Blue
Ravenclaw!
The Ravenclaw table erupted in applause, a wave of blue and bronze and broad smiles, but Riley could barely hear them. Ravenclaw? Surely the hat had made a mistake. This couldn't be happening. She was a Gryffindor. How could the hat be so wrong?
She forced a smile that she was sure came across more pained than anything else. Scanning the crowd, she found her sister, desperate to see her reaction. Anna, however, beamed and applauded. When Riley looked over her shoulder, she found the same reaction from her Aunt Parvati. With heavy feet and a heavier heart, she shuffled over to the Ravenclaw table and took her seat beside her.
A smiling girl with a prefect's badge patted her on the shoulder. "Welcome to Ravenclaw!"
"Uh, thanks."
Georgia, her one saving grace, smiled at her from across the table. "We're in the same house! Isn't this great? We can play Quidditch together!"
"Yeah, that will be cool." Riley mustered another smile, but her ears burned with shame and disappointment. For a moment, she thought she might cry, but the threat of embarrassing herself in front of her new housemates was enough to stem the tears.
Zimmer, Kendall became a Hufflepuff, and with that the sorting was finished. Five other first year girls were clustered around her at the Ravenclaw table, and five boys as well.
"Do we get to eat now?" one of the boys asked, grinning ear to ear. "I've heard the food's absolutely mint."
"I hope so," said the boy next to him. "I'm proper starving, here." Riley recognized the pair as the boys threatening to send each other tumbling into the lake earlier. Great, she thought. Probably a couple of clowns. As if to illustrate her point, the second boy had already begun trying to stick his spoon to the end of his nose.
A girl to his left rolled her eyes as she flicked her long, dark hair over her shoulder. "I think Ravenclaw's the best house, you know," she said to Georgia.
"Well they're all good," Georgia told her, "but I'm definitely happy to be here."
"I know we've got a reputation as being all nerdy and bookish," the girl said, her eyes lingering on one of their fellow first-year girls. With frizzy red hair, glasses, and already in rapt conversation with one of the older students sat near them, at first glance the girl certainly did seem to fit the description. "But I reckon most of us are normal."
Riley wasn't sure she particularly liked the emphasis the girl placed on that last word. "Riley sat with me on the train," Georgia told the girl. "She's cool."
The girl smiled at Riley. "I'm Emma. Your hair's pretty."
"Uh…thanks," Riley replied. Something about this rubbed her the wrong way, but she was in a foul mood so maybe it was just that.
"Ladies and gentlemen." A hush fell over the hall at the sound of the voice coming from the dais. Riley looked to where the headmistress stood, encircled by a halo of wild golden curls that shone against sapphire robes. "Once again, welcome, or welcome back, to Hogwarts. While I would like to say a few words, I'll not delay you the wonderful feast the kitchen has prepared, so perhaps we shall wait until after the meal." Her voice was clear and melodic as it rang around the hall. "Bon appetite!" She waved her dainty, ring-adorned hands, and mountains of sumptuous food appeared on the tables.
"Look at that!" "That looks so good!" "I want some of everything!" Her peers dug in, but Riley didn't feel hungry. She couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of her stomach, which had only grown heavier as the evening had progressed.
"Hey," the prefect said, giving her a nudge. "Ravenclaw's not all that bad." She smiled, though Riley's cheeks flushed at knowing the girl had recognized her disappointment. "Headmistress Clearwater was in Ravenclaw, you know."
"I'm alright," Riley told her. "Just, I dunno, surprised I guess."
"Well the sorting hat hasn't been wrong yet," the prefect said. "You'll settle in alright, everyone does." She turned back to her dinner.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Riley muttered to no one in particular. Everyone around her was happily chatting, stuffing their faces, laughing, smiling. But all that did was make her more and more want to be alone. She knew she was being stupid, petty even, but she had been so sure she would get the house she wanted. And now…
She looked around at her fellow first-years. She didn't fit in with these people. They were probably all smarter than her or something. She'd never had much of an affinity for books, and forget learning muggle subjects like maths or science. She was hopeless at that. She didn't want to be the stupid one. Even those goons across the table were probably going to be better at magic.
Throughout the meal, Riley gave a few shy responses to attempts at conversation, but felt none of the chatty enthusiasm everyone else seemed to have. She noticed one girl who seemed quieter than the rest, but even she looked happy. By the time dinner was over and the food had been whisked away, Riley had only managed to choke down half of a bread roll. If she'd gotten off to a bad start with the twins on the train, this was even worse.
"If I could have your attention?" Headmistress Clearwater's voice once again drew all eyes and ears to the dais. "Thank you. Hopefully now having full stomachs, you will lend me attentive ears. As I said before, for our first years, welcome. For our returning students, welcome back. I hope you are all feeling at home in your houses, old or new. I would like to encourage you this academic year to become closer to your housemates than ever before. Form bonds of trust, support, happiness, and friendship. You will never regret the friendships you make here, only neglecting those that could be. Study hard, but love harder." This comment elicited a suppressed giggle from Emma. "Do not let stress or strife cloud your days here, but rather come to them with clear eyes, open hearts, and curious minds.
