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Chapter Text

Ron was nervous. Really nervous. A little less nervous now he knew for sure that Fred and George had lied and he didn’t have to fight a troll, but his upcoming sorting was still very terrifying. It didn’t help either that his last name started with a W, and since the names were clearly called in alphabetical order, it meant that he was going to have to wait a while. So, Ron just stood there, nervously, feeling like everyone was staring at him.

Ron took another look at the Gryffindor table, where his brothers sat. He just had to get there. It couldn’t be that difficult. After all, even Percy had made it to Gryffindor, and he hadn't ever seemed particularly brave. Then, he looked again at his new friend Harry, who was standing next to him. The Boy-Who-Lived, saviour of the wizarding world, and apparently also a very normal kid. Surely Harry was going to end up in Gryffindor? Yeah, he had to. Ron just hoped he could follow him.

And then, after waiting what felt like for ages, they arrived at the P. An ugly looking girl named Pansy Parkinson made it to Slytherin, and then, Harry’s name was called. So, there Harry walked, and Ron fully expected him to just sit down, and immediately get sorted into Gryffindor. Or Hufflepuff, Harry clearly was also very kind and would fit in, probably.

But that wasn’t what happened. Instead, Harry just sat there. It had to have been just a few minutes, but it felt way longer. Ron could see Harry whispering something, again and again. He could see Harry’s expression getting more and more miserable. What was happening? And then, the hat finally opened his mouth.

“Slytherin!”, it called out. Harry’s face was one Ron would remember. He looked like he wanted to fall right through the ground. For a few seconds, he just stood there, seemingly unable to move. Ron looked at him, and tried giving him a reassuring smile. Slytherin wasn’t that bad, right? Besides, Harry was a celebrity, even the Slytherins would enjoy having him in their house. At least, Ron hoped so. And then, Harry started finally walking, towards the table where that annoying Malfoy boy had been placed just a bit earlier.

“Weasley, Ronald”, McGonagall finally called, and Ron walked towards the hat. He looked one last time to the Gryffindor table he had been aiming for, and then at Harry, who said next to a blond haired girl. He sat down, and the hat got put on his head.
“Hello”, he heard a voice whisper in the back of his mind. Ron almost jumped from the stool, but managed to stop himself. “Uh, hello, who are you?”, he whispered.

“The sorting hat, obviously. And you’re Ronald Weasley. Interesting”, the voice continued. Ron didn’t know what to say to that.
“Humm, you’re a difficult one. You feel often underappreciated”. Wait, how did the hat-.
“You want to be successful and popular like your brothers”. Oh no, he could see where this was-
“Yes, Ronald, you could achieve all that in Slytherin”. But he didn’t want to be in Slytherin, he wanted to be a Gryffindor like the rest of his family.

“You want to be special. You could fit in great in Gryffindor. You have the bravery and bullheadedness required. But you wouldn’t be special. Your dreams would never come true. Ronald, do you want to be just like your brothers? Do you want to be just another Weasley?”. No, he didn’t want that.

“I’m doing something here I don’t do very often. I’m giving you a choice. Ronald, do you want to follow your own path? Do you want to follow your ambitions? Do you want to be looked up to?”. Yeah, that sounded bloody nice, Ron thought to himself. Maybe, just maybe, Slytherin could work. He’d be together with Harry. He could be special. Maybe Fred and George would eventually even stop seeing him as a loser.

“And that’s why you are going to Slytherin. Good luck, Ronald”. And before Ron had any time to reconsider, the sorting called out loud: “Slytherin!”. Ron refused to look at the Gryffindor table. He couldn’t look at his brothers. Not right now. What had he done? He felt like he could throw up. Ron could only listen to the noticeably lesser applause he got, probably because none of the pureblood junior death eater Slytherins were clapping, he presumed. He felt his eyes wander to the Gryffindor table, but he managed to stop himself just in time. Instead he looked at Harry, who couldn’t quite manage to hide his joy at not being alone in Slytherin anymore.

“Sorry”, Harry whispered, when Ron slit next to him on the bench. “I know you wanted to go to Gryffindor, but at least we are here together now”. Ron nodded at that. At least Harry was happy. Ron felt miserable. He had just given away the one thing he wanted, to go to Gryffindor, and that all for a bunch of words from a hat. Fred and George would be furious.

Then, he noticed someone walking up to him from the corner of his eye. Ron looked up, and it was Malfoy, of course. He hadn’t even thought about that. He was in the same house as that git.
“What are you doing here, Weasley? You don’t belong here”, he whispered, probably because the sorting still wasn’t over.
“The sorting hat seems to think otherwise”, Ron said, sounding a lot more confident that he actually felt.

“What are you doing here? Go back to your own place, Malfoy”, Harry said sharply.
“Shut it, Potter. You and I both know you two don’t belong here. Professor Snape will see it too, you’ll be gone in no time”, Malfoy smirked, and then walked back to his own spot at the other side of the table.

“Who is professor Snape?”, Harry asked him the moment after the last person, Blaise Zabini was sorted.
“Fred and George have mentioned him before. I think he’s the head of Slytherin, he teaches Potions”, Ron explained. He looked at the teacher’s table.
“I don’t know which one of the teachers he is, though”.

Professor Dumbledore gave a short, bloody strange speech, and then food appeared. A lot of food. Harry immediately started grabbing all kinds of food, and Ron soon followed. He tried the steak, some kind of strange blue salad, fried chicken drum sticks, deep fried potatoes and even more drum sticks. It was great, and it made this horrible day at least a little better.

“Hey, you’re Harry Potter, right?”, the girl next to Harry asked. She sounded excited, now finally being able to properly talk now the sorting was over. Harry nodded. “I’m Harry, and this is Ron. Nice to meet you”, he said. The girl completely ignored Ron, and continued: “I’m Daphne, Daphne Greengrass. Nice to meet you too”.
“Hey, Daphne”, Ron tried, but still no reaction. Ron decided he didn’t like Greengrass very much.

After that, a boy who had been sitting next to Ron spoke up. He had combed black hair and a thin, pale face. Ron didn’t remember seeing him get sorted, so he had to be in another year.
“Hello, nice to meet you. Quite unexpected to see you two in Slytherin”, he said, while holding up his hand. He didn’t sound unfriendly, and wasn’t ignoring him, so Ron shook his hand.
“I’m Ron. Ron Weasley”, he said quickly, as a form of introduction.

“I’m Higgs, Terence Higgs”, the boy said. Hadn’t Malfoy introduced himself in the same way, first the last name and then both names, Ron thought to himself. Maybe this was some sort of pureblood tradition he hadn’t grown up with. He knew traditional purebloods called themselves by their last name most of the time, so maybe it had to do with that. Ron had never bothered being so formal. He didn’t really see the point of calling people their last name, except for Malfoy, because he was a git. Still, since he was stuck for now in the house filled with pretty much all of the traditional purebloods, it couldn’t hurt to act a little more like a pureblood was ‘supposed’ to act.

So, Ron said: “Nice to meet you, Higgs”.
“So, you had to heroically to follow the Boy-Who-Lived into the snakes den?”, Higgs smoothly asked, and for some reason, that really hit a nerve.
“I’m here because the sorting hat thought I belong here. I didn’t ‘follow’ anyone”, he bit back.
“Sorry, sorry, I was just asking”, Higgs said, and then turned around to talk with his other neighbour. Ron sighed, and continued eating as well.

In the back of his mind, he found it a little strange that none of his brothers had come to seek him out. He had expected Fred and George to immediately come to his table to complain and argue, but they nor Percy showed up. In a weird way, this annoyed Ron. Did they care that little? These feelings were far overshadowed by the happiness that he didn’t have to deal with Fred and George yet, and the looming dread that eventually he would have to talk to them. Not now though, so Ron pushed those thoughts to the best of his abilities away.

“How are the chicken legs?”, Harry asked, probably in an attempt to start a conversation. Ron jumped at the opportunity, he’d do everything to make the thoughts about his brothers go away.
“They are great, especially the ones on the left with the spicy sauce, you should try some”. And so, Harry tried some.

