Cruel Eloise

"We are the music makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,"

I arrived that morning at King's Cross Station with my father and uncle. We wandered around for a little, my companions giving little bits and pieces of advice. We sat on the benches eating Muggle ice cream treats and acting like I was coming home with them even though my trunk sat dejectedly to one side of us. At half past, my uncle bid me farewell and my father led me through the barrier.

It was as if I had stepped through to Diagon Alley again. Aside from the large red train, that is. There were robes, trunks, owls, newts and everyone was moving at a fantastic pace even though there was plenty of time before we all had to leave.

My father stopped in front of a compartment door and put me on the train. I gave him a hug and refused to let go. I didn't want to leave on this thing. My father kept muttering in my ear about seeing him again at Christmas. He finally pried my arms and my rather wet face from his neck and waved goodbye before he disappeared through the barrier. I walked in quietly and began my search for a seat.

I found one almost immediately. Unfortunately it had the silvered haired git sitting in it. He barely had time to shoot off one of his insults before I slammed the door shut and went to find another compartment.

I had little luck until the very end of the train. I wandered in and there was only one seat left. There were two boys and two girls sitting looking at each other from across a table filled with Exploding Snap cards. There were scorch marks on the table. One of the boys, the shorter curly haired one was looking rather shocked at the whole business.

"Hi. Do you want to sit?" the black girl asked looking shyly at me.

"Alright." I found a seat next to the window and slumped into the chair only to jump up again. "What the...?" I cried jumping up, my braids flying to hit me in the eye. "Ow." The toad on the seat looked up at me, croaked, and hopped out of the compartment.

"Are you okay?" the dark haired boy asked tilting his head to get a better look.

"Yeah, fine. I'm Eloise Midgen, by the way."

The introduced themselves. The curly haired boy was called Justin; the black girl Susan, the dark haired boy, Ernie and the quiet round-faced girl was Hannah. Justin was the only Muggle born there and admitted it with enthusiasm. He asked us all sorts of questions.

"Do you have music education in magical schools?" We all looked at each other.

"No," I said quietly, "it's considered a dark art."

"Why? My mum wanted to know. She wants me to learn music."

"Because people are stupid and don't realize that there is only power in it if you let it. They make the argument the music makes people do strange things." The other children looked uncomfortable and began to look out the window. "It does but only because they let it."

"What does music make people do?"

"Well, there are all sorts of claims. There are Sirens. You know of them right?" Justin nodded. "Auguries were thought to have all sorts of horrible powers before the discovered that they really were harmless. But more recently there have been claims that music groups cause people to, well, do things. Awful things."

"Why do you know this?"

"It's my family's business to know. My father and uncle run a Muggle music shop." Susan looked like she might scream. I didn't bother to stop my informative rant. She would get over it. "The belief that music is evil is just the Ministry's pathetic attempt to ignore talent and to spend less on Hogwarts education. It's all politics."

Susan glared at me. "What about the people who died because of your so called 'Pathetic Ministry theory'?"

"I didn't say it couldn't be used for those things. I just said it is an exaggeration to assume that is all bad. You can use light magic to kill people as well as dark magic," I pointed out.

"If that is the case, why did your parents teach you to play? Why expose your child to something so powerful?" Ernie asked tilting his head to look at me.

"Same reason we are going to Hogwarts and not Muggle schools," Hannah said. "Because it is better we are exposed to it now and not when we are twenty. Not much of an emotional liability then. And we need to be with our own kind."

"Anyway, my parents didn't expose me to music as much as you suppose. My uncle taught me to play. He's a Muggle," I said pointedly.

We spent the majority of the trip after that explaining rudimentary magical theory to Justin. He was bright and picked it up fairly quickly. In return we dug for information about the Muggle world. We had never lived in that world and it was as foreign as Mars to us. I found the explanation of speakers the most interesting.

Once the train stopped we first years clattered out in our new uniforms looking a strange combination of bright eyed and 'I want my mummy!' scared.

We made it to the boats with Hagrid, the gamekeeper, leading the way. It was uneventful except for me outdoing my self in pure clumsiness and tripping on absolutely nothing to nearly land on poor Justin.

