Harry Potter And The Mudblood Prince - Chapter 13 Common Room

/Luke`s Pov/

Like always, I woke up before six. I stretched myself and prepared to take a shower. As the first day on the school grounds I don’t really know where I can do my morning exercises, and I’m also really curious about the common room. I looked over Anthony’s bed and see that he is still sleeping and decided to just go out and explore a bit.

The common room was empty and quiet, well there was someone sleeping in a couch with a book in hands, but I bet I will be used to such sights pretty fast. Being considerate I avoid making noise as I started looking around, there is a lot of bookshelves here, and I plan to go through all of its books later, but what really caught my eyes was a sculpture made of white marble.

It was of Rowena Ravenclaw, our house founder, at its feet laid a message, “Wit beyond measure is man`s greatest treasure.” I really liked that phrase, I said something similar to McGonagall at the Diagon Alley, but this one is sleeker, I will take it for myself, I mused while grinning a bit.

I started to look around the room again, but was interrupted by a voice. “Curious one aren’t you?” I was startled; someone could get behind me without me noticing. I turned around “who’s there?” I asked. “Not there, up here.” I heard again. As I looked up I understood how I didn’t feel anyone here, it was a portrait of a woman talking to me. I saw some of these portraits when coming to our room.

“Sorry lady, it’s just I’m not accustomed having portraits talking. My name is Luke, nice to meet you.” I smiled and said to her. “Oh curious and a charmer, you will be popular here.” She chuckled, “You can call me Ophelia, I was one of the prefects here in the past, now I’m just one of the portraits here, any doubts you have or need help with homework you can just ask one of us, we like to help the students, especially the talented ones.” She winked to me. “And it isn’t like we have a lot to do anyway.”

She is a funny one. “Don’t blame if I do so then Ophelia, I’m new here and have a lot to ask about, but first can you tell me a bit about you? It wouldn’t feel right for me to live here and not know anything about you or the other people/portraits here.”

Her smile grew bigger now and she told me a bit of her history and what she knew of the house, her full name was Ophelia Foxglove; she studied here more than seven hundred years ago and leaved her portrait when she leaved the school. She was one of our house more popular prefects as she always loved to help her juniors, and so as to continue doing that even after she graduated, she asked for permission to leave her portrait here, as a support of the house. After that, some more students wanted to do that too, but it was rare to be accepted, counting her, there is only eight of such portraits in the house, apparently it’s a great honor to be accepted to be hanging here, and she sure is proud to start that tradition.

Speaking of traditions, our house have another one, on the last year of school, the students of the house group up and write a book of what they learned here, not much of the classes, but more of their history in here, the adventures of the time, things that marked their time here, some gossip of the time, and even the notes of the more brilliant students. We have an entire wall with such books, and as Hogwarts is really old there is a LOT of such books, but I liked the idea of that too, later I will try to find one of when Merlin was a student here, I bet there will be interesting stuff about him, and maybe, just maybe I can get a clue on how to open the other parcel I got from King Arthur from Gringotts.

As we were talking the other students started waking up and using the common room, some were going to the hall to eat breakfast, some first years stayed to hear a bit of our conversation, and some of the older students, mainly the girls were gossiping a little. When Penelope entered the common room, she looked at the small gathering we were forming.

“Oh I see Ophelia already chosen her new protge, and it’s our little prince as well. Congratulation Luke, she only talks to those she deemed worth, it means you will be a great future here.” She clapped to get our attention, it worked. “And while it’s all cool and dandy, it’s time for you first years to go and eat breakfast; you can’t be late for your first day of classes, so go, you can talk with her later, she isn’t going anywhere.”

And so we did, all the first years went together. “So Luke already has special treatment here, I guess being a prince has its perks.” Joked Michael, the black haired kid that shares room with Terry. “I don’t think it’s about being a prince er… Michael right?” said the Indian girl, Padma Patil, “He was sorted here in Ravenclaw with us, so I bet he really is intelligent, it’s nothing about his family, he gives the impression of a great person.” Anthony intervened too “Yes, that’s true, yesterday before sleep he even started to read a bit, and could already do a spell, so I can tell he at least is a hard worker.”

I smiled a little; there are already two people that look at me not as a prince but as a fellow student. “Hey man, no need to mind my status, we are house mates, so no need to be too stiff too, and more, I don’t want to boast something I didn’t worked to get, so if you want to be awed, you will be by looking at my grades.”I said smirking a little, Michael looked a bit more comfortable now, but it seems my last declaration brought up the competitive spirit of the group.

“Now we are talking!” Said the only asian of the first year in our house, Sue Li, but after noticing she said that more loud than expected, she started to blush and hide behind a blond girl named Amanda. We all chuckled a bit and started taking bets; the one with the best grades will receive a new book from the rest.

As we are nearing the hall, while still together one can see there’s already some groups forming, in my case was with Padma and Anthony, the two that stood for me, Terry and Michael, Sue Li and Amanda, etc.

While eating breakfast, that was really good by the way, I mused to myself a little. It’s only so early in the morning and there I saw, met more people of my age than I met all my life, heck I met a seven hundred years old sentient portrait. Made some colleagues, even a bet for the end of term; I see that even my personal life will change a lot here. I smiled a little.

“Luke, wake up man, it’s time for our transfiguration class, you can lose yourself in your own little world later, let’s go we can’t be late in our first class.”Anthony said while tapping me on my shoulder.

I get up, looked at him and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”