Don't Tickle a Sleeping Slytherin von Lhasbelin ================================================================================ Kapitel 3: Chapter Three ------------------------ Ouch. Apparition sucks. It feels as if someone scrambled my brain. I feel sick. I blink the stars away and try to focus on what is right in front of me – Hogwarts' front gates. „Follow me.“ He brings me to the Great Hall. It is a lot smaller than it must be in Harry's time but I guess, since it is Hogwarts that the Great Hall will grow with the amount of students attending Hogwarts. The two staircases I've seen so far aren't moving either. It is still obvious that Hogwarts is magical. The floating candles and the thrum of magic in the air, the moving portrait above the mantelpiece...   It is both more and less than I expected. Less, because I only know the Hogwarts of Harry's time and this time's Hogwarts is still a bit plain in comparison – it is younger after all. And it is more because... no imagination could ever compare to actually being here. It is... amazing. Scary. Exhilarating. I shiver. Being here is overwhelming. I feel the need to squeal (not something I normally do) and at the same time I want to hide because this, being here, drives home how much I don't really belong here. Standing in that hall, looking around, seeing how different, how alien it looks to what I know... It cruelly reminds me that this is not my time. It is not even a time I know much about.   I probably know more about the Japan of this time than England. Sure, we had history lessons at school but those about medieval Europe were long ago... I'm sure there'll be lots of details that will trip me off – like the fact that there are only two large tables instead of the four house tables that I knew about or that the ceiling is friggin normal.   Godric nudges me forward. “Come. You must be hungry.” I nod. I am not really hungry – I am far too excited – but since I have no idea when the last time was that I (this body) have eaten something and also no idea how meals are regulated here... I grab the chance to eat something so that I won't be hungry later if I didn't eat anything.   “Rinka!” A house elf pops up and bows to us. To my surprise the she-elf is wearing some sort of uniform with the Hogwarts crest. “How cans Rinka help Master Godric?” “We are hungry if you would be so kind to prepare a meal for us.” I stare at him, I hadn't really expected him to be so polite to a house-elf.   The elf pops away again and Godric explains. “That was one of Hogwarts' house elves. The school elves work here as servants, but that does not mean that you can push them around. Believe me. You better be nice to them or Helga will skin you alive.” Well, that explains that. Considering that, as far as I know, all the Hogwarts elves of this time are elves that Helga rescued from abusive owners, it makes a lot of sense. Not that I would have treated them badly anyway, I know Dobby after all.   “Oh, right, you don't know Helga. Helga Hufflepuff is one of us four that founded the school.” I nod. “What is she like?” How different is she from what knowledge about her survived? He starts to answer but then Rinka returns and he just tells me to eat.   The broth does not seem very... It looks a bit disgusting. Okay, it looks really disgusting. I force myself to try it. It is delicious. After a couple of spoonfuls I realize how starved I am. I wonder. Is that because I, she?, has not eaten in some time or is it because of the magical exhaustion?   Godric laughs at my renewed enthusiasm. I ignore him in favour of the food. While we eat a motherly woman enters the hall and approaches us. “Godric.” “Helga.” “You brought someone here early?” The question is not an accusation, it is lined in friendly curiosity. “Helga, this is Honoria. Honoria, this is Lady Helga Hufflepuff.”   Err... Technically, I knew she was a lady (isn't Gryffindor a lord as well?) but now that I am introduced to her... I don't know anything about the proper etiquette. In the end I shyly bow to her – well, as well as one can bow while sitting down. “Milady.”   She laughs – she has a friendly laugh – and tells me to call her Helga until school starts. Then I will have to call her Professor Hufflepuff like the rest of her students.   Helga smiles at me and asks me how I find Hogwarts so far. I smile and to my mortification gush a bit about how overwhelming and amazing it is to be here and to have magic. They both chuckle. “Why are you here early, Godric?” He frowns. “I found her in Lundenburh. There was a.... accident. Her parents were Muggles and they didn't survive.” I try to look sufficiently sad [devastated] but it is difficult. I did not know these parents of mine. And I don't really miss mine (yet). I lived alone so I don't see them that often. I miss my friends more at the moment. Some of them would probably kill to be here with me or in my stead.   Helga apologizes profusely and I tell her that it is alright. Godric tells her that it has not quite hit me yet and that too much has happened to me today to realize that my parents are gone, probably. I don't correct him, how could I. Helga almost hugs me to death and glares at Godric over my head – at least judging from how he pales.   