Chapter Nine: Corridors, Passages, and Common Rooms
Bejeweled sausages sat on a plate stacked in the shape of a pyramid. A full pig sat across the middle of the table with an apple stuck into its mouth and a floating knife sliced off some meat when a student neared their plate close to the roasted pig. A rather plain looking salad sat untouched near a giant bowl of stir-fry rice. A cage full of mice rattled on as students ate and occasionally the cage was lightened when a scarred hand entered and pulled out one of the mice.
James was currently attempting to scarf down some beef and potatoes while trying to ignore the looks he was getting from his classmates at his shoulder. He had not said a word to the fairy that had sat upon his shoulder but instead decided to eat. Soon though, he needed to say something as his plate was becoming empty and his stomach couldn't make any more room for food.
Luckily for James, the food started to disappear from the tables and the headmaster was standing up once again to speak to the hall.
"That shall be the end of our start of the year feast. I hope you all get a good night's rest and have an excellent start with your classes." Dumbledore gave a little yawn and made to say goodnight to the staff table.
"Gryffindor first years, stay seated, I will lead you to our dormitory." A boy with red hair, James assumed he was another one of the Weasley lot, stood at the end of the table waving his hands madly to get the attention of the first year students.
James watched from his seat as the other tables cleared out from the Great Hall and Harry gave a small wave bye in his direction as he headed out to Hufflepuff's dormitory.
"Well I'm curious on how you fairies choose which student you sit with? There has to be some kind of capabilities they have that we don't?" James turned to see Hermione trying to start a conversation with the fairy sitting on his shoulder.
"It's not really up for discussion. It's a secret kept by the fairies." The fairy replied back to Hermione as their group started to arise and exit the Great Hall.
Their stomachs full and the climb of never ending steps behind them, James walked behind the line of fellow first years and took in the sight of the enormous marble staircase that was awaiting them. With a clear end in sight, James kept his thoughts to himself about more stairs and climbed the slippery steps to a corridor lined with paintings of landscapes that seem to depict different era's of Hogwarts. Greener grass than James had ever seen covered the Hogwarts grounds during the construction of the castle. One winter showed the castle covered in snow while multiple owls perched on top of the towers of the castle. Then there was a final painting at the end of the corridor which seemed to be depicting Hogwarts now with the night sky shining above, stars twinkling as I walked past and glowing windows with small shadows passing by representing people moving through the castle.
"The room we're about to enter is very tricky to navigate. So please pay attention as the staircases like to change at any moment." The leading Weasley opened the door that had halted our group and with a change in the air so noticeable that wind blew past the students, billowing their robes, and the noise of stone constantly moving and sliding. James would've been amazed at the sight he was seeing but the fact that he had to climb more stairs, let alone they can move this time around, was bringing his mood down like a crashing airplane.
Staircase after staircase, there was a floor and then another set of stairs. The massive moving staircase room was filled to the brim with enchanted portraits that ranged from self-portraits of elderly wizards, giving a wave or greeting the first years as they past, random animals grazing their respective habitats, and even a candle just left burning, never seeming to drip any wax or loose any of it's wick.
"Why Yes! I was just brewing this potion for my headache from that nasty roaming knight, Sir Cadogan." A wizard sitting at a table with a small calderon sitting on a fire nearby said as James and Hermione passed, climbing up more stairs.
"To Be A Novelist, Is the worst to be. A wayward death, is all to beee." Sang a rather ugly toad that sat in its swamp accompanied by the sound of crickets.
"How long have these portraits been up for?" James thought the toad was either going to repeat that same song the next time he passed it or if the toad would sing a new song.
"I would imagine at least a couple hundred years." Hermione replied back as the current staircase they were walking on started to move, adding another floor and another set of steps to climb.
"Quickly up through this tapestry! Hurry before the stairs change!" The leading Weasley held back a tapestry depicting a lion and eagle fighting in the sky.
