After Professor Dumbledore finished his speech, food appeared and filled the tables, and everyone started quickly grabbing their favorite dishes.

To my left, William seemed to be trying to inhale his favorite dessert, treacle tart. I watched in fascination at how quickly it disappeared.

He grabbed two more pieces of golden brown tarts and started in on them as well. When he got to the third, he went so fast he started choking on it.

I thumped him on the back, and once his throat was clear, I joked, "You know, we have teeth for a reason. You're supposed to chew before you swallow."

William took a deep breath and defended in his Scottish accent, "You don't understand, my mum doesn't allow dessert. What kind of parent doesn't believe in having dessert? It's been two months since I've had a treacle tart, and a little choking is well worth it."

Finishing the final bite of the tart with a vengeance, he declared, "The best thing about Hogwarts is the food."

Across from us, Ryan snorted and incredulously interjected, "Are you mad? We're in a magical castle, and you think that the best thing about Hogwarts is the food? Try spending a few months in the muggle world with no access to magic. Then I'll bet you change your mind about what's the best thing about being here."

I winced, after having access to magic, I couldn't imagine having to go back to the mundane world and pretend everything was normal.

"What did you do back in Ireland over the summer?" I asked curiously.

Ryan rolled his eyes, "I spent the summer being interrogated by my parents about magic. They're both academics and are endlessly fascinated by the concept of magic. They were bitterly disappointed about the rule of no underage magic allowed, the first thing they asked me to do when I got home was to see some magic. They had to settle by reading my first-year books."

"What kind of questions did they ask?" I questioned.

Ryan replied, "Mostly questions where I didn't know the answers. Such as, where does magic come from? Why do some muggles develop magic?"

"If you could answer those questions, I'm sure the wizard community would be grateful. After all, no one knows the answers to those questions." I replied.

Shrugging helplessly, Ryan replied, "That's what I told them. Most of the questions they asked were like that, but they did ask some that made me curious."

"Like what?"

"Well, one thing they were curious about was how the magical community in Europe handled the parents of muggle-born wizards who might refuse to let them attend school," Ryan explained.

"What?" Roger interrupted. "Why would muggles try and prevent their children from learning magic?"

I could tell from the confused look on Roger's face that the concept of preventing a wizard or witch from learning magic was such a strange idea, that he had no frame of reference to understand.

An awkward look appeared on Ryan's face, "Well, for religious reasons. Some Christians seem to believe that magic is evil." Seeing the confused look on Roger's face, he added. "You know, they had the whole suffer not a witch to live inquisition."

"Wait, I thought that you told me that the leader that Muggles worship was a wizard?" Roger questioned.

I almost spit up the pumpkin juice I was drinking when I heard Roger express.

"Huh? I never said that." Ryan replied.

Roger countered, "Yes you did, I distinctly remember you telling me last year about some wizard named Jesus that Muggles worship."

"Yeah, but I never said he was a wizard," Ryan argued.

Raising his fingers one at a time, Roger counted off, "You said he walked on water, turned water into wine, multiplied food to feed people, healed people, and rose from the dead. All clear examples of magic."

"But, those are supposed to be miracles," Ryan defended.

Decided to mess with Ryan, I interjected, "Technically, all of those could be easily explained with magic. Enchanted shoes could allow someone to walk on water, turning water into wine is obviously transfiguration. Regarding the food, it's interesting that you say he multiplied it. Food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Transfiguration. While you can't magically create it from nothing, you can summon, transform, or increase the amount you already have with magic. Moving on to healing, magical healing can heal almost anything not related to dark magic. And finally, rising from the dead could be explained if instead of dying, he faked his death by taking the draught of living death and was given the cure three days later."

Nodding his head agreeing with me, Roger piled on, "See, obviously this Jesus person was a wizard."

"Well, Christians don't see it that way," Ryan mumbled. "And the original question still stands, what would happen if the parents of a muggle-born wizard were religious and refused to let their child go to school to learn about magic?"

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After a moment of silence, Roger awkwardly spoke up, "Muggles aren't actually legally allowed to stop a witch or wizard from learning magic."

Having never considered the argument before, I turned to Roger eager to hear his explanation.

"What do you mean?"Ryan asked.

Lowering his voice, "The only reason why I know this is because my Dad works for the Ministry of Magic as an Obliviator. If the parents turn the Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts away, and refuse to allow their child to be taught. The school has to inform the Ministry of Magic about the situation. What happens next is an Obliviator is quietly dispatched to modify the parent's memories and feelings about magic. Which ensures that the muggle-born is allowed to go to school."

A horrified look appeared on Ryan's face, "They... they can't do that," he sputtered.

"Actually, if you think about it, it's the only reasonable action." I pointed out. "It's not like the magic will go away with no training. Without proper training, magic would still escape at random from the untrained wizard or witch, just like it did when we were kids."

"But, it still seems wrong." Ryan weakly contended.

"Well consider this, what would you want if your parents decided magic was evil and that you couldn't be taught?" I asked.

