Year One
Chapter 3: Lost

Maddy and Violet stood together in the Great Hall comparing their class lists that had been issued by their heads of houses that morning. Aeneas Bedivere was the Ravenclaw head of house and an Indian witch by the name of Kavita Madhur was the Slytherin Head of house. The two girls had spent their first nights in their respective dormitories with the other first years. Violet had been so excited to be in Ravenclaw that she spent most of the night anxiously awake with a few of the other first years. They'd given up on the pretense of sleep around two in the morning and had gone down to make tea in the common room and talk about how amazing learning spells, potions, and enchantments was going to be.

Madeline's first night with the Slytherins had gone quite differently. Majority of Slytherin house were pureblood wizards and witches, so Maddy (being a muggleborn) had felt a little intimidated. Only a few of the other first years, including Allison Longbottom had talked to her. In fact, Maddy was quite sure that she was going to be good friends with Allison since blood status didn't seem to matter at all to her. They had gone down (the Slytherin common room was under the lake, and the dorms spiraled off into separate tunnels that went further underground) to bed earlier than normal. Though Maddy and Allison had stayed up talking for a while comparing life as a muggle to life as a pureblood.

However, both girls had had breakfast with their houses and were now comparing schedules. It seemed that their first class (potions) was together! After that though, they were split for the rest of the day. "Well, lets go find potions!" Violet said excitedly.

Madeline rolled her eyes a bit, but smiled as her friend pulled her out of the Great Hall. They marched over to the doors for the dungeons and headed downwards. Maddy already knew where the potions class was because the Slytherin prefects had pointed it out on the way to their dorms the previous night. They made it early and chose a table in front where Violet got busy setting her things up and taking out a quill and parchment for notes.

Madeline was amused at how eager her friend was to learn, but she had to admit that she was just as excited. The rest of the first year Slytherins and Ravenclaws slowly drifted in and sat with their own houses for the most part. Maddy and Violet were the only two from opposite houses willingly sitting next to each other. Eventually, the professor came in, robes billowing out behind him, and set his books and parchment down on the desk in front. It was Aeneas Bedivere. He smiled around at the class for a moment before walking around to the front of the desk and leaning back against it. "Welcome, first years, to potions," he greeted them.

The rest of class was spent going over class expectations and rules. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, there were a lot of rules in potions class. Rules about how to handle potions ingredients, rules about fire, rules about loose clothing, rules about what to do if someone got hurt, etc. Vi wrote down every single one of them. Maddy tried to keep up, but when she got so far behind that she couldn't remember what she was writing she gave up and decided to copy off of Vi later.

When Potions was done, the two girls split up and followed their own houses to their next class (herbology for Maddy and charms for Vi). The rest of the day passed quickly, but all of the classes were much the same as potions with the rules and expectations laid out thoroughly for the first years. By the end of the day, Maddy and Vi met in the Great Hall for dinner. Both had ink splatters all over their hands and cramps in their wrists. "I'd kill for a ballpoint pen and a spiral notebook," Madeline grumbled.

"No kidding," Vi agreed as she sat down at the Ravenclaw table. Maddy had elected to dine with the Ravenclaws as well instead of her own house.

Dinner was just as delicious and plentiful as the welcoming feast had been. Even the conversation was just as animated as the previous night. People were still reconnecting after the summer apart though, so it was to be expected. Vi and Maddy ate quietly though. They'd had a long day and were kind of sore from running all over the castle. Despite this, Vi turned to Maddy with a small smile and asked, "So, wanna go exploring?"

Maddy just grinned and nodded. The two girls left early from dinner, taking a few chocolate biscuits with them. "Where to first?" Maddy asked before taking a bite of biscuit.

"Seventh floor!" Vi exclaimed leading the way to the grand staircase.

Maddy hurried after her. "Whats on the seventh floor?"

"Besides the entrance to Gryffindor tower? The room of the of requirement!"

Maddy paused for a second with a confused look. A portrait of a lady with red hair and a gold dress on the wall next to her pointed after Vi and said, "Best keep up, dear!" Maddy kept jogging up the stairs. "Wait up, Vi!"

They made it to the stairs between the fifth and sixth floors before they ran into trouble. With a sudden jerk, the staircase began to glide across the open area. "What's going on?!" Maddy shouted as she clutched desperately at the railing with both hands.

"The staircases move!" Vi shouted back as she also clutched at the railing.

It only took less than a minute, but it seemed longer to the two frightened girls until the stairs shuddered to a halt, connecting them to a different part of the castle. As quick as they could, Maddy and Vi ran up the remainder of the stairs. "What now?" Maddy asked.

"I don't know where we are. That staircase would've taken us all the way up to the seventh floor no problem."

Maddy ducked her head and rested her hands on her knees as she panted a bit. "I suggest we find another set of stairs."

Vi chuckled a bit. "Good suggestion!"

At that the two girls straightened and headed the only direction they could, left. Surrounding them was gothic architecture at its finest and metal suits of armor lining the corridor. "Where do ya suppose we are?" Maddy asked looking around.

