Not Like the Others
Harry and Lyra returned to their common room, while Whispers had elected to stay in Newt's room with Dougal. He had been showing signs that he missed his family, so having another Hidden nearby was somewhat of a comfort to him.
The other first-years were now a bit insistent on asking Lyra more questions about herself. With support from Harry, she told them about how much she wanted to go flying. She had seen Professor McGonagall on a broom and how incredible it looked. Just describing it made her well up with happiness.
Robert saw this and informed her that they would have their first flying lesson next week, then they would have more once a week after. First time flyers could try out for the quidditch teams, but it wasn't recommended. After the winter break, first-years could sign up for the flying clubs. Robert added that quidditch wasn't something she needed to worry about because he didn't think that Scamander house would even have a team for the first year or two.
Lyra also told the other students about how much she liked magical ingredients and showed them some of the feathers she collected and how she could activate the different properties with her staff. There were the hoohoo feathers that would generate fire, the orange and black feathers of the island owls that would make zones of silence, and the post-owl feathers that could find things she needed. Robert seemed to be making furious notes of what she was talking about as he hadn't heard of potion ingredients being used without a potion.
The conversations about Lyra's interests continued into the evening and Robert started to get a bit annoyed that his replacement hadn't shown up yet, even if he was learning quite a bit of new information. Though as soon as Lyra started getting into her favorite fruits and bugs to eat, his attention started to focus solely on when the door would open and he could head back.
Around 10 p.m., the Hufflepuff prefect entered and gave a quick apology to Robert as he was running out.
"My name is Gabriel Truman. I will be showing you around the castle grounds and greenhouses tomorrow. While the inside of the castle might have many interesting things to explore, the outside is a great place to spend time just enjoying the fresh air and sunlight. Though before we go to sleep tonight, I have a special treat for all of you. Everyone else is in their common rooms for curfew, so we will be heading up to the astronomy tower to have a quick look at the stars. Gather up some warm clothes and we'll be off!"
The children busied themselves getting dressed up warmly, some of them had already been in their pajamas for bed. "Before we leave, I am going to try to teach all of you your first spell, you will learn this on the first day of charms anyways, so you'll be a bit ahead."
Harry had tried playing with his wand but had only gotten colored sparks. Alastor had warned both him and Lyra not to try anything without a teacher because the results could be painful. Harry had given warnings to others in the past, so he made sure to listen when others gave them as well.
"First, I'd like everyone to just wave their wands in the air and make sparks. Think of the first time you used your wand and the feeling you got when it connected to you and just wave it around."
All of the children present showered the room and each other with sparks. Some of them felt like pinpricks when they hit the skin, others felt warm or tickled.
"Now that you all have that feeling of producing sparks, we are going to perform the wand-lighting charm. The motion for it will be a circle starting and ending outside the loop, like this."
Gabriel drew in the air a silver-colored line that looked like the loop on a rollercoaster. "The direction doesn't matter for this charm, it can start in any direction." He drew more in the air with the shape in many directions. "Now you all try it, I'll walk around and correct you as you go."
It wasn't a very difficult motion, and they all had it perfect in less than five minutes.
"To turn off the light, the motion looks like a wave." He demonstrated the motion in the air again. "Again, it doesn't matter what direction the motion is in."
They practiced this for a little longer as this movement was slightly more difficult.
"Before I do the incantations, I want to tell you that a lot of magic will be shaped by your intent. When I say this I mean that while a spell might naturally appear a certain way, if you intend for it to be a little different, your will might be strong enough to change the basics of the spell. While the wand motions and incantations for a spell are needed when you learn the spell, eventually your intent and your feel for the magic will be all that is needed. More experienced spell casters will be able to perform what is called point-casting and non-verbal spells. This means they can do away with the motions or the incantations and just shape a spell with their intent."
Gabriel simply pointed his wand in front of him and a white light appeared at the tip. "Since this is the most basic spell we all learn, it tends to be the easiest to perform both point and non-verbal casting. As far as continuing to change the spell, how you see it now is the most basic form. As your magic and willpower get stronger, you'll be able to do other things with the spell itself."
Gabriel waved the ball of light on his wand and it turned into a spotlight, then into a narrow beam of light that he used to point to things on the ceiling, then he changed it to different colors before extinguishing it.
