Eshu's Daughter

Ch.6 - A Bunch of Duffers

Kit stared at a torn and dirty hat the professor had set in front of the first years on a rickety wooden stool. The great hall glowed with muted light from hundreds of floating candles and she hated to think what the hat would have looked like in full light. Her mom would never have let that thing in the house.

Kit rubbed a hand over Puck's pouch trying to calm her racing heart. She could feel every eye in the hall focused on them, waiting, watching, for what she wasn't sure, but the suspense was close to killing her.

The hat shuddered, a ripple like a breeze moved over the patched material and a large rip opened like a mouth. Kit forgot all about being nervous. She dropped her hand from the pouch and listened in amazement as the hat began to sing:

"I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat,
The smartest cap around.
No finer hat there ever was,
Though my stitching's come unwound.
The founders four placed in me their
Requirements for admission.
As each did value qualities
Unique to their position.
Tis' Godric's house where bravery
Will always be the test.
For with gallantry and lion heart
Bold Gryffindor was blessed.
In Ravenclaw the house is filled
With learning quite inspired.
A ready mind and intellect,
Rowena most admired.
In Hufflepuff, the loyal dwell,
Those steadfast, faithful folk.
The hardest workers were the ones
Helga had bespoke.
In Slytherin best placed are those
That to greatness do aspire.
The ambition, drive and zealotry
That Salazar desired.
Back in the day 'twas they who'd choose
But now I do all that
In a thousand years I've not been wrong,
Though on countless heads I've sat.
So pull me down around your ears,
I'll see what's in your head.
For I can tell just where it is
That you should make your bed."

By the time the hat had finished its song, Kit had managed to shut her jaw so she didn't resemble a broken nutcracker quite so much. She watched as Professor McGonagall called the first student forward to be sorted.

"Alcott, Preston." A tall boy with the largest ears Kit had ever seen, stepped forward, sat on the stool and placed the hat over his head. It balanced on his ear tips for a few moments before calling out "Gryffindor!" The table on the far left cheered loudly as Preston trotted over to sit with them.

"Bashira, Tikali" came next, a pretty black girl with her hair twisted into elaborate braids. She joined the Ravenclaw table, which was only slightly more reserved in it's cheering. Kit watched her classmates being sorted one by one, each time the hat calling out a house name, sometimes quickly, but "Cauldwell, Russel" had to sit there for a good three minutes.

When Professor McGonagall called "Creevey, Colin" Colin shot towards the stool, almost knocking it over in his excitement. He snatched up the hat and jammed it down over his head. Kit winced, certain the hat had just acquired a few more rips. The hat settled onto Colin's shoulders, completely covering his head. It didn't stay there long, however.

"Gryffindor!" called the hat after only a few seconds and Colin bobbed up from the stool, eyes still covered, stumbled and crashed to the floor. He pulled the hat off, a little dazed, and put it back on the stool before running to the Gryffindor table to join his cheering classmates. Kit heard harsh, jeering laughter erupt from the table on the far side of the room.

"Ellsington, Kristin" Professor McGonagall called next. Kit walked toward the stool as if facing a firing squad. She had a moment to look out at all those faces watching her before she sat and dropped the hat on her head. It fell down over her eyes making the world go black and Kit's stomach knotted so tight with tension she felt sick.

The hat was utterly silent for a moment, then a voice whispered in her ear "Well, well. How very extraordinary. I haven't seen one of you in longer than I can remember and that is a very long time indeed."

Kit felt confusion smother the tension holding her. One of what? The hat chuckled, it actually chuckled at her, and that made Kit angry for some reason. It's going to say I don't belong here, she thought, anger and fear mixing together and making her shake.

"Oh you belong here," the hat answered. "The question is where? You have qualities that present a … special challenge, shall we say," it whispered. "Slytherin would have prized you greatly, but there is something else in your nature too. So where to put you?"

Put me with my friends, Kit thought desperately, wanting the sorting over. She knew it was a stupid thought as neither Verity nor Ellie had been sorted yet.

"Ah a choice. I wonder if it will be the right one? Very well. Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted the last word and Kit sagged liked a deflated balloon.

