Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Franchise and all it encompasses belongs to J.K. Rowling not me and I am making no profit off of it or this work.
You place us in a house by age 11.
A prescribed place where we will forever be categorized.
No one is exempt.
This will follow us.
I will always be defined by who I was when I was 11.
Cunning, brave, smart or loyal?
What was my defining trait?
Will it still be true in seven years when I leave these halls?
Probably not,
I will change, grow, live….
but what do these things really mean?
Cunning means you are sly?
Cunning means villain.
Brave means you are here to save us all?
Brave means hero.
Smart means you don't care?
Smart means you are a bystander.
Loyal means you are a fool?
Loyal means follower.
So who am I?
Villain, hero, bystander or follower?
At 11 I am designated but by age 12 is this still me?
Probably not, but then again if you place a person in a mold can they ever truly grow outside it?
I am not just a hero, villain, follower or bystander.
I am the hero of my own story.
I am the villain of your story.
I am the follower of their story.
I am the bystander of that story.
I am loyal to him.
I am brave to them.
I am cunning with it.
I am smart with her.
I am not forever who you designated me as when I am 11.
I am both more and less and yet you diminish me to this person, this trait, this position.
From age 11 for the rest of my life, I will be defined by who you said I was when I was 11, and if you can't choose...if I don't fit into a box then I have to choose.
I have to decide and then I am alone, isolated by my own inability to break the mold of my own choosing.
Don't do this.
Don't destroy me before I have had the chance to live.
Don't make me my parents in these peoples eyes, now and forever.
Don't give me a reason to never be trusted again.
Don't shape my life here and now.
Don't stop who I could become in one moment.
Please..."Slytherin!"
Never mind, my path is set, the part assigned...So I am to be the villain in this story.