Two months at Hogwarts had flown by faster than Kaylee could imagine. Through all of the classes, homework, and magic, she couldn't have been bothered to check the date. It wasn't until one morning, where she glanced out the window and saw the change of leaf colours, where she realized how much time had actually passed. So, when Kaylee had begrudgingly rose out of her bed one morning, yawning, her bushy hair a complete mess, and wishing she could sleep a wee bit more, she had completely forgotten that it was Halloween. However, someone else in her dormitory didn't.
Christie was on the other side, adjusting a pointed hat on her dark haired head as she looked in her mirror. Her robes donned different decorations, including little smiling pumpkins and white blobs with big eyes. Kaylee stared at them in confusion, wondering why the girl was wearing them. In her own opinion, they looked a bit ridiculous and slightly childish, definitely not something she saw often on Halloween. When she was happy with the way she looked, Christie beamed before pivoting on her heel and seeing Kaylee rise out of bed. Christie gave her a cheerful "Good morning!"
As Kaylee tidied herself up, she caught Christie touching the decorations adoringly and saying things like "so ka-why-ee." What those words meant exactly, she wasn't sure. It got to the point where Kaylee was so frustrated at not knowing the reason for both the decorations and the strange language where she outright asked, "Why do you seem so excited? It's just Halloween."
Christie stopped just as she was about to leave the dormitory and turned to face Kaylee, a good amount of shock written on her face. "Are you not excited? It's Halloween!" Are wizards not into Halloween as much as muggles? she wondered. I thought they would be even more so because of the magic and the witches.
"Um, why would I be excited? Other than the feast, there isn't anything that special about it."
"There's a feast?" Christie broke into a ginormous grin. "That's so cool! But don't you blokes dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating? Of course, I don't have a costume since I'm at Hogwarts but I decorated a bit." Even if mum wasn't accustomed to it, she still got on board!
"Is this a muggle thing?" Kaylee asked, seeing as this information was all new to her. Christie nodded.
"It has to do with warding away the spirits of evil by wearing different scary costumes. Now, it's just become a time where children get to dress up and collect candy from around the neighborhood."
"Oh," Kaylee said, pondering the concept a little, "That actually sounds fun."
"It is!"
"You know, I heard that some big news is gonna be announced at the feast," Kaylee said, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Really?" Christie asked, "I wonder what it's going to be."
"Yeah, me too." Kaylee agreed, "Ummm, Christie, I get it's your Halloween thing and all, but are you seriously gonna wear that to class?"
"Yeah!" Christie said, enthusiastically, "It's a tradition to do it in muggle schools. We even have a competition for best costume! And a parade march!"
"Ok, then," Kaylee said, "I'm just saying some purebloods might tease you for it."
"Oh." Christie shrugged, "It's ok, I guess. Besides, I like it."
"If you say so," Kaylee said, dragging out the words, "I'm just saying that it will probably happen."
"Come on, we're gonna be late to breakfast," Christie told Kaylee, choosing to ignore her last statement.
"Oh, yeah, let's go," Kaylee said, sensing the change in subject.
As they walked into the breakfast hall, Kaylee expected whispers, and snorts at Christie's costume. However, no one payed attention, and she even spotted some other people also in costumes, or decorated robes. Huh, Kaylee thought, Well, what do you know.
Just as everyone was about to leave for their first class, Headmistress McGonagall stood up, silencing the hall. "As you all know," she said, "today is Halloween. However, that is not what I am going to be talking about. The staff and I have all decided on an inter-house exchange programme to help diminish all poisonous rivalries between the houses. One first year from each of the houses will participate this exchange, and these candidates will be announced now. The student will stay at the exchange house's dormitory, but has the option to return to their house during meals. It will take effect starting tomorrow."
Headmistress McGonagall picked up a sheet of parchment from the table and cleared her throat. "Going to Slytherin will be Maya McCartney. Going to Hufflepuff will be Kiara Blackwell. Going to Ravenclaw will be Joyce Lancaster. Going to Gryffindor will be Kaylee Meyers. If you have any questions, contact your exchange house's prefect. Everyone is dismissed." Kaylee froze, fork clattering to the plate. She was going to the Gryffindors?
