I wasn't sure what to expect when I came into the Great Hall. I hadn't exactly sat with my House since they found out I was revealed as a Muggle born. I didn't think I should sit with the Gryffindors the entire year, if at all. Dumbledore giving us permission at the end of last year seemed more like a special thing. When we reached the castle, I said goodbye to my friends and practically ran up the steps until I made it to the Great Hall, sweaty and out of breath.
There were barely any others in the Great Hall when I finally made it there. I panted heavily but managed to plop my side down right at the edge of the Slytherin table, making sure to keep my space pretty small. Someone will still have to sit with me, but the table can fill up before that has to happen.
People started filing in and I ignored every single Slytherin who gave me dirty looks or grumbled insults under their breath. I played with the corner of my napkin as I avoided everyone's eye. After a while, I realized that this was taking forever for this room to fill up.
I glanced up and accidentally made eye contact with Pansy Parkinson.
Pansy stalked towards me with venom in her eyes. Her hair had been freshly cut to her chin and it bounced slightly with every step she took. I forced my face to remain blank as Pansy halted right beside the Slytherin table. For a very long moment, Pansy and I just stared at each other in silence.
"Hello, Pansy." I started cautiously. "Have a good summer?"
"Why are you sitting here, Mudblood?" Pansy sneered.
I looked down at my robes with the green patches on the shoulders and lapels, clearly marking me as a Slytherin. I looked back up to Pansy and frowned. "I'm pretty sure I'm still in Slytherin, Pansy."
"You may be a Slytherin, but we don't want you here." Pansy insisted. "So why don't you just get up and leave?"
I flinched slightly but refused to move. More people were flooding into the Great Hall and some from Hufflepuff and Slytherin were pausing to look at the situation that was escalating. I caught sight of Marcus Flint walking past with a lopsided grin, looking like it was Christmas because a Muggle born was getting harassed.
"I'm not moving, Parkinson." I said firmly. "You can go sit down there and ignore me."
"I'm afraid I won't be able to enjoy dinner with your stench clogging up the table." Pansy said in a loud voice, and many nearby Slytherins snickered. I glanced past Pansy and caught sight of Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass standing nearby, watching everything with narrowed eyes. Daphne had a blank look on her face, but Tracey had a more troubled look on her face. We met eyes for a moment before Tracey looked away and walked down the table, going to take a seat. Daphne looked after her for a moment before going after her, not looking back.
I narrowed my eyes at Pansy. "You're going to run out of space and have to sit here if you don't go have a seat somewhere else." I snapped. "Now leave me alone."
Millicent Bulstrode walked by and looked between me and Pansy. "C'mon, Pansy." Millicent said in a gruff voice. "She's not moving and you don't want to have detention before class has even started." When Pansy didn't budge for a moment, Millicent grabbed her gently by the elbow and pulled her towards where Tracey and Daphne went to sit. As soon as they were gone, I sighed heavily and rubbed my temples.
It was going to get worse before any of this got better, I thought grimly.
The final amount of students trickled in and no one really sat near me. There was enough space between me and some random seventh year for another person to sit there. And no one was sitting directly in front of me, but someone was in front of that seventh year. I didn't know either of them and they didn't acknowledge me sitting there. I went back to picking at the corner of my napkin until the professors filed in and took their seats at their table.
As the first years were brought in and they were sorted, I kept picking at the napkin and barely paid attention, only really noticing when the new Slytherins came to the table and were hissed and booed at by some from the other houses. Did no one else see this as a problem? I glared up at the professor's table and wondered if they even had an opinion on it or even if they cared.
That welcome back feast was the loneliest one yet, and it didn't help that every now and then I'd glance up at see the others houses mingling and catching up with each other. At the Hufflepuff table, I spotted Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott giggling excitedly about something. If I strained my neck a bit, I could see Ginny Weasley sitting with the new first years of Gryffindor. I glanced down my own table and saw the first years all talking to each other, many with smiles on their faces.
