Hello! If you want to look at the system I made for classes for my main characters, you can use this link - ht~t~p~s~:~/~/~docs.~go~ogle.~co~m/~spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR_OsfPITR48BcBHhPqh95rbKI_ILtJnhezlzux-eYB6LPwoE-nbSxR_8deEIIlMg/pubhtml - you have to take out the '~'s. (If that doesn't work please tell me in the reviews). Also, thanks to everyone that has been reading my story!

She nodded, and I headed back to my common room, already unable to wait to talk to her after lunch.

I was walking down the hallway towards my common room when I spotted two older Hufflepuff students standing in front of the last painting in the hall, the one with the bowl of fruit. The girl had red hair and a pixie cut, and the boy had messy, short black hair, similar to Albus's. They were talking quietly to each other while looking at the painting. I couldn't help but overhear part of what they were saying since the hallway was not very wide.

"Don't you think we should… I don't know… pass on the knowledge?" The girl asked, still staring at the painting.

"Like those seventh years that told us? I guess. We wouldn't want there to be a couple of years where no Hufflepuffs even knew about it." The boy sighed. "You can bet that Veronica and Larissa in Gryffindor will have told their siblings."

"Huh. Well..." Then she spotted me. "Oi, you! Firstie!"

I blinked and looked around the hall like an idiot. I was the only person in the hall except for them. "Um, yeah?"

The girl waved me over, but I only came a bit closer. They were both looking at me very intently, and it was making me super anxious for some reason. What did they want with me?

The boy looked at the girl. "Are you sure? We're just going to tell some random firstie?"

I blinked, and they continued talking about me as if I weren't there. "Yeah, random firstie is as good as anybody, I figure. Oi, where are you going?"

I'd started to unconsciously inch down the hall away from them. "Um, nowhere?"

The boy shook his head, whisking hair away from his face. "Good, we're going to tell you about something, and you have to promise to tell very few people, okay? But in your seventh year, make sure you tell a first year. Got it?"

I nodded and tried to look like I understood when I really didn't. What the heck did they want to tell me, and why did I have to tell a first year when I was in my seventh year?

The girl continued where the boy left off. "Right. Okay, so you see this painting? The bowl of fruit closest to the barrels?"

I nodded, wondering what the heck was so special about the painting. "Yeah?"

"Okay, see the pear, just here? If you tickle it, it'll turn into a large green door handle."

I was flabbergasted. "Sorry. Tickle it? The pear?"

She nodded like I was an idiot. "Right. Look, We'll show you."

The boy looked up and down the hall, to check that it was empty, and before I could decide that I was being pranked, he tickled the pear. And it turned into a door handle. Which completely blew my mind. But before I got over my bemusement, the boy grabbed the door handle and turned it, opening the painting like a door. Then he stepped through, and I ended up being ushered after him by the girl. She shut the door behind the three of us, and for a moment, the room was pitch black.

Then torches around the walls flickered to life, illuminating a room that gave me a weird feeling of deja vu. It took me a second, but I realized that it was so familiar because it was a sort of replica of the Great Hall, just with much, much lower ceilings. There were the same five tables, in the same arrangement as the professor and house tables. There were the same golden dishes. I noticed that the benches that the students sat on were missing from the duplicate, but for the most part, the room was extremely similar.

The girl gestured with her hands in a grand gesture. "Welcome, short firstie, to the mysterious Hogwarts kitchens." The grand effect was spoiled miserably by the boy laughing dryly at her.

Suddenly there was a terrific crack, and a short, wrinkly, thing appeared in the center of the kitchen. It was relatively humanoid, but it had pointed ears and huge eyes. Its skin was extremely wrinkled, and it was bald.

I yelped. "What is that?!"

The girl looked at me, confused. "It's a house-elf, of course. Blimey, haven't you seen one before? Are you a muggle-born?"

I couldn't stop staring at it. "I'm not - I'm not muggle-born, but I was born in California. We don't really have... house-elves? Wizards don't really have house-elves in the US."

The thing - sorry, house-elf - suddenly bowed. It spoke in a high, squeaky sort of voice. "Would you be liking some food today?"

The girl shook her head. "No, thanks. We're just showing - hang on, what's your name?"

"I'm Areti Runites. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Alica Melaine, and this is Colin Spinnet. Anyways," She said, turning back to the elf, "We're just here to show Runites the way into the kitchens. We're graduating this year, and this way more Hufflepuffs will know about it after we're gone."

"So, you want me to tell another first year, once I'm in the seventh year? Pass down the knowledge, or whatever?"

Colin Spinnet nodded. "Right. Try not to tell too many people, because we don't want everyone to just eat anything whenever they want. There's technically no rule saying we can't come in here, but just in case it'd get us in trouble we try not to advertise the fact that a few students in each house know how to get it."

