Andromeda (same age as the Weasley twins) has her own experiences at her years at Hogwarts and her own trials as Voldemort makes his attempts to return to power.
Original characters (mostly) during the years of Harry Potter. The plot of the Harry...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Hello my beautiful first years," Eston says standing behind the group of Ravenclaws at the breakfast table. The six of them look up. The boys wrinkle their noses at the over-enthusiastic third year. Andromeda does her best not to do the same. "Are we ready for our three-hour tour?" He looks at them expectantly, but his shoulders droop when they just stare at him expectantly. "Wizards," he mutters. "Anyway, if you're all finished up, let's get going."
"Wait, weren't we going to get the others?" Vanessa asks, looking back at Anthony.
"Oh, they're down that way, we can get them when we pass," he replies, pointing down the table towards the end nearest the door.
"Wait," Eston says, "I'm giving a tour to all the first years?" he asks. Andromeda looks up at him.
"Is that okay?" she asks, her eyes pleading. She'd feel a lot more comfortable if there were more people. "We thought that if more people went than we would be less likely to get lost."
Eston looks down at her and finally gives in, flustered. "Okay, fine. Let's go get the other ones." The six first years stand up and walk down the table. Anthony grabs the other boys from the table and they all follow Eston out of the Great Hall.
Eston shows them around the grounds first, wide expanses of law with trees dotting it for some shade that the other students were taking advantage of. They made a loop around the Black Lake, Brennecky regaling them with an overly dramatized retelling of the giant squid attacking their small boat the night before. Liz rolled her eyes at Andromeda and informed her that it was more of a small wave from the last three feet of one of the squid's tentacles that splashed him. Andromeda remembered a scream while they were boating across, but had thought it was a girl. She was wrong.
Eston was pointing out the Forbidden Forest when Anthony excitedly interrupted to point out the groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, walking out of trees down the hill from where they were at with a large black dog following behind him. After following a curving path through bushes nearly as tall as the first years that Eston said was the fastest way to get to the greenhouses, they enter the castle through a side entrance and Eston leads them back to the main entry. He points out the doorway to the dungeons but doesn't take them down there. He leads them up through the floors and points out the classrooms in more detail than he had when he showed the girls down to breakfast. When they reach the library, they go in and Eston shows them how to search for a specific book or because Oliver, a first generation attendee of Hogwarts, his round wire glasses nearly sliding off his small nose in his excitement, begs him to.
"Most of the older students just say 'Accio Hogwarts, A History'," Eston explains with a wave of his wand and waits for a book from the top shelf as it floats down to them. He plucks it from the air and shows them the cover. Hogwarts, A History is shown on the front in a large gold script. The first years clap politely.
"Shh," one of the librarians glares at them. They clap quietly.
"When you're done with the book, just put it back like this," he walks up to the shelf and seems to hold it for a second before letting go. It stays in the air and then floats back up to its place on the top shelf. "First years really only need the books they already have for their classes, but if you want to read a specific book, just ask an older student or a librarian to get it for you if you can't get it yourself. Now, there's one more place I should show to you guys." They follow him out of the library and up several more flights of stairs, ending in a tall tower full of owls.
"This, obviously, is the owlery," he says. "If any of you have owls, that's fine, but if you don't, then you can come up here and use one of the school's owls. Most are fine, though some tend to bite," he warns. "Other than that, I think you all are set for tomorrow. Prefects will be handing out schedules after dinner, so make sure to get one before you go to bed."
"Don't we all have the same schedule?" Liz asks. "Why do they pass out schedules?"
"First years all have the same classes, but they're split up," Eston explains. "Probably not all of you will have the same schedule, but everyone in your room will have the same schedule."
"So the classes are really small?" Oliver asks.
"You have classes with other first yours from different houses. It's a way to keep the houses interacting. And to keep them competitive," Eston explains.
"Competitive?" Thomas asks.
"For the house cup! Whichever house earns the most points over the year gets awarded the house cup at the end. Slytherin's been winning it for years, but this year is going to change. Now, let's all head back down to the Great Hall, I think it's time for lunch."
The group heads back down to join the rest of the students in the Great Hall just as lunch is beginning to show up.