I caught a glimpse of Daphne looking extremely troubled and near tears. Tracey had her arm wrapped around her friend's shoulders and was trying to comfort her, along with Pansy, Millicent, and Blaise. I frowned and couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with Daphne, and why she was upset.
When the feast was over, I barely paid attention to Dumbledore's speech, only tuning in when the headmaster said that the dementors will be stationed on the edge of the grounds for the school year in case some criminal decided to come and attack the school itself.
Who the hell was Sirius Black?
When the feast was over, I was the first Slytherin out of the door and I silently made my way down to the dungeons. I wanted to have a couple of minutes of peace to myself without my former friends deciding to harass me for simply being Muggle born. By the time the rest of the Slytherins made it to the common room, I was already ready for bed and tucked into my four poster bed with the curtains drawn tightly.
"The hat was wrong!" Daphne was shrieking when the third year girls entered the dormitory.
"It wouldn't be the first time the hat's made a mistake." Pansy said, and I knew she was glaring right at the curtains separating us.
I could hear footsteps pacing hard the length of the dorm room. "No, no!" Daphne went on. "She was supposed to be in Slytherin! Mother and Father are going to be furious that she's not!"
What was she talking about? I sat up in bed and frowned at the curtains, wishing I could open them and try to comfort Daphne. I heard someone with heavy footsteps move past my bed and take the bed next to mine. Millicent sighed heavily and I heard her bed move as she sat down.
"Maybe you could talk to Dumbledore about it?" Millicent offered. "I'm sure the hat makes mistakes sometimes."
There was a pause and then Tracey piped up. "I'll go with you to Dumbledore's office tomorrow morning before classes, Daphne. That way Astoria only has to stay one night with Ravenclaw, and then she can come here where she belongs."
Understanding hit me and I wanted to roll my eyes into the back of my head. Daphne's younger sister, Astoria, must've been sorted into Ravenclaw. I was about to think of how unreasonable Daphne was being when she let out a big shuddering sob.
"You don't understand!" Daphne sobbed. "My parents have always said that-that if we were sorted into any house other than Slytherin they'd disown us! They'll be so furious that she's not in Slytherin!"
The terror in Daphne's voice was real, regardless of the initial dismissiveness I had felt. Would Daphne's parents really disown Astoria for not being sorted into Slytherin? I reached out to open the curtain and voice my concerns for my friend's little sister, but stopped myself just before I could. On the other side, I could hear Daphne crying and Pansy and Tracey comforting her. I rested my chin on my knees and the loneliness that had been eating away at my gut got worse.
It took a very long time to go to sleep that night, and I didn't sleep until the sounds of my roommates snoring filled the air and echoed around the room. The floor length window showing the lake sent ripples of light across the ceiling. I fell asleep watching those ripples of underwater light until I finally drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I got up around the time when everyone was leaving. Pansy was already gone and so were Tracey and Daphne. Millicent ripped a brush through her hair and watched me through narrowed eyes as I got dressed and ready for the day.
"I met a cousin of mine over the summer." Millicent suddenly said. I blinked at her and she continued on. "It was a sort of, aren't you happy we're not them kind of meeting. My parents do that kind of thing every now and then for me and my siblings."
I stared at her, wondering where the hell this was coming from. Millicent didn't seem interested in my response because she went right on. "Turns out the reason my family is so distant with this cousin is because he was sorted into Gryffindor when he was here at Hogwarts. A Gryffindor! One out of generations of pure blood Slytherins. I told him about you, how you're a Mudblood that got sorted into Slytherin. And you know what he told me? He said that then there was probably a reason for you to be here. He told me he begged Professor Dumbledore to put him in Slytherin instead.
"The hat has legilimency, so it knows you enough to put you in the right house the first time." Millicent paused and finally stared hard at me with thoughtful eyes. "I don't like that you're here, Mudblood. But if the hat thinks you're a Slytherin, then you're a Slytherin." And with that, she shouldered her bag and stalked out of the room. I stared after her and breathed a heavy sigh, the first in what felt like a very long time.