Chapter Text
October
I am livid. I am absolutely pissed.
A hundred. Thirty-seven. Hufflepuffs. And who gets picked for the Exchange? ME. Me. Just my trolling luck.
(Okay, okay. Maybe I’m overreacting. My situation isn’t that bad. It’s certainly better than that first year. Imagine arriving at Hogwarts for the first time ever and being forced to spend three months of it in a House that isn’t even yours. Imagine being a first year Gryffindor and being forced to spend three months in Ravenclaw. Poor guy.)
Anyway, I’m still upset.
The Headmistress is talking crap to cheer the four of us up now as we stand like buffoons at the front of the Great Hall. I’m smiling even though I wanna scream. The other three in my shoes look similar. (That Slytherin girl seems ready to stab herself. “THREE MONTHS IN GRYFFINDOR.” I can almost hear her anguish.)
I’m the oldest of the bunch. Fifth year. Which is the main reason I’m angry. Really, Headmistress Parrocleft? Really? Is the pressure of preparing for O.W.L.s not stressful enough? I need to be tossed into a new environment and go through the trauma of adaptation, too? Really?
“Let’s give these four our best wishes!” the Headmistress finishes her speech, and I swear half the hall is clapping out of sheer delight at our fates. (I can see Mikael over at our usual spot practically crying from mirth.)
When we move to go back to our tables, Parrocleft makes an “ah” sound and tells us, “Effective immediately, of course. Your belongings are already in the respective dorms.” To the hall at large she says, “Prefects, I expect full accountability. Make room, now.”
I exchange (ha!) equally horrified glances with the other three. The hall starts buzzing as we switch paths and head to our adoptive Houses instead. As I near the Slytherin table, the students are sat tight, nobody shifting to “make room”. I’m considering just fucking right out of here when a lanky guy with dreadlocks stands up.
“Welcome,” he says, flashing me a smile like he means it and offering a handshake. “Curtis Addison. Seventh year. Prefect.” (I’m familiar with his face. He’s in the Quidditch team, I think. Talk about ambitious.)
I take his hand and smile though my teeth are clenched. “Hello.” I don’t want to give my name ‘cause Parrocleft’s already announced it and I would feel like an idiot, but I do it anyway. “Tómithy Bain. Nice to meet you.”
He sits back down and indicates for me to take a seat beside him. Nobody made room yet. I squeeze into the space between Addison and a girl who only spares a glance to hiss at me when I bump her shoulder.
Right. Great start.
But I keep my smile plastered on because I know. I might be freaking out and hating every second of this, but I’m carrying the image and good name of Hufflepuff House. I’m not going to let them down.
So I smile and nod in greeting when I catch anyone’s eye and say hello and introduce myself and I think, though my new place to sleep would be in the dungeons, I can’t wait to get into bed.
It’s noisier down here.
That’s kinda a surprise, since I’d figured if anywhere would be noisier at bedtime besides Hufflepuff’s constant clanging from the kitchens next door, it’d be Gryffindor’s.
I’m inside my room. One of my roommates (Dal-something?) is snoring away like a dozer. Another one (Henry? Harold?) is outside contributing to the din in the common room. I haven’t met the remaining one. (He probably has an old-timey-sounding name that I’d forget right away, too.) (I’m consciously being a hypocrite, of course.) (I met so many people today I’m ready to sell a limb for the hermit life. Addison’s still the only one I can get right. But only because he’s been dutifully hovering around me and pulling me places.) (I bet he’s one of Parrocleft’s favourites.)
Though the chatter outside breaks the silence of the night air, I don’t shut my ears. It’s noisy, but it’s kinda calming, in a way. I can’t discern a word through the thick stone, so the voices meld together into a murmur of nonsense that might be saying anything—gossip, a story, conspiracy theories, strategies to take over the world, what have you. I’m surprised, also, at how a lot of the voices are laughing.
When there are pauses in the babble outside, I catch the softer babble outside. No light is on in the room, but there’s the famous weird green light washing in from the windows looking out at the bottom of the lake. I hear something like the sound of the wind but watery, and dimly I can spot fish swimming by. Under that I think I can catch the crackles from the fireplace, though it might just be my heart.
It’s been a long day. It’s gonna be a long three months. I wonder what my friends are doing. Probably sleeping. Our prefects are strict, but we’re not much of night owls anyway. (I’m surprised, lastly, at how Addison hasn’t called for lights out yet. Does he know it’s against the rules?) (He probably does.)
The sounds down in Slytherin’s are more comforting than I expected, and as I’m falling asleep, I’m thinking of how I like the way the green light casts fish-shaped shadows into the room.