"On the radio, we heard November Storm~ That solo's really long but it's a pretty song," Melanie sang, while she levitated her basket full of dirty robes, clothes and bedsheets behind her. It was still fairly early, Melanie didn't like leaving laundry to do at night - it took forever to dry that way. "We listened to it twice because the DJ was asleep," she continued before finally making it to the room. She tied her hair back and lowered her basket to the ground. Laundry was nothing new to Melanie, seeing as she often had to do her own while at home but it was strange to be doing it at Hogwarts - the place where she hadn't done laundry... ever. The Gryffindor stared at the various items used to do laundry in the room before wondering why Hogwarts didn't just buy washing machines.

Because they did have shiny turnstiles, she didn't quite understand why they couldn't get shiny washing machines as well. Laundry day at home always called for wearing sweats and whatnot and being here at Hogwarts, having laundry day here, was no different. She was not going to get anything pretty wet. Oh. Or her shoes. She'd have to wash her shoes the next time though. But for now, she could just wear flipflops... because if it got wet, it'd be alright. Yup.

Melanie started to sift through her pile of laundry, separating her clothes into different piles. Colors. Whites. Warm water. Cold water. That kind of stuff while sitting in front of a tub. She'd have to clean the bed sheets first because those would take much longer to dry. So while she did that, she continued to sing her song.

Laundry day, huh? It was all rather curious. She didn't do her own laundry here, or at home for that matter, she just always found her clothes clean and ready to be worn again. The most she ever did was sorting through them and leaving them out. The same went for her sheets and such. If the food was still being cooked (no matter how poorly so) then why'd they have to do their own laundry?

It took the Gryffindor just about forever to find and sort through her clothes but finally she got everything into a basket--A HEAVY OOOONE!

Levitating would work good here, yeah? Which is what she did ALL the way DOWN to the kitchen floor level. Honestly, why did everything always have to be so far from Gryffindor Tower? The Puffers only had to leave their Common Room for this and what did the laundry room look like anyway? She shoved the door open, and heard a loud thud as the basket fell to the floor.

...

.......Merlin's beard.

"Uh...Melanie...what are we meant to do with...all this?" Basins, tubs...what even...? "And, where's the machine?" She'd seen her father doing laundry looooads of times. All he did was stuff the clothes in the machine, but...she didn't...see the machine. Was it maybe disillusioned...? Yeah....this would pose juuuust a slight problem.

Uh-huh. She was officially lost. Some help would be nice right about now.

It was laundry day for the lions and badgers. Leaving a notice on the way out of the library of his whereabouts if someone needed him he picked up a happy-go lucky tune and began the walk down from the fourth floor to the kitchens.

Leo had visited the laundry room a handful of times each year since he started to work at the school. Pushing up the door to the laundry room his gaze immediatley fell upon the only two student's already there and their full laundry baskets. "Good morning Melanie and Alexa! Have either of you washed your clothes before?"

Her eyes rushed to the door when it swung open again. It was expected that the room would be filling up soon but that wouldn't very well help her situation if everyone that walked in knew how to wash and just got right to it while she remained hopelessly lost on this matter.

OH, Mr. Kitridge! "Good morning Sir!" She said with a small smile.

Then he asked the question she hoped he would. "I haven't actually." Lex took a look at her basket of clothes and sheets. "I know the amount of soap you're meant to add and the buttons to turn and push but Daddy usually does my laundry. I mean, I could probably figure out the buttons on the machines they have here but...I don't see the machine, just a bunch of basins and stuff." Basins and stuff that would making the room even smaller. Was it necessary for them to be here?

"Ooo, or do you use spells here? I don't mind learning the spell that does it." She'd actually prefer that option.

Laura skipped into the washing room and looked around she was already to do her laundry, it was going to be easy because she had done it loads of times before, sometime she used a washing machine and other times she had used her hands, she had already sorted her clothes out into different piles so that it was easier to do and she then put some washing powder in a bowl and then she realized that the Librarian was here. "Hi sir, did you have a lovely summer?" Laura stopped the water when she was sure it was the right temperature and then she started to sing a little song. "A scrubber dub, dub, a scrubber dub dub, I do like to wash my clothes." Laura giggled. "Professor where is the Washing board?" Laura was sure there was supposed to be one of them somewhere around here, isn't that how they did it in ancient castle like this?

