Closed Living In A Land That Went Astray From History

[Harper Alston]

Harper walked out of her second Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, her mind reeling. There had been a wizard who had tried to eliminate muggles and muggleborns. And judging by Professor Styx's lecture, this had happened recently enough if her classmates' parents and grandparents were supposed to be familiar with him. Harper remembered the photo of the snake man with a bit of a shudder. Who were all those people who had been pictured standing behind him? Were they his victims or were they his supporters? Just how common was this anti-muggle sentiment?

As Harper followed the other first year Gryffindors and Slytherins down the first floor corridor, she spotted her friend Skylar ahead of her. Skylar was the first, and so far only, muggleborn Harper had met at Hogwarts. Talking to Skylar was easy as like Harper, she hadn't been aware that the magical world existed before getting her Hogwarts letter. Now, she was curious to hear Skylar's take on their most recent class and see if she knew anything else about this supposedly well-known mass murderer.

She quickened her pace until she was next to Skylar. "Hey!" Harper shot her friend a smile before her expression turned more serious. She lowered her voice. "That class was crazy. Did you know about Lord Voldemort? It seemed like everyone else knew who he was." It sometimes felt like Harper was constantly playing catch-up. At first it had been smaller stuff, like magical candy and games, but this was a bit more important.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar had left her second Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson in shock, wondering why a horrid man like 'Lord Voldemort' would even exist! And to think, he'd been killing off muggles and muggleborns, just because they weren't 'pure-blooded' whatever that even meant. How rude.

She heard Harper behind her, and turned to see her run up towards her. She was immensely glad to have a fellow muggleborn here at Hogwarts, she hadn't met any others, at least not ones she knew where muggleborns, so was happy she had someone she could confide in and someone who would actually understand what she was going through as well. After all it was quite a big change from growing up being told magic doesn't exist, that everything can be explained by science, to now suddenly being told there is literally a whole WORLD out there filled with magic. But, as her most recent Defense Againt the Dark Arts lesson had clearly just taught her, it wasn't all happiness and fun.

"Hey!" Skylar returned the smile and began to say something about the class they had just had but Harper beat her to it. Skylar had to lean in a bit as Harper had lowered her voice, but had a feeling she knew what she'd say anyway, since she'd been thinking the same thing. "I know right?! I had no idea he existed until about 15 minutes ago, it's crazy to think such an 'apparently' powerful wizard isn't in more textbooks! But then again, I haven't actually read that many..." she said with a laugh. Then on a more serious note, "It's horrible how he wanted to kill off all muggles and muggleborns, isn't it! Just think, had we been living back then..." she tailed off, not wanting to say what she knew they were both thinking.

 

[Harper Alston]

So Skylar also hadn't known about Lord Voldemort until today's class. On one hand, Harper was relieved not to be the only one left in the dark. She might be lost when it came to certain aspects of the magical world, but at least she wasn't lost alone. On the other hand, she was a bit angry that no one had thought to tell all the new muggleborns about this. If both she and Skylar hadn't known about this, she assumed that the other first year muggleborns were similarly clueless. Were they just supposed to figure this out on their own?

Harper smiled at Skylar's joke, grateful for the bit of levity. But the subject of the conversation once again turned serious. "Then we probably would've been targeted," Harper finished Skylar's sentence in a grim matter-of-fact tone. She had always been one to confront things head-on. Still even as Harper spoke, she found it difficult to comprehend the words she was saying. The idea that anyone would target muggles and muggleborns was so absurd. Wizards had everything. They could do magic. What more did they need?

"I didn't realize that hatred against muggles and muggleborns even existed." She paused, readjusting her backpack straps so that they were more comfortable. "I mean, I heard the Slytherin rumors, but it all just seemed so ridiculous." Harper had overheard an older Gryffindor trying to hype up the house to another first year. He had mentioned that the Slytherin house cared a bit too much about blood purity, but Harper had thought the whole thing a bit too far-fetched. "I didn't think blood purity was actually a thing. How would you even know if someone was a muggleborn? It's not like we have horns or special muggleborn birthmarks or something." She paused before adding with a bit of a smile, "Unless you're hiding something from me, Sky." Yes, it was a lame joke for a serious conversation, but what was the alternative? Being depressed forever?

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Seeing Harpers small smile at the minor joke she'd made warmed her heart, she'd always loved brightening up serious conversations, though it quickly turned back to one as she'd made the comment of what could have happened had they been living in that time. She had to admit, she was a bit shocked initially at how Harper had just blatantly said that oh, they'd have been targeted, being muggleborns and all, and especially at the matter of fact tone she'd used. She quickly got over it though, since she thought to herself that it shouldn't be something that they'd hide in fear from, best to come and face it outright she supposed.

