On Wednesday morning, the entire school was surprised when they entered the Great hall for breakfast and found that the house tables had been reinstated. Professor Umbridge, with a smug smile on her face, announced that due to just passed Educational Decree Twenty-Four, Hogwarts was returning to the proper house tables. Students began whispering to each other about this, and Colin opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again when Elspeth hissed, "Be quiet, Colin! Do you want Umbridge to give you detention?"

After a few minutes, everyone headed for their respective house tables. As James sat down at the Ravenclaw table, he glanced over at the staff table and saw a thoughtful look on Professor Dumbledore's face, while the other teachers (except for Umbridge) were frowning. Breakfast was not a happy meal, since at least half the school had formed friendships past house boundaries, with the two largest groups being Unity and the Hogwarts Four. Almost everyone ate quickly and left the Great Hall for their classes as soon as possible.

At dinner time, another surprising announcement was made. Professor Dumbledore stood up with a portrait of all four Founders and the Sorting Hat. Godric Gryffindor was the first to speak. "It has come to our attention that the Ministry of Magic is interfering with Hogwarts and apparently certain members have something against house cooperation, which we do not approve of."

Rowena Ravenclaw continued, "Therefore, we have decided to form a fifth house, one in which the students have qualities of more than one house and so could have been sorted in two or more houses under the old system."

Salazar Slytherin added, "As the Founders of Hogwarts and having the power to overrule the present leadership of this school if we so wish, the fifth house will be formed immediately. It will be called 'Unity', after the first group of students that became friends despite being in different houses. The house colors will be red, blue, green, and yellow, with a dolphin symbol."

Helga Hufflepuff finished, "The Head of House will be Professor Sinistra, and Unity's common room and dormatories will be located on the seventh floor, next to a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Our portrait will guard the entrance. Hogwarts has created the necessary rooms, and we leave it to the Sorting Hat to announce which students will be in the new house."

The Sorting Hat then started singing.

"A new house has been formed.

In order to bring about unity.

And so the members of the house

Will include those part of 'Unity'.

The next group of students to join

And help Hogwarts forever more

Will be all those that call themselves

Members of the Hogwarts Four.

The last group consists of first-years

That have formed a special bond

They sat together on the train ride

And to each other became quite fond.

So these three groups of students

Will become part of house number five

And together embrace school unity

To help Hogwarts continue to be alive."

When the Sorting Hat was done, a fifth table appeared. The members of Unity, the Hogwarts Four, and the sixteen first-years that had become friends with each other got up and found seats at the new table. Godric Gryffindor spoke again. "The new house can form their own Quidditch team. We'll leave it to the Heads of House to determine who will be best suited to become Quidditch captain. In the matter of classes, the members of Unity will simply use their current schedules until a new one is devised for them."

"As for the prefects," continued Rowena Ravenclaw, "the ones that were prefects in their old houses can be the ones for Unity. Since it seems there are no sixth and seventh year students in Unity, we will allow there to be more than just the two prefects in fifth year."

"So that is everything," said Helga Hufflepuff. "If there are any other details to be sorted out, Headmaster Dumbledore and the Heads of-"

"I object!" interrupted Umbridge angrily, getting to her feet and a look of fury on her face. "You cannot just suddenly decide to create a fifth house and -"

"Actually, we can," snapped Salazar Slytherin coldly. "Even though we are portraits, we are still the Founders and have the powers granted by our living counterparts before they died. It is necessary to have a fifth house, and you will not attempt to have a silly educational decree drafted to undo this. Unless you wish for us to make Professor McGonagall High Inquisitor, of course."

Umbridge was still furious, but as there was nothing she could do about it, she did not say anithing further and simply sat down again. Dinner resumed, with the members of the new house getting to know each other. The first-years, who didn't quite understand everything that was going on, especially the Muggleborn ones, had it all explained to them.

After dinner, Unity went up to their new common room. The portrait of the Founders was hanging over the entrance. The Founders greeted the members of the new house, and then Rowena Ravenclaw told them that they would use passwords, except for one day each month when they would have answer a question or riddle to get in like the Ravenclaws. The first password was "Hogwarts concordis." After that, Unity entered.

The common room was basically a mix of the other four houses. There were bookcases like in Ravenclaw, the room felt cozy and welcioming like in Hufflepuff, there were numerous squashy armchairs like in Gryffindor, and there were several cupboards like in Slytherin. The hangings on the walls all showed a dolphin on a background of four rectangles of red, blue, green, and yellow.

There were two doors on opposite walls. One door on each wall proved to lead to a series of bathrooms, including two bathing rooms that resembled the prefects' bathroom. The other doors led to the dormatories, one for the boys and the other for the girls. Each side consisted of a hallway with seven doors, one to each room, five of which had placards notifying the students as to which year resided in which room. James and the other fifth-year boys entered the room designated for them. As there were eighteen of them, the room was considerably larger than their old ones. It consisted of three rows of six beds, with a dresser between each one, nine wardrobes, nine desks with two chairs each, and several hampers to put their laundry in. Their trunks and other possessions had already been moved in and placed at the foot of the beds.

The fifth-year boys began unpacking and getting settled into their new dorm room. They were quite pleased to be part of a new house and remain together without having to resort to spending all their time outside of classes in the Room of Requirement, which could and probably did raise questions among their old housemates as to where they were.

After that, they got started on their homework, and the fifth and fourth-years decided to include the younger students in some of their activities, mainly ones that involved learning proper Defense. Professor Sinstra came by once to make sure that the new house was settling in well, and to inform James that as he was the one with the most experience playing for a House team, he was now Quidditch captain for Unity. He accepted the captain badge, and decided to hold tryouts Friday and form up a team.

Author's Note: In the future, Unity will refer to the new house. I chose the dolphin as the house symbol, since according to Celtic mythology, dolphins signify friendship. I had considered the phoenix, but it symbolizes rebirth, which is not what Unity is about, and I also considered the unicorn, but that symbolizes purity, which also doesn't fit.