substandard deviation
The sorting, or at least the start of it, goes as expected.
Hogwarts is beautiful, majestic even, Blair muses, but she is not amazed, as the other first years seem to be. She is used to luxury, after all.
Every first year in their compartment is sorted into Slytherin, unsurprisingly.
The Sorting Hat barely takes mere seconds in bellowing, “SLYTHERIN!” right after it calls for, “BLACK, BLAIR” and “BLACK, REGULUS” in quick succession.
Blair smiles and pats Regulus’s hand when he joins her at the Slytherin table. They are twins - of course the Hat won’t separate them. “BLACK, SERENA” joins them shortly after.
Blair rolls her eyes as she hears Sirius yell from across the room, “REGGIE!!! BLAIR BEAR!!! HOW COULD YOU!!” He clutches at his chest in a gesture of mock disappointment.
She studies the Gryffindor table for a moment. Sirius moves on to whispering something in the ear of Lupin, his arm draped around the back of Pettigrew’s chair. Potter is busy attempting to strike a conversation with an exasperated-looking redhead. Ah. This must be Potter’s crush that Sirius tells her about. She is stunning, even for a mudblood.
All of a sudden, the Sorting Hat calls out an unfamiliar name. “HUMPHREY, DANIEL!” Humphrey. Huh. What an ugly name. She scoffs. When she looks at the scene before her, she is even more unimpressed. The boy is a mess. His hair is a mop of untamed curls and he wears worn-out robes, secondhand from the look of them. And underneath it all, he is wearing….. what are those muggle shoes…. Sneakers? Another mudblood then.
She laughs derisively and notices that many other Slytherins are snickering too. She focuses on the feast once more. He’ll probably be carted off to Hufflepuff or Gryffindor in no time.
“SLYTHERIN!” The table stills. Surely the daft thing was joking. He would be the first mudblood Slytherin in years. Blair laughs again, even louder this time.
Narcissa, ever the angel, nudges Blair, as she claps for the mudbl- muggleborn. The rest of the table joins in. Slytherins protect their own after all.
Regulus gestures for the muggleborn to sit beside him. Blair gives him a look of distaste. He is the most soft-hearted of the siblings. Blair, on the other hand, is flagrantly spiteful, and Sirius has a vengeful streak a mile wide.
Humphrey introduces himself to Regulus and leans over to do the same with her, but she swats him off. Before she can pull back, his hand touches her wrist. She feels a frisson of energy. Her magic seems thrilled at his presence. Strangely enough, she can almost feel his magic reaching towards her too, as if it were equally eager.
That can’t be right. Mudbloods can’t be teeming with strong, potent magic. It’s not their right.
Blair is discomfited for a moment, but pushes the thought away.
She completely forgets about it when Lucius Malfoy holds out his arm and escorts her to the Slytherin dungeons.