Opposites
Chapter four, Blood
Arriving at Hogwarts for the first time was one thing, but getting adjusted to life at Hogwarts was another. After being introduced to magic after eleven years of misery at the orphanage and suddenly finding themselves thrust into a magical school, it was no surprise that Tom and Caroline had a difficult time adjusting to their new lives. Hogwarts was huge, and the magic there certainly didn't help them get used to it. The inhabitants of the portraits were always moving, and Tom swore the rusty coats of armor were always changing positions. Among the many magical properties of Hogwarts, however, both Tom and Caroline agreed that the stairs were probably the worst part of the magic.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts. There were wide ones, narrow ones, some with vanishing steps and others that lead somewhere different on a Friday. In their first week, one of the staircases had thrown Tom off, slamming him into a portrait of a woman with a massive white wig eating an orange. The sudden disturbance caused her to jump in alarm and drop her orange, bumping into a portrait of a fearsome knight below. Tom had to run to rescue Caroline from a vanishing step, all the while being profusely cursed at from the portraits in words so foul, Tom hadn't even known the majority of curses he had been yelled at until that day. After a few days at Hogwarts, though, things had mellowed down, and the staircases weren't that big of a problem anymore. The once annoying walls and vanishing stairs were just a normal thing now, and they easily memorized the huge school.
Tom and Caroline were walking to the dungeons for their potions lesson on a Thursday, when Caroline sniffed the air.
"Hey Tom, do you smell that?" she asked. Tom tried smelling the air, too, but he didn't smell anything. Perhaps Caroline's nose was just being weird.
"No, what do you mean?" he said. He was starting to get curious. Why could Caroline smell something he couldn't? Was this just a joke?
"That really nice smell, cooked pheasant! How can you not smell it? Do I need to take you to the matron or something? Maybe something killed off your sense of smell." Caroline frowned at him. Tom shrugged, and entered the classroom. Tom knew his sense of smell was fine, since he could still sniff Caroline's faint smell clovers, like vanilla. Tom and Caroline took their seats next to each other, and while Tom was rummaging through his bag, Professor Slughorn entered the classroom. The chattering of the class disappeared, and there were a few thumps as some students pulled out their books.
"Hello class!" Professor Slughorn beamed. He was always a cheerful person, and he rarely got mad. The maddest he had gotten had been a day ago when a student accidentally spilled his cauldron, causing the entire class in a stampede to steer clear of the nasty, slimy liquid which had soon revealed itself to be a backfired boil-cure potion, which instead of curing boils caused it on anyone who came into contact with it, soon proven when a Gryffindor student known as "Clutzer" by the other students for his particular knack for being clumsy had slipped and fallen face first into the liquid. Even then, Professor Slughorn had just patted him on the back (although a bit strongly) and told the student it had been hardly his fault, which Tom personally disagreed with, and told him to just be more careful in the future. He was the head of the Slytherin house, Tom and Caroline's own house, and Tom was grateful that he wasn't a strict, unfair teacher. He would have liked Professor Slughorn better if he was just a little more harsh on the moron's in his classes.
"As you know, last time we did the boil-curing potion, or rather, attempted it, as last time we never quite got around to completing any, since the… incident occured." he said, chuckling.
The student who had knocked over his cauldron last time and had caused chaos turned red and looked down.
"Today, we'll be doing a potion that has less disastrous consequences when you make a mistake, a personal favorite of mine-" he paused for a dramatic moment, and the entire class craned their heads forward. "-Amortentia. It is one of the most powerful love potions in the world. Now, when you entered, you caught a whiff of some good smells, am I right?" -The class nodded- "You see, Amortentia smells different to everyone, and causes the drinker to develop a powerful obsession or infatuation for whoever administered the potion. Now, who can tell me exactly why the potion emits different smells to everyone?"
A Slytherin next to Caroline stuck out his hand.
"Yes… Burter, am I right?" the Professor asked.
"Burter, Custer, professor, the potion smells different to everyone because to everyone who smells it, they each smell their favorite scent. It attracts people with it's smell." he eagerly replied. Caroline looked dumbfounded. Tom guessed that Caroline hadn't known herself that her favorite smell was pheasant.