"I don't know. The staircase spirals up so I lost track of what direction we're facing after it moved us," Vi shook her head. "But if I had to guess, I'd say we're near the trophy room."

"Why do you say that?" Maddy asked looking at one figure of armor that was holding a sword as long as she was tall.

"Because we're on the sixth floor and there's suits of armor and that's where Hogwarts: A Revised History said it is."

"Do you believe everything you read?"

"No," Vi looked back at her friend, a slightly offended frown on her face.

Maddy chuckled a bit, but kept walking. "Well come on, we need to find our way back to somewhere familiar before curfew."

Vi rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. The girls walked for what seemed forever, taking a left whenever possible. According to Vi, it was more logical and would give them a better chance of finding a staircase. Maddy wasn't sure if that was true, but she was starting to get tired, so anything would be better than just trudging through the castle forever. They had just turned another corner when they almost collided with a ghost. Both girls let out a small squeak, still not used to seeing ghosts everywhere, and jumped back.

"Pardon!" the ghost said. He was dressed as though from the mid seventeenth century and had shoulder length curly hair. "Didn't mean to frighten you!"

"It's fine," Maddy said. "You didn't scare us."

"Maybe not you," Vi mumbled.

Maddy ignored her and continued on. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?"

"Lost are we?" the ghost smiled a bit. "Well, let me direct you then, young misses. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington at your service!" He gave a short bow at this. "You are currently on the north side of the castle on the sixth floor. Where is it that you were aiming to go?"

"Well, we were aiming for the room of requirement on the seventh floor, but we've been wandering for so long that it's almost curfew, so if you could direct us back towards our dorms that would be great," Vi commented.

"Ah, but the Ravenclaw dorms are in the western tower as accessed by on the fifth floor and the Slytherin dorms are in the dungeon. I do believe it would be quite impossible to direct both of you at the same time," he gave a small smile as he placed his hands on his hips. "However, I shall endeavor to do my best! First we shall traverse the way to the Ravenclaw tower as it is nearest then I shall lead you to Slytherin."

"Thanks," Vi said simply, a little exhausted by the ghosts flowery words.

Sir Nicholas nodded and started to glide back the way they had come from. Along the way, they saw a few other ghosts, and several portraits of monks having a raucous party. However eventually they found a staircase and made their way down. The Ravenclaw common room was accessed through a doorway near the base of the stairs that had a brass eagle knocker on it. Vi smiled as she saw the familiar sight and ran up to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast?" she asked Maddy.

The Slytherin nodded and watched as she knocked thrice before the eagle came to life and asked, "When is a door not a door?"

Vi chuckled a bit. "That one's easy. When it's ajar!" The eagle nodded a bit before admitting the girl.

"Come along then!" Sir Nicholas said as he led the way back down the stairs. "I do say, a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw, getting along so well. Not often do such things happen."

"Vi and I were friends growing up," Maddy explained shortly.

"AH! That does explain things." There was silence for a moment before Nick spoke again. "Am I to presume you are the muggleborn first year in Slytherin?"

"You presume correctly," Madeline nodded.

"Ah, yes, I had thought I recognized you from the sorting. I am the ghost of Gryffindor house after all, and was present at the welcoming feast."

"Oh yeah! I remember seeing you!"

"I should like to give you some advice if you are willing to receive it?"

"Sure?" Maddy glanced up at the ghost.

"Don't let the Slytherins intimidate you. I know almost all of them are purebloods and seem to put a high priority on blood status, but that's not quite true. Blood status is important to them, but so is being cunning, adaptable, and having an advantage over everyone. A muggleborn, should they figure out how, could give them these things."

Maddy considered his words for a moment, trying to figure out how she could be an advantage to the Slytherins. They were silent for a while longer until they reached the doors to the dungeon. From there, Maddy knew the way so she turned to the friendly ghost and smiled. "Thanks for helping us out."

"Any time! Any time!" Sir Nicholas said jovially. "Do feel free to call on my services again should you need them!"

Maddy smiled and waved goodbye as the ghost glided upward and through the ceiling. She made her way down into the dungeons then and eventually into the Slytherin common room (the password for the week was grindylow). There were several students lounging in the various chairs and sofas. A few of the first years had gathered around one of the tables and were playing a game of exploding snap. Maddy wasn't too sure about exploding cards, but sat down next to Allison Longbottom to watch the others play anyway.

Authors' Notes: And here marks where it starts to get a bit different than everyday life at Hogwarts. queenoftheslayers and I are having so much fun writing these! We've got all of first and second year planned out for ideas on muggleborn problems! Hopefully I can get into the habit of doing regular updates too.

Thanks for reading! And please let us know what you think! We enjoy hearing from you!

P.S.
Just letting everyone know that yes there was another story out there published by another account that was the same as the first chapter of this story. I won't name names, but that person was plagiarizing us for some strange reason. I never understood why people do that? It's not even like this story has a ton of reviews or anything? Oh well... I sent an email to the support team for FF dot net and they took care of it. I want to say thank you to ElsaElphieGinny who let me know about the situation.