In the soft, dark bed, Ari had the best sleep she ever had in a long time. Quiet, peaceful, deep… Too bad her blissful sanctuary was cut short by someone violently shaking her shoulder and screaming, "wake up!"
Ari groaned and peeled open her sticky eyes. Mikeranger was standing over her bed, completely decked out in her uniform. "Hurry up!" Mikeranger said crossly. "It's time to go down for breakfast! Classes begin in thirty minutes!"
"Guh-way!" Ari slurred, rolling over and throwing the pillow over her head.
"It's time to get up!" Mikeranger snapped, snatching the pillow away from Ari's head so that the blinding morning sunlight and girl's foghorn screams assaulted her in full-force. Ari groaned again. "You need to wash up and get dressed and go down to the common room! Classes start in thirty minutes! We'll be late if you don't get up right now!"
Getting out of that warm, comfortable bed was probably the worst and most horrible thing Ari ever had to go through. She had never woken up so early back at home, and everything hurt. In a zombie-like trance, she washed up, pulled on her robes, and crammed her books into her backpack. Then Mikeranger reminded her to pack her parchment and quills and put on her tie. But Ari didn't have the slightest idea how to make her tie look all nice and knotty like Mikeranger's. So Mikeranger quickly tied Ari's tie for her, and Ari tried to observe carefully so she could do it herself next time. Unfortunately, she lost track of the steps after the first fold, and decided she was just going to need Mikeranger to tie all her ties from now on.
After they got dressed and packed up all their things, they hurried down to the common room, where the prefects led them to breakfast. After some more twisting labyrinths and giant staircases, Ari's head was spinning by the time they reached the same giant dining hall as last night. Only today, the sky above their heads was a bright, clear blue.
The food today was just as magnificent as last night's, only today it was breakfast-style. Ari recognized some of the food they had during breakfast at home, like pancakes. The sight made her gasp with excitement, and she piled some pancakes on her plate and drizzled half the syrup bottle on top. If she pretended hard enough, it was like she was back at home eating homemade pancakes with Dad and Sam.
As they all ate, Professor McGonagall went around passing out pieces of parchment. When Ari got hers, she realized it was a schedule for all her classes, with the names and times neatly listed down. She looked at Mikeranger's schedule to see what she had got, but it turned out they had the same classes. Mikeranger explained that all the first-year Gryffindors had the same classes at the same times, so they always stuck together.
And Ari was glad for that, because she would have never been able to find her way through this confusing labyrinth of a castle if they hadn't been traveling to their classrooms together. All the never-ending corridors and moving stairways and disappearing doors were enough to make Ari feel all dizzy and disoriented. Plus, all the complicated routes meant a lot of physical work for her, and she felt all sweaty and out of breath as she struggled from point A to point B. Numerous times Ari just wanted to stop and take a break, but her classmates kept chugging along without looking the least bit winded. And unless she wanted to be even more lost and confused, she had no choice but to follow them. Who knew such a beautiful castle could also be so annoying and confusing to travel through. But she supposed the extra work and wandering was worth it if it meant being in the place that made her heart happy.
Their first class was called Herbology, where they had to go to a big glass house outside and learn about different plants and fungi. She had never seen such plants in her old garden, and couldn't stop peeking and poking at the funny looking leaves, pulsating ferns, and multi-eyed flowers.
Then there was Astronomy, where the students had to go on top of the tallest tower at night and look at the stars through the telescopes. Up on the tower, free from any barriers and restraints, she was closer to the stars than she had ever been in her life. She felt a pang of homesickness as she stared up at the sky. She thought of her own little window in her bedroom where she could stare out for hours, watching the stars twinkle and wink at her. Even though she was so far away from home, the sky would never change. The sky and the stars and the moon and the sun would always be up there, waiting for her, watching her.
