Ad Astra Per Aspera | [harry potter] -ENGLISH-

Chapter One: The New Term

  A special thanks for Dilara, Zeynep, Doğa and Yiğit for helping us to translate this story. You guys rock!  

Today, as usual, Maurice Brannvall's favorite activity was to watch outside with disapproving eyes from his window in his room. While feeling depressed, sitting at a table to do so-called studying was a passed down habit from his family. There were so many annoying things outside of his window; Slytherins, who took off their beanies just because the weather was a bit cloudy, teens who were burning irresponsibly their school books with pride... He was frowning more and more in every passing second, his eyes were going to be blind. He couldn't stop staring at the Slytherin emblem, which was embroidered on the t-shirts and the beanies of the students. What about me, he sighed in great envy. Let along wearing a t-shirt and a beanie, he was proud to take off his house tie whenever possible. He kept everything he got in locked inside of the trunk, which had a Gryffindor emblem carved on it. He turned and looked at it in disgust.

Gryffindor, the dull house of illnesses, just like plague, syphilis and mudbloodness... While he was watching angrily the wood carvings on the trunk, his eyes were opening wider and wider, trying to suppress his hysterical laugh. He had convinced himself that he would have a nervous breakdown because of this house. Finally, at the end of the fifth year, he proved to be right, not only to himself but also to the whole school.

He had remembered his first time at Hogwarts. How could he forget the stupid day that everything had begun? The memories were penetrating painfully into his mind all over again, as if he had just lived them, they were standing clearly in front of his eyes. No sooner vanished his ambition, which he had felt before the ceremony, than the Sorting Hat shouted his house. His family, whose roots were Scandinavian, was famous for being Slytherin for centuries and he was the only Gryffindor in the family. They said no words to him- not that they have to say anything to show their disappointment. He had tried everything for the past five years. There wasn't any position left that he hadn't sent letters to. He even sneaked in the headmaster's office and spoke to the Sorting Hat. According to rumors, there was no one, who was transferred to an another house in Hogwarts history- apparently, it was impossible to do so. Just to overcome this impossibility, he had kept his marks high; thus, he had been the best student among his peers for five years. Despite his age, he had written many essays about potions. He was also criticized by some alchemists, who were known by few people. Even though the criticisms were uncreative, they were successful in order to develop himself. In spite of being talentless in sports, he had improved himself, yet sport wasn't his thing. Unfortunately, all of his attempts were in vain. As if it wasn't enough that he couldn't transferred to Slytherin, he was among the ''My Favourite Students'' list that belong to stupid muggle-born professor, who was the head of the Gryffindor House. It wasn't that the head of Slytherins didn't want him but he was a matter of humiliation among the students. His school life had been a misery. When he looked back, the anxiety of not being able find a single good memory all these years was surrounding him like a flame as the years pass.

His sister, Iris, who was still studying at Hogwarts, was always busy on giving advices to him about this topic: Before graduation, he should have accepted the truth, made some friends and enjoyed it; these were all the things which she was saying the whole time. It was so easy for her to say, moreover, in Maurice's opinion, she was the family member who should had been a Gryffindor. However, even though her bad grades and carelessness, you could say that she had been loved more than Maurice by their parents.

With his special requests and persistence, at the end of year three, Maurice could have a private bedroom among the other students. Some claimed this was a proof to bootlicking of other professors for the Brannvall family, and the others thought professors were just trying to save the poor students from Maurice. To be honest, neither Maurice was interested in professors nor the other students. Yet, this disinterest, turned into a hatred which had been suppressed at the end of the fifth year. Maurice, transformed six students, who were one year younger than him, into animals and caused immediate disciplinary actions over it. As result, there were two possibilities: One, he was going to be suspended; two, he was going to make it to the house which he had strived over the years for it. To him, the second option had a higher possibility than the first one –because most of the professors liked him and his family.