three
stepping out of the train felt weird. very weird.
after hours and hours of socialising with a group of people he would usually send a side glance, dream stepped out of the train as if nothing had happened. he didn't glance back as he left the group without saying a word. he didn't know whether or not sapnap was following him along, but either way, he walked with his head tilted upwards, walking towards a particular someone or something, he wanted to see.
the dark night illuminated stars, and all the first years rushed towards the big lake. his preferences laid on the 'invisible' horses, which had been very visible for him since particular few years. he had thought, wow, this is where i go insane. but with the help of roaming towards hogwarts books, he was still a perfectly fine boy, who had only witnessed death once -or twice.
he still felt weird. he stroked the horse slightly on the hairs, ignoring the stares of some younger years and perhaps confused or disgusted gryffindors. it wasn't his fault he was the most hated, that's just how he ended up as a slytherin. or maybe it was the opposite, there was a certain prejudice against the house of green and silver lining. maybe in his first year, he had made wrong decisions, but his 12 year old self had a swarming feeling when he watched the upper years.
a boy, one with the name of sam, had been in his 6th year when clay had joined the slytherin house. whilst he was a big bully to the people around him, he always had a soft spot for dream, helping him learn the 'slytherin' ways, some which clay barely thought acceptable. but, he had no siblings, and he felt like an outcast with everyone but sam. so he developed whatever ideologies he had as a fake persona, and wore around this security mask. this was until, of course, sam had been expelled. only when sam's dark routed sides were revealed, that dream understood that this older brother figure he had was just insecure and a psychopath.
it grew him some time to develop out of his hateful habits, especially with his stone-hearted parents opposition to his sudden interest in change. without sapnap by his side, he would've acted on his fear, would've chosen to lie to himself to keep his parents happy. but, at least, in his inner circle of friends, he had deemed to be nice. it didn't come easy, as he had the reputation of being sam's last and best friend. however, he knew himself, and all the other pupils who didn't believe him, could fuck off.
so that's what he was doing, he scoffed and rolled his eyes at the students who watched him with disgust printed on their faces. he ignored the snickering teens, their whispers of accusations. "i bet he helped sam," and "he's just like his parents," weren't a first to his ears these were sly rumours that slithered across the castle of hogwarts, but he only had one year left, and he could deal with these tiny problems. what he couldn't deal with was failing his NEWT's, and having to repeat a year.
that would just be embarrassing.
"c'mon champ, let's get this year done and over with." sapnap slapped a hand onto his arm, and dream nodded along with a genuine smile, whilst they joined the 3 other's from the compartment on the carriage.
and yet again, it was weird. quackity was weird. karl was weird. and george, well he was kind of weird. but he wasn't opposed to this weirdness. he knew that george's friendship group, especially the pink haired boy, had a vendetta against him. he used to be mostly sure that they were the ones who started silly but hurtful rumours about him, and he had his bets on who exactly it was. not wilbur, he seemed nice on the surface, and probably didn't have the heart to spread his dislike out of his inner circle. techno was a big no, surprisingly. the two hated each other, of course, but it was all out in the open, especially on the quidditch field. and he honestly didn't think that techno would be bothered to shit talk him.
so that had made it down to the other two. he always assumed it was george, because he was sort of the shy kind. the quiet ones are the most wild, sapnap would say. but now having spoken to the boy, dream deemed him wrong. and maybe, they were wrong all together, maybe the group of ravenclaws weren't just a group of hateful 6th years, talking about him like some obsessed girls — he also had those, but they weren't harmful, that didn't stop him from being uncomfortable, though. and maybe they weren't as opposed to him, and it was just his ego filled mind turning things against him.
"are you sad?"
dream was quick to be shot out of his thoughts, shifting his gaze from the starry night's sky to george. george, who was observing dream, his eyes staring into dream's. the boy across him had his head tilted, searching for an answer in dream's facial expression.
"sorry, about what?" dream cleared his throat, nervous and confused about his demanding stare. he shifted his eyes around the carriage, finding sapnap falling asleep on his arm, and karl and quackity mirroring him. "about your last year? are you sad, like, to be leaving?" george inquired, his eyes asking the question rather than his mouth. his eyes were wide open, contrasting the 3 sleeping boys, and had the curiosity most ravenclaws were known for.
dream tutted, moving his mouth in different angles, searching for the answer with his lips. "yeah, i guess so. i'm more scared to fail my NEWT's though." he smirked, watching george return it with a smile and nod along. "same, i know i have a while before i need to start worrying, but i already am. and it's so much content. like, i would rather start revising them now lightly then — "
and george went on for a while. dream nodded, even though he was long gone in the conversation. it wasn't like the boy was annoying him, it was more so his thoughts were occupying him more. george's rambling about his anxiety regarding the NEWT's only made him much more anxious. shouldn't he be the one rambling about his exams, and shouldn't he more nervous than the 6th year boy? he didn't even have these worries last year, if he had, would he have done better in the future exams? hell, he didn't even study for most of his lessons. george eventually stopped talking as he figured out that he was talking to himself only, and whilst dream felt bad, he couldn't pull his unfocused eyes off the ground the horses tracked on.
he was now worrying about how he wasn't worried enough. fuck.
