Chapter 9 – The New Students

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Please enjoy the feast, and the opening speech of the year will follow. Thank you." The headmistress took her seat as the students clapped politely. As Adam and Aaron looked back down at their empty plates, they saw the golden platters and dishes piled with food. There was roast beef, chicken, turkey, gammon steaks, sausages, bacon and other types of meat he couldn't identify. Then there were roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, chips, peas, carrots, sweetcorn and many other vegetables that he had never even seen before. Then there were large jugs filled with gravy, ketchup and barbecue sauce and salt and pepper cellars the size of Adam's new schoolbooks.

He had never exactly been starved at the orphanage but Adam had never had the ability to choose his own food before.

"Shame we ate so much on the train huh?" Aaron asked, though he had helped himself to adequate amounts of meat and vegetables and was still piling the food. Following his lead, Adam took some beef, chicken, turkey, sausages, some of each type of potato and some carrots and peas. He then proceeded to drown the whole lot in gravy. It was absolutely delicious.

As they ate, Adam and Aaron were talking with their fellow first-years. Four of them were muggle-borns like the two boys. Laura Burton had neat, long brown hair with teeth which seemed to be slightly too big for her mouth. Alice Norton, a girl with crazy red hair which seemed curly, but stood out at odd angles was deep in conversation with Luna, discussing something called the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Matt French was a cheerful joking boy with tanned skin and dark hair, also in conversation with Katy Hilton, a black girl with her dark hair tied back on her head.

As well as their fellow muggle-borns, there were four new half-blood Ravenclaw's. A half-blood, as the others learned, were children who had a wizarding parent and a muggle or muggle-born parent. There was Kayden Crook, an abnormally tall boy with curly hair and his best friend Dexter Clark, whose hair seemed to be resisting the urge to curl. It transpired that the two of them had been friends since they were very young, having both been raised in the magical world. Hannah Lampford, the girl who had been sorted before Aaron, had sleek blond hair and several boys from down the table were watching as she chatted with Aaron. The final student was a shy girl named Nadia Rahman, who had quite an infectious laugh and was clearly enjoying her new company.

Eventually, the food disappeared and the puddings appeared. There were blocks of ice-cream in every flavour imaginable, including a multi-coloured one that looked like it might be every-beans flavour, pies and tarts, jelly and dougnuts and many others. Adam, who was now pretty full, took a block of vanilla ice-cream, deciding to play it safe. As the conversations continued, Luna came under fire from the majority of the first-years, all of whom wanted to know as much as possible, even the half-bloods, who were at as much of a disadvantage as the muggle-borns. Luna, clearly not used to so much attention was struggling, but at that moment, Professor McGonagall rose to her feet again.

The puddings disappeared and silence fell over the hall.

"Now that we've all eaten, I have a few notices to give out before the night is over. First-year students, and others, should know that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all students. I have also been asked by the caretaker Mr Filch to remind you that magic should not be used in the corridors and that all Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products, among others, have been banned. The full list can be examined in his office at any time." Adam saw Ginny threw a parting in the tables and saw her smile distinctly.

"Quidditch trials will be held the week after next. Anbody wishing to play for their house team should contact Madam Hooch as soon as possible." Based on the looks of confusion on his fellow Ravenclaw's faces, Adam wasn't the only one who didn't know what Quidditch was.

"That is all. Good night." The Ravenclaw first-years followed Luna out of the hall. They were all deep in conversation and none of them really seemed to be watching where they were going. Adam and Aaron in particular were talking about all of the new things they'd just heard with Kayden and Dexter, who knew considerably more about the magical world than them.

"Quidditch is the wizard sport," they explained, "but it's really hard to describe. You play it on broomsticks, but since first-years aren't allowed to bring their own, it's very difficult to get on to the house team." Before they knew it, they were walking up a tight spiralling staircase until they reached the top, where there was a door with a brass eagle door knocker on it. The students waited patiently, expecting Luna to do something, but they all jumped as the door knocker came to life and addressed Luna.

"Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?" Luna smiled before turning round and speaking to the first-years. She sounded mildly surprised, as if she had only just noticed they were there.

"To get into our common room you have to answer a question that the door asks you. Since you're all in the first-year, you won't get asked complicated questions like that one." She turned back to the door.

"A circle has no beginning."

"Nicely phrased." The door knocker replied before swinging open.

Adam couldn't help but smile at the sight of the Ravenclaw common room. It was a wide circular room with a midnight blue carpet and arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling overhead was painted with bright stars, which gave the same illusion that the great hall's ceiling did of still being outside. He looked around the room at the various bookcases, his smile widening at what he could learn in this room. At the end of the room, in between two doors was a white marble statue of a tall beautiful lady.

"That's Rowena Ravenclaw, our houses founder," Luna explained, several of the other students examining the statue closely. "Anyway, this door," she indicated the one on the left, "leads to the girls dormitory and the other one leads to the boys dormitory." She then opened the girls door and led them up the spiral staircase, leaving the five boys to go up their own staircase. They came across their own door on the first landing.

They opened the door to find five plush, four-poster beds with each of them having their own trunks and animals at the foot of each bed. Adam dived onto his bed in between Aaron's and Matt's and lay his head down on the pillow. The boys were all too tired to talk anymore, so changed into their pyjamas and went to bed. A strange purring sound reminded Adam with a start of Chalky, who he let out of his cage. After briefly running his hands through the pure white fur, Chalky dived on to the floor and into Aaron's bed. Of all of them in the room, these two were closest together.

"What a night huh?" Aaron asked quietly, snores already emanating from somewhere else in the room.

"Mmm" Adam replied weakly, himself drifting off into sleep. Sensing this, Aaron fell silent, and based on the loud "thunk", Chalky had leapt off of him now he was asleep. As the wind whistled through the windows of the tower, a relaxing sensation fell over Adam and he drifted peacefully off to sleep.