"In short, these are the main things you need to keep in mind. As long as you pay attention to them in your daily life, you won't lose house points. But even if you do lose points once in a while due to negligence, it's no big deal. Here in Hufflepuff, we don’t worry too much about that. The most important thing is that everyone enjoys their time at Hogwarts."
Head Boy Harris was speaking confidently to the group, while Kyle sat at the very edge, silent with his head down.
“Kyle, what are you doing here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Cedric approached and casually handed Kyle a glass of juice. “Fresh orange juice—definitely a good choice before bed.”
Kyle didn’t take it, nor did he lift his head. He just waved Cedric off to show he didn’t want it.
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” Cedric asked, his voice tinged with concern.
“No, I’m just feeling a little sleepy,” Kyle responded hastily, still avoiding eye contact. “I don’t like drinking anything before bed. You can offer it to someone else.”
This odd behavior only heightened Cedric’s curiosity. He took a step to the left, trying to get a better look at Kyle’s face. But Kyle turned away at the same time, dodging him.
Something was definitely off.
“Alright, I’ll ask some of the other first-years then,” Cedric said, pretending to walk away. But instead, he moved lightly, circling around and then quickly dropping to the ground near Kyle.
Kyle, lost in his thoughts about when he could return to the dormitory, suddenly found himself face to face with a furry head appearing right in front of him.
“Kyle, what happened to your eye? Why do you have such a huge black eye?”
“Nothing!” Kyle immediately raised his hand to cover his left eye and answered seriously, “I just accidentally hit the table. It’s perfectly normal to have bruises from something like that.”
“How do you end up with a bruise that round?” Cedric sat down, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “It looks more like you got punched.”
“No way, you’re imagining things!” Kyle shot back. “Even if you don’t believe me, surely you believe in Hufflepuff! This is the warmest house at Hogwarts. How could there be anyone violent here?”
“You’re right... could it really just be a bruise?” Cedric nodded, partially convinced.
He didn’t think anyone from Hufflepuff would punch a first-year on their first day of school either—that was more of a Slytherin thing. But still, it puzzled him. If Kyle had simply fallen, how could his black eye be so perfectly round? Was he exceptionally clumsy?
As Cedric pondered this mystery, Harris finished his speech.
“From today onwards, we’re all classmates. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask. Hufflepuff is one big, warm family, and every upperclassman, myself included, will support you. Now, you all must be tired, so I’ll take you to your dormitories. Patty, you’ll handle the girls.”
Kyle sprang to his feet as if he'd been released from a burden and followed the rest of the group without so much as a goodbye to Cedric.
Under Harris’s guidance, Kyle soon arrived at his dormitory.
Like the common room, the dormitory was dominated by warm yellow and black tones. Copper lamps cast a cozy glow over the room's four-poster beds, while brass bed warmers hung on the walls, ensuring each bed remained at the perfect temperature.
There were two other boys in his dormitory.
One, Mikel Derrick, was a small, dark-haired boy. The other, Ryan Baggins, was stockier with blonde hair.
Neither of them were particularly remarkable, just two fellow students.
The last bed in the room was empty, likely because there weren’t enough new students.
Kyle tilted his head, gave the boys a brief greeting, then climbed into bed without further conversation.
"Hey, this is amazing, isn't it? I'm a wizard!" Mikel exclaimed, sitting on the edge of his bed, beaming with excitement. "No one in my family can do magic. My dad sells drilling rigs, and my mum works in a bank, so when I first got the letter, I thought it was a joke. Haha, Hogwarts... I still can't believe it."
"I'm half-and-half, what wizards call 'half-blood,’" Ryan chimed in, running a hand through his blonde hair. "My dad's a wizard, but my mum’s a Muggle. She was completely shocked when she found out."
"Of course she was. Anyone who hasn’t had contact with magic would be," Mikel agreed. "You wouldn’t believe it—when the Professor came to our house, my parents almost called the police. He just appeared in front of us and started talking about some kind of displacement... Locomotor?"
"Apparition," Kyle corrected quietly from his bed.
"Yeah, that’s it—Apparition!" Mikel said, looking over at Kyle with sudden recognition. "Hey, I remember you! You're Kyle Chopper, the one whose Sorting took twenty minutes, right?"
"That’s right," Kyle nodded. "Nice to meet you both."
"So, what happened?" Mikel asked curiously, leaning in. "Why did your Sorting take so long—longer than all the other first-years combined?"
"It’s nothing," Kyle said after a brief pause. "The Sorting Hat just couldn’t decide where to send me, that’s all. It was torn."
"I see," Mikel said with awe. "For the Hat to take that long... you must be really talented."
Kyle smiled but didn’t respond. He was talented, sure, but that had little to do with the Sorting Hat’s dilemma. If Mikel knew the real reason for its hesitation, he probably wouldn’t have been so impressed.
For the next several minutes, Mikel kept up a stream of enthusiastic chatter. He jumped from talking about his first visit to Diagon Alley to Gringotts, and then from Gringotts to choosing a wand, barely pausing for breath in between. It was clear that becoming a wizard had made him incredibly happy.
At first, Kyle and Ryan managed to join in here and there, but eventually, the only voice in the dormitory was Mikel’s. The other two just couldn’t keep up. After a long day of travel and excitement, exhaustion had finally caught up with them.
Kyle wanted to keep talking with his new roommates and get to know them better, but the bed was so comfortable that he fell asleep without even realizing it. Next to him, Ryan had drifted off even faster and hadn’t stirred for the past five minutes.