I own nothing. Silverly proofread so thanks for that.

Prologue V

September 2, 1986

Having gone to bed earlier than usual, Waver was able to wake up fairly early the next day. Careful not to wake the other boys in the room, who were still sleeping, he quickly changed into his uniform, gathered his things, and darted down to the common room. Breakfast was to begin in an hour, but Waver wanted to take some time to become more familiar with the castle layout before he went to eat.

It was, as he quickly discovered, a good call on his part. The castle was enormous, which he already knew, and confusing, which he also knew. He'd still managed to underestimate it somehow. Just the seventh floor west side, where the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower was, was a nightmare to navigate. He managed to get a clear idea of the seventh floor layout, but little else by the time he had to return to the first floor to eat, and even then he was still slightly late.

Schedules were being handed out to the Ravenclaws by a professor who managed to be even smaller than Waver. He introduced himself as the head of house, Professor Flitwick. Waver greeted him politely, then turned to look over his schedule.

He had no classes on the seventh floor on Tuesday, unfortunately. Thursday at midnight was the only time he had class in one of the towers accessed from the floor, Astronomy. From the looks of his schedule, his first class was in the exact opposite location, the dungeons, for Potions. Waver dearly hoped he wouldn't get lost. It would be a terrible first impression for Professor Snape if Waver showed up late for class. Waver hoped that if the worst came to pass, his devoted studying from over the summer would be able to bring him back to the teacher's good graces.

Waver ate quickly, to ensure he had the maximum amount of time before his class to reach it. He needed it, since the first thing he ran into on the way down to the dungeons happened to be a poltergeist harassing a few second-year Hufflepuff girls who had been late for breakfast. Waver attempted to ignore them (surely they could handle it themselves, they had magic), focused on his goal, but unfortunately, the poltergeist had some other plans.

"Oho? What's an ickle firstie doing out here alone by another house's dormitory?" he cackled at Waver, floating in front of him and gesturing rudely.

"I am going to class, so leave me alone," Waver told him bluntly as he attempted to walk around him and move on. The poltergeist took that as an opportunity to drop some eggs he pulled from… somewhere, likely stolen from the kitchens somewhere nearby, directly onto Waver's head.

Now Waver was legitimately angry. He'd studied hadn't he? Sure, he'd been forbidden from actually practicing before school began, but surely he could do some technically harmless jinx on this stupid imp and get him out of his hair. Literally, as said hair was now coated in raw egg, and he dearly wished he knew a spell to clean it out.

Waver's hastily made plans for quick revenge were interrupted by the arrival of one of the instructors, who seemingly had been searching for the late Hufflepuffs. "For goodness sake, Peeves." the woman scolded. She was slightly plump, and her clothing was rather dirty. "Leave the younger students be and go away. Or I'll call the Baron. He'll get a handle on you."

Peeves seemed to take that as a challenge, promptly pelting the professor with the eggs. "Don't say I didn't warn you." she sighed, turning to the Hufflepuff girls and pulling out their schedules. "The Bloody Baron is in the Great Hall, as you're already on the way there, alert him at once." Peeves' face fell immediately as he went to chase after them.

Throughout this, Waver had been watching, wand in hand after preparing to jinx Peeves with a spell in his Defense Against the Dark Arts book and silently cursing the lack of spell for fixing his hair and clothing in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. His hair stuck together from the portion of the whites that stuck after the majority of the egg slipped off and fell to the floor and onto his uniform, as some rigid mockery of hair spray that Waver most definitely did not require.

The teacher turned to Waver once the Hufflepuff girls and Peeves were out of sight. "Oh dear, I'm sorry about him. The caretaker has been attempting to get him thrown out for ages, without success. Are you alright? I can clean that up for you, if you would like." She didn't wait for his answer, waving her wand over his head and causing the egg to promptly dry up as if it had never been there to begin with. "Where are you going, anyway? This is the way to the kitchens, there are no classrooms with first year classes here."

"I was going to Potions, which is stated to be in the dungeons." Waver responded, trying desperately to ignore the humiliated reddening of his cheeks and speaking far more harshly than necessary. "I imagine it was the stairs on the other side then?"

"Yes, indeed," the instructor replied, seeming annoyed by Waver's harsh tone but at the same time not commenting on it. "I will be seeing you in Herbology tomorrow, tata." She rushed off, and Waver quietly sighed in relief. Being essentially rescued from having eggs dropped on him was embarrassing, even if he did remember a jinx to put Peeves in his place. He supposed he'd have to skip lunch to look up spells to deal with Peeves' messes in the library. A repeat of this incident was the last thing he needed.

