A map

Chapter 11 –

The entrance to the Ravenclaw common room was on the west side of Hogwarts. At the top of a spiral staircase was a door without a doorknob or keyhole. But there was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle that asked a riddle for gaining entry to the common room; if they answer incorrectly, they must wait for someone else who gets it right.

The Prefect explained the system to the first years and then led them inside. The common was a circular room with arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks and a midnight blue carpet covered in stars, which reflected onto the domed ceiling. The room was furnished with tables, chairs, and bookcases, and by the door leading up to the dormitories stood a tall statue of Rowena Ravenclaw made of white marble.

Before the Perfect sent them off to their dorms, he told them the roles to be followed while in the common room and the dormitories. He closed with, "You will find your luggage in your rooms, and please make sure to store the clothes that you want to be cleaned in the cupboards provided to you because any clothes in your trunk or luggage won't be taken for cleaning."

Finishing his piece, the prefect dismissed the students, and Nathan bounded off to his room. Ravenclaw common rooms are single bedrooms, for each individual. Nathan quickly changed and climbed into the soft sheets of his bed, and quickly fell asleep. His tiredness quickened the ease with which he fell asleep.

oOOOOOOOOOOo

"Rowena Ravenclaw," The squeaky voice of the diminutive half-goblin, Filius Flitwick, who was perched atop a stool in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room, addressed the gathered the new first-year students. "as all you should know by now, was one of four of the founders of Hogwarts. Her House, our house, is a house that is characterized by their wit, their learning, wisdom, intelligence, and creativity as this was what Lady Ravenclaw sought these traits in her students. Lady Ravenclaw prized learning above all else – and so do we. The other houses have hidden entrances to their common rooms but ours is not. Our entrance has a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle and once you knock, you will be asked a question, a riddle, for you to solve and answer before you are allowed entry into the common room. This has worked for almost a thousand years." There were a series of nervous shuffling among the first years which amused Nathan, as they'd seen the Prefect do the same the previous night.

Flitwick, though, briefly smiled in a reassuring manner "Do not worry. I can see some of you are nervous about not solving the riddle. You will learn fast enough and you will learn to enjoy it. It's not unusual to discover a group of people unable to enter as they are all stuck on the question. It is a great way to meet other Ravenclaws from different years and to learn from them. I would advise that you ensure that you have everything you need with you at all times as it could very well become problematic if you left something behind and you were unable to solve the riddle" he smiled at the room.

He turned serious "Many of the students of the other houses will consider you all bookish which can be true in many cases" he shrugged but continued "But do not let them deter you. Be proud of yourself and your minds. Do not feel embarrassed by your knowledge and intelligence and your love of knowledge." He looked intently at them which had the effect he wanted as most drew themselves up.

He clapped which brought a number of parchments into existence and spread out to each first year. It was his timetable "These are your timetables. Your schedule will remain unchanged until the end of the year. The rooms will not change throughout the course of the year but it does, it will be announced both in the Great Hall and in the common room. I suggest that you all arrive early to your classes. I also suggest that you take the time to familiarize yourself with the castle in the meantime."

Nathan looked at his schedule

Mon: Potions, Potions, Lunch, Charms

Tue: Transfiguration, Herbology, Lunch, History

Wed: History, DADA, Lunch, Flying, Astronomy

Thu – Free Period, Charms, Lunch, Transfiguration

Fri –DADA, Lunch, Herbology.

The charms professor cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of the room "If you look in that direction, the library will come into sight." He said and everyone diverted in the direction he pointed.

"The library has many books that will help you increase your knowledge and help with your studies. Supplementary texts and books to aid you in your studies are amongst the books. Please note, however, if you were to borrow a book you will be noted down for the particular book you have borrowed." He paused and a stern look came across "If the book disappears, we WILL know who was responsible" he finished strongly. A number of students shifted awkwardly.

