Starry Nights

The Ravenclaw Common Room

"Ravenclaw first years follow me, I'm your prefect Andre Egwu."

Cathleen, Erin and Cleo follow after him, waving at their other friends as everyone pushes out of the Great Hall.

"Follow closely behind me, I don't need anyone getting lost," Andre says leading them up the grand staircase.

All the Ravenclaw first years squeeze throw the crowd of students in an attempt to stay close to their prefect. Almost all the Gryffindors are taking the grand staircase, making it very crowded, the Slytherins had climbed up the first set of stairs then went through a portrait hole off to the right. The Hufflepuffs had branched off from everyone upon exiting the Great Hall.

"Our common room is on the fifth floor of Ravenclaw Tower, located on the west side of the school. There's a spiral staircase that leads directly from the ground floor to our common room, most of the Ravenclaw students went that direction I'm sure you noticed. But I think it's important you learn this other pathway, the castle can be confusing and the way I'm taking you will make it easier to get to most your classes."

He moves a tapestry out of the way and beacons them through. They come out onto a huge corridor, there are portraits everywhere, waving at them. They have to go through a portrait hole behind a painting a young witch picking flowers. Then it's down a long narrow hallway and they stop in front of a door, one with a knocker in the shape of an eagle.

"Okay everyone," Andre says, "This is the entrance to our common. Unlike some of the other houses, our common room doesn't let us in using something as simple as a password.

The knocker will give you a riddle, they don't normally have one clear answer, all the knocker looks for is a reasonable or witty answer. Although I do recommend traveling in groups, if you get it wrong once, someone else will have to give it a correct answer before you can go in, speaking from experience."

A few of them giggle as Andre reaches out and knocks on the door.

"The more of me there is, the less you see. What am I?"

Cathleen almost laughs, that riddle wasn't even challenging. Although she only knew the one answer for it so she wondered if there was more than one answer like her prefect had said.

He smiled turning to them, "It likes to give you first years a simple riddle for your first visit to the common room, trust me, they only get much more difficult from here out. Anyone care to postulate a guess?"

Almost all of them raised their hands, there were about three people who didn't at first but when everyone else did they raised their hands as well.

He points to the boy Cathleen remembered to be named Grayson Tuft. Grayson clears his throat, "Um, well.. It's kind of simple but I thought darkness maybe... Because well, the more darkness there is the less you can see of everything around you.."

The boy next to him burst out laughing. Andre raises an eyebrow at the boy, "What's your name?"

"Wesley Spudmore," the boy says straightening himself up, "I'm sorry I didn't even mean to laugh, his answer was so different then mine, I couldn't help it."

"And what was your answer?"

Wesley's face reddens, "I thought about clothes, the more there is, the more covered up you are, the less everyone else can see."

A few of the other first years laugh and Cathleen even saw Andre's face twitch into a smile. "Not too bad, honestly. Does anyone else have another answer?"

Charlotte North is the only one to raise her hand, their prefect nods for her to answer, "Well at first I thought of darkness, it was the obvious answer but then I thought of light, the brighter a light may be it can make it harder to see." She shrugs at the end.

"Yes, well those were all very good answers, especially that last answer, very outside the box thinking. I'm sure all those would be acceptable for the knocker."

He turns facing away from all the first years and towards the door, which swings open.

They follow him into the common room.

Graceful arched windows occupied the walls, which hung with blue and bronze silk. And Cathleen could tell they would offer a spectacular view come morning. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars. The marble floor was covered in most places with a midnight-blue carpet adorned with a similar star pattern.

There were five tables ranging in size, a couple of them were small with one or two chairs, there was a circular table with four chairs around it, and two long rectangular tables, both surrounded by eight or more chairs. There was a lit fireplace with a couch and a couple armchairs. And in a corner opposite the door was a huge bookcase, in from of which stood a tall statue of white marble. The was another smaller bookcase in another corner more hidden, a loveseat and another armchair sat near it.

"Amazing isn't it?" Andre asked noting the looks on all their faces. Everyone nods and he laughs.

"Girls, your dorm room is up that way," he points to the right, "Boys you can follow me, I'll show you all to your room."

The girls all look at each other for a second smiling before they take off towards the stairs Andre had pointed out. The stairway is narrow but not too long, there's a platform at the top and then they have to make a turn and go the opposite direction on a much shorter staircase that come up at a hallway, with three doors on each side and one door at the very end of the hall. They check out all the doors and have to make their way all the way to the last door on the right to find the one that says 1st Years.

They open the door to a spacious room with nine four poster beds. Cathleen spots her trunk in front of a bed on the left side of the room, right next to the door.

She turns to Erin and Cleo, "Where are your things?"

"Mine are over there," Erin says pointing to a bed directly across from Cathleen's.

"Oh? Cool we're across from each other." Cathleen smiles at her before turning to Cleo, "What about you?"

Cleo smiles, "I'm next to Erin."

"Yay," Erin squeals grabbing Cleo's arm and pulling her across the room towards their beds.

Cathleen shakes her head fondly and heads towards her trunk to get her pajamas when a thought strikes her.

"Hey, has anyone anyone seen a grey cat?" She pulls her curtains open and doesn't see him.

"I think I found him," A girl from the other side of the room yells.

Cathleen makes her way over to where the girl had yelled, it was Rebecca Cambridge.

"Come look," she says smiling and beaconing Cathleen over, "He's curled up with my kitten."

"Aww," Cathleen coos, "that's so cute."

Some of the other girls come to look. "Romeo," Cathleen says petting him. "Romeo you have to come with me."

He picks up his head and looks at her. She smiles and picks him up, "Come on silly kitty."

She sits him down on the foot of her bed where he goes back to sleep almost right away.

Then she opens her trunk again and continues her search for her pajamas and toothbrush. She finds them quick enough and goes to get ready for bed. A couple of the girls are already in there brushing their teeth at two of the five sinks. Cathleen looks around taking the rest of the room in. There's three bathroom stalls. Next to the row of sinks, was a dirty clothes hamper and a litter box, which she chalked up to it being the house elves. There was a wall behind the bathroom stalls and on the other side of it were 5 showers and a bathtub with lots of knobs.

Cathleen quickly changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth, planning to take a shower tomorrow.

(A/N)
Surprise!! Another surprise update. I don't how long I can keep up a schedule, I'm way too impatient. In other news, I did a quick fancast of Cathleen, her friends and the other girls in her dorm. I'll probably post that later today or tomorrow. And I have a chapter still in the works for Friday.