The five of us crowded into one boat and sat quietly on our way to the castle. I'd like to think we were all thinking the same thing. What if they didn't allow us to go to school? What if they sent us back? I doubt anyone else was thinking the same thing; I'm just paranoid.

The first sight of the castle is one I will never forget. It glistened like fresh ink on the navy sky. The lights twinkled like little fairies. We made it across the lake to Hogwarts without any disasters.

Once we reached the castle we were immediately greeted by a stern looking woman in plaid (Hagrid had called her Professor McGonagall) who guided us expertly into a large hall. It seemed impossibly big. The ceiling was invisible to me. The flickering torches looked too small in the large room. She led us into a small antechamber where we stood waiting like jittery racehorses.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said looking down her nose at us, "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because while you are here your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has it's own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will win your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." She glared at some people in the front and left the room as they scrambled to look presentable.

Soon I heard Ron Weasley's voice talking to a short black haired boy next to him. "Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

I looked over to Hannah, Susan, Justin, and Ernie. The looked as nervous as I felt. They really didn't look well at all. I patted the frizz back into my braids in a futile effort to look presentable.

Although I grew up in a wizard family, I never had much contact with ghosts until I went to school. There was only Aunt Maggie who lived in our flat and was not my aunt. She was a 1920's flapper who's only regret about dying seemed to be the fact that she really couldn't put make-up on anymore.

"Frankly Daaaarrrling," she would drawl at me, "you look aaawwweful." She was rather blunt for being a ghost.

That would explain my surprise at about twenty ghosts floating through the wall behind me. I'm afraid I grabbed Ernie's arm rather hard in shock. I possibly might have been the one who screamed as well.

One said something about Hufflepuff but I barely noticed. I was too busy noticing the looks the other students gave me. I shrunk against the wall to hide from their looks. I noticed the floor and the cracks made musical notation in my mind.

An eternity later, McGonagall came back to get us. We filed nervously into the great hall and were met with more stares. I shuddered and as Ernie quietly squeezed my hand then hurriedly let go, leaving me alone again. The sky flickered with stars as we made our way through the sea of eyes. I stared ahead of me deciding quickly that if I survived this, I could look at the stars any time I wanted.

We stopped at the front of the room and McGonagall disappeared shortly to return with a frayed hat and stool. The hat opened its mouth and said,

"Oh you may not think me pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

Everyone applauded loudly as it finished. I just stared at it. That hat held my future? I was in trouble.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," McGonagall said silencing the din. "Abbott, Hannah!"

Hannah got out of line looking scared and sat down. A moment later then, "HUFFLEPUFF!" She beamed at us and we tried to look happy.

Susan was next. She went up much as Hannah had and was also sorted into Hufflepuff.

The rest was a bit of a blur. One by one the people in my compartment went up and were sorted into Hufflepuff, Ernie was before me and gave me encouraging smile as he was sorted into Hufflepuff just like the rest of them. I knew I was going to Slytherin then.

"Midgen, Eloise!" I stumbled up and the hall was silent. I sat on the hard stool and put the hat on my head.

The hat was lighter than I had thought it would be. I suppose I imagined that brains would weigh a bit more. It didn't say anything for about the first two seconds and then it began to whisper in my ear.

"Ahhhh. There's quite a bit of talent here."

What on earth is he on about? I'm a squib.

"Why would you think that? You just have other outlets for your emotion and power that are different from others. You have talent, ambition and quite a loyal streak but you are too timid. You haven't had many friends have you? Why do you hesitate? You have the talent. Use it. Ah well. Any preference?"

My head started to spin. The Slytherins would eat me, the Gryffindors would laugh, the Ravenclaws would ignore me and the Hufflepuffs would think I was an evil freak. I tried to mentally shrug.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

I made my way rather drunkenly to the Hufflepuff table where Susan, Justin, Hannah and Ernie were already standing and clapping for me. A taller boy grabbed my hand and sat me down next to the rest of the first years.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff! I'm Cedric Diggory, third year."

I shook his hand. I didn't really comprehend anything else he said to me. The hat said I had talent. Stupid hat.

"Potter, Harry" was sorted into Gryffindor. He was little and had black hair sticking up all over his head. His glasses slipped a little on his nose. That was the boy who lived? He'd have no problems then. Lucky him.

