Sorting Ceremony
The train pulled up to stop and Draco marvelled at the outside. How was it night already? They left the station at eleven am and arrived in the evening - it looked like either six or seven pm. He went to get off with the others, but Hermione stopped him. "You're being sorted today, so you'll have to take the boats. You need to take a left where we go forward." She informed him.
He did as she said and wound up being left with a bunch of four foot nothing eleven year-old children waiting to get in a boat. There was a man named Hagrid who took them, and Draco couldn't believe there was a man of over eight feet taking them. How did the boat manage to stay afloat?
Ahead was a huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements. Draco, with his own boat, paused for a second to skim his hands in the darkest water he'd ever seen, but it still managed to reflect the shimmering dotted lights in the sky miles and miles away.
As he was rowing the boat by himself, Draco didn't have much time to focus and marvel on the magnificent castle in front of him. How it was all still standing yet looked so old Draco would never know.
Climbing up the stairs, Draco could hear voices getting louder and louder, hundreds and hundreds of them. When the door opened and a woman walked out in green robes with a pointed hat, Draco waited for the eleven year-olds to be quiet.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor McGonagall,'' She introduced. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff,Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. Mister Malfoy?" Draco looked her in the eyes, "You will be going first, separate to the first years, so join me." She turned to the first year students, "I suggest you take this time to smarten yourselves up."
Draco adjusted his robe, feeling incredibly hot in these clothes, he was almost sweating. It was awful. Draco really couldn't wait to sit down and take this overthrow off. It made him look like that Snape guy.
Opening the doors just so, Draco slipped through with Professor McGonagall and did not marvel at the candles floating in the air or the warm, golden glow the hall produced. Instead, he faced forwards and walked behind McGonagall with his head held high and his hands stiffly at his sides. This was his first impression to his future classmates: he did not want to come across as vulnerable, easy or soft.
This was the chance for Draco to become a new person. "Draco Malfoy." Professor McGonagall announced and the hall erupted in whispers and murmurs and exclamations of 'what!?' However, he didn't look back or blush as he took the seat ready to be placed in one of four houses.
"AH! Another Malfoy!" The hat exclaimed, something Draco did not expect, "The twin... You've lived a troubled life, haven't you? But which house, which house indeed." The hat went silent and Draco took this chance to look about. He caught Harry's eyes, smiling at him but a hint of nervousness behind it. Then, he found Florian's whose shock was still present. "Has to be... SLYTHERIN!" The Slytherin table erupted in a small amount of cheers and the other tables politely clapped.
There was space at the end of the table, but Florian shoved a fifth year down a seat so Draco sat next to him. "I didn't know mother and father had another son." Florian narrowed his eyes.
"I didn't know I had a mother and a father. Today is full of surprises." Draco said sarcastically. Florian side-eyed him. There was silence while the first years were sorted. Draco noticed people cheered the loudest for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but not so much for Slytherin.
After the ceremony, Draco looked at Harry and smiled, for Harry to slightly frown before looking away. "Are you friends with Potter?" Florian asked, saying his name with a slight venom.
Thinking about it, Draco did not know. Were they friends? It was more 'there is nobody else my age to talk to so we may as well start a conversation'. "No, we aren't."
"Good."
Draco didn't want Florian to take him under his wing, and it seemed like that's what Florian wanted.
"But why can't we be?" He asked, challenging.
"Because he's Potter. The Chosen One. He's with Dumbledore." Draco knew what to not bring up around Florian and his friends, then. "Do you know nothing about magic?"
One Welcoming speech later and a loud round of applause from Slytherin when Snape was said to be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, food popped up on the table. By now, Draco was used to it, but his hands did flinch when it happened, not completely at ease with magic yet.
"So you're really Florian's brother?" The girl with short hair asked, "I'm Pansy, by the way."
"Pretty sure, yes." Draco grabbed the carrots and left the peas alone.
"I'm Theo," Said the teen with light brown hair, "Those two are Crabbe and Goyle, that's Daphne and Millicent, and that's-"
"I can introduce myself." Said the attractive black teen sitting across from him, "I'm Blaise Zabini." He held eye-contact, and so did Draco. Blaise was the first one to look away.
"Where were you raised? If you weren't raised by Mother and Father, I mean." Curious, Florian asked. When Draco looked in his eyes, he noticed heavy bags under them.
Here he had two options: lie, or truth. Therefore, he only had one option. He remembered Sirius and Remus telling him about people who believe they are better than everyone else because of their blood. "I was raised by a couple on the Isle of Wight."
"Did you know about magic?" Asked Theo. Inwardly, Draco cringed at how Crabbe and Goyle were devouring their food, similar to when he saw Ronald eating those sweets on the train.
"Well I knew of magic - the people who raised me showed me. I didn't think a place like this, or The Wizarding World, existed." Hopefully, it was believable. They moved on to other questions after, like what he thought of Hogwarts, what he enjoyed doing. When Florian discovered Draco had never heard of Quidditch he was adamant to take him flying and so was Blaise.
Everyone went to their dorms, Draco following Florian with Crabbe and Goyle flanking the boy. Behind them were Pansy and Theo, talking in a hushed tone. Everyone seemed friendly, to a certain degree. All of them had this stiff posture that Draco knew went relaxed when he, or anyone else, wasn't present.
The Slytherin Dungeons were amazing. The place was cool, not chilly or clammy like Draco thought it would be. Then, there was the massive window at the back, looking out into the lake he came across that very day.
"You're rooming with me and Theo." Blaise informed him, leading the way to his room.
Draco took it all in when the door opened. Black walls with an intricate design, wardrobes made from ebony wood and beds with royal green sheets and silver accents. Each one of them had a desk with a shelf, and Draco saw Theo's were mostly covered with Magical Creature books and Blaise's was empty minus a few murder novels.
"So where are you really from?" Blaise asked when the door was closed and Theo was closer to it than Draco.
"I told you earlier." Draco denied, thinking his lie was very believable.
"You do the same thing Florian does when he lies." Theo informed him, "You run your thumb over your fingernails." Draco looked down, seeing his thumbs were currently running over his nails. Curse Florian Malfoy.
"We're not like them, you know." Said Blaise, "Blood supremacists. Hypocritical if we are." He shrugged, "My mother is currently married to a Muggleborn, and Theo's aunt is a Squib."
It put Draco more at ease, to know if these two ever found out the truth he wouldn't be castrated in his sleep. However, he didn't know how close these two were to the others. "I told you, I was raised by two magical people on the Isle of Wight."
"OK." Said Blaise, looking like he knew he was lying but knew pushing it wouldn't do anything.
"Good night." Draco whispered into the darkness an hour or so later. Something he needs to get used to is the no electricity, that light comes from a candle, his hands, or a wand.
"Good night.", "Night." He heard back after a minute or so of silence. Snuggling into the sheets, Draco came to terms with the fact that this was his new home. Maybe he'll get used to it.