Hello Once Again Audience! This is the second installment of Conspiracy of Ravens I can't wait to get into the ideas that made me truly wish to start writing this fic. Read! Enjoy! (Hopefully)
I will be trying to keep to, roughly, a week between updates as a schedule. That should give me enough time to continue to write the next couple of chapters, while letting my wife correct my mistakes and such. Happy reading!
Disclaimer is in the first chapter.
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The Leaky Cauldron: Room 3a
Caleb woke up after a peacful night of sleeping in his somewhat comfortable bed in the room he was sharing with his parents. Caleb rolled over to see what time it was from his watch, which he had put on his night stand. Noticing it was only roughly around eight thirty, he rolled over to go back to sleep. As he was falling back to sleep, he felt a rough tongue run its was from his chin, up his cheek, and all the way to his eye. Sitting up quickly, he looked down to notice Lily sitting on his pillow, looking at him innocently. "Yeah, yeah.. Time for me to get up apparently. I guess I'll go and get my shower and get packed then.." Caleb said, wiping the slobber off of his face and hopping to his feet, making his way to the bathroom quickly.
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The Leaky Cauldron: Room 7b
Harry woke up to the rustling of feathers from his owl, Hedwig. He sat up slowly and stretched a bit, getting a few kinks out of his back. He got up and made his way over to his new pet, smiling as he did so. "Morning Hedwig! Thanks for waking me. I need a shower and such before we head to the train station." Harry said to her, popping a few owl treats into the cage and scratching her along her chest a little bit, recieving a hoot in reply. Harry then grabbed his shower things before heading into his bathroom, smiling with hope that today would be a start of a wonderful school year.
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The Leaky Caldron: Room 12a
Hermione woke up with a light yawn, having slept much more peacefully than normal. She absentmindedly wondered if she slept so well because she had tired herself out so much while spending time with her new friends. She instantly perked up at that thought. 'I actually have people that I can call friends! My short time in the Wizarding world has already been better than my time in that of the non-magical..' She thought, letting out another smile as she stood and walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
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The Leaky Cauldron: Main floor
The adult Becks and Grangers were already eating breakfast and drinking their morning coffee with Hagrid, waiting for the children to finish getting ready for the trip to Kings Cross. The adults were all becoming fast friends with eachother, which was making Hagrid happy, as he himself didn't really have many friends outside of the staff for the school. As Tom made his rounds of refilling everyone's coffee, Caleb and Harry made their way downstairs whilst lugging their trunks between themselves. Both of the boys were laughing between themselves about something Caleb had said. Seeing Caleb interact with someone his own age brought a smile to Charle's and Brenda's faces.
Caleb and Harry walked back upstairs, following Hermione, carrying her two trunks down and laying them on top of their own beside the exit of the tavern. Hermione thanked the boys, who both gave a small bow to her, making her giggle as they walked over to the table with the adults. Breakfast was served to the children while laughter and conversation were in abundance.
Around ten thirty, the adults payed the bills for the food and drink and began preparing to leave for the station. The children all helped load the trunks and such into the boot of their respective vehicles. Hagrid decided to let Harry ride with the Becks to the station, stating that he seemed to be in good enough hands. The kids bade him a fond farewell while the adults all shook his pan-sized hand. After Hagrid left in a flash of green fire through the floo, everyone made their way to Kings Cross.
As the group was walking through Kings Cross, they wound up passing a large group of redheaded people, hearing the mother talking loudly to her children. "Oh.. How do we get to Platform nine and three quarters again? It's hard to move around secretly with all of these muggles running amok." The plump looking witch was whipping her head back and forth, as if looking for someone. The group of redheads wound up gathering under the archway between platforms nine and ten.
The Becks and the Grangers just shared confused looks but awaited their turns. Harry, Caleb and Hermione were confused but decided to just chalk it up to the akwardness of wizards. Once the ginger-headed family made their way through the portal, Hermione and her mother went next. They were soon followed by Hermione's father, John. Charles volunteered to go with Harry, making the boy slightly happy that there were adults that would look out for his well being, even though he barely knew them. Caleb and his mother followed almost directly behind them. As they passed through the portal, Caleb noticed the difference of noise between King's Cross and platform 9 3/4. While King's Cross was full of busy muggles and the occasional wizard or witch, it was relatively quiet. The platform for the Hogwarts train, however, was bustling with children, adults, owls, cats, and the occasional frog. It was really very noisy and Lily seemed to huddle further into the corner of her kennel to help nullify some of it.
