Cruel Eloise

We are the music makers

And we are the dreamers of dreams

Wandering by lonely sea breakers,

Sitting by desolate streams,

World-losers and world-foresakers,

On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and the shakers

Of the world forever, it seems."

We walked through a passageway, took a sharp right through a low arch and made our way down a long dank corridor. Christopher led the way and torches burst into flame as he passed the sconces. Their light bathed the stones in flickering color like the refection of flames in dirty water. Unlike the common room we had just left, there were no windows and the walls were bare. It was damp and I felt beads of water hit my face as we walked silently down the corridor. The humidity seemed to dampen any sound.

After what seemed forever, the hallway opened up into a large stone room with bookshelves lining the walls with two tables with eight chairs in the middle. I felt as though someone were staring at me and I looked at Justin. He raised his eyebrows as if to say that our head boy had lied to us when he said that this was the Grand Secret.

Christopher continued into the room and we followed. There was one battered door with several padlocks. I looked behind the rest of the first years and saw the rest of the house staring at the door and the key that had appeared in Christopher's hand. I turned back just as the last padlock opened with a loud click. He opened the door and went in to the dark.

"Come on!" he called to us.

Ernie went in first and the rest of us soon followed. The room seemed to open up. It was huge. I stared up at the ceiling until I hit the mats. I mean, really hit the mats. I hadn't seen the change in the height of the floor until I tripped and landed on my face. George came and helped me up.

I got up and saw Christopher was at the other end of the room next to a large wooden cabinet. He stood there like a guard. We gathered around him.

"Welcome to the practice room. Once a week you will be studying in here with an older student. You will be learning dueling, self-defense and general spells.

"You are allowed to practice in here as long as you sign up in advance. There is a sign-up sheet that will appear on the door. Unless there is a class in here, there are only three students allowed in here at a time. First years are not allowed to use the room without an older student present. Madam Pomfrey was not a Hufflepuff and wouldn't know about this room. We want to keep her in the dark unless she must know.

"As a point of interest, this is why the other houses think we are klutzes. Accidents do happen and as you know you just might end up in the hospital wing. We send more people there than every other house - with the obvious exception of Gryffindor." There were a few giggles at this. I gathered it had become a matter of pride and a bit of a house joke.

"Now," Christopher continued, "You must never speak of this place outside the common room and dormitories unless it is an emergency. The other houses must never know. If a dueling club forms, I strongly encourage you to join it even though you have classes here.

"Remember, first year lessons are tomorrow at eleven. Don't be late. The other times will be posted tomorrow. You are all excused."

Us first years wandered back in silence. It was a bit much to get you head around at first. I felt as if my world had been turned upside down. Everything I believed had been told and what had been expected of me was now horribly, horribly wrong. I tried to put it into a sentence. The whole school though, for some reason, that Hufflepuffs were duffers--stupid, klutzy, and worthless--even thought hey had the head boy, top students in each year, and top notch duelers. It still didn't make much sense...

The next morning I woke up with Elizabeth shaking me.

"Oh get up! We have to eat breakfast before lessons!" I stared at her, looked at the clock and stared at her again. It was six thirty. Lessons started at 11.

"Goo 'way!" I mumbled into my pillow.

"Aww, come on! Everyone else is up." I lifted my head experimentally from the pillow. The room was indeed bustling.

I grumbled and got out of my nice, soft, warm, comfortable, beautiful bed. My feet missed my slippers and I ended up with them on the cold stone floor. I eventually found the slippers and wandered into the washroom to get clean and ready.

By the time I was dressed, everyone was waiting around the wizarding wireless, with some loud, annoying, upbeat song blaring from its speakers.

"I'm ready. If you're so keen on eating, let's go," I growled at them. They laughed at me.

Breakfast consisted of toast, cereal, oatmeal, bacon and eggs. I spooned myself a bowl of the oatmeal and began to dump brown sugar in it until the sugar bowl began to protest. As I scooped it into my mouth, I realized that we were some of the only people eating that early. A tall Gryffindor boy looked over and laughed at us. I suppose a group of Hufflepuff firsties at 6:30 on a Saturday morning look rather silly. Michiko stuck her tongue out at him in a mature fashion. The boy laughed harder. Susan was close to teaching him a lesson but Justin stopped her from launching a spoonful of cereal at him. It was a bit of a pity, really.

