Chapter Six

Freedom of Choice

Despite the fact that the new house had their first class at Second Bell on Tuesdays, it was a very good thing that Quintin always got up on time, regardless of how late they were up because of Astronomy. He roused everyone in the wizard's wing whether they wanted to get up or not, and when they were finally moving, he went to the witch's wing and realized that the didn't know the password to the door guard.

Jeremy stumbled into the common room with his water bottle on his head.

"I had awful dreams last night," Jeremy declared. "Apertures, magnitudes, zeniths, right ascensions... did any of the words last night even make sense? And then, after all of that, all of the acronyms were stupidly simple beyond belief! Why in the hell are we even learning all of this?" he ranted.

"Having an understanding of basic Astronomy helps you when you move on to Astrology and Ancient Magic. There are also quite a number of spells that are geared towards atmospheric and orbital manipulation. You wouldn't want to use Comet Strike if you didn't know what you were pulling down, would you?" Quintin asked him.

"I wouldn't be dumb enough to try that spell in any case! Who would in this day and age?" Jeremy asked as Quintin knocked on the witches' door to know avail. "I bet they stayed up too late after class last night. I wouldn't mind sleeping in a bit longer myself."

"I'm not going to be late to class and neither are you. Stand here and knock in one minute increments until they open the door or I get back," Quintin said.

"I hope you're not going to make me time it like you do," Jeremy complained as Quintin stepped out of the common room. Fortunately, it was only four knocks later when Quintin came back in followed by a broom that seemed to be hovering in air all by itself.

"It's in this section," Quintin seemed to tell the broom. "Nobody bothered to dust the floors or under any of the beds at all, and those poor witches have been having to sleep in there," he told her.

There was a click and the door opened, then the broom went bouncing in.

"Shouldn't we just go in there and knock on the doors now that it's open?" Jeremy asked. Suddenly he heard a scream of surprise, and soon it was echoed again and again as the broom began going from room to room.

"No need. I think they're awake now," Quintin informed him. "Let's get ready for breakfast and Transfiguration," he suggested, the two of them ducking back into the wizard dorm rooms before Bethia waltzed back out of the Guard Wing to find another room to dust.

Transfiguration was tedious at best the first day, mostly involving reading, a lecture, and a short essay assignment where they listed different situations where learning Transfiguration would come in handy. Quintin dutifully took notes despite already knowing everything his brother had taught them, noticing that his fellow housemate expressions ranged from confused to bored.

"I wish we could have learned some spells instead of just sitting there trying to figure out what he was talking about," Pete complained.

"Don't forget, a lot of first years haven't finished their first week of Charms yet," Quintin replied. "We were warned that we were going to have to be patient during our first classes, Pete. But I'm sure by next week we'll be using magic in most of our classes."

"Good, because we might as well be in regular school for all the sitting and listening and essays we've been doing," Pete said critically. The he stopped when he noticed that Quintin and Jeremy were splitting off when they got to the doors of the Great Hall. "Hey, aren't you going to lunch?"

"Jeremy and I were invited to have lunch with the Order of the Owls... it's a student organization that sets goals to help the school," Quintin explained.

"That doesn't sound like fun," Pete said, unimpressed.

"Come sit with me, Pete! I'm sure there's other fun clubs and things to join! Do you want to come to Bridal Club with me this afternoon?" Oscar suggested.

"Pass," Pete said and went inside. Oscar shrugged and went in with the rest of the house.

"Come on," Quintin said to Jeremy, leading him down the corridor towards the library.

"Speaking of afternoon, did you want to head out to the football during study period?" Jeremy asked as they walked.

"Jeremy," Quintin chuckled. "I know it seems like we have extra time since we ended up with two doubles and had Astronomy last night, but if we don't use our allotted study time for actual study, when exactly do you plan on getting it done? I still have a lot more research to do for my essay in History, and until I have all of the resources I need in front of me to write the paper, I can't even give myself an estimate of how long it's going to take me to finish it. That is not even considering that we have to read a daily newspaper to find something for Defense, plus we have approximately twenty minutes of reading to do in Herbology, Transfiguration, and Defense, thirty-five minutes of History, forty-two minutes in Charms, plus spell memorization and a ten minute latin worksheet, not to mention the vocabulary we're supposed to memorize for Astronomy class..."

"But we just got that!" Jeremy protested. "We have a whole weekend before we have to worry about it!"

"Fair enough, but you can't say the same for most of our other homework, can you?" Quintin pointed out.

"We could just do it at night like everyone else does," Jeremy protested.

