Shake It Out

My mom says I have anger problems.

Which is bullshit, of course. People just happen to piss me off. A lot.

It wasn't always that way. I was a perfectly normal preteen upon entering Hogwarts. Then the Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin, and it all went downhill from there.

Now don’t get me wrong, I belong in Slytherin. Out of the four Hogwarts houses- Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin- my house is the most fitting for my personality. I wouldn't label myself a coward, but my sense of self-preservation was far too high for Gryffindor standards. I'm smart but I supremely do not care about studying or competing with my peers for who has the strongest intellect, so Ravenclaw was out. I have no problem with Hufflepuff, but I was not kind enough for their ranks, so that was off of the table as well. Slytherin is where I belong. I am ambitious, and cunning. I'm good with sizing people up, and I can manipulate people and situations pretty easily when need be. My ideologies, however, fall short of my peers' standards.

It seems as though we’ve stumbled upon the root of my problems.

You see, I’m not your typical Slytherin in that I don’t give a flying fuck about blood. I really don’t. Neither do my parents; my mother was a Ravenclaw and my father was a Gryffindor, so they didn’t have to deal with the absolute shitheads in my house. I didn’t have one friend there, not one. In the beginning, my peers tried to befriend me as eleven year olds are wont to do, but, alas, punching Howie Davis in the stomach for calling Lily Evans a mudblood didn’t go over as well as one would think. Needless to say, they mercilessly taunted me for being a blood traitor. That was before they figured out that I knew quite a few spells and had a mean left hook, though. Anyway, by the time my sixth year rolled around, we had a mutual agreement to ignore each other. Not that I minded.

The problem was, however, that no one in the other houses talked to be because I was a Slytherin. They saw the green tie, and bam, I was enemy number one.

See where the anger comes from? And, believe it or not, I am an extrovert. I'm a damn good time in all honesty. But I also do not stand for that that does not suit me, and I couldn't fake it to make it in good graces with the Slytherins if I tried.

So I’ve become a bit standoffish over the years. Whatever. Two more and I’m out of here. Thank Merlin.

I just laid my head back against the seat in my compartment on the Hogwarts Express and took a deep breath. Two more years.

All of the sudden, a loud ruckus quickly came upon my compartment and two boys ran in and turned to me.

“Can we hide in here?” one asked urgently.

I shrugged, and he thanked me before they both scrambled into the overhead compartment and curled up beside my trunk. I rolled my eyes. I knew who they were. James Potter and Sirius Black. Gryffindors, my year. Incredibly popular, ginormous eggheads.

James was the leader of their little group of four (him, Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew called themselves “The Marauders”). He had glasses, messy brown hair, and was generally regarded as gorgeous. He wasn’t bad looking to me, kind of nerdy, but he publically pined for Lily Evans at every given opportunity. Everyone knew that he only had eyes for her. The only thing that could compete with his love of Lily Evans was his love for the sport of quidditch. He was the captain of the Gryffindor team.

I glanced up at the giggling boys overhead. Sirius Black was more attractive, I’d admit. He had longer dark hair, and light eyes. I couldn’t remember if they were gray or blue. The problem with him is that he was incredibly arrogant. His family were those dark pureblood types, but he was the first one to be in Gryffindor for centuries, apparently. You would think that he’d have redeeming qualities, right? Wrong. Giant douchebag. But what can you do?

I heard more ruckus from the hall outside before the door was thrown open to reveal Lily Evans, another Gryffindor in my year.

“Bailey,” she nodded distastefully.

At least she remembered my name.

“Have you seen two adolescent boys running around? James Potter and Sirius Black?”

“Can’t say that I have, Evans. Sorry,” I threw her a sarcastic half-smile.

She rolled her eyes and left, swinging her long red hair behind her as she exited and shut the compartment door behind her.

Did I mention how pleasant Gryffindors are? Lily Evans was practically Gryfinndor royalty, along with the two adolescents above my head. She was a muggle born, and a brilliant one at that. Practically everyone loved her for either her wit or brains. I, personally, was not a fan of her attitude.

Anyway, after laughing for about five more straight minutes, Potter and Black managed to jump down and turn to me.

“Thanks-,” Potter started, “Wait, are you new here?” He scratched his head confusedly while looking at me up and down.

“No,” I replied boredly, looking up at the two of him.

“Really? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before.”

Or you’ve just looked past.

“Have you, Pads?” Potter asked Black.

Pads? Huh? Is Potter’s nickname Tampons?

Black looked down and shook his hair out of his eyes. Gray. His eyes were gray.

“Hell no, mate. I would’ve remembered a face as pretty as that.” He smirked at me. Did I mention he was also a chauvinist pig?

I snorted. “We’ve been in the same year, for five years.”

Sirius looked a bit troubled at my snort, but James looked at me for a bit before conceding. “Sorry, can’t place the face. I’m James Potter, by the way.” He held out his hand and I shook it.

"Harris Bailey."

“Sirius Black.” He kissed my hand when I held it out. Instead of giggling, like he was probably used to, I just wiped it on the seat next to me.

They gave me a weird look, before I replied, “I don’t like spit on my hand, thanks.”

Sirius looked offended, before James cut in hastily, “Well, nice meeting you. See you later, Harris.”

And they left, with Sirius giving me yet another confused look on his way out.

I sighed, and looked down at my outfit of bell bottoms and a flowy blouse. I looked perfectly sociable without the emerald tie, a picturesque teen of the 70s if I did say so myself.

The conductor announced that the train was soon approaching Hogwarts.

I sighed again and got up to put on my uniform.