CHAPTER SEVEN: A Knave, a Rascal, an Eater of Broken Meats

Alberto, Ali, and Tyler trotted behind Drew as the foursome exited the Great Hall and headed into the up the main staircase. Alberto's mind made countless scenarios of the grand adventure's soon to unfold. Ali had his mind set on the things that waited for them on their outdoor exploration as his eyes had darted towards the door that led to the courtyard. Tyler seemed to be in a daze, whether it was the lingering effects of the Wiggenweld potion, or something else was left unseen. But alas, Drew trudged on, leading the way up stairs.

"So, Alberto, where to first?" questioned Drew, heaving open the door that led to the grand staircase. Alberto shrugged. The castle was still an utter mystery to the boys, one that needed to be solved, in his opinion. "Floor by Floor it is guys." Drew muttered in response to the silence he received. The boys caught the first flight up towards the first floor. Upon arrival, they were met by an unfamiliar voice.

"Well, If it isn't Ali Acra!" shouted a boy wearing an open chested robe with a blue emblem.

"Who's that?" Drew enquired slowly.

"He's a fellow Ravenclaw, name is-"

"William Kidd. Or Bill, if you prefer." Cut in the blonde boy, his glasses reflecting the light from the chandelier dangling above. Alberto, Drew and Tyler shook hands with the boy, but by the look on Ali's face, they knew something more was to come of this.

"Hey, Bill. Where's-" Ali began once again.

"Here I am!" Squealed an apparent carbon copy of William, albeit female form.

"Guys, this is Bonnie, William's twin sister." Ali introduced sheepishly, obviously feeling obligated to do so. The boys stood in the awkward silence for a few moments before another obnoxious squeal filled it.

"Oooh, I know you!" pointed out Bonnie loudly, as she pointed at Alberto. The boy beamed, his mind raced to thoughts of fame. She must've heard about our night with peeves.

"Yeah, I'm already a bit of a legend around here, Peeves probably wants my head now, though!"

"Huh? No…" the grin on Alberto's face vanished, transferring to Drew's. "You've recorded the longest sorting time in Hogwarts history!" she said with excitement. "Merlin's beard! How could you not know?" she roared. Alberto swallowed a lump of disappointment. Ali and Tyler joined in on Drew's smirk fest.

"Five minutes and forty-eight seconds by my count. Reckon your ass cheeks started stick to the stool!" added William crudely. Alberto shrugged. The group looked around uncomfortably, once again triggering silence.

"Well yeah, we've got places to go. Nice to meet you." Drew added, smiling politely as he drifted away, hoping his friends would follow.

"Sorry, Bill. But we're going to be off. We've got lots of exploring to do!" Ali shouted behind him as he jogged to catch the moving staircase with the others.

"Exploring?" William's voice rang out.

"The Castle." Drew replied reluctantly. William and Bonnie exchanged looks for a split second. Alberto could the quick calculations the two were making.

"We know lots about the passages in the school and what not… if that's what you guys are interested in." Alberto's eyes popped and he instantly gestured the twins over.

"Great! Show us what you've got, then!"

"How do two know so much about the castle already?" asked Drew, his voice steady, though his look showed suspicion.

"Books." The twins answered in unison.

The boys stared as William took the lead, and Bonnie pulled a book out of his backpack.

"Come on! We'll take you to the classic passage of the One Eyed Witch."

The group of first years traveled up the remaining staircases to the third floor.

"Er… where are we going?" Tyler stammered nervously.

"Third floor, just outside of Defense against Dark Arts." Bonnie muttered, her nose buried in the book. She seemed to have left her obnoxious self two floors back.

They headed down the hall way near reaching the end. Light shined brightly through the windows lightening the hall in a warm glow. Students lounged against the windows soaking up sun, reading books to pass the time or playing with the cards collected from packages of chocolate frogs. Reaching the end of the hall, the twins came to a halt. To the group's left was a statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor. The details on the statue left the boys in awe.

