Chapter 49: 2nd September 1991, Monday: Part 4

George had anticipated a space that represented the lavish and exuberant nature of the Slytherin house, but this was far beyond his expectations. He felt he had left the set of Indiana Jones and had walked into a secret lair from James Bond. The room had to be four times bigger than the Gryffindor's common room if not bigger. George was surprised that the founders would agree to have such a large discrepancy in common room sizes. The vast open space wasn't the only difference the Slytherin's common room had from the other houses, the atmosphere was completely different.

Two words that sprung to George's mind were cold and unwelcoming. If the Gryffindor's common room could be compared to a small cosy cottage, then the Slytherin's common room was an abandoned mansion. There was an occasional black and green embroidered tapestry covering the exposed stone, but most of the walls were rough and jagged as if the construction hadn't been completed. Countering the cave-like surroundings were finely crafted stone pillars and a massive beautifully carved fireplace that gave off a presence of authority and wealth. It was an odd contrast between opulence and 'character-filled' eeriness.

The room was littered with expensive furnishings that had been presumably donated by former Slytherin students such as Lucius Malfoy. There were several black leather sofas, a couple of large mahogany tables with accompanying chairs, fancy Victorian-era cabinets and large silver mirrors which were not showing signs of losing their reflective finish. None of these furnishings looked old or worn, everything looked brand new. Whether that was because they were regularly replaced or had been well looked after, George wasn't aware. The space was dark and damp, but the ambient temperature of the room was a little higher than the rest of the castle which made the room surprisingly relaxing. At least the purpose of a common room hadn't been lost in the pursuit of the creepy design.

To add to the evil vibe, the room was illuminated with light green lanterns and cyan light that came from the Black Lake. Speaking of which, the most intriguing part of the room had to be the view from the windows. If there was any doubt that the Slytherin common room and dormitories were underneath the Black Lake, the windows would clear up any confusion. Even now George could see seaweed floating in the murky waters as unusually shaped fish swam around the lake's bed. The room was empty of people other than George and Gemma, leaving only the faint sound of water dripping and the crackling of the fire.

George stood at the entrance whilst Gemma strolled in casually. She walked over to the fireplace and sat on one of the leather sofas opposite George.

Her face looked smug as she put her feet up on the sofa, "so, what do you think? Pretty great right?"

Salazar Slytherin may have been a cave-dwelling snake-lovin blood supremacist, but George had to admit he had a sense of style. He could see himself being very comfortable here. This wasn't because he found the room consistent with his malicious tendencies, he just didn't like the design of the cramped and suffocating environments found in other houses' common rooms. Also, this sort of style had George's patron's name written all over it. Perhaps this was where his patron had gotten the inspiration for the underground fortress.

George followed in Gemma's footsteps and sat on the sofa opposite her, "I like it. You were not joking about the windows, we are indeed underwater. Can we really see the giant squid?"

Gemma looked satisfied with George's enthusiasm, she leaned back into the sofa and looked towards the ceiling.

She sounded a little saddened as she answered his question, "we do but not that often, you might see it three or four times a year depending on how much time you spend in the common room.

Most of the Slytherin students tell the other houses that they always see it swimming around and saying hello to them every day. But in reality, it spends most of its time sleeping at the bottom of the lake which, as you have probably already guessed, you can't see from here."

Gemma seemed to be lost in her thoughts as her glazed eyes stared toward the ceiling. George ended up looking at his watch during the lull in the conversation to see how long he could afford to spend dawdling. He knew that telling a prefect to get a move on and stop wasting his time was only going to end poorly. Gemma's friendship seemed worth preserving if it wasn't too much trouble. He determined that his best approach to solving the issue was to start wandering around the room on his own which resulted in him discovering two stairwells, one leading upwards and the other going down.

George pointed toward them before asking, "do these lead to the dormitories?"

Hearing George's voice, Gemma woke up out of her daydreaming and leaned over the sofa to see what he was referring to.

She saw the two stairwells next to George and said, "yeah, those lead to the dorms. The left one goes down to the girl's dormitories and the right one goes up to the boys. Don't think about going down the girl's stairwell, there is a curse that soaks boys through with ice-cold water if they go past the third step.

Now that I think about it, you should go up to your dorm and grab your timetable so I can show you around your classes. Professor Snape told me that your room is number thirteen which is the seventh on the left.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell ya, you'll be sharing a room with four other boys but don't ask because I don't know who they are. You're probably gonna find out later tonight after classes end anyway so don't worry about it."

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George made more notes of everything Gemma had just said, he paid special attention to the curse she had mentioned in the girl's dormitory.

George asked out of curiosity, "what about the male dorms? Do they have a curse on them as well?"

Gemma looked toward George in confusion, "why would there need to be a charm on the male dorms?"

