Sleep came easily to Robert that night, though the following morning, wakefulness was not as easy. The previous day was a long and tiring day. Hours on trains, emotional manipulations, and entirely too much social interaction for the seemingly young boy, made him want to continue in his slumbers for as long as he could. Unfortunately his body did not wish him to remain asleep any longer. At 6:30 in the morning, which was later than what he was used to waking up at, Robert begrudgingly got out of bed and prepared for the morning that was to come.
Morning ablutions finished relatively quickly even in the unfamiliar environment that was his new domicile. He dressed himself in casual wear that was common in the young of wizarding families, simple cotton pants, of a darker gray color, and shirt, of an off white color. Brown leather shoes adorned his feet. Having been a muggle in his previous life, he was not adverse to wearing muggle clothing, but as he was a member of a pure blood family, the need to be a part of that society had been part of his tutelage from his family members as he raised through childhood.
The sun had barely started to crest the horizon as Robert left to wander by himself towards the Great Hall in order to consume some sustenance. In a moment of mental speculation, Robert questioned if having dorms in out of the way places reinforced the need for a group mentality. Why else would the school have dorms where they were, especially with the corridors of the school being nearly a labyrinth.
It took Robert nearly half an hour of trying to navigate the maze of the school before he was able to find the way to the Great Hall. Though if he would have known the way, it would have only taken him a measly five minutes from his dorms into the Great Hall. Without the fear that most children would have, Robert ran into an older student and asked for help on finding his way to his destination.
The spread of food for breakfast, like the girl from the night before told him, had lighter options. He did allow himself to eat some less than nutritious food, but did have a mostly healthy breakfast. He could admit to himself that the food produced by the school was rather tasty. Without a need to rush through his meal, Robert did take his time to eat at a measured pace.
With it being a Sunday, few students were awake by the time his meal was finished. It was mostly older students that had begun to trickle in, there were only a really small handful of first years that had awaken and made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Robert did not blame them for their want to sleep in, it was just in his nature to awaken early in the morning and get started on his day.
After his meal was finished, Robert wandered his way back to the Hufflepuff dorms. With some luck, it only took him fifteen minutes to find the correct path, this time. He gave small head nods in greeting when he passed by any of the other students. Though he might not know them, he knew that they were going to be part of his social sphere throughout the year, if not for more years. There was no real point in not trying to isolate himself from others.
At just after eight in the morning, Robert found himself back in the common room of his dormitory where most of the rest of the children had finally risen from their slumbers. And like with the students he met throughout the hallways of Hogwarts, Robert gave casual acknowledgments of greetings. The greetings were returned in kind from all those that he greeted.
----------
"Professor Sprout, while I would like to take you up on your offer, my skills are still lacking. My work would not be of sufficient quality that I feel that I could offer them in lieu of materials."
Robert had really considered Professor Sprouts' offer given the night before, his pride instilled by his Gramps Rett did not allow him to present anything that he was not proud of. Some small imperfections, yes, he could live with, but his work still contained enough errors that he could not be content to say he was happy with his labors. The need for near perfection could be both a blessing and a curse.
With a calm air, Professor Sprout began her rebuttal to Robert's consternation. "I respect your candidness in what you consider your lack of skills. But I was not expecting you to fulfill my requests right away. You are still young, and are still learning your craft."
In a rather silent, but calm voice, Robert questioned his head of house, "...and if I'm never able to deliver on your requests? What then?"
"It would be the schools loss. And remember, this is a school. I'm only giving you an opportunity to continue your education. If your skills end up being lesser than what you consider adequate… oh, well. But I don't see that being a problem with you," explained Professor Sprout.
"Not trying to be rude here Professor, but what do you mean by that?"
"Mr. Dresden, you are not being rude. But as to your question on what I meant, it's because I don't doubt your ability to improve yourself. On the first day at Hogwarts, you asked for an opportunity to have a chance to practice. I can only presume that that dedication will make you strive to excel as much as you can."
"Thank you for faith in me. If you trust me enough, then I will gladly take up your offer."
"I'm glad to hear that." Professor Sprout exclaimed in a happy tone.
They went on to discuss what equipment and supplies he would need for his practice. This when on for a while as the teacher and student discussed what would he would be using be attempting to craft, which he explained. From there, they went to discuss on what other help that would he facilitate his personal advancements.
"For beginning enchanting, I can give a small sliver of help, but there is a teacher that I can recommend you to better help you," explained Professor Sprout. "Professor Babbling teaches Ancient Runes. She will be a good teacher to help you with. At lunch, I'll introduce you to her."
