Hermione Granger couldn’t have been any more excited and happy in that moment, especially as she tried not to giggle at the expressions all around her, all directed at her best friend. 

“What?” Hailey asked, looking at everyone looking at her like she was crazy. 

There was a moment of silence as all of the Ravenclaws sitting near them stared, before Penelope finally spoke up. “You… just hexed Tonks.”

Frowning, Hailey looked at Penelope with a confused expression. “Yeah, and?”

“Tonks… the most notorious prankster in the school, the queen of pranks. You, a first year, just hexed her. How did you hex her, by the way? You haven’t even started lessons yet!” Penelope replied, exasperated. 

“Dora is my sister. She taught me the spell.” Hailey shrugged in a small grin. “It’s her fault really.”

Before anyone else could respond to that, Hermione heard Professor McGonagall call out a familiar name, and patted Hailey’s shoulder to get her attention. 

“Weasley, Ronald!”

The gangly, red-haired freckled boy awkwardly moved forward, almost tripping over his own feet as he did. 

“Hufflepuff!”

As the Hufflepuff table burst into cheers, Hermione could hear Ron’s brothers cheering and whistling from their seats at Gryffindor. “Well done, Ronniekins!”

Ron’s face went as red as his hair as he sat down next to Neville at the Hufflepuff table. 

Hermione turned back to her table after a Zabini, Blaise, had been sorted into Slytherin as Hailey gave Blaise an odd look. Looking up at the teacher’s table, Hermione saw Professor McGonagall was carrying the sorting hat and stool off to the side and watched as Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat. 

“Welcome back everyone to another year of Hogwarts, and to our first years, it is a pleasure to see you all.” He smiled at all of the new students. “Now, just a few words before we dig into our wonderful start of the term feast. Mr. Filch has once again updated his list of banned items, which you can find stuck to his office door. I must also inform you that the third floor corridor is out of bounds to all students, as is the forbidden forest, and finally, nitwit, blubber, oddment, and tweak.” With that strange ending to his speech, Dumbledore sat down. 

Hailey let out a startled gasp moments before the table suddenly overflowed with dozens of different meals. “Whoa! That’s amazing,” she said, smiling brightly at Hermione, her green eyes sparkly with excitement as she tucked some of her hair behind an ear, and started piling her plate full of food. 

Much slower than her best friend, Hermione carefully selected only the foods she could stomach. “What’s that?” She asked, pointing at some kind of orange drink. 

“Pumpkin juice,” Penelope replied, taking a sip of her own goblet. “It’s quite nice if you’d like to try it?” She smiled as Hermione scrunched her face up. “Or not, if that’s not your thing. There’s also lemonade, as well as a variety of juices available, or water, of course.”

Nodding, Hermione thanked her as she rolled her eyes at Hailey aggressively tearing into a chicken leg. Upon seeing Hermione looking at her, Hailey shrugged and swallowed. “What? I’m starving!” 

Hermione smiled at Hailey. “Nothing, just don’t make yourself sick,” she warned, bumping her shoulder with her friend. That made her pause for a second. She’d always been a little uncomfortable with touching other people, even her parents respected her boundaries now, and yet, she didn’t seem to have any when it came to Hailey. Not understanding how or why, she just shrugged it off for now. Maybe she could research it later. The library at Hogwarts was supposed to be one of the best in Britain after all. 

Rolling her eyes with a smile, Hailey poked her tongue out at Hermione, before turning back to her meal. 

The noise of hundreds of students talking and eating bothered Hermione a bit as she ate, but thankfully not enough that it was unbearable. 

“So, you said that Tonks was your sister, correct? How did that happen, and why has she never mentioned you before?” Penelope asked, just before she delicately picked up a piece of chicken and ate it slowly, looking at Hailey with open curiosity. 

Placing her fourth chicken leg down with a quiet sigh that Hermione was sure only she heard because of the din, Hailey turned to Penelope. “I have a not so good aunt and uncle, and Dora’s mother, Andi, took me in over the summer. Dora is now like my unofficially, but I hope soon to be officially, adopted sister.”

Penelope’s eyes widened as her inquisitive look turned to one of sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m glad that you and Tonks get along well. Maybe this year she’ll leave the Ravenclaws out of her pranks.”

Hailey gave her a small smile and shrugged. “I can’t promise you that one, sorry.”

