Hi everyone! This is just a little drabble for The Golden Snitch Scavenger Hunt. AU. Enjoy!
Word Count (not including AN): 500
Corban Yaxley was nervous.
Yes, nervous.
Corban Yaxley wasn't the type of person you'd expect to be nervous. With a build like a troll, a bad reputation, and a swagger in his step, he more often than not intimidated all people who came near him. And he knew it.
But today, he was nervous.
Why was he so nervous, you may ask?
Well, to find that out, we have to go back to the beginning.
Ever since he was a little boy, Corban's parents had high expectations for him. So did his grandparents. And his great-grandparents. And his great-great-grandparents.
"Corban," they had said, "When you go to Hogwarts, you're going to be Sorted into Slytherin. I can already tell."
And then they had ruffled his hair and walked away.
When Corban was young, he didn't understand this. Why couldn't he be in, say, Hufflepuff? Or Gryffindor? The House of the brave? Corban liked the sound of that. But whenever he mentioned this to anyone, they shook their heads, ruffled his hair, and walked away.
But he had kept on asking until one day, his father had turned to him and said, "Corban, Slytherin is our family's pride. Your mother and I were Slytherin, and so were our parents before us, and their parents before them, and their parents for them. Slytherin is the Yaxley's House. It wouldn't be right if we were to be Sorted into anywhere else. Besides, you wouldn't want to associate yourself with all those Mudbloods and blood-traitors, would you?" And, just like everyone else, he had ruffled his hair and walked away.
So that was it. Corban was taught not to associate himself with any Mudbloods and shaped to the Slytherin ways. But deep inside, he knew it wasn't right. All this prejudice. Hatred. And for what, people being who they were? It wasn't fair.
So when Corban stood before all those people, looking down at the sea of expectant, candle-lit faces staring up at him, holding the Sorting Hat above his head with sweaty hands, he was nervous.
He dropped it onto his head.
"Hello, said a little voice in his ear. "Well, well, well. Another Yaxley. Hmm… Ambition, determination, stubbornness (which isn't a necessarily bad thing, my dear boy, not a bad thing at all)... Quite the same as all the others. But... wait… what's this? Hmm… peculiar…"
Corban waited with bated breath as he waited for the Hat's decision.
"Now, this isn't something I've seen in a Yaxley before!" murmured the Sorting Hat. "Why, I believe that you'd actually be better suited for GRYFFINDOR!"
It shouted the last word out to the whole Hall.
A dead silence fell over it.
Corban could hardly believe it.
But then, as the Gryffindors started whooping and whistling and hollering for him, he knew that this was where he belonged.
No matter how his parents might react, no matter how the community would treat him - he knew that there was no need to be nervous.
Not anymore.