Harry, Hermione and Caleb all loaded their trunks onto the train, hopping back off to say their farewells to their parents. Caleb and Hermione gave their phones to their parents, not wanting them fried from the ambient magics of Hogwarts. Harry more or less just hung back while Caleb and Hermione hugged their parents, at least. Though once they were finished with their farewells, Charles and John walked forward and held their hands out for Harry to shake, surprising him that they wanted to say goodbye to him. He shook their hands timidly, exchanging farewells and nodding to Brenda and Jean. Hermione, Caleb, and a happier Harry made their way onto the train, dragging their trunks along to find a compartment that they might be able to share. Once they were close to the back of the train, Caleb signaled to the other two that he found a compartment with only one other person in it.
The girl in question had light blond hair that reached down to just below her shoulders. She had a dreamy look to her eyes, though the lower half of her face was covered by a magazine by the name of The Quibbler. Caleb was slightly confused as to why she was reading it upside down. Shaking his head, Caleb politely knocked, making the girl look up from her magazine and gesture he could enter. "Hi! My name is Caleb, and I was wondering if I and two others would be able to sit in here? Most of the train compartments were full besides this one." He asked with a smile. The girl seemed to think about it for a few moments, studying his face as if to see if he was being sincere or not.
"Sure, I don't mind you sitting with me. As long as you aren't bringing a certain redhead with you, that is." The girl replied, scooting closer to the window and gesturing at the door as she finished speaking. Caleb smiled and nodded his head in return, walking back out into the hall and grabbing his trunk and kennel, pulling them into the compartment. Caleb and Harry helped put all of the trunks up onto their racks, with Harry putting Hedwig in the seat closest to the window across from the blond.
"Well miss, I'm Caleb Beck. My two and a half companions are Harry, Hermione, and Lily." He said, gesturing to each individual in turn, getting a small muffled bark from Lily. "Yeah, yeah. I'll let you out ya spoiled little.." Caleb grumbled, releasing the lock from the kennel and placing the now empty kennel up onto the rack beside his trunk.
"My name is Luna Lovegood. Though most people call me Loony.." She said in a slightly depressed manner, her eyes drifting towards her feet in dejected embarassment.
Hermione, seeing the girls mood drop, decided to sit beside her. "We personally won't ever call you that, Luna. We've all had problems with bullies or people who think they're better than us in some way, shape, or form." Hermione said in an apologetic tone, lightly putting her hand on Luna's thigh. Luna seemed to brighten up at the prospect of having people be kind to her. "I'd even hazard that we might even be able to be friends, if we gave it a try?" Hermione asked shyly, looking at her feet and looking down at ther hands in her lap.
"Friends? You would want to be friends with someone like me?" Luna asked, suprised that someone would try to be friends with her so soon after meeting her. She didn't really have any friends besides Ginny, and she really couldn't say that she was a friend since all Ginny wanted to do was rant about how badly she wanted to marry the famous Harry Potter some day.
"Yeah, you seem nice enough, and Lily doesn't seem to mind your presence, which is pretty telling in and of itself." Caleb said, gesturing to the fluffball laying across his lap, being slowly petted by him absentmindedly, which was something he did when he was nervous for any reason. "I would enjoy having another friend during throughout our schooling at Hogwarts. Also doesn't hurt that you might be able to help out us muggleborn people. Though I suppose Harry isn't muggleBORN just muggleRAISED." Caleb finished, giving Luna a caring smile and gesturing at Harry for the last part, earning him a chuckle from the mentioned boy.
"Oh yes, I'm actually a pureblood, though my family isn't a Noble or Ancient family. We haven't been a Britain-established family for long enough to be an Ancient, and we aren't rich enough to be considered Noble." Luna explained, making Hermione frown slightly about the slightly barbaric way that the wizarding world ran its society. "Though, if you are Harry Potter, as I suspect, the Potters themselves are a Most Ancient and Noble family. The Potter family has been around since the time of King Arthur himself, with one of the Potter ancestors serving amonst the knights of the round table." Luna finished, her eyes flicking to Harry's forehead to see his scar for a brief second, but not fawning over the fact that he is famous or anything, making Harry grateful.