“I don’t think I can eat anything more”, sighed Harry after a bit. Ron nodded in agreement. He could see some Slytherin staring at him, disgusted, like he was some animal. Well, he didn’t care about their stupid manners, Ron decided. He was hungry, so he ate.

And then, dinner disappeared, and got replaced with dessert. Ron sighed. He should have eaten less. At least he managed some ice cream, but after that he started feeling a little strange, so he stopped. Next to him, he heard Harry yawn. It made Ron realise how tired he was feeling, causing him to have to yawn as well. Next to him, he heard some of the other Slytherins talk about the next quidditch game. Ron couldn’t bring himself to be interested. It was obvious that the Wimbourne Wasps were gonna win this one, no doubt about it.

Then, Dumbledore stood up again. The entire hall got silent.

“Ahem, just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you”, Dumbledore started.

“First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.” With that, Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor table, at Fred and George. Oh no, Ron realised, now he had looked at the Gryffindor table. Luckily, everyone was focusing on Dumbledore, including his brothers.

 “I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.”

Harry laughed. Ron didn’t. Most didn’t.
“Wait, is he serious?”, Harry asked Ron. Ron continued looking at Dumbledore.
“Probably. According to Percy he’s not one to joke like that”, Ron then said. And then, Dumbledore announced they were going to sing the school song. Ron grinned. He had heard Fred and George sing that song so many times. Wait. Fred and George. They were gonna be so mad. Ron’s mood darkened again. Don’t think about them, he reminded himself. Just sing the school song.

And so, everyone started singing with a tune of choice. Ron had gone for a nice and quick march tempo, so he was finished before most of the others. Next to him, Harry was still singing. After another minute, everyone was finally finished, and then everyone stood up.

“Follow me, first years!”, said an older Slytherin loudly. He looked to be around Percy’s age, and had a similar prefect badge on his robes. Ron and Harry quietly followed the prefect, together with the rest of the first years. Ron knew he should probably look carefully at the route they were walking, but he was too tired to even register where they were going. A part of him wanted to talk to some of the other first years, but again he felt too tired to even open his mouth. Man, he wanted to sleep so bloody badly.

Eventually, they reached a simple wall in the dungeons. The prefect stopped, which confused Ron. There was no door or anything to stop for.
“Salazar Slytherin”, the prefect called out, and Ron heard Harry gasp. The wall had started moving, until an opening appeared.

“Alright, come inside. Professor Snape, our head of house wants to talk to all of you first, so take a seat until he arrives”, the prefect said, and then he walking right through the opening. Malfoy quickly followed, with those boys, Crabbe and Goyle or something after him. A few others walked inside, and then finally Ron stepped foot into the common room.

Ron wasn’t sure he liked the room very much. It was dark, green, and gloomy, and honestly quite depressing looking. The room was filled with comfortable looking leather chairs, and a bunch of green themed portraits hang on the wall. The windows showed that they were underwater, he could see the greenish, almost black water from the lake through them. In the corner there was a fireplace, where a bland fire burned.

Next to him, Harry sat down on one of the sofas, and Ron quickly followed. He was a little nervous about professor Snape, who would arrive soon, apparently. Fred and George had told him so many horror stories about the Potions professor who was so incredibly biased against Gryffindor. Well, at least Ron was in Slytherin, the one house that Snape apparently liked, but still, he was worried.

And then, a person wearing black robes entered the common room. He had drooly, gross looking black hair, and a very crooked nose. He was so pale that Ron wondered if he had seen even an ounce of sun light in the past decades. This had to be the infamous Snape.
“First years”, the man just said, as some form of greeting.

“Welcome to Slytherin. I’m professor Snape, your head of house”, the man continued.
“We have won the house cup six times in a row. I expect that you too continue that tradition. Follow the rules, and do your best in lessons. Refuse to do so, and you will be… dealt with”. During that last sentence, Snape was very clearly looking at Harry, for some reason. Harry just looked back, a little confused.

“Similarly, we expect to keep up a proper reputation. In house matters will be dealt with in house. Fighting and duelling are forbidden. Curfew is at 9 ‘o clock, after that, you are not allowed outside the common room anymore”. Once again, Snape looked at Harry while saying this.

“You’ll receive your schedule at breakfast tomorrow, so be on time. If you have any questions or problems, you are expected to either ask a prefect, or you can find me in my office down the hallway. Good night”. And with that, professor Snape left.

After that, one of the prefects showed them their dormitories. The first year Slytherin boys shared two dorms, and luckily, Harry and Ron were together. Not so luckily, they were also together with Malfoy. Ron didn’t know the other two kids in his dorm, and he was too tired to introduce himself. The two boys didn’t look very talkative either at the moment, Ron thought to himself. He’d talk to them tomorrow, he decided, and then immediately fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Ron was just nicely dreaming about cloud monsters and donuts, when his dreams got suddenly very rudely interrupted. By what sounded like a voice? Yes, Ron had definitely heard a voice, but he was too tired to even register what the voice said. He felt himself fall asleep again until-

“Come on, wake up”, someone called out. Ron turned around, in an attempt to continue sleeping.
“It’s time for breakfast, Snape said we shouldn’t be late”, the voice, which sounded vaguely familiar, continued. Ron finally opened his eyes with a sigh, and saw Harry standing in front of his bed, already wearing his school robes.

“Ugh, why so early”, Ron grumbled, before finally standing up.
“It’s not that early. Usually I’m up at least an hour earlier”, Harry said way too cheerfully for someone early in the morning.
“Well, I’m bloody not”. Ron looked around, and saw that most of his dorm was already gone. Clearly a lot of Slytherins were early risers.

After a few minutes Ron too was wearing his school robes, and the two left the dorm.
“How did you sleep?”, Ron said in an attempt to start a conversation.
“Not very well”, Harry admitted. After a moment of silence, in which he seemingly tried to decide whether or not he should share whatever was on his mind with Ron, he continued. “It’s just, Hagrid told me not a single dark wizard didn’t come from Slytherin. I’m worried what he’s gonna think. Is Slytherin really the evil house?”.

Ron took another moment before replying, thinking about what he could say to make Harry feel better. Honestly, from what he had heard about Slytherin from Fred and George, they were most definitely the evil house.
“Fred and George seem to think so. But it’s just a house, it can’t be that bad, right? Mum told me before we left that it didn’t matter in which house I was sorted, that they’re just some school system and nothing more.”
“Well, I hope so. I’d rather not become evil”.
“Understandable”.

And with that, they had walked down the entirety of the stairs, and were standing in the common room. There were a few other students, but it was still mostly empty. Most were either still sleeping or eating breakfast, Ron guessed.
“What’s the password again? Something with Slytherin, right?”, he asked Harry when they reached the secret entrance wall.
“Uh, yes it was something like that, I think”. Not very helpful.

“It’s Salazar Slytherin, not that hard to remember”, an irritated voice behind them said. Ron immediately turned around, and noticed the source of the voice. A large portrait of a bald man in green robes on the wall. Harry seemed a little confused by this, but then replied: “Thanks, sir”. They walked through the entrance and ended up in the hallway from yesterday.
“Now, how do we get to the Great Hall?”, Harry asked after a few steps of walking. The question remained unanswered, because Ron had no idea either.

“Ron, can I speak with you for a moment”. Ron immediately turned around, and noticed who had spoken. He should have expected a sibling would eventually seek him out.
“Hello, Percy”, Ron just replied. Admittedly, Ron was a little worried what Percy wanted to say, but it was manageable. It was the twins he was really worried about.

“Let’s talk over here”, Percy then awkwardly said, pointing at an empty classroom.
“I’ll be back in a bit”, Ron told Harry, and then followed Percy into the classroom. “I just wanted to make sure you’re alright. I know you wanted to be in Gryffindor”, Percy said when he sat down. Ron found this to be uncharacteristic kind of Percy.

“Thanks”, Ron murmured, and then, asked the question that had been on his lips the moment he saw Percy. “What do Fred and George think?”. Percy looked very uncomfortable.
“Um, they didn’t take it very well”. He paused for a moment, before continuing to talk. “They think you’re a traitor”. Ron sighed at that. He should have known.