"Why me?" Kaylee complained to Christie, "Why not Caroline, or something? She deserves it, always boasting about how smart she is."
"I think it's cool that you're going to Gryffindor," Christie said, "You'd get to learn about how they operate differently from us!"
"I guess, but still," Kaylee borderline whined "I don't want to go to Gryffindor, I heard they were all arrogant pricks."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," Christie consoled her, "What's the worst that could happen?"
Kaylee opened her mouth, but Christie cut her off, "Wait. Don't answer that. Come on, we have care of magical creatures next, and I don't want to be late."
Kaylee's misery had not cleared up after her classes. She had almost died in Care of Magical Creatures, seeing Hagrid decided it would be an absolutely smashing idea to bring in venomous snakes for them to learn about. Kaylee, being Kaylee, would have fallen into the snake's' cage, had Hagrid not managed to catch her in the nick of time. Kaylee now had a fear of snakes (and Slytherins, one of which had been the one to push her towards the cage) and having an uneventful time in DADA, where they simply read from the textbook, the two were asking back to their dorms for free period.
"I hate Slytherin," Kaylee declared, checking out her new wounds, which she had gotten from slipping down the spiky fence that caged the snakes.
"I'm sure they're not all the same," Christie said, "You can't generalize everyone."
"Whatever," Kaylee mumbled, "At least I'm going to Gryffindor, and not Slytherin."
"See?" Christie said, "Find the silver lining!"
However, after about fifteen minutes in the Gryffindor common room, Kaylee was ready to take back her words. The room itself was rather nice, with a view that could rival Ravenclaw's, but the people in it were absolutely horrible. They were a loud, rowdy bunch that shouted practically everything they said. Any longer and Kaylee was afraid of the fact that her eardrums might not make it intact to the end of the year. The numerous amount of "SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO DO HOMEWORK!"s were futile attempts. It was as if they were on an extremely unhealthy amount of sugar infused caffeine every day. What Kaylee didn't realise was that the other exchange students were suffering as well.
"I DON'T CARE WHERE VANISHED THINGS GO!" Joyce screamed, slamming her fists against the door in a mix of frustration and anger. "I JUST WANT TO GET INTO MY BLOODY ROOM! I'M A FIRST YEAR, WHY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BE A GENIUS?!"
"Woah, calm down," the prefect said, looking at Joyce with concern and slight amusement. "We can work together and figure it ou-"
"I just want to get into my room!" Joyce shouted again.
"Ok, ok, just let me think," the prefect said.
"Where do vanished objects go?" the door asked again. Joyce narrowed her eyes, having detected mockery in the door's tone of voice.
"Not here, I can tell you that," Joyce growled, glaring at the door and kicking it. The voice went quiet for a while before a faint click! sounded and the door swung open. Joyce blinked at the door in surprise. "That… worked?"
"I mean," the prefect mused, "you're not wrong, so I guess it would."
The two entered the common room, where a good amount of other Ravenclaws where lounging and talking to each other in. Joyce stared up at the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw before turning away from the empty and slightly creepy eyes of the founder. She sighed and plopped down on one of the couches, contemplating what to do. I'm so bored, she thought, groaning internally. There's no one here I know and everyone is talking about, like, school stuff. I might as well die of boredom right here.
Back at the Hufflepuff dorm, Kiara was dying to get back to her own dormitory, where she knew people that weren't so friendly. It wasn't that she didn't like the Hufflepuffs, it was just that every single time she sneezed, she was bombarded with a ridiculous amount of "Bless you!"s and at least ten people offering tissue boxes. Kiara wanted a decent, cheeky banter, maybe even with that one fifth year, who was an absolute ledge. Also, after getting used to the colder dungeons, the warm Hufflepuff common room seemed stuffy and cramped. Besides all that, Hufflepuffs and her inability to talk to new people without making a fool of herself didn't really mix.
