iii. The Gamekeeper's Lunch
In all the people that Albus knew that had been educated at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, not a single one of them had mentioned that the first day was such a jumble of sorting timetables and hunting down classes. It didn't help that, proceeding that first day on the first, was a weekend, and thus school started two days later on Monday the fourth, throwing classes behind schedule.
It was a hassle that morning to round up students to hand out timetables, a task that lead caretaker Argus Filch straight through the golden archway to crazytown. There were over three hundred students congregating in the halls awaiting meetings with their head of houses to send them on their way, and there was only one head per house, and thus the experience took great lengths of time.
The Slytherin head of house was one Professor Sheridan O'Reilly, whom of which was the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. Al wouldn't have thought her to be a Slytherin when he entered her office, and for a moment wondered if he was in the right room. She was a lovely-looking woman, with strong cheek bones and a contagious white smile.
"Name?" she asks, her attempted supressed Irish accent threatening to poke out at her words.
"Albus Potter," Al's breath hitched.
She smiled with a hint of humour, "Don't think you'll be receiving any special treatment from me, Mister Potter."
She handed him a piece of parchment with his classes printed in a table. Albus stood up and nodded at her comment with a sly grin, "I wouldn't dream of it."
He exits and informs the next person they can go in, and looks his timetable up and down. The schedule for Monday reads:
ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER YEAR: I HOUSE: SLYTHERIN MONDAY:
• Transfiguration with PROF. AURAGON • Charms with PROF. TROUGHTON • History of Magic with PROF. BINNS • Potions with PROF. PARKE • Defence Against The Dark Arts with PROF. O'REILLY
Below that, is a space for the head of house signature. O'Reilly's signature is loopy and hardly legible, and from what Al could make out, somehow had the letter 'm' in it despite 'Sheridan' nor 'O'Reilly' containing that letter.
He proceeded up the cobbled staircase leading upwards towards the Entrance was a landing where the stone met the marble, and a further trek up marble steps to reach the Great Hall at last for breakfast. Al hit the sudden conclusion that, every morning for the following seven years, he would have to drag himself up this staircase in order to be fed. He mentally groaned at the thought, and continued the journey to his much needed food.
Rose and Scorpius already sat at the table of blue and bronze. Scorpius had a piece of parchment in his hands that he was reading, which Al was inclined to believe was his timetable. Rose was beside him, clearly making a physical effort not to shovel her porridge into her mouth.
The Malfoy boy looked up and made eye contact with Al, and gestured for him to move closer. In spite of his rumbling stomach, Albus did so. Whence he was close enough to the blond, Scorpius asked him what his first class was.
"Transfiguration," Albus informed him. Scorpius nodded, "Rose and I too. Well, that's convenient."
"Mmmhmmm," was all Rose could muster through her mouthfuls of porridge. Albus motioned towards her.
"Incase you hadn't figured it out, my dear cousin loves food."
Rose scoffs through muffled tones, "You say that as if it's a bad thing. Food's a necessary human need, man."
"Yeah, and it's gonna take me so much effort everyday just to live, with my common room being in the dungeons and all," Albus mentions with feigned coolness, however it is evident that he is whining.
Rose scrunches her face in an unflattering way in order to demean Albus. "Oh, boo-hoo! We have to go from Ravenclaw tower. You know how many stairs there are? I didn't count, but there was a lot."
Scorpius stiffles a laugh, hoping that his lack of humour towards Rose's mocking him would earn some kind of respect between he and his friend. To no avail, the laugh had been heard by the Potter boy.
"Wow, thanks so much for the sympathy," Albus responded, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna go have some food. You know, because I spent so long trying to get here."
He stepped away from the pair, shooting them a last, purposefully menacing, look before heading towards the Slytherin table. Jonathan Zander was already sitting there, focused on his timetable with great concentration, as if he could remember it all on the first day. Albus sat besides the shorter boy, and took his first helping of scrambled eggs. Having watched Rose consume her porridge earlier was enough to put him off the idea of himself having that. He turned to Jonathan on his right, and rose an eyebrow at him.
"You know, you can carry and look at your timetable through the day, right?"
