drabbles
Have been thinking and ended up writing this. *shrug* Angsty!Ernie fills my mind.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Rating: G
He traveled down the low ceilinged hallway, no longer even noticing the dark wooden panels on the wall or lights set high to provide an almost uniform glow.
The Common Rooms said a lot about their houses, Ernie knew. He'd seen them all - who would ever distrust a Hufflepuff enough to refuse to let them inside, let them meet for a study group or whatever - and had noticed a lot of the details.
The Ravenclaw aerie up in the East Tower, with it's high arched ceiling and enormous windows. The windows let in loads of natural light for reading during the day, and at night the seemed to suck out the light of the many torches, providing dark shadows up in the rafters, making the room seem filled with life and movement, even when everyone was perfectly still. The room could never be called cold or impersonal, but it had a feeling of distance, of space. All of the chairs had wide armrests - you could rest your books on them, or perch sideways on one to talk to the chair's resident.
The Slytherin tunnels were cool - not cold, and certainly not damp or dank, none of the aristocrats would have stood for such a thing - providing any who needed an excuse to always wear long sleeves, if nothing else. All the ceilings were carefully rounded, giving you a feeling of being enclosed, safely away from the world, and the halls twisted and turned and intersected everywhere. It was a maze for anyone who didn't know their way, and provided easy escape from any pursuit to the inhabitants. Unlike the uniform glow of the Hufflepuff rooms, the Slytherin tunnels were dim, easy to hide in. It gave them a sense of security - no one could be watching, no one could track all of the motion through the space. The common room itself was almost perfectly circular, with the fire place in the middle, providing warmth for all - you could never tell simply by looking at where people sat the complex social structure of the house, outsiders could never understand all of the simple variations in poise and position.
The Gryffindor den was a long rectangular room up in the West Tower, with the fireplace on the opposite side from the doorway. Unlike the Slytherins you could tell a lot about who was in and who was out by their location in the room. Harry was always seated with Hermione and Ron near the fire - Ernie doubted he'd ever even thought about what it meant that the older students had never contested his right to this place. All of the seats seemed to be arranged in circular layouts, with wider half-circles placing the little conversation packs around the fireplace. The walls were designed to give a feeling of limitless space to the room, and the lighting was always comfortably bright, with torches magically lighting as the sun set each day.
The Hufflepuff warren, with its low ceilings and dark wood, it's uniform light and thorough warmth, provided a secure, safe feeling for all the residents. They were located on the same level as the Slytherins, but had no fireplace and no need of one. Heating spells kept everything comfortable, and the Hufflepuffs never felt the desire to establish any sort of hierarchy. All of the halls branched off of the common room, going directly to the dorms, two per hallway, doors at the far end away from the common room. Hufflepuffs didn't hide in their warren, they made it simple to enter and find your way around. But each dorm room was as long as the hallway attached, with the beds arranged near the side away from the door and desks for each student near the doorway - a protective space between the entrance to the room and the living space, easily defended.
Open but distant, subtle but complex, straightforward but ordered, protective but simple - the four Houses of Hogwarts. Ernie understood some of what this implied about the divisiveness you could see pervading the school, but had never been able to see either any use to it, or any way around it.
What say you lot?
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Rating: G
He traveled down the low ceilinged hallway, no longer even noticing the dark wooden panels on the wall or lights set high to provide an almost uniform glow.
The Common Rooms said a lot about their houses, Ernie knew. He'd seen them all - who would ever distrust a Hufflepuff enough to refuse to let them inside, let them meet for a study group or whatever - and had noticed a lot of the details.
The Ravenclaw aerie up in the East Tower, with it's high arched ceiling and enormous windows. The windows let in loads of natural light for reading during the day, and at night the seemed to suck out the light of the many torches, providing dark shadows up in the rafters, making the room seem filled with life and movement, even when everyone was perfectly still. The room could never be called cold or impersonal, but it had a feeling of distance, of space. All of the chairs had wide armrests - you could rest your books on them, or perch sideways on one to talk to the chair's resident.
The Slytherin tunnels were cool - not cold, and certainly not damp or dank, none of the aristocrats would have stood for such a thing - providing any who needed an excuse to always wear long sleeves, if nothing else. All the ceilings were carefully rounded, giving you a feeling of being enclosed, safely away from the world, and the halls twisted and turned and intersected everywhere. It was a maze for anyone who didn't know their way, and provided easy escape from any pursuit to the inhabitants. Unlike the uniform glow of the Hufflepuff rooms, the Slytherin tunnels were dim, easy to hide in. It gave them a sense of security - no one could be watching, no one could track all of the motion through the space. The common room itself was almost perfectly circular, with the fire place in the middle, providing warmth for all - you could never tell simply by looking at where people sat the complex social structure of the house, outsiders could never understand all of the simple variations in poise and position.
The Gryffindor den was a long rectangular room up in the West Tower, with the fireplace on the opposite side from the doorway. Unlike the Slytherins you could tell a lot about who was in and who was out by their location in the room. Harry was always seated with Hermione and Ron near the fire - Ernie doubted he'd ever even thought about what it meant that the older students had never contested his right to this place. All of the seats seemed to be arranged in circular layouts, with wider half-circles placing the little conversation packs around the fireplace. The walls were designed to give a feeling of limitless space to the room, and the lighting was always comfortably bright, with torches magically lighting as the sun set each day.
The Hufflepuff warren, with its low ceilings and dark wood, it's uniform light and thorough warmth, provided a secure, safe feeling for all the residents. They were located on the same level as the Slytherins, but had no fireplace and no need of one. Heating spells kept everything comfortable, and the Hufflepuffs never felt the desire to establish any sort of hierarchy. All of the halls branched off of the common room, going directly to the dorms, two per hallway, doors at the far end away from the common room. Hufflepuffs didn't hide in their warren, they made it simple to enter and find your way around. But each dorm room was as long as the hallway attached, with the beds arranged near the side away from the door and desks for each student near the doorway - a protective space between the entrance to the room and the living space, easily defended.
Open but distant, subtle but complex, straightforward but ordered, protective but simple - the four Houses of Hogwarts. Ernie understood some of what this implied about the divisiveness you could see pervading the school, but had never been able to see either any use to it, or any way around it.
What say you lot?