With the knowledge that there Robert would have someone to help answer his questions, he thanked his head of house. There was a small continuation of the conversation before they parted ways for the morning. With a final word, Professor Sprout let him know to come to her, or any of the teachers if he needed any help."
"Thank you professor."
----------
Lunch came, and Robert had been introduced to Professor Babbling. She was a middle aged witch, he questioned on his knowledge of runes, and how he was looking to advance in his studies. After that small amount of questioning, she told Robert where her office was and mentioned a few books that could be used to guide him. He was thankful of her willingness to help him.
With the mention of the library and the books that Professor Babbling mentioned, Robert attempted to head towards the library. With a few questions to older students, Robert was given directions on where the library was. Thankfully it was on the first floor of Hogwarts.
The stern librarian, Madam Pince, gave instructions on what was deemed the rules of the library. The main two rules were to not steal or deface books, and to be silent. Other rules were such as there was to be no food and drinks, or no running in the library, or no snogging. Confused at the word, as that was not a word used in America, Robert questioned Madam Pince, who bluntly expounded on what should be a sensitively handled topic.
If it were not for the sternness of the witch, Robert would have laughed out loud when he found out the snogging was what he considered 'making out'. Even for having in lived in England for over five years, the jargon used by the residents left him lost in what they were speaking about. It was not that he could not figure out what they were speaking about, but often times those that he interacted with did not use the colloquialism within context that the definition could be properly inferred.
At least with common language, some things were able to understood. However the vernacular of the wizarding world was a whole other story. Antecedents that called upon the knowledge of stories told by this new world rarely made sense to Robert. And he had himself to blame, as he could not really enjoy stories told to children. So how was he to understand the meaning behind 'Hopping to Understanding', or anything else similar to that.
After having his mind wander throughout his lack of wizarding common sense, or lack thereof, Robert remembered why he came to the library for. The books that Professor Babbling suggested that he should peruse were in a small subsection of the library, dedicated to books on Ancient Runes. While yes, the library was huge, at least compared to a library in any household, it was not as large as some libraries in the muggle world.
The section dedicated to runes was merely two racks of books, front and back. It housed merely around one hundred to two hundred books. To some, that might sound like a large selection of books, but for a whole course of study, that was not that large of an amount of books. And that was also ignoring that some of the books had multiple copies, or just several different editions.
The languages of runes in this part of the library was composed of mainly of three different languages, Elder Futhark, some rune language based on the Norse runes, and Egyptian Cuneiform. While Robert had delved mainly into Elder Futhark, he had a smattering of information on the other two languages, and understood that due to the difference in language, each type of rune language had it's own postives, and it's own negatives. For example, with being so studied in the English speaking world, a lot more of information had been understood about, leading it to be more easily taught. But the problem with it, especially with it being studied as much as it had been, is that the language was becoming more rigid in it's usage throughout the ages. It did have it's uses, but it lead to a lack of creativity in using the language itself.
For a novice in enchanting, and the usage of runes, to Robert, the lack of creativity was a boon. He wanted to understand how to properly use runes for enchantments, so that he could start developing his own, and Elder Futhark provided a platform in which he could more easily learn that knowledge. He knew from watching his grandfather, that his grandfather used a multitude of different runes from different languages, intertwining them to make a more custom based enchantment. And this was Robert's hope for the future when it came to his future.
----------
Simple perusing of the library books came and went. As such went supper in the same manner. All the schedules for each of the school years were posted in the common room, excluding the ones for older students, who had different electives, needing a more personalized schedule. Each subject taught in Hogwarts had two classes a week. Excluding Astronomy and History of Magic, one of the classes was a theoretical portion, that was only one period long. The other class was a practical selection, that was a double period. Astronomy, though was only once a week, in the middle of the night, and as for History of Magic, that was taught twice a week. For the first years, the theoretical classes were in the first part of the week, while the practical classes were in the back half of the week.
Tomorrow, the first day of classes, Robert would start off with the first period being History of Magic. Skipping a period after that class, he would be having Defense against Dark Arts, followed directly by Charms. That was a very light schedule of classes, if Robert had to admit it. Either there was a lot of self-study required for the courses, or the demands of the students was not that much.
----------
Just started reading another story on archive of our own. Called "The Eighth Year. I'm less than half way through with it. Truly an enjoyable story that's more about the relationships surrounding those that survived through the Second Wizarding War. Slow burn.
I have always liked it when authors suggest stories by others to read, and since I'm writing this story, I might as well share the love of what I'm enjoying at the time.