"Come follow first years!" Prefect Gabriel Truman instructs everyone. Gabriel gestured everyone to follow as they walked towards the kitchen corridor, down a long spiral staircase with tree branches wrapping around it. At the bottom of the staircase, the students found themselves at the end of the hall of a cellar. Gabriel lead the first years towards the furthest giant barrel and turns to the group.
"Please remember this, as getting it wrong will give you an unpleasant experience." Gabriel warns. "You must tap the barrel, two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in the rhythm of 'Hel-ga Huff-le-puff'." He went ahead and tapped in the rhythm and then the barrel's front end opened up revealing the entrance to the common rooms.
The first years followed through the tunnel and then found themselves in the Hufflepuff common room. The earthly decorated room gave a warm welcoming feeling. It was filled with a mix of comfortable couches, and armchairs in yellow and black while pieces of nature decorate around the corridor. Devlin's eyes widen in excitement and found himself finding a sense of home in the area.
Gabriel pointed to two stairways that lead in opposite directions. "This stairway leads to the girl's dormitory and the boys will go through this one." Gabriel gave out a welcome package to each of the first years. Devlin and his fellow first years went ahead up the stairs. Looking through each dorm, Devlin didn't find any signs of his luggage as he observed his fellow students running into the room with their luggage by a bed. After walking further up, he found his luggage in an empty round dormitory with two other beds.
"I guess I'll have two roommates. I hope I can get along with them." Devlin thought to himself.
"Okay, this is a coincidence." A familiar voice rang behind Devlin. Stan entered the room and walked towards his luggage which was next to Devlin's.
Devlin smiled. "A coincidence indeed."
"Looks like I'll be here too." An energetic voice comes out at the entrance of the dorm. A stout boy with blonde hair. He walked towards Devlin and Stan. "Ernie is my name. Ernie Macmillan!"
Devlin smiled. "Devlin Delwyn..." He shook his hand.
"Stan Little..." Stand stood next to the two introducing himself.
Ernie rushed over to his bed and luggage. "Nice to meet you both! From the Little family are ya? My parents mentioned your family once. Hardworking Aurors they mentioned one time." Stan nodded in silence with nothing much to say. "And Delwyn...haven't heard of that name before but sounds familiar."
Devlin was opening up his welcoming package while responding. "I come from a muggle family. I guess you can say first generation magic? Along with my sister, we are the the only children among my family and extended to be admitted to Hogwarts."
Ernie nods his head. "Interesting! I haven't met any people in your situation my age. It's nice to meet you! As roommates, let's hope to get along shall we?"
"Yes, let's! Pleasure to meet you too!" Devlin said
"Okay.." Stan replied shortly. There was a short silence while both Ernie and Devlin stare at Stan as Stan unpacks and gets ready for bed. Then laughter surrounded the room.
"You're interesting Stan!" Ernie said, entertained by his simple response.
The next morning, the beginning of Devlin's routine of classes has begun. It was a given, but knowing and experiencing are two completely different things. There were hundreds of staircases, ghosts flying about getting in your way or trying to strike conversation while rushing towards class. Art portraits.
Devlin, Ernie, and Stan walk together into a normal looking classroom, but with vines surrounding the ceiling. For Herbology, Devlin thought they would be at the green house. As they approached the entrance, they noticed a group of students lounging around peaking through the door.
"There, look." One student says.
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair." Another one said.
"What's going on?" Ernie went and spoke to the students by the door.
A boy with brown hair wearing a Ravenclaw robe answered. "Over there." He gestured into the classroom. "The boy with glasses next to the tall red haired kid. That's him." Students were peeking into the Herbology class staring at Harry Potter. He had his head pointing down as he noticed the kids staring at him.
"Excuse me, but this is our class, can we get in?" Stan said bluntly. The other students responded, noticing they were blocking the entrance.
As the trio walk in the room. Ron noticed Devlin and began to wave.
