Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not even a small part! :D
My dear son,
Under normal circumstances, I would certainly wish that my darling son enters my own and of course, favourite, house, Slytherin. However, as circumstances are very abnormal and I believe that he-who-must-not-be-named is not gone, I would not want you to interact that much with those little Death Eaters. I would highly suggest you pick Ravenclaw instead.
I shall name you a few of the little Death Eaters that I've heard of in your year according to their level of danger: Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Daphne Greengrass, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode. I hope you will interact with them as little as possible.
Lots of Love,
Mother.
PS: Oh, and the owl is your new pet.
Blaise had just finished reading his mother's letter which arrived with an owl which somehow snuck onto the train but have thousands of bumps from being smacked around the hogwarts train. He stroked the owl softly and it didn't seem to hate him so he supposed it was okay. In fact, it was nibbling his hand rather affectionately.
He couldn't believe that his mother actually wrote a letter about houses! It was definitely his mother with that formal tone she was using with him but really? Did she honestly believe he could yell at the stupid hat and make sure he got into Ravenclaw? Does it really matter where he got into unless it is Slytherin since... well, he would rather not hang out with "little Death Eaters" as his mother so eloquently phrased it.
His train of thoughts had barely even ended when two boys flung the door open. Once they entered, they slammed the door shut. The taller and thinner (and scrawnier) and clearly more polite one, lifted a finger to his mouth to indicate he should be quiet. He mouthed a please to him too.
Blaise decided to remain silent as he had for the past half an hour or so. In about two seconds, a big bulky boy peered into the room and seeing no one besides Blaise, he turned and was about to move on when a second bulky boy (this one was slightly less bulky than the first) rammed into him. They pushed each other out of sight and rolled to a far corner, away from this compartment.
"I'll have to say I'm on your side, won't I?" the polite boy groaned in defeat.
The smaller blond one smirked at him. "And that just means I can rub it in Goyle's face that I was right! You're my best friend, Theo, of course you'd help me!"
"Draco!" The boy called Theo said sternly. "I did not agree to join because you are my best friend. It was simply because... because..." He stuttered, clearly not wanting to finish that sentence.
The tactless little blond grinned at him cheekily. "He was going to use Cru..."
"Don't say it!" Theo snapped. Draco rolled his eyes but he didn't say it. Wait... Was that boy about to say Crucio because that was the torturing spell and they shouldn't even know spells, much less spells like this unless...
They couldn't be those little Death Eaters, could they. He hoped not. First people he gets a chance to interact with (his mother never let him out of the house when he was younger) and it had to be dangerous people. Well, not exactly dangerous but their parents sure are. He traced back. What did they call each other? Draco (that's obvious) and Theo... Theodore? Just great. And it had to be the first two on the list. His fist clenched around the letter, tighter than before.
"I know you're here," a girl called out, not very loudly before she swung the door open and stepped into the compartment daintily before closing the door. The first thought that passed through his mind was that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. Draco seemed a little smitten by her too. Theo however, seemed to have no effect whatsoever to her beauty but quirk an eyebrow, as though asking a question.
"I'm getting tired of their consistent fighting," she explained completely ignoring the fact that Blaise was there but he caught the slight strain in her voice. "Just go out and say that you decided to join Draco."
"Why did you even join the fight in the first place?" Theo asked.
The girl giggled. "There was an uneven number. If I don't join, they can't begin and it was sooo boring there so I thought a fight could liven things up. Clearly, a fight between two idiots doesn't liven things up." She rolled her eyes in disgust.
Theo stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. "Right... Real smart Daphne Greengrass. I don't even need to begin to tell you why Tori is smarter than you, do I?" The girl, Daphne, just laughed. Blaise sighed internally. Daphne Greengrass was third on the list. What was going to happen now? Vincent, fourth on the list, would stroll in here before he knew it.
And that was exactly what happened. Except Vincent was dragging the other fat boy, namely the fifth in the list, Gregory.
"I caught him!" He called excitedly. "I caught him, Draco!"
