Chapter 6: A New Day
"Wow, who is she?"
"How am I supposed to know? Do I look like God to you?"
"Of course not! I would expect God to be a bit taller… and probably not a red-head."
This hushed conversation was what Elynn woke to the next morning. For a moment, she couldn't remember where she was, but soon the events of the night before caught up with her and she made sure to pretend that she was still asleep, hoping that Percy or Oliver would come and save her from whoever was standing above her looking at her and whispering. This, however, didn't happen as soon as she had hoped and the two boys in front of her continued to talk softly.
"Do you think we should wake her up?" The first asked.
"Of course not, you bumble brain! With our luck, she'd be frightened half out of her wits and either scream, waking everyone, or punch either one of us in the face, most likely me!"
"But she doesn't look like a Griffindor. What is she doing here anyway?"
"Oh wait, let me just read her mind and find out!"
"Well, you don't have to be so mean about it."
"Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."
"It wasn't a stupid question!"
"Well, how am I supposed to know why she's here? That was a dumb question to ask me!"
"Was not! Take that back!" The two voices had gradually been getting louder and Elynn decided it was time to reveal herself, before the two boys came to blows. She opened her lids and had to blink a few times and rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Standing over her was a boy and his mirror image! The two boys in front of her were totally identical in everyway that Elynn could see. Vivid red hair, like Percy's and bright green eyes, now twinkling with irritation at one another, everything was the same. The twins soon realized that the object of their fight was observing them and quickly crouched down to stare at her. She hastily sat up to get away from the closeness of the two. That was a mistake. The two boys promptly sat down on either side of her, sandwiching her in.
"Hello." Said the one on her left, cheerily. She recognized him as the first voice and smiled at him.
"Good morning." She replied with as much cordiality as she could muster. It was rather early for her to be cordial, but after last night, Elynn wasn't taking any chances with anyone!
"Who are you?" Asked the other on her right.
"Elynn and you?" She asked just as friendly-like as she could, while praying silently that Oliver would show up.
"Well, I'm Fred Weasley and that's my brother George Weasley. We're twins." Said the one on her left, Fred.
George leaned forward to speak with his brother, "I think she can see that, smart one." He said, sarcastically.
"Well, she could have just thought she was hallucinating! That's what Aunt Lucille thought when she saw us." Fred replied indignantly.
"Yes, well, Aunt Lucille is senile!" George said with a superior air.
"You don't even know what senile means!" Fred said.
"So, neither do you!" George retorted. At that point Elynn couldn't stand it anymore. She laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed. She laughed so hard that her sides hurt and she nearly fell off the couch. Fred and George looked down at the hysterical girl, then at each other and made crazy signals with their hands. At that moment, another party entered the room.
"What is going on here?"
Elynn got herself up, and ran to the door to the dormitories, "Oh Percy! Thank goodness you're here! Please save me!" She was still giggling fiercely when she threw her arms around Percy's neck, surprising not only Percy, but the twins as well.
"Alright! Now we know she's crazy!" George proclaimed, "I think I just saw her hug my brother."
Percy glared at him as he wrapped his arms around the hysterical girl's waist, "Don't you two have something you could be doing? Like preparing for breakfast?" The twins quickly got up and ran up the stairs still whispering about that crazy girl.
Elynn gasped and caught her breath, "Those two… are they really… your brothers?" She wheezed.
"Yes?" Percy replied, unsure if that was the way he should of answered. Sometimes he had found it to be wiser not to claim the twins.
"Oh their marvelous!" She exclaimed stepping away from Percy, finally having caught her breath, "I just got to sit and listen to them argue and I don't think I've ever heard anything so funny in all my life!" Percy smiled. She liked his brothers; that was good.
"Well, now that my lovely little caterpillar has emerged from her cocoon, and no prettier butterfly was ever seen in all of England," Percy commented, light-heartedly as he slung an arm around her shoulders, "Let's go see if we can't find you a permanent branch to rest your pretty wings on, shall we?"
Elynn allowed herself to be led, but shrewdly took one last look around the homey Griffindor common room, wondering if she would ever be allowed to look again, on the place that she knew to her would always be her first home at Hogwarts. Elynn and Percy emerged from the portrait and decided to try right since they had come in from the other direction last night and hadn't seen anything. They walked up and down the moving stairs for about five minutes, Percy's arm now removed from Elynn's person, when they saw a group of girls on a landing, chatting. Elynn saw the girl she had sat by at the table last night, Avela Rinocu. Percy saw them too and pulled her behind a wall to watch them. They seemed to be discussing classes. Suddenly, Avela said that she had forgotten something back at the common room. They decided to walk together and began to walk slowly down the flight of stairs in front of them. Percy looked at Elynn.