The narrow passageway was dark and had two surprise stair sets that nearly caused James to land on his face. Luckily there was a light at the end of the passageway leading out into a small corridor with a painting of a rather large lady that was wearing a pink opera dress and holding a glass of wine.
"Password?" The lady said in a sing-song sort of voice.
"Caput Draconis."
The portrait swung open to a small stair set leading up to hopefully, James thought, to the Gryffindor common room. As he entered the past the portrait, James seemed to notice a small crack near the wall that was covered in spider webs. Climbing the stairs, James was happy to see a fireplace and couches, then over to the right were small bookshelves filled with different titles ranging from Basic Wand Care by Canaran Olivander to A Hundred Different Ways to Hex your Friends by Sirius Black.
Older students sat down on the left side of the common room, which was extended from the main form of the tower to hold tables for which the older students were sitting chatting, reading books or finishing up summer assignments. Fred and George Weasley were making their way over to the group of first years, already wrapping their arms in between their brothers in the middle.
"Mind if we take over Percy, give them first years a break from your yapping."
"I'm the Prefect, I know what I'm doing! I don't need you two butting in with your pranks." Percy started to go red around the ears and turned to face the first years. "The stairs over to your right will take you to a fork, there boys will go to the left and girls on the right. You'll find your names on the door you should enter and your belongings will be waiting for you up there. Now excuse me while I deal with my brothers." Percy started to walk backwards, not letting the twins break from his grip on their interlocked arms.
Hogwarts Grounds
"Why are we walking outside when we're supposed to be going to our common room?" Harry asked as the Hufflepuff class trudged their way through the moonlight grounds of Hogwarts.
"Well, I believe that as Hufflepuffs we get to stay in the Hufflepuff cabins." Ron replied back, swatting away bugs that were emerging from the cracks of the castle walls.
"Cabins!" Harry said, not having seen any cabins from their boat ride into the castle or nearby as they continued to walk.
"Yeah, each house has their own thing for a common room. Gryffindor has the highest tower, Slytherin is in the dungeon, and Ravenclaw has their own secret library in their common room. I'm just worried about how we are gonna handle the winter weather." Harry was astonished at Ron's knowledge of Hogwarts but figured that his family has probably been in Hogwarts since its creation and if his family size could be anything to laugh at.
They turned a corner and out by the edge of the Enchanted Forest was a group of cabins, each hanging yellow banners with a badger striking a pose with its claws on it.
"We have to walk this distance to and from the castle every day!"
Back In The Gryffindor Common Room
"Not to be rude but do you need to sit on my shoulder?" James asked the fairy that was currently sitting on his shoulder, to which she fluttered away to sit down on a nearby table.
"Well to reuse your phrase, not to be rude but, didn't you get a letter telling you that you would be picked for a fairy partnership program?"
"I wasn't told about any program, I was under the thought I was coming to school to learn how to do magic? I'm not saying I'm refusing to do this program, just want to know what it entails." James said, sitting down.
"Well, I'm Belle. And our magical cores have matched for pairing and bonding. You'll help provide ambient magic to sustain my core forlonging my magic." Belle said.
"Oookay… how do we settle sleep, cause I'm not used to having anything on my shoulder and tend to sleep on my side." James said, causing Belle to laugh.
"There should be a housing unit for me next to your bed, it's important that we stay together this early on in our bonding phase so we don't make a weak connection."
James took this as a sign to make his way up to his respective dorm and maybe end the day. The thought of more stairs to climb just to get to bed droned on while he moved lazy over to the fireplace and stood nearby a bookshelf warming his shaking hands. The night sky peered through the nearby window and James felt his eyelids stick close as he blinked and finally took the hit to go to sleep.