"The incantation for the light spell is Lumos, Lu-mos, and the extinguishing spell is Nox. Everyone, try the wand movement with the incantation. The first part of the loop with Lu, the second part with Mos."
After about ten minutes, everyone had a light on the tip of their wands with varying degrees of brightness, though Harry's was the brightest by far. "Now for the extinguishing charm, perform the full wand movement before saying the incantation at the very last bit."
This was much easier and even the students that said the incantation too early managed to at least dim their light before putting it out completely. From there, they all relit their wands and headed out to the dark castle.
At night time, nearly all the hallway lights were out and most of the people in the portraits and paintings on the walls were sleeping soundly. The lights on their wands caused shadows to jump everywhere. While most of the students were startled at the slightest noises but Harry and Lyra were enjoying it. It reminded both of them of walking through the island at night with a full moon casting shadows through the canopies of the trees. They looked at each other quite a few times knowing that this was exactly what the other one was thinking.
The staircases luckily didn't move at night and provided them a direct path upwards. At the top of the fifth-floor staircase, Gabriel stopped everyone. Somewhere down a hallway, they heard a gleefully creepy laugh and all the students froze and clustered together.
Gabriel whispered to the children, "Don't worry, it is just Peeves, he's annoying, but you will need to learn to deal with him."
The laughing got closer and they heard a sing-song voice, "Students out of bed, students out of bed! And first-years too, so naughty. Sooo naughty."
Gabriel stepped forward and held up a brass plate, "Peeves, we have a pass for curfew, what can I offer you for safe passage tonight?"
A semi-transparent man in a three-piece suit floated up to them. Each piece of the suit was from a different outfit with multiple colors and a jester's cap jingled on his head. His face looked like it was drawn by a drunken carnival artist. He circled the group, staring at all of them with a smile that seemed too big for his face, before returning to Gabriel.
"Maybe I just want to say hello to the firsties? What do I want? That's all I want, I want them to get to know Peeves."
"Say your hellos and be on your way then."
Peeves circled down to the students again and said hello over and over again to the cowering first-years before getting to Colin who was staring with amazement. "You remind me of the Cheshire Cat! He also has a big smile like yours."
"How vulgar this child is, though right you are, my smile is most cheshire. It comes from enjoying the antics of all the children that continue to inhabit this castle. The more children that come through here, the bigger my smile becomes, and the more fun I get to share with all of you!"
Colin pulled out his camera and took a picture of Peeves, the flash blinding him.
"My eyes!" Peeves screamed as he recoiled from the flash on the camera, as though he were struck by a heavy blow. He bounced off the walls as he fell down the main staircase, disappearing below and crying out from pain all the way down.
Gabriel looked at Colin with a sense of pride, but told him, "Congratulations young man, you just made an enemy for life. I'll tell everyone more tomorrow about Peeves. He probably won't bother us for the rest of the night though."
Colin looked terrified at the thought of making an enemy, absentmindedly winding up his disposable camera for the next shot. They continued walking up the stairs to the top and went into a small room with red lights on the walls and a ladder in the corner.
"Lights off everyone," Gabriel instructed. Calls of 'Nox!' were heard from the students. "This is the entrance to the astronomy tower. The light here is red because it allows your eyes to adjust to the darkness before you go outside. Your astronomy class will teach you how to turn your lumos spell red. Climb the ladder one by one and we will go up top."
They climbed up the long ladder slowly with Harry going last to make sure everyone got up safely. When he reached the top, he realized they were in the tall tower in the center of the castle with the four spires on the corner of the platform. There were small red lights along the edge of the platform with no railing to keep them from falling. However, above them were the stars. In the darkness above the tops of the castle, they could see in every direction. He and Lyra found her constellation very quickly.
They were all staring at the stars for a few minutes before Gabriel spoke up again. "You may have noticed that it is probably very easy to fall here. You don't need to worry about that." He walked to the edge and leaned like he was going to fall, eliciting frightful noises from the students. Instead, a shimmering barrier appeared as he leaned over the edge, stretching and putting him back firmly onto the platform. "As you can see, there are safeguards but it still isn't advisable to test them repeatedly. The tower here is used for classes only, if you want a good place to see the stars, there are numerous towers and balconies all over the school." He lit up his wand and turned it into a narrow spotlight pointing out some towers on the lower floors. "Also with permission, you may watch the stars from the grounds outside. We're going to head to bed now."
