Ali, Skoren, and Levi wandered down past the kitchen with the rest of their fellow Hufflepuffs. They were all following a prefect named Kate Swisher, who led them to a painting of a bowl with fruit scattered around it.
"You always need a friend to get into the Hufflepuff common room," she explained. "Because only the combined voices of two or more people can make the painting work. You have to tell the fruit the correct order to go into the bowl. Right now it's banana, pear, grape, apple, orange, watermelon, peach, then lemon."
She and the other prefect, a boy named Perry Fardinger, recited these together, and the fruit rose up and swooped into the bowl.
"Then," Kate continued, "you have to sing a poem about the right fruit. At the moment, it's a lemon. Just sing any old thing to it - you can make it up on the spot."
So Perry Fardinger recited, "Roses are red, violets are blue, I think lemons are sour, what about you?"
The fruit in the bowl giggled madly as the portrait swung open.
The Hufflepuff common room was the coziest place Levi had ever seen.
The walls were made completely of earth, and a tangle of roots crisscrossed down ever side of the circular room. Hanging from the roots was an extraordinary assortment of plants, as well as plenty of banners bearing the Hufflepuff badger. A bulletin board was stuck on the wall, covered with notices. Bookshelves were carved into the walls, holding vast amounts of books. A large stone fireplace was embedded in the wall and was surrounded by an assortment of yellow and black armchairs and couches. Covering the floor was a thick shag carpet.
All around the perimeter of the room were little tunnels that led up, down, to the right, and to the left.
"Those tunnels go to the dormitories," explained Kate. Skoren tried to enter one, but fell flat on his back. A wall of dirt erupted out of the ground, blocking him from entering, and a face made out of the earth screamed, "NOT HERE!"
"That's the sixth-year girls dormitories," explained a laughing Perry. "Your dormitories are over there." He pointed to a different tunnel. "But before you leave, there are a few things you ought to know about Hufflepuff."
"The Fat Friar's our house ghost," began Kate. "He wasn't at the Welcoming Feast because he had, er, other obligations. Our Head of House is Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher. It used to be Pomona Sprout, but she had to retire. We kept her plants, though.
"Professor Sinistra will hand out your class schedules tomorrow. Now get some rest!"
Everyone split up - Ali said goodnight to Skoren and Levi and headed to a door to the right with some other first year girls. The two boys were joined by three others, and they started up the passageway.
It was long and windy, decorate on all sides by Hufflepuff banners and even more plants. Finally, they arrived at a circular barrel door that was painted yellow. They opened it and stepped inside.
A few minutes later, Levi and Skoren had claimed the two four-poster beds by the single large window, which was halfway under the lake. Everyone gasped in surprise when an ethereal creature floated past them.
"That's a mermaid," whispered Fabian Nartrodder.
The boys stared in awe as the mermaid floated by again, lit up by the eerie green light from the water. Suddenly it was all cut off as a giant pink thing streamed past the window.
"It's the giant squid!" breathed a boy named Charlie Minneal.
"Ugh, Squid," Skoren said, shuddering. He pulled the curtains closed. "I don't know about you lot, but I need to get some sleep. We start classes tomorrow."
"'Night, then."
"G'night."
"See you in the morning."
Levi pulled the curtains around his bed closed and lay there, thinking about all that had happened that day. The people in his dorm didn't seem angry with him, just avoiding contact. Ali and Skoren had forgiven him, but he doubted the Rose or Blake would…
He fell asleep, dreaming dreams of dementors with Blake's and Rose's faces, Hannah Longbottom's face appearing under the Sorting Hat, and Minerva McGonagall killing him with a flick of her wand.
Breakfast in the Great Hall was utter mayhem. The first year Hufflepuffs were at the back of a long line stretching towards a harrassed-looking Professor Sinistra, who was writing out schedules for the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students. Finally, it was Levi's turn.
Over kippers and pancakes, Ali, Skoren, and Levi looked at their schedules.
"Right now we've got Potions with the Ravenclaws… then double Herbology with the Gryffindors and the Slytherins… then Charms… Transfiguration… then Astronomy! Blimey, it's at midnight!"
"Oh, I hope I do well in Astronomy!" Ali said nervously. "Professor Sinistra's our Head of House."
"Oh, come off it," Skoren said derisively. "All these classes will be a piece of cake."
But by the end of Potions, Skoren was singing a different tune.
"That… was… terrible," he said, scurrying away from the dungeon as fast as he could.
"Agreed," Levi said miserably.
"Totally," Ali sighed. "For one thing, Professor Cruzatte is just…"
No one could exactly describe Professor Pierre Cruzatte. He was tall with long blond hair, and had a thick French accent. He practically danced across the room, pirouetting to each and every cauldron. Towards the end of class, in a fit of passion, he had grabbed an armful of leafy potion ingredients and flung them in the air. Most of them landed on Charlie Minneal, who immediately grew large hives all over his body.
"And there was that portrait behind me that kept telling me how terrible I was," Skoren added.
"Severus Snape!" Ali said.
