HP: The Crazy One

Walking up the stairs to the basement, we are greeted with an intersection with 3 separate yet identical corridors. Seeing that my trusty wand method hasn't failed me so far, I stand it up on the floor and drop it. Watching it land pointing to the left-most corridor, I pick it up before heading in that direction. While walking, I observe how dirty my wand is getting, giving it a quick rub with my robes before putting it in the holster.

"You are picking the directions now," I say to Luna.

I didn't hear anything in response and merely got a nod. Walking down the corridor, Luna leads me through a series of corridors before we reach what I consider an essential room, the Library. Hundreds of years of knowledge contained within one room are bound to make even the stupidest of students salivate at the thought, or so I hope. Grabbing the door handle, I attempt to pull it down before meeting resistance from the doorknob itself.

"Are there time restrictions?" I thought aloud, before trying the first-year unlocking spell.

"Alohomora!" 

Feeling the magic build up and leave my wand, it hits the doorknob. Holding my breath, I attempt to open the doorknob again with no luck.

'Figures such an important treasure would be secured with something more advanced than a first-year locking charm.'

Before I could try anything else, Luna starts to leave and I run over to keep up with her.

"Where to next?" I asked.

"I do not know." She responded

"Fair enough."

As we kept on wandering Hogwarts, we met many interesting paintings who mumble about their past when they see me and Luna passing by or continue sleeping since it should be around 5 am right now. Some paintings were shocked that we are up so early, but they only expressed it with their faces and didn't say anything to us.

It wasn't long before we met our first students of the morning, as there were bound to be some early risers. The weird thing about these students is that they were all sneaking around underneath a cloak, while not attempting to be sneaky at all. It was a stark contrast comparing them with common thieves who hide in the dark.

"What are you three doing?" I asked as Luna stopped with me to look at them, with Meowser staring at me in what I presume to be confusion.

"..."

Seeing the three of them freeze up in shock, I can't help but look at them strangely.

"If you're trying to be sneaky at least deafen your footsteps, I'm sure there's a charm for that."

"..."

Getting nothing in response, I shake my head and walk away with Luna in tow, ignoring them starting to follow us. Following Luna, we end up walking outside of the castle and towards the forbidden forest. Standing on the edge of the forest, I hear some interesting sounds that I can only assume come from some sort of eagle mixed with a horse.

'Only magical creatures can interest me so much.'

Heading towards the source of the sounds, we sneak through the bushes and glance upon what I can only describe as a giant man and his eagle-horse hybrid ready to stomp on his enemies.

"Are you here to take over the world?" I asked out of impulse.

Immediately regretting what I just blurted out, I grab Luna's arm and prepare to run back towards the safety of Hogwarts, before Luna speaks up.

"He isn't," She said.

Calming down, I took a closer look at the tall man and recognized him as the one who lead us to the sorting ceremony last night, whose name was Hagrid.

"What ar' you two doin' so early in th' mornin'," Hagrid asked.

"Two?" I repeated.

"Well, I don't see anyone else." He said

Looking behind me at the group huddled underneath the cloak hiding among the bushes, I stare at the man confused.

'Are they not real?'

"Right, since you two are up so early, why don't you help me with the paddock," Hagrid said.

Not having any real reason to refuse, I followed him towards a run-down hut, where he gave us both a bucket of animal feed, made from meat that I can't identify.

"Secret recipe, that. Now, let's go feed some Hippogriffs." Hagrid smiled.

"When yeh' are approaching them, bow yeh' head an' wait for them to bow back before approaching. This is very important, yeh' don't want to get maimed, do yah'?"

Nodding, I pick up the bucket before heading towards one of the 'Hippogriffs'. Maintaining some distance, I get the Hippogriff's attention before bowing towards it. Waiting a minute for the Hippogriff to bow back, I pick up the bucket of animal feed before placing it near the Hippogriff.

'Come to think of it, he didn't tell us how to feed it.'

Staring at the bucket of feed, I look between the feed and the Hippogriff before I make my mind up. Picking up some feed and cupping it in my hands, I bring them towards the Hippogriff who stares at me for a few seconds, before eating the feed out of my hands. I let out a smile as I watch the creature eating out of my hands peacefully. While I am doing this, I hear a gasp from the bushes and turn my head towards one of the three shaking while pointing in my direction. Sighing, I decide to ignore my early onset schizophrenia and get more feed for the Hippogriff. While I am doing this, Luna is following a similar process, but instead of cupping the feed, she holds the bucket up to a Hippogriff, who started to eat from the bucket itself.

'Damn, why didn't I think of that.'

