The next day, Nalia awoke to the sound of rain lashing against the dormitory window. She stared at the curtains round her four poster bed, which were the same yellow as the Hufflepuff badge, stretched herself out and thought about today's schedule. She would have breakfast in the Great Hall, which was served at 8 O'clock, then it was First year induction with head of house, Professor Sprout, also head of something called Herbology. That would start at 9:15 and last all morning until lunch, again in the great hall at 12. She would have Herbology with Professor N. Longbottom in greenhouse three at 1:15 until 2:15. Then she would study charms with Professor Flitwick at 2:30-3:30, after which she would be finished for the day. Dinner in the great hall would be served at 6, and official lights out was 10:30, but they had to get back to their own common rooms at 8. She drew the curtains to see that Tilda was already up, and scrambling to find something.
Cursing slightly, Tilda did not notice Nalia was awake, until Nalia said 'Lost something Til?'. Tilda jumped slightly with surprise and once she had realised it was only Nalia said, 'Yeah my glasses, I need them for writing and reading, and they've gone'. Nalia offered to help look, so together they turned the dormitory upside down looking for the glasses, until Tilda fell about laughing. 'You HAVE to see this Nal!' She said between fits of laughter. When Nalia turned round to look, she saw her Pygmypuff, Lucky, was bouncing up and down on an empty bed, wearing Tilda's glasses. Once the girls had managed to stop laughing long enough to get themselves ready, they showered and got dressed into their robes, which had been folded neatly and put on the chest at the end of their beds overnight. They had also gained a Hufflepuff badge on the right hand side, and their ties had also gone from plain black to yellow and black striped.
Once they were ready, they checked the time and it was only 7 O'clock , so they settled themselves down in the common room for half an hour. In the excitement and darkness of the night before, Nalia had not had time to take in the beautifulness of it.
Light shined through the two beautiful, circular stained glass windows, high up on the wall, and filled the common room with a warm glow. Shelves filled with plants surrounded the circular room, and created a beautiful aroma of fresh earth and flowers. Some of them were the strangest plants Nalia had ever seen, but luckily, her first year book list had contained a book called 'Mysteries of the magical plant, by Huckleberry Shrub', so she was sure she would learn all about them. Nalia wondered if the authors name had always been Huckleberry Shrub, or had she changed it when deciding to specialise in magical plants? The girls sat down in comfy armchairs, which were each covered in black and yellow blankets, in front of a constantly burning fire, above which hung a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff. There was also a three-seat sofa you could sit on, scattered with cushions that had the Hufflepuff emblem stitched onto them, and comfy yellow bean bags scattered around provided the rest of the seating. Several bookcases interrupted the lines of shelves, and were filled with books. Some were brand new, others had clearly been left in previous years, and were full of additional notes, underlining and highlighted important parts. Knowledge, she decided, was the most powerful magic she would find at Hogwarts as it would just keep growing. Almost all of the books were on the history of Hogwarts, Helga Hufflepuff, Care of Magical Creatures or Herbology. A wooden table and chairs, able to seat six people was set in the corner and it reminded Nalia very much of a dining room table that you would do your homework on in a house. The common room had such a warm, cosy feel to it that one couldn't help but to feel instantly at home.
Nalia and Tilda headed to breakfast together at 7:30, negotiating the mass of students all headed in different directions. 'Hey Tilda, fancy seeing if my friends Rose, Albus and Scorpius are about? We could have breakfast with them if you want?' Nalia suggested. Tilda, who was eager to get to know as many people as possible, thought it sounded like a great idea. When the girls arrived at the great hall, Scorpius and Albus were already sat at the Slytherin table, and Rose had just joined them. Nalia couldn't help but blush when Scorpius looked up from the table and smiled at her. His white hair was messy but attractive and his blue eyes were bright and mischievous, giving the impression he was always up to no good. He has seemed genuinely happy to see her. Nalia and Tilda joined Rose, Scorpius and Albus at the table, just as the plates started piling up with breakfast food, croissants, buttery toast, cereals, sausages and bacon, the smell of which reminded Nalia how hungry she was. She introduced the gang to Tilda and started piling up her plate with food,also sneaking some to Lucky, who was in her robe pockets.
