Chapter 13
The Gryffindor table was loud.
Not normal loud.
Not even Dudley loud.
This was an entirely different category of noise.
Harry had barely sat down before someone shoved a plate toward him.
“Have a potato.”
Harry blinked.
“What?”
“A potato.”
The older student looked offended.
“As a celebration.”
Harry took the potato.
“Thank you?”
The student nodded.
“Good choice.”
And walked away.
Harry stared after him.
“I don’t understand this place,” he admitted.
“Neither do I,” Ron said.
“I think that was a cultural experience,” Ivy added.
⸻
Food appeared a moment later.
Not arrived.
Appeared.
One second the plates were empty.
The next they weren’t.
Harry nearly dropped his fork.
Around him, nobody else seemed surprised.
Which somehow made it stranger.
“Magic,” Hermione said.
“Yes,” Harry replied.
“I know.”
“I just wanted to say it.”
Fair enough.
⸻
Dinner passed in a blur.
Harry listened more than he spoke.
Students talked about classes.
Professors.
Quidditch.
House rivalries.
People seemed to assume Harry already knew half of it.
He didn’t.
Every time someone mentioned something unfamiliar, Ivy quietly wrote it down on a scrap of parchment she’d stolen from somewhere.
Harry glanced over.
“What are you doing?”
“Research.”
“You made a list.”
“Several.”
“Why?”
“Preparation.”
Harry looked at the growing collection of notes.
“You’re terrifying.”
“Thank you.”
⸻
Eventually the food disappeared.
The Headmaster stood.
The room immediately quieted.
Harry recognized him from the Chocolate Frog card.
Professor Dumbledore.
He looked exactly like someone who would own several thousand books and somehow know where all of them were.
“Welcome,” Dumbledore said.
His eyes seemed to twinkle.
Harry wasn’t entirely sure how eyes twinkled.
But these did.
“Before we retire for the evening, a few announcements.”
The hall listened.
“No entering the Forbidden Forest.”
Several students immediately looked interested.
Ivy included.
Harry noticed.
“No.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You thought it.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“It absolutely counts.”
⸻
A few more announcements followed.
Then the students began standing.
Benches scraped.
Conversations resumed.
The Great Hall transformed back into chaos.
A tall red-haired prefect appeared at the end of their table.
“First years.”
Everyone looked up.
“Follow me.”
⸻
The journey to Gryffindor Tower somehow involved more stairs than Harry thought existed in the entire world.
The castle appeared determined to confuse them.
At one point a staircase simply moved away.
Without warning.
Leaving several students staring in disbelief.
Ivy laughed.
Harry was beginning to suspect she enjoyed being confused.
⸻
Finally they stopped before a portrait.
A large woman wearing a pink dress looked down at them.
“Password?”
The prefect answered.
The portrait swung open.
Harry stared.
“A door?”
“It appears to be.”
“I hate that you’re technically right.”
⸻
The common room was warm.
Golden.
Comfortable.
Large chairs surrounded a roaring fire.
Students lounged on sofas.
Others talked in small groups.
For the first time all evening, Hogwarts felt less overwhelming.
More like home.
Or at least something that could become one.
Harry caught Ivy looking around.
Not excited.
Not overwhelmed.
Happy.
Quietly happy.
The kind that settled deep.
Something about it made his chest feel lighter.
⸻
Eventually the prefects separated them.
Girls one way.
Boys the other.
Ivy stopped halfway up the stairs.
“Harry.”
“What?”
She pointed at him.
“You’re not allowed to die.”
Harry stared.
“What?”
“I’m serious.”
“We’ve been here six hours.”
“Still.”
Ron snorted.
Harry rubbed his face.
“Goodnight, Ivy.”
“Goodnight, Harry.”
Then she disappeared upstairs.
⸻
The boys’ dormitory sat at the top of a spiral staircase.
Five beds waited inside.
Heavy curtains.
Trunks.
Warm firelight.
Ron immediately collapsed onto the nearest mattress.
“This is brilliant.”
Harry had to admit—
It was.
For a few moments nobody spoke.
Everyone seemed exhausted.
Then—
A voice drifted through the open window.
Faint.
Distant.
Coming from the grounds below.
Someone laughing.
Another voice answering.
Harry moved toward the glass.
The castle grounds stretched beneath the moonlight.
Far below, students crossed the courtyard.
Among them—
A flash of pale hair.
Harry blinked.
Probably coincidence.
Lots of people had pale hair.
Right?
The figure disappeared around a corner before Harry could get a better look.
Weird.
Very weird.
Harry pulled the curtains around his bed.
Tomorrow would be his first real day at Hogwarts.
New classes.
New teachers.
New everything.
As sleep slowly pulled him under, one final thought drifted through his mind.
Not about magic.
Not about Hogwarts.
Not even about the castle.
Just a brief image of grey eyes.
Harry groaned into his pillow.
Then fell asleep.