Chapter 9 - Esmerelda
The four halls each had a three-dimensional bronze sculpture of their respective name jutting out from them. The large, realistic-looking bear on the door to Ginny’s new hall growled terrifyingly at her, but once Grayson introduced her as a new resident, it merely sniffed her, then swung open on silent hinges. “Never try to enter the wrong Hall,” the professor warned. “The guardians always warn you first, but they’ll get nastier if you don’t get the message. About ten years ago, the goose nipped off a recalcitrant boy’s finger.”
“Yeek,” Ginny said, giving the doors in question a dubious look.
Ginny took an immediate liking to Bear Hall. Like Gryffindor Tower, it had a common room, complete with fireplace and squashy armchairs, though it was decorated with paintings of rustic woodland scenes and mountains (moving, of course) and polished wood paneling rather than tapestries and stone. Not to mention that it was lit with track lighting instead of torches or oil lamps. There was no fire at the moment, because the heat of summer had yet to dissipate.
They were not alone there. A tall, athletic-looking teen was asleep on one of the couches. Ginny had to look closer to determine that it was a girl; she was slenderly built, with short dark hair. And cool gray eyes, she realized as the girl awakened. “What the. . . oh, Professor, good morning. Sorry, I was working late, and I guess I never made it back to my room.”
“Don’t worry about it, Esmerelda. Sorry to wake you up so early, but this is the new kid I was telling you about.”
“Oh, right, the one that Dumbledore from Hogwarts recommended,” Esmerelda said. “Hello. . . uhh, is it Ginerva or Ginevra?”
“It’s Ginevra, but I go by Ginny.”
“Well, hello, Ginny. And welcome.”
“Esmerelda’s our prefect,” Professor Grayson explained. “We only have one per hall, and always the opposite sex of the Head of Hall. Inside the Girls’ side of the hall, where I cannot go, her word is law.”
“And if that’s not good enough reason, I’m also the captain of the school dueling team,” Esmerelda said with a smile. “Do you duel?”
Ginny shook her head. “No. We had a dueling club at Hogwarts, but it was disbanded after the first meeting. The teachers in charge were both gits.”
“What’s a git?” Esmerelda asked.
“Schmucks. Idiots. Doofuses,” Professor Grayson rattled off.
“Ah. Well, our team’s been around for the past 112 years,” Esmerelda said, not without a glimmer of pride. “Professor Grayson manages it. He takes our best duelers, and then he makes them better.”
“Do you have a house Quidditch team?”
“We have one team, for the whole school. As with our dueling team, we go against the other major schools in North America. There are six, in case you didn’t know. Ours, unfortunately, is the one that’s been in seventh place eight of the last ten seasons. I was the Keeper last year, but I gave it up when I made prefect. Couldn’t handle classes, two sports, and bossing the younger kids around.”
“Are you in sixth-year?”
“Yeah. The terminology here is a bit different. Seventh-grade is first year, eighth is second, Third years are called freshmen, fourths are sophomores, fifth junior, sixth senior. That’s what I am.” Esmerelda led the way to a door, one of two leading out of the common room. “Make sure you go through the right door. We had a problem with boys sneaking into the girls’ dormitories, and vice versa, so Professor Grayson and I rigged up a little charm on each door.”
“What does it do?”
Esmerelda whispered the answer to Ginny, who shrank further away from the door with BOYS ONLY on it. Professor Grayson covered his mouth to hide a chuckle.
A loud pop sounded to Ginny’s left, as another person materialized. Ginny was used to Apparition, most of the grown-ups she knew used it. But this person did not look very grown-up. She was plump, with leaf-brown hair, and was wearing torn blue jeans and a black T-shirt with “Nine Inch Nails” scrawled on it.
“Hello, Ashley,” Esmerelda said. “How was your summer? I see you learned to Apparate.”
“Yeah, my dad taught me. It was an interesting experience, especially getting splinched. Oh, and also, my mom took me to a muggle rodeo last week. These guys were trying to ride these crazy horses, and roping baby cows and tying them up. This one poor sap had a bull gore him with its horns and they had to take him away in an ambulance. Those muggles have some strange sports.”
“That they do,” Esmerelda said. “But I think golf has to be the most pointless of them all. This is Ginny, our first new Bear cub. Ginny, this is Ashley Grimsby. She’s a sophomore.”
“Is she over seventeen?”