'So get this…' started Scorpius, 'last night we were doing a little exploring while everyone was in their dormitory'. This earnt him and Albus a rather stern look from Rose. Scorpius carried on as if he had not seen the disapproving look; 'and we were by the statue of the one eyed witch at the bottom of the astronomy tower yeah? We see this weird shadow right, and we think we're about to be busted by Filch or one of the professors'. Nalia was hanging on to his every word. Albus interrupted, 'Then the weird shadow started shifting and changing, and you'll never guess what, it turned into a cat's shadow. So we're there, confused as hell, and then, Mr Gibbous runs from by the shadow, out of NOWHERE!'.
'You shouldn't have been out of the common room to see that!', Rose chastised them. 'Don't you want to go to Ireland?! Besides, what if that had been something to do with the tournament? Shapeshifting takes some powerful magic, and if what you saw really happened, it's not a good thing. You need to be careful!'. Albus was almost sure he heard Auntie Hermione saying that, not Rose. She sounded more like her mother every day. 'Aw c'mon Rose, it was only a bit of exploring, we weren't going to do anything...and of course we want to go to Ireland! For the best adventures, you must look beyond your front door', Scorpius said, and nodded decidedly as he finished his sentence.
By the time breakfast was over, the five of them, including Tilda, had come to the conclusion that going to Draíocht would indeed be a great adventure. They were all going to try their hardest to earn a place, Rose was determined to see some more advanced magic performed in the tournament, Nalia and Tilda were just excited that in their first year such a major event was occurring, and the boys were excited to hopefully go to a school where they had never seen a Zonko's or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes product.
Breakfast was soon over and the gang all headed in different directions for their first classes of the year or their first year induction. Rose headed to charms class first, with the Ravenclaws. Professor Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw house and charms, greeted them, whilst standing on a pile of books. The charms classroom was rather small, and quite dusty, with benches that resembled muggle church pews. Books were piled everywhere, so Professor Flitwick could stand on them to be seen by the whole class, and it was a one way in, one way out room, which could be quite claustrophobic. Flitwick was his usual overly-animated self as he taught the class the theory and proper wand movements for a charm.The charm, when executed properly, would make a string instrument play by itself, the incantation for which was 'Cantatio'. By the end of the lesson, Rose was feeling very pleased with herself, as she had managed to make her mandolin play a tuneful rendition of three blind mice. The rest of the class had only managed to prize a few dull, if any, notes out of their instruments.
Over in the transfiguration classroom, with the Hufflepuffs, Albus and Scorpius were having trouble with their first transfiguration of the year, pets into goblets and back again. '1,2,3…fereverto' McGonagall demonstrated on a raven at the front of the class. It turned into the most beautiful silver chalice and the class was awestruck. She transfigured the goblet back into a raven and directed the pupils to the page in 'Animals to objects and back again, by Gwydion Taliesin', and asked the class to practice, after reassuring one of the girls In Hufflepuff that the spell was not painful to the animals. Scorpius was practicing on his owl Autumn, however by the end of the class, the goblet he was producing still had great big wings and feathers. Albus' Owl Newt was not feeling very cooperative and Albus had a struggle to get him to stay on a perch, let alone be still enough for transfiguration. In the end, Newt settled down next to Autumn, who nuzzled herself into his chest, and the boys gave up trying. Instead they made notes on parchment to avoid a telling off from McGonagall.
Meanwhile, whilst their friends were in lesson, Nalia and Tilda were attending their first year induction with Professor Sprout. The first years of each house had their induction with the head of house in their common room at different times of the day. Hufflepuffs were first, then Ravenclaw,Slytherin and finally Gryffindor. This was to avoid major disruptions to other classes for older years. The first years who were not in their induction went to lessons, so Nalia was glad the Hufflepuffs had their induction first. The Hufflepuff first years all waited in their common room with baited breath to meet their head of house face to face. Nalia really was eager to make a good first impression, so had Tilda check that she looked presentable and had no trace of her breakfast on her. The common room was silent, other than a feint snoring sound, coming from Nalia's pocket. Apparently, full up after breakfast, Lucky had decided to take a snooze. Just then, the hatch to the room opened and In came a short, quite dumpy witch, with a brown hat and gardeners robes. Nalia noticed she had a very kind looking face as she clambered into the common room.