Hello everyone, I had a really great idea for a room in Hogwarts symbolizing the unity between the houses that the Sorting Hat was talking about and this came out. I don't really have a place for it in the story (as of yet) but this room is cannon in my fanfic, definitely. So...yeah...enjoy!
Arden collapsed, face first, onto her soft, welcoming bed, wanting nothing more than to sleep for the rest of eternity. Quidditch practice was killer on your back, especially if you were as *cough* gifted *cough* as she, apparently, was in the chest department. Cho was not doing too well in transfiguration, so Marietta offered to help her. This meant that Cho wasn't attending Quidditch practice, which was more than fine, as her position wasn't so much based on teamwork as it was her keeping an eye out for the snitch. Mercutio seemed to understand that Arden's lower back was in pain, and walked onto her back, kneading, as cats do, for a good few minutes before settling down and purring. Sometimes, magical cats were better than people. In her warm, comfortable, exhausted state, Arden drifted off into a world that was entirely her own; and yes, it did include a certain red headed boy.
Unfortunately, we all must emerge from the land of cherry lips and crystal skies at some point. Arden's return from the realm of the fantastic was less than ideal; Cho and Marietta were arguing, as girls do, about which one of them Cedric smiled at in the library. Arden groaned, burying her face into her pillow. All she wanted was peace and quiet, was that so much to ask?
Her roommates stopped arguing and stared at their amber-eyed acquaintance, unaware that she was attempting to sleep. Arden shot them daggers, sat up, disturbing Mercutio from his nap as well, and stomped her way out of the room. She knew where to get a few minutes of peace and quiet.
Arden adored the map, definitely up there on her list of things she didn't know how she ever functioned without. When her roommates, house mates, friends, or the library were too busy or getting on her nerves, she tended to use the map to find a place to read or relax. She couldn't, for the life of her, find the Room of Requirement, so she chose to use one of the secret passages or rooms in Hogwarts located on the map. One place in particular ended up being her favorite. Arden checked the Maurader's Map to make sure that no one was anywhere near the non-magical portrait of the Founders on the second floor; she was in the clear. She quickly padded over to the portrait, Mercutio tailing her as he always did, and pulled it open, revealing the best room in all of Hogwarts.
It was a small room, not much bigger than she imagined the Gryffindor common room to be, but it was beautiful nonetheless. The walls of the room were painted to symbolize each house. The right-hand wall with several bookshelves, filled to bursting with books, was painted in bronze and navy horizontal stripes, the back wall with the fireplace was scarlet and the fireplace was made of gold-colored bricks, the wall adjacent to that housed a snack-storage that never seemed to run out and was built out of yellow and black bricks in a checkerboard pattern, and the wall with the portrait hole was covered in black and green curtains. The room was furnished with four comfy, plush armchairs: one red, one blue, one yellow, and one green; and there was one large, extremely comfortable, purple couch in the middle of them with an intricately designed throw-blanket draped over it. The couch was Arden's destination. She set out a bowl of water for Mercutio, should he decide he was thirsty, grabbed one of the books on complex charm research, and laid down on the couch to read her worries away.
