With shouts and applause, the young man slowly made his way towards the applauding table.
As he looked around, he could see a visibly reluctant McGonagall who had certainly hoped to see him enter her house, Gryffindor, especially after learning more about him.
From his maturity to his learning curve, she held no doubt that he would become one of the top-graders in the school if not the best student with a bright future ahead of him.
Yet, as she looked at the young boy making his way to his new house table, she could only turn back to the scroll in her hand, hoping to encounter another student with such potential.
“Timothe Aster.”
As Lux heard yet another name behind him, he finally sat down at the edge of the Ravenclaw table, the blue and brown colored flag fluttering high above.
Looking at the few first years already sorted before him and the students of higher years that talked between each other while listening distractedly to the sorting ceremony, he found the scene becoming repetitive.
Yet, there was nothing he could do since every new student had to be sorted before the beginning of the feast.
So, it was with patience and the grumbling stomach of students that they waited and saw each and every new student being recruited in the various houses.
‘I can’t even train my magic or anything here.’ Lamented the young man who had taken to his continuous studies, feeling that doing nothing was a waste of his life, being used to continuously training and studying to reach greater heights.
It was only three hours later that each student was properly sorted in their respective houses, the tables finally filling themselves with food as every student and professor dived into the year’s beginning feast.
With a menu that turned mostly around potatoes, pumpkins and chicken, he filled his stomach with chicken which was at least more healthy than just a large serving of potatoes.
As everyone ate, time slowly went by as a large bell sounded across the castle, making the headmaster, a man with an incredibly large beard suddenly stand up from his seat.
~Clap~
With a resounding clapping sound, certainly boosted by magic, all the chatter reached an end as the eyes of every student were brought to the podium of the Great Hall.
“With this begins a new year at Hogwarts.
Before sending you all back to your dorms, please take note of these few points.” Started the headmaster as everyone’s tired eyes were glued on him.
“As always, the forbidden forest is prohibited to all students unless you have a teacher’s permission and the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds for anyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.” He said with a small smile which made a few younger students chuckle but most older students remained quiet and serious with only a few groaning seemingly in annoyance.
‘Hum, this shouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened and the threat is very serious.’ Thought Lux as he made a mental note to stay out of this specific place of the castle.
It wasn’t as if this specific place needed to be explored.
The castle, being very old, was already incredibly large and Lux doubted that even the older students had explored every nook and cranny of this old school that once certainly served as a fortress. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Now, prefects, bring the new students back to the dorms, school will begin Tuesday the 3rd.” Completed the headmaster before seemingly disappearing in a burst of flame.
Tweet~
As the headmaster disappeared, the little eyes of his small holy phoenix, hidden in his robes seemingly grew wider as a happy chirp was released.
“What is it Aura?” Asked Lux in a small voice as he looked at the now slightly more excited white phoenix.
Chirp~
Replying to him even if Lux couldn’t understand, he nonetheless guessed that the way the headmaster had teleported was what Aura was excited about.
“Now that I think of it, the book of Circe did mention that a phoenix had taken residency in Hogwarts, didn’t it?
Does it mean that this teleportation was made thanks to the phoenix’s help?” He wondered in a small voice as he got up, following the other first years who were themselves following the Ravenclaw prefect.
Petting the small head of his white phoenix, he walked up the countless number of stairs, the randomly missing steps simply reinforcing his idea that this was an ancient war fortress.
Otherwise, there was simply no reason for such wards to be installed on the school.
Indeed, the missing steps were wards and not enchantments as many of the older students thought.
There was a massive difference between wards and enchantments.
While wards were composed of a whole, enchantments were single objects.
For example, the vanishing steps of the castle, those he was currently stepping above, were wards simply by the fact that they were randomized in a systematic manner and only select steps would vanish upon being walked on.
Had the vanishing steps been made into enchantments instead, the vanishing steps would be set, unchanging, allowing anyone to find their existence after a single person fell through.
However, considering the reason for the existence of the steps, to prevent invasion and help in the defence of the castle, having the same steps constantly vanish would soon render the enchantment moot.
As such, the founders not only randomized the vanishing steps but also added an enchantment over them to help the inhabitants of the castle notice those steps, preventing them from falling through them.
However, if there was one thing that bothered Lux, it was the lack of control over the wards.
The school was obviously not under any attack, yet the wards were still activated.
It was obvious that whoever controlled the wards either didn’t understand them or simply didn’t care.
Yet, he could notice the problem and he didn’t believe the headmaster or the teachers didn’t notice it.
‘Well, whatever, it is not my problem.’ Thought Lux as he stepped above yet another vanishing step.
He had neither the required knowledge nor the level of expertise required to intervene in such matters.
He would better spend his time improving his knowledge and mastery over magic.
A few moments later, the few hundred students of Ravenclaw finally reached the tower and arrived in front of a bronze-colored eagle amidst the huffing and wheezing of many students who were obviously not in top shape.
“This is the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room.” Started the prefect who had been silent throughout the walk.
“To enter the common room, you must answer the riddle given by the eagle.
Should you fail, it will grant you another one until you either succeed or someone else lets you through.” She explained as she looked over the students who immediately frowned.
They didn’t like the idea of being locked outside of the common room in the middle of the night or right before an important class.
“Don’t worry, however.
Most of the time students come and go from the common room and someone will come out every ten minutes or so to look on the other side for locked students.” She explained with a smile as she naturally understood what everyone was thinking, having thought of the same thing as them when she first entered Hogwarts.
“Other houses students could technically also enter the common room but their riddle would be thrice as difficult which means that there are rarely any other students who enter the common room except for the ones brought in by the Ravenclaw students.” She finished with a smile as she immediately answered the riddle, allowing everyone to enter the common room.
“Now, as it is late and everyone is obviously sleepy, I will not talk too long.
In Ravenclaw, due to our house’s belief that learning is the most important, we have single rooms, each of them having your name tag on the door, allowing everyone to study in peace.
While not big, it is more than enough for the basics of studying and reading.
Since everyone has a single room, the boys and girls dormitories are not separated, instead, the tower is separated in seven years for each student’s year groups.
The first floor is for the first year, the second floor for the second year, etc.
Finally, when you start your astronomy classes with professor Sinistra or your divination classes with professor Trewalney should you choose divination in your third year, you will see that Ravenclaw is lucky enough to have an astrology room on the eighth floor, right above the seventh years’ rooms.
With this, I recommend you to explore the castle tomorrow in order to find your classes location.
Now, goodnight.” She stated as every student went to the first floor, searching for their name.
The stairs leading to the first floor were in the middle of the common room and when he reached the first floor, four corridors made their appearance which simply made it more complicated to find their own names.
Thankfully, it seemed he was pretty lucky as he found his name at the right of the very end of the first corridor leading North from the stairway.