Food and dreams
“SLYTHERIN!”
The tense silence lasted for another few seconds, before, one by one, the slytherins started clapping and soon, all students in green and silver broke out into celebration, clapping loudly and proudly. The teachers were a bit stunned at first but slowly, they too gave professional congratulations in the form of tempered clapping. Ripping the head from his head, McGonagall looked more than a bit disappointed that he wasn’t in her house.
Looking up at the teacher’s table, Harry could see curious gazes from Prof. Snape, Quirrel and even the white haired Dumbledore, all three men watching him with a strange sense of novelty which he couldn’t quite put his finger on and yet was unique and differing between them. Not that he had much time to ponder these expressions, as he quickly made his way to the slytherin table, not even noticing at first that his robes too had turned a shade of brilliant emerald with silver detailing on the inside, as did his tie.
At the table, he was readily welcomed with open arms from his fellow Slytherins, who sat there with huge smiles on their pale faces. Did they not get enough sun, he wondered or why were they all so pale. As the sorting continued and slowly more first years joined them, they introduced themselves, Draco was there snobbishly presenting himself as though he was some kind of prince(which in fairness he was, his family was that rich), as was Theo, though he lacked much of the attitude that the blonde before him seemed to hold so faithfully, there were two boys, Vincent and Gregory, who were rather wide and packed full of muscles, not the brightest they were but fiercly loyal, he could tell from just the quick words they exchanged. The last boy to join them was Blaise Zabini, a dark skinned boy with dark eyes and a very high quality robe, more so than even Draco’s. As for the girls, there were fewer than the boys, only four, Milicent Bulstrode -a rather plain girl with a cute, round nose-, Pansy Parkinson -a girl of asian descent who kept fluttering her eyes at draco- Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, two blonde girls who were as inseparable as sisters, though they were not blood related, they still had quite the bond inbetween the two. He didn’t speak much with his fellow yearmates, sticking closely to Theo. There were too many new people for him, he wasn’t used to that. Back in the orphanage, new kids would get in at a much slower pace so it was quite the shock to learn about so many new people all at once.
Still, despite the novelty, he learned quite a bit about the people he was going to spend the next few years with. Like how Draco had the biggest sweet tooth amongst all of them or how Blaise was raised by his mother, who had been widowed thrice since he came to the world.
Harry’s eyes occasionally flickers onto the Gryffindor table, where Hermione was having the time of her life, eagerly chatting with a red-haired prefect about whatnot. She looked happy, good for her, he guessed.
Harry himself also got quite a bit of attention from the prefects, all in line, waiting to meet him. Not literally in line, he wasn’t that special but the youngest of the prefects, fifth years if he remembered right, all made an effort to introduce themselves to the first years, they were the people that he and his yearmates could go to if they needed help with something. So, Harry made sure to remember what they looked like, even if he didn’t catch their names with all the fuzz going around.
After a small speech from the headmaster(Three words! The speech was three words long and it didn’t even make sense!), their food magically appeared in front of them from down in the kitchen, most likely sent there by the cooks, the Hogwarts House-elves. The food was everywhere, with many dishes, ranging from simple roast duck to ratatouille, burgers, salads and much more. There were meats and veggies, fish and fruit, even the occasional serving of lemon drops. The drinks weren’t quite as varied but there were still plenty of juices and also water. He stuck to the apple and pumpkin juice, not being as adventurous as the likes of Blaise and Daphne, both of which took much pleasure in trying out all kinds of juices.
Finally able to eat as much food as he wanted without having to worry about there not being enough for the others, like it had been back at the orphanage, Harry had many servings of meat, potatoes, fruit and even some veggies(yuck). He ate duck and deer, pork and cow. It was all delicious and even after he ate as much as he could, he barely made a dent in the food on the table. It was an experience right out of his greatest fantasies.
And after the main course was done, the table was emptied, only for dessert to appear where porkchops had been moments before. Duck was replaced with ice cream, mashed potatoes with treacle tarts and broccoli with pudding. It was a sight ripped right out of his dreams but sadly, he couldn’t enjoy any of it, having feasted enough of the main dish that it was physically impossible for him to eat any more.
None of his year mates seemed to share this problem with him, all happily stuffing their faces with sweets, though to be fair only Gregory and Vincent had eaten as much as he had and even more. Still, like the others, the two brutes feasted like there was no tomorrow to wake to after they went to bed that night.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity the dessert vanished too and Dumbledore -after a quick few words of the dangers looming behind a corridor on the fifth floor- released them to go to bed with the words, “now that we are all watered and fed, you can follow your prefects to your dormitories”
That they did, the two youngest prefects leading the first years, whilst the older ones rushed off with the older students.
Harry and his year mates were rushed down and down and down, till they were deep underneath the castle. It was an unsuspecting brick wall, where the prefects spoke their password ‘parseltongue’, to which the wall gave way to reveal their common room.
Much too stuffed to stay awake much longer, harry practically fell into his bed, sweet unconsciousness came with his sleep, together with dreams of most pleasent a nature.