Chapter 4
It was in potions, that Stan and Kyle had the pleasure of coming face to face with Cartman again.
"Stan! Kyel! Come sit with me and Kenny!" Kenny had his signature laid back smile plastered across his face, but behind him, sat someone new who they had never met before.
"Hey! I wanna introduce you guys to Butters! He's in my house. He's also my roommate."
"Heya fellas! It's real nice to meet you guys!" Butters smiled wide, displaying perfect white teeth.
"Yeah yeah whatever, big deal." Cartman waved Butters off dismissively. "The main point is, look!" Cartman pointed a chubby finger towards the front of the classroom, where a vile labeled FELIX FELICIS was displayed. "Mr Slave said that whoever makes the Draught of Living Death can have that as a prize!"
"Mr... Slave?"
"You are focusing on the wrong thing Kyel" Cartman said "imagine what we could do with a vile of liquid luck!"
"If I win it I'm not sharing it with you" Kyle replied, opening his potions book and flicking it to the right page.
"I'll bet you 5 bucks I get it" Cartman declared
"You are so on"
"BUTTERS?" At the end of the potions class, Mr Slave declared Butters the winner of the Felix Felicis.
"Woah man, you're so cool!" Kenny exclaimed, throwing his arm around Butters' shoulder.
"Awh gee whizz guys..." Butters was turning a light shade of pink, obviously not used to the attention.
"You're low-key smart dude" Stan commented "How come you're not in Ravenclaw?"
"My old man is in Hufflepuff too!" Butters said happily "I'm so glad, if I was in any other house he would definitely ground me!"
"That's... A bit over the top" Kenny smiled nervously
"If I'm grounded then it's gotta be my fault" Butters was stubborn in his own way.
"Anyways guys, I'm going to go join Tolkien for lunch" Kyle said, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "Later" The other boys chorused their farewells as Kyle went to join his fellow ravenclaws at the great hall. He didn't take long to find Tolkien and Wendy, deep in conversation.
"Hey guys" Kyle sat down opposite them "what did you just have?"
"We both just had Divination" Wendy sighed "it was such a bore, I'm not even kidding. The whole concept of the subject is just stupid"
"Don't rip on it already Wendy, it was only our first lesson" Tolkien laughed.
"I'm not joking! Reading future in tea leaves is dumb as fuck" Wendy huffed. "How about you Kyle? Hope your lessons were more interesting."
"Yeah I just had charms and potions. I met a few nice people."
"So did we!" Wendy smiled "I met this Hufflepuff girl called Bebe, and a gryffindor girl called Red. People in other houses aren't as bad as I thought"
"I reunited with Clyde and Jimmy" Tolkien said. "You guys wouldn't have met them yet, but I sat with them and Craig on the ride to hogwarts."
"Oh yeah, I sat next to Craig in charms." Kyle replied.
"Craig Tucker? Isn't he a Slytherin?" Wendy's eyes widened
"Yeah, but he's just a chill guy really. I mean, Cartmans a Slytherin too, but we still communicate"
"ERIC Cartman?!" Wendy squawked "You did not just say you were friends with Eric Cartman"
"We are NOT friends." Kyle refuted adamantly. "He's just part of the group of friends I met on the Hogwarts express. I'm not happy about it either."
"Kyle you need to be more careful about who you talk to." Wendy warned.
"Oh fuck off Wendy, you don't need to look over my shoulder like this. I met plenty of respectable people, like Stan and Tweek" That sentence made Wendy pause.
"Oh, you're friends with Stan Marsh?"
"Yeah, actually he mentioned that he wanted to meet you. He's heard good things about you" Kyle phrased his words delicately, and was glad to see Wendy's face light up slightly.
"That would be nice! I want to make friends with more Gryffindors anyway."
"Sure you do" Tolkien met Kyle's eye from across the table, and they shared a knowing look between them.
It was only the second day, but all of the first years had already began to form their own cliques among themselves, and these weren't divided by just houses. Wendy had already taken a leadership sort of role in a group of girls that she had befriended, and Tolkien was a member of Craig's gang of guys. Although the three of them hung out at house time, in their free periods, they would often go their own ways to find other people in differing houses. Kyle was no different. He gravitated towards Stan and Kenny, which unfortunately meant hanging around Cartman much too often. However, things were starting to settle down nicely.
Kyle said goodbye to Tolkien and Wendy and went off to his next class, which was Transfiguration. This was one of the classes that Stan hadn't picked, so he went to the lesson alone.
When he entered the classroom, he noticed that a seating plan was being projected at the front of the classroom, and he was placed next to a name he recognised.
"Hey man" Kyle said, as Craig sat down next to him. He surprisingly wasn't late this time, however Kyle thought that this was because he was escorted to the lesson.
"Hi" Craig said in the nasally monotone he was growing familiar to.
"What did you just have?"
"Before lunch I had Defence against the dark arts"
"Oh for real? Didn't Tweek have that too?"
"Uh, yeah. I was placed next to him actually" Craig scratched at the back of his head. An unreadable expression on his face.
"Cool, is he more comfortable with you now? I know he was wary that you were a Slytherin"
"Dude what is this, an interrogation?" Craig snapped, slammingg his free hand down on the table, earning a warning look from the professor. "Sorry. Yeah. We talked. He's a nice kid"
"Don't say kid as if you're 5 years older than him" Kyle laughed, elbowing him lightly in the side.
"Fuck off" Craig replied, but it was good natured. They sat thought the Transfiguration class in a comfortable silence, occasionally exchanging words with eachother.
"You're Muggle born aren't you?" Craig said. Turning to Kyle with a blank expression
"Uh, how did you know?" Kyle was dumbfounded.
"Tweek was weary of me from the start. So was Stan. You don't seem to know much about house hierarchy." Craig observed.
"Well I did meet you before we all got sorted" Kyle pointed out.
Craig shrugged "That doesn't mean anything. I met this chick on the Hogwarts express. She doesn't want anything to do with me anymore, after I got sorted into Slytherin."
"That's bull" Kyle said. He meant it. He didn't understand the big deal around houses at hogwarts. It seemed to divide everyone up, and not in a good way.
"It's just how it is" Craig replied. "I was surprised that Tweek even struck up a conversation with me in Defense against the dark arts. I liked it. Doesn't mean it's normal though."
Kyle wasn't about to question what that sentence meant, so instead just nodded along.
"But Cartman is in my friend group. He's a Slytherin" Kyle pointed out.
"Cartmans a dick. Everyone knows it. Even Slytherin's." Craig smirked. "Me and my friends don't even give him the chance to join us."
"The fatass deserves it. He insulted me as soon as he met me."
"Me too. Fucking asshole said I'd get no girls because I had crooked teeth." Craig grimaced, clenching his pencil so hard that Kyle thought it would break.
"He won't be much better off himself" Kyle said.
"No. I saw him and Heidi Turner walking to class together"
"Heidi? Wow. I thought she seemed like quite a nice girl."
"I guess" The bell to signal the end of class went off, and Craig got to his feet. "She's too nice. She's giving someone like him a chance."
"Poor her. I'll talk to Wendy about it later."
"Testaburger? I've heard of her. She's all of the teachers favourite student already" Craig and Kyle left the classroom falling into step together.
"if she wasn't my friend, I would call her a teachers pet." Kyle agreed
"Ok. Then I'll do it. She's a teachers pet" Craig said in his emotionless voice. Kyle laughed as they rounded a corner to see Stan and Tweek leaving their class together, with another boy that Kyle didn't recognise.