of dormitories and roommates
'Please go find your rooms yourself, the doors are numbered. The big stairs over there lead to the dormitories, boys on the left and girls on the right. There will be doors labeled according to school years. You will enter the one for the first years obviously, behind that you will find a hallway leading to your private rooms, the doors of which are labeled with numbers once again. On the noticeboard over here you will find your names listed with your respective room number. You will share a room with two or three other students.' The female prefect expained in an honestly impressive speed while her male counterpart pinned the list with their names on the mentioned board.
'If you have any further questions you'll find us somewhere in the common room for the remaining evening.' With that they linked arms and walked over to the fireplace, pulled one more armchair over and joined an already settled group of students, leaving the first years behind.
'Guess they had plans for the evening huh?' Yunho grapped Sams arm, not unlike the prefects just had and softly dragged Sam over to the notice board. 'Let's see if we share a room!'
The group of first years now gathered in front of the list, momentairly blocking the view for Sam and Yunho. The rest of the board was covered in small and big notes, from important announcements such as the schedule for quidditch training or safety notices to little lost and found notes from students asking to get lost items back or ones asking to get rid of found objects: ''Found a biting silver snuffbox. I don't know what's inside because it doesn't let me see. If lost please seek 6th year, Scott Wilson!'' Right on the bottom of this post was another one in the same Handwriting. '' It bit me three times now! If you don't come and get it by tomorrow I'll throw it out!!'' This statement was underlined by a small smudge that looked suspicously like blood.
'I wonder what happened to this box over the summer,' he nudged Yunho and pointed towards the note, watching an amused smile appear on his friends face. 'If he stayed true to his thread it's probably on the bottom of the great lake now or something.' They grinned and Sam curiously continued to read through some other notes. ''Can whatever mother****** who left the self -stirring cauldron in the hallway of the fourth year girl dorms PLEASE for *****'s sake finally store it somewhere else?! It's f***ing loud and I won't clear it away again. If you continue to put it there after the summer I will tell Rowena!!'' Who this Rowena was, Sam didn't know but it was clear that the author of this note was fed up by the unheavenly amount of swear words. It seemed the Slytherins were full of love for each other.
The group of students, who studied the list previously slowly dissolved and made their way hesitantly over to the stairs. Sam and Yunho stepped closer and Sam send a quick prayer to whomever and searched for his name on the list. He really wanted to room with Yunho, now that he was already sharing a house with him. It would be great to have at least one person he already knew and appreciated in the room with him.
He found his name at the bottom of the list behind a big '4' and right beside his name: Yunhos. He released the breath he didn't realize he was holding and happily looked up to his now roommate. Yunho was evidently just as glad as him.
Sam looked back at the list once more. They were only three in the room. The other three rooms had four students each, so he was lucky in that regard as well. He figured the less people you'd have to share with, the less chaotic it would be. The third boy in their room was named Micah Wells. Sam didn't recall a name to the face, he was rather too busy worrying during the sorting than for him to remember every single persons name. He just hoped they would get along as well as he and Yunho did and all three could become close friends at one point.
'Let's go.' They made way for the remaining students standing behind them and went towards the stairs.
It was a wide staircase with a thick dark green carpet covering the middle part, the banister was made out of artfully crafted almost black looking wood and along the walls ran small painted snakes. But Sam soon quicky noticed how they were following them up the stairs, slythering along. They must have been painted directly on the stone at some point and now glided freely in any way they wanted, seemingly alive much like all the other paintings in Hogwarts, just not limited by a frame.
At the top of the stairs was a small seating area with two tables, each one with four chairs and more bookshelves, reaching close to the ceiling. To their left and right went long, dimly lit hallways. They turned left, stepping on the green carpet that continued here. The very first door had the big '1' on it they were searching for. All the older students dormitories were further along the hallway.
Sam pushed the door open, hold it for Yunho and gazed into the next hallway. This one was already a bit less sterile. While the main hallway just had blank stone walls, this ones right wall was covered in tapestries and small windows.
They showed a nightly forest and obviously had to be fake. They were in the dungeons and even if real windows were possible, this view wouldn't make any sense. They looked absolutely real though and Sam was extremely glad to see them. The only windows in the common room were the ones into the lake, which was beautiful but Sam wasn't sure how he would have been able to handle not having any windows that worked like normal ones over the span of seven years.
The left side of the hallway had all the doors to the rooms. Next to each one was a coat rack and a shelf for their shoes. They went past the doors of the others three rooms, they stood open and excited chattering and first exchanges of the new found roommates were heard all around. Their door at the end of the hallway was closed.
This time Yunho opened the door, revealing the room on the other side. The first thing Sam noticed were the windows, probably because he had just focused on them so much and he was happy to find two big ones with a view to a forest here as well. He would have to check when it's bright out wether it is the exact same forest, in the darkness you couldn't tell. The windows even had big silk curtains in a deep grey colour. They complimented the curtains of the three four-poster beds standing at the same wall which had the windows. The middle bed had windows to its left and right side, while the other two stood maybe one and a half meters by its side. The curtains of the beds were of a rich green colour. The combination of grey and green clearly portrayed the Slytherin colours, but in a warmer more comforting way. The bedsheet continued that theme, being dark grey with green pillows scattered around.
