Many Things
Under the Sorting Hat
The first thing Draco Malfoy noticed about Astoria Greengrass was the way she looked at things.
"Greengrass, Astoria!"
The girl looked positively terrified as she approached the Sorting Hat. Of course, it wouldn't have helped that her first Hogwarts experience was the Dementors. That hadn't been that fun for Draco, either, but he'd never let someone know that by looking at him.
"Hufflepuff," said Pansy Parkinson derisively.
Daphne Greengrass, the girl's sister, looked at Pansy. Her entire family had been in Slytherin, and she obviously didn't want anything negative said about her sister.
"Shut it, Parkinson, or the next thing to have its soul sucked out will be you!" she growled.
"Scared of the Dementors like Potter?" asked Draco. "Oooh!"
He pulled the hood of his school robes over his head and continued to moan.
"So mature," sniffed Daphne, turning away from his antics.
Draco got a better look at Astoria as the Hat was lowered over her head. Her light brown hair, gentle smile and heart shaped face was about as different as one could get from her sister.
"Maybe Ravenclaw," said Blaise.
"Oh please, Blaise. I'll give you ten galleons if you're right about that one!" Pansy said, eyes gleaming at the bet.
"I say Slytherin," put in Daphne. "Twenty galleons!"
"Someone's feeling cocky. What about you, Draco?" Pansy asked, turning her adoring eyes on the boy.
Draco looked at Astoria again. It had been nearly two minutes since the hat had been put on the girl's head. Maybe she'd be a Hatstall. They were rare; it hadn't happened in about twenty years. It really would be something to see a member of a family that had been Slytherin as old as time to wind up in Gryffindor. Feeling oddly generous towards both Astoria and her older sister, he shook his head at Pansy's question.
The dementors were affecting him, he knew it.
"Oh, who cares anyway?" he said carefully, not really wanting to answer the question. "Where's Potter?" That always kept them busy.
"Word is he fainted on the train!"
Draco sniggered, though he kept his eyes trained on the youngest Greengrass sister. The Hat was still determining which House to put her in.
Oh, what was he thinking? He didn't care what House this girl was in. She could be a Gryffindor, and where would these thoughts get him then?
Stupid dementors.
The hat seemed to come to a conclusion as it opened its mouth. Blaise checked his watch.
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Four minutes and thirty-two seconds. Nearly a Hatstall," he said in his typical bored drawl.
The House clapped as Astoria sat down across from Draco, next to her sister.
"Congratulations," Draco told her.
The others looked at him in surprise, but one hard look froze them all in their tracks. Pansy looked as if someone had forced her to swallow dragon dung.
Now that he thought about it, she looked like that most of the time.
"Thanks!" Astoria said, flushed with excitement, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was talking to the boy who practically ran Slytherin House. "The Hat debated about Hufflepuff for the longest time, but it decided on Slytherin in the end. Do you have any idea how disappointed my parents would have been if I wasn't a Slytherin?"
Oh, he had an idea all right, but didn't voice it. Theodore Nott took the opportunity to get someone in his house to like him, though. Round-faced, clumsy and rather short, Theodore was mistaken for a Hufflepuff more often than not.
"Yeah! My Da said he'd disown me, but I don't know if—"
"Theodore?"
"Yes, Malfoy?"
"Shut up."
Astoria did not look impressed by this display; if anything she looked rather miffed. What in the name of Merlin was wrong with this girl, and why did he care?
Dementors. Dementors were ruining his life.
The uncomfortable silence continued for a long moment until Daphne and Pansy started squabbling over the twenty Galleons that were owed. Things were back to normal in Slytherin house, for now. Everything but Draco Malfoy.
Curse those dementors.