The first-year Slytherin House students had Astronomy class every Tuesday night atop the Astronomy Tower.
Their professor was a Black witch from Uagadou, the African wizarding school renowned for its expertise in astronomy.
Her name was Aurora Sinistra.
Rumor had it that Uagadou specialized heavily in celestial magic, which was probably why Albus Dumbledore had hired her in the first place.
Since Astronomy was held close to midnight, there wasn’t enough time afterward for Ivy’s detention.
Which meant, for once, Ivy Doom could finally spend the night in his own bed instead of staring at Professor Severus Snape’s joyless face.
Even counting the first night of school, Ivy had technically only served detention for two days.
But being forced to process potion ingredients by hand was hardly enjoyable work.
After all, he couldn’t exactly threaten potion ingredients into processing themselves using the Killing Curse.
So staying as far away from Snape’s gloomy dungeon classroom as possible was wonderful news.
Astronomy itself was simple enough.
After a brief lecture, students used their personal telescopes to observe the night sky.
If the planets of the solar system were positioned correctly, they observed planetary movement.
If luck was poor, they settled for stars instead.
Although it was only September, midnight temperatures in the Scottish Highlands were already bitterly cold.
The young witches and wizards who hadn’t brought winter clothing shivered nonstop, silently swearing to dress warmer next time.
Thanks to the temperature-regulating enchantments on his Slytherin heirloom robes, Ivy stood out enormously among the chattering students.
Even more noticeable was the fact that he could always locate the correct celestial body immediately.
Professor Sinistra was delighted.
“Slytherin earns five points.”
“This is well deserved.”
Her dark hand patted Ivy on the shoulder before she moved away to inspect the other students’ telescopes.
“How did you do it?”
Ivy turned around.
Those bright emerald eyes were staring directly at him again.
It was Cassandra Vole, the absurdly beautiful Slytherin first-year.
Ivy was completely certain no such girl existed in the original Harry Potter novels.
If she had, nobody would’ve resisted describing her appearance in detail.
Still, that made sense.
After all, Ancient Magic didn’t exist in the original books either.
“Oh, it’s simple,” Ivy answered quietly.
“If you’d like, I can teach you personally.
Hands-on instruction included.”
“You know that’s not what I’m asking about.”
Cassandra clearly had little interest in his astronomy tips.
“But we’re in Astronomy class right now!”
Ivy widened his eyes innocently, as though shocked a classmate would dare discuss unrelated subjects instead of focusing on academics like a model student.
A faint flush appeared on Cassandra’s pale cheeks.
She took a slow breath, visibly restraining her irritation.
“Let’s speak honestly.”
“I have to admit…
your magic is stronger than I originally thought.”
“Only a little stronger?” Ivy asked mischievously.
Those vivid green eyes locked onto him for a long moment before she continued.
“…Far stronger than I imagined.”
“I need to know why.”
“Oho.” Ivy pretended to suddenly understand.
“So you’re asking me for guidance?”
Truthfully, he had noticed her secretly observing him for days already.
He simply hadn’t expected her to confront him this quickly.
He’d assumed she would continue stalking him in secret until she gathered enough “evidence” first.
“You can think of it that way,” Cassandra muttered quietly.
“So this,” Ivy teased, “is how a proud Slytherin asks someone for help?”
“Please,” Cassandra said through gritted teeth.
“Tell me how you do it.”
This time, Ivy could clearly hear her teeth grinding together.
“Because I’m a genius,” Ivy declared smugly.
“And for geniuses, it’s really no big deal.”
Besides behaving like a proper student—attending classes on time, completing homework, and serving detention with Snape every evening—Ivy had plenty of other things occupying his schedule.
For example: exploring the castle and discovering what had changed over the past century.
Judging from several secret rooms he already knew about, very little had actually changed besides a thicker layer of dust.
A surprising amount of Hogwarts remained exactly as he remembered it.
At minimum, the old Slytherin study room and the secret chamber built by the House of Gaunt family still existed.
As for the Room of Requirement, change there was inevitable.
Ivy knew very well that Lord Voldemort had entered it during his own school years.
Later, after returning to Hogwarts to apply for a teaching position, Voldemort had hidden the Ravenclaw’s Diadem there as a Horcrux.
Unfortunately, Ivy still hadn’t gone there himself.
Partly due to timing.
Partly because he’d recently acquired a persistent little tail following him everywhere.
Yes.
Cassandra apparently hadn’t given up.
Instead, she had chosen to secretly investigate Ivy’s mysteries.
Conveniently, after the “magical exchange” in the Slytherin common room on the first night of school, Ivy was fairly certain both Dumbledore and Snape had begun monitoring him more closely anyway.
So giving them something else to focus on wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Some people might wonder how Ivy found time for all this while attending classes and serving detention every night.
The answer lay in the surprisingly light workload of first-year Hogwarts students.
As brand-new students, their schedules were actually incredibly relaxed.
Each week included:
Three Herbology classesTwo Transfiguration classesTwo Charms classesOne History of Magic classOne Defense Against the Dark Arts classOne Astronomy classTwo double-period Potions classes (shared with Gryffindor House on Friday mornings)And two Flying lessons, also shared with Gryffindor
The Flying classes hadn’t even started yet—they would begin the following Thursday.
Altogether, first-years only attended fourteen class periods per week.
But across five school days, there were thirty-five available periods total.
Which meant first-year students possessed an enormous amount of free time.
Plenty of time to explore the castle.
Memorize routes to classrooms.
Finish homework.
Or, in Ivy’s case…
Continue researching the mysterious Book of Ruin.
(End of Chapter)