We made it to the classroom with plenty of time to spare so after we sat down we continued to read our books. As soon as the last bell rang Binns floated through the chalkboard and started attendance, I noticed while he got everyone's names wrong his eyes still flickered to each student when he called out a name. I had to wonder if it was just an act or if he was seeing particular students that had sat in this very room years, decades, or even centuries before we did. After he finished his attendance he immediately started to speak and most of the students that had grown up in the magical world had already fallen asleep, with some of the muggleborns following soon after. I could see why, his voice had a sort of cadence that lulled you into a state where his words became images in your mind. I could barely stay awake and my eyes threatened to drift closed after every sentence he spoke but I could still see the scenes he was describing, "Back before the dark ages, but long after the age of gods had come and gone, the magical world had entered its golden age. Everyday there was a new discovery made or an old wonder rediscovered. It was during this time we explored the realms that surrounded us and interacted with the countless inhabitants of those realms."
"Some of the realms were home to the gods that had retreated into their kingdoms after they had built all that they could ever want and live out the rest of their days in their own utopia. Others were filled with horrors that would drive a man mad with but a single glance, but in the Age of Exploration we pushed forward to discover what these realms contained. Some of the larger realms were pocket universes governed by laws that could be very similar to our own or absolutely lethal with immense preparation. Most of the realms were simply dimensions made by powerful species to live in, some were even made to assist a single being in their own expeditions. The smallest and hardest to find were not actually realms but pathways that could take us to the other end of the universe in a single step. And towards the end of that golden age we found the rarest of them all, holes in the fabric of reality that when widened very carefully could open a whole other universe for us to explore. Of course with progress comes danger, many were subjected to horrible fates, bodies twisted into abominations, minds shattered by beings just trying to help expand their thoughts, or simply lost, unable to find their way back."
"During that time we made many allies, the inhabitants of Yggdrasil still communicate with us to this day. Others have lost interest as we fell from our great height, and more fell even further than we did, until there was no one left but those that would remember them. But as we recover we must remember the heights our ancestors reached and the warnings they left behind. So today let's talk about some of the more interesting realms…" I soon lost the battle with sleep and the last thing I felt was my head resting on my folded arms. But just because I was asleep it did not mean the lesson was over, as I slept I dreamt as realms beyond my imagination. I learned about the realms of Asgard and both the summer and winter courts of the Fae. The whole time I could hear Binn's voice flowing into my dreams, "During our golden age trade between the realms was common and even Muggles could strike deals with traveling Fae. Some of which have been passed down in their folktales, of course now that the Veil is in place they believe this to be no more than fanciful tales. Most of our trades were done with the realm of Alfheim, Vanaheim, and the Summer court, each focusing on a different resource."
"Aifheim traded magical goods that came from nature, such as magical plants and regents from various magical creatures they hunted. Vanaheim traded knowledge with us. As one of the most advanced magical realms we were allies with, most of the residents of that realm spent their long lives studying the intricacies of magic. Whether a particular mage focused on spellcraft or unique artifacts they were among the best the realms had to offer. Of course in that time we were not far behind and could trade our own knowledge and artifacts to them in exchange. But once we started to decline and our progress stalled, they started to look down on us and eventually cut off all contact. The Summer court was perhaps our strangest ally, Fae after all traded boons and favors instead of goods. It was very rare for a wizard to be granted a great enough boon to request an artifact or material from their realm." My dreams were filled with impossible trades wizards had pulled off and warnings of the horrible consequences others suffered by not understanding what they were agreeing to trade.
When class finally ended I didn't snap awake, more like I couldn't tell when I went from sleeping to being awake. Binns left as soon as class ended and the rest of the students woke up to head to dinner, it was a double period so it was already time to eat again. After Marie blinked the sleep out of her eyes I stared at her "How did he do that?" She shrugged and started to pack up her stuff, "No one really knows, it's just how it has always been." She gave me a look after picking up her bag, "You must have heard about this class right? Did you really think Hogwarts would have a class that we were just allowed to take a nap in?" I shrugged and left it alone for now, but one day I would definitely find out how he did that. After I packed up too I turned back to her, "After dinner do you want to go back to our reading room or explore the castle some more?" She had started to walk out of the classroom by this point and looked over her shoulder to answer me, "We can read anytime, so let's explore instead." I smiled and nodded before starting a conversation as we walked to dinner, "So I wanted to ask what the difference is between the gods he was talking about and the gods in muggle mythology."
