Augustus Gresham
Augustus was excited to finally be going to Hogwarts. It wasn't that he wanted to get away from his family, but being the oldest of four he was looking forward to getting some alone time. Walking through the barrier to Platform 9¾ with his family, Augustus immediately spotted his best friend, Ara Malfoy, chatting animatedly to her brother and his friends.
Ara's brother, Scorpius, had started at Hogwarts the year before, so over the Summer Augustus had got to know some of Scorpius' friends since they all seemed to be over at Malfoy Manor at the same time as him. Most of them were in Slytherin, with the exception of Ara's cousin, Caspar, and a girl called Rose. They were all decent people, but Augustus wasn't sure he wanted to be a Slytherin. He knew Ara was hoping for Slytherin, her whole family had been in Slytherin, but Augustus just couldn't see himself fitting in. Plus he knew from Scorpius' friends that having a friendship with people from other houses was possible.
Augustus looked up at his mother, asking with his eyes if they could go over and say hello. His mother nodded her head and Augustus bounded over to his best friend. When Augustus reached her, Ara just held up her hand – the signal she used when she wanted to finish talking.
"…so then the stairs started to shake and I fell through them! I was stuck under them for hours since we have no door leading into there. Scorpius had to get Fauna, our house elf, to get me out." Ara was telling Albus Potter and his little sister about the last two weeks of the summer. Nothing much had happened, apart from when Scorpius lost Ara's pygmy puff and he was trying to use magic to find him again, accidentally turning the stairs into quicksand while Ara was on them.
Ara went over to Augustus then, smothering him in a hug so tight it would seem like they hadn't seen each other in months, not just the three days it had been since they went shopping in Diagon Alley.
"Gus, I don't believe you've met Albus' little sister. Augustus this is Lily Potter, Lily – Augustus!" Ara announced with a flourish. If there was one thing Ara Malfoy was particularly good at it was meeting new people.
Augustus introduced himself to Lily and caught up with the older boys (and Rose) and before too long it was time to get on the train. He and Ara split off from the rest of the group to find their own compartment on the train, finding an unoccupied one where Augustus was able to see his mother and wave to her as the train sped off.
"So, Gus, do anything interesting these last three days?" Ara asked him, falling into their usual routine of catching up with each other.
"I've told you, Ara, don't call me Gus!" Augustus told her with a sigh. That girl never listened.
"Well I'm not calling you Augustus, so until one of us comes up with a better nickname for you then Gus it is!"
Just then the compartment door slid open and a tall boy stood in the frame. Augustus vaguely recognised him as Albus' older brother.
"What's this I hear about someone needing a nickname?" the boy asked. "James Potter!" he told Augustus sticking his hand out, so he had been right – it was Albus' older brother.
"Augustus Gresham," Augustus replied, James made a funny face at this.
"Augustus Gresham? That's a bit of a mouthful," he pointed out, as if Augustus wasn't already aware of his own name.
"Your point is?" he challenged, staring the older boy down.
"My point is, Gresham, that the lady is right. You do need a new nickname. But fear not, I shall not rest until my comrades and I have come up with the perfect name for you!" James told him. Augustus could tell from the way he spoke that this boy was used to putting on performances. It wasn't until James had said this that Augustus realised there were more boys stood behind James in the doorway.
"What about Gusty?" one of the boys said.
"No!" Augustus shouted, if he were to have a nickname, it would not be something embarrassing like 'Gusty'.
"The kid's right, Fred," James told the ginger boy behind him, "Gusty really is an awful name. But never fear, we shall give him one when he joins us in Gryffindor. He looks like a Gryffindor. You are coming into Gryffindor, aren't you?" James directed the last part of his sentence to Augustus.
"I, uh…" Augustus started, before being cut off once again.
"How rude, you never introduced me to your lady friend over here!"
"Well you didn't exactly…" Ara was the one to cut him off this time.
"Ara Malfoy!" She proclaimed, almost outdoing James the amount of charm she managed to put into her voice.
"Another Malfoy? I never knew Albus' kidnapper had such a lovely younger sister. Any chance I could sway you over to my side?" James asked.
"Not a one, I'm afraid." Ara replied, mock sympathy in her voice. "Although Gusty here has yet to make up his mind so you may still get him!"
"I thought we said no to Gusty?" the ginger boy that had suggested it, Augustus thought his name was Fred, objected.
"Alas, young Gusty here refused to let me call him Gus like a normal person, and Augustus is such a long name I couldn't possibly say that every time I see him, so you see we appear to be in a bit of a pickle!" Ara replied, proving just how good she was with new people.
"Are you sure you two aren't related, mate?" Another boy asked James who just laughed.
"Later Ara, Augustus." James called as he walked out the compartment, shutting the door behind him.
Augustus sat in silence for a minute, contemplating what had just happened. Before that conversation he had seriously been considering Gryffindor, but if that's who he had to share a Common Room with then maybe he'd have to reconsider.
An hour later Augustus found himself sitting opposite Ara, a selection of sweets and other food from the trolley spread out between them, and joined by a nervous looking muggle-born boy whom Augustus had found sitting on his own.
"So, which house are you hoping to be sorted into, Carl?" Ara asked the boy, trying to get him to calm down. He still looked scared out of his wits, the poor kid.
"Hou… House?" Carl asked, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Yeah, the four houses of Hogwarts," Augustus told him. "There's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin."
"You get sorted into them when you get to the castle." Ara added.
"S-Sorted how?" Carl asked, all the talk of houses obviously not calming him down.
"Oh you know, they use magic look into your brain and see all of your deepest darkest secrets in front of everyone and then that tells them which house you should be in." Augustus told him, not missing a beat. Noticing how scared Carl now looked, Ara piped up again to calm him down.
"Really, Gusty? Leave the poor boy alone, you've scared him half to death." Ara scolded him, before turning back to the boy, "It's nothing like that, when you go into the Great Hall – that's the main hall where we eat all our food – all us first years stand in the middle and are called up one by one to the front. Then we have to sit on a stool and they put a hat on your head – one that can see into your head, but just to see whether you have the qualities of each house – and then the hat announces, oh the hat can talk by the way, to the rest of the students in the hall which house you'll be joining, and you go and join their house table. It's not that bad, really."
Carl seemed to calm down a bit at this, but before they could get him to really relax the compartment door opened again.
"Well hello there Ara! Gussy…"
"No!" Augustus shouted at Caspar Zabini, one of Ara's brother's friends, who was stood in the door.
"Damn," Caspar turned and looked back down the train, "Albus, tell your idiot brother he said no!"
Augusts sighed; James Potter was going to be the bane of his life at Hogwarts. Looks like he wasn't going to get the peace and quiet from being away from his family he was hoping for.
Words: 1,435
AN: This was originally meant to be a one-shot leading up to Augustus' sorting, but he's being so demanding that he's insisting this become at least a two-shot if not a full multi-chap in which case this will be moved.
But this should, hopefully, be a collection of one-shots of my OCs I want to write about. Let me know what you think, I'll love you forever :)
Written for:
Hogwarts Fair;
Guess the Name of the Dragon - Augustus Gresham.
A Variety of Prompts Challenge;
Harry Potter Words - Houses.
If You Dare;
575 - Yes or No.