The blonde girl from earlier put down her utensils and sighed, rubbing her belly. “Gah, I ate too much, now I won’t have any room for dessert!” Turning to Hailey, she winked at her. “So, what was that spell you used on Tonks? I’ve been trying to recall what it was.”

Her question sparked a debate on various spells and their uses that seemed to quickly draw in half of the Ravenclaws near them, that lasted until the end of dinner and through dessert. Hermione was amused to notice that Alice, the girl who had asked Hailey about the spell she had used, had discovered she still had room for dessert, but was moaning and walking slowly as they all got up from their table. 

“Okay, first year Ravenclaws, listen up!” Penelope shouted out. 

Several other students stepped forward and stood near Penelope with Hailey, Hermione and Padma. Watching the older girl count heads, Penelope nodded to herself. “Excellent, that’s everyone. Now, follow me.”

Dora appeared out of nowhere and hugged Hailey before they could follow. “I’m proud of you!” She exclaimed excitedly. “That was an excellent hex! But you must know that this means war, right?”

Giggling, Hailey smirked at her sister. “Of course! How do you want to do this?”

Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Dora looked around at the rapidly emptying hall. “We’ll meet tomorrow at lunch to discuss the details. I wouldn’t want you to miss orientation. Goodnight, sister. See you tomorrow!” Hermione watched as Dora hugged Hailey with one arm quickly, and then rushed off, calling after someone loudly. Hermione noticed the older Ravens shudder and wondered about that.

“Goodnight!” Hailey yelled. 

Hermione tapped Hailey on the shoulder. “Err, we better go, our guide is leaving.”

⚡

Thankfully, Hailey and Hermione had managed to catch up to Penelope and listened as she explained the rules and where exactly they were going. Penelope led them up a spiral staircase on the fifth floor, stopping in front of a large wooden door that was notably missing a doorknob, but had a large bronze door knocker in the shape of an eagle. 

Stepping front, Penelope looked at everyone in sight, even the older Ravenclaws as they waited patiently behind the new students. “Alright, so this is the entrance to our common room. How you get in is very simple. You just have to answer the riddle that the door knocker asks. If you get it right, you’re let in.”

A boy near Hermione put his hand up. “What if you get it wrong?” 

Penelope smiled at him. “Then you have to wait until someone else comes along and answers it. That can get awkward if you’re the last one in.” Turning around, Penelope walked up to the knocker.

Suddenly the eagle seemed to almost come alive as it’s beak moved. “The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?”

Penelope paused for a second, before a smile came to her face. “Ha! That’s an easy one. The answer is footsteps!”

Instead of answering, the eagle door knocker knocked once then opened the door on its own. 

Hermione noticed that the new Ravens were suitably impressed, herself included, but the older ones just nodded. 

“Alrighty! Everyone in. Follow me, first years.”

Everyone followed Penelope through the door, with the first years stepping off to the side of the room they found themselves in, as the rest of the Ravenclaws stepped through and walked off to the left and up a small set of stairs. The students were mostly quiet, but a few excitedly chatted away with their fellow housemates. 

As Hermione looked around with the other new students, she first noticed the many bookshelves, all neatly stacked with books in every size and colour imaginable. Free floating orbs of light hovered strategically to provide the most light possible, lighting up half a dozen comfortable lounges and single seaters around coffee tables and several fireplaces. Everything was a richly varnished dark wood with a high arched ceiling. 

Penelope cleared her throat. “So… this here is the Ravenclaw common room, as you can see, there are a few books lying scattered around.” She grinned at everyone. “This isn’t all of it either. We have a library, just through that door on the far right. Standard library rules apply, and please, don’t remove any from the dormitory at all, they’re enspelled to never leave. You can, however, take them to your rooms to borrow for a few days. If you don’t return them, they’ll reappear in the library on their own. And now, I should probably hand you over to the actual prefects,” she said with a grin. 

An older girl and boy behind her walked forward. The girl had a proud smile on her face, but the boy looked dour as he pushed his thick glasses up his nose. 