"Harry Potter... THE Harry Potter? The same Harry Potter that helped defeat Lord Voldemort at the end of the war? Huh.. I wasn't expecting that.." Caleb said, looking at Harry with a slightly starstruck face, making Harry's shoulders slump in sadness. "Harry. I care neither for your fame, or your past. I only care, and hope, that you wish to be friends with me." He finished, looking at the dejected boy with a look of sincerity in his eyes, lifting Harry's spirits from where they had dropped to in thinking he had only made friends for being famous.
"Thanks. You and the girls are actually my first friends, besides Hagrid. I was afraid that I had only made 'friends' who were out to mooch off of my fame." Harry said, letting out a relieved sigh, smiling at Caleb, Hermione, and Luna in turn. "I couldn't forget that you also see me as a friend, don't you Lily?" He asked, directing his emerald eyes to the lazing pup, earning a huff and a lick on his outstreched hand. This caused some giggles from the girls, and a questioning look from Luna in particular.
After explaining to Luna as to why they had a pomeranian accompanying them, they began talking about nonsensical things. Luna even pulled out a card deck for something called exploding snap. It turned out that Harry has quite the lucky streak, seeing as how he won most of the games that they played. Caleb was the most burnt, having lost an eyebrow and a half, and his entire face was blackened by soot. They were having so much fun that they hadn't noticed how long they had been riding the train until they heard a knocking on the compartment door.
"Anything from the trolley dears?" An older lady asked, pushing a small cart covered in treats, sweets and cakes galore.
Caleb and Harry looked at eachother than back at the girls. They both made up their minds on the spot. They both wound up buying most of what she had left on the trolley, neither of them having had any of the wizarding treats before, so they wanted to try all of them. Caleb and Harry walked back into the compartment, several galleons lighter and several pounds of junk food heavier. They placed one of their trunks onto the floor in the middle of them all and dumped all of the candy onto it for all of them to pick at happily.
Caleb wound up finding a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. After Luna explained the inherent risk of eating them, Caleb gained a wide smirk across his features. "I propose a bet! We each put in say... two galleons, and whoever can't eat a random bean gets eliminated! Last person to eat a bean gets the money, any takers?" Caleb proposed, looking at Harry and the girls. They all wound up agreeing to the terms, placing two galleons each on each corner of the trunk.
Each person got as good and as bad as the others did, but Harry and Luna wound up being eliminated. Harry quit after getting a diaper flavored bean, whilst Luna quit after an earwax bean. Caleb had wound up being unlucky enough to get two bad flavors in a row, dirt and vomit, almost making him reproduce the flavor in mass quantity. In the end, Hermione wound up winning, she was lucky enough to get a strawberry flavor, while Caleb got a rotten egg flavor, making him spit it out and start gagging and curl into a ball on the floor, for comical relief.
Hermione smugly placed the galleons into her small purse, winking at Luna in the process and the two girls shared a giggle. Caleb returned to his seat, taking a drink from a can of soda that he had, having stashed a twelve pack in his trunk. "Ugh.. That was horrid. Though I can only say congrats m'lady." Caleb said, nodding to Hermione and holding his hand out for a light high-five. Right as Caleb was opening another chocolate frog, hoping to get a card he didn't have yet, the compartment door slid open forcefully to reveal a shorthaired blonde, with two larger boys trailing behind him.
"I heard Harry Potter was on the train. Are you him? You seem like you would be him. My name is Draco Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy family. You shouldn't be hanging around riffraff like these people. I, on the other hand, can show you the elite families that would be worthy of your attention and presence." The now named ponce stated, pointing at Caleb as he was talking. He sent a small glare at Lily, who had started growling lowly as soon as he opened the door. Caleb just raised an eyebrow at Harry and winked, clearing his throat lightly as he stood.