James followed the Prefect's instructions and took the left fork up the stairs and saw parchment stuck to each door with the names of the respective students who were to sleep there. At the top of the tower, at the last door, was the list with James' name on it along with Neville Longbottom, Seamus finnegan, Dean Thomas, and Owen Exist to which the last name had been marked out with a line through it. Walking into his dorm he saw the rest of his dormmates already preparing for bed. Neville looked as though at any second he would pass out while Dean and Seamus made their introductions to James.
"Never meet anyone famous before, what's that like?" Seamus asked while moving over to his trunk to sit on it. "Don't really know, I've been trying to just be myself and hopefully ignore whatever pretenses people have about me or my brother." James found the tiny house floating nearby the bed with his trunk by it and moved towards it while talking. "My mother always talks about your guy's story and the Daily Prophet seems to never forget as well." Seamus added.
"I am new to… this." James paused and moved his hands around the dorm, hoping that Seamus would pick up the gesture at Hogwarts and the Magical world in whole. "Growing up in an orphanage with hundreds of other kids that just get treated like trash gave us an instant bond with each other but this still feels like a dream, almost as one moment I'll wake and realize I'm back down in the basement, under the stairs. I'm just grateful that I'm out and living something I normally wouldn't dream about."
"Oh… I didn't know any of that. My father could relate to what you're going through, he only found out when my Hogwarts letter came. My mother was trying to live a magic free life and married my dad, a muggle, and had to spill the truth when I had to go to Hogwarts. Must've taken him a couple of hours til he would speak again." Seamus added, as his trunk gave a sudden shake and he kicked it back, trying to calm it.
"Seamus, what's in your trunk?" Dean asked, as he backed away from the now steadily shaking trunk that Seamus was trying to wrangle. "Quidditch supplies, I know first years can't try out but-" Seamus was interrupted by his shaking trunk when a voice came muffled out, "Seamus when are you going get me food, I haven't eaten at all today!"
Neville seemed to bolt awake from his slouched sleeping position when the voice spoke from Seamus' trunk and James and Dean seemed to be in agreement to bolt to the door if someone came out of Seamus's trunk. Seamus seemed to admit defeat when he fell off his trunk and lifted his face off the floor and finally said, "Okay, I may have brought someone with me, but you can not tell anyone, I didn't want to leave him behind." Seamus unlocked the locks on his trunk and before he could lift open the lid himself, a hand pushed it open and from the inside of Seamus' trunk came a boy the same age as the rest of them. "Guys, this is my muggle cousin, Henry. I kinda sunk him in here so he could learn about the magical world."
James and Dean stood still, Neville seemed to want to go back to sleep, and a single spider on the window sill made its way under the door and made its way down the dormitory steps. Eight spindly legs maneuvered quickly down the steps and watched carefully out of its many eyes, as to not be stepped on, as it made its way towards the crack near the portrait that could let any bug through. The crack through the stone was covered side to side in webs from the other spiders in the castle but this spider was ever so delicately passing through the webs, as to not tear down the progress or leave any notice of its trail.
The moving stairs caused the spider no problem as it attached its web to the nearby landing and spun its way down the towering room. Whenever the spider felt it safe it would detach from the previous landing and make a new attachment to be safe and lessen the case of the previous line being cut by the moving stairs. The moving portraits nearby didn't take notice of the spider as it made its way down to the bottom floor and continued to move further through the castle.
The main staircase was being cased over by passing prefects and the nearby suits of armor stood as still as statues, if only to add a chilling effect to the castle's ambience. A loud Crash, caught the attention of everyone in the main entrance way only to their wonders answered when Argus Filch came screaming out from behind a banister, "Peeves! You horrible poltergeist! Where have you gone!" The broom he was carrying in his hand was covered in cobwebs and spilt dirt out whenever he banged it against the floor. A tabby cat went bustling past the spider, towards Filch, when he gracefully picked up the cat and talked sweetly to it. "Have you seen him, my sweet? Or are you hungry for dinner?" The cat meowed at his words and they left to go eat their dinner.