Jono sighed, and folded his timetable to place it into the heavy-looking book bag slung to his side. He huffed, "I know, but... I just prefer to not have to look at the piece of paper all the time."
Albus shrugged, "Whatever you want."
There is a silence between the two as Albus prods at his eggs. They're laid out quite expertly on the plate, which Al couldn't help but think it a waste for something that was only going to be eaten. Albus was sure that the conversation between them had died for now, until Jono made a half-hearted comment about his breakfast.
"I've never been able to eat whatever I want. Where I live, you have to just take what you can and eat it quickly before the big kids take it off your plate."
"You got a lot of siblings?" Jono shrugged, and took a melty buttered crumpet off of the plate before him. Albus shrugged in turn and recalled that they'd both be in Transfiguration as their first class. Hearing this, Jono seemed pleased.
"Good, we can go up together," Jono said with positive confidence. Albus looked over at the Ravenclaw table, eyeing Scorpius and Rose, debating on whether they'd be fine with it. It was just as he reached the conclusion that it would be alright when he caught eye of his elder brother attempting, to put it lightly, flirt, with Alice Longbottom. Al's eyebrows shot so far up his head, he almost looked like he were lacking eyebrows. An idea struck his mind as if it a bolt of lightning.
He stood in his seat, and called out for Neville at the staff table. Professor Longbottom responded immediately, and begun striding towards the Potter boy. However, before he could even make his way to the aisle shared between the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables, Albus pronounced for all the hall to hear, "Professor! James wishes to give you his love!"
Jim Potter's eyes flashed crimson with clearly distinguished anger at the reference to their mother's wishes on the Platform prior to boarding the train. Several looks were exchanged between students, clearly debating on what Albus meant. Many of the scattered Weasley-Potter family member's looked clearly amused, and a swell of pride filled Albus, if only for a moment.
The concept of rising James' anger had seemed fun in the spur of the moment. In practice, Al now faintly feared for his life. Though Jim didn't look it, he was extremely quick, and could catch Albus' less speed-inclined limbs at the drop of a hat.
Scenting danger, Albus clung to the bookbag slung to his side and made it seem as though he were casually leaving. Jono looked up to see Albus moving towards to entrance hall, and rushed to keep up with him. "What was that about?"
Albus turned his head momentarily to glance behind him, and exhaled. "Oh, you know. Casual sibling rivalry."
"Right, okay," Jono pretended to understand the idea behind a rivalry of blood.
The sound of footsteps following them gave Albus a chill. He acted as if they were not there, hoping that by some logic that the childish 'I can't see you, so you can't see me' rule would apply in this case, however preposterous that would be.
"Yo, Al!" sounded a soprano voice that calmed Albus by a marginal amount, "You've got a death wish."
Albus turned around, and Rose and Scorpius stood before him. Rose, looking wildly amused with a grin plastered across her face, and Scorpius, looking highly perplexed.
"You know, watching you and your brother makes me happy that I don't have any siblings, to be honest," speaks Scorpius of the events that took place before.
"I'd rather not think about my death warrant. Let's just..." Albus looked from Rose, to Scorpius, to Jono. "Let's just go to Transfiguration. I wanna cram in at least one Hogwarts class before I die."
Any complaints of distance that Albus or Rose had before, were nothing compared to the rising self-pity that they surrounded themselves in now. The trek from the dungeons to the Great Hall were nothing when compared to any visit to their Transfiguration classroom. Once it was over, Rose, Scorpius, Al and Jono felt a great exhilaration upon stepping on the landing. A mass of blue and green students were lined outside a closed door, on it bearing a silver plaque.
Prof. Idris L. Auragon. Transfiguration
"Maybe we're early," Jono proposed.
"Maybe she forgot," inquired Albus, also.
"Maybe she saw us coming and quit," Scorpius suggested, in a similarly serious tone as Jono and Albus, though with clear mocking intention.
Rose crooked her head in consideration of Scorpius' comment, "I know I would."