“No,” Professor Grayson said. “You only have to be fifteen here. We normally teach it in fourth year, but it’s not uncommon for kids to pick it up early. The nice thing is that we have apparition license reciprocity with Britain. Once you earn your license here, they have to let you do it over there, too.”
Ginny pondered the thought of being able to pop in and out of places a full year before Ron or Harry could, and felt a grin split her face.
“You have to be seventeen to Apparate in England?” Esmerelda sounded amazed. When Ginny nodded, she added, “My gosh, that would suck!”
“You’re from England?” Ashley said. “But I thought kids from there had to go to. . . What’s your old school’s name again, Professor? Dog Warts?”
“Hogwarts. Normally, they do. It’s complicated.”
Two or three older students popped into existence in the chamber, greeted Esmerelda and each other. Ginny watched for more, but none came. “This isn’t everybody, is it?”
“Oh, not even close. Everyone who can comes in on the Silver Wind,” Esmerelda said. “It’s a longtime tradition.”
“Like the Hogwarts Express,” added Professor Grayson.
“What is the Silver Wind?” Ginny asked.
“You’ll find that out later,” the professor said. “Right now, I think we should assign you a room.”
“Where should I put her, though,” Esmerelda mused. “What’s her ancestry? She’s not muggle-born, is she?”
“I thought that didn’t matter to you,” Grayson said sharply.
“It doesn’t matter to me. But I don’t want to stick her with girls who’ll mistreat her, either. And I don’t know how you feel. Ginny, do you have any objection to rooming with muggle-borns?”
“Of course not! Why would I mind?” asked a genuinely mystified Ginny. Hermione and Colin, two of her friends at school, had both been born to and raised by muggles.
“Some kids do, unfortunately,” Esmerelda said. “Professor Grayson said they still have the same problem at Hogwarts, too.” She considered. “All right, let’s see, why don’t I put you in B6. You’ll be with Irma Reeves and Ashley here. Ashley, you up to keeping her out of trouble?”
“Of course. After Irma, anyone’ll be easy.”
“Irma’s in eighth,” explained Esmerelda. “She hadn’t a clue about the wizarding world until the school owl plopped her letter on her doorstep.”
“Well, she’s made good progress since then,” Professor Grayson said, a little sharply. “Shall we get to getting settled in? The Silver Wind comes in just a few hours, and we’ll be expected to go out and meet it.”
Ashley led Ginny through the door and down the hallway which was done in wood paneling and wine-red carpet, and lit with what looked like old-style oil lamps but were electric. “So, they’re still dealing with the whole blood thing at Hogwarts, are they?”
“I suppose so,” Ginny said. “Most of the people who care about bloodlines wind up in Slytherin. Do you know what. . . ?”
“Yeah, I’ve talked with Grayson. Trust me, kid, it’s even worse here. Here’s our room.” She indicated a wooden door with B6 on a bronze plate. “How long has Hogwarts been accepting muggle-borns?”
“It always has,” Ginny said, entering the room. It was a snug little chamber, with three stacked bunks, a large chest with six drawers, and a storage closet. “Is there a loo?”
“A bathroom, you mean? Yeah, down the hall. I’ll show you in a bit.” Ashley got back to the subject at hand. “So, about a thousand years. We didn’t accept Muggle-borns until about fifteen years ago, right after Professor Chance took over. And we haven’t graduated one since then, either.”
Although Britishers did not use the term “graduate”, Ginny knew what she meant. She did some math. There had been time for nine. . . maybe, ten classes to graduate since then. And not one person had. . . “But why?” she asked. “Are they that rare?”
“No, we’ve had a bunch of ‘em get invited and most choose to come. But the way they get treated, none of ‘em want to stay. We had nine of ‘em show up last year, and only one’s still around for second. Our roommate, Irma. She’s a tough little kid.” Ashley’s voice grew serious. “Listen, Ginny. I’m half and half, and I’ve had to put up with an awful lot of crap. Irma’s gotten worse. If you’re going to room with us, you could get pulled into it. You’re a pure-blood, right?”
Ginny nodded. “Yup.”
“If you want to room with someone else, I’ll understand. But best to speak now, before more rooms get taken.”
Ginny didn’t hesitate. She was a Weasley, and the Weasley way was to stand up for what one knew to be right. “Are you going to want the top bunk, or can I have it?”
Ashley smiled. “It’s all yours, kid.”