Chapter 11, Gred and Forge
"speech" – speech
^speech^ - parseltongue
speech – non-verbal speech
'words' - written
Ron turned scrutinizing eyes onto Professor Flitwick. The short teacher's expression held no hidden meaning as he ushered the first year Ravenclaws over to him. Flitwick called out names and handed out timetables.
'Monday – 8.00, History of Magic - 9.30, Charms – 11.00, Potions – 12.30, Lunch – 1.30, DADA – 3.00, Herbology – 4.30, Astronomy
Tuesday – 8.00, Charms - 9.30, History of Magic – 11.00, Potions – 12.30, Lunch – 1.30, Transfiguration – 3.00, Astronomy – 4.30, DADA
Wednesday – 8.00, Herbology - 9.30, Transfiguration – 11.00, History of Magic - 12.30, Lunch – 1.30, Potions- 3.00, Charms – 4.30, Free Period - 11.00, Astronomy
Thursday – 8.00, Free Period - 9.30, Astronomy - 11.00, Herbology – 12.30, Lunch – 1.30, Transfiguration – 3.00, History of Magic – 4.30, DADA
Friday – 8.00, Free Period - 9.30, DADA – 11.00, Herbology – 12.30, Lunch – 1.30, Charms – 3.00, Potions – 4.30, Transfiguration' (1)
A quick, and noisy, comparison of schedules revealed that all of Ravenclaw had the same classes. The group quietened when Flitwick motioned for quiet, unlike the Gryffindors who were still chatting loudly.
"Thank you Ravenclaws. Now you'll notice that your first period is with me. We will be staying here for the time being until the Headmaster has outlined a few things to you and then after we will move into the classroom. Can I have silence as I quickly do rollcall?" the professor asked.
Rollcall was uneventful until Flitwick came to Harry's name and gave a little squeak and a smug grin to the Gryffindor Head who had been looking their way. Ron and Harry shared a significant look. It didn't bode well for them that anyone was taking an interest in Harry.
It was about ten minutes after the Ravenclaws had finished the roll that the Gryffindors and Hufflepuff were ready. Professor Dumbledore stood and smile benevolently over them.
"Welcome to your first year of Hogwarts. For many of you this will be your first year of away from your guardians and for some of you it will be your first year of schooling."
Some of the students shared frowns; many of the Muggleborns didn't understand that Wizards didn't have primary educations while the Purebloods didn't understand that Muggles did.
"Hogwarts has a great tradition spanning over nine centuries. With this in mind I do implore you to follow the schools rules which can be found on the various noticeboards around the school. For a full list of banned items, including love potions and poisons," here Dumbledore fixed everyone with a cold stare, "please see Caretaker Filch."
He gestured towards a creepy, filthy looking man who was glaring at students. A cat was nuzzling his ankle affectionately. Ron quickly decided to stay clear of the caretaker and his cat.
"By now you all know your respective heads of house," Dumbledore continued, "I'll let your teachers introduce themselves during their classes. And while I am speaking of classes you should know that you will have class with the rest of your house however some lessons, such as Potions, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts, are shared between houses. You will find yourselves paired with every other house for at least one lesson."
At this declaration the Gryffindors and Slytherins burst into groans and glaring, even a few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws shared the sentiment. It seemed the ever growing feud between Slytherin and the rest of the school had already been instilled into the first years. Ron could feel Hermione's outrage mixed with Harry's calm analysis of who was more outraged than who.
"Settle," Headmaster Dumbledore said and surprisingly the students did. "Now I'm sure you are anxious to start filling those brains but your Head Boy and Girl wish to speak a few words to you first."
As Dumbledore stepped back Ron took a moment to study the Head Prefects. The boy was tall gangly and fair with light blond hair and blue eyes. He was a Hufflepuff and almost familiar. The girl was a Slytherin and almost his polar opposite; dark haired, full lipped and short.
"Hello, first years," the girl spoke in a deep Romanian accent, "I am Ingrid Elsewood and this is Adam Abbott and we are the Head Prefects."
Ron gave the boy an astounded look. Adam Abbott was a genius; at only aged thirteen he had become the youngest Wizard to have their own regular segment in 'Magic International'. He had also been featured in the Daily Prophet for having the highest recorded grade for a Runes O.W.L. in history.
Beside him he could hear Harry having his own awestruck moment only over the girl. Elsewood was an extremely old and wealthy surname. The family was a dying pureblood name that majored in magical horse breeding and landownership. They apparently owned an entire champion Quidditch team and field too. (2)
Adam addressed the first years next with a nervous voice, "We just want you guys to know that we are here if a-any of you are in need of help and that we want to hear suggestions about the running of the school if you have any. S-so if you see either of us around the school feel free to approach us."
Ingrid smirked and added, "We aren't as mean as we look."
