Characters introduced in this chapter: Real life friends: Cristina - Juliana Ramsden, Mary - Akiko Virata, Amanda - Kai Virata
Mixing Houses
Alice's performance in Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts improved drastically due to her continued study of Magical Theory. She had thought herself inept at all three before, but she began to see a continued trend in her spellwork as the spells began to give forth results.
Transfiguration became Alice's pot of gold. In her first class after cracking open Magical Theory, she succeeded in turning a match into a needle, joining the slightly less than half the class who had performed the spell correctly. As Professor McGonagall moved onto the next class project (changing sandpaper into parchment), Alice was the fourth person in the class to pull the spell off. Beside History of Magic, Transfiguration became Alice's favorite class. At Charms, she was fairly average. None of her spells worked on the first try, but she could get all of them to work well enough eventually. In Defense Against the Dark Arts though, she found herself, sadly, near the bottom end of the class. Still, she stuck with the Dueling Club, attending every meeting. The main thing she regretted upon learning of her trouble with Defense Against the Dark Arts was that she knew that she could not teach Elizabeth all of the spells she was learning in class. She did know who could though.
Alice sat in the corner of the common room, her Potions book open before her and Elizabeth beside her, explaining the best ways to cut up the ingredients for Alice's next potion. Alice paid close attention to all of the hints Elizabeth was giving her, but she also kept shooting glances at the stairs leading up to the boy's dormitory. Soon it would be suppertime, so the traffic around both stairways was growing and Alice wanted to make sure that she didn't miss the person she was looking for.
When she saw him, Alice jumped up suddenly. "I'm sorry," she said to Elizabeth quickly, "but I'll be right back." Alice pushed her way through some fourth years, calling back over her shoulder, "I'm sorry!"
Reaching the boys she was after, Alice grabbed the sleeve of the nearest one. It was Joseph. He turned to face Alice as soon as he felt her tugging on the sleeve of his robe. "Alice?" he asked. He gave her a puzzled look and she let go of his robe immediately.
"I needed to talk with Steven," she said. Steven, a few paces ahead, turned to see what had become of Joseph, and his eyes fell on Alice as he heard his name.
Alice blushed. Of course, she knew what it was that she wanted to ask, but now that the time had come to speak, she felt like such an idiot, standing in the middle of the common room, holding these boys up. "I just," she started. She bit her lip. "Oh, would you come this way? Over to the corner?" She pointed at the yellow bean bags in the corner. Elizabeth sat on one of them, staring at Alice and her companions.
Joseph shrugged. "I don't see any reason why not." He began walking over toward Elizabeth. Gratefully, Alice followed, Steven only a step behind her. In a moment, the four of them were all together and all eyes were upon Alice.
"I…" began Alice.
"What's this about?" asked Elizabeth. "Have you promised them I'll tutor them as well?"
"No," said Alice quickly. "I wouldn't do that. But I," she let her chin fall, her hair swishing forward to cover her face, "maybe I'm doing just that," she mumbled. Sighing deeply, Alice lifted her head and looked straight into Elizabeth's face. "I can't teach you," she blurted out. "I can't teach you what we're learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I stink at it." Alice kept her eyes on Elizabeth, forcing herself to not look at either of the boys.
Elizabeth's forehead creased with concern. "You should have told me that earlier," she said. "I never would have made you help me do something that you can't do. Did you think I wouldn't understand? I have subjects that I struggle with too."
"I don't understand," said Joseph. "What's going on?"
"Elizabeth has been helping me with Potions," said Alice, turning to face Joseph now. "I promised her I'd teach her what Professor Potter's been teaching us in return, since she had a different Defense Against the Dark Arts professor last year. But I can't do it. But I should have spoken with you before now," she said, turning to look at Steven. "I thought that maybe you could teach her, but it's not my place to ask you to."
"This is all becoming way too complicated," said Elizabeth. "Alice, I'll still help you with Potions. I don't mind."
"So you want to learn the first year spells?" asked Steven of Elizabeth.
She regarded him for a second before nodding.
