Discerum
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"Albus! Get up!"
Albus's eyelids fluttered open like the wings of a butterfly. For a second, he was blinded by the sunlight streaming in through the windows, but it quickly faded to reveal Lorcan towering over him. "You're going to be late for breakfast! Get dressed!"
The last of his sleep was shook from his mind as he realized what Lorcan was saying. "The others?" he asked.
"Already went down. Now hurry up! We get our schedules today!" Lorcan urged him, pulling his school bag over his shoulder and straightening his tie. "See you down there."
"Wait!" Albus cried. "You're going to leave me here?"
"No offense, Albus, but I don't want to miss my first day!" Lorcan said, and with that he ducked out of the dorm room, leaving Albus dumbstruck in his pajamas.
"Rude," he muttered as he pulled his robes out of his trunk and started getting ready for the day. A gold and scarlet Gryffindor tie had mysteriously appeared in the folds of his shirt, showing the whole school where he belonged. He fumbled with it around his neck, eventually getting it to a somewhat presentable state. He spun around in front of the mirror, wearing the Gryffindor colors with pride. When he was satisfied, he ran a wet hand through his hair to give it some life and hastily brushed his teeth. He stuffed his bag with his books, not knowing which ones he'd need for the day, and he ran down the stairs and out through the common room.
By the time he got to the Great Hall, he was winded, and he tried to catch his breath as he walked to the Gryffindor table. It was full of enough breakfast food to feed a herd of elephants, though Albus didn't have much of an appetite. He sat on the bench next to Lorcan, who was poring over his schedule.
"You're finally here," he muttered, still not looking up. "The owls came with our schedules. Here's yours," he said, blindly passing a piece of parchment to Albus, who snatched it up ravenously.
He skimmed over it, drinking up as much as he could all at once. "We have History of Magic with the Ravenclaws first..." he remarked. "...then Potions with the Hufflepuffs...and we end with Transfiguration with Slytherin."
"But that's just Monday!" Lorcan reminded him. "On Wednesdays and Fridays we have Astronomy at midnight, and on Thursdays we'll have flying lessons. Herbology is tomorrow, and Charms too. Then Defense Against the Dark Arts. I can't wait!" he exclaimed. "What are you most looking forward to?"
"Uh..." Albus mumbled, his mind going blank. "I don't know. I'll have to try every class to see which one is my favorite, I guess."
"Reasonable," Lorcan agreed. "Honestly, Charms is most interesting to me. But Defense Against the Dark Arts is very useful too! I can't wait to start." He glanced down at his watch. "Why is breakfast so long, anyway? Who needs this long to eat?"
"Everyone except you, Lorcan," Albus said as he piled pancakes onto his plate. "You eat less than a mouse!"
"Not true!" Lorcan defended himself. He started nibbling on a berry, and Albus couldn't help but giggle. "Stop that!"
Finally, the platters vanished, and Albus found himself biting down on air instead of a sausage. "Come on!" Lorcan said. "History of Magic time!"
Lorcan seemed much more excited for this class than Albus felt. From what his mom and dad had said, they never actually paid attention in this class; the teacher was so boring.
They ran into Rose as they made their way through the halls. "Hi, Lorcan! Hi, Albus! Are you excited or what?!" she shrieked.
"The first one," Lorcan agreed.
"Did you guys read the textbook yet?" she asked, pulling A History of Magic from her bag. "Mom always says that you should read all your textbooks cover to cover before you start the school year to really get a handle on the material."
"I read as much as I could, but I had to get a little of my own personal reading in too," Lorcan reasoned.
"I suppose," Rose said. "What about you, Albus?"
Albus felt his cheeks flush red as he glanced down at his yet unopened textbooks. "Well...um, I...oh, we're here!" he exclaimed, the door to the classroom just a few feet in front of them. "Come on, we should get good seats."
