AN: My (Sam) chapter this time! We'll be seeing a lot of Eight in the future.
Fitz scoured the corridors for somewhere to sit. He should have gotten here earlier, found somewhere to sit before the train was moving. He should have listened to his mother, really. This was annoying. He'd been declined entry to two carriages already, and he was running out of options.
Finally, near the end of the train, where he really should have started, there was a carriage with only one other person who looked like they were male sitting, reading a book. He knocked on the window and the person jumped, looking up to reveal a very pretty but male face. If he'd been a bigot muggle he would have called the boy gay and laughed, running off. But because he was nice and his legs hurt, he opened the door to the carriage and dragged his trunk in behind him.
"Hello." He said, smiling widely at the stranger.
"Hello." The stranger greeted back. "I'm Paul. Or at least I'm told I am. I don't know what I prefer."
Fitz didn't know what to say, really. This boy was very odd, but he didn't seem to mind Fitz sitting with him, which was the important thing for now.
Paul or whatever frowned anxiously. "Did I say something?"
There was a thing called autistic wasn't there? Paul must just be like that or something. "No, sorry. I'm Fitz."
Paul smiled widely. "Nice to meet you, Fitz."
-;-;-;-;-;-
They sat together for the whole journey, and sat through starving because Fitz hadn't brought lunch and Paul never said anything about it at all, and neither had money easily accessible to buy sweets, both staring longingly at the beaming witch and her cheery calls of 'Anything from the trolley?' as she passed by.
Fitz had gone at a point near the end to change clothes, and had come back to find Paul in his robes. He looked a little less lost in these. Fitz felt more comfortable too, but that was more to do with changing clothes after wearing them sitting down for a few hours.
When the train pulled to a stop, Fitz was buzzing with excitement. He'd been waiting for this day ever since he could understand that he was a wizard. His dad had always told him about Hogwarts, and why it was hard to fit in at school because weird things happened sometimes that muggles would never be able to explain. Fitz had not been popular at school, especially after he had mysteriously caused a popular boy's drink to explode when he was eight.
His mother had made him attend muggle school, even though he could have gone to a wizarding school. She said it was because she wanted him to have friends in the area, and there weren't any wizarding schools near here. That's why they'd picked the area, he thinks, because it was so quiet, almost no magic at all.
But now he was here, at a magic school to learn all kinds of magic and make friends and do things that he'd never been allowed to do at home 'in case the neighbours saw'.
He got off with Paul at his side. He was almost eager to ditch the odd boy, but Paul stuck very close to his side, sometimes behind, but never far away. Paul followed him all the way to the boats, and then, as they got in, Paul hesitated at the edge.
"Paul?" Fitz said quietly, glancing around. He didn't want people to stare at either of them.
Paul nodded, but didn't move. Fitz held out a hand to him. "You won't fall." He said. "Come on."
Paul smiled nervously and took his hand, climbing tentatively into the boat. Fitz could see the panic as the tiny vessel shook slightly, and Paul practically collapsed into his seat on the bench next to Fitz, almost leaning on him. People were staring now, but Paul was shaking, and he didn't look scared anymore, but Fitz would bet his robes that he was terrified. So he let Paul lean on him, because wasn't going to let Paul be humiliated and scared on their first day.
Hogwarts was beautiful, all soft floating lights and grand stone towers. Paul sat up and stared at it, mesmerised. Most people were doing that, Fitz included. He'd never actually SEEN it. He'd seen pictures, but not seen it in real life. It was huge, bigger than he had ever imagined, and Fitz couldn't wait to explore it all.
When they were left to wait to go into the hall, Fitz started to get nervous. Everyone seemed to be nervous, actually. Except Paul, who was just looking around and not paying much attention to people. He was still shadowing Fitz, though.
When Professor Gorlefstew took them through to the Main Hall, Fitz knew to look up and stare, because he knew that there would be something to stare at. He nudged Paul, who had been looking fixedly ahead, and he heard the boy let out a soft 'oh!' and continue staring at the ceiling as they walked towards the hat.
The sorting was interesting enough, but Fitz's nerves kept building until it felt like there was a pit of acid in his stomach.
"Kreiner, Fitz!" Professor Gorlefstew called, and he stepped forward to sit on the stool. Paul smiled faintly at him from the crowd as the hat called "Gryffindor!" And the far end of the hall erupted into cheers, and he was happy with the house he was in, but somehow he knew that Paul would not be in it, and there weren't many people who would stand 'odd' people.
But he concentrated on the present, sitting down with a happy house who thought he seemed a great dude, and everyone was smiling at him.
McGann, Paul was sorted into Ravenclaw, and boy did they not look happy to have the little shaking pretty boy who couldn't seem to speak to them.