Revelations of Some Sort
A/N: Takes place in the same universe as Love Sick. There will probably me multiple stories taking place in this universe. This fic lays out some of the details for those later stories.
"You're going to mess up your neck if you keep doing that."
Roy took a moment to shoot his friend a dirty look but then returned to his task of craning his neck, nearly standing from his seat, in an attempt to get a good look at the first years. He sighed and sat down, accepting that he couldn't see the familiar blonde hair with all the bodies in the way.
"Why do you have a stick up your butt today? You've been in a bad mood since the train." Roy asked, looking at Maes who sat to his right.
"Am not." Maes retorted defensively. "You're the one acting weird."
"Am not." Roy shot back, using Maes' words."I'm just excited."
"Because of that girl-"
"Riza" Roy cut in, frowning. "Her name is Riza, stop calling her girl."
Maes rolled his eyes. "Because of Hawkeye, whatever."
"What's with you?" Roy demanded heatedly, feeling a surge of annoyance at his friend that he hadn't felt since they decided to be friends instead of rivals.
"What's with you?" Maes shot back.
"I'm not the one in a bad mood." Roy pointed out, though he was quickly getting there.
He was annoyed but he was also wondering what it was that had Maes so wound up. He had been acting strange since they had met up in the train and Roy had more than a small hunch it had to do with Riza.
Especially since Maes kept making not-quite-rude-but-not-exactly-nice comments about Riza and he had been strangely quiet instead of talking with her. Riza in turn had been giving Maes disapproving looks and rebuffing his comments with an icy primness that Roy knew meant she was agitated.
It had been an awkward train ride.
Roy didn't like the idea of Maes and Riza not liking each other, it made his heart sink to his stomach. They were his two best friends and Roy had been looking forward to being with them both at the same time now that Riza was starting Hogwarts.
He didn't know why Maes was acting like he was (Riza he could understand, Maes had started it) and Roy sincerely hoped it wouldn't continue.
Maybe it was just the way Maes made friends, Roy thought. After all, they hadn't exactly started off on the right foot either. He didn't think that was the case and Roy resolved to talk to his friend once they returned to their dorm rom.
Whatever it was at the moment Roy was much too nervous about Riza's sorting to deal with his friend's snippy mood.
He had told Riza again and again that it didn't matter what House she was in and he stood by that.
But he couldn't deny that he was hoping she would be in Slytherin with him. But- and he hadn't told Riza this- he honestly couldn't say what House he thought she would be in. She would fit in all of them just fine, in his opinion.
She was more than smart enough for Ravenclaw, and she was definitely brave enough for Gryffindor. Roy could easily see her fitting in fine in Slytherin, Riza was certainly one of the most resourceful people Roy had ever met, and she was definitely loyal enough for Hufflepuff.
Roy was suddenly embarrassed by his thoughts. Riza was great all around, she was his friend, but still...He was getting mushy.
It would be interesting if she was in another House, because then Roy could ask her what the other common rooms were like. But any House was fine, even if Gryffindor would probably cause some potential problems with other students…Roy shook his head. It didn't matter. As long as Riza was happy in her House then Roy would be too.
Plus he had promised her that it didn't matter what House she was in, that they would be friends no matter what. He intended to keep that promise.
Riza's attention was torn between gawking at the ceiling and trying to find a familiar mop of messy black hair at the Slytherin table.
The ceiling was, in a word, magnificent.
It took on the appearance of the sky and though Roy had told her about it-A quickly whispered reminder of "look up when you enter the Great Hall" before she had to go onto the boats and he into the carriages-it still took her breath away. It was if there was no ceiling at all, the heavens peering down at them as clearly as they had outside.
It was amazing.
What was left of her attention was spared to keep an ear out for her own name. She was half scared she wouldn't hear it over the nervous buzzing her thoughts made in her head, but Professor Curtis had a very sharp and commanding voice as she read out the names so Riza hoped it would cut through her nervousness easily enough.