Hadn't Verity said kids in Hufflepuff were only there because they didn't belong anywhere else? Even here I guess I don't fit, she thought miserably. Kit struggled to find a smile as she walked toward a table full of grinning, cheering people in the center of the hall.

With a thump Kit sat and watched the rest of the sorting through a sort of haze. She only snapped out of it when she heard Professor McGonagall call "Thomas, Elspeth."

Ellie had barely placed the sorting hat on her head when it shouted "Hufflepuff!" Despite herself Kit smiled. She tried to feel regret that Ellie didn't fit either but the happy thought that at least they'd be together shoved everything else aside. Ellie bounded over to sit with her, a huge smile lighting up her face, "We're in the same house," she exclaimed. She quieted just in time to watch Spencer become a Gryffindor.

Soon it was Verity's turn, the hat took about a minute and then shouted out "Slytherin!" Ellie groaned.

"It's where she wanted to be. Well, other than Ravenclaw," Kit said, trying to cheer Ellie. "Anyway, we said we'd stay friends even if we were in different houses." Ellie tried to muster a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

Finally, with "Zeeman, Edgar" the sorting was over and the hat and stool removed.

***

Enormous quantities of food had appeared in piles all over the Hufflepuff table. It flowed over plates and platters, filling countless golden tureens and large, heavy bowls. Whereas moments before the table had been decorated with orderly rows of plates and cups, with a clap of the headmaster's hands, it resembled a binge eater's paradise and Kit found herself staring at a platter of very greasy looking sausages. She was currently busy trying to identify at least a dozen dishes she didn't recognize.

The welcoming feast certainly seemed to be a very festive occasion. Perhaps it was because she'd grown used to her mother's cooking, which relied mainly on anything boxed, bagged, or freeze-dried, but the foods piled around Kit seemed to smell better than normal food rightfully should. She'd thrown more jelly beans on the train than she'd eaten and been too busy talking with her new friends to worry about food since. Suddenly she was ravenously hungry.

Poking experimentally with her fork at a large bowl of - something - Kit interrupted Ellie in the middle of scooping sausages onto her plate. What was it with the Brits and sausages? There seemed to be an awful lot of them scattered about the table and it wasn't even breakfast.

"Would you mind telling me what this is," Kit said pointing at the mystery bowl. Ellie flicked a glance at it and went back to her sausages; Kit supposed jelly beans hadn't been filling enough for her either. "Toad-in-the-hole," Ellie said.

"Come again?"

Ellie looked up, rolling her eyes. "What do they feed you in America?"

"Nothing that hops."

"It's not a real toad, it's just sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding."

"Pudding? Who'd put meat in a pudding?"

"Just try some," Ellie said, shaking her head and shoving the bowl toward Kit.

Kit bent to examine the contents more closely. There was nothing in there that looked remotely pudding-like. It more closely resembled a squashed a pastry than the butterscotch pudding her mom used to tuck into her lunch bag.

Stick with what you know, Kit decided, opting for a simple chicken dish sitting near her; it looked safe enough. Conversations flowed and bubbled around her, laughter threading through it all. "What'd you do over the summer" "heard about the Wasps last game?" "-went on holiday to-" Kit relaxed into the comfort and rightness of it. She did belong at Hogwarts, the hat had said so, and she wouldn't let herself feel otherwise. Surely if she wasn't meant to be here…

Ellie's jubilant laughter broke through Kit's inner pep-talk, "You have the strangest expression on your face. What are you thinking about?"

"How weird it is to be here, at Hogwarts," Kit said. A smile curved her lips, "and how cool."

Ellie nodded, "It's different than what I expected, but I like it." Running her eyes around the room, Ellie pointed at a table on the far side of the hall from them. "Verity doesn't look like she's having much fun though." At present, Verity sat picking sullenly at her food, occasionally nodding to whatever the dark-haired girl beside her said.

"Is it just me or do most of the people at her table, look -" Kit broke off not knowing quite how to phrase it. Rather like junior thugs in training, all scowls and surly expressions, with the occasional self-satisfied smirk thrown in for variety. But that wasn't a polite sort of thing to say out loud.

