48 Chapter 48: Hagrid's
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"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.
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair with Ron standing behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the fabled Great Hall.
It did not disappoint.
Not even in the wildest corners of his overactive imagination had Harry even imagined such a place.
Lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. Briefly wondering how the wax didn't fall into the food, Harry looked at the tables that were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets.
At the top of the hall was another long table perpendicular to the House tables where the teachers were sitting.
Professor McGonagall led the first years up here so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them.
The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver.
Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black enchanted ceiling dotted with stars.
It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open up into the heavens.
Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat that was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.
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