Dear Arthur,
I read your Hogwarts acceptance letter.
It explicitly mentions that first years cannot have brooms.
We will talk about it further when you reach your second year.
Also how does the owl letter work?
Does the owl deliver the letter even when no address is written?
Or does it just remember your location, like a pigeon?
Yours lovingly,
Helen Smith.
…
Dear Mom,
I need a firm commitment on the broom before I make any further plans.
The brooms at the school are old.
Regarding the owls, they track recipients through a magical connection between a person’s name and their physical location.
The address is not usually required and is written just for proper decorum.
All you need to know is that the birds are somewhat magic.
Yours lovingly,
Arthur Smith.
…
The Hogwarts Library was located off of a corridor on the first-floor of Hogwarts Castle and contained tens of thousands of books on thousands of shelves.
Overseen by the Hogwarts librarian, the library was where students could go to peruse or borrow books to supplement their studies.
It was open on Saturday.
The first year Hufflepuffs were using it to have a discussion.
They were really there to do their homework’s but you know how it goes.
“.. so the first thing you need to do in a group fight is to take down the biggest threat. This is important because we have the lowest number of students in Hufflepuff this year.” Arthur said to everyone around him.
“I’ll do it.” Anna replied causing everyone to look at her.
“Are you sure?” Flora asked kindly.
“Yup, they’ll never see me coming.”
“Didn’t you cry when Snape stood behind you?” Lucian asked doubtfully.
“I cry when I get nervous.” Anna said defending herself, “Besides Teddy and I made the potion successfully. Where’s Teddy?”
“He’s searching for potion reference books.” Cedric said helpfully.
“It’s not my fault Snape put me with a Slytherin.” Lucian said back, “And it wasn’t as easy as you think. Henry Macmillan is very mean.”
“How was he mean?” Cedric asked with concern.
“Well, he called me stupid a lot.”
“That’s okay.” Cedric said nodding, “As long as they don’t call you mudblood or say something about your blood in general. That’s the one you want to watch out for.”
“Why?” Arthur asked curiously.
“AHEM!” came a loud voice interrupting their conversation.
Madam Prince was looming over their heads looking every bit angry as a librarian should.
“Madam Prince, we were just looking for you.” Arthur said standing up with everyone else, “Do you have a habit of saving past newspapers? If so, can we take them someplace else?”
…
Someplace else was in the Hogwarts ground near the lake.
They all rested under the shade of a tree and continued their conv… homework.
Turns out there were newspapers available but they couldn’t just take the original.
Thankfully, Madam Prince made copies of the original using a duplication spell, which according to her would fade with time.
Arthur turned the newspaper and addressed everyone, “Look it clearly mentions the name ‘Lord Voldemort’.”
The particular issue of The Quibbler was towards the beginning of the rise of the dark lord.
Arthur had already checked The Daily Prophets and found them all to be useless.
The title read ‘LORD VOLDEMORT: IS HE HIDING THE CRUMPLE-HORNED SNORKACKS?’.
It was a pretty interesting article.
The promise of a scandal by some lord was the only reason Arthur read it.
He wouldn’t have noticed anything if it wasn’t for the part referring to Lord Voldemort as THE Dark Lord towards the end with ‘Lord Voldemort clearly has many people willing to do everything he says.
Thus, The Dark Lord has both the motive and means to hide the existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks…’
“Yup, That’s the name alright.” Cedric said, “And I would prefer if you didn’t say it.”
“Is The Quibbler really credible?” Patricia asked, “I thought it was just a joke publisher.”
“You mean, because it mentions that the dark lord was apparently jealous of the majestic crumple-horns due to him not having a nose?” Arthur said summarizing the article.
“Does it really say that?” said Cedric as he snatched the newspaper from his hands.
Lucian and Teddy surrounded him to read too.
Whoever owned the newspaper had Arthur’s respect for life.
“I’ll take The Quibbler over any other ones who didn’t even dare to publish the name.” Arthur said pointing at the piles of The Daily Prophet .
“Alright boys lets focus on the potion assignments.” Anna said.
“Especially you two. Snape’s going to be watchin very closely.” added Patricia.