I spent the rest of the sorting in shock over what the sorting hat said. I went over the hat's words in my head repeatedly. Talent? What talent? Nobody had ever told me that before. But technically the hat didn't count. It was not really a body. It had never had one, technically.

The girl next to me poked me in the ribs. I glared at her.

"Hi, I'm Michiko. I'm a first year too." She was small and had straight black hair and glasses. "I heard you play piano. I play violin."

"Oh. I'm Eloise. Do you know where the practice rooms are?"

"Not a clue. I need to find one soon though. Within the week." She looked worried.

"Me too. My uncle would be so mad if I didn't practice."

"Sounds like my teacher. We'll have to go on an expedition soon."

"Sure. Let's talk later. Where are you from?"

"London, Notting Hill area, really. You?"

"Diagon Alley, Charing Cross road."

"Oh, Wizarding family," I nodded. "You aren't like some of them. You're nice."

"Thanks, I think..."

The feast went by in blur. I don't think I had ever eaten so much in my life. I was incredibly hungry.

Then there was the School "song." Or shouting fest. Michiko and I sat holding our heads in pain as the dissonance rattled through the hall ending with the Weasley twins singing an out of tune dirge.

Dumbledore looked as if he might be crying. "Ah, music. A magic beyond all that we do here! And now bedtime. Off you trot!"

We followed the boy down the stairs and a long hallway. We went down another flight of stairs and made a turn down the left corridor. I stared at the pictures and began to wonder if there were any secrets behind them. We came to the end of the hall and two corridors went out on either side. The boy stopped and faced the wall directly in front of him. There was a round bricked up portion of wall that looked as if it had been a window at one time.

"Elanore." he said clearly to the wall and the brick rolled back to expose a bright green door. The older boy took a key out and inserted it into a keyhole in the middle of the circle. The door swung open and we walked quietly inside.

The room had windows looking out onto a garden filled with flowers. All the windows and doors were round and were painted vivid colors of blue, yellow, red, green and purple. There were round corridors leading out on either side of room, one was painted blue, the other green.

"This is the Hufflepuff common room. Your keys are in your rooms and I would advise you not to forget them. Also, remember the password; forgetting it will have unpleasant consequences. Your rooms are down that hall way to your left." He pointed to the blue corridor before continuing. "Girl's rooms are down the left fork and boy's rooms to the right. Down that corridor to your right are the practice rooms." I shot a look over to my left. Michiko grinned. "There will be a general meeting of all students in the common room on Friday at eight. Off you go. Get some sleep."

We wandered silently down the hall to our rooms. We left Ernie and Justin at the fork and made our way to the end of the girl's hall. There was a large yellow round door that stated quite clearly in black paint "First Year Girls."

I opened the door and stared. There were five four-poster beds with blue hangings decorated with clouds. The ceiling had stars and the moon on it and there was a Wizarding Wireless on a table in the middle of the room. The table had five chairs around it. The beds were in two rows against the wall with a door marked "bathroom" at the end of the room. There were lamps to the right of every bed and there were two round windows that stared out on the lake. There was a bookshelf and a small dresser next to every bed. Our trunks were already at the end of the beds.

We walked into the room. My bed was the last one in the row next to a window. My toothbrush and hairbrush were on the dresser next to my bed, while my uniform was hanging over the end of the bed. Michiko closed the door and we began to get ready for bed. After a mad search for my bear, I collapsed into my bed and went through a whole mental recital of Für Elise being played by my father like he did when I was younger before finally falling asleep.

We woke up the next morning to Michiko's alarm clock. Jumping out of bed, my feet hit the floor, which was cold even with the carpet. On top of that, I couldn't find my slippers or my bathrobe. Five minutes later I found them in my trunk under a pair of shoes, my metronome (which didn't work anymore and kept playing A440 until I took the battery out) and a pile of sheet music. I ran to the bathroom and began to get ready for class.

After I had got my uniform on correctly (I put it on up-side down once) I began to search my trunk yet again, this time for my books and wand. The wand was on top of the books and was still in its box. I grabbed it out of the box and stuffed it into the pocket of my robes. Then I took the books and shoved them roughly into the bag.

