"Lower your heads, children!"
Asterion, Rose, and Hermione lowered their heads at Hagrid's shout and raised them again after crossing the bridge.
"Beautiful." A collective sigh echoed over the moonlit lake.
There was no other word to describe what these young wizards and witches were feeling at this moment, seeing Hogwarts for the first time. The castle atop the hill seemed to possess a strange allure and mystery that made you unable to look away from it. It felt like ancient magic resonating with the very essence of all magic like a primal, ancient heartbeat.
"The castle seems alive," Rose murmured, gazing at the castle.
"If it isn't, it's not far off," Asterion heard her murmur and nodded, looking at the castle.
"Should I be able to create a living castle?" He wondered. He thought that if he could, he would be the first to do something like that, even his ancestors hadn't thought of it.
"We're arriving, mind your step when getting off, children," Hagrid, alone in a boat, shouted again. The boat beneath him seemed like it would sink at any moment with his enormous weight. But in the end, upon reaching the dock, the small boat survived another day.
Stepping off the boat and onto the wooden bridge, Asterion quickly distanced himself from the boat, more precisely, from the fourth occupant who was on the boat, a girl with beautiful pale blonde hair and dreamy silver eyes, she had two carrots as earrings in her delicate ears.
Asterion recognized the girl, there was no way not to. But recognizing her and wanting to approach her were two different things. He had already exceeded his quota of crazy women in his life; one Bellatrix was enough!
But the girl didn't think the same way.
"Can I pet him?" She asked, approaching Asterion who continued to step back, her dreamy eyes wandering in the shadow of the Black heir.
"No, he particularly dislikes people wanting to pet him," Asterion denied without any hesitation.
"We'll never know unless I touch him," the girl insisted, staring directly into Asterion's eyes, as if she were looking straight into his soul.
Looking into those eyes, Asterion couldn't help but notice the familiarity they shared with Gellert Grindelwald's eyes - The Dark Lord!
Rose and Hermione laughed, watching Asterion constantly backing away, but every time he moved back, she moved closer, creating a rather amusing scene where a boy retreated and a girl approached.
For them, it was truly amusing to see the cold and indifferent Asterion Black, a Special Grade Wizard, fleeing from a seemingly harmless girl.
While Asterion kept backing away from the girl, Hagrid, in front of the crowd of new students, banged heavily on the gigantic wooden doors, creating a loud sound.
It didn't take long for the doors to open, revealing a middle-aged woman with stern features. Her hair, almost entirely white, was arranged in an elegant bun, and she wore emerald robes and glasses on her eyes.
"Professor McGonagall, I've brought the new students," Hagrid said, his voice naturally loud.
"Thank you for your hard work, Hagrid. I'll take care of the children now," she replied, looking at the nearly three hundred teenagers, who fell silent with a simple glance from her.
Hagrid nodded and left with heavy steps, but not before waving to Rose at the back of the crowd, who also waved back gently to him.
"Follow me in silence," Professor McGonagall said, fully opening the massive wooden doors.
Soon, almost three hundred boys and girls followed quietly into the castle.
"I have to say, I'm curious how Hagrid's parents met," Asterion, who had managed to shake off the girl with dreamy eyes, murmured to himself, after watching the giant-human hybrid disappear with a lantern in hand.
To give you some context, a giant typically stands between four to six meters tall. The tallest recorded human reached a maximum height of 2.72 meters (8 ft 11.1 in) and weighed 199 kg (439 lb).
Still, faced with a giant, they seemed like a child barely reaching the waist, so the idea of a giant and a human mating and conceiving was something that left Asterion very confused.
Rose rolled her eyes upon hearing the murmuring of her new friend, or at least, she thought they were friends. One thing she noticed about Asterion was that the boy was particularly curious about everything. But not on a normal level; anything he found interesting, he had a rather unsettling gaze, almost like a mad scientist looking at his subject.
She resolved to keep an eye on Asterion to prevent him from dissecting some students out of curiosity...
In front of all the new students, Professor McGonagall began to explain the basics to them. "Hogwarts has four houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. You will be sorted into one of them after a test at the sorting ceremony..."
She continued to explain until they reached another pair of massive doors. Before entering, she said to the new students, "Before you enter, straighten your clothes and correct any inadequacies in your attire."
In the midst of the crowd, a girl with black hair adjusted her skirt when suddenly, she felt someone tap her right shoulder.
"I'm busy, Gwen."
"I wasn't talking to you, Melina."
The girl looked confusedly at her friend who was on her left and then glanced to her right. She saw a transparent face smiling eerily at her.
"HAH!!!!!!!!!" She let out a terrifying scream that startled everyone around.
But it was just the beginning of pandemonium, as more and more ghosts emerged through the walls, frightening the new students. What followed was a symphony of screams of horror and fear.
Asterion remained indifferent to all the commotion; cursed spirits were far more terrifying than these ghosts, so he wasn't afraid. On the contrary, he discreetly looked with greed at the hundreds of ghosts flying above the students.
Due to Hogwarts, ghosts might seem common, but they're not at all common in nature. The requirements for a soul to transform into a ghost after death were at the very least challenging.
Firstly, you have to die in a location with a high concentration of magical energy, preferably on top of Ley Lines, which is not easy to find. Hogwarts, for example, was built on top of one of the most important Ley Lines in the world. Secondly, you have to have an intact soul. Thirdly, you have to die with great remorse. And finally, you have to die with the body relatively intact.
Discreetly, Asterion made a hand seal, connecting his thumb to his index finger, forming a circle. In the next moment, one of the hundreds of ghosts flew discreetly to Asterion, who simply opened the pocket of his pants and the ghost was sucked inside.
Looking around, he found Rose's incredibly blue eyes staring at him with an amused look and a mischievous smile on her lips.
Asterion remained indifferent upon realizing he'd been caught and continued to look straight ahead as if nothing had happened.
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Author's Thoughts: Hogwarts at last! In the next chapters I will be skipping some unnecessary parts, which everyone has already read a million times.
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Next Chapter: Chapter 43 - Hogwarts (2), Chapter 44 - Hogwarts (3), Chapter 45 - Classroom (1), Chapter 46 - Classroom (2), Chapter 47 - Classroom (3), Chapter 48 - First Class of Defense Against Cursed Spirits (1), Chapter 49 - First Class of Defense Against Cursed Spirits (2), Chapter 50 - Request (1), Chapter 51 - Request (2), Chapter 52 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (1), Chapter 53 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (2), Chapter 54 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (3), Chapter 55 - A Treacherous Game of Chess (4), Chapter 56 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (1), Chapter 57 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (2), Chapter 58 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (3), Chapter 59 - Magical Self-Defense Tactical Training Class (4), Chapter 60 - School Council, Chapter 61 - Mission (1), Chapter 62 - Mission (2), Chapter 63 - Mission (3), Chapter 64 - Mission (4).