—
it had been an ache to wake up his two new best-friends, but after the silent awkwardness had set its dominance, george was determined to get off the carriage as quick as possible. and perhaps never talk to dream again. it wasn't like he had wanted to ramble in front of the boy, but as dream had nodded along and hummed in response, he felt his cheeks burn up, and a smile twitch upon his cheeks. this, obviously, only made him ramble on further, then involving his hands and his eyes flying around the enviornment. as soon as he noticed dream's mouths and lips were dead shut or staring somewhere else, he too burried himself into an inaudible discomfort.
he hurridly dragged the complaining quackity, and the half-asleep karl into the castle. the only reason for forcing the two along with him was to make it seem less like he was embarrassed, but his tomato face probably said otherwise. the minute the three had set foot into the bustling grand hall, he sent out a still apology, mouthing sorry to the boys, along with an incomprehensible i'll explain later, as he made his way to his three roommates.
except for the brief journey during the hogwarts express, he hadn't had a chance to catch up with his fellow ravenclaws. admittedly, he didn't even understand why karl had suggested moving carriages, and why he had agreed to it. maybe he wondered if dream would apologise, and he could go back to fawning over the slytherin. but now, he was just embarrassed from his actions. he wasn't much of a talker when he first met people. however, dream had been engraved into his mind as someone who he probably wasn't. in george's eyes, the slytherin was kind, genuine, and definitely an excellent listener. this all rooted from when george declared to find him hot around dreams 4th year, imagining nothing but a sweet soul behind his attractive vase.
on the other hand, he knew dream wasn't like that. dream was mean, especially to his friend group. but he seemed different whilst in the carriage, and this only led george to feed into his delusion(s).
he rummaged into his black and blue robe, pulling out the familiar shiny silver badge he had been given in his year before. he smiled at remembering his prefect application, checking the male option instead of the female. that was the first ever time he had come clean about his identity, and after a horrendous haircut in the ravenclaw common room by techno, he was much happier. the arrangements were easy, as his now roommates were his best mates. and coincidentally, they had an opening space around the time george had come out. it almost felt like his three friends had purposefully snitched on their original roommate to gain george as one.
he slipped down next to the three boys, who were already deep in chatter and giggles. "hey guys! what you talking about?" george smiled as he stared at the boy on his right, wilbur, huffing away at eret and techno. "these two are being literal children, so nothing more than usual, george." eret put out his tongue, and nudged his elbow into techno, as he just rolled his eyes.
"after all these years, i still can't believe wilbur doesn't know how to perform any cleaning spells!" eret chuckles again, pointing a finger at wilbur, whose face went a bit reddish, and pushed his glasses up his nose. out of the four, wilbur and george had a different type of dynamic than the rest. they were always the most competitive — at lessons, obviously not at sports as the two never participated — in a light manner, just wanting to impress one another. but george's need to impress wilbur had calmed down over the years. he didn't know if this was due to the fact that he now felt closer in friendship, or his tiny crush had sunk down.
"that's funny. but still, will doesn't even wear his glasses so often!" he offered a smile to wilbur, who gave it back, and nodded proudfully. "see, it's normal, idiots. at least george has my back!" he flung an arm around him, squeezing george's left arm, and using his right hand to take of his glasses. "george?" he asked, holding the pair out to george. he scoffed and rolled his eyes, cleaning them with the swish of his wand and the muttering of reparo. after handing it back to wilbur, his arm softened, and george moved onto his prefect badge next for cleaning purposes.
"hey guys, see this? yeah it's no big deal — " george showed off the silver/blue pin, watching the pink haired boy act out tears, "yeah yeah cry all you want techno, i'm just better."
after more banter and jokes, dumbledore was keen to start his singing, so all the houses followed along. george internally cringed as he heard wilbur and techno blasting their voices loudly, and covered his face in 'disappointment'. this, moreover, was just a joke, until his gaze leaned towards the slytherin table. his eyes met with dream, all dressed in dark green — piss yellow in his eyes — with black and white touches. his lips went up to a smirk enough to make george baffled. george cursed and cursed at him in his mind, but the eye contact kept still, even when dream joined the others in his own dramatic ways. george only laughed at the situation he was now in.