The spider made its way to the stairway that led down to the dungeon only to stop at the halfway landing and turned right which led towards the potions classroom. Torches sat in their sconces, harmlessly spilling drips of fire onto the castle floor, which would dissipate away before they would linger on the floor. For being considered a dungeon, there was very little that you would expect to find in a typical dungeon down in the Hogwarts one. Bare hallways leading to locked private laboratories and the open door of the potions classroom.
Severus Snape was currently the only person in the classroom and was sitting down behind a desk, checking over the class syllabus that he would pass out tomorrow, making sure there were no mistakes. To say he was shocked to find a black widow spider on his next paper would be unusual, as Severus Snape was never shocked, but the timing of the first unwelcome visitor in his presence was much earlier than he had expected.
"I've told you never come and visit me at my place of work. There's always ears listening in here." Snape stood up from his chair and strode over to the classroom door and shut before turning around and seeing his empty seat taken by a witch.
"No choice, Sissy and I are going to be leaving the country, and we're in need of your assistance. Don't blame me for bad timing." The witch known as Bellatrix LeStrange gave a small spin in Snape's chair, getting a small sense of pleasure at the grim look on Severus's face.
"Do you realize the situation your sister has left me in?" Snape's voice did not rise in volume but his tone was one of a deadly serious sound. "Draco Malfoy showed up to his sorting under the Imperius curse and has not awoken from the counter that the sorting hat has on it. The Ministry of Magic will be on to you two by the morning and your time will be up here in England. Why would I possibly help you?"
"Because we're about to find him." Snape stared harshly at Bellatrix, as her words had some reverence with him.
"You're bluffing." Snape followed up his words with a short laugh. "I would rather believe that I was going to be made Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor before I believe that you had any luck in finding him. Besides, what other use would you both be to me, I could simply let my wand slip and one of the most suspected remaining Death Eater would be dropped off at a random Auror's doorstep with some damning evidence."
Bellatrix finally arose out of Snape's seat and started dancing her fingers across the top of Snape's desk. "Oh Sev, don't you know me at all? Of course I have some useful news specifically for you, dealing with some Gryffindor shenanigans." Bellatrix took this opportunity to show off her cackle, which echoed around the empty classroom. "All we need is a cauldron worth of dragon's blood and I will be out of your hair until his rebirth and you get your tip on the Gryffindors."
"You're out of your mind if you think I have that much of any blood." Snape said, as he reclaimed his seat and returned back to checking the syllabus.
Bellatrix laughed again and sat down comfortably on Snape's desk. "Have, know a guy, there the same snitch Sev. You point me in the direction of that much blood and I'll be gone." She then laid down across Snape's desk, toppling over the pile of papers and bringing Snape's anger to full volume.
"If you don't mind, I think I have a card for you and then you can give me what I want!"
"Now who's making too much noise?" Bellatrix said sarcastically, as Snape opened up his bag, looking around for his billfold, when the door of the classroom started to open and once again the classroom was only Snape and the spider.
While most students were getting ready and preparing themselves for their first night of sleep at Hogwarts; the Hufflepuff students were just arriving at their cabins and groggily helping the first years sort out their cabin and directing them on the inside. Harry and Ron were more than happy to bunk together in a room and even more happy when they found out they wouldn't be sleeping in bunk beds.
"Magically expanded rooms, one of the benefits of having to walk all the way out here for sleep." said the Hufflepuff prefect Tonks, who's hair was currently dyed a vibrant indigo.
Harry and Ron's room was containing more than the recommended amount of yellow for any room that Harry started to get a headache from the bright color. When both of the boys sat on their respective bed, their trunks appeared at the end of them with a loud crack.
"Finally, I've been waiting to get Scabbers back in his cage." Ron opened up his trunk and pulled out a rusted cage with hay filled at the bottom along with a water bottle and food bowl.
"I was gonna ask you, not to be rude, but why a rat?" Harry regetted his words the instant he said them but figured that Ron seemed like an understanding fella and would notice his curiosity.
