All the Wrong Choices

I followed Ophelia and Rubeus to the horse drawn carriages once we were off of the train. I didn't bother waiting for Tom, even though he was technically supposed to show me around. I was fully capable of figuring it out for myself and, after the way he had treated me today, I didn't particularly care to see him.

Ophelia, Rubeus, and I sat in a carriage with two other students, a boy and a girl. They were a year above Ophelia and I, in their seventh year, and introduced themselves as Corvus and Myrtle Warren. They were twins, both sorted into Ravenclaws, and Prefects as well.

We arrived at Hogwarts after a fifteen-minute carriage ride. The castle was a large, seven-story high structure with many towers and turrets and deep dungeons. I couldn't imagine that it had been built at any point after the Early Middle Ages. It was surrounded by mountains, with a fairly large lake to the south of the main building. The huge oak front doors faced the west and opened up to sloping lawns. A forest extended around to the west of the castle. It was, much like the Hogwarts Express, absolutely gorgeous.

I walked with Ophelia, Rubeus, Corvus, and Myrtle to the Great Hall for the start of the term feast. They all sat at the Ravenclaw table save for Rubeus, who I had learned was a third year Gryffindor – the same house that Ophelia's older brother Orion was in, albeit four years apart. The first years were sorted into their houses, followed by the sorting of the transfer students or miscellaneous new students (which was the category I apparently fell under). There were very few “new” students, so it would be nearly impossible to blend in now.

I sat down on a stool in front of the entire student body, feeling my palms sweat a bit once I realized I was completely under their scrutiny. Headmaster Dippet placed a ragged hat on my head and I nearly jumped out of my skin when it began to speak. I had, of course, read about it in a book, but hearing it was surreal.

“Hmm… very tricky,” the sorting hat spoke lowly, “I see you've been a risk taker all of your life. You have never fallen back nor ceded ground to anyone. You're cunning; confrontational. You lack a sense of fair play. Great and prominent, but distant from the masses. Loyal to family and friends; a tad indifferent to others. Dazzlingly intelligent. Courageously brave. It appears you have traits of all four houses…”

The hat continued to jabber on about me in an unnatural way, spewing things about me even I didn't know. I only prayed it didn't bring up the time I accidentally shat myself that one time I was practicing curses with Professor Butterworth. I felt it stifle a small chuckle from above me. Bloody hell. Could this rag of a hat read my mind?

My eyes darted around the Great Hall nervously, scanning the masses of students until they somehow fell onto Tom. He gave me a knowing smirk and I, still peeved from earlier, looked away from him and fought the urge to vomit.

“…Slytherin.”

“It is nice to have you aboard.” Tom pulled out the empty seat next to him at the Slytherin table. I glared at him but took the seat nevertheless. As with Ophelia, I wasn't about to start burning bridges so early on in my Hogwarts career. Tom pushed my seat in and then sat next to me. I was pretty sure he had the wizard equivalent of bipolar mania.

“Allow me to introduce everyone.” Tom began naming off people sitting at our table. “That charmer over there is Patricia Parkinson. I would try to avoid her as best as you can unless you want to find your undergarments strewn across the corridors. She did that to another female student last year – as Prefect I had to comfort the girl and it was quite awful. That over there is Charles Avery, one of my closest acquaintances and victim to your spell. William Nott, another acquaintance of mine. Wayne Mulciber, Ethan Rosier, Martha Bulstrode, Reverianus Lestrange…” Tom named off each and every bloody student in order.

“And your friends over there,” Tom nodded over to the Ravenclaw table, watching Ophelia, Corvus, and Myrtle with disdain, “They are no good. You shouldn't associate with them any further.”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“I am only looking out for your best interest, Longwood.”

“As if.” I rolled my eyes at Tom. He seemed taken aback by my statement – I swore he was a seventy-year-old man in a sixteen-year-old's body. “They're the only ones who had made an effort to talk to me since I've been here. They're my friends.”

“You will meet people who are a good match for you. Lovegood and the Warren siblings are not, and neither is that oaf Rubeus Hagrid. Come, I will show you around.” Tom stood up from the table and offered me his hand. I stood up perfectly fine on my own – I wasn't broken. Tom dropped his hand back to his side, taking long strides out of the Great Hall. It was nearly impossible to keep up with him.

“Why should I listen to you?” I called after him. The school corridors were empty as everyone was still eating in the Great Hall. I assumed that, since he was a Prefect, he had the authority to roam the halls at any given time. “One minute you're a complete ass and the next you're being somewhat nice to me.” Tom continued to ignore me, striding ahead of me. “Hey, I'm talking to you!” Tom stopped in his tracks so fast that I nearly collided into his back. “Can you stop doing that?”

“Do you have to be so incessantly annoying all the time?”

“Do you have to put emphasis on your words each time you speak?”

“Yes,” Tom spoke, “I fear that is the only way you will understand the words that come out of my mouth.” I opened my mouth to insult him back when he opened a pair of oak doors to reveal a room stacked high with books. “This is the library – a place in which I would hope you would spend a majority of your time in during your stay here. Otherwise I do not see you making it out of here alive.”

“I'm smarter than you.” I huffed. “And you never answered my question.”

“You are at the bottom of the food chain. I am at the top. Do not question what I tell you to do, Longwood, just do it. For your own sake.” Tom rolled his eyes in annoyance. I felt my eyebrows furrow for what was probably the fiftieth time that evening.

“Are you all right in the head?” I asked, quite genuinely. “You can't just go about bossing people around, especially me. Perhaps people would be more inclined to follow you and heed your advice if you didn't act like such a sociopath all the time. I don't want or need your help. In fact, after today, I really don't even like you, so go bother somebody else.” I made a beeline out of the library and took a sharp left to head to the Slytherin common room.

“Wrong way, Longwood.” Tom called after me. I rolled my eyes at the sound of his uppity voice