CHAPTER III – The Sleeping Arrangements
"You guys come with me."
Liam turned to look at who'd spoken to find the same young woman who'd helped him in the station, then again on the train, standing behind him. She was looking from him to Jack and Kyle.
Obediently, the three of them stood up and followed her out of the Great Hall, which was quickly emptying now that the banquet was over. As they headed out, Liam couldn't help but smile as Jack made lewd gestures behind the older girls back.
"I'm Katy Pryne, by the way. I'm one of the Gryffindor Prefects. It's my job to show you guys to Gryffindor Tower."
Jack gave her a winning smile when she glanced back at them to make sure they were listening. "You look familiar. Do you do yoga?"
Katy ignored his comment and continued talking. "I expected to be leading a slightly larger crowd up to the Tower, but I can't say I'm terribly surprised."
At this point, Professor McGonagall approached the four of them from a side hall. "Ah, Ms. Pryne, there you are."
"Good evening, Professor McGonagall. I'm just leading the new Gryffindors to the Tower."
"Very good. I think I'll accompany you. I need to have a talk with the Prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl."
"Professor," Liam asked, "does this have anything to do with the fact that only three of us got sorted into Gryffindor? It seems rather odd."
"You're quite right, Mr. Tull. It is quite odd, and quite disturbing. Perhaps it's best the there of you attend this meeting as well, as you may be most directly affected."
"Yes, ma'am."
As McGonagall turned back around to face forward, Jack turned to Liam, spazzed and mouthed "Rock!"
Liam and Kyle had to try and hide their laughter all the way to Gryffindor Tower.
Katy and the Professor led them to a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. The fat lady smiled at the five of them, then tilted her head and said "This is all?"
"I'm afraid so," McGonagall replied.
"That's certainly not good. No, not good at all. Then again, what am I doing standing her blabbering on? Password?"
"Beluga whale," Katy said simply, and the fat lady's portrait swung away from the wall, revealing a doorway into a large plush room full of cushy armchairs.
"This is the common room," Katy explained, motioning around the room. "After the meeting, Timothy will show you to your dormitory."
The five of them walked up to a table where five other people were already sitting with their heads together talking. "I'm glad to see you're all already here," Professor McGonagall said simply.
"We were discussing the sorting, Professor," replied what looked to be the oldest of the three boys sitting around the table. Katy and the Professor pulled up chairs, leaving Liam, Kyle, and Jack standing nearby.
"That's exactly what I was hoping to talk about, Mr. Preston." She glanced at the three first years standing nearby, then introduced each of the people sitting around the table. "This is Jacob Preston, Head Boy, and Bethany Pryne, Head Girl. The others are Gryffindor's prefects, Timothy Pryne, Eliza Carry, William Baker, and Kate Pryne, who you know."
The family resemblance was plain between Kate, Bethany, and Timothy. Three sets of eyes exactly the same color peered from three faces bearing the same nose and the same freckles. All three nodded to the first-years when they were introduced.
"What do you think this means, Professor," Bethany asked.
"I've very afraid, Ms. Pryne, that it means dark times for the world. Hogwarts, as you know, pulls in the most prominent young witches and wizards in the area, and some, like these two," she said, motioning to Jack and Kyle, "from quite a ways away. If of all the students we took in this, only these were pure and brave enough to enter Gryffindor house, I must imagine that children are the same elsewhere."
"Did anyone notice all the new faces joining Slytherin, tonight?" William asked.
"That disturbs me just as much, Mr. Baker. I'm afraid of what the world is coming to if more students are being sorted into Slytherin than any other house."
Jack leaned in close to Liam and whispered loudly "I think we're not liking Slytherin right now."
"Quite right, Mr. Black, quite right," Professor McGonagall said, turning to look at the three of them. "Aside from this being your first day here at Hogwarts, you are all three muggle-born, which I imagine is the only reason you're not aware that Slytherin house is noted for it's propensity toward harboring students that later become users of the Dark Arts. Every villainous wizard for nearly five centuries now was once a Slytherin!"
"They're not all bad," Jacob added, "but most of them are. Besides, Gryffindor and Slytherin have been rivals since literally before the school was founded."
Something wasn't quite right, as far as Liam was concerned. "It seems strange that every dark wizard for centuries has been a Slytherin, but doesn't that say something for Hogwarts itself if all of them have come from this school? Or are the houses at all of the other wizarding schools the same four houses? There are other wizarding schools, right?"
"There are," McGonagall said, "and they are not all set up the same way as Hogwarts. The four houses here were named after the four founders of the school, and I assume the other schools name their houses after their own founders or something similar. Unfortunately, you are not the first to notice that Hogwarts has produced all of those dark names, and many people have moved to get the school closed."
