I do not own the Harry Potter series or Pokémon.
Chapter Six: Dive In Head First
Moon was, surprisingly, woken up the next morning by sunlight streaming in through her window. She blinked several times to clear the sleep from her eyes.
Didn't I move the curtain last night?
She propped herself up and stared out the window. Although she wouldn't call it the crack of dawn, it was still fairly early in the morning. Too early to be up during the summer. But, as she was fully awake already, she moved to get out of the bed—and stopped.
There was a tray resting on the bedside table, piled with food; scrambled eggs, piping hot sausages, a mound of hash browns, three pieces of toast with jam and marmalade, a small pitcher of juice she couldn't identify, and a pot of coffee with cream and sugar on the side.
She experimentally tapped the edge of the coffee pot—it was still hot—and then the containers of cream and juice—both cold. The tray couldn't have possibly been sitting there for more than ten minutes, but the only way into her room was through a heavy and rather noisy door. It couldn't have been possible to sneak in and out of the room without waking her up.
Moon bit her lip. Magic. Of course.
She poured a slosh of the juice into the empty glass and tasted it. Pumpkin. How one would juice a pumpkin, or why one would bother trying, she did not know. She moved to set the pitcher back down when she spotted a note written in green ink.
Dear Miss Blakesley,
Happy birthday. You have been given the day off to acquaint yourself with the layout of the castle, as well as get a head start on your studies. On the other side of this note is a list of the professors who will be tutoring you over the next few weeks, as well as a few additional rules regarding your stay at Hogwarts. I hope you enjoy breakfast this morning.
-Dumbledore
Moon pulled a small stool from underneath the table and sat down. She flipped the card over, reading the new rules she had been given. There wasn't anything ridiculous—just some basic expectations about her eating in the Great Hall, showing up to her tutoring sessions on time, and not assisting in any rule breaking for other students. She hadn't been given a curfew, she wasn't expected to show up to classes once school officially started, and she could start eating in her room when the students arrived, if she pleased. She scanned the list of teachers and their subjects. She recognized McGonagall, Hagrid, and Sprout, but that was it. Every teacher was taking time to teach her one subject, except a man called Snape, who would teach her Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
After she finished her breakfast, she changed into her new robes (a process that took almost half an hour, since she was not familiar with the clothing) and left her room. The castle halls were empty, but by the next month they would be filled with swarms of students. Moon had plans to memorize as much of the castle as she could, so that when school started, she would know how to avoid everyone.
Unfortunately, she hadn't considered the fact that she was in a magic castle. Whenever she tried to memorize an area by the portraits, the suits of armour, or the doors, she eventually found herself having to relearn the layout as the suits of armour moved and the doors vanished. The portraits were somewhat helpful, but most of them gave directions that were, at best, temporary.
"How does anyone find anything in here?" she muttered angrily. She was about to enter another corridor when she heard muffled giggling. Seconds later, a loaf of stale bread smacked against her shoulder.
"What in the…"
"Ickle firstie is here early!" a voice cackled behind her. Moon turned to see a floating puppet-like creature floating in the air. "Early firstie girl!"
"Did you throw that bread at me?" she asked rhetorically. The puppet cackled again before blowing a raspberry.
"Little firstie asking Peeves questions. Expecting Peeves to answer. Ha! Silly firstie!"
"I am not a first year," she retorted. "And my name is Moon."
That, it seemed, delighted the puppet even more. "Loony Moon! Loony moony Moon!"
Peeves snickered as he ran through multiple variations of her name. Moon rolled her eyes, deciding to leave the puppet alone.
"Nice toss," she remarked as she walked into the new corridor. She heard a weird sputtering noise but didn't go back to investigate.
After a few rounds of the castle and the agonizing discovery of the moving staircases, Moon felt like she had learned enough to survive the next month. She ran out of the castle, delighted to see the sun shining brightly. She didn't stay out too long, as she was wearing her robes, but she got to see the greenhouses and, from a distance, a small stadium.
Wonder what they do there?
