(y/n) - your name

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The students quickly followed their prefects, some huddling behind to ask a certain witch who had now become famous about being chosen for all the houses. They bombarded her with questions, asking who she was and how powerful she was while ignoring her discomfort. Draco was the one that noticed her quivering expression, shoving the other students away from her when they crowded around her on the stairs.

"What's so special about you anyway? I bet you can't even beat me with how weak you are! A pathetic Hufflepuff!" Draco scoffs, looking at the students as they murmur to each other and step away from the girl. He nods now that she finally had some space, walking away from her to follow his prefect. Before he follows his house down into the dungeons, Draco turns back one last time to look at the Hufflepuff house as they turn in a different direction to go to their common room. He watches (y/n) stagger behind everyone with her head down and just following the group, him tsking at how self-isolating she was.

The students were in awe of the moving paintings, wary of the moving stairs in the Grand Staircase, however, as each house approached their common room. 

The Hufflepuff common room is entered from the same corridor as the Hogwarts kitchens. Proceeding past the large still life that forms the entrance to the latter, a pile of large barrels is to be found stacked in a shadowy stone recess on the right-hand side of the corridor. The barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, will open if tapped in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'. As a security device to repel non-Hufflepuffs, tapping on the wrong barrel, or tapping the incorrect number of times, results in one of the other lids bursting off and drenching the interloper in vinegar.

A sloping, earthy passage inside the barrel travels upwards a little way until a cosy, round, low-ceilinged room is revealed, reminiscent of a badger's sett. The room is decorated in the cheerful, bee-like colours of yellow and black, emphasised by the use of highly polished, honey-coloured wood for the tables and the round doors which lead to the boys' and girls' dormitories (furnished with comfortable wooden bedsteads, all covered in patchwork quilts).

A colourful profusion of plants and flowers seem to relish the atmosphere of the Hufflepuff common room: various cacti stand on wooden circular shelves (curved to fit the walls), many of them waving and dancing at passers-by, while copper-bottomed plant holders dangling amid the ceiling cause tendrils of ferns and ivies to brush your hair as you pass under them.

A portrait over the wooden mantelpiece (carved all over with decorative dancing badgers) shows Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School, toasting her students with a tiny, two-handled golden cup. Small, round windows just level with the ground at the foot of the castle show a pleasant view of rippling grass and dandelions, and, occasionally, passing feet. These low windows notwithstanding, the room feels perennially sunny.

Opposite its warmer counterpart, the Slytherin common room was colder and darker.

There is a door on the right side of the front-facing doors of Hogwarts castle, most frequently used by Slytherin students to get to their common room. Behind the door was a set of stone steps that descended deep into the dungeons.

The entrance to the common room was located behind a bare stretch of stone wall in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle. The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in carved chairs.

The common room was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. This dungeon extended partway under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge. The common room had lots of low-backed black and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas; skulls; and dark wood cupboards. One of the wooden tables had a set on it. It was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous Medieval Slytherins. It has quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one. 

The password to the common room changed every fortnight, and it was posted on the noticeboard. Slytherin students were warned never to bring students from other houses into the common room, or to reveal the password.

Two very contrasting atmospheres but that didn't stop the sleepless children that snuck out after they changed into their sleepwear. 

Draco, despite being a proud Slytherin just like his father, didn't like the cold of the dormitories. He was used to the cold but not fond of it as he snuck out to escape the biting wind that made him shudder. He crept up the steps and slipped past the door into the dungeons corridor, passing the hallway on his right that lead to the Hufflepuff common room that was near his house's common room behind him. 

He knew he could get in trouble for sneaking out past curfew but he couldn't sleep, wandering down the hallways while trying to remember how to get back to the Slytherin dorms. He arrived at the front doors of the castle, opening up one of the doors just enough to slip through to just sit beneath the night sky.

He was surprised to see one other student sitting on the steps in front of him, looking up at the stars in the sky as they wrapped their arms around them to try and stay warm. Draco contemplated whether to leave or not, not wanting any company but he stops before he could leave when the student turns around to look at him. 

It was (y/n).

"Sorry. I'll leave you be..." she stood up to give Draco his space, not wanting to bother him more than she already has. She didn't want to anger him or have him be annoyed with her like before. Even for a child, he was intimidating.

Draco stopped her before she could leave, brows furrowed at how she just stared at the ground like a meek little thing. "You... you can stay..." He was confused by the words that left his lips but ignored them as he moved to sit down on the steps. 

(y/n) was shocked by the invitation, hesitantly moving to sit down next to the platinum blonde-haired boy while making sure to leave space between them. The children sat silently as they watched the stars twinkle above them, the atmosphere quiet and soothing but cold. Draco silently cursed himself for not bringing something warm outside with him but he tenses immediately when he feels something drape over his shoulders. 

He looks over at (y/n) whose cheeks were flushed in embarrassment or from the cold, he didn't know. She only wanted to drape a blanket over his shoulders to try and keep him warm, leaning her chin against her knees as she hugged them to her chest. Draco was confused by the sudden show of kindness. No one... no one has ever-he shakes his head to get rid of the confusing thoughts, just letting the moment be. He shifted closer to (y/n) when he noticed her shivering lightly, sharing the blanket with her better.

They didn't exchange any words, unsure of how to respond but also worried about ruining this peaceful moment. "I'm Draco." the boy whispers as if the air around him would shatter. (y/n) blinks as she looks at him, nose and cheeks flushed pink from the cold while the moonlight glimmers off her glasses.

"(y/n)." she whispers back, equally afraid of being too loud. Draco turned back to watch the stars, glancing at the girl next to him every now and then. She wasn't remarkable, just a simple girl and yet-

"-who's there!?" the kids jump up to their feet quickly when they hear Filch, (y/n) being the first to run away leaving Draco with her blanket as he scrambles back inside the castle to dash off back to his common room. 

He held the blanket in his arms tightly, arriving at the moving steps and he tried to remember how to get back to his common room but the stairs were confusing him and sending him somewhere else. He tried to push down the panic growing in him of being in trouble or expelled on his first day already, deciding to just get off the moving stairs that made his world spin before dashing down a dark hallway until he found some rickety metal staircase that wound up. Not wanting to get caught on his first day, Draco ran up the steps and dashed out to find himself in a tower surrounded by rolling fields and stretches of land disappearing into the night sky. 

He stepped towards the railing, in awe of how this tower overlooked the entirety of Hogwarts as the tallest tower, positioned almost directly above the front doors of the castle. The tower was also surrounded by a parapet and was tall enough to have a perfect view of the starry sky. The wind was freezing in this high atmosphere but Draco was so much closer to the stars that shone brighter, almost as if he could touch them and he felt a sense of relief and safety in this tower. He knew this would be his one safe home to just be himself.

The Astronomy Tower, his abandoned safe haven.