XVI
“Normal speech”
“All-speech”
‘thoughts’
“Animal speech”
‘mind speech’
“Foreign speech”
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“Welcome to Hufflepuff!” spoke the fifth-year prefect, in this case Cedric Diggory, “now, this is the first time that I give this speech, so please, be kind.”
As Cedric awkwardly cleared his throat, Harry looked around the circular room, taking in everything that had change over the years. He noted everything, from the curtains that had a new colour, to the new portraits on the walls, to the skylight that decorated most of the ceiling. He then looked in the direction of his own doorway that lead to his room. There used to be a hydra guarding it, but now it was a portrait of a very familiar woman. Tears sprung to his eyes as he and his mother made eye contact. He quickly mouthed ‘I love you’ and turned back to the speech that was given about his new house.
“…will always stand up for each other. We do not bully. Okay? We may be the cowards house but we are unified in that. Don’t let any of it get to you.” Cedric finished, “Now, the girls can go with my fellow prefect over there, Ms. Olivia Mason, and the boys can come with me. We will distribute you in pairs of two and that’ll be your dorm mate for the rest of you time here. Boys, with me”
And with that, the draggle of 8 firsties and two third-years dutifully trailed after the prefect to the dorms.
After having gotten rid of the littluns, Cedric turned to the Griffs, well, used-to-be-Griffs. “So," he said, "since my year was uneven, I bunked with a higher up. The guy has now graduated, but he was an asshole anyway. Did help me with my housework though. Since Smith is now a Griff, one of you can bunk with Ernie McMillan, the other is with me.”
Harry spoke up a little hesitantly, “No offense to McMillan, but that whole ‘Heir of Slytherin’ thing last year doesn’t put him high on my favourite people list right now.” He pointed out, “so, unless Nev has any problems with that, I’d rather ‘bunk’ with you.” Harry looked at Neville questioningly.
Surprised by the sudden attention, Neville quickly shook his head and walked towards McMillan, who was waiting for him down the hall. McMillan then spoke up, “Sorry about that, by the way, it’s just, Justin is my best friend…” he trailed off awkwardly.
“Apologies accepted, I understand, I would do the same for my friends. But perhaps I wouldn’t jump to conclusions as quickly.” Harry answered, he then turned to the prefect who was watching the whole exchange with a smile on his face, “where do we, as you put it, bunk?”
The smile impossibly widened, “right down here,” he said, and with that, Harry Potter unknowingly followed his soulmate down the hall.
The room they walked into was as cosy as any other dorm room, which was to say, not a lot. There were to beds with curtains and a door which presumably led to the bathroom. The one window they had was above them and showed you a nice view of the night sky. “that was Robert’s bed.” Cedric pointed out as he sat down on his own, “I guess it’s yours now, Potter.”
“thanks, and call me Harry” the boy muttered, taking his trunk from where the house elves had put it.
“It’s Cedric then, Harry” The older boy answered, testing out the name. They awkwardly looked at each other for a while, assessing their new roommate. After a couple of minutes, Cedric opened his mouth to speak once more, “why are you in Hufflepuff?”
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After getting to know each other for a while, both of our boys went to sleep. Well, one of them did, the other pretended. Eventually throughout the whole of the Hufflepuff common rooms the sound stopped. Half an hour after that, at about 2 o’ clock, the door to Harry and Cedric’s room opened. And closed. As if nothing had passed. To the average passer-by it would have been as if it did so on it’s own accord. Strange, perhaps, but this was Hogwarts. Who knows what happened within a magic castle? A door opening on it’s own wasn’t by far the most extraordinary thing that happened within these walls.
Anyway, back to the door. Or the thing that walked through the door. Opening, the door opening. Not through the door, that would be silly.
That thing, person, anyhow. That person walked to a portrait. A completely normal magical portrait that never talked to anybody. Not even the head of house. What nobody knew, was that the lady in that portrait was no other that Helga Hufflepuff, their very own founder. The invisible person, Harry, then became visible. “hello mum,” he whispered, “could you let me through?”
“dearie, you know I will need to test if it really is you.” Helga said, all business like. The effect was shattered with the word ‘dearie’ but the point stands. Harry complied by putting his hand on the frame and let his very soul be tested. The wards surrounding this place where the most powerful ever created, even better than the goblins’. And it protected the wards of Hogwarts. As well as the rooms of the ‘founders son’ as Harry was called in history books. Nobody knew where this was, except harry of course. The ward were so strong that even the combined power of all four founders hadn’t broken them whilst harry was having a temper tantrum inside. Even adding merlin to the mix hadn’t changed a thing.
Upon gaining entry, harry immediately turned back to where he came from and looked at his mother, eyes tearing up. “oh, god I miss you already” he choked out
“I missed you too, darling. C’mon let’s go get your father.”
Harry nodded and walked further into his quarters, looking at everything that had stayed the same. All the stuff that he had left here lay in the same spaces, and his cleaning enchantments still worked form the looks of it. In his living room there now hung a giant portrait frame, and in that frame was his family. “hello, Dad, aunt Row, uncle Ric” he choked out.
“Hello, son” his father answered, “how have you been?”
“how have I been? For me, it’s only been a month. In Death’s name, I miss you so much already” Harry said
“I missed you too Snakelet, I missed you too”
“Oh, come on guys, enough of the emotional stuff. I assume you gave the ball a good kick already?” Uncle Ric almost shouted
For the next few hours, Harry talked with his family. Just catching up. When, at 5 o’ clock, harry yawned, he was sent straight to bed. With a smile on his face, he did so.
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A loud, blaring alarm sounded throughout the room, making it impossible for anyone with working ears to sleep through. Harry, with his battle-honed instincts, curtesy of Godric Gryffindor, immediately shot a silencing spell at the sound. A loud groan sounded from the other side of the room. “oh, thank god!” Cedric exclaimed, “Robert has had that alarm set to go of at 7 each morning since I was a firstie! I’ve never managed to silence it, what spell did you use?”
“an overpowered silencio” Harry muttered, “I am going to get that thing either down, or set it half an hour later.”
“yes, please” Cedric agreed, “you want to use the bathroom first?”
“is there only one shower?” asked Harry
“Well no, but there is nothing obscuring the view to the other, I assumed you wouldn’t be comfortable.” Cedric explained
“are you a wizard or not? Just cast an obscuring charm or transfigure something”
“Right, that’s obvious” Cedric muttered to himself.
-
Half an hour later, the unknowing soulmates walked into the great hall for breakfast. When harry looked towards the Ravenclaw table, he saw one of his friends sitting there already. Surprisingly, she had no book to burry herself in at this time.
“Harry!” the bushy ball of fluff exclaimed when she caught sight of the founders’ son, “how was your first night in Hufflepuff?”
“rather good, rather good, how is your new house? Enjoying the common room’s library?” Harry answered as he sat down next to her
“how do you know that?” Hermione asked, Harry just gave her a charming smile in response, “anyway,” she huffed, “Its amazing! There are so many books! Some even dating from the founders’ time!”
She then noticed that he wasn’t sitting at his house table, “Harry, aren’t there some rules against sitting at the other houses’ tables?” she asked
“nah, that’s only during the feasts, any other day you can sit wherever you want.”
“Really? that’s amazing! I didn’t know that. When Ron is finally down, we can join him at the Gryffindor table!”
“Hermione, there aren’t any classes today. Do you really think that Ron Weasley is going to come down before ten?” Harry pointed out, “anyway, I am going to my own table. I should make some friends in my house, shouldn’t I?”
And with that, Harry walked to his own table, nearly empty table at this hour, sat down and started to make those friends