chapter two
Their prefects, Farley -a stout witch with dirty red hair and watery blue eyes- and Ennon -a thin and small wizard with neat black hair and honey colored eyes- were leading them down the central staircase, further and further beneath the castle, till they were in the dungeons, before an unassuming brick wall.
“The common room is hidden using magic, you have to say a password to this wall to reveal the entrance”, Farley told them.
“You’ll find the current password on the chalkboard in the common room, the first password is”, Ennon paused, spinning around to face the wall before continuing in a focused manner, “Venom”
The wall morphed into the image of a giant snake coiling around the entrance, a door which swung open with a flick of the stone snake’s tail. Past the entrance, Harry could catch a glimpse of the common room before they were eventually let in by the pair of prefects. The common room was a large hall with a high ceiling. Couches and leather chairs were strewn about, circling the many dark wooden tables. Small shelves lined the wall across the huge glass wall looking into the lake, with leather bound books neatly organized within. Pictures of important looking wizards were hanging high above them. Each of the moving pictures depicted a witch or wizard in dark green robes with a slytherin badge pinned to their left shoulders.
“Those are the previous heads of house slytherin up there”, Ennon explained, “When professor snape retires, he too will hang up there, forever watching over our great and united house. It is a rather recent addition to our common room”
“What he means is that it is recent in relation to the entire history of hogwarts, meaning it has been done for well over a few hundred years”, Farley added, before turning around to a set of two hallways, “Down the left are the girls dormitories, down the right are the boys dormitories. You’ll have to share your rooms with one person each. So pick a partner and choose your rooms, they are the closest to the entrance”
It was rather quickly decided that Harry and Draco would share a room, as would Crabbe and Goyle, leaving only Nott and Zabini to form the last pair. The dormitory was comfy, two beds on opposite sides of the room, both draped in a dark green sheets of silk, with feather filled pillows. In front of the beds were small chests, already filled with their clothes. Their trunks were next to the chests, empty. The books laid on small tables which sat in the corners opposite of the door.
Harry and Draco talked all the way into the night, the latter explaining things to the former.
He learned a lot that night, he learned of blood status and how important it was, he learned of squibs and of traditions in the magical world.
Eventually though, he too succumbed to the sweet embrace of sleep, laying in the cloud-like sheets.
The next morning, Harry awoke before Draco.
After a few minutes of struggle to locate his glasses, he finally got them and put them on. Afterwards Harry walked out of the dormitory and into the bathrooms, where he changed into his day-robes, brushed his teeth and tried to bend his unruly locks of hair, unsuccessfully.
He gave up after ten minutes of struggle, knowing fully well that it was a futile attempt.
His hair was too unruly, too wild to be tamed by anything but magic- Wait, could magic bend his hair into submission? A thought for a later moment, he supposed, maybe there was a spell capable of making his hair follow his will but he was yet to know it.
The young wizard walked into the common room, his books in hand and began reading his potions book, on Draco’s recommendation.
It didn’t take long before the other students flooded into the common room like a tidal wave of children. The older students got there first, followed by the younger ones. The first years were by far the latest arrivals to the room.
Soon, Farley took charge of the new first years and showed them the way back up to the great hall, where they were the second group to arrive, shortly after the hufflepuffs and shortly before the ravenclaws arrived. The Gryffindor first years were the last to arrive, quickly followed by all of the older students of all the houses funneling in.
Professor Snape walked around the table, handing each of them their timetables.
Today, on monday, they had defense against the dark arts, then herbology and ending with transfiguration.
Soon after the timetables were handed out, the breakfast feast appeared before them and harry made sure to eat a lot, since he had a long day ahead of him.