So, here is the story of how on earth it came that a group of thirteen year old Gryffindors were kicking at an empty stone wall at midnight in the middle of November, while a bunch of Ravenclaws were standing a few meters away discussing spells at the same time as a group of Hufflepuffs gave a ton of pillows to five 12-year-old Slytherins wearing black- and- yellow pyjamas decorated with badgers. It had all begun earlier that day.
"I'm not saying it!" Samantha exclaimed.
"Neither am I," Caspar answered, his voice set in determination.
Samantha shoot the empty stone wall a nasty glare.
"How even dare they.." she broke off, seeing a boy and a girl coming running down the stairs towards us.
"Yo Cas, Samantha, Sarah" The boy greeted us, coming to a halt, "d'you know the password? Might've forgotten to check it".
"Everything okay there?" The girl asked, "you seem a bit… angry."
"Well you'd been too, if you knew the password, Lily", Samantha said furiously. "It's…
Samantha didn't even have time to explain exactly what the password was before the next group of intruders came. These were, however, not as friendly.
"Move aside people!" one of them shouted. I don't know these kids personally, I only know that they're in their fifth year and about a foot taller than me. Thus I quickly stepped out of the way. The leader of the fifth year's moved to stand right in front of the empty looking stone wall and said loudly; "Mud-bloods are scum"
"True that", his friend sniggered, and they walked through the hole that suddenly appeared in the wall. The entrance to the Slytherin common room closed before any of us could react. Caspar turned to Lily and the boy.
"See Luke? That's the password!"
"Thats horrible!" Lily and Luke said in unison, "They just can't do that!"
"Well, they have" I said "And it isn't going to change any time soon."
"Im not saying it" Lily said, just as Samantha had only five minutes ago. Luke shaked his head.
"Good, that sets it" Samantha said and, seeing our confused faces she added "Oh it's obvious isn't it? If we do not say the password, the wall won't let us enter, and since the password is such a ridiculous piece of sh.. ocolate I won't disgrace my mouth with it, and neither will you, we are going to have to camp here for tonight!"
"Guys!"
We turned around, not expecting to find anyone in the great hall so late. In front of us was a group of Hufflepuffs.
"We heard you couldn't get into your common room," one of the girls said, "so we wondered if you wanted to camp in our common room tonight?" Seeing our mildly confused faces she added; "Oh come on, you can hardly sleep in the corridors, Filch's gonna give you detention!"
"That's really nice of you," I said "but are you sure you.."
"Great, then follow me, my name's Sophie by the way." The girl turned around and walked out of the hall. Samantha and I exchanged surprised glances before following her. Apparently, Hufflepuffs can just let anyone into their common room like it's nobody's business.
Sophie lead us down a few corridors before coming to a halt in front of a stack of barrels near the kitchen.
"The way to get into our common room is quite like the way to get into Diagon Alley," one of the Hufflepuff boys said, pointing at a barrel. "You need to tap this barrel in a special rhythm. But I ain't gonna tell you what!" he told us with a wink.
As Sophie takes out her wand, Lily popped an excellent question. "But can't someone just tap all the barrels until they get inside?"
As the lid to the barrel swang open and revealed a hole, the Hufflepuffs laughed in unison.
"Oh I'd like to see them try," Sophie said longingly, "whoever does it wrong gets covered in vinegar!"
Cas looked taken aback, like the fact of having intruders doused in vinegar isn't a great idea (which, quite frankly, it is), but followed the Hufflepuffs into the common room. The place itself is really cozy, decorated in black and yellow with plants everywhere. A few Hufflepuffs looked up curiously. Well, I guess they don't have Slytherins in here very often.
Sophie explained the situations to the rest of the Hufflepuffs and soon we're given a pyjamas each and were told to go to change. When we came back, dressed in black and yellow pyjamas with badgers on them, the floor was covered with sleeping bags.
"Might as well have a sleepover now y'all here and stuff," one of the boys said merrily.
"Yeah Merlin knows we haven't had guests here in what, a thousand years?" The comment was greeted by laughter.
