Disclaimer:Harry Potter and all of the characters belong to JK Rowling. Annie, Alice Fergie and Fiona are the only OCs I have yet created.
"Can I have a word with the seven people who entered late please?" asked the small lady with grey hair in a bun, who turned out to be the Headmistress, Professor Sprout. "The rest of you are dismissed."
All of the other houses stood up at once, and walked out of the Great Hall, leaving all seven of us sat at our tables. Lysander and Lorcan both had rather sulky expressions on their faces. Professor Sprout beckoned us, and we stood up and walked towards her.
"Are you all okay after your unfortunate accident?" she asked us, concern showing in her face.
"Yes, we're all okay," said Fergie, looking around at us "Thanks for asking."
"We would have probably drowned if Professor Trelawney and Firenze hadn't have come to our rescue!" piped up Fiona.
Professor Sprout smiled.
"Yes, that was very lucky indeed. Well that's all I wanted from you for now. Your house prefects should arrive to collect you in a moment to show you to your common room," she said.
"There's no need for that, headmistress!" came a rather high voice from the opposite end of the Great Hall, which I instantly recognized.
Alice was striding up the aisle towards us, her blond hair slightly ruffled and her eyes wide with worry. Rose was stood at the door, calling for Alice to come back.
"Annie, what happened?" she said worriedly. A tall, dark skinned girl with brown hair which was in dreadlocks came running after Alice.
"Alice Longbottom, get to the common room now! You know you're not supposed to come back here, only the Prefects were assigned to collect the students!" she shouted.
"Well excuse me if I was worried about my sister!" screamed Alice, going red in the face.
"Alice Longbottom, don't speak to Abigail Jordan like that!" said Professor Sprout, a bit surprised at Alice, who was normally mild-mannered. "I guess all three of you can take the three Gryffindors back to Gryffindor Tower. I expect they will tell you everything that happened." she finished, signalling to Alice, Abigail and Rose.
"Yes Professor," said Rose, before rushing out of the Great Hall, with Abigail, Alice, Lily, Fergie and Fiona hurrying to catch up with her.
Just then, six Prefects entered the Great Hall, two walking up to Lysander, two walking up to Lorcan and two walking up to Hugo and I.
One was a girl and one was a boy. The girl straightened her tie, then looked down at us and said, "Welcome to Hogwarts. I'm Alhana Finch-Fletchley and this" she paused, signalling to the boy "Is Maurice Padgett,"
I took a closer look at them in the quick silence that followed Alhana's introduction. Alhana was tall, in comparison to us, with long wavy strawberry blond hair, in pigtails. She had very pale flawless skin, and large green eyes, and was overall very good looking. Maurice was shorter than Alhana, and had straight brown hair that fell just above his eyebrows, and he had slightly darker skin than Alhana. He was of a rather muscly build, and had black eyes, and quite a large nose.
"Come, we'll show you the way to the Hufflepuff common room," said Maurice.
We followed them in silence, until we passed what Alhana told us was the kitchens, and reached a large painting.
"Troskab!" said Alhana, and the painting opened up.
"Troskab?" asked Hugo.
"It's Danish for loyalty," answered Maurice.
We stepped into the Hufflepuff common room for the first time. We looked around in awe. The common room was built like a cellar, but had a warm, comforting feeling to it. Black and yellow was draped all around the room, and little fat armchairs scattered the place. A warm fire was burning in the fireplace.
"The girls' dormitories are to the left," said Maurice, pointing to a tunnel, with a barrel-shaped door at the end, "And the boys' dormitories are to the right," he continued, pointing to an identical tunnel at the opposite end of the room.
The common room was empty, and I was wondering why, when Maurice interrupted my thoughts,
"We told the pupils to go to bed, they have a long day ahead of them," said Maurice, before walking off towards the boys' dormitories, leaving us stood with Alhana.
"Okay," I called after him, "Thanks for showing us the way here!"
Hugo and I looked at each other and shrugged.
"Don't bother about him, he's a bit uptight about rules," said Alhana.
"Isn't that what Prefects are meant to be like?" asked Hugo.
"Well, who says a Prefect can't have fun?" said Alhana, "I guess we should be turning in really. Come on Annie, I'll take you to your dormitory,"
Alhana and I said goodbye to Hugo before splitting off to our dormitories. Alhana led me down the lowest tunnel in the dormitory complex. She pointed to a door.
"That's your dormitory. Go and introduce yourself to the other girls, and goodnight!" she said, before rushing off down another hole near the dormitory, which I guessed was a shortcut to the fifth-year dormitory.
I suddenly felt nervous; I didn't really want to introduce myself to the other girls. I gulped, turned the handle of the barrel-shaped door and stepped in.
Immediately, a tall girl with long brown hair and an alice band which was almost falling off her head ran up to me.
"Hiya!" she shouted excitedly, "You must be Annie, I saw you getting sorted, I'm Hazel Hawthorne, nice to meet you!"
She talked so fast it was hard to decipher what she was saying. She whizzed off to the other end of the room, and bounced on the only bed with no suitcases scattering it.
"This is your bed, it's going to be so exciting!" she said, before jumping across all the other beds, startling the other two girls before landing on the end bed, and burrowed under the covers and writhed about.
The other two girls turned around. One was rather tall, with pale skin, and a rather odd hair; it was in a shoulder length Afro style put back with a headband, but her hair was a mixture of red, pink and purple, I couldn't tell what colour it was. She had black eyes, and a rather wide nose. The other one looked rather shy, and she also had black eyes and a rather wide nose. Her hair was long, straight and jet-black. She wore a bright red and black beanie hat, and had a thick fringe, which covered the top half of her eyes.
"I'm Annemarie Zeller," said the girl with odd hair, "And this is Rhonda Flewelling, she's my mum's brother's daughter!"
"She means I'm her cousin, in other words," said Rhonda in a soft voice, when she noticed I raised my eyebrow in
"Yes, cousin, that's the word!" said Annemarie.
"Gosh, I'm tired. That lake fiasco sure tired me out!" I said, rubbing my eyes and yawning.
"Yes, I guess we all should turn in for the night now," said Annemarie "I need a good night's rest."
Sadly, none of us got any sleep whatsoever. Hazel snored very loudly.
A/N: Please review this chapter!