Every now and then Riza would pay attention to who was being sorted but for the most part her fellow first years were muted blurs in her mind.
"Archer, Franklin" Was sorted into Slytherin.
Riza's interest is momentarily piqued when the Great Hall is filled with excited mutterings and whispers when "Armstrong, Alex" is called up, she's not sure why that caused such interest, but she could ask Roy if he knew later.
The large blonde boy (was he really eleven? He looked fourteen) was sorted into Gryffindor and the Hall quieted again.
"Brosh, Denny" Was sorted into Hufflepuff, the hat taking nearly two minutes to decide.
"Catalina, Rebecca" was quickly sorted into Gryffindor and Riza watched as the curly haired girl stumbled just as she reached the Gryffindor table. Riza could sympathize, her knees were feeling a bit like jelly too.
Riza wasn't sure if she should be glad or not that her name was at the beginning of the alphabet. On one hand she would get it over with quickly, on the other she didn't feel very ready.
"Harris Mathew" Was a Hufflepuff.
Then…
"Hawkeye, Riza!"
She steels her nerves, despite not having found Roy she sends on last look over to the Slytherin table and then marched up to front and sits of the stool. Her heart was pounding and she hopes that her trembling hands weren't too obvious.
The hat settles over her head, it's so big it covers her eyes. The crowd of students disappearing from her sight in favor of the dark inside of the hat.
It makes her both nervous and relieved that she can't see the crowd staring.
The sorting hat was created for this, to be worn by children, so why was it so big anyways?
A deep chuckle startled her, and Riza jumps in the stool. The sound came from the hat, a small but clear voice speaking in her ears.
"That is a good question." The voice says, sounding extremely amused. "It's because I was originally Godric's and for some reason none of the founder's thought to resize me…"
For a moment Riza thinks that Godric Gryffindor had a rather large head, which causes the hat to laugh again.
Roy had warned her about this, about the invasiveness of the hat, how it sorted people and how it talked.
…Hello? She doesn't have much experience with magical objects, but politeness never hurt.
"Hello, little one."
She feels a small spike of indignity at being called little, but she pushes it down. Compared to most people in the castle, excepting her fellow first years, she was little. And she supposes that to a magical hat as old as this one she would seem especially so.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." The hat responds. "My age does not make the students appear smaller, in fact they seem impossibly large…I have seen magical children grow into legends. If anything, the children I sort seem larger, and the legends smaller. With that being said…You are a young little witch and that is not a bad thing."
Riza listens, extremely interested despite herself. Roy hadn't told her much about the conversation he had with the hat and she hadn't asked since it seemed a private affair. But this was fascinating, though still nerve wracking.
She still remembered why she was there. To be sorted, not to chat.
"Speaking of sorting…Difficult, very difficult." The hat says "But you started with a question, you are a curious one, Ravenclaw would not be amiss with your curiosity…Plenty of intelligence here."
Her father flashes in her mind, and Riza pushes it away, but not before the flare of slight terror goes through her.
Her mother had been a Ravenclaw too, Riza reminds herself firmly. And Madame Christmas. Ravenclaw was a good house.
"…Hit a nerve?" The hat asks, its voice slightly hushed, even a bit sad.
Ravenclaw is a good house Riza thinks in response, injecting as much firmness and resolution as she could into the thought.
"It is," the hat agrees "but there are much better fits for you."
Indignity and defensiveness rise within her, she was not afraid of-!
"No, no…"The hat soothes, she feels it's weight shift on her head as it moves. "This has nothing to do with that." It assures her "...You would certainly do well in Gryffindor, with that type of bravery, you are willing to be sorted into Ravenclaw even if... Hm, yes, plenty of courage. It's the dangerous sort as well, I can see that…A noble heart too."
I'm not scared of a stupid House, Riza growled in her mind, at the same time wondering what 'dangerous sort' of courage was.
"Yes, Gryffindor would be an excellent fit." the hat says again, sounding both amused and contemplative.
Riza calms down, she supposed that the hat was right. And she certainly didn't want to be in Ravenclaw if she was honest with herself.