Ellie nodded despite the fact that Kit hadn't finished her sentence. "Yeah, I'm glad we didn't end up there, even if Verity does like it better. Wish she could have been sorted into Hufflepuff," she said with another breathy sigh.

Kit looked along their own table, unable to resist comparing the two. It didn't come out in Slytherins' favor. While there were a few sullen looks among the Hufflepuffs, for the most part the students appeared to be enjoying themselves, bending close to one another to exchange whispers, slapping backs and displaying an openness and camaraderie that the other table seemed to lack. Maybe Verity was wrong about Hufflepuff.

"Can you pass the roast potatoes, please," a girl on Kit's left said. She was smiling so that her whole face seemed to tilt upward. There was something about her that reminded Kit of a very friendly cocker spaniel. She was cute in the same way a puppy is, all cuddly roundness and huge eyes, and not an ounce of seriousness anywhere in her face.

"Sure." Kit pushed the platter in question toward her.

"Thanks, I'm Merrilee," the girl said, blond curls bouncing as she turned to scoop potatoes on her plate. "I'm ever so glad to be in Hufflepuff, my mum and dad were in it too, they'd have been so disappointed if I wasn't. What house were your parents in?"

"My parents didn't go to Hogwarts," Kit said.

"Oh," Merrilee wrinkled her snub little nose, "stupid of me really. Should have known with that accent of yours. Where did they go?"

"Actually, my parents are in the military, they're what you call Muggles."

"Really? How do people get by without magic? Doesn't seem like you'd be able to do anything."

"It's really very easy. We have other things, like electricity, and telephones. And we don't use candles or anything. We have light bulbs, and my mom cooks our food in the microwave, it doesn't just appear in front of us."

Merrilee look at her blankly and Kit realized she hadn't understood a word.

"Calliope's dad is a Muggle," Merrilee said, seeming to struggle for something to say and nodding toward the girl sitting beside her. Calliope smiled thinly, her sallow skin and yellow hair making her appear washed out and ill. She looked like a strange abstract painting done in only one hue and the vivid black or her robes stood out oddly in their sea of yellow. "Her mum's a witch though," Merrilee added.

"Does your dad mind?" Kit asked.

"No," Calliope said, "he thinks it's brill he doesn't have to cut the grass. Mum put a charm on the garden to keep it trimmed."

"Bet my dad would love a charm like that, he hates cutting the grass. Maybe I can learn it for next summer," Ellie said, jumping into the conversation.

"We're not allowed to use magic outside school," Merrilee said, shaking her head. "My sister gets a notice before she comes home each summer. And last Christmas when she got mad and hexed my hair into snakes, just cause I borrowed her hair ribbons, my brother tattled and she got a warning from the ministry." Merrilee grinned at them, apparently pleased at her sister's disgrace.

Ellie and Kit were looking horrified at the idea of having your hair turned into snakes, but it didn't seem to bother Merrilee. Calliope listened with a blank expression on her face. It seemed to be her usual look. Aside from that meager smile earlier, Kit had yet to see it vary.

***

After the feast, the first year Hufflepuff students were led out of the great hall by one of the older students. Kit glanced idly at the portraits they passed. Her eyes widened when one of them waved back at her and she accidentally stepped on the back of someone's robes. "Sorry," she said, still goggling at the portrait, whose occupant, a very old and grizzled wizard, was now chatting with an equally ancient witch.

"It helps if you watch were you're going," snapped the girl she'd stepped on, sweeping her robes forward to protect them. Kit stopped staring at the portraits and turned her head forward, before she could apologize again, however, Ellie jumped in.

"She said she was sorry and it's not like she was trying to walk on you."

"Well she did a smashing job of it. Look at my robes, there's dust all over the hem and they're brand new."

Merrilee, who'd been walking farther back with Calliope, sped up till she was walking next to Kit and Ellie. She peered at the other girl's robes for a moment. "Basic cleaning charm will get that out in a tic, no need to get upset. I can show you how when we get to our dorm."

"I know how to do a cleaning charm," the other girl said, glaring at Merrilee as though she'd been insulted. She swung back around and hurried to catch up to the line of students in front of her.

