Common Room
 

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credit: hermionesclone

After following the sloping, earthy passage to the Hufflepuff Common Room, you'll find yourself in a large circular space. The room is cozy, low-ceilinged, and filled with natural sunlight streaming in from the circular windows that are level with the ground outside the castle. If you peer out, you'll have an amazing view of the grass, flowers, and perhaps even people lounging around.

The room is decorated in the Hufflepuff house colors, filled with beautifully polished wooden furniture, and the comfortably worn sofa and chairs sitting in front of the fire place for those looking to relax. The portrait of Helga Hufflepuff has been hung with care above the wooden mantelpiece and she looks out over the common room, holding her golden cup up in a toast.

For your seven years here at Hogwarts this will be your home and there's no better place to get to know your second family than right here.

Good Lord, Alfred zoomed into the Hufflepuff Common Room more quickly than he usually flitted about the castle. But Professor Myers had said...he needed the Friar to look for it!

Where was it?!

He saw the boy, a new one, Phillip. He remembered the boy being sorted. Maybe he had seen something. "Um, hello? Excuse me, are you busy?" he asked softly, rubbing his round stomach nervously. "I am looking for something."

Philipe looked up blinking, "Oh, hello Alfred." He gave a small smile and shook his head, "No, not at all. Just relaxing after the train ride. What do you need?" The fourth year sat up and stretched slightly.

Meh... And he had just gotten comfortable, but oh well, he was never one to turn someone away when they needed help, and with the friar's hurried state he was sure it had to be something important.

The boy had called him Alfred! It was more refreshing to hear than "Friar," though he didn't mind the title. "Train ride was long?" he asked as he leaned over to check behind the couch. Oh Merlin! He was a ghost. How could he find ANYTHING? Why had Paul asked him of all people? Ghosts were awful at finding things, did he know? The Friar was, at least.

"Well you see...Professor Myers has lost something and he wants me to help him find it. Though, I feel as if I will fail him horribly!" He cried dramatically. "It could be anywhere! It's a small pin...a gold pin shaped like a grapevine and very intricately so. I don't suppose you've seen it?"

He watched the friar and smiled slightly, "Yeah, you could say that." Philipe hadn't been able to find his girlfriend and it wasn't really helping his mood. He and Sara had ridden the train together since their first year. He couldn't find her at the feast either, he was starting to think maybe she had transferred without telling him. He bit back a silent sigh and stood up.

"I can try to help. Though I'm not the best at finding things." He chuckled slightly, "But I haven't seen it no." He shook his head and stretched slightly, "Has the professor any idea where he could've left it to try to narrow the search?" After all, Hogwarts was a pretty big school, and he said this thing was small... Could take a lifetime to actually find it.

Henric walked out from his dormitory and happened to find the Hufflepuff house ghost talking to his fellow housemate in their common area. He waved to the boy he knew named Phillipe...umm...he forgotten his last name though. "Sir Friar, is something the matter?" He asked in a concerned headboy-ish tone.

Miranda was rather unsure of herself as she entered her new house common room. Being a first year she wasn't quite sure where to sit. She certainly didn't want to take an older students favourite spot. So, Meekly she headed towards the wall and waited to see if anyone was going to sit in a comfy looking chair near the fireplace.

As Bradson entered the common room he looked around, he saw a few new students, the devil of a prefect or whatever Henric was right now and then he saw his new friend that he had met at the feast. Miranda! The second year walked over to the new first year with a big smile on his face. "Hey!" The Scottish boy said with excitement. "What do you think of the common room?" He said and he slowly spun around with his arms spread out.

Miranda brightened upo immediately. She saw Brady waving as he walked over to her. Smilimg Miranda answered, " Oh it's absolutely wonderful.... Right by the kitchen and everything. " She pulled out a small package from her pocket, " Would you like a toffee? "
Randi loved toffees... any and all kinds... Heck she liked anything made with sugar.... What 11 year didn't.

Miranda saw a new girl enter through the little hatch doorway into the commonroom. So, she decided to say hello. She slapped on her best friend-making smile and walked over to her.
" Hi, I'm Miranda. I'm a first year too. " Randi had seen the girl get sorted. " Perhaps we could sit at the house table at breakfast?" Randi's eyes were a twinkling sea of blue as she waitied hoping that the girl would say hi back.

Brady grinned and laughed lightly. "I don't really visit the kitchen that often." He didn't have the biggest appetite for a Hufflepuff. Bradson shook his head. "No thank you I just ate some candy not that long ago." He was so stuffed right now. He knew that if he ate one more thing he would just explode.

Randi smiled with a shrug and reached into the package and popped the toffee into her mouth 'Mmmmmmmmmm' her favie.... " alright. Well, Today has been the most exciting day of my life. I didn't realize how big the castle was.... I nearly got lost on the way here. I only found it because I saw that headboy coming this way." she giggled.

Gendry entered the common room. He thought he should at least go to a place where there were people. His family wasn't in the habit of socializing, but it wasn't a bad idea to be nice. It was proper and honorable and all those silly words his father bandied about without really seeming to understand what they meant. It reminded him of a character on his favorite movie, who told the boastful man that he didn't think the word meant what he thought it meant.

Anyway, Gendry shuffled about looking for a seat. He also wished he had a nice cup of hot chicory.

Whit, yeah?
 

Yawning, Esme made her way out of the girls dormitories and towards the common room. She had been so tired earlier that she had decided to take a nap. Honestly she still felt a little tired but if she slept any longer she wouldn't be able to later tonight. It was best for her to join her Housemates and occupy herself until it was time to head off for dinner.

"Hey, Isabella," she said with a smile as she saw the younger girl. Why was she collapsed in a chair? Was she exhausted or something? "How are you?" she asked as she took a seat in a nearby chair. It was nice to be by the fireplace and Esme enjoyed the warmth of it very much.

Brady nodded. He knew that he still hasn't explored the whole castle yet. "The castle is huge! There's still places and rooms that I still haven't seen yet." The head boy? Ugh! Gross. The whole castle was just calling for him to explore some more. Hopefully he would get around the whole castle this year.

Somebody said her name. Isabella sat straight up in her chair and looked around. Oh! It was that nice older girl from the feast. She remembered Isabella's name! Isabella beamed. "Hello!" she said, very chipper. "I'm just a bit dizzy!" What was that girl's name again? Isabella thought it might be Emily or something.

"Everything's so big," she mused. "I keep getting lost, so I decided to come back here and relax. But then I was dancing, and then I got dizzy." Maybe the girl would be nice and remind Isabella what her name was. It was the first week of classes and all, and she was a poor little first year who barely knew anybody.

Oh.

Okay then.

Esme smiled as Isabella told her why she was feeling a little dizzy. It seemed that the excitement hadn't gone away yet and that was a good thing. It was nice to see people happy and enthused about something be it school or a hobby. "Well, I am glad that you are enjoying yourself even if you keep getting lost. Do you want me to show you where certain things are? Like the kitchen?" The entrance was behind a painting and there was a chance that an older student hadn't explained the secret yet. At any rate she knew where are lot of things around Hogwarts were located by now so she could be a tour guide.

Please don't ask about The Chamber of Secrets...

Esme was so nice, Isabella thought when the older girl smiled at her. Isabella beamed back, glad that she was in Hufflepuff where everybody was friendly. When the other girl offered to show her where stuff was, Isabella nodded excitedly.

"Please! I didn't know we could go to the kitchen! I've been borrowing snacks from the Great Hall at breakfast!" Seriously, they could just go to the kitchen for a snack? Isabella couldn't believe the luck. Where was the kitchen, anyway? Was it in one of the towers? There were a lot of sketchy corners in the towers that would be perfect for a kitchen. Plus, then the temperature from the kitchen wouldn't affect the castle around it.

Oh wait. Magic. Kitchen heat wouldn't affect the magical castle anyway.

"Do they have apples in the kitchen?" she asked. "Or bananas, or radishes, or rice krispie treats?" Isabella had eclectic ideas of what made a good snack. It depended on her mood, which made gathering snacks at breakfast for an entire day pretty tough.

" I don't doubt it... It seems there's a new passage springing up everyday." Randi giggled. " Still.... It's definately fun to explore she beamed.

It was perfectly understandable that Isabella wouldn't know that she could take stuff from the kitchens since she was still brand new to Hogwarts. A lot of new students weren't aware of the fact, and she wouldn't have been either if it wasn't for her parents and brother telling her and Juno about it. "Oh, yes. The house elves like to get stuff for students and a lot of the time they leave out snacks." They were so sweet and loved helping others. She was the same way.

Esme laughed. "They have all that and more. And the kitchen is close by so you don't have to travel far to get to it." Just in case Isabella had been wondering about that.

Isabella pulled one of her legs up onto the seat so she could sit a little taller. "I've never met a house elf!" she said excitedly. "My family believes that taking care of yourself is important, and my parents said they would never have a house elf until they're old and too tired to cook and do their laundry." She wondered if her grandparents would be getting a house elf soon, they were pretty old.

"Do you get snacks from the kitchen often?" Isabella asked Esme. She was curious if going to the kitchen was an everyday type activity or a self-reward for working hard one day.

She had a really good point, Brady couldn't help but laugh a little. It really was true. He thought that he had found his way around the castle perfectly fine but then the second year still ends up getting lost or finding a quicker way to get to a classroom. "I totally understand that. It's actually really good sometimes thought, you might find a passage that will get you to a class faster so then you can sleep in longer." He laughed. That was very true and that's what he loved about finding passages. "I love exploring the castle." It was the greatest past time for him other than playing music.