"Hey there Dev! Stan! Over here. Did you get settled alright?" Ron asked.
Ernie looked at Devlin and Stan questionably as Devlin and Stan. "Hey Ron, Hey Harry. Nice to see you again." Devlin replied. "Oh right, this is Ernie. Ernie, this is Ron and Harry. Ron and I have been friends before coming to Hogwarts. And we got acquainted with Harry before the Sorting Ceremony."
Ernie excitedly shook Harry's hand. "Nice to meet you, Harry. I'm Ernie. Oh yes! Nice to meet you too Ron."
"Nice to meet you too." Harry responded. "Did you find your way alright?"
"We did. It was quite confusing though. This castle is bigger and more confusing than I thought." Devlin replied.
"You can say that again." Ron added on. "That caretaker Argus Filch screamed at us! We ended up taking a wrong turn and almost opened the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor."
"How in the world did you end up there?" Devlin was wondering as it wasn't that close to the Herbology class.
"I have no idea. The moving stairs are confusing I tell ya! Filch yelled at us thinking we did it on purpose! Threaten to put us in the dungeon of all things. If it wasn't for Professor Quirrell didn't showing up, that might've happened." Ron complained.
"Well it was a good thing that happened." Hermione hopped in to join. "That was a forbidden area. You could've been in danger or lost points for Gryffindor."
"I don't think that's the main problem here, you know." Harry mentioned. Ron rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Okay.. Class, gather around. I'm Professor Sprout and I teach herbology!" Professor Sprout takes a roll call and explains the basics of herbology. Unexpectedly, the first class was just the basics about herbology and the plans for the semester.
****
"What do we have next?" Ernie went and asked Devlin
Devlin took out his notepad to look. "Looks like we got History with Ravenclaw and then Charms with Slytherin."
Ron groaned. "Oof, that means you'll be bumping into..them..."
"Them?" Devlin asked.
"Draco Malfoy and his cronies. We got into a bit of a scuffle with them at the train." Harry explained. "He was talking about being acquainted with the right people."
"Well that's typical, including for a family like the Malfoys." Ernie said. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much yea? There are people like those, and then there are families like mine and Ron's family that don't put down other families due to their origins."
Devlin laughed and gestured to himself with a big smile. "Well this muggle born boy here will be just fine! I'm known to have a thick skin." Stan stood by them and didn't say anything, but simply nodded his head with a neutral look at his face. "See, look how agreeable Stan is!" Devlin explained sarcastically.
The group laughed as they left the class finding their way through the maze like corridors of Hogwarts Castle and into their next class.
Devlin was entertained and bored at the same time during the History of Magic class. Professor Binn was sleepily introducing the class and taking roll call in a very slow speaking manner. But what entertained Devlin was the fact that Professor Binn was a ghost. He has already experienced the ghosts flying about, playing pranks and greeting them, but this time he took his time taking a good look at what a ghost is like up close.
While Devlin and his roommates were on their way to the next class, he bumped into someone suddenly which shocked everyone. "Devlin, everything okay?" Ernie asked
Devlin took a look at the person and it was Hermione as she wasn't watching where she was going. On a closer look, she doesn't look too well. The others caught on to this as well.
"I'm good here. I'll catch up to you. I know her." Devlin said.
"Okay, don't take too long." Ernie said. Stan nodded and the two went ahead. Hermione stood there quietly and looked upset.
"You okay Hermione?" Devlin asked. Hermione stood there in silence. She looked frustrated and angry.
"I'm..fine...Why did you bump into me?! You should watch where you're going. I'm going to be late for class, you should go too!" Hermione runs off.
Hermione started walking off avoiding his response.. Devlin was thinking that she was already having a hard time on the first day. He knew that she'll be fine, but even so, he decided if things do get bad, he will reach out his hand and help/
Devlin went ahead and walked into his next class. As he looked around he noticed the desks were organized where there were 2 students per desk and spread out with the middle kept open for walking about. Devlin saw the famous trio, Malfoy and his cronies talking about. There was a seat open next to Draco, but he didn't want to go there. Most other seats he looked at so far looked full.