"Ignore her," Ellie said. "Did you see that chap in the painting wave at us?"

"What do you think I was staring at?" Kit said.

"And I swear I saw one of the staircases move when we left the great hall," Ellie added.

"My sister told me about that, says you've got to watch 'em sharp like, to make sure you don't end up in the wrong place. Course she says there's more ways to get lost in this castle than all of London, so I'm not certain watching them'll help," Merrilee said.

They passed down a staircase and through a short corridor, torches flickering on the walls and casting eerie shadows across the floor like writhing snakes. The corridor twisted sharply and they passed down another stair, then ducked behind a tapestry and through a hidden door into yet another corridor, this one shorter than the last. The corridor didn't seem to go anywhere; it ended abruptly in a dingy stone wall with a torch set in black bracket at its very center. The older boy they'd been following stopped just to left of the torch and faced them. Kit could see the now familiar badge with its large P at his shoulder, except this one was in shades of yellow and black.

The first years crowded forward in a loose half circle around the boy and older students pressed in behind them filling the corridor completely. There was an ornamental rug, which was tatty and worn with a yellow and black starburst pattern, at the boy's feet. It looked oddly out of place and Kit wondered why anyone would bother putting a rug in a glorified hallway. And a hallway to nowhere at that.

The older students shuffled impatiently and one of them called out "Ah come on Nolan, quit being dramatic. We're all ready to hear a story and find our beds, not stand here staring at you."

The boy by the rug grinned and looked down saying "Puffa Pod." The carpet rolled back by itself and stones slid away from stone to reveal another staircase with warm yellow light glowing at the bottom of its short length. A happy murmur rose from behind Kit as the older students pressed forward. Nolan smiled at the first years and with a gesture to the stairs he said "Welcome to Hufflepuff house."

He led them down the stairs and into a large room sprinkled with comfy looking chairs and puffy round ottomans. Giant pillows that would not have looked out of place in some Pasha's palace clustered in front of the fire. Everywhere Kit looked there were clay pots filled with long quills, stacks of new parchment laying beside open workspaces that were dark and smoky with age, and plants of every imaginable color and type filling any open space. It all combined to create an impossibly cluttered but inviting picture. It was the sort of room you wanted to curl up in with a book, where you could laugh away an afternoon with friends. It was perfect.

"Gather around now, come on, scoot in closer, there's a lot of us and we'll be needing every bit of space we can get," Nolan said, motioning the first years closer to where he stood by the enormous fireplace. By now the room was filled with students, from first years to seventh they sat on chair arms and shoved aside planters, crowding close to the prefect as he watched them. An expectant hush had settled over the crowd and Kit could feel their pleased excitement vibrating in the air. She sat on an ottoman and Ellie pressed close beside her on the other side of it.

Nolan leaned back against the mantle, seeming in no hurry. Several people began to fidget. When the fidgets seemed to have reached epidemic proportions, as though the entire first year class had become infested with fleas, Nolan began with an easy smile, "This is the worst house in the school. It's filled with students not talented enough to fit anywhere else and too stupid to just pack up and leave. We're duffers and fools, inept bumblers that have to struggle through every class." The first years froze, staring at him in disbelief.

"That's what you've heard isn't it? Don't bother looking shocked. I'd lay a bet most of you weren't hoping to be sorted into Hufflepuff. Ashamed of us, that's what you are. You can dump those ideas right now," Nolan said, his eyes suddenly fierce. "It's a load of rubbish and there's no room for that rot here. This is the best ruddy house in the school, make no mistake!"

"Bloody right," someone called from the back and Nolan's glare eased back into a grin.

"We've got our secrets," he said. "Keep it quiet like, but if those other students knew half the stuff that we Hufflepuffs have done, they'd all be clamoring to get in. Never hang your head, never be ashamed of what you are. We work harder than anyone else in this school, 'cept maybe the house elves."

Nolan leaned forward and looked at them seriously again. "We'll never be the smartest, or the bravest, or … well I can't think of anything good to say about Slytherin so I'll just leave it at that. But we're steadfast and true to one another. This whole house comes together to support our mates when it needs doing and loyalty is what this house was built on."

