A/N: If any character is introduced from this chapter onward which I have not listed here and which is not a relative of another character, then they are not based on anyone I know and are characters which I have simply created to take up space.
Moving Dust
The feast was over and all of the students had been dismissed. A sixth year girl who was calling herself a "prefect" began to round up the Hufflepuff first years to lead them to the common room. She had done a head count during the Sorting and didn't let any of the first years escape her watch to try and get a closer look at Professor Potter. They really weren't missing out though. The older students who had surged near the staff table as soon as they were dismissed weren't given the privilege of seeing anything either. Professor Potter quickly flicked his hood back up and left the Great Hall through a side door near the staff table.
"Quickly now!" called the sixth year. The first years followed after her, squeezing through the slight traffic jam at the doors of the Great Hall. There was an older student leading the first years from the other houses as well. As they exited the Great Hall, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws began to climb the beautiful marble staircase.
"Our common room is in the dungeons," Alice heard the Slytherin seventh year who was guiding the line of first year Slytherins say. Alice thought she recognized his voice and she stood on tip-toe to get a better look at him. To her surprise, he was the boy who had told her and her friends to begin putting on their robes on the Hogwarts Express. Blaine had guessed at the time that he was Head Boy. As he turned around to wave on the students following him to a staircase on the other side of the hall which led down, Alice saw that he wore a badge with the letters "HB" on it.
"Alice," hissed Joseph.
She quickly turned around. The line of Hufflepuffs was disappearing through a door to the right of the marble staircase. Alice hurried to catch up. Falling in step behind Joseph, she saw that there was a staircase leading down from the doorway. As Alice and Joseph reached the bottom of the staircase, the prefect nodded. "We're all here. Good. Follow me and stay close. It's easy to get lost in Hogwarts if you don't know your way around yet. Don't forget how to get back to the Great Hall. You'll need to report there for breakfast in the morning." They continued left along the hallway. It was well-lit with torches and the walls were covered in paintings. All of the paintings moved or were animated in some way, even though most of these paintings were of food. Alice watched with delight as a table in one painting set itself and then a large knife began to carve a turkey and set out slices on all of the plates. Another painting was of a banana which was trying to escape an excited monkey. The monkey had managed to partly peel the banana, but the banana was quickly sealing itself back up again as it slipped and slid out of the painting and into the next portrait.
"They're all moving!" said the girl in front of Alice. Alice quickly skipped up beside the girl, taking note that the group had just turned right down a hallway which was flanked by one portrait of a snoozing cook and another of a sunny garden. Alice stared at the girl for a moment, racking her brains for her name. Then she remembered.
"Hello Daphne," she said, extending her hand in greeting. "Are your parents muggles? Is that why you're not used to moving portraits?"
The girl looked startled to have been addressed, but she shook Alice's outstretched hand. "Well, my dad's a muggle, but I live with my mom." Daphne blushed and looked away.
"Oh," said Alice. Now she felt stupid for asking such a personal question, though it had been an honest question to ask. She was just about to let herself fall behind again when Daphne put out a hand to stop her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything. I'm alright, really. And I was impressed by all the paintings. But, um, I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."
Alice grinned at Daphne. "You don't have anything to apologize for! My name's Alice Bint."
Daphne smiled. "It's nice to meet you!"
"Nearly there!" called out the sixth year. She turned right and led them down a slightly narrower hallway. It wasn't long and it led to a dead end. A huge portrait was at the end of the passage. The portrait was of a middle-aged man standing on a road lined with trees; he was holding a lantern because his painting was of nighttime. He wore brown woodsman's clothing and a brown cap. A black and white hunting dog lay on the dirt road by his feet, yawning and wagging its tail slightly.
"This is Simon Cripps, the Nightwatch," said the prefect, indicating the man in the painting.
"Don't forget Spot!" said the man, nodding at the hound at his feet. Spot lifted his head and began to wag his tail harder, his eyes fixed on the first years gathered before him.
"Sorry Mr. Cripps," said the sixth year. "This is the Nightwatch and his dog Spot," she said, reintroducing them.
"Now who are you?" asked Mr. Cripps, holding up his lantern higher. Alice finally noticed that while this hallway looked as well lit as the one they had just exited, there were no torches on the walls. All of the light came from the lantern held by the Nightwatch. Alice was impressed! While it wasn't too difficult to make paintings move, it was another thing altogether to get one to shed light.
"These are the Hufflepuff first years," said the prefect.
"Do they know the password?" asked Mr. Cripps.
"Uric!" she said. The Nightwatch nodded his head and the painting swung outward from the wall like a door. Behind it lay a portal. "Into the common room," said the prefect. She stood at the portal entrance until all of the first years had filled inside and then she entered, closing the portrait behind her.
The room they entered was rectangular with a large fireplace opposite the entrance, the Hufflepuff mascot of a black badger on a yellow background hanging above it. Small tables with chairs around them were in the corners on either side of the portal entrance and many soft, black armchairs filled the rest of the common room though a few yellow beanbags lay right in front of the fireplace. In the middle of each long wall there was an entrance way with staircases leading up.
"Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room," said the prefect. "This is where you can hang out between classes if you don't fancy the grounds or the library or somewhere else. This is your home for the next seven years. If you're tired, the dormitories are up the staircases that you can see on either side of the common room. Boys are on the left and girls on the right. Go to the door labeled 'First Years.' Your things should already be there. Just remember that the password to get into the common room is Uric. If you don't know the password then Mr. Cripps won't let you back into the common room. Whenever the password is changed, find a prefect to tell you what the new password is."
The portrait opened behind them and many of the older students began filing into the common room. Some of them were yawning and bid good night to their friends as they made their way into the dormitories; others began to claim favorite chairs or beanbags and settled down to talk or eat (some sixth years had smuggled extra food into the common room even though Alice couldn't figure out how anyone could have room for food after the start of term feast).
Someone tugged on Alice's sleeve. "Come on Alice! We're all going to have a look at our room!" Alice followed quickly after Ava and the other Hufflepuff first year girls. Oddly enough, the first door was labeled 'Fifth Years.' The girl in front nearly entered that door before Daphne pointed it out.
"But why would they start with fifth year?" she asked, puzzled. The girls continued up the staircase, past the sixth and seventh year dormitories and finally found themselves before a door with a sign which read 'First Years." They pushed the door open. It was just as Alice had dreamed (though in her dreams the furnishings had been blue). Five four-poster beds sporting yellow curtains lined the right wall with a trunk at the foot of each. The room was long, narrow, and window-less (similar to the common room) but it had a very cozy feeling. Thick yellow rugs lay on the floor and five small vanities and mirrors lined the wall opposite of the beds, each in line with its bed.
"Oh wow!" said Ava. She ran into the room to figure out which bed was hers. Discovering her trunk at the end of the middle bed, she threw herself onto it. "The covers are so soft!" she exclaimed. Alice walked fully into the room, leaving the door open behind her. She noticed that her bed was the last one in the room with Daphne's bed between hers and Ava's. Sitting on her trunk, she looked into her mirror. A stool with a yellow cushion on it lay under the tabletop of her vanity, out of the way. Drawers filled up the area from the floor to the tabletop on either side of the opening where the stool was.
"All of the furnishings are so nice!" said Daphne. She had pulled out her own stool and was sitting on it, running her fingers along the top of her vanity, gazing at her reflection in the mirror.
"I don't know," said Ava, now sitting up in her bed. "Too many mirrors if you ask me. It'd be so unnerving to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and to pass by so many mirrors on your way out the door."
Popping noises sounded below them. Keri, closest to the door, quickly ran out of the room. A star went whizzing past her up the stairs. "It looks like someone's setting off Filibuster Fireworks in the common room!" she said with delight. Without another word, she ran down the stairs to go look.
The other girls looked at each other for a moment before throwing themselves out the door, but Alice didn't follow them.She watched as Daphne's long, brown hair disappeared. She had the room to herself and she intended to take advantage of that. Standing up from her trunk, she quickly flipped it open and took out a smooth box about the size of a large text book or dictionary. The contents inside it "clinked" as she levered the box out of the trunk and set it on her bed.
While Alice had been trying out wands, her mother had begun to worry about her taking so long. After picking up her robes, she had done a bit of shopping for the girl. Alice had been too delighted with her wand on the way home to pay too much attention to the bags her mother was carrying, but as soon as they got home, she asked about them. From one of the bags, her mother had pulled this. Alice traced her name, engraved on the top of the box, with a finger before undoing the latch and opening it. One long bottle lay on its side on the right and many high-quality quills, wrapped in oil paper, lay on the left. In the center, cushioned with cloth, were many bottles of different colored ink. Engraved inside the lid of the box was a grid which labeled the colors of ink and where they lay. Carefully, Alice took out a few of the ink bottles and carried them over to her vanity. Then she took out the long bottle and the quills. After a little rummaging in her trunk, she found another gift from her mother: a notebook of parchment, good for artwork or writing.
Alice settled down at her vanity and began to unwrap the quills. Each feather was a different color and she quickly matched color to ink bottle, rewrapping the rest of the quills. Alice loved to write and draw. With a smile on her face, she began to draw a brown owl upon the first page of parchment, changing ink colors frequently as she added a variety of shades to the feathers of the owl. So intent was she upon the drawing that she didn't notice anyone enter the room until the person was standing at her shoulder. Picking up her quill from the parchment, she looked up at the plump girl beside her.
"Please don't stop!" said Daphne. "You're doing a lovely job! Does it bother you if someone watches?"
"No, I don't mind. Please grab a stool though. I don't like it when someone's standing over me."
Daphne dragged her stool over and propped her elbows on the corner of Alice's vanity, watching her. Shrugging slightly, Alice changed to her black quill and ink and began working on the eyes. About ten minutes later, the owl was finished and Alice stoppered her ink bottles and began to put everything but the long bottle and her notebook away.
"So you're done?" asked Daphne, straightening up. "You're a good artist. I never could have drawn such a realistic owl."
