89
The Hedgehog House Tower
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You queue up patiently with the other Hedgehog House students as you prepare to leave the dining room. Standing next to Kensley Potato you smile shyly at her - it is funny to think that you will be friends for the next 6 years, or maybe for life.

"Hoggers, follow me!" calls out an older girl from the front of the line, and you all file after her obediently.

The girl leads you for what seems like ages, along long winding stone passageways that at times are so smooth that they must have been built by magic, at other times so rough and uneven that you keep tripping. They pass by soaring windows with beautiful stained glass scenes showing witches on broomsticks and unicorns jumping over rainbows. They run low underground in damp dark tunnels that are lit only by the occasional flickering torch.

At last just as your feet were starting to drag with tiredness, the girl leading the way stops abruptly.

"Well done everyone," she says. "We've arrived. Welcome to Hedgehog House tower."

You realise that you have stopped just before a stone archway painted in the Hedgehog House colours of brown. The stone arch itself is carved into the shape of a hedgehog stretched over the path.

"Now Hoggers," continues the girl. "Remember that it is only Hedgehog House students - Hoggers - who can enter this tower. So if you have friends in other houses..." the children around you make tutting and pshaw sounds "...you will have to meet them somewhere else!

"First years we still have a bit more walking to do but you will be able to rest soon so keep going."

With that she turns and strides through the archway. You, Kensley, and all the other children follow her. Beyond the archway is a winding stone staircase that spirals slowly upwards. After 500 steps you lose count and you just plod on, eyes only on the step in front.

Just at the point when you were beginning to wonder if there is any more tower left to climb you bump into Kensley who has come to a sudden halt in front of you. The whole line of children has stopped and you can hear them whisper to each other: "There's a door at the top, the girl is opening the door...".

You can't see the door yet because it is around another turn of the spiral staircase but you hear a creaking sound as it opens. Unexpectedly, a fresh earthy smell wafts down the staircase.

The children shuffle upwards.

When you reach the doorway you stop and stare. You can't believe what you are seeing. Rather than the top of a tower as you expected the stairs have led to a short tunnel that emerges from... the side of a hill. In the distance you can see - impossibly - Hogsnorts School. Somehow Hognsorts School is both just behind you in the passageway and at the same time it is far away across the broken countryside.

By some powerful magic the Hedgehog House staircase has taken you a mile away from the school and then deep underground.

You look around the grassy hillside that you have emerged onto and see a series of smooth stony paths branching out all over the hill. The paths lead past circular doors set into the hill. Over each circular door is a small sign.

You read the one closest to you: "Brian Banana" it says.

"Ah there we go!" You hear a voice behind you and someone shoulders past, walks to the door and goes inside.

"See you later Brian!" someone shouts out.

So that must be... Brian Banana, you think. And that door leads to his own little hole... and if he has a hole... everyone must have a hole, including me!

"Kensley," you cry out, full of energy again. "Let's find our holes!"

You both run off huffing down the path and before long you see a round door, painted green, with your name written on a sign above it: "Arthur Otley". Next to it is another door with "Kensley Potato" spelled out above.

You push on the shiny yellow brass knob in the centre of the green door and it swings open.

You are confronted by the most comfortable little living hole you could imagine: lined with wood, and carpeted, there are polished chairs and pegs for coats. The tunnel (because it was a tunnel really, not a hole as you had first thought) winds on into the side of the hill, with rooms leading off it left and right: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries, wardrobes, all well stocked. In the rooms to the left of the tunnel deep-set round windows look out onto the hillside and meadows beyond, with Hogsnorts School far away.

After passing a dozen rooms, including one that seems dedicated to gaming with four different types of games console in it, plus a virtual reality headset, you arrive at your own bedroom, warm and comfortable. You lie down on the soft welcoming bed that occupies half the room. While you eat the mint chocolate that you found on the pillow, and cuddle the soft hedgehog toy, also left for you on the bed, you find yourself smiling.

In this little Hogger-hole safe underground you feel relaxed and secure. As your eyes close and you drift off to sleep your last thought is that, yes, I could be happy here.