She then asks if he took me shopping, demands my things from him when he tells her he did and ushers me away. “You can sleep in my rooms until the others arrive.” I guess it's better to just agree with her.   She conjures a mattress and a trunk for me and tells me to put our purchases in the trunk. Not my wand, though, I am to keep that on me at all times.   After I have put my things away she asks me if I am tired or if I want a tour of the grounds. I am a bit tired but there's no way I'd say no to a tour, so I tell her I'm not.   She smiles and promises to show me around.   Her quarters are on the second floor and so she shows me that floor first. There is not much to see but she points out the classroom where she will teach Charms. On the third floor are the rooms where we'll be taught Duelling (Godric) in those lessons where we aren't taught outside, and Transfiguration (also Godric).   On the fourth floor there are several rooms for her Etiquette lessons (hopefully I won't be totally lost then) and dancing. Yikes. That's definitely not my cup of tea. Astronomy (Rowena) will be taught in one of the towers.   The rooms where us students will be hosted are on the first floor. She tells me that while we will be separated in different classes by our abilities – there will be four levels – and we will be under the tutelage of the four founders, there are two dorm rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. She does not elaborate about how we'll be assigned to the founders. (Does the Sorting Hat exist already or will they choose the students for themselves?)   In the dungeons are the rooms for Potions (Rowena) and both Latin and Rune Magic (Salazar). I'm quite looking forward to that class, runes are interesting. Also in the dungeons are the kitchen which are not solely run by house elves in this time. She introduces me to the Head Cook, one Æthelred the Ferocious. Apparently our cook used to be an adventurer when she was young, before she decided to dedicate herself to her second passion – cooking. I have no idea how that even works, adventuring and cooking. It doesn't help that when she told me “I used to be an adventurer” I wanted to ask her if she took an arrow to the knee. She does look appropriately scary though, as if she would chop me up as soon as she would chop vegetables. I am quite glad when Helga leads me away again.   She tells me about the library belonging to Rowena who offered to let the students use them. She deliberately doesn't show me where it is because she will not let me anywhere near there before Rowena can tell me the rules as Rowena would kill her (and me) if anything happened to her sacred books and scrolls. I am disappointed by that. I am handicapped enough as it is, having prior access to a library could have really helped. I sigh and grumble that I quite like to read. Helga hears me and it makes her blink at me in surprise. “You can read?” She asks, disbelieving. I nod hesitatingly. “There are many wizards that can't. And I thought there were even more amongst Muggles.” I shrug. What can I say? Clearly, I messed up a bit. I should've thought of that but I can't take it back. I need to think of a plausible reason then. Luckily she doesn't ask. She only hums to herself and then smiles at me and tells me that she will introduce me to Rowena once she returns.   She takes me outside to show me where we may learn Herbology as part of the Potions lessons but that isn't decided yet. In the beginning we will probably venture into the forest, she says. She shows me the lake where we take a break as my arms begin to hurt from carrying my wolf pup around. It wasn't exactly heavy but carrying it for that long was tiring nonetheless. She tells me that apart from the founders and the head cook there will be a nurse and a ground keeper that will return a day before the rest of the students arrive.   The lake is soothing even though she tells me not to enter it. Apart from the fact that I can't swim (I can swim thank you very much but I refrain from correcting her) the native people may not like an intruder. They have a truce for now but it is still shaky. We sit there for a while while she tells me about her lesson plans. She mentions charms I have never heard about and some I would have expected remain unmentioned. How many of the spells I remember exist at this time? She will teach us some household charms as well. Thank the gods. I hate tidying.   I yelp in pain. While I was listening to her explaining some spell that must be a precursor of the evanesco, my wolf pup has woken up. The shopkeeper was right, it likes to bite. Unsure about how to proceed I let it nibble on my hand – the bite hasn't broken skin yet – and use my other hand to pet it. It does not seem to have expected that. It freezes. A few seconds later it slowly lets go of my hand. It looks at me sceptically but lets itself be pet. (I really need to check if it's male or female, the it thing is getting to me.) Carefully I pull my poor hand out of its reach all the while petting it with the other one.   Helga who looked worried when she saw that it had bitten me, relaxes again and smiles. She continues to talk about her classes. She points towards the stables where we will learn to ride as part of our etiquette lessons. I wince. It has been years since I've ridden a horse. The last time was in seventh grade – ages ago. And I wasn't that much of a fan... We'll see how that turns out.   