Chapter 5: Hufflepuff Mishap

Toby naturally didn't know what was going on in the principal's room at this time. Under the leadership of the prefect, the new Ravenclaws were led to the entrance of the dormitories. In front of the door stood a bronze eagle statue in front of them.

Seeing the confusion of the first year children, the Ravenclaw Prefect walked forward and said," This is the guard for the Ravenclaw Dorms. In order to enter, you must answer the question given by the statue. Does anyone wish to try?"

Toby stepped in front of the Eagle Statue as the Freshmen paved the way for him to walk past. The Eagle Statue opened its mouth and asked,""What is the most precious wealth of mankind?"

After thinking about it, Toby responded," The knowledge inherited from generation to generation is the most precious wealth of mankind. It's what separates us from other animals who rely on instinct to learn everything."

The Eagle Statue took a moment to carefully savor the answer and responded,"You may enter."

"Please remember this sentence," said the Prefect, "Our Ravenclaw students are the smartest among the four colleges, but the pursuit of knowledge must never stop. Hopefully, this sentence can guide you to sail further."

When everyone finally stepped into Ravenclaw's common room, they seemed to have arrived at a medium sized library. The bookshelves against the wall are densely packed with books. All of these books were donations from the past students of Ravenclaw. Most of them are the previous notes and homework of Ravenclaws. Others included novels, biographies and magic books. These books were one of the reasons Toby chose Ravenclaw.

With these notes, Toby could get in touch with advanced magical knowledge that could only be learned by seniors. He could also send this to Alyssa so that she could be ahead of her peers in class. Because there were too few boys, Ravenclaw's male dormitory only consisted of a dozen rooms shared by all Seven years of students . Compared with the bunk beds in other colleges, the conditions were much better.

The next morning, Toby woke up early at around 5:00 in the morning. Getting up, he ignored his dorm-mates who were still sleeping and walked over to the library. To his surprise, he found another girl also reading by the fireplace. She casually looked around to find another person who was awake. She looked at him and said," I didn't expect to see a First Year student wake up so early. That too, the famous Toby Macguire."

Toby sheepishly put his hand on the back of his head," Well what can I say? I really have good habits. Studying hard can keep me above everyone else."

She narrowed her eyes at him,"Usually, most people who are above average prefer to stay away from the spotlight, while below average people satisfy their vanity by staying in the spotlight. Everyone else may call you an attention seeking person, but you can't fool me."

Toby shrugged," You can think whatever you want, but right now, I just need a book good enough to cover the basics of the First Year. Got any recommendations?"

She pointed over to a shelf marked as 'Old Student Notes' and said," Take the one titled 'First year in a Day'. It's what I read during my first year as a student and it really did help me a lot."

"Thanks. By the way, how are you so good at identifying other people's characteristics?"

"Both my parents are muggles. My mom's a lawyer and my dad is a Bank Manager. When I was young, they took me to their respective workplaces and taught me how to identify different types of people."

"That's a very useful skill," said Toby," Thanks for the recommendation. By the way, what's your name?"

" My name? It's Penelope Clearwater."

While sitting down, Toby remembered that Penelope Clearwater was Percy's girlfriend before she broke up with him. He also recalled that she was the one who was petrified during the Basilisk attacks. Ignoring all of that, he glanced down at the notes recommended by Penelope and found that they were really neat and detailed. He decided to learn the copying charm later and send a copy over to Alyssa for her to read.

During breakfast, most of the students still talked about him behind his backs, but most of it came from Slytherin. Ignoring their blood supremacy banter, he ate a simple breakfast and headed over with his dorm-mates to the first class which was transfiguration with Gryffindor.

As soon as he entered the classroom, Toby spotted the unique tabby cat on the table. Instantly recognizing it as Professor Mcgondall's animagus form, he gave a polite bow and sat in the front row. As time passed by, more students filled the classroom to the brim. After a while, the class bell rang. The tabby cat on the table turned into Professor McGonagall in a blink of an eye, which immediately caused many first year students to exclaim in panic.

"Mr. Maguire, you have been observing me for a long time as soon as you entered the classroom. How did you find out?"

Toby got up and said, "Professor, you are one of the few wizards today who have officially been recognized as an animagus by the Ministry of Magic. It's not really surprising that I can recognize you. Besides, the spectacle markings on your eyes are very distinguishable. No other cat I have seen have those markings''

Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly, "Mr. Maguire, an excellent deduction indeed. Ten points for Ravenclaw." Hearing this most of the students in the classroom started applauding.

