Chapter Sixteen: Riddle Me
When the feast concluded, Dumbledore stood up, saying that he had a few announcements to make. Elsa listened attentively. She didn't want to get into trouble simply because she wasn't paying attention to the headmaster and accidentally broke a rule.
Dumbledore told them that the forest grounds were forbidden to all students and that no magic was to be used in between classes in the corridors. There was also a sport called Quidditch, and tryouts are going to be held in the second week of the term.
"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death," said Dumbledore.
A few students in the hall chuckled, but most just looked confused. The headmaster ignored them and raised his arms, smiling.
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" he said joyfully. Cho sighed beside Elsa, and she saw how some of the seniors looked like they were resisting the urge to roll their eyes.
"What's wrong?" she whispered to Cho. Cho gave another sigh. "You'll see," she whispered back.
Dumbledore raised his wand, and sparks flew out of the stick. Elsa's eyes widened, and she had to quickly put her hand over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing.
In front of her were the strangest and most depressing lyrics to a school song she had ever seen. Just as she was wondering whether or not the tune was going to be just as strange, Dumbledore spoke again.
"Everyone pick your favourite tune," he said. "And off we go!"
This can't be good, Elsa thought.
The whole school sang:
Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.
Choosing to sing to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Elsa sang as quickly as she could, hoping to be done with the whole ordeal quickly. She couldn't help but notice how most of the students were signing half-heartedly, and even some of the teachers were trying hard not to burst out laughing. Most of the faculty had smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes.
Elsa couldn't blame them. The Hogwarts school song was the worst song she had ever heard in her life, and she had once heard Anna attempt to play the bagpipes. With everyone singing to a different tune, the whole song was very off-key, and since the tunes all had different tempos, the actual words couldn't be made out at all. The song just sounded like a jumble of sounds that clashed.
Khione had retired back to Elsa's shoulders. The fox wrinkled her nose when she heard the horrifying singing, and her ears folded downwards. Elsa whispered words of comfort in her fox's ear, knowing that the whole experience was especially uncomfortable for her due to the heightened senses of hearing of foxes.
Finally, only a lone pair of voices remained. The voices belonged to the identical redheads. They were singing along to a very slow version of the funeral march. Dumbledore, however, wasn't angry at all. Instead, he conducted the music with his wand. When the singing stopped at last, the headmaster smiled and clapped loudly.
"Ah, music," he said, his eyes brimming with tears. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
A blue-eyed girl with long, blonde curly hair tied up in a high ponytail tied up with a blue and bronze scrunchie rounded up all the first years.
"I'm Penelope Clearwater," she said as she led them away from the Great Hall. "Prefect of Ravenclaw. If you have any questions regarding Hogwarts or Ravenclaw, feel free to ask me. Now follow me. Our common room is located on the west side of Hogwarts."
Penelope led them through hallway after hallway, up staircases then down staircases. Finally, they climbed up a spiral staircase and came face-to-face with a wooden door. No handles, doorknobs or keyholes can be seen on the door, apart from a giant bronze knocker. It was in the shape of an eagle who had its wings spread wide out.
"To enter the Ravenclaw wing, you have to answer a riddle given to you by the knocker," Penelope explained. "If you can't answer it, you'll just have to wait for another person to come by and figure it out."
Several students shuffled nervously on their feet. Elsa couldn't help but wonder what would happen if no one was able to solve the riddle the whole day. Would they have to sleep outside?
Seeing their reactions, Penelope gave a light-hearted chuckle. "Don't worry," she reassured. "Someone's always managed to figure out the riddle before curfew. Sometimes if it's especially hard, Professor Flitwick, the head of our house, will help us."
Elsa remembered Professor Flitwick as the one who was with Hermione at Ollivanders. He'd been showing Hermione and her mother around Diagon Alley. From Elsa's brief interaction with him, he had seemed like a nice professor.
Penelope raised the eagle knocker and knocked thrice. She stepped back and waited.
All of a sudden, a deep voice came from the door.
"I keep you alive, but keep you from fully living. I'm everywhere, anywhere. Where there is you, there is me. What am I?"
"Any guesses?" Penelope asked when the door stopped talking.
The first years murmured amongst themselves. Elsa closed her eyes and concentrated. Keeps you alive, but prevents you from fully living… she contemplated, her brows scrunching together.
"What do you think it is?" Lisa asked with a hand on her chin, and her head was tilted to the side as she thought about the answer.
"Could it be sickness?" suggested Padma. "After being sick, our immune system improves, keeping us alive."
Elsa shook her head. "But then the line 'Where there is you, there is me.' won't make any sense," she pointed out. Padma nodded her head, seeing Elsa's point.
"What about love?" said Lisa. "It's everywhere, anywhere. Everyone can love, and it's often the motivation for people to live."
Shaking her head again, Elsa frowned. "But how does it keep you from fully living?" she asked. "Plus, one can argue that a particularly evil person does not have any love in their heart at all."
"You're right," Lisa grimaced. "That part doesn't add up…"
Love… Elsa thought. And where there's love, there's…
She widened her eyes and gasped. She knew the answer. It was something that she had been battling with all her life. An old friend. A familiar enemy. Stepping forward, she looked at Penelope.
