Tom was more than ready for Saturday morning when it finally came. He was a little bit grateful at least that Hogwarts began classes on the first weekday after they arrived, which that year was a Friday. It meant he only had to endure one day of classes before getting a break and by God he needed it.
The night of the feast had gone quietly. Professor Slughorn was a short and stout man who acted jovially but had a sharp gleam in his eyes and he was their Head of House. He welcomed them into the Slytherin common room and Tom forced himself to not stare open mouthed at the glass wall that overlooked the underside of the lake they'd been on a few hours before. The room was done in silver, black and emerald greens. Everything was ornate and beautiful and Professor Slughorn took some time to go over the rules, both within the dormitory and outside it, and also introduced each of the prefects. And then he sent everyone off to bed with a warning to go straight to sleep and get a good night's rest.
It was there he properly met the three boys he would be sharing his dormitory with. Unfortunately one was the boy from the table with the freckles- his name was Preston Nott. There was another boy who was as tan as Tom and Preston were pale, with black curly hair and black eyes like Tom's- his name was Miles Avery. Theon Mulciber was a short, but sturdy-looking blonde with hair that was combed just right and blue eyes. It was clear right off the bat the three already knew each other. Preston started in immediately on Tom before he could even get a pair of pajamas out.
"Are you a mudblood then?" He demanded, leaning against his own bedpost.
Tom felt the hair of his neck stand on end. "No." He said shortly. He only knew what the word meant because one of the older girls had said it as they were leaving the hall and she'd been scolded loudly by a prefect.
"Lay off it Nott," Avery said, fluffing his pillows some, "Write your mum if it's got you in that much of a tiff."
"I have a right to know if I'm sharing a room with some filthy-"
"I'm a half-blood," Tom said, interrupting calmly. At first, he thought of it simply as part of the lie- if he had an uncle who was a wizard that stood to reason one of his parents were- right? But the sorting hat had told him he was a Gaunt- a horribly bleak sounding name, but if they were a wizarding family, then he'd be a half-blood, right?
"Yeah- there's a lot of 'em floating around, otherwise we'd all be marrying our first cousins, right Nott?" Mulciber said, looking up from a book he had propped open on his lap. Nott, lacking the numbers to back him up, simply turned and began pulling his own pajamas out of his trunk.
The next morning hadn't gone much better either. He was the first up and had to take the time to find and figure out the showers. By the time he'd gotten dressed and loaded his bag with supplies, Avery was groaning loudly and cursing him to turn off the lights. He slipped Hogwarts, A History into the bag to read in his spare time and it was already growing heavy.
Breakfast was quiet with groggy students adjusting to the new schedule and Mia looked half asleep when Tammy waved at him from the Hufflepuff table. He gave a small wave back and sat in an empty spot, grabbing some toast and he could feel his stomach turning over with nerves. About mid-breakfast time, when the table was full, Professor Slughorn came down from the high table and began handing out schedules to each of the students and Tom eagerly accepted it, eyes roaming over the parchment.
He frowned slightly when he saw his first classes didn't technically start until the second period of the day, but brightened at the idea of Potions. He realized the classes were paired off into houses, which made sense given how small the pool of Slytherin first years seemed to be. Instead, he finished and grabbed his bag, wondering how difficult it would be to find the library in his spare time. He tried to catch the eyes of Mia or Tammy, but they were deep in conversation with some of the girls around them and he gave up and headed for the doors.
As it would happen he did find the library, but by the time he did, he barely made it down to the dungeons for Potions, Avery giving him a look of annoyance as he slid into the empty seat beside him. Professor Slughorn gave him a look but Tom was saved by three Gryffindors arriving past the final bell. Double potions made the time pass slowly, especially since it was the first class and much of it was going over expectations and safety rules for the class. Professor Slughorn also tended to go off on rambling stories about himself and the important people he knew, which Tom filed away for future use.
When class dismissed everyone filed up the stairs back to the main hall for lunch and it was much more lively than it had been earlier that morning. With his nerves settling, he grabbed up a sandwich and some vegetables as someone pushed him over slightly.
"Bunch up," Tammy said, squeezing into the seat next to him- "Oye you, move," she sniped at one of the second years on the other side of her. She turned her head to Tom and gestured over her shoulder with her thumb, "Mia's saying hi to Justin then she'll be over."
Tom raised his eyebrows and smirked, just catching the look Nott was shooting him from up the table before he followed Tammy's finger and saw Mia giving the fifth year prefect a tight hug around the neck, which he was awkwardly returning.
"Here, switch," Tammy demanded, holding out her schedule for him to take and Tom reached into his bag at his feet and pulled the neatly folded parchment out from his potions textbook and handed it to her.
"I was hoping we'd have Potions together," she griped, leaning her elbow on the table, "I'm going to be pants at it- everyone in my family is."
