The Grand Staircase

[Lily Evans]

.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur walked down the stairs, humming loudly. He was happy to be back at Hogwarts.

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna ambled aimlessly down the staircase. It felt good to be back, and she had missed wandering around the corridors with no rhyme or reason, often stumbling upon some passageway or corridor she had never seen before. As she was wandering down the Grand Staircase, she caught sight of a boy, she recognized him, she'd probably seen him in the halls but she didn't particularly know him.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur heard someone walking behind him. He realized how loud his humming must be and decided to stop it. He turned to see a unfamiliar girl. "Sorry about my humming. I hope you don't go deaf from it," he said happily. His humming was quite awful, if he was honest with himself.

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna smiled, he seemed friendly enough. "No worries, if your humming had been that bad, all of the portraits would have left." Jenna was a fairly lighthearted person, and knew how to react in most situations (which, as a Hufflepuff is a pretty useful skill to have). "I'm Jenna by the way, Jenna Wood." She stuck out her hand for him to shake.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur shook Jenna's hand. "I'm Arthur Weasley. It's nice to meet you," Arthur said. He looked around the hallway; all the people were still in their picture frames. "Looks like everyone is still there," he said, waving to a man with a long beard in the portrait behind him. The man rolled his eyes.

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna grinned broadly, Arthur seemed really friendly. "So there you have it, you aren't that bad a hummer after all." She waved animatedly to the surrounding portraits. "You seem really familiar, do we have any classes together or anything?" Jenna felt like she should know him, but somehow still didn't, he had that annoying almost-familiarity about him that drove people insane with wondering about where they had seen them before.

[Arthur Weasley]

"Well, I'm a seventh year if that helps. And I'm from a huge family," Arthur said. Arthur squinted his eye, pulling out his glasses and putting them on. "Do you play Quidditch?" he asked curiously. "I think I recognize you from there."

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna gave him another hard look, maybe they'd just seen each other in the halls then. "I'm a sixth year so that's no help, and yes, I do play Quidditch. I was a chaser for Hufflepuff last year but this year I think I'm going to go out for beater instead."

[Arthur Weasley]

"Exciting. I love Quidditch, though I'd never want to play it; I'd be terrible," Arthur said. "I wish you the best of luck, until you play against Gryffindor. Then I'll be supporting my house." Arthur had lots of Gryffindor pride and always wanted his house team to win.

[Jenna Wood]

"Thanks, Quidditch is what I've always loved. And I completely understand about the whole House Pride thing. I completely agree. I tend to route for my friends, or individual players rather than the whole team. Unless it's Hufflepuff. Then I will always route for them." Jenna understood Arthur's wanting his team to win. Jenna wanted hers to win too, but she wasn't out for blood like some of the others she had met.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur was typically a very calm and mild mannered fan; he generally wished the other team no harm. Except when Gryffindor played Slytherin; then he was out for blood. "I generally tend to root for Gryffindor and whoever is playing against Slytherin," Arthur said with a smile. "Most of family is Gryffindor, but there are some of us who are different houses, so I like to cheer for them when I can."

[Jenna Wood]

"As a Hufflepuff, I probably shouldn't condone house rivalries, but I have to agree with you. I am normally routing against Slytherin, my older brother was a die-hard Gryffindor, so he taught me all the house rivalries when I was little." She had some friends in Slytherin, but there were also plenty of Slytherins hated her guts because she was a Hufflepuff with an almost entirely Gryffindor family.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur laughed. "My brothers are both in Gryffindor. My dad was a Hufflepuff, and my mum a Ravenclaw though," Arthur said. "We weren't sure how we all ended up there." Arthur didn't have too many Slytherin friends; the whole being a Gryffindor thing tended to prevent friendships with Slytherins for the most part.

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna laughed some too, "I'm just lucky I got sorted into Hufflepuff, we tend to not believe in the whole rivalry thing. My brother would have loved it if I'd been in Gryffindor too but he doesn't mind that I'm a Hufflepuff. If I were a Slytherin though, I would not be so fortunate." Jenna felt lucky that she had never taken her brother's rivalry stuff too seriously, or that when she did, her father had reassured her that things had since changed.

[Arthur Weasley]

"I'm sure your brother would like you even if you were in Slytherin," Arthur said, for he would love his own brothers no matter what house they were in. "I think Hufflepuff is an amazing house; my dad always brags about how they had the best common room with the comfiest chairs. But then my mum says the same about Ravenclaw's and I say the same about Gryffindors." Arthur figured that everyone liked their own common room the best.

[Jenna Wood]

"I don't doubt that, but he would not have been all too pleased." Jenna and her brother were actually super duper close (even though they were nine years apart) and he probably would have said he'd never hated Slytherin all that much, or that he would make an exception. "Hufflepuff does have the comfiest chairs! You sit down in them and they're so soft and squishy it almost feels like you're getting a hug from a bunch of pillows."

[Arthur Weasley]

"But in Gryffindor we have the best armchairs by the fire. It's wonderful during the winter; one year, my brothers and I roasted marshmallows and any other food we could find in the fire," Arthur said. "It's so much fun; there's never a quiet moment, except maybe during exam time." Arthur was very much a people person and loved the bustling atomosphere the Gryffindor common room provided.

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna smiled, "The Hufflepuff common room is a lot like that too. But we don't really have normal chairs, it's all sofas and cushy armchairs and that kind of thing. And everyone's friendly, which is nice too. It's easy to get to know people and just have a nice chat." She could understand Arthur's love of the bustling atmosphere, just as Jenna loved Hufflepuff's warm and friendly one.

[Arthur Weasley]

"That sounds nice," Arthur said. "I wish we could visit other houses sometimes. Maybe even just once before graduation." The mention of graduation reminded Arthur that he only had one more year left at Hogwarts. "What are studying? I remember loving sixth year just because I could finally drop History of Magic after all those years."

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna laughed, she had done the same, "I'm taking Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, DADA, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions and Astronomy." It was nice to be able to do most of the things she wanted to do. She wasn't particularly fond of Potions but she saw it as something useful to know so she continued with it anyway.

[Arthur Weasley]

"Sounds like a good mixture. I'm taking Muggle Studies, Charms, Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts," Arthur said. "I'm hoping to work with the Muggle Liason Office after graduation; I love learning about Muggles. All the things they can do without magic... I wish I could say I was good at Potions, but I could never follow the recipes exactly. It takes too much patience for me."

[Jenna Wood]

Jenna smiled, "That sounds awesome, I want to play Quidditch professionally. I'm not good at Potions either, but I think it's something that could potentially come in handy later on in life. Besides, if I don't get drafted by a team, I can still find a different career that works." Besides, her grandfather was a muggle, she didn't need Muggles Studies because she already knew quite a bit about them.

[Arthur Weasley]

"That sounds exciting; you'd probably get to travel a lot," Arthur said. "How do you get drafted for Quidditch?" He always wondered famous Quidditch players got discovered; he knew one of Billy's ex-boyfriends was drafted to a Quidditch team and that's why they broke up. But that was the extent of Arthur's experience with it.

{Heading out now; I'll be back later tonight probably.}

[Jenna Wood]

"A scout will normally come to see you play, and if they think you're good enough and they need someone who plays your position than you probably will get drafted. But if no teams need a beater or want one, then I have to figure out a backup career. Maybe I'll work in the Department for the Control and Care of Magical Creatures, I've always liked animals."

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