DOORS
In Evangeline’s year were Mandy Brocklehurst, Sue Li, Lisa Turpin, Isabel Mcdougal, and of course Padma Patil. These were who, she gathered, would be in her room this year. None of them, save Padma, seemed to have any intention of speaking with her. Though, to be fair, it was completely likely they weren’t really thinking about that at the moment with all the food in front of them. The boys were (as far as she could tell) Terry Boot, Micheal Corner, Anthony Goldstien, and perhaps a few others she couldn’t really identify. They must have mixed too much with the rest for her to see them. The prefect, Clearwater, was the good sort. She was genuine and obviously very bright. She seemed to have a good rapport with most everyone in the house.
Evangeline took a bite of her food and Edmund, forgotten for a moment, nudged at her from behind her ear. She slipped him a strawberry and the squeal of glee he gave was so loud it made her wince.
Her eyes drifted to the Hufflepuff table, separated from the Ravenclaws by the Gryffindors. Theodore was grinning with his team, enjoying the feast or so she hoped. But as she continued to stare he looked up, straight at her and grinned. I was right he mouthed - or perhaps whisper yelled as Cedric and another boy from the team followed his eyes with confusion. Cedric chuckled to himself, then said something to the boy beside him and they both laughed. Evangeline stuck her tongue out, turning away from Theodore.
“A-are you his sister? Theodore Dox? I mean - you look so alike and you didn’t say your last name so I just thought-” Patil said in front of her, having followed her gaze. Padma looked nervous still, unsure of herself in all manner. Evangeline gave her a small smile.
“Yes, Theodore is my older brother,” she said gently, “Good eye.” Patil grinned, blushing slightly at the compliment.
“I’ve a sister here too. My twin sister actually. Parvati, over there, sitting at Gryffindor. Never thought we’d be in different houses but I think… I think it makes sense, you know?” Evangeline cast her eyes to the Gryffindor table, beside them. There was a young girl with just the same face as Padma’s. She seemed different though, more sure of herself. She was trying to make friends with the curly haired girl beside her and they seemed to have much to talk about.
“You’ll miss her though, I bet,” Evangeline said, turning back to Patil as a sad look came over her face.
“Yeah. We’ve been together so long, it's weird to think of us apart,” she hesitated, then eventually, “is it like that with your siblings too?” Evangeline thought back to the elder tree, the way she could just sit beside Theo without even thinking, without worrying or speaking. Just exist near him. He would get her. Protect her. And when he was gone… no, Evangeline didn’t like to think of when he was gone. And anyway, he hadn’t been for about a year now. On bed rest for most of last year from his injury. As for Clark, he was gone so often thinking of him home was almost weird. Wanted, but weird. They never knew each other much anyway, being 10 years apart. By the time she had had a working memory Clark was out of Hogwarts.
“Not weird, but sad yes,” she said softly.
They talked after that for a bit, about random things. Evangeline managed to get through a whole rant on the way the ceiling worked before Patil’s eyes glassed over, but that was more than what she usually got. And a few of the older students even joined in with their theories - though they got more and more convoluted or stupid as the conversation progressed. Eventually, Dumbledore called the room to attention and asked that the prefects lead the students to their dorms for the night.
Clearwater stood up proudly and waved her group of first years over. The rest of the prefects did the same while the others went straight to their houses, resulting in a discordant gaggle of people around the tables. In the mess, it took Evangeline a bit of time to actually locate Clearwater again and when she did it was only because Theodore came up behind her and pushed her in the right direction. She still had to run to catch up to the group, though Padme was also a bit behind.
Being inside the castle was still pretty surreal. The corridors were fairly dark, but lined on all sides with all sorts of portraits. And the staircases, oh they were a doozy. How did one keep track of them - was there some sort of system Evangeline just wasn’t aware of? No, that would be in a book somewhere. But Clearwater navigated them like it was nothing, she always seemed to get there right about when the staircase was going to turn the way she wanted, she barely ever hesitated when it twitched and threw her off course. Yes, this was something Evangeline would have to explore. Maybe the staircases just came to like you the more you stayed here? How easy would it have to be, then, for the Headmaster himself?
Oh, Clearwater was saying something about the staircases, hopefully unimportant or information Evangeline could get later. Now they were at a spiraled one that lead up to what must have been Ravenclaw tower. They climbed and arrived at a door. One with a gorgeous eagle knocker and dark wood. The prefect knocked.
And with life the knocker spoke, “My life can be measured in hours, I serve by being devoured. Thin I am quick, fat I am slow. Wind is my foe. What am I?” Clearwater thought a moment, quietly mulling it over to herself. Evangeline did the same, but she was still thinking when Clearwater had her answer.
“A candle!” she said, loud and clear and just like that, the door swung open. Clearwater allowed the others inside and before she went with them she said, “There is no password, only riddles and questions, if you can’t get it right you won’t be allowed back in. But someone can help you and open the door for you like I just did. It’s how you learn!” Patil went last before Evangeline clearly expecting her to follow and was fairly confused when Evangeline closed the door after her.
It was an intricate piece, the knocker. Golden and carefully crafted. Imbued with unknown magic like that of the sorting hat. Evangeline touched it softly, tracing its carvings. And then, she knocked. The knocker made a little rap tap in the quiet tower against the dark and old cedar wood.
“How many roads must a man walk down?”
… How many roads? The last one had been more simple - a clear cut answer. It wasn’t like this. Such an open ended question. Drat, she should have asked if she had multiple tries to answer the riddle. Because if that fascinating piece of metallurgy wanted one concrete answer for this then Evangeline knew she was unlikely to guess it on the first try. It was like when one of those English tutors asked a question, one that was subjective to anyone observing it, but of which they required something concrete.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
The poem popped into her head like a nursery rhyme. But the answer that came was not the less traveled by.
“One, the path he chooses.”
The door swung open, with perhaps less gusto than it did for the candle and with a small creak. Evangeline took a triumphant step into the Ravenclaw common room. Her common room.