Hannah tapped me on the shoulder. "Do you want me to braid your hair?" She gestured at my dripping brown hair. I nodded and sat in chair. Hannah picked up my comb and brush and began to separate my hair into two sections. She flipped one part over my left shoulder and began to brush the other half of hair.

"You have very pretty hair. It's so long," she said as she started to braid.

"Hum."

We sat as the other's rushed around us. Eventually, Michiko came and began to braid Hannah's hair.

"No, really. It would look better if you kept it braided though. It wouldn't get so tangled at night."

"I can't braid my own hair. I was just going to leave it."

"Don't do that. It will get silly." She wrapped a band around the end of the first braid and started on the other side

"Silly?"

"You know, messy. Icky. Full of potions and such."

"Ah."

"We'll figure something out. You'll have to do something with it."

"Done," Hannah and Michiko said at the same time. They began to giggle and wouldn't stop until we got down to the great hall. So about twenty minutes later, all us girls made it to breakfast, which we ate very hastily, still giggling.

Our first class had the misfortune of being potions. I have never been so miserable. We were with the Ravenclaws who had all read their texts and memorized them. Freaks.

The first question came up and to my never-ending surprise Ernie's hand shot up and nearly took my ear off.

"What?" Professor Snape snarled at him looking down at his house badge before looking at Ernie's eager face and wildly flapping hand.

"One of the uses of Dragon's blood is oven cleaner, sir!" the Ravenclaws collectively groaned in disappointment.

Charms wasn't much better. We were with the Ravenclaws again. As we tried to make nice "swishy" wrist movements and take notes, the Ravenclaws were busy memorizing spells.

Transfiguration was easier. We were alone with Professor McGonagall and she promptly turned her desk into a monkey and back before making us take notes on magical transfiguration theory.

History of magic was prime naptime and Justin accidentally ripped a page out of the textbook trying to find something interesting to look at.

Herbology was fun. Professor Sprout favored us a little over the Gryffindors, which was a welcome relief after a week of trying to compete with the Ravenclaws

Defense against the Dark arts made history of magic look fun and useful. Professor Quirrell was a horrible teacher. He stuttered and twitched when we would ask him anything. He also refused to even discuss dark creatures with us.

I stood with the rest of the first years for our first astronomy lesson Thursday at midnight. I stared up at the stars. The glowed and twinkled happily in the navy colored sky. I listened in rapt attention as professor pointed out the stars sprinkled across the sky. Sirius, Draco, Polaris, the summer triangle, trianglum. When she finished, I was the last to leave.

"Professor?" I whispered.

"Yes, Eloise, right?"

I nodded. "May I come back up for your next class?"

"Are you having difficultly seeing the constellations?"

"No, ma'am. I just want to see them again and I don't think I'm allowed to come here on my own."

"I could speak to Professor Sprout and you could help me set up for classes up here if you wish."

"You would do that?"

"If you would like me to, I could arrange it."

"Oh please, could you?"

She gave me an odd amused sort of look before nodding. "I have never seen a student take so to astronomy. Well, get along now. You don't want to be caught by Peeves."

"Who?" I asked.

"Trust me. Go back to you common room. Shoo!" she flicked a hand distractedly in the direction of the stairs.

I rushed down the stair and began to make my way back to the common room. In the torchlight all the corridors looked the same and soon I was hopelessly lost.

My mind went into overdrive. I must have taken a wrong turn right away because I had memorized the turns with Hannah on our way up. They must not have noticed I was gone in the dark and hadn't waited for me. I sat down and began to rationalize my way out. I should go back the way I came and get to the astronomy tower then back track from there. It was the only logical thing.

Or at least until I saw Mrs. Norris. She was at the other end of the hall mewing at me. I jumped up and ran across the hall. The door was locked but fortunately for Grandfather's expert tutelage ...

"Alohamora." The lock clicked and I ran in shutting the door quietly behind me.

I tried to stop my heart from pounding as I looked out the small window in the door. Filch was walking slowly down the hall. I ducked as he passed muttering to his cat.

I waited until he turned to go down another hallway before lighting my wand. I was in a large windowed room that had twenty chairs stacked and pushed against the wall. In the middle was the same amount of music stands pushed together. Behind them was grand piano. The moon reflected on the surface and it glowed like silver. I stared for a second then turned and ran out the door.