They climbed back down the ladder and ignited their wands to light the way back to their common room. Fortunately, they did not meet up again with Peeves.
Breakfast in the morning had teachers missing at the head table, so students were a lot noisier, assuming there wouldn't be an announcement. Most students were talking to each other with rumors and confirmations on who was going to ask to be resorted. A couple of students tried to ask Lyra questions, but despite Harry encouraging her, she didn't want to answer anything.
At the end of breakfast, Gemma, Robert, and a Gryffindor prefect passed papers to Gabriel. He said to Lyra, "These are the questions that the other houses wanted to know about you, we can go over them in private later tonight."
Lyra felt a bit uncomfortable about it but was relieved she didn't need to answer anything in public.
When breakfast ended, all the first-years met at the doors to the front courtyard. Other than the astronomy tower the previous night, they hadn't been outside in the last few days, and luckily it was a sunny day today. Out the main doors were a small courtyard with battlements surrounding it and an open gateway at the end. The path from the door to the gateway was paved in stone bricks with grass lining the sides. A few students had already set up spots to sit in the sun around the grass and a few were up on the battlements themselves. Outside the courtyard opened up onto the main grounds.
There was a dirt trail that stretched down the hill for close to a mile until it reached a large stone wall with a gate. Beyond that, they could see a small village with the occasional house giving off a bit of smoke from a fire inside. Far to the left of the path, they could see a large stadium with colored flags flying from the tops of many towers along the rim. Far to the right, they could see the edge of the lake that wrapped around the backside of the castle. Past the lake in the distance to the right of the path was a dense forest that stretched as far as they could see in that direction. A lone cottage with smoke coming out of the chimney sat next to several small fields of some kind. Just to the right of the path, next to where the forest began was an immensely huge willow tree that seemed to be swaying back and forth independent of the wind's strength or direction.
"We will start by heading over to the lake," Gabriel said. The group marched along the castle walls until they reached a stone staircase that led down the cliff face towards the cave where the boats docked on the first night. At one point there was a small landing with some standing stones with holes at the tops, arranged in a circle. "They don't tell us much about the stones here, but groupings like this have been used in the past for measuring astrological events and the times of the year that are important to whoever set them up. The holes at the top of the stones may have allowed light to pass through them at specific dates used to focus the energy from the sun, moon, or stars for certain magical rituals or ceremonies. I am unaware what this one may have been used for, just that it predates the castle itself."
They continued down the stairs until they reached the lake. There was a small cove further into the lake under the cliff up to the castle, but it couldn't be reached by foot, there was a small trail along the lake that the group started to follow.
"A lot of students will often ask if swimming is allowed in the lake. While there is no rule against it, it is not recommended. Many magical creatures below the surface often do not appreciate students encroaching on their territory and will attack unprovoked. So, I'm telling you, do not swim in the lake. It's also really cold." For emphasis, he waved his wand and splashed all of the students who cried out at the freezing temperature of the water.
Harry looked at Lyra, "I miss the hot springs, I wish we had one of those here."
She nodded and pulled out her staff to cast a warming charm on the whole group. This amazed everyone, especially because they were all glowing orange for the next thirty minutes as they walked along the lakeside. Gabriel told them about all the creatures that live in the lake; the giant squid which seemed to be immortal, grindylows, selkies, and the merpeople.
When they arrived at the edge of the forest, they stopped and Gabriel became more serious. "This is the Forbidden Forest. Dumbledore may have said it is now the 'Permissible Forest' but it is still extremely dangerous. While the edges of the forest may contain creatures that are less likely to harm you, that doesn't make them harmless. The tribe of Centaurs keeps everything in line but they do not like wizards. Do not insult them, do not look down on them, the only proper way to speak to them is with praise and reverence, even if you do not truly mean it. Do not, under any circumstances, ask them for a ride. There are small creatures like bowtruckles, and larger creatures like hippogriffs, thestrals, and unicorns."
Everyone gasped when they heard about the unicorns. Harry already knew about them, but just hearing again was sufficient enough to get him interested all over again.
"One more time, just for emphasis," Gabriel was very serious. "Do not go into the Forbidden Forest without a teacher."
The children's enthusiasm was deflated… a little.
Following the edge of the forest, they reached a cottage. Gabriel knocked on the door, and Hagrid answered.
"Hello there!" the large man greeted them. "It's Truman, right? Bringing the first-years around?"