I continue petting the cub. There's also a flock of chickens, and a couple of farm animals around but  Helga doesn't go into details there.   Maybe twenty minutes later we continue on. The wolf dislikes being carried now that he's awake and is wiggling around, but I have enough training from holding my neighbour's cat to know how to carefully hold a wiggling pet and keep it from jumping down. And after a few moments it realizes that I'm not about to drop it and settles down. She shows me to the stables – there are fifteen horses there at the moment. Or rather fifteen Abraxans. They are beautiful. A few of them are shy, most don't care that we are there but one of them, no more than a foal, is absolutely fascinated by my wolf. It is sniffing it and nosing it and doesn't seem bothered by the fact that my wolf is growling. I step away – I don't want to risk my wolf biting the Abraxan.   Helga then half-tells-half-asks me if I am tired which by now I am. I feel like an old woman. Moving... doesn't exactly hurt but I can feel the exhaustion. We return to the kitchens where she asks for a small evening snack and some meat and water for my wolf to be brought to here quarters where we then return to.   After we eat, she tells me to sleep. I would love to go to sleep, but I can feel nature's call by now and I have no idea how this is handled here. She pointed some bathing rooms out to me earlier when she showed me the dorms, but their version of a toilet... I don't even really know what to ask for. After talking around the problem for quite a bit before she understands what I mean, she shows me to the toilet down the hall. It is rudimentary but the bowels are charmed to vanish the waste, so that's a plus.   Afterwards I return to her quarters and – cautiously cuddling the wolf cub – I fall asleep.   x_X_x   What a strange dream. I wake up slowly and still half asleep I wonder about my imagination. The last time I dreamt myself into a fandom was when I was twelve and it was The Tribe. I like Harry Potter, sure, but why the hell would I dream myself into the Founder's time? I shake my head at myself and stiffen when something tickles my nose. I sneeze. What the... I open my eyes and the only thing I see is my cub's coat. What. Holy Hannah, that wasn't a dream?! Okay, calm down. So... either I am still dreaming – which I doubt, I remember my headache from yesterday – but I pinch myself nonetheless. Still not-dreaming then. Okay. I can... I will work with that. I stroke its fur absently while I ponder what to do.   “Oh, you're awake.” I flinch. I'd forgotten Helga. “Barely.” “Come and drink a cup of tea with me, it will wake you up.” So I get up, gather my wolf – I really need to find out about its gender so that I can give him or her a name – and join her.   The tea – if it can be called tea, I highly doubt it – tastes horrible, but it does help with waking up. Helga does not eat breakfast herself but she tells me that I can go to the kitchens to grab an apple or something if I want. She thinks it's a good exercise for me – to see if I can find my way around school.   And that is basically how my first or rather second day at the school goes. Helga sends me from one end of Hogwarts to the next to see if I get lost. She tells me to call for an house elf if I do. Luckily I don't. Well, there are a couple of times where I take quite the detour but I somehow manage to find my way. (Even if I'm not always how I got to where I was supposed to go.) It also gets me used to carrying the wolf around - at least until I try to let it walk itself. It mostly keeps to my side but it is also responsible for the biggest detour yet. After the fourth or fifth trip I start to make some deliberate side trips to further explore the castle. After the seventh Helga catches wind of it and tells me to go ahead and explore on my own but she also tells Rinka to accompany me – follow me, not guide me, but to accompany me in case something happens.   Hogwarts – while smaller than I imagined it from the books – is quite big and there are several hidden corners. Sadly I could find none of the secret passages from the marauders map. They don't seem to exist yet. I do however find a secret room by accident. I feel as if I am inside a bad movie. I literally tripped and tried to catch myself at a torch thingy – only to open a secret door. Rinka promises not to tell anyone about it. I didn't ask for it, but she says something along the lines of finders keepers and tells me she'll only tell someone if I'm in danger or missing or something along those lines. Neat. At the same time that also means that if someone else manages to find this room, my privilege is lost. In the afternoon I help Æthelred in the kitchen – I may not be able to use magic yet, but I tell her that I helped my mother and after quite some grumbling she tells me to chop some onions. My eyes burn but at least I don't feel completely useless. And as much fun as exploring the castle was I felt... weird not doing anything. Besides, apart from the eye thing it's actually relaxing. It reminds me of the afternoons spent cooking with some friends – somehow I almost always ended up being the one to cut the onions. I don't feel as out-of-place here.   