Why are there so many rooms?

[Leila Walden]

Leila was getting frustrated. She had only been at the school for a couple of days and she was already lost. She was looking for the Gryffindor floor but it felt like she had been climbing for hours! She eventually gave up and sank down to the floor at the end of one of the endless corridors in the castle. She put her head into her hands and waited for a moment, hoping to bring back into her memory where on earth the Gryffindor common room was! She couldn't believe that there was nobody around to ask, no one had walked past her in the time that she had been shuffling around the upper levels of the castle and she was getting worried. Leila had no idea how she was going to find her way around the castle for classes and whatnot. She decided that she would have to tag along with the rest of her housemates and not stray too far from them if she was to find her way back to the common room. After all, she was never going to be with Jess all of the time and she would have to rely on herself sometimes, she would have to become more savvy and would have to remember the layout of the castle which would obviously prove problematic.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica felt like she had been experiencing the best time of her life so far in the early days at Hogwarts. Not only had she already managed to find wonderful friends, but the entire castle was completely packed with interesting magical items and enchantments. She had spent ten minutes on one of the moving staircases yesterday, trying to find even just one tiny sign of how it worked. But there had been no obvious machinery involved, not that she had expected as much, and the enchantments were just too well cast for her to find even the tiniest clue as to how the stairs decided when and where to move themselves. Unless someone was checking up on them regularly, it was entirely possible that these were the same spells that had been cast back when the castle was first built, which was quite an impressive time of endurance.

Today, however, she was on a mission to the library. Phoebe was in the middle of an experiment, and so Veronica had been dispatched to bring back any books about the subject that she thought were relevant. It was exciting and slightly nerve-wracking all at the same time - she was pleased that Phoebe trusted her, but it made her highly conscious of trying finding the exact right books. In fact she was so caught up in thinking about which section to begin looking in that she almost tripped over a girl sitting down in the corridor she had just turned into. Slightly horrified at herself, Veronica bent down immediately, her hands hovering in the air between them as she tried to decide what to do. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to kick you! I should have been looking where I was going, but I was trying to think if I should start with spells or potions, and I didn't see you, and I hope you're okay, are you okay?"

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila had completely blocked out the outside world while she had her head in her hands which is why it was such a shock when she felt someone bump into her. Never one for quick reactions, Leila just felt herself topple over unable to stop herself from doing so. She frowned a little and looked up at whoever it was and blinked a couple of times, it was a girl who looked around her own age but Leila had never seen her before. She felt herself blush a little bit as the other girl apologised profusely. She reached her hands out to the other girl hoping that she would be able to pull Leila up. She nervously laughed ad waved her hand "I'm alright, I feel a little stupid though. I was in my own world aswell and didn't see you coming" she said. sheepishly. "I'm just a bit lost and I was trying to remember my way around this place. But it's so big and I don't know if I'll ever get used to it" she whined, a hint of desperation in her voice. She was without Jess and normally Jess knew where to go but now Leila was alone and confused and feeling incredibly stupid for almost tripping someone up. She felt her eyes water but she tried to keep herself from crying, that was the last thing she wanted to do in front of the girl.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