It was with that, the door vanished. In its place was a common garden rat, hoisting itself slightly onto hind legs with its snout fixated on sniffing something. From within the dark room behind the rat, stepped a willowy figure of a woman. She said nothing, only beckoned for the class to follow her. A few exchanged wary looks, but walked anyway. At the last student in line's step in the room, the rat transformed yet again into a door, leaving them in bewildering darkness.
Two seconds, counted exactly, passed by and the lights around the room flickered into life, illuminating the stone walls into brightened life. The willowy woman, completely visible now, stepped forward and told them to take their seats.
Without a moment's hesitation, the class each took a seat and allowed their full undivided attention to be focused on the woman. Albus couldn't determine whether or not she could be classed as pretty, her features were that of unusual ones. She had wide eyes, that appeared to stick out further from her head then her sockets, with extremely thin lips and a pixie-like nose.
She tapped a chalkboard, and cursive words began to write themselves into existence. They depict some of the rules that she expects to be abided by in her classroom, but she doesn't verbally elaborate. What she does say, is a warm welcome to her classroom.
"I am Professor Auragon, and I will be your Transfiguration teacher for the year, and hopefully beyond!" her voice is heavy with a distinctive London accent, one which was quite hard to miss. She taps her cropped black hair with her wand, and it instantly lengthens from the roots, growing at an alarmingly fast pace. The strands stop just above her waist, turning vibrant lilac at a second faint prod from her wand.
"Transfiguration is an art form. Not one that you hear about, but it can be quite useful, and not just for hair. One experienced at Transfiguration can change their appearance with their wand, or turn their old furniture into the new. All it takes is a little discipline, and focus, to achieve great results."
She taps the chalkboard yet again, and the rules vanish as quickly as they had initially appeared. Replacing them, come a series of complicated notes in the same cursive of before. Auragon suggests they copy the notes onto their own parchment, and so they do for the remainder of the lesson.
"Hey," Albus turns with a suggestion for Rose sitting on his right side, "We should visit Hagrid for lunch."
She agrees, whispering a reply. In spite of their best efforts to stay practically silent, Auragon seems to hear and hushes the class. "Who's talking?"
A bored voice from the front row droned out, "The Famous Duo."
Albus and Rose share similar expressions of bewilderment. Seeking the perpetrator of the only slightly offensive comment, Al's eyes land on the recognisable matted hair of the formerly-dubbed "fable girl" - now he knew her name to be that of Alexandra Kindle.
There was noticeable juxtaposition between the Alexandra of today and the cheery girl whom hadn't realised it was her name being called for the Sorting Hat.
"That," commented Scorpius, "wasn't necessary."
"True that," hollered Jono, in a wild attempt to feel included.
Auragon sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose."Whatever it is that's going on, please don't."
The class remained silent for the continuation of the introductory lesson, which ended with Auragon turning the board into a rather large pig, and then returning it to its previous properties.
Following that first lesson, the four of them had to split in two groups for their second class: Rose and Scorpius, being Ravenclaws, had Defence Against The Dark Arts, however, Slytherins Jono and Albus had Charms.
Charms wasn't anything notable. Instead of being a class that one would want to look forward to, it was simply a rather large, balding man by the name of Professor Bailey Troughton (whom looked so ancient it seemed one spell would knock him off) prattling on about the importance of the ability to charm objects to your command. The only person paying any attention to anything beyond Troughton's first two minutes of speech was fellow Slytherin, Christian Cane, who could be seen transfixing his hazel eyes and hanging onto the teacher's every word.
Al's third class for that first day was History of Magic, with the infamous Professor Binns. A shared lesson with the Gryffindor students, Cat Wood met Albus at the door. They shared a short greeting, and a vague introduction for Jono and Cat, before a voice could be heard from the classroom.
Professor Binns had the look of a man withered away to almost nothing, apart from the fact that he was a translucent grey. Albus knew of the tale of Binns' passing from life to death, and it was one of the least gruesome ghost stories to come out of a departed soul residing within Hogwarts. Having died of natural causes, Binns apparently hadn't initially realised that he had even passed in the first place, and had gotten up to teach his next class. Of course, this blissful ignorance didn't last for long, as one of his students instantly alerted him to his sudden transparency.