What in what.

WHAT. Without a question mark. Because it was so out of question. Or it should have been. Laundry. Outrageous. Even for him, who always obeyed the rules, who was afraid of any hint of rebellion, it was ridiculous. But he was quick to understand there was no joking this time as well. School was broke and blah blah. He didn't break it, did he? So why was he having the consequences?

He wasn't going to whine though, because that wasn't how he was taught. He was taught to be timid, not to ask questions helpful, and helpful he would be, until school got back to its grandeur.

His mind repeating 'what, how, with whom' questions in this sequence continuously on the way to the laundry room, he was carrying a bag on his shoulder that had all his dirty clothes, and his bed linen was in his arms, because his mother had always changed them once a week and he would exactly do that here. Luckily enough, the laundry room was on kitchen level, so he didn't have to travel all the castle with linen in his arms.

Once he arrived at the place, he dropped the linen down and just eyed the people there, waving at Alexa. He was still too shocked to speak right now.

Christmas made her way into the laundry centre with a pile of clothes she needed to wash and was a bit lost as to what she should do and it looked like she wasnt the only one who was confused

BLINK. BLINK. STARE.

That's what Alec was doing as he stood by the entrance of the Laundry Center, his pile of dirty clothes in his hands. He fully expected there to be washing machines here that you needed to use some sort of spell on and hey presto! His clothes would get washed. It really was as simple as that in the boy's mind. And because of this simplicity, the boy had actually been looking forward to this. Maybe.

But now that he was actually here and seeing the room with his own eyes, he was kind of... surprised. And shocked. Did the house elves really do all of this by hand before? Really? Frown. He slowly took a couple of steps forward, his grey-blue eyes taking in all the items in the room properly. It really did seem like they had to do this by hand. Properly. Like in the olden days.

"How do you even use these things?" he blurted out to no one in particular, his eyes now looking around at the people there. Melanie, CANDY GIRL, Librarian Dude, Laura, Forrest and... someone he had never met before. Okay. They were good people. And they all got smiles from him.

Except... did they know how to use the things in here? Namely, the basins and the tubs? Because Alec didn't.

Anya led the way to the laundry room. She assumed that Jake was following her. She couldn't tell there. There was just kind of... a mass of clothes... she assumed Jake was still somewhere in there.

Once she was in the room, she looked around. Hand washing. She hadn't had to do that in years. She quickly tied up her hair. She then put on her apron she'd brought with her. Why? Because it made her feel all cute and domestic. And... if she had to wash her own clothes, she was going to look cute while doing it. She then pulled on a pair of pink rubber gloves. Why? Because pruney hands were completely unattractive.

She then led the way over to a few empty tubs.

Jake... had no idea where he was going. He was basically following Anya's voice. He was nudging things with his toe as he walked - slowly - but he still ran into a few things. Thankfully he had a mountain of clothes in his arms and it felt like running into a wall of cotton. Not so bad.

However, he had probably lost a few socks along the way. So that was a downside to this whole thing.

Still feeling in front of him with his toe, Jake nudged something. He paused, running his foot around the thing. It felt like a heel. "Anya?" He asked, trying to get a look around the pile of clothes. If it wasn't his girlfriend, the thing with his foot just barely would be awkward and hard to explain.

After just a second he gave in and dropped the pile of clothes on the floor. Thankfully, they were in the laundry room.

...With... tubs. They were hand-washing?!

Well. He wasn't. Anya was, though. Jake grabbed a stool and sat down next to the empty basin he'd dropped the clothes next to. With a grin, he looked at Anya. Whenever she was ready. He was good with keeping her company and giving moral support.

Melanie was still singing to herself some random songs that came to her mind when she heard the door open and a giant thud. That sound pulled Melanie out of her trance and caused her to stop sorting her clothes. Then she saw the person who had entered the room and gave Alexa a bit of a blank stare before she shook her head. What? Melanie put down the shirt she was about to drop in the "whites" pile and looked at Alexa's clothes. "You're supposed to wash your clothes by hand," Melanie said, shrugging her shoulders. Which wasn't too difficult. "Don't worry, it's really easy," Melanie promised.