Sophie waved at us to come and grab a sleeping bag so our little pack of Slytherins went to sit down next to her.
"So how comes you Snakes couldn't get into your common room?" She asked us quietly.
I was just about to respond when Luke opened his mouth. "Snakes?"
"Oh," Sophie exclaimed, an apologetic look on her face. "It's Hufflepuff slang, Slytherin's are Snakes, Gryffindor's are Lions, Ravenclaw's Eagles and we're Badgers, I guess you wouldn't know that." Luke nodded.
"To answer your question, some little idiot had changed our password to something so rude I do not wish to disgrace my tounge with it!" Samantha said loudly. Sophie's response however was interrupted by a bang on the wall next to the entrance.
"Move out of the way Jordan, my brother told me that if you tap this barrel five times you will get into the common room!" The voice is muffled by the door. All the Hufflepuffs in the room instantly fell dead silent and five very light knocks could be heard through the wall. And then:
"Hhea! I stinks!" The common room exploded in laughter. One of the boys who met us in the Great hall got up and opened the door. Outside were six very soaked Ravenclaws. A whiff of vinegar trailed in through the door.
"What're you up to sneaky Ravens?"
"Saw you guys walking the corridors with a bunch of Slytherins and thought they might needed to be saved from some sort of sacrifice," the oldest one said sourly. "Didn't think we'd be soaked in vinegar in the process!" The Hufflepuff boy shook with silent laughter.
"Well haven't you heard the saying "Never poke a sleeping badger"?" he responded.
"Yeah we can see y'all clearly sleeping," one of the girls said, "Are you having a sleepover? Can we join you?"
"Nah we're just saving a few Sn.. Slytherins from getting eaten by Mrs. Norris. They.. whatever you can explain for yourselves." He broke off, and indicated towards us.
"Um," I said unintelligently. Samantha answered instead.
"Well the bloody door to our common room had changed to such a nasty password no one of us wanted to say it!"
"Oh," The Ravenclaws nodded "What is the password?" one of the younger boys asked.
Luke got up and walked across the room, then he whispered it to the boy. I saw his eyes widden from across the whole room.
"Right, I get why you didn't want to say that, it's just plain rude!" he finally responded.
"But surely there must be a way to fix it?" The first boy said," I mean you can't be stuck here forever, maybe we can trick the door?" he looked hopeful.
"That's actually a great idea," Sophie said " Why didn't we try that? Hang on, I'm just gonna get my cat and then we can get down there and try it out!" She darted up a set of stairs and out of sight.
In the silence that follows some kids said, "Why on earth does she need her cat?"
As we walked down the stairs to the dungeons we filled the rest of the Ravenclaws in on the story of the locked door, our trip to the Great hall in a search for food and our "sleepover" with the Hufflepuffs. They all nodded and processed to discussing spells in hushed voices. We're not allowed out in the corridors this late at night and if Filch caught us… I decided not to dwell on it. When we reached the start of the corridor where the entrance is located, Sophie stopped.
"This is where your common room is located, right?"
"Yeah" Lily answered her, clearly confused, "How did you know?"
Sophie smiled, it was a kind of pointy looking smile and her teeth gleamed with in the torch light.
"Badger secrets", she wispered in a quite unsettling voice. I decided to make up my mind about the Hufflepuffs. They sure are loyal and kind but I don't think they are all fools. I don't think this is a house to mess with at all. She put her cat down and whispered something to it. When she straightened up she said; "I've taught her to keep guard, never thought I would ever need it but it has come in handy a few times".
The Hufflepuffs are definitely not fools.
We walked to the place in the wall where the doorway to our common room is. Samantha pointed out the exact location and one of the Ravenclaws pulled out her wand. She pointed directly at the wall and said in a low voice Alohomora. Nothing happened. One of the boys that followed us tapped my shoulder and I turned around.
"So d'you think you'll be locked out here for a long time?" he asked me, "I mean that seems a little bit cruel,"
"Nah we'll be fine," I hesitated a little, wondering if I should reveal the password secret but decided it would be okay. They had helped us a lot after all. "The password changes every night and by tomorrow we should be able to get back in." He nodds, biting down on his lip.