"That was Severus Snape?" Skoren said disbelievingly. "I can't believe it - I got dissed by a painting…"
Levi said nothing, walking quickly towards Greenhouse One, where he would meet with Rose Weasley and Blake Finnigan for the first time since he was Sorted…
The Gryffindors were already there. Levi scanned the crowd for Rose and Blake, but as soon as he found them turned away and started whispering. A moment later a group of Slytherins crested the hill near the greenhouses. Levi could see a glum-looking Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy trekking towards him.
Suddenly Greenhouse Four opened and a group of third-years trooped out, led by none other than James Potter. Professor Longbottom followed them out and gestured to the first-years to enter Greenhouse One. In the confusion of two moving crowds, Levi felt himself grabbed and separated from Ali and Skoren. Suddenly he found James Potter's face thrust in his.
"Listen, Umbridge," he snarled. "I know what your mother did."
"W-w-what?" he asked weakly.
"She was a witch as evil as Voldemort," James continued. "Good thing she was sent to Azkaban, the-"
"Don't talk about my mother like that," Levi said angrily.
"I know that you're just like her," James whispered manically.
"W-w-w-w-what?" Levi said again.
"So if you know what's good for you, don't even think about talking to Rose. And if you do-" Here James stopped and drew a line across his throat.
The boy dropped him and left without another word. Rubbing his head in pain and confusion, Levi entered Greenhouse One, where the first-years were already divided into groups.
"Why are you late, Mr. Umbridge?" Professor Longbottom asked immediately. Levi knew immediately that he was just like Professor McGonagall and James - he hated him.
"I - ah - a third-year-"
"Excuses!" barked Professor Longbottom. "Fifteen points from Hufflepuff. You may join Miss Macmillan's group."
Levi went to join Ali, pulling on his dragonhide gloves.
"We're transplanting Skinveil balloon pods into richer compost so that they will grow to a large enough size to be used as the only safe way to store a bezoar," recited Ali very quickly.
He got to work immediately, pulling up the balloon-like plants from one planter and transferring them to the ones that Ali was efficiently filling with mooncalf dung.
He looked up for a brief break and noticed that Skoren was working incredibly, doing all the jobs himself. Professor Longbottom noticed as well and said, "Good work, Mr. Zabini. Twenty points to Hufflepuff."
"We need to talk."
The voice, barely a whisper, came from behind his ear. Levi jumped about three feet in the air.
"Who said-?" he looked around wildly.
"It's me, Rose, under an invisibility cloak," the voice explained.
"How'd you get one of those?" he asked.
"It was Harry Potter's. I nicked it from Albus Potter's trunk."
"Can I bring Ali and Skoren?"
"Yeah, sure. Just not Blake. I'll be behind Greenhouse Six."
When she left, Levi, relieved that Rose was at least talking to him, kicked Skoren from under the table. When he looked up, Levi nodded his head towards the door. Skoren nodded and kicked Ali.
"What?" She mouthed to him. Skoren pointed outside.
Ali said, "Professor Longbottom, sir, may I go to the bathroom?"
Skoren then said, "Me too, Professor?"
"And me?" added Levi.
"Yes, yes," Professor Longbottom said distractedly. A Slytherin first-year's Skinveil had inflated so rapidly that it had knocked the child out of his chair, and he was concentrating on both deflating the balloon sac as well as applying an herb mixture to the bruise on the Slytherin's head.
As he turned, Levi got a thinly-veiled look of disgust from Blake. Evidently, another person did not forgive him for being the child of Dolores Umbridge.
"What's up?" Skoren demanded immediately after the door had closed.
"Rose has an invisibility cloak, and she wants us to meet her behind Greenhouse Six."
The trio walked towards the storage greenhouse, where strange smells were in hanging in the air. With a flourish, Rose Weasley removed the invisibility cloak, making Ali start.
"What is it?"
"It's the entire Gryffindor house, they're all such gits…" Rose said hopelessly. "James threatens me if I want to be your friend, and Blake is muttering all the time about how he shouldn't have trusted-"
"He was right not to have trusted him," a voice interrupted.
"J-James?" Rose gasped.
Levi groaned inwardly as James Potter stepped into view again. Now he was probably going to be beaten up.
"Don't touch him," Rose said fiercely, but James simply replied, "You don't know him, Rosie. He'll hurt you."
"What has he ever done to you?" she asked angrily. James was holding Levi's hands behind his back.
"Well…" James thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "It's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean."
The words seemed painfully familiar to Levi, but all thoughts of them were destroyed when James dragged him onto the open grassland below the greenhouses.
"Duel. Me, you. Right now."
Levi's head was throbbing with the rush of hate he felt emanating from James, who drew his wand.
James yelled with all his might, "Stupefy!"
Levi saw the jet of red light heading for the space directly between his eyebrows, and ducked just in time.
James' voice apparently carried, as the students in Greenhouse One poured out to watch. Professor Longbottom hurried down the hill towards them.
James continued yelling jinxes at him.
"Vespertilionem!" Bats attacked his face.
"Debiles pedibus!" He suddenly could not stand.
Professor Longbottom raced towards them in order to stop the fight, when a spell jumped into Levi's head. A random one he had never heard.
"EXPECTO DEMENTOR!"
A long, low moan. A swirling, foggy mist. Tattered, black robes.