A/N: I had chapter up to 7 prewritten, found and read both Kingkiller books in the 2 week span, and now look where I am. ;-;
Merlin had thought over how he would do the first day of the term many times. He came up with an idea then scratched it multiple times over. He had heard that the last Professor of History of Magic put many students to sleep with a bland formula of a monotone voice, slow speaking, and going over very similar materials again and again. This caused most students to either sleep through the class or work on other homework. And that led to many students to either just pass or fail their O.W.L.s. In the end, he decided to see what the majority of the class remembered and have them take a test.
After the embarrassing ordeal of forgetting that it was the first of September and walking into the Great Hall late, Merlin attempted to navigate through the halls of the school. He got lost rather quickly and with the staircases changing every so often, he had no idea where he was. He eventually saw a group of students walk by. Noticing one of them was walking behind the bulk of the crowd he approached nervously. Was he really about to ask a student where his classroom was? Y e p.
"Um, hey. Do you know the way to the History of Magic classroom?" the Merlin asked awkwardly. He slumped slightly over to avoid less attention from the few students.
"Oh, yeah. I can, Professor…..," the student trailed off.
"Aldridge," he said. It was then Merlin realized who the student was. None other than Dumbledore's Golden boy himself, Harry Potter.
As Merlin followed Harry, he noticed a few things. One, Harry was far too skinny for a boy his age, two, he had fairly large eyebags, three, the famous scar on his forehead was red. It looked freshly healed, not at all like usual scar tissue.
Arriving at the classroom Merlin surprised himself by speaking to the boy.
"Harry," he said. "I know that you have been through a lot, but make sure you talk to someone about things."
"What?" Harry said confused. He looked around but Merlin was already in the room.
Merlin surveyed his new classroom and took note of the dull atmosphere. There was not much to look at, only shelves full of dusty books and a couple of desks. Getting to work, Merlin cleared out all the shelves of dust and books. The books were so full of dust that Merlin nearly decided to just scrap the entirety of the shelves. After some serious cleaning, Merlin had cleared out the shelves of their dust and placed the books in a pile.
Merlin had taken the liberty of briefly reading a few of the books only to find that they were seriously outdated and almost none of the information held true. So he decided to just take them all out and replace old books with his books. After some serious thought on which books were okay for his students to read, he took a take at the otherwise undecorated room.
Taking a good look around, he chose to set up some of his own trinkets from the places he's been to give the room some color. Old flags from multiple different countries and empires that no longer exist, stones and gems hidden in ancient cities, a spear from those civilizations deep within the amazon, Merlin had even managed to find the skull of a long decreased phoenix and placed it in an empty space in the book shelves. He hung up a few skeletons of magical creatures that he had studied to the ceiling. After taking a good look at what he had done, Merlin hung some Pendragon red curtains with gold trim.
Looking over his work Merlin heard a tapping sound on one window. He ignored it and started to move toward the room in the back of the classroom, but the tapping grew even more instant. Sighing, Merlin made his way to the windows as he attempted to look outside through his reflection. Merlin saw nothing. The tapping persisted. Merlin made his way back to the window and this time he saw two beady black eyes staring straight back at him.
Merlin fell back in surprise and remembered, he didn't carry Aluxo with him because he was in such a rush. Quickly opening the window to let the owl in, Aluxo tiredly flew into the much warmer castle and plopped down.
"Alu-" Merlin was cut short by the owl nipping his fingers angierly and turned its back. Deciding it was better to leave the bird alone to sleep, Merlin walked into the very dusty and old office.
The office was large enough to accommodate a small bed and dresser while simultaneously having room for personal items and enough space for a desk. It was already cleared for Professor Binns was teaching as a ghost for a very long time and had no need for the room.
Merlin ended up leaving his office rather plain looking and did place many of his belongings on the shelves other than his many books. They ranged from fiction to historical, muggle to magic, myths and legends to hard evidence and truth. His favorites were the ones about the history and interactions of people leading to the world they knew today.
After sorting out the rest of his belongings, he laid down on his bed completely exhausted from all the sorting and decorating he had done. The sun was by now up and he could hear the students making their way down to the Great Hall. Closing his eyes for a split second, he completely blacked out.
Merlin awoke to the sound of a bell sharply ringing and nearly fell out of his bed. He had unintentionally fallen asleep and his first class was now beginning.
Quickly using his magic to make copies of the test he had made a day prior, he gathered all his needed books and attempted to open the door. Losing the little balance he had, a large portion of papers and books came crashing down leaving him with the stare of his students. Moving to his hands and knees, he scrambled to pick up the mess he had just made. He noticed a couple of other students helping out making him feel even more embarrassed. After gathering up his things he stood up.
"Ah, thank you!" he called behind the wall of things he was carrying. "You may go back to your seats now!"
Walking down to the desk on the other side of the classroom was even more of a challenge than he had thought. Once placing the mass of papers and books he greeted the class with a simple, enthusiastic 'hello'. After receiving an unenthusiastic reply from the students he continued.
Hoping that he did not look as embarrassed as he felt, Merlin decided on trying to sound a bit more authoritative like.
"Um, I will be your new History of Magic Professor." He nearly cursed at himself for sounding like a pushover. "You will address me as Professor Aldrige and nothing else," he continued, sounding more like an overly strict clotpole than what he was intending for.
"I am sure you all know plenty about the Goblin War Professor Binns was so fond of teaching," he said with a sarcastic tone. Receiving positive feedback from the students he continued. "So, for today, I am going to give you a test," he ended in which the class groaned in response.
"This test will be over all of the things you should have coverderd in the past few years. This test is only going to me so I have an idea of what we need to go over and what you all need refreshers on. Tomorrow I would like for you to make sure you all have paper and quills ready to take notes with." he explained with a small smile from the groans of the students.
Merlin then passed out the test he had made. He had directly taken questions from the notes and curriculum that Binns had had, while also putting a few of his own in.
Every class went as following: Merlin introduced himself (it got easier as he got more practice with each class), explained what the purpose of the test was, what they were going to do the in the next class, him passing out the tests, students becoming completely confused giving up part way through, the bell ringing, and the next class flowing in.
As Merlin looked out the window and over the lake, the sun began to set. It was the end of his first day teaching at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Moving back to his office, he laid down on his bed, thinking about all that had happened in the past few months. Aluxo cooed and perched on the bed head frame. Merlin reached up to pet the owl and promptly fell asleep.
A/N:Aight, so this fic is probably going to be updated biweekly for a while until I get some free time.
Comments, criticism, and ideas are always welcome :)