Still, despite having a ghost as a teacher, Albus couldn't help but feel his eyes droop. Binns had quite the soothing voice, and history wasn't the most entertaining subject in the world. He could've sworn that he had only intended to close his eyelids for a moment, but before he knew it he felt himself having the most lucid dream, involving the vicious mermaids he knew lived in the bottom of the Great Lake. Before he could truly experience this dream, however, he was dragged into reality by the feeling that he couldn't breathe. Indeed, when he opened his eyes he saw Rose standing over him, having held his nose until he woke. Beside her, was Scorpius, Cat, and Jono.
"We're going to see Hagrid," Rose reminded him of their earlier promise, which had felt like so long ago. Albus passed his fingers underneath his eyes, brushing away any sleep in his tear-duct's corner.
"Yeah, okay. But if he's making rock cakes, I'm going without."
The air outside the castle walls was a lot cooler than any of the five had anticipated. They stepped into the courtyard, instantly feeling the chill of the early autumnal months. It was because of this that they instantly sat beside the fireplace whence finally making it inside Hagrid's hut.
"A bi' cold, I'm guessin'," Hagrid comments with a hearty chuckle, "Yer know, yer didn't 'ave to come visit me, I woul' understan'."
Cat instantly beelines for Hagrid's kitchen cupboards in search for food, almost hoping that she wouldn't find any due to Hagrid's sympathy-worthy cooking skills.
"No, Hagrid, we wanted to come," Albus protested," besides, we've got some people we'd think you'd like to meet."
Jono turned his head away from the fire slightly, with a forced toothy smile with eyes that read 'help'. Scorpius is a tad more polite, giving a shy smile and making a small noise that Albus deciphered as being a "hi."
"By Merlin's beard, do yer look like yer dad," Hagrid says of Scorpius once again, just as he had on the platform," 'cept the eyes, yer eyes are far too green to be yer father's, an' yer hair looks a bit darker, but other than tha', yer look almost identical."
"My eyes are my mother's eyes, I believe you taught my mother as well? She was the year below Father in school-"
Hagrid beams the only way Hagrid can - with crinkled eyes and a toothy grin, "Yeah, I remember yer mother. Astoria Greengrass, such a kind soul - always loved the animals I brough' in fer classes," he appeared to he reminiscent on the school years of Scorpius' mother, "Could never believe she was a Slytherin, although-" Hagrid glances in Albus' direction, "-not all Slytherins are bad."
Jono keeps his back to the scenario, hoping that if he avoided it all together then perhaps he wouldn't be asked to speak. No such luck, Hagrid draws attention to him not long after. "Speaking o' Slytherins, who might yer be?"
"Jonathan Zander," Albus begins by introducing his newfound friend. "Yeah, Hagrid, this is Jono. Jono, this is Hagrid. He's a family friend." Rose continues on for Albus.
"Hey, Hagrid?" Cat calls, her head now rummaging through what would have been intended to be a cutlery drawer, but instead was being used for [creature] food,"do you happen to have any people food?"
Hagrid shuffles slightly, almost uncomfortably, "I di'n't think that yer would be comin' so I di'n't prepare anything."
Rose scowled, for despite her frequently sarcastic attitude, she always had a certain soft-spot for the considerably elderly man, "Why wouldn't we come, Hagrid?"
"Well, I always thought there woul' come a time where yer no longer needed an old man like me," the bearded half-giant began of himself, "an' don't yer go sayin' tha' I'm not old!"
"But-" both Cat and Albus alike went to defend Hagrid from himself.
"Hagrid, we'll always visit you," Rose informed him, meaning it in entirety. Hagrid nods in consideration of the brunette Weasley girl's words.
"Yer should all be gettin' back up to the castle. Classes will be back in session soon, an' yer haven't even eaten yet!" Hagrid fusses over the five, motioning for them to leave. Despite Rose, Cat and Albus' protests (and Scorpius' mumbled weather complaints) Hagrid shoos them out with a wave of his dustbin lid sized hand, and they are forced to make their way back up in the direction of the castle. It isn't until they reach the external courtyard at the mouth of one of the castle's openings that Albus is hit with a certain revelation - something is different about Hagrid, and Albus was going to find out what.