Once more, we sat in the Great Hall, eating a fantastic lunch. So far, I was enjoying everything about Hogwarts.

Beside me, George was absentmindedly staring at Iris, who couldn't care less about him, whilst Charlie was talking with Robin on how to turn the apple into a pineapple. Robin had no clue how he did it in class, and I could see many indentations on Charlie's apple, possibly made by a wand.

My fruit was upstairs, along with my Charms and Transfiguration books. However, I did bring with me my special gloves, since we needed them for Herbology.

An older boy slowly crept up behind him, dressed in the colours of Gryffindor House. He held a finger to his lips.

Grabbing George's Gloves from beside him, without eliciting so much as a response, he lifted his hands above his head. The Gloves connected with George's neck a moment later, making a satisfying slap sound.

"Hey!" George exclaimed.

I snorted.

"Good to meet you too, bro." The guy said, sitting down beside us.

"Bro?" I asked.

"Yeah... Forgot to mention." George muttered, "This here is the Gryffindor House Quidditch Captain and Sixth Year student, also known as my brother."

"Bloody hell, you could've said that with a bit less formality to it." George's Brother smirked, before showing me his hand.

"I'm Vincent Fisher. And you're?"

"My name is-"

"I'm just joshing with you." He laughed, slapping my arm, "Your name is spreading like wildfire. There's not been a Year 1 Quidditch player since Harry Potter, and I wouldn't be surprised if it'd turn out to be you."

I didn't even know what Quidditch was, but I still thanked him nonetheless.

"Hey, Vince! Catch!" A kid yelled from down the table, and George's brother was gone, running down the length of the table to catch an orange that had been lobbed towards the great hall's oak doors.

"Why didn't you tell me about your brother?"

"I don't want to be known as the Quidditch Captain's Little brother, just like you don't want to be known as the Famous Auror's Nephew."

I nodded, understanding where he was coming from.

"Sarah's coming over here?" I asked, noticing the Ravenclaw walk over to stand behind Charlie and Robin.

"Hey boys!" She said, making both of them jump, "Transfiguration?"

Before either of them could even reply, she held her wand to the apple, curtly flicked her wrist, and said the magic words.

Lo and behold, the apple turned into the yellow, prickly fruit that was the pineapple.

We looked at it open-mouthed.

"How?" Charlie asked.

"Practice." She smiled, "Anyway, this isn't why I'm here. We'll have some time between Dinner and the end of the final lesson. We should sit down somewhere and talk about the first day, no?"

"Good idea." George nodded, stuffing a small potato into his mouth.

"Let's meet here, and we'll figure out where to go from there."

We nodded, and she walked away.

Robin looked at his watch.

"How much time do we have?" I asked.

"Fifteen Minutes."

"Won't we be late?"

"I mean, Nearly-Headless Nick probably knows best. We're waiting for him." George told us.

"I do know best!" The Ghost said, floating through the table once more. It seemed that was his favourite way of entering a conversation. Just like a shark.

"Sir Nicholas!" Sophie exclaimed from farther away.

"Hello there, Sophie. You, Arthur, are correct. We'll be late if we don't get going in five minutes or so." He floated towards the central aisle and waited for us. The message got passed around quickly, and all thirteen of us stood in an untidy row behind Sir Nicholas, all of us chatting with one another.

As Sir Nicholas glided down corridors and stairs, we followed him, finally reaching a courtyard, filled with multiple Greenhouses. Groups of students stood in front of some of them.

"Greenhouse One. A good herbology lesson to all of you." Nearly-Headless Nick said, lifting his head like you normally would a hat. The Greenhouse in question already had a group waiting in front of it. Yellow coloured crests. Hufflepuffs.

Rachel walked over to us and smiled, starting a small conversation with Charlie.

The glass door was locked, so we had to wait outside. Many plants hung from open windows or they were behind glass panes, blurred in such a way that they were unrecognizable. What was freakiest for me was that some of them actively moved, twisting and turning through the air.

The bell rang, and not ten seconds later, a man came walking down the dirt path, his face covered in a short beard, his eyes and smiled beaming out from the brown hairs. He looked like one of those cool teachers, who tried to get with the students.

He opened the door and walked inside.

"Come in, and grab a work-cloak. If you've brought gloves, put those on too. There are some spares on that cupboard if you forgot." He pointed at one in the corner, whilst getting dressed.

