written for tgs scavenger hunt: by victoria (extramundane epeolatry) and dee (like firing) - a [short] collaboration
prompt: write about a muggleborn reacting to their new robes
points: 5
word count: 512
school/house: hogwarts, slytherin
The robes are odd.
They billow in the weirdest places. They're a bit heavy-set on the shoulders. And they are a very, very deep black.
Colin is used to comfortable jeans, to loose-fitting t-shirts and nice tennis shoes. Colin is used to clothes that cover him up, that are snug, that are, to him, normal. Normal, of course, has changed. Now normal is not regular people, with their shorts and khakis and shirts — now normal has a name, Muggle, and now he is not part of the same world, the same casual everyday wear, the same anything.
This new thing is just — what is it? Robes? It seems so utterly ridiculous. It seems so outworldly and irregular and non-conforming and just — just weird.
So as Colin stands in front of the mirror in his house, the robes ill-fitting on him, all he feels is strange. That's it — that's the word. He feels like he's not a 'Muggle' but not a 'Wizard' either. He feels like he does not belong.
As he looks into the face of the boy in the mirror, he tries to find something different. But nothing is. The same nose, same odd eyebrows, long lashes, the too-bright cheeks. It is all the same, like it was a week before. But it is deceiving. It is not the same. It is odd, is a strange, strange thing.
But Colin has never been normal. Always, Colin has been "that freak," "that kid with the weird face," and "look what that kid can do with his paper, that's not normal." Colin has never belonged in the world that he has grown up in. He doesn't know if he'll belong in the world that he will be spending the rest of his life in, but he hopes so. He really hopes so.
He finally lets his eyes let go of the image in the mirror, and they drift to the study desk next to it. The desk still has the box that the robes had come in on it, the box he had opened minutes ago (though it felt like he had been staring at himself for an eternity) excitedly, ready for the first taste of a new life. Next to the box, however, sits his camera - his one friend, the one thing that didn't think he was weird.
Colin reaches over and grabs the bright blue camera, turning it on. He waits a second before moving it to his eyes. Then, hesitation gone, he presses his finger down. The click makes a loud sound in the empty room. It captures the boy in front of the mirror.
It is just a click, but as Colin takes the camera down from his face a grim smile has settled across his lips. That sound is a catalyst. That sound is a beginning.
Whether the beginning will be good, whether it will lead to something bad, whether it will end up in tragedy or not, it will be a start away from freak and weirdo and ugly, and he can work with that.