By Imp (With the assistance of A small Bomb)
Chapter 2
Note: Back with the second chapter here – and can you believe I
only got one review on the last? Of course I must thank Sida for
reviewing. Still, she was the only one to do it.
But now to business: Tom will soon be faced with Hogwarts and
the imminent Sorting Ceremony, along with other problems…
~*~
At the front of the small convoy of boats, rowing themselves
across the lake, the pale man was muttering exasperatedly to himself and
leaning unconsciously forward, willing the convoy to speed its pace and rid him
of his obnoxious burden of new students.
"At last… Never thought I'd get them in these things… I haven't
had so much trouble since the squid tried to eat a student's cloak!"
Near the back in a small, tired, dingy looking bark, Tom
huddled, wondering miserably why his first day had to be so unhappy and trying
to ignore the two others in his unsteady floating object, as he fittingly
called the boat. What a mess! It would have been so much easier to swim…
"Hey you! Back there!" Someone called from the nearest boat.
Tom raised his head slightly and again saw Devin's blond hair,
now shining in the moonlight.
"What?" He said, wondering whether Devin remembered him from
the station, or from his misadventure in the lake.
"Tom Parkington, right?"
"Yes." Tom
responded unhappily as he observed the two boats had drifted closer.
"You like
to make trouble, Parkington?"
"Oh, yes!"
Tom said, brightening. "I'm extremely good and making things explode."
The other
students' talk had slowly died down, and most of them were now listening to
Devin and Tom's quiet converse.
"We could
play some good tricks on those bloody mudbloods, don't you think?" Devin
inquired.
Tom did not
reply at first; had Devin actually said mudblood? Well, this certainly
was going to be different from London. He began to respond, but he was rudely
cut off by the small, pale man who had just been informed of Devin's
"questionable language".
"Mr. Avery!
Did I hear correctly? Mudbloods, boy?" The man cried.
Tom ducked
down to avoid trouble as he watched Devin receive a lecture on prejudice; he
noticed distantly that his acquaintance was purposefully looking bored and
superior, absently dipping his hand into the water as the man droned on about
the equality of muggle-born witches and wizards to that of the purebloods.
"Oh, Tom!"
Angelica's voice made Tom jump and tip the boat dangerously before he could
pretend that he was not there.
"Tom! You
weren't talking to that nasty slytherin, were you?" Angelica yelled from
another boat, almost four meters away
"Yes I was
talking to him!" Tom cried, annoyance clear in his tone. "And he hasn't even be
sorted, so you can't know if he's a slytherin!"
"Young
lady! I've just been explaining prejudice to Mr. Avery, do I have to lecture
you all?" The man cried.
"Oh, I'm
sorry, sir…" Angelica purred, putting on her most winning smile.
"Yes, I'm
sure…" The man said absently as the boats glided close to the castle and into a
small harbor like dent in the stone around the it; a door stood open in the
rock face of the lower part of the school, and a young woman stood there, her
hands on her hips.
"Gladden!
You are ten minutes late! The whole school is waiting to eat supper and you're
out here chatting with the first years!" She snapped, her whole body straight
as a pin.
"I'm sorry,
professor," The man gasped as he sprang out of the boat and tried
unsuccessfully to coax the students to do the same. "But, we had a bit of an
interruption and – come out, Miss! – and someone…ah, fell in – please, Miss
Talents, just stand up – and you see, I was actually late… Mr. Avery! If you
can't help, at least don't make this harder!"
The woman
exhaled angrily and began to get the students out of the boats herself,
ignoring Gladden's excuses.
"You should
have been the caretaker!" She muttered.
"Yes!
Th-that's what I say!" Gladden gasped, finally just pulling the students one by
one out of their boats and shoving them toward the Entrance.
"I hate
boats! I told you!" Tom cried as the woman pulled his soggy bark toward her and
helped the other two students out before squinting at him and asking, "What
happened to you?"
