Chapter 4: Life at Hogwarts
When they all finished eating, Dumbledore stood. He waited several minutes for the chatter to die down. He then began to speak.
"Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you."
"First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."
Forbidden, why was the forest forbidden? It didn't make sense to Peter, but he decided to not question it as he was new to the wizarding world and had a lot to learn.
"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker," Professor Dumbledore continued, "to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."
"And finally," Dumbledore spoke, "I must tell you that this year, the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death".
Peter did a double take, had he heard that right? Most of the other students seemed unfazed by this information. He wasn't aware that his life might be in danger here, did the parents get this information beforehand? And if so, why were they okay with sending their children to a place where death was a very real possibility?
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" exclaimed Dumbledore.
A song? Nobody said there was going to be a song! Peter was worried, was he supposed to have rehearsed? Was there something in his letter about a song that he had missed? What key was it in?
Peter's questions were quickly answered when Dumbledore gave a flick of his wand and materialized lyrics from thin air before saying "Everyone pick their favourite tune, and off we go!"
The whole hall erupted into chaos. The whole point was supposed to be that everyone sang it a different way, but whenever Peter tried to sing, he would get distracted by another person, or get annoyed that someone else was singing in a different key. Worst of all, there were no instruments to provide a steady tune, so everyone in the hall was using a completely different pitch, tempo, rhythm, and dynamics than the next person. Peter was very lenient when it came to random chaos in most cases, but music was something that simply had to have order. (Whenever Peter looked back on his years at Hogwarts later in life. He would always remark that the song was the one thing he hated about the place.)
Eventually, everyone stopped singing, albeit at drastically different times. Dumbledore gave another flick of his wand and the lyrics disappeared.
"Ah music," said the Headmaster, emotionally, "a magic beyond all we do here!"
Peter forced back a scowl as he tried to think of something else.
"And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The first-year Hufflepuffs followed Gabriel Truman, the house prefect over to a door, left hand side of a magnificent marble staircase. They entered into a brightly lit corridor, with paintings of food on either side. They stopped at a large stack of at least a dozen barrels.
Gabriel turned to address the crowd. "Now, this is the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. In order to enter, you must find the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row. Once you've found it, take your wand and tap on the barrel to the rhythm of "Helga Hufflepuff".
He demonstrated this and the lid of the barrel swung open into a room. "It's very important that you get the right barrel and the right rhythm."
Peter entered the common room and his first impression was that it resembled something of a Hobbit hole. It was very round, with a low ceiling, and all of the windows and doors were circular. Dotted across the room were several strange and exotic-looking plants, the likes of which Peter had never seen before. Much of the furniture was made of copper, or at least had a copper finish, while the rest was made of wood. It looked to be very cozy, and Peter felt right at home.
Peter was disappointed when he learned that boys and girls slept separately because it meant that he could not spend some more time with Sarah, but he found the rule understandable and bid her goodnight as he entered the boy's dormitory to get some sleep.
He shared his dormitory with 4 other boys his age; Justin Finch-Fletchley, Wayne Hopkins, Ernie Macmillan, and Zacharias Smith. (AN: Please don't get mad if this combination isn't completely canon, I did my best research, and they were the only 4 Hufflepuff boys in that year that came to my mind.) Peter had seen them at the Hufflepuff table before, but he didn't entirely know them. Still, he thought it best that he get to know them, seeing as they would be his roommates for the next 7 years.
Peter went to sleep in his four-poster bed. staring at the room around him, all of his previous worries had gone away. He knew he was going to be happy here. As it usually did before he went to sleep every night, his mind started to wander, but this time, its queries all had something to do with the place he was now.
"If we are in the basement, how can the windows in the common room show light? Does the Sorting Hat have a mind of its own, or merely a voice that it uses to discover your house?" Peter let these questions go to rest without an answer. He knew he would have plenty of time to learn these things during his school year.
Peter woke up the next morning at, well, at whatever time it was. He hadn't thought to bring a watch with him, and one of the only clocks in Hogwarts was in the courtyard, far away from where he was now. But he could vaguely tell by the artificial light shining through the windows which was made to mimic the sun's movements, that it was sometime around 7am. Ernie and Wayne were the only others awake, as evident from their empty beds. Peter put on his school robes and left the dormitory. He was happy to see Sarah in the common room, and together they went up to the great hall.
On their way down, they ran into Jacob, who joined them as they entered the hall.
"I wish we were allowed to sit with you," grumbled Peter as Jacob left to sit at his own table, "So do I," said Jacob "I'd sit with you guys all the time". Peter smiled as he watched Jacob take his seat at the Slytherin table.
"I don't," said Sarah as soon as Jacob had sat down. "What was that?" asked Peter, "I don't wish that we could sit at Slytherin," Sarah replied. "Why not?" asked Peter. "Look," Sarah began, "Jacob is a great guy, and I'm glad we got to meet him. But Slytherin house is the worst part of Hogwarts". "No it's not!" Peter exclaimed, "I'm sure Slytherin is a great house!" "As great as Jacob is, he's not the best example of your average Slytherin. Slytherin house is full of bullies, cheats, and malicious people. They often break the rules at many of their Quidditch matches, and they've won the house cup for six years in a row because Professor Snape, their head of house is incredibly biased."
