~Chapter Five- Welcome to Ravenclaw~
The meal had to have been the most pleasant (and largest) meal Cari and Lindsey had ever had, and Lindsey certainly wasn't far from the truth with her earlier comment.
After everyone had eaten perhaps past their hearts content Dumbledore stood again to speak. This time it was much more routine announcements and Lindsey couldn't help but neglect to listen. He spoke for maybe five or ten minutes, then the plates all disappeared and the students dismissed.
Before Lindsey could even ask, Kristin voiced the answer to her question with, "Here, I'll show you guys to the Ravenclaw dorms. I was made a prefect this year, you know, so it's really my responsibility…" Kristin kept up a steady stream of chatter as the group of students followed her up and up to the common room in Ravenclaw tower on the west side of the castle.
As they walked Lindsey took the opportunity to whisper, "Hey, Cari, what's a prefect?"
Cari just sighed and shook her head, rolling her eyes inwardly.
Soon enough they came upon a large painting of a battered and bruised knight holding his dented helmet under his arm.
"Alright, our password is… istumba, yes, that's it," Kristin said half to herself and half to the others. "Istumba!"
The knight nodded curtly and the portrait swung open revealing a large and comfortable common room.
"Girls' dorms that way, boys' are that way," Kristin said. Cari looked and saw a very tall, geeky, and awkward-looking boy with red hair in a bowl cut and thick-rimmed bottle-neck glasses leading the guys up to their dorm. Kristin, catching her gaze, said, "Oh, that's Rupert Render, he's the other Ravenclaw prefect. And uh, sorry," she added, eyeing Cari, "but he has a girlfriend. Isn't he adorable though?!"
Cari looked at her strangely and shook her head, then ascended with the others up the stairs.
The girls' dorms were simple but luxurious, especially in comparison with most of Lindsey's previous places of residence. Cari's bed was furthest to the right next to the wall with Lindsey's just to the left.
"Hey, our stuff!" Lindsey cried. She was surprised to see their luggage brought up for them and situated on their beds.
While Cari had a tidy wooden trunk, Lindsey had the largest and most dilapidated box any of the girls had seen. It was filthy and tattered, with many holes, held shut and together with twine, and emitting a peculiar odor.
As Cari and the others opened their respective trunks and began positioning their things Lindsey began to open the giant box.
"Duffer…" she was calling softly, and clicking her tongue. "Duffer baby…"
"What is she doing?" Pippy asked Cari off-handedly, very confused.
"It's her cat," she answered. "She's looking for her cat."
It was then the girls did notice a soft mewing, or something vaguely resembling it, coming from the cardboard atrocity. Finally Lindsey managed to open the top of the box, and with a happy sound pulled her cat from the nest it had made itself in her clothes inside the box.
It looked about as far from a cat as possible, and was undoubtedly the ugliest quadruped anyone had seen. Its fur was of a gross, dull grey, the color of a dust bunny. There were patches missing all over, and the tip of its talk was bent grotesquely. One ear had several holes, and the other was just a ratty pointed stub. It only had about three whiskers all together and its eyes were two different colors: purple and a queer kind of blue-green.
"Oh, it's… cute…" Lisa tried, cautiously reaching out her hand to pet it, then thinking better of it and pulling her hand back. Lindsey took absolutely no notice of anyone's reactions and went about cuddling it as if it was the most adorable thing on earth instead of breath-takingly hideous.
As Lindsey continued fawning quietly over Duffer the other girls lively chattered while personalizing their space. Cari propped up a picture of her and her parents at the Statue of Liberty and Pippy was using her wand to put up a poster of the Dublin Dragons quidditch team. Lindsey watched the players zoom back and forth over the field for a few moments.
"What's that?" she asked.
"What? That?" Pippy asked incredulously.
"Yeah."
"That's quidditch."-a pause-"Quidditch. Haven't you heard of it?"
Lindsey shook her head and Pippy's eyes practically popped out of their sockets.
"Cari didn't tell me about that…" Lindsey said, turning towards her companion. Cari, who had taken out on e of her new books and started to read, shrugged dismissively.
"I figured you'd need to focus on your studies more than anything, being so new to the wizarding world and all," she said pointedly.
Pippy's jaw dropped.
The rest of the night was spent teaching Lindsey the wonders of quidditch, and Cari frowning disapprovingly from behind her book.