"The books in the Miscellaneous section will not be open to you until you are in your third year. The books in here will be introductory into fields such as enchanting, alchemy, warding and so on" he paused "The more advanced books will be in the restricted section which you won't have access to until there is a need or you have proved yourself trustworthy and responsible."

"Now," Flitwick's smile turned more welcoming, said while looking around the room "How about we all introduce ourselves so we can get to know each other" and so Flitwick pointed out the first person to do so. Nathan paid attention as he matched faces with names.

After the introductions, the students were left to their own devices, mainly so that they could socialize and acclimatize with their peers. Nathan however used this time to go exploring the castle. And as Carlisle had already bounded back to her room, seemingly still drowsy and tired from the previous day's travel, he decided that this was the perfect opportunity to find some of the more famous locations of the castle that he could remember from the novels.

oOOOOOOOOOOo

After having breakfast in the Great Hall, just after the first light of the day, Nathan had started exploring the castle and its grounds. He'd found that the castle had more than a hundred and forty-two staircases, that created a vast array of interconnected pathways throughout the castle and its supporting towers.

The castle itself was a giant maze, including the moving staircases which had wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Nathan remembered from the books, that the coats of armor could walk.

He'd found that after the third floor of the castle, the consecutive floors would get more and more tricky to traverse without a map. But Nathan had persevered. He was adamant about at least visiting each of the floors and getting acquainted with what each floor and passageway had to offer.

The ground floor housed the entrance hall, beside which is the larger Great Hall, where the morning feast and most of the school events are conducted. Also on the ground floor, you'd find the office belonging to Argus Filch, the castle's caretaker.

Nathan had decided to avoid the dungeons for the day and had moved on to the first floor, which housed the school's hospital wing, which was just three corridors down from Prof. McGonagall's office. The DADA classroom and the office of the teacher, currently taught by Prof. Paul Ambrose. The muggle studies classroom, which was currently taught by Quirinus Quirrel, was right opposite the DADA classroom.

Nathan couldn't quite connect the dots from the man that he'd seen briefly during the feast, to the one portrayed as the villain at the end of the first book. This man, was outgoing, jovial, not a hint of a stutter, or speech deformity, and seemed perfectly polite, but also unimportant to most who'd meet him.

On the second floor, the place of interest that he found was the moaning myrtles bathroom, which he knew also housed the hidden entrance to the legendary chamber of secrets. Nathan had attempted to feel the magic from outside the bathroom and was unable to get even a tingle or a hint of its presence. Had he not known that it was there, he'd have dismissed it entirely.

Heading on over to the third floor, on the right-hand side, was the trophy room, and the armory.

The fourth floor housed the entrance to Ravenclaw Common room, as well as a statue of Gregory the Smarmy. Two corridors down the Ravenclaw common room entrance was the prefect's bathroom. Nathan could not enter there yet.

On the fifth floor, was the connecting entrance to the astronomy tower, as well the secret passageway to the Quidditch stands. Nathan had avoided the passageway as soon as he spotted it, for inside were a couple of the seventh-year Gryffindor students, engaged in a heated make-out session.

The sixth floor was home to a number of classrooms and dueling rooms, that looked like they had been left unused for more than a decade.

And finally, on the seventh floor, Nathan found the Gryffindor common room, with multiple students right outside, having forgotten the password to the entrance. This floor also housed the entrance to the room that Nathan had been desperate to use, but he couldn't.

Not yet, anyway. He needed to steal a map of Hogwarts, that conveniently showed the location of all the people in the castle, and he knew exactly where to find it.

oOOOOOOOOOOo

Nathan spent the rest of the afternoon inside his room, as he had to now prepare a plan for the coming future. He knew that most of his plans will involve the Room of Requirements, for training. He still needs to steal the map from Filch's office, and he's already planning to head down to his office just after curfew, under a disillusionment charm that he taught himself, from the Ravenclaw common room library.

Nathan's determined to have finished at least OWL's level of magical training done by, the end of the year. He also plans to make connections in the magical world, and find inroads into the various business opportunities he knows he can take advantage of given the amount of galleons in his vault.