She nodded, "The difference is rather simple, Asgardians for instance are not actual Gods they are just called gods by the muggles. Asgardians are a species called the Aesir, when the muggles learned this and saw the magical abilities and great strength the Aesir had, the muggles took that to mean gods. But actual gods are beings made of pure energy that have dominion over one or more concepts. Anyone can become a god with enough knowledge, though the exact method has been lost longer than anyone remembers. Some of the most recent attempts were made by the Greeks, the gods described in those myths were in fact wizards trying to find their way to godhood. It didn't work, but they came closer than anyone else and gathered an abundance of power, most of which we are still trying to understand to this day." She continued to go over the different myths and tell me which ones were real gods, which were magical species, and even the ones who were wizards of great power. She continued to tell me about them all throughout dinner, only stopping to eat her meal. After dinner we made our way into the castle's endless corridors, once we were out of the hall I turned to her "Do you want to lead or should I?"
She smiled and skipped ahead, looking down the different corridors we passed until she finally chose one "Let's go this way." She pointed the hallway to her left before looking back at me to see if I agreed, I nodded and her smile grew just a bit wider. The next hour was spent exploring the magical school, looking in every door we passed and talking to the different portraits to see if they would tell us if there were any hidden features. They rarely revealed anything of note and most of them were rather long winded but once in a while we ran across one that had a bit of interesting information. One such time happened right before we had to start heading back to our dorms so we could get there before curfew. A man dressed in a rather lavish jacket told us how to get into a room hidden behind a crest set into the wall. The man in the painting had wild brown hair, wore a red coat with gold weaved throughout and tiny rubies interspaced to look like red stars among the golden lines. All together it looked like a sparkling nebula that shimmered and flowed across him with every movement he made. One of his hands rested upon a sliver foil sheathed at his waist, and the other was flooded behind his back. The look on his face almost kept us from talking to him at all.
While it wasn't scary or disdainful it was very stern, as if he had no time for such nonsense as we were participating in. The painting itself was only of his upper body so we could not see what sort of trousers he was wearing but I could make out a window, a telescope, and a full bookshelf behind him. I assumed he was in some sort of study and so i tired to seem more mature in our explorations, "Good sir, I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the corridor we are in, my companion and I are endeavoring to try and learn more about this wondrous school that we have found ourselves attending." Marie ducked behind me and covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing, during our past explorations we had found that different portraits will respond well to different kinds of speech. There was one painting that was rumored to only respond to cursing that would make the most seasoned sailor blush, the professors of course had tried to remove it but it never seemed to stay away for long. The man in the picture in front of us must have approved of how I spoke because he nodded and I thought I saw a glint in his eye for a moment before it disappeared. "And right you should. Good on you lad for trying to learn more about such a historic landmark. I wish more students would show as much awareness in their surroundings as you."
He seemed to be remembering some particular event as his face was etched into a fierce scowl before he snapped out of it. "But I guess if everyone were above average then average would lose its meaning. This school is filled with secrets and more has been lost than anyone will ever know as each new student seems to leave their mark behind when they graduate from this fine institution. Why when I was a boy I found a room that seemed to change with every visit, always seemingly to be exactly what I needed. But that is not the secret of this corridor, no no, the secret of this corridor is much less magical. You see that crest over there?" I was distracted by his mention of the room that gave him whatever he needed but I looked to where he was pointing anyway, and set into the wall was a coat of arms. It had what looked like two pikes crossed in front of some sort of horse, of course this being the magical word none of them were exactly normal. The pikes were immensely different, one had a silver shaft covered in golden vine-like patterns and it had two blades, both curved towards its center.