The next class they had was History of Magic, which sounded fun, but turned out to be the most boringest subject the moment the ghost/teacher opened his mouth. He had a horribly monotone, boring voice that made you fall asleep the moment you heard it. And apparently you were supposed to take notes about what he talked about, but Ari found it so difficult to cling onto more than three words at a time before her attention started wandering. Plus, she had forgotten to bring one of those feather pens, so she couldn't write down anything in the first place. But at least the teacher didn't seem to care whenever students slept in class, so Ari considered the class a free nap time.
Then they had Transfiguration taught by Professor McGonagall, and Ari was excited to see just what kind of subject Professor McGonagall taught. The moment they sat down in their seats, Professor McGonagall impressed them all by turning her desk into a pig. Ari let out a squeal of delight and knew at once Transfiguration was going to be her favorite subject. It definitely seemed the most impressive and magicky out of all the classes she had taken so far! And what could get any better than creating cute animals out of mid-air?
But it turned out, since they were all first-years, they couldn't go about creating cute animals yet and had to start with the basics. And that meant turning a match into a needle. That was the first big disappointment. Ari tried to twirl her wand around and say the proper incantation, but no matter what she did, the match on her desk stayed the same old boring match. It wasn't long before Ari started to get really bored and asked Professor McGonagall if they could just hurry up with turning desks into pigs, because that looked a lot funner. But Professor McGonagall just sternly shook her head and told Ari to have patience and that they would work their way up soon enough.
Only the weird, big-haired girl Ari had spoken to the first night — Mikeranger, who Ari had found out since then her name was actually Hermione Granger (talk about a mouthful!) — managed to turn her match into a gleaming silver needle. Professor McGonagall showed the perfect match to everyone in the class and awarded Hermione five points, while Hermione smirked smugly. Ari rolled her eyes. What a show-off!
Ari had a good time complaining about it to Professor McGonagall when the bell rang and everyone else left. "How come Hermione was able to turn the match into the needle and I couldn't?" Ari whined as she stomped to the teacher's desk. "I was waving my wand and saying the 'cantation, just like her! So how come my match didn't work?"
"Just have patience, Ari," Professor McGonagall reminded her. "We all learn at different paces, and many times, spells can't be mastered right away. But we can practice and learn a little bit each day, and slowly hone our abilities. And with enough practice, you'll be able to master this spell, and all the other spells we'll learn in the future."
"I guess," Ari grumbled. "It's really boring, though."
"Which is why we must have patience," Professor McGonagall said yet again. Ari rolled her eyes. There was that word again! Professor McGonagall might've thought she was making Ari more patient by repeating it, but really, it was just making her annoyed!
"What do you think of your classes so far, Ari?" Professor McGonagall asked before Ari could fire back a snappy retort. "Are you able to locate all your classrooms? Do you think you're able to keep up with the work?"
"Oh, yes!" Ari exclaimed, bouncing up and down. Then she stopped bouncing and frowned. "Well, I mean, it's complicated finding the classrooms, and I keep getting lost and having to ask other people. But the teachers don't care if we're late, since it's the first week. But I mean, other than that, it's really fun! Everyone's really nice and friendly, just like I always imagined. All the teachers are nice, too, and I'm learning a lot so far!"
"Good, I'm glad to hear that," Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly. "Do you have a class in particular you like?"
"Yeah!" Ari nodded vigorously. "I like Charms, 'cause Professor Flitwick's cute and tiny, plus we get to light up our wands, like the people in my dream — and Astronomy is fun and peaceful too, I've always really liked looking up at the stars you know, I used to do it all the time at home. But it's better now that we get telescopes and everything looks way clearer and closer. I can see all of the cute stars and Saturn's rings, and Jupiter's big fat red spot — and I guess Herbology is fun, too, 'cause we get to work in glass houses and look at all the weird plants. It's way different than the plants we have back at home. Too bad we can't eat them, though. I think they'd be really yummy, especially that fat squash-looking thing that Professor Sprout showed us."
And Ari broke off from her long-winded babble to draw a huge breath. "But I don't like History of Magic," she continued hurriedly as Professor McGonagall opened her mouth to make a remark. "It's really boring. The boringest class I've ever had. In fact, I think it's the worst class I've had. All we do is sit there and listen to the ghost talk. I don't even understand half of what he's saying, honestly. But at least we can sleep and relax, 'cause Professor Binns doesn't care if we listen or not."