"Bravery is not the absence of fear, little one. But you already know that."
Get on with it Riza thinks, wondering how long she's sat there already. She didn't want to be a hat stall, though at this rate it looked like she might be. Roy told her that he was nearly one.
"Ah, there is that boy again…" The hat says in a tone Riza can't read.
He's my best friend Riza replies, a little defensive. She had never paid attention to how much she thought about Roy, but then again she had never had a magical hat on her head to tell her about it.
"I know," The hat says, this time it's tone is definitely amused "You were on his mind when he wasn't arguing with me."
…Oh. Riza thinks, feeling her face heat up with a blush. That was a relief. She wasn't weird for thinking about Roy so much. It was normal. They were best friends and Roy had been the one to tell her all about what Hogwarts was like.
"Perfectly normal." The hat assures.
Speaking of Roy…
"You want to be sorted into Slytherin." the hat says, finishing the thought.
…Yes, she admits somewhat shyly.
She wouldn't be shy about it normally, but that hat had just pointed out how much she thought about Roy. She was a little embarrassed about it, about just how much she had missed him while he was here at Hogwarts for his first year and she at home, with only his letters.
She and Roy had talked about it for a long time, and Madame Christmas had added in her two knutz to the conversation. Riza honestly wasn't sure what she wanted.
She wanted to be there for Roy, wanted to be close to him. But even if they were in the same house they were in different years. And it wasn't like they weren't in the same castle.
And Roy had told her that he didn't want to her to do things just for him, that it was her choice too.
That they would be friends no matter what.
"Yes, I suppose…Plenty of cunning here, you certainly know what it is to be resourceful…" And somehow Riza knows that the hat is speaking about her home life, about her father and how Riza made it so that every cenz and sickle stretched as far as it could. She tries not to be too upset about the fact that the hat is rifling through her memories. "You'd do just fine in Slytherin" The hat proclaims, much to Riza's relief. But there is something dissatisfied in the hat's tone, if it had a face she's sure it would be frowning.
"But is that what you want?"
The question stops her short. Of course it is. She wants to be with Roy, which means Slytherin.
"…You have a sense of ambition." The hat admits, "Let me look…hm..yes, here it is, you wish to prove yourself on your own terms…" But it sounds thoughtful, and had yet to proclaim her house.
It was quiet for a few moments, making Riza nervous.
What? Riza thinks at it.
"You can't hide anything from me, you know." The hat reminds her, a tad smug "I see your patience and tenacity…I see that had I sorted your friend in Ravenclaw you would have asked to be sorted there despite your…preferences."
So? She responds, not liking where the hat was going.
"As I said you'd do fine in Slytherin, but extremely well in Gryffindor…"
I'd rather be in Slytherin, please Riza thinks, heart sinking.
"Patience, tenacity, trustworthiness, unafraid of the hardship…And I see you are hardworking, perhaps past the point of exhaustion…And an extremely gentle heart, when you deign to share it."
Riza wasn't sure how she felt about her heart being called 'gentle.' Gentle sounded much too close of a word to fragile.
And what the hat was describing didn't sound like either Gryffindor or Slytherin, that sounded much more like-
"You'd be excellent in Hufflepuff. Perfect, in fact." The hat says decidedly.
But I want to be in Slytherin She reminds the hat sharply, as if it could have forgotten.
"…Yes, but what we want isn't always what's best, you know." It tells her. "Besides, you don't want to be in Slytherin." It says with such certainty that it puzzles her.
She's pretty sure she does want to be in Slytherin. She spent much more time in her own head than the hat has in the few minutes it's been there.
"You don't." The hat says in the same sure tone. "What you want is to be there for your friend. You shouldn't confuse the two."
Same thing Riza thinks stubbornly.
"It's not, and I can see that you know it."
Does it matter?
"It matters very much." The hat says. "Now…what do you want?"
Riza thinks for a moment, not really conjuring an answer but thinking. She thinks of her father and she thinks of Roy. She thinks of what Hogwarts is to her.
