A place to hide Closed

Maria had only just gotten to Hogwarts and she was restless. She’d read through her favorite book already and attempted to memorize every corner of the Slytherin common room. She’d skimmed through her very thick school books and even jotted down some notes. She’d tried all the different foods presented at meals in the Great Hall, but now, she needed to explore.

The corridors themselves were amazing. She took time to look into the eyes of every moving painting. She had a few at home, mostly of her mother’s old relatives, but she’d never seen any so beautiful. Then, she tried climbing the stairs, but had never been on any that moved before. The staircases in her home always stood still. Maria clung to the railing and edged her way upwards until she’d made it to the second floor. Her goal was the make it to the top and work her way back down to the basements since she figured she’d be tired enough after exploring to end up straight back in bed.

She’d only gotten so far down the second floor after scoping out the next set of stairs she’d maneuver her way up when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a peculiar looking restroom.

Maria made her way up to the doors.

“Huh,” she crossed her arms, “Abandoned. Must be the one dad talked about.”

She pushed the door open. Immediately, she heard crying. Maria could tell which stall it was coming from. There wasn’t any other noise in the restroom. Maria supposed she could put her exploring off one more day to see what was the matter.

She raised her hand and knocked on the stall door, “Hello?”

A sharp knock startled Leila from her sobbing.

“Hello?”

Leila's eyes widened. The abandoned toilets were NOT the place to meet people first of all, and second, she did not want people to see her sobbing on her very first day. If anything was clear to Leila, it was that she needed to build up a good reputation, not as the whiny first year. She straightened her robes and wiped the tears from her eyes. Nothing was going to hide the ugly red color that she knew surrounded her eyes. Leila tucked the letter into her robes and pushed the stall door open.

The girl standing before her towered over her. Leila stood at a measly 4'6" and this girl had to be at least a head taller than her. Leila had to crane her neck to see the girl's face. Leila did notice the green outline of the girl's robe. Slytherin, she thought. She still wasn't sure if that was a good thing for her. And this girl must be at least a third year, hopefully she wouldn't go telling all of her friends about the bawling first year in the abandoned toilets.

Looking down at the girl's shoes, she said, "I'm so sorry to disturb you. I'm just having a rough day is all."

Maria looked down on the girl before her. A Slytherin, she noted, like herself. Maria’s eyes lit up. The girl did look a bit familiar and she thought she saw her unpacking in the same dorm room as her the night before. Maria hadn’t made any friends yet. It had only been a little more than a day.

Cheering someone up had always been a gift Maria’s father had. She didn’t think it had been passed down to her, but she would try her best.

“Hey!” she said, trying to perk herself up, “You’re from Slytherin. Me, too.”

Perhaps taking the girl’s mind off of things would help.

“It’s alright to have a rough day. I’m quite homesick myself. Plus, I can’t sit still.”

Not being able to sit still was almost an understatement. Maria had paced in circles around the entirety of her dorm room when everyone had left, talking herself through all the things she needed to do before starting her classes. She even convinced herself to try skimming through one of her textbooks again but couldn’t keep focused on it for long. That’s how she ended dup here, anyway.

Maria shot her hand out and stuck her chin up. She wanted to seem confident for the very first student (other than her prefect) that she was meeting.

“I’m Maria,” she said. “Maria Sallow. First year. And you?”

The girl confidently stuck her hand out to Leila, “I’m Maria,” she said. “Maria Sallow. First year. And you?”


Now Leila was not known for being a timid person, but meeting someone for the first time after that person just found her sobbing in an abandoned bathroom, sure made Leila seem timid.

"He-e-ello," Leila said with a hiccup. Stop that! she thought to herself. "Hi, I'm Leila. So sorry to be meeting you like this, I promise I'm not normally like this," Leila said with a small smile. "I'm also a first year."

As Leila spoke, the girl fidgeted, playing with her hair, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, not in an uncomfortable way, but in a way that she seemed to have too much energy for the whole castle to hold. She seemed like the curious type; her wind-like energy carrying her from place to place. Leila nearly giggled because this girl reminded her a lot of her favorite cousin. Her cousin hated being confined to a single space. One time, when Leila's family was visiting them in Norway, there was a huge snowstorm. Her cousin, who was only eight at the time, got so bored of staying in the house that she put on a pair of galoshes, grabbed a garden spade, and dug herself a path out the front door. The memory made her smile a little bit.

Leila realized she had spaced out and came back with a start. "So what brings you to this very fine establishment?" Leila asked with a small giggle, gesturing to the cracked toilets and the leaking faucets.

Maria smiled. Leila seemed to be cheering up a bit. She had laughed. That was always a good sign when someone’s just been crying.

“Oh, you know,” Maria started, rocking back on her heels, “Just out to explore the castle. Want to get a feel for it before classes start and I have to speed across those moving staircases. They’re awful, by the way. I had to cling to the railing the whole time.”

Maria laughed at herself, remembering how she gaped at the floors below her while she travelled up the castle, afraid of falling. “I’m sure I looked like an idiot with the way I was walking. Probably made all the older students so annoyed.”

She was rambling, but she wanted to talk about it. Hogwarts was the most beautiful place she’d ever been to and she’d been to quite a few castles on holidays before. Hogwarts was special because Hogwarts was alive.

“Anyway,” Maria shook her head and pushed her hair over her shoulder, “Why don’t we go back to the common room? I’m pretty sure we live in the same dorm, too. You can spill all your troubles to me under the protection of sound proof canopy.”

Leila laughed. This girl might actually become her friend. "I'd like to be anywhere but here," she said, "But there's one thing I need to do first."

Leila slowly took the letter from the folds of her robe. She first looked at the name on the envelope, and turned it over. She slowly pulled out the letter and once again read the few, heart-wrenching words written in midnight-black ink. Then she folded up the letter, carefully placed it back inside the envelope and proceeded to tear it to shreds. She didn't even care about what that letter contained anymore. She would find friends, better ones who would support her when she was sad, would make her laugh, would accept her for what she was, and who she would become. Leila did not need a friend who wrote hateful words to her when she was down.

Walking towards the toilet, Leila gave the pieces of paper one last look, and then dropped them in the dirty water of the cracked bowl. Surprisingly, it flushed easily. How poetic, Leila thought, flushing out her past and walking into the present.

Leila smiled and said, "Let's go back."

The girl gave her an inquisitive look, but she didn't pry as they left. Leila hoped she had found a new friend in Maria, and that maaaaaaybe one day she would be as tall as her. But for now, she thanked the stars for the friendship of the giant and the mouse.

Leila tore a letter from her robe into shreds. She flushed the pieces down the toilet. Maria thought that was what courage looked like, to throw away what was bothering you. Or to flush it down the toilet. Maria was someone who never threw away her problems. She kept them close to her chest and acted on them. This letter, Maria assumed, was what was bothering Leila. Maria couldn’t exactly empathize. She’d never really had friends before. She’d had people she went to gatherings with, but she had been tutored at home. Maria wanted to learn how to tear up her problems and flush them down the toilet. She hoped Leila would stick around and teach her how.

Let’s go back, Leila had said. Maria offered her a smile and pushed the door open for the both of them. Honestly, she was afraid of lingering in the abandoned toilets too long. Her father had told her of a ghost that scared the students that lived there. Maria did not want to meet this ghost.

The dormitory would bring them both comfort. And a warm fireplace. And a place to share secrets. Maria had always wanted to share secrets with someone.