With a wave of her magic wand, the podium suddenly turned into a lion, roaring at the little wizards, and the whole classroom was immediately quiet. "Transfiguration is an esoteric course. Using Transfiguration, we can change the shape, size, and material of an object.." She then pointed at the blackboard brush again, and it suddenly turned into a flying eagle, hovering low in the classroom.

　　 "It is not easy to learn Transfiguration well, so I hope you will be serious enough in the next study. Learning Transfiguration is essential for the future courses including Polymorphism. It can even be applied during combat."

"Okay, now I see the matches on your table, today we are going to learn how to turn it into a silver needle." With a wave of her magic wand, the eagle and lion suddenly changed back to the podium and blackboard brush.

Having reviewed the basics already, Toby took a few tries at transfiguring the silver match, but it was a slowly progressing task. Professor Mcgondall leaned over his shoulders and said," Remember, the key of transfiguration is to imagine the shape and material of the object envisioned clearly."

Hearing this, Toby began to slow down and envision it perfectly. Within a minute, Toby finally managed to transfigure it into a wooden needle. gaining a look of approval from Professor Mcgondall While walking outside, he oddly noticed that there were no Hufflepuffs in sight. Glancing around, he saw a red headed teen running past him. Grabbing him, he asked," What's going on? Where are all the Hufflepuff's?"

The red headed teen looked at him incredulously," Haven't you heard. Hufflepuff has collectively rioted. They haven't attended a single class since morning? I'm running over to inform the professors now."

Shocked by this news, Toby ran towards the Hufflepuff Dormitory. Running past the fruit bowl painting which hid the kitchen, he frantically knocked on the painting. The painting was opened up by a Hufflepuff student who looked surprised at the fact that a Ravenclaw student knocked. Ignoring the surprised boy, he ran past the yellow coloured drapes to find all the students of Hufflepuff surrounding a cauldron filled with a boiling liquid. Each Hufflepuff had something in their arms whether it be vegetables, spices, salt, etc. Alyssa was standing above the cauldron and stirring it while instructing different people to throw different condiments.

Dumbfounded, they stared at each other before Cedric broke the silence," Toby, what are you doing here?"

"I came to check on Hufflepuff when I heard that you were suddenly rioting, but seriously, what are you doing?"

"Oh this, Alyssa told us a story called Rock Soup. We were curious to see if we added a bunch of vegetables and spices in boiling water with a rock in it, would it really make delicious soup."

Alyssa smiled," And it's going great. The smell is quite wonderful. It's almost ready. Why don't you grab a bowl and drink it with us.``

Toby smacked his head," So let me get this straight, you didn't come for breakfast, you didn't attend class in the morning, all for a pot of soup? Damn foodies."

Most of the Hufflepuffs nodded as if it was common sense for everyone, but some of them started realizing the consequences of doing this. At that moment, all of the professors headed by Dumbeldore entered the Hufflepuff Dormitory to behold the strange sight. When the figures of Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and Professor Ilona appeared in Hufflepuff's common room, the originally lively lounge instantly became silent. All of them held a small bowl in their hands.

"You guys, what have you done?!"

The first to break the silence was not Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, but Snape, the professor of potions at Hogwarts. He stared angrily at the cauldron which was filled with lettuce, potatoes, and everything but potions.

Snape's eyes swept across the cauldrons. His anger continued to rise, and his gloomy face was now almost dripping with ferociousness . "These cauldrons are an important tool for your potions class in the future. For a potion master, the cauldron is the most important friend. You actually use it to cook dishes?! Who came up with this? Say it!"

Snape's eyes crossed the face of a Hufflepuff student, the student immediately lowered his head, but no one stood up and revealed that Alyssa was the initiator. Toby saw out of the corner of his eyes that Alyssa wanted to raise her hand, but Cedric stopped her from revealing herself, but this movement was caught by Professor Snape.

"If someone stands up at this time and admits what he has done, then I will only punish him. If no one admits it, then I can only punish the entire Hufflepuff!"

Hearing this, Alyssa slowly raised her other hand, but her other hand was also grabbed by the Hufflepuff Prefect.

"Ms. Alyssa, I don't know if you have anything to say?" This time, Snape directly called Alyssa's name and asked. Seeing that he couldn't delay any longer Toby revealed himself," Professor, this time, it is actually my fault. I left an old story book here called Rock Soup. I guess someone must have found it and believed it to be a secret potion instruction so they tried to make it."

