Chapter 4: Finding a Place
Everyone filed out of the bus and into the side entrance of the building.
"Where are they going?" Henry asked, pointing at the buses that were pulling in behind theirs.
"Oh, those are the returning students," Roy explained, "They've already received Placement, so they get a start on the cafeteria food. Lucky jerks."
Henry snickered as Roy's belly growled loudly.
"Don't laugh!" Roy said, blushing scarlet. "Everyone knows that pretzels aren't filling anyway."
Henry's belly growled as well and Roy began to snicker as well.
"Alright students, listen up!" A stern older woman with horn-rimmed glasses was saying from the head of the group as they reached the door. "My name is Mrs. MacConnelly. You will form an orderly line and fill out this form. Fill in the bubble that best describes you with blue or black ink. We will then run it through our computer and it will place you in one of our four dormitories."
"Is this computer thing some sort of magical hat?" Henry asked Roy in a stage whisper.
"What? No. It's a machine! My brothers told me all about it!" Roy replied with a laugh.
"I'm not really sure what you mean, but...I guess we'll find out," Henry replied with a shrug. The girl in front of him passed a stack of papers back to him and he grabbed one, handing it to Roy, who passed it back to Newbert.
"Th...thanks," Newbert said, and promptly dropped all of the papers on the ground with a cry of dismay.
"C'mon, I'll help you," Harmony said with a deep sigh as she bent down and began to pick up the pieces of paper.
Henry rummaged in his bag looking for a quill pen, but realized with dismay that he didn't have one.
"Here, you can borrow one of my pens," Roy said, handing Henry a small plastic cylinder.
"Where's the feather and the nib?" Henry asked, tipping it on both sides as though either of those things might simply pop out.
"You just click the end like this," Roy explained, pushing the small end on one side and making a clicking noise, "then the part you write with pops out the other side."
Henry's eyes widened as he followed Roy's motions and the point popped out the bottom of the pen.
"This...is amazing!" he exclaimed, prompting some odd looks from the other kids in the line.
"You can keep it, then," Roy replied with a shrug. "My mother got them on clearance anyway, so I have loads."
Henry quickly filled out his questionnaire and looked over at Roy, who had answered some of the questions surprisingly similar. The line moved slowly and Henry pretty much ignored everyone until he heard the teacher call out:
"You are Malachite, Drake, correct?"
Henry peered ahead and saw the haughty blond boy from before nod and step inside the booth with his paper. Less than a second later, the boy emerged with a grin on his face.
"I got the Newtonian Dorms, just like my dad and his dad before him!" he exclaimed, high-fiving an asian girl with a perfectly straight, silky A-line haircut.
"Pham, Penny?" The girl nodded and stepped inside with her paperwork.
A few minutes passed and she emerged with a smirk on her face.
"I'll be in the girl's dorms...in Newton!" she said proudly as the others around her clapped with congratulatory zeal.
Henry made a mental note to avoid any answers that would make him sound like all those stuck-up prats and looked through his answers carefully.
"My brothers are in Freud, so I'm hoping I will be too," Roy whispered, "They have the best parties, you know."
Henry, who had never been to a party, nodded and hoped that he looked like he was being truthful. He wondered if these scientists were the founders of the school, but he didn't want to look too ignorant.
"Well, I know about Newton and Freud, but what about the others? Didn't you say there was four?" Henry whispered to Roy.
"Well, there's Jemison, which is one of the newest dorms built, so it's one of the most modern. It's named after Mae Jemison, who is still alive. She's a famous astronaut, so a lot of the Astronomy and Astrophysics majors try to get placed there in order to get a lot of their lower division classes together as well," Roy explained, "It replaced the Curie dorms a couple years ago when there was a mysterious fire. A lot of students were mad when they renamed it, and a lot of the students whose family members are alumni avoid it like the plague."
"What's the other one?" Henry whispered.
"The Goodall dorms," Roy replied. "Named after a famous primatologist who actually came to speak here awhile back."
Henry wasn't sure what a primatologist was, and he'd never been very good at knowing about the various astrological signs, so he doubled his resolve to get into the same place as Roy, who was at least a friend, which was more than he'd ever had before.
Then, finally, it was Henry's turn.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Porter," the teacher said, looking down at him with a curious expression on her face. "Please step inside and feed your scantron into the machine. You can come and get me if you need any assistance."
"Thank you," Henry replied, stepping through the doorway.
The machine inside was huge and nearly took up half of the room. It was obvious that it was very old, as it was much larger than the laptop that Mr. Onestein had helped Henry buy. A small terminal was located to his left and Henry sat down in front of it on a small wooden stool that had been placed in that spot.
