44 Chapter 41

Draco looked around, before spotting the books, "I see you've been reading ahead."

"A little," Harry admitted with a shrug.

"My father had me begin reading a few months ago. He wouldn't let me cast anything, but he showed me a few spells with his wand," Draco bragged.

"How much have you read?" Harry asked, curious.

"Oh, just a few chapters into each book," he answered, trying to sound nonchalant but failing. He was quite proud of his accomplishment and was enjoying the chance to brag in front of the Boy-Who-Lived. "You?"

"I started reading when I got back from Diagon Alley. I've spent most of my free time reading, and besides, it's really interesting to match all the accidental magic with the stuff in the books." Harry replied, not wanting to reveal too much. He could probably go off into his 3rd-year theory exams right now if he wanted, but he didn't want to draw too much attention.

Ping!

A new skill was created due to your ass being jealous of the crap that flows through your mouth!

Bullshitting, Lv-2

A combination of lying and the truth said in a very confident manner!

"Really? Aiming for Ravenclaw are you?" Draco said, a bit surprised.

Harry shrugged. "They do have the resources to gain the most knowledge, and knowledge is an essential tenement of survival in any society," Harry said, trying to recall some of the big words from that Thesaurus he'd been glancing at a while back.

"You don't want to lead or fight battles or…you know…all that stuff?" Draco asked tentatively.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Please do try not to imply that I'm some sort of savior that has come to lead the Wizarding World. I'm just a first year who wants to learn magic, like you."

Impressed, Draco smiled. "You're not what I had expected, Heir Potter. Even if you happen to not get into Slytherin…don't be a stranger."

"I can agree to that." Harry shook Draco's hand, who then got up and left, goons in tow. Harry looked at Draco's description as he left, frowning at the line about his father. His father was a Death Eater who was physically abusing his son. And even after that, the son showed no distaste towards his father. Harry frowned. There was something fishy up there.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Neville was positively shivering, looking very pale. Together, they quickly joined the crowd thronging the corridor. The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air.

Then, a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" A positively huge man's hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. 'Hagrid,' Harry thought, matching the description with the name Professor McGonagall had given to him.

"C'mon, follow me-any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must've been thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville only sniffed once or twice.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!" from the kids ahead of him.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

But that wasn't what Harry was staring at. He was staring at the new red window that had popped up in front of him the second he lay eyes on the castle.

WARNING!

You have decided to enter the ancient wards of Hogwarts. Should you choose to do so, your Wardstone perk will be deactivated due to being inside a more powerful set of wards. You will be unable to use them unless you get yourself out of its wards.

YES/NO

Deciding that he was already too far gone to turn back, Harry pressed yes forged on ahead. He used Observe on the castle.

Hogwarts Castle

Hogwarts Castle is a large, seven-story high building supported by magic, with a hundred and forty-two staircases throughout its many towers and turrets and very deep dungeons. The castle was built in the late Early Middle Ages. Hogwarts is built in a valley area with the fairly large Great Lake to the south of the main building. The deep Forbidden Forest extends around to the west of the Castle. Due to its extremely advanced age and the sheer amount of magic present in or around it, the castle is implied to have developed some form of sentience or awareness.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, distracting Harry from his observe box. He was pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry was followed into his boat by Neville, a boy named Terry Boot and a red-haired girl with pigtails. Hermione notably avoided them and went into another boat. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff and Harry shared an amused smile with Draco Malfoy when everyone else all bent their heads; the cliff was way too high to be a danger to anyone except the massive man leading them. The boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried through a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

They were fetched by McGonagall to what Harry suspected was the entrance hall to the Great Hall that he had read about in Hogwarts a History.

He shivered at the thought of the book. Apparently, some parts of it were magically hidden from the sights of underage children, hiding away the more sexually explicit happenings that'd happened in the halls of the castle. Harry, of course, had broken through it with Gamer's mind and Runic Burnout and had promptly sworn off the book forever.

And then there were ghosts. Full on, silvery, intangible, ghosts. One, Harry noticed with some disgust, even had blood patches and chains. Harry wondered why they weren't mentioned in the Hogwarts a History book. Perhaps the writers were having a laugh at the expense of the startled muggle-raised students every year. Either way, they had managed to make their way onto Harry's shitlist.

"We're ready for you now." McGonagall's clipped voice cut through Harry's inner rants.

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