Her hump watched over her back. It reminded Alberto of a hill he often visited as a child. Her right eye was missing, the remaining one seemed to stare into your soul, Tyler in particular shuttered at the figure. She held her wand in her left hand, holding a cane that seemed to be made out of the roots of a tree coiling over one straight root. Her were robes excessively long, collecting on the floor. She was an impressive sight, when one looked closely, but Alberto could understand why people may overlook the statue on most occasions.

"She was a healer y'know. Cured Dragon pox!" William informed. Tyler lifted an eyebrow at the sound of the disease, but said nothing.

"Too bad she couldn't cure that hump of hers." Drew chuckled. Alberto couldn't take his eyes off of her for the moment.

"There's something beautiful about her, though." He whispered.
Bonnie slid her wand out from inside her robes and climbed atop the statue, stretching out towards the hump she grinned back at them.

"Watch and learn!" She giggled. Before tapping her wand against the hump and saying, "dissendium!"

Bonnie jumped off, as she waited for the statue to slide open. Nothing. She repeated the same steps, this time shouting the words louder as if the statue hadn't heard her the first time. People around began to look at them as if they had gone mental. William now took his shot, pulling out his own wand, he stood on the side of the statue merely touching the hump of the statue.

"Dissendium!" They waited once again, but nothing occurred.

"Maybe you aren't supposed to stand on the statue." suggested Drew. They began doubting whether the passage way was a real one, or if the twins from Ravenclaw were having them. Bonnie nodded

"Okay, William, lift me up." Bonnie jumped on William's back and stretched out her hand as the tip of her wand touched the very peak of Gunhilda's hump, she shouted again the same incantation as before, but to Alberto's displeasure, nothing happened. In frustration, Bonnie attempted to slam her fist against the statue, but missed, causing William to lose balance, and topple to the floor, his sister on top of him.

Irritated, Alberto sought out for some saving grace in these new companions.

"How about we try another one. Got anymore?"

"There's a fireplace on the second floor. We could use that one… I'm sure it will work!" Bonnie said excitedly, as she sped off toward the grand staircase with William. The boys following behind them, as they left, Alberto looked behind to notice two other kids checking out the statue they had left behind.

There was a large foyer on the second floor of Hogwarts Castle. It was carpeted and had high ceilings, with four archways leading to other corridors. There were vases and display cases littered about. The room had large portcullises that could be lowered, sealing the room. The second floor foyer seemed to be another popular hangout spot for students

"Which way, Bonnie?" William asked, peering around quickly, his blonde hair whipping back and forth oddly.

Bonnie consulted her book before pointing to the left. Alberto noticed that to his right as an arcade of sorts. It seemed to serve as an antechamber to the third floor corridor. He noticed kids playing wizard chess next to small stair steps leading to a suit of armor which stood gleaming from the light shining off of it. There next to it was a girls' bathroom.

"Isn't that Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Asked Ali. William nodded in reply to his question. "Thought so. I read about her in Hogwarts: A History. Apparently she was a student who was killed here… She haunts that bathroom now. Ugh." Ali continued, shivering. Apparently scaring himself.

inside the next room, one could find several display cases, as well as a fireplace and a single portrait of a middle aged man with fancy green robes that reminded Alberto of the ones he had brought along for his first year here. The room had high ceilings and windows, as well as a trio of smaller stained-glass windows on the rear wall. To the group's right was a corridor that led towards the charms class room. Bonnie and William walked up towards the fireplace looking into it for a type of brick or lever that would open it.
They decided to look around for clues on how to open the passageway.

"Do you guys know what you're doing…?" Drew finally asked skeptically.

"Sure, but er… we don't know how to open it." William admitted, as he stood up straight to face the group once again. It seemed their great adventure was more of a dud. Alberto left the current conversation to evaluate the empty fireplace, but nothing seemed out of place except for one of the cold brick, which seemed to be darker than the others and was chipped on a side. He turned back to his friends.

"Hey, there's something up with this brick. It's blacker and chipped on the side." Drew left the others to look at the strange brick, and contemplated the differences for a moment before attempting to yank the brick out with his hands.