"Aye, tha's me. Harry Potter's the name, wooing witches is m'ah game. It seems tha' you might be righ' in the fact that I need help in finding better peers to endorse some pressure upon." Caleb said, masking his voice with a well placed scottish brogue, surprising the other three in the compartment and almost making Harry burst in laughter. Caleb then held his hand out, as if to shake his hand. Draco, thinking he had convinced him, reached his hand out to shake his hand. Caleb simply smirked when he had Draco's hand in his grip. The next thing anybody knew, Draco was on his knees, mouth wide open in shock and extreme pain.
"I do suggest ya take back what ya said about m'ah friends. I don' take too well tah people insultin' people who I've come to enjoy the company of. So, if yah'd like tah keep yer hand in an unbroken condition, then apologise!" Caleb exclaimed, giving another squeeze, anger burning in his eyes, gritting his teeth as he spoke in his barely kept 'accent'.
Draco, being as egotistical as ever, tried to draw his wand on Caleb. Caleb wasn't too surprised by the action and showed he was still in control. All Harry, Hermione, and Luna saw was that Caleb raised his left knee slightly. The next thing they knew, Draco yelped in pain, his arm flying backwards and his wand bouncing agains the hallway wall. "Tsk, tsk, tsk.. All yah had to do is apologise, and I woulda gladly let yah go. I don' much like gettin' grease all over mah hands." He said, twisting the offending arm behind Draco's back, shoving him bodily out into the hall against his baboon guards and smirking. It seemed that the 'guards' weren't any good without orders. "Well? What're ya waitin' for? Git!" Caleb said, giving them a shooing motion, making the baffoons grab the blond ponce and high tail it down the train car with several people watching them.
"That was... Extraordinary Caleb." Hermione said, surprised at the slight beatdown that had just occured with little to no movements from anyone. "How did you do that?"
"Yeah, thanks mate. Though I think you just made yourself an enemy for life for that stunt." Harry stated, a smile gracing his face as he reached out to shake Caleb's hand.
Caleb accepted the hand shake, shrugging his shoulders. "All I did was roll his knuckles. Not exactly hard to do if you know what to do, and as for disarming him, all I did was give a light kick to his wrist. If thats all it takes to dislodge a wizard's main weapon, then I fear for them for when they're facing someone hell'uva lot more skilled with a wand." Caleb stated, smirking lightly at Hermione and sitting down to continue eating his chocolate frogs.
"Was Lily growling at them when they showed up? I didn't want to assume anything." Luna asked quietly, looking at Lily curiously. "She didn't seem to growl at any of us when she first met us from what you told me."
"Well, dogs by themselves are great judges of character. Lily is especially protective of me from when we lived in the states, though." Caleb said, shrugging and scratching Lily behind her ears, just the way she liked.
After that small fiasco, the group of friends wound up getting changed into their school uniforms and awaited the train's arrival at Hogwarts. While they were making their way off of the train, Caleb heard a croaking, having been last out of the compartment and making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He decided to look under the seats, just to make sure and he found a decently large toad. "Ah.. Come here buddy, I'll help you find your owner." Caleb said, holding his hand out. The toad croaked once more before lightly hopping into his outstreched palm, making Caleb smile a little bit. "Thats'a boy. Let's get off this train before we get left behind."
Caleb caught up to the group, making them feel relieved that they hadn't lost him. He explained about the toad, showing them as they were stepping off of the train. The next thing they heard though was the familiar booming voice of a friendly half-giant. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Oh! Hullo kids! Have a fun trip?" He boomed jovially, waving his pan-sized hand at them as they walked toward him. They made their way down a somewhat dark and steep slope down toward a small dock. They then saw several small boats and waited by the shore for their instructions.
"No more'n four to a boat! Be careful lads! Don't wanta be fallin' into the lake now, do ya?" Hagrid said, situating himself into his own slightly larger boat. Caleb quickly stepped into a boat, grabbing Lily and placing her onto the floor before reaching a hand up to help the girls into the boat. He recieved 'thank you's from both girls, as did Harry, who had held their opposite hands as they lowered themselves into the boat before stepping in himself. Once all of the students were in boats, Hagrid called out a "Boats forward!", all of the boats launching into a slow gait across what the quartet guessed was a lake. "Watch yer heads!" Hagrid boomed out, the students noticing some low hanging vines from an archway. As They made it through the vines, the sight took the students' breath away. The view of a splendidly large castle, each and every window illuminated with candles, sitting atop a cliff above the lake that they were currently sailing accross.