As Harper began talking about the Slytherins and their blood purity obsession, Skylar's mind briefly flicked back to the previous DADA class. Her thoughts about Slytherins being slightly dangerous, and wanting to steer clear of them were now coming back to her, and though she'd mostly dismissed them at the time, bringing it back up in this conversation only furthered Skylar's opinion on them. "I don't suppose all Slytherins are like that though?" she paused, then added, "are they?" with note of questioning in her voice. She was mostly referring to their hatred towards muggles and muggleborns, and how they cared about blood purity, though also a small part of her had been thinking back to the DADA lesson, and about whether they'd all turn out like Voldemort someday. She certainly hoped not.

Continuing walking, Skylar noted they were heading towards a general outside direction, though not yet knowing her way around the castle that well, could just as well have meant they'd actually be heading back to the tower, and she wouldn't even have realised. She let herself grin though as Harper mentioned muggleborns having horns, she found the idea quite funny and could just imagine all the muggleborns in the school walking around with these giant horns on their head, ready to threaten to impale any Slytherin who talked badly of them. She was about to say something like how it could come in useful for certain things, when Harper spoke again, this time jokingly asking whether she had any special markings like horns on her that would classify her as muggleborn.

"I don't know, do I?" Skylar said in response to Harper's question, in what was meant to be an attempt at a mysterious voice, but ended up sounding like a creepy old man. She burst out laughing at her horrible attempt, though she was glad it had lightened the situation. "Well unless you count the scar on my leg from when I fell out of a tree a few years back, I don't think I have any special markings..." she thought about it, but didn't think she had any other major one. "Do you?" she asked Harper, once again trying her best to sound mysterious but once again, failing miserably.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper considered Skylar's question about Slytherins. She had dismissed the rumor when she'd first heard it, but now it was creeping its way through her mind, casting doubt. But that was absurd! That was like having a house known for sexism. "I don't think so. All the Slytherins I've met so far have been nice enough," she said. In fact, the first two first-years she had properly met on the train were sorted into Slytherin. "And they definitely knew I had no idea how the magical world worked," Harper added, thinking back to all of the dumb questions she'd asked since boarding that train.

She snorted when Skylar attempted what sounded like an old man's voice. "What was that? A Professor Styx impression?" Their professor and his dimly lit classroom gave off a seriously creepy aura, and his serious demeanor didn't help. Harper's eyes widened dramatically when Skylar mentioned the scar on her leg. "No way. I also have a scar on my leg, but I got mine trying to do a bike trick." It ranked pretty high among her most embarrassing moments, but at least she had gotten a cool scar out of it. She still needed to work out a cooler backstory though.

"That settles it. All of us muggleborns are marked for life by leg injuries." Harper nodded matter-of-factly. Still, her mind wandered, and without realizing it, she frowned. How did one identify a muggleborn? Perhaps one of the most disturbing parts of Professor Styx's lecture was his mention that Lord Voldemort had already started practicing dark magic while at Hogwarts. Shouldn't they school have done a better job at identifying a dangerous student?

 

[Skylar Anderson]

When Skyar heard that Harper had met Slytherins who she'd found where pretty nice, she was instantly flooded with relief, she'd been worried for a second there, but it turned out it must have just been an irrational worry. She was also glad the mood lightened a bit when she tried to make her voice sound mysterious but ended up sounding like her least favourite teacher, Professor Styx! She laughed even harder at that, she hadn't expected to sound like him at all!

And when Harper mentioned that she had a scar on her leg from a failed bike trick, Skylar let out a gasp of delight! "No way, that's so cool! But at least you were trying to attempt to do something cool like a bike trick, I'd just accidently fallen out of a tree!" she laughed at the memory, and even though it had been quite a few years ago, she still vividly remembered it. "And just out of curiosity, what actually was this bike trick you were doing?" she asked, wondering what trick could possibly hurt someone so badly to need a scar for it.

She gave another laugh as she heard Harper say that all muggleborns were just marked by their leg injuries, and the more she thought about it, the more she was happy to be her friend, she was having quite a lot of fun and laughing a lot, even though the topic had started off pretty serious... "yeah, I suppose that's true, knowing who's a muggleborn based on their leg injuries." she said, playing along with the joke. "Though now I am actually wondering, how do you tell who's a muggleborn? Like unless they tell you obviously." she was genuinely curious, and wondered what Harper's opinion would be.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper shook her head at Skylar's exclamation. "Nope, definitely not cool. It was actually really embarrassing," she said, wincing at the memory, which would forever be seared into her brain. She had been trying to do a stoppie and after successfully managing one (albeit a very small one), had called over all of her friends to watch. And it hadn't ended well. "A stoppie," Harper muttered quietly, answering Skylar's question. "But I hit a rock and didn't actually do it."

