Hadrian Romanoff and the Beginning

Chapter 18

Su Li laughed quietly when she heard her friend mutter about 'damn unnecessary moving stairs.'

"Oh, hush, you know I'm right," Morag huffed. Su rolled her eyes, but didn't deny it. The stairs could be really inconvenient when they chose to drop you off across from where your next class was.

The two of them had decided to spend a bit of their free period to walk around the castle to get more familiar with it, wanting to shed their easily lost first year image as soon as possible. They most likely wouldn't find any of the infamous secret passages for a while but it would be nice to be overly cautious about where they were going.

Morag had come up with the idea after seeing how many of the older students seemed to unconsciously take the shortcuts they had discovered. They had asked about it but the only answer they got was that finding your own routes and paths were a Hogwarts tradition. Su was starting to think all these Hogwarts traditions sounded like they were designed to mess with the heads of first years.

"Do you think that each house has different routes? I read that some people think Hogwarts is at least partially sentient and that the founders embedded their magic into the castle, so maybe the castle reacts differently to students of different houses." Su theorized.

Morag paused in thought. "Maybe. Never seen people from two houses come from the same secret path, so it's possible. How could we find out for certain?"

"We could-"

"Li, MacDougal,"

Su and Morag stopped at their names, turning in place to see Nina Zadi and Celia Gianchetti, fourth year Ravenclaws. Leanne had warned that they had a bad habit of sticking their noses into other people's research projects - which they claimed was only out of curiosity - before using whatever information they learned to show off in front of Professor Flitwick or the other houses. Apparently with each year that passed more and more of the eagles caught on to what they were doing so now they were stuck using only the most trusting of Ravenclaws and first years who didn't know anymore. It was unfortunate for them that Leanne had told Lisa and Terry who had told the rest of them in turn.

"Yes?" Su didn't see why the older girls were bothering to talk to her and Morag. Even if they hadn't been warned about their tactics they had no sort of research going on other than mapping their way through the school.

"You two are part of Romanoff's little group, right?" Nina asked, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down her pointed nose at them.

"We're friends with him, and sometimes join his study group if that's what you mean." Morag answered a little warily. Su didn't blame her. Ever since Miss Natalie had shown up, Lisa, Neville and Terry had been interrogated by anyone who could catch them without Hadrian around. No one had tried to question Hadrian himself about it, at least as far as Su knew; the Slytherins might have asked, but they at least could wait until they were out of sight instead of cornering first years outside of their class.

Plus, Su didn't like the way Nina referred to Hadrian, Lisa, Neville and Terry, the ones who were truly part of his 'little group.'

"Why?" Su added, though she was almost certain she knew the reason.

"We were just wondering if you knew anything about how his mother got in. It's got everybody at least a bit curious," Celia smiled as if sharing a joke with her friends, tucking her curly, dark hair behind her ear.

Su and Morag shared a knowing look. Though Celia appeared the perfect picture of someone merely curious - something Su was sure was behind the reason people were willing to share information - Nina had unintentionally ruined the friendly affect they were going for with her dismissive tone.