"For all our first years, we have a few basic rules here at Hogwarts. You are under no circumstances to visit the Forbidden Forest, which I hope is self-evident in the name. Roaming the corridors after curfew is also strictly prohibited. Owl post will be delivered in the morning, and," she raised her eyes slightly toward the ceiling, "do watch out for Peeves, the poltergeist.
"Now, it is getting rather late." She waved her hand and the candelabras dimmed, replacing the Hall's bright golden light with a warm, sleepy haze. "And we had all best be off to bed. Classes begin in the morning." There was a round of polite applause, followed by the sound of dozens of wooden benches scraping against the stone floors.
Calls by the prefects of each house rang out. As she made to follow the girl she had spoken to, a hand grabbed Riley's arm. "Hey." It was Anna. "Congrats on Ravenclaw, sis, mum and dad are going to be so proud." She wrapped her in a bear hug.
"An—"
"I always knew you were the smart one," she said with a laugh before returning to her fellow Gryffindors.
"Thanks," Riley muttered.
"It's Riley, right?" She turned. The voice belonged to a tall, willowy girl, also in Ravenclaw blue. She was beautiful, Riley thought, all caramel skin, dark hair, and light, sparkling eyes. "I'm Serena. I'm one of the Ravenclaw prefects. If you want to come with me, I'll take you all to the common room and show you how to get in." Her smile was warm and friendly as she gestured at where the other first-years were assembled.
"How to get in?"
"It's not so straightforward as it sounds," she laughed. "Come on."
Serena led them out of the hall and up a staircase to the right. As they made their way through the corridors, Riley concentrated on the girl's hood bobbing in front of her, still reluctant to speak to anyone for fear of betraying her disappointment. Up they went, then up again, climbing endlessly. She knew the common room was in Ravenclaw Tower, but Merlin this was a hike.
Just when it seemed they couldn't possibly go any higher, the group arrived at a large, arched wooden door with a massive enchanted bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. "This," Serena said, gesturing at the knocker, "is Eodred the Eagle. But we mostly just call him Eddie. In order to get into Ravenclaw common room, you have to answer a riddle that Eddie asks you. Don't worry," she added, looking at the group's now slightly panicked faces. "They're not that hard."
Well, Miss Serena. The voice was coming from the knocker. I will be sure not to bore you next time you have been out late in the library and are desperate to get to bed.
"Don't be like that, Eddie," she laughed. "What is it today?"
What has an eye, but cannot see?
There was a moment of conjecture, before the quiet girl Riley had noticed earlier piped in from the back of the group. "A needle!"
Very good Miss..?
"MacMillan. Tilly MacMillan."
Very good Miss MacMillan.
The doors swung open. "Whatever they might say about the other houses," Serena grinned, "we definitely have the best common room."
Though still not enthusiastic about her house, Riley was inclined to agree with the older girl once she stepped inside. The massive octagonal room was furnished everywhere with sapphire blue carpets and elegant chairs, sofas, and tables. Marble statues and leafy plants were tucked in amongst the furniture, and pale candles flickered everywhere. Gauzy white curtains framed floor to ceiling arched windows that ringed the room. Even in the night, it gave the impression of airiness and light.
"The view is amazing during the day," Serena offered. "Now, about where you'll be staying. Both of the dormitories are up those stairs." She pointed to a marble staircase across the room. "Boys to the left, girls to the right. And you're not allowed in each other's dormitories," she said laughing. "Trust me, don't try it.
"Your things should all be unpacked and by your beds, along with your course schedule. If you need anything, let me know." She smiled again before disappearing up the stairs.
Save for a few small gatherings of older students, the group was left alone. "So, do you lovely ladies want to hang out?" one of the goofballs asked. General nods went around the group.
"I…uh…I'm just going to pop up to the dormitory. I'll be back in a second," Riley stammered, excusing herself. It was all too much. These people, this place. She didn't want to be there, with them. Anywhere really. The sinking feeling in her stomach that had occupied her stomach all night completely overwhelmed her as she bounded up the stairs.
This is stupid, she thought. I'm being so stupid. But that didn't stop the tears from coming as she reached the bed that had been designated as hers. Big, ugly sobs escaped her lips. This was supposed to be amazing, so why did it feel so bad? She pressed her face into her pillow, hoping it would stem the flow from her eyes. Everyone had been nice, even when they could tell she was disappointed, but that almost made it worse. I don't want to be here, she thought. I want to go home.