"I wouldn't mind teaching you. I like the subject well enough and I've wanted to get more practice in it outside of class and the Dueling Club. I could work with all three of you, if you wanted."
Alice and Joseph agreed instantly. They were easily the two worst Hufflepuffs at Defense Against the Dark Arts and could use the practice.
The next few weeks passed easily enough. Alice had developed a schedule outside of her classes. On Mondays and Thursdays she stopped by the library to study Magical Theory for about an hour, on Tuesdays Elizabeth would help her with her Potions work, and on Wednesdays she would meet with Steven, Joseph, and Elizabeth to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts. She gave herself nothing to do on Fridays and usually spent those afternoons hanging out with her friends.
Before long, October wound down to an end, spurred on by everyone's busy schedules. All of a sudden, it looked as if whoever had been cleaning the castle had gone on strike as the cobwebs began to grow in all of the corners, but when they started glowing as well, the students knew that they were nothing more than decorations. Halloween was on everyone's mind, and the first years waited eagerly for the day to arrive, listening with awe to the older student's descriptions of the Halloween feast.
Halloween morning dawned cold and clear. Though it was a Friday, classes had been cancelled for the holiday. Alice was personally disappointed that she would miss History of Magic, but she didn't say so to anyone else. Anyway, she was just as excited as everyone else about the feast that night, and since Halloween was also the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, nearly all of the students third year and up would be gone, leaving the school to the first and second years. Bella and Keri had made plans with some of their Gryffindor friends for the day and Ava had told Alice that she wished to hang out with Blaine.
Alice had gone to bed late the night before, since she had been finishing up a paper for Astronomy, but she decided to set her own plans in order immediately upon waking up Halloween morning. After rolling out of bed, she put a hand on Daphne's shoulder, gently shaking her.
"Daphne, wake up! It's Halloween." Alice felt a bit ridiculous saying such a thing, since any type of celebration on this day would be held at night and not first thing in the morning, but the words had come out of her mouth before she could stop them. Looking past Daphne's bed, she could see that Ava was already gone, though the curtains were still pulled closed around both Bella's and Keri's beds.
Daphne turned over in bed, mumbling something which Alice couldn't understand. Alice shook her harder, speaking her name again. Daphne turned back toward Alice, opened tired eyes to see who was trying to wake her up, and then closed them again, falling right back to sleep.
"Oh Daphne, won't you wake up already? I wanted to go up to breakfast."
"What time is it?" asked Daphne with a yawn, her eyes still closed.
"Umm," said Alice, looking around the room. This was one of those times when she regretted not having a window in the room, and neither was there a clock on the wall, but Ava kept a small clock on her vanity, the clockwork inside powered by magic instead of gears, so Alice skipped to the end of Daphne's bed and squinted at the clock face. "It's nearly nine o'clock," she called back to Daphne, who had finally sat up.
"Alright," said Daphne, sliding out of bed and getting dressed. Alice, still in pajamas herself, joined the other girl. Before long, they were both ready and they tip-toed past their sleeping roommates and out the door.
"Whoa!" called Daphne, landing on her bum and sliding out of sight. Alice found herself clinging to the doorknob of their door, shuffling her feet frantically as she tried to keep from falling down the staircase, now a slide. After a moment of struggle, she succeeded in getting the door closed and she let go, sliding down the slick incline on her side. She landed in a heap at the bottom and Daphne put down a hand to help her up, a big smile on her face. Alice began laughing as soon as she stood up.
"Who do you think tried to get up the stairs this morning?" she asked.
Daphne pointed at an older boy who was quickly exiting the portrait hole. The boy was blushing so fiercely that even his ears had turned red. The two girls laughed the entire way to the Great Hall.
Breakfast was nothing special that morning, though most of the students were shoveling it down quickly.
"Lucky them," said Daphne, buttering some toast. "They get to go to Hogsmeade. I've never been. Mom never took me."
"Then we'll have to explore it in two years time together," said Alice with a smile. "I've never been there either. My parents would always take me to Diagon Alley whenever we needed anything."