It seemed that Skylar was thinking the same thing, and her question shook Harper from her thoughts. "I have no idea. I mean, don't all wizards basically look and act the same? And if you forget about the wand and the weird robes, wizards and muggles look the same." They all looked like normal people. Harper was pretty sure that if she was just walking down the street and saw a wizard and a muggle, she wouldn't be able to tell one from the other unless she forced them to try casting a few spells. Maybe being pureblood gave you extra powers that let you identify blood type by sight? She had no idea what the boundaries to magic were.

"I wish someone had given us all this information when we got our Hogwarts letters." The official who had come by Harper's house with her acceptance letter hadn't really done much except demonstrate a few spells to prove that magic existed and explain how to get her school supplies. At the time, she and her family had been too stunned to even ask that many questions.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar gave a smile of sympathy as Harper recounted her experience with her bike accident, which she'd gotten the scar on her leg out of. Regardless of what Harper said though, Skylar still found it pretty cool, she'd never really done tricks on her bike, the most she did was ride it on bumpy trails in the forest.

Harper's reasoning about how muggles, muggleborns and other wizards, all looked basically the same from the outside made a lot of sense to Skylar, and she was secretly annoyed with herself for not stating it first, now she must look like an unobservant idiot. "Yeah, I completely agree! I wish that they'd given us a lot more information before we actually got here!" she said with a small chuckle, remembering how her first shopping trip for magical school supplies had gone, but at the very least, it was one she wouldn't forget anytime soon!

The pair of Gryffindor girls kept walking for a while, and it wasn't long before Skylar saw they were nearing the Gryffindor tower. She faltered a bit in her step, she had been so sure they were heading towards the gardens outside the castle! "Wait, what? I was sure we were heading towards the outside!" Skylar laughed, wondering whether it was just her general bad sense of direction when inside, or if the castles many tricks and hidden mysteries (like the ever-moving staircases) had come into play.

 

[Harper Alston]

It was nice having someone who understood her. Just about everyone else Harper knew had grown up in a magical family, and Harper found that she often gave off the impression of being a clueless muggleborn even when she didn't mean to. How was she supposed to know what was considered normal here? "And when we get here, everyone assumes we already know everything about the magical world, including the teachers." She paused, reflecting on the lesson they'd just had and all of the gaps in Professor Styx's lecture. "Like, what's a blood traitor? Would it really have killed Styx to take an extra few seconds to explain what they were?" Sure, she could use context clues and guess that they had something to do with muggles or muggleborns, but as a teacher, wasn't it Professor Styx's job to actually explain what he was talking about?

Harper had gotten so caught up in going over the lecture in her head and everything that she still didn't know that she startled slightly when Skylar spoke up again. She glanced around, realizing that they were close to Gryffindor. "Oh, I wasn't paying attention," she admitted. "It's weird how every time I try to go to the common room, I always seem to get lost. But the one time I don't pay attention to where I'm going, I end up heading straight for it." She'd been here for a couple of weeks now, and she still hadn't mastered navigating the castle. "I think outdoors is that way...?" Harper pointed at a staircase to their left, but as she spoke, the stairs began to move. "Or maybe not," she said with a laugh.

((Ack, sorry this took forever. Will hopefully be faster with replies in the future.))

 

[Skylar Anderson]

As Harper talked about how the teachers all assumed that the muggleborn students already knew everything, and how it surely wouldn't have hurt Professor Styx to explain what blood-traitors were, Skylar found herself agreeing and thinking about it in a way she never had before. She hadn't even fully realised that most kids already knew a lot of the basics, she'd just assumed she was behind and didn't really understand stuff because of how she wasn't all too good with studying and stuff. "Yeah, you're right, I suppose it wouldn't have killed him..." she said with a small smile.

As Harper talked about how she ended up getting lost trying to find the common room, Skylar laughed, she was able to relate to that! They had been just about to go towards where Harper thought the outside was before the stairs shifted again. "Well, I guess we'll be heading back to the Common Room, I have to complete some homework anyway." she said with a mock grimace, that was definitely one of the only downsides of coming to Hogwarts, the load of homework they sometimes got given. That was why Flying was one of her favourite classes, there was essentially no homework, just fun!

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper sighed at Skylar's comment, knowing the other girl was right. She would've much rather headed outside ⁠— even if doing so meant waiting a bit for the staircase to come back. But Professor Styx had assigned them an entire essay, and Harper wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible. "I guess I should probably do some homework too." She'd always done decently at school, and she wasn't about to give up her good grades now that she was at a magical school. Besides, Harper didn't want anyone to think she wasn't as smart as them simply because she hadn't come from a magical family. "We can always go outside after dinner." She could definitely finish the essay before then. They turned the corner, and Harper saw the familiar painting that marked the Gryffindor common room. Trying not to dwell on all the work she had ahead of her, Harper followed Skylar inside.