Once all of us were ready, we stayed next to the door, looking at the weirdness of the greenhouse. The entire thing was decorated with various plants.

"What are you waiting for? Let's get started!" The professor exclaimed.

We took our places around the table.

"Okay so..." The Professor cleared his throat, "My name is Professor Neville Longbottom, and hopefully I'll be your Professor for the next five years. Maybe some of you'll even take up Herbology for NEWTs. Anyway, that's the future. I won't go round asking everybody's names, but during our lessons, whenever you put your hand up to say something, and I don't remember your name, please don't be afraid to remind me. It's quite hard learning every student's name, but hey, we all have to learn something at Hogwarts!" He chuckled, "Now, onto some rules. While we don't work with very dangerous plants in First Year, that doesn't mean something can't be dangerous if you don't follow my requests. If I say you have to wear something, there's a reason behind it, and if you have to do it one specific way, there's also a reason for it. Our first few lessons will mainly be learning spells that we can use on the plants in case there's a problem. One thing that I do allow is cursing."

We looked at each other, to see if we had heard it too.

"Yes, it might sound weird, but obscene language is a good way of bringing my attention to a problem that needs solving as soon as possible. It also alerts your fellow classmates to look out, and helps alleviate some stress you might feel in that problematic situation."

"Sir!" Charlotte put up her hand.

"Yes, Miss-"

"Charlotte Henderson."

"Miss Henderson." Professor Longbottom nodded.

"What sort of spells will we learn?"

"Ah yes, very good. We'll be learning the Fire-making spell, the Wand-lightning charm and its brother, along with the severing charm. Which, if there are no more questions, we'll start at once. The faster we know these spells, the faster we can start working with actual plants. Grab your wands!"

We did as told, and once everyone had their magic stick in their hands, the Professor continued.

"Now please excuse me, for I'm not a charms teacher, so me explaining how these spells work might not be the same as Professor Flitwick doing it, but I'll try my best. The first spell, and probably the most useful out of all of them, is the fire-making spell or charm. Whichever. You simply point at an object with your wand and say the incantation. A jet of flames will erupt from your wand when you cast it. The Incantation is this-"

He flicked his wrist, and a chalkboard rolled out from behind a wooden cupboard, and the word Incendio was quickly scribbled onto it.

"Incendio..."

I heard half the class take a deep breath.

"NO! NOT IN HERE!" Professor Longbottom exclaimed, before composing himself, "Let's go outside, where there'll be less of a chance to set things alight. Keep your work-robes on. They're mostly fire-proof." He shrugged as if he wasn't believing his own statement.

Going outside, we found a flat grassy area, with nothing close by to burn down. It was slightly worrying that we were outside the stone walls of that greenhouse courtyard.

"Let's do them in groups of... Ten. Yes, Ten!" He pointed at ten students, and told them to stand in a row, "Now, hold your wands very steadily, and say the incantation."

Ten Incendios rang out, but only a few jets of flame flew through the air, and they all varied in strength. Brian's was nothing more than a spurt of smoke, instantly blown away by the wind.

Professor Longbottom told those that hadn't managed to successfully cast it to try again. After the fifth try, the final kid, some Hufflepuff, managed to also create a small amount of fire.

I was in the next ten.

Standing in the line, I followed what everyone else did. First, I pointed my wand into the air. I took a deep breath or two, before saying the magic word. Nothing happened.

"Come on, you can do this!" He said to the six people who hadn't been able to do it first try. I was the closest, and he leaned closer. "Don't worry, Mister..."

"Arthur Graham," I said, switching which foot I had in front of me.

Two more tries went by, and only three of us stood without any luck.

"Not all wands are the same! Some will listen to you at once, others won't unless you show you're worthy of using it. Try the spell again. Shout it, see if that helps."

"Incendio!" I exclaimed, and a tiny puff of flames erupted from the wand's end. Meanwhile, another Hufflepuff's wand shot out a nice arc of flames. Looking over, I saw Robin was the other who was still having troubles.

I heard giggling.

"You can shout louder than that, come on!" Professor Longbottom encouraged.

Closing my eyes, I tried picturing a scene. Goldy, standing over a pile of shredded notes, which he had personally macerated in his search for treasure. Too real.

"INCENDIO!" I roared, but I didn't see any flames, only the sky as I was sent flying. I landed on the ground and felt something hit my leg in particular. That didn't mean the rest of my body parts didn't hurt.

