The First Day of Hogwarts
Letti woke the next morning to a flurry of text messages, all of them from Henrietta. Messages like:
Did you make it to Hogwarts okay?
Did you make any friends?
What House were you sorted into?
Did you eat okay?
Are you getting these messages?
With the events of that day and evening, Letti had completely forgotten about the phone Henrietta had given her, and had completely forgotten to message her back. She quickly typed out a text in response:
I'm okay. Sorted into Slytherin. Made some friends. Call later?
Knowing Henrietta, that would not be a satisfying response, but she was hoping it would at least stem any panic the woman was probably feeling. With luck, she could call her later and all her worries would be undone.
She sat up in bed and stretched. To her right, Cassie was still in a deep sleep in her bed. Two other girls slept in the beds on Cassie's other side - Mallory Ivanson and Lindelle Smith. She hadn't gotten to know them as well as Cassie, partly because they were both in years above them.
The emptiness was strange to Letti. She had gotten used to public schools, with halls that felt more like being herded like cattle than any meaningful human interaction. But here everything was so wide-open, so freeing.
Part of that, she knew, was just because the number of students attending Hogwarts was really low. With the advent of many new magical schools, and a general reduction in birth rates around the time of the Calamity, there just weren't as many students to attend magical schools to begin with. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it did mean that she was going to need to try and get to know the other students a lot better than she had before. Slytherin in total now only had thirty-four female students, according to Cassie. In public school, many of her individual classes had more students than that.
She put on a glove and grabbed the egg, crossing her legs and setting it just in front of her. There was a part of her that had hoped the egg might hatch simply by being in the presence of so much magical activity, and yet nothing really had happened at all. It was still a mystery as to what lay inside, why the egg had been left for her in the vault, and what purpose the creature inside was meant to serve. Perhaps she would never find out…
She shook her head. There was no time for such thoughts. She was at Hogwarts now!
She set the egg carefully at the foot of her bed, got dressed quickly, and darted up to the common room. Very few students were already up, as it was somewhat early in the morning. Letti's body was still used to the morning routine she had adopted at the Leaky Cauldron, and while she was sure her lack of sleep would catch up with her tonight, for now she felt fine.
Albus Potter was lounging on one of the ornate green couches, a book in one hand and his wand in the other. He kept repeating the same phrase, but too quietly for Letti to hear. She nervously stepped closer.
There was a sudden loud cracking sound like that of a gunshot, and a gust of wind blew inches away past Letti's face. She immediately dropped to the ground, pressing her face to the ground and placing her hands over her head.
The sound of laughter echoed from the couch. She looked up. Albus was practically rolling around on the couch, clutching his stomach and bawling with glee. Letti stood up and brushed herself off, her face red with both embarrassment and anger.
"You should be more careful!" she snapped. "You almost hit me!"
Albus wiped a few tears away from his face. "Oh, I've been trying to get that spell for weeks. It's just an Air Gust spell, Letti. Harmless unless amplified."
She tried to smooth her nest of hair, which had become even more of a mess in the fiasco. "Well...still. You should be more careful when you're practicing spells like that."
Albus rolled his eyes but said, "Alright, alright. You've got me there. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She finished brushing herself off and looked around. Luckily, the other students in the common room were either too preoccupied with what they were doing or were too sleepy to have paid any attention.
The sound of running came from behind her, and Cassie leapt to her side, wrapping one arm around her. "First night in Hogwarts, what what!" she cried. Upon seeing Albus, her eyes went wide open and Letti heard a small eep! leave her lips.
"Hey, Cassie," Albus said nonchalantly, seemingly unaware of her sudden change in behavior.
It took a gentle nudge from Letti for Cassie to find her voice again. "Oh, erm, hey, Albus."
"Smooth," Letti muttered under her breath.
Cassie gave her a gentle shove and turned back to Albus. "So...how was your summer?"