"Nope. It's probably just piled up ash from a bunch of fires. No big deal." He concluded. Alberto leaned in to give the brick another yank, but it wasn't budging. William shrugged after squinting at it for a moment.

"If anything, it'd require a spell… but I can't work out which one would be appropriate."
Annoyed by their dismissal of his observations Alberto accepted defeat though the thought of the off color brick remained in the back of his head. He knew something was different about it.

"Okay well that's also a bust… And dinner will be starting in thirty five minutes." Drew announced after looking up at the grandfather clock that towered over the room. William and Bonnie exchanged looks. Their knowledge had been bluntly denounced.
"It's like, totally not our fault!" Bonnie said shrilly.

Drew glared at her.

"I never said it was, Bonnie!" Drew said sharply. "But you've wasted our time. You had us thinking you actually knew what you were doing." He added. Alberto nodded.

"I'm just wondering how these two even got into Ravenclaw." Tyler piped up. Drew and Alberto snorted, but Ali remained emotionless. Bonnie's face went beet red.

"How dare you insult us! You're an imbecile if you equate our bad luck with lack of intelligence." William spat, his teeth bared. Drew was unfazed by the logic used by the eleven year old.

"Your sister? She's an idiot. You two have been tripping all over each other for the last thirty minutes!" Drew retorted. Bonnie looked close to tears now, and for a moment, Alberto could see some sympathy wipe over Drew's face, before he regained his composure.

"Bonnie, I told you about those Gryffindors. Belligerent simpletons, all of them." William said as he gripped his sister's shoulder to comfort her. Drew stepped towards William, who in turn, flinched, though Drew had no intention of touching him.

"Keep Gryffindor house out of your filthy mouth." Drew said darkly, his voice shaking.

William turned his look towards Alberto.

"And you? Your house is well documented as the worst. The sorting hat puts the rubbish that doesn't fit in the other houses in Hufflepuff. And it took forever to even let you in there." Alberto felt the insult like a slap to his face. He glared.

"My house is not rubbish and nor am I! You bloody specky-"

"Name one famous Hufflepuff." William requested smugly. To this Alberto had no reply. He bit his lip, which left a smirk on William's face. Bonnie's tears seemed to have been reduced to mere sniffles. Ali stood beside Drew keeping his mouth shut, head lowered. Drew's arms were crossed over his chest, an unreadable expression on his face. Tyler seemed lost, shifting his eyes between William and Alberto.

"You know what he is, Bonnie?" William asked his sister attempting to cheer her up. He pointed at Drew, and Bonnie looked up, with a sniffle before reciting.

"A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir to a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deni'st the least syllable of thy addition!" She practically screamed at them, looking between Drew, Alberto and Tyler with each violent renaissance phrase. By the end of it all, Bonnie was grinning madly. William tilted his head to side, his smirk growing bigger as he saw the frown on Drew's face.

"Was that too much for you lot?" William taunted. "It's William Shakespeare; he was a big famous writer man." William laughed as he amused himself.

Drew rolled his eyes.

"Ali, I don't know how you deal with this troll bait. But we're done here." William looked put out, but made no effort to move.

"What that means, Bill, is that you need to go back to the library or wherever the hell you people feel at home, before we have Tyler here make your glasses and your nose into one entity. Got it?" William didn't need to be told twice, as he and his sister jetted away, though not before throwing Ali a look of disgust.

"I'm not sure I could do all that." Tyler said as he patted Drew on the back. "But I'm glad to be free!" Alberto turned to face Ali.

"This is your fault you know. You're such bloody nancy! You should have told them to bugger off in the first place! Maybe you wanted them to come around so that we could waste time and go outside like you wanted!" Ali rolled his eyes.

"Piss off, I wouldn't waste so much of an effort on you." Alberto grabbed his wand and flicked it towards Ali sending red sparks to him which pinched at him in the chest. Ali's face turned red, pulling out his own wand only to be stopped by Drew.