"Well, this is it. Just follow them and don't forget to memorize what they do and say."
"Don't worry, I won't." There was a pause, "Thank you Percy. For everything." Was it just her imagination or did he turn a light shade of red? If he had, it was gone in a flash and the old, boisterous Percy was back, bending over her hand, like a bona fide gentleman.
"Always willing to help a lady, especially one of high-breeding." He said with a wink, "If you need anything else, just let either me or Oliver know. We'll take care of you."
"Thank you. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to miss my ride." Percy quickly let go of her hand and Elynn stealthily began to follow the girls in front of her. She didn't look back so she didn't see the look on the face of her escort or hear the sigh that escaped his lips before he turned to go back to his own common room.
~~~~~
Elynn followed the group of girls close enough so as not to lose sight of them, but so close as to look suspicious. She didn't want people asking questions. She memorized every twist and turn of the stairs as they proceeded through the housing portion of the school.
"No wonder Percy didn't know where it was!" Elynn thought as they got further and further away from the Griffindor tower. Finally, the girls stopped in front of a picture of a thin, spindly lady with a sour expression on her face.
"Omnipotent studias" Avela said with confidence. She acted as if she had done this all her life, but Elynn knew that she was just a first year, like her. The sour lady scowled, but the portrait swung open and the girls all walked through. Elynn waited until the portrait was fully closed, before she ventured out. She came and stood in front of the portrait lady, suddenly and painfully aware of how awful she must look, in her wrinkled robe from the day before and unbrushed hair. The lady gave her a sour look.
"Where have you been?" She asked crankily.
"Well… um…" Elynn began, not sure where to start, but luckily she didn't have to because the portrait lady grumpily interrupted her.
"Oh never mind, just say the password."
"Omnipotent… um" Elynn faltered. What was that second word? Ah! "…Studias!"
"Lucky guess." The sour old lady mumbled as the portrait swung open.
"Was not." Elynn mumbled back as she stared into the dark tunnel, steeling herself for what was to come. With a deep breath she took a few steps into the tunnel. The portrait quickly and silently, swung closed, leaving Elynn in complete darkness except for the light coming from the end of the tunnel. She began to walk toward the light. The best way to do this, she decided, was to hurry through the common room and hope that those girls were coming from their dormitory, so she would know where she was going. She got to the mouth of the passageway and, taking a deep breath, stepped into the Ravenclaw dormitory.
She glanced around briefly and discovered to her absolute relief, that there was no one there. She walked across the room slowly, taking in everything she could about the room, while she had a chance. Actually, it was set up, in much the same way as the Griffindor common room, only instead of being decorated in reds and yellows, it was trimmed in blues and white. Bookshelves lined the walls and tables all over the room were covered with papers and quills. She saw a doorway leading up a stair and decided that this must the way to the dormitories. With this in mind, she slowly began to ascend the stair. She reached the top and stood there now truly lost. There were two doors; one on her left, the other on her right. She knew one led to the girls' dormitory and the other led to the boys', but she had no idea, which went where. She stood there for a moment, considering her options, when she was saved the work and embarrassment, once again by Avela, who chose that very moment to exit from the left door, a book in her hand. She looked up and smiled at Elynn.
"Oh, good morning." She said cheerfully.
"Good morning." Elynn replied, smiling back and walking toward the door that Avela had just left, while Avela began to descend the stairs.
"Oh, by the way, your cat was crying last night so, I gave her a little saucer of milk before I went to bed. I hope that's all right."
Elynn was stunned, "No that's fine. Thank you." Avela smiled wider and pushed her glasses up on her nose, before her head disappeared down the stair. Elynn still in a little bit of a shock from the small kindness she had just been shown, walked in the door and shut it softly. Then, suddenly, she realized how late it must be and flew to her trunk, throwing it open and pulling out her uniform, grabbed her comb and toothbrush and all her house paraphernalia that she was to wear.
'No time for breakfast this morning!' She thought as she dressed and cleaned herself up. She combed her hair back into a slick ponytail and quickly grabbed her books for her morning classes, made sure she had extra quills and parchment and quickly checked to make sure Elizabeth was safe in her carrier, before she flew out the door, through the common room and out the portrait hole as fast as her legs would carry her. Her first class was Transfiguration and she knew that she most definitely did NOT want to be late!