"Well I'm sure that can't be said for all of the house," assured Peter, "and besides, bullies can come from anywhere. I'm sure that there are bullies in the other three houses".
"It's not just that," Sarah replied, "almost all Slytherins are the children of powerful pure-blood families with ties to the dark arts and the belief of pure-blood supremacy, and many of them are suspected supporters of You-Know-Who! And on top of that, every dark wizard who's come out of Hogwarts belonged to Slytherin."
"That doesn't prove anything!" exclaimed Peter, rather huffily, "it's all just a bunch of negative stereotypes combined together to paint a negative picture of Slytherin house! And even if the majority of Slytherin really are like that, I know that not all of them can be that way, if people like Jacob can be sorted there."
"Fine then," Sarah replied, "believe what you want, but soon you'll realize that people like Jacob are diamonds in the rough."
While they were eating, Gabriel handed out their class schedules. In the morning, they had a double period of transfiguration taught by Professor McGonagall, followed by potions with Ravenclaw taught by Professor Severus Snape and herbology with Gryffindor, taught by Professor Pomona Sprout, and lastly at midnight, astronomy with Professor Aurora Sinistra. "You'll like Professor Sprout," noted Sarah, "she's head of Hufflepuff house and one of the best teachers here besides Dumbledore."
Peter's school days certainly were full of excitement. He enjoyed transfiguration, even if he thought Professor McGonagall was very strict. It was a hard class, and McGonagall never hid the fact that you had done something wrong. However, despite her stern figure, Professor McGonagall didn't hold their mistakes against you, and would always show you how you could improve.
Potions, however, weren't as fun. While Peter did find genuine enjoyment in the science of potion making. He now completely agreed with Sarah over the fact that Professor Snape was quite biased towards his own house. He would take huge points off of both their grade and their house for the smallest error in their potions, unless they were a Slytherin. Potions might have been interesting, but Snape made it dreadful.
On the other hand, Herbology was one of Peter's favourite classes. Not just because it was taught by Professor Sprout, who was as nice as Sarah said she was, but because of the variety of plants to experience. He didn't get top marks in that class, but he still found it enjoyable and had good enough grades.
Peter had expected Astronomy to be interesting, and it was, sort of. While looking through a telescope and gazing at the night sky was enjoyable, having to memorize every star and predict the movements of the planets was a lot less fun. Professor Sinistra was tough on homework as well, which meant that Peter only liked astronomy when he was actively participating.
Defence Against the Dark Arts could have been an amazing class, but Professor Quirrell wasn't the best man to teach it. The lessons about dangerous creatures like trolls and vampires, but Professor Quirrell seemed to be the most timid man in the world and Peter honestly wondered how he'd gotten the job in the first place.
History of Magic was a class that Peter went into feeling very excited, and left without it. While it was a very exciting subject, Professor Binns, the only ghost professor at Hogwarts, spoke in the dullest way imaginable and it was a miracle that Peter was one of the few people in his house that could stay awake for the entire lesson. But once the lesson was over and Professor Binns was no longer teaching, Peter redirected his excitement to History of Magic homework and studying, where he could make it sound as exciting as he wanted to.
Charms was also an exciting class, and it was Peter's second favourite. It was like transfiguration, except Professor Flitwick was a lot less stern than Professor McGonagall. Charms was the place where you learnt spells that came to your mind when you said the word 'magic'. Spells like illumination, levitation, and unlocking doors.
And finally, there was flying class. Which wasn't bad, per se. It was just that Peter never managed to get the hang of it. Flying, as Madam Hooch said, was partially based on natural talent, and it seemed that Peter didn't possess that much talent in him. Still, he didn't complain. Flying was only really important if you wanted to play Quidditch, and he could always drop it in second year if it didn't work out for him.
Overall, all problems he had with his classes weren't too bad when he reminded himself that he was literally learning magic and the only real problems he had at the end of the day were that the only time he got to see Jacob was during the Lunch break between classes.
"Can you believe that the Slytherin's and Hufflepuff's don't have any joined classes?" Peter asked angrily to Jacob one day as they were eating their lunch together. "I know, it's weird, we both have joined classes with every house except each others," replied Jacob.
Regardless of the little day-to-day oddities that frustrated Peter, he still was thoroughly enjoying every day at Hogwarts. Sometimes he might've grown born of the daily grind, but he needn't have worried. It would soon be Halloween, and Peter would experience the first of many dangerous events at Hogwarts.
In case you were curious about the schedule, noticed some inaccuracies, or are looking to use a class schedule for your own AU, the class schedule I used comes from tumblr user "shorm". It's not entirely accurate to canon, but as she mentions in the post, Rowling really didn't care about making a consistent schedule, and as such it really screws things over when you want to write something like this. Unfortunately, it doesn't include year 6 yet but that's many, many chapters in the future. As always, thanks for everyone who has followed and favourited this story! Reviews and suggestions on how to improve are openly encouraged. See you in the next chapter!