A/N: Hello :) Thanks for reading this! I realise it may come off as a little odd at first (it's a bit odd to write too, as a matter of fact), but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway!
Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter :(
Everybody looked on as the new student walked in. It was too early for the Sorting of the first years, and this boy looked older than eleven anyway. The students all watched quietly as he walked towards the Staff table, exchanged a minute's worth of talk with Headmistress Sprout, and then turned around, facing them all. Upon noticing them all staring at him, he cowered a little, but the Headmistress saved him.
"Students," she said, standing up. All the chatter died down, for as far as it hadn't already. "I would like you to welcome Tony Philips. He will be taking his NEWTs this year and thus, his parents have requested for him to join us here." With a nod in the direction of the new student, Professor Sprout sat down again. The new student walked towards the Gryffindor table, apparently having been Sorted there already, and sat down hesitantly, a couple of seats away from everyone else.
Within seconds, the doors of the Great Hall flew open again, and the first years came in, effectively diverting the students' attention away from the new seventh year.
(_*_)
Watching the first years being called forward one by one, Tony was very grateful for this distraction. He hated being watched and he wasn't too fond of large crowds of people. He had rather stayed at home – he didn't see the point in coming here. His education wouldn't have been worse if his parents had kept teaching him.
But no, they wanted him to take real classes and interact with more people. Once this year was over, he would have to find a job and interact with people on a daily basis. He could do with some practice. Bullocks – he was doing just fine.
He managed to listen in to some of the conversations among the first years while still keeping a respectable distance. It might seem that he was afraid of people, but he wasn't. Honestly. He wasn't the most social type of person out there, but that didn't mean he was scared when faced with another person. He hadn't been Sorted into Gryffindor for nothing, he figured.
He was just… reserved. Yes, that had to be the right word. Everyone would be reserved if they had never been to a magical school before, after being homeschooled for the biggest part of their would-be secondary school career. It wasn't his fault. He was sure he'd come out of his shell eventually.
After eating as much as he possibly could, Tony looked around again. Some students were still stealing glances at him every now and then. A couple of boys down the Gryffindor table were whispering not very inconspicuously while eyeing him. He guessed that they were probably his dorm mates, by the looks of it. Smiling their way nervously, Tony wondered when this feast would end.
As if she was using Legilimency on him, Professor Sprout stood up. With a few more announcements, the students were sent to their common rooms. Loud noise followed these instructions and everybody in the Great Hall seemed to stand up at once. Tony gazed up at them. There had to be at least two, maybe three hundred students here. What a difference, compared to his lonely life at home.
Not that he was lonely at home – there were always the Muggle kids in his neighbourhood. But there were never three hundred people around him at once.
"Hello! You're Tony, right?" He looked up, startled. In front of him was a girl of about his age. She was smiling happily and Tony noticed that she was sporting Gryffindor colours.
"Yeah, that's me," he replied somewhat apprehensively. For some reason, girls had always made him slightly nervous.
"Hi," she said, greeting him for a second time. "I'm Marly, I'm the Head Girl. I'll guide you to the Gryffindor tower, alright?" She was still smiling at him, which was more than a little unnerving to Tony.
"Sure, that's fine with me," Tony replied. He didn't have another choice, really – although he did wonder why he couldn't have just followed the Prefects towards the common room. He got up as well and followed Marly out of the Great Hall.
"So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" she asked him as soon as he caught up with her.
He shrugged. "I've been here for only half a day," he said. "I don't really know yet."
"It's a great school," she told him. "You'll love it, I'm sure." Tony certainly hoped so. "Why did your parents send you here only now?" she wanted to know. "Why didn't you just start here in your first year?"
Well. That was a good question. "They sent me here now because they thought the education here would be better than what they can offer me at home for my NEWTs." He was silent for a while, trying to come up with a good reason for his absence during the previous years. The fact that Marly kept looking at him didn't make that easier. "But… I don't know why they homeschooled me up until now. Maybe because it was possible. And now their knowledge had simply dried out."
Marly smiled widely. "Oh, okay. The people here are really nice, trust me. You'll fit in within days."
Tony just nodded, not knowing what to say to that. In the end, they made it to the common room, but there wasn't a second during which he felt comfortable. She kept on eyeing him in a way he couldn't quite decipher and he was glad, therefore, when she announced that they were there. He made sure that he heard the password to enter the common room correctly, and walked in after her.
She didn't give him time to be surprised at the sight, but just pulled him along as she made her way over to a group of students. Tony recognised some of them as the boys who had been whispering earlier, during dinner.
"Hey, guys," she greeted the group. "This is Tony, he's new."
One of the boys rolled his eyes. "Yes, Marly, we had gathered that much from Sprout." He turned to Tony. "You'd better ignore Marly, she's a little crazy at times." Now Marly rolled her eyes. Tony just nodded. If staring at him would become a habit of hers, he would indeed have to start practising ignoring her very soon.
"Maybe we should introduce ourselves!" another girl said suddenly, smiling as well. Tony had to wonder if this entire school was on happy pills. He hoped that they weren't. "Hi, Tony, I'm Flora. You know Marly, of course. This is Whitney, and Clara. And they are Roger, Zachary, Stan and Jeremiah."
Right. Tony could only hope that he would still remember all those names in the morning. He was sure that he had forgotten half of them already.
"We'll show you our dorm," one of the boys said, and Marly pouted.
"Are you going to bed already?" she asked. For the first time this evening, there was no smile on her face.
"Aren't you supposed to encourage that?" another girl asked. "You're Head Girl, after all."
"I guess…," Marly said, still sounding put out. "Oh well, we'll see you lot tomorrow then."
After everyone bade everyone a good night – it seemed that all the seventh years were good friends, which was quite a feat – they headed upstairs. While the other boys immediately made a beeline for their respective beds, Tony stood awkwardly for a moment. Then, he found his trunk standing at the foot of the only unoccupied bed.
As he walked over, the others scrambled up from their beds and moved towards the bathroom.
"Are you all using the bathroom at once?" Tony asked without realising it. He was surprised to learn this.
"Yeah, if that's necessary," one of his dorm mates – he was almost sure it was Stan – replied, shrugging. "Why?"
"He's probably used to having the bathroom all to himself," another boy answered before Tony had the chance to do so. The others laughed at this, and continued walking into the bathroom.
Wouldn't they want a little more… privacy? Tony thought to himself. He himself wouldn't say no to that. But obviously, none of these boys had anything they wanted to hide from the others. They could all use the bathroom at the same time.
As he searched through his stuff, Tony realised that he would have to get up and go to bed at odd times to avoid having to share the bathroom with his dorm mates. He frowned to himself. He hadn't given that any thought before coming here. Now, it would probably be one of the biggest challenges Hogwarts was going to have in store for him.
Having collected his stuff, he waited patiently for every boy to exit the bathroom. When he walked in there, he was almost blown away by all the stuff lying about – to think it was only the first day! Another something he would need to get used to. He could hear his dorm mates laugh and talk through the closed (and locked) door – most likely, they were talking about him. After all, he was new, and slightly weird already. He hoped that he wasn't too weird for them to hang out with. He'd worry about that in the morning, though. Now, he had more important stuff to do, like figuring out how to use this razor – just in case.
A/N: So, what do you think so far? Was it good? Bad? Somewhere in between? If you have any questions or comments about the story so far, don't hesitate to leave a review! :)