I backtracked to the astronomy tower and then to the common room. I would hear noises and immediately jump against the wall. I nearly made a suit of armor fall over in my haste to get out of sight.

I made it back to the common room at about two A.M. The rest of the Hufflepuffs were sitting at a table in the common room. I was immediately crushed as I came through the door.

"Where were you?" they kept asking.

"I stayed after and got lost." I couldn't tell them about the music room until I knew I could find it again.

By the end of Friday, we first years were rather tired, frustrated and were dreading the meeting that night. It appeared as if we were finally going to be told what the rest of the school knew: we were losers.

I had spent the day looking in the library with Madam Pince looking over my shoulder waiting for me to drop, damage, or horribly maim a book. Ernie's quick thinking had saved us all during the potions lesson (again) and Hannah was our personal savior because she found our charms class room when three staircases changed places after we were held back from potions to clean up a spill from the class before ours.

And then there were the other students. The giggling, pointing, teasing groups of students. Our first day it took us two tries at directions for us to figure out that it wasn't our ability to follow directions that were wrong but that we asked some of the cruelest people in school. We later quietly voiced our intentions to curse them horribly when they passed and began to laugh at us until we ran to class.

But now we were in the common room with the whole house crowded around the ten of us. I sat on one end with Justin on my right. From there it went Susan, Hannah, George, Alexander, Michiko, Elizabeth, John and Ernie.

"First years in the front please. Good. That all of you?" A tall boy came to the front. He had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. He smiled broadly at us. We looked around and nodded. "All right then. I'm Christopher Mener, your head boy. Yes, the head boy is a Hufflepuff. Don't look so surprised. I know most of you didn't want to be sorted into Hufflepuff and to be quite frank I didn't want to be here either as a first year.

"We are Hufflepuffs. We aren't the brave. We aren't in anyway the brains of the school. We aren't the most cunning either. And people see this as a bad thing. We are Hufflepuffs.

"We are the people you can count on to be here. We continue with our goals even when there are a thousand obstacles in the way. We value people more than books but we don't ignore our studies. There has been a Hufflepuff in the top four students of the school every year for centuries. We refuse to lie for personal gain. We work for everything we get and every victory you achieve is one for the whole house.

"Look around you. These are the people who will help you and who you will help. The rest of the school may look down upon us, but I can guarantee you that none of the other houses does that. We are the loyal, the just and the fair.

"Because we stand together we are one of the toughest houses in the school. We work harder and better than everyone else. None of you have been down that corridor. You weren't allowed to until now." He gestured at us. "Get up. Get your wands out. All right. Follow me." We walked over to the right side of the common room and Christopher stopped in front of the corridor on that side. "You were told these were practice rooms," he pointed at Justin. "Go down that corridor." Justin walked forward and was propelled against the wall of students behind us. They caught him and helped him catch his balance. "See. You cannot enter yet."

"These rooms were built by Helga Hufflepuff, our founder. She made them as a refuge. Unfortunately, there were other plans made and soon Hufflepuffs everywhere were under attack. So, they came here. They stormed the door and began killing everyone they could find. Helga caved in the door to prevent others from coming in. On her burial day, the survivors refused to let that happen ever again. To that end these rooms where built. They are so you can practice spells, curses, transfiguration and potions. There are books on all subjects carefully picked out for their usefulness. They are all up to date and the highest level of difficulty including the Dark Arts. All of you will have lessons in defense and attack methods every Saturday at eleven. That was the legacy they left for us. To be the best. No matter what is said about us."

"Now," Christopher commanded, "hold out your wands and point them at the corridor." We did so, nervously pulling our wand out of our pockets with trembling hands. "Now repeat after me."

"We are Hufflepuffs;

Just to the wronged,

Loyal to our house,

Strong when others are weak.

We swear that we will never forget what was done for us.

This is our legacy. We will not fail to pass it on."

I still remember that moment. It was one of the defining moments in my life. From then on I was a Hufflepuff. Once a Hufflepuff, always a Hufflepuff. The other houses diminish in importance as their former occupants get older but not Hufflepuff.

Years later I had a dream about that moment but the corridor was filled with flames instead of the blank nothingness that faced us that day. On the other side I saw my housemates reaching for me through the flames. I grabbed their hands and walked through what looked like death because they asked me.