"Not quite done," said Alice, smiling at the praise. She unscrewed the lid from the tall bottle. Its glass was opaque, hiding the fact that it was filled, not with liquid, but with what looked to be very fine sand. Taking a pinch, Alice sprinkled it over her drawing. Then, holding the paper so that none of the sand fell to the ground, Alice walked over to a trashcan in the corner. Standing over the trashcan, she gently blew the sand into it.
"Oh no! Is it ruined?" asked Daphne. Sure enough, it looked ruined. The ink had blurred together and many parts looked smudged, but then the ink began to waver and quickly regained its former place. The owl blinked, ruffled its feathers, and then began to hop from one leg to the other. Daphne gasped and ran back over to Alice's vanity, picking up the bottle of sand. "Moving Dust: For the serious artist," she read. "Make your artwork move and come to life!" Daphne looked up at Alice. "I've heard of this. But, isn't it expensive?"
Alice was balancing on her bed, pinning the owl up on the wall over her pillow. "Yes," she said, straightening the picture. The owl opened its beak in a silent squawk. "I couldn't believe that my mother had bought it for me. It was a gift as I went off to Hogwarts. Actually, I told her I would have really liked an owl. I mean, an owl surely couldn't be too much more expensive than this, right?" She turned back toward Daphne. "But she said I didn't need an owl and wasn't ready to take care of one yet. In fact, she told me to draw an owl, stick it over my bed, and that if I study really hard in transfiguration, I'd eventually be able to transfigure it into a real owl." Alice shot a dubious glance at her artwork. "I'm not so sure I believe that, but I really wanted to try out my inks right now and that's all I could think to draw." All of a sudden, Alice got a sinking feeling in her stomach. How could she have forgotten?
"Could you draw me something?" asked Daphne.
"Sure," said Alice hurriedly, "but not right now." She felt like smacking herself on the forehead. Taking out her school quills, ink, and parchment, she began to write. "I was going to write my parents to let them know what house I'm in! Do you think I'll be able to send it tonight? I bet it's too late to walk to the Owlery now. It also doesn't help that I don't even know where that it!"
It didn't take long to write, I'm in Hufflepuff, can you imagine that?, so Alice had the letter ready in no time and was running out the room, Daphne on her heels. There were many more people in the common room than Alice had been expecting. A wizard radio in the corner was tuned into the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) and stars of different colors and sizes were bouncing off the walls and ceiling, evidence of the many Filibuster Fireworks that had been set off. It looked like some sort of party were going on though Alice wasn't sure what they were celebrating. She began to look around, hoping to spot a prefect or someone who could help her.
A seventh year girl was leaning against the wall not too far away, her arms crossed across her chest and a look of deep disapproval on her face. Alice inched along the wall toward her. "Excuse me," she said as she neared the girl. The noise in the room easily drowned out her voice. Getting a little closer, Alice tried again, this time louder. "Excuse me!" she said. The seventh year looked down at her, her face softening as she made eye contact.
"May I help you with something?"
"Yes, um, I have this letter. I promised I would let my parents know where I was sorted. But, isn't it too late for me to be wandering the halls?"
The seventh year nodded and held out her hand to accept the letter. "Don't worry about it. As a seventh year and a prefect, I can be out later than you. I'll get your letter to the Owlery." Alice handed over the letter, feeling very relieved and watched as the girl exited the common room.
"Alice! So you did come down here! I thought you'd stayed in the room." Ava came over to her, offering her a plate with some cake on it.
"Oh no, I couldn't," said Alice, holding up her hands in protest. "I'm stuffed from the feast!"
Ava shrugged and set the cake down. She leaned on the wall next to Alice, grinning at the common room. "Isn't this wonderful?"
"Um, yeah, I guess. Is there going to be a party like this every start of term, do you think?"
"At least this year and the next," was Ava's reply. Alice looked at her with obvious confusion. "You have been down here, right?" asked Ava, seeing her look.
Alice shook her head. "I only just came down. I was drawing and then I had to write a letter to my parents."
"Well, this isn't just a start of term party. It's a birthday party! See that boy over there wearing the party hat?" She pointed out a boy sitting before the fireplace. "He's a sixth year. September the first is his birthday. His friends do this for him every year," Ava began to giggle, "and by the look on his face, I bet he wishes they wouldn't."
"Happy Birthday Rodney!" Alice heard two girls say as they walked past the birthday boy.
"Remind me to never tell anyone when my birthday is," said Daphne. Ava began to laugh at her, but she didn't ask to know when Daphne's birthday was. Watching Rodney's hat light up and shoot out confetti, Alice thought it might be better to keep her birthday a secret too.
Not long afterward, Alice noticed Daphne retreating to their room again, and realizing that she was becoming tired herself, Alice followed after her. Entering their room, she saw Keri sitting up in the first bed, already in her pajamas. She covered her mouth with a hand as she yawned. "See you in the morning," she said, sliding the curtains around her four-poster closed. Alice and Daphne changed into pajamas and got into their own beds. Alice never heard the other first years getting into bed because exhaustion overcame her and she was asleep moments after her head hit the pillow.