Albus had returned to his book. After a moment of awkward silence, he looked up. "Hm? Oh. It was alright. James was a pain, as usual, and my parents spent most of it fussing over Lily since it's her first year here." He paused for a second, in thought. "I should probably go check on her this morning. Who knows what sort of hazing they put her through last night." He slammed his book shut, tucked his wand into his pocket, and was gone without a second thought.
"Oh, y'know, my summer was great…" Cassie's voice trailed off, her shoulders sagging.
Letti put a comforting hand on her shoulders. "What did he mean by hazing?" she asked, hoping to distract her friend for a moment.
Her attempt was successful. "Gryffindor House always torments the first-years on their first night," Cassie explained. "Nothing violent, but it's always mean-spirited. One year the older kids moved the first-years beds' into one of the courtyards while they were asleep. They all woke up with everyone staring at them in their pajamas."
"That's allowed?" Letti was suddenly very grateful for the lack of attention she had been given at Slytherin.
"Not really. Headmistress Patil takes away points from them every year and gives some of them detention, but it hasn't really stopped. I'm pretty sure Mister Finnigan is the one responsible for it. C'mon, we should head to the Great Hall for breakfast."
Letti frowned. The more she heard and saw of this Mister Finnigan, the less she liked him.
As they walked through the entrance to the common room, Cassie smacked her head and walked back around the corner. "I forgot to show you the board! Here." A large cork board was nailed into the stone wall. Various pages and papers were plastered on it, as well as a small white board. "See that paper in the top corner? That's where they post the password to get in each day. Make sure you check it. So today's is Toil and Trouble." She pointed at the white board. "And that is where you sign up for your conference with Professor Malfoy. Looks like most of the early spots are taken, dang. Just a few spots left a few days from now."
They signed up for spots two days from then, and began making their way to the Great Hall. "What is he like, Professor Malfoy?" Letti asked.
Cassie shrugged. "He's cool, I guess. He tries really hard to get to know us and check in on us and everything. Wants to make sure we're actually doing well in our classes. I've only ever seen him get really mad once."
"What happened?"
"James Potter challenged his brother to a duel and threatened to use some really bad spell. I don't remember what it was. But Malfoy was livid. Thought for sure he was going to hex James himself. Luckily Professor Longbottom was there, too, to help put an end to things."
Like with Mister Finnigan, Letti's opinion of Albus' brother was definitely not getting better. Overall, her opinion of Gryffindor as a whole was rather tainted. She understood why Albus had been so concerned about his sister.
They arrived at a Great Hall that was still rather empty, aside from a few scattered students. Headmistress Patil and her twin were sitting at the teachers' table and were alone aside from another teacher who sat at the far end wearing brown robes and a white smock. "Who is he?" Letti asked.
"Who? Oh, that's Professor Longbottom. He's nice." Cassie seemed hardly interested. "Ooh, they have cream tarts today! Letti, look."
Breakfast passed in relative peace, with sleepy-eyed students tricking in to get some food before the day began. A few professors arrived, too - Professor Malfoy greeted Professor Longbottom before taking his seat beside the Headmistress. They chatted amicably for most of the morning, Letti noticed.
Cassie was distracted the entire breakfast, her attention constantly going back and forth between her phone and the large double-doors of the Great Hall. Each time someone new came in, she would focus on them for just a moment before slumping her shoulders and turning back to the table. Letti was pretty sure she knew who Cassie was waiting for.
"Where are Lorcan and Lysander?" she asked, hoping to distract her lovestruck friend.
It took a minute for Cassie to respond - she was still craning her neck towards the doors as a few more classmates wandered in. "Hm? Oh, those two? They're probably down at Hagrid's already. They hardly ever have breakfast up here."
It took ten additional minutes for Cassie to finally give up waiting and to agree to go down to Hagrid's hut with Letti. "I'd go myself, but I have no idea where anything is around here," she reasoned.
Cassie begrudgingly led her there, though Letti could tell that she was still not fully distracted. She seemed to be in a haze, nearly bumping into walls or fellow students as they worked their way through the castle. Letti herself was distracted just by, well, everything. The moving paintings that watched them in hushed whispers (and sometimes shouted greetings in foreign languages), the ghosts that glided in and out of halls, and the other students who seemed so at ease with their surroundings. She couldn't wait for the day when this all felt normal.