The Professor paced around the class, eyeing the students and their books. Tom wondered if he could use the potion to make whoever he gave it to to do his biddings by love. Tom shuddered and tried to squeeze out that thought when he imagined Wurtsmouth chasing after him, with droopy heart eyes.
"Open your books to page 16 and read it, please." Professor Slughorn instructed. Tom flipped the pages to page 16, and briefly scanned the page. It seemed pretty simple. He leaned forward, and started reading through the pages. At least it wouldn't be boring.
"Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world, seduces the drinker by its smell. The smell is different to each drinker, according to their favorite scents. When drunken, the drinker will develop an obsession with the potion administrator. However, the obsession can not be considered real love, as real love is impossible to manufacture with potions and spells."
Tom made sure to note down "Amortentia, obsession, not real love" in his notes. It might prove useful in the future. Next to him, Caroline was doing the same.
"Alright, class, I think we're done now. Now as you read, Amortentia is the most powerful love potion that currently exists. Tuh tuh tuh, favorite smells, obsession, we already know that, and- ah! Yes, the important part. The obsession is not real love. You cannot hand make love in a potion. It is impossible, so don't go thinking that you can get your crush to magically love you with this potion!" he added, eyeing a group of Gryffindor girl's who had been rushing to write down the ingredients for the potion. They turned red and looked down at their books, and the Slytherin's roared in laughter. Tom scoffed, knowing that the group would probably soon be known for their stupidity. Caroline didn't seem amused, however, and seemed sympathetic towards the group of girl's, and the entire Gryffindor side of the classroom was scornfully looking at the laughing Slytherin's.
"Oh, has the time passed by that quickly already? My my, it's almost time to end! Class dismissed, and remember, real love is not possible with magic!" he hastily said, and retreated into his office. The class, with the Slytherin's still snickering, squeezed out into the hall.
"The potion wouldn't have worked, anyway, even with magic, nobody in their right mind would consider you!" someone from the Slytherin crowd shrieked. The Slytherin's burst into laughter again, and the Gryffindor's looked infuriated.
"Hey, knock it off! At least they aren't some slimy Slytherin's!" a Gryffindor yelled. The Slytherin's all jeered at the Gryffindor, and soon a pale student with brown messy hair stepped out from the Slytherin crowd.
"Nobody asked for your opinion," he sneered, and made a very rude hand gesture followed by some of the foulest word's Tom had heard since the portrait of the lady eating an orange. A painting of a fisherman cheered him on, calling the Gryffindor's some very rude names. For a split second, everything seemed to be silent.
Then everything went loose.
The student's didn't know too many spell's to cause serious damage, and they all resorted to using their wand's as weapons and meeleing everyone they saw. Tom kicked down a Gryffindor student in his way, and started hurrying for the exit. Slytherin side or not, he wasn't going to get in the fight. He pushed aside a scrawny Slytherin, and finally broke free from the chaotic fight. He was running towards the flight of stairs when he stopped in his tracks. Where was Caroline?
"Caroline!" he hollered over the sounds of the yelling and shouting of the fight. Tom scanned the hallway, but he didn't find Caroline.
"She must have gone already, I'd better get out of here, too!" Tom concluded, and started to run up the stairs. Whether she was still mixed up in the chaos or not, it was better him than her. He ran along the hall, and finally arrived on the grounds. He looked around, and saw that he was next to the broom cupboard.
"Perfect." Tom said to himself. They had a flying lesson with the Hufflepuff's in five minutes, and he could just wait around until it started. As soon as the relieved feeling came, it was gone, and anxiousness came.
Where was Caroline? Tom tried to assure himself that either way, she would be fine, but he was still slightly worried. Just as he was about to start heading back to the hall to find Caroline, she appeared, heading towards Tom.
"Tom!" she gasped, gulping in air. She stumbled over to him, her robes frizzled and messed up.
"What happened? You're ok, right?" Tom asked. Caroline nodded, and leaned against the cupboard for support.
"Fight's still going on, the Professor had to sort us all out. I escaped from the hall just before Professor Slughorn came out. Gryffindor, Burter, knew a couple jinxes. A bunch of Slytherin's legs got knotted together!" she explained, her rapid breathing slowing down. She took a huge gulp of air, and exhaled.
