Hazel sat on a bench holding a warm glass of milk. While Harry explained to the house-elves of the Hogwarts kitchen what had happened. Most of the elves looked hardly interested in what he had to say but some of them listened to him with absolute attention. Hazel almost laughed, seeing his father animatedly explaining the vinegar saga.
After the vinegar had drenched them, Harry had brought Hazel to the kitchen and the elves immediately helped them to wash their faces. One of the old elves brought her warm milk to make her feel better. Harry apologised to her before beginning his story to the elves.
After a few moments, a tall woman in long black robes with yellow flowers on them marched inside the kitchen. Her dark brown hair tied in a ponytail swished behind her as she stopped in front of Hazel. Harry looked up and smiled sheepishly at the woman.
"Susan," Harry came to stand beside Hazel, smiling. "This is your new student at Hufflepuff House. Hazel, this is Professor Bones. She is head of the Hufflepuff house and she teaches —"
"Transfiguration," Professor Bones finished. She turned to Harry with what looked like a glare. "Why would you —" She began but paused looking at Hazel. She gave Hazel a small smile and spoke to Harry. "Let's skip the introduction for now. It's late and your daughter needs to go to her new room for her to settle in and wake up tomorrow for classes. Come on."
Professor Bones turned around and walked ahead without waiting for Harry or Hazel. Hazel quickly got up and put down her milk glass to follow hurriedly. Harry walked just behind her.
"She was also my classmate, you know," Harry told Hazel, whispering.
"She was in Gryffindor?" Hazel asked, whispering back.
"No, in Hufflepuff," said Harry.
Professor Bones stopped in front of the barrels and cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Hazel, look very closely I'm going to teach you how to open the door to your dormitory," said Professor Bones, raising her wand. She tapped her wand on the middle barrel from the second row and said, "Hel – ga – Huffle – puff"
With every syllable, she tapped her wand.
The barrels rolled away instantly and a warm and cozy looking common room appeared behind where the barrels were. Hazel stared at the place, wide-eyed.
"In case you forgot how many times or the rhythm, for the taps to say Helga Hufflepuff's name like that and it will open," Professor Bones said, smiling down at Hazel softly. "Now go on. After you walk through the number one door of girls, your room will be the fifth door."
Hazel finally tore her eyes off the place and looked back at Harry and Professor Bones. Harry gave her an encouraging nod and smile. Hazel hesitated but smiled back.
"Thank you, Professor," Hazel said to Professor Bones and finally turned back and stepped inside the common room.
From behind her she heard Professor Bones's voice towards Harry, "Now you. You and I need to talk. I —"
Before Hazel could listen to the rest, the barrel door closed behind her. She was curious but she quickly forgot about it when she faced the Hufflepuff common room. Everything there was bright and cozy. It was round, earthy and low-ceilinged, the circular windows had burnished copper around the glass that gave a beautiful view of the night sky. There were many plants that either hung from the ceiling or sat on the windowsills. Yellow and black armchairs filled the room and a big fireplace was lit on the wall. Posters of great former Hufflepuff students hung on the walls. There were a bunch of circular wooden doors that had written numbers on them. It was different from what Hazel imagined.
Hazel remembered Professor Bones's words and looking at the doors it made more sense now. The door numbers were from one to seven on the left and another set of one to seven on the right side. Above the right side of the wall was written BOYS and on the left side of the wall was written GIRLS. So it was easy to understand.
Hazel walked towards the door marked number one on the left side, her footsteps barely making any sound on the carpet. She pushed the wooden door open and walked in. A long, bright hallway winded in front of her. She counted to the fifth door and then stopped. She heard the voices coming from inside the room – girls talking and laughing. Hazel took a deep breath, the people inside would be her new roommates, her new friends.
Everything will be great, she told herself. After a moment of hesitation, she knocked twice. The voices inside fell silent instantly. Hazel heard some shuffling inside then after another moment the door opened.
"We were just going to sleep –" The girl who opened the door started to explain quickly but stopped short, seeing Hazel. "Oh, I thought it was the Prefect coming up to ask why we weren't asleep yet."
Before Hazel could respond, one of the girls inside the room spoke up, "You are Hazel Potter. Professor Potter's daughter."
Another girl with curly black hair did a double take at Hazel, then looked at the room.
"Wait, are you our fourth roommate?" She asked.
"I think so," Hazel said, smiling politely. "Professor Bones said this is my room."
"Professor Bones? You have already met her?" The girl holding the door asked.
Hazel was about to answer when the second girl smiled brightly.
"Omygod, just let her come in. She said she is our roommate and if we keep talking like this the Prefect girl would definitely come back again," said the second girl.
"Right, right, sorry," said the girl holding the door sheepishly.
"Again?" Hazel asked after stepping inside the room and the girl closed it quietly.
The room was equally cosy with bright colours and four big, soft-looking beds with yellow and black bedsheets. Two beds were side by side on one wall while the other two beds were placed in a similar way on the opposite wall. There was a big window on the far wall overlooking a woodland a little far away and there were many big potted plants on the windowsill, just like in the common room.
"Yeah, we were too excited and talking really loudly before so the Prefect girl came to shush us," The girl with the dark, long, curly hair said smiling sheepishly. "Anyway, I'm Aisha Green."
Hazel recognised her from the first-year lineup and smiled back and shook her hand.
"I'm Jessica. Jessica Day," The girl who opened the door stepped up next to Hazel and shook her hand next. She had lightly tanned skin and lots of freckles on her face with slightly dark auburn hair.
"And I'm Zoe Moon," The last girl smiled softly. Her skin was the palest among them and she had long silver hair that really looked mesmerising on her. "Sorry, since you were late we all took the beds we liked."
Hazel looked around and noticed that they had indeed unpacked some of their things on their chosen beds.
"Jessica and Zoe took the right-side beds while I took the left side, which left you the bed beside me," Aisha explained and Hazel nodded.
"It's fine. I don't mind. Any bed is fine. They are all the same anyway," Hazel said and glanced at the only empty bed left and her trunk beside it. And a wooden crate.
Hazel suddenly remembered, with everything with the sorting she almost forgot about Shadow. She quickly hurried towards the crate and opened it. She sighed with relief when she saw Shadow peacefully sleeping curled up inside.
"What's that?" Zoe asked, her eyes widening as they all gathered around Hazel to look inside the crate.
"It's my dog," Hazel said a bit defensively after what happened on the train. She was ready for her new roommates to also look uncomfortable with Shadow or her having a special dog when nobody else was allowed a dog as a pet.
"Omygod, he is so cute," Jessica said, bending over to look at Shadow more closely.
"Ooh, we are going to be the room with the most adorable dog in school," Aisha said happily.
Hazel broke into a surprised smile seeing her new roommate's excitement.
"Yeah, we will be."
[To be continued]