A/N: Still not JKR. For shame.
Those first years at Hogwarts were difficult ones. No matter how much care I took to appear unassuming, to keep to myself, to prove the rumors wrong—the whispers never truly went away. Half the school hated me because of what my mother did. The other half hated me because of what my father did.
I remember very clearly my Sorting. I'd stood there, first in a line of boys and girls my age, in the middle of the Great Hall. Oh, how I regretted my surname in that moment. If only I had a sickle for how many times I've regretted that name.
"Aldebaran." The witch who called herself Professor McGonagall read my name from a sheet of parchment and looked down her nose at me with her sharp eyes, nodding towards the stool that sat a few yards away. Noise ripped through the Hall—they didn't even bother to whisper.
"Aldebaran?"
"Did she say Aldebaran?"
"Hope she's not in our house—"
"Like, the Aldebarans? Echidna and Aeo-whatsisface? From a few years ago?"
"Too bad that bloodline hasn't been snuffed out for good—"
"Wonder which genes she's got—"
And so on. Cheeks flushed with shame—that day was truly not turning out well—I walked briskly to the stool and picked up the tattered hat that rested on it, sitting down and pulling the brim down over my eyes and ears to temporarily block out the rest of the school.
My father had told me about the Sorting Hat, but it was—different—than I expected.
"Hmmmm, what have we here?" A voice buzzed in my head. "Another Aldebaran? Merlin, you lot have been around for a while…but where to put you…there's always Slytherin, like your parents…"
No, no, no! I was beginning to feel a bit desperate. I'm not my parents. I'm not my parents, I'd thought to myself as I sat, eyes clenched shut. I swear, I swear, I'm not my parents. I'm not insane.
"But your parents weren't insane, dear…." The Sorting Hat said in response to my thoughts. "Well, your mother was a nasty bit of work, but your father had quite a brain, and it seems you've rather luckily inherited it…but no, Slytherin won't do at all. Hmm…not a Hufflepuff, certainly not, you've got more spunk than that…Gryffindor? You've got the heart, and the courage…
Please, I'd pleaded. Just put me somewhere I can survive.
"You need a place where your skills can be sharpened, and you're well brave enough already, I'd say…no, I think the best place to put you is RAVENCLAW!" The final word rang out across the Hall, and there'd been some scattered applause as I took my seat at the table of my new house. No one acknowledged my presence.
"While at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family," McGonagall had said earlier. Well. So much for a 'family welcome.' But somehow I made it through that first day, and I've been trudging along ever since.
It turned out to be good that I'd been Sorted into Ravenclaw, I suppose, because my utter lack of a social life resulted in my spending far too many hours in the library studying. I'd trade a person for a book, any day of the week. A book you've read again and again, memorizing your favorite passages, won't suddenly change its ending. A book you love won't betray or disappoint you.
I can't say the same about people.
Luckily I managed to find a few friends, somewhere along the line. Both in my year and house. Ella was first. She was muggleborn, which probably explains why she bothered in the first place. Ella Sunnerbee was quiet, like me, but for different reasons. Whereas I didn't speak because I didn't think my fellow students worthy of my attention when I so obviously wasn't worthy of theirs, Ella didn't speak because she was the shyest thing I'd ever met. The littlest things made her jump, like when a door slammed too loudly, or something made a splash when we added it to our cauldrons in Potions.
It wasn't as if we even liked each other, to begin with. It was just that neither of us ever talked, and we grew used to seeing each other in the library alone, and gradually began to sit with each other and then to exchange greetings. Friendship followed naturally, if rather slowly. I think the reason she wasn't so averse to being my friend was because no one ever bothered to speak to her in order to tell her the reasons why she shouldn't.
Pollux Diodorus joined our duo, bringing my grand total of friends up to two, but not until we were in our third year. It was the first Hogsmeade weekend we were allowed to visit the village, and all of us remained in the castle.
I stayed because I didn't like the glares that shopkeepers gave me—even going to Diagon Alley once a year to get my school things seemed too much. Ella stayed because she didn't like crowds. And Pollux stayed because the day before, in our Transfiguration lesson, he'd set off a dungbomb in McGonagall's desk and rather than give him a detention, she'd just forbidden him from the trip. He was especially angry because his twin brother, Castor, who was in Hufflepuff, was able to go and had come over to the Ravenclaw table at dinner the night before and gloated about it rather loudly. You'd think you could count on your twin, of all people, not to rub something like that in your face. Again with the whole people-will-only-disappoint-you thing.
Ella and I had been sitting in one corner of the common room, the oldest students there save for Pollux, who was sprawled across an armchair emitting loud huffs every five minutes.
"You can stop sulking and join us anytime, if you'd like," I'd called over to him, my attention still mostly on the game of Exploding Snap Ella and I were playing. I didn't much care either way if he took me up on the invite or not, and I admit I was rather surprised when, ten minutes later, he dragged himself over and plopped down in the seat next to Ella. After a few snarky comments, I'd told him he could either shut the hell up or leave us alone, and he surprised me again by remaining where he was.
Somehow we'd struck up a conversation, and when everyone began returning from Hogsmeade, and any other sane person would have excused himself immediately so as not to be associated with the likes of me, he still remained. And we've been friends since.
In fact, I'm often more thankful that I have Pollux than Ella, because he's just such an easy person to be around. Sweet though she may be, Ella isn't the most interesting witch. With Ella and I, we rarely spoke, because we didn't have much need. But then Pollux came, and with him he reopened a door I'd thought had shut long ago. I became interested in the little things again. I re-learned how to hold a conversation. Even on our quiet days, Pollux chattered enough to make up for Ella and I. He didn't even really care if we listened. Mostly he and I traded insults about the other students while Ella rolled her eyes.
He had been friends with most of the Ravenclaw boys in our year, before, but he hadn't much liked them because "they were a load of insufferable ninnies who spoke like dictionaries and didn't even know the rules of Quidditch." When he said that, I refrained from commenting that Ella had no idea how Quidditch worked, either. Neither she nor I could afford to lose a friend. He was also too smart for them. You'd think that in Ravenclaw, Pollux would find people he deemed to be his intellectual equals. Apparently not.
So we were a trio of outcasts. Ella by default, due to her crippling social anxiety. Me by my ancestry, and the actions of my parents. And Pollux by his own declaration that he wanted nothing to do with most of Hogwarts. Oh, well. It worked for us, anyways.
A/N: Please review!