Loki blinked sleepily as he woke. He looked around to see the dark green and silver hangings that he vaguely remembered seeing the night before as he came into the Slytherin dorms. With a lazy stretch he rolled out of bed, hissing under his breath when his feet came into contact with the cold floor. Annoyed, he walked to his trunk at the foot of the bed and pulled out a set of his usual attire, deciding he would dress in the robes when he left for breakfast. He set the clothes on the foot of his bed and dropped to the floor to do his usual morning stretches.
Ten minutes later he was exiting the castle's main door onto the front lawn. The sun hadn't risen yet, still being in the pre-dawn hour. Shivering a bit from the cooler outside air he started off on a lazy jog around the school. The castle was bigger than he thought it would be. At a jog it took roughly half an hour to go completely around the castle, including looping through the paths connecting the greenhouses and rounding the lake. He considered going for a swim sometime this week, but decided it might be a little cold for such.
When he finally jogged back to the front of the school he paused when he spotted a sullen looking male waiting on the steps. With a mental shrug he finished the walk up to the steps and dropped down into his cool down stretches at the foot of them. The dark haired male raised an eyebrow when he realized that Loki had been doing a morning exercise before making his way down the steps to stand near the First Year.
"Good morning, Mr. Lestrange."
"Good morning, Professor..."
"Snape."
"Professor Snape."
Loki inclined his head to the male as he leaned farther into his last leg stretch.
"Pray tell what you are doing up at this hour, on the first day of class no less, and out of the dormitories?"
Loki blinked as he registered the question. He gave a one shoulder shrug as he replied, moving into a butterfly stretch before relaxing into his seat on the ground.
"I'm always up around this time, Professor Snape. My brother usually joins me at home for the exercise routine when he's up."
"You jog every morning?"
The male was wearing an incredulous expression, as if he couldn't believe that a child would willingly do exercise, especially so early in the day. Loki nodded to him.
"I usually jog in the evening as well, helps me sleep."
Snape held out a hand and Loki took it, allowing the teacher to pull him to his feet.
"Be that as it may, did you not think to inform an adult what you were doing, precisely because it is our job to know where are students are at all times?"
Loki thought over the request, swallowing the retort that he could look after himself. It annoyed him that Maturity Laws were different in this country. He gave the Professor a low apologetic bow before standing straight.
"My apologies, Professor Snape. I didn't believe that my exercise routine would disrupt your duties as a teacher. If it helps, would you like me to write out a schedule of when I usually run, and the path I will most likely follow?"
Snape stared at him for several minutes.
"You will refuse to simply stay inside or exercise in the common room?"
"The common room is too small. Running is an integral part of the routine. As far as I am aware it is against school rules to run in the halls. But, if I would be allowed such an exception for my exercise routine I would gladly run within the school. The staircases would be an interesting addition to the routine."
The teacher blinked, possibly surprised by the intelligent reply and expanded vocabulary for an 11-year-old. He nodded sharply.
"I will speak with the Headmaster about allowing you to run within the school. For now, I would like a schedule with the run times, and paths. At the very least, you will leave a notice on my office door before going outdoors for your run. I will show you where it is now, if you are finished."
The last part had a questioning tone to it. Loki nodded and followed the teacher back into the school. They walked along the halls quietly, steps echoing faintly on the stone walls. They went down several staircases until reaching a lower level office. Snape pointed to the door at the other end of the corridor.
"That is the Potions Classroom. It would be a good idea to remember its location."
Loki nodded, having already begun a mental map of the school when he went to exercise this morning. A glance at Snape's office door showed the insignia for Slytherin House. Noticing Loki's attention on it, Snape spoke.
"I am your Head of House. That means that I am in charge of any disciplinary action. Any teacher may give you a detention or take away points, but in-house disputes are handled by me, along with anything that may lead to expulsion or suspension."
"Yes, sir."
Loki followed the male into his office. Professor Snape sat down behind his desk and reached into a drawer. He pulled out a scroll of parchment and set it in front of Loki, next to it he placed a quill and ink. Loki was glad that Ishikawa (Stone River) had taught him to use all kinds of writing utensils when it came to seals, so quills were nothing new.
He immediately picked up the scrolls and using his mental recollection of the school sketched a quick map of the school grounds that he had covered. Using a dotted line he traced out the path he had taken this morning. In the bottom corner he listed the times he usually ran and noted any variations he may make to the path later on. He blew softly on the scroll to dry it faster and then handed it over to Snape. The male paused at seeing the map but nodded in acceptance.
"You seem to have a mind for details, Mr. Lestrange."
"It is a habit, Professor Snape."
The male raised an eyebrow but accepted the answer.
"A good habit, which I expect you to use in Potions Class."
Loki smirked slightly and nodded.
"Yes, sir."
"You may go."
Loki rose from his seat and gave the perplexed teacher a shallow bow before exiting the office. He easily found his way back to the common room. It took him a moment to remember the password, but he eventually did. The common room was still empty, and his dorm mates still asleep. He shook his head with an exasperated sigh and grabbed his clothes for the day before heading to the bathroom.
A quick shower later and he exited the bathroom, still towel drying his hair. The towel was tossed into a clothes hamper again one wall of the room and he moved to his trunk. Picking through the belongings inside, he set his school books on the shelf beside his bed. Over half of the blank parchment and the majority of his ink and quills were set inside the desk on the other side. His clothes were quickly arranged in the provided wardrobe and he slipped on his school robes and sandals. Grabbing the Transfiguration text and wand he headed down to the common room. Flipping through to the practical lessons he sat down near a dry inkwell one of the older students must have left out and set to transfiguring it into a bookend. He had already begun teaching himself from the book. Compared to learning Jutsu, magic was easy.
Muttering under his breath and willing the change, the inkwell slowly started changing shape into a rather ugly looking bookend that was nothing like what he was imagining. Annoyed, he reversed the change and started over. By the time the older students, ones who were more accustomed to the school schedule, came down into the common room he had managed to make the inkwell into a passable bookend, but the image he was trying to create it into as still sluggish and blurry around the edges. In his mind's eye it looked rather hideous, and nothing like the dog it was supposed to. Takeru would have been ashamed to even think it was supposed to be the Nin-kin.
A couple of the older students came over to see what he was doing, one making a suggestion and what he was doing wrong. Turning slightly pink he reversed the change and tried again. This time it actually came out how he wanted. Looking sheepish he nodded to the older student and muttered a thank you.
"Gemma Farley."
"Loki Lestrange."
There was another brief round of introductions and Loki was introduced to a couple more students on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Zubeida Khan was a Second Year, Gemma a Third Year, Terrence Higgs was a First Year like Loki. He also learned that Marcus Flint, who he had met on the train was a Second Year. He learned that his cousin Nymphadora Tonks was a Fourth Year and in Hufflepuff. Astrid, Damien, and Michello were all Third Years.