"Lucky we came to the grounds, since the flying lesson starts… oh gosh, about now!" Caroline exclaimed. She started running to where the broomsticks were perched, followed by Tom. They were taking place next to the line of broom's when the other student's started arriving. The Slytherin's were dirty and bruised. The majority of them had bloody noses, and one student had a severe black eye. Next to them, the Hufflepuff's looked like model's compared to the bruised Slytherin's. Tom held back a sigh. Slytherin had no chance of winning the house cup, which he had learned from older student's, if it was full of idiots. It seemed like Caroline and him were the only people with functional, rationally thinking mind's in Slytherin.
"Good thing we squeezed out of that mess." Caroline muttered. Tom couldn't agree more with her. If he hadn't managed to slip from the crowd, no doubt he would've had winded up with the bruised crowd. From the back of the stream of students, a lean woman with short grey hair and yellow eyes was tailing close behind, looking very hassled.
"Well, what are you lot doing? Go on, you can go faster than a slug! Places on top of broomsticks, hut hut!" she snapped. It only took a short minute for the big crowd to all take places on top of their brooms.
When they started the lesson, Tom noticed she was much more harsh and irritated than normal. He was relieved when the class was finally over, and hurried past the other students to the hall for lunch. He didn't want to risk taking his time, then getting into another fight again.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! I'm starving." Caroline groaned. They reached the hall in record time in just two minutes, and Caroline immediately sat down at her seat and started piling food onto her plate. Tom sat down, and started scooping some pudding. As he was about to dig in, he saw a giant heap of cooked pheasant on a humongous plate appear diagonally from Caroline. She immediately noticed it and started gladly piling pheasants on her plate.
"Hey, I'm Abraxas. Tom, right?" someone asked from next to him. Tom turned his head towards the voice and saw the blonde, pale boy from the house sorting. He was one of those people who had such an annoying looking face. Even though he hadn't done anything yet, Tom already disliked him.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Tom replied. He hurried to cram as much pudding possible into his mouth to show Abraxas that he wouldn't be able to reply to his questions.
He didn't seem to get the hint that Tom didn't want to talk to him, and made the mistake of trying to pursue the chat.
"That Caroline girl's a real weirdo, isn't she? She seems more like a Hufflepuff, or a Gryffindor. Why'd the sorting hat put her in Slytherin?" he pressed on, making a revolted face at Caroline much rather like he had just stepped on a moldy pile of dung. Caroline didn't seem to notice his plain dislike towards her, as she was occupied with a piece of what looked like a cold pheasant.
"I don't know, ask someone else. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm working on this pudding." Tom said after a moment of silence while he ate his pudding. Abraxas finally got the hint that Tom didn't want to talk after his tone. He shifted away from Tom and started to chat to another student. Tom picked at his peas as he carefully thought about what Abraxas had said. Why was Caroline sorted into Slytherin, anyway? Wurtsmouth had been right. Caroline was one of the nicest people he one, and she was fiercely loyal to their friendship, as she had shut down an orphan's attempts to be friends with her from the orphanage after the orphan had started to badmouth Tom. Thinking about it, Caroline was brave as well. He frowned. Unless there was a previously unknown feature in Caroline, Tom couldn't think of any Slytherin traits Caroline matched. She had ambition for one thing, and possibly even cunning, but he couldn't think of Caroline being mean. Slytherin was full of terrible kids, and Caroline couldn't be terrible.
"Hey Tom, can you pass the bacon?" Caroline nudged Tom. Normally, he would've told her to get it herself followed with a snarky insult, but he was currently numb from his surroundings and mindlessly passed it over to her.
"Thanks." she said, and started picking off some strips of bacon. Tom just nodded, staring at his peas.
The rest of the day passed by quickly for Tom. He didn't eat much at dinner, and his bubble of thought was violently burst when it was finally time to sleep. Caroline and Tom went over to the dungeons, and arrived outside of the secret entrance to the Slytherin common room.