So, all of this resulted into Kiara practically dying of boredom. Back at the Slytherin commons, there was always some kind of competition going on. The last one she had seen was an intense battle between Prefect De Fiore and Head Girl Kelly to see who could chug the most coffee in a minute. Elizabeth had even manage to start a betting pool, which got a huge amount of attention in just a few seconds. The one before that, Elizabeth had taught all of the prefects how to play Texas Hold'em and everyone began to bet over Honeydukes' chocolate until four in the morning. And even without the competitions, the lake was always a source of entertainment. Dancing cacti just weren't nearly the same level of wickedness than the Kraken (as Kiara liked to call it) or the mermaids.
All Kiara could do now was read, in a corner, and stay as silent as possible, hoping that no one would notice her. Her mind wandered to earlier, when a Hufflepuff had told her the unofficial curfew time (which was apparently a thing), when a prefect announced, "Hugtime!"
What?
Kiara didn't like hugs. In fact she didn't like physical contact in general very much, especially not with strangers. Apparently, Hufflepuffs didn't have the same concerns.
She huddled deeper into her corner, hunched up, and hoped no one would notice her. No such luck.
"Hey, Slytherin girl, come join in!" a Hufflepuff called.
"Umm, well, you see…" Kiara mumbled, much too quiet for anyone to actually hear her.
"Come on, don't be shy!" another chimed.
Once again, Kiara cursed her inability to actually talk to another person.
She stood up, but instead of joining the hugs she simply slipped through the people hugging each other, and went up the stairs, to the girls dorms, hoping no one would call her out. Luckily, no one did, and she was able to continue reading her book in peace.
Over at the Slytherin common room, Maya stared in confusion at the makeshift wooden stand very closely resembling a typical lemonade stand. The top was spray painted in yellow; TIRED OF USING USELESS WIZARDING OBJECTS? TRY THESE MUGGLE PRODUCTS INSTEAD! On the counter was an arrangement of basic muggle objects on display, like pens, pencils, lined paper, and erasers. "Hey," the girl behind it said, waving a hand in front of Maya's face, "Are ya interested in buyin' stuff? 'Cause ye've been staring at me for, like, a good five minutes. Or am I just that good lookin'? Don't worry, I'm single."
"Is this even allowed?" she demanded.
"What?" the girl asked, feigning ignorance.
"This!" Maya gestured to the stand and the products. "There's no way you could have bought these on campus, so that means you left the castle! And muggle products aren't allowed in school!"
The girl let out a laugh, shaking her head and smiling slightly. "No one specifically said I couldn't do it, so 'course it is!"
"Actually, most of these items are on the restricted items list, which I would know, since I read the whole thing."
The girl held up a finger to her sly smile, throwing a wink. "It didn't say 'Pilot gel pens' or 'Ticonderoga size 2 pencils,' so how do I know they're banned? And besides, I tinkered with them, so technically, they're my creation. It wasn't specific, so it wasn't there."
"You can't do that!" Maya protested, "That's- that's cheating!"
"It ain't cheatin', kid," the girl said, "It's bendin'. Findin' the loophole, yeah? That's what us Slytherins are all about. The house of cunnin', remember? Now, good day ta ya. Oh, hey, Ary! Yer shipment's comin' in tomorrow morning, kay? I'll get it ta ya before yer first class. And I'll refund half yer money if ya win tonight's insult contest or tomorrow's rap battle."
"Cool," the other girl, Ary, said, smiling slightly and flashing a thumbs up. "I don't know how I'll do in the insult contest, since Lilith has some serious roasts and Peter will blow it out of the water if it's a traditional flyting style. But I'm taking a W for the rap battle."
Maya gaped at the sight. Wasn't that a prefect? Were the prefects seriously supporting this? They were supposed to set an example, not support illegal goods! She needed to tell someone about this. If the prefects or Head Girl weren't going to do something, the only option left was to tell the headmistress.