Outside, the air was cool and brisk. Letti shivered - living in Texas, the weather was never this cold in September. She regretted not wearing her winter coat that morning.
It was also the first time she had a chance to truly appreciate her surroundings, as they had arrived to Hogwarts under the cover of darkness. Mountains surrounded them on all sides: tall, wide ones that were green with trees. Even though the sky was full of clouds, the Black Lake glistened in the sunlight. Students were not the only ones out and about in the fresh air: several centaurs wandered along the opposite side of the lake; sparrows twittered in the treetops; and all manner of woodland creatures, ranging from chipmunks ro rabbits, darted about on the ground. She took a breath of air. Everything felt full of magic.
Beside her, Cassie still looked miserable. Letti frowned. If being outside and experiencing all of this didn't cheer her friend up, what could?
They rounded a corner and caught sight of a hut down the path, at the bottom of a steep incline. The hut looked like it had been in a sorry state for some time: the dark wooden roof was half caved-in, and a gaping hole in the side presumably used to be a doorway. A garden patch just outside was in even worse condition.
"I thought someone lived there," Letti commented.
A mischievous smile crossed Cassie's lips for the first time since they had left the common room. "Just wait," she said.
The closer they got, however, the more concerned Letti became. The hut was in absolute ruins. Bits of rubble were strewn everywhere. Charred chunks of rock lay in a small pile. The rotting remains of pumpkins littered the ground, and Letti shuddered at what she was pretty sure were the bones of a small animal. "Is this some sort of prank?" she said. "Like what Gryffindor does to their first-years?"
Cassie snorted and shook her head, but added no additional explanation. She led her all the way right up to the hole in the side of the structure, ducked beneath a low-hanging beam, and turned around. "C'mon!" she insisted. "I promise this isn't some sort of hazing ritual." She stretched out a hand.
Letti grasped it nervously. "Okay…"
The interior of the hut was no better than the exterior. In fact, given the number of flies and other bugs that inhabited it, Letti argued that it was much, much worse. She pinched her nose as Cassie led her over to a hole in the floor.
"Geronimo!" Cassie suddenly jumped into the hole in the floor and vanished.
"Cassie!" Letti leaned over to look down. The hole went on further than she could see. Her friend was gone.
"Just jump!" Cassie's voice echoed from below, though it sounded very close. "It's safe, I promise!"
Letti hesitated. Falling into a dark abyss didn't exactly seem like the safest option…
"Just go!"
Letti took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and jumped.
The fall was much shorter than she had expected. In fact, she only fell for a split second before landing on something soft and springy, bouncing off of it, and falling on to...grass?
She opened her eyes. A wide-open green field stretched out for a mile in front of her, bright and sunny as if she were simply outside the entire time. To her left, a group of trees that looked remarkably like the Forbidden Forest was shrouded in shadows. To her right, a rocky desert landscape extended for a mile. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander stood a half mile away - next to them, on a chair that seemed like it was about to burst, sat Hagrid. Another man wearing khakis and a helmet was crouched on the ground examining some sort of creature.
Cassie helped her to her feet. "Wha-" She stared at Cassie. "How?"
Cassie chuckled. "It's an Extension Charm. This is where Care for Magical Creatures class takes place! Isn't it amazing?"
"Yeah…" Letti still was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. Looking back, it appeared as if she had come from a small outhouse in the middle of the plains, with a giant mushroom sprouting just beneath a suspiciously large pipe out of the top. "How do we get back?"
"Oh, there are gates all over here that lead to various places around Hogwarts. I'll show you later." Cassie waved to the others. "Lorcan! Lysander!"
The two boys turned upon hearing their names and broke into an immediate grin. "Letti, you made it!" Lysander said. "Isn't this place just-"
"-the best?" Lorcan finished.
Letti grinned. "It's pretty cool."
