Home at last [Open]

[Monique Hillbrand]

Monique scratched her head as she made her way down to the Slytherin common room. The dungeons were darker than she’d expected, yet at the same time they gave off an unusually comforting ambience. Finally reaching the wall where the entrance to the common room was, she spoke the password and walked in to find herself in a world of green.

Merlin’s beard, this is wild! she thought to herself, looking out the window in time to see something huge floating by. I bet I’m the first Slytherin in the family in a long time…wait til I send an owl to Mum and Dad telling them about this!

Monique was so lost in thought that she failed to see the book bag lying on the floor in front of her. A second later she had stumbled over it, nearly falling on the floor.

“Excuse me…I’m sorry. My mind was somewhere else.” she apologized to the student whose book bag she’d just disturbed. “Sorry.”

[Kyle Winters]

With a backpack on his shoulders, and two bags in one hand, Kyle stepped into the Slytherin common room. He was using his crutches today – or rather, just one of them; he had opted to give up one crutch so that he could free up a hand to carry the two bags (as well as the unused crutch). One of these days he should ask Professor Dextera about his enchanted chest. The Transfiguration professor occasionally used the chest to transport the items he needed for his classes, and it would follow him obediently like a puppy. Maybe Kyle could enchant his bags to do the same too.

Leaning one of the book bags against a chair, Kyle was about to head into his dorm room to put down the rest of his belongings when the book bag toppled over. With an irritated grunt, he bent down to right the fallen bag. “Stay,” he instructed sternly, as though he was talking to a dog or a sentient creature rather than an inanimate object, and for a few seconds the bag obeyed.

As Kyle slowly backed away, he kept his eye on the bag just to see if it would continue to stay upright. It did. Satisfied that it wouldn’t fall over again, he turned and hurried back to his dorm, and which point Murphy’s law kicked in and the book bag fell over with a loud thud, partially spilling its contents onto the ground.

A couple of minutes later, Kyle returned and spotted an unfamiliar face in the common room. Judging by her youthful looks, she was probably a First-Year or something. A second later she tripped over something and nearly fell, and immediately Kyle knew what it was.

“I’m sorry, are you all right?” he asked as he swiftly approached the younger student. Just as he had thought, he could see his book bag lying on the ground, and he kicked himself internally for messing up and almost causing her to fall.

[Monique Hillbrand]

Monique looked up, her face beet red. “Yeah, I’m okay. I think it’s just my dignity that’s been scuffed up a bit.” she replied to the older Slytherin. “I got so wrapped up in noticing that we live underwater, I wasn’t looking to see where I was going.” She brushed imaginary dirt off of her robe. “I’m Monique. I’m a first-year, but I’m trying very hard to imagine that I’m not.”

She gazed around the common room. “This place is really something. I have seven older brothers and sisters who’ve already graduated from here…two were Gryffindor, three were Ravenclaw, and two others were Hufflepuff. I’m the only Slytherin in the family, if you can believe that.”

[Kyle Winters]

Kyle heaved a sigh of relief when the younger student said that, apart from a scuffed dignity, she was otherwise all right. “No, it’s my bad,” he apologised. “I should have placed my book bag somewhere else so it wouldn’t become a tripping hazard.”

The girl introduced herself as Monique, and confirmed that she was indeed a First-Year. “I’m Kyle, and I’m still finding it hard to believe that I’m already a Seventh-Year,” he said half-jokingly. Half, because he honestly hadn’t expected to do well enough for his O.W.L.s to advance to the N.E.W.T.-level classes.

As Monique spoke about her family, Kyle couldn’t believe his ears. “S–seven older brothers and sisters?” he repeated, still not quite able to imagine what it was like to be in such a huge family. “I think it’s harder for me to wrap my mind around the size of your family, if I’m being honest. I’m the only child, you see.”

“Um… welcome to Slytherin, I guess?” he continued with a laugh, noting that he, too, was the first in his family to be in Slytherin, even if their situations were otherwise completely different. “I know we don’t have the best reputation among the four houses, but I promise you that we’re pretty nice folks.” Almost immediately he corrected himself as he remembered that there were some genuinely awful shitebags too, and he prayed that they wouldn’t cross paths with Monique. “Well, most of us, anyway.”