"I don't know if I'm any good at Potions yet," he shot back with a smirk. " You have Transfiguration again after this?" He asked. He startled a bit when someone leaned on him and looked over his shoulder to see Mia leaning on both him and Tammy enthusiastically.
"Yeah, looks like all the Friday classes are doubled up," Mia complained, "Oh, can I see?" She asked excitedly, grabbing Tom's schedule out of Tammy's hands before she could reply.
"You already know what classes we have together," He said, rolling his eyes. He wasn't used to this level of friendliness out of others, but he found he liked it. The two girls were like open books and were easy to be around- he even forgot about how quiet it had been that morning at breakfast.
"Yeah, but it's cool seeing them different by house," Mia said, flopping down on the other side of Tom. "Like Defense Against the Dark Arts is one of our morning classes, but you don't have it until after lunch. At least the flying classes will start next week- too bad we're not in those together either."
"What time is it?" Tammy asked, swallowing. Tom hadn't even realized she'd grabbed a sandwich from the tray in front of them and had quietly stolen Tom's plate to eat it over.
Mia pushed up her robe and looked at her wristwatch. "Half-past twelve."
"I can't believe they only give us an hour for lunch," Tammy complained and slid Tom's plate back to him. He took it and grinned, grabbing the other half of his sandwich up and eating it. "Afternoon classes start right as it ends and then- zip, run back to Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws."
"While you're doing that I'll be sitting here digesting and then skimming at the library," Tom said and smirked when Mia groaned loudly.
"What are you doing in the library already?" Mia demanded, reaching up to tie her hair up into a messy knot.
"Just picking up something to read in my spare time," he said casually. And that wasn't a complete lie. Just that he was also going to be looking up everything he possibly could about the wizarding world so Nott didn't find out he was a raised as a muggleborn while he was at it. In Hogwarts, A History there was mention of prejudices in regards to blood purity within the wizarding community and he didn't particularly want his lie to caught onto immediately.
"I'm going to choose to pretend that there isn't a library for now," Tammy said a bit dramatically, grabbing a couple of chips off the tray. "There's going to be a bunch of reading assignments from the rest of our classes, but that's a problem for next week."
"What you just don't want to admit is that you're illiterate," Mia grumbled, grabbing some food and wrapping it in a handkerchief she'd pulled from within her robe. "I'm going to eat this on the way so we don't have to run, you ready Tammy?"
"I guess as ready as I'll ever be," The Hufflepuff griped, pushing herself up. "If we're not ready to collapse after class we'll find you in the library," Tammy said patting her hand on his head once. "Don't get into too much trouble without us."
"I'm sure I'll be fine," He said with a small smile and gave them a small wave and they began to head off towards the large doors of the Great Hall. A few other students were moving off as well with them, mostly Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw first years, but some other older students were gathering their books as well.
"How do you know Ansel and Baggley?" Avery asked, catching Tom's eyes.
"We're friends," Tom said, for what felt like the first time ever in his life. It was best to keep it vague and clearly the girls thought of him as a friend, otherwise, they wouldn't have sought him out at the Slytherin table and pestered him during lunch.
"It makes sense Baggley got Hufflepuff, too bad Ansel didn't get put in Slytherin with us and her cousin," Avery said with a nod, poking his fork into some chicken on his plate.
"Wasted potential that," Mulciber said from a few seats up.
Tom kept his face blank, which seemed to be for the best as Nott took it up. "Yeah, everyone knows Hufflepuffs are all useless."
"Best not let one of our prefects hear you talking about his cousin that way," Tom said coolly, staring hard at Nott.
Nott had the decency to freeze and look up the table to where Justin was sitting with some of the other students.
"He's not wrong-" the second year girl Tammy had shoved over before said. She leaned in raising her eyebrows, "Sure most of the Hufflepuffs are completely useless but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of strong family lines in there- Baggley's of the last of Hufflepuff's line after all and her uncle invented the Remembrall so clearly there's some brains over there."
"You would like them Juliet," the girl next to her said, "Isn't it true your sister is dating Griffin Bleiler?"
"Is that the 'puff who became Head Boy this year?" Mulciber asked.
"Yes," the second year, Juliet said, rolling her eyes, "Only you would find complaint with a straight-O, Head Boy, pureblood because he's a Hufflepuff, Burke."
There were a few snickers at that and the other girl, Burke, huffed loudly and turned to whoever was on her other side. "Besides," Juliet said, giving Tom a small smile, "I think Nott's just offended he's not the center of attention in the dorm, right?"
Tom couldn't say he liked the ribbing, but Juliet wasn't awful, so he returned the smirk and nodded his head in agreement. Nott, however, was not pleased and grabbed up his bag and stomped off.
"Oh no, I upset him, boys!" Juliet called teasingly after him.