"Really didn't have a choice, not that I don't like Scabbers, he's cool and all, but yeah I would've preferred my own owl but we didn't have the money for me to have one, so, that's that." Ron sat Scabbers and his cage on a nearby shelf and turned back to his trunk, pulling out his pajamas and hanging up some Quidditch posters, to add some style to their room.
Harry let the conversation die at that and decided to unpack as well, pulling what little he did have of his own out of his trunk and placing it on the shelves around his side of the room to try and take up space.
The night sky droned on, as the Hogwarts castle settled into its nocturnal rhythm for the night. Torches were slowly extinguished as the stars above flared brightly over the dew laden grounds. Lonely ghosts patrolled the empty halls, as the painted people inside the enchanted portraits laid asleep in their seats, but separated across each floor of the castle were Prefects and Professors who were eagle eyed and wand equipped for any student out of bed.
Besides the typical night owls that perused the castle late at night, the Hogwarts owlery was lively with flight as many owls flew in and out of the stone structure, off to look for their late night prey for their hunt.
The enchanted forest was filled with sounds of many creatures moving through the night. There was no unison in the wild of the forest, the power control between the creatures staggered until they reached the so-called civilization that was standing in the middle of the forest. Centaurs have been dealing with the downfall of their kind since the magical government started handing out jobs to any Centaur who would turn on their kind for humanity. This pack that traveled through the forest late at night was currently at its lowest headcount in a long while. The nightly hunts that have proved useless were less than few and their grip on the forest was slowly dwindling away. The stars had lied to them and therefore broke their trust of reading the stars. They had all thought that the telling of a Great Festae was too good to be true and were proven right when their herd split away from each other. The pack of Centaurs had stopped and equipped their bows, aiming at the trees for any birds left perching in the trees, when their notched arrows flew loose- flying past and splitting tree branches- when some nearby owls took flight back towards the Hogwarts owlery.
As the owls flew past the dimly lit windows, only one Professor could be found up at this late hour, patrolling the third floor hallway while everyone else had called it for the night. Now only one torch was lit for every hallway and only the noise of snoozing portraits could be heard between the muffled footsteps of the patrolling Professor.
"Headmaster Dumbledore would like for your final report for the night." A pale white translucent ghost floated in front of the patrolling Professor and spoke with the tiredness of a hundred years.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, I'll take another round of the castle before I retire. Tell the Headmaster not to stay awake on my account." The Professor's deep voice echoed off the walls of the hallway and he had to readjust his turban before taking off again for his final stroll.
Professor Quirinus Quirrell waited for the specter to leave the hallway before pulling out his notepad, noting down the date and time before scribbling the ghost which checked in on him. If he hadn't made it a prominent point to take the late watch, he wondered whether the Headmaster would've stayed awake until this late hour, and wouldn't feel the need to have hourly reports. The third floor was of course home to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom which housed his quarters but the not so subtle announcement about the forbidden corridor wasn't made to warn students but to puzzle any wrong-doers into stepping right into the Headmaster's trap.
The morning sun shined through the Gryffindor tower windows while the roosters outside called out to the earth letting it know they were awake. James awoke after an interesting first night in the castle with a renewed ambition to start learning. While the night time scheme was something to behold, with concealing a muggle inside a magical school, the morning's calming tone gave way to a quick and easy rise. James changed out his pajamas and waited for Belle to leave her tiny house before heading down for breakfast.
The common room was much more lively in the morning than it had been the previous night, with students chatting amongst themselves in groups and older students desperately rushing through their summer work that they left til the last minute. James saw Hermione and Ella chatting near the fireplace and decided to see if they wanted to join him on his walk down to the Great Hall.