Ryan's silence was illuminating. He spent the rest of the feast in thoughtful consideration.

Soon the feast was over, and Professor Dumbledore stood up and said, "Now that we have eaten our fill, it's time to say goodnight."

Not wanting to get bogged down by all the students, we rushed out of the Great Hall. When we got to the entrance of the Ravenclaw tower, I stepped forward and pulled on the bronze eagle knocker.

A cool, musical voice rang out, "When I am filled, I can point the way. When I am empty, nothing moves me. I have two skins, one without, and one within. What am I?"

Ok, obviously the eagle knocker had stepped up its game and asked older students harder riddles.

To my left, Roger said hopefully, "A water-skin."

When the knocker remained silent, Roger groaned in annoyance. He stared grumpily at the door and muttered something unflattering about the bronze eagle.

"I think you were on the right track." I comforted. After puzzling over the riddle for another moment, I said with more confidence than I felt, "A glove."

The door swung open and said, "Acceptable."

When we arrived in the common room, I noticed that the room leading down to the Ravenclaw trial was on the far wall. None of the other Ravenclaws seemed to be aware of its presence. The door was just there waiting and tempting me to return. I 'll bet there have been a lot of students who have been tempted to return and attempt the trial before they were ready.

I turned away from the door. There was no way I would be attempting the trial before I was completely confident that I would be successful. On the opposite wall was the Ravenclaw student ranking. Everyone's name in my year had been moved from the first year column over to the second.

Because I finished the previous year with the highest marks, my name was at the top of the list. Jessica's name was right below mine, but there was no prize for second place.

The best benefit of being on top was the new dorm rooms. There were eight levels to the dormitory, with first years being on the very top and the seventh years being on the second floor.

The first floor had dorms that were reserved for students who achieved the best grade in each year. I think that Roger, William, and Ryan were even happier than I was.

Because they were my roommates for my time at Hogwarts, they got to enjoy the benefits as well. Eager to see what our new dorm was like, we all headed up the boy's staircase, passing by the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw.

The dorm on the first floor was even more impressive than I had imagined. Calling it a dorm isn't an accurate representation of what the room looked like, it was more like an apartment.

Each of us had a bedroom to ourselves, and there was even a common room with a couch and some recliners sitting in front of a fireplace. But probably the best thing was the bathroom, no longer would I have to share a bathroom with the entire floor of students. The apartment had a massive bathroom with an enormous tub that one could easily swim in.

From behind me, Roger called out, "Alex, I hope you realize that we're going to need you to get the top marks every year. Now that we've experienced such luxury, I don't think we could go back to a regular dorm."

"You know, you could always shoot for the top spot," I replied.

Weighing in on the matter, William pointed out, "Please, if it wasn't you, it would be Jessica."

I acknowledged his argument with a wave, Jessica is smart and friend or not she will definitely try and seize the top spot from me this year as well. She is one of the most academically competitive people that I know.

Roger was right. There was no way I am willing to go back to the standard dorms after seeing how nice the apartment was.

Opening the door to my private room, I found Athena sprawled out on my bed, obviously enjoying the luxurious bed. She peeked one eye open before lazily yawning and going back to her nap.

After unpacking, I set the ceramic pot containing the Bearded Mushroom that I couldn't see on the dresser across from my bed.

I sat cross-legged on my bed and started practicing my occlumency.

I woke in the morning slumped over, I must have fallen asleep while I was trying to meditate. I glared at the empty pot while trying to rub the creak that had worked its way into my neck.

Down in the common room, I met up with Jessica while we picked up our schedules for the upcoming year. It was somewhat similar to the previous year.

"Happy Birthday, Alex," Jessica greeted with a smile. "Should we be expecting a serenade from your mum again?"

"Ugh." I groaned, "She better not. We had a long conversation about it., and I warned her not to do it again."

She smirked and said, "I don't know. It was kinda entertaining."

"If you think it's so amusing, I can arrange something similar to happen on your birthday," I warned.

Jessica let out a nervous laugh and quickly changed the subject, "So, is your room as amazing as what I've heard?"

"Even better," I teased while smirking back at her.

"Ugh," she groaned. "You better be on top of your game this year, because I'm coming for you. I spent the whole summer studying our books required for this year, and I've gotten pretty far into them."

After faking an exaggerated yawn, I taunted, "You only got started this summer? I finished those last year, and I've already been working on my third-year textbooks."

"You... you," Jessica sputtered.

"Yes," I replied with my best cheshire cat smile.

"Grrr..." Jessica growled.

"You know, you sound just like Athena did when she was a baby. Just like a little baby kitten." I playfully mocked.

Jessica's eyes narrowed, and she warned, "You better watch it, this kitten bites."

A snort of amusement escaped me, and her face turned red in embarrassment. "Oh, you know what I meant."

Deciding to retreat, she stormed off in a huff, but not before stepping on my foot to show her displeasure.

I grinned at her outburst, it was nice to be back at Hogwarts. This year is going to be fun.