A familiar unfamiliar place
I was sat on the train to Hogwarts, sitting in the same compartment as my brother Draco, and his make-shift friends he had made 5 minutes prior, two boys with really short brown hair. I’d drowned them out of my hearing, staring out the window on the way to Hogwarts, the view was marvelous. I did hear Draco call them Crabbe and Goyle, but I tuned out much else.
The train came to a halt, everyone started shuffling out the train, I went last of my cabin to avoid being pushed by Draco or those weird kids he’d befriended.
We reached the boat ride to Hogwarts, Draco looked queasy, he never did like water, and Hagrid found..some kids toad, but other than that, the boat ride went quite well. You could see some of the mythical sea beings if you looked close enough, such as sirens, i wouldn't mind checking that out sometimes.
We went inside the castle, there was, a lot of stairs, Ms. McGonagall was waiting at the top of them, she was the first person to talk today, i didn't tune out. Mother always said ms. mcgonagall was important, and nice if you respect her, she started her speech.
“Welcome to Hogwarts” she spoke enthusiastically as the last of us made it up the stairs
“Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you can take your seats” she took a breath
“You must be sorted into your houses, they are, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.” She shot a glare at Draco at that last part, who looked proud and looked to the curly haired one of his friends.
“Now. while your here at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family, your triumphs will earn you points, any rule breaking and you will lose points, at the end of the year, the house with the most points, will win the house cup”
“The sorting ceremony will commence momentarily” she stated, before going into the great hall
And now, time to go back to toning people out. Draco was failing to introduce himself to someone, it wasn't important. I looked around the room, the architecture, the magic that breathed the rooms, I wanted to get today over with so I could study it. Learn what made Hogwarts tick.
Before I could get too good a look at everything, draco walked back over, and Ms. McGonagall spoke
“We’re ready for you now.”
We shuffled into the great hall, the older students were already sat, Ms. McGonagall spoke.
“When I call your name, you will come forth and I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses.”
She called up a girl, bushy hair, she seemed nervous, muggle-born probably. Ms. McGonagall sat the sorting hat on her head, and after a moment it shouted, “Gryffindor!” The Gryffindor table cheered, including a small clap from the headmaster
Then Draco, the hat didn't even touch his head before it shouted “Slytherin!” Cheers from the Slytherin table roared,
Then me. I walked up to the stage and sat down,
I had no doubt I'd be placed in Slytherin before today. But something about actually being there made me nervous. What if I wasn't placed in Slytherin, or worse, placed Gryffindor?
The sorting hat was sat down, it was weird hearing it speak so close, it seemed like a dream to actually be here. It debated putting me in Ravenclaw, some part of me found the idea good, but the logic screamed ‘No!’
After a moment of silence, it shouted
“Slytherin!”
No surprise there. The table cheered and i sat next to draco, the meal went by in mostly silence, of course people were talking, i just didn't mind them much, the ghosts came out soon after, any idea of food went out the window for me, i didn't even notice i spent most of the meal trying to silently study the ghosts. They were awfully interesting
Soon after we were sent to our common rooms, or, rather, showed to our common rooms, of course Slytherin got the dungeon. Why wouldn't we? It was quite dark, black and dark browns made up the room, with the obvious hints of ‘slytherin green’ which was more of a forest green than anything. It was grand, like home. But the windows looked out under the lake. Splendid.
It didn't take long for people to start being loud and chatty with the new kids, there were around 25, maybe 30 kids my age. Draco and his new minions were practically chatting everyone's ears off, I grabbed one of the notebooks mother had gotten me, I had promised I'd use it only for schooling, but doesn’t studying the sirens and other Mythics under the lake technically count for beast keeping and magical studies? Anyways, it was a lovely coral blue notebook, 500 pages, 1000 sides to write on, and 7.1 spaced lined paper! It's the best type of notebook to study in, if you genuinely care about the subject, which many people did not for magical creature studies, the audacity, right?
It took quite a while for a siren to actually approach the glass, around an hour or so, maybe longer, while i waited, i studied the lovely dark aquamarine blue, the window had blemishes and spots of algae around the edges, someone had tried to clean it, not very well, but still they tried. The river had plenty of fish, muggle and mythical, a few sea serpents I got a good few pages of notes on. Did you know the whiskers they grow on the bottom and side of their face are for taste and spatial awareness? And they’re quite friendly, despite popular myths will lead you to believe!
Anyways, i got a tiny bit off topic, back to the sirens, once they actually came up to the glass, they were, just, gorgeous. Not what you're thinking, far from it, modern myths and tales lead you to believe sirens are gorgeous girls who lure sailors to their doom with their looks, quite the opposite, but still, quite gorgeous, from the sharp fangs made to hunt fish and men, their lovely tails, made to move swiftly through dense water, those handy webbed hands and feet, just, gorgeous. I managed to get 6 pages on them.
By the time I was done with that, the head boy –whatever his name was – announced it was lights out, and we had to go to the dorms now. Ugh. of course, right when I was figuring out how sirens communicate with students, or well… trying to, atleast.
All the boys had to follow the head boy to their dorms, while the girls followed Esme Fawley, a very lovely pureblooded girl who’d gotten slytherin head girl this year. She was very sweet.
The dorms themselves, not so much, they felt almost cold, i normally adore the cold, it's comforting. But this cold? Was different, it wasn't…actually cold, it just felt like it was without Draco, eleven years, in the same room, the same routine, the same stupid corny jokes, the same complaints, just…silence tonight. Gone. all of it, it was hard to sleep, it was around twelve am, maybe twelve thirty before i actually dozed off…
This was going to be an odd new chapter in my life.