A/N: Okay I lied. I know this chapter was supposed to be about Uric's first classes, but Uric decided he wanted to wake up early and go exploring. Who am I to gainsay him? Anyone know where the title for this chapter comes from?
Chapter 4: Uric, the Lost Boy
It was dark in the dorm. Uric couldn't even see Simon's cage beside his bed. But he could hear the muffled breathing of the three other boys overlapping with the beating of his heart. He rolled over, burying his face in his pillow in an attempt to get back to sleep.
It was no use. He quietly turned over and sat up, his feet dangling over the edge of the bed. Everywhere he looked was an unrelenting blackness, and Uric began to wonder where that pudding from dinner had gotten to. Listening carefully, Uric identified where each bed was by its occupants breathing, or snoring in the case of the one on his right. Using his memory of the room before the lamps had been snuffed, Uric made his careful way across the floor and to the bathroom.
He entered and closed the door, before turning the knob that magically lit the lamps. He pushed himself up on the edge of the sink and sat with the back of his head against the mirror, his knees pulled up to his chest. Other than the faucet digging into his back, it was rather comfortable. Now, he just had to wait for everyone to wake up.
The crack in the wall was extremely interesting. What if there were tiny, little people who lived in that crack, the Great Canyon? He could almost see the lights of their windows flickering on and off when he squinted. Uric quickly became absorbed in this new world.
The door opened, and in stepped one of his dorm mates. He had dark brown hair that was sticking out in all directions and looked around the room with bleary eyes. Had Uric been paying attention, he would have identified the boy as Alpolonius Nester, or Al to his friends. Uric was instead engrossed in watching one miniscule daredevil's attempt to fly across the Great Canyon on his broom. It was too bad about that crosswind.
Al did not seem to register the boy crouched on the sink and starring with great intensity at a miniscule crack in the wall. He walked by Uric, who sunk in the world of the Great Canyon, attributed the momentary dimming of the light to a solar eclipse. He went to the urinal and relieved himself, still more than half asleep. Fumbling with his eyes nearly closed, he reached for the handle on the sink. He got Uric's knee instead.
Abruptly, their respective realities converged, leaving Uric and Al in a rather awkward position. Uric looked down at Al's hand on his knee and said the only thing he could think of.
"Would you like my knee?" Alpolonius stared at him, sure that he would awaken in a moment. A moment passed. Uric waited politely for Al's answer, his hazel eyes shinning golden in the lamplight. Al slowly realized that this was not a dream he would be waking up from, and began to get angry.
"Are you insane?" he yelled, heedless of the boys in the other room. "Playing a prank at three in the morning?" He looked down, realized his hand was still on Uric's knee and jerked it away. "And such a stupid prank too. You could at least have rigged a dung bomb or something." He tried to stifle a yawn. It was too early to be angry and embarrassed.
Uric for his part, looked down at the red-faced boy and was at a loss. People had a tendency to accuse him of the weirdest things, and this was one of those times. He opened his mouth to say something, but Al was through with waiting.
"Get off the sink you jerk!" Al pushed at him angrily, knocking him off the sink and bruising Uric's arm in the process. Uric frowned at the boy from his position on the floor and rubbed his arm. Al finished washing his hands and walked out of the room, turning off the light as he went. He didn't even glance at Uric.
Uric stood up, bumping his head on the sink in the process. Something touched his foot, and he bit down on his tongue to keep from yelling, thoughts of pudding rushing through his head. With an agility born of fear, Uric leapt across the room, found the light knob, and frantically twisted it on. There was a fallen washcloth on the floor. Uric sighed.
He turned off the light and slowly opened the bathroom door. It was still very dark. He made his way over to his bed, but did not get back in. Careful searching at the foot of the bed, revealed a neatly folded robe on top of his trunk. Uric pulled it on and made his way up the ladder and into the common room.
In the dim lights of the room, he could see the Hufflepuff insignia that had been sown into the left side of his robes by some industrious house elf. He grinned at the little badger. Suddenly, something hissed at him. Uric stumbled backwards and nearly fell back down the ladder, as a cloud of pink smoke enveloped the space where he had been standing.