"I can't imagine that would stop anything. Evil people are evil people, no matter where they go to school," Liam said, not buying in to this odd theory they seemed to be hatching.
"That's very true, Mr. Tull, but it's equally obvious to most people that Slytherin has a strange way of grabbing up all of those evil children. And as Slytherin house grew by fifteen students tonight, I, personally, am worried about the future of the world. It's long been thought by those closely involved with Hogwarts that Gryffindor was the house that produced the heroes in the battle of good against evil. If Gryffindor has recruited only one-fifth of what Slytherin has, that is only more cause for worry."
Six other heads nodded in agreement. Liam, suddenly feeling nervous, looked at Jack and Kyle. Were the three of them, then, the new heroes in training? Was it up to the three of them to keep the balance in check?
"What about the other houses?" Kyle asked. "Where do Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff fit into this?"
"Those houses go either way," Jacob answered. "From what I've seen, they tend to be more often on our side, but they're rarely big players in the larger battle. In the end, though, we, as Gryffindors, don't find much reason to dislike them except on the Quidditch field."
Liam didn't even want to know what Quidditch was at the moment. He was overwhelmed enough already. Apparently, his companions didn't feel the same way. "What's Quidditch?" Jack asked.
A few of the others gave them odd looks before remembering they knew nothing of the wizarding world. "You'll find out," was all they got, from a broadly grinning Timothy Pryne.
"Anyway," Kate interceded, "Professor McGonagall is right. If the rest of the world is seeing results like we're seeing, we may be in for dark times indeed."
"But what can we do about it?" Liam asked. He was surprised to find that he actually did want to help.
"I don't know," McGonagall sighed. "I'll have a talk with the Headmaster. Surely he's seen the same thing we have, and he'll likely come up with better ideas than any of us here could."
"I certainly hope he comes up with something," Bethany mused.
Professor McGonagall nodded and stood up. "For now, there isn't much we can do. Mr. Pryne, if you wouldn't mind showing these three to their dormitory. Perhaps it's best we all get some sleep. Classes will start first thing in the morning."
"Yes, Professor," Timothy replied, standing up with the others. As they all shook their heads and said their goodnights before heading off in separate directions, Timothy led the three first-years up one of the two staircases in the room.
It soon became obvious to Liam that they must be in one of the towers. After they'd passed a few doors, Timothy stopped them in front of another door that looked exactly like the ones they'd already passed. Liam could already foresee accidentally walking into someone else's dormitory.
Timothy opened the door and led them into the large round room. There were three large four-poster beds, each with one of their trunks sitting beside it, and a large curtained window looking over a forest far below.
"You'll be sleeping in this room for the next seven years, whenever you're at Hogwarts. It won't be long before it feels like home. Feel free to hang posters or redecorate however you'd like."
With that, Timothy was gone. "Dudes," Jack laughed, crossing the room to his trunk, "this is awesome!" He immediately started digging through his stuff.
"This place rocks!" Kyle agreed, following suit.
Liam just smiled widely at his new home and went to his own trunk, plopping down on the bed without even opening it.
"Kage, I think this calls for a song."
"Yeah?" Kyle responded, pulling his guitar case out of his trunk and opening it.
Jack had apparently opened his case while it was still in the trunk. He pulled his guitar out and strapped it on, then proceeded to strum a few bars while Kyle got his own strapped on.
All of a sudden, Liam wished he'd brought his own guitar. The others didn't know it yet, but he was an average guitar player as well as a slightly less average drummer. Where could he find a guitar, though, now that his was many miles away?
"Just follow my lead," Jack told Kyle before he began to strum a chord over and over again in a rock pattern. Kyle joined in, playing another chord that meshed with the first.
Before Liam could get a grasp on what was going on, they were playing intricately. Apparently this was something they'd practiced earlier. After a few chord changed, Jack looked at Liam and smiled, then turned to Kyle. "I got some lyrics.
"Magical nights!
Tangerine dreams!
Magical days!
Magical dreams!
Magical…
Lickinipoo…
Stanky poo…
Lookin' at you…
Because it's time for my bedtime.
It's time for some dreams.
It's time for the stink, time for the breeze,
Time for the… aaahheeee…"
"That was inspiring, JB," Kyle said as they stopped playing.
Liam wasn't quite sure whether he was supposed to clap. It was more obvious than ever, though, that these two were a lot stranger than he'd thought. They seemed to be nice guys though. Part of him just hoped that if it ever came to it, they were nice enough to help save the world.