Hermione seemed to be asking Ella's fairy questions, trying to see if she could get any information from her fairy that she couldn't get from Belle. James was about to say morning to the group when he tripped over the side of an armchair and felt one of his pockets empty. Feeling his pockets and then turning to look around at the ground, James searched for what left his pocket. He was surprised to find the Muggle's Guide had fallen out and didn't remember putting the guide in his pocket this morning. Pocketing the guide, James said hello to the group and asked whether they were ready to head down for breakfast.
"Walk much." Ella said.
"Try not to, I hear walking is the silent killer." James replied back sarcastically.
"Where did you hear that from?" Hermione asked, not noticing James' sarcasm. Both James and Ella thought Hermione was trying to be funny until she asked again, "I'm being serious, cause whoever gave you that information is highly incorrect. Sitting is the silent killer." Hermione then smiled at them and started off towards the portrait hole.
"Was that a double layered joke?" James asked, a little confused at what just happened.
"You should've heard her questions she was asking Daisy over here." Ella nodded towards her fairy who's name must've been Daisy.
They both went to follow Hermione and exit the common room to start their journey down to the Great Hall. Hermione had just pushed open the portrait when they started to descend the stairs. The natural sunlight peering through the windows was enough to illuminate the castle inside leading to the unlit torches that sat in their sconces. Hermione stopped before the passageway leading to the moving staircase room and turned to speak to James and Ella.
"I've heard some other older students talk about a different way down to the Great Hall that wasn't the moving staircase room. I figured they must have meant another stairset that wasn't as magical as those ones and wanted to go find it." She asked the others indirectly to join her but didn't have the courage to ask full face.
"Yeah, I don't have a problem with that, as long as we don't lost." James replied back.
"There's only seven floors, I'm sure we can manage." Hermione said as she turned away from the passageway then opened a door that showed a long, sun lit corridor.
One side of the corridor was full of enchanted portraits, occasionally broken from the pattern by a door, and across on the other wall were stained glass windows, not depicting anything but a random arrangement of colors, once more occasionally broken by a solid part of the wall with a nearby pillar standing by, with cobwebs decorating its sides. Some older students passed by, dodging behind a tapestry which had led to a staircase leading down, which Hermione picked up as the stair set they needed to take.
Before Hermione could pull back the tapestry, a nearby portrait became alive with noise and grabbed the attention of Ella and James. Turning behind them, they saw two elderly wizards playing a very early edition of billiards- with only one pocket and two balls- and both were up in arms about the other cheating while the other took their turn to shoot towards the single pocket.
"Cheat! Cheat!" Said one of the elderly wizards, who was brandishing his pool cue like a javelin.
"How is it that everytime I shoot it's cheating, but when you bump the table it's perfectly fine." The other elderly wizard that had just taken his shot and eyed the other wizard wearily.
"You're hexing the cue ball! Your noodle arms couldn't hit water even if you fell out of a boat." The other wizard was now pressing his pointer finger hard against the other wizard as they both broke out into a heated argument.
James looked down at the name of the portrait and saw 'The Invention of more holes' inscribed on a bronze plaque at the bottom of the portrait. Ignoring their interruption in attention, the group then started to descend down the hidden stairset.
Halfway down the dark hidden stairs, James thought the stairs started to go upwards rather than down, but thought it must have been his mind being tricked in the dark. They emerged out into a clear hallway where students with yellow trim robes were walking past, when James noticed Harry walking along with Ron.
"Morning, which floor are we on?" Harry was caught by surprise at James' words, not having noticed him on his walk into the castle.
"Floor? We just entered from the main doors right over there." Harry pointed over at the double oak door entrance and James, Ella, and Hermione all paused with shock then each turned around to find the tapestry they had emerged from only to find a regular brick castle wall.