Gabriel nodded, "And giving them a warning about the forest, anything you would like to add?"
The large man smiled, "After last year, I can't send you in alone for detention anymore. I still say most of the creatures in there are just misunderstood but Dumbledore says they're dangerous, so we've got to follow what he says, great man, Dumbledore is. But I'll set up some feeding times for the thestrals if anyone wants to see them."
Gabriel just put a hand over his face and groaned. All the warnings he had just given seemed to have been stripped away in a moment by the extra-large groundskeeper's dismissal of the danger.
"What about the unicorns?" the girl named Meli asked hopefully.
"Those are very popular, I'll ask the headmaster if I can lead some small groups into the forest for those too."
There were cheers from the children as Gabriel just shook his head. "At least that might keep them from going by themselves," he said quietly to himself.
On the way to the main path and the gate, there was a large willow tree swaying in the almost nonexistent wind.
Gabriel stopped them before they got close. "Now this is not a misunderstood creature. Going near this tree will get you seriously hurt."
Harry and Lyra immediately took many steps back. They knew from experience how deadly some trees could be.
"Harry and Lyra have the right idea, three points to Scamander for your wise precaution. Everyone back up to them and watch, just remember that this is going to be a conjured animal and it's not real."
The students backed up and sat down with Harry and Lyra. Gabriel muttered an incantation and conjured a rabbit. A few of the children cooed and awed over the bunny. Realizing it would be a bad idea, Gabriel vanished the rabbit and conjured a very ugly chicken. No one reacted with any endearing noises this time and he cast a yellow spell at it, causing it to squawk and run toward the tree. As it got close, the tree leaned away from the chicken and then sprung back as a huge ball of branches and leaves crashed down on the chicken like a giant fist. The ground shook as the chicken was crushed.
Everyone was silent, Lyra was holding tight to Harry with a fearful look in her eyes.
"That is the Whomping Willow. That is why people don't go anywhere near it, I trust that is also enough of a demonstration for you to not think of it as a mere 'misunderstood creature.'" Gabriel said in an all-too-serious voice.
Lyra snapped out of her fear and jumped to her feet, with small orange sparks flying out of her hair. "Why is that at a school? With children? Why is there no fence around it? Not even a mark on the ground so people know not to get near?"
The other children were nodding at what she said. Gabriel just looked confused. "Why would you need a fence if we all know what it is? We just don't go near it. Professor Sprout told me that it was an endangered species and it was transplanted here around twenty years ago so it wouldn't be cut down."
Harry leaned down to Lyra, "We'll come out here later and put markings down. I won't get hurt, no one else will get hurt either."
Lyra was still angry and mumbled, "I'm still going to burn that other one down as soon as I can."
The group looped back around and passed by the stadium. "That is the quidditch stadium. The Gryffindors will show you it tomorrow. We will show you the greenhouses after lunch. Unfortunately, Lyra and Harry will need to go with Mr. Scamander to work on house business. So before we head to the great hall, I just want to give you information about the houses from a Hufflepuff perspective."
The group all sat down with Gabriel to listen to him.
"The four original founders had their own ideas of who should attend Hogwarts. Godric Gryffindor thought bravery should be the qualification to learn magic, Rowena Ravenclaw wanted the students of the school to be scholars and seekers of new information, and Salazar Slytherin wanted students who were of the 'proper' lineage. In the end, the houses were established to allow for all the students from any walks of life and any mindset to attend Hogwarts."
As soon as the first student looked up to ask a question, he continued.
"You noticed of course that I left out Helga Hufflepuff. She didn't have any qualifications for students to attend. She thought anyone should be able to attend if they wanted to. This leads some people to think of Hufflepuff as 'the leftovers.' This is as far from the truth as possible. We believe that Hufflepuff is the best because we have all the qualities of the other houses. We have cunning, ambition, bravery, chivalry, intelligence, and curiosity. All the ideals of the other houses claim as their own are part of Hufflepuff because we take everyone. In Hufflepuff, you can find a student that is as courageous as the bravest Gryffindor, cunning as the slyest Slytherin, or as clever as the smartest Ravenclaw. We are all the houses at Hogwarts and we are our own. Newt Scamander was a loyal 'Puff, and now that he is the founder of his own house, we are certain that the ideals of Helga Hufflepuff will be part of his new house as well."