Finally learning magic, finally entering the world her father had closed himself -and by extension her-off from. An escape from her home, an escape from her father. A feeling of guilt accompanies the thought, but Riza is too honest with herself to deny it.
She was going to learn magic, was going to learn how to control the power that occasionally caused her to break glasses and plates. The power that had first brought her and Roy together. She was going to learn how to cast spells, how to control her magic. It excited her to think about it.
She thinks about Roy finally stepping off the train at the end of the last school year, how much she had missed him. That she simply wanted to be with him, to be his friend. She had missed him during his first year at Hogwarts and she just…She wanted to help him, she just wanted to be with her best friend.
She wanted to have the freedom that this new chapter in her life could give her, wanted to be with Roy as they ventured into the magical world together.
"Such loyalty," The hat praises, and there is something in its tone that tips Riza off that the hat had made a decision. Something that already has a protesting thought half formed, but it's too late.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
What!? I'm going to throw you into the lake you sorry excuse for a dishrag-!
It interrupts her mental tirade. Right before the hat is taken from her head.
"Hufflepuff will help you, and you will help your friend." It assures her. It hesitates, as much as a hat can. "…You even share the house with your grandfather."
Her eyes widen, and it feels as if the floor has disappeared from under her. G-Grandfather…?
"…The Headmaster." It's speaking gently, almost apologetic.
WHAT!?
"…Good luck, little one. As I said Hufflepuff will help you. You are much too loyal for anywhere else."
Good luck? Huh?
Grandfather!?
Riza blinks as the hat is taken from her head, the light is too bright, and the roar of the great hall being filled with applause seemed distant.
In a daze she seeks out the Hufflepuff table, not noticing as her robes change from house-less to Hufflepuff black and yellow.
Hufflepuff…Grandfather? Sharing a house with…?
…What?
"Something's wrong." Roy muttered.
"What?" Maes turned to his friend. "What do you mean?"
"Something's wrong with Riza."
Maes resisted the urge to roll his eyes, Roy sounded so serious and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of anxiousness at the tone his friend was speaking with. But really.
"She just got sorted, everyone is nervous about it."
"Yeah but…" Roy didn't know how to explain. Riza hadn't looked nervous. She had looked absolutely shaken to the core. Her face was pale and her expression was one of absolute shock that Roy could have attributed to the sorting but…She looked so out of it, it couldn't have been just the sorting.
Unless that hat had said something? It was a disconcerting magical item if there ever was one and he knew Riza hadn't liked the idea of a hat looking through her mind and memories, no one really did.
The hat must have said something to make her look like that. Maybe something about her father? She always avoided that subject if she could…
"She got sorted into Hufflepuff."
Roy looks away from the Hufflepuff table, where he had just taken note of where Riza had sat, to glare at Maes. It wasn't that it was said rudely, per se, but it definitely wasn't nice.
No, it was in that same careful tone Maes had been speaking in every time Riza was brought up and Roy didn't like it. It wasn't a condemning sort of voice but more like a mild distaste, not quite disapproval, nothing so strong as that, but it wasn't a positive observation.
"So?" Roy asks heatedly.
Maes shrugs, which makes Roy even more annoyed.
The silence between them is thick with a strange tension, each of them politely clapping as each new student is sorted.
As the students waiting to be sorted dwindles to the single digits Roy speaks.
"I'm going to sit with her for the feast." He says, his tone is both matter of fact and defiant. But he makes eye contact with Maes and tilts his head in the direction of Hufflepuff's table. Do you want to come?
Maes shakes his head, and his sigh is one of exasperation. For what reasons Roy doesn't know.
"I'll stay here. You know, sit with my own House."
The last words are little sharp but Roy ignores it. He can ask later in the dorms, but for now he wanted to see what was wrong with Riza.
She doesn't know what to focus on. Thoughts are colliding in her head and there's a ball of confusion and anxiety in her chest that feels like a swarm of angry bees. Her eyes are wide as she stares at the table. Her heart is pounding so hard she wonders if it's going to give out.