Later that day, Kaylee couldn't wait for the feast at this point, because it would give her a chance to get away from the Gryffindors. They were nice and all, but the sheer volume was completely overwhelming, as mentioned before.
When it was time for the Halloween feast, she walked out with the rest of the Gryffindors to the great hall, before joining the Ravenclaw table, and sitting next to Christie.
"God, those Gryffindors sure can talk, I swear they never shut up."
"Well, at least you got to learn how they operate, right? How's their common room?" Christie asked,
"Surprisingly comfortable," Kaylee responded, "The decor isn't bad, and the armchairs feel very nice…" she trailed off, "That probably sounded weird."
"It didn't sound weird," Christie assured her, "It's good that you at least enjoy something."
"Yeah, I guess."
The next day, Kaylee woke up much earlier than she usually did, because, you guessed it, the Gryffindors were being noisy again. Annoyed, she walked down into the common room, and found two girls playing a game of exploding snap. Their laughter was obnoxiously loud and the explosion from the cards wasn't any better.
"Can you please keep it down?" she complained, "I'm trying to sleep."
"We're playing a game," one of the girls told her, infusing as much snark into a sentence. "It's not even that loud, so just sleep with the noise."
"Actually, I can't sleep with 'the noise'" Kaylee said, "Besides what are you even doing, playing a game like this at six A.M?"
"We're having fun," a girl fired back, "You should try it sometime."
"Whatever. At least keep it down, as I try to get decent grades."
Kaylee sat down in an armchair, but instead of studying, opened up a book, hidden inside of a textbook, and started reading that, ignoring the sound of the game to the best of her ability's.
Finally it was time for breakfast. Christie was meeting with a teacher that day, so Kaylee was forced to sit alone, so it wasn't really her fault that she eavesdropped on a conversation, between a Slytherin and the Hufflepuff exchange student, right across from her.
"How come you have a snake in your common room? I don't remember that being on the approved list for pets," the Hufflepuff demanded.
"Oh, that's a friends snake. She's not here at the moment, so she asked me to take care of it. We keep it in the common room, everyone likes him. His name is Hermes. Besides, Potter's got a weasel, and honestly, no one really cares about your pets."
"Well, you're not allowed to keep a snake in the common room, or even have him as a pet." The Hufflepuff crossed her arms. "Besides, he almost bit my arm off!"
"Why were you close enough to the snake to the point where it almost bit your arm off?" the Slytherin asked.
"Well, I wanted to make sure it was a snake, and then it just shot out, and almost bit me!"
"Well then you shouldn't have gotten close," the Slytherin shrugged. "And if it looks like a snake, you shouldn't look closer to see if it's a real snake. No one, well most people, don't leave fake snakes lying around."
The Hufflepuff girl stalked away, leaving the Slytherin to shrug to herself, and sit at the Slytherin table.
Well, Kaylee thought, at least I didn't get sent to Slytherin. Who knows how that could have turned out.
(Author's Notes)
Dear Reader-
I can see my hours of sleeping slipping through my hands and being replaced with coffee and tumblr. And editing. I hate editing. But I'm too lazy to get a beta-reader and Lupus is awful at it. Anyway, I know this is going to sound desperate, but please leave a review. It makes my day and if your account allows PMing, I'd love to talk to y'all. Knowing that people are all over the world and reading this silly story the two of us created over the summer is heartwarming.
Anyway, thanks for staying here for another chapter! My song of the week is "Fumes" by EDEN (the Eden Project) and gnash. (i think you think too much of me is like the best album everrrr.)
-Luna
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Guys, don't do taekwondoe unless you're prepared to die from exhaustion. I just did two and a half hours of back to back exercise, and I'm still tired twenty minutes later. Anyway, I found this chapter funny (Mostly because the whole thing was my idea). So yeah, uh, review because Luna is obsessively checking the story stats, and I don't think it's very healthy for her at this point. Also, I like reviews.
Book of the week: Warcross, by Marie Lu (I'm still in the middle, but it's pretty good so far)
Bye!
-Lupus