Michael Brown

After the short conversation with my upperclassmen I spent the rest of the sorting feast undisturbed. While some of the students at the Ravenclaw table would glance at me once or twice, most likely considering talking with me again, none of them ultimately decided to do that, letting me sit in silence. I was glad for that, mostly because I was getting increasingly hungry and it would be hard to keep an appearance of a normal, naive firstie on the empty stomach. That was why I was just waiting for the feast to end, as after reaching the dormitory I would be able to eat some of the rations I packed in my school trunk.

The feast was quite long, as the faculty apparently decided to serve every kind of meal imaginable, but eventually all dishes disappeared from students' tables and Dumbledore got to his feet again, ready to give the next enigmatic speech. The hall went silent after noticing that, as everyone focused on the headmaster, prepared to hear the words of their sovereign. After looking at the students gathered, making sure he got everyone's attention, Dumbledore spoke.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you." Dumbledore started, his tone more serious than before. "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils." Instead of elaborating on this important subject, he continued "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

…That was it? Wow, it was probably the worst way to warn students about the forbidden forest I could imagine. I mean, he didn't even say why we were forbidden to go there. There was nothing said about giant spiders, territorial centaurs or various other magical creatures roaming the forest, ready to kill and devour any student unfortunate enough to cross paths with them. It was like he wanted them to get killed. Wait, was it all intentional? Did Dumbledore actually want the students to go there by making the forest sound mysterious and, well, forbidden? Thinking about it, it made sense.

Dumbledore probably struck some sort of deal with Forbidden forest's denizens, like acromantulas. He would send them young, defenceless meat and in exchange, monsters would abstain from leaving the forest in search of food. Thanks to that deal Hogwarts would only lose some useless first years and not older students, to whose education the school has already devoted time and effort. Also, wasn't it extremely convenient that Aragog, leader of acromantulas, was raised by Hagrid, Hogwarts' groundskeeper? Dumbledore probably intentionally framed Hagrid as Myrtle's killer to force him to send Aragog into the forest, where he would become the leader. By hiring Hagrid he made the half-giant loyal to him and made it possible for Dumbledore to influence Aragog, and by extension other giant spiders. It was probably part of Dumbledore's plan to create an army of monsters, but I didn't have any hard evidence yet.

Unaware of my thoughts (I hope), Dumbledore finished his speech. He however had one more surprise in his sleeve.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore, because apparently one song wasn't enough. The best part about that idea was the fact that he was expecting students to be the ones singing it. So, when the song started, most of the first years, who had no way of knowing the lyrics, were forced to just awkwardly sit in silence while their upperclassmen, or at least most of them, were singing. For some reason hearing that song made Dumbledore cry, making him say something about music being the real magic and telling us to go to bed, as we were probably tired. On that weird note, the sorting feast ended.

Older Ravenclaw students started leaving the Great Hall, but because we were first year students and we didn't know what to do yet, we were approached by one of our house's prefects. He was a tall boy, looking about sixteen years old, wearing a Hogwarts robe a little more elaborate than ours, with a Ravenclaw patch on the right side. After older students left the hall, he gathered us around him and spoke.

"Hello everyone, I am Robert Hilliard and I am one of Ravenclaw prefects. If you please follow me, I will take you to the Ravenclaw common room. It's a place where all Ravenclaws, or claws as some call us, stay during their education, so you can think of it as your new home for the next seven years" After saying that, he started walking towards the gate, making us follow him.

Ravenclaw common room, based on my memories and the prefect's words, was located in one of many Hogwarts' towers, which meant our journey led through the Grand stairway, which was a structure connecting the whole castle. Constantly changing alignment of the stairs felt worryingly organic, which made a lot of sense, given the true nature of the castle. One could compare these stairs to Hogwarts' veins, sending students (its main source of energy) through the entire castle, allowing Hogwarts to spread the power taken from them to every part of its body. It was quite probable that few of these students would disappear once a while, ending as a nutritious meal for this ancient entity, but such incidents were probably ignored by the faculty, as death of several children was a reasonable price for having access to all the benefits of Hogwarts castle.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the girl walking next to me.

"It was wise not to tell others" I heard a serene, quiet voice coming from another first year student. Looking at its owner I saw a small, blonde girl. She looked quite different from other kids, as she was wearing several strange accessories, some of them sticking out of her Hogwarts robes. She was staring at me with a distant gaze and I could see something strangely knowing behind her eyes. There was something familiar about her, but despite trying I wasn't able to place what it was. I couldn't however think too much about that, as there was something much more pressing at the moment.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice guarded. Her words could mean anything, so it was probably one of these leading statements, where I would assume she meant something specific and reveal my knowledge about it, unaware it was her plan all along. It was much safer to ask her to specify, so that I wouldn't say anything incriminating.

"The reason why you didn't touch your food at the feast" The girl replied easily, making my blood run cold. She knew! What did that mean?! Was she part of the House Elves conspiracy?! Not waiting for my answer, she continued. "You knew that Cornelius Fudge is putting moon dust in the ingredients used at Hogwarts to make everyone confused and unable to notice his army of heliopaths"

What?

She didn't mean house elves? She meant Fudge, who… wait! She was right! I was so focused on people responsible for preparing the meals that I forgot about the ingredients themselves! After all, they had to be bought somewhere. It would make sense to stuff them with some chemicals to control the students and stop them from being loyal to Dumbledore. I didn't know what kind of creatures heliopaths were, but it didn't surprise me that the Minister of Magic was creating the army of monsters, especially if it was done in response to Dumbledore doing that first.

I looked at the girl before me with newfound interest. Maybe she didn't realize it, but she just gave me some very valuable information. I supposed I should respond in kind, as it was only fair. I would of course limit it to my intel about house elves, as I still wasn't sure if she wasn't just a Ministry plant, sent to extract my knowledge from me, but she deserved at least some information. I quickly looked around to see if anyone was listening to our conversation, but everyone was still looking at the grand staircase in wonder.

"Fudge's plan is horrible indeed, but I actually didn't eat because of the house elves" I whispered to her, hoping no elf was around to hear that. I liked my throat unslit after all "I suspect that they are trying to poison our food, as a form of revenge"

"Oh, I didn't realize it was that bad" She responded, looking at me with wide eyes, apparently quite shocked by what I said. She then put a hand to her mouth and started speaking quietly, seemingly to herself "Some of house elves were probably infected by aquavirius maggots, which replaced their brains. Because of that…" I couldn't hear the rest of her words, as she started muttering something to herself. She soon stopped though and looked at me again "Thank you for telling me this. I will have to be more careful in the future"

We looked each other in the eyes, both full of gratitude. When our eyes met, I saw it. There was something in her eyes that told me she was just like me. She was a familiar spirit, a person pursuing the truth above everything else, a true seeker. No doubt she felt the same, as we immediately shook hands, ignoring stares of every other student around us. I still wasn't completely sure she wasn't Ministry's agent, sent to keep me away from Dumbledore's influence, but it didn't matter at the moment. For now we were just two people capable of seeing the truth, two humans in the world of sheep.

"Michael Brown" I stated.

"Luna Lovegood" She replied.

Wait, what?