Professor McGonagall flashed Ari a stern look over her spectacles. "And I hope that you at least try to make an effort to pay attention to the lecture?" she said sharply.
Ari gulped. Uh-oh, she had forgotten that Professor McGonagall was a teacher, too, and was probably going to punish Ari for not paying attention in another teacher's class! "Well, yeah!" Ari said defensively, shifting her feet. "I always try to pay attention! But it's hard, you know, Professor Binns has the boringest voice I've ever heard. He just talks and talks and talks — I mean, seriously, does he not even stop to breathe?"
"I'd think not," Professor McGonagall said wryly, "considering he's a ghost."
Ari gasped, and then she laughed. "Oh, yeah! That's right, he's a ghost. Funny how they hired a ghost to be a teacher, huh? How come they couldn't hire a real human to be the teacher instead of a ghost, Professor?" Ari frowned and cocked her head.
"It's more that Professor Binns doesn't want to give up his position," explained Professor McGonagall. "He's been teaching for countless years, and was still the History of Magic teacher when he passed. He was so dedicated to his job that on the next day, he simply departed from his body in his ghost form and floated through the blackboard to teach his next class."
Ari laughed. "Oh, wow, he really is dedicated, huh? I can't imagine teaching a class when I'm dead! I mean, seriously, why not take a vacation or something? If you're gonna be dead, at least make it fun!"
Professor McGonagall's lips twitched. "Well, perhaps Professor Binns has a different idea of what fun is compared to most people's."
Yeah, maybe ghosts were just weird like that… especially considering how uptight Headless Nick had been during the welcoming feast. And then remembering the questions Ari had wanted to ask Nick that night but couldn't, she then asked Professor McGonagall what it felt like to be a ghost and how to become one in the first place. But Professor McGonagall said she couldn't answer those questions, she wasn't really, well, a ghost.
Ari felt a bit disgruntled about that, but talking about Nick at the welcoming feast reminded her of the feast itself, and the Sorting that had come before it. Ari asked Professor McGonagall if it was true she had been sorted into Gryffindor and had been a Hatstall, and Professor McGonagall had said yes, yes it was true.
"Wow, Professor, that's amazing!" Ari enthused. "That's what the Hat told me, that you were in Gryffindor when you were a student, too. So I wanted to be Gryffindor too, 'cause of that."
"Oh, Ari, I'm very touched to hear that," Professor McGonagall said, her tense, stern face curling up in a smile. "Thank you. And I'm very glad that you could become a part of our house, too."
"Thank you, Professor," Ari beamed. "I like Gryffindor a lot, so far. Everyone's really nice, and the common room is really cozy, and there aren't any mean people anywhere. I like Fred and George, too. They're funny and nice and they helped me get to class and gave me advice and stuff."
"I'm glad to hear that you're getting along with Mr. Fred and George," Professor McGonagall said, nodding. "A pair of pranksters they are, but they're good boys at heart."
Ari was glad that Professor McGonagall liked Fred and George. Ari liked them a lot, too — even more than her own brother, honestly! "Yeah, 'cause everyone in Gryffindor has a good heart," Ari said. "That's why it's the best house. It's not like Slytherin, right, Professor? That's the worst house, 'cause it has all the bad-hearted people in it. At least, that's what everyone says. Right?"
Ari peered expectantly at Professor McGonagall, who pursed her lips. "Well, it's true that Slytherin doesn't have the best reputation among the four houses," she began tightly. "The main reason is because Slytherin is the house that's produced the most dark wizards including — including You-Know-Who himself. But that doesn't mean all Slytherins will become dark wizards, or have bad intentions at heart," she added quickly. "Because the house values ambition and resourcefulness, it's not surprising that many dark wizards would gravitate to those types of traits. But ambition and resourcefulness aren't inherently negative traits. In fact, many people who possess these qualities usually grow up to be very successful and productive members of society. Does that make sense?"