"Glad ter meet ya." Hagrid extended a giant hand, and Letti shook it. When she had first met Hagrid in the dark, he had seemed terrifying. Now, in the light, he just seemed...old. Grey hairs freckled his beard and mangy hair, and every movement of his body seemed to come with excruciating pain. "Yer a firs' year, ain't ya?"
Letti nodded.
"Letti, look!" Lysander jumped between them and pointed. "Have you ever seen a jackalope before?"
As it turns out, she had not. A bunny-like creature stood on the grass silently, its nose sniffing the air as the khaki-wearing man scratched its back. From its head sprouted a pair of antlers, which while large compared to the bunny still did not reach Letti's hip in height. It was a comical-looking creature.
The khaki-wearing man stood up, and the jackalope bounded off down the field. "'ello there," he said, his voice thick with an Australian accent. "Randolph Irwin, Teacher of Care for Magical Creatures, at yer service. An' you are?"
"Letti Lunetti. Erm, student at Hogwarts."
The man laughed and slapped his knee. "I like this one," he said to the twins. "You care to help me out with the occamy later, Lysander?"
"Boy would I ever!"
"A'ight. I'm gonna head up to the Great Hall, then. You good, Hagrid?" The large man gave a gentle wave. "A'right. I'll be off. La'er, Miss Lunetti." He walked off towards the shadowed forest.
Lysander had a grin as wide as a watermelon stretched across his face. "He's the best!"
"'ey now," Hagrid said with a wheezing chuckle. "I though' I was the best."
Lysander looked mortified. "I mean, of course you're awesome, Hagrid! I-"
"Lys, he's just messing with you." Cassie rolled her eyes.
Lorcan sidled over to Letti as Lysander continued to apologize to Hagrid. "So, how are you liking Hogwarts so far?"
"It's...big." Letti was still feeling a little nervous after her encounter with Professor Irwin. "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find everything. Directions aren't exactly my strong suit."
Lorcan grinned. "Hey, Lysander! We need to give Letti the grand tour!" He nudged her playfully. "C'mon, we'll show you around."
"That was my job!" Cassie complained.
"Yeah, but we'll do it better." Lysander stuck his tongue out at her. "We're more fun."
"I can be fun!"
The group said goodbye to Hagrid (who Letti thought looked grateful for some peace and quiet), and the twins led them towards the dark forest. Letti didn't like the look of it - the trees seemed too big, casting ominous-looking shadows. She swore she saw something crawling around up in the branches. "Is this safe?"
"Oh yeah," Lysander said. "Professor Irwin never lets anything dangerous just wander the Wild Zone. All the dangerous stuff is kept to their own bubbles."
"Wild Zone?"
Lysander swept his arm in an arc. "This big open area is called the Wild Zone. A lot of critters here can just wander around freely without having to be contained, because they don't pose a threat to themselves or us. I think Professor Irwin said it was twelve square kilometers?"
"Fourteen," Lorcan corrected. "Headmistress McGonagall gave him permission to make this place just before the Calamity. A lot of magizoologists like our dad come here to study the animals, since it's such a safe haven. Pretty neat, huh?"
"Yeah…" As they entered the forest, Letti looked up at the menacing trees. "So how exactly do we get out of here?"
Lysander grinned. "Just up ahead."
They continued walking for a minute more before coming across a large grove. At the edge of the space were twelve stone doorways, which to Letti seemed remarkably similar to the formations she had read about in books about Stonehenge. In front of each of the doorways was a stone pedestal. At the center was a large triangular platform surrounded by a thin, round river of water, which connected to the outer stream by three straight rivers at each of the corners of the platform. Atop the platform was a statue depicting a dragon-like creature with feathery wings.
"We call this the Dragon Circle," Lysander proclaimed. "Named after the awesome statue, of course. Each of these doorways leads to a different part of Hogwarts." He looked back at Letti, clearly hoping she would be impressed.
She was. "So how does it work?" she asked. Each of the doorways appeared empty.