George and Charlie helped me up, and I looked at where I had stood a few moments ago. Professor Longbottom was frantically trying to extinguish the grass with water that came out of his wand, while Robin had sprinted over to us, and I could see why.

I looked sheepishly at the blackened grass where previously ten students had stood.

"Now that's a fire spell if I've ever seen one." The Professor laughed when he was done cleaning up my mess.

"I'm sorry, Sir," I said.

"For what? That was brilliant! Though I do suggest trying to find the middle ground between your second and third attempt. So much fire isn't lucky under a roof."

I smiled, before limping off to join the rest of the group. The final ten were called, and they too managed to use the fire spell properly, though there were multiple attempts for some people as well.

As we were walking back to the Greenhouse, the Professor touched my shoulder.

"You hurt?"

"Just got a bit scratched up from that fall. Nothing too bad Professor."

"Take this. I suggest applying it once we get there, or you'll soak through your trousers." He handed me a small vial of light-green liquid, "Simply drip a bit onto the wound, and let it work its magic."

Looking down, I realised that blood was, in fact, starting to stain my white work-cloak as I walked, the cloak brushing against my trousers.

"Thank you, Sir."

"And don't worry about being a bit clumsy. I was too for more years than I care to admit. Here I am now, as a Professor." He smiled, before quick-walking to the front of the class.

Once everyone was once again standing back at their place, inside the Greenhouse, I rolled up my trouser leg. It looked worse than what it felt like. A shallow gash ran down my leg, slowly oozing blood. Probably a stone. My trousers, thankfully, hadn't ripped.

Unscrewing the top of the vial, I used the pipette attached to the top to drip a bit onto the wound. George was looking on with fascination.

It stung a bit, and green smoke rose from it, covering the actual wound from sight for a few seconds. When it finally dissipated it looked as if there hadn't been a wound there to begin with. I dripped a bit more on the rest of the wound, and just like that, there was no more wound, only blood, but even that was drying.

Screwing the top back on, I stood up and tuned in to what the Professor was saying.

"-Diffindo can be used to cut a number of things, from weak stems and branches to tree trunks, bones and skin. This is why we won't try this out, and I request you also don't practice in your common rooms or dormitories. But if it must happen, be very sure the spell won't affect someone or something behind your target, though it's more so you protect your fellow students from harm then it is to save a trophy or bench."

He pointed his wand at the table.

"Diffindo!" He exclaimed, whilst moving his wand in a straight line down the length of it. The moment he reached the end, the entire thing fell into two pieces.

"Awesome..." Charlie muttered beside me, while we held the table to stop it from falling onto our feet. Seconds later, with the simple flick of the Professor's Wand, the table sprang back together and stayed like that.

Fixed.

I needed to learn that spell, and fast.

"Okay, now for the final spells of the day. Lumos and spells similar to it. Now Lumos, or the wand-lightening spell-"

"Sir!"

"Yes, Mister..."

"Hector Verdis."

"Mister Verdis, go on."

"We've already studied the wand-lightening spell in Charms earlier today."

"Oh really? Hufflepuffs too?"

The yellow house members nodded.

"Alright, let's see it then. On the count of three. One... Two... Three!"

Thirty cries rang out at once, and thirty wands lit up.

"Very good!" The Professor Exclaimed, "There are many plants that don't like light, one in particular hates sunlight. The Devil's Snare. We'll learn about it later on in the year, but the spell I'm going to show you is one that's very effective against it. All you do is point your wand at the target, and say the words, Lumos Solem!"

A blinding ray of light erupted from the tip of his wand, making everyone avert their gaze.

"Let's not all go blinding each other though, I trust you all enough to be able to cast this, not to mention you'll have plenty of time to practice until we get there. I believe they'll be ringing anytime... Now!" The bell rung as if the Professor controlled it. I doubted he could though. "Goodbye class, and see you next time on... Wednesday? Yes. Wednesday."

While everyone else started walking towards the cloak racks to take off their dirty cloaks, I strode over to the Professor.

"Thank you again, Sir, this thing was amazing." I tried handing it back to him.

"I'm happy you liked it. You can keep it though, to remember this lesson."

I raised an eyebrow, but he didn't seem to be joking, so I pocketed the vial.

"What was this anyway?"

"Dittany. We'll get to know it better these next few months. Especially if we're going to have many accidents." He smiled, "Now run along before your house leaves without you."