Scrabbling through her bedside drawer, her fingers found a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink. Wiping her tears with her sleeve, she frantically scribbled a letter to her parents. She asked, no, begged them to come and take her home. She couldn't tell them she didn't want to be a Ravenclaw, of course, it would break her mum's heart. She just needed to come home, she would explain why later. Well, when she thought of an excuse.
"Riley?" The voice from the doorway was soft and timid. "Are you okay?" It was Tilly, the quiet girl who had answered the riddle.
"Uh, I'm fine," Riley answered, back still turned to her. She wiped her face on her sleeve again. "Just really needed to…tell my parents I got here okay."
"Okay. We're going to play a game. You should come down."
"Um, yeah, maybe." She swallowed. She turned to look at Tilly, but the girl had gone down the stairs again, quiet as a mouse.
She sighed. She knew she should go, make an effort, but she just wanted to leave. Suddenly, though, her dad's words were back in her head. You're my cheeky monkey. Be yourself, you'll be okay.
Checking her face in the mirror for evidence of tear stains, she screwed her courage and made her way down the stairs.
"I still don't get it."
"This is supposed to be the smart house, how can we not manage this?"
"I mean it is a complicated game."
When Riley returned to the common room, her new housemates were sitting on the floor in a circle, arguing amongst themselves about the game they had proposed to play.
Georgia's face brightened as Riley approached them, taking a seat next to Tilly. "Glad you came back down! Everything alright?"
"Yeah," Riley lied, "my parents are kindaover-protective and wanted me to write them as soon as I got here."
"Mine are like that," Emma piped in. "It's so annoying. Right, Agnes, explain the rules one more time."
"Okay," said an Asian girl sitting across from them. "It's really easy once you start playing. Basically, one person thinks of a word, and everyone else has to guess what the word is. So like if I'm the one thinking of the word, I tell you all what the first letter is, and you have to think of words that start with that letter. Then you guess, but you guess by asking questions. So if my word was like, 'mongoose,' you would be thinking of words that start with 'M.' But you would have to ask. So if you thought of 'marmalade,' you would ask like 'is it something you put on toast.' And then—"
"This is too hard, I'm lost already. What about marmalade?" one of the boys complained.
"You're proper thick, you, Charlie," his compatriot laughed, jabbing him in the ribs. Those two had clearly met on the train and been inseparable since.
"Why don't we play a fun game?" Emma asked. Riley felt bad for Agnes, but she had to admit her idea sounded a bit complex. "I know!" Emma clapped her hands together. "Let's play Never Have I Ever."
"How do you play that?" Tilly asked.
"It's so easy. Basically everyone puts up ten fingers, and you have to say something you haven't done. Then anyone who has done it puts a finger down. First one to have all their fingers gone loses. Or wins, depending on your point of view," she giggled.
"Yeah alright," Agnes agreed, and general nods went around the circle.
"We'll go in a circle. Who wants to go first?" Emma asked.
"I'll go," the boy called Charlie said. "Never have I ever…been to a Quidditch match." A few fingers went down.
"I'm Ollie," his partner-in-crime introduced himself. "And I've…never…broken a bone." Again a few fingers, but not many.
"My name is Eric," said the next boy in a broad Scottish accent. Riley could see the eyes of every girl in the group on him. She had to admit he was cute. "And, well, my parents are muggles? Is that what you call it? So I've never seen anyone do a spell?" Down went everyone else's fingers.
"Wow, that's so cool that your parents are muggles," Emma interjected, clearly trying to bat her eyelashes at him. Riley nearly had to giggle, it was so obvious.
"I'm Phoebe." It was the bookish red-head. "I've never gotten a bad mark on an exam."
"Ugh, you guys are not doing this right." Emma certainly had a lot of opinions. "They're supposed to be like, scandalous things. Whenever my sister and her friends play they're always on about snogging or shagging or something like that."
Phoebe went red. "I…haven't snogged anyone."
"Like any of us have," Riley said. She didn't want anyone to feel bad, and she certainly didn't want to play a 'scandalous' game with people she'd just met. "I mean, I don't know how old your sister is, but we're eleven, Emma. Our lives are hardly soap operas."
"Maybe yours isn't," Emma flipped her fair.
Riley suppressed a giggle at the absurd idea of Emma's apparently drama-filled goings on. "I have a better game we can play," she said. "So that we can get to know each other, maybe."
"Please," Ollie said. "This Never Have I Ever business is stupid." Charlie nodded in accordance.
"Yeah, that we be good," Georgia agreed. Emma shot her a look.
"Okay, everyone stand up!" Her trepidations momentarily forgotten, Riley was suddenly in her element. She loved games and any opportunity to goof off. "This game is called The West Wind. It's kind of like musical chairs. I'll start in the middle and say something about myself, so for example, 'The West Wind blows for anyone who loves Quidditch,' because I love Quidditch. And then anyone else who the thing applies to, has to switch spots with someone else who it also applies to. So that way there's always one person left to go in the middle and say the next thing. Get it?"