Lorcan took over, whipping his wand out with dramatic flair. "All you've got to do is tap the pedestal in front of the doorway you want to open and say 'Aperiam Portal.' You have to be fast, though, because the gates don't stay open for long."
"Professor Irwin put little notes at each one so you know where you're going," Lysander added. "For example, this one will take you right in front of the Great Hall. This one leads the dungeons, that one to the Quidditch field, that one over there goes to-"
"What about that one?" Letti pointed to a doorway on their left. The pedestal in front of it was broken, half of it completely missing.
"We don't know where that one leads," Lysander said, frowning. "Professor Irwin won't tell us, either, but I think it's because he doesn't know, either."
"How could he not know? Didn't he make this?"
"He made the space, but not the Dragon Circle," Cassie said. She was leaning against one of the doorways. "I asked Professor Malfoy about it once. He told me that sometimes when wizards try to do huge feats of magic like this, the magic goes wild and does things of its own. Hogwarts is full of it - with so many powerful witches and wizards in one place, wild magic takes root. Pretty cool, huh?"
Letti nodded, but inwardly she was freaked out. Magic could just do things on its own accord? The very thought was terrifying.
"So where do you want to go?" Lysander asked. "We could go to the Astronomy Tower, the Quidditch field-"
"Oh, let's go visit Professor Longbottom in the greenhouse!" Lorcan suggested. "She should get to meet a Gryffindor who's actually nice. Plus we need to catch up with him!"
"You guys go knock yourselves out. I'm gonna head back to the dormitory and catch up with some people." Cassie walked over to a pedestal, tapped her wand, and said the words, "Aperiam Portal." The gateway suddenly became filled with light, and then an image of the dungeons appeared. Cassie was quick to hop through - a few seconds later, the gateway closed and became empty.
"She's just gonna go mope over Albus," Lorcan groaned, after the gateway closed.
"Should we...go after her?" Letti suggested. She didn't want to just leave her friend alone, especially if she was going to be sad.
"Nah, she'll be okay." Lorcan walked over to the pedestal next to the one Cassie had used. "She gets like this from time to time, always after trying to flirt with Albus. Give her a few hours, and she'll find us to try and have some fun."
"C'mon! Let's go to the greenhouse." Lysander shoved his brother aside and activated the pedestal. He and Lorcan grabbed Letti by her arms and pulled her through.
There was a strange sensation as if every part of her was being pulled in every direction, and then suddenly she found herself in a Hogwarts corridor. It was not a part of the castle she recognized.
She spun around, expecting to watch the portal disappear. Instead, she was met with an empty stone wall. "Did it vanish already?" she asked.
"Nah, the portals are one-way only," Lorcan said unhappily. "Trust me, it would be great if we could use them to zip around the school faster, but the pedestals and gates only exist in the Wild Zone."
"C'mon!" Lysander tapped his foot impatiently. "Let's go say hi to Professor Longbottom."
He dragged them through a door that led outside. Four long greenhouses sat in a field that was filled to the brim with different potted plants. To the right, against one wall of Hogwarts castle was a wide flower garden filled with flowers of every color imaginable - giant butterflies the size of her hand fluttered about. To the left, a host of creeping vines wound their way up the ancient stones, with blooming white flowers breaking up the dull exterior. A few students were sitting in the grass having an apparent picnic. Letti looked around happily. This was the sort of magical place she could get used to.
They followed Lysander to one of the greenhouses, where he knocked on the door. "Come in!" sounded a tired male voice.
They entered, and Letti felt her body immediately become damp with sweat. It was warm! The greenhouse was home to two long tables that ran nearly from end to end - they were presently empty, but various potted plants hung from wrought-iron hooks above them. It was these plants that the man, whom Letti recognized as Professor Longbottom, was caring for, sprinkling something from a leather pouch into the pots.
"Good morning, boys!" he said. "Ah, and someone new…" His voice trailed off as he caught sight of Letti.
"This is Letti, Professor Longbottom!" Lysander's voice cracked with excitement. "She's new here, and we were showing her around and wanted her to meet you!"