"I suppose you can do what you want to, Jeremy, but we were given study period for a reason, and I plan to use it for such. I am not going to get myself into a position where I run out of the time necessary to do my homework properly," Quintin said. Jeremy rolled his eyes. "And no, I am not getting obsessed with time again, no matter what you think. I am simply making certain that I am using my time efficiently, which isn't the same thing."

"If you say so," Jeremy said. Quintin refused to look in his direction, knowing that Jeremy was just saying that to placate him. Instead, Quintin concentrated on getting to the library. He stepped over to the Owl Room door, wondering if they shouldn't knock.

"Feel free to go right in," Librarian Boulderdash told them from behind the front desk, seeing the hesitation.

"Thanks," Quintin replied and opened the door, stepping inside.

"There they are," Rus said, sliding his colored spectacles down his nose with a smile.

"Welcome," TJ greeted from her position at the head of the table.

"Are there assigned seats?" Quintin inquired.

"During meetings, everyone typically sits with their houses, but other than that, you can sit anywhere you like," TJ explained. "These will be for your house," she added, showing them the ones on her right side next to Ravenclaw. "There's only three open this year because Ravenclaw has five members, but once one has graduated out, you'll have all four," she explained. "And it's probably just as well, since I'm sure you don't want to be in a position where you end up with all four of your house members in the same year, because then we'd have to replace all four at once every time you graduate out."

"That's a very good point," Quintin said.

"Even so, if there's anyone else you think needs to take the third seat, don't hesitate to bring it up, since I'm sure that problem will work itself out eventually on its own," TJ added. "I think it's only appropriate that you two make the decision on whether or not you want to bring someone in or wait."

"Thanks, we'll think about it," Quintin agreed.

"Good! Go ahead and grab some lunch then! Ella, would you mind getting their goals for them as well?" TJ asked,

"Sure," Ella said, finding the correct names and then passing them along while Quintin and Jeremy got their plates. Quintin sat down by Rus, who handed him the scroll, more than a little curious what sort of goals he ended up with.

"So what are these about?" Jeremy asked curiously, grabbing his scroll but setting it aside so he could eat first.

"These are personal goals you are given to work on," TJ explained. "The three already written down are from your house advisor, the headmaster, and Librarian Boulderdash, the Owl advisor, who is now your primary advisor, by the way. They scramble them about and don't tell you suggested what goal, but sometimes it's easy to tell," TJ admitted. "There are also a couple of places for you to write in your own goals. You are not obligated to finish any of them, it's up to you. You also don't have to share with anyone what they are, either. But if you finish them, you'll earn personal owl feathers, which go in that glass box over there, and at the end of the year, the one with the most feathers wins a pin. Also, with every year you complete, you also get a colored band added to your brown and rose-gold armbands, which designates you as a member of the order."

"That's cool," Jeremy decided.

"Also, every year we vote for a goal that the entire order works on, that contributes to the school in some way. It can be anything from adding a new club, researching something important, or aiding in a large event, like we did during the Junior Wizard Olympics. But generally, we end up donating our time and helping fundraise for something that needs upgraded or fixed around the school," TJ explained.

"That sounds like a lot of work," Jeremy said, wondering if Pete didn't have the right idea in ducking into the Great Hall.

"Yes, but it's well worth the effort, and you'll be amazed at how much the order has accomplished over the years," TJ assured him. "You can barely go anywhere in this castle without running into something the Order of Owls has contributed these days."

"Last year, we added the tennis courts on the back grounds," Rus explained. "And the year before that, we teamed up with Doctor Arcadia and Grandfather to problem solve a whole bunch of different issues in the school to make it more accessible to all students, regardless if they have challenges with vision, hearing, or mobility."

"That actually ended up being a lot of fun," Sissy admitted with a smile. "We even went to the United States and toured Whitebridge Academy as part of our research, and it gave us all sorts of ideas we hadn't even thought of before we went."

"Oh yeah, I remember my Dad mentioning something about that," Jeremy admitted. "At the time, I didn't know why there were Hogwarts students visiting, I just remember being mad that Rus and Jay went and didn't come to visit afterwards."

"Of course we couldn't," Jay sighed at him. "We toured it on Sunday, and we had classes the next day. Did you forget the time difference?"

"Maybe I did, I was just a little kid back then," Jeremy protested.

"You're still a little kid," Jay informed him, and Jeremy made a face at him.

"I take that all of you know each other well, then," Elmira conjectured.

"Jeremy's parents teach at Whitebridge and are close friends with Professor Craw," Jay explained. "We tend to visit them when we're in Pittsburgh over the summer... we have a lot of friends there, really. We even went to summer camp with Truman Ford, another friend of ours from over there."