The castle was giant, but Elly knew her ways now. She mapped almost all of the hallways in her head and now it was more easy to navigate herself through the enormous castle. She had just send an owl to her dad saying she was alright and got sorted in Ravenclaw. He was a muggle, but Elly had told some brief information about Hogwarts. She hoped the letter came in alright and the owl found her place. As soon as she was done she heard a familiar voice. She was sure it was Leila, they had met before and Elly remembered voices. As soon as she knew Leila was in hearing range Elly started to speak. ''Hello Leila'' she spoke confidently, she was sure it was her. What she hadn't expected was that there was another person with her. Elly turned beet red and laughed, this was embarrassing. As soon as the initial shock was over she looked at the other girl. She was a Ravenclaw as well and she was friends with Phoebe. Elly met Phoebe in Obsidian harbour where they bought some odd flavours of sweets, which reminded Elly to find her and hold some experimental taste test. ''Eh, Hello I am Elizabeth.. but call me Elly.'' Elly stuttered, she was still in shock that she hadn't heard the other person. All together it was kind of funny, Elly didn't mind being a fool.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica watched anxiously to see if she had done any damage to the girl, or if she would be mad at her for causing her to fall over. When the girl stretched her hands out towards her, Veronica automatically took them and pulled her up, hugely relieved to hear that she was alright. She would have felt terrible if she had hurt her, even though it had been a pure accident that they had met in such a way. "Oh, I'm glad! That you're alright, I mean, please don't feel stupid!" Eager to make it up to the other girl, Veronica gave her a timid smile. "Where are you trying to get to? I could walk there with you, or draw a map, or... something." She'd wanted to start outlining an idea she'd just had for making a device to help first-years find their way around the castle, but that probably wouldn't be too helpful right now. While she was waiting for the other girl to answer she suddenly heard someone else approaching them, and looked up to see one of the girls from her dormitory standing in front of them. "Oh, hello... I'm Veronica." She looked back and forth between the two girls. "You two know each other?"

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila smiled gratefully at the girl when she helped her up "thank you" she said sincerely as she patted down her skirt and then looked back at the girl. "I was looking for the Gryffindor Common Room and I knew it was up a few flights of stairs but I think I went too far because I do not recognise this place at all!" she explained. "I don't suppose you know the way do you?" she asked.

A familiar face appeared around the corner and Leila smiled at the approaching girl. "Elly!" she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "How are you?" she asked her friend. It was the first time the two had seen each other since before sorting. Leila nodded at the girl who had now introduced herself as Veronica "yeah, we met briefly in Obsidian Harbour before Hogwarts!" she explained. "Are you two in the same house then?" she asked the two girls.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica's hands were still hovering nervously in the air between herself and Leila, but she let them drop once she had convinced herself that the other girl truly was okay. "Well, I don't know for sure, but I don't think any other common rooms are up here... I don't usually see a lot of people from one house in particular, from the other houses, I mean... Maybe if we went down to the next floor we could look around and see if you recognise anything, and then look for it from there?" This girl seemed nice, and Veronica knew she would have wanted to help her even if she hadn't just accidentally knocked her over. "Unless... do you know where the Gryffindor common room is, Elly?" She looked at the other girl questioningly, asking in case they could save themselves the trouble of traipsing all over the seventh floor. Turning back to Leila, she said, "We are, yes... although we haven't talked to each other much since the first night..." Veronica trailed off, uncertain whether Elly would want her to mention the small disagreement over Phoebe's salamander skeleton.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

Leila was one of the couple of persons Elly was really fond off. She liked Leila as a good friend. ''I am fine, you?'' Elly smiled ''I see you got Gryffindor'' Elizabeth was kind of jealous that Jess and Leila got Gryffindor. After a couple of days she did accept Ravenclaw and now she was fond of it.

Elizabeth did know where the Gryffindor common room was. She wanted to be a Gryffindor for so long after all. ''Leila, I think you took one flight of stairs too much'' Elly smiled, Gryffindor was at the seventh floor. ''So Veronica is right with her idea.'' Elly met her on her first night, she couldn't agree over some salamander skeleton. For Elly is was cool, but not something she wanted to sleep next to with. ''We did met each other the first night.'' Elly paused ''There was this other girl that brought a salamander skeleton to our dorm room and I don't particularly like sleeping next to death things.'' Elly replied matter of factly. ''But Veronica didn't seem to mind at that moment.'' Elly shrugged she still saw the skeleton in her mind.

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila smiled gratefully at Veronica and nodded her head at the Ravenclaw girl's offer in helping her to find the common room. She turned to her friend, Elly, and grinned "that's great! I'm okay, just lost" she answered, laughing nervously "but on the positive side, i've bumped into the both of you which is nice!" she said. "Hmm, okay. It will be a miracle if I remember what rooms are on all these different floors. At least I was only one floor out this time" she joked. "Thanks for helping me, both of you!" she replied, grinning at the two girls.