Just then, Professor McGonagall stood up from her seat at the staff table. "Anyone wishing to go to Hogsmeade, please give your permission slips to Mr. Filch in the entrance hall. You will be leaving shortly." The Hall became chaos as the students jumped up from their tables and began pushing their way toward the door. The third years, especially, looked very excited. Daphne sighed as she watched them go.
As the Hall finally quieted down, she leaned across the table. "So, what do you want to do today? I don't really care, just so long as it's not work."
"I thought we might stop by Hagrid's hut and then spend our time by the lake."
"Hagrid?" asked Daphne. "Isn't he the Keeper of Keys, or something like that?"
"Yeah, that's what I heard," said Alice.
While paying Hagrid's hut a visit had sounded like a good idea over breakfast, it was entirely different to actually be there. This was the closest that either of the girls had ever been to the Forbidden Forest and it seemed as if the air around the forest edge was colder than anywhere else on the grounds. Even in broad daylight, the two girls kept spooking themselves, imagining that they could see things moving just past the trees or hear moans or tapping sounds off in the distance. Hagrid's hut itself looked homey enough, with smoke flowing out of the chimney, but both girls knew who Hagrid was and his height alone was enough to make them so timid they couldn't stand within a few strides of the door, much less knock on it.
A hoarse cry sounded from behind the hut. Alice leading the way, the young Hufflepuffs crept around the cottage to see what had made the sound. A gruesome beast met their eyes. It looked like a cross between an oversized buzzard and an octopus, its head being scrawny, bald, and red with more than four tentacle-like legs flailing about its torso. It took less than a second for both girls to turn tail and run, screaming, all the way to the lake, neither of them looking back.
"What was that thing?" asked Daphne, as soon as she had calmed down enough, sitting on the lake's edge.
"I don't know," said Alice. "And I don't think I want to know."
Daphne nodded her head in silent agreement and neither of them made another suggestion to head back toward the hut, both of them enjoying the rest of their day on the lake's bank, saying hi to many of their friends who had also chosen spots along the shore.
As the sun began to set, many students were returning from Hogsmeade, carrying bags of sweets and games and laughing merrily. Daphne and Alice got up from the ground and made their way inside as well, eager for the feast which would soon start.
The lights of the entrance hall had been dimmed so that it felt like twilight. The Great Hall was a little brighter with the light coming from the ceiling, bewitched to look like the sky above, but as the sun slipped away, the light in the Hall came more from the jack-o-lanterns hovering over the tables in midair than from the ceiling above. Clouds of live bats twittered in the room, the most interesting Halloween decorations by far.
As Daphne and Alice took their seats at the Hufflepuff table though, something other than the decorations was different. Sitting across from them was Alanna, a Gryffindor first year. Within a moment, Sean was sitting next to her.
"Well, what do you think?" he asked his twin.
"The Hall sure looks different from here," said Alanna. "But, you're sure I can do this, right?"
"Of course," said Sean. "It's a Hogwarts tradition: in all feasts other than the start of term and end of term feasts, you can sit wherever you please."
Alice blinked at them both and then turned around to look at the rest of the Hall. She hadn't heard of such a tradition before, but a quick glance around seemed to verify its truth. At the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor tables, there was a great mixture of student from various houses. Even after a quick glance at the Sytherin table, she could see more than just green collars, though the table was the least mixed in the room.
"Hello Daphne!" said Alanna, turning from her brother to see who else she recognized at the table. Daphne returned the greeting and the two of them began talking about flying lessons. They were each in the "unnatural flyers" group, so they had a mutual hate of the subject.
Sean began shaking his head. "I don't know how you two could not like flying. Broomsticks have to be the best wizard invention of all time! I tried out for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, you know."
"Yeah, and you nearly got in too," said Tania. She and Elizabeth had just sat down beside Sean. "Too bad Hufflepuff only had one seventh year on the team last year. If they'd had even one more opening, I'm sure you'd be on the team."
Sean blushed red. "Thanks Tania."
"I'm only saying the truth," she responded.
"I thought the two of you were going to sit somewhere else," said Sean.
"Oh, we will," said Elizabeth, "but later."