“Bloody pricks”, he grumbled.
“No, no, don’t worry. They’ll come around, I’ll make sure of it”, Percy immediately said. Ron was confused. Why was Percy suddenly so nice? So, Ron did the only reasonable thing, he asked Percy.

“I AM nice! There’s nothing strange about that!”. Ron had his doubts about that. “It’s more, well, you were so worried about which house you were going to be in, I just wanted to, like I said, make sure you were alright”.
“Well, thanks, Percy”, Ron then replied, before he remembered something. “But how did you find the entrance to the Slytherin common room?”.

Percy just smirked at that.
“I’m a prefect, of course I know where the Slytherin common room is”, he said. Then, Ron remembered something else.
“And another thing, do you happen to know the way to the Great Hall?”.

Percy and Ron walked out of the classroom. Harry was still standing outside, waiting for him.
“Just follow me, I’ll show you the way to the Great Hall”, Percy repeated, so they started walking.
“What did he say?”, Harry whispered. Ron took a moment to think, and then replied:
“Just some stuff. Apparently Fred and George think I’m a traitor”. Harry gave him a pat on the back.
“They’ll come around”, he said sympathetically.

After what felt like ages, they finally reached the hallway that connected to the Great Hall. Luckily, they were still very much on time. Ron could already smell the bacon. They walked inside, and with that, they split up. Percy walked to the Gryffindor table, while Harry and Ron found a not very busy spot at one side of the Slytherin table.

Next to them sat a boy that shared a dorm with them, Ron vaguely remembered. He hadn’t had any chance to talk to his other dormmates yet.
“Hello, I’m Weasley, Ron Weasley”, he said to the boy. He had short black curly hair, and a pale, round face.
“Hello, Weasley. I’m Nott, Theodore Nott”. A part of Ron disliked the use of his last name, but that was just the way things in Slytherin seemed to work.

“Nice to meet you, Theodore. I’m-“, Harry started, but he got interrupted.
“-I already know who you are, you’re Harry Potter. Just call me Nott, please”, Nott said. His voice was smooth like silk, and it was already starting to irritate Ron.
“Oh, sorry, Nott. So, what class are you most excited for?”, Harry continued.

It took a moment before Nott answered.
“Well, Charms seems particularly interesting. I have been told good things about Potions too”.
“Professor Snape teaches Potions, right?”, Ron asked, trying to imitate a similar formal tone and intonation.  As much as he wanted to just talk bloody normal like he always did, he did want to try make at least a few friends in Slytherin, which meant adapting a little to this environment.

“Yes, he does”, an icy voice from behind him said. Ron turned around quickly, and looked right in the black eyes of Snape, who was standing right behind him. He was holding a stack of paper, which Ron realised had to be the schedules they were promised.
“Here’s your schedule, do not lose it”, Snape then continued, as if on cue.

Ron, Harry and Nott took their schedule, and Snape walked to the next person.
“We have Transfigurations first. Should be interesting”, Nott commented. Ron nodded at that. While he had heard that the subject was quite difficult, it just seemed so cool.

With a slight shudder, Ron suddenly thought back to one of his earliest memories of transfigurations, where Fred had turned his teddy bear into a huge spider. Maybe, now Ron was finally learning transfigurations properly himself, he’d be able to take revenge for that.

“Well, I’d rather take a look at the library before our first class, so I’m leaving. See you in class, Potter and Weasley”. And with that, Nott stood up, and walked away.
“He seems nice”, Harry commented. Comparing him to Malfoy, Ron definitely had to agree.

After they both finished their breakfast, they stood up as well.
“Classroom 1B, on the second left wing on the first floor”, Harry read.
“Well, I guess we need to find the left wing first, then”, Ron replied, and walked towards the exit of the Great Hall.  Harry followed, putting the schedule back into his pocket. “Let’s go left right here, and see if we see anything wing-like”, he then said.

Their tactic worked somewhat well. They walked a little, until they saw a hallway.
“It said second wing, right? So we need one hallway further and it should be there”, Ron said. Harry nodded, and they continued walking. And soon, they reached another hallway.
“This has to be it”.

As it turned out, it wasn’t. After a bit of walking through the hallway, they came across a problem.
“Wait, this classroom says 3AB”, Harry said. Ron looked at Harry, confused.
“That doesn’t make sense, the last one said 1C”, he commented. Harry sighed, and said slightly frustrated:  “Why is Hogwarts so confusing? Well, I guess we just walk ahead and see if we find 1B”. Ron nodded at that.

This would all be so much easier of they had just been given maps. But they hadn’t, for some reason. Ron vaguely remembered Percy talking about maps and Hogwarts once, how Hogwarts was unplottable and unmappable or something along those lines. Fred and George had found it very funny.

Luckily, after entering another hallway to the left, they saw a bunch of people standing in front of the door, one of them being Nott.
“I think we found it”, Harry whispered. Ron nodded, although a little annoyed.
“We should just have followed that Nott guy. Would have been easier”, he muttered.

After a few seconds, the Transfigurations Professor arrived. Ron recognised her as the woman from the sorting ceremony, although he struggled to remember her name. The professor opened the door, and everyone walked inside.
“Find a place and sit down”, the woman started. “As you might remember from the sorting ceremony, my name is professor McGonagall”. Oh, so that was her name.

“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” she then said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.” She was quick to the point, Ron noted.

“This is your first lesson, correct?”, she asked, and a bunch of students nodded.
“In Charms class you’ll undoubtedly learn that charms either add a property to an object or individual. For example, making a feather float adds a behaviour to the object, it now floats. Transfiguration spells work differently. A charm changes what an object does, a transfiguration spell changes what an object is. Note that down please, everyone”.

To demonstrate her point, professor McGonagall pointed her wand at her desk, and whispered a spell. And just like that, the desk suddenly wasn’t a desk anymore. It was a pig. Even Ron couldn’t stop himself from being amazed at the sight. At home, he rarely saw transfigurations. His parents tended to use charms a lot more. And even when his parents transfigured something, it never was something as big as this. Ron couldn’t wait to be able to do that!

“This is what you’ll be able to do after finishing 7^th year. However, we are not going to start that big. Instead you’ll learn in the coming weeks how to turn a match into a needle”. Ron was a little disappointed about how unimpressive that sounded, but honestly, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Charlie had always been very open about his distaste for Transfigurations class and its slow start and difficulty.

“To transform something, you need to use the transforming spell. It’s incantation is ‘permuto’. Note that down as well, you will be using this spell a lot. The transforming spell does not have any wand movement, so to transform something, you simply have to point your wand at the object, and say very clearly ‘permuto’. In addition, it’s very important to properly visualize what you want the object to turn into in your head”.

Ron quickly scribbled down permuto, no wand movement on the piece of parchment he had brought along, and then looked up at McGonagall to see what she was going to do next. He hoped she wouldn’t explain even more, because Ron was already feeling his concentration wavering. He had never been very good at focusing.

Luckily, she didn’t. Instead, she waved her wand, and a bunch of matches floated towards the tables, leaving one match on each table. Ron eyed this curiously. He wondered what kind of spell she had used.

After everyone had a match, McGonagall told them to start transforming it into a needle. Ron grabbed his wand, and eyed the match excitedly. This was it. His first moment of proper magic. Not that weird fake spell that George taught him, but real magic. So, he pointed his wand at the match, and said loud and clearly: “Permuto!”.

Nothing happened. The match was still a match and very much not a needle. Frustrated, Ron looked around, but quickly noticed that hadn’t been the only one. In fact, Ron didn’t notice a single person who had succeeded. Percy hadn’t been lying when he said transfigurations was difficult. Next to him, Harry sighed, and tried again.

 Ron should probably try again too, he realised. He thought back to McGonagall’s  explanation. She had said something about visualising what you want the object to turn into. A quick look at Harry’s way more expansive and proper notes confirmed this. So, Ron tried his hardest to imagine a nice, shiny silver needle, and said once again: “Permuto”. Nothing happened.

And nothing continued to happen, for most of the lesson. Nobody, not Ron, not Harry, not even one of the studious Ravenclaws managed to turn their match into a needle. It was during the last ten minutes of the lesson, when (who Ron thought to be) Pansy Parkinson screamed in excitement.