He slipped into the classroom before they could ask him any more about his summer reading. There were rows of desks lining the room, each with three chairs tucked neatly under it. He made for a table near the center of the room, Lorcan and Rose close behind. Albus took his seat and Lorcan sat next to him. Rose pulled out the third chair, but two girls across the room shouted to her. "Rose! Come sit with us!" She smiled meekly at the boys and waved goodbye, moving to join her new friends.
"Hey, can I sit with you guys?" Jack Finnegan-Thomas asked, brushing his raven hair behind his ears.
"Yeah, sure," Lorcan said, patting the seat next to him. Jack sat down next to them and smiled as a ghost floated through the wall right next to them. Albus stifled a scream; he'd never seen a real ghost before. He looked like a normal person, except he hovered a foot above the ground, he was translucent, and his whole body was greyish-silver. Despite his supernatural appearance, he looked utterly bored, destroying the mystical aura.
"Hello, children. I'm Professor Binns, and today's lesson is on the Gargoyle Strike of 1911. Take notes." He took a deep breath (Albus couldn't help wondering if he really needed to breathe or if he just did it for effect) and started to lecture. "The Gargoyle Strike of 1911 took place from January 4 to November 15, 1911, provoked by the unfair treatment of workers in the Gargoyle Union. Their primary duties in the workforce were to repel any evil spirits from high-risk buildings, but their pay was severely docked when..."
Albus was caught off guard by the sudden lesson. He pulled his notebook from his bag, pages tearing in his haste, and saw many others were doing the same. By the time he had turned to a fresh page and had his pencil ready, Binns was already onto the first rebellion.
By the time the class had come to an end, Albus had used up seven pages of his notebook, but he had been writing so fast the handwriting was unreadable. He sighed in disappointment as Binns doled out homework. "Read the first two chapters of your textbook by Wednesday. Class is dismissed." With that, he floated up through the ceiling into who-knows-where.
"Come on, Potions is on the other side of the school," Lorcan told Albus and Jack. "We have to hurry if we don't want to be late."
"See you guys later!" Rose said as she and her friends made their way to the next class. Jack, Lorcan, and Albus started walking across the school, pumping their legs a little faster than usual. They scurried down a stone flight of stairs under the castle, down into the dungeons. Contrary to what Albus expected, the whole hall was filled with the pungent aroma of fresh flowers. The source of the smell was the second door on the right: the potions classroom.
Albus's father had described potions class as torture, an underground prison where a cruel professor ridiculed the students all day. But Albus couldn't see how that could happen in a room like this. Beautiful, bright flowers sprouted from every surface, bioluminescent blues and vibrant yellows. Succulent fruits hung heavy from the ceiling, looking so full of juice that Albus's mouth watered at the sight of them. Mounds of rock curved up here and there like little hills, presumably to serve as desks, with little stumps for chairs. Tunnels trailed off through the walls in every direction, shining with precious jewels and echoing with the hisses of unknown animals. Rather than frightening, the noises sounded like a lullaby of sorts, and Albus felt more relaxed than he did in his own dorm.
At the front of the room a twisted tree root arced like a bridge; a desk for the professor. She leaned on it, beaming at the class as they entered. Her skin glowed chocolate brown, and her long black hair was braided with flowers. Her hazel eyes glinted with flecks of gold, and her teeth shone bright white. "Welcome, students, to Potions class! I'm Professor Eunice Perks. You can call me Ms. P," she told them in a voice as sweet as honey. "I'm the head of Hufflepuff house, so I expect good behavior from all of you. No bullying!" she warned as she wagged her finger at them.
Albus sat on a stump in front of one of the boulders, Lorcan on one side and Jack on the other. "Having a good first day?" Lysander asked as he sat next to Lorcan.
"Oh, yeah! History class is a hoot! You'll love it," Lorcan assured his twin. Lysander shifted his gaze to Albus, hoping for reassurance. Albus shook his head vigorously and mimed slitting his throat.