Perched on the couch nearest him was a decidedly belligerent looking pink and white flower. Its stamen was gyrating rapidly and it appeared to be hissing at him. Pink smoke leaked from the tip of the stamen, giving the flower the appearance of a perpetual smoker. Uric gave it a hurt look then jumped when he felt something curl around his foot. A glance down revealed a vine winding its slow way around his ankle. He shook it off and examined the rest of the room. Everywhere he looked, plants were moving, making the common room resemble a giant snake pit.
It made Uric dizzy.
He brushed by the still crazed pink flower, holding his breath and trying to avoid the writhing vines on the floor. He worked his way quickly to the portal and pushed his way out. The portal shut slowly behind him, revealing a very sleepy Maiden. Uric felt bad about waking her up, but she smiled sleepily at him, put her head back down on the unicorn and went back to sleep.
Uric turned to his right and headed down a dimly lit corridor. He was used to big castles. He had grown up in one after all, but Hogwarts was, well, more magical than anything he was used to. The stairs seemed to be playing leapfrog with each other, making them nearly impossible to climb, and corridors seemed to be switching places and orientation on a regular basis. One particularly vicious carpet nearly gnawed Uric's socks off before he got away.
He managed to get totally lost in about ten minutes. This wasn't exactly hard in a castle that had more secret corridors than it had students, but it was a special achievement for an eleven-year old boy who had memorized the layout of his own castle at the age of five.
Hogwarts was enough to befuddle the most perfect sense of direction, so Uric didn't really mind being lost. All he had to do was wander around for a couple of hours until everyone woke up. Eventually he would run into someone who knew where to go.
Besides, Hogwarts at four am was one of the most interesting places Uric had ever seen. He watched, nonplussed, as two suits of armour waltzed by while a violin playing itself, followed behind. He wished he had Simon with him. The bird-lizard loved music, and enjoyed singing along, so long as he thought no one was looking. Uric of course didn't count. Simon thought his master was a bird, and half the time Uric agreed with him.
The violin disappeared around a corner, and a gust of wind blew down the corridor, snuffing the lights. A ghost horse with a knight in glowing armour rode by. The knight looked rather angry, but that might have been the spear through its head. Uric pressed himself against the wall, unwilling to suffer the chill that came every time a ghost passed through the living. The knight passed and the lamps came back on.
Uric realized that although his back was up against one of the many tapestries that lined Hogwarts walls, the tapestry was not lining a wall. He pushed the fabric to one side and found himself gazing into a green-lit corridor. Uric looked back into the hallway, saw he was alone except for the statue of Flummoxed Francis, and ducked into the corridor.
He walked slowly down the passage, the green light making his shadow dance against the floor before him. Uric thought it was one of the neatest places he had found so far, and his shadow agreed. A shaft of white light slanted down the passageway, splitting his shadow in half. Uric turned to look, and saw the strangest thing.
The tapestry was twisted back and around the arm of a strange witch. She was wearing grey robes and had unruly brown hair. Her face was screwed up with anger as she tugged on some sort of silvery blanket that was twisted around the tapestry. Uric thought he heard her curse.
"Excuse me?" Uric said, "Would you like any help?" The woman looked at him, then back at her predicament. Uric definitely heard her curse this time. She frantically pulled out her wand, pointed it at the tapestry and muttered a spell. With a large ripping sound, the tapestry came loose and the woman ran off, dragging the tapestry behind her. Uric considered following her but was distracted by his shadow doing a passing imitation of a flamenco dancer.
"Boy!" said a voice out of nowhere. Uric tore his eyes away from his shadow. There was a man on the steps. His wispy, white hair glowed green in the light and he held himself with the slight stoop of the extremely old. He wore an old, white nightgown and slippers. He had a magical lamp in his hand. It was the lamp that had been causing Uric's shadow to dance. Uric found him self strangely disappointed.
"Yes sir?"
"Who was that woman, boy?" the old man asked. Uric look at him blankly.
"A woman, sir." The old man looked annoyed.
"Yes. I noticed that," he said. He shook his head. "I don't know why I expected you to know anyway." He seemed to see Uric for the first time. "You're a first year aren't you? What are you doing up and about at this time of the morning?" Uric looked at his shadow then back at the old man.
