CHAPTER 10: THE RAVEN'S NEST
A full four rounds of wide staircases wrapped around walls adorned with warm and welcoming portraits later they arrived at an unassuming wall at the end of the corridor. Oddly enough, there was only an ornate door knocker shaped like an eagle unfurling it's immense wings, claws extended. It swooped its wings and a gentle ladylike voice of cultured overtones asked "I'm a father's child and a mother's child but nobody's son. What am I?" A puzzled murmur rose as the first years all puzzled it over until Harry raised his voice and spoke up. "A daughter."
"Correctly answered. You may enter. Welcome to Ravenclaw Tower little ones. May your wisdom grow and minds explore freely and by." With that, the wall split into a doorway and swung open. Harry was perplexed that the only security for their dorms was a puzzle until he felt tendrils of magic reach out and touch every child that passed the doorway. When Harry stepped through, he sensed the castle's magic scanning and locking on to his magical signature. Clever!
He was pleased and tickled by the clever diversionary tactic of the door knocker that hid the more secure method of scanning magical signature. He guessed that the notification went to the head of the house and the headmaster. He knew that a live portrait guarded the Gryfindor dorms and a concealed and camouflaged door hid the Slytherin common rooms. He would find out the Hufflepuff's den and complete the set soon enough, he mused.
Harry followed the others past the wall that had parted to reveal a cosy large living room with scattered, cosy-looking chairs and tables and a squishy looking rug extending across the enormous floor almost to the fireplaces edging the inner walls. Large windows looked over the lake and the vast grounds in a spectacular view even in the darkness. The whole ambience was very soothing and just about perfect to settle down with a book.
The two staircases on far ends of the vast common room, leading upwards, and two staircases leading down in the centre of the wall opposite seemed to lead into dorm rooms. The walls Harry noted, were a relaxing deep blue with intricate Fleur de Lis patterns in a lighter blue self-print style. It was elegant without being fussy and all the wall spaces in between seemed to be shelves full to the brimming with books. It was Luna's version of heaven he supposed.
The prefects were instructing the first years to line up and wait while most of the older students except those with prefect badges pinned to their uniforms ambled up the stairs, already retiring for the night. It made him curious to know what was down the stairs. All the four boys and seven girls stood to nervous attention, all wondering why they were being asked to wait. The question was soon answered when the common room doors slid open to reveal the diminutive professor of the bald head and hairy ears.
All smiles, the man eagerly marched forward and stood before them. "I'm Filius Flitwick, your head of House. I'm the one you come to for any concerns and doubts and just about anything you wish to discuss or seek help for. While you're all here at school, I shall be acting in loco Parentis and stand-in for your parents regarding any issue. Tomorrow, your classes will begin in earnest. " As he indicated to the prefects the fifth year male prefect began to hand out a file to each of them.
Harry opened his file to find a timetable, a rudimentary map of the castle that was charmed and moving between floors and occasionally switching to show the grounds. He sent out a small pulse of magic and the map seemed to absorb it and then revealed his position in the tower and a small column below his name with a blank line. He gasped and Professor Flitwick noticed and clapped his hands elatedly, bouncing over to him.
"Aha, you've discovered the Marvel of the maps eh? It was a design made by your mother a few months after she passed out of school. Ingenious isn't it? About as brilliant as inventions one could expect from someone of her calibre." Harry's eyes glistened as he held the file closer. This was something that no one outside of his self-made family had ever mentioned about his mum.
They all waxed lyrical about his father but all they always noted about his mum was that she was lovely, muggle-born and had green eyes and red hair and had loved his dad very much. Hagrid had talked circles around him about his father and friends and their mischief in school and his skills on a broom and as a fighter. Literally everyone had commented that he looked exactly like his father with his mum's eyes. And that was it.
But here was the hints of the woman in the portrait, the witch who was celebrated as the brightest of her generation. This map added a layer of impressions about the woman who raised him from a portrait and it warmed his heart. He renewed his determination to make his family proud and leave behind such a spectacular legacy for his school too. He also made a mental note to retrieve the lost marauders' map tonight itself without fail. He would request assistance from a house-elf, rather than spend days or weeks searching the castle.
To distract the kids staring at him curiously, he thanked the professor and diverted their attention with a question about what was down the stairs. Flitwick informed him that a spacious practice lab for potions, an arena for practising spells, hexes and jinxes. There was also an antechamber kitted out as a library and study area equipped with spells for silence so the Ravens could study in peaceful silence.
Professor Flitwick firmly reminded them not to hoard books from either the Ravenclaw library or the school library. Two years ago he had introduced a spell to all the books in the school so they would automatically return to their assigned spaces in the shelves after a week-long grace period, no matter what.
The house-elves of Hogwarts, he informed them, would come by every night to clean their living spaces but Professor Flitwick would be keeping a strict eye on the situation and would be very displeased if the elves reported excessively messy spaces and personal dorms. Each student here was expected to be on their best behaviour at all times, and do Ravenclaw proud with their discipline and comportment as much as their educational achievements.