As they stepped back Professor Snape called out, "Okay Slytherins follow me to Defence Against the Dark Arts."
Ron watched as the Slytherins filed out. Then Flitwick herded the Ravenclaws out to charms. He silently linked hands with Harry who linked hands with Hermione. The link between them almost felt solid for a split second causing Ron to wonder how much of their friendship would be attributed to it.
Fred and George had a secret; even they didn't know which one was which. Scarily enough for the first four years of their life they had always been known as a duo and never as separate beings. Their mother never understood them when they said that they didn't know whether it was Fred or George had teased his brother.
So they decided to become individuals, however, it didn't feel right to just pick who would be Fred and who would be George so they gave themselves new names. The one with the mole one his hip became Forge while the other was named Gred. Forge was grateful for the little mole because it was the only way to tell them apart. Sometimes he got confused as to whether he was Gred or Forge but the mole always let him know.
It was at times like now, sitting at the back of Ancient Runes, that identity crisis hit hardest. Their teacher, Professor Babbling, wasn't accustomed to them yet and had naively called the name Fred Weasley separate to its other half.
Immediately both Weasleys replied, "Here."
Babbling looked over her crescent moon specs sternly at the twins, "And which one of you is Fred Weasley."
"I am," the twins said with conviction.
Neither wanted to give up being Fred this morning. Usually they would immediately fold into an unspoken agreement on who was who but sometimes they both wanted to fade into the background as the more silent George or to take the limelight as the outspoken twin, Fred. Now was one of those times.
"No I'm Fred."
"Stop stealing my identity, George."
"Like I would, George."
Babbling shouted over them, "Would the two of you decide who is Fred!"
Gred gave Forge a small smirk and said, "We both are, Professor."
"Who is Fred?" Babbling asked exasperated.
The twins replied together, "We are Fred."
The Charms classroom was on the second floor in Classroom 2E but apparently on Mondays to Fridays the door was on the third floor. Hermione really didn't understand the physics of it all but Harry's mind seemed to comprehend the logic. Ron just looked bored like a door leading somewhere different on weekends was as normal as gravity, which she realized it must be to him.
The three of them found themselves seats in the second row of desks. Hermione was surprised at the number of desks considering that there couldn't be more than ten students to each class. (3)
Their classmates had already split into groups of three or four. Michael, Anthony, Mandy and Padma were sitting at the back talking about their schedules. In the front row Terry, Lisa and Morag were quietly talking about what spells they would learn in charms.
Hermione, Harry and Ron sat silently with their quills on their desks waiting for their teacher to speak up. He was currently stacking a bunch of books on top of one another. Hermione soon realized why as Flitwick stood on them to reach the top of a lectern at the front of the class.
"Well, well class. We only have forty five minutes left of this lesson so we will have to settle with a theory lesson today."
The back group groaned. Hermione decided that they were the students that managed to blur the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor lines.
"Okay hear is a basic overview of Magical Theory," Flitwick said cheerfully.
Hermione could hear Harry's mental complaint. She would trust Harry's research over the textbook's any day.
She didn't bother to take notes from the textbook; the information was already committed to memory. She noticed that Ron was while Harry had taken out his research and was working on paraphrasing things to make it simpler.
"Miss Granger, why are you not writing this down?" Professor Flitwick asked midway through explaining Gamp's law.
"Sir, I have perfect recall. I have the whole book memorize already, I figured that written notes were over kill," she said softly.
She could feel the eyes of the kids at the back on her. Luckily those at the front seemed too enraptured in their notes to pay attention to her.
"Very well Miss Granger, perhaps you would like to finish explaining Gamp's Law?" he asked.
Flitwick obviously wanted to know if she was lying or not. He had already explained the low quality that conjured objects have all that was left were the limitations. Hermione started to recite her eyes rolling back slightly;
"Gamp's law has five exceptions. These are money, food, love, life and knowledge. They are unable to be conjured, transfigured or banished and as such can't apply to the rule. Other diff-" she was cut off.
"Thank you Miss Granger, ten points to Ravenclaw for being so prepared," Professor Flitwick beamed.
Hermione smiled shyly as he returned to reading the paragraph out loud and explaining any queries they had. Hermione fell into a mental conversation with Harry over his research and how to further it. Often they scratched out or wrote over his original notes.
All too soon the class was over but as they packed up their stuff Flitwick held her and Harry back for a moment. Ron leant against the door waiting for them but Flitwick didn't seem to mind if he noticed.
"Mister Potter, I'm going to assume that you too have memorized the text as you didn't pay any attention to the lecture," the Charms Professor said with a tiny smile.
Harry nodded, "Ron has as well Professor. He simply wanted a copy of the notes just in case."
Hermione stifled a chuckle; Ron's whole thought process could be described as 'just in case'.