"Oh, well that seems awful," Lysander remarked, setting up his cauldron. Lorcan turned to Albus confused.
"Why does he-"
"Just forget about it," Albus told him. Lorcan shrugged and started getting out a cauldron of his own while the professor continued.
"You may be wondering about the decor; I'll have you know, it's not just for looks. Over the past few years I've worked to turn the dungeons of Hogwarts into one of the most productive potion ingredient farms in the world. All potions are more potent when made with fresh ingredients, so for each new recipe we try, we'll harvest the ingredients ourselves," she informed them.
"Now, who can tell me how potions were invented?" Lorcan raised his hand and Mrs. P gestured for him to go on.
"Well, originally, potions were simply the juices of magical fruit. After studying the properties of the natural potions, they tried to replicate them using their own recipes," he finished, looking satisfied.
"Very astute," she said. "Ten points to Gryffindor. We will follow in the ways of the ancient potion makers, and start our lessons by studying the juice of the Agrypnia fruit." She picked a round, honey-colored fruit from the ceiling above her. "Sectumsempra!" she chirped, waving her wand across its surface in a slicing motion. The fruit immediately split in two, dripping with a yellow substance, thick and syrupy. It gave off a smell like burning plastic.
"Now, don't let its appearance fool you," she told them as she collected the liquid into a jar. "The juice of the Agrypnia fruit is delicious, and sweet like honey. It was one of the first potions discovered by ancient wizards." She swirled it in the jar and it gave off a burst of sparks, flashing like fireworks. "A single sip will keep you awake for days. It's very useful when you're low on time and need to work through the night. However, drinking too much can be dangerous; staying awake that long can lead to madness."
They sat there still for the whole period, their attention caught by Ms. P. She showed them dozens of different fruit, each one with a different magical property. When class ended, Albus wished it could keep going for the rest of the day, especially considering class with the Slytherins was next.
"Have a beautiful day!" Ms. P yelled to them as they filed out. "Remember to come to the next lesson with a potion to tell the class about!"
"Transfiguration," Lorcan said immediately, giving them no time to think about the lesson they'd just had. He pulled Jack and Albus by their wrists, up three flights of stairs and down two more, landing them in an entirely different area of the school.
"Oh, hi, Teddy!" Albus exclaimed as he entered the classroom, which was essentially identical to the one for History of Magic. At the front of the room, two men were locked in conversation. One was tall and stocky, so thick he looked to be made out of bricks. The other was shorter, with a shock of bright blue hair spiked up like the needles of a porcupine. He spun around at the sound of his name and smiled at them brightly. He spoke to them as he rushed across the room towards them.
"Hey, Albus! Lorcan! And you are?" he asked, his green eyes glinting as he stared down at Jack.
"J-Jack Thomas-Finnegan, sir," he stammered.
"No need to be so formal," Teddy assured him. "I'm not really your teacher. I'm just training so I can be someday! You guys'll love today's lesson; it went over real well with the other class." He looked around the room and saw that it was filling, but only with Gryffindor students. "Now, where exactly are the Slytherins?"
Like the word was a summoning charm, the door to the classroom burst open with excessive force as the Slytherin class arrived. Raucous and ornery as always, they were crowded together like vultures surrounding a carcass. Albus couldn't see who was at the center, but it wasn't hard to guess: it would be Scorpius, the perfect Slytherin poster boy. But...wait, no, Albus could see him on the edge of the group, standing on his tiptoes to try to see the object of everyone's attention. But then who was in the center?
Like a knife through butter, the central figure cut through the crowd, emerging at the head of the group. Albus blinked his eyes at the impossibility of it; at the unlikelihood that somehow the most popular student in Slytherin could be-
"Louis?" Lorcan muttered, clearly just as confused as Albus.
"Hey, darlings! Having a nice first day?" he asked, cocking his head to one side and resting his hands on his hips.
"Louis...why are you so..." Albus started, but his sentence petered out.