“Look, it’s pointy! The match is pointy!”. McGonagall, hearing the commotion, walked away from Daphne Greengrass and looked at Pansy’s now slightly pointy match.
“Well done, miss Parkinson”, she said with a slight smile. And as if Pansy’s sudden success had broken a dam holding away the progress from the class, the girl next to her succeeded a few minutes later as well. In her case, her match looked a little more silvery than before.

Neither Ron nor Harry had gotten any closer, however.
“If you look at it from just the right angle, I think it looks a teeny tiny bit pointy”, Harry tried, studying Ron’s match.
“It’s a match. It’s exactly the same as at the start of the lesson. You’re just trying to be nice”, Ron simply replied, as he stood up.
“No, I’m certain it’s a tiny bit more pointy!”.

“We have Herbology next, right?”, Ron then said, while they walked through the door into the hallway.
“Yep. Hopefully that’s a little easier to find”.
“Well, now we can just follow the others and hope they know the route”.

Chapter Text

Finding the Herbology classroom turned out to be quite easy. Herbology was taught in the greenhouses outside according to the schedule, so the only real challenge was finding a door to exit the castle. Greenglass very smugly showed them the way, since she seemed to have done a much better job at remembering the castle layout than most of the others.

Greenglass’s route was annoyingly busy, and they came across way too many students staring and whispering at one Slytherin in particular. Malfoy scowled at Harry with annoyance, seeing all the attention Harry was getting.

Harry just tried to ignore all the people. Ron could understand why. They had a class to get to, after all. Well, not that it was a very interesting class, mind you, but it was more about the principle of the thing. Not to mention it wasn’t very smart to be late for their first Herbology class ever. According to Fred and George, professor Sprout might act nice, but she could be really pissy when she got angry. “A Gryffindor in disguise”, they had whispered grouchily.

Once they were outside, they could already see the greenhouses in the distance, and just had to walk towards them. The greenhouse with the large number one on it had an open door, so they all walked inside. A bunch of Gryffindors were already there, including the bushy haired girl Ron remembered from the train journey.

“Why does it has to be so bloody warm?”, Ron commented angrily the moment he set foot in the greenhouse. Outside it had been warm but manageable, but here in the greenhouse it was just horrible.
“Because it’s summer”, Harry smugly said.

“It’s autumn, idiot”, Malfoy said while rolling his eyes. He must have been listening in on their conversation. Arrogant git.
“Autumn, summer, what’s the difference anyway?”, Harry shrugged. It seemed that even Malfoy’s annoying presence couldn’t disrupt his good mood. Malfoy looked like he was about to go on a very long rant explaining what exactly the difference between summer and autumn was, but he got interrupted by a short woman with curly hair.

“Welcome, welcome, everyone!”, she greeted. “I am professor Sprout, and I’m going to be teaching you all about Herbology”. Professor Sprout, the supposed the Gryffindor in disguise. She didn't sound very Gryffindory yet. In fact, she sounded quite kind, and already seemed a lot warmer than Snape (not that that was much of an accomplishment, but still, it had to be something). Ron felt himself getting a little jealous. Couldn’t Slytherin have had a better head of house than bloody Snape with his icy voice?

“I assume a few of you have experience with gardening?”, she asked, and Ron saw Harry nod. Ron himself didn’t have an ounce of experience on the matter. His parents preferred just letting the plants do their thing instead of caring for them and cutting them.

“Well, then you’ll probably find Herbology to be quite familiar. In this class, we are going to learn about all kinds of plants, some muggle, but most magical, and how to take care of them. We will also learn a little about how they can react which each other, and how to use them in Potions. Potions and Herbology go hand in hand, so paying attention here is going to definitely help with Potions”, she continued. Ron kept that in mind, knowing that Potions was considered quite difficult, according to his brothers.

“Well, let’s get started. In front of you is a magical plant called Dittany, also known as the burning bush”. Ron looked at the table in front of them, only now paying attention to the small potted plants that were placed before them.
“It might not look very special, but it has some very useful properties. Does anyone know what they are?”. Ron had no clue, but admittedly, he hadn’t even bothered to look at his school books in the summer, so his lack of knowledge wasn’t very surprising.

A bunch of people however did seem to know the answer. The bushy haired Gryffindor immediately raised her hand, and a few people followed. The boy who had lost his toad on the train raised his hand as well, which caused some of the people next to him to stare.

Professor Sprout looked at the toad-boy.
“Mr? ”, she started.
“L-Longbottom, professor”.
“Well, Mr. Longbottom, explain Dittany’s properties”, she said warmly.

Longbottom was silent for a moment, before finally talking.
“D-Dittany can h-heal and restore things. You can eat it for e-example, to cure light wounds. It’s also used in Potions, I think”. Professor Sprout nodded approvingly.

“Correct, Mr. Longbottom, 5 points to Gryffindor!”. Longbottom’s cheeks got red at that, but he did look quite happy.
“The dittany plants in front of you have outgrown their pots, so today, you’ll learn how to repot them”. Harry grinned, looking quite confident.

Ron could understand why Harry was so confident, because, as it turned out, repotting really wasn’t all that hard. First they had to remove the plant from its current pot. This wasn’t difficult, because the dirt around the plant was very loose.

Apparently, usually by repotting they had to change out the soil, which as Ron learned was the dirt in the pot of the plant, but this time, the current soil was still nutritious enough and could be reused. So, they just had to put the dirty plant in a slightly bigger pot, and then just fill the new pot up as much as possible with the soil from the old pot, while trying to keep the plant in a proper position.

Then they had to grab some new soil from the big bag in the front of the greenhouse to fill the rest of the pot, and after adding a bit of water, they were finished. That was the only step Ron screwed up, he added way too much water, and now his plant was standing a small puddle of water. Oops.

But, as easy as it was, Ron couldn’t say he was enjoying himself very much. He didn’t like how dirty his hands got and found it to be quite boring. He didn’t like how little magic there was. Maybe Herbology would get more interesting when they started working on the more obvious magical plants? Ron wasn’t sure, he’d just have to see eventually. At least Malfoy seemed to enjoy it even less than Ron. In fact, the git seemed to absolutely despise it.

Then, they had to do the same to a different plant, a muggle plant this time. While the first time had been sort of fun, it became a little boring by the second time. After repotting around a dozen plants, professor Sprout gave a lecture about a few plants they’d be working with in the next lesson, and then the lesson was finally over. Well, at least it hadn’t been hard like Transfigurations.

After that double hour Herbology, they had lunch break from 12 to 13 ‘o clock. Which was a bit of a problem, because nobody, not even know-it-all bushy hair, knew the way to the Great Hall. Eventually the Gryffindors decided to just walk around the castle until they saw the main entrance which let almost directly to the Great Hall, but Malfoy very quickly decided he was not going to walk with Gryffindors of all people.

And with that, he stamped off to the side entrance they had used to get from Transfigurations to here, and most Slytherins followed. Harry gave Ron a glance, and Ron nodded. Might as well walk with the people he would have to life with for the next 7 years.

“Good afternoon, Davis. What did you think of Herbology?”, Ron then said with a formal tone to the girl walking next to him, who he was pretty sure was named Tracey Davis.

“The noble art of Herbology”, Davis corrected with an eye roll.
“What did you think of the noble art of Herbology?”, Ron replied sarcastically.
“Well, sir Weasley, I found it to be highly below my fine taste”, Davis said, and then walked off laughing. Had she been joking? Ron didn’t know how to feel about her. Davis was weird, he decided. Next to him, Harry seemed to agree, just staring at her with a frown.

Soon enough, they had made it back to the Great Hall, and sat down to enjoy lunch. Lots of other Slytherins were looking at Harry, waving, asking if he wanted to sit with them. It annoyed Ron, knowing they were only asking because Harry was famous. It didn’t help that a few of those Slytherins were glaring at Ron like he was the devil, as if telling him to not even dare sit with them as well. And, well, he was also a little annoyed that even the Slytherins that didn’t outright glare at him were looking at Harry and Harry alone, not giving him anything more than a glance. Of course, Harry didn’t need to know that.