“Thanks, Penn, you did a great job!” The girl gently squeezed Penelope’s shoulder as she stepped up in front of them, Hermione noticing the younger girl blush profusely from the praise. “My name is Sam Hein, please, just call me Sam, okay? I’m the prefect responsible for the girls in your year.” She pointed towards the dour boy. “This lovely chap is Michael, he’s the one responsible for the boys in your year.” Michael gave a half hearted wave. “If you have any issues, come to us, if we aren’t around, one of the other prefects. We’ll be sure to point them out to you over the coming days, and if they can’t help either, Professor Flitwick, our head of house, will be able to help you. 

“Now that that is sorted, we should get you all sorted. The founder of Ravenclaw House wished to promote a healthy environment of study and to that end, the dormitories are split into two rooms for each the boys and girls. Two girls in one room, then three girls in the last room, and the same for the boys. If you would like to sort yourselves out into your groups now, that would be great. If you can’t, or there is a problem, I’ll organise you.”

After a moment’s hesitation, to see if Sam would say anything else, Hermione and Hailey instantly stood next to each other, watching as the boys awkwardly sorted themselves into two groups. The other three girls just gave each other a look, shrugged and moved to stand together as a group. Hermione wasn’t sure why they chose to group together, but she was grateful for it. 

Sam clapped her hands once and smiled. “Great! Love your work everyone. Five points to Ravenclaw. Now, follow me please. We’ll show you how you get to your rooms.” Sam turned and walked towards the short stairs where the other Ravenclaws had gone, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to make sure that everyone was following her. 

Once they walked up the stairs, Sam pointed out that all of the rooms they walked past were the rooms for the prefects, and to not hesitate to knock on their door if they needed anything. Finally, they stopped at several doors that had large levers on the wall next to each door. Hermione had once visited a casino with her parents when they stayed at for a holiday, the levers made her think of the slot machines she had seen there. 

Stopping with her hand on a lever, Sam turned to the first years. “Would anyone like to be the first to try? I promise, no pranks!” 

All of the first years looked at one another, wondering who was going to be brave enough to step up first, when Hermione saw Hailey shrug her shoulders slightly and step forward. “I will,” she said, smiling a little nervously.”

“That’s the spirit! Just step over to one of the doors and pull the lever on its left.”

Hailey hesitantly walked over and grabbed one of the levers, and instantly the door she stood in front of flickered quickly through what seemed like dozens of different doors before the flickering began to slow down, before finally settling on a wholly unremarkable door that had Hailey and Hermione’s name on it in stylised golden letters. With a squeal of excitement, Hailey pushed the door open and went inside, before popping her head out, and looking right at Hermione. “Come on! You’ve gotta see this!”

The rest of the students were whispering their appreciation for the magic, as Sam encouraged more students to pull the levers, with the same results as Hailey, except it had different names on the doors. Hermione quickly strode into hers and Hailey’s room – the latter stepping back quickly with a goofy grin on her face, shutting the door behind them with a click. 

Looking around the room with her own smile, Hermione noticed there were plenty of shelves to hold books, with several of those floating light orbs to light up the room. On one wall stood bunk beds with curtains and on the other side, two decent sized desks with comfortable looking leather chairs and stacks of parchment, ink and quills. A large window with closed purple curtains took up the wall that the desks sat against. 

Their luggage was also already in the room somehow, including an empty birdcage. She assumed that Olette must be in the owlery she had read about. 

“I call the top bunk!” Hailey yelled, walking towards the beds, before she stopped and looked at Hermione sheepishly. “Unless you wanted the top bunk?”

Rolling her eyes and smiling at her friend, Hermione shook her head. “No, that’s okay, you can take it. I’m not great with heights anyway.”

Hailey hesitated, looking between Hermione and the beds. “If you’re sure…?”

“Positive,” she replied with another nod. 

The smile on her friend's face made it all worth it to Hermione, even if she had been telling the truth. 

“Yay! Thanks, Hermione!” 

Hermione giggled before she replied, “You’re welcome.” 

“We should get some sleep, we’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Hermione said as she saw Hailey suddenly sway on her feet, yawning. 

Nodding, Hailey yawned again. “You’re right, our first magic lessons tomorrow!” She excitedly said, her jaw cracking as she tried to stifle a yawn. 

A few minutes later and Hermione was in bed, yawning herself as she snuggled under her weighted blanket. “Goodnight, Hailey.”

The top bunk creaked as Hailey settled herself. “Goodnight, Hermione. Sweet dreams.”

And with that, their lights turned off.