"Um...hello?" Henry asked.
The machine simply hummed and beeped in reply.
Then Henry saw the slot marked with the words "Insert with name this side up" taped above it and he felt pretty stupid for talking to the thing. He fed it into the slot and waited. There was a lot of whirring and beeping and finally, it spit out the sheet once more. Henry stared, his eyes widening with horror.
"NEWTON. Y/N" was displayed on the screen.
Henry located the keyboard and pressed N as hard as he could.
"ERROR. REFEED PAPERWORK" was displayed on the screen.
Henry looked down and realized he had indeed placed the paper in backwards. He fed it through a second time, squeezing his eyes shut as he hoped that the outcome would be different.
"FREUD. Y/N" was displayed on the screen.
"YES!" Henry cried out, pressing Y as hard as he could.
The machine made a series of clicks and soft beeps before it spat out another piece of paper, which Henry grabbed and handed to the teacher.
"Can I wait for my friend?" Henry asked, pointing at Roy, who was looking a little bit nervous.
She shook her head. "You can head over to the cafeteria, which is just through that door. You'll want to sit with the other Freud dorm students. I'm sure Mr. Wensleydale will be there soon. Make sure to hand this sheet to the teacher as you walk in, okay?"
Henry marveled at the teacher's nonchalance, but did as she said anyway.
As he stepped through the door, he marveled at the size of the cafeteria. It was easily twice as large as the Great Hall he'd read about. There were multiple tables for each dorm; each was color coded in purple, scarlet, orange and turquoise.
An older man with a somewhat unkempt beard stood with a strange baton in his hand. He raised it to his mouth as he took Henry's paper.
"Welcome to the Freudian Dorms, Henry Porter!" the man exclaimed through the microphone.
The cafeteria broke out into a smattering of applause, and Henry went to sit down at the table that boasted a big purple F on it.
"Hey there, are you who we think you are?" Asked two twin boys who had the same sort of hair and freckles as Roy.
"Um...maybe?" Henry replied, looking at the empty plate in front of him. He wondered if it would magically appear once the Placement was done.
"I'm Ford," one of the twins said, sticking out a hand to shake. "This, slightly less attractive one is Gordy."
"You idiot! We're identical, you know!" Gordy exclaimed in mock anger.
"Choose to believe what you want," Ford said with a shrug, putting his hand to the side as he added, "Don't listen to him- he's just jealous."
Just then, they all looked up to see Roy walk into the room.
"Another for Freud! Give a warm welcome to Roy Wensleydale!" The less-than-enthusiastic voice of the hairy man echoed through the cafeteria and Roy's ears went red with embarrassment. He quickly ran over to the table and sat down next to Henry.
"Hey, little bro!" Gordy said, pointing at Henry somewhat rudely, "Guess who we met?"
"Yeah, I know," Roy muttered, putting his arms on the table and placing his forehead against the table. "Ugh, I hate it when people stare at me like that!"
"Congrats on making it into Freud! Your mother would be proud!" Ford said, pulling a face.
"Oi, that's my mother you're talking about!" Gordy replied, curling his hands into fists.
"I know. She's mine too. She'd be everyone's mother if she had the chance to, you know," Ford replied with a wicked grin.
"Ugh! I'm starving" Roy whimpered, silencing them all.
There were a couple others called in afterwards, and Henry winced when both Harmony and Newbert sat down at the end of their table, but afterwards, the windows at the side of the cafeteria rolled up as though by magic, and a bunch of delicious and odd scents filled the air.
"Okay, everyone, line up in an orderly fashion!" called Mrs. MacConnelly, who had appeared through the side door after the last person to be Placed.
The staff went first, of course, and Henry waved as Mr. Onestein walked by. The kindly man waved back with a grin as Ford and Gordy goggled at him.
"You know Mr. Onestein even though this is your first year at the school? How?" Ford asked.
"He helped me...get ready…to come to school," Henry replied, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He noticed that some of the other students at his table and the other tables nearby were pointing at him and whispering.
"Don't bother him, he's had a big day," Roy interjected, leaning forward in his seat with a scowl. "You guys will have plenty of time to talk to him in after we're done with dinner."
"Oh Roy-ber-tito," Ford said with a smirk, "Are you a bit hungry, then?"
Roy's stomach growled particularly loudly, then and the twins cracked up.
"C'mon Henry, let's get into line," Roy said, tugging on Henry's shirt.
They slowly made their way down the line until they were able to fill their trays with an assortment of strange foods, many of which were colors that were obviously not found in nature.
