Chapter 8: 08 Hogwarty Hogwarts

Harry Bones followed the other students along the hallways towards the Ravenclaw common room and he had to constantly memorize and dismiss all of the blue boxes that popped up. He hadn't realized that entering an environment with so many magical people and things, would pretty much send his Inspection Skill into a frenzy. He had his eyes closed for most of the feast for just that reason.

It had previously been his Observe Skill that he never had notices from before, or that he remembered seeing since he started wearing glasses. It had unexpectedly upgraded when he had looked through everything magical at Bones Manor, thanks to their house elf, Mipsy.

Harry had convinced her to show him everything, even her own personal space and her meagre items. He had rewarded her with a hug and a hundred galleons to buy whatever she wanted, even a companion. Mipsy had blushed hard at his boldness and Harry told her that if he had known he could buy friends when he was younger, he would have been a lot happier with his life.

Needless to say, Amelia and Susan had been surprised when the manor suddenly had a second house elf to take care of the gardens and grounds. Mipsy was inordinately happy as well, because the new elf was male. According to her, he was very, very male.

“This is the Ravenclaw House entrance.” A pretty young woman named Penelope Clearwater said as everyone came to a stop in front of a door without a doorknob or keyhole. What it did have was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. The entrance to the common room was located on the west side of Hogwarts at the top of a spiral staircase that was located on the fifth floor.

“This isn't just any kind of knocker, either. In order to get inside, you need to knock and the eagle will speak a riddle for you to answer. If you can't guess it or guess wrong, then you need to wait for someone else to answer before you can get in.”

Harry immediately put up a hand.

“Yes?” Penelope asked.

“Can anyone knock and enter?” Harry asked. “This doesn't seem very secure if anyone smart or lucky enough can answer the riddle.”

Several of the other first years nodded.

“What if you're late getting back and miss the riddle? Do you have to stay outside in the hallway all night and no one will come out to check? What if there's an emergency and you're too nervous to answer? What do we do then?” Harry asked and everyone in the first year class looked interest in the answers. They were knowledge seekers, after all.

The female prefect just stared at him without saying anything.

“Those are good questions and we will bring them up with our head of house, Professor Flitwick.” The male prefect named Robert Hilliard said. “For now, we need to enter the common room to get you all sorted into your dorms.”

The female prefect knocked using the knocker.

“There is a one storey house in which everything is yellow. Yellow walls, yellow furniture, yellow doors, and yellow floors. What color are the stairs?” The knocker asked.

“Yellow!” Three of the first years shouted out.

“Incorrect.” The knocker said and fell silent.

Harry walked over and knocked on the door with the knocker. The riddle was repeated and he answered. “It's a trick question. It's a one storey house, so there are no stairs going up to another floor or down into a basement.”

“Well reasoned.” The knocker said and the door clicked and opened.

The two prefects led them inside and the other first years gave Harry whispered compliments as the prefects showed them around. The Ravenclaw common room was one of the airiest rooms at Hogwarts and it was a wide, circular room with graceful arched windows that punctuated the walls, which were hung with blue and bronze silks. A midnight blue carpet covered in stars was on the floor and it was reflected onto the domed ceiling.

The room was furnished with blue tables, chairs, and a divan, which was a long backless and armless sofa that was placed along one of the walls. Next to the door that led up to the dormitories, stood a tall statue of Rowena Ravenclaw made of white marble.

According to Prefect Robert Hilliard, the sound of wind whistling around the windows of the tower was relaxing while going to sleep, which told Harry that it was going to be drafty and he would need an appropriate number of blankets during the night.

Portraits of famous Ravenclaws hung on the walls and they all smiled and welcomed the new students. The Ravenclaw House also had their own library tucked into a niche off to the side of the common room.

“It's nowhere near as big as the main school's library.” Robert said.

“It almost has just as many books.” Penelope added.

“You'll discover tomorrow that during the day, we have a spectacular view of the school grounds from our huge windows.” Robert explained. “That includes the Great Lake, the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch pitch, the Herbology greenhouses, and the surrounding mountains.”

The girls looked very interested in that and the boys shrugged. At this point the students split up as the girls followed Penelope up the stairs to the dormitory they would use and Robert led the boys up the next set of stairs to their dormitory.

The dorm had four-poster beds that were covered in thick sky blue silk quilts, which solved Harry's multiple blankets problem, and the beds themselves were mounted on platforms for height. An accent wall was decorated with the Ravenclaw crest, a giant raven, and the windows had blue curtains. There was also a desk for each student to use and a nice rug in the middle of the room.