She feels as if she's been punched in the gut.
Really? The Headmaster? Robert Grumman? One of the most brilliant wizards of the century? It just seemed too impossible.
It had to be impossible. She'd finally made it to Hogwarts. She was finally away from her father…Riza felt a twinge of guilt at the thought. She was still extremely worried about him, yet at the same time she resented the need to worry about him at all.
It was all so confusing.
The sorting goes on. The applause washing over her as student after student continues to be sorted.
In her periphery she sees the people seated near her send her strange looks as she simply sits there instead of clapping, but Riza doesn't care.
She should be mad at the hat for sorting her in Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin like she wanted.
But it's only in the background, maybe later she will be. But for now she hasn't even looked up from the table to try to seek out Roy at the Slytherin table. She isn't really seeing anything, her mind is a million miles away.
She's not sure if she wants to see Roy. One look at her and he'd know something was wrong and Riza is caught between the desire to tell him and the urge to not say anything and pretend that the hat never mentioned a grandfather.
Could she do that? Could she pretend that such a life changing revelation had never been revealed? Was it life changing? Really, it actually didn't mean anything. The…the headmaster…The headmaster was her grandfather before she knew and he was after she knew.
Was it even true?
Nothing changed technically, except for the fact that she knew.
And if it was true…did he know?
Probably.
Why would the hat know and not him?
Riza thinks back on the little family history she knows of. Her father's parents were dead, and he had been estranged from them for a long time before that. Her mother was also estranged from her parents.
Her father was muggleborn and her mother…Riza didn't know about her mother. She only knew that she was magical, that she had been in Ravenclaw like her father. Riza had never asked, had never had the chance to get an answer. Riza never really asked her father about anything, especially anything regarding her mother.
She had asked once and had severely regretted it.
Riza had no idea about anything from her parent's pasts, not even her mother's maiden name.
Well, if that hat was right then maybe she did know now.
How the heck did that hat even know? And why did it tell her? Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of secrecy spell that stopped the hat from saying too much? Or did this not count?
Was the man sitting at the center of the High table…was he really her mother's father? Her grandfather?
Riza jumps when a hand taps her forearm, she looked up, startled, into the dark blue eyes of a girl who had sat down next to her without Riza noticing. Another first year by the looks of it.
She has short brown hair, not unlike the short style that Riza herself wears, and a mole under her left eye. She looks worried as Riza simply stares.
"Hey, are you alright? You look kinda pale and um…you're making the table splinter…" She gestures to the table, looking self conscious as she does so.
Riza looks at the table and sees that the girl is right, the surface looking like someone had taken a hammer to it, the polished wood now marred with splinters from the damage.
Her accidental magic had always been somewhat destructive.
Riza swallows and nods. "Fine." Her voice sounds a lot calmer than Riza thought it should, but she was grateful for it. "Thank you."
"…Alright." The girl replies, not sounding convinced. She holds out a hand and Riza stares at it dumbly. "I'm Maria Ross, it looks like we're going to be dorm mates." She sounds less nervous now and Riza musters up a polite smile.
Riza shakes the offered hand out of habit more than thought "Riza Hawkeye…It's nice to meet you."
She's still reeling but she doesn't know what else she can do. She's grateful for Maria, because sitting and staring at the table wasn't going to help.
She could do that plenty when she went to bed and stared at the ceiling.
…No. Riza decided, she wasn't going to do that. She couldn't. Not with something like this.
She couldn't ignore it, and she couldn't just wait.
She has to know, tonight.
Riza looks beyond the table and beyond Maria Ross to see that there are three students left to be sorted.
She stops there, giving herself a moment to brace herself. Then Riza lifts her gaze to the staff's table, easily finding the man she was searching for seated in a large golden chair at the very center and overlooking the sorting.
Except he isn't.
