The hat slipped on her head. It was worn around the edges and very odd to wear. She had been eager, so eager to get the hat. If she got it, she'd be able to know, able to know her true destiny. "Well, well, well. Granger. Let's see. Ravenclaw looks good. You're smart I can see. Very smart. But there's so much potential..." Her nerves flared up. She wanted to be in Ravenclaw. It was safe and she would be surrounded by people she could handle. People who were like her. Just put me in Ravenclaw please, she thought vigorously. "Ravenclaw?" The tiny voice near her ear whispered, its voice was extremely loud and almost echoing. "You want to be in Ravenclaw? I don't know. You're smart Granger, almost too smart. But you've got something, something that makes you different." I'm not different, she almost screamed inside her head. Always different. They'd always said she was different. The kids at the Muggle school... taunting her... "You're so ugly. Uglier than everything I've seen. And God, what's wrong with you?" it hurt, hurt as the words pierced through that shell she'd been carefully constructing for several years "Weird. You're so weird!" "Don't call me that! I'm not weird! I'm normal!" Her voice was weak and feeble, straining to reach the volume of the others. "She's gifted, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Very gifted. But I'm afraid her type wouldn't fit in here." Her parents had been afraid too; afraid something was wrong with her. They taunted her everyday. About how her hair stood up or about how smart she was or just that feeling of weirdness she had. Something bothered them. I'm not different, she repeated to herself. "You're kind I see, very kind. I guess Hufflepuff would be nice for you. You're adaptive enough to be nice and kind in there. But you'd have to hide your intelligence. And you wouldn't want that would you?" Hurry up, she thought loudly, knowing that it had to be a few minutes since she'd put on the hat. "No no, Hufflepuff won't do. You've got a mean streak Granger, and that takes away Hufflepuff." A mean streak? Yes... yes she did. She wouldn't talk back. Only ignore the insults, the snickers. Ignoring would make them go away. Her head was in a book all the time, and it helped to ignore the people. Until someone came up to her, someone who knew. "You think you've hidden little witch? You think you're safe? Never. I know what you are." He leaned in, knocking her books out of her frozen hands. "Mudblood." Rage; rage because her parents had taught her that one word. Rage because she was only ten and unable to enter a school yet. Rage because he'd said it. He knew and he'd said it. The rage flew through her fingers, heating them up til they glowed red. They burned and she wanted it to go away. But it wouldn't, because part of her wanted it to go to him. Wanted her rage to destroy him. "No!" And the rage flew from her fingers. She watched in horror as the man turned bright red before his skin cracked, as if his skin was a paint coat that was crinkling from the heat. Suddenly, the cracked skin fell off him and all that was left was a pile of ashes and a stunned girl. She had never been able to do it since. But the potential was always there. "Yes," Said the hat. "You've always been able to. And you will again. So you see Granger, that right there is proof that you can't get into Hufflepuff. No one in that House goes around demolecularizing people. But that leaves you potential for somewhere else..." No... not Slytherin, her mental voice trembled now. She'd read about that House, that House that produced more people of the Dark Arts than anything else... "Oh yes Slytherin! I see it right there Granger, staring at me. You don't want to be teased anymore. You don't want to be frowned upon. If you were in Slytherin, no one would make fun of you anymore Granger. No one would speak against you... and when Malfoy boy comes up, because I know he's there and I know he's going Slytherin, you two would be so cute together. Don't you think?" No! She was tempted to rip the hat off, to tear it into tiny shreds, and burn them. But she sat there still, doing nothing and waiting patiently. "I want to put you there Granger. You'll do well. They like smart people there and you have enough evil to make them happy... But this is what's bothering me. You have two Muggle parents. And that definitely won't last in Slytherin. I guess then, you'll have to go into GRYFFINDOR!" She took the hat neatly off her head, setting it down on the stool and tried to plaster a bright smile on her face. Malfoy was smirking at her from the end of the line and she tried to hold her head high. Almost... she thought painfully... I was almost with him... The table seemed empty without her newfound friends on the boat to greet her and she shuddered a sigh into the table. The table felt cold and unwelcoming. She wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to be in Ravenclaw with all the brains. This wasn't her place. But as Malfoy happily sat at his table, smirking dirtily at all the students at other tables, she had to dig her heels into the legs of the wooden chair. At least I'm not there... Strange, how the one word she had hated all her life had just saved it that night.
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