46 Gossip

The first week of classes has flown by as though it was a dream. The days were mostly filled with trying to find the right classrooms, bothering Prefects for various reasons, gossiping about fellow students and teachers and, of course, learning.

The first lessons were always of introductory type, however, to those who hadn't had the chance to learn magic before, they were also very informative.

Draco wasn't one of those people. He had been learning magical theory since he was seven, and he excelled in it. As such, on the first-year level, teachers couldn't say anything new on the subject that he didn't already know. Furthermore, they tended to gloss over a lot of details. Because of that, the blond Slytherin already accepted the fact that most of his time in classes would be spent in a half-asleep state.

Of course, that could only be said about the theoretical part of the classes. After all, without a proper wand, Draco hadn't had the chance to learn more delicate spell work, such as transfiguration as well as some of the more intricate charms or defense spells. However, currently, the students were still at the point where the majority of them were learning 'Lumos' (which Draco could do wandlessly without any problems). As such, he could forget about learning interesting spells in the nearest future.

On the first weekend of the school year, Draco and his friends gathered on the lawn in front of the Great Lake to discuss their experiences. It was a very bright and sunny autumn day, so they weren't the only ones who came out of the stuffy castle to catch up with others.

"Everyone in Hufflepuff is very friendly, however, other houses always look down on us," complained Susan after they all settled down on a blanket which they got from one of the house elves. It was widely believed that Hufflepuff was the worst house where only left-over students were sorted.

Hannah frowned when she heard the redhead's words. She was also dissatisfied with other students' opinions about her house:

"All of you should have seen the Ravenclaws in the Potions class on Thursday! Professor Snape kept firing off various questions and some of the students almost fell over themselves trying to grab his attention with raised hands. Whenever he called for one of the Ravenclaws to answer, they would send pitying looks in our direction and show off their 'superior' knowledge," the blond girl snorted unhappily.

Draco raised an eyebrow. It was hard to anger Hannah, who had a very kind and cheerful disposition – the Ravenclaws must have really been outrageous.

However, in his interactions with the house of the intelligent, he hadn't seen any of the described behavior. Although they were a bit arrogant and kept trying to show off in front of the Professors, there were no disdainful looks thrown the Slytherins' way.

When Draco expressed his thoughts, the one who answered was Daphne.

"Draco, between you and Theo, who answer every question down to the details which even Professors sometimes forget to mention, who would dare to look down on us?" the dark-haired girl showed a satisfied smile.

She rather enjoyed the flabbergasted looks that Ravenclaws shared when her friends impressed the teachers without any effort. It truly made a huge contrast between them and the Ravenclaws, who went out of their way to prove that they were in the house of the intelligent for a reason.

"Well, I am sure that not all of them are like that…" Draco could only weakly refute.

He didn't try to raise his hand at every question the teachers asked, however, when called upon he couldn't resist answering as fully as possible. It was because there were many interesting things about magic, and not mentioning some of them would have been a sin! The blond boy believed that Theo felt the same way.

Some of the teachers seemed to have also caught up to the fact that the two Slytherin first-years were very knowledgeable - as more days passed, both of them were called upon with increasing frequency.

Draco didn't mind the fact – he rather enjoyed sharing his experiences with others and helping them learn. However, Theo wasn't the same – he was more reticent and liked to speak only with the people he was close to. Being in the spotlight wasn't comfortable for the dark-haired Slytherin.

"Their house system is like that," explained Theo. Previously, he had thought that he would be sorted either into Ravenclaw or to Slytherin, so he researched both houses.

"How so?" asked Susan curiously. She was rather happy to hear that those arrogant students were put in their place by her Slytherin friends, and her mood lifted considerably. Never let it be said that Hufflepuffs weren't vengeful!

"Well, just like Slytherins have a leader and his faction, which can enjoy certain privileges and direct the house's politics, Ravenclaw also has an internal system of their own," the dark-haired boy proceeded to elaborate. "They have scoreboards for each year, and the ones who get the first place have some privileges. For example, they can select better study rooms first, get permission to enter the library's Restricted Section, and receive other things which help with their studies."

"Really? Never heard of it…" commented Hannah thoughtfully. Her whole family was either in Hufflepuff or in Gryffindor, so she naturally wasn't aware of how other houses operated.

Theo nodded and continued:

"But that's not all. The three students, who are on the bottom of the scoreboard, are punished at the end of each month – they are the last to get the chance to select study rooms, so they naturally get the worst ones (if any). They also have to do some additional duties, like sorting out books in Ravenclaw's private library, helping younger students with their studies, arranging study groups for others so that there are no timetable clashes and doing other miscellaneous things that consume time which could be better spent studying. Ravenclaws are very competitive because the house points, which they earn in classes, as well as marks in assignments which teachers give out, determine their scores in the house."

"I am glad that I wasn't sorted there. And here I thought that Slytherins were ruthless…" said Daphne with a relieved expression. After all, the hat also briefly considered her for the house of the intelligent.

