard, or they need to establish a connection with a magically powerful location. Hogwarts houses the largest population of House Elves in all Britain."
I moved ahead of our group to speak to the elves and one of them came to the forefront.
"Good morning. My name is Benjamin Carter, and these are my friends, Harry, Neville and Hermione", I said, pointing to each of them.
"Welcome, good sirs and miss. This one is Dinkly", the house elf introduced himself. "What can we do for you?"
"Hello, Dinkly. First of all, I wanted to thank you all for the feast yesterday. It was wonderful. My compliments to the chefs", I said, as I watched them swell up with pride at the compliment.
"Thank you, sir. Would you like something to drink?"
"We just had breakfast, Dinkly so no thanks. However, it is on the matter of drinks that I would like to talk to you. You see, Dinkly I don't know about others, but I really don't like pumpkin juice. So, I was wondering if you could provide a different beverage during mealtimes." I said.
"Of course, sir. What would you like to drink? said Dinkly excitedly, as the other elves nodded.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble, could you provide coffee or milkshakes in the morning? Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours, maybe?"
"Of course, sir", said Dinkly. "What else?"
"At lunch and dinner, if you could provide some orange juice or mango juice, that would be great."
"It would be our pleasure, sir." Dinkly said excitedly, with the other elves nodding behind. "Anything else?"
"Well, the food's great. No complaints there. But I thought you could expand your repertoire. So, I brought you this", saying so, I took out a book from my bag that I had prepared for this very moment.
I presented the book 'Inter-continental Recipes and Dishes' to Dinkly, who received it with trembling hands.
"This book contains recipes from Europe, Asia and America, including my personal favourites such as Pizza, pasta, lasagna and cheeseburgers. I would be glad if you could put it to good use."
Dinkly looked at the book reverently and then bowed to me deeply. "Thank you for bringing this to us, sir. We will make sure to add these dishes to the menu." The other elves bowed as well.
"Thank you for your hard work." I gave them a bow as well, at which many of them gasped. "And now we must be off, unless we wish to be late for the first day of school."
At this Hermione, who was looking at the house elves closely, jumped. She took a look at her watch and nearly shouted, "We only have 10 minutes before class." Then she started hurrying us on our way, as we said goodbye to the elves. We barely made it on time to the transfiguration class, rushing in just as the bell rang.
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