"Do you really want to peeve him off though?" Mulciber asked curiously, "His father does work at the ministry in a rather high position." The second year didn't bother with a reply other than a shrug of her shoulders and gathered up her own bag. "You lot play your game, my sister and her duffer boyfriend are going to show me the fancy prefects bathroom they get to use, so have fun."
"They get a special bathroom?" Avery demanded, looking affronted.
Tom took the distraction and used it to grab his own bag and slip out the door as well. He wondered if maybe he should have asked the sorting hat to put him in Hufflepuff instead. Like he'd told Mia and Tammy he would, he spent most of the afternoon in the library. It was huge and he found himself a comfy chair wedged between two shelves in the back near the restricted section and began pouring over any books he could find that might help him pick out what a normal wizard would do and act like, instead of singling him out as a mudblood. He debated heavily on taking notes and then finally decided against it. If he was a half-blood it wouldn't be weird if he had some muggle tendencies, right? As long as he wasn't totally unaware of what was going on he should be able to keep out of Nott's way.
Dinner was much of the same. After a trip by the Slytherin dorm to drop his exploding bag off, he sat in what he was coming to think of as his spot near the end of the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, within throwing distance of the high table and Professor Slughorn's watchful eye. Nott was even further up the table than he had been earlier and he could see Mulciber and Avery sitting with a few of the first year girls and a mixture of the second and third years. Tom poked at his food, but he wasn't used to eating such filling food on such a consistent basis and he wasn't very hungry. He pushed some vegetables around his plate and had a few bites of dessert before he rose and decided to head back to his dormitory.
He was already falling in love with the castle and he'd been there only a day, it felt more welcoming than the orphanage ever had, no matter what Nott said or did. He ran a hand along the smooth stone of the wall as he took the stairs down towards the dungeons.
"Cunning before courage," He said quietly to the stone wall once he spotted the nick in the stone the prefects had pointed out the night before. The stone slowly slid to the side, similar to how the bricks in Diagon Alley had and Tom slipped inside before the stones could slide back into place.
Planning to grab on of the books from the library from his bag, he paid no mind to the rest of the common room until he heard his name.
"Tom, right?"
Tom paused and turned. Ansel- Mia's cousin was sitting on the couch with a book open in his lap. He still had his robes on and the prefect badge on his chest was lit up with the reflections of the fire from the fireplace, and his brown hair was tousled as though he'd run his hand through it.
"Yes, Justin Ansel, right?" Tom parroted back, resting a hand on the back of the couch in front of him.
Justin smirked and inclined his chin. "Done with dinner?" The prefect questioned.
Tom shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head, "Yeah, you too?"
Justin nodded, closing the book, "I have my prefect rounds in a few minutes so I had to eat early," he explained, putting his hands on his knees and pushing himself up from his seat.
There was a pause in the conversation and Tom wondered why the older boy had bothered when he continued on.
"Mia's fond of you," Justin said, tucking his book under his arm casually, "Tammy too, which is weird because she's always been more selective about who she'll let tag along, so that must mean you're decent enough." Tom didn't quite know what to make of this.
"Thanks?" Tom asked.
"Be careful though," The prefect warned, "I'm sure you've noticed most Slytherins don't take kindly to outsiders."
Tom raised his eyebrows slightly, "I've gathered as much."
"I'm sure you haveā¦" Justin paused and fidgeted slightly, looking at his nails. "Listen, I don't usually poke my nose into the lower years business but I don't want my cousin hurt, so try to blend in. They won't bother you for being friends with Mia and Tammy because, one, Mia's my cousin and two, the three of us are from pureblood families, so outside of the girls being sorted into Hufflepuff, they don't have much ground to stand on."
"So you're trying to say that just because they're the exception to the rule doesn't mean I should go out of my way to make friends with students from other houses," Tom concluded.
Justin gave a smirk and began walking towards the entrance for the boys' dormitory and patted Tom on the shoulder.
"You catch on quick."
A/N: I am not a Slytherin and I have never claimed to be, so writing proper Slytherin is a challenge for me because it's easier for me to slip into ANY of the other three house's mindsets. So keep in mind, Nott is NOT Malfoy. Mulciber and Avery are not Crabbe and Goyle and they aren't going to go along with everything he says the moment he says it. Tom is kind of a joker card right now because Mulicer and Avery know nothing about him, so Mulicber doesn't want to piss him off immediately until he's learned more about him or made a decision on it. I am also trying to portray Slytherin as they are- kids in a house that have prejudices, but this is also isn't after the fuckery that was Voldemort's reign, so there's less prejudice and less strict lines of them vs us
Also, if you're enjoying Compassion and want to support me, please consider taking a look at my original fiction called Strongwind Academy. It's all posted for free on our website (Strongwind Academy . com) or on the WattPad ( wattpad dot com / user / strongwindacademy)