The boys checked out the large attached bathroom with multiple tubs and they were happy that it would serve them well, because they wouldn't have to take turns getting cleaned up.

“As you saw, your trunks have been delivered next to your beds already. Go ahead and unpack and settle in. You've got an early morning tomorrow.” Robert warned them.

“Why?” Terry Boot asked.

“Breakfast starts at 7:30 and ends at 8:30. First class starts at 9:00 and it's Charms. Professor Flitwick always takes the first class to welcome the first year Ravenclaws, rather than waste your time by making you get up earlier or staying up late for a meeting he can handle when it's convenient for everyone.”

The boys nodded and went to their beds and Robert left to change and get ready for bed himself.

Unlike the other boys, Harry only pretended to go to bed. As he grew older, he needed less and less sleep each night. He was sure that it was because of Gamer Mind and he thanked it every day, because he could choose if he wanted to sleep for the four hours he needed or for as long as he wanted.

Harry chose the minimum amount, the same as he had been choosing ever since he had gained all of those books from Diagon Alley. He needed to read and study as much as he could and gain as many spells and abilities as possible.

It had been difficult at first, because he really had no idea about what books to read first. It had taken a lengthy talk with Amelia before he understood that he needed to learn the theory before trying to cast a spell. It wasn't just as simple as pointing his wand and then casting the spell, despite his earlier successes.

Harry needed to know how spells worked, how to focus his intentions, and how to channel his magic through the wand to make the spell happen. It had been a revelation for his mind, even with his Intelligence and Wisdom as high as they were, because all of the books that he had previously decided to leave for later, had become essential reading.

Now he was going to apply that same philosophy to the Ravenclaw House Library.

Harry activated his abilities and practically disappeared before he left the shared dorm room. He moved without a sound and went down the stairs to the common room. There were older students at the various desks and a couple were on the divan. He easily avoided them by slipping around Rowena's statue and into the niche where the library was.

Just like he did in the other libraries he had pilfered, Harry went right to the back of the room and started with the lowest shelves as he stored them. Thanks to all of the books he had bought and already gone through, the spells he had learned, and the skills he had unlocked, most of the books here could be used as levelling books for both his spells and his skills.

That wasn't to say that there weren't more spells for him to learn. It was just that they were mostly variants on older spells. Some were more refined, some better for magic channelling, and in some cases were derivatives and were split into different parts that actually weakened the original spell.

That was something Harry had accidentally discovered when he wasn't allowed to buy the older year books from Flourish and Blotts. He and Amelia had gone back to Diagon Alley to update his wardrobe to add the Bones Family crest to his robes and they had stopped in the bookstore on the way back home. Thankfully, because of his masterful disguise that Susan and Amelia helped with, no one recognized him.

Since the old woman at the secondhand bookshop had no problems selling him everything she could, Harry had older copies of all the year books. Some of the courses changed books practically every year while others had been using the same books for centuries. It was shocking to say the least.

Harry had compared a seventh year spell book to the older one he had from several years before and the spells in the new one were more numerous and only did parts of the more versatile older spells. They had been split into component spell parts to make them easier to learn and that had been why the newest books didn't give him as good levelling options as the older books.

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He chuckled as he cleared out the bottom six shelves and absorbed all of the information he could and mentally marked which ones had new or different spells for him to check out later. Harry moved on after putting those books back and continued for five hours. His spells were starting to max out and he hadn't cast a spell in Hogwarts yet, which was awesome.

Harry wasn't surprised that he hadn't gained any new skills, considering the plethora he had gained from his purchases. In fact, he had gone through nearly a third of the library already and he had yet to level up any of his skills. He guessed that they would be on other shelves or something, since the sorting of the books was haphazard at best and unorganized at worst.

Somebody needs to introduce a proper sorting system for this place. Harry thought and then chuckled when a quest popped up for him to accept. He did, since the reward let him choose a skill to gain five levels.

The best part about the quest was that he could easily do it whenever he wanted, thanks to his inventory. Harry decided that on the weekend would be the best time, because he could stay up all night without consequences. He would surprise everyone on Sunday morning with a completely sorted and organized library, which would benefit the entire house. He just had to decide if he wanted to take credit or not.