Harry, looking quite uncomfortable by all the attention just politely declined, and then sat down at the tail end of the table where it was mostly empty, while Ron followed suit. Ron was not particularly bothered by that fact. Harry sat next to him, and he was the only Slytherin Ron needed.

“What did you think of our classes so far?”, Harry asked curiously.
“Well, Transfigurations was bloody hard, and Herbology boring. I hope Charms is more interesting”. Charms was the subject where they would learn the useful spells, the ones that made life so much easier. Ron couldn’t wait to be able to do his chores with just a wave of his wand. Not to mention the teacher, Flitwick, tended to focus more on the practical side instead of boring theory, which was exactly what Ron wanted.

Defence Against The Dark Arts sounded interesting too, he knew that that was were they would learn how to duel and fight and all the other fun stuff. He hoped those subjects wouldn’t be as hard. And then Ron realised he had been thinking so much that he hadn’t paid attention at all to what Harry replied.

“Sorry, Harry, I wasn’t paying attention. Can you say that again?”, he sheepishly asked. Harry looked a little annoyed, but then said: “I just said that I hope that Transfigurations will get easier later in the year when we have more experience”. Ron nodded, remembering his thoughts from moments earlier.

Then, for a moment there was silence. Ron really didn’t want to continue talking about school, so instead he blurted out: “Do you play chess?”.
“Er — Not really. But I can play checkers! I’m just not very good, mind you”, Harry replied.

Ron was quite unsatisfied with that answer. Luckily, he already had a plan how to fix this grave, gigantic issue.
“I’ll teach you! Chess is great, you’ll love it!”. At least Ron hoped he would. Most people in his family played chess, but nobody was nearly as good as Ron. Only Fred was able to put up even a challenge. And still, it wasn’t much of a challenge. Ron would love to have a proper rival in chess. Of course, teaching Harry chess would mean he had to somehow get a hold of a second chess set, but that would be another problem for future Ron, Ron decided. Future Ron probably hated him.

Harry smiled at that.
“Sure”, he nodded. And then, his expression suddenly shifted into something much more irritated. Ron wanted to ask what was up, when he noticed the whispers behind him. Ron turned around, and very quickly saw what had bothered Harry. A new group of students had walked into the Great Hall, two Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor. And of course they just had to point at Harry and whisper about him. Ron felt a very sudden urge to glare at them, but managed to resist.

At least Harry didn’t seem that bothered. After that one moment of annoyance, he was focusing on his food again.  

Then, Ron took a moment to take a proper look at his schedule. After lunch, they would have a double hour Charms, and then History of Magic. After that, they just had dinner, and then they were finished for the day. The next day they had Herbology again, this time just a single hour, once again with the Gryffindors, and then Charms. Then some other classes, but most importantly, Astronomy with the Hufflepuffs on midnight. Ron didn’t think Astronomy sounded particularly interesting, but being able to walk through the castle so many hours after curfew was exciting enough.

Harry agreed, especially when Ron mentioned the secret passages and rooms that were hidden in Hogwarts according to the twins. Ron tried his best to ignore any further thoughts that rose about the twins.
“Where would those passages be? Where do they lead to?”, Harry wondered.
“No clue. Fred and George refused to tell me anything more, like the pricks they are”. Maybe he and Harry would be able to find some of those secrets themselves. Ron hoped so, at least.

After lunch, they set off to Charms, which was somewhere on the third floor, close to the fabled deadly death locked third corridor. Ron and Harry had by now figured out that the most efficient way to get through the castle was by walking together with the other Slytherin first years, and hope one of them knew the way. Luckily, it wasn’t that hard to find, they just walked up to the third floor, and then immediately noticed classroom 2E, the Charms classroom.

Chapter Text

The door to the Charms classroom was open, so the group just walked inside. A professor who looked to be barely any bigger than a goblin stood in the front of the classroom on a pile of books.

“Hello, welcome everyone”, said the tiny professor.

Ron and Harry sat down somewhere in the front of the classroom. The classroom was quite large, and filled with books and a few posters.

“Well, I’ll first check if everyone’s there”, the professor chuckled, and then he grabbed a piece of parchment, after which he started calling names. This went pretty smoothly, until he arrived at Harry’s name.

“Harry Pott- aah”. The professor almost fell of the pile of books he was standing on, and just barely managed to regain his balance. Harry looked a little uncomfortable, but most Slytherins and even a few Ravenclaws started laughing.

Luckily, the professor was laughing as well, so nobody got in trouble.

“I’m here, professor”, Harry then calmly said, and the role call continued. Everyone was there, apparently nobody felt like missing their first ever Charms lesson. Ron could understand that.

And then, the professor introduced himself. His name was Filius Flitwick, and he was the head of Ravenclaw. It made Ron realise that he already had a lesson from every head of house except for Snape, who they had on Friday.

Professor Flitwick started explaining a little theory as well, about how Charms gave objects extra abilities and stuff which professor McGonagall had already vaguely explained during Transfigurations. Ron found this not very interesting, but luckily, it didn’t last long, because Flitwick then started talking about a spell they were gonna learn.

“One of the easiest charms is the Wand-Lighting Charm, Lumos. It illuminates the tip of your wand, allowing you have a bit of light in the dark. Lumos.”

Professor Flitwick’s wand started glowing, giving of a blueish light. It reminded Ron a little of a tiny star.

“First off, the wand movement. Start right here, and move your wand in a fluid swish up in a curve, and then continue in that curving motion until you end right here”, Flitwick explained.

Ron didn’t find this description very helpful, but it was easy to understand the wand movement by looking at what exactly Flitwick did with his own wand. It was like a circle but with two long ends at the bottom.

“Now, come on, try it yourself. A nice curved swish”. So, they did. It wasn’t a very difficult motion.

“Make sure not to do it too quickly! Keep it slow, Mr. Weasley, we are just starting, after all”, Flitwick commented, and Ron felt himself get a little red. How had Flitwick even known his name? He probably remembered it from the Sorting Ceremony. His sorting had been unexpected, it would make sense that Flitwick would remember, Ron thought darkly. Then, Ron looked at Flitwick, and did the wand movement again, much slower this time.

“Alright, one point to Slytherin”. Ron felt a little better.

“Then now, the incantation. Repeat after me, ‘Lumos’”.

“Lumos!”, it echoed through the classroom. Ron hoped they could finally try the spell now, but Flitwick wasn’t quite satisfied yet.

“Again. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the U, it’s pronounced more like an OO”.

And, after repeating the incantation, they were finally ready to try the spell themselves. Ron was very excited. Okay, Transfigurations hadn’t gone the greatest, but Charms had to be easier.

“Lumos!”, Ron said, and nothing happened. Then, he realised he had forgotten to do the wand movement.

Another try, still no progress. Next to him, Harry hadn’t managed anything yet either. But some of the others had a slightly glowing wand for a few moments.

“Lumos!”. And then, the tip of Ron’s wand became the tiniest bit brighter, before it went back to normal. Finally some progress. Ron couldn’t stop the grin from forming on his face. He had finally done magic. Okay, not very good magic, but magic nonetheless.

The rest of the lesson, Ron continued repeating the spell. He was slowly making more and more progress. By the end of the lesson, he managed a slightly bright glow, comparable to a very dim lamp. However, he never managed to make the spell last for more than a few moments, which was annoying. Luckily, Harry didn’t either, so they were suffering together.

Honestly, the only thing that was really frustrating was how so many classmates were already perfectly doing the spell by the end of the lesson. Ron suspected they had practiced the spell beforehand.

Then, they had History of Magic. Admittedly, Ron hadn’t exactly been excited for this class. He just wasn’t the kind of bloke to be interested in a bunch of stuff that happened ages ago. Doing magic was far more exciting.

As it turned out, Ron had been right not to be excited. History was boring. Really boring. Extremely, utterly impossible-to-keep-your-eyes-open boring.

The lesson started out exciting, because it was taught by a ghost. Ron vaguely remembered Charlie once mentioning that, but he hadn’t exactly believed it then. Turns out, Charlie had been right, History was taught by a ghost, Professor Binns, a ghost so boring that Ron wondered how Harry had even managed to stay awake during the lesson.