Leila's face screwed up when Elly revealed that one of their room mates had brought a Salamander skeleton into the dorm with her. "A... skeleton?" she gasped as she looked from Veronica to Elly to judge their reactions to the event. Leila wouldn't have been too pleased if someone in the Gryffindor dorm brought a skeleton into the room with them, it was a little creepy after all.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica was glad that Elly was able to help Leila much more quickly than would have been accomplished if they had undertaken her own suggestion. She was also about to thank the other girl when Elly suddenly mentioned Phoebe's skeleton on her own, and she began to blush furiously at the realisation that Leila also didn't seem to like the idea of having a skeleton in the place where she supposed to sleep. "Um, it's not... it's not that I like sleeping next to dead things! I wasn't even thinking about - it wasn't mine!" Veronica was quickly becoming flustered, desperate not to give Leila a reason to think she was weird. "It was my friend's and... and I was interested because I hadn't seen one before, but I guess it... never occurred to me that other people might not like it? To sleep next to...?" She trailed off miserably. She supposed she couldn't blame Elly for bringing it up, and if she really thought about it a skeleton could be considered a little creepy to sleep next to - maybe if she didn't have her own problems with sleeping, she would have felt the same? "That other girl might still throw it out the window though..." she said half-heartedly, attempting to gain some common ground with the other girls.

 

[Elizabeth Chatwin]

The fact that the skeleton was in the same room made it for Elly uncomfortably. Creepy dead animals weren't supposed to be close to the place where you rested for hours. ''I know it wasn't yours, but didn't you think for a second that skeletons don't belong in bedrooms?'' Elly smiled Veronica was nice enough, she was just so innocent. ''Next time we just keep the skeletons in the closet or some abandoned classroom'' Elly looked at Leila, she wasn't with them when the girl pulled out the skeleton from her suitcase. The reaction that Leila had when she had mentioned skeleton was enough for Elly to know her stand on the situation. ''Yes, that girl was a bit nuts.'' Elly didn't want the pile of bones in her bedroom, but that girl had taken the price of rudeness. She had almost taken the skeleton and wanted to dispose it out of the window.

''Oh, and no problem Leila'' Elly paused ''First time I had to get back to our common room I took twenty detours''Elly smiled she really hoped there was a Hogwarts map out there that mapped all the shortest routes to the common rooms. ''They should make a magical map of this place, just speak out a place and it shows you the most efficient route'' The idea was kind of stupid, but she still wondered if it could happen.

 

[Leila Walden]

Leila felt like she was imposing on the two girl's discussion, she nevertheless felt a little sorry for Veronica who seemed to be trying her hardest to retract from what she first said about the skeleton. Even though Leila personally wouldn't like it herself she could understand why others might find it interesting but the bedroom was a strange place to house it. She did agree with Elly but decided to stay out of it for the time being. She didn't want Veronica to feel out of place and she didn't want to alienate herself from the other girls either. Instead, she was grateful for the change of subject from Elly and she laughed a little sheepishly about getting lost. "Oh my god Elly, that is the best idea ever! If it doesn't exist already we have to learn how to do it! Are you in Veronica?" Leila said excitedly.

 

[Veronica Willows]

Veronica blinked, flushing slightly at Elly's question. "No..." she replied, feeling increasingly foolish. Usually these sorts of little social differences between her and other people wouldn't bother her... because usually she wasn't aware of them. It was quite a nice state to be in, actually, it stopped her feeling as embarrassed as she did now. Thankfully Leila hadn't made any comments on the subject, and for that Veronica was grateful. She was sure her embarrassment would have been even worse otherwise. However, the new subject of conversation quickly made her forget about her unpopular reaction to a skeleton in the bedroom - Elly's idea was something that Veronica could definitely be sure of agreeing with, seeing as she'd been thinking of something similar not too long before. "That's brilliant! And, yes Leila, of course! I'd really love to help." She hadn't been having too much trouble herself with finding her way around, but then, she'd been using the same routes to get to the same few places. A proper set of directions for various locations around the castle was definitely something that she could see helping many first years... one day. "I'm just not quite sure how you would even start to make something like that, is all... I guess it was a good thing I was going to the library anyway..." Veronica trailed off, suddenly remembering that she was supposed to be finding Phoebe books.