"Cool!" Draco said in response. "Thanks, Vince. And you lost Greg, just admit it!" He said to the boy on the floor. At this point, Blaise was about to chase them all out. Hey, what happened to privacy? They broke into his compartment and then start arguing without any consideration for his peace! He just prayed that Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode, sixth and seventh in the list would not come in.
Of course they stepped in next. Pansy sniffed. "It's not fair that you guys never call us!"
Millicent rolled her eyes at Pansy's reaction. "As long as I don't miss a fight (she cracked her knuckles at this point), I don't care!"
"There isn't," Draco said calmly. "We won."
Millicent growled at him. "No prove! Theo didn't say he'd help you!" At that she launched at him. Pansy rammed at her and before he knew it, they turned it into a full-fledged war. Great!
"Guys, quit fighting! At this rate, I'm starting to think it's addictive since you guys do it nonstop!" Theo sighed in annoyance to no avail. Blaise saw a spark of anger in his eyes a second before he finally lost it and yelled. "STOP! I was helping Draco. Now stop this incessant fight already!"
First to react was Gregory, whose mouth dropped open in shock. Millicent just returned to looking bored. Vincent was cheering. Daphne giggled, as though she expected it. Draco grinned smugly at Gregory and Pansy jumped and hug Draco in victory. His look changed into one of disgust.
Finally, after about ten seconds pass, the two parties shook hands, Gregory looking specially depressed. Theo sighed, this time in relief though. When their whole affair settled down, Blaise finally spoke for the first time. "Now will you get out of the compartment."
Vincent, Gregory and Pansy gaped at his daringness. Draco looked impressed and Millicent did too, but less. Daphne laughed, either at him or the three idiots looking at him with their mouth hanging open. If they didn't shut it soon, they would probably start drooling, which would be gross.
Theo was the first to actually move, pushing them all out and shooting an apologetic look before he finally did left. Blaise sat down in peace once again. The whole event had wasted so much of his precious time of trying to figure out how the hell to convince the hat that he was a Ravenclaw and not a Slytherin. He did not want to, in any case, end up sleeping in the same dorm as any of them, especially not Vincent or Gregory. He didn't mind Theo but he didn't really seem the Slytherin type anyway.
Bullstrode, Crabbe, Goyle, Greengrass, Malfoy, Nott and Parkinson all got into Slytherin. It was expected for all but Nott but Blaise swore he saw him twiddle with his robes, like he was nervous but he twiddled far too long. He must have done something but... what? How did he get the hat to let him in Slytherin.
Before he could figure it out, "Zabini, Blaise" was called and he walked shakily to the stool. The first thing he thought was, Please let me in Ravenclaw. Apparently, it wasn't the right thing to say. The hat got angry. Trying to trick me, aren't you boy? I've already been tricked once this sorting. I'm not going to tolerate it any longer.
Boy, the hat sounds angry. Does this mean Theo managed to trick the hat. YOU KNEW ABOUT IT! I swear this badge is produced of PURE EVILNESS! Before Blaise could explain he guessed and he barely knew Theo, the hat yelled "SLYTHERIN!" Great, just great. He just hope he got stuck with some people who were NOT involved in war.
He heard the loud cheers from Slytherin, almost as loudly as when the little Death Eaters got sorted in. Merlin, he sounded really prejudiced with the little Death Eater line but he didn't know what else to call them. No one goes reciting names in their head every single time you want to call a group of people, do they?
It was only when he heard the Gryffindor female prefect, Audrey, loudly tell a first year it was expected since his mother killed so many people who loved her and even married her for money, did he understand the loud cheer. He felt his hand curling into fists. His mother wouldn't kill. She is not evil... distant, not evil. At that point, he decided that Gryffindors were bad.
The rest of the dinner passed in a blur and once the Slytherin prefect brought them up to the common room, he headed straight to the room. Most of the first years were interacting and chatting, since they've mostly already met. Not him, his mother was never close to any of this people. In fact, she was rarely close to many. She attended muggle business stuff mostly.