He expected good manners and responsible behaviour towards all students, staff and beings in campus from his Ravens and no excuses would be brooked, excused or even considered. Each student would also be personally responsible for the safety and security of their property and although he would gladly teach them good wards to lock their trunks, the learning and application itself would be an onus on each individual student.
He reminded them that he was available any time of the day at his classroom on the first floor as the map indicated or his office located right at the beginning of this corridor. He advised that they not lose the folder as it would be recycled to hand over to younger batches when they passed out of school.
It was locked against duplication or sharing without permission, he warned them. And neither would these maps travel outside of the campus, as they were tired to the wards of the school; late Lady Potter had used a Potter family spell among other charms to create these maps. Hogwarts had paid a neat sum as a proprietary cost for using the maps she had provided but she had been killed before she could make more.
He encouraged them to approach him anytime once again and wrapped up by reminding them to remember to pay attention to personal health and social relationships for balanced growth. Advising them to get off to bed and begin the day tomorrow as they meant to go on, he bade them a good night and left, instructing the prefects to guide them to their dorms as he passed them by.
The kids followed the prefects up two flights of stairs and walked into a corridor that split into two sides and the girls walked off to the right behind the female prefect. The boys followed after male prefect who led them to two spacious rooms that held two large canopied beds each.
Harry and Neville were roomed together, and Justin and Terrence had been roomed together. The girls had split three to one room and four to another. Each of their rooms also housed large wizard spaced wardrobes for each student, with adjacent writing desks and straight-backed chairs. Each end had one community bathroom each. The doors were charmed, the prefects informed them, in such a way that opposite genders were not ever allowed entry into their rooms or baths.
Segregation ended there and they were expected to behave respectfully and responsibly on their own. Everything was themed blue and bronze and white. Their trunks were already placed on the benches at the foot of their beds and each wardrobe and desk was clearly marked with individual names. Harry and Neville found their stuff undisturbed and intact. Neville turned to call out to Ivy, who popped in and eagerly started to unpack the trunks of both the boys and laid out their pyjamas as they caught her up in their day's adventure.
Gossip was exchanged to everyone's satisfaction and Harry and Neville hastily scrawled notes to be passed on to Grandfather, uncles Xeno and Algie, Aunts Cassie and Dora and Gran Augusta as well. Ivy had one last message to give them before she popped out. She informed them that Skipper was attending to Luna; Luna had passed on the message that she would meet them at the common room at half-past five for their morning Katas. Soo Li, her roommate was eager to join them and see how far along, by what school or martial arts they were, for herself. Things would get hectic tomorrow as they wouldn't have even a day to settle in and explore before classes began in full swing.
Neville was fast asleep as soon as his head hit the pillows but Harry felt restless. He settled down on his bed and examined the timetable. Classes began with Potions and moved on to History of magic, and Transfiguration before lunch, and then Charms and finally Herbology as the last class of the day. Tuesday was looking to be a rather tedious day beginning with a double lesson in History of magic, followed by DADA before lunch, and Transfiguration and finally Charms again.
Harry's eyebrows practically kissed his hairline when he noted that Wednesday had a midnight class - a literal, actual class held in the middle of the night - Astronomy. Why could the great Hall not work as a decent planetarium, he had to wonder. Thursday was nearly as cramped with Double Transfiguration, History of Magic, lunch, and then Herbology followed by DADA. Friday was similarly scheduled: Charms, History, Transfiguration, lunch hour, Potions and Herbology. The timetable was neatly and clearly marked with class locations, name of the teachers, and the credits and testing system for each of them through the year.
The Saturdays, he supposed, were slacker hours, with only extracurricular clubs introductory meetings in common rooms. He checked out the list of clubs: there was Potions & Healing Beginner's Club, Herbologist's Hobby Club, Dueling Club, Runic Challenger's Club, Creatures Enthusiasts, Arithmantic Equationals, Gobstones Club, Literary Couch Potatoes, Paintball Spellers, Chess, Quidditch, General Trivia Collectors' Club, Law & Order Society, and the Young Ladies Association.
The file also contained mail order forms and catalogues for a wide range of shops and even Gringotts services. There was another map, this time for the school library, with sections and areas clearly marked by subjects. There was also a comprehensive list of rules, an estimate of points earning and loss system, The school charter's most updated version, he supposed. Grandfather had taught him the version that had been in the application when he had been a student, that was more than five decades ago. He skimmed through the document, mentally comparing it with the one his grandfather had taught him; there wasn't all that much different, except for uniforms and the rules regarding sitting at other house tables for meals and punishments if caught pranking.
Harry set it away on his desk and closed his canopy curtains and settled down to sleep. He had already warded the room with Black family wards to alert him to intruders. As long as Dumbledore was around, he wouldn't entirely let down his guard. None of them could afford to. Mentally he reviewed the names and faces of all his classmates by the house as he strengthened his occlumency shields and centred his core.
Soon enough, he was drifting off to sleep.