Loud applause rang in Willy's ears as he slowly made his way to the table under the big green banner. A tall boy with blond hair and grey eyes and a prefect's badge gleaming on the front of his robes clapped him on the back as he passed.
"Welcome to the best house Hogwarts has to offer," he said, smiling. Willy thought it looked rather like a smile a dragon gave you before it tried to eat you. "I'm Abraxas Malfoy, and I'm the prefect of Slytherin House. You are pureblood, aren't you? What did you say your name was again?"
"Willy," Willy replied. "Willy Wonka. And yes, I'm pureblood, but my parents don't really talk about that much. Why, does it matter?"
Abraxas Malfoy's smile tightened just a bit. "All right then, Wonka. I imagine I'll see you later. Go and sit down."
Willy took a seat near the end of the table, where was shortly joined by "Zascal, Amadé!", a boy with dark wavy hair and pale blue eyes and a long, thin scar down the side of one cheek.
"Hello," he said cordially, grabbing Willy's hand and pumping it as he sat down. "I'm Amadé Zascal. But I only get called that when I'm in trouble, which is more often than not, but you can call me Amadé unless I steal your pudding."
Willy gripped his hand genially. "Willy Wonka. I guess we're going to be friends."
Amadé grinned widely. "Oh yes. We've no choice. We've got to stick together if we're going to avoid Malfoy and his cronies and make it through in here. I've got a cousin, fifth year, his name's Joseph- he's on the Quidditch team, he's one of the Chasers- and he says Malfoy's a piece of work if you get on his bad side. And he says it's really easy to do, so just staying out of his way's your best bet."
Willy turned his attention to the scar on his new friend's face. "Where'd you get that scar?"
"Hang on a minute," Amadé whispered. "I'll tell you right after Headmaster Dippet finishes his speech. He's a talker, isn't he?"
The speech was over soon, as was the first course, and Willy was happily sampling the various sweets and desserts as Amadé talked.
"-so after we saw the Hornswoggler, we ran for our lives and crashed headlong into a-"
"Is Loompaland really all that dangerous?" Willy interrupted. Amadé scoffed as he demolished a plate of strawberry cake.
"All that dangerous? There's a reason it's been made Unplottable by the African Ministry!"
Willy sucked thoughtfully on a chocolate-coated bit of pastry as he listened. "And you go there often?"
"Every summer! My uncle Xaver goes takes me there to find new magical plants to catalog. He's a magibotanist."
The last of the desserts vanished, and a great scraping of benches announced that the feast was over.
