White Scars

New Cellmates

"Follow me first-years! This way to the Ravenclaw common room." The entire cast of the students which were just allocated into the Ravenclaw followed behind an older student. The prefect of our house. Basically, he was a reliable upperclassman who enforced the rules of the school and ensured the students were on the right path. I imagined his influence was just below the teachers and staff of the school, greater than a standard student anyway.

Corridors upon corridors passed by in my vision as we continued the pathway determined by our guide. Eventually reaching several sets of stairs in a large spacious room, the stairways constantly shifting between branching pathways. How inconvenient.

Our group waited whilst the prefect directed our gazes to the different portraits painted across the walls of the room. Funnily enough each and every one of them was moving as if they were alive. Do ghosts possess them? Are these real people? Or is it just magic?

I had seen similar tricks before in the daily bugle. A newspaper service which covered recent turns of events for the wizarding world. Now and again Mr. Weasley would leave his newspaper on the table after finishing breakfast. However, the pictures in that were short recordings of events, they would replay endlessly. They didn't have a conscience or will to make choices. These pictures are completely the opposite of my previous understanding.

There were people from all different time periods. Yet they even seemed to interact with one another. They talked to the students outside of the frame and also to paintings adjacent from one another. A certain knight had even stepped over into a different painting and begun to fraternize with the inhabitants. Can they come out of the frame altogether? Can I go into the picture frame world? Would I be able to get out if I did?

My mind was hazy with the number of questions currently scrambling inside looking for an answer. Before I could ask anything, our entourage was once again on the move. This time up the stairs, going ever higher, step after step.

Each and every child stuck to the larger prefect's last steps, whether that was to make sure they didn't get lost or because they were trying to avoid me, I wasn't sure. My first meal at this school was a bit of a lonely one. Despite being at the same table I felt as if I were completely isolated, once again. It was a far cry from the hospitality I had become accustomed to at the Weasley household. But there wasn't much I could do about that. My interruption in the ceremony set them on edge, even the older students didn't make much of an effort to get to know me. I can only assume they had observed my actions as impudent or unruly. I can't particularly blame them for those feelings, this was the only way it could be.

I had a hunch about the sorting ceremony. Many things didn't line up and I figured I would get more insight to this retrospectively. Depending on a few factors when I get in the common room, I think they should be all but confirmed.

In a tower of the castle lay a single door with a golden knocker in the shape of an eagle. The prefect knocked thrice on the door. A haggard old voice resounded from within.

"Where is the best place to hide a tree?"

"In the forest." A simple enough riddle. I assume that was just for show with the first years being present. If it were this simple for every student that came by then members of other houses could easily try and infiltrate others. I wonder if each house uses riddles. It's worth looking into, yet another concern...

The door swung open after a small delay. A large open room complete with a fire, several armchairs, sofas and windows to look out from the tower were within the luxuriously clad common room.

"Over there you will see two separate staircases. The left is for the boy's dormitories, the right for the girls'. Curfew is 10 o'clock at night, so long as you're within dorm bounds or, in very peculiar circumstances, with a teacher. Then there will be no problems. Ensure you don't break the curfew rules and keep to school regulation, or we'll lose house points. That's it for my explanation. You're each four to a room, the rooms have already been decided. If there are any problems with the allocation, then bring them to a prefect and we'll try and rectify it. For now, you should go and ensure all of your baggage is in your room. Mistakes are unlikely, but it would be best to be sure." He looked slightly over towards me as he said that. I was glad someone else shared my same scepticism.