At first, it had been at least a little interesting, because professor Binns talked a little about the founding of Hogwarts and the four house ghosts. Apparently, pretty much nothing was known about the Bloody Baron and the Gray Lady, while the Gryffindor house ghost’s whole life story was pretty much known. Why did Slytherin have to end up with the most boring ghost?

Well, after those first somewhat interesting five minutes, everything went downhill very fast. Because then he started talking about this wizard than Ron had never heard of and how he battled another wizard Ron barely knew, and his boring monotonous voice made Ron feel so tired to the point he could barely keep his eyes open, let alone pay attention. When Binns after what felt like ages finally dismissed the class, Ron knew one thing for sure. History was by far the worst class they had had so far. When Ron mentioned this to Harry, Harry agreed.

Luckily, History was the last class of the day. Dinner would be at 6 ‘o clock, which left them with two free hours. Which of course, let to a bit of a problem, because what on earth were they going do now? So, Ron asked Harry if he had any suggestions.

“Well, we don’t have any homework yet so-“

“Homework? You want to do homework?”, Ron interrupted.

“Well, not really, I was just saying we don’t have homework yet and-“.

“Sure, sure. Any other ideas?”. Harry did not.

Which was a bit of a problem, because Ron also had no idea what to do. Normally, he’d go for a game of chess, but he only had one set of chess pieces. He could of course ask people if he could borrow their pieces, but he’d rather not do that. He was also aching for a fly, but he had to leave his old, battered-but-somehow-still-working broom at home, so that wasn’t an option either. Ron didn’t like reading, and while they could simply talk, Ron felt like doing something a bit more active.He had a old copy of Exploding Snap in his trunk, but Ron didn’t fancy getting blown up at the moment.

And then, finally, Harry came with a suggestion Ron quite liked.

“We could practice the Charms and Transfigurations spells”. Ron nodded at that. He had rather enjoyed his time in Charms class, slowly making progress with each attempt.

“Let’s practice Lumos”, he decided. While practicing the Transfigurations spell was probably smarter, since that was the one both of them were struggling the most with, Ron would rather do charms instead. Harry nodded.

“Where are we going to practice? They said during the opening feast that magic wasn’t allowed in the hallways, right?”, he asked. Ron thought for a moment.

“It’s not allowed in the library either. Heard Charlie and Percy argue about that for hours. Maybe the common room?”.

“I’d rather not spend hours fumbling a spell in front of Malfoy, thank you very much”, Harry said, and Ron had to agree.

“We could check if the dorm’s empty”, he offered. Harry nodded at that, and the two set of to the Slytherin common room. It wasn't very buzy, just a few students in front of the fireplace and Malfoy and his gang on two of the couches. Harry and Ron stayed quiet, and managed to quickly reach the hallway that let to the dorms. Then, they went up the staircase that let to the boys dorms.

Their dorm turned out to be completely empty. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were all in the common room, Ron knew that Nott had planned to go to the library, and Blaise Zabini… Well, Ron had no clue where Zabini was. He still hadn’t spoken single word to his unfamiliar dormmate. Harry and Ron sat down on Harry’s bed, grabbed their wands and started practicing the spell. After a few failed Lumos-tries, Harry had an idea.

“What if we turn of the lights? It is a lightmaking spell after all”.

So, they started practicing in the dark, which turned out to be way more fun. Now, even if they created only the tiniest bit of light, it was still clearly visible. However, even after practicing for quite a while, none of them managed to properly do the spell. Ron remembered how bright Flitwick’s spell had been. They didn’t even get close to that. Honestly, Ron was starting to get a bit annoyed.

After half an hour, Harry got his best attempt yet. After loudly proclaiming ‘Lumos!’, the tip of his wand started glowing like crazy. For a few seconds, the entire room was illuminated. Ron could make out Malfoy’s bed in the back of the room, the Quidditch poster Nott had hung up, the gross socks he himself had carelessly thrown on the ground the day before, and… and then, the room became dark once again. Still, Ron had the distinct feeling Harry was grinning.

“I got it, I just need to keep it up!”, he whispered, even though they were all alone. His voice bit through the darkness, clearly very excited. Ron couldn’t stop himself from grinning too.

“Now my turn”, Ron finally said, and he held his wand firmly. He thought back to the wand movement he had done so many times. Harry could do it. Ron could do it too.

“Lumos”. There was light, but not nearly as bright has Harry had managed. Ron felt disappointment seep in after seeing the all too similar meagre light he had been making.  Still, it was bright enough to see Harry’s face. He looked at Ron a little strangely, with an expression Ron couldn’t quite manage to deceiver.

“You’re making progress too”, he said, but Ron felt a little disappointed. What had he done differently than Harry? Why was Harry making so much progress suddenly? Well, Ron was no bloody quitter, so he immediately tried again.

“Lumos!”. The result was even worse. He only barely managed to create a glow. Ron felt his face become a little red. Why was he getting worse? He had consistently managed a glow, most of the time even a bit of dim light. Why now suddenly not?

“Lumos!”. Nothing. Just darkness. Where was the light? Why could he suddenly not do it anymore? What was Harry doing differently? Why was he so frustrated suddenly? Why didn’t the spell just WORK!

“Keep breathing. I’m sure you’ll get it soon”, Harry commented from the dark. Ron glared at him.

“Shut up. LUMOS!”. Finally, there was light. Not the blue light Ron had been intending, though.

“Ron, why is your wand on fire?”.

Chapter Text

Ron looked at his wand, and saw how the top part of his wand was very clearly engulfed in bright, orangish flames.

“That’s not what’s supposed to happen”. Ron shook the wand as if expecting the fire magically to go away like it had never been there to begin with. His wand kept burning.

That’s when the panic set in. Ron started shaking his wand very violently.

It didn’t help. Instead the fire somehow spread even more. He could feel the heat of it on his hand, a warm tingling sensation that reminded him of the fireplace back home. Home. Crap. He could already imagine how mad his mother would be when she discovered he had managed to burn his wand to pieces.

No, he couldn’t panic. Wait a moment, water! Water extinguished fire, if he could just put his wand into water, the wand would stop burning. The bathroom. Ron stood up and ran.

He arrived at a sink, which he immediately turned on. Cold water gushed out, and after holding his wand under it for a few seconds the fire finally disappeared. Behind him, he heard Harry running up to him.

“Is your wand alright?”, Harry asked immediately. Ron looked at his wand again, to assess the damage. It was a little black at the top, but it didn’t seem too affected beyond the outer layer.

“Lumos!”, he whispered. For a moment, there was a blueish light, and then, it was gone.

Exactly like all his other attempts before. It still worked.

“It still works”, Ron said, not quite managing to hide the pure glee in his voice. Then, he once again held his wand into the water, hoping to scrub some of the ash off.

“Let’s, uh, just keep this between us, mate”, he then said. He could already imaging his mother’s anger when she found out he almost ruined his wand, and Fred and George’s laughter and insults. Crap. Fred and George. He still hadn’t spoken to them. He pushed those thoughts away. Fred and George and their stupid talk about betrayal could wait. He didn’t give a bloody crap about their opinions any-

“Ron, are you alright?”, Harry asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s almost time for dinner anyway, isn’t it? Let’s just go to the Great Hall”.

And so, Ron pocketed his wand, and the pair quickly left the bathroom. They walked down the stone staircase to the common room, and entered. It was a lot busier then when they entered an hour ago. In fact, most chairs and sofas were completely filled, similar to how it had been after the Welcoming Feast. Then, however, Ron had been too tired to pay much attention.

A surprising amount of people were scribbling down stuff in scrolls, probably making homework. It reminded Ron of Snape’s speech yesterday, where Snape had mentioned that he expected the Slytherin students to once again win the house cup. It made Ron wonder how many people in the other houses were already making homework on the first proper day. Ron resisted a snicker. Probably everybody in Ravenclaw.

The rest of the people were either chatting loudly or playing games. Ron even saw two people playing chess, which made him immediately wonder how good they were.