I whipped my head to the entrance and saw that I was the last one still wearing my work-robes.

Quickly pulling them off, I ran after the other Gryffindors, reaching them just before they walked through the double doors leading inside.

"That was quite the spectacle out there." Charlie laughed, slapping my shoulder.

"Ha, ha yes. Amazing." I said sarcastically while pulling out my wand and looking at it, "Why didn't it work?" I said aloud.

George tutted, "Only a bad wizard blames his wand. Some are a bit more unruly than others, that's all. You gotta work together with it."

I sighed, and continued the trudge through Hogwarts in silence, listening to the small conversations popping up between students. One thing that was strange was whenever parts of Sir Nicholas' Story drifted far enough for me to hear, they always sounded absolutely absurd.

As the bell rang, we entered the classroom, quickly finding a seat. Once again, I sat in between George and Charlie, with Robin in front of me.

Five minutes passed, then ten. No Professor.

Whisperings started on where he was, when suddenly one by one, the wooden shutters closed with a bang, leaving us in near-complete darkness.

Complete silence. Every breath sounded like thunder.

Sparks appeared in front of us, slowly expanding. Finally, a massive firework-esque explosion filled the entire room with colour, lighting all of the candles at once. Our Head of House stood at the front of the class, holding his arms out either side of himself.

We clapped.

"Thank you. Thank you!" He bowed, waiting for the clapping to calm down a bit, "Welcome, First-Year Gryffindors! My name is Professor Iorwerth Ó Brádaigh. Quite a mouthful, so Professor Ó Brádaigh is enough for me."

As he said that, magical chalk wrote a phonetical spelling of his name. OH-BRAI-DEE.

"I've managed to remember quite a few names from the Sorting Ceremony, but if I don't recall yours feel free to correct me. Now then, let's start off at the beginning. No need for notes just yet, though you might need it later on in the lesson. Everything I'm going to say is already in your book. What better way to start off, then with the History of Dark arts, or otherwise called Dark Magic?" He cleared his throat, "When it started is a thing closely tied to the start of actual magic. Ever since there's been light, there's been darkness. These Dark Arts include many different parts of magic, mainly Potions and Charms. One thing is certain. The people that use it, they always do so for power. But such power is like a whirlpool. The more you swim closer to it, the more you dabble in it, the stronger the pull it has on you. It changes your soul, and with due time, your body. One of the most infamous wizards lived not more than half a century ago. His name was Thomas Marvolo Riddle, or as he later called himself, Lord Voldemort..."

A decent amount of the class gasped.

"Now I know that many do not dare say his name, and it is true that hundreds of lives were lost during the time he was alive. But it is just that: A name. You mustn't fear the name of something that is now dead."

"But Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Reilly?"

"He-who-must-not-be-named, he managed to come back from the dead. What's to say he won't do it again?"

"Good question, but one I'm afraid I won't answer. The Dark Arts contain many spells that are incredibly evil, so evil in fact that I'd rather not talk about them, or it'd make anyone seeing the atrocities they do, have a permanent memory of them. Believe me, as far as I know, and I've been teaching for quite a few years, there is no way he can ever regain enough strength to walk, much less cast a spell."

I saw him shake his head, realizing what he had said might not have been exactly calming for us.

"Nevermind. Let's carry on. Lord Voldemort was a Dark Wizard that rose to prominence in Nineteen-Seventy. This was the start of the first wizarding war, and the memories of those times are still etched into many a wizard's mind. But enough about history, I'm sure Professor Binns will teach you all about this part of History. There's no need to worry about Dark Wizards, thanks to the hard work of the Aurors. There hasn't been a single incident for many years now, and all Dark Wizards have been locked behind bars in Azkaban."

"What's Azkaban, Professor?" Chloe asked.

"Ah, yes. Some of you are fairly new to this wizarding world, aren't you? It's Wizarding Prison, for those that have committed serious crimes." He looked at the board for a moment, silent. None of us had even noticed the chalkboard, since the Professor was so energetic in his movements and speaking, that it was demanding every bit of attention in the room. The Magical Chalk had drawn a Caricature of the Professor. Buck teeth, overexaggerated beard and long, pointy ears. Oh, and it was cross-eyed.

"PEEVES!" The Professor roared. I heard a mischievous cackle, before all the chalks flew up into the air, and straight at the Teacher. They stopped in mid-air, possibly due to Professor Ó Brádaigh stopping them with his magic. A tiny man with a jester hat appeared from behind the chalkboard, pulled down its pants and shook its bum at us, before blowing a raspberry and dashing through the nearest wall.