"It's too early for this." James said as he followed the chugging train that was the Hufflepuff students and headed off towards the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was half full of students and magical beings who were each eating their own respective breakfast, conversations barely rising past the noise of clinking silverware on their food-filled plates. James and Harry split from their group to each sit at their house's table when the hall began to fill with wild hoots from the morning mail owls, arriving in swarms, diving onto tables, nearly knocking over pitchers of juice. Bandit had landed in front of James, nearly landing on his plate of toast, when he noticed a note attached at the bird's leg. Taking off the note, which he quickly opened, he began to read,
Feeling a bit under the weather this morning so won't see you till lunch, but I hope you both- I sent Hedwig to Harry- have a good first day and listen to your teachers. We'll talk about your friend after dinner tonight.
Love, Mom
James put the note in his pocket while looking over at Harry, who was parading Hedwig around his house table, when he decided to go back to eating his toast. Bandit nipped at his finger as he went to grab a slice of toast and figured that Bandit wanted something from the table.
"I don't know what you eat buddy?" Bandit screeched back at James' words and looked over at a plate of bacon. "Oh yeah, I'll give you some bacon. Here," Bandit eagerly nipped the piece of bacon James grabbed from the center of the table and flew off outside the open slit that allowed the owls to enter the Great Hall from.
Fred and George Weasley joined them a few minutes later with wide smiles and bright eyes that surveyed the hall. "Morning." They both said in unison while everyone at the Gryffindor table glared at the redheaded twins curiously. "What's with the accusatory looks already? We've only just woken up." George said which, in response, made Fred choke on his juice.
"That right there is why!" Said a girl with long braided hair.
"That was nothing wasn't it Fred?" George said, slapping Fred on the back.
"I had a cough," Fred coughed for effect, "that's all." The twins went about their morning, picking up bits of fruit from the center of the table and without another word, both got up from their seats and left the Great Hall with an overly loud goodbye.
Professor McGonagall called over the hall at the exiting twins, who stopped in their tracks as soon as they heard McGonagall's voice. "Where do you think both are going in such a hurry?" her voice echoed around the hall, showing her attentiveness at this early hour.
"Too… Get ready for our classes?" George said, a little defensive of what he was doing.
"Yeah, ain't nothing wrong with that." Fred added.
"And how exactly are you two going to prepare for your classes this term when you don't even have your schedules?"
Fred and George both broke out in a laugh but Professor McGonagall didn't break her serious stare. "You've got us on that!" Fred said, clutching his ribs while moving towards McGonagall. "I don't see what's funny about this, you two should be more serious about your classes since you'll be starting new ones this term." Professor McGonagall then pulled out a pile of papers where the two of them flew out of the pile and into the hands of Fred and George.
"You're right as always, Professor. We're just laughing at our thoughtlessness." Fred said, as George and he made their way out of the Great Hall.
"I'd better warn Filch later." James heard McGonagall say as she passed out the schedules to the rest of the Gryffindor class.
James looked at his schedule and before he could look past his classes for today, Hermione grabbed his and compared it to her own then frowned. "I thought we would be split in between classes with other houses but it looks like we'll all be in the same classes as a group."
James grabbed back his schedule and looked back down at it and noticed that some classes happened on multiple days of the week, while Defense Against the Dark Arts took place only on one day of the week. "Does your schedule also say that Defense class is only once a week?" James asked Hermione. "Yes, I thought that was weird as well. Maybe the Professor will explain when we have class."
When they eventually finished their breakfast, they stood up from the table and were going to head back to the common room to grab their books for their classes today when Belle tugged on James' ear and Ella nearly walked into Daisy who was floating in front of her.
"What's up?" James asked the fairies.
"We have to walk outside and look for plants." When Belle said "we" she gestured at Ella and James.
"Why?" Ella asked, a little annoyed.
"It's a material component we need in order to do magic." Daisy said back to Ella, a little sassy.
"How long is that going to take?" Hermione asked the group.
"Shouldn't be more than ten minutes." Belle replied back.
"You might not make it to class in time since you'll need to head back up to the dorm for your stuff." Hermione said, a little worried for her classmates.
"We should be fine, there's a bunch of greenhouses I hear and how hard can it be just to find a flower." James said as they made to exit the Great Hall.