I nod, deciding not to mention that I was planning on telling a Slytherin. Somehow I didn't think they'd appreciate that. "So I can tell my roommates?"

They nodded and started walking towards the entrance. "If you ever need any food, drink, or whatever you can just ask these guys. There are loads of them, and I think they live down here. If there is any sort of Hufflepuff party or house celebration in the common room, it's kind of a tradition for somebody to bring food up from the kitchens. That'll be your job."

Alica Melaine nodded. "Right. We can do that for this year, but next year you'll be on your own. We've got to go meet up with Colin's brother, who's in Ravenclaw, so you can go back to doing whatever you were doing."

I rushed back to the common room with an enormous grin on my face. Wait till Violet, Remus, and Hazel hear this.

When I stepped into our room, I saw something that I did not expect. First off, all four of my roommates were there. That wasn't the most surprising part. The surprising part was that they were in what looked like the middle of an extremely heated argument. Violet was in the middle of the room, holding back Hazel, who was yelling at the top of her lungs at Rome. Remus was trying and failing to stand in between Hazel and Rome, waving his arms frantically.

Hazel was yelling the loudest. "You bloody brute! You can't steal magic!"

Rome hollered back from the other side of the room, as far as he could get from her, "Sure, thief! Then what the bloody hell is a squib?!"

Violet yelled in my direction. "Oi! Runites! Give us a hand, would you?!"

I jumped out of my daze and yelled at my door. "Door! Let Violet and Remus in and out of my room!"

Remus yelled over the arguing Hazel and Rome, "How does that help?!"

"Drag her into my room!"

Remus nodded, and, with Violet and I's help, pulled Hazel into my room. I shut the door behind us.

"Door, don't let Hazel through."

Violet and Remus let go of Hazel, who was currently yelling various no-maj obscenities at the closed door. With one last curse, she sat on the floor. Her face was red and her eyes were filled with anger that was quickly changing to shame.

"Oh jeez." she sighed, covering her face. "I'm sorry guys. That was ridiculous."

Violet let out a tired laugh and sat next to her. "Ridiculous, but not entirely uncalled for. He was being a jerk."

I let out a sigh and sat on the floor, with my back against the door. "What did he say? You seemed like such a calm person, and then he walks in the room and it practically burns to the ground."

Hazel huffed. "He told me I stole my magic from a squib, among other things."

I blinked. "People actually still believe that?"

Remus sighed and slumped against the bed. "Yeah, some pureblood families are still awful like that." He snorted. "Just another ridiculous bias that people in the wizarding world have."

Violet nodded. "Yeah, Remus is actually named after a werewolf that saved his mum's life during the Battle of Hogwarts. Remus Lupin died protecting a group of Hufflepuffs, with his wife, Nymphadora Lupin."

"That's sad. Hang on, didn't they have a kid?" I asked.

Remus nodded. "Yeah. Teddy Lupin just graduated from Hogwarts last year. He's a metamorphmagus like his mum was."

"That's cool! That's supposed to be hereditary, but my older sibling is a metamorphmagus even though neither of our parents is."

"Wouldn't it be awesome to be an Animagi?" Violet asked. "You could turn into an animal whenever you wanted. The only downside is that you have to register with the ministry."

Hazel blinked. "To be a what now? And what's a meta- meta what?"

Violet grinned, apparently happy to be teaching Hazel something for a change. "A metamorphmagus can change their appearance at will. Their nose, their eyes, their hair, their height, whatever. An Animagi can change into a specific animal at will, but they don't get to choose which animal."

Hazel frowned. "So you can't learn how to be a metamorphmagus? You have to be born one?"

Remus nodded. "But you can become an Animagi. It's supposed to be extremely difficult and dangerous."

"Oh yeah!" I sat up and grinned at them. "I totally forgot, but on my way here I met these seventh years. They showed me where the Hogwarts kitchens are, and said that we can get food and things from there whenever we want!"

Hazel jumped to her feet in excitement. "Whenever? Can we go now?!"

Violet groaned. "I want to sleeep. We've got lunch in an hour, why do we have to go now?"

Hazel looked incredulous. "Why in the world would you want to sleep? We've got unlimited access to food!"

"Sleeeeeeep."

Remus grinned. "How about, after lunch, we all go to the kitchens?"

"Could I bring Trinity? My friend? We said that we were going to find our classes after lunch, so maybe we could do this first."

Violet nodded. "Right. Sleep, lunch, kitchens, and then Ret goes off with the Slytherin friend. Now tell the door to let Hazel out, Ret, she can't stay in here forever."