Author's note: I'm sorry this chapter took so long to post! In the future, I will update more frequently. Even with the time it took to write, this chapter is kind of short and slow, but at least it's posted!

I hope you are all healthy and safe!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

The bang of a gong startled me out of my sleep. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the silhouette of Ron in the bed next to me. The lights flickered on and the shape of Percy revealed itself from the front of the room. He was holding the aforementioned gong and looked perky for five in the morning.

"It's time to start your chores!" Percy said from the front of the room. I grumbled a bit, but eventually started getting out of bed with the other first-years. "Come on, get up! Be in the common room in half an hour."

"I can't believe it's still dark out and I'm awake," Ron said. I yawned in agreement.

I got dressed in my new breeches and a long-sleeve green shirt. There was a strict dress code at Hogwarts, but no specific uniforms.

Ron and I made our way to the common room, and Percy handed each of us a granola bar.

"Is this breakfast?" Ran asked him.

"For now," said Percy. "You'll get a full meal after you finish your chores."

Ron and I both groaned at the same time.

"Now, first-years," Percy said, as if he was a teacher. "Barn chores are incredibly important for your horses. Here at Hogwarts, you will care for your horse almost solely on your own. This means that in between classes you will let your horse graze, or you will muck your horses stall instead of spending time with your friends. Don't worry- teachers know this, and you have free periods for this purpose. Just be prepared.

"Now follow me to the stables, and I'll teach you how to do your chores. In the future, you will have to wake up on your own and complete your chores without assistance, but for the first few days of school I will help you."

We all followed him into the chilly morning air to the first-year stables. The first thing we did was get feed for the horses.

"You will all start with a basic feed mix unless you know your horse has a dietary restriction. However, after you start getting to know your pony better, you may change their feed based." Percy said. He then showed us how to measure out the feed based on the horse's size. I brought my tub of feed to Dolly's stall, which she seemed to enjoy. It woke me up to see her yawn and stretch, and reminded me of where I was and why.

I also refilled Dolly's hay net and gave her a good scratch behind the ears. Next, we had to muck the stalls, so Percy showed us how to turn out the horses. I put Dolly's fly mask on her, which she wasn't pleased about, and then released her into the field. Percy then had us watch him muck out his horse's stall so we could do it ourselves.

I have to say, mucking a stall out was hard work for someone who didn't have that much arm strength. Once I was ready to change out Dolly's bedding I was sweating through my shirt.

The smell and dirt from mucking out stalls didn't bug me too much, but a couple of my classmates found it a bit outrageous. I guess living with Dudley for eleven years made me used to filth.

After we finished refilling the troughs of water and were finally done with chores, I headed to the kitchen with Ron. The kitchen was a communal building that looked like a long, rectangular version of our sleeping cabins. Ron and I walked through the door to four tables, spanning the length of the room. Each table had bowls of grits, stacks of toast, and several different types of juices. Currently, there were only first-years and prefects at the tables right now because they had to wake up earliest.

Ron and I sat down at the Gryffindor table and started eating, and eventually all of the other students headed in for breakfast. I was starving and gobbled down as much food as possible. I couldn't believe I was already so exhausted and hadn't even started classes.

After breakfast, we were called to the front of the room to get our schedules. My classes this year were Intro to Horse Training, Intensive Show Jumping I, Dressage I, Cross Country I, Hunter Jumping I, Equine Biology I, Equine History I, and Herd Mentality I. Of course, we also had to take basic state required classes, but those were shorter and less frequent. We had each of the classes where we rode once a week for two hours each, besides show jumping which I had twice a week.

"Wow," Ron said. "That's a lot of time with the horses."

"Yeah!" I agreed, excited. Who wouldn't want to spend every day with their horse?

As Ron and I brought are plate over to the dirty dishes area, I accidently ran into Hagrid.

"Oh, sorry, Hagrid," I said, balancing my cup on top of my plate.