"There's a seat open over here." Devlin heard a voice from the side. As he turned in that direction he found a friendly girl, tan skin and black hair gesturing about. He took a look at her robe and noticed she is from house Slytherin, but unusually friendly looking.
"Thank you." Devlin decided to respond in kind and took a seat next to her.
"Hello, I am Esme. Nice to meet you." Esme smiled
"Devlin. It's a pleasure." Devlin responded. He was surprised and thought to himself that not all Slytherin are bad. Devlin felt bad as because of what Slytherin is known for, he already had a prejudiced mindset about them in general. He took a breath and decided to re-evaluate himself. This is the real world, so not everything would be exactly the same.
"Ahem.." A voice can be heard behind a pile of books sitting at the center end of the classroom behind a desk. Then a tiny wizard climbed up and started taking roll call. "Now that everyone is here, let's begin. I am Professor Flitwick and welcome to your first year of Charms. I will be teaching you the basics of Charmwork. For those unfamiliar, Charms are spells that alter an object without changing its essential nature." Professor Flitwick explained."
Professor Flitwick continued to lecture about the basics of a charm spell. Devlin was happy to gain some knowledge about the basics of spell casting, but also kind of already knew as he had a head start reading the book ahead of time. Devlin peaked to his right and saw that Esme was also bored as she started resting her head on the desk while staring at Professor Flitwick.
"Okay now that is the end of class. I know you all want to start waving your wands and trying some charms, but first we'll learn about each charm first. Once I feel you are ready, we'll start learning." The students groan.
"That was a rather uneventful start." Devlin heard his neighbor's voice as he started putting his book in his bag.
"Right? I was hoping to learn more about casting spells. Didn't magical kids already learn this part?" Devlin thought to himself. While there was basic knowledge based on the books, it was better to get a point of view in his current reality in front of real people.
"Hmm, for me, I have learned the basics that I'm allowed to. My grandfather was a duelist so I picked up some tricks from him." Esme explained.
"Oh! That's interesting. I'm from a muggle family. I've read about duels being a custom when you have a confrontation about someone for honor or respect?"
Esme smiled. "To a point, yes. But it's also made into a competitive sport. Our own Professor Flitwick, he might seem aloof, but he has earned himself a dueling championship title." Esme then lazily laid on her desk and sighed. "That's why I'm so disappointed right now. I was hoping to see him in action."
"Lima!" Draco approached the duo with a pack of Slytherin students looking proud and haughty. He stared at Devlin with animosity and prejudice. "Join us for lunch. You know better than staying in the same company of THAT sort." The other young students that follow behind Draco laughed and sneered at Devlin.
Devlin glared at Draco. "You want to start something?" Devlin stood up aggressively and approached Draco. Draco hesitated for a bit and took a step back but still kept his proud and angry posture, and in follow up, then two big boys, Crabbe and Goyle, got in between them.
"You heard me." Draco stood proudly now that he was being protected. "I'd be careful. You don't know who you are messing with." Draco then turned his attention to Esme. "You sure you don't want to join us? You know that it's better to hang out with us rather than the likes of him."
"Hmmm.." Esme stayed lazily on her desk. "I'm good Draco. You can wander off on your own. You should watch your attitude, you can't order me around." Draco looked at Esme with frustration. Esme then lifted her head and grinned. "I wasn't thinking of joining anyone for lunch and just nap, but now that I think about it, I do feel hungry." Esme grinned at Devlin. "Want to join me for lunch?"
Draco's eyes widened all of a sudden and turned a little red with anger. Devlin calmed down and found the situation hilarious.
"Sure thing! I'm always available for good company." Devlin laughed.
Esme smiled. "Well, there you have it Draco. Sorry but I have plans."