The conclusion that Genny was coming to was that roast pumpkin really wasn’t that awful.  It was mushier than she expected, not too far removed from a baked sweet potato, and while it really just needed to be spiced up and made into a pie, it was edible and filling.

When Mkichaa’s friend responded to Genny’s question about seeing other people with a “No,” her heart plummeted a little.  But she’d only just arrived and it was a large castle, so Genny decided to keep her spirits up.  After all, there were two more witches sitting in front of her than she had expected to see after her trek through the towers hadn’t turned up any friendly humans.

"And I'm Jez; Hufflepuff."

“Hufflepuff!  Oh, I’m sorry for misplacing you.  But that’s great, because…” Genny stuttered to a stop, her eyes flicking to Mkichaa, and blushed.  At least she caught herself before she said something about other houses that would likely only cause her grief.  She really could usually control her babbling.  Mostly. “But, it’s great to meet you, Jez.”  Genny finished lamely.

"You said something about booby-traps?"

“Oh yes.”  Genny nodded and gestured to her hair and the rest of her that was visible of the table.  “I got properly charred by some potion spewed at me, triggered at least two miniature rock slides, and wanded off a whole bunch of other things.  I was lucky really, because from what I could tell, there were more traps, but they’d already been triggered.”

"Where?"

That was the bigger problem, in Genny’s opinion.  “Upstairs, all along the corridors leading to the Ravenclaw common room.”  Genny sighed.  “I probably should have listened to the hat, it did warn me it was inaccessible.  But I needed to try, because, well, I can’t come here and not, you know?”

Frustrated, Genny glared down at her plate and started mashing up the pumpkin with her fork.