With a gesture behind where the students clustered Nolan continued, "See those banners on the wall? Those are our colors: yellow and black. Black is where we all start, where you're starting. Black for the womb, the beginning, and as we grow and learn we work toward the light. Not the cold white of perfection, which no one ever reaches anyway, but our light, yellow for warmth and cheer and being. Yellow is what we all strive for, what we can become."

Nolan puffed out his chest and drew himself up, pride in every inch of him. "Our symbol is the badger, and like the badger we are loyal and tireless, we'll avoid a row if we can but when backed into a corner we'll put up a fierce fight. The black and white of the badger, like the yellow and black of our colors, show our contrasts. The world looks on us as duffers, but we know we're something else, good and strong, a family. No dark witch or wizard has ever come out of this house and none ever will, that's something to be proud of, none of the other houses can say that."

Nolan's fierce expression lightened at their rapt gazes, "If you ever need help that's what the rest of us are here for, we stand together." At his last words a pale form floated out of the fireplace to stand next to him. It was a large and cheerful looking friar, and he was clearly a ghost.

Kit's heart gave a horrible leap, remembering all of the ghost stories she'd ever heard. Every single one featured a ghoul terrorizing some helpless person. Well except maybe Casper, she couldn't recall him terrorizing anyone. She studied the ghost for a moment, noting his smiling face and friendly, open expression. He definitely seemed to have more in common with Casper than the other type of ghost she'd been imagining. Kit relaxed back onto the ottoman, deciding not to jump up and make an idiot of herself just yet.

"This is Friar Ware," Nolan said, gesturing to the ghost. "He's the Hufflepuff house ghost and will help you if you get lost in the castle or need help with anything else. He's been here since the 1530s and like this house, he'll still be here in another 500 years."

"True, true," murmured the ghost, beaming at them, "I was in this very house when I attended Hogwarts and listened to a speech very much like this one on my first night as well. We have our traditions, my yes. I'm so happy to meet you all. Call on me if you ever have a need." With an apologetic smile at Nolan Friar Ware continued, "I'm afraid I can't linger. The other house ghosts and I are having an intervention with Peeves tonight. He will insist on provoking the suits of armor into duels and we've just lost our fifth suit this week. Hacked to pieces." The friar shook his pale head sadly and with a last smile disappeared back into the fireplace.

Nolan looked taken aback for a moment and stared at them blankly. One of the older students coughed and Nolan recovered continuing, "Hufflepuffs are steadfast, we stick with things even when everyone else walks away. And while we may not be the smartest we make up for it with our willingness to work for what we want, to study hard and be creative. Look above you and you'll see the lights in the common room are arranged to mirror the stars each night. Helga Hufflepuff designed those lights to help with our astronomy lessons and those plants clustered around you are the same ones you'll find in many of your Herbology classes. We're a resourceful lot, to be sure. There's always fresh quills and parchment to be found in the common room. We all chip in third year and above to keep them stocked. And you'll always find a pot of sugar quills on the mantle."

Nolan moved to stand next to the statue of a badger standing upright. The statue just reached his shoulder and, while it wasn't particularly pretty, there was a certain charm in its rough stone features.

"This is Helga," he said patting the statue's head. "She's named for our founder and right special too. Helga Hufflepuff created all this for us, chose these rooms, started our traditions, began the Sett we carry on today." At the word 'Sett' the statue swung away from the wall revealing a doorway. Kit and several other first years gasped while the older students gave low rumbling murmurs of happiness and approbation.

"What are you waiting for?" Nolan said waving his hand at the door. "It's time you were learning our best kept secret, and one of the things that makes this house the best bloody one in the school."

With a few helpful shoves from the older students the first years followed Nolan through the doorway and into a dark corridor. Kit heard him say "Lumos" and light blazed from the tip of Nolan's wand. Many of the older students carried their wands as well and also repeated the incantation until the narrow space was filled with glowing white light.