"No problem, Harry!" Hagrid said. "How're you likin' your first day?"

"It's great!"

"That's wonderful, Harry! 'Ay, you should come down to my shack for sweet tea after your classes! Bring your friend to!" Hagrid said, motioning to Ron.

"Hey, thanks, Hagrid!" I said, "We'll be there! Your right by the second pasture, right?"

"That's the one, Harry. I'll see you then!" Hagrid lumbered away towards the door.

My first class was Cross Country I, with the rest of the Gryffindor first years. Although each house specialized in a certain event (Gryffindors were show jumpers), we still had to have basic skills in all the other sports. My cross-country class was with the head of Slytherin house, Mr. Snape. Snape was known to be a cruel man, with long, dirty black hair and a dark cowboy hat. He wore dark, mud-stained jeans and a black T-shirt. His face was quite angular, with a long nose and accusing eyes. When he introduced himself to the class with a thick southern drawl, he had a lit cigar in one hand.

"Hello, class. I am Mr. Snape," he said to the group of six or so. "Here you will learn cross-country. Of course, you are all first years, so you don't know how to ride." We were standing in the middle of the musty Gryffindor first-year barn, all our horses behind us.

"Unfortunately, I oversee teaching you how to tack up. Although we're southerners, we ride English, so I hope you got the correct tack. Everyone, go get your brush bucket."

The entire class scurried away to their respective tack rooms. I shared mine with Ron and a girl named Hermione, who we met briefly on the train. She was wearing tan breeches and a red top, with an open plaid shirt over it. Her frizzy brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, and her English boots were spotless.

"Hey, Harry," Ron asked, turning to me from his corner of tack. "Do you know if we need to pick out the horse's hooves before we ride?"

Before I could open my mouth, Hermione answered. "Of course you have to. Do you know what could happen if you don't attend to your horse's hooves? They could become lame!"

Ron opened his mouth to respond, but instead rolled his eyes at me and turned back to his grooming box. I quickly gathered up my brushes and headed back into the main section of the barn. I didn't want to make enemies so early into my time at school.

Once everyone was in a circle with their tack boxes, Snape had us put a halter on our horses and lead them into a separate nearby stable, which only had open stalls with cross ties, so we could tack up.

Once we all had our horses tied, Snape stood in the middle of the barn and took a long draw on his cigarette. Everyone, including the horses, was still. Then he turned around to me.

"Potter," he said harshly. "What's the first brush you use?"

I had never groomed a horse, so I had no idea. I gulped and quietly responded, "Um… I'm not sure."

"Well, then perhaps you'll know what this brush is called," Snape said, holding up a plastic brush with spikes spaced out across it.

"Um…" I said, looking to Ron for help. He shrugged. Hermione, who was in the stall across from me, was raising her hand as high as she could.

"It seems that fame isn't everything," Snape said, smirking. "Yes, Ms. Granger?"

"A currycomb," Hermione responded proudly. She looked over at me smugly, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Ron snarl at her.

After this fiasco, Snape instructed us on how to groom and tack up. I had a bit of trouble with the girth, but otherwise the class went without a hitch. After this we were instructed to take the horses outside and ride them around the arena at a walk. We were only on the horses for about twenty minutes because of all the time it took to tack up, but it was still nice to see Dolly again.

After cross country, the rest of my classes flew by and it was suddenly time to go visit Hagrid. Ron and I went back to the Gryffindor cabins to change out of our breeches before heading down to the edge of grounds, where Hagrid's home was. He lived in a tiny log cabin, with chipping paint and a small garden behind it. I knocked on the door, and he ushered us in with a smile.

Hagrid showed us around his cabin and served us iced tea and apple pie. After we visited for a while, we went back to the stables to finish up our chores, and then headed to dinner. There wasn't much homework yet because it was only the first day, but I did have to write a paper for Herd Mentality. When I finally collapsed into bed, it was pitch black outside.

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