"Cheerful? Slytherin really isn't so bad," Louis assured them. "Once I started talking to people, I realized how much we had in common. I fit right in. Better than right in, actually; I'm pretty popular among them. Come here, Rosmerta!" he called, gesturing a short girl with an upturned nose towards them.
"Hey, everybody!" she squealed. "So great to meet you!"
"Rosmerta is just the sweetest girl you'll ever meet," Louis told them. "And - oh! Dylan!" He grabbed a tall, lanky boy who looked far older than eleven by the wrist and yanked him forward.
"Hiya," he said, waving.
"I was just showing everybody the next-gen WizPhone," he told them.
"Wait, what?!" Lorcan exclaimed. "That's...no! You're not supposed to show anybody!"
"Uncle George won't mind - he's cool like that." Louis glanced up at the teacher who was clearing his throat. "Class is starting, I think. Talk to you later!" Gliding across the room like an ice skater, he sat in the center of a long wooden table. Immediately the nearby seats were filled by Slytherins.
"That's ridiculous. I can't believe him!" Lorcan fumed. "Taking advantage of WizTech for - for what? Popularity? He's being a jerk."
"It'll be fine, I'm sure," Albus said. "Louis just needs attention or he goes crazy. He's just using this to get friends. Once he has them, he'll quit it."
"George would not approve, I can tell you that! His nerve, honestly..." Lorcan muttered, mumbling rude remarks the whole while he was seating himself at the front of the class. Albus settled in next to him.
"Good afternoon, students!" the professor boomed. His voice was rich and heavy, like if chocolate cake could talk. He clasped his hands in front of him, each finger as big around as a bottlecap. Albus couldn't help wondering if this man were a half-giant like Hagrid. "Welcome to Transfiguration! I am Professor Quentin Sardony, master transfigurator. Transfiguration is one of the most difficult forms of magic, but with it you can do almost anything." He reached back to his desk and picked up an hourglass. "Someone, name an animal!"
He tossed the hourglass into the air. As it flew, a voice from behind Albus shouted, "Camel!"
Quick as a whip, Professor Sardony flicked his wand in such a complicated pattern, Albus could barely follow the movement. Just before the hourglass shattered on the stone floor, he exclaimed, "Camefors!" and the hourglass morphed into an enormous, smelly camel.
The entire class oohed and aahed as the camel gazed around at them lazily. "Oh! Oh! Do a unicorn!" Rosmerta shrieked.
"If you insist!" he said. He maneuvered his wand with such precision that he might have been painting a picture in the air. "Equicornufors!" The camel's hump shrunk and its hide became a glossy white. A shining horn poked through its forehead. It was the first time Albus had seen a unicorn in the flesh. "One more!"
"Anaconda!" a Slytherin boy piped up. A Slytherin asking for a snake. Typical.
"Murinufors!" Professor Sardony shouted. Albus watched in fascination and horror as the beautiful unicorn was forced into the form of a monstrous snake nearly ten feet long. It started to slither at an alarming speed for the students, many of whom started screaming like howler monkeys. Immediately, the professor uttered, "Vera Verto." The immense form of the snake melted into liquid silver, which came together seemingly of its own accord to take the shape of a goblet.
Professor Sardony calmly strutted forward and snatched the goblet off of the floor. He positioned his wand tip over the cup and clean, clear water flowed forth from the tip. "As you can see, when transfiguration is your chosen path, the world can quite literally be whatever you make of it."
"That's not true!" Lorcan chimed. Every eye in the room shot to him. He immediately seemed to shrink several inches. "I mean...um, did I say that out loud?"
"Quite loudly, yes," Professor Sardony muttered, sipping from his hourglass-camel-unicorn-anaconda-goblet hybrid. "And just what do you mean by that, if you don't mind my asking."