Another red-haired boy with a serious expression was at their end of the table when they returned.
"H'llo Dar-shee," Roy said, his mouth already full of chicken, "This ish 'enry."
The tall boy looked down at Roy and sighed deeply with disgust before turning to Henry.
"My name is Darcy Wensleydale and I am Roy's older brother," he said seriously. "I aim to set a good example for the younger students, and, as the Floor Monitor for the boy's dorms, I can also enforce the rules at school, so please do try your best to follow them."
"Do you have a point system?" Henry asked, knowing that other schools in the magical world did as much.
"Not exactly," Darcy replied, looking at Henry over the rims of his glasses, "but we do have Funding Goals."
"What is that?" Henry asked.
"For every action a student engages in to better him or herself and the name of their scientific endeavors, the more money their dorm gets at the end of the year to be spent on student projects," Darcy explained. "So far, the folks over at Newton keep kicking our butts and end up with the lion's share, but a guy can hope. I can add and subtract funds from our coffer by using this handheld PDA. I can also step in when students from other dorms are misbehaving. We all start out with a thousand dollars each, and amounts are deducted and added throughout the year. The dorm with the most money at the end of the year gets the whole pot. As you can see, it's a very lucrative game."
Henry stared, hoping that he didn't seem totally ignorant about non-magical money. Even though he didn't know much about dollars, he did know that a thousand was a large number indeed.
Once they'd finished their dinners, the principal, a Mr. Dorobere, cleared his throat and welcomed all of the students with a nice speech. He also introduced the new Infectious Diseases teacher, Mr. Quetzal. Henry was impressed at Mr. Dorobere's immaculately trimmed white beard. Most older wizards that he knew simply grew out their beards until they were long enough to tuck into their belts. Just as he was looking back at the teacher's table for Mr. Onestein, he grabbed his arm and winced with pain.
"Ow, my arm!" he yelped, looking up to see a serious-looking man with dark eyes staring at him from the table. "Darcy, who's that sitting up there in the white lab coat?"
"That's Mr. Snopes. He's the Chemistry teacher," Darcy replied, "He's very strict, so don't get on his bad side. He also manages Newton Hall, which has won the funding pot outright for nearly a decade."
Henry turned away and scarfed down the rest of his food quickly. When it seemed most people were done, he and Roy followed Darcy out of the cafeteria and up a long flight of steps.
"We do have an elevator," Darcy explained, "but the stairs are more direct and you'll get more exercise that way. Besides, it breaks down randomly from time to time and people can get trapped inside."
Henry did not ask what an elevator was, and part of him hoped that he would never have to find out.
"Welcome to Freud Hall," Darcy said to everyone once they reached the landing at the top of the stairs, "You will need to remember this keypad code to get in the door. 2-4-6-8. Do not share it with anyone else, or you will lose funds."
Luckily, Roy and Henry were able to find two beds that were next to one another, but they both let out a dismayed sigh when Newbert set his things down on the bed across from them. Two other boys, a tall black boy named Damian and a short, large-eared boy with brown eyes and freckles name Sean took the remaining two beds.
"I'm going to be a special effects man like my father!" Sean exclaimed, "I love explosions, especially the big movie ones that level an entire building!"
"I know, right?" Damian said excitedly, "Like that time the guy jumped over two vans and they all exploded behind them."
"That was my mother's work, you know!" Sean said proudly.
"What? Awesome!" Roy said. "I totally saw that movie on rerun a couple weeks ago."
The two boys turned to look at him and grinned.
"My parents were high level patent officers!" Newbert squeaked, flushing with embarrassment when the boys ignored him altogether.
"What about you, Henry?" Sean asked.
Henry paled, trying to rack his brain for a suitable lie.
"Um...I just live with my aunt and uncle...they're….not really into science," he admitted.
"He's had a long day," Roy said, stepping in for his friend, "We'd all better turn in for the night. After all, they're going to put up the class lists tomorrow."
"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Henry said, yawning theatrically, even though he was more excited than tired. Spending the night in a room this large, even though he had to share it with four other people was like something out of a dream. The Undetectable Extension charm on his cabinet under the stairs was shoddy at best and sometimes retracted at random times. This was the first time he could remember sleeping in a room with actual windows. Even the starched sheets, though a bit scratchy, were blessedly free of spiders.
It was heavenly.
Henry slipped under the covers, sure that he would be unable to sleep a wink, but the moment his head hit the pillow, he sank into a deep, pleasant sleep.
Thoughts and worries about the coming morning and all that it entailed would have to wait.