Lone Wolf | SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Four

|  T H E  B O Y  S H E  P R O T E C T S  |

September 1st, 1975

ROSE BOUNCED all the way up to the Ravenclaw dormitories.  I watched her go, puzzled over her boundless energy since I was barely managing to even trudge up the staircases.

When we had first approached the stairs, I hadn't known what to make of them.  They shifted around every few seconds, different ones at different times, and the levels made me nauseous.  I hated heights, they terrified me.  I would freeze on the steps halfway up feeling like I was falling, and because of that the idea of moving stairs didn't sit well with me at all.

Rose, on the other hand, looked like she could throw herself over the railing of one and free-fall onto a lower level, laughing the whole time.  

Our prefect said the password to the painting that locked our dormitories from outsiders and it swung open, allowing students to pour through.  When Rose and I got through, I imagined all the good rooms would be taken.  Yet, Rose pulled me along as if she knew exactly where to take me that there would be space to accommodate us.

The Ravenclaw common room was breathtaking.  Sapphire covered every surface — spilling out vibrantly in rugs, draped as tapestries on the light brick wall.  Couches and armchairs varied in shades of blue.  The ebony fireplace was the only piece of furniture that wasn't blue, a fire crackling on logs thrown into it.  The windows were wide, floor to ceiling ones, wrapping around the circular circumference of our tower.

Rose tugged on my hand, yanking me along, so I didn't get to admire it any further.  We arrived at a set of carved double doors made of shiny mahogany and Rose threw open excitedly.

"I've waited years to get this room."  She told me, striding in before she twirled and threw herself down on a bed.

My jaw had dropped.  I stared at the room in wonder.  I had no idea how this dormitory could be even more beautiful than the common room downstairs.  Somehow, it was.

Sapphire was present in every possible form in the dorm from the gigantic bed's coverlet to the armoire painted with gold flecks.  A rug lay in the middle of the circular room, spilling out over the stone floor as if it were a stream running.

There was only one problem.  Multiple problems of 'one's'.  There was one bed.  One nightstand.  One armoire.  One desk.

Where did Rose expect me to sleep; the floor?  I wasn't a dog.

"Um, Rose...?"

Rose sat up, pulling her curly hair over her shoulder and shooting me an apologetic smile.  "Oh, right!"

She took out her wand and before I could stop her because I imagined this probably wasn't allowed, she had created the exact replicas of her furniture, now on the opposite side of the tower from hers.  It was astonishing that she had managed to make them fit; I saw how big that bed was when it was just hers in here. Did all of the dormitories have queen beds for their students; why did I feel like there was something special about this particular one?

Suddenly, it clicked.  "Is this the prefect's bedroom?"

"Yup!"  Rose popped the 'p' proudly.  "Angela lost a bet to me.  I guess she hadn't expected I would flirt with Filch to get this dream dorm.  Her mistake."