Twilight had crept up on us, the stars more visible in Scottish fertile land than the bustling city of London.
In the time, I struck up a tentative friendship with Hermione. We found out we both had mutual love for studying and could both recite Hogwarts a History.
Ron... Not so much.
I didn't like his carelessness nor the fact he was an airhead. However I would tolerate him for Harry's sake.
The train slowed to a stop and I approached the window, hiding the fact I was awkward with the long robes.
All I could see was darkness and foliage.
"Let's go before it starts to crowd."
That was another thing I liked about Hermione, she liked control just as I did and it was exciting to not have some mindless fool.
A pale tall boy, with hair that rivaled the white of a falling snowflake, strutted towards my group, his angular facial structure more pronounced with his haughty expression.
"So this is famed Ezra Potter. I met your brother while getting robes, I was going to see you while we were coming to Hogwarts but..."
Fred and George were suddenly the objects of his disgusted glare.
Malfoy looked at the others accompanying me with judgmental eyes. I knew who he was. The boy was easy to spot due to the description Harry had given me, and no else had hair like that.
"...I was held back." Raising my eyebrows in fake disinterest, his face was smooth as porcelain but the fragility was not present; he continued his monologue.
"It would do you wrong to befriend this crowd. I can help you with that."
"Because you're a Malfoy?"
A wolf whistle sounded in the background.
He looked even more egocentric when he saw I knew his name. The aristocrat thought so much of his name that he didn't even think it might not be a positive reason as to why I knew his name.
His smirk wiped off when Ron's snort reached his ears.
"Something funny... Weasley? The number one bloodtraitor accompanied by his favorite beaver mudblood."
Hermione flushed. It probably had to do with the beaver comment because I sure didn't know what mudblood meant.
He turned towards Harry as if searching for a stronger reaction then mine.
Offering Harry his hand, Malfoy was rebutted by his icy look.
It was nearly cute the way Malfoy thought he could have me if Harry was on his side.
"I think I can tell who the wrong crowd is for myself, thanks," he said flatly.
That's my boy!
Malfoy's eyes widened less than the width of a petal put closed back down in a incredulous squint.
Never been rejected before, have you? You spoiled brat.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "We wouldn't want you to go the same way your parents because of foolishness."
The same way the whistle came, a cry of outrage reverberated against the ancient walls.
Turning to me, he said, "Do you have more sense, Ezra?"
Did Mr.-I'm-Better-Than-Everybody-Else seriously expect me to like him after he offended my entire family?
"Listen Frosty-"
"Oh dear..." muttered Harry, in full knowledge I could hear him and would keep going.
"No one tells me what to do nor do they offend my brother and presume I'm going to be all buddy-buddy with them," he had started to lower his hand, scowl in place but I was on a roll.
"I don't wish to be your enemy, especially so soon, but I will not be your ally. Yet."
They were so easy and gullible behind their facade of sharpness, falling for the hook just as their inferiors did.
"Besides you are a Malfoy."
Wait for it...
His infuriating smirk was equally radiant. He would need more high class pampering to pick out the fake. A liar would not be a proficient liar if they could not see the lies themselves.
My hand was lifted in his obstructive cold grasp.
My mouth curved into a small poisonous smile.
And Draco Malfoy fell into my grasp.
OoOoooOoooOoooOoo
Ron wouldn't stop staring. It was beginning to annoy me.
"Take a picture Weasley, it lasts longer."
The red that filled his face matched perfectly with his hair.
"How could you just accept what Malfoy said?"
"Mr. Weasley! Am I going to have to give you detention before even starting term?"
Professor Minerva McGonagall's voice rung out the corridor.
She had come and introduced herself right after the Malfoy incident and brought us to the doors of the Great Hall.
I liked her. She seemed like a stern woman, not to be crossed with but fair. She was the kind of teacher that you would actually learn something.
It had been nice to almost fangirl over the ghosts that had come out with Hermione because we both knew what they were.
But now things were turning serious. I would be making my first impression with the school. I accepted nothing but the best out of myself.
I wasn't nervous about nerves. Nerves? What nerves? It was my style to be cool and collected about the event but being nervous over the thought of nerves. Sometimes I confused even myself.
The doors groaned as they opened.
The sight was- to put it simply- magical.
No pun intended.
Candles floated, flames so close to the ceiling they seemed to brush and children gaped.
I walked with Hermione and Harry at either side. All of us had been driven momentarily speechless and the buzzing from the present students faded into nothingness.
The flustered face of one Hannah Abbott pulled me out of my momentary awe. The girl was sorted in Hufflepuff and I truly began to wonder what my house would be.
The answer was Slytherin. Even if I studied like a Ravenclaw and had Gryffindor qualities, Hogwarts a History said Slytherin was for the ambitious and cunning and that was, in general, who I was.
Of course, they say we don't always know our own selves.
But what was the point of being cunning if you broadcasted your cunningness?
No, I would go in the house my brother went.
As time passed I started to fidget. Why did "Potter" have to be so far back?
Hermione was sorted in Gryffindor although that didn't make sense because she was a total Ravenclaw.
I looked up when McGonagall gave an abrupt pause. All this times she had been unfaltering in the name calling...
"Potter, Harry!"
Everyone was pinpointing their attention on him. There were murmurs all over and I wished they would care that they were making him uncomfortable.
But no one did.
To his credit, he was a hat stall. According to Hogwarts a History, these people were very unique and well rounded, with more than one characteristic.
He took nearly five minutes and even the audience was becoming exasperated. Until the very sound I was dreading was heard.