Then, Harry started walking towards the exit, and Ron quickly followed. Ron hoped they could just quickly sneak past without being noticed, like they did before, but it seemed luck wasn’t on their side.

“Look, it’s Potter!”, one of the older Slytherins called out. He had long black hair that was tied back in a ponytail. His skin was pale with a slight tan, and he was wearing a uniform that looked a lot newer than the thirdhand uniform Ron was wearing. The common room immediately quieted down, and Ron could practically feel the people staring at Harry. And, annoyingly, Ron also noticed a few people staring at him with disgust.

Then, another Slytherin broke the moment of silence. “Hey, Potter, how have you been settling in?”, she asked with a friendly tone, although Ron didn’t think it sounded very sincere.

Harry didn’t immediately answer. He looked nervous, frantically eyeing all the staring people. “Fine, thanks”, he quickly said, and then walked through the common room exit. Ron quickly followed. “Are you alright?”, he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just not used to the attention”, Harry said. That made a lot of sense, actually. If he really grew up amongst muggles, it must have been quite a change, suddenly being famous.

“What was it like, discovering you were famous?”, Ron asked, genuinely curious.

“I dunno, weird? I still don’t really get it, I did something as a baby and now everybody stares at me and wants to talk to me”.

“Well, you did defeat You-Know-Who, that’s a lot more than just something”.

“I guess. Well anyway, do you remember how we got to the Great Hall this morning?”.

“Left, then right, then the staircase on the left, I think”, Ron said after a moment of thinking.

So, they went left. And then right. And up. And as it turned out, Ron had somehow remembered correctly, because suddenly they were standing in the big staircase room with the many portraits, and Ron was certain the hallway towards the Great Hall was directly connected to this room.

Ron’s sense of direction continued to be on point, because after walking up another stair case, they saw the big doors of the Great Hall at the end of the hallway.

The Great Hall was a lot more empty than they had expected. There were only a few students, scattered amongst the four tables. Ron grasped in his pocket to find the crumbly piece of paper that was his schedule.

“Didn’t you say dinner was starting soon?”, Harry asked, sounding confused. Ron stared at his schedule for a moment and then sighed.

“Dinner’s not for over half an hour. I misread the schedule”. That explained why there were so many Slytherins in the common room and not in the Great Hall.

Harry sighed too.

“That’s just great. Well, I guess we’ll just sit down and wait then”, he said, and with that, the duo sat down at the end of the Slytherin table.

So, for the next few minutes, they sat in silence. Harry was scribbling something on a piece of paper, but Ron didn’t know what. Instead, he stared at the wall ahead, while his thoughts wandered somewhere else completely. Ron was going to eventually going to have to write a letter to home. He’d avoided the thought for the entirety of yesterday evening and today, but now it was hitting him with all its force.

What was he even going to write?

Hey mom, hey dad, I got sorted in the house with all the bullies, great right?

What would they think?

Frankly, Ronald, we do not care what house you are sorted in. We love you for who you are, and what house you belong in doesn’t change that. That’s what his mother told him after the thousand time he whined about being worried about being sorted into Hufflepuff.

But Slytherin wasn’t Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuff wasn’t filled to the brim with rich snobbish purebloods who thought themselves above the Weasleys.

Hufflepuff wasn’t the house full with bullies that had no problem calling muggleborns the m-word.

Hufflepuff wasn’t the house where at least half the Death Eaters came from.

Would his parents really not care, like they claimed to?

Or would they blame him?

After all, Ron hadn’t just been sorted into Slytherin, hadn’t he? He had chosen it.

Why had he even done that? Fred and George apparently thought he was a traitor. The only person that had actually been somewhat nice to him so far had been Theodore Nott, who Ron was pretty certain was the son of an infamous Death Eater. Slytherins in the common room had been staring at him with disgust.

In that moment, sitting there along the Slytherin table, Ron wondered what he was doing here. He didn’t belong here. Nobody wanted him here.

“Hey, you said you had five brothers, right? What’s that like?”, Harry said. His voice was light, and he was clearly trying to start a conversation.

Ron tried to push away the depressing thoughts. He was in Slytherin, and there was nothing he could do about that anymore. He’d worry about that letter later.

“Well, it’s busy, I guess. Especially during the holidays. But during the Hogwarts term, it’s not as busy—at least after the twins left for Hogwarts. Then it was just me, Ginny, and our parents. Of course, now I’m at Hogwarts as well, so it’s even less busy”.

“Ginny’s your sister, right? The girl with you on the train station?”. Ron nodded.

“Yeah, that’s Ginny. She’s very frustrated she can’t go to Hogwarts yet, she’s been complaining about it all summer. I wonder how she’s doing now”. He wondered what she would think about him having chosen Slyther- No, not now, he didn’t want to think about that right now.

“What’s she like?”.

“Annoying”, Ron immediately said without a moment of doubt. Then, after a second thought, he added: “But in a good way. She is very loud and talks a lot, always has an opinion about everything. Fred and George adore her. Oh, and she loves to read, and I think she wants to learn to ride a broom, but mum won’t let her”.

Harry laughed. “Well, I’ve never rode a single broom before in my life, so at least she’s not alone”.

Just then, a wave of students entered the Great Hall. Ron glanced at his watch—finally, almost time for dinner!

Five minutes later, the Great Hall was starting to get quite busy. And with that, the number of people staring at Harry and loudly whispering about him was growing steadily. It reminded Ron of lunch, where Harry had also been an unwilling centre of attention. And then, a Slytherin walked up to them.

“Evening, Potter. Come sit with us instead of that idiot”, the Slytherin said matter-of-factly. Idiot? Ron glared at the Slytherin, trying to think of an insult or comeback to throw back.

“I’m already sitting here; go away,” Harry replied sharply, preventing Ron from saying anything stupid.

“Okay, okay, I was just asking”, the Slytherin said, even though he hadn’t exactly been asking. After that, he walked away without seeking any more trouble, which surprised Ron. Not that he was complaining, of course.

And then, only moments later, Theodore Nott sat down in front of them.

“Potter, Weasley”, he greeted with a nod. “What did you think of your classes so far?”.

Ron immediately replied. “Transfigurations was difficult, Herbology was stupid, Charms was fun, History was bloody boring”.

Nott stared at Ron for a moment, and Ron suddenly felt very self-conscious of his casual language. Then he wondered why he was feeling embarrassed about talking like a normal person and not a stupid politics-obsessed rich snob.

“Charms was enjoyable, but it was difficult. Not as difficult as Transfigurations, though”, Harry said, breaking the tension. Nott nodded.

“I can understand that. Transfigurations was not exactly easy. History was, well, dissatisfactory and-“

“It was a total snooze-fest!” Ron commented helpfully.

“-I expected a lot more”, Nott finished. Ron nodded, looking absentmindedly at the Gryffindor table.

Then, Harry said something in return, but Ron wasn’t listening anymore. He really didn’t feel like talking about school. So, while Harry and Nott blabbered on, Ron stared at the Gryffindor table. It only took a bit of searching to find Percy. He was sitting next to a brown-haired bloke Ron had never seen before, and seemed to be engaged in a conversation.

Maybe he could ask Percy what to write to their parents. At least Ron knew Percy didn’t care about his house.

Then, he felt his eyes wander further up the Gryffindor table, before he stopped at two familiar heads of red. Ron felt a distinct feeling of dread in his stomach, while he kept looking at his brothers. Fred and George were talking loudly and animatedly waving their hands around, after which they started laughing about something. A yearning crept into Ron’s chest — He desperately wanted to sit there, he wanted to be there and laugh with his brothers. Even though he was surrounded by people, Ron felt strangely lonely.

“Are you alright?”, Harry asked. Ron just nodded and turned away from the Gryffindor table. He didn’t care about Fred and George anyway, he told himself.

“So, Nott, do you play chess?”, he then asked, trying to focus on the conversation again.

Nott’s lips twisted into a smirk.

“Let’s just say I can hold my own in a game or two”, he said. Ron grinned. Finally someone who understood.