"Exploring, sir. I'm sorry to wake you," said Uric politely. The old man frowned at him.
"Let me give you some advice, boy. This corridor has an alarm on it because it leads to the Headmistress' office. You don't want to go there. My wife will eat you for breakfast."
"Your wife?" Uric was curious.
"Yes. I'm Mr. Kurze. I take care of the school, while my wife runs it. It's a good system." He seemed to be trying to reassure himself.
"But you're scared of her," said Uric, who technically wasn't afraid of anything other than a light fruit pudding. Mr. Kurze smiled wanly.
"And there's a good reason for that, boy. You mark my words, if you keep wandering around at night like this, you'll learn exactly what I'm talking about. Now," He clapped one of his hands against his thigh. "What house are you in?"
"Hufflepuff."
"Well, two points from Hufflepuff. Now get back to your common room, and don't go wandering through green-lit corridors."
"But…" protested Uric.
"Don't but me, boy. Now get before I take off more points," said Mr. Kurze in a gruff tone. Uric shrugged and walked back out into the now exposed hallway. For no particular reason, he decided to go left. As he had tried to tell Mr. Kurze, he was still lost.
*****
Uric jumped on the banister and slid down feet first. It bucked under him, but he held on until he reached the end. He flew off and went sliding across the polished floor. Uric came to an abrupt stop against someone's feet. He looked up.
"Hi Mena. What are you doing up at five in the morning?" he asked. Her blond hair hung limp and uncombed around her shoulders, and her robe was crooked.
"It's six now, Uric, and Al said you left the dorm at 3am and he hadn't seen you since. We were worried you would be caught, and get points taken away."
"Oh, that already happened," said Uric cheerfully. He stood up and carefully brushed away the dust on his robes.
"What? You tell me what happened Uric or I'll…I'll punch you." She held up a fist. Uric regarded her curiously. Were all muggles this violent?
"I met Mr. Kurze, and he took away some points, and told me to go back to the common room. Only I was lost, and I couldn't find the common room, though I did find this really neat room full of biting teacups…" Mena placed her hand over his mouth. She put her face next to his, and Uric froze.
"How many points, Uric?" Her voice was very low.
"Two," he said. She released him.
"Two! You go out wandering at three in the morning, and Mr. Kurze only takes away two points. You didn't even get a detention?" she demanded.
"No. Right, Mr. Kurze?" he asked. Mena froze, and turned slowly around. Sure enough, Mr. Kurze stood in the doorway behind them. This time he was fully dressed. They could see a thick sweater beneath his plain black robes.
Uric waved.
Mr. Kurze shook his head. "You're insane, boy. You know that right?" Uric nodded his head politely, though he knew nothing of the sort. Mr. Kurze looked between the two students and came to a decision.
"The next time I see you two this morning, you had better be eating breakfast," he warned. Then he walked out the door. They were left alone on the landing. Uric turned to Mena.
"Want to see the biting teacup room?" he asked eagerly. Mena punched him.
*****
Mena's rather violent isn't she?
Thank you to all my reviewers (and my new one, Anne). It's great to see what you all think. Writing has been a good escape for the past couple of days, if you know what I mean.
And now for the specifics:
PEZ: I'm glad you liked the food fighting. Uric doesn't seem to have a very long attention span does he? As for the rain, there are three possible interpretations for that part of the chapter. One: Uric looked up, saw it was raining and poured chocolate on his castle. Mena just didn't notice the rain until they were leaving. Two: Uric knew it was going to rain and poured the chocolate on to be realistic. Three: Uric wanted it to rain, poured the chocolate on and therefore made it rain over Hogwarts. Don't count of me to explain which of them it is, anytime soon:)
Em: I agree with you about the older Uric. Unfortunately, I started that fic before this one; with the idea Uric was insane. Oh well. Maybe I should just claim the older Uric is from an AU…Thank you for reading the other story anyway.
Spitgurl: Methinks I doth see a Rockapella fan…Seriously, I like them too. My favorite song is Zombie Jamboree and I would recommend them to anyone who asks:)
Next Chapter: The classes. I promise.