We made it back to the common room by eight and then ran off to the library on the premise that Justin had a horrible sense of direction and would get lost. We all brought our homework and stationed ourselves in a back corner with a large wooden table.

I began to look through the transfiguration book. The charts on the pages we were supposed to read confused me so I opened the book and started at the beginning. I even read the prologue and the table of contents. After a good hour of reading I had gotten up the charts and began to explain them to myself. I explain things best out loud.

"If one takes an animal the size of a desk and transforms it into a desk that animal has a better chance of being alright. But if one take an animal the that is smaller than a desk and transforms it into a desk, it will never return to its normal size without a built in reduction spell along with the transfiguration," I began to speak faster as my brain caught hold of the idea. "If one transfigures a larger object into a smaller object it has a possibility of blowing up because the mass is so large and can't fit into the smaller skin."

"What are you on about?" Alexander stared at me from across the table. I blushed and pointed to the textbook.

"Transfiguration," I muttered.

"The law of sizes? I understood that first go," he giggled maliciously, "I don't understand how you can't get it." I looked at the wall behind him, my blood boiling.

"The same way you don't understand astronomy and I had to explain everything to you in the library yesterday so you could point out the North Star on the chart we were given." Susan shot back from down the table.

I giggled as Alexander glared at Susan, trying to look tough and scary.

I looked at Alexander. "Listen, if you help me with transfiguration if I'll help you with astronomy, and I promise not to mention to the Slytherins that you can't find the North Star," I raised an eyebrow, "Take it or leave it."

"Remind me why you are a Hufflepuff?"

"Is it a deal?"

"Yeah," He reached over a shook my hand.

We arrived back at the common room by half past ten and spent the next quarter of an hour playing Exploding Snap. After we had left some more scorch marks on the already blackened table, we gathered in front of the corridor to the practice room. We milled about tossing around ideas of who should lead the way into the tunnel.

At five to, Hannah walked out of our little group and led the way down the hall. We arrived on time, only to find the door ajar. Hannah tentatively stuck her head in and then jerked it back with a scream. She slammed the door and we heard a loud thud as something hit it. We looked at each other in panic.

"Back away and wands out," someone yelled.

We ended up with our backs to the corridor out for easy escape as the door swung quietly open to reveal a large ax embedded in the wood and Christopher grinning at us. He laughed.

"Well done. You're pretty fast. Although next time, back up further." We just stared at him as if he had gone mad. "That was your first test. You all passed. Now, shall we go into the room?"

We followed him and what happened afterwards was probably one my more interesting experiences. We were introduced to all the weapons on the walls, to the training dummies (who all had names and got upset if you called them the wrong one), and to the basics.

The basics included hand-to-hand combat and some rudimentary weapons training as well as duel etiquette. We were drilled in the names of the basic weapons until we could recite them all. Then we got our first taste of hand-to-hand.

We were all given a training dummy and were told to fight it. Mine was named Fatima. She took one look at my frightened face and the stitches that passed for her mouth grinned.

"Kid, you may be scared but if you ever get into a fight, don't look it. Wipe that crying-for-mummy face off and get at it."

I began to fight her and it was pitiful. I spent most of the time kicking her in the shin and running away until she told me to stop.

"Listen girly, you aren't going to do me any damage. I have been kicked around by so many generations of Hufflepuffs; it's no longer funny. I won't kill you. Heck, I won't even hurt you. Just fight."

I let her have it. I began to pummel Fatima with my fists until Christopher told us to stop. It felt so good. My hands would hit the fabric and bounce off. It was like hitting a pillow. I hit her because I was homesick, because I wanted to go to a Muggle school, because Alexander laughed at me, because I was alone, because I was mad at being a freak. I hit her because I had to.

Once that was done with, Chris showed us some basic dueling moves. How to start a duel. How to end one. How to run away honorably because, as he told us, "The secret to being a great fighter is not to be fearless, but knowing when to run away and come back later."

We emerged two hours later exhausted and mad about missing lunch. George was smart enough to ask if this was to happen every week. That's when we found the kitchens.

Down the hall from the common room was a large painting of fruit. We tickled the pear and walked into the kitchens. It was another Hufflepuff secret. According to some former Hogwarts students I talked to many years later they didn't get into the kitchens until their fifth or sixth years. We were told our first week.

