Displaced - Marauders Era

Grandfathers Knockers

Just after he finished talking he started walking towards the double doors, to which we followed with Lucia behind everyone.

A million steps and still going. The prefects Winslow and Grimes have to be messing with us. Five minutes we have all been following them up thousands of stairs and we still haven't made it to the supposed common room. Either Hogwarts is really evil, or those two prefects are actually trying to kill us. They almost seem unfazed by the amount of steps we have walked, almost as if they were used to it. 

"Don't worry guys, one last flight of stairs and we'll be in front of the entrance." Winston had spoke. Nothing has ever seemed so close yet so far away like it has now. After about another dreadful minute where it felt like my legs were gonna turn to jello and disappear from underneath me we finally stopped. I could hear a few of the other first years let out a bunch of relieved sighs, as well as myself.

Alright kiddos! This here is the Ravenclaw knocker," Lucia Grimes had began to speak, the rest of us turning our heads up from the floor to see what she was talking about. Next to her was a big door with a large bronze eagle holding a knocker in its mouth, I remember reading about it. "It's the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, does anyone here know how it works?"

She looked around hopefully at the rest of the first years hoping someone had an answer, but I'm pretty sure everyone was still too tired from the trip up to try and answer her. I raised my hand after a moment of silence from the rest.

"Oh yes, Holmes was it?" I nodded at her before I answered. "You're supposed to knock on it once and then the knocker will somehow ask you a riddle, which you have to answer before it allows you to enter." I smiled, knowing I was right.

Winslow clapped, looking at me with an evil smile. Oh boy, do I even wanna know what he's planning? "Well done Holmes, but since you're the only one to have answered it only figures you should be the first to try it."

Ooh exciting, glad I answered instead of following suite with everyone else. Following others never gets you anywhere anyways. Eagerly, I walked up to the door and knocked it once before stepping back away from it.

"Someone's grandfather had an axe. Their father replaced the head, while they replaced the handle. Is the axe still the grandfathers?"

Oh, that's interesting. Not a basic riddle, more like a philosophical type of riddle, Cool.

"No object can definingly belong to someone in a physical manner, but rather in more of an emotional manner. If someone believes something to belong to someone, say the axe, then it doesn't matter how much the object has changed because it is still believed to belong to the grandfather in the eyes of the father and son. So I believe the answer would be yes, the axe is still the grandfathers" I answered the knocker, not fully sure if this was the type of answer it was looking for.

"A well reasoned answer" the knocker had spoke after my answer, and swung open allowing for me to enter. Yes! I did that.

"For a first year who hasn't even observed how an older year has answered yet, that was quite impressive." He grinned at me, then turned to the rest of the first years who were staring in our direction, "The rest of you are going to be doing the same thing one at a time, so you get the hang of it before we let you off on your own with no clue what to do. Alright Holmes, Grimes is going to lead you to the common room and show each of you to your dorm as you come in. The rest of you line up and wait your turn for a riddle."

Yes! Suckers, I get first of everything. I mean, oh those poor people it must really be unfortunate to still be stuck out there. What a shame, definitely. 

Grimes started walking through the door, to which I followed suite and she lead me to the center of a large and circular room. There were windows that went from the floor all the way to the ceiling, spaced between small slices of bronze marbled walls with dots specked across them that I can only guess were in the shape of constellations. The floor looked like it flowed into the walls as it was bronze and marbled as well, with blue rugs of different shades circling around a large area with gray furniture that a handful of students sat in, along with a tall fireplace. The ceiling couldn't even be called a ceiling, but instead had what appeared to be the night sky being observed from space and easily rivaled the magic let off from the ceiling in the great hall. On the far side of the room stood a statue of a woman, Rowena Ravenclaw, made of gray marble to contrast against the bronze of the room. On either side of the statue was staircases leading up in opposite directions.

"A lot to take in huh? Don't worry, it doesn't ever get old." Grimes smiled at me, "You'll have more time to take it in, but after I show you to your dorm." She started to walk towards the stairs to the left of the statue, and I quickly followed suite.

"There's a charm on the girls staircases that prevents boys from coming up just so ya know. After a couple steps the stairs turn into a un-resistible slide that forces everyone down. There isn't one of on the boy's staircase though, which seems stupid and sexist in my personal opinion, but I can't argue with the slight security the charm provides for us at least." Grimes had spoken to me, providing me with more information about our common room.

After we passed two doors on the way up, we stopped at the third one which was labeled First years, along with names listed below it: Ashlynn Elton, Kiara Holmes, Josephine Lighton,  Harmony Mulligaurd, and Ivanna Sexton. I wonder how big the room was if it fit five people. Hopefully it's airy like the common room and not crammed. 

"Well you gonna open it kiddo?" Oh right, I can do that. I pushed open the door to reveal my dormitory. There were five beds  with large spaces between them, all of them covered in different colors of dark blue blankets and bronze pillows, as well as gray carpets laid around each one. Wow, house pride is a really big thing here I suppose. The floor was a cozy dark wood rather than marble like in the common room, and the walls were a simple smooth light blue, with tall thin windows between each of the beds. Immediately to the left of the entry door there was a small "hallway" and a door that I could only assume lead to a bathroom. It was perfect.

"Seeing as how you were the one smart enough to get ahead of everyone else, you get to be first to choose your bed. Heads up though, avoid those beds." Grimes motioned to the beds closest to the left and right of us, "They have the most direct and close path to the bathroom, and also indirectly the closest to any smells produced when someone takes a nervous shit before a test, believe me I know."

"Language! I'm still an innocent first year, you're going to corrupt me!" I jokingly yelled to her.

"Oh it's nothing you haven't heard before, besides language is knowledge." She winked at me, "Alright, I have to go back down before the next kiddo comes in. Most kids don't get their first riddle quite as fast as you did." Grimes said the last part as she exited my new dorm.

Alrighty, so not the left and right most beds... How about the bed second from to the right. Not quite crowded to the middle, but still avoidant of being near the bathroom. Perfect. Just like that I went and plopped on my (Extremely comfy) bed to claim it, and as soon as I did that my luggage appeared at the foot of my bed. Awesome, I guess magic is pretty cool like that. I took off my brown high tops and laid back onto my bed. Oh would you look at that. The ceiling was a light blue like the walls, but had black docks specked across it with labels underneath each cluster. The one right above my bed was labeled Taurus. Oh my birthday falls under the taurus constellation, this bed really was the perfect choice.

The others I was to share a room with slowly came in over the course of an hour, the girl named Ivanna was in the centermost bed next to me, and Harmony got the unfortunate bed on the other side of me. Ivanna had light blonde wavy hair and green eyes, and Harmony had curly light brown hair with freckles dotting across the bridge of her nose. 

These beds are really comfy, and before I knew it I had passed out before I actually got a good look at my other two roommates.

The chapter was initially supposed to be longer, but I decided to cut it in half because I am struggling to write the next part. But uh, here ya are with a new chapter. Ummmm have fun, yeah. Bye bye.