"Well, it's just that, um..." he started, stuttering slightly. A large Gryffindor boy behind them with a face reminiscent of a pig's snickered. At the sound of laughter, Lorcan's demeanor immediately changed. "Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration." His voice rang out, crisp and clear through the chamber. "In it, it clearly states that food of any sort cannot be conjured or transfigured from any other object. However, it can be summoned from a known location or cooked via magical means. Still, the world cannot be whatever you make of it, as there is no way to transform an object into food of any kind." By the end of his rant, he had regrown the height he had lost earlier. With fire in his eyes, he spun in his chair to face the enormous boy who had chuckled before. "Which is bad news for you, because it means you can't transfigure a table into a gigantic cake to stuff your fat face like you wish you could." He turned back to face the Professor. "That's what I meant."
"Well, in that case, 10 points to Gryffindor for preparedness," Professor Sardony said. "But I'll have to dock 10 points for rudeness." Despite not actually having gained anything, Lorcan still looked as smug as Albus had ever seen him.
The rest of the lesson was just as intriguing as the beginning, Sardony pulling out every Transfiguration trick Albus had ever heard of. It was easily the most entertaining class of the day. After turning the floor back into stone, the professor was clearly exhausted. Luckily for him, the bell clanged just then.
"Well, who's ready to explore Transfiguration this year?" Nearly every hand in the room shot to the ceiling. "Well, that leads me to your first homework assignment, due on Wednesday. Write a two-hundred word piece on any area of Transfiguration that interests you! Enjoy yourself, and have fun with this one. Now, off to lunch with you!"
Albus, Lorcan, and Jack sprung up from their seats. As they made their way to the door, Albus glanced back to see Louis running up to Professor Sardony. He kept bouncing up and down on his toes, so full of energy he looked like he was about to explode.
"What do you suppose Louis is up to?" he asked.
"I couldn't care less," Lorcan remarked. "I'm just excited to get started on this paper! I think I'll do mine on trans-species transfiguration. What about you?"
"I don't have a clue," Albus muttered. "Maybe...vanishing spells? Or conjuring spells? I'll figure it out later."
"I think Animagi are super cool," Jack chimed in. "I'm doing mine on those."
"Talking about the Transfiguration paper?" Rose asked, popping up from a nearby stairwell. "I'm going to explore Untransfiguration. It's an area that many people never really think about, but I find the logistics of it to be simply fascinating!" she exclaimed.
"I'll be honest; I didn't expect this much homework the first night," Lorcan admitted. "We got assignments in every class! I'll definitely have to stop down at the library before dinner."
"Oh, count me in!" Rose squealed.
Albus felt Jack nudge him in the side with his elbow. "I'm not really in the mood for studying," Jack said. "Want to go up to the common room and play some wizard chess? My dads got me a really cool set for my birthday."
"Yeah, I'd love to!" Albus agreed.
And so, stomach stuffed to the brim from lunch, Albus and Jack took their places in the enormous, plushy red chairs in front of the fireplace. Jack's chess set really was impressive, with each type of chess piece carved from a different kind of stone. They played for what felt like forever, but Albus hardly noticed. He loved wizard chess; he and Lily would play for hours on end every other Sunday.
Despite his fondness for the game, he was glad when the bell sounded for dinner. "Man, you're incredible at this game!" Jack remarked as he packed up the pieces.
"You're pretty good yourself," Albus answered as they filed out of the common room with the rest of the Gryffindors.
The Great Hall was as beautiful as ever, the ceiling sparkling with starlight. The smell of delicious food was intoxicating, and Albus felt as though he were floating into his seat next to Lorcan. "How's your homework coming along?" he asked as he grabbed a platter of chicken.
"It's going very well! I've nearly done with my essay for Transfiguration - only three-hundred words to go!" Lorcan said.
"But...the assignment was only two hundred words."
"Yeah, I figured I may as well get in the habit of doing more than needed, so I upped my personal goal to three-thousand words. Having more of a workload really inspires you to get it done," he explained.
