Darwinism | hp

004: First Week

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Hogwarts truly was magnificent, even if Marilyn kept getting into trouble for wandering off. 

The castle was gigantic, and very hard to co-ordinate. Many staircases moved, or had broken steps that you could fall through (which poor Neville Longbottom did almost every day - even on non-broken staircases) and some sections, though they should be connected, completely and utterly weren't, which was why Marilyn got lost in the dungeons twice in her first week. There were four entrances to the dungeons, which were under the school, though two different sections, which meant you may go down through the small door and staircase in the entrance hall to the dungeons, and though it looked like the same cold stone walls and marble rooms as the other kind of dungeons, you'd come up into the Central Hall instead of the potions classroom - it was very confusing to her. 

Then there were the normal hallways. Many of them were through double doors, meaning she wouldn't know she was heading through the wrong one until she actually went through the door, and then would have to run all the way back down a hallway and through another door. 

Though she managed to group areas together quite well. Though the many spiral staircases made her lose her sense of direction, she grouped a few together within her mind. There was the grand, moving staircase, which at the top lead to rooms she didn't need, though got lost in one night and in trouble for being up there. Then, there was the outer staircase midway up, which if it lead to a blue-ish hallway, she was  on the right path to the dorms, but if it lead to a red hallway, she was probably going to get lost. But then she found a blue hallway connected to Ravenclaw tower and was just confused. 

Ernie was perfectly fine. Like all the other pets, he had been given free reign over the castle and it's grounds, and McGonagall had done some enchantment or another to his collar so that he couldn't actually leave the grounds. He was happy as ever. He got plenty of attention from everyone, and would come back to the dorm every night with his fur a mess from so many scratches and still look for more from the girls in her dormitory.

Thanks to the classes themselves, she had no time to stress about her family. She spent a lot of classes beside Hermione, though would often walk to the next with Harry, since the pair were on a much of similar page of freaking-the-hell-out over their workload and what the hell was going on. Though magic was, of course, magic, it appeared it was more of a science, and that they had to learn the rules and limitations of said science. It was beyond fascinating, though also beyond overwhelming. Upon observation of other Muggle-Born students, however, Harry and Marilyn felt much better, seeing that they seemed just as terrified as them.

Herbology was a class that originally, Marilyn believed she would hate, but after the first class she found herself looking forward to having dirt under her nails three times a week. The magical plants and fungi seemed just as beautiful and sometimes disgusting as normal plants, and she actually ended up being late to her next class due to getting into a conversation with the Herbology Professor, a short, stout woman named Professor Sprout, about Mycelium fungus on tree roots.

"Nature is a kind of magic on it's own." She had said, while writing on a paper slip that Marilyn being late to her next class was okay and she wasn't to be deducted points. "The sheer power of it is something that cannot be recreated with something as small as out wands!"

Every Wednesday night, at midnight, they were to go to the top of the Astronomy Tower to study the stars. After that first lesson, Marilyn found herself up that tower often, during breakfast and lunch, which she struggled to eat, usually writing down notes in one of her five organization journals.

History of Magic was originally a subject she believed she would enjoy, but the Professor (Who was a ghost) had such a dead and plain way of telling everything that it always made her fall asleep - no matter the time of day. Though the classroom was something to be marvelled - large stain-glass windows shone the last of the warm sun into the room, and made it even harder to stay awake.