Grandma Rosier, disguised as Professor Ilona, was happy that her grandson was following her instructions and protecting Alyssa but she did not show it in order to preserve her secret identity. Professor Flitwick looked at Toby in surprise," Mr. Maguire, How did you even get in here?"

"I knocked on the door and they let me in."

"… Regardless, you are not allowed to enter other people's Dorms like that. Twenty points from Ravenclaw. "

Professor Snape brought the topic back on point," Who was the one who thought of making the soup."

Toby immediately threw Cedric under the bus," It was Cedric sir. He was interested in reading muggle folklore so I lent my book to him."

Cedric was startled, but after receiving a glare from Toby, he immediately confessed," Yes Professor. It was my Idea."

Snape gave both of them a glare," Detention tonight. My Office," and strode away.

"This soup smells really good!"

Dumbledore pointed to the cauldron in front of the students and said with a smile. Hearing Dumbledore's words, most of the Hufflepuff students smiled, and the Hufflepuff prefect immediately took out a small clean bowl, filled it with soup, and handed it to Dumbledore.

Tasting the soup, he commented," I didn't expect a simple cooking method like this to produce such a simple soup. For that, Hufflepuff, 20 points." Hearing this the Hufflepuffs cheered collectively. Turning around and looking at Toby, he said," It also takes a huge amount of bravery to protect your friends. So let's say Ten points for Ravenclaw."

Hearing this, Toby let out a sigh of relief. Most of the students went to congratulate Toby, and some of them discreetly cheered for Alyssa. Professor Ilona observed this and thought,' As expected of the granddaughter of our leader. All it took was one day to completely conquer one of the Houses in Hogwarts. Perhaps Alyssa meant to do this from the start.'

Suddenly, Ilona thought that maybe joining Hufflepuff was part of Alice's plan. Although Hufflepuff's students are not as prestigious as Slytherin's students, nor as good as Ravenclaw's students, Hufflepuff is the largest house at Hogwarts, and the wizards from Hufflepuff will penetrate into every corner of the magic world and will be the cornerstone of the future magic world. Thinking of this, Ilona looked at Alyssa with admiration in her eyes.

Dumbledore did not stop Hufflepuff's cheers, but turned around and said to Ilona:

"Professor Ilona, ​​I'm sorry to interrupt your welcome reception. Let's go back and continue? I'm very interested in what you just said, the Indian wizarding customs."

And Ilona smiled and said, "It's okay, Headmaster Dumbledore, in fact, I'm in love with this great school now!"

Dumbeldore turned around and said," Toby, you can stay in Hufflepuff for today, but I expect you to return to the Ravenclaw Dorms by the evening." After saying that, he left with Professor Ilona. With the departure of the professors, the Hufflepuff students let loose and started the party.

Cedric came up to Toby and punched him on his hand," Thats for ratting me out to Professor Snape."

"Would you rather let Alyssa take the punishment instead."

Cedric rolled his eyes." Of Course not, but at least give me a warning before you do that."

Alyssa walked over and introduced the Hufflepuff prefect," This is Wilson Kirk. He is the prefect of Hufflepuff."

Toby shook his hand," It's a pleasure to meet you."

Wilson said," The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for standing up for our Hufflepuff students."

"I made a promise to my grandmother that I would take care of her anyway."

Cedric asked," So are you both childhood friends?"

Alyssa replied," Yeah, both of us grew up in Australia and moved here recently." This was the common backstory that both of them had agreed to in order to avoid suspicion.

After the party, when Toby was going back to the bedroom to rest, Cedric stopped him "Toby, tomorrow, you have Potions class with Slytherin. Professor Snape will definitely try to target you, so here. Take these notes and study. Although one night of studying won't change the result by much". Toby thanked him sincerely and went back to Ravenclaw.

The next day, Toby went to potions class. He was accompanied by Alyssa, Wilson and Cedric who were giving him tips and tricks on how to survive. Toby suddenly felt like he was a human sacrifice being sent to appease the gods but not everyone felt the same way. Cassandra stared at their group and clenched her fist," Toby, it seems that I still underestimate you. In one day, you can actually let the prefect and one of the top students in second year accompany you! However, I will prove to you who is the best freshman in the first year."

Hearing Cassandra's words, Toby knew she had misunderstood him, and was about to explain that Wilson and the others were just helping him, but he didn't get a chance to talk, before Alyssa pushed him into the potions classroom and left with Cedric and Wilson.