"We keep this corridor dark," Nolan said, "on the off chance anyone ever gets in the common room and examines old Helga too closely. This way there's no light to give away the door." As he spoke Nolan moved farther into the corridor and soon they'd reached a huge chamber the size of a small soccer field. The ceiling arched overhead 20 feet or more and a soft golden glow filled the room. "Nox" Nolan said, causing the light on his wand to go out.

"A sett is a badger's den," he said gesturing at the room surrounding them. "A series of chambers and tunnels that can extend indefinitely. Now our Sett is sixty rooms so far and we've got twenty-seven exits. And every seven years we complete a new room, exit or tunnel. The seventh form students vote on our next project and everyone in the house pitches in. As first years you'll be hauling away dirt to begin with, but soon enough you'll be decorating, designing and planning as you move into the upper forms. It takes a lot of work to finish each project, but that's what we're good at and we've made some amazing things. Helga Hufflepuff herself created this room and the next two. We use this one for practicing our flying and Quidditch. You can see it's more than big enough."

Nolan moved into the next room and showed them the little niches that had been carved into each wall; books filled the majority of them but a few held pottery or statues. "This is our reading room," he said. "You'll find books in here on almost every subject and unlike the library we never close and there's no Madam Pince to chase you out."

They moved to the next room, and then the next, each time Nolan described what the room's purpose was or gave a bit of history, and as the tour continued Kit felt a tiny glow of pride growing within her. Hufflepuffs really had done amazing things and she was a part of it now. She marveled at lush murals that swept over entire walls, their colorful inhabitants just as animated as the portraits had been. There were rooms filled with rich weavings, others with areas for games. Her favorite though was a room set far back in the Sett, a miniature oasis that drew an awed gasp from her the moment she saw it.

A small waterfall plunged down, gurgling, into a tiny pond filled with jewel bright fish. Plants crowded around trailing up the walls and spilling across the floor. There were large tropical flowers in red and orange and tiny wispy reeds. It was like walking into the jungle when you'd been in the desert only moments before. The calm, soothing atmosphere of the room made Kit want to curl up and stare into the pond for hours, to see just how it would feel to trail her fingers in the cool water and have the fish nip them playfully.

Kit was disappointed when they left the grotto, as Nolan had called the room. She stared back at it as they moved away and then focused on the magically lit corridor walls. Everywhere they had gone, in every room and corridor that soft golden light bathed them. It made her feel as if she was wrapped in sleepy sunbeams.

There were so very many rooms and corridors that by the time they returned to the common room Kit's feet had grown sore from tramping through all of them. Some the corridors and rooms, Nolan had told them, extended throughout the castle while others meandered across the parkland surrounding Hogwarts. Kit resolved to learn them all by heart so she'd never get lost. It might take the other students days to find her if she did.

"You're all looking knackered so why don't you go find your dormitories. Boys take the left hand staircase and girls the right, you'll find your trunks and your pets already in your room."

"Wow," a few minutes later Kit stopped in the doorway of their new dorm, gaping like a tourist on vacation. There was no way this was her room. It was as if she'd stepped inside one of the picture books her mom used to read her at bedtime.

Hadn't sleeping beauty been lain out on a bed just like that? And hadn't the wicked witch asked that very mirror who was the fairest in the land? At any moment she expected to see Rapunzel sweep in and demand to know what they had done with her tower window. Because, of course, there weren't any windows at all. They had traveled down so many stairs and corridors to reach the common room that Kit knew they had to be almost in the dungeons. It was a very nice dungeon.

Merrilee brushed by Kit with Calliope following close behind, practically hugging her shadow. With a small sniff, the girl Kit had stepped on earlier edged her way into the room as well, shooting a nasty look over her shoulder. Kit wasn't sure if the girl was still miffed about her robes or was newly irritated by the fact that Kit was taking up most of the doorway with her gawping. She wasn't the only one doing an excellent impression of a statue, however. Ellie and another girl were frozen outside the room as well, eyes just as wide and intent. Really, the other three had no appreciation for beauty, just breezing right in like that.

"Do you believe those beds," Ellie whispered. "Is that - Silk?"

"Dunno, might just be satin," said the other girl. She craned her head forward but didn't make any move to enter the room. "What ever it is, it's - well - it's really nice."

