There is something about snow that absorbs sound. Unless you're outside, stomping loudly through it, all you can hear is the shhhh as snowflake after snowflake falls, one on top of the other. If you are underground, it is even quieter.
Poppy Vermeer lay in her bed wrapped in her thick gold blanket and let the silence try to lull her slowly to sleep. This was her favorite time of day. Lying in bed and relishing the softness of the down mattress and pillows, she would fight sleep just to feel exhaustion wash over her again. There was nothing like this in the entire world, she thought. The feeling of being wrapped in snow, earth, ancient stone, and magic; it was worth losing a minute or two of sleep to revel in the magic of warmth and comfort. The only sounds now were the other girls' breathing and occasional sighs from behind the curtains of their four-poster beds. A log popped merrily in the little squat oven in the center of their round room.
Poppy squeezed every muscle in her body tight, pulling the covers to her chin, and then relaxed. She finally let her eyes begin to drift close.
Poppy's eyes flew open almost instantly. She had heard something. She strained her ears. There it was again. It wasn't the fire, or any of her roommates. It came more quickly this time and sounded more urgent. Poppy pressed her lips together and breathed deeply through her nose as the insistent scritch, scritch of nails on stone grew louder.
Was it a rat?
The sound stopped. Then came the sound of a stone softly hitting another stone, like it was being wiggled out of place.
It was not a rat, unless the rats at Hogwarts were unusually clever and strong.
Poppy bolted upright and reached for her wand on her bedside table. The noise stopped abruptly. Poppy held her wand over her heart. She wasn't even sure what she would do with it if something were to enter the room. She wouldn't learn any defensive magic until her third year. She reached over to the bedside table again without looking away from the direction of the would be intruder and felt around for her glasses. She slid them on and saw…
Nothing. How odd. She was sure she had heard something. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of magical creatures walked the halls of Hogwarts at night. Nothing dangerous, surely.
With nothing out of place, Poppy lay back down. Her imagination had probably just gotten the better of her. Her grandmother always told her that she had a very active imagination; but just in case, she set her glasses beside her pillow and kept her hand wrapped tightly around her wand, which she slid underneath her pillow. Now all she could hear was the shhhh of snowfall and the gentle breathing of her friends. She closed her eyes and it wasn't long before her four-fold cocoon had soothed her fears and she fell asleep.
The next morning, Poppy got up and dressed, layering stockings and hand knit socks. She wrapped a long black and gold striped scarf around her neck. It was so long that it coiled around her face and hid her nose. She jammed a beanie on her head and slid her wand into her cloak pocket. She was going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures if she didn't hurry. She ran to the door, already beginning to sweat under her layers. She was almost out when she realized everything was blurry. She turned and ran back to her bed, grabbing her glasses and making for the door. As she slid them on, she stopped.
There, where she thought the strange noises had come from last night was a stone pulled almost completely backward into the wall. Poppy didn't know if there was anything behind the wall, since the Hufflepuff rooms were underground. But she had heard something trying to move a stone. She backed out of the room and eyed the loose stone warily. She only turned her back when she felt she was out of sight of it. She ran through the common room, up the stairs, and out into the brilliant, quiet white world.