CRIMSON TEARS | Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone [1]

𝘃𝗶𝗶 | 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

The first week of term was jam-packed and full of classes. Gwen had gotten lost at least a dozen times on the way to lessons and had had to ask the help of several older students.

  There were a hundred and forty two staircases in Hogwarts, and they all liked to change. There were vanishing steps that you had to remember to jump over so your leg didn't fall through, and many times, Gwen had ended up in the wrong place when she was supposed to be on the other side of the castle.

  There were hundreds of passages and corridors hidden behind tapestries, and no one, except maybe the Weasley twins, knew them better than the caretaker Mr Filch.

  Mr Filch was a detestable man, who apparently hated students as much as they hated him. On her third day, Gwen had finally managed to catch up with Eddy at dinner, and he'd filled her in on all the details of the caretaker. His cat, he had said, Mrs Norris, must be some kind of kneezle or animagus or something. There is no way that a normal cat is as smart and cruel as she is.

  That statement had scared Gwen, and now, every time she saw Mrs Norris, she would quickly duck the other way.

  Gwen had been spending most of her time with Harry and Ron or Clara and Hermione. She, Harry and Ron had had an unpleasant encounter with Mr Filch on one of their first days, when they'd been caught trying to force their way through a locked door. They were late for Transfigurations, and it turns out the door they'd been trying to open was the out-of-bounds door on the third floor. Mr Filch had caught them, refused to believe they were late and was insisting they were trying to get into it to break rules. Their cause seemed lost until Professor Quirrell wandered by, saving them and pointing them in the right direction.

  The classes, when Gwen was able to find them, were extraordinary. She'd grown up with magic, so of course it wasn't surprising, but to finally be able to do some of it herself was almost unbelievable. She felt as though she shouldn't have been allowed to be taught it.

  Every Wednesday night, they had to go to the Astronomy Tower at midnight to study the stars and planets, and three times a week, they were in the greenhouses on the castle grounds, studying Herbology with Professor Sprout, a small plump witch with a kind smile.

  History of Magic was easily the most boring class, and the only one taught by a ghost. Fred and George Weasley had told Gwen that he was born as a ghost, but Percy Weasley had told them off, and told her the real story; that one day he'd just woken up and left his body behind.

  Professor Binns was an extremely old man. History would be fun for Gwen, if it wasn't just writing down dates and names as the professor droned on and on.

  Charms was probably the most fun lesson. It was taught by a very short wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. When he was reading out the register, at Harry's name, he made a squeaking sound and fell off the stack of books. Gwen hadn't stopped teasing Harry about it.