Each bed had a big chest made out of the same dark, solid wood used on all the furniture Sam had spotted in the dungeon so far. And in front of these chests stood their luggage.
As they stepped further into the room Sam caught sight of a boy standing close to the bed furthest to the left. That must be Micah. He looked like he wished for the green curtains to swallow him whole. And Sam recognized him, he was the boy sitting opposide of them at dinner. He still seemed to be just as uncomfortable as he was then and this made Sam decide to overthrow his own shyness.
He was generally more reserved with new people or in new enviroments but he knew he just had to ignore that bubbling anxiety inside him and pull himself together. He could relay on Dean whenever he was with him but his father always pushed him to act like a proper hunter, and even when he was alone, left behind for research or something alike, he had to jump over his shadow. It was already hard enough to be taken serious (by librarians whom he needed to let him touch their precious books or by motel owners he had to convince to lenghten their stay and let them believe that there was nothing suspiscious about this kid being alone for so long), simply because of his age. A shy boy without a guardian didn't seem trustworthy, he seemed lost and in need of help. So he had mastered to fake self confidence and acting older than his age.
And these exact skills came in handy now. He couldn't leave all the talking in this room to Yunho, because one thing was clear- Micah wouldn't be the one breaking the silence. He stepped forward with a friendly and big smile, even if the boy was taller than him he wanted to look as harmless as he could. 'Hi I'm Sam.' He gestured towards Yunho, 'and that's Yunho. You must be Micah, guess we're all roommates. Nice to meet you.' Yunho waved a bit awkwardly and gave his greetings. Micah had stepped a bit further away from the bed, now openly facing them. It was meant to be a friendly gesture and Sam received it as such, but it was fairly clear that the boy would have rather hid away somewhere.
A small 'nice to meet you too' came from his direction. Sam and Yunho exchanged looks a bit helpless on how to make the boy more comfortable. Hopefully he would warm up to them at some point.
Yunho slightly turned to close the door behind him and immediately the noise from the hallway was blocked out and a heavy silence fell upon them. And right away Sam felt rather awkward again, so he kept talking. 'Well I guess we get settled then, we all had a long day right?' He stepped towards the bed on the far right since he had identified the luggage in front of it to be his own. The House elves must have transported it from the station directly into their rooms in the limited time between their sorting and them arriving in the rooms. Quite impressive.
He began to force the zipper on his suitcase open. 'Where are you from Micah? Did you have a long travel to King's Cross?' He searched for his pyjamas, found them and started to tug at them. Dean had packed his bag. They were last minute on everything, they actually arrived in England on the early morning of their departure day, being kept in America as long as John could. So while Sam still hadn't returned from buying his school essentials at Diagon Alley Dean had started to pack up.
And Sam was by no means a neat freak, living on the road in dusty motels didn't really allow that, but he would have folded at least some of his things. Dean had just thrown everything in and stuffed it full until he almost couldn't close the case anymore and deemed it a job good done.
So Sam was still digging around in his stuff while he heard Micahs answer. 'I'm actually from London so it really didn't take long to get there.' He talked softly but just loud enough to audible.
'Really?! Me too!' Yunho immediately jumped into the conversation. He had told Sam during dinner how he grew up in London and was now obviously excited to meet some fellow student from his city. Yunho started to engage Micah further into conversation and it actually seemed to go rather well.
Meanwhile Sam was victorious and had found his pyjamas. He left the others be to quickly clean up in the bathroom.
As he returned the other two had changed into their sleeping wear as well, the conversation seemed to be over though and Micah quickly slipped into the bathroom after he emerged.
'Everything okay?' He asked Yunho while walking towards his bed. 'Yeah totally.' Yunho stood by one of the windows and wrestled with the curtain, trying to pull it close. 'I just think he started to get overwhelmed by the amount of talking we were making or something. He went silent quite suddenly in the middle of conversation. But I swear it was nothing I said!' Sam believed him. He knew exactly how Micah felt, the sudden feeling of being overwhelmed was all too familiar to him.
While he settled into his bed he mumbled, 'I'm sure though, when we all put the effort in we will get along great soon. He seems actually nice.' And he meant it, sure the boy hadn't said much, but he looked like he didn't have a mean bone in his body. Just like Yunho. He hoped he was right about them, because he realized right then and now, cuddled up in his warm bed, in his new home, how he longed to find some real friends. Friends he will be able to keep over years and years because he won't be moving evey few weeks now anymore. He will stay here in the school the majority of the year for the next seven years to come. And he wanted to share this joy with close friends.
He couldn't rely on Dean alone anymore, he also didn't want to become a burden to him. Maybe it was good they didn't share a house. He could be independent, show Dean he could make friends and how he didn't have to worry over him.
He heard Yunho saying something in answer, but the past couple days had been rough and he didn't realize how bone tired he was until his head hit the pillow. Now sleep immedietly enveloped him and all he heard was a small 'Good Night Sam.' from the bed next to his before he drifted off.