Æthelred is a woman of few words so we work mostly in silence. She does tell me however that she is preparing food for the welcoming feast in the couple of days. She'll prepare some things that keep and put preservation spells on them. Judging by her voice she isn't exactly happy about it but sees the need.    I see Godric again when he drops by to get something to eat and he asks after my day. He looks at me strangely when I tell him that I went exploring Hogwarts but I cannot quite interpret his expression. He asks after my wolf cub and if she has a name yet – well, that answers that question. I tell him she's been behaving (mostly) and that I plan to wait to name her because I want to ask Lady Ravenclaw if I could look through her scrolls for a suitable name. To do it Hedwig-style, you know. Well, I don't actually say that last bit but I think it. Also, I want to avoid a name that doesn't exist yet. Like Helga he looks at me strangely (again) at the implication that I can read but unlike her he does not look surprised (much). His expression is more like as if he didn't exactly expect it but it proves his point – what point that would be I don't know. He does look validated though.   He promises to talk to Rowena about it once she returns.   Æthelred then shoos him away and tells me to go with him. Apparently her kitchen is a work room not a audience chamber, basically she wants us to go talk somewhere else. Godric drops me off at Helga's quarters and tells me to go to sleep. When I point out that it's still somewhat early he only replies: “Go to sleep early then, while you still can. Get as much sleep as you can grab before school starts.”   I nod and inwardly roll my eyes. How much sleep does he want me to get? Judging by the light outside the windows, it is maybe six o'clock in the evening. Helga told me that I can sleep in those nights before the rest of the students arrive if I want. If I go to bed now, I'll be awake before midnight, okay, maybe not before midnight but at one or two at the latest. I don't sleep that much. I've functioned on less than two or three hours of sleep at night. (I blame my guildies for that. MMORPGs don't really keep you awake that long, it's the people on your teamspeak. But I can't explain that to either of.) I don't necessarily need more than five hours at night. Sure it's nice to sleep for seven or eight, but I don't need them. And even with that much sleep, it'd only be two in the morn. I grumble to myself. I don't even have anything to read. In the end I ask Godric if he could transfigure a hair brush for me. That is not a reason to look at me like that, seriously! Why is everyone looking at me strangely today? I tell him that I want to brush the wolf's fur at least once and that while I don't think she's injured in anyway, I want to make sure and I can't with how shaggy her coat is. He looks dubious but transfigures an apple into a rudimentary hair brush. Well, it's better than nothing, I guess.   The wolf is not happy about it. She really is not. She gets quite a few scratches in before I manage to settle her down and she realizes that getting combed is not that bad. I am as careful as I can be. In the beginning there are a few instances where she growls at me but at the end of it her tongue is lolling, so I guess she's enjoying it.   I still go to bed early and I do spend most of the night stargazing. I have to admit it's amazing. The sky over my city back home can't compete in the least. The city is far too radiant even in the night but here, where there's only the castle for miles on end (at least I think so. Has Hogsmeade been founded yet?) it's beautiful. Not even a tenth of the stars I can see I could see back home.   As soon as it's getting light I sneak out of Helga's quarters and make my way to the kitchen for some breakfast. I never used to be a breakfast person but after already being awake for that long... I'm hungry. I am greeted by a house elf that introduces himself as Bipp. Bipp ushers me in and brings me some broth and a bun. He only smiles when I thank him which I definitely prefer to wailing like Dobby but he gets super exited when I ask him if he could keep me some company and   tell me something about himself, the castle, magic. It's almost as if he has a sugar rush. And to that, the worst one I've ever seen.   Bipp is twelve years past his maturity. He has a wife – Pannia – and out of his chores he likes cooking the most. Sadly, he looks quite ashamed saying that. He likes working at Hogwarts though. He gushes about how nice the people here are. He tells me about his daily routine: helping in the kitchens in the morning, general cleaning during the day in whatever area needs cleaning at the moment, sometimes helping out in the stables, a job the students will have to do later on. There are too few house elves to care for about sixty to seventy people without any help. The students will be relegated to do some work. To my horror he apologizes for that. I assure him that I don't mind. When he has to return to work I tag along (house elf apparition is still weird but more comfortable than the wizarding version) and help him as much as I can. He doesn't like it at first but I tell him that it alleviates the boredom. I scare myself. I hate tidying. Why am I volunteering now?     Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)