The Gryffindor continued to sort her clothes before she saw the professor that entered the room. Well, not really professor... the librarian had entered the room. "Hello Professor Kitridge," Melanie greeted, smiling. "I've washed my clothes before, I'm pretty sure I can help out if needed as well," she said, nodding her head. Because back at home they didn't always just use the washing machine. Doing the old fashion way was good and stuff. Her mother had always said something about it building character so she assumed it was a good thing. And to prove her point, Melanie filled a tub up with cool water and added detergent to it before dumping her bed sheets and towels into it. Then she added a bit more water and pushed the items down... just so they'd get soaked and all.

See, Melanie totally knew how to wash stuff. She turned her head when she heard others entering and smiled at them. There was Christmas... and Alec... and some other people Melanie didn't know.

Welp. Cleaning. And back to singing to herself. Because that was important to sing while one worked - it helped pass time. She then turned to look at Alexa. "Lemme know if you need help," Melanie said with a warm smile before focusing on her clothes.

"Hold onto me as we go, as we roll down this unfamiliar road~ And although this road is stringing us along, just know you're not alone... because I'm gonna make this place your home," Melanie sang, as she continued to sort through her clothes.

Penelope finally made her way down to the laundry room with a bag of her dirty clothes slung over her shoulder. It was the same bag she usually carried her books for class in, but she had switched them out and stuffed her clothes in there for this trip. She didn't have her own basket sorta thing and didn't feel like carrying them all, so it seemed like a good idea, right?

She sorta wondered how this washing thing was gonna be done...and had her answer once she entered. No washing machines, of course, just...tubs and clothesline and stuff. Okay. Well...this couldn't be TOO hard, could it? Not that much different from using a machine, just more work.

"What do we do, just fill these tub things with water and detergent and then just wash them?" she asked, looking around at all the stuff. She wasn't really sure about all the specifics of it.

Anya waited as Jake joined her. She then looked at the pile of clothes on the ground. This was going to be... pretty alright. She couldn't quite place the reasoning, but none of the money issues bothered her. It seemed like she was sort of in a perpetual good mood.

She nodded toward four tubs. "You mind filling those up with some warm water?" she asked. "I'll get the detergent." Because she was awesome like that. Plus, Jake should be able to handle the water aspect of it. She knew he didn't know how to wash laundry with a washing machine, so there was pretty much no way he knew how to do it by hand.

And with that, she went to grab a scrubbing rack and some detergent.

Anya nodded as she passed Penne. "Yeah. You can do yours next to ours, if you want. Then I can help you if you need anything." Or she can trust her laundry to the Librarian dude. Anya didn't recommend that option though.

Laundry.

Yeah...Ella wasn't a fan of doing it but it was just one of those things, y'know? It needed to be done. Anywhoo, the sixteen year old made her way to the Laundry Center and peeked her head in, noting many familiar faces. "Hey everyone!" Grin. It was sure crowded in here. Oh and the boyfriend! BEAM! The blonde's face lit up when she spotted him and she hurried over to his side, nudging his arm gently. "Hi you."

Looking around, the blonde tapped her chin and wondered where to start. Getting a tub and filling it with water would probably be the first step, yeah?

Oh boo laundry day.

Troy stood outside the laundry room for a couple of minutes crossing his arms and pouting. He was not pleased.

He had dragged along his laundry hamper that had tiny wheels on the bottom. This hamper made it so much easier for him to separate his clothes and not get them mixed up. Troy's sister Demi has prepared him very well.

Okay time to go in and get this show on the road.

As he entered he noticed there were a couple of students already here. He didn't know about them but to the young Kid, this was not fun. No way, no how.

He went over to grab a tub to fill it with water to start soaking his clothes. Opening the hamper he decided he was going to start by washing the light colors. But before he dumps all of his dirty clothes onto the water filled tub, he went over to grab some detergent that was being provided for them. Troy was still unaware how to wash clothes, but he had his brother-in-law David to send him a parchment of step by step instructions on how to was clothes. Since he seemed to have had a lot of experience washing his own clothes. He folded the OWL and put it his pocket and kept taking it back out once he needed a little extra help.