"What?" Hector asked, looking around himself to see if anyone else had just seen this absolutely confusing scene. All I could do was blink.

"That was Peeves, our Poltergeist." Professor Ó Brádaigh sighed, "I'm surprised you haven't met him yet. Quite unpleasant at times." Slowly, the chalks floated back to their place.

"Say it to my face!" Came the voice of the Troublemaker, and I whipped my head to see a head poking through a wall, at eye level.

"Get lost!" The Professor flicked his wand, and with a small sound of surprise, the Poltergeist disappeared. Composing himself, the teacher continued as if nothing had happened, "But anyway, onto the actual classifications of spells. By any chance, does anyone know about these?"

A few hands went up. I had a good idea on what they could've been but wasn't too sure so I kept my hands on the desk.

I felt the Professor's eyes lock with mine.

"You must know this, Mister Graham. All of you should know this! I'm fairly certain Professor Flitwick mentioned these."

He was looking at me, and I knew he was expecting the answer from me.

"Umm, Curses... Jinxes and..." I racked my brain, trying to remember what I had heard. Some of the girls were putting their hands up so hard, their entire body shook.

"And?"

"Hexa... Hexes!"

"Good! Though I'd not have put them in this order, but it's hard if you haven't learned about them. Thank you, hands down." There were some moans as the hands blocking the view between me and the Professor disappeared, "If you don't mind, this is the part where you should start jotting down notes."

"But Sir, We can't see!" Derek said.

"Oh yes. Right away."

Instead of opening the blinds, a row of lit candles danced out from inside the Professor's Desk, one of them settling on each of our tables.

I opened my notebook and pulled out the metal feather I had gotten from Aunt Anita as a good luck gift, along with a bottle of ink, both of which I had carried in my pocket for the entire day.

Thankfully, my mother had helped me learn how to write with these during the rest of my summer break. I wouldn't have called my writing pretty, but at least it was readable, which couldn't have been said to the mess that was my first attempt.

Dipping the tip in the full ink bottle, I touched it to the paper.

"Everyone ready?"

We all nodded.

"Okay, so the First Group is Jinxes. All spells that are in this group are fairly weak, and not too dangerous or complex. Rather than causing Wounds or Serious Problems, these create minor irritations that are normally easily fixed. During a duel, however, they are still useful for causing distractions. If you are unprepared against one and get hit, they can quickly be followed by something far worse, which you might not get a chance to deflect. Jinxes are also perfect for use in practical jokes, though I don't recommend you do them on your friends, cause they might not talk to you for a while after. Good so far?"

A few people muttered a yes, which was enough for the Professor to continue.

"Next group is what we call Hexes. Now, these are a bit more dangerous. When cast on someone, they can cause major inconveniences to whoever it is cast upon, or even hurt them, cause them suffering. They are not to be taken lightly, though they can be reversed with Hex Breakers, something we will learn in due time..." He paused, waiting for the last of the feather scratching to stop, "Finally, we have Curses. These Spells are incredibly dangerous... Life-threatening even. All Curses can seriously hurt or even kill those that are struck by them." I underlined the word death twice in my notebook for good measure, "Now these are way more complex then Jinxes or Hexes, therefore I highly doubt you could cast any as of right now, but I wouldn't even want you to try."

The last of the notes were finally jotted down.

"Sir, What about the Unforgivable curses?" Abbie asked.

"Huh... Well, those are something you'll learn about much later. But I guess it's good if you know something about them at this age too. There are three curses that are unforgivable, so-called because using them on any other human being, be it muggle or wizard, will get you a free one-way trip to Azkaban. These are incredibly hard spells, ones you have to actually enjoy the use of to use properly. The Killing Curse, The Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse. Killing, Torturing and Total Control over someone. Horrible things, that only Aurors are allowed to use legally, and only if fighting against a Dark Wizard who is also using these spells against them. That doesn't mean all Aurors use them, as with each use, they change the mind of the person. And not for the better, I'm afraid."

Silence fell in the classroom. The Dark Side of magic.

We were jolted back to the lesson by a clap from the Professor.

"That's enough talk about that stuff for today. Onto some more practical things. I'm fairly certain you've already tried the wand lightning spell, yes?"

We confirmed his statement.

