AN: Sorry for the length of this, I was originally going to make it part of the prologue, but changed my mind last minute

Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 1

(AN: The next chapter will be substantially longer, I promise!)

She plopped down next to a ravishing boy; he had curly black hair that rested softly around his face, startling green eyes with thick, long lashes, a smooth feminine face, and was obviously of Hebrew descent.

"So what the hell did you do to the sorting hat? Were you molesting him or what?" He said in a smooth yet callous voice. I looked at him and with sarcasm dripping from every word replied quite promptly.

"Of course! It was all I could do not to scream and moan, he sent me to Slytherin because he said that this house was the best for a good fuck!" He laughed a little, as did the boy with white-blond hair across from me, who currently had something that looked like a girl attached to his arm.

"Well he wasn't lying" The brunette replied moving closer to her, in a maneuver that had started out trying to look debonair but ended in his looking like an oversized bird of prey. She just smirked and introduced herself, while doing her best to lean in the opposite direction of her neighbor.

"My names Killious Q. Enquirus, you can just call me Illy though, like Lilly, but without the L." The blond raised an eyebrow but shrugged and put his hand out to shake hers.

"Draco Malfoy, call me what you will. I'm a pure blood how 'bout you"

"Not sure actually, never really cared so I just never looked to see" She replied with a shrug.

"So why can't we call you Kill instead of Illy, or what about Choir? They're both in your name, oh and my name is Dolan, pure blood." The brunette boy next to her inquired.

"Well Dolan, if you want you can call me Kill, but my last name is something I don't want to be tied to so drop the Choir, and what's your name?" She asked a dark skinned boy on the other side of her.

"Oh, umm my name right…my name is Jackquinn Frost, and I'm a muggle-born..." He had an English accent, and sharp nose and jaw line, eyes that were so blue they almost looked white, with a thin ring of grey around the edges, which only made his chocolate brown skin seem even more luminescent.

Draco looked at him with a cold stare and sneered "Than why are you in our house?"

Jackquinn just sat there, a look of panic on his face. Killious turned her attention back to Draco.

"He's here because Slytherin needs good wizards to make up for you." She snapped. Draco looked as though someone had just fed him a vomit every flavor bean. He stared for a moment but then replied,

"Well than, I guess they'll need a whole army to balance out the deficit you cause."

"It would take an army to defeat the likes of me so I guess you're right."

"Stupid girl"

"Snobby Brat"

"Pretentious little whore"

"Was that for me or the thing attached to your arm?" Draco was fuming at this comment, and Jackquinn looked quite happy at the moment, while most of the other people at the table where trying to suppress laughter. By the time she had finished fighting with Draco the feast had begun. Draco mumbled under his breath while he, and nearly everyone else at the table, shoveled food on to their plates. Killious looked squeamish, as she stared at all the food around her. After she had spent two weeks in a hospital recovering from a concussion when she was eleven she had lost virtually all will to eat any sort of real meal. The doctors blamed in on damage to parts of her brain that triggered a desire to eat, she shook off the memories and reached for the salad to her left, and tried to spread the lettuce and toppings about so that no one would notice how little she had taken. In the end it looked like the attempt was failing, because Draco had quickly taken notice, and though she tried to reach for a dinner role, he was ready to take advantage of the oddity she had presented him.

"What are you anorexic; afraid a little food will ruin your figure"

"At least I have one"

"I didn't know that large sphere of fat was a figure girls wanted"

"I didn't know that there were still self-righteous bastards in the world who thought it was ok to talk with their mouth full or guzzle gravy as a beverage."

"I guess some people just have no taste in food"

"I guess some people just have no taste at all, now if you're done spraying me with turkey, I'd like to enjoy my meal." She smirked at Draco and continued picking at the pieces of romaine lettuce and cucumber on her plate with disinterest. She knew that this day would not be different from any other, she would end up eating seven or eight times, consuming little to nothing each "meal", only to find herself cramping with hunger pains again two hours later. It was a fact she dealt with everyday. When she was recovering from her hospital stay at home her parents spent weeks devising a meal plan for her, trying to balance the right amounts of each food just to keep her from withering away, they found success in the fact that when she did eat her little bits of nothing, she would eat little bits of virtually anything, so they stressed vegetables and grains more than anything, skirting anything with sugar or much meat in it all together.

After the feast was finally over the students stood to head back to the dorms behind The Bloody Baron, there was a murmur over all of the students as they made their way through the dungeons, Illy stood waiting as the password for the dorm was given, tapping her foot as Malfoy and Dolan made jokes, looking back in her direction every now and then. As everyone crowded into the common room she drifted off into her thoughts to block out the loud obnoxious noises that had filled the room around her. She noticed several students around the room that had begun to point in her direction already and decided that perhaps she could stand being in another house, even if it only meant that they would be more politely secretive with their irrational stories as to who she was and where she came from. She quickly ducked out of the way; as several first years began to run around the room shooting off sparks from their wands in celebration of the first night in their new home.

As she headed out the door she noticed someone quietly following several feet behind her, a quick dodge into the girls' bathroom and she assumed they'd be gone. Illy waited two or three minutes before leaving, washing her hands vigorously four or five times while she waited. The spirited, sometimes painful, washings seemed to be another repercussion of the injury. She washed forcefully five or six times a day, making her palms a dark pink color, and leaving them sensitive to any rough materials they may touch. She was not as thorough with all of her bathing, but she was more methodical and meticulous than most people, her showers were usually thirty or forty minutes a piece easily, thanks to the extra time the cleaning took.

After drying her hands and blowing gently on any parts of her palms that stung, Illy peeked out the door in each direction before heading out. Her pursuer was waiting, "Alright, what do you want Malfoy?" She loudly questioned the empty hall way.

(AN: I hope you enjoyed reading, please R&R if you liked it, I'd love to get some constructive criticism! –Richard S.)