Once on land, Hagrid led everyone up towards two very large doors leading into the castle proper. Once there, Hagrid knocked, making great booming sounds from his mace sized fists pounding on the thick wood. The doors opened slowly, revealing the very prim and proper Professor McGonagall looking at the new students with a 'no nonsense' look on her face. Though when her eyes fell upon our favorite quartet, she gained a small, almost unnoticed, smile upon her visage. "Thank you Hagrid. Students, welcome to Hogwarts. Follow me please." She stated, leading them through an entrance hall that you almost couldnt see the roof of, into a smaller room with some moving paintings in it. After a small speech about the four houses, and how the houses that they would be put into would be their new 'family', she left them there to inform the headmaster they had arrived. After a few moments of the students being alone in the antechamber, Caleb stepped forward a few steps and pulled the toad out of his pocket, while having Hermione hold Lily.
"Does this little guy belong to anyone in here? I found him in my compartment as we were getting off the train." Caleb stated, holding the toad higher into the air, gaining all of the first years' attention. After a few moments of silent murmurs and denials, they all heard a light cry of "TREVOR!" after which a short, plump boy pushed through the crowd towards the front. Handing the toad over to the boy, Caleb flashed him a small smile.
"It seems like you missed him, maybe try and keep better hold on him yeah?" Caleb asked, patting the boy on the shoulder. The boy flushed lightly and mumbled out his thanks . "My name is Caleb, what's yours?" He asked the boy, holding his hand out.
"My name? It.. It's Neville.. Neville Longbottom." He answered, shakily grabbing Caleb's hand, which Caleb firmly shook.
"Buck up mate. You're in a school of witchcraft and wizardry, one of the greatest in the world! If that doesn't give you confidence, then I don't really know what could. Ya know what I'm sayin?" Caleb stated, gripping the boy's shoulder in and light grip and lifting his chin. "Don't let anyone tell you they're better than you. They might be better at some things, but you have something you, and you alone, will excel in, yeah?" He finished, patting him one last time on the shoulder and walking back over to his group. Caleb started trembling a little bit, confusing his newfound friends, before he kindly retrieved Lily from Hermione's grasp and hugged her. As he hugged the fluffball, she licked his cheek, feeling his tension and trying to comfort him a little bit. Caleb took in a long, deep breath through his nose, and after holding it for a few seconds, released it out through his mouth. He repeated this process a few times until his heart rate had gone down.
"Sorry about that. I underestimated how many first years there actually were. I'm ok-ish with a few people. Anything more than roughly a dozen people gets my heart pumping a little too fast." Caleb quietly said to his trio of friends, still hugging Lily to his chest lightly.
It was at that moment that the school's ghosts decided to pop into the room, discussing the most important topic that was the idea of giving the school's poltergeist, Peeves, a second chance at staying within the school's hallowed halls. After the ghosts drifted off through into the Great Hall, Prof. McGonagall opened the door in front of them, ushering them into a single file line around the house tables. Upon further inspection, they noticed the four tables each had their own colored ensembles. The Hufflepuff table had a burnt looking yellowish-orange and black coloring. The Ravenclaw had a royal blue and dull silver coloring. The Gryffindor had a crimson and gold coloring. While the last table, the table of Slytherin, had the colors of emerald green and bright silver.
Caleb, personally preffered the Ravenclaws colors, since blue was his favorite color, but didn't mind the Gryffindor's colors too much either. He pushed those thoughts from his mind as Prof. McGonagall placed a stool and a very old and battered hat in front of the assembled children and staff. After a few moments of tense silence, the brim of the hat opened and started singing a song! The song itself mostly spoke of each house's prominent features. Ravenclaw's thirst for knowledge, Gryffindor's courage, Hufflepuff's loyalty and hard work ethic, and lastly, Slytherin's cunning. After the song ended, the entirety of the Great Hall burst into applause, though the Slytherin table mostly just gave a light smattering of applause.