After lunch I placed my music in my bag and wandered up to the Astronomy Tower. There was no one there besides some older students, who were giggling. I took a left away from the tower and the common room and began to backtrack. I wandered for what seemed like hours until I came upon the music room. It was no longer empty. An older Gryffindor girl was there, singing something or other. I glanced around the hallway and my eye fell on a sheet of paper next to the door.

It read:

Practice times.

If you desire this time everyday of the week please check the box next to you name. If you can only use the same time for a few days a week, check the boxes under those days.

The time is currently 2:47. The next open slot will be in 13 minutes. The room is in current use by Heather.

I took out a quill and scratched my name into the empty space below Heather's name and began to check days off. I was to have a three o'clock to four thirty time on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and a 5 o'clock to six o'clock time every other day.

I sat down to wait for the other girl. What really made me wonder was the way I couldn't hear anything. I wanted to hear what she was singing and wondered if I would ever know. Unfortunately, I know the laws and well, the chances of anyone knowing that any of us played or sung were about as likely as snow in April- possible but very rare.

Heather walked out a few minutes later, smiled at me and walked off. I got up and tentatively walked in. It was as large as I remembered it. The piano was there and the bench was pushed all the way in.

I pulled it out cautiously in case the legs would make a noise against the floor. I don't know why I was worried. It's not like anyone would have heard me. I sat down and wiggled my fingers experimentally in my lap.

I did my scales for about five minutes and then stared out the window, past the music I was supposed to play. Black clouds were rolling in over the lake like the sharp and flat keys on the piano.

I touched the keys and began to play. The sounds rolled past like thunder with lighting striking at the high points. I felt powerful and in control for the first time all week. It was like I had been holding my breath and was finally able to feel the oxygen rippling through my veins.

My fingers hit the cool keys hard, making the unpracticed muscles in my hands hurt. I know I made mistakes but it felt so good just to play that I didn't bother to correct them.

I ended the first run-through feeling as though I had just run a mile. I cracked my fingers individually and began again more slowly running through the mistakes until time was up and someone started to bang on the door.

On Sunday, I showed the room to Mitchiko and Justin. They both signed up for times.

"Eloise, could you teach me to play?" Justin asked after he signed up.

"Sure. One practice time a week I'll teach you and you can ask for help other times as well." He looked a little nervous, so I patted him on the back.

The next week of classes was a little better. With Alexander's help, I actually understood what was going on in Transfiguration. He was busy reciting the stars' positions and their names. He kept on coming up to me and asking me to explain stuff about the way the starts move. I had to detail the meanings of the azimuth and the celestial equator to him several times with many diagrams. He finally it by the time our Astronomy class came on Tuesday.

Herbology was interesting because the only person who had a faster arm than Ernie was Hermione Granger. She was such a know-it-all, probably one of the most annoying people I had ever met. I heard that later she was found fighting a troll but she never talked about it with me.

On Thursday, I was early for my practice time. I entered the hallway and peeked through the window in the door. There were four students in a square with their instruments in their hands bobbing and swaying to music I couldn't hear. There were two violins, a viola and a cello. Seeing as I was fifteen minutes early for my scheduled time, I sat to the side of the door. About 3 minutes later one of the players came and opened the door. She was in Slytherin and her badge proclaimed her to be the head girl. She had blond hair and brown eyes, with which she looked down at me curiously.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked politely.

"I'm waiting for my practice time," I explained, gesturing futilely with the music flopping about in my hand.

"Ah," I stared up at her. She wasn't finished. "Would you like to listen?"

"Yes, please. If you don't mind that is. "

"You're Eloise, right?" I nodded. "I saw your name on the board. You always have this room for an hour or so everyday, don't you?" She didn't wait for me to answer. "I'm Callie. Come in."

We walked into the room and the other players smiled at me.

"This is Scott, Mar, and Rachel," Callie said, lifting her viola gingerly and sitting down on a vacant chair. "All right everyone. From the top." I sat down on the floor my music on my lap.

They began. I jumped at first from the way they threw themselves into the music. It was one collective jolt and they were off. Their fingers flew over the strings, as their bows seemed to jump up and down to the music. The continued at a ferocious pace playing the bright happy music.

But the music wasn't necessarily happy. It was beautiful and bright but not happy at all. It was filled with rage. I closed my eyes and listened to them play. The nice pretty parts seemed be covering the true feelings of anger and frustration. It was a mask that these people had played into existence and were somehow wearing. I don't know how to describe it as other than that.