Headmaster Grumman's blue eyes are already on her when she looks at him and for a moment their eyes meet and Riza's heart stutters in her chest. He looks away and Riza relaxes, not having realized she tensed in the first place.
The eye contact had been so brief it could have been a coincidence, just luck as he swept his gaze across the Great Hall. But something in Riza's gut told her that it wasn't. That the Sorting Hat had been telling the truth. It had no reason to lie, after all. And why would it tell her something to outrageous if it wasn't true?
You even share a House with your grandfather
She had known that the Headmaster was a Hufflepuff, she had read as much, but now it had a different meaning…
Her hand clenches into a fist, a spiky bitterness enveloping her. She doesn't want anything to do with him. With her father or even with her mother.
Stupid hat, she thinks angrily, why didn't you just put me in Slytherin like I wanted?
She would have preferred Gryffindor, even. Anything that wasn't something to do with…To do with her family.
She was sick of having her family control everything….
"Riza?"
She looked up to see Maria watching her worriedly and Riza realized that her eyes were watering.
She wasn't crying but her eyes probably looked glassy enough to be concerning. They were angry tears, Riza knew, but Maria didn't.
She didn't know what to say, but that was fine because it was at that moment that the very subject of her thoughts stood up and began speaking.
"Welcome to Hogwarts! Please enjoy your meal."
His voice reached even the furthest corners of the Great Hall and Riza suspected some type of charm had been used to magnify the headmaster's voice.
Her grandfather's voice.
She pushed the thought away.
Suddenly there was more food than Riza had ever seen before laid out on the table before her. She couldn't help but gasp, her mouth falling open at the sight.
Roy had told her about this too.
As if summoned by her thoughts his voice called to her from over her shoulder and she jumped.
"Riza?"
She turned around, there were a few people glancing at him curiously, the Slytherin who had made his way over to the Hufflepuff table just as the food appeared.
"Roy," She forced a smile. "Hi." As if they hadn't been seated in the same train compartment only a little while ago.
"Hi." He replied, suspicious. His dark eyes narrowed and Riza knew he wasn't fooled for even a second. She patted the empty seat to her right.
She didn't know Hogwart's etiquette about the tables, but neither the Deputy Headmistress or the Headmaster had mentioned it being against the rules to sit at another House's table so Riza thought it was fine. Apparently Roy agreed because he slid into the space to her right without a second thought.
As he sat down he eyed the small gauges in the table and Riza not-very-discreetly attempted to hide them with a plate.
Roy knew how her magic worked better than anyone, and she knew he figured it out.
"Can you fix that?" Riza asked, keeping her voice neutral and steady.
Roy shakes his head.
"No, but don't worry about it, the castle can fix itself." He reassures her.
Roy's eyes left the table and met hers, but he doesn't ask anything just yet.
"Congratulations on your sorting." He said with a genuine smile, Riza felt herself relax at the sight of it.
Whatever was going on, Roy was here and that was what was important.
"Thanks," She tries, and fails, not to sound glum about it. She gestured at the feast laid on before them. "What's your favorite?"
He looks at her for a few long moments, deciding whether or not to go along with her change in subject when he knows something it bothering her.
"Everything is good," He replies, letting the matter drop for now "But save room for dessert."
"Um" They both turn to look at Maria who looks very confused.
"This is Roy Mustang." Riza introduces. "Roy, this is Maria Ross."
Roy offers his hand and a smile, as they shake hands-Riza in between them-Maria speaks.
"You're a Slytherin?" It's obvious that he is, but that isn't what she's asking.
"I am." Roy confirms, but offers no explanation as to why he's seated at the Hufflepuff table. Maria, apparently not having the nerve to ask the second year any further questions, simply shrugs and focuses on her own food.
Riza does the same, still awed with just how much there is. Riza knows what it is to skip a few meals for money's sake, and even having expected it the feast's appearance is still overwhelming.
Roy has other things on his mind, he leans in close to her, speaking low enough that no one can overhear. "Riza, what's wrong?"
Her hands are shaking and she nearly drops a baked potato onto the table instead of her plate.