Nods all around, and they were off. "I'm Riley, and the West Wind blows for anyone with an older sibling!" She scrambled for a spot in the circle vacated by Ollie.
An Indian boy Riley didn't know was left without a spot. "I'm Tom," he said "The West Wind blows for anyone who likes Bertie Botts'!"
Riley giggled as she dashed to another spot. Everyone else seemed to be having fun as well, which spurred her on. The rounds started to go faster, each person dashing from place to place, trying not to end up in the middle. As the game went, the laughter grew louder and the smiles wider. This was fun. Maybe, Riley thought, these people weren't so unlike her after all.
"Um, I'm Tilly," the quiet girl said. She was so pretty, Riley noticed. Golden hair, golden skin, deep blue eyes. "The West Wind blows for anyone who's excited for lessons tomorrow." Emma may have rolled her eyes, but in true Ravenclaw spirit, plenty of them readily admitted their excitement.
"What do we have tomorrow?" Agnes asked. "Did anyone look?"
"Herbology and Charms, I think," Tilly answered.
"Speaking of lessons, I kind of want to get off to bed," Phoebe said. "I don't want to be tired on the first day."
"Yeah, us too," Emma said, looking at Georgia who returned a weak smile.
The three girls headed off up the stairs, as did Eric, Tom, and a third boy named Patrick.
"Aw, I don't want to go to bed yet," Ollie complained.
"Well, why we don't we not?" Riley offered. "We probably can't play a game, but we could just chat?"
The five settled into a group of fluffy chairs in a corner.
"You seem happy," Tilly said to Riley with a genuine smile. Riley knew Tilly suspected her real reasons for escaping to the dormitory. She just hoped she hadn't told the others.
"Yeah, I am." She paused for a second. "Truth is," she said, knowing that honesty would get her farther than trying to cover her feelings, "I don't really think I'm a Ravenclaw. Like I'm kind of confused as to why I'm here."
"You're telling me, mate," Ollie laughed, putting his feet on a coffee table. "I have four older brothers, and all of them are in Slytherin. I felt like the sorting hat was having a laugh." He grinned. "I reckon it's all the same really. Charlie was saying his brother's a Hufflepuff."
"I don't get on with him, though," Charlie said with a laugh. "Dad was a Ravenclaw."
"So was my mum," Riley told him. "I wonder if they knew each other?"
"My parents are both Hufflepuffs," Tilly chimed in. "My sisters are too young to come here yet, though."
"What about you Bagnes?" Ollie asked
"Tell me that's not a nickname for me already," she said, swatting his shoulder.
"Just trying it out," he laughed. "I'll get to a good one eventually."
"Please don't. Anyway, I only have a little brother. My parents grew up in Hong Kong so they didn't come here. Moved to England before I was bon, but we've been all over since then. The US, Singapore, back to Hong Kong again. But they really wanted me to go to Hogwarts, so they moved back and here I am."
"That's so interesting," Tilly said.
"It's alright." Agnes demurred, but she was clearly basking in the idea that she might be the most interesting of the group. "You meet a lot of different people I suppose. See things, try things."
"Try things? Oh Agnes how scandalous," Ollie laughed, mocking Emma's earlier tone.
"You're foul, you," Charlie laughed.
Agnes pushed him again. "I mean like food, you pervert." Riley wasn't sure what sort of flirtation between Ollie and Agnes she had missed earlier, but she wasn't really interested in being privy to it now.
"They do all sorts of really interesting herbology development in Hong Kong," Agnes added. "That's what I want to do. Be a herbologist."
"I really like magical history," Tilly said. "I want to be a historian, I think."
Great, Riley thought. Why did they have to start talking about academics? Surely they'd know then that she didn't fit in. She could hardly say she was mostly here for the Quidditch, could she?
"I don't really get on with academics that well," Ollie admitted, unknowingly rescuing Riley as well.
"And I'm the thick one?" Charlie laughed.
"Yes, Boot, you are still the thick one," Ollie flicked his friend in the ear.
The five chatted and laughed for a bit longer before the yawns started to set in. "Ought to get off to bed, I think," Agnes said. "It's got to be awful late now." They said their goodnights, starting off up the stairs to the dormitory. Dressing in their pajamas, they settled into luxurious beds framed by floaty white curtains.
"Riley?" Tilly whispered from the bed next to her. "I'm really glad you came down."
"Me too," Riley whispered back. As the soft sounds of sleep filled the room, Riley looked at the hastily written letter from earlier in the evening. I hate it here, I need to go, please come get me. She crumpled the letter in her fist. She still wasn't sold on being a Ravenclaw, she suspected she never would be, but possibly, maybe, it wouldn't be as bad as all that.
Letter still in her hand, she faded off to sleep.