"It's the hard-knock life for us! It's the hard-knock life for us!" Troy sang followed by whistled, as he put on some rubber gloves he had brought with him so his hands wouldn't get "ruined" while washing his clothes.

The sixteen year old sort of stood there, head tilted and a confused expression on his face as he looked on at the basins and tubs in particular. Were you meant to wash your clothes... in both of them? Or was one meant to be used with the detergent while the other with the fabric softener? Or... one with both of those while the other was for... just washing. Clothes and water.

... This was way more confusing than Divination.

Feeling a nudge, Alec blinked a couple of times before looking over towards his side and GRINNING at the person standing next to him. "Oh hey Ells!" he said, secretly glad that the embarrassing part of his clothes weren't on full display. He'd just be... secretive about things when it got to that stage. Yeah.

Anyways... "So shall we get started with the washing?" Because... the sooner they got it done, the better, yeah? And did she want to do this together? ... Questions.

Smiley boyfriend was smiley. Ella smiled back, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. Was it weird to do laundry with your boyfriend? The sixteen year old didn't really know though there were certain items she'd be handling carefully and secretively, for reasons.

Oh and questions? "I...yeah, sure. I was going to sort my clothes first, though." Was that a bit silly, the sorting? She'd done laundry with her Gran lots before and the older woman always insisted on sorting things before hand. "That way I don't mix any colors with the whites." Because turning all her whites pink...well, that wouldn't be good.

And without further discussion, the blonde bent down to where her laundry bag was and started separating things into piles. One pile for whites, one for colors. She hummed while she separated things, occassionally glancing over at Alec and smiling. So far so good. Maybe this wouldn't be awkward after all.

This was going to be their most awkward gathering, he just knew it. Or they'd reach a point where it would become awkward. It always seemed that way everytime the two met up and did normal things like make a snow fort or go to get some ice cream. It was just them.

Mission: Let's Not Make This Awkward.

Sort clothes. Right. "Sounds like a great place to start," he said, dumping his clothes on the ground, "Yeah... I mean... can you imagine having an odd coloured linen because of a simple little mistake?" Although... if it was rainbow coloured, he was pretty sure Sophs would be one to like that. Maybe.

But CLOTHES. He smiled back at the girl before sifting through his clothes and sorting them out into piles like the blonde girl was doing. He was not copying. Nope! ... Question. Again. "Erm... are we meant to wash them with water and then add in the detergent?" And did she know in whether they had to wash things in the basin or the tub?

There isn't any advantage in being a witch when one couldn't use magic to do laundry. At least it wasn't so boring as washing clothes at home, since here at Hogwarts there was a plenty of people doing it together, and listening to music! Hey! It'll be fun! She thought and taking courage, Annabeth decided to talk with everybody: "Hey, everybody! I don't like to wash clothes... Does someone know a spell that orders the clothes to wash themselves?" She grinned hopefully. But by the way the others students were looking at her, it should be better if she could just grin and bear it.

So. Today was his supervision day for the laundry chaos that was sure to happen. The only redeeming quality of the assignment in Alistaire's mind was that he would be with Leo. And it was better than having to be with one of the new staff members he didn't know that were also Board members. That could get awkward in a hurry.

Rolling up the sleeves of his robes, he entered the room with a sigh. His first mission was to find Leo, which didn't take long. Going over to the man, he asked, "How's it goin'? Are we jus' supervisin' or do they need lo's of help?" Firth hoped the latter wasn't the case.

Time to do laundry! Jory hadn't much experience with that besides that one time when the washing machine suddenly stopped working at home and he had helped his mother as she was sick.

"Hey, guys! he called to everyone in the room as he entered. ''Hi Mr Firth, Mr Kitridge!'' His arms were filled with sheets, pillow cases, robes and pajamas. He didn't mind doing this by hand, anyway. He had an idea as to how it was supposed to be done.

Laundry on the floor in a neat pile, Jory grabbed a tub, added a bit of detergent and then added cool water. Grabbing the pile up again, he soaked them in the sudsy water after which he added more water to completely immerse them.