Professor McGonagall then unraveled a scroll, looking down at it before she started reading off names of the first years. She started with a cute blond by the name of "Abbot, Hannah". After a few names were called, Caleb looked at his trio of friends and smiled. "Wish me luck?" he said lightly, stepping forward just as the professor started saying "Beck, Caleb". Once all of the Hall's eyes were on Caleb, he started shaking slightly, clutching Lily to his chest as he walked. Most of the females, and especially Professor Sprout, gave out 'Awww's and 'How cute!'s once they noticed what the white ball of fluff in his arms was. Once he reached the front, he gave a half bow towards McGonagall, earning a nod in return, before he sat upon the stool and had his vision darkened by the bill of the hat.
"Oh my... A curious mind indeed. You have my condolences for your past endeavors. Your sorting however is actually one of great importance it seems. You show a great amount of cunning, as shown with your run in with a certain Malfoy. You show good amount of the loyalty that Hufflepuff seeks. You show a vast thirst for knowledge. Last but definitely not least, you show a great amount of courage." The hat spoke into Caleb's mind, making him sit up straighter in pride. " I will avoid putting you in Slytherin, you would do well, but the rest of the house wouldn't be as grateful of your placement. Hufflepuff would be a good fit, but doesn't seem like something you would overly care for in terms of people. So... I'll let you choose betwixt the other two houses. Will it be Gryffindor? Or will it be Ravenclaw?" The hat finished, making Caleb think roughly of which might be better. With a smirk Caleb nodded his head, reaching up with one hand to remove the hat from his head. Before his hand touched the bill, the hat yelled out "RAVENCLAW!" to the cheering and clapping of the blue table.
Caleb gave a light bow to the hat, and suprisingly revieved one in return. He hurriedly marched to the table of blue, sitting at the end of the table reserved for the first years. Caleb smiled at all who greeted him, hugging Lily all the while. A few more names were called, including a cute brunette by the name of "Brennan, Melinda", who was sorted into Ravenclaw.
Once Hermione's name was called, she enthusiastically jammed the Sorting Hat onto her head, sitting up straight on the stool and fidgeting in anticipation. After only a few moments, the hat called out a loud "RAVENCLAW!", causing cheers throughout the table. Caleb wore a large smile, scooting over so she could sit next to him at the table. Lily showed her happiness by licking Hermione's cheek a few times, elliciting a light giggle from her.
Following Hermione, there was the call of "SLYTHERIN!" for Goyle, one of the blond ponce's cronies, who joined the other cronie, Crabbe or something. There were a few students sorted to "GRYFFINDOR!" and a few to "HUFFLEPUFF!". Finally, "Lovegood, Luna" was called to the stool. Caleb and Hermione were crossing their fingers, hoping to share a dorm with Luna. After almost ten minutes of deliberation, the hat called out "RAVENCLAW!" to an excitable table covered in blue. Everyone at the table was cheering again, but noone was louder than the duo of Caleb and Hermione, with Luna sitting across from Caleb and Hermione.
"GRYFFINDOR!" "SLYTHERIN!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" That, besides applause and cheering, was all that you could hear throughout the hall after names were called out. The most surprising thing to happen though, was when a certain "Potter, Harry" was called, the entire Great Hall went quiet. After a few seconds of silence, the hall erupted into hushed whispering and murmurs of people hoping he was sorted into their houses. Once Harry was sat upon the stool with the hat upon his head, the hall went deathly silent. After roughly fifteen minutes of silence, people started to think he wasn't ever going to be sorted. The hat looked to finally try to start speaking, but looked to be struggling. The hat started twitching back and forth, his 'mouth' opening and closing, and his round bill flapping up and down, almost as if it was trying to fly from Harry's head.
As McGonagall finally decided to see what was wrong and started making her way to the boy on the stool, the hat finally called out a struggled "Raven...CLAW!". The hall was so astonished at the difficulty the hat was having, that the only people in the hall to cheer for their friend was the trio of freshly made Ravenclaws, though it was soon to be back to their quartet. After a few moments of astonished silence, the whole table of blue erupted into an uproar of applause. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables seemed a bit put off by not getting Potter, but gave a light smattering of applause anyways.