Flitwick gave them all a bright smile, "Very well done then. I always enjoy hearing my Ravenclaws going above and beyond in the pursuit of knowledge. Incidentally what were you two working on during class?" he asked pointing at Harry and Hermione.
Harry got a wild gleam in his eyes and started to almost rant about his research on Magical Theory. Hermione couldn't help but notice that no matter Harry's excitement he was still purposely leaving out certain information, such as the wandless magic notes. Flitwick however noticed nothing and nodded along to the idea's Harry was spouting. Most of the information was going over her head. Hermione couldn't believe how much information Harry had managed to gather in such a short amount of time.
"Well Mister Potter, your theory that it is knowledge rather than unknown magical properties that govern the limits to Gamp's law is indeed unique. It would explain a lot of inconsistences as well. A seventh year student was suggesting something similar last year however your theories are far more in depth and elaborate."
He paused thoughtfully for a second, "I might be able to assist you with such research, if you need access to the restricted section of the library just ask me and I could look over some of your notes and maybe get your work published. If you need further assistance I can suggest a helper; Adam Abbott has his own section of 'Magic International' that deals with the exact type of charms work you are investigating."
Hermione watched Harry's eyes widen with surprise and something akin to desire; a lust of knowledge.
"Thank you so much sir," he said enthusiastically, "I had almost hit a dead patch in my research because I didn't know where to look for more reference information," and I didn't have the ability to test my power theory or my resurrection theory, Hermione heard him add silently. She had no idea what either of those theories meant but they must have been a part of the data that Harry was withholding from Flitwick.
The short Professor gave them a note for their next teacher to excuse them for being over half an hour late, "Not a problem, Mister Potter. Now you three best hurry off to History of Magic, it's in Classroom 4F which is one floor up."
Hermione felt the urge to roll her eyes but reframed. Instead she thanked him and grabbed Harry and Ron by the sleeves. Together they tried to navigate their way to Classroom 4F.
McGonagall arrived back at her office from escorting her first years to Herbology
"Ah, Misters Weasley, why am I not surprised?" she said, a slight laugh colouring her otherwise exasperated tone.
Fred, she knew he was the more outgoing twin, grinned cheekily up at the sixty-six year old, "Because you are very smart Professor? Am I right?" (4)
Minerva. Most people would think that the twins would be on her hit list however nothing could be farther from the truth. As their Head of House she had seen the twins grow, if only slightly, these past two years. They sort of reminded her of a young James and Sirius or even herself and her sister when they were younger. If anything this meant that she was perhaps too lenient on the boys.
"Come in then, might as well try to wrap this up before the next lesson," she sighed.
She ushered the red haired boys into her office and sat at her desk.
"Well what have you both done this time?" she said tucking a lock of black hair back into the tight bun it had escaped from.
Minerva wished she got to see the twins outside of disciplinary meetings. They were smart kids but they got in so much trouble.
The other one, probably George, spoke pointing at his twin, "He claimed to be Fred again!"
Fred growled, "I am Fred."
Minerva raised an eyebrow at George, "Stop pretending to be Fred. Most might not see it but there is a difference between you two."
The twins simply smirked and shifted minutely in their seats. Now it seemed that Fred was George and George was Fred. She blinked. It seemed that she didn't know her students as well as she thought.
"You boys do pay attention to details don't you," she said not letting their antics throw her off.
They blinked at her in sync, she noted wryly that they must have some sort of subconscious connection, "Professor?" they enquired softly.
Minerva realized that she had just thrown them off like they had planned to do to her. She realized something else that brought a smirk to her face. In the distance she heard the bell ring and swiftly stood. At the door she pause and turned to lightly comment to the boys;
"By the way, the left one has a lower voice."
(1) The subjects are 90 minutes long as you might have noticed. Each subject should have four lessons let me know if you notice any mistakes with the timetable.
(2) Yes these are OC's but no they aren't going to be major characters. I simply need a few good connections for the Trio to make so I used my main RP characters. I promise they won't take over the story. Draco is more likely to do that as he tried to make himself the star of this chapter.
(3) Yes Rowling says that the class sizes are more like thirty BUT that would mean that there should be more teachers at Hogwarts. Eg. Two Potions Masters, two charms professors, etc. So I'm working with the ten students per class and forty per year direction.
(4) This is her canon age apparently. BTW Minnie would probably look about forty/forty-five due to Wizards aging slower.
I can't believe we haven't even reached lunch of the first day yet. This is taking so much longer than I had planned. Oh well. Not all days are going to be described as in depth as this but I think getting a good look into the Trio's personalities as well as day-to-day life at Hogwarts is very important.
As always PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE REVIEW! I love reviews, the longer the better. I particularly love you commenting or offering what you want to see. After all I want to get better at writing and that will only happen if YOU GIVE me lots of FEEDBACK!