My Life as a Background Hufflepuff

Six

"Come on," said Newton cheerfully.

Winteria looked down at him. He was sitting in a barrel—or at least, appeared to be. The Hufflepuff prefect, Gabriel Truman, had already showed them the way to enter, and many older students were in the common room now. Behind her, other first-years who were anxious and excited to get through the entrance were impatiently huffing and poking her. But Winteria, always cautious and afraid of making a fool out of herself, hesitated.

"It's fine," said Newton coaxingly. "I know this is a weird way to enter a common room. But it's awesome, you're going to love it in no time. Rolf does. Right, Rolf?" he called behind him at his younger brother, who already entered. 

"Yep!" came a cheerful answer.

Newton looked at Winteria with innocent, beckoning eyes.

"Alright, I'm coming," said Winteria. Newton grinned, then disappeared under the barrel. Winteria climbed inside the hollow barrel, and crawled into the earthly, mysteriously lit tunnel behind it. In almost no time, the passageway widened, and Winteria saw a hand in front of her, offering to help her up. Rising to her feet, Winteria wasn't surprised to see that it was Newton.

She looked around, and realized that she loved the Hufflepuff common room right away. It had a round ceiling, and the stones had a warm, earthly feeling about it. Plants were hung from all kinds of places, decorating the ceiling and walls with beautiful green. Squat sofas were also placed around the room, and at the middle, inside a pit-like circular fireplace a gentle flame was giving warmth to the whole room. Everywhere had a sense of coziness and comfort etched into it.

"This is..." Winteria could barely find words to describe how she felt. "Just...amazing."

"Told you you'd love it," said Newton.

Winteria felt a pat on her shoulder. Susan had come in as well, and was turning her head in every way possible to get a full view at the common room.

Once all first years had come, Gabriel Truman gave directions on where the boy and girl's dormitories were, then went off into his own. The first-year girls started to enter the girls dormitory, yawning and stretching, ready to get rest and prepare for the first day of lessons.

"Well, see you," said Newton. "We all better get some sleep." Then he opened the circular door, and climbed up to his room.

Winteria watched him go, then turned back to Susan, who was grinning from ear to ear.

 "What?"

"Nothing," said Susan, still smiling. "Just happy about all of this." She gestured the air around her. Then she yawned. "Come on, Winteria, we better get some sleep, classes start tomorrow, you know."

Winteria followed Susan into their dormitory, where three other girls were already getting ready for bed. She was pleased to see that all her luggage had arrived. Winteria changed into her nightgown, slipped under her blanket, and quickly fell asleep.