"Where are we going?" Sam asked as Rose and the other students from their long table walked to a hallway off the Great Hall.
"To our common room," Rose answered. "There are four houses in Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, that's us, Ravenclaw, Griffyndor,and Slytherin. Each one is known for different things like bravery or intellect, but not like it used to be."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked as one of the students tapped on a stack of discarded barrels along the wall. A doorway magically opened, and they filed through.
"From what my dad says, there used to be a big ceremony where kids were sorted into different houses based on the whims of a magical hat," Rose said as she took Sam up a hallway off of the Hufflepuff common room. It was bright and welcoming with a big fireplace and smooth wooden walls and comfy yellow and black chairs.
"A hat?" Sam asked. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, it used to be a big deal, but then there was a war. And that changed everything. They realized that this segregation, generations of people in these houses, caused a bunch of problems," Rose said as she opened the door for Sam.
There were five four poster beds in a circular room with large windows that overlooked the lake in the distance. They weren't very far up in the castle, Sam thought, maybe the third floor. The beds were made f I'm the same light-colored wood as everything else and covered with comfortable patchwork quilts.
"I guess that is your bed," Rose said as she pointed to the one with Sam's backpack on it. "It wasn't here earlier, so it must be for you."
Sam hopped up on the bed, and it was comfy. She felt like she could pass out because she was so tired. She still had so many questions. She unzipped her bag, looking for her toothbrush and asked, "Wait, are you talking about World War 2? That was a long time ago, what would your dad…"
"No. Of course you wouldn't have heard of it, it was only in the wizarding world. I don't know, maybe fifteen, twenty years ago? Hogwarts was almost destroyed, what with the Death Eaters attacking and giants and all."
"What? Giants?" Sam asked as she turned on her phone. No signal.
"Is that a phone?" Rose asked as she raced over to plop next to Sam. "I've never seen one!"
Sam laughed. "Not much to see, I can't get a signal. I could show you some photos. I don't guess there is a place I could plug it in?"
Rose looked a little confused and embarrassed, and Sam smiled.
"Never mind, let me show you pictures of my cat," Sam said.
In a few minutes, three girls entered the room giggling to each other.
"Hiya," the shortest of the three said. "What's up?"
"This is Sam," Rose said, "and she is showing me her phone! Sam, this is Penny, Isabelle, and Sarah." The three gathered around as Sam shared photos and videos.
"What do you do with this?" Penny asked.
"Well, I use it to keep in touch with my dad, I can send him a message or talk on it. I can look at videos, but not here since I can't get a signal."
"So it's like a radio for pictures," Sarah said.
"Yeah, but you can share pictures of your friends. Hanging out, going to parties, doing cool things. People 'like' the photos and you can get real popular, if your picture goes viral," Sam said.
"Why would you do that?" Isabelle asked. "Looking at other people's pictures instead of being together?"
Sam looked at the four girls, sharing a room at this awesome magical school, then at this divisive little computer that made her feel jealous, and kept her up late and alone. Since her mom died, she retreated into her phone, and had no friends. "You are right, it is dumb." She tossed it aside and said, "Tell me absolutely everything."