Harry went back up to his dorm room and went to bed to sleep for the four hours he required to be fully rested and energized. As he dozed off, he was glad that he had turned off the auto-loot money option in his inventory after his huge mistake at the muggle bank. The last thing he wanted to do was steal from his friends.

*

Breakfast was a little difficult for Harry to sit through because of the sea of blue boxes. Everything had one. The students, their clothes, the plates, the utensils, the tables, the benches, every damn floating candle, the absolutely massive blue box for the enchanted ceiling, and then all of the teachers with their magic items, clothing, plates, drinks, and several spells on them and their things.

“Harry, are you okay?” Padma Patil asked. “You look a little sick.”

“I'm getting a massive headache with all these people around.” Harry admitted and smiled at her. “Thank you for your concern, Padma. I appreciate it.”

Padma looked a little embarrassed. “You're welcome.”

Harry really did appreciate it, because the month he had spent with Amelia and Susan had really changed his opinions on some things. Not everything, because he had grown up with absolutely no help from anyone. When the rare person had tried, it never worked out and they always ignored him afterwards. That had made him pretty jaded.

“Is it okay in your culture to say that you look cute when you make a face like that?” Harry asked.

Padma caught her breath and then blushed hard. “H-Harry!”

“I guess I shouldn't say it, then.” Harry said with a smile.

Padma gave him a pointed look. “It's not nice to tease a girl like that.”

“The only girl I know is my cousin Susan and she said it was okay. I've never met someone who was from India and I had to ask.”

Padma lost the look and smiled shyly. “Then... if you want... you can call me c-cute.”

“That doesn't really answer my question.” Harry said, teasingly. “Would you like to walk together to class and you can tell me a bit about your lifestyle and home life?”

Padma blushed again. “S-sure. I'd like that.”

“Great. I need to get out of here before my head splits open.” Harry said and stood. “We already have our schedules and I've got some wrapped food stashed in my robes. We can finish eating in the hallway in front of the Charms classroom as we talk.”

“O-okay.” Padma said and stood as well.

As the pair left the Ravenclaw table, all of the other first years stared after them.

“Did anyone else just see Harry asking Padma out?” Lisa Turpin asked.

“I think so.” Mandy Brocklehurst said.

“If he did, he's not wasting any time trying to continue the Bones Family line.” Anthony Goldstein said with a laugh.

“I doubt it. Padma's the older twin by a day and would be responsible to continue her own family line.” Sue Li said.

“What? How can they still be twins with one of them a day older?” Michael Corner asked.

“Padma was born two minutes to midnight and Parvati was born two minutes after.” Sue Li said, quite happy to impart rare knowledge to the other students. “Imagine that. Twin girls born minutes apart with two different birthdays.”

The other first years were surprised by the news.

“Should someone warn Harry what he's getting into?” Anthony asked.

“Why? We're only eleven. He's got plenty of time to figure it out on his own.” Terry Boot said and the other guys at the table nodded.

“Boys.” Lisa whispered and rolled her eyes at her friends, which made the girls giggle.

*

“Welcome to your very first Charms class.” Professor Flitwick greeted them from on top of his desk. “As you can see, you share it with the Hufflepuffs. Most of your classes with be like this, because there are so few students and having individual classes with only eight or ten students wouldn't be efficient.”

Harry put his hand up.

“Yes, Mister Bones?” Flitwick asked.

“Wouldn't a smaller class size be easier on the teacher and allow a more individualized curriculum that would benefit the students, because they gain much more attention and learning time?”

The entire class fell silent and looked at Flitwick to hear his response.

“What brought you to that conclusion, Mister Bones?” Flitwick asked instead of answering.

“I used to attend muggle school from primary to grade five and we had thirty one students in the class. The teacher only learned your name if you were causing trouble and that was only so they could yell at you more effectively.”

“That's horrible!” Someone from Hufflepuff exclaimed and everyone started muttering. Susan lightly touched his back as she reached from the desk behind him.

Harry nodded. “Since there are twenty of us and the class usually only lasts for about an hour, if you tried to teach each of us to help us effectively, that's only five minutes a day that you can interact with us on the four days a week we have this class.”

Everyone fell silent once more and Flitwick seemed at a loss for words. They had all figured out that was only 20 minutes of learning, per student, per week... or almost 14 hours for a year. A year!

“I'm sorry for the interruption and pointing out the flaw in your efficiency logic, sir.” Harry said and fell silent like everyone else as they all thought about what he had told them.

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