For the first time in the long days and months of my active existence in this world, the restored habit of following a schedule and waking up early justified itself. And the fact that yesterday, upon returning to the room after Astronomy class, I immersed myself in a magical restorative sleep—that is beyond praise. The reason for my joy is simple: morning flight training with the House Quidditch team. Dawn was just beginning to show, painting the sky above the hills in cold blue colors and the horizon in pinks, yet we—seven people—were already standing in the common room.
"So, gentlemen and lady," Cedric looked at everyone. "Let's all introduce ourselves to each other so there are no misunderstandings and such. I am Cedric Diggory, team captain and Seeker concurrently."
"Herbert Fleet, fifth year, Keeper," a light-brown-haired boy saluted mischievously with two fingers and a smirk.
"Malcolm Preece," another player already familiar to me raised his hand in greeting. "Sixth year, Chaser."
"Tamsin Appleby, fifth year," smiled a dark-haired girl with a short haircut. "I will also be in the role of Chaser."
"Hector Granger," I nodded with a smile, "third year, Chaser."
"Anthony Rickett," another brown-haired guy of quite large build, but without excess, nodded dryly but with a smile in his eyes and took a step forward. "Beater, as you already guessed."
"William Summerby..." a guy covered his mouth with his hand and yawned heartily. "Beater. A very sleepy Beater."
"Excellent," Cedric clapped his hands. "Let's hurry."
Cedric quickly led us away from the common room. The morning was very early, curfew hadn't ended, and the stone corridors of the castle were so dark that only the light of Lumos on the tips of our wands allowed us to make out the waking living portraits on the walls, or snatched knightly armor in niches from the darkness. At night, the castle looked completely different, and along with this produced a completely different impression.
Not meeting a single teacher on our way, we went out into the castle hall without problems, and then left it altogether through the main entrance, through large and very high double gates. The concept of "Donjon" floated up in my head, but it doesn't quite fit.
While we walked around the courtyard fountain, heading to the exit from the grounds, I thought for the first time about what Hogwarts represents from the point of view of architecture, so to speak. Estimating in my head everything I managed to learn about the school, I came to a simple conclusion: Hogwarts is not a castle at all, but a monastery. This is a very important discovery, because due to the fact that I, like many, if not all, are used to calling Hogwarts a castle, the attitude toward it is the same. A monastery is a completely different story.
If one imagines the Great Hall as a Church attached to a Monastery, and the fairly large central courtyard—not the one through which we just exited, but another, surrounded by buildings, towers, and annexes, with two floors of galleries, a fountain, gazebos, and benches, I passed by it once... In general, this courtyard is a typical cloister. And such parallels are encountered constantly.
However, the main tower, in which the moving staircases are located and from which one can get to almost any part of the castle, can quite be called a donjon. One might not enter the central courtyard similar to a cloister at all when moving from one part of the castle to another, whereas in a monastery one can pass the cloister only by walking around the monastery from the outside. The cloister is the center of the monastery's life, for precisely there everyone intersects with each other one way or another.
"What are you thinking about?" exercising the rights of a senior, Cedric nudged me slightly in the shoulder.
"About the resemblance of Hogwarts to a monastery."
"Oh, what thoughts!"
The others only laughed amicably while we moved toward the Quidditch pitch, or rather, toward a large annex with a separate exit toward the field. The sky was brightening before our eyes, but here, on the sinful earth, it was still quite dark.
"That is quite normal, the castle was built about a thousand years ago," Cedric turned around, examining the school for a couple of moments, while Tamsin walking nearby clearly decided to contribute to the conversation, moving closer to us.
"In old books there are hints," she began to speak, "that the Inquisition is much older, and the war between us is a contrived fact altogether."
Such a statement could not help but attract attention, albeit small, especially since there was still a long way to walk across the field to the doors we needed. Making sure that some attention was attracted, Tamsin continued her story:
"I read a bunch of old wizard diaries, memoirs, from those antediluvian times when even Hogwarts didn't exist..."
"And where did you even get them," Cedric shook his head, while the others listened as they walked.
"Relatives are into compiling history based on diaries. But that is not the point. In those times, as you know, the Statute wasn't even in draft. Wizards sometimes really lost their edge, or went crazy from experiments, or simply took revenge for a wretched life."
"Wretched life? For wizards?" Herbert chuckled, tossing his broom from hand to hand.
"The romance of the Middle Ages exists only in novels," Tamsin shrugged. "In reality, it's diseases, filth, a crappy life, rampant illiteracy, slop on your head in cities, shit in every corner and even in nobles' castles. Considering that wizards lived among people, all this is not surprising."
We practically approached the doors of this annex, which is sort of not an annex, but a full-fledged building inside a building, something like that.
"In general, in those distant times the church for the most part did not consider magic a creation of the devil, did not arrange persecutions, but treated it just like everything else—a creation of the Lord. There was even an explanation."
"Wonder which one?" Cedric opened the double doors, and we entered a spacious corridor, even a hall, with a wooden floor and wooden wall paneling.
Judging by everything, team changing rooms, team equipment, and simply flying equipment for lessons are located here; there are five doors, and four of them have House crests. We headed to the one decorated with the carved crest of Hufflepuff.
"Well, like, God created the earth, and in general, the whole world. He created humans in his own image and likeness, and it would be surprising if we didn't possess the 'spark of the creator' ourselves, or something like that."
While Tamsin narrated, Cedric placed his hand on the door, and it opened, letting us into a spacious changing room divided into two sides, male and female, if one believes the quite understandable signs clearly not provided by the builders.
"Change, and into battle," Cedric waved his hand as if giving the command to attack.
Boys to the right, girls to the left. The space of the changing room represented seven peculiar rooms separated from each other by screens, where there was a place to sit, a large and simple-looking locker almost to the ceiling, and a door to the shower, and maybe also a restroom. Cedric nodded to me toward one such nook.
"Your uniform is there, for now they issued a broom from the reserves. Maybe you'll decide to splurge and buy something sensible, but for now get used to a relatively new Cleanweep."
"And clothing sizes?"
"By eye, but it adjusts to size by itself. Within reasonable limits."
We dispersed to the "cubicles" and quickly began to change. Not even a minute passed before we again clearly heard the continuation of the story, while I dealt with the uniform, pants, shin guards, and other protection for arms, legs, and head.