"Stop it, You guys couldn't do much damage even if you wanted to. Okay? Now, let's just go…" Drew stopped mid-sentence at the sight of another student. First year Slytherin, Wasim Kabu sat in the corner opposite of them, seemingly trying to read a book titled 'Quidditch through the Ages'.

"Who's this bloke?" He whispered, turning to his friends. Wasim lifted his head from the book he hid himself in, looking around a bit as if to be clueless. Drew didn't buy It, he gave Wasim a nasty look who in turn seemed to stare into Drew. The two had a stare down for a moment.

"That's Wasim." Alberto said. He shouted his name and called him over.

"Hey… saw you guys fighting those Ravenclaws."

"We didn't fight."

"Not what I saw but okay." Drew inspected him. He didn't seem to fancy Wasim by the looks he gave him. Alberto nodded.

"What's up?" "Oh, nothing. I should probably get going."
They nodded watching Wasim walk out of the room.

"Well, Let's go off to the grounds then. We can explore the rest of the castle some other time. We've seen enough failures today. Shall we?" They all nodded in agreement but Alberto.

"I think I'm going to stay here a bit longer."

"Alright, mate. Catch us up."

Alberto stayed for a bit longer, analyzing the fireplace. He tried a number of different combinations of wand and hand, but he couldn't move the brick whatsoever. It was frustrating. He knew that this was the key, but he had no idea how to move it. He sat down and laid his head against the brick wall that surrounded the fireplace and soaked in the room. He could make out the sunset just outside of the one of the stain glassed windows. It was perfect.

"I'm going to solve you." He said aloud, looking towards the hearth . "I promise."

Finally opting to leave, Alberto took the long route towards the great hall. All the while, another set of footsteps quietly crept behind him.

Drew once again led the pack onto the grounds. Above the three boys, a swirling sky of pink and orange light slowly set for a good night's sleep. Ali's face was bright and eager, his eyes flickering to all the ecosystems that the Hogwarts grounds held.

"I want to see what we can see in the lake off of the dock! And then there's the forest. It'd be cool if we could catch something on the outskirts of the forest- can't go in, of course. I wonder if we'll see those bloody horses! Then there's the gardening scene…" Ali seemed to wind himself down, and eventually the boys decided to stop and look off of the dock and peer into the water. The mucky brown hue of the salty water left it difficult for the boys to spot anything much but seaweed and a few fish, but Ali seem satisfied. Heading to the forest was a pleasant walk as they stomped past a wooden hut and a few large oddly placed stones, but the problems on Drew's mind didn't allow him to enjoy it much of the scenery.

Drew had already made multiple rivals at Hogwarts, and it was indeed a possibility that he had more people who already despised him than he had friends. The near-tear look on Bonnie Kidd's face just a few minutes ago was something he was ashamed of. He thrashed the twins verbally, and maybe they truly were just trying to help? He was sure that the majority of Ravenclaw house would be against him by the next day.

The problem of his own house was enough to make him dread what would happen after dinner. Matthew Ray and Christopher Patil were his house mates, and at this point in time, they considered him a traitor if anything. His own cousin, Kelsi either had not taken notice of his attendance of Hogwarts, or was 'too cool' for him, either way, it made him feel alone. It was a feeling that three new friends weren't quite enough to negate.

"Yo, Drew! Look right there!" Tyler called from ahead of him. Drew hustled over to his friends and squinted into the woods where they were pointing. The boys stood a few feet away from the first line of trees, but the forest was so thick it was hard to spot anything other than the greenery.

"I don't see anything…" Drew muttered, still trying to catch a glimpse of whatever they were looking at.

"It's a silhouette of something." Ali said, the excitement in his voice barely under control. And then he saw it. A towering figure, it looked like a man, but… something was off.

An arrow whizzed past Drew's ear.

"RUN!" Drew shouted, as the three came to the realization of what had happened. Running as fast as they could into the near night, the boys felt the wind ripple by them as more arrows were sent after them. Sprinting into the school, the boys gasped as Tyler nearly collapsed into Alberto, who was just about to go onto the grounds to meet them.