"It's probably hard for them to form friendships with each other," pointed out Hannah with a frown. The Hufflepuff house didn't have any such rules which increased internal competition. Rather, they were always encouraged to help one another and share good things equally.

"I wonder if Gryffindors have something similar?" asked Draco. The book series never mentioned anything of the sort, however, Harry was a celebrity so he might have been excluded from it.

Seeing the rest of the children shrugging their shoulders at the question, he could only abandon this topic.

---

In the week that Draco was acclimatizing to the new environment and learning his way in the huge castle, Zosar also didn't idly sit around.

The young phoenix was rather tired of always being cooped up in the Malfoy Manor or Abraxas' residence in France. Draco promised him that when they went to Hogwarts, Zosar would no longer have to stay hidden - and the promise had to be kept. As such, the blond boy didn't try to forbid his familiar from going out and exploring the castle as well as its surroundings.

In the first few days, Zosar still kept himself from others' eyes by exploring the Forbidden Forest and its many residents. He rather liked visiting centaurs, who always gave out the tastiest berries to the young bird. He also liked the giant spiders and its leader Aragog – despite its scary appearance, the spider wasn't malicious - he just seemed to care a lot about his children's food. Zosar thought that it was a rather admirable trait.

After seven days of exploring the forest, the phoenix quickly grew bored of only seeing trees and more trees. The creatures that he met were also not so idle as to accompany and play with the young bird every day, so he could only look for entertainment in other places.

As such, on the eight day of his explorations, Zosar decided that it was time to meet the Giant Squid. Of course, if the opportunity showed itself, he also wanted to get to know the Merpeople who were living in the Great Lake.

The Giant Squid was a big but very gentle creature, as Zosar quickly found out. It liked playing with the young phoenix by trying to catch the bird with its tentacles and then throwing him into the air. Zosar really liked this type of game and played for the whole afternoon, not noticing that he grabbed the attention of other people.

"Is that Fawkes?" asked a Gryffindor student, who finished his classes and went to read a book by the lake with his friends.

"I don't think so?" another young wizard answered uncertainly. "The phoenix seems to be smaller and its colors are a bit more vibrant. Fawkes was almost as big as a swan just a few days ago. He was sitting perched on Dumbledore's chair in the Great Hall, so I noticed… He couldn't have had a burning day and then recovered so soon afterwards, right?"

"And he was never so childish…" muttered another person as he stared at the phoenix, which was just thrown into the air by the Giant Squid. The bird happily chirped something and did a few flips, as if trying to show-off. The phoenix's happy voice managed to lift other people's mood without his own knowledge.

Soon, more people came and enthusiastically discussed the phoenix's mysterious appearance, while listening to his melodious cries. After all, phoenixes were rare birds and even Fawkes, Dumbledore's familiar who lived at Hogwarts, didn't like to show himself in front of others all that frequently.

"Chiiiirp!"

Suddenly, an especially loud bird's voice sounded on Hogwarts' grounds. The idle students stared with wonder as another phoenix abruptly showed up out of nowhere and flew over to where the Giant Squid was still playing with the young fiery bird.

"Oh, Merlin! It's another phoenix - there's two of them!" exclaimed a young Hufflepuff witch loudly.

The students were wide-eyed – most of them had only seen Fawkes, and it was from afar! But here were two phoenixes and they were so close by – where did the second one come from?

Zosar, who had been fooling around with the huge creature, turned around as soon as he heard a familiar melody and almost got smacked away by a stray tentacle. He quickly chirped at the squid that he wanted to stop playing and flew to greet the other phoenix.

• You are Fawkes? • he asked excitedly when they were both within talking distance.

• Who are you? How come you are here? Where's your mother? • chirped Fawkes quickly. He had been visiting owls in the Owlery when he saw the silly bird of the same species playing above the lake through a window.

Zosar was immediately offended at the other bird's tone and question.

• What mother? It's you, who needs a mother! • the younger bird angrily chirped back. He had never met such a rude phoenix in the enclosure before!

Before the older bird had a chance to say anything, Zosar turned into a bright flame and disappeared, deciding not to waste his breath on the ill-mannered older phoenix. Fawkes could only speechlessly hover in the air while being pointed at by other students.

The other was clearly a young phoenix who hadn't even had his first burning day – wasn't it normal to still be with his mother until then? And what was it doing at Hogwarts anyway?

Fawkes was determined to find out the answers to his questions, so he could only go back and search the castle - he was sure that the young phoenix would be there.

At last, there was something interesting to do apart from listening to the teachers' constant complaints or the portraits' nonsensical conversations in Albus' office!

The growing crowd of students stared as the other phoenix also disappeared from the sky. Draco, who rushed over after hearing about two phoenixes showing up from some gossiping students, had an urge to facepalm.

Being seen was alright, but couldn't you show up in front of one or two students at first? Did you have to attract such a huge crowd? And why did you have to act so silly for others to laugh at?!

Draco sighed, feeling that his reputation wouldn't be able to hold up when everyone found out that the simpleminded bird was his own familiar.