"Nothing."
"Liar."
She sighs, the urge to turn to him and just tell him rises within her and her eyes feel warm again. She wants to say sorry for not being in his House, wants to tell him what the hat said.
How she had been terrified of being sorted into Ravenclaw-which was stupid-because she didn't want to be like her father, because she didn't want to go home during the summer and have to tell her father that she was in his old house, in her mother's old house.
That just for once, she wanted to be her own person and because she wanted to be in Slytherin with Roy. Instead she ended up in Hufflepuff…Her grandfather's house. A grandfather she just discovered was the Headmaster himself.
The Headmaster...The Headmaster who was one of the most powerful wizards in the last century. Who was sitting at the High Table and who she didn't dare look towards, lest she risk catching his eye again. A man she would have to see for seven years from this day forward.
Hogwarts was supposed to be a new start, a way to get away from her father, a way to be with Roy and learn magic but now…
She avoided her parents' house just to land in her grandfather's. It wasn't fair.
She nearly snorted at the last though. The hat was right; she was a Hufflepuff if she was whining about fairness of all things.
Stupid hat. Instead of listening to her and putting her in Slytherin with Roy or putting her in Gryffindor it put her in the same house as a grandfather she didn't know she had. She didn't care if she made a good Hufflepuff, she didn't want to be one.
It seemed destined, almost. Like she didn't have a choice at all.
And really, she didn't. She just sat there with a stupid hat on her head and it made the choice for her.
It shouldn't even matter and Riza knew it. It didn't change anything. She didn't know what she was so upset about. About the headmaster? About being in Hufflepuff? It was all so stupid and frustrating and it made her eyes feel warm and hew jaw ached from clenching her teeth. She couldn't even figure out if she was mad or just surprised, which only made her more frustrated.
Everything was a mess and it was only her first day.
"Riza?" Roy's worried voice brings her back to the present.
"...I wanted to be in Slytherin." She mutters, it was part of what was bothering her.
Roy frowned "We talked about this."
"But still," She insists, happy for the distraction from the thoughts about her family. "The hat didn't listen to me."
"It didn't?" Roy asks, surprised. It sparks Riza's own curiosity as to why.
"No." She confirms, looking at him .
"…It listened to me…"He muttered, almost too low for her to hear despite being right next to him.
"Roy…?"
"It almost put me in Hufflepuff." He admits in a whisper.
If anything that both upsets and pleases her.
It upsets her because then it was yet another instance where they were almost in the same house. Pleases her because it meant that Roy could have been a Hufflepuff too, which meant that there was someone else besides her grandfather who was in, or rather almost in, the House.
Mostly she was still annoyed that she was a Hufflepuff in the first place. She wonders if she wouldn't have minded nearly as much if it wasn't for the whole 'the headmaster is your grandfather' business.
"..Oh." She takes a sip of her drink. "…It said that I wanted to be with you, not in Slytherin and that there's a difference."
"…I guess that makes sense" Roy says after a few moments. "That's really loyal, so…" Riza makes a disapproving sound I the back of her throat. "It's cool that you're in Hufflepuff." Roy says suddenly.
Riza looks at him, puzzled at the exclamation, and silently urges him to explain.
"I mean it's a good House." Roy says, earning a somewhat suspicious look from a nearby Hufflepuff. Neither Roy nor Riza pay him any mind.
Riza wanted to say that she didn't care about that. She cared that she was in a different House than him, but he continued to speak.
"It's fine. Like I said we're always going to be friends, no matter what." He continued, Riza relaxed but still couldn't shake the feeling of inadequacy of not having been sorted into Slytherin.
Then he gave her a pleased smile, and she knows he's going to say something that embarrasses him because it's wide and nervous looking.
"Plus, the yellow goes really good with your hair."
The unexpected compliment causes her to blush, as anytime he says such things usually does.
"I don't know if yellow goes with yellow." She muttered, saying the first thing she could think of. She decides to look at his hands instead of his face, too embarrassed to do otherwise.
