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Arthur was honestly not this hopeless when it came to directions. Yes, Hogwarts was a big and confusing place at the best of times - and for a new first year like himself that was upgraded to 'enormous and terrifying.' But even so, he was quite capable of following a map to class - even if that map did include staircases that moved and doors disguised as walls.
He could have done it by himself. All his other classmates managed to get where they needed to be on time, and he was no less capable than they were. It wasn’t fair that he always ended up being the laughing stock for showing up late when it had nothing to do with him.
It was all the castle’s fault! He knew that saying so only made the other students laugh more, and the professors deduct points from his house for making up excuses. But it wasn’t fair! It wasn’t him, it was Hogwarts! The whole bloody castle had it in for him!
If he was taking a staircase that was supposed to swing left, then it would swing right. If he needed a hidden corridor behind a tapestry, he’d move it aside to find a brick wall. If he had to take the door beside the statue of Ingrid the Indefatiguable, it would turn out the statues in the hallway had all switched places and he ended up going throught he wrong door, headed in compeltely the opposite direction.
He could even be following his classmates, and he’d still get turned around by the castle and separated somehow!
Arthur was getting really, really sick of this building and its childish pranks.
The only comfort he had was that he was not the only one. For every time Arthur found himself being led astray by the castle, he’d run into Alfred Jones.
Alfred was another first year, from a different house, and Hogwarts loved to send him down the incorrect corridor or through the wrong door, too. Not only that, but the castle seemed to like making the two boys bump into each other when they got lost. When Arthur descended a staircase that had swept him in the wrong direction, Alfred would step out of a door in front of him and look around, completely bemused. “Um…this was supposed to be the trophy room…” he’d say. And when Alfred had been tricked by a talking portrait into taking a false shortcut, Arthur would stumble into him right out from the stone wall and shout “Where the ruddy hell am I this time?”
Then they’d offer each other a minute to vent about how the castle hated them, and how unfair it was that everyone was always laughing at them for getting lost. And, after a bit of backtracking, they’d help each other on their way to the right place.
"Hey! I recognise this place!" Alfred exclaimed when they emerged from behind a statue of a grumpy looking unicorn. "I know how to get to History of Magic from here. Thanks Arthur!"
"Don’t mention it," said Arthur, managing to smile even though he was ten minutes late to Transfiguration. "I’d have had no idea I was on the fourth floor if you hadn’t told me."
Alfred laughed, walking backwards down the corridor towards class, his fly-away cowlick bobbing as if waving goodbye. “Welp, see ya next time I get lost!”
Because by now it was pretty much guaranteed that there would be a next time. And as Arthur watched, sighing wistfully as Alfred sent him one last smile and disappeared round the corner, he couldn't really pretend to mind getting lost anymore. And he certainly didn't hate the castle now. Hogwarts wasn't really a nuisance at all - it was simply trying to help.