—
after the sorting followed by the delicious food that filled his stomach so well, all dream wanted to do was sleep. however, being head boy meant he had many things to do. for example, he had ushered hannah away when she suggested a meeting in the carriage, which was the head boy and girls usual route. but for him, he wanted to be able to enjoy his last ride, and he thought hannah would deserve that as well. but as soon as he was done with his meal, he was pulled out of the great hall by the gryffindor girl. there was a quick, and brief meeting operated between them to the prefects. there were a few new ones, which is why this meeting was called, but the rest, such as george, already knew what to do.
"alright so, just ask your prefects from your house if you have any more questions!" dream clapped his hands awkwardly, not knowing what exactly to say. he wasn't prepared, especially when he had downed his pumpkin juice whilst hannah was talking. "actually dream, we created a group—chat a while back, remember? we were gonna talk about it?" hannah said through her gritted — and smiling — teeth. he honestly didn't know how she put up with him, and how she was always so nice.
"oh yeah. um so — " he rummaged through his robes, pulling out a crumbled piece of napkin, "it's clean, by the way. but just write your numbers on this and pass it back to us. me or hannah will add you all!" the paper was first given to bad, who had been prefect for 3 years already, but he smiled at the consideration of their new head boy and girl. as dream had stated, everyone wrote their numbers. whilst some did not including their name, some did. hannah gracefully took the piece of paper back, and both she and dream took a glance at it. dream smiled when seeing george's name with a smiley face next to it.
"alright, thank you all. go get your duties done now, or whatever." dream laughed and followed hannah along to the side where she was leaning against the stone wall. she slowly pulled out her pink phone, looking unbothered, acting as if she was used to having her phone out with permission. "you know, i'm glad you're head boy, dream."
"awwww, thanks hannah. same goes to you, as like head girl, you know...?" dream chuckled, slipping his hand behind his neck. even though he wasn't sure if hannah had believed him from his fiddly stance, he did mean it. cause how could he achieve this if it weren't for hannah's tactical plans from months ahead?! the first message he had ever received from the girl was during summer, congratulating him for his position as head boy, and what actions they would take when they went back to school.
plus, she wasn't annoying, so that was just a bonus. "just one last thing though dream!" she stated. normally, the phrase itself would make him anxious, as if he was in trouble, but her smug face and grin told him otherwise. "you get to deal with tommy!" she giggled, and rushed off, leaving dream with an unphased look on his face, reminding himself that he would only deal with the 5th year gryffindor one more year. and he would be done. hopefully. but convincing himself that was hard enough, knowing that tommy was an absoulute menace, who decided to be obsessed with dream.
he smiled anyways though. cause even though tommy annoyed him 24/7, it made dream act better to the ones around him. maybe that was the way sam should've acted when dream grew preoccupied, but he didn't. so, dream covered up his guilt of his relation to sam by being a better person than him. that way, it made it clear to himself, and others — but mostly himself — that it wasn't his fault, it never had been. he was just a naive kid trying to impress his parents.
he stood still as he watched the swarming 1st years. it had started with the gryffindors, and he watched as maja and tommy lead them off into their respective place. their loud comments and laughs were ignored by the hufflepuffs. they walked much more slowly, compared to the energetic gryffindors, and dream had no idea where exactly the hufflepuff common room and dorms were. he just watched them walk past the corridor all of the houses had to. he knew who was coming next, so he started to take his robe off quickly, knowing that it was his time to leave. the ravenclaw's appeared after he got more comfortable. dream eyed the boy he had been in a carriage with a few hours ago. much to his surprise, george was already staring at him, and shifted his head towards the new pupils, smiling to the ground. dream smirked, having a good idea as to why george's face had a hint of pink.
but shrugging it off, he watched the new kids from his house walk past, and he beamed at the youngers. it was cute, how some were very nervous, and how some were joisting with excitement. dream recalled his first days, and found himself relating to both the feelings of happiness and anxiety. it was all too much, but it was fascinating. so without nothing more to do, he entered the great hall, and found his way towards his gryffindor friend.
sapnap was out there being his usual self, stuffing his face with whatever food was left. the great hall was now less crowded, and there was the calmness of being one of the eldest pupils in the hall. he slid next to sapnap, and without listening to his complaints about his mother's food, dream admired his last first day.