Chapter 15 – A Common Room

Teddy and Freddie were waiting outside the Great Hall when Lydia made it back down from Ravenclaw Tower.

Teddy stepped forwards. "How did it go with McGonagall?"

Lydia donned a puzzled look for a second. "What? Oh, yeah. It went great. She's going to look into setting up a shared common room, so that people from different houses can spend time together and study and so on."

"What about the drama with Robins and Zabini and all?" Freddie demanded to know.

Lydia shrugged. "Fine. I told her I'd done what Harry Potter taught me and she was like, 'Oh, well done. But don't do it again'. So, I said I wouldn't. She said Robins was OK, now."

Freddie grimaced. "Maybe. He came up to me and said 'Sorry', sort of. And I said 'Yeah, no probs'. Then he grunted and left. I don't think we'll be swapping chocolate frog cards or anything but I think it'll be all right."

"Glad you're OK," Teddy said. It sounded honest but flat.

There was a silence between them for a moment.

"Well, see you after dinner," Lydia smiled.

She had seen Shona and Maisie approaching and went to join them. Tina and Mel appeared and they all went in to dinner together.

After dinner she met up with Teddy and Freddie again. The former seemed happier and more animated than before. They agreed with a suggestion from Teddy that they should try to gather a few more friends together. That way none of them would be alone at breaks or between lessons. The following morning at breakfast, McGonagall announced the creation of the Joint Common Room. It was to be available to all years and all houses. It would be housed in a large room on the second floor, off the Entrance Hall balcony. This spacious room had previously been used for occasional dance lessons, choir practice and duelling. It was to open after lessons on Thursday of that week.

As it turned out, that was after Flying Lessons, which Ravenclaw shared with Hufflepuff. It was the first time that Madam Hooch had thought they were flying well enough to be allowed onto the quidditch pitch. The extra space had given the better flyers a chance to build up some speed. The school brooms had limited them to a pace which would have been laughable in a quidditch match, but it was enough to let them feel the wind in their faces.

They were still buzzing with excitement from their flying as they reached the new common room.

"Oh," Freddie sounded disappointed as they walked in. "It's not as cosy as the proper common rooms, is it?"

The room was large and rectangular. The ceiling was higher than either the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw common rooms that Lydia knew. The boys agreed it was higher than Hufflepuff's, too. The new "JCR", as it was already being called, was more cavernous than cosy. But there were plenty of nice sofas and chairs, two broad fireplaces and a row of booths along one wall.

"We'll make it our own," Lydia grinned. "Let's get a booth!"

The boys looked at each other as Lydia ran across to the booths to claim one.

"I can't believe she's more excited than you," Teddy observed.

"Well, she did get us the common room," Freddie reminded him. "She has a right to be proud of it. And she's right, people will make it their own. There are quite a few here already."

They joined Lydia at the booth she had chosen. They shuffled into position on the bench seat opposite her and looked around. It was not unlike the compartments on the Hogwarts Express in size and furnishing. It had no window, no door, and no ceiling. It would easily take six students and probably ten at a push, especially if they were first-years and you really needed that many in one place.

"Plenty of room for us to do our homework together," Lydia enthused.

"Homework. Woohoo," Teddy observed drily.

"Look at you, Miss Ward. All proud and everything," Freddie chirped.

"Hello, Lydia."

They looked up. Eric Moss and some other seventh-year boys were making for the next booth.

"I gather we have you to thank for this," he continued. "From what McGonagall said. Well done."

"Hi, Eric," Lydia replied, then hurried to say, "It wasn't really me. I mentioned it but McGonagall was already planning to do it."

"Ah, well. Still a good idea," Eric said. "Of course, we prefects already have a common room. But it's nice to be in with the kids, now and then."

They could hear the group of boys shuffling and bumping into place in the next booth, behind Lydia.

"Very modest of you, Lydia." Teddy said.

Lydia leaned forward and whispered. "McGonagall doesn't want me to get noticed too much."

"Not a chance, Eric," came a voice from the next booth. "Anyway she's got a boyfriend now."

Lydia signalled to Teddy and Freddie to be quiet. She thought she knew who they were talking about.

"Torpington, I imagine you mean," came Eric's voice. Lydia had her head against the booth wall and could hear well enough.

"Nah, Tom's going out with Elida Cresswell in the sixth year."

There came a chorus of mutterings praising the Head Boy's taste in girlfriends.

"Who, then?" Eric demanded.

"Some dodgy bloke who lives in Hogsmeade."

"What? Not that idiot who wears black all the time? What's he got that I haven't?" Eric protested.

There was laughter, then the reply, "Well, Tessa would be at the top of that very long list."