He was silent for a minute while all of that sunk in.
"Let's go get something to eat now."
After lunch, Harry and Lyra met back up at Newt's office. As they walked in, Whispers and Dougal were engaged in a staring contest. Dougal was wearing a hat made out of woven straw with an extra-wide brim. Newt and Tina were watching them from their desk by the board.
"They've been doing this all morning," Newt remarked. "It seems to be some kind of game but in the last hour, near the end of their matches, Dougal will reach out and slap Whispers on the head or arm."
Lyra's eyebrows went up, "What? He's actually hitting him?"
"Yes, why? Do you know what's going on?" said Tina.
Harry nodded, "It took us a while to figure it out but it's essentially a dominance ritual. It keeps them from actually fighting to see who is the strongest. They're using their future sense to see who will last the longest and who would win in a fight. Sometimes the younger ones do it just to establish a ranking or as a game but we've never seen one of them actually hit another." Harry turned back to the current staring contest going on, "How long have they been going for?"
Newt pulled out a stopwatch, "Just over seven minutes, and in about another thirty seconds, Dougal will probably poke or slap Whispers."
They waited and watched, as the two demiguises stood frozen, staring at each other with bright blue eyes. After thirty seconds, without moving any other part of his body, Dougal reached up with one hand and slapped Whispers on the shoulder, breaking him out of his concentration.
"That was even weirder than I thought," said Lyra. "Dougal moved while he was zoned out. Whenever we've seen them use the future sense, they don't move a muscle until they are done and their eyes go back to normal."
"That's what we thought too but you both have seen it happen with dozens of others, so we weren't sure if it was a Dougal thing or what."
Whispers shook off the staring contest and ran over to Harry and Lyra and pointed to Dougal and made his hands like binoculars. He did that twice more. He had created a sign for Dougal. Then he signed to them,
[Dougal, Strong], [Dougal, More Strong, Charlie]
Both of their eyes widened at that statement. Lyra translated to Newt and Tina, "Whispers says that Dougal is stronger than the leader of the Hidden Village, Charlie. When he took over from the last leader, Chief, they had a staring contest that lasted nearly twenty minutes, though we didn't have a watch to time it, so it's just a guess."
Tina smiled, "Well then we will definitely need to visit with Dougal then."
Harry smiled too, "So what are we doing today?"
"I figured we would try to work on the house crest and colors, and put together ideas for the common room."
Lyra nodded, "Arthur, in our class, said we should put Whispers on the crest."
"That sounds like a perfect idea, we just need colors then," Newt added. "I was thinking either Purple and white or green and orange. Purple has sometimes been used at Hogwarts for visiting professors or guests, so it would be available to use." He pulled out a purple and white striped tie. "However, I also liked the colors of the snakeskin on Harry's staff and thought it would do well too. Though to avoid disputes with Slytherin, we would need to make orange the primary color and make the green lighter than on your staff."
Harry pulled his staff out of his pouch to look at it. He had always loved the colors on the usurper's skin, but this was not his choice to make. He held out his staff in his hands to Lyra, "It needs to be your decision."
She looked at the staff and the tie on the table, "Can I decide later?"
Tina reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to tense up for a moment, "Of course, dear. And if you think of something different, let us know. Do you have any idea what you would like for your common room?"
"Could it be outside? A student in the library said that there are mountains and beaches at the ends of the library, could we have a room like the jungle from the island?"
"I'm not sure," said Newt. "I certainly haven't heard of something like that before. The other houses don't have anything like that for sure."
"But we aren't any of the other houses," Harry said. Newt put on a face of strong concentration.
"There is a possibility, I can check on it." Newt cast a patronus charm, it was small and spidery but Harry and Lyra couldn't tell the form inside the glow of the light. "Please go to Professor McGonagall and ask her to come to the office here," the creature disappeared.
McGonagall arrived a few minutes later, "How can I help you, Mr. Scamander?"
"We are trying to figure out sites for our common room and I was wondering if the indoor astronomy room was in use at all?"
McGonagall looked confused, "I'm not sure what you mean. When there's a cloudy sky, the class either studies in a classroom or uses the ceiling in the great hall. We can clear up the clouds in there so the stars can be seen."
"When I was a student here, there was a classroom near the courtyard entrance that contained a small forest and would always have a clear sky overhead. We would use that room on nights when we couldn't see the stars. Can I show you where it was?"
