Hogwarts in 5 Seconds

Twins, Tables and Trunks

Kyla smiled at her and jerked her head to the door, “Come on, let’s see what dormitory you’re in.”

Eleanor followed her out, the three boys on their heels as they fought through the crowds. Some of the students, the Hufflepuffs it looked like, turned right and disappeared down a hallway. “Their dorms are by the Kitchen, don’t try and break in.” Ash said gravely.

Calum nodded from behind him, his noise wrinkling in memory. Eleanor frowned, “Why?”

Ash just shook his head, following the Hufflepuffs with his eyes and attempting to look serious and majestic, “You don’t want to know.” The Australian accent ruined it.

Eleanor rolled her eyes as they joined the throng of people climbing up the staircases. From what Eleanor could see, they were in a huge hallway with ceilings that arced high above them, and scattered here and there were hundreds of staircases, crisscrossing over their heads as the students clambered up them.

Eleanor lost track of how many stairs she climbed, and she didn’t have the energy to speak when Kyla warned her about a trick stair and they had to jump over it. Luckily, they finally reached a door that led along a corridor and at the end, was a portrait of a very fat lady in a grotesquely pink dress.

“Password?” She asked in a prim voice, and even though Eleanor had been expecting it, she jumped slightly when the woman moved and spoke. She eyed Eleanor curiously as Kyla said, “Potter for President.” And the portrait swung open to reveal a circular hole. As Kyla clambered through and then gave Eleanor a hand she explained, “A few years ago the Fat Lady decided she didn’t get enough credit and wrote up a contract. She decided that she should decide the passwords from now on. We never realised how much she liked Harry Potter until then.” Kyla chuckled quietly as Eleanor finally got through the hole.

They were standing in a circular room filled with sofas and bean bags that lay scattered around, with the occasional table or lamp. The main source of heat seemed to come from the flickering fireplace at the north end of the room. On either side of the fireplace were seven identical staircases that disappeared, presumably up to the  dormitories.

A few desks had been pushed to one side, along with a handful of mini fridges and microwaves and positioned on the only bit of clear wall was a notice board which Kyla headed for now. A scrap of parchment had been pinned up with a list of names and numbers. It made no sense to her but Kyla scanned it quickly and nodded. You’re in the second year wing, dorm 2.”

She turned back round and saw that Lucas, Ash and Cal had collapsed onto a pile of bean bags and the two girls happily joined them, sinking into the red leather with a happy sigh. “That, was probably the best food I’ve ever had.” Eleanor smiled as she stretched.

“The house elves really outdid themselves this year, that cake seemed to almost love me back.” Agreed Ash.

They sat for a few minutes in companionable silence as the rest of Gryffindor filed past them, going to their separate rooms. A young Asian girl with pitch black hair and alert eyes approached cautiously, her eyes flicking from the boys to Eleanor and back again.

“Are you Eleanor Cole?” She asked quietly. Eleanor nodded with a friendly smile, more confident with Kyla and the others at her back and the girl an extended a hand, “I’m Annie, we’re going to be sharing a room. Want me to show you around?”

She stood up and waved to the others, “See you tomorrow?”

Kyla nodded, “Definitely, come sit by us at breakfast.” The boys smiled and waved before fishing out a pack of cards, bets already flying. Kyla rolled her eyes and went off to her own dormitory.

Annie frowned in confusion but shook it off. “Our wing is the second on the right when you walk in. Girls on the right, boys on the left in order of year. Because girls are always right.” She laughed, a light, tinkling noise that matched her petite form. Eleanor didn’t get the joke but smiled anyway, not wanting to appear rude. Annie led her up their staircase until it branched into two. Not stopping, she took the one of the right and after a few more steps they reached a solid oak door.

“This is us.” Annie informed her with a chirp, giving the door a shove. She grimaced and tried again and eventually the door groaned open, revealing another circular room, this one a lot smaller than the Common Room, with four double beds, four poster with curtains and everything, each with a trunk at the end and a table beside it. Three windows looked out over the castle grounds with a window seat beneath each.

One of these was already occupied.  The girl jolted when she spotted Eleanor and Annie and leapt off the seat, rushing over to greet them, “Hi!” She gushed, “I’m Wendy, you must be Eleanor. You’re so tall! Can I call you Ellie? Is that alright.” She laughed suddenly and Eleanor took a small step back, unnerved by this girl’s excitement at meeting a complete stranger and the girl laughed harder, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Annie brushed past her, rolling her eyes, and threw herself down onto her bed, sighing loudly, “Did you drink Red Bull?”

Wendy’s nose scrunched up in confusion, “What’s that?”

Eleanor’s jaw dropped and Annie nodded, “She’s pureblood. She didn’t even know what Coca-Cola was until she came here.”

Wendy huffed, “That’s not my fault.” Pouting, she returned to her own bed and started to fish through her trunk.

Annie giggled at this, “Wendy was raised in an all wizard community and so she doesn’t know that much about muggle stuff. I’m a mix, you?”

“Muggleborn.” She looked round and saw that one of the other two beds had a trunk by it but the other didn’t. “Do I need to get my stuff from somewhere?”

Wendy, forgetting her annoyance, skipped over, “No, the one with the trunk is yours. We don’t have a fourth roommate.”

Annie sat up, scooting to the edge of her bed so she was closer to the conversation as Eleanor opened her trunk to see all her possessions already there, “It was really weird. Your name wasn’t on the list at the Sorting Ceremony, but this other girl, Molly Jabberwock or something like that.”

“Jaybooker.” Wendy corrected.

“Nuance. Anyway, her name was called but she wasn’t there. No one knew where she was, which has never happened before. The professors tried to find her and her family but it was like she had completely disappeared. Weird, right?”

Eleanor nodded, inspecting the empty bed out of the corner of her eye, “Yeah... weird.”

Wendy looked between them and clapped her hands suddenly, “Ok, enough gloomy stuff. Question time: Out of all the guys you’ve seen so far, which is the cutest?”

Luke immediately came to mind but she pushed it away, “I don’t know... Calum is quite cute.”

This was obviously a good answer as Annie fell back with a sigh and Wendy squealed, “Isn’t he?”

“Shame he’s not Asian. My parents are kinda strict on dating.” Annie pouted.

Eleanor cocked her head. “He’s not Asian?”  The two girls shook their heads and Eleanor shrugged. “Also isn’t he dating Lara?”

“Lara Moran in Ravenclaw?” She nodded and Wendy shook her head, “Not technically, they’re basically a couple but he hasn’t asked her out yet.”

“Wimp.” Snorted Annie.

Wendy scowled, “He is not! He’s just shy. And sensitive. And funny. And good looking.” Eleanor shared a look with Annie and they burst out laughing. “What?” Wendy put her hands on her hips, “What did I do?” Eleanor opened her mouth to explain but one look at Wendy’s pout drove her over the edge and she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. Wendy’s eyes flashed in understanding and she scowled again, “Shut up.”

Eventually, Eleanor calmed down enough to get ready for bed, but as she pulled the curtains around her, she could still hear Annie giggling to herself and Wendy snap at her occasionally.