14. Hogwarts, Express and Sorting

— Clara POV —

And finally, after a lot of waiting, I stood before the hogwarts express. We didn't run through the wall though, we just whisked into it, as that was in fact possible with even normal apparition. While I don't have much expectations knowledge wise, I hope to enjoy these few years in school and also my first real contact with others of my age, which Henry always criticized me for my lack thereof. We also decided to postpone any talks to the holidays, as it would be hard to come out of school at other times.

Just standing here, I could feel the magic rolling off the express and while not quite sentient yet, it was at least a conscious construct. The difference is the existence of a soul, as you are only truly sentient, after acquiring one. These wards were stronger than Ilvermorny's, though not as sofisticated. It basically is the difference between quality, quantity and 1000 year between their creation. Though these wards may need a maintenance it the near future, as I could feel the consciousness wailing.

I was standing there, staff in hand, wand in a duelist wandholster on my right hand, although i was ambidextrous, but also slack jawed at the feeling of those wards, until a weak voice a year younger than me asked: „Hey, want to share a cabin?" To which I blackly replied: „Yes", at form that moment on I knew, what my temporary passion was. Protection of that specific person for the next seven years. And it wasn't that trouble magnet Harry Potter, which started school last year, so I was quite perplexed why that person would need it. That was quickly answered though, as throughout the ride I realized that she is possibly even weirder than me in some aspects or that she has a very unique talent, which would explain it. Something pertaining to sight, which I would try to replicate if in any way possible, as whatever she talked about was sounding quite interesting, like a whole new different side to magic itself, as if that magic is sentient in a pure, child like way.

I am gonna be honest, the moment we arrived in Hogsmeade I became akin to a robot, just following everyone mindlessly, as I felt, saw and heard the wards of hogwarts, which were in fact sentient, but wailing though that stopped shortly after the sorting ceremony. This year we were sorted in a random order, which was why I snapped out of my stupor at the calling of the name: „Luna Lovegood", which came from McGonagall. To my surprise and relieve, that litte weird bubbly girl was sorted into ravenclaw. The next name was surprisingly mine, which made a lot of the whispering quite down. From most purebloods out of horror or respect and most others because they didn't think that Garrick could have a child. As I walked to the stool and put the hat on my head, I could feel his slight legilimence and after he realized he wouldn't come through my child, it sent a request to lower my shields, to which I replied with my own request for a talk. And talk we did, for the next thirty minutes, much to the chagrin of Professor McGonagall and amusement of Albus Dumbledore.

What we talked about? I wanted to get the formula he used to calculate a students house and while the hat initially wanted to see my memories, I could negotiate him down to giving him my personality formula, while being placed in ravenclaw for that. But let me tell you, that hat drives a mean bargain, or I wouldn't have needed those damn thirty minutes. And yes, that hat was in fact a sentient being and probably one of the strongest in the great hall at that moment, probably placed forth or fifth depending on if you counted Hogwarts itself.

While I could feel him teasing me about going to hufflepuff, I just ignored that and was afterwards sorted into ravenclaw, where I sat right next to that bubbly girl from the train, Luna Lovegood. The following feast was as opulent as expected and way too fatty for my palate. The pumpkin juice, I only smelled on it, was especially horrendous, though most seemed to like it.

Soon, Albus Dumbledore stood up and said: „Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. This year, we have got two new professors, though for the same position. It is my honor to introduce to you, the Ollivander twins. One of them a master of the dark arts and the other a specialist on curses, I think you will be in good hands. Now I won't take up more of your time, as you all will learn more about them next Friday. Good night!"

A long walk and a lot of confusing stairs followed, together with a pretty easy riddle as password: „What question can you never answer yes to?" The answer to that particular riddle was: „Are you asleep yet?" Once in the common room, we just got told, that we will get our schedules at breakfast of the next day and that we will be grouped into two person groups to occupy each of the rooms. I luckily got a room together with Luna, even though I was pretty sure, it was sorted after who you talked with while on the express and in the great hall, though I didn't know how, which I resolved to find out. Maybe they used wards, though I highly doubt that approach.

Well, we just went to sleep, the moment we came into our rooms, though I meditated, like most nights, to specifically look through my memories of the last few hours, where I was originally in a stupor. The next morning though, was a bit unpleasant, as while I knew how to get to the great hall for breakfast, the damn chairs didn't allow me to go there, so I needed to make huge detours and came even later than Luna, who wasn't even awake, as I left the ravenclaw dorm. After I asked her, how she did that, she just smiled and continued eating her pancakes. I followed suit and damn those were good. Next question to find an answer too: Who cooks all these things?

The wailing of the castle stopped yesterday evening, though I could still feel the wards being slowly corroded and in high need for a maintenance, though no one else seems to be bothered by it. I theorized that the wailing is a kind of emergency measure to filter out students or teachers, who can hear it.

Todays first lessen though, was transfiguration. While many might expect, that you just go into a class and start practicing a specific spell, after being told the bare minimum, that is the complete opposite of what happened in the end. The whole double period was spent going over pretty much boring theory and at the end we were excused with a: „Don't try out the spell before the next lesson". McGonagall was also an animagus, a tabby cat to be exact, you could even see the faint imprint of her glasses, which is a curious predicate, as I couldn't help but wonder, what else is possible, though I only realized that detail after reviewing my memories.