McGonagall nodded and the group, with Dougal and Whispers trailing behind, walked down to the exit to the courtyard. A few students they passed along the way gasped at the demiguises running through the hallway. When they arrived at the courtyard door, they stopped and turned around.
"Now it's been a little over eighty years, so it will take a minute for me to remember." Newt started walking in from the door until he passed a tapestry with a dirt road leading into a forest on it. Turning to the woven decoration, he scratched his chin. "I don't remember how to get in."
McGonagall looked at the tapestry, pulled on a string next to it, cast a series of charms on it, and tried looking behind it, none of these produced an entrance. With a big sigh, she summoned her patronus and said to the glowing cat, "Fred, George, report immediately to the courtyard entrance hall." The spectral feline dashed upwards into the castle.
A few minutes later, the redheaded twins skidded to a halt in front of them.
"Whatever it was," the first one started.
"We didn't do it!" the second one finished.
Ignoring the thought that they probably did do something, she asked, "I'm going to allow you the opportunity to cut your weekend detention in half. Just one day instead of two. Do the two of you know how to access the room on the other side of this tapestry?"
The twins turned to each other, they raised and wiggled their eyebrows at each other, then engaged in a whispered conversation. Finally, they turned back to the professor.
"We can attempt it," said Laurel.
"But we get to choose the day," said Hardy.
"Only if you're successful," said McGonagall.
"Done," they both said, sticking out their hands, crossing each other. Reluctantly, McGonagall crossed her own hands to shake both of theirs, and then they ran off.
Two minutes later, they ran back, skidding to a halt in front of the tapestry. Turning to everyone like they were in a show, and with a few other students gathering around, they began to speak.
"Greetings, teachers, students, founders, princesses, and the Boy-Who-Lived! I am the fabulous Gred Weasley!"
"And by his side as always, the smarter, prettier, and better dressed partner-in-crime,"
"Not that you can prove anything," interrupted Gred.
"Or even implicate us, I am Forge Weasley!"
Turning to the tapestry, Gred placed his hand on the middle of it and spoke out "Wanderlust!"
The tapestry rolled up to reveal a wooden door with vines growing on it that hadn't been there when McGonagall had checked before.
Forge turned to McGonagall, "We would like to serve our detention on Sunday. Thank you very much!"
The two ran off to applause from the students watching their performance.
Newt was smiling and laughing. "I can't put into words how much I've missed this school." He turned and opened the door to the room and walked inside with everyone following after.
After a brief dark tunnel, the room opened up into a large forest clearing. There was a circle of fallen logs with a campfire in the center. Pine trees lined the sides of the room with a blue sky overhead. Lyra and Harry moved around to explore the room. It turned out to be quite large, around half the size of a football field. Harry and Lyra quickly climbed up two pine trees about forty feet and still had a little room left before the top. They dug in the ground to see that the trees also had roots down into the floor of the room.
"This is great!" said Lyra, "Could we put any trees in here?"
"Could we make this the same as the island we live on?" asked Harry.
Newt scratched his head and looked back at McGonagall who said, "There were a lot of trees there that were native to the area, we'd probably need samples of everything we want to grow there, and a team of specialized herbologists to grow what we need in such a short time."
"We've got the samples!" Harry cried out. "We took as much as we could when we left the island, it's back in the room now!"
"We have a team of herbologists back at our sanctuary, and we would need a druid to provide accelerated growth of anything we plant. We have a magical architect already on the way as we anticipated there would need to be work done on a common room, she should arrive later this evening," Tina smiled at her foresight.
"The only other thing you'll need to work on is a way to get into your common room. The tapestry and password are out as many students have seen it," said McGonagall.
Newt thought for a minute before turning to his wife and saying, "Forest maze?"
She responded, "Daintree Rainforest?"
"Perfect," said Newt. "Let's head back to the office."
The others didn't know what had just been discussed but still gathered up the two demiguises who had started to climb the trees and headed back to the office while McGonagall went back to hers.
When they arrived, Tina drew up a large area on the floor with Lyra while Newt and Harry went to get all their samples. On the floor, Tina sketched the common room, and Lyra showed her where all the trees would need to be planted as well as a place for the fire pit. She explained that fireplaces were nice, but a fire pit was better because people could sit around it, not just in front of it.