It didn't, really, mainly because of all the complicated words Professor McGonagall used, but Ari thought she got the gist. According to Professor McGonagall, Slytherin wasn't really a bad house, it was just specific people inside it that were bad.
Still, Ari couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious that so many evil people were created out of Slytherin — including the same person who had tried to kill a literal baby! If that wasn't just pure evil, Ari didn't know what was. Maybe the Slytherin house had some weird brainwashing thing Professor McGonagall didn't know about and were secretly training its members to become dark wizards.
In any case, the whole house system was confusing, anyway. Why did there have to be so many divisions in the first place? Why couldn't there just be one big house where everyone could get along and not have to form all these cliques? Well, the Hat had said the houses were just "tradition," but Ari didn't really like that answer. Were they still going to call it "tradition," when Slytherin kept pumping out evil wizards who went out and killed people while all the other good houses had to pay for what the bad people did? No, it just wasn't fair!
Thankfully, Ari was able to redirect her attention to a funner topic the next day for their newest class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. The class was taught by the purple turban man, Professor Quirrell. He stuttered a lot, and his classroom smelled a lot like garlic. He also rambled a lot about his journeys in Romania with vampires and whatnot. Ari was quite entertained listening to Professor Quirrell's adventures and the strange creatures he had seen along his journeys. For such a scared-looking weenie, he had sure conquered a lot! It was definitely a lot better than their History of Magic teacher who droned on about random dates and names. Maybe Defense Against the Dark Arts was a storytelling class. If so, it was honestly pretty fun.
Aside from History of Magic, all of their subjects were so exciting and interesting, and once again Ari marveled at the miracle of coming here and experiencing these strange and exciting opportunities outside of her home. She was quite sad when Friday, the last day of the week, rolled around and they would have to wait two whole days before they could have classes again.
On Friday they had a new class, Potions, in the morning. Ari remembered the mean-looking teacher, Professor Snape, taught that class. He hadn't taught the Gryffindors yet, but throughout the week, Ari had overheard all sorts of mutterings in the corridors from other students who had already taken the professor's class. From the snippets she heard around school, Snape was known for yelling and insulting students to the point of tears and "trauma-induced catatonia," whatever that meant. Plus, he gave out detentions as easily as breathing and took away house points from houses that weren't Slytherin.
No surprise there, since Ari had learned Snape was head of the Slytherin house. And even though Professor McGonagall had said that not all Slytherins were bad, Ari was having a really hard time believing that after learning more about Snape. Because if the Slytherin's head of house could be so blatantly mean, then the students he looked after surely must've been shaped by his behavior some way or another.
Before long, the stories about Snape had gotten more and more outlandish, with Fred and George being the main source of all the drama. Ari learned to go to them for her daily source of gossip and exciting stories. Rumor had it that if you forgot to turn in a homework assignment three times total, Snape would hang you from the ceiling and whack you with a paddle for punishment. What was more, the twins said that Snape was an evil mastermind who was secretly plotting to kill Professor Quirrell so he could get the Dark arts position. And then he would frame Quirrell's death to look like an accident before taking over the school and then the world with his dark arts agenda.
Ari had a real hoot listening to these stories. Not only was it entertaining, but the twins' fantastical descriptions were making her more and more curious about this Snape character. He seemed real evil, even worse than Sam! And Ari didn't think anyone could get more annoying than her brother. Maybe Snape was the type of big bad wolf her dad had been warning her about, the wolf who was mean and ferocious and wanted to attack you.
But Professor McGonagall had said that Hogwarts was safe and the staff members would keep Ari and the rest of the students safe. So as bad as Professor Snape was, he couldn't have wanted to kill anyone, right? Even if he did use to work for the evillest wizard in the world. But You-Know-Who was dead now, or at least according to Fred and George. So if the evillest wizard in the world could be defeated, one of his minions probably wouldn't be able to get very far either. And Ari was looking forward to meeting the evil minion and seeing if the wolves Dad talked about were really as bad as he made them out to be.
