The Other Daughter (Watty Awards 2012)

Don't insult the Monkeys on a Saturday

“Wow.”

“That is one way to say it; another is frightening, or scary or bad for people with acrophobia.”

“They are amazing.”

“Obviously you don’t have acrophobia, then.” Rose commented.

“I don’t even know what acrophobia is.” replied Lucy.

“It’s not good for someone who rides brooms.” Scorpius chipped in. “It means you are afraid of heights.”

“I am definitely not acrophobic then.”

They were standing at the bottom of the staircases. The moving staircases. They reached high, clawing at the roof.  And the Gryffindor common room was right at the top.

“You get used to it, and you find the shortcuts, like the painting that will take you up three floors, or the password that will take you to opposite the Fat Lady if you tell it to any of the portraits.”

“I don’t suppose that you could tell me? For the sake of our legs?” Scorpius pleaded.

“Nope, you have to find it yourself, it took me two years to find most things and even now you still find the occasional new secret.” Rose answered. “You wouldn’t have anything to do if you knew anything, it’s part of the Hogwarts experience.”

“But we’re awesome, so can’t you tell us one tiny little thing?” Lucy joined in.

“Errrm, no.” Rose teased, then turned round to address the rest of the first years that were huddled behind them, looking up in awe at the staircases, winding up to the top.

“These are the main staircases, right up to the eighth floor for this year only. There are other staircases dotted around the school, but they tend to be quite hard to find. As you can see these move, they can also do a lot of other things, but you have to find those out for yourselves.” Rose smirked, before bounding up the stairs, at a pace that the first years could only gawp at.

Lucy, Scorpius and Lily followed Rose first, before everybody else gathered their thoughts and started climbing.

As they reached the top of the second flight, Scorpius was becoming breathless.

“Come on slowcoach!” teased Lily.

“We don’t have stairs like this at home!” He protested.

“Shouldn’t you have a reasonable level of fitness from playing Quidditch so much?” Questioned Lucy cheekily.

“Haha, funny. How are you going so fast?” Scorpius retorted.

“I did athletics and gymnastics at my old school.” Replied Lucy.

“What’s gymnastics?” Scorpius asked, clueless.

“Do you seriously not know what gymnastics are?”

“No, or I wouldn’t have asked, or pull my confused face.”

“You always look confused.” Retorted Lucy.

By now they had reached the last staircase, and Lucy wasn’t even looking breathless. Lily was lagging a bit, while Scorpius was dragging himself up the stairs using the banisters.

Suddenly, the marble staircase jerked to the right, as the top of the stairs detached from the wall. Lucy grabbed the banister to the left of her and Lily grabbed the banister to the right. Scorpius was already firmly attached to a banister. Several shrieks were heard from the other first years as the scrambled to reach a banister. Rose had already reached the top of the staircase and so was stranded at the top next to one of many large portraits that adorned the walls of the Castle.

“Stay there.” She shouted, only seeming a little concerned that 20 eleven year old were being taken away from her via a moving staircase. “Once it stops at a wall, walk into the corridor behind the door that will be there, but do not go anywhere, so I can find you.”

“And Lily, that includes you. We haven’t forgotten what happened at the zoo.” Rose smirked, while Lily blushed.

“Don’t ask.” She warned.

“That is just inviting us to ask, as soon as we get off this moving staircase.”  Lucy mentioned.

The staircase jerked to a halt, next to a square landing and an open door that led down a corridor covered in paintings of older witches and wizards. Everybody scrambled off as fast as they could and huddled a few metres down the moth-eaten blue carpet that covered the floor. Lucy thought this was unusual as the rest of the corridors they had passed on their journey to the Gryffindor Common Room had been plain stone floors. As soon as she had seen where the staircase had gone Rose had rushed through a door, so Lucy guessed that she was on her way.

Lucy noticed that there was a group of girls huddled away from the rest of the group. They were talking in hushed whispers and glaring at Scorpius, glancing away as soon as he turned around.

“Do we have to share with them?” Lucy jerked her thumb towards the girls.

“Probably not. You used to have to share with all of the girls in your year, but now there are more people coming to Hogwarts, so there are two rooms for each year. And apparently they know already who you are going to want to share with. Well, Albus said so.” Replied Lily.

“Do you believe everything that Albus says?” Asked Lucy.

“No, as a rule you should never believe what Albus says unless there is a parent standing close that he doesn’t want to get caught out by. And when he told me this Dad was standing right behind me, so in this instance I think we can trust him.” Lily explained.

“You lot!” Rose shouted from the other end of the corridor. She gestured to them.

“Come on!” She turned round on her heel and started walking back the way that she had come.

“Seeing as we can’t use the main staircase at the moment, we are going to have to go another way.” She explained. “This is a route that is a bit longer, but good if the stairs are having a hissy fit, or if it is Tuesday, because on Tuesday there is a path between two portraits that cuts out a couple of floors. Oh, and don’t annoy the monkeys on a Saturday.” She said pointing to a portrait on the left wall. It depicted a group of monkeys wearing bow ties and sitting at a formal dinner table, laid out like they were about to eat. As the first years passed the monkeys raise their heads in unison and glared at them. One of the other girls chose that moment to say

“Ugly brutes, they are.” As if they had been waiting for that, the monkeys started screeching at the girl, who looked slightly annoyed that part of a painting was shouting.

“And dumb.” Rose looked on at the girl as she insulted the monkeys yet again.

“I told you so.” She smirked as all of the monkeys leapt up and ran out of the sides of the frame, appearing in frames all over the walls. A silence descended as the last of them disappeared along the corridor walls.

“You are now looking at the newest person to be banned from going to Hogsmeade until she is a fifth year, if she is lucky. What’s your name?” Rose asked.

“Melanie White.” The blonde haired, brown eyed girl just stood there as if she didn’t care.

“What is Hogsmeade?” Lucy whispered to Lily.

“It’s the village that you can go to from third year, with permission. Sells all sorts of sweets and there is a post office and you can get Butterbeers and loads of other stuff.” She whispered back.

“We need to sneak there sometime.” Replied Lucy.

“Then you should be glad you have a friend like me, George told me how to get out of the castle, and I stole Dad’s Invisibility Cloak. Well Dad let me borrow it, but I had to sneak it past my mum.”

Rose sped up suddenly and everyone rushed to catch up with her. She stopped next to a large painting of a woman.

“Everyone, this is the Fat Lady. She guards the common room and you must have the correct password to enter. At the moment it is ‘Niffler’.” With that the common room door swung open.