They would need to put dormitories along the outside of the room, and put fourteen rooms, two for each year. Around the outer walls of the room, they placed areas to sit in, as well as bookshelves. The ceiling would already be charmed to show the sun and clouds during the day and a clear sky of stars at night.
When Harry and Newt came back with the bags of samples from the island, Tina started to tell them about the entrance idea they were discussing, "The forest maze we were discussing was part of a secret path inside a rainforest in Australia. The path led to a clearing that looked like it used to be a nest of a very large bird that had died out long ago. Wizards had enchanted the forest so you had to take a very specific route to get there or you would just end up back where you started over and over."
She pulled out a piece of paper and drew a map of a path on it that split into three other paths: left, right, and straight. She then scribbled a series of about fifty runes around the outside of the paper and then recited a long incantation. The paper glowed and the runes vanished. She then placed the paper on the floor away from the map of the common room she had been transfiguring.
Tina placed an inkwell on the paper and pushed it forwards. "You can have three paths before you, and need to follow a specific route to get to the common room. For now, let's say the route is left, left, right, back, back." She pushed the ink well along that route and each time she made the correct movement, the paper moved one space closer to the common room until the last movement entered the room. "However, if you don't do it correctly, you just end up exiting the forest." She did the same movements again with the inkwell, but when she made a mistake, the paper moved back to the start.
"That's cool," Harry remarked.
Lyra nodded as well, "I like that."
Tina added, "We can keep the password on the tapestry out front as a distraction. Everyone will know where the entrance is and what the password is but if they just walk straight in, they'll end up back at the entrance."
Everyone agreed on this plan.
The group continued to work on the blueprint of the common room, adding in more tables, chairs, and bits of design too. Newt changed the firepit to be lower than the floor with seating all around it, reminding him of the Hufflepuff common room. Tina, having been thoroughly indoctrinated into British tea culture added a small kitchen with plenty of options for tea. Harry made sure there will be hammocks in the trees and a small grove of mango and banana trees.
The whole process was starting to make them feel more at home, yet more homesick at the same time, as they started wrapping up for dinner.
At dinner, many students asked them about the tapestry room by the courtyard, and they admitted that this would be where the Scamander common room would be. As long as they didn't talk about the forest maze, knowing where it was wouldn't matter.
As dinner ended, Hagrid came into the great hall with a young woman carrying a large briefcase. Newt and Tina rose from the staff table and went over to the entrance to meet her. After a minute of speaking, they waved over to Lyra and Harry.
"Lyra Black, Harry Potter, we would like to introduce you to Parti Flâneur. She does the structural developments for our properties. We have called on her to work building your common room."
She shook hands with both of them, "Let's take a look at the room and I can get started in the morning when the herbalists arrive."
Before they could head over, they were stopped by Dumbledore.
"Miss Flâneur, It is good to meet you, I have seen your work for Newt before, but we've never had the chance to meet."
The two shook hands and she told him a bit about her schooling at Beauxbatons as they walked to the room.
"Minerva told me you were using the old astronomy room, I had nearly forgotten about this place, it hasn't been used since around 1940, during The War. I would bet the castle has many forgotten rooms like this just waiting to be rediscovered." Dumbledore looked around at the walls of the castle, thinking about all the castle's secrets that he did know.
Newt approached the tapestry and laid a hand on it, saying "Wanderlust!"
It rolled up to reveal the door and allow them entry. Once they were inside, Tina conjured a table for them to place the blueprints on. Parti examined them and agreed on the placement of dormitories and the sinking of the firepit.
"Will there be someone from the castle who will be able to assist me in the construction?" she asked.
Dumbledore spoke to the air, "Tolly!"
An elf popped into the room. She looked around at the outdoor setting of the room and shook a little bit. "It be dirty here," she said with her fingers twitching like she wanted to do something about it.
"Tolly, would you or another elf be able to assist Miss Flâneur with the construction of this new common room?" asked Dumbledore.
"It be very dirty here, elves not wanting to work outside, we be house-elves. You be wanting an Urisk." Tolly started to push some of the dirt around with her magic absentmindedly.
"Understood, Tolly. There will be dormitories attached to this room which will need cleaning and laundry done in the future. Please bring some sweet cream, cheese, and milk chocolate bars from Honeydukes." Tolly popped away.
Tina raised her eyebrows, "An Urisk is something like a brownie?"