Staring at my now dirty hands, I decide to deal with this later and finish feeding the Hippogriff and move on to the next one. After feeding a majority of the Hippogriffs, I look at the remaining feed and scan the field for any Hippogriffs that Luna may have missed. I spot a very skinny Hippogriff, who is almost completely black with white eyes. I start to walk up to the black Hippogriff and bow towards it, waiting for a bow back. Instead, it approaches me and circles me, as if finding something new to play it. Somewhat used to dealing with Hippogriffs, I let it play around a bit, before grabbing the feed from the bucket and motioning it towards the strange Hippogriff. Upon further inspection of the Hippogriff, it has no feathers and none of the defining characteristics of a normal Hippogriff. 

It dawns upon me that this isn't a Hippogriff, but followed the same route in getting fed, so was probably domesticated by Hagrid, and should be of no danger to me. It seemed as though Luna was done with her last Hippogriff, as she walked up to me and started to pet the strange animal. Looking towards the bush, I can see my mental demons looking at me and Luna in shock. I decide to ignore this and start to pet the creature for myself. It seemed dissatisfied that I had touched it before I realized my hands were still dirty from the feed.

"Sorry," I said.

Before I could wipe my hands on my robes, the creature started to lick off the feed from my hands and did a pretty good job of it as well.

"Thank you," I said in appreciation.

'Now i don't have to dirty my clothes.'

Before long, Hagrid approached us, out of breath.

"Are you two alright?!" He shouted.

His shout startled me and the creature before we looked towards the source of the sound.

"Why wouldn't we be?" I asked.

"Well... that's a Thestral, I didn't think they would show up so earleh', so I didn't tell yeh' how to approach them." He explained.

"It's fine, it was pretty easy," I said.

Looking towards the rising sun, I realized it should be about 7 am now. Remembering that breakfast starts around this time, I look towards Hagrid who seemed to get my message.

"Right, it's about time for breakfast, of yeh' get."

Handing the bucket back to Hagrid, me and Luna walk off towards Hogwarts, while I write down my experiences with the Hippogriffs and the Thestral in Dororthy. Walking back on the pathway towards Hogwarts, we make our way through some corridors and enter the Great Hall. Walking through the open doors, I expected to hear the chatter of a lot of students and the clattering of cutlery against plates but am instead greeted with subtle whispering and gazes towards me and Luna.

Sitting down at the end of the Ravenclaw table, I look towards the staff table and see Dumbledore and the Ravenclaw Head talking to each other. Looking towards the Table, I see an assortment of breakfast items such as pancakes and porridge. Grabbing some porridge, I fill up my bowl before mentally face-palming.

"Any nargles?" I asked Luna.

"No." She replied.

Heaving a sigh of relief, I begin to devour the hot porridge. Eating the porridge, my tastebuds scream with delight as they are greeted with porridge that has just the right consistency and sweetness, with a good balance of milk.

"Whoever cooked this deserves a raise," I muttered under my breath, before hearing a faint scream of delight.

Looking around, I couldn't see where the scream came from and figured it was my imaginary friends acting up again. However, it wasn't long before they approached me again, slightly more spaced out and not underneath a robe.

"How did you see us?" The girl in the centre asked, with a demanding tone.

"Wait, you're real?" I answered back, genuinely shocked.

"What?! Of course we-!" She began to shout before getting cut off by a ginger-haired boy.

"That's enough Hermoine, lets's just go eat and deal with this later." He said in a tired tone, before walking towards the Gryffindor table and sitting down. The two other follow in silence, while the girl shoots me one last look.

"I just realized they completely ignored you," I said to Luna.

"Meow!" I heard Meowser speak up full of injustice.

"You were ignored on purpose," I said, before stuffing my face full of food, Luna doing the same.

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Author Corner:

Hi, its me, Ganoush. I am almost back. I tried to re-read my novel and kept on cringing. I have more direction for this novel now and a somewhat planned-out future, as loose as it is. 

Sorry for taking so long between chapters, I am still somewhat busy, but my schedule has cleared up significantly. Don't expect a chapter for at least another week, as I have two exams left before I am free. 

A side-effect of this break is that I have a lot more ideas to write about. I also accidentally threw mad shade towards Dumbledore when I said the library is secure because it's important. I didn't even think about the first year where the stone was behind an alohomora spell, haha!

Thanks for your support, in the time that I have been super busy with uni I've watched the novel grow in view counters, collections and comments. A large part of me wants to rewrite the first half of the novel but I also just, am fine with how it is. I think its the effect of hearing your own voice being played back to you if nothing else.

Side-note, I really dislike writing hagrids style of talking!

See you again soon.