"What? Are you lot done? But I wanted to do some 'splorin out there, too!" Alberto whined, ignoring the obvious condition of his friends.

"We….nearly…..just…." Ali began heaving in great gulps of air.

"Died." Tyler finished, after chugging a vile of something pink and wiping his lips on his robe sleeves. Drew, who was too tired to question what Tyler was drinking, turned to Ali.

"What was that?" He gasped. Ali shrugged, but Drew could tell by his old best friend's face that his brain was calculating what just happened.

"You guys have got to fill me in." Alberto pleaded.

"Later. I'm starvin'." Tyler said dreamily as he followed more bustling students into the great hall for dinner. Drew and Ali shook their heads before doing the same. Alberto groaned. He hated missing adventures.

The boys ate at their own house tables for dinner. Drew sat next to Tiffany Goyle, and other than her attempting to eat half of his plate, ("You're not going to finish that, are you?") He found her company fairly enjoyable. The two talked about the first day's courses, and homework, but Drew found it difficult to concentrate knowing that he was an inch from death less than an hour ago. Drew managed to catch Ali's eye and exchange a worried look just before dinner ended. On the way out of the hall, Drew saw Tyler and Alberto speaking heatedly. Drew assumed that Tyler was filling Alberto in.

The journey up to Gryffindor tower came easier than usual, and before long, Drew faced the portrait of the fat lady that guarded the entrance to Gryffindor tower.

"Password?" She asked silkily.

"Pork chops."

"Some would do you well, you skinny boy!" She remarked as she opened her portrait revealing the hole that lead into the Gryffindor common room.

Drew's eyelids were heavy, but when he tried to climb the stairs to his Dormitory, he was stopped by a burly sixth year.

"Jenkins is gonna make an announcement to you, firsties." He growled. Drew had no idea who Jenkins was, or what he wanted with him, but he too tired to argue. He went to sit in one of the big red chairs in front of the fireplace. After a while the rest of the house filed in, and one by one the first year boys were told to stay in the commons while the rest of the students were told to go to bed. A taller boy with long brown hair was now standing in front of the fire place, and finally having all the first years together he decided to begin his presentation.

"Hello, sub-human baby Gryffs, my name is Chuck Jenkins" He said to the room of first years, pinning a smile at the end of his words. Drew caught Matt Ray glaring at Jenkins out of the corner of his eye. "I'll be explaining a little tradition we've been doing here in Gryffindor house, for some years now, and you all, will listen… First year initiation." The dramatic pause was successful, as Drew noticed Emile McGinnis gasp.

"All first year boys will be required to go and feed the Giant Squid that resides in the black lake before the semester ends. Simple enough task for a Gryffindor, and once done, you will officially be one of us." Jenkins said this simply, though Drew's heart beat was gradually getting faster. Feed a giant squid? What? "It's a simple task. Dorm 'A' will leave the tower at ten on Friday night, and by Saturday morning, those five boys will be Gryffindors. Questions?" After a long pause, hands went up.

"Isn't it against school rules to leave the common room after nine o'clock?" asked a boy from dorm B.

"Any questions that aren't based on the fact that you're all complete Nancy's?" Jenkins asked, ignoring the boy's question. All hands went down. "To bed with all of you. Good luck!" A mischievous smile flickered across Jenkins' face, as he watched the first years march gloomily to bed. In a corner, Drew noticed his cousin Kelsi chatting up the large sixth year boy who was blocking the path to the dormitories. Drew let out a sigh and went to bed. While passing the girl's dormitories, Drew thought he heard the unmistakable sound of sobbing. The doors were, of course, locked, and dealing with a crying girl was a bag of worms that Drew didn't care to open at the moment.

Once in bed, Drew's brain seemed to try and process everything that had happened in his first day at Hogwarts, but his body gave in before much of anything made sense. Tomorrow would be a big day. He drifted away quickly to the silence of the castle. Unbeknownst to him, some floors down, a couple of friends of his were wide awake, prowling the corridors.