"Sooo, anybody need any help?'' He was sure everyone did not know how to do this.

Going over to stand by Alexa he listened to her experiences with washing before this day which surprisingly was more that he’d have thought of a young girl but maybe Alexa’s parents were teaching their child important lessons at an early age. Shaking his head Leo informed Alexa. "There are no washing machines. You need to wash all your clothes by hand in a basin or tub with detergent, fabric softener and water."

"I wouldn"t advice using spells around your clothes. You might damage them. Do it the muggle way by hand it won’t damage your clothes." Leo advised. If everyone started shooting spells in the laundry room then somebody would soon end up being injured.



After Melanie and Alexa, the first badger turned up. Beaming at Laura Hyde he replied. "Good day Laura. My summer was lovely indeed thank you for asking. How was your summer dear?" Was the teenager finally maturing to a young woman? One could only hope. Leo was about to check on the supply of detergent and softer when he was stopped by a question from Laura. Looking around the room he asked "You mean like the scrub racks over there?" He pointed to the racks hanging on the nearby wall in a height easily accessible by any student regardless of height.



"I'll keep that in mind Melanie. Thank you for volunteering." Leo smiled broadly at the black haired lioness. He watched how Melanie filled a tub with cool water and there after added detergent before she dumped her bed sheets and towels into it before she started to push them down to the bottom of the tub to get soaked thoroughly soaked.

Having been busy with talking to Melanie he hadn’t seen Penelope walk in until she asked what they were supposed to do. Turning to her he nodded. "Yes, you've got it right Penelope. You fill one of the tubs or basins with hot or cool water, add detergent and fabric softener and then you dump you dirty clothes into the water and wash them by hand. Just be careful with which clothes you wash together." Some colours you just couldn’t wash together unless you wanted your white clothes to turn pink.

In Penelope's backwater a steady trail of lions and badgers entered the laundry room to do their laundry. In an instant it felt like the room was filled with chattering student’s trying to understand just how they were supposed to wash their clothes with the use of what they could find on the walls. Hearing a badger echo the same question that Alexa had asked some minutes ago Leo said to her. "Hi there, I'd prefer if you washed your clothes by hand even if you don’t like it. With so many people in one place it is too easy for injuries to occur. So please wash the muggle way by hand."

Reinforcements were the first thought that came to Leo’s mind when he saw Alistaire approach with rolled up sleeves. Glancing around at the student’s, he responded. "Hello Alistaire, it seems to be going okay. So far most of them are just trying to get a grip on how they are supposed to wash their dirty clothes by hand. When they start experimenting though we might need to step in and help." Because there were always those who felt the need to play pranks on their peers or cause commotion.

Ella looked up from her sorting and smiled at Alec, nodding her head. "It'd be pretty funny, actually. Especially if it happened to you. Imagine you accidentally mixed like a red sock in with your whites?" Giggle. "I think you could pull off pink, though." Grin.

Ella was picking up several towels she'd wanted to wash and turned to look at the boy, a small smile on her face. "I was watching Melanie before and she added some water, then detergent, then clothes and a bit more water." And really, she seemed to know what she was doing so Ella was inclined to believe she was doing things properly. "So we can go with that too?"

After sorting the towels in the right piles, the blonde was ready to move on. "I'm done so...want me to grab you a tub for your stuff, then?" She sort of figured the tubs vs. basins thing was just a way to provide a lot of containers for the students, yeah? There probably wasn't a right one to use?

"oh, of course you're very badly informed about the muggle way of do laundry!" Annabeth muttered and then added, raising her voice a little: "Muggles use washing machines and not this medieval stuff! Doing it by hands is a good way of ensure injuries will occur, d'you know? My hands will probably bleed and my nails will break before I could finish scrubbing the stains out of my robes..." Then she realized that it'd not help to complain. "So... Bee, just grin and bear it... ok." She told herself, then she noticed a boy who was washing his clothes as if it was the most natural thing of the whole world. She had already saw him in the classes and Huffies common room, she approached him and asked: "Um, may you help me?" She smiled. "I don't know what to do with this stains and I don't know how to use this tubs, I had never saw it before..."