The professor set down the bag he had been holding. "Yes, well, a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lunetti. I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat - plenty of plants to take care of. I'll be seeing you." In an instant, he was out the other side of the greenhouse.
"That was weird," Lorcan said, punctuating the exact feeling Letti had herself. "Normally Professor Longbottom loves to just chat."
"Maybe he really just had somewhere to be?" Lysander suggested.
Letti let out an exasperated sigh. "I think it was me," she said.
The twins looked at her incredulously. "Ridiculous!" Lysander cried.
"Preposterous!" Lorcan added, causing them both to giggle for a moment.
"Letti, why would he leave because of you?" Lysander said. "You just got here, and you're a really nice person! You're exactly the type of person Professor Longbottom would want to meet and talk to."
Letti shrugged. "I don't know, but it seemed like he got spooked when he saw me. Like he already knew who I was or something."
"Well of course he knows who you are, he would've seen you at the Sorting Ceremony last night." Despite his optimism, Lorcan still rubbed his chin with displeasure. "But it was weird how he fled as soon as he saw you…"
Letti snapped her fingers. "I bet he knows who my mother was! I probably look like her, and he recognized me because of that!"
Lysander's eyes went wide. "Ohhhh yeah that could be it! We should go and find him and try to talk to him about it!"
Lorcan held up a hand. "Look, I hate to be the voice of reason here, but…"
"Nooooooo don't 'but'!" Lysander whined. "Don't be a buzzkill!"
"I know, I know, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to try and hunt down one of our professors. Especially you," he said directly to his brother. "Professor Longbottom likes you because Herbology is one of your strongest classes. The last thing you need is to get him on your bad side. Why not just try to talk to him during class one day?"
"I guess…" Letti's shoulders slumped. It felt like she kept getting so close to finding out the truth, only to be held back by something out of her control. "What should we do now?"
"Well...you haven't seen the entire castle yet, have you? We need to show you around properly!" It was clear Lorcan was trying to cheer up her - and her brother, who was looking equally down - by distraction. She recalled doing the exact same thing to Cassie earlier.
"Okay. What would you suggest?"
"-so then they showed me all of the classrooms and stuff. Hogwarts is really really big. I don't know how I'll avoid getting lost on my way to class."
It was later that evening, and Letti was sitting at the foot of her bed, talking on the phone with Henrietta. The young woman had been ecstatic to hear from her.
"Oh, don't worry, dear, I'm sure you'll know your way around in no time. I remember my first few days at Beauxbatons - it felt like I had been dropped into a labyrinth! But it quickly felt like home, and I'm sure it will for you, too. It sounds like you've already started making some friends."
Letti looked over at Cassie, who was snoring quietly in her sleep. Letti's lip curled into a small smile. "Yeah, I have. There's a lot of great people here. Lorcan and Lysander have been really nice to me all day."
"That's wonderful, dear."
"What do you think about Professor Longbottom? Is it possible he knew my mother?"
She could hear Henrietta's exasperated sigh on the other side of the phone. "I suppose. He certainly could have been involved in fighting the Calamity - I seem to recall hearing stories about his exploits during the Second Wizarding War. I wouldn't try to bother him though, dear. I promise, I'm using every avenue I have available to try and discover who your parents are."
"I know." Letti felt disheartened again. Again, so close, and yet so far.
"Hey. Buck up, dear, it will all turn out fine. What's on the agenda for tomorrow?"
"Cassie wants to take me to the top of the Divination Tower tomorrow, and for me to meet Professor Lapithes. He's helping her to be a proper Seer."
"That sounds lovely, dear. Use tomorrow to rest a little. You don't want to overdo it."
"Will do. Thanks. I'll call you tomorrow?"
"Please do. Sweet dreams."
"Bye."
Letti collapsed backwards on to her bed, letting out a long, deep sigh. She had been so sure that Hogwarts would give her the answers she sought. And yet, despite being here surrounded by so much magic and so many people who could give her the information she so desperately wanted, she was still left with that one, burning question:
Who was her mother?