Kit nodded. "Have you ever seen plants like that?" she asked Ellie, motioning toward at least a dozen gold planters floating in the air beside the bed posts.

"No," Ellie said, staring at leafy vines the size of anacondas. The vines trailed down to twine about the bedposts, over dressers and bookshelves and some even reached right to the floor. There were vines with heart shaped leaves and others like curling ivy and several had yellow flowers the size of small dinner plates blooming all along their length. Someone had gotten very carried away with the miracle grow.

"When do you suppose the wicked witch will be showing up," Kit said, only half joking.

Ellie snorted. "We are the wicked witches. I bet all the little fairy princesses have been eaten by the dragon."

"They wouldn't keep a dragon on school grounds," Calliope said.

"Is she serious," Ellie hissed into Kit's ear.

"Hard to tell, but I have a feeling she is," Kit answered.

"Honestly are you three going to hang out in the doorway all night. It's just a dorm room," said the girl Kit had stepped on earlier. Kit glared, wishing she'd stepped a bit harder.

Ellie sighed and moved around Kit, walking slowly to her trunk, which sat in front of one of the massive beds. She released Grizelle from her carrier and then fell back on the bed with a little moan. "Oh Kit you have got to try this," she breathed.

Kit stepped into the room and launched herself at her own bed, landing with a giggle as the mattress bounced beneath her. The comforter was fluffy and full, drowning her in a froth of yellow satin. Puck grumbled at being jounced around and Kit pulled him out of the carrying pouch, tossing him to land on a pillow beside her. He positively snarled.

When each of the girls had finished putting away her school things, filling dressers and bookshelves, or in Kit's case pulling Puck off the pillow he was intent on murdering, they began to introduce themselves. The girl they'd been ogling the dorm room with was named Jynx and their other roommate was Annemette. "Not Anne."

Kit had the strongest urge to ask Jynx about her name, but the other girl had blushed so red when she'd introduced herself that her face had matched her auburn hair for one startling minute. It probably wasn't a good idea to ask.

It was late and they were all tired, but the day's excitement still lingered in the air like an electrical charge. Ellie decided to pick out hair ribbons for the next day and dragged Kit over to her dresser to help her decide. Kit was prepared to be thoroughly bored but couldn't help laughing when she realized Ellie must have had every hair bobble in Western Europe with her.

"Don't laugh, do you know how boring it's going to be wearing black every day. I need some color," Ellie said, scowling at Kit and trying not to laugh as well.

"You'll definitely get it with these," Kit said holding up a pair of barrettes. They were shaped like brilliant orange lizards with glittering yellow eyes. The lizards flicked out little pink tongues and curled their tails as Kit moved them.

"Oh I love those, mum got them for my in Diagon Alley. I think I have another pair if you want to wear them as well." Ellie rummaged through her jewelry box pulling out bright green lizards this time.

Annemette was leaning back on her bed, pretending to read, but Kit noticed how often her eyes seemed to flicker over to Ellie and the barrettes. Kit gave Ellie a little nudge and nodded in the other girl's direction. Catching on, Ellie raised her voice slightly as she pulled out rainbow ribbons that flashed different colors and butterfly barrettes that flapped their wings. With each new thing Ellie pulled out the book dipped a little closer to Annemette's chest until she had dropped it completely. Ellie grinned.

"I don't think this tiger lily goes with my hair," Ellie said, shaking her head and trying to look mournful. She let her expression brighten suddenly, turning to face Annemette. "I bet it'd look wonderful in your hair, though." She rushed to place the flower barrette against Annemette's hair before the other girl could protest.

"Perfect," Ellie said, urging Annemette up so she could look in the mirror. And the barrette really did look nice perched in Annemette's hair. The bright orange and black stripes drew attention away from her angular face and highlighted her pretty white-blonde hair. It even seemed to brighten her muddy hazel eyes to a passable green.

Faced with Ellie's enthusiasm and an endless box full of hair bobbles Annemette was soon laughing and talking, her earlier hauteur forgotten. Really, Kit thought, she was actually pretty nice when she wasn't cross. The three girls didn't stumble into bed until very late, silly smiles still lingering.