"Erm.. Not meaning to be rude or anything but isn't every Slytherin a pureblood? I thought you were all raised thinking muggleborns are lower than you?" He said all this very fast. Even before he had time to finish the sentence I started to shake my head.
"No, not all Slytherins are pure bloods, Lily for example is a halfblood and I'm, well I'm a muggleborn." The boys face turned scarlet. "And not all Slytherins are disrespectful rats either," I said as he opens his mouth. "Most of us are actually pretty nice."
"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't mean to be rude"
"No it's fine" I said with what I hoped was a reassuring voice, "I thought all Slytherins were evil when I first came here you know, judging by my surname I was one of the first to be sorted. I was already kind of nervous to get sorted and all, but then some people started booing at me." I shook my head trying to rid my mind of the memory, of the thought of "What did I do wrong?" "But I met Cas and Sam here and learned that not all Slytherins are douchebags, and I guess not all Hufflepuffs are stupid fools either, huh?"
"I guess not" the boy replyed with a smile.
I turned my attention back to the Ravenclaws. They were sliding their wands down the seemingly empty stonewall mumbling something that sounds like schabershaberibump. I were just about to ask them if they were having any luck when another sound made me stiffen.
"Mjauuuuu"
The sound of running feets were coming towards us.
I exchanged a panicked glance with Samantha, but none of us had time to do anything else before a person ran into the corridor. However, it was not the one we were expecting.
Four Gryffindors stopped about two meters away from us. They were panting a little bit, as if they had been running. They looked at us in bewilderment. Clearly they were as confused as we were.
"Oh for Merlin's sake! How many people are we gonna meet to night?" Luke said.
"Yeah what are you doing here anyways?" Sophie asked.
That's when I noticed what they were holding in their arms.
The first Gryffindor, a girl that's about a year older than me lifted her arms a bit. She was holding a great load of muffins.
"We were robbing the kitchen of some food," She smiled, "D'ya wanna taste?"
I noticed my mouth were slightly open and closed it immediately. This night just went from weird to weirder.
"What are you doing here anyways?", someone behind me asked.
I sighed, were we really going to have to explain this mess once again? Luckily Casper broke in and explained the situation. At the end of the speech one of the Ravenclaws admitted that they couldn't find a working spell.
"So the problem is you can't use the password to get in and you can't open the door by magic?"
I nodded.
"Well have you tried breaking the door down?" the Gryffindor boy asked us eagerly.
"Of course we haven't!" Sophie stared at him as if he had suggested to set the castle on fire, "Do you want to break your foot or what?"
But it was too late, a Ravenclaw boy barely has time to put a muffliato spell on the corridor before the boy dropped his food and started kicking the wall. The other Gryffindors followed.
The Ravenclaws moved to stand aside, continuing discussing spells, as a group of new Hufflepuffs entered. These ones were holding a ridiculous amount of pillows.
"Since you took so long we figured you might not have managed to break down the door yet," a girl explained as she handed us the stack of pillows. "My name's Mary by the way."
"Thank you!" I said with a smile as I looked over to the Gryffindors, still trying to kick the door down and the whispering Ravenclaws.
So this is the story of how on earth it came that a group of thirteen year old Gryffindor's was kicking at an empty stone wall at midnight in the middle of November, while a bunch of Ravenclaws were standing a few meters away discussing spells at the same time as a group of Hufflepuffs gave a ton of pillows to five 12-year-old Slytherins wearing black- and- yellow pyjamas decorated with badgers. But it is also the story of how they gave up later and all went back to the Hufflepuff common room to sleep. It is the story of how it came that a week later they were all huddled together in the Room of Requirement, which was covered in comfy looking sleeping bags with motifes of a badger, a raven, a snake and a lion playing together. It is the story of how every friday night, people of all age and houses slipped out of bed and to the Room of Requirement to have a sleep over. And it is the story of how all the Hogwarts houses came together and showed their best side to help five 12 year olds in need, and how people from all different houses put down old arguments to work as one, as was intended by The Four Founders of Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizadry.