7 Chapter 6: The First Night

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat screamed. Not really that surprised, I took the hat off and walked slowly towards where Tony had sat down. The sorting continued for a few names, ending on a kid named Blaise Zambini who was promptly sorted into Slytherin. Right as he sat down, Dumbldore stood up, instantly bringing silence to the entire hall.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our feast, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment and Tweak. Thank you." As he declared that, the tables filled with so much glorious food they groaned under the weight. I had never smelled something so amazing. On the table there was anything you'd ever want. Steaks, pork chops, pies, mashed potatoes and greens, any food you could think of was available. I quickly loaded my plate with a steak, mashed potatoes and some pumpkin juice. I've never had it, but if it's anything like pumpkin pie I could see myself drinking it nonstop.

As I stuffed my face, Tony started introducing himself to our other house mates. As I suspected, Tony was a natural socialite and quickly got many more friends. As I focused back to my food and my thoughts I felt a hand on my shoulder. Tony had grabbed me to introduce me to his new friends.

"Hey guys, this is my friend Orion. He's a total genius, he's already learned like a million spells! Orion, these are my new friends Michael, Terry, Su who you remember from the boat, and Lisa." Tony introduced us all. I wasn't very interested in the idea of making friends with kids so young, but if this was truly my new life I should at least try.

"Hey, I'm Orion. Despite what Tony says, I have not learned that many spells. I hope we become good friends."

"Hey, no need to be so formal, we're all friends here. Let's make the most out of this year!" Tony said to me. He was right, I needed to loosen up or else I would never make any friends here.

We all ended up talking for the rest of the feast, slowly getting to know each other better. When I told them I knew some spells they of course asked for a demonstration, so I levitated a cookie right out of Michael's hands and into my mouth. When it elicited some laughs I repeated it with the cookies on the table, three for each person. Making all fifteen cookies levitate and rotate around their heads was childsplay with my wand, I was doing stuff like this without a wand before my tenth birthday afterall.

We were all having so much fun that none of us realized the surrounding students had quieted down to watch the spectacle. Once I noticed, I slowly levitated the cookies back onto the plate in the center of the table.

"Um.. why is everyone staring?" I whispered to Tony.

"No idea, maybe it was your spell?"

"Of course it was the spell!" A short, brown haired, slightly chubby girl with blue eyes and a shining prefect badge on her chest overheard us and responded. "How did you do that? Aren't you just a first year? I can't even levitate that many objects at once!"

Once she said that I realized I got carried away. My mind spun at a mile a minute trying to figure out the best course of action. I didn't realize that levitating so many objects at once was impressive. I didn't want to stand out or garner any unwanted attention so I just said the truth.

"It wasn't that hard once you have your visualization down. I've been practicing the levitation spell non-stop since I got a wand, so I'm bound to be pretty good. I must've casted it hundreds if not thousands of times. I grew up in the muggle world so even a 'simple' levitation charm is incredible to me." I said with a dreamy look on my face. I took careful note of who reacted poorly to me outing myself as a muggleborn. They would be an issue in the future.

"Even still, that's really impressive to do before a single class. To be able to cast so proficiently from being self taught is no small feat. No wonder you were sorted into Ravenclaw, it's the house of the geniuses. We're glad to have another one." She said with a prideful look on her face.

"I'm Marissa Laird, a fifth year prefect by the way. It's nice to meet you…"

"Orion, Orion Wright." I supplied, "Nice to meet you too."

By now the rest of the table had gone back to their own conversations, their curiosity sated.

No one noticed Dumbledore looking onto the scene with curiosity burning in his twinkling eyes. After the interaction between Marissa and Orion, the food disappeared and Dumbledore stood up. He delivered the start of year speech and had the prefects take the first years to the common rooms. We went up and up, through the living stairwell towards the top of the castle. Curiosity burned through me at such a wonderful feat of magic. Instead of being a hassle, the stairs took you towards the floor you desired to go, unlike in the books. After all, why would you make a moving staircase only to have it be a hassle all the time. One day, I would figure out how they did it, and maybe even improve it.

As we reached the top of the castle, most of the firsties were out of breath, panting with their hands on their knees. I was among them, and was once again reminded how bad my physique had gotten over the years of inactivity. I made another mental note to start working out or else the walk to class would exhaust me. Noticing the exhaustion, Marissa spoke up. "I know it's a long walk, but you'll get used to it. In my opinion, it's totally worth the view we'll get once we're in the common room. Being at the second highest point in the castle has its perks." She winked, emphasizing her point. "The real tough part is the riddle you have to answer to get into the common room. As Ravenclaw's, you represent the house of the wise and intelligent. Because of that, even entering the common room requires a test of sorts. You have to answer the riddle the eagle gives you, and if you fail to, you'll have to wait for someone to let you in or go somewhere else." She shrugged and turned around, giving the bronze eagle knocker three solid knocks. Suddenly the eagle seemed to come alive, stretching its neck and wings and letting out a shriek. Then, it spoke the riddle.

