Opposites

Chapter 4, Hogwarts

Tom woke up at dawn. It was still dark, but there was a little light. Tom didn't hear much outside of the window, just some cars quietly driving by, which meant it was probably about 6 AM. Caroline was softly snoring somewhere in the room. He took his wand from his pocket, since he hadn't trusted putting it on the wardrobe. The only place he thought was safe enough for such a powerful, precious item was him. Tom looked at his wand for a while, much like a child looking at their new birthday present they got yesterday, and was getting out of bed when he stepped on something soft and squishy. He jumped back onto his bed and peered over to see what it was, wand ready, just in case. Upon inspection, however, he found that it was just Caroline sprawled on the floor.

"Caroline? Why's she sprawled on the floor like that?" Tom thought. He was more curious than anything else, but he still did feel a little worried. He didn't know how exactly Caroline had fallen asleep on the floor like that, and wondered if their new things had to do something with it. Judging by her position, she had already changed into her clothes, a white button shirt and a green skirt. Tom extended his arm to the wardrobe and quietly opened it. He took out his clothes, and piled them on his bed. Then, he silently shut the door and changed into his clothes on the bed. He didn't want to risk touching the floor, since Caroline was already laying down on it and he didn't know what might have happened.

"Whuzzaaa??? Jusa minu'..." Caroline moaned sleepily. Tom shook her even harder, and Caroline yawned, and seemed like she was about to get up, but slumped back to the floor, snoring. Frustrated, he shook her back and forth, and when that didn't work, Tom kicked her stomach a little more forcefully than he meant to. Tom felt the hard impact on Caroline and immediately regretted it. He hadn't meant to kick her so hard. Caroline yelped loudly and immediately got up. Fortunately, nobody in the Orphanage seemed to have been woken up by her loud noise. She looked around, rubbing her eyes and trying to locate the attacker. Tom could see that her eyes were starting to tear up while she was clutching her stomach.

"Tom?" Caroline asked. She looked around for a while before squinting at Tom, who was frozen in the exact position of kicking Caroline. He looked up at her, guiltily.

"I didn't mean to- I- I'm sorry-'' Tom stuttered.

Caroline glared at him.

"Why'd you kick me!?" she hissed. Tom wished he could go back in time and stop himself from kicking her, after the dark look she had on her face. Even in the dark, she was pretty scary.

"It's not my fault, I tried to wake you up before I resorted to kicking you." Tom curtly replied. Caroline looked at her clothes and dusted it off with her hands.

"Really? The only thing that came to your mind when you woke up early was to wake me up, too?" Caroline scoffed. Tom opened his mouth wide for a second, but quickly shut it. He hadn't thought of why he had been waking Caroline up. Maybe because he was worried.

"I was just curious," Tom thought to himself, "nothing more than curious."

"You still didn't apologize for kicking me, you know." she snapped. Tom sighed. He knew if he didn't apologize, Caroline would be in a foul mood for the rest of the day, and he didn't want Caroline to ruin his first time at Hogwarts with her mood.

"Fine," Tom said. "I'm sorry for kicking you because you wouldn't wake up when I tried."

"That doesn't sound like a genuine apology." she pointed out. Tom scowled at her, and she decided it better to just accept his apology. Although she could be scary sometimes, she knew too well how violent Tom could get when he got seriously angry. The only noises in the room now were the occasional footsteps or car driving by outside. Tom hadn't slept much, and he figured just a little more sleep couldn't hurt. He felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, then everything went black.

Tom was running along a dark corridor, into a black room. Behind him, a group of figures in a bright room were chasing after him. He felt himself jumping, higher and higher and higher… he looked around him, and the sky was wobbly. It turned day, then night, then day again… it felt like he banged his head on something and was dreaming the weirdest things his brain could think of. The strange dream had a pleasant feeling, and suddenly felt cold. He was eating a hat, when Mrs. Cole flew into the orphanage with a parachute...

Tom woke up to someone shaking him. He opened his eyes to see Coraline.

"What?" he groaned sleepily.

"Get up, It's 10:30 AM!l We only have 30 minutes to get to King's Cross!" Caroline panickingly shouted. Tom stood up, groggily packed his things, washed his face and ran out of the Orphanage, ignoring Billy's taunts, with Caroline tailing him close behind. They ran along the street, bumping into busy people, while Tom tried to properly put on his coat. He put his left arm into where the head would have gone. It was 10:45 when they finally reached King's Cross Station. Tom yanked Caroline up the stairs, Caroline giving out a short breath. As they were quickly walking along the platforms, Caroline grabbed her piece of parchment from her pocket, slightly stumbling.