Albus shook his head and ate a chunk of his chicken. Instantly his mouth was on fire. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "Why is the food so spicy tonight?"
Lorcan took a bite of his fish to see what Albus meant. "Woah, you're right! The house elves may have overdone it a bit." Lorcan reached out to fill his glass from a nearby fountain of pumpkin juice and gulped down a huge swig.
Albus surveyed the table to find a drink for himself, but all he could see were fountains overflowing with orange. "Do they have anything other than pumpkin juice tonight? I really need something to wash this down."
"Do you not like it or something?" Jack asked as he took a sip from his own cup. "Trust me, the Hogwarts stuff is way better than what they have anywhere else. You should give it a go!"
"It's not that I don't like the taste," Albus assured him. "I'm actually allergic to pumpkins."
"What? Really?" Jack looked shocked. He covered the top of his glass, seemingly trying to keep the poison pumpkin from getting to Albus.
"I can be around them, I just can't eat them! Or anything from the squash family, actually. I've never eaten a melon." Albus searched around again, but pumpkin juice was the only drink anywhere. Even the teachers' mugs were filled with the sweet but untouchable drink.
"I guess they didn't consider the allergy when they planned the menu for tonight," Lorcan reasoned. "But here, I can help. Open your mouth!"
Albus complied, stretching his jaw as far as it could go. "Aguamenti!" Lorcan cried, pointing his wand down Albus's gullet. A jet of water exploded from the wand tip, and though some went into Albus's mouth, it mostly just soaked his hair and his shirt. "Oh, sorry, Albus!" Lorcan said, but he was actually collapsing into a fit of giggles.
Dinner went by in a flash, leaving Albus still hungry. He hadn't eaten much with no way to combat the intense spices. He, Jack, and Lorcan were walking in the crowd of Gryffindors back up to the common room.
"I think I'm gonna turn in early tonight," Lorcan said. "For some reason I feel really tired."
"What about you, Jack? Want to play another round of chess?" Albus asked.
"I don't know...maybe one more. I'm pretty beat too," Jack told him.
"Everyone seems tired all of a sudden," Albus noticed. Indeed, everyone around them was rubbing their eyes and yawning in earnest. To Albus, it seemed like he might be the only one who didn't want to go to bed.
That was the first strange thing he noticed. The second came soon after, in the form of a thud on the window right next to him. No one else seemed to hear, but Albus's head snapped towards it instantly. He walked over to window, but there was nothing outside that could have crashed against it. Except...there was a smudge on the window. If Albus squinted, it almost looked like a hand. Was someone out there, just invisible?
"Hey, guys, check this out," he said, but Jack and Lorcan were too far away to hear. "Whatever," he muttered to himself, moving a little faster to catch up with the crowd.
Almost everyone went up to the dorm rooms as soon as they reach Gryffindor Tower. The only ones who remained in the common room were an exhausted-looking girl reading in the far corner and a group of three upperclassmen boys, determined to fight through their fatigue and make the most of the night. Albus and Jack took the same seats they were in before, and Jack clumsily pulled out his board again. His fingers didn't seem to be quite in tune with his mind, as they knocked the pieces all over the place and couldn't seem to pick any of them up.
"Jack, you seem really tired. Maybe you should just go up to bed," Albus suggested. Jack gave no response. "Jack?" Albus looked closer. Jack's eyes were shut. He had fallen asleep while Albus was talking.
Suddenly, loud snores echoed from across the room. Albus turned to see that the three boys were knocked unconscious as well as the girl in the corner, who was drooling on her book. "What the..." Albus muttered. Something was seriously wrong with all of this.
The sound of creaky wood drew his attention once again. The window was opening, albeit slowly. The wind? Then why was there no breeze? Every hair on Albus's body stood on end as he heard a whisper in the silence. "Incendio," the voice said, and a jet of orange light arced from the window into the fireplace.
"No! Protego!" Albus yelled, pulling out his wand just as the room exploded with fire.