"May I?" she asked. The prefect nodded encouragingly. "Go ahead," she said, gesturing to the door.
Turning to the door, Elsa took a deep breath, praying that she was correct.
"The answer is fear," she said. "It prevents us from doing anything that threatens our life, but also prevents us from taking risks and enjoying our time. No matter where a person is, no matter how brave they may be, fear will always exist in their hearts. Where there is life, there is fear."
The door was silent. Elsa's face fell. She was wrong after all. Just as she was about to turn away, the door spoke.
"Correct."
Her classmates clapped loudly, cheering. Elsa caught sight of Padma and Lisa grinning at her, ha[[y for her success.
The wings of the eagle folded together, and the door swung open, revealing a wide, circular room. Graceful arched floor-to-ceiling windows could be seen surrounding the walls, and grand banners of blue and bronze hung on the walls and from the dome ceiling, which was midnight blue and decorated with stars. Rows and rows of bookcases lined the walls. The room was furnished with midnight blue tables and couches, and a life-sized marble statue of a lady stood in the middle of two sets of doors.
Gasps came from the crowd of students as they marvelled at the dazzling room. Penelope grinned at them, waiting for the shock to die down.
She cleared her throat to get their attention. "Most of you might have noticed. Ravenclaw has two sets of house colours, unlike the other houses. Blue and bronze, as well as blue and white," she said.
Elsa nodded her head. She had been waiting to see how their outfits would change colours, wanting to see the magic in action. Finally, the moment was coming.
"You'll be able to choose the set of colours you want," Penelope continued. "When you step through the doorway, simply think of the colours you want. Every time you want to wear the other set of colours, just step through the doorway and think of the desired colours again."
Penelope stepped through the doorway. Her clothes shimmered slightly, and she turned around. Her once blue-bronze tie was now blue and white-coloured. The bronze in her scrunchie had also turned white.
"Now you try," she said, stepping outside once again. One by one, the first years took their turn going through the doorway. Some chose bronze, while others chose white.
Blue and white, Elsa thought, concentrating as she passed the doorway. She felt a ripple of magic pass through her. It was certainly a weird sensation. When she glanced down, she noticed that the insides of her black robes had become blue, and she was now wearing a blue and white striped tie.
"Awesome!" Lisa exclaimed as she too passed through the door. She had also chosen the blue and white combination. Padma, meanwhile, was sporting the blue and bronze look.
Striding to the centre of the room, Penelope clapped her hands a few times. Everyone turned to look at her.
"The girls' dormitories can be reached by going up a flight of stairs through that doorway," she said, pointing to the left of the marble statue. She then started pointing to several other doorways in the room. "The boys' rooms are accessed through the right. We also have a private library through that door over there, and a music room next to it."
"Students must be in the common room by nine o'clock, and cannot leave until six o'clock. Breakfast starts at six-thirty and ends at eight-thirty. While there is no specific time when you have to be back up in your rooms, you are highly encouraged to be in bed by eleven. You'll be rooming in groups of three to five. Names are etched onto a plaque next to each room. Schedules will be handed out during breakfast tomorrow."
She dismissed all the students. Elsa quickly ran up the stairs and spotted a plaque with her name on it. She grinned when she saw that she would be sharing a room with Lisa and Padma, pleased that she would be able to room with her new friends. Lisa and Padma joined her in the room a minute later.
"Looks like we'll be roommates for the next seven years," she said with a smile, a gesture that her new friends returned.
Lisa looked around the room and grinned. "Nice!" she said, drinking in the sight with a large smile. "I could get used to this."
Moonlight shone through the windows, painting everything in a silvery, ethereal glow. The room had an air of elegance and sophistication. Three four-poster beds were covered in dark blue eiderdown, which matched with the blue drapes and carpet. On the right side of each bed was a nightstand with a lamp and a piece of paper, presumably their schedule, placed on it, and on the left side, a bookcase was placed. In front of each bookcase was also a blue armchair and a cushion. After years of curling into chairs to read a good book, Elsa could tell at once that this armchair was going to be very comfy for late-night readings.
At the end of each bed, the girls' trunks were neatly arranged. They hurried over to unpack. Khione leapt off Elsa's shoulders and sat patiently on the bed. Chuckling, Elsa opened one of her trunks and pulled out an animal bed. It was a magical, foldable one that she had bought at Magical Menagerie*. Khione immediately hopped off the bed and snuggled into her own one. It didn't take long before she was fast asleep.
Lisa and Padma stared in wonder. "How did you fit the bed in your trunk?" Padma asked. Elsa shrugged. "I bought it at some sort of magical pet shop in Diagon Alley," she replied.
After a while, Elsa gave a long stretch, worn out from the activities of the day. She wasn't quite done unpacking everything yet, but she had gotten all her necessities settled. The rest will just have to wait for the next day. "Well I don't know about you, but I'm going to go for a shower," she said. "I'm exhausted."
Lisa yawned, while Padma looked like she was barely able to keep her eyes open and managed a strained smile. It was clear that the two girls were weary as well. They said their goodnights and resumed unpacking.
That night, before Elsa fell asleep, she had a warm feeling in her chest. Finally, she had found where she belonged, where there were people like her.
And when she finally closed her eyes, the undercover princess drifted off into a blissful sleep.