"Hey Tom, what was the password again? I keep forgetting. You have to know, or else we'll be stuck out here for the night." Caroline interrupted Tom's thoughts.
"Huh? What? The password? Oh yeah, Lato Sanguine." Tom replied. The wall revealed itself into a door, and they hurried in. Now that the day was over, Tom couldn't wait to slide into his 4 poster bed. His thoughts had kept him numb from his body, and now his legs felt like burning metal rods. Caroline yawned next to him, looking as tired as him. She tossed her heavy bag on the table, and sank into the chair.
"Bah, we still got a ton of homework, why'd the teachers give us so much homework? Do they think we're homework machines? It'll take me all night to finish the potions essay, and a hour to finish the Transfiguration homework." she groaned, and leaned back on her chair. Tom was too busy himself to even respond, his quill flying over the parchment with new letters appearing. He only put down his quill when his hand seemed like it was burning. Caroline yawned, and stretched her arms.
"At least we got the entire weekend to finish them all. It could have been a weekday, and we would all be rushing to finish this by tomorrow." Tom replied after a long silence. Caroline merely smiled and nodded sleepily. Tom looked over to the fire, and resisted the temptation to plop down on the squashy warm sofa. The crackling fire and the warm air seemed to be luring the studying students to go over to the couch. Many students' willpower failed them and eventually a third of the students who had been studying gladly jumped onto the couch.
"Morons. Rather finish the homework today than rush to finish it on the weekends." Tom thought to himself. Anyone who could use their brain functions, Tom thought, would realize doing their homework on Friday would give them more free time on the weekend. The previously busy students were now loudly chattering about various topics, mainly about blood, which Tom's ears perked up to.
"I'm pure, my parents are strict purists. Though, even if I was a half-blood, I'd still be grateful that I'm not a mudblood." Abraxas smirked in a conversation with a mousy brown haired boy.
"I'm pure also. Not much use asking people's blood in Slytherin, is it? All of us are pureblood! There's no way a half-blood could get in here." the mousy brown haired boy said. Abraxas laughed unpleasantly.
"Good one, Brucus, though imagine if a mudblood gets sorted into Slytherin!" Abraxas chuckled. The brown haired boy, who Tom deduced was Brucus, wheezed. They laughed among themselves for a long time, only stopping to resume to talk about the topic of blood. Tom couldn't hold his curiosity any longer, and eventually approached them.
"What's a pureblood, half-blood and mudblood?" Tom asked. He was intrigued by these new terms, and desperately needed to find out.
"You don't know?" Abraxas said, shocked. His shocked expression turned into a smug smirk and started to explain about the bloods.
"Purebloods are people with only magic blood in them. Half-bloods are wizards or witches who married muggles, and mudbloods are magical people who were born by muggles. Mudbloods are really uncommon, and their blood is the filthiest on earth. Mudbloods don't deserve magic at all, and half-bloods are traitors of purebloods." he said. Tom took a moment to digest the new information. Purebloods, he decided, had to be the best of the magical people. He shuddered to think how filthy mudblood blood would be. He went back to his seat, where Caroline was looking disapprovingly at him.
"You don't actually buy into that blood purity junk, do you?" she asked. Tom stared at his parchment. The annoyance he felt, writing his essay in the night, unable to sleep, not knowing much of his own kind and being smirked upon like that… the feelings he was feeling at the moment were best disclosed, as they would put anyones hair on end.
"Why do you care? Unless your blood is filth, or full of dirty muggle blood, you wouldn't care, would you? Tom snapped irritably, almost yelling. Caroline recoiled back at his tone, and narrowed her eyes.
"Fine. I thought you were intelligent enough to figure out that all that blood thing is nonsense, reading all those books all the time, but I guess not." Caroline snapped back. She grabbed her books and stormed off into the girl's dormitory, slamming the door behind her. Tom glared after her for a moment, then finally sighed and sank into his chair.
"What's the deal with her? I bet she's a half-blood who just got offended." Brucus muttered. Tom didn't pay attention to what Abraxas and Brucus were saying. He wasn't in the mood to work anymore. He stuffed his items into his bag roughly, and walked gloomily into the boy's dormitory.
He had a lot of things to do tomorrow.