"I told
you, I hate boats!" He cried again, before springing out himself and coming
dangerously close to slipping into the water again.
"Into a
queue, please children, a straight line here and follow me!" The woman called,
gesturing for them to follow and glancing toward Tom, her brow furrowed in
slight confusion.
Tom
stumbled in behind the girl he had spoken to on the platform, with Angelica
behind him and Devin behind her and Sabrina in last; Devin was warding off
Sabrina's shoves and pushes as best he could and Angelica was yelling that it
wasn't fair that she was stuck between him and Tom without her friend.
"Please,
quiet down. Stop shoving and pushing and follow!" The woman cried.
"Easy for
her to say…" Devin muttered, stomping down hard and Sabrina's toe.
"He stepped
on my foot!" Sabrina yelled. "He meant to! He stomped on my foot!"
"Of course
I bloody well meant to!" Devin responded, glaring angrily at Angelica's back as
he ducked a swipe Sabrina meant for his head.
Tom plugged
his ears and started to think again about the prospect of being sorted into
Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff; he didn't much mind the idea of either Slytherin or
Gryffindor, but he didn't think he could bear being stuck with the loyal, quiet
Hufflepuff's or the studious Ravenclaws. The Slytherins and Gryffindors
definitely had more fun, he thought to himself.
Tom soon
found though that keeping his ears plugged was not the wisest course of action,
as he ran into a wall without hearing the professor's warning and fell
backwards on top of Angelica.
"What's
wrong with you?" Angelica cried, shoving him back at the wall before thinking
better of it and pulling him back.
"With me?"
Tom muttered. "Nothing wrong with me." He rubbed his nose ruefully and
noticed that they were all in a small room and that the professor had vanished.
"Where are we?" He asked suddenly.
"Oh, I
suppose your ears weren't the only things shut! Are you blind?" Angelica said
peevishly, turning her back on him and, shoving Devin aside, going to find
Sabrina.
"Oh, nice
girlfriend," The angry looking boy who had commented continuously on the squid
and its eating habits during the boat ride yelled from across the room.
"Girlfriend,
where?" Tom said, looking around anxiously.
"Everyone,
come now, we're going to the Sorting! Please, follow me!" The woman had
reappeared and was now trying unsuccessfully to get all of the new students to
follow.
"But, what
if I'm sorted into, n-nasty Slytherin!" A small, toe-headed girl wailed.
"Shut yer
trap and don't insult the slytherins!" Another student snapped.
"You don't
have to worry, " Devin interjected. "No one would ever dare insult Salazar
Slytherin's memory by placing you in his house."
The small
girl began to cry and Tom felt a bit sorry for her, in a distant sort of way.
The turmoil
in the small room only became worse as each and every one of the students
weighed in on the argument, each taking the side of either the girl, or her
attackers and yelling at the top of their lungs all manner of insults. Tom
prudently stepped aside, but instead of being wise and staying completely out
of the conflict, he took a small round object from his pocket and, wending his
way through the angry mob, set it in the centre of the room and touched it with
his wand. There was an odd fizzling sound and Tom dove to the side, dragging
Devin with him before a loud boom shook the room and a myriad of sparks flew
into the air, making the oddest whistling sound, followed by a series of small
explosions that sent the other students into a panicked frenzy.
Tom
crouched in the corner, laughing so hard he could hardly move; Devin slowly
stood and surveyed the mayhem before ducking down and inquiring intensely,
"What did you do?"
But Tom was
laughing too hard to answer, so Devin only congratulated him soundly and
slipped away to find out how Angelica and her companion were faring in the
crazed mob of angry and panicked students.
~*~
Twenty
minutes later, the woman had finally quieted everybody, and was attempting in
vain to find out what had happened and who had done it: no one knew. Completely
unable to discover the exact problem, or even the exact thing or person that
had caused it, she gave up and decided just to take the students to the Great
Hall and be done with them. This time, they followed her meekly, all looking a
bit worse for their experiences in the melee; Tom and Devin ended up in the
back of the queue. Tom had purposefully gone to the back so as not to be
noticed if he suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, and Devin had ended up
there to avoid Sabrina and Angelica, who were convinced that he was the one who
had blown whatever it was up.
"Parkington,
how did you do that?" Devin asked again, his eyes alight with interest.
Tom, trying
not to laugh, began to explain, "You see, I've got all these fireworks and
explosives that I've fiddled with and turned harmless," he gasped and tried to
make another fit of laughter look like a coughing fit. "And I've made some
things that do the strangest things – I brought that last thing in my pocket,
in case I needed it you know, and I couldn't help using it! Did you see those sparks? All rainbow
coloured!" Tom looked absolutely contented as thought back on his explosion.
"Wasn't it great?"
"It was
perfect! You should have seen that mudblood's face when your thing exploded!
She looked like she was going to faint!" Devin smiled slightly and then turned
back toward the boy ahead of him, trying to see over the other's head.
The first
years were suddenly dazzled by the bright light from the Great Hall, and there
were numerous sighs and a few startled cries at the brilliance of the place and
the grand scale of its size. Tom walked with his head back, looking at the
ceiling that seemed to be the sky and no ceiling at all; Devin appeared to be
the only one that looked about calmly. An old hat, with patches and small tears
dotting its grey-black surface sat on a small stool at the end of the Staff
table, all eyes seemed to be fixed on it as the bedraggled line of first years
lined up and the professor took out a scroll and began reading names.
"Anders,
Laura." She called, and the small girl who had been afraid she would end up in
Slytherin timidly stepped forward, and at a sign from the woman, she took the
hat and set it atop her head. It cried out immediately, to the amazement of Tom
and his fellows, "Ravenclaw!" The girl sprang up and ran to the Ravenclaw
table, where her new classmates were obviously congratulating her.
"Avery,
Devin!" The woman cried.
Devin
strode up to the stool and put the hat on his head quietly, sitting on the
stool and staying motionless; Tom watched quietly, wondering if the Hat could
put his acquaintance anywhere but Slytherin. A few more moments passed, and the
Hat cried loudly, "Slytherin!"
Devin rose
and walked to the Slytherin table, smiling in a way that quite confused Tom.
"Damon,
Laurence!"
Another boy
walked to the front and set the hat on his head; he was sent to Gryffindor but
Tom didn't much care. He pulled some soggy paper out of his pocket and began
folding it into a small paper plane, something he'd learned from his mum; when
it was finished, he tapped it lightly with his wand and sent it flying into the
hair of the student just called up to the Hat. The girl screamed and pulled the
damp paper out of her hair, tearing it and dropping it hurriedly to the floor
and hastening her pace to the Hat. Tom thought this was quite a waste of a good
plane and he hurriedly pulled more paper out of his pocket. Soon, there were
four small planes zooming about above the students, having a feigned dogfight
and evading each other's imaginary fire.
The
spectators' attentions were gradually drawn away from the Sorting and to Tom's
planes, flying high above the tables and assorted wizards and witches; their
number had increased by now and everyone's eyes, even the headmaster's, were watching
in bemused silence Tom's creations, only the professor holding the scroll was
not interesting in the mock aerial display, she was angrily looking for the
culprit who had interrupted the already belated ceremony. She called the next
first year up ("Farthing, Larisa!") and as soon as the girl had put the Hat on,
the professor strode angrily over to an oblivious Tom and tapped his shoulder.
"Mr.
Parkington?" She said, in a voice loud enough for all to hear.
~*~
Note2: So,
which house will Tom end up in? And will he be end up in the same house as Angelica
and Sabrina? Or perhaps with Devin? Please, I want to know what you readers
think.
Well, there
you have it. Again: criticisms, points, praises, requests, suggestions…?