Moon managed to make it back to her room with only one wrong turn. The breakfast tray had vanished, and the pyjamas she had laid out on the bed were neatly folded on top of her trunk. She moved the clothes and opened the chest in search of her textbooks. She was technically taking every class available, including the optional courses, until the end of the month. It was ridiculous, but she figured taking every class would prepare her for any unseen circumstances when the students arrived and started asking questions.
She pulled out every textbook and picked one at random, which happened to be her slightly deformed Potions textbook. She ran a finger along the crease before cracking it open. After five minutes, she opened her Herbology textbook right beside it, as she had no idea what some of the plants mentioned in the first book were. She read over the first and second chapter thoroughly and skimmed through the third before turning her attention to the Herbology book. Moon had never been as fascinated with plants as Mallow would have liked, but the plants in Alola weren't half as interesting as the ones she read about. She accidently read half of the textbook before she set it down and reached for Transfiguration.
Unlike the previous two subjects, Transfiguration actually required a wand to work. The length of apple wood in her cloak pocket was itching to be used, but the textbook stated that the subject was extremely precise and should not be attempted without some training first, no matter how tempting it was to try.
She checked the schedule for the next day. She had covered all of the subjects she would need, except for Charms. This subject also required a wand, and while it was still as precise as Potions or Transfiguration, it seemed like a lot more fun. Having things levitate or suddenly grow legs and tap dance was surely something she would enjoy.
After she had read the first few chapters of the Charms textbook, she looked over her schedules again. Strangely, the next day was the only day where she had four classes to attend. The other days had three classes at most. Moon checked the four classes again, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary with them.
Maybe this is a 'dive in head first' method, she wondered. She didn't think that was the case.
Moon was just about to reach for her Arithmancy text when a small popping noise distracted her. She looked over her shoulder and nearly yelped when she saw a creature with spindly limbs and an oversized head.
"Hello there," she breathed, rapidly getting over her shock. "What are you doing here?"
"Pippi was told to escort Miss Moon to the Great Hall for dinner," the creature explained in a squeaky voice. "Headmaster thought you needed reminding."
Moon checked the clock mounted on the wall and grimaced. It had been hours since she originally had sat down to study, and she hadn't noticed the time passing.
"Thank you very much, Pippi," Moon thanked as she set her books aside. She would have said more if the creature didn't suddenly burst into a fit of sobs.
After several minutes of trying to console the house elf and only making things worse for a short time, Moon found herself on the way to the Great Hall. The portraits had lost interest in her, although some called out a greeting as she passed by. She thought she saw a creature resembling a Meowth glaring at her from another hallway, but Pippi continued leading her to the Great Hall. Once they were at the large door, Pippi vanished with a snap of her fingers, leaving Moon by herself. With some hesitation, the young champion pushed open the door.
The first thing she noticed was the long table with multiple professors gathered around it. The second thing she noticed was that they had ceased talking and had turned their attention toward her. Some gave her small smiles, others looked rather happy to see her, and a few were entirely neutral. Dumbledore was smiling the brightest, and he waved at her.
"Glad to see you're able to join us, Miss Blakesley," the old wizard greeted. Moon nodded as she walked over to the empty seat between McGonagall and an intimidating wizard with a hooked nose. There was a tense air between the two of them, and she would have considered moving if the food didn't arrive merely a second after she sat down. She picked roughly a bite-sized portion of everything off of every platter she could reach, which included mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, a small piece of chicken, and a dinner roll. More adventurous foods such as liver were further up the table, but she didn't dare to ask for them.
Dumbledore took a minute to introduce her to the other professors. Moon soon learned that the man next to her was Professor Snape, head of Slytherin, the goblin-sized man across from her was Professor Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw, and Professors McGonagall and Sprout were heads of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, respectively. Her schedule for the upcoming day made more sense.
She was being unofficially sorted by the four Heads.
Another chapter down!
Peeves will be appearing more later on.
Also: I'm trying to combine some of the shorter chapters together. My usual goal when writing is to get 1000 words down per chapter and then see what else can be done, but I think I'll try to aim a little higher than that. And I'm also looking forward to getting to some of the bigger plot points. What do you guys think; is the current length fine or do you want longer chapters?
Review and let me know what you think!