"Good. If cast properly, the wandlight is a light yellow. It's also like a small fire, meaning its quite hot. It can easily set alight paper or other flammable objects if you're not careful enough. Nevertheless, this is one of the easiest spells you can master. Go on now, out with your wands. Everyone!"

I pulled out my wand and did the movements along with the incantation. My wand lit up, first try, along with everybody else.

"Good, I see you've all been practising this quite a bit today. Did Professor Longbottom also..."

We nodded.

"Thought as much. Turn off your wands now."

With a flick of my wrist, and a word later, the wand was back to being a normal stick.

"This is all fine and dandy, but this wasn't practising. You can turn on and off a light, which is a good start. However, if you were to, say... suddenly be put in a situation, would you still be able to do it?"

We looked at each other, not knowing what he was talking about.

In the blink of an eye, a gust of wind blew out all the candles, and the room was plunged into darkness. I stood up in surprise, but I couldn't feel my desk in front of me. As I went to sit back down, I fell straight on my butt, my chair also turning into thin air.

The room was getting colder, and though I knew I was still in the classroom, I was more and more unsure of myself.

Thunder lit up the air, and it showed a sprawling area covered in darkness. Grass, which I could now feel brush against my ankles. This wasn't the classroom.

"Lumos," I muttered, but nothing. I waited a bit, "Lumos!" Still, there was not even a smidge of light. It was just like charms class, where it didn't want to work.

I took a deep breath of the cold air and calmed down a bit. Shouting had worked during the flame spell, it must also work here too.

"LUMOS!" I yelled as hard as I could, and like a beacon, my wand lit up. I blinked, and I was standing in the room once more.

Like nothing had changed.

"What... Where? How?"

"Sit down please, it's not exactly easy for me to do this." I could see The Professor was sweating, holding his wand at us. Most of my other housemates were standing up, as if in a trance.

Slowly, one by one, they came back, breathing heavily.

Only a few remained, but once the Professor seemed too tired to continue whatever the hell he was doing, and his arms drooped beside him, the remaining few also came back from wherever they had been in their trance state.

"What was that, Sir?" Robin asked, shaking a bit.

"Bloody Terrifying..." George muttered, not letting go of the edges of his desk.

"Legilimency. You'd know it more as mind... mind-reading." He took a deep gulp of air, "This is only possible with first years, and even then it's incredibly hard. So many minds at once, it's incredibly hard. What you experienced never happened, I just made it seem like it happened to you. Most of you managed to do it, but... don't worry if you couldn't. In due time, you'll learn how to think and do magic on the spot."

He held his chest for a bit.

A flick of his hand and a clock floated in front of him.

"Ah, it seems we've come to the end of our lesson." He pointed his wand at the windows, and as one, they opened back up, letting in the sunlight, which hurt my eyes. "Class... Dismissed."

He waved with his wand, and all the candles went out.

We slowly stood up, still recovering from our otherworldly experience, and walked towards the door.

Sophie was the first to open the door, only to be jumped by Peeves.

"BOO!" The Poltergeist screeched.

Sophie screamed so loud that I thought my eardrums would burst. It especially didn't help that everyone was still shaken by what had happened.

She composed herself a few seconds later and looked at us apologetically.

Nick was waiting for us at the end of the corridor, and as we got there, he raised an eyebrow at our shocked expressions. Partially from the lesson, partially from Peeves.

"I've heard that Professor Ó Brádaigh's lessons are interesting, but what happened?"

"Many things..." Charlie muttered.

Sir Nicholas shrugged, before floating away, guiding us back towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

Once there, we told the Fat Lady the password, and she swung open. The Actual Common Room looked just as cosy as I remembered them from this morning, except nobody was in there other than us. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't heard a bell yet.

"You guys want me to take your stuff up to the dorms?" Hector asked.

We nodded, and handed him all our stuff, while the rest of us sat down around the fire.

Charlie noticed something in the corner of the room and smiled.

"Hey, Arthur. You ever played wizard's chess?"

"Umm... Is it anything like normal chess?"

"Muggle chess, you mean? I tried that once, and I can say it's similar."

"I'm pretty decent at it. Let's play."

Standing up, we walked over to the board. I chose black.

"Only thing you do differently here, is instead of moving them by hand, you say the tile you want to move them to, along with the actual type of chess piece they are. You know, Pawn, Queen, Rook-"

"Yeah, yeah... I get it."

"Let me start."

"Of course."