With the quartet reuninted, they started speaking between eachother, not overly paying attention to the sorting. They found out that Brennan, Melinda ,who would rather be called Mindy, was actually from the states as well, though her family just wished to get away from the horrible political climate. Mindy actually seemed nice, and was able to contribute to the conversations when they turned towards which books they were reading, letting them see just why she was placed into the house of the brains.
Once the sorting was finished with a "Zabini, Blaise" going into Slytherin, McGonagall removed the stool and hat from its perch and left the hall. The headmaster, who everyone recognized as Dumbledore, stood and raised his hands for silence. "Greetings students! To those of you new to Hogwarts, Welcome! To those of you returning for another year of schooling, Welcome back!" He said, giving a slight bow of his head. "I believe that we are all quite famished after such a long sorting. So a few words, then you may commence with the feast! Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak! Thank you!" The headmaster stated, sitting down.
As his rump landed upon his seat, the tables all filled with huge assortments of food. There were pork chops, roast chickens, mashed potatoes, french fries, an assortment of gravies, corn on the cob, a large variety of other vegetables, and even platters of cheeseburgers. Harry and Caleb started quickly piling food upon their plates, with the girls sharing a giggle before they politely grabbed food for themselves. Caleb wound up trying something called pumpkin juice, and promptly spat it out into his goblet. "That was horrid... I'll just have a regular juice I guess." He said, making the others laugh and resume their consumption of dinner.
After everyone had had their fill, the tables cleared of food and everyone looked up the the headmaster stood to begin speaking to the assembled body of students. "Well, now that we are all filled to the brim with a wonderfully prepared feast, I would like to make some announcements!" He said, his eyes twinkling in a jovial manner. "First and foremost, the Forbidden Forrest is as its name was given, Forbidden!" He said this while directing his gaze towards to readheaded twins at the table of Gryffs, who gave him looks of innocence in return. "I would also like to inform everyone that the third floor corridor, on the right, is also forbidden to all who wish to not die a gruesome, painful death. Filch, the school caretaker, would also like for me to inform you of the four hundred plus items on the banned items list. If you would like to perruse said list, it is posted outside of his office at all times." Dumbledore said, giving the hall a quick onceover.
After several more announcements, which the newly dubbed quintet didn't really pay to much attention to, everyone in the Great Hall started to rise from their tables. A taller, blond girl stood and walked over towards the first years. Once she had them gathered around her, she started speaking. "Alright firsties, my name is Penelope Clearwater and I am one of the prefects of your house. I will be escorting you to Ravenclaw Tower, if you lot would follow me, please!" She said, walking towards the large double doors of the hall, leading them through the castle proper.
After a couple minutes of walking, they climbed a flight of stairs that led to a door with an eagle head knocker. Penelope then turned around and addressed the firsties again, smiling politely. "This is where our commonroom is, there is no password to the door, you must correctly answer a riddle to enter. If you answer incorrectly, the door will not open for you, and you must wait for someone to either answer the riddle correctly, or to open the door from the inside before you may enter. Any questions?" She asked, looking around and nodding when noone raised their hands. "Who wishes to try to open the door?" With several raised hands, she chose an asian girl, who introduced herself as Cho Chang, before walking up to the door. The Quintet wasn't able to hear either the question or the answer from where they were in the back of the group, but they could see that the door had opened, with Ms. Chang gaining a prideful smile upon her face.
After being directed up gender-separated stairways towards their dorms, Caleb and Harry bid the girls a goodnight. They walked up the stairs, walking into a room that had four beds, desks, a door that led into a large bathroom, wardrobes and a large window that led into a small balcony which overlooked the Forbidden Forrest. Caleb and Harry chose the two beds closest to the window, their trunks magically appearing at the end of their beds, much to their surprise. Caleb sat Lily upon the bed, before popping into the bathroom to change into his sleepware.
Once they were laid down in their extremely comfortable fourposter beds, they both fell into a peaceful slumber, almost as soon as their heads touched their pillows.
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Well! Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry if the chapters are a bit long, I just get into a groove and have a hard time stopping. I think I wound up stopping both chapters at a decent enough place. Review/Follow/Favorite at your leisure! Have a wonderful day!