The larger blade was red and shimmered like a flame, the smaller was a stark white like freshly fallen snow. And in between the two there was a rough gem, purple in color and looked as though it had been plucked from the ground and spelled to float between the two blades. The other pike was less interesting, it looked like it had been a sapling torn from the ground. The bottom had what looked like roots and fresh soil that somehow fell in an endless shower, the top was very different from the other pike and didn't have an actual blade. But a little further down there was a bush of ivy clinging to its side, and as I took a closer look I noticed the edge of each leaf looked sharp enough to cut through stone. In the middle of these two attention grabbing ends was a tapestry of life, every animal I could name and many more that I couldn't were carved into its body. The carvings were very shallow so you could barely find a single animal before it was lost in the countless more that surrounded it. The horse behind the two incredibly intricate staffs was perhaps the most simple, but that didn't make it any less incredible. Even though the detail was rough it seemed like the pikes were holding it back and if either staff ever broke then it would leap out of the carving to run through the world.
I could almost hear it snorting at being held back but it also seemed hesitant to push its way through. I was knocked out of my observation by the man clearing his throat, "It seems like you both have some connection with that emblem." I looked at Marie and saw that she was just as amazed as I was, so I turned to the painting to ask what he meant but before I could he kept talking. "It is getting late so I shall tell you how to access the secrets behind that wall and then it is off to bed for the both of you. It is rather simple, just turn the staff so the horse can run free." I stared at him in bewilderment and turned to look back at the coat of arms for a single second, and when I looked back the painting had disappeared. "What the heck!?" Marie snapped her head back at my shout and her jaw dropped, "But..but he was just here?" Our eyes met and I could tell she was just as curious as I was, we were definitely coming back here tomorrow as soon as we could. Before we could start talking about what we saw the bell started to toll, and when we heard that we both raced to the tower. Lucky curfew was set for fifteen minutes after the bell so we got back with plenty of time to spare.
Although by the time we got back we were both out of breath after running up all those stairs. After plopping down in a couple of armchairs off to the side of the common room, I slowly normalized my breathing. I took a couple of deep breaths before I was able to speak, "That was so cool!" She just nodded in agreement as she was still panting a little. "I mean that was probably the coolest discoverly we have made in the castle so far and we haven't even made it into the room yet." Marie finally caught her breath and interjected, "I don't know, what if it turns out to be some sort of lab?" I shook my head, "Why would someone put such an intricate sculpture in front of a simple lab. I mean the longer I looked at it the more it seemed to come alive and the more detail jumped out at me. It's got to be something cool, like maybe a secret library filled with research by a famous wizard that taught here once. Or maybe it's a storage room filled with magical artifacts." She shook her head, "The coat of arms was definitely cool, but the man said that it wasn't that magical." My eyes popped open when I remembered exactly what he said, "Aw man, I forgot to ask him about that!"
Her head tilted in confusion so I reminded her of his exact words, "He only said it was less magical than a room that gave him exactly what he needed." She looked confused for a moment but her eyes widened when she understood what that meant, "We have got to find that room!" I nodded, "After we explore whatever is behind that wall. Maybe we can start asking the other portraits about it, I bet some of them know." The rest of the night was spent comparing what we saw, as it turns out our attention was drawn to different things. "Isn't it interesting that we didn't really notice the emblem until he pointed it out to us? I mean if he hadn't I would have just passed by without a second look." Marie's eyes lit up at that and she tapped her chin, "There's a charm for that, I know it. I just can't remember what it is called." I brushed past it, and focused on the different aspects of the coat of arms, "I thought the metal staff was the coolest, the way all the different parts seemed to fit together and form a whole that looked awesome." She shrugged and didn't disagree, "I mean it was pretty and all, but it was kind of gaudy for my tastes. I really liked the wooden one, the animal carvings almost seemed alive to me. Like they were chasing each other around and up the staff. Not to mention the plants that were placed between them, the animals seemed to go out of their way not to damage them."
I blinked in confusion, "I didn't see any plants besides the Ivy attached to the top of the staff." She blinked in return and started to explain how the greenery was carved in between all the animals as they moved across its surface. "Yeah I didn't see any of that and I could barely see the animals, they tended to disappear when I looked at them for too long." We both shrugged it off and I made a note to take a closer look when we went back tomorrow. But soon enough we were both yawning so some of the older students that were keeping an eye on us started to usher us up the stairs and into our respective rooms. I made sure to say good night before we parted and by the time I made it back into my room I was just about ready to fall asleep standing up. I barely got my teeth brushed and changed into my pajamas before I fell into bed. The last thought before I fell asleep was about all the other secrets the castle was hiding, I didn't remember any of this from before so I'm sure there will be even more for me to explore in the years to come.