He couldn't fell asleep and he was glad he couldn't. Because just by his luck, his roommates were Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. Basically all of the little Death Eaters who weren't girls. He tried to ignore them but sadly, they remembered him.
Vincent cracked his knuckles and growled menacingly, "You were the boy that was rude to us in the compartment." Gregory joined Vincent in glaring at Blaise, who was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Who was in that compartment first? But this was Slytherin. That wasn't the right thing to say, and he knew it.
"You have a problem with that?" He replied lightly, with the air of nonchalance. He might or might not be shaking like a leaf inside. He also might or might not have the urge to run away. Bloody hell, those two could look intimidating.
It was Blaise turn to roll his eyes. "What do you want? I need my beauty sleep, you know?"
Gregory blinked and turned to Vincent, as if unsure what they wanted. Vincent shrugged and they slipped back into their beds, to his relief. But then, he saw he saw Draco smirked and lean over mumbling something to Theo who smacked him on the back of his head.
At that sound, both Vincent and Gregory turned to face Theo who rolled his eyes. Draco waved them away and they went back to sleep. Their brainpower might not be much but he sure didn't want to try their arm power... although that could be all fats, not that he would say it to their face until he was sure.
That night, he fell asleep imagining himself being murdered by four little Death Eaters. It was just his luck that he couldn't have at least one non-little-Death-Eaters. Their fathers' must have pulled some string to put them together!
He woke early the next day, drenched in cold sweat, his mind still whirling in nightmares. They might or might not include certain little Death Eaters. The second he was ready, he stepped out of the room silently, going to make go to breakfast and leave for classes before any of the little Death Eaters entered the Great Hall.
When he finally took a first breath of air which is not shared with the little Death Eater and could feel safe, someone gripped his hand tightly. He whimpered in fear and could feel himself drowning in one of his nightmares. Wait, cancel... He didn't whimper. He made a small noise that sounded a bit like a tiny scream. Better than a real scream still though.
Slowly, he turned and he found himself face to face with... Theodore Nott. He felt himself breathing a sigh of relief, very obviously. Perhaps he was second in ranking for danger but he was such a nice and sincere boy it was hard to feel afraid of him. He could be a very very good actor but still, it was hard to believe.
Theo chuckled at his reaction, "Why are you up so early?"
Blaise felt himself relaxing that he didn't ask about why he had such dramatic reaction. "Umm... Overexcited. This is the first time I've ever had any real contact with people my age. And I've never gone to school either." Oops, he said a little bit too much.
"That sounds depressing," he heard a drawling voice said, which was definitely not Theo. Oh no... unlike second in ranking, first in ranking could cut off as scary extremely well. "Why don't you come over my house for the Christmas Holidays? You seem decent enough to me. Vincent, Gregory, Pansy wouldn't mind because I said so. Millicent wouldn't mind an extra person to bully (Blaise shuddered). Daphne would just have to suck it up and Theo have a mind of his own." In a stage whisper, he added, "And Theo's supposed to be a Hufflepuff so we know he will say yes."
Theo smacked Draco again. Draco smirked. "You were way more angry about that back in seven."
"I'm in Slytherin. They can't do anything about it now. There's no point in... except in front of dad of course." Blaise frowned at them in confusion but he was half-rejoicing that he didn't have to respond to Draco's offer. It would be rude to say no but saying yes... That would mean he must interact with them.
Draco laughed, repeat laugh, not snigger, at Blaise reaction. "He confused the hat! I've no idea how he did it but he made the hat show his house and change the words from 'Slytherin' to 'Hufflepuff'!" Blaise joined in the laughter but he saw Theo turn red.
"Back to the offer?" Theo asked, hoping to change the subject. Blaise groaned internally. He really didn't want to... Why not? He wasn't just sounding prejudice, he was actually prejudice. He was still naming them the little Death Eater when two of the highest danger ranking people are actually nice to him!
"Yeah... yeah, I'll go."