"No one told me that we could sit anywhere today," said Alice, trying to get into the conversation.
"I'm sorry," said Elizabeth. "I guess to the rest of us, it's common knowledge. Sometimes I forget you're only a first year."
"It wasn't always this way," said a boy, a little ways down the table. Alice recognized him as James, the sixth year whose job it was to escort the first years to night time Astronomy lessons. She had come to like him, realizing that he truly enjoyed his particular prefect duties and liked the company of the younger students. "This tradition wasn't even started until my second year," he continued.
"Yeah, I heard it wasn't always this way," said Sean with interest. "So, how'd it all start?"
"Well," continued James, scooting down the bench a bit toward his audience. "It was Halloween, my second year. Most of the seventh years and quite a few sixth years were gone. They were at Durmstrang for the Triwizard Tournament. It was really odd, not having them here, but then things got even odder. After the food appeared, all of a sudden, about five students each from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor just stood up and walked to another table. I'm telling you, it caused an uproar! Most of the older students were completely against it, from all four houses. For the next two years, many of them kept trying to stop it, but at each feast, more and more students would switch tables. Last year was the first year that the Slytherins joined in on the practice, but even they look pretty accustomed to it now, now don't they?" He pointed at the neighboring table. A few of the Slytherins looked upset to share their table with students from the other houses, but for the most part, they all looked compliant. "Anyway, there was a little Hogwarts history for you," said James. "Enjoy the feast!" He scooted back away from them toward his own friends, which included, this day, two Ravenclaws.
"Hey Alice," said Ava, coming up behind her. "I'm going to be at the Ravenclaw table today, ok? I'm sitting with Blaine and Dominic."
"Alright," said Alice, turning to see her friend off. That's when she noticed her other two roommates settling down across the room at the Gryffindor table. Bella and Keri looked comfortable and happy sitting on either side of short girl with curly hair whose name Alice was certain was Angelica.
"Sure is noisy in here as everyone gets settled," said Alanna. "When do you think the food's going to appear?"
As if it had only been waiting for her to ask, the tables were suddenly laden down with the feast that everyone had been looking forward to all day. There were baked potatoes and mushroom soup, hot rolls and stuffing, lamb chops and roast chicken, and roasted pumpkin seeds and jugs full of pumpkin juice. All of the students let out a cheer, and Dumbledore, wearing a black and orange striped robe, waved at them all to begin the feast.
Throughout the meal, there were still more changes among the tables. Many of the students had different groups of friends that they would sit with for fifteen minutes before moving on to the next group. Shortly before the feast changed from the main course to dessert, Tania and Elizabeth excused themselves and wandered over to the Gryffindor table. Two Ravenclaws quickly claimed their spaces.
"Hello Alice, Daphne," said Alyson, pouring herself some pumpkin juice.
"Hi!" said Alice and Daphne at the same time.
"The Ravenclaw table was just too crowded," explained Eve, brushing her red hair out of her face. "You know, since it's right between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. We had to get away."
"Yes," agreed Alyson. "And we couldn't think of a better place to go than here."
"That's sweet," said Daphne.
Just then, the dessert appeared before them all.
"Ooo, pumpkin pie! That's my favorite," said Alice, hastening to cut herself a slice. Daphne began laughing at her as she put some pudding onto her own plate.
"I'm surprised they even have candy corn," said Alyson, looking at the bowl of candy directly in front of her. "Usually I don't see muggle candy around here much."
"Well, it might not really be candy corn," said Eve, eyeing the candy suspiciously. "It might be spelled to blow up in your mouth or something."
"I really doubt they'd serve us trick candy," said Alanna. "Not here at least. I'd be careful accepting anything from an older student, but we should be able to trust anything served to us at a feast."
"She's right," put in Sean. "All of these sweets are nothing more than sweets, though I wouldn't mind a Fizzing Whizbee."