He cleared his throat a bit, before speaking.

"Pawn to D-Three."

The pawn slid over to the square.

"Pawn to E-Five." I continued.

It went on for a bit, neither of us taking out the other's pieces. Finally, I noticed an opening.

"Pawn to F-Three," I ordered. The pawn stopped mid-way through its movement. I thought it would simply knock Charlie's pawn over.

It, instead, drew a sword and smashed Charlie's pawn to pieces.

"What the hell!" I exclaimed.

"This is wizard chess, bruv." The Piece told me, and I was even more taken aback.

"You talk?"

"They're semi-sentient. Kinda..." Charlie told me.

I nodded, still pretty shaken.

Sometime during the match, the bell rang.

Shards of Chess Pieces were flung across the board as older Gryffindor House members entered the common room. They didn't even bat an eye as one of my bishops was taken out.

The fact that the pieces talked, along with the barbaric destruction each one's demise brought on, was altogether too distracting for me. As Charlie said the words that ended the match, his rook slid across the board and smashed my king in half with a chair.

"Good game." He smiled, putting his hand over the board to shake mine.

I smiled along with him, grasping his hand. That game had been brutal, and I liked it.

"Good thing you guys are playing around, but I think Sarah and Rachel are waiting for us in the Great hall. Coming?" George asked.

"Yeah, we'll just clean up," Charlie muttered, starting to wipe down the board.

"Leave it, my guy." An older kid told us, stepping closer to the board, "You hurry along, we'll do the tidying."

"Ah, thanks," Charlie said, standing up. Four of us, Robin, Charlie, George and me, walked outside.

"Does anyone remember how to get down there?" I asked.

"I think we can figure it out together," George said, strutting down the corridor, with us trailing behind. It took some time, but he was right. After many double-takes and guesswork, as well as asking paintings and ghosts, we reached the great hall. On one bench, a group of various coloured house members sat, laughing at jokes, whilst a smaller group was talking with the Headmistress near the Teacher's table. Oh, and the kissing couple in the corner was also kind of interesting.

The only people we were expecting to see was Sarah and Rachel. They were there, of course, standing in the middle of a gaggle of year one girls.

"Finally!" Sarah exclaimed, walking over to us, "Girls! These are the boys I talked about."

I couldn't even get in a word before the entire group charged us.

In the next few minutes, I was bombarded with names I could hardly even remember. Meanwhile, George was blushing like hell and continuously staring at Iris, while her eyes were on me, along with half the girl group. Charlie was getting quite a bit of attention too, but he seemed to be liking it more than I did.

"Is it true you're related to Stewart Graham?" A Hufflepuff asked, who I think was called Liz.

"Well... yeah," I muttered, rubbing my arm.

"That's so cool!" Jessica, a Ravenclaw, said excitedly.

I looked at Sarah and raised an eyebrow. She seemed to understand.

"I told you I'd introduce them, but it seems this is too much for them to digest. Let's leave them alone for a bit."

A moan rose from the group of girls before they did what Sarah asked, and walked away, shooting glances in my direction the entire time.

"What on earth was that?!" I asked, looking at Sarah.

"You're famous!"

"No, my Uncle is! And I don't even know what he bloody did to become that way!"

Sarah sighed.

"I might have gone a bit too far. You're uncle, he's done incredible things, and he's a powerful wizard. Also, he's not that bad in the looks department either."

All four of us boys looked at each other.

"You're talking about Arthur's Uncle. He's like fifty-something." George told her.

"Well, yeah..." Sarah said.

"I mean, Charlie's related to this person I've been hearing a lot about, Harry Potter. Why isn't he getting much more attention?" I asked.

"Harry Potter is still an amazing man, but his name is everywhere. He's still a hero, but as he's gotten older, he's taken part in less and less... heroic stuff. No offence Charlie."

"I mean, I like the attention." He shrugged. George punched his arm.

"We came here to sit down a bit somewhere and talk about our day, not argue. One thing we can take away from this is that Arthur isn't someone we just show off." Rachel concluded, and we all nodded at that.

"So... Where should we go?" Robin asked, having been left unscathed by the sudden attack of the girls.

"I think we should just explore for now." Sarah said, "After a while, we'll probably find someplace nice."

A Ghostly Horseman rode through the wall above us, swinging his head above his... head? I wasn't going to start deciding if that was the right way of thinking about it.

Either way, this place was quickly turning into my second home.