Newt nodded to his wife, "They perform the same tasks but they are not quite alike. They are much hardier creatures and can perform much bigger jobs. They also have a different appearance which oftentimes scares people, though they desire companionship as much as anyone else."
Tolly popped back with a plate of the requested foods and then popped away.
Dumbledore called out, "Astray!"
No popping sound occurred, but a small creature stepped out from behind one of the table legs. The head of the creature was just below the table, making it about twice as tall as a house elf. Its torso and arms were very much like a human, though below the waist, it had hair and legs like a goat. Its face was very slender with a tiny beard, large eyes like an elf, and two tiny horn stumps on its bald head. It looked around at the assembled group and then at the headmaster.
"Yes?" it asked simply.
"Astray, we are building a new room here in the castle, I would like for you to help with the construction and the maintenance."
Astray had turned away from the headmaster as he was speaking and broke off some of the cheese to eat it. He chewed it slowly and looked back at the headmaster. "This can be done, who will call me?"
Dumbledore motioned towards Parti. Astray walked over to her and laid a hand on her leg, then walked back towards the table, took a bar of chocolate, dipped it in the cream, and then walked behind the table leg, vanishing from sight.
"That was Astray, he is a Urisk. I would guess that no one has seen him at Hogwarts other than myself, Hagrid, and Mr. Filch. He mostly keeps to himself, but he makes sure all the paths are clear outside the castle and occasionally helps Hagrid with the grounds. If he will be doing the cleaning around this common room, you need to always have various dairy products out for him to take. These are not payments, they are gifts. Do not ever offer him anything, he will be offended, and might quit. He will take what he wants to take when he wants it. All the students in the house need to be informed of this, and it would be best to assign someone to make sure there is always something fresh left out for him."
Newt, Lyra, and Harry all nodded their heads. Newt had a few brownies on his property, but they were less formal in the rules than the urisk here.
With the common room details taken care of, Newt walked with them back to their common room. Harry was getting tired, this was a lot of work and they still had only learned one spell. The last few days felt like it had already been a whole year, and they still had two more days off before class started. Arriving at the first-years' common room, Gabriel and the others were still hanging out in the room. He greeted Newt with reverence and asked him to sign his copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, then sat down with him while they waited for the Gryffindor prefect to show up.
Around 9 p.m., a tall redhead boy showed up. Ginny cheered and ran to hug him.
He leaned down and gave her a quick hug but added, "Not now, monkey." Smiling, she went back to sit on the couch.
Gabriel greeted him too and handed him a stack of papers and they spoke quickly before he left with Newt who wanted to visit the Hufflepuff dorms.
"My name is Percy Weasley. I am one of the Gryffindor prefects for my year. Tomorrow, we're going to go to the quidditch pitch after breakfast and you're going to get to see a scrimmage put on by our team and their reserves." A few of the first years cheered at that news. "Everyone needs to get a good night's sleep. Lyra, would you please remain here."
Lyra held onto Harry's arm so he wouldn't leave with the other children. Percy gave them a look but said nothing. He held up the papers, "I would like to go over these questions with you. A lot of the students have questions that will help them decide if they want to try to join your new house. I would like to give them back to the other prefects by lunch tomorrow. I've read through the questions and some of them are pointless, so if there are any you don't want to answer, just say so and we'll skip it."
They went through the questions. There were a lot of questions about romance that she didn't understand, so they skipped them. There were some questions about Harry which she just answered that he was her brother, like Whispers. Someone asked about her relation to Arcturus Black, to which she replied that he was her uncle. There were a few questions about how she would respond to different situations, and what subjects she was interested in. Her responses were very non-confrontational, except when family was involved. She was interested in charms, herbology, and magical creatures.
One of the last questions was what her favorite colors were. She thought about it for a moment before turning away from Percy and pulling a mango out of her pouch. Speaking to Harry she said, "I want the house colors to be orange and green, like a mango. I like the Usurper and your staff but I like mangos more."
Harry smiled and hugged her. They turned back to Percy and told him her favorite colors, then Percy used his wand to cut up the mango, which they ate before going to sleep.
Author's Note: You can guess I'm kind of a fan of Hufflepuff. Though I've tested myself numerous times on different sites, and it's always Ravenclaw. I started liking Hufflepuff a lot more after reading FINDING HIMSELF by Minisinoo. Great piece of fanfiction.
The common room is Firenze's divination classroom from the books.