"Really? I didn't hear about that!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"Probably because your parents were afraid that if you had heard about it, you'd try to invite yourself along," Jay said critically.

"We were too young to go," Quintin explained to Jeremy. "It's for thirteen and up with at least two years of magic school."

"How someone brings up something interesting that I want to do, it's just outside of my reach in some way?" Jeremy complained.

"There's plenty to do for first years too," TJ protested.

The door opened and Mickey, Dawn, Gloria, and Penny walked in, greeting everyone as they grabbed their sandwiches with Mickey taking the seat next to Olivia while Dawn, Gloria, and Penny took the ones on the other side of Rus and Sissy. They had just gotten settled when Boulderdash came in and hopped on the stool at his repair desk.

"Sorry we're running behind," Gloria said. "We were on our way down from Divination and ran into Mr. Chance putting up a note on the Service Room door. Apparently there's a number of slots open in Orchestra I this year because several people graduated and he realized some of the sections are going to be light this year."

"It's not just that, some of us have classes in that time slot this year," Jay pointed out. "I know I have a really heavy year this year. Since I know what I want to do after school, I went ahead and asked Brittle what classes would be beneficial to try and get into officer's school when I graduate. I needed the time slot to take a second year of Arithmantics, so I took Chance's Strings class instead."

"You really are set on going into the RBF, aren't you?" Gloria asked. Jay nodded once at her, cleaning up his lunch tray. "I haven't even come close to making up my mind what I'm going to say at my interview... and honestly, if I did, I'd be afraid of changing my mind again before then."

"Well, I am not changing my mind, that's for certain, no matter what my mother thinks of the idea," Jay said firmly.

"That's true. It doesn't matter what she thinks about it," Rus interjected. "And since it doesn't matter, there's no reason for you to discount any careers she might approve of either, not matter how tempting is to stick with it just to spite her." Jay looked up and stared at him fixedly.

"Brother, stay out of my head," Jay said flatly, getting up and walking out of the room. As the rest of the Owls watched the door shut behind him, Boulderdash let out an exasperated sigh.

"I was very much hoping that everyone was here today so that you could start discussing the order's goal for the year," Boulderdash snarled.

"Sorry," Rus said sincerely. "But Gloria has a point. We just don't want him to get so caught up in this idea that he's hurting his chances for becoming something else."

"Well, what does Grandfather and Grandmother think about it?" Mickey asked.

"They believe it's ultimately up to him and support him no matter what he chooses," Rus explained. "In fact, they promised that he could do an RBF training program next summer if all of his OWLS are high enough. That said, from what I read off of Grandmother, I'm not sure she's keen on his choice either, she just thinks it is more important to support him regardless."

"Also keep in mind that the classes he needs to take to get into the program he needs is quite rigorous," Boulderdash offered. "Therefore, even if he decides to go into another field at the last minute, it should not hurt his chances since his current curriculum will more than likely cover the majority of what he would need in other professions. And since it creates no educational barriers for his future, there is no reason for his guardians to be anything but supportive regardless."

"Yes, you're right," Rus sighed. "I'll talk to him about it later and apologize," he decided.

"Anyway, even though I don't want to vote on any goals without all of us here, there's no reason we can't discuss some possible ideas, is there?" TJ suggested.

"I'm betting you're going to say something about helping out with the new house, aren't you?" Penny Morris said knowingly.

"That would be one obvious suggestion," TJ agreed.

"Helping out how?" Jeremy asked curiously.

"In any way we can, really," TJ replied. "Donating for drapes and helping with furniture and the like, just like we did before when we helped with the extensions for the other four houses."

"The operable word being 'extensions,'" Boulderdash reminded her. "The other houses only needed a few extra dormitory rooms and additional common room space so that students could spread out comfortably while they were studying. As great of a task that was, it is still vastly different than attempting to build something like this from scratch, especially with the amount of renovations that will need to be done before it will truly be inhabitable without borrowing space from other areas of the castle. My suggestion would be to pick one task out of the many that need done to contribute... something of a scale that would be more manageable," he suggested. "Or, perhaps you could simply contribute by helping with the fundraising, because I'm certain that even if the auction is enough to pay for the masonry and other renovations to the exteriors, they may end up cutting corners on the interiors without further donations coming in."

"Yes, alright," TJ agreed, then glanced at Elliot. "Perhaps what we should do first is discuss possible options with Professor Black and Professor Snape and make up a list of projects we can consider? Then we can vote on which one we like best this weekend."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Jack agreed. "You want me to go along?"

"Sure," TJ agreed.