Halfway through dessert, Dumbledore called everyone's attention to the night's entertainment. The Hogwarts ghosts had put together a skit of a sort in which the Grey Lady and the Fat Friar had a forbidden love affair and the Bloody Baron and Sir Nicholas held a mock duel (with ghost swords, not wands). While the ghosts might have planned for it to be a serious skit, it turned out to be mostly hilarious. The Fat Friar accidentally knocked the Grey Lady over just as they were about to "run off" together, and during the duel between the Bloody Baron and Sir Nicholas, Nick's head lolled off to one side, causing him to completely miss the Baron's sword, sinking his sword instead into the Baron's left foot. As the ghosts cleared off, to copious laughter from the students, Alice found that the remnant of dessert had disappeared as well. The feast was over and it was finally, regrettably, time to leave.
Alyson began to stand up, but somehow she tripped and practically fell off the back of her bench. Luckily, Eve seemed to have been expecting this, and she caught her green-eyed friend before she could hit the ground. As Eve helped Alyson back up onto the bench, both girls were laughing hysterically.
"Are you alright?" asked Alice, concerned.
"Oh, haha, we're both such klutzes!" said Eve, patting Alyson on the back.
"Yes," put in Alyson. "We both seem to be good friends with the ground!"
Eve began laughing harder. "Hehe, and only the other day, and this really happened, I lost my footing at the top of the main staircase and tumbled all the way down. I lost most of my books in the fall and landed in the entrance hall. I thought I'd die of embarrassment!"
"Not likely," said Alyson. "You were laughing too much at yourself. It was nothing like my fall last week. Remember when we were walking down to Herbology? I fell flat on my face and there wasn't even anything to trip over. Those Slytherins, what were they, fourth years, fifth years? Oh, it doesn't matter. They laughed at me the whole way to Greenhouse One!"
"That's bad luck," said Daphne, shaking her head at the two Ravenclaws. "I'm glad I don't fall that often."
"Hehe," said Eve, putting an arm around her friend, "It's alright. It gives us character."
They all began to stand up and move along the table. Looking around the room, Alice sensed that something was wrong. It took a while for her to figure it out, but once she did, she stopped in her tracks, causing Daphne to collide into her back.
"Whoa, Alice. What's up?"
"Why aren't the Slytherins leaving?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?" asked Alanna, turning to look at the Slytherin table. While the other students were making their way toward the doors, the Slytherins had remained in their seats, though most of them were staring at the doors into the entrance hall and the other students who were about to pass through them.
"I don't like this," whispered Daphne.
There was no time to call out a warning. The group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors by the door hadn't noticed that the Slytherins weren't moving, and they walked through the double doors without a second thought. Next, Alice could hear them screaming. She pushed her way to the end of the table so that she could have a view of the entrance hall. The Slytherins began standing up, most of them laughing. The people who had walked through the doors appeared to be covered in the gunk from the insides of pumpkins mixed with other slimy foods. Alice grimaced at the sight.
"What, you don't like it, Bint?" Alice turned to look at the tall, black haired Slytherin. She was hanging on one of the Falcon twins, probably Jake, if the smirk on his face meant anything. The other Falcon twin stood at her other side. It took a moment for the girl's name to come to mind.
"No Ramsden, I don't," said Alice. "Did you set this up?"
"No," said the girl, "but I knew about it, obviously."
"Come on, Juliana," said Jake. "Let's go the common room." The three Slytherins turned to leave.
"I don't think I like them," said Daphne. Alice jumped. She hadn't noticed the girl coming up beside her.
Alice didn't say anything, but she nodded. She just stood there and watched the Slytherins filing past. She heard Leslie's laugh before the blond came into sight. As always, a short, black haired Slytherin stood at her side, but Alice had to do a double take. There were two black haired girls this time, only the second wore the blue collar of a Ravenclaw and her hair was braided. In fact, there were two Ravenclaw girls. The other Ravenclaw had red hair, hair as red as the Slytherin boy standing next to her. The Virata twins, Alice thought, looking at the two girls, and the Dalziel twins. She looked back at the two redheads, the girl with long hair, the boy's hair spiked. It must be very weird to have a twin in Slytherin. The two Ravenclaw girls, unlike the Slytherins around them, were not laughing. Very weird indeed.