"Platform 9 ? Just run into the brick pillar between platform 9 and 10… this is crazy- ow, Tom, can you let me go?" Caroline asked. Tom looked at her arm, and realized he was still holding it since he pulled her up the stairs. As he let go, Caroline smoothed her arm, wincing in the place where Tom had held it the hardest. They located the brick pillar between platform 9 and 10, and taking a big gulp, they ran into the brick pillar, head on. Tom braced for impact and closed his eyes, but instead he found himself running into a totally new platform. People dressed in cloaks and robes were bustling with various luggage. Caroline checked a big clock on the wall.

"We only have 5 minutes left to board the train! Come on, hurry up!" she said. They quickly got into the train. Inside, there were a number of other kids running around, chattering loudly and a popping sound every now and then. They weaved through the crowd of loud kids and found an empty compartment near the front of the train. They tossed their luggage under their seats, and sat down across each other. They sat in awkward silence together, Tom staring blankly at air while Caroline looked at her wand. The train started moving, whistling and lurching forward. After a short moment, a familiar face walked in front of the door, and Tom's stomach lurched.

"Hey, do you mind if I sit here?" Wurtsmouth asked. Tom wanted to say no and slam the door in his face, but Caroline replied first.

"Sure!" she chirped. Wurtsmouth smiled and came in the compartment, sitting next to Caroline. Tom looked away from them and stared out of the window as he tried to drown out the chattering two. There was a very interesting hill, he wondered how grass would taste like, probably like dirt… hey, was that a giant man riding a unicorn?

"Tom, TOM!"

Tom was snapped back to reality by Caroline.

"What?" he asked, a bit harshly. He preferred to see whatever his mind would make up to distract him rather than Wurtsmouth's face. At least his daydream was interesting, and pleasant to look at, unlike Wurtsmouth.

"What house d'you think you'll be in?" Caroline asked. Tom's brain reeled for a moment. House? What? Maybe he should have listened, even just a little, to Wurtsmouth.

"How would I know? I don't even know what a house is." he snapped. Tom saw Wurtsmouth and went into an even worse mood. He had to make an effort to resist poking Wurtsmouth's eyes with his wand.

"Hogwarts has four houses," Wurtsmouth explained, "Gryffindor, for the brave and courageous. Hufflepuff, for the nice and loyal. Ravenclaw, for the brainy kids, and Slytherin, well, most of the bad kids go into Slytherin, and almost none of them turn out good."

Tom thought about how Caroline was usually nice to the other orphans, and imagined she would be in Hufflepuff. However, he wasn't so sure about himself. He wasn't sure he'd be put in Gryffindor, as he didn't consider himself that brave or courageous. Judging by its description, it was mostly a house of heroes, and he certainly wasn't one. Hufflepuff was out of the equation, as he wasn't nice to anybody except Caroline, and by nice to Caroline he meant he didn't constantly have an urge to violently disfigure her face. Ravenclaw was for brains, and he thought maybe he would have a chance there. Slytherin, however, seemed like a far more reasonable choice for him, with all his violent thoughts, and even he knew that he wouldn't turn out to be a good person.

"Maybe I'll turn out to be some mad genius," Tom thought to himself. Caroline would never turn out to be a dark person, however, and that was a fact. He returned his gaze to the window as Caroline and Wurtsmouth went back to chattering. He desperately wanted to drown them out again…

"Hey Wurtsmouth! I've brought in my toad, you wanna see? Mum bought it for me, dad wasn't so hot about it, though.." a kid with bangs opened the door and entered the compartment, interrupting Tom's thoughts. He was holding a sickly, slightly brown looking frog. He looked as though he had once been green and healthy, and it had steadily declined with its aging..

"Cool!" Wurtsmouth exclaimed, and he stood up to look at it.

As Wurtsmouth stood there, looking and poking the frog, Tom stared at the floor, not knowing what to do. He was about to talk to Caroline when her shriek startled him. He looked up, and saw that Wurtsmouth had prodded the toad with his wand, causing the frog to jump in alarm and land on Caroline. Tom got up and quickly went to help her get rid of the toad, which was holding on for dear life. He finally got the toad off of Caroline, and threw it out of the compartment.

"Hey! That's my toad! I swear, if he's hurt in any way at all…I'll get you for this!" the owner fumed at Tom and stormed off to find his toad, with Wurtsmouth tailing along to help. Among the sea kids in the corridors, however, Tom thought it would be very lucky if they even saw the miserable thing again. He shut the door and sat back down, this time next to Caroline.