"I'll make you an appointment," Boulderdash offered, writing it down.

A few minutes later, most of the students began heading out of the Owl Room for their next class, and Quintin turned his attention to his books.

"Did you want to study in the library or in the Common Room?" Quintin asked as they left.

"Actually, I was thinking of going to the Service Room to see about what time that Orchestra thing is. Jay said they meet this afternoon," Jeremy said. "Don't you play an instrument?"

"Yes, but I don't want to over-commit. I don't need another time constraint this year," Quintin said.

"Suit yourself. I'm going to look into it," Jeremy said.

Quintin watched him go, then looked around, not seeing many of his classmates in the library. Perhaps they had already gotten their essays finished? Or maybe they went to the Common Room, he mused, going to the history section long enough to check out a pair of books. Then he hurried up to the common room, planting himself in the research corner with his books just as the bell rang, stacking his books in the order in which he had planned to study them. Just where was everyone, he thought with a frown, attempting to concentrate on his Defense reading.

Suddenly getting suspicious, he stood up distractedly, peering out the window. Sure enough, most of his housemates were out on the football pitch, taking advantage of the easy afternoon. Quintin shook his head disapprovingly, more than a little annoyed that none of them had taken the designated study time seriously. He tried to put it out of his mind, turning his attention to his books.

After a quiet but productive study time, Quintin went to meet his house members in the Great Hall for dinner.

"There you are, Quintin! Where have you been hiding?" Pete asked as they sat down.

"I haven't been hiding, I've been studying," Quintin explained. "That's why we had so much time today."

"We had time today because we had an extra double and a late night class," Oscar reminded him.

"Along with time set aside for extra study. Just when are you planning to do it?" Quintin challenged him.

"Tonight after dinner, of course!" Oscar said.

"It isn't like there's all that much to do, we're still in the first week of school," Pete replied.

"Do you want to study with us when we get back to the Common Room, Quintin?" Pippa asked.

"Thanks, but I have to meet my brother for sparring forms," Quintin replied.

"But I thought Sparring Club wasn't until Thursday," Pete said.

"You're right, it isn't. I just have extra lessons on Tuesday. It's a family function of sorts," he explained.

"The Snapes are very serious when it comes to defense," Oscar added. "One of the downsides to being a Snape is there are always people in the world who want to kill you."

"That sounds dumb. I don't know why anybody would want to hurt Quintin, unless they have something against nice guys," Pete snorted.

"Thanks, Pete," Quintin said, finishing dinner with ten minutes to spare so he had plenty of time for staircase changes on his way up to the Gym.

Jay and Rus were already there, talking amiably to each other as they warmed up. Quintin smiled at that, glad that the two of them had made up so quickly.

"There you are, Quintin. How come you didn't eat dinner in the Owl Room with Jeremy and us?" Rus wanted to know.

"I wanted to see how the others were doing," Quintin admitted. "They went out to the football pitch this afternoon and didn't come in during our study period."

"That sounds familiar," Jay snorted.

"A lot of students make that mistake," Rus agreed.

"They're the ones that made the mistake, right?" Quintin asked.

"Obviously. They'll be regretting it by the end of the week," Jay confirmed.

"Surely you didn't think you were the one who made the mistake. You know the value of using your time properly better than anyone," Rus pointed out.

"Well, true but... well, I couldn't help but doubt it a little, when I was the only one who showed up at the Common Room during study period when they didn't. And then when I went to dinner, they were all thinking just how silly I was being and that I was overreacting when we had so much time to study in the evening..."

"Quintin, they're thinking that because they don't know any better, surely you see that," Rus said. "They haven't figured out how things work here yet."

"Rus is right. Sometimes people have to make their own choices and their own mistakes before they see it themselves," Jay informed him. "I know you're not used to your friends going their own way and doing things without you. But just because they aren't following you doesn't mean you were wrong."

"And just because they follow you doesn't mean you are right either," Rus added. "You really get way too caught up on what your friends think about you, Quintin. Surely you know better than that by now."

"What's the topic?" The three of them looked up as Andrew came in, already dressed for forms.

"Most of his house went to the football pitch during study period. Quintin was the only one who studied," Jay explained.

"Thanks for the heads up. Perhaps I'll give them a quiz on the reading on Thursday," Andrew said mischievously. "Everyone line up! Try not to be frustrated with them, Quintin. It won't take them long to realize that skipping study period isn't the best idea in the world," he said encouragingly. "Generally, students realize it after losing sleep or find themselves stuck with missing resources because they didn't realize they were short until the library's closed for the night. Trust me, it'll soon sort itself out," he promised as they began the first set of forms.