Harry potter The Boy Who Remembers

Before he could tease her further, Gemma Farley, the Slytherin fifth year prefect girl spoke up, "First years, I know that things are tense, but this is still Samhain and the ritual is ready. For those that wish to undergo the crest unlocking ceremony, please follow me." Oh, yeah, he had forgotten about this because of the troll mess.

Harry was too distracted by the possibility of his friend dying to remember that the Crest activation ceremony was today. He had re-read the family magics book about half a dozen times to make sure that he didn't miss anything. Oh, Harry was sure that his classmates had no idea how it worked, certainly less than him at least, but Harry didn't like that the knowledge he found was imprecise, having been translated using a charm and thus had a lot of grammar mistakes and nonsensical sentences.

Even with all his preparations, Harry was still nervous about the ritual. The results were varied, even with people in the same family, but what everyone said was that it was a life-changing experience and that they were fundamentally different because of it. It was that unpredictability that caused Harry to be wary. He would wake up the following day as a different person altogether.

Harry didn't seem to be the only first-year who seemed to be nervous. Everyone seemed to be shaken in some way. Harry's friends looked very pale walking behind Gemma Farley. Even Malfoy, who had proudly announced his superiority because of his family, was practically shaking in fear.

It was probably because he never attended a ritual before. For the crest activation to work, a high amount of ambient foreign magic must be in the body, and an easy way to do that was to participate in one of the rites rituals, and then unlock the crest afterwards. However, before the age of eleven, children were not allowed to attend these rituals because of the chaotic nature of their magic. This was everyone's first ritual and so, even before activating the crest, they had to go through the Samhain rites.

The prefect seemed to have noticed their unease and gave them a soft smile, "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine."

A few people relaxed but Harry was still apprehensive about the task ahead. He followed Gemma down the stairs. However, the prefect stopped halfway there and pressed a particular brick, "No one is allowed to enter these rooms without the Court's express permission. These rooms are the secondary ritual rooms that are available to the public, but still with the Court's permission of course, and can only be used for the standard rites, like Samhain, Beltane and so on. Should you be lucky enough to join the Court when you're older, you will be allowed to enter the private ritual rooms to do what you wish. The Samhain ritual has been prepared for you, but you will need to learn and perform them yourselves if you wish to participate in another one. Oh, and one final thing, do not tell anyone about these rooms. Dumbledore practically made the old rites illegal, and we don't need some fanatic muggleborn to try to get them banned because it's 'barbaric'. This is a Slytherin house secret. If you break it, you will be punished severely. Do you understand?"

The speech was enrapturing, and Gemma was far different from the way she presented herself on the first day. She was very severe and was practically threatening them into secrecy, although Harry could understand why. Children were children, and he could see Draco prancing about bragging about the fact that Slytherin had ritual rooms to Longbottom in an attempt to make the boy who lived, jealous.

The prefect's face softened at the collective affirmation, "Good. Now, go get ready for the ritual. We have taken the luxury of giving you ritual robes to wear, as well as the customary masks to do so. They will be in your changing rooms. You will find your name written on them. These are provided to you by the seventh year students, the same way you will be required to provide a robe to the first years when you're their age. You have ten minutes to change and come here after which I will escort you to the ritual. You will not wear anything but your robes. So, leave your wands, jewellery, or even underwear in the changing room."

Oh, ritual robes. Harry sort of forgot about them. They were clothes that were designed to be magically inert, so as to not interfere with the ritual. It was a nifty anecdote that people who couldn't afford them had to be naked when participating in a ritual, which thankfully wasn't the case then.

Harry and his classmates went into the changing rooms where he found a piece of parchment with his name on it on top of some black robes. From the look of them, they looked more like what he expected traditional wizarding robes to be. They were barely more than sheets of fabric with sleeves, but Harry knew differently. There was something fundamentally magical about them. Honestly, to his magical hearing, the robes sounded like a tuning fork. They were inert without any drums or melody, but the biggest issue was how they interacted with the environment.

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