He'd gathered quite the list of topics to look up at this point. Cursed Vaults, development of countercurses and potential scope of accidental magic, and now cleaning spells. He supposed the cleaning would be the most practical place to start, it couldn't be terribly complex if it was used for something so mundane, and finding the books to begin with shouldn't be difficult.

But for now, getting to class. If the encounter with Peeves and the Herbology professor (he checked his schedule for her name, Sprout apparently) had done anything, it was tell him he'd been going the wrong way the whole time. He wondered again why the school seemed so lacking in directive signs or maps. The elementary school he had attended previously was less than a sixteenth the size of the castle and had these things to ensure students knew where they were supposed to go.

Waver was relieved when it turned out he'd arrived at the door to the Potions classroom prior to it being unlocked. He'd already embarrassed himself enough for the day with the egg incident in front of Professor Sprout.

It wasn't until after breakfast had officially concluded that the instructor arrived at the dungeon. Waver was still the only student waiting by the door. "And why might you be here so early? Class does not start for another fifteen minutes."

"Better early than late," Waver replied. "I need to make sure I know where classes are, you see. Given the lack of directions here, I made sure to take extra time to locate class, Professor."

"Given that some things in that classroom are potentially dangerous, you are not to do it again. One point from Ravenclaw for this time." The instructor answered coldly.

Waver thought that this was ridiculous, considering the door was locked and he was standing outside it, perhaps Professor Snape should have locked the hallway to his classroom as well if he had a problem with students waiting outside the door.

Naturally, he voiced his discontent. "Then why was this hallway, outside the classroom, unlocked? I couldn't access any of the dangerous substances in there from where I was. If it is dangerous to merely stand outside your classroom, I shouldn't have been able to get this far in the first place. Or at the very least, I should have been informed that I was not allowed to reach class early," Waver said angrily.

"That's enough. Another point taken from Ravenclaw for your cheek." Professor Snape turned and swept into his classroom.

Fuming, Waver followed Professor Snape into the classroom and took a seat near the center of the room. This was already going horribly. The instructor made no indication that he cared where Waver chose to sit.

The remaining students slowly filed into the room over the next fifteen minutes. The class was to be taken jointly by the first years in the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses, as Waver quickly discovered when a round-faced Hufflepuff boy sat next to him.

Professor Snape had begun drawling out his lecture with a glare for barely five minutes before late-coming students began to stumble through the door.

This made him very noticeably angry. Waver couldn't really bring himself to blame him, though it made his punishment for being too early seem even more absurd.

"So, since you had the audacity to be late," Professor Snape was asking, "I assume you can tell me the use of Bubotuber pus as it relates to potion-making?"

The Hufflepuff girl that had evidently gotten slightly lost on the way through the dungeons looked white as a sheet and clearly terrified. "I… I… um…"

Waver recalled that the pus was apparently used for potions meant to treat acne, despite the raw form being extremely hazardous for skin. He raised his hand, but Professor Snape ignored him. "That will be ten points from Hufflepuff and detention for both of you, Jones, Shunpike. Do not be late again. For the uninformed, Bubotuber pus when properly prepared can form a cream that can easily treat the worst acne." Waver put down his hand as the Jones girl sat . "And Velvet, Green, Kirchen, I was not asking any of you. That will be five points from your respective houses each." Waver felt like the Professor had some odd fixation on removing house points and would use any excuse he could at this point.

Regardless, his directions for the day's assignment were fairly simple. The students were assigned to pairs based on their surnames (with those at the start of the alphabet being paired with those at the end), and were to brew a simple boil-removing potion. Waver was paired with the round-faced Hufflepuff, named Gregory Anderson. Anderson was not deadweight, surprisingly, but rather fairly competent. The potion he and Waver had brewed seemed to meet the instructor's expectations, no more or less, as he didn't comment when he looked at it.

The class was surprisingly uneventful aside from the Hufflepuff students' late arrival. Regardless of that, Waver's initial impression of Professor Snape was not particularly favorable. He seemed to believe, when introducing himself to the class, that the lot of them were complete morons. It was beyond insulting, and made Waver incredibly angry. He didn't even know anyone in the class, let alone Waver. Well, perhaps he had brought one of the other students of non-magical background to buy supplies as Professor McGonagall had for Waver. Waver pitied this student, if they existed.