…
“…Finally, wave your wand over the cauldron to finish the potion.” Arthur said reading the pages to everyone else.
“Does it really mention a dash, a sprinkle and a glug as valid units of measurements?” Teddy asked after Arthur finished his dictation, which was saying something because Teddy didn’t speak much.
Arthur passed him the potions book and put down his own quill.
“Why do we even have to learn a Cure for Boils?” Anna asked.
“I’ll do you one better, What even are boils?” Patricia said one-upping her, “Is it different form the non-magical ones?”
“Maybe it says something in the reference book?” suggested Cedric.
Teddy turned the nameless reference book and looked at the uses, “It mentions here that the potion can be used to remove boils, such as those produced by the Furunculus Curse.”
“What’s that?” Lucian asked.
“Well…The Furnunculus Curse also known as The Pimple Jinx is a Dark charm that can cause a person to break out in boils/pimples when it came in contact with their skin. It could also induce acne.”
“Did you say that this potion cures pimples and acne?” Patricia asked with considerable surprise in her voice.
“If brewed properly, I don’t see why not.” Arthur replied, also surprised that the Potions Professor would teach a solution to one of the most annoying teenage problems in his first class.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
“I think I’m starting to like Snape.” Flora said
“Me too.” Anna chimed in.
Arthur and Cedric both stared at the little girl for even daring to say that.
They both learned a valuable lesson that day.
…
By lunchtime they had already completed all their assignments.
From Arthurs past experience it was a wise thing to not let all your work pile up to the last moment.
He was glad that he could set good habits this time around.
Hopefully doing it in a group would cause the habit to stick.
For lunch Flora had gone to the Hogwarts kitchen and had the elves pack some sandwiches for everyone.
She was already getting familiar with the kitchen.
They all had a nice little picnic under the shade of the tree while watching the lake shimmer in the beautiful sunlight.
…
It was common knowledge that the lake contained a giant squid but seeing just how huge it’s tentacle made it seem like ‘Giant’ was not a fitting description.
The tentacle deposited two red haired twins on the shore near them.
The Weasley twins were wearing only their swimming trunks and were laughing their hearts out.
“What’re you guys doing?” asked Cedric taking the lead.
Pausing their laughter they turned and focused on the litter of Hufflepuffs.
“Mate, you won’t believe but we figured out how to ride the squid.” said one of the twins.
“Fred’s right. It’s real fun. Wanna try it?” George asked them.
Arthur took the lead before anyone could say something stupid, “Yes, please.”
…
For their first try only Arthur and Cedric got on a boat and followed the twins.
They both changed into clothes they were comfortable getting wet and set off from the docks following behind the twins.
“Remember guys, Let us go first and then you can jump.” Fred shouted from front.
“Are you sure it will work?” Cedric asked nervously while rowing the boat while Arthur focused on the fact that the boats were not enchanted to float automatically.
Maybe it had fixed routes?
“Don’t worry, we tried a bunch of other things.” shouted Fred, “It’ll work if you go real deep and flail around.”
“We think that the squid saves drowning students.” said George, “We’ll just try keeping still this time around to see if it’ll rescue us.”
They rowed their boats till they reached the middle of the lake.
The twins jumped right then without any hesitation.
The wait was silent and nervous.
…
Just when Arthur was starting to get ready to check a giant tentacle burst out of the water carrying the twins.
Given that the twins were laughing they both assumed everything was going well.
The squid started to make its way to the shore but not before another tentacle started dragging the empty boat away too.
“Hey, Arthur?”
“Ya?”
“Did the squid just leave?”
They both stared at each other for a moment.
Arthur broke the silence by asking, “How long do you think we should wait?”
“I don’t know. You still want to jump?”
“…”
“…”
“Let’s go back and work out the logistics.”
…
Arthur lay flat with his back to the tentacle.
The dark waters receded rapidly around him as he got nearer to the surface.
The sunlight appeared even more ethereal through the bubblehead charm that Tonks cast for him.
The charm broke when they breached the surface.
Without the obstructions he raised his head and started to look for his friend.
Cedric was right beside him and also looking at him.
The tentacle didn’t stop moving neither did their laughter.
“Again?” Cedric asked.
“Again.” Arthur nodded.