"But Hufflepuff yellow is like..dark gold yellow," Roy says, very serious about explaining it to her. It almost makes her laugh, but she restrains it to a small smile. "Your hair is like light yellow gold kind of yellow."
Now she does laugh, very briefly, and looks at his face to see his very earnest expression, which is accented with the light pink across his cheeks.
"That's a lot of yellow." Riza says, he opens his mouth to argue his point but she doesn't give him the chance "But okay, if you say so" She exaggerates looking him up and down. "I guess green looks good on you."
"You guess?" Roy says, seems a little put out at the lackluster compliment.
"I guess." She repeats, but he can tell she's teasing and he smile, relieved that, for the moment her mood has improved.
They spend the rest of dinner having an easy conversation, Roy speaking the most, as usual. He points out all the different dishes, tells her about what her classes will be like on the first day. Things he's told her about in his letters and over his breaks but that neither mind speaking of again now that she's here.
She asks about Armstrong and Roy explains that the Armstrong family are very influential and very well off. "They've been in Gryffindor for generations." He says, rolling his eyes. "Ask any of them and you won't hear the end of it."
"Any of them?" Riza wonders, eyebrows coming together.
"Yeah," Roy says, digging his spoon into his mashed potatoes. "There's one who's a fourth year, she's the oldest. A pair of twins in the year above me, and then there's the one in your year." He swallows a bite before continuing. "They're all siblings, and I think they have another little sister."
"…I wonder what having so many siblings is like…" Riza says quietly.
It wasn't the first time she'd wondered about such a thing. Being an only child she'd often wished for a sibling in her lonelier moments, but she couldn't imagine it. And after her mother's death she realized it was probably for the best that she didn't have any.
The thought of family brought back the sorting hat's words and she struggled to push it away.
"I think having that many sisters would drive me nuts." Roy says. "That guy-Alex?-must be used to it but I can hardly stand mine!" he sounds both aghast at the idea of four sisters and impressed by Alex's continued existence in such a state.
Riza smiles at the thought of Roy's sisters.
When the main course disappears to make way for the desserts they share a bowl of ice cream and Roy teases her about how her favorite flavor (vanilla) is boring, just as he does every time they have the treat back home.
Riza seems to be over her melancholy about her house placement.
Until the desserts disappear and the Headmaster stands.
The entire hall fell silent, but Roy caught the shuttered expression on Riza's face. He couldn't place it.
"A few start of the term notices before you're sent off to bed…" The headmaster says.
Roy has heard the speech before and it's the same as last year.
Don't go into the Forbidden Forest without a teacher. No magic in the hallways or between classes. Quidditch try outs would be held in the second week. A list of forbidden items. The usual things.
But he was focused on Riza who, unlike the rest of the students, was not looking at Headmaster Grumman, but at the table.
With the cutlery items and food gone Roy again notices the gouges on the table's surface.
"Riza?" He whispers, but is shushed by an older Hufflepuff across from them. Roy glares but obliges.
Soon everyone is standing to follow the prefects back to their respective Houses and Roy has to go.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Roy promises.
"Tomorrow. Goodnight, Roy." Riza replies, a smile that Roy knows if forced on her face.
He doesn't know what happened. One minute she was fine and the next she was upset again.
But he has to go, so with one last goodnight he leaves the crowd of Hufflepuffs.
He's about to leave the Great Hall when he sees that Riza has separated herself from her housemates and his curiosity is piqued as well as his worry when he sees who she's talking to.
"Roy?" Maes calls, and Roy sends a quick glance his way but looks back at Riza and the teacher she's following down the hall. That professor was not the Head of Hufflepuff and they were going in the opposite direction of Hufflepuff's common rooms.
"Go on ahead, I'll catch up." He says, already following after Riza.
Maes follows Roy's gaze. "Oh for the love of Merlin-" But Roy has already gone and Maes glowers after him but continues on his way to the Slytherin common room without his friend.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Please review! This will have a second chapter.