George wanted to know if the curses were going to get in the way of his future activities, he didn't want to be setting off any alarms when he may or may not be smuggling people. He decided to hide his true reasoning by acting cute and shy, he averted his eyes from Gemma whilst gently swaying left and right. He controlled the blood vessels on his face to dilate and made his hair stand up on the back of his neck, this resulted in his face becoming completely flushed.

Having a head free of repressed emotions increased George's acting ability to a whole new level. He doubted anyone on the planet could see through his current facade without reading his mind. Gemma took a moment to realise what George was implying through his body language, and an evil smirk formed on her face.

Gemma decided to take advantage of George's 'innocence', "you're cute but you're not that cute. The last thing you should be worrying about is having secret admirers sneaking into your room. Even if you did, you could always just tell your big sister Gemma and I'll show them who's boss. I couldn't stand by whilst all the girls were having their way with my little brother.

Now that I think about it, you better sleep with one eye open just in case."

George acted as if he was greatly panicked by Gemma's advice, he then ran up the stairwell as if to escape from the scary girls Gemma had alluded to. He could faintly hear the sound of laughter echoing from behind him as he reached the top of the stairwell.

George was greeted with another long corridor with many wooden doors on either side, each of them was numbered starting with one and probably ending at around thirty. He had no problem walking down the corridor and finding the door marked with the number thirteen which was written on a plack in silver. He pushed the door open without resistance as it appeared to be unlocked. He inspected the opened door more closely and realised that the door wasn't unlocked but instead had no lock whatsoever.

George wasn't just putting on an act in front of Gemma, there was some genuine concern in his enquiry. Privacy was a problem in Hogwarts and it was extremely hard for a student to find a place to be alone without the prying eyes of others. The existence of magical tools such as the 'marauders map' was just a cherry on top of this problematic cake. Due to the problem of privacy in the dormitories and the inability of adding security features without others noticing, George didn't see himself spending too much time inside of his dorm rooms except to keep up appearances.

Upon entering the dorm room, George noticed that the room shared many of the characteristics found in the common room. The space was larger than average but cold in atmosphere. The room was round with a fireplace on the far side with two windows on either side of it, there was a rack for hanging clothes to dry next to the fire. The lighting was the same as in the common room except it was generally brighter as the windows were larger relative to the size of the room and therefore let in more light. He was looking forward to nighttime when the moon would come out and shimmer through the lake.

Just like in all the other house's dorm rooms, there were four-poster beds for each of the occupants along with a wardrobe and a cupboard. However, the Slytherin dorm differed from the other houses in their investment in high-quality materials and exceptional craftsmanship for each piece of furniture, everything had the same consistent shiny black finish with silver metal trim which reflected George's face back at him like a mirror. There was another door in the room that led to a shared bathroom, he could see a sink, bath and toilet from the outside. The quality of the bathroom's utilities didn't seem to fall short of Slytherin's high standards.

George could immediately tell which bed was his as it was the only one undisturbed whereas all the others were left messy from the night before. The other big giveaway was the owl in a cage that was constantly blinking in his direction, he was surprised to see that Blinkie hadn't been placed in the Owlery. Half of the duct tape had been chewed through, so he wasn't wrong to assume that bird would try to escape. Blinkie did not look happy to see him again. Maybe it needed another day to cool off before he let it out.

George checked his suitcase and found it looked in the same condition he had left it in. The charms protecting the suitcase, which he had asked Remus to apply, still hadn't been activated. When he opened his suitcase, all of his uniforms inside started to change colour. He also noticed that the uniform he was currently wearing had changed subtly since he had entered the room. His tie had turned green with the inner lining of his robe; the robe had also gained the Slytherin badge. He assumed that the rooms must have been enchanted to automatically change the uniform of every Slytherin student to their house's colours when they entered their dormitory.

George looked for the uniform that he kept in his enchanted sack, and was surprised to find that it hadn't changed yet. He then proceeded to take it out of the sack which caused it to change in front of his eyes just like what happened with the suitcase. He found this magic impressive and set a reminder for himself to do some research in the library once he had some spare time, that's assuming he would have some spare time within the next few months. Maybe he would be able to develop a method to spontaneously change his clothes without having to take them off, this would be perfect for covert missions.

George decided to have a brief look around and try to work out who he was sharing the room with. He saw the trunks of the other students placed under their beds but that didn't restrict him from checking their name tags to see if he recognised them. Unfortunately, there was only one name that he recognised and it was Theodore's. It would seem that George was going to have to commit some time to repair that relationship since he'll be sleeping in the same room as that little twig of a boy. After the outburst in the Great Hall, George couldn't even begin to imagine how bad Theodore's opinion of him would be. Their last 'talk' must have been one of the worst first impressions in human history.

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