He was worried now. Of the four teacher's he'd met, Professor Snape was the only one to be genuinely unfriendly, but the fact that a teacher was allowed to hold such an attitude at all was a bad sign for the ones that remained.

Regardless, he'd just have to show Professor Snape his brilliance. Of the potions that the class had brewed, Waver and Anderson's was supposedly the closest to correct, after all. The essay that had been assigned should be simple enough. Waver had always had something of a talent for detail in those.

Potions took nearly two hours, so there was to be an hour of History of Magic before lunch at midday. Second floor, apparently, a standard classroom, and Waver had twenty minutes to get there.

Unlike his earliness to Potions, Waver along with the other Ravenclaws were barely on time for Professor Binns's course. Waver paid attention, difficult as it was. The ghost's voice seemed to have the magical property of making everything he said sound as boring as possible. Which seemed strange when the actual material had not seemed boring when Waver had read it in A History of Magic over the summer.

Finally, the end of morning classes arrived. Waver didn't attend lunch, preferring to confirm the locations of his afternoon classes and the library. The Ravenclaw common room had books, sure, but it surely paled in comparison to the proper library.

Waver was delighted upon discovering the size of the library. He'd have more than enough study material for the next seven years in here. Unfortunately, he didn't have as much time as he would like thanks to a combination of sentient doors and moving stairways whilst trying to locate the library.

Not paying much mind to the hawk-eyed librarian, who glared at him as he passed, Waver set to work in the charms section to see if he could find a spellbook on cleaning charms. Never again would the poltergeist dropping something sticky and gross in his hair cause a problem for him. He supposed he'd have to practice within the dormitories, as he doubted the librarian would take kindly to any casting in here, and he couldn't exactly fault her for that line of thinking.

The next topic wasn't so simple. It seemed practically all information on the Cursed Vaults had been pulled from the shelves, presumably to prevent the students who had nearly killed off the school the previous year from getting their hands on them. Unfortunate, but it was doubtful that there was anything Waver could do to get his hands on a book on them without resorting to outright theft. While tempting, the consequences for getting caught were far too great to risk over a matter of vague curiosity. Not to mention it'd be difficult to pull off without being caught. Without a means to become completely invisible, he'd have to try to raise a distraction, and that would be too easy to trace back to him.

The third topic to look into was countercurses to see if there was anything that could have possibly saved Harry Potter. Scanning the contents on the books he could find was spectacularly unhelpful. Truthfully, given that the killing curse was supposedly unblockable, this didn't surprise Waver. He kept some books on countercurse development for checkout, as that information would be potentially useful. He also planned to question the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor on the matter. Perhaps he would have more leads.

Waver had to remind himself to leave for Charms when the end of the lunch hour approached, as he still hadn't had time to look up the scope of accidental magic. He quietly thanked the librarian as he checked out the books and headed for Professor Flitwick's classroom.

Charms consisted of learning a simple spell to light the tip of a wand. Professor Flitwick was as cheerful and relaxed as he had been that morning, kindly answering questions as they were asked. Waver was already enjoying the subject. As simple as the spell was, it meant there was no longer a need to ever fear the dark.

Two hours of Transfiguration after was similarly interesting. Professor McGonagall was strict, but she explained the topic clearly and concisely. Waver succeeded with turning his matchstick into a needle rather quickly relative to the other students thanks to prior study, and like all the classes sans Potions, it passed without incident.

Dinner passed in short order. It was good, but Waver really seldom had much in the way of appetite. It was somewhat annoying having older students try to coax him into taking more. They all believed it strange a boy who would turn twelve in a month could be so easily satiated.

Waver waited for Professor Dumbledore to give any announcements for the day before he quickly excused himself to return to the dormitory and practice some simple charms. If he could properly perform those, he'd begin practicing the cleaning charms from the book he'd checked out of the library. He still had classes the next day after all. The sooner he started practicing, the sooner he could go to bed once he finished.

It was fairly late by the time the other three students in the dorm were begging Waver to go to sleep and stop making noise.

This will be the last really lengthy chapter for a while. Maybe. At the very least, Prologue VI, VII, and VIII are fairly short in comparison to IV and V.

Is Professor Snape too unreasonable? He's a pretty awful teacher in canon for multiple reasons (verbally abusive to the point it actively makes students worse at the class, and anyone who has ever taught Chemistry will tell you that you don't really learn anything from just following directions on a blackboard) but I worried I may have gone a bit far on exaggerating it.

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PasiveNox: And it still has several years of in universe time to go before the Prologue's over...

-Glace