“Great, I play too! We have to play a game in the future!”, he said, maybe a bit too loudly. Some Slytherins turned around to look at him, and once again Ron saw those by now familiar expressions of distain. Suddenly, Ron felt a little uncomfortable, and wished he had spoken a bit quieter.

“Very enthusiastic, I see”, Nott replied with a tone that Ron couldn’t quite decipher as either positive or negative.

Stupid Slytherin, he couldn’t even be excited about something.

Then, luckily, the awkward silence was broken by dinner finally appearing. Plates of mashed potatoes, roasted beef, delicious-looking tomato soup, and a whole bunch of other things appeared. It looked fantastic.

“Finally!”, Harry said, and Ron immediately started piling something from everything on his plate. Then, he glanced at Nott, who was taking a more measured approach, only selecting a few items with precision.

“Not hungry?”, Harry asked.

“No, not really”, Nott said, after which Ron just shrugged. With that, the conversation was over, and the three of them continued eating in silence.

Ron took the opportunity to listen to some of the other Slytherins talking. A few of them of them, three spots next to Ron, were engaged in a conversation about the Malfoy Yule Party, a party Ron had never been invited to and never wanted to be invited to.

After dinner was over, most students, including Harry and Ron, stood up and started walking towards the big doors. When they reached the big doors, Harry started to say something, but Ron didn’t catch a single word.

Because suddenly, he was standing face-to-face with Fred Weasley.

Chapter Text

For a moment, Fred looked very surprised. Then, his face twisted into a more serious expression.

They just looked at each other for what felt like ages, but could not have been more than two seconds. The tension in the air was thick and palpable. Ron gulped.

Finally, Fred opened his mouth.

“Ron, we need to talk”, he said. Ron nodded weakly. He needed to get this over with. He needed to know what Fred thought. If Fred really thought Ron was a traitor.

“Come, I know a place”, Fred said. He started walking towards the doors from the Great Hall. Ron and Harry quickly followed.

When Fred noticed Harry was coming with, he said:  “No, no, no- I need to talk with Ron alone”.

Harry immediately opened his mouth, but Ron was first.

“No, it’s alright. Let’s meet again in the dorms”, he said, sounding far more confident than he felt. Harry glanced at him, looking worried.

“Are you sure?”, he asked, and Ron nodded.

This was just a conversation with Fred. He could handle Fred. Fred was his brother, for Merlin’s sake. He had nothing to worry about. It was just Fred.

Those thoughts did nothing to calm Ron’s nerves, though.

“Let’s go”, Fred said, now sounding a bit impatient, and they walked through the door of the Great Hall.

They went immediately to the left, where all the Ravenclaws were going towards their common room. They followed the crowd a bit, and then Fred suddenly turned towards a hallway to the right, away from the crowd. Ron quickly followed.

The further they walked into the hallway, the fainter the noises of the other students in the distance got. Ron looked around while walking. The hallway was not much different than the other hallways he had seen so far. There were a few statues of people Ron had never heard of, and a few portraits.

Then, Fred stopped in front of a classroom. A sign next to the door said it was a Gobbledegook classroom, which was a subject Ron had never heard of. He knew Gobbledegook was the language goblins spoke, but he had no idea Hogwarts had ever taught the language.

The subject clearly hadn’t been taught in a very long time, because the entire classroom was covered in a thick layer of dust. Ron quickly removed some dust from one of the chairs and awkwardly sat down.

And finally, Fred started talking.

“You know, Ron, George and I had a bet going”, he said. His tone was light, and cheerful. Suspiciously cheerful.

Ron remained silent, unsure how to answer.

“It was about which house you would end up in. George was convinced you’d be a Hufflepuff, or maybe a Gryffindor, but I was fully betting on Ravenclaw. Sure, you might not be a bookworm like Percy, but I thought you had the street smarts and the strategic insight to pull it off”.

Ron felt even more uncomfortable. Ravenclaw? Fred, who loved to joke about how dense Ron was, thought he would have gone to Ravenclaw?

“You know what neither of us were betting on?”. Now, Fred’s voice was sharper, quieter. There was a clear undertone of anger. To Ron, it was clear where this was going.

“Look-“, Ron started, but Fred interrupted.

“-Slytherin! Apparently, we were both too stupid to see you actually belonged in the houses of bullies and manipulators!”.

“I don’t belong with-“.

“Then why are you in Slytherin?”, Fred screamed.

“I can’t decide where the hat sorts me!”.

“You could have! You could have told the hat you didn’t want to be sorted in Slytherin! It would have listened!”. Ron stayed silent, unsure of what to say. After all, Fred was right. For some stupid reason, he had chosen Slytherin by his own free will. He couldn’t exactly blame the hat for that.

Fred sighed.

“S, why didn’t you?” he said, this time much quieter. He didn’t sound as angry anymore, instead, he seemed almost sad.

Ron wanted to answer, to explain what went through his head during the sorting, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Wanting to be different, wanting to be better than his siblings, suddenly didn’t seem so important anymore.

“You know what Slytherin is like,” Fred continued. “You’ve seen our letters”.

“I-“

“You know what they did to Jamie last year. You know they are bullies. You- You know how many Death Eaters came from there. I- I… well, honestly, I  just don’t understand why you didn’t tell the hat you wanted a different house. Seriously, Ron, why didn’t you tell the hat?”.

Ron still remained silent and wondered how he could have been so stupid. He looked at his feet, trying to get away from Fred’s piercing eyes. Fred didn’t even know the full story, didn’t know that Ron had actively chosen Slytherin. Slytherin, the house of bullies and Death Eaters. That’s what the twins had always liked to call it in their letters.

For a moment, Ron thought back to Malfoy’s angry remarks, to the disgusted stares he had received from so many Slytherins so far. All because the Weasleys were “blood traitors”. And because we’re poor, a voice in his head added.

Fred sighed.

“Maybe the hat really just saw something I didn’t. Maybe this is just where you belong, and that’s why you didn’t tell the hat”. There was so much disappointment in his voice, and somehow Ron felt even worse.

“I’m sorry, Ron. I didn’t mean to get so angry”, Fred said quietly, and Ron could see some regret in his face. “We just thought you were better than this”.

We just thought you were better than this. We just thought you were better than this. The words echoed through Ron’s head. We just thought you were better than this.

Faintly in the background, he could hear Fred walking away. We just thought you were better than this.

Fred had seemed so incredibly disappointed in Ron. Ron didn’t think that fact would hit him so hard, but somehow it did. He had failed Fred. All because of a dumb choice. What had he even been thinking?

We just thought you were better than this. For the first time in a long time, Ron felt the desire to cry.

After what felt like ages, Ron finally made his way back to the Slytherin common room. The moment he walked inside, the common room became quiet, except for a few whispers. Ron ignored the stares and walked towards his dorm.

“I really don’t get what that blood traitor’s doing in Slytherin”, he heard someone say the moment he left the room.

“The hat’s probably getting senile”, someone else said.

Ron continued to walk towards the dorm and immediately walked inside.

“Hey, Ron. Are you-“, Harry started the moment he entered, but Ron interrupted.

“Let’s just talk about something else”, Ron said.

That night, Ron couldn’t sleep. Instead, he walked towards the window, where he sat down. This window had none of the amazing views Percy had told him the Gryffindor dorms had. Instead, he looked out upon the Black Lake, which stretched out just below the window. It was quiet in the dorm, everybody was asleep. The only thing Ron could hear were the gentle waves from the lake and the soft snoring of Malfoy.

Until he heard little footsteps next to him. Scabbers. Ron glanced at Scabbers.

“I don’t belong here, Scabbers”, he whispered, almost inaudibly. He turned his head to face the windows, to see that dark water again.

“I should have been in a different house. Nobody wants me here”. Ron looked at the sky, where he managed to make out some stars behind the clouds. Next to him, he heard Scabbers move a bit closer. Ron sighed.

“This isn’t what I imagined Hogwarts to be like. I so feel alone, Scabbers”, he said quietly. Somehow, actually saying the thoughts that had been bothering him felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

So, Ron continued talking. About Fred, about Slytherin, about Hogwarts. And for once, Scabbers wasn’t asleep, or lazily staring off into the distance. For once, Scabbers seemed to actually listen.