"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?"

Marissa turned to the crowd of first years. "Now, who can answer this one? It seems like a hard one, so don't feel bad if you can't answer it. Even I would have to think about it for a little while and I've been doing this for years!"

Everyone had a pensive look on their faces, concentrating hard on the meaning of the words and any hidden meaning behind them. I waited a bit to see if anyone would come up with the answer, but not seeing anyone I spoke up.

"An echo," I said to the eagle. The door swung open and revealed a cozy room covered in blue and bronze, with a fireplace on the left, some bookshelves on the right, and two spiral staircases in the middle.

"Wow, good job Orion. I hadn't even figured that out yet. Five points to Ravenclaw, and congrats on being the first person to gain any points this year." Marissa commended me. It wasn't too hard. Being older than any of the people here, at least mentally, had its perks.

As we stepped through the doorway, the entirety of the room opened up to us. The walls were a deep blue with bronze trimmings around them, giving it a regal look. The fireplace casted a warm glow across the room and crackled a merry tune. There were windows all around the circular room, providing an excellent view of the stars, and presumably of the lake and grounds during the day. Comfy looking armchairs spotted the room around with an accompaniment of tables for homework and studying. To the right, there were seven bookshelves, each labeled by year and filled to the brim with hundreds of books. Marissa began to speak, giving a tour of the common room.

"Okay firsties, this will be your common room for the next seven years. Here you will study, laugh, cry, make friends and relax. It will be one of your most important rooms in the whole castle. To the left, there is the hangout spot. You can see by the lack of tables that there is no homework to be done by the fire. That is for relaxing only. Sometimes people need a break, and it's nice to have a designated space for it. Trust me, you'll learn to love it, no matter how bookwormish you are."

"The further you get to the right, the more studious it gets. On the far right there is the Ravenclaw personal library, a collection of books donated to the common room by alumni. You may have ideas of hidden knowledge or powerful spells, but it's actually just filled with the most common books you'll need for the curriculum. This still does give us an advantage over other houses because we don't need to go to the library for every book, but don't get your hopes up."

"Behind me there are the staircases to the dorms. Boys are on the left and girls are on the right. Each of you will have your own room with your name on the door. There is no intermingling allowed in the dorms, if you wish to talk to a friend of the opposite gender, do it in the common room. If you still want to try, the stairs are charmed to not let you up. Consider yourselves warned."

"Finally, one of my personal favorite things about Ravenclaw tower is the observatory. If you follow the spiral staircase all the way to the top, it will open up to the top of the tower. It is charmed on the inside to be seen through like glass. If you think the view from the windows is good, just wait till you get up there."

"Okay, that concludes the tour. I recommend you spend some time in the common room and get familiar with your surroundings and fellow students. I'm off to my room, goodnight little firsties!"

As Marissa left, the small crowd of ten kids broke out into chatter, talking about the castle and the magic they've seen. I instead went to check out the library. Not very social, I know, but after having finished all the books I had access to I was itching for more. After scanning the first year section, I realized that Marissa was right. There really were no amazing books, just ones that we would probably have to seek out in the library. Even so, with only seven books to my name it was a goldmine. I quickly grabbed "Defense for Dummies: An Introduction to Defense Against the Dark Arts", hoping to find some spells in there that weren't in our main Defense book.

Right as I cracked it open I saw a hand close it. Looking up I saw it was Tony.

"Hey Orion, I know you want to read but do you want to explore our rooms with me and the other guys? The girls have already left." He said with an expectant look on his face. Sighing, I knew I couldn't resist. After the loneliness of the orphanage I knew I couldn't screw up my social life like that again. I regretfully put the book back on the shelf and followed Tony to the rest of the guys. I recognized Michael and Terry, but the last one wasn't someone I remembered.

"Orion, this is Kevin. Kevin, this is Orion. We weren't able to meet up during the feast but I managed to talk with him on the walk up to the tower."

"It's nice to meet you Kevin." I said with an outstretched hand. "Likewise." He said, accepting my handshake.

"Okay, now that we all know each other let's go exploring!" Tony said with a shout and ran up the stairs. The rest of the boys quickly followed with shouts and laughter. I ran after them with a smile on my face. Maybe this would be more than a place to learn magic. Maybe I would find a home here too.