Lydia leaned forwards again.

Freddie shook his head. "What was all that about?"

"Tessa Gudgeon, Head Girl," Lydia murmured, wary of being overheard. "She's seeing someone."

Freddie gave a wry smile. "Gosh, how fascinating. Almost as interesting as homework."

"She's a friend," Lydia explained. "She has a thing for bad boys. Sounds like she's found one."

"Sooooo…" said Teddy as a prelude to changing the subject. "Are we going to do our Charms homework together?"

"You mean am I going to do it and let you copy?" Lydia scowled.

"Ooo, there's an idea!" Freddie noted.

"Hmm, let me think. No. It's so easy even you two could do it!"

At that moment Shona and Tina appeared at the end of their table.

"Hi, Lydia," Shona sang. "Mind if we join you?"

Lydia looked to the boys.

"Fine by me," Teddy said, smiling at Shona.

"Party, party!" Freddie grinned.

Shona, and then Tina, shuffled onto the bench at Lydia's side. Lydia moved up to make room for them. Although they all knew each other from the classes that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff shared, Lydia introduced them all again. They chattered amiably. Teddy treated them to some of his 'metamorphing', as he called it. Between them, Freddie and Shona made sure there was never a moment's silence.

Eventually Tina reminded them that dinner would be starting soon. Lydia and the boys realised they needed to drop off their schoolbooks beforehand. Shona and Tina accompanied Lydia up to Ravenclaw Tower. The boys went downstairs.

"Teddy's nice," Shona observed. "Good looking, too, when he's not pulling faces and going funny colours."

"I really like Freddie. He's so sweet," said Tina, then blushed as the other two stared at her.

Lydia thought about it. "You're right. He is. He always seems to be happy, even when things are not going well for him."

After dinner that evening Lydia and the boys went back to the Joint Common Room to do their Charms homework. Tina joined them but Shona went to the Ravenclaw common room with Maisie and Mel. Lydia and Tina soon worked through their homework. They did not let the boys copy what they had done but Lydia talked them through it. When the boys had finished writing Lydia and Tina looked over their work and suggested a few improvements.

As the two Ravenclaw girls went back to their dormitory, Tina asked Lydia about how she had saved Freddie from being bullied. Lydia told her that she had used a trick Harry Potter had taught her. The lie was becoming comfortable now but that left Lydia feeling uneasy. She hated lying to her friends. She was still turning this over in her mind as she went to bed.

That night she dreamed. She was in a forest, or perhaps it was a maze. There were avenues of trees at odd angles to each other. Even though there were gaps between the trees, she had to follow the avenues and not sneak in between. Shortcuts were not allowed. Being a dream, she knew this rule without knowing how or why. Every now and then she caught a glimpse through the trees of a figure. The air was too misty to see the figure clearly or perhaps the figure itself was misty. No matter how she hurried towards the figure it was never any closer nor more distinct. Yet it was not running away from her. Though she could barely see, she knew the figure was always looking towards her, looking at her, watching.

She awoke to the sounds of her classmates getting ready for breakfast. She swung her legs out of her bed and noticed that her feet were cold, and wet. She looked around. Xander had already got up and gone. Where her feet had slid over her sheets there were several pieces of grass. She picked a few off the white cotton. They were fresh.

The new common room took on a character of its own over the next couple of weeks. Lydia, Teddy and Freddie spent much of their free time there. Xander got into a habit of joining them, wandering in a little after they arrived and curling up in someone's lap for much of the time. Other classmates joined them too, from time to time. Xander would look them over and, if he approved, would avail himself of the new lap. It was a few days before anyone pointed out that none of the furniture was new. It all looked as though it had led several lives at Hogwarts already. Lydia spotted a heart scratched into one of the tables, enclosing the initials JP and LE. She wondered what had ever happened to the young couple who had declared their love in this way.

They noticed how the atmosphere in the common room developed. Most people tried it out over the first few days and it was busy, noisy and confused. After a while the regular occupants were groups of friends who were from different houses. They were people who wanted to be together. This led to an atmosphere which was friendly and happy. Of course, the members of friendship groups came and went – that much was inevitable. Also inevitable were the occasional arguments which broke out. But, in general, the mood was positive and there was a welcoming buzz to the room. Lydia enjoyed socialising not only with her immediate friends but also with people from other houses and other years who also used the room.

In her regular chats with Draco she was happy to report how well she now felt she was fitting into the school. She was achieving good marks for her schoolwork and felt she was now channelling her magic through her wand, as any normal student would. Draco was pleased for her. For the rest of that first term at Hogwarts, Lydia believed she was having some of the best times of her school life, so far. After the Christmas break things began to change.

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