He already had accomplished the magical training for the first two years, using the book he found in the abandoned longhouse back in Norfolk. And he's devised a training schedule for himself, in order to build a healthy athletic physique for himself for when he grows up.

He is already very healthy for his age, due to his active participation in football back in the town near his home, and also because of the various magical training, he's accomplished, giving him a sturdier edge, capable of handling the strain due to the massive amount of magic his body channels.

As soon as the time by his watch struck ten, and the prefects finished their cursory sweep of the common room, Nathan slipped out in the dead of the night, under a heavy disillusionment charm, that Nathan had increased the efficiency of, by deadening the sound of his footsteps and breathing. He headed down the corridor, towards the central staircase. Making sure that the staircases weren't going to change positions, he made his way down to the ground floor.

Noticing that Filch was about to leave his office, he waited. That's when the bane of his existence arrived. During all that stealthy sneaking around, Nathan had forgotten to get rid of his smell. And apparently, Mrs. Norris had gotten hold of his scent, and her eyes were staring directly at him.

"Meow!"

"What is it my sweet, what do you see? Student's out in the corridor, the first day of the year, we'll catch them, we will!" Nathan heard the caretaker mumble to himself and his cat.

Nathan panicked, immediately attempted to get rid of his scent, and ran down the corridor to hide behind the giant gargoyle that guarded the exit of the castle.

Nathan watched with bated breaths, as Mrs. Norris and the caretaker headed straight towards the exit, and past him. Checking the corridor by the exit for students, and not finding any they turned around and headed up the stairs, forgetting that the door to the office had been left unlocked in the process.

Nathan could still hear the caretaker muttering "Don't worry, my darling, we'll go tell the old professor McGonagall, it has to be someone from her lot again. It always is." And he breathed a sigh of relief.

He made his way to the unlocked office and entered it. Inside was a small room, with a desk, with a wooden chair. At the side were mops and brooms, neatly arranged, right beside a pillow with cat fur strewn about. On the other side was a large cupboard that was slightly ajar, the lock apparently not secure or broken. There was a poster at the side of the cupboard, with a list of forbidden items, as indicated by its heading.

Making his way towards the cupboard, Nathan opened it. It made a shrill creaking noise and Nathan had to make sure, that the caretaker was not back.

The cupboard was a veritable treasure chest of miscellaneous, yet hilarious items. There were fanged frisbees, dung bombs, acid pops, some wet-start-no-heat fireworks, and various whoopie cushions with all seemingly different sounds, carefully labeled inside. But Nathan had eyes only for the spare bit of parchment that was laid about in the bottom shelf of the cupboard, kept there almost carelessly.

Picking the parchment Nathan, opened it and found it to be old and worn, yet clean. He knew that this was it.

Placing his finger on the center of the map he recited "I solemnly swear, that I am up to no good."

That the map came to life. Ink developed on the map, slowly forming to read the word.

"Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, proudly present to you, The Marauder's map"

Before it shifted yet again, to show a map of the ground floor of the Hogwarts castle. Nathan could see his name floating inside Filch's office, but that was not the name he was focused on. He was more focused on the name, which read "Argus Filch" and, according to the map. He was standing right outside the office.

Quickly whispering "Mischief Managed" Nathan folded the map and made a dash for the closed entrance of the room, making a lot of noise in the process and knocking over Filch. He made a run for the stairs and narrowly avoided the blind swipe that Mrs. Norris attempted at the air, where the door had opened. As soon as Nathan reached the stairs, he heard pained grunts of "I'll catch you! Go get him, Mrs. Norris!"

Despite the fact she couldn't see him, or smell him, she was still heading straight toward him. And Nathan began the climb up the stairs. He didn't know how he had the stamina to climb seven flights of stairs in such a short time, but he'd done it. He'd managed to give his chasers the slip. And reached his final destination of the night. The Room of Requirements.

Join the discord server for this fic

https : // discord . gg / qRgGsUXyNc