Harry Potter X Reader {1}

~2 - Dinner for 250?~

 The boats aren't at all as rickety as I first imagined as I step into one to find it much more stable than they look. The small row boats of deep-oak each house three to four children each, and as well, seem to row themselves across the dark waters of Hogwarts' Black Lake. Each of the boats holds a small, glowing-gold lantern, each reflecting off of the water causing the surface to look almost like the stars.

I'm sat in a boat with Hermione and two other first-year girls, all four of us staring around us in wonderment as we travel like feathers atop the breeze over the deep and dark, mysterious waters, which, I've read, is home to a type of Scottish Merpeople, a colony of Selkies. The same one's I read about on the trip over.

"It's absolutely beautiful!" Hermione exclaims from my side. I nod in like-mindedness, my thoughts appearing the same. "I've read about the Black Lake, you know? All sorts of creatures live in it!"

"I was reading about the Selkies on the train!" I exclaim as I turn to face her fully. "I've read about them in Muggle myths as well. According to them, they live within the waters as seals, but shed their skin to come on land among the humans. I suppose they aren't too far off."

Hermione smiles and nods enthusiastically.

The boats meander across the lake until we finally come to a wall of hanging ivy, the long tendrils acting as a curtain, hiding away the large cave entrance beneath the castle and leading off into a dark and mysterious tunnel. Finally, after a little while longer, the boats all come to rest under the castle's mountain within a sort of underground harbour.

I'm the second to leave the boat after a girl who's name she said is Martha, or maybe Millicent. Either way, I'm second to leave the boat, lending a hand to Hermione as she stumbles slightly trying to step out. She smiles in thanks and I simply nod in reciprocation before hearing the large man, a man Harry called Hagrid, calling out about a toad.

We all clamber up a flight of stone steps after finally reaching the dewy grass looming beneath the castle, and finally head towards the large, oak doors, stepping into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The castle is grand, and absolutely beautiful. My eyes light up upon seeing it even through the night's darkness. There are hundreds of windows with golden-glow-glass almost emitting the sudden and overwhelming feeling of warmth and home. I haven't felt this way in a long while now, not since seeing my mother finally return home once upon a time after a rather lengthy trip to St Mungo's.

A lovely-looking, silver-haired witch, standing tall in emerald-green robes and a pointed witches hat greets us at the door, her smile welcoming as her eyes scan the cluster of children standing before her. She has a lovely, warm aura about her, as one might find in a grandmother, or maybe an older aunt.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," says Hagrid from the front of us.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," she replies kindly.

She opens the oak doors wide and leads us into the huge entryway, torches of flame and iron lining the walls, as well as stacks upon stacks of candles, white wax mounding below them and down the walls themselves, dripping, though not untidily, down the stone. My favourite part, apart from the candles, will have to be the incredibly-high ceiling, one of which, you can barely make out from so far below it.

We follow her through the castle, Hermione and I walking side-by-side, until we finally reach a point where Professor McGonagall stops and turns to address us, the bickering, muttering, and clustering voices of many others from seemingly the room next to us, muffled slightly by the walls. This must be the Great Hall. I read a little about this as well.