"Well, that was a… err… experience." Caroline positively said.

Tom didn't say anything.

Wurtsmouth and his friend didn't come back after the toad incident. Tom thought that they probably were either still looking for their toad, or they didn't bother coming back after Tom violently threw their toad. Either way, it was better for Tom.

"Hey, Tom, so I was asking earlier, what house do you think you'll be in? Wurtsmouth told me I'd probably be in Hufflepuff since I seemed nice. He said that he'd be a Hufflepuff, too, since his entire family were all Hufflepuff's, except one of his uncles, who was sorted into Ravenclaw. What about you? You're pretty smart, so you'll probably be in Ravenclaw. Hey, maybe even Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor! Even if you get into Slytherin, that doesn't necessarily mean you'd be a bad guy." Caroline said, trying to distract Tom from the toad incident. Tom pretended he wasn't listening, and pulled out A History Of Magic and started flipping the pages. He knew Caroline was only lying to him to try and reassure him that he wouldn't turn out bad. The sky out the window seemed to get darker and darker…

"Ooooh, Tom! Look!" Caroline excitedly said, pointing at a dark shape a few hours later. Tom wearily looked at what she was pointing at. For the past few hours, she had tricked him into looking outside of the window by acting excited and pointing at something, which had been revealed to be nothing.

"I swear, if this is another one of your tricks…" Tom warned her, and looked out of the window. Caroline hadn't been lying this time, as he made out a dark shape full of tiny lights here and there. It was Hogwarts, his home for the next 7 years. As he was staring at the shape, a tall kid, somewhere around 15 with a shiny badge with a large "P" on the front of his robes walked in front of the compartment.

"We'll reach Hogwarts soon, you two should change into your robes now." he informed them, and quickly left to scold another group of kids for releasing something wet and slimy on the floor.

"Well, I'll go change in the bathroom, you can have the compartment." Caroline said, shutting the door on her way out. Tom sat there, alone for a few seconds, staring out of the window looking at the shape of Hogwarts, until he got up and closed the curtains. He locked the door, and pulled out his robes from his battered, brown suitcase. When he finished changing into his robes, he crammed his old clothes into the suitcase and kicked it under the chairs again. He unlocked the door and made a tiny crack in the curtains to peer outside. The corridor was now mostly empty, the prefects having told off most of the other students into their compartments. He could only see a few students roaming around, and the trolley lady who had come around their compartment just an hour ago, selling sweets in which Caroline tried to eagerly buy, until Tom had reminded her about their limited money. Just as he was about to close the crack again, he saw Caroline coming back, having finished changing into her robes now. Tom thought she looked prettier in her clean, black robes instead of her old clothes. Caroline slided the door open and came in.

"Wow, these robes are way more comfortable than my old clothes! What about you, Tom?" Caroline exclaimed. She looked more lively now that they were almost at Hogwarts.

"It's better than those old dirty clothes, if that's what you mean." Tom admitted. Caroline sat down again, swinging her legs back and forth. When she finally tried to get up, the train lurched to a stop, and she almost flew forwards.

"Oh! We stopped!" Caroline cheerfully said, ignoring the fact that she had almost flown forward just a second ago. They got out of the train, following the long stream of students along a path. He heard the faint hollering of the prefects.

"First years to fourth years, this way! Follow us!" they yelled. Tom and Caroline, after much shoving and tripping, finally got through a path with thick trees on both sides, making it so dark it was hard to properly see beyond the trees. Tom wasn't spooked, however, as he was walking along with a massive long stream of other students, surrounded by them at all sides. If something were to attack from the trees, Tom was pretty sure he had a good chance of surviving among the sea of students. The other students would all just be cannon fodder, buying him some time to run away. They reached a small harbour, which was docked with small wooden boats. Tom grabbed Caroline and together they clambered into a boat. The waves were wild, and the wind and icy water stung them. Tom huddled with Caroline in the back of the boat, while two students each grabbed an oar.

"Hey, T-t-t-Tom, I im-im-imagined th-that t-t-the journey t-t-to Hog-Hogwarts w-wou-would be more rel-relaxi-relaxing," Caroline said, her teeth chattering. Tom thought so too, since it was the magical world, after all.

"It's probably just tradition at this school or something! " Tom shouted over the deafening waves. He figured Hogwarts was as safe as it could get, since it was probably on a magic island, and the only way to get to it seemed to be boats. He didn't know if someone could enter it by plane, though he knew for certain that the teachers at Hogwarts probably wouldn't be too happy if someone crashed a plane near the school and parachuted in like a madman. After a struggle of the fleet of boats against the waves, in which a student got knocked into the water and one boat got sunk entirely (Tom and Caroline's boat, which was half empty, had to rescue them, making the boat sink into the water even more, causing water to trickle in for the duration of the ride).

When they finally landed, most of the students seemed like they were about to hurl chunks. They entered through the impressive gate of the castle, into the biggest corridor Tom had ever seen. The corridor soon filled up with chatter.

"Hey Caroline, Caroline!" someone yelled. Tom looked behind him, where the sound was coming from, and saw Wurtsmouth. Caroline smiled weakly at him. After the boat ride, Tom had noticed that she seemed weak and frail, like she could collapse at any moment. Her face was pale, and her violent shivering wasn't helping.

"Hi." Caroline mumbled, unlike her cheery self. She didn't look at Wurtsmouth, and just stared at the floor. Wurtsmouth looked as if he was going to tell her something, but suddenly the doors flew right open. Inside, Tom could see that it was a great hall, with tables on either side, crammed with students. It felt nice and warm, and Tom desperately wanted to hurry up and get in.

"Alright, whenever your name is called, go to the front of the hall and put on the brown hat. It'll decide which house you'll be going into." one of the prefects yelled. Tom could hear loud chattering coming from the great hall being silenced. As soon as it was silent, the hat opened a small crack in it, resembling a mouth, and started… singing?

"I may not look brand new or clean

But decisions what I'm full about

I may not be much to your eyes

But believe me I've got much inside

So put me on and close your eyes

By the way; hold your breath!

For seven years you're in the house

And even after graduation

Your house will never leave you be

So put me on and close your eyes

By the way; hold your breath!

Slytherin for the cunning, the clever,

Ravenclaw for the smart, the brainy

Hufflepuff for kind and loyal

Gryffindor for brave and courageous

Each house has its own little features

It's up to you, what your outcome will be

So put me on and close your eyes

By the way; HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

The students broke into applause. Caroline had regained her color, and was quite cheerful again. The applause went quiet after a while, and a teacher from a long desk in the front of the great hall rose up.

There was a tense silence before a student was called. Tom could hear Wurtsmouth chattering with Caroline.

"Slytherin… bad… slimy… Hufflepuff… your house…" he could make out from Wurtsmouth's whispering.

As Wurtsmouth seemed to be whispering to Caroline about how he was certain that she was a Hufflepuff, a loud voice interrupted him.

"Hutsin, Yurtmill!" the voice said.

A small, scrawny looking kid scurried over to the stool where the hat was perched and put on the hat. The hat seemed to think for a moment, and then decided which house Yurtmill should go into.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it boomed. A table decked with red and gold banners with a lion on top of the colors cheered. The student quickly went over to the table and found a seat.

"Greenfrizz, Betcher!"

A red haired, freckled girl came and put on the hat.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

This time, a table decked with yellow and black banners with a badger on top of the colors cheered

"Malfoy, Abraxas!"

A blonde, mean looking kind of kid came and eagerly crammed the hat on his head.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted, without a second of hesitation. Malfoy didn't seem displeased with being a Slytherin, however; instead, he looked like he was dreaming one of his most wanted desires. A table decked with green and silver color banners with a snake in front of the colors burst into cheers.

"Rubeus, Hagrid!"

A huge, wild looking boy who seemed like an adult already lumbered over to the stool and sat down, causing the legs of the stool to strain under his pressure. He put the hat on as best as he could, as his head was several sizes bigger than the hat could be put on.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

More cheering.

"Miller, Migstery!"

"RAVENCLAW!!"

A table with blue and bronze banners with a raven posing in front of the colors cheered.

"Agatha, Letlyer!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Warren, Myrtle!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

After a few minutes of the house sorting, only Wurtsmouth, Tom, Caroline and a couple other students remained to be sorted. Tom, who hadn't been paying much attention to the house sorting after a minute and had instead been studying a moving portrait of a fat little man who had been sluggishly exercising for the past couple minutes perked up when he heard Wurtsmouth's name being called. Wurtsmouth walked up to the hat and excitedly put it on.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat declared. Wurtsmouth grinned at Caroline from across the hall and walked towards the Hufflepuff table. Caroline gave him a thumbs up.

"Riddle, Tom!"

Tom felt like he was plunged into the cold, icy water from the boat ride. He nervously walked up to the hat and put it on, already knowing what house he would probably be in.