"Gryffindor!"
The claps were deafening and cries of: "We got Potter," were heard.
It was degrading.
"Potter, Ezra."
The silence was the same, plus whispers of a lightning bolt.
I could understand Harry, the pairs of eyes seemed to physically weigh and when I felt an even more intense stare, I looked up to be locked in unearthly blue pools for a whisper of a second until I turned around and my vision went dark with the ratty hat covering my eyes.
"Just for that occlumency you should be in Slytherin."
"What?"
"Child, lower your barriers, I can't sort you properly. I was magiked to sort young inexperienced children without trained mentality, not this."
"Then how do you explain why I'm young and with a so called mentality?"
"You have an affinity."
"But how?"
"How to lower the shields which is what you should be doing, or how you have the affinity?"
"Both."
"I won't tell you until you give me access to your mind and let me sort you although I can tell one house is out already."
"That sounds very creepy. And I didn't even know I had an affinity. How do I know you're never lying? How am I supposed to control it?"
"Well, since you don't believe me, then what is saying you even have the affinity to control? You have very contrasting and messy thoughts child."
"Then let's assume you're telling the truth. How do I control it?"
"It's not about control, dumb child, it's about your own mind correlating to your thoughts."
I was positively ashamed that my response was: "Huh?" And then when the dumb comment registered I uttered a profanity that had him reeling in annoyance.
"Relax, and let it happen."
I became aware of a buzzing deep in my mind. Leaning back a little while fluttering my eyes shut, I simply "let it happen."
It was odd, I felt like I was in Nirvana but another part was shrieking for exposing what makes me Ezra Potter: my mind and soul.
"Now that's better! Time to get on with the sorting."
I stayed silent, a grogginess descending upon me.
"Aren't you just a little Ravenclaw? With a sharp mind like you, it would take them all by storm. And yet that is not even close to your predominant ways is it?"
I swept my eyes through the cracks of the floor, not wanting to meet the stares of the people but my eyes still being draw to my brothers emerald orbs.
"You have the cunning and ambition of a Slytherin alright. A bit too much actually. You remind me of a boy I sorted some decades ago. You believe you could control them all..."
"And Gryffindor?"
"And that is why you are a living contradiction. What kind of Slytherin would do the things you do? Yes you have some Gryffindor qualities, mostly loyalty but to only one person I this world."
"My brother." I whispered.
My decision was resolved. Besides, who cared about some stupid house? And what idiot thought they were cunning and announced they were cunning by being in the house known for it?
"I see, it is your choice and I can see you're a very unique specimen, undercover girl."
"Wait! What about my affinity? You promised to tell me!"
"I promised, I never vowed dumb child."
"Gryffindor!"
The hat was ripped off of my face to the incredulous face of Minerva McGonagall.
"What?"
"It was an impressive hat stall."
The people seemed to realize I had been sorted.
A boom a sound came from the table housing Harry.
I promised, I did not vow dumb child.
The words kept thundering in my mind, I was dumb. How could I be so stupid to let the hat get what he wanted first!
Even Harry's warm embrace didn't help.
I think he knew, I had made my affinity for Slytherin known after all, not to mention I was conversing with that traitorous hat for who knows how long.
A clinking came from the high table.
"Welcome!" The blue eyed man said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
"Thank you!"
Can he not?
But this was Dumbledore, the man who had access to our banking account and left us, left us, the supposed heroes, with that slimy family.
On that cue he looked at me. Before his eyes could wander below my face, I put my left arm in my lap, hiding the gold bracelet that officially declared I could take care of my own finances instead of him.
His semi-amused expression revealed he already knew.
Damn Hagrid.
"Ouch!" Hissed Harry.
I distractedly turned towards him.
"What?"
"I don't know; who is that man in the black robes?"
"That's Snape. Stay clear of him, he's no fun." Intoned Fred.
I turned to the dark man and found him staring at Harry. When I kept staring at him, for a change, he finally seemed to notice me but looked away.
What was his problem, especially with Harry?
"Why did you say ouch?"
"I don't know, I just got this faint headache."
Thinking about it, I has that headache as well.
Narrowing my eyes, I was about to respond when desert arrived.
I was too full. Even the strange and familiar pastries didn't arouse the want to eat. I had never eaten so much in my life.
The best part was the fact that I could eat whatever. No meat for the first time in eleven years was amazing.
"Can we leave already?"
"And get lost, forever-"
"-only to find your bones a thousand years later?" George finished off.
"I won't get lost."
"You don't know this castle at all, trust us-"
"-you will get lost."
I wondered if Harry and I ever did that. We were twins as well but the personality was very different, these two seemed like carbon copies.
It proved inconsequential, for we were released not five minutes later.
The prefects were gathering us up and I followed him, looking at the Slytherins without wistfulness.
I would rise to the top in all houses.
When we reached the Gryffindor common room after uttering fortuna major to a moving painting, we came upon a cozy room with nice temperature and cushioned seats begging to be sat on.
It could be worse, at least it wasn't some sky cell with the only wall missing giving way to massive drop or anything. The food had left me sleepy so I retired in tow with Hermione quickly to the girls room after kissing Harry good night.
The affection was strange, but I felt something out of the ordinary fit the circumstances.
The girl got the bed next to my own, the one next to the window. My gaze had focused on it since the second I walked into the room.
Seeing the full moon and the sparseness of it all gave me comfort. Maybe this world has something to offer after all.
The sight of a strangely beautiful creature with willowy wings and a skinless jaw was the last thing I saw before my eyes shut for the night.