"A good mind, very cunning, you could also be a hero, if you tried…" a tiny voice in Tom's ears said, to which Tom scoffed. If the hat thought he could be a hero, Tom wasn't sure the hat was fit to decide which house's students should be in.

"No? Very smart, I can tell, well, you seem to think you already know which house you'll be in… well then, better be…"

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted. The Slytherin table cheered, and Tom numbly went over to it. He wasn't very surprised, and he just sat down and waited for Caroline to get sorted. After another student was sorted into Ravenclaw, Caroline was finally called.

"Diggory, Caroline!"

Tom saw Caroline nervously put on the hat. Tom couldn't hear what the hat was saying to Caroline, but he was sure that they were having a lengthy conversation.

"A difficult student, I see, very loyal and kind, certainly brave, very cunning if you want to, too. Smart, cunning, loyal, brave, now which house should I sort you into?" the hat pondered.

"Please be in the same house as Tom without hurting Wurtsmouth's feelings. Please be in the same house as Tom without hurting Wurtsmouth's feelings." Caroline prayed, crossing her fingers. Little did she know, Tom was also thinking,

"Please be sorted into Slytherin like me and wipe that smile off of Wurtsmouth's face. Please be sorted into Slytherin like me and wipe that smile off of Wurtsmouth's face."

"Tom, eh? You mean that one who I put in Slytherin? I can see that you're full of potential, too, now… so, if you really want to be with him… then I guess…" that hat's tiny voice said in Caroline's ears.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Tom felt his heart jump, although he made sure not to look it. He smirked a bit when he saw Wurtsmouth's shocked expression at the Hufflepuff table, horrified that Caroline hadn't at least been sorted into Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but Slytherin, the house he thought was a house full of only rotten students had been the house that nice, cheerful Caroline had gotten into. The Slytherin table cheered, but Tom noticed right away that the table seemed slightly less enthusiastic about Caroline. Some students were even glaring daggers at her. Tom budged over to make some space for Caroline.

"Wow, Slytherin! From what I've heard from Wurtsmouth, this house'll probably grind me out into some serial killer or something." Caroline joked.

"No, you'd probably be one of the few good people from Slytherin, actually." Tom objected.

"You too!" Caroline beamed. Tom ignored what she said. He now realized how hungry he was. After 9 hours on that train ride and after that boat ride, his stomach was now growling furiously. He was looking at the entrance, expecting some chef's to pour in, holding dishes of food, when Caroline caught his attention.

"Tom, look!" she squealed.

Tom looked back at the table, and found that the plates had been magically stocked with food and dessert of all kinds. The goblets had been filled with cold and warm drinks. Caroline immediately began filling her plate with some potatoes and steak, and Tom gulped down his drink and helped himself to some crackers. When he was full, he looked around and studied the other students. The blonde haired student, Abraxas Malfoy, was talking to a girl with blue eyes and black eyes. Caroline was still happily feasting on her steak. Tom peered over at the Hufflepuff table and saw Wurtsmouth gloomily talking with the student with bangs earlier. He noticed Wurtsmouth glancing at Caroline every few minutes, so he pushed a big plate piled with fruit in front of Caroline.

"Hey, thanks!" she said, and grabbed an apple. Tom nodded. When the feast was finally over, everyone was sleepy, tired and warm. The food from the plates disappeared, and a elderly man, much like Dumbledore stood up and walked to the podium. As soon as he stepped up, the entire hall fell quiet into hushed whispers.

"Welcome, first years, to Hogwarts! I am Armando Dippet, Headmaster of Hogwarts. As you know, Hogwarts is one of the safest magical places in britain! However, the forbidden forest is forbidden for a good reason, so I trust each student to respect the rules. Any student caught trying to sneak into it will be expelled, and their guardians will be notified. Now, as we are all full, please follow your house prefects to your common rooms. Good night!" he announced.

There was a great shuffling as the students got up.

"Slytherin's, follow me!" a student with the prefect badge ordered them. They followed the prefect down some stairs and through some corridors, and finally entered a slightly chilly dungeon.

"The password is 'Optimum'! Don't forget!" the prefect told them. When he said "Optimum", the stone wall vanished, revealing a hidden room. Caroline and a few others gasped. They bustled into the warm room, where there were a comfortable looking sofa and a lot of armchairs lying around desks.

"Night…" Caroline sleepily muttered to Tom, and entered the girl's dormitory with the rest of the girls. Tom entered the boy's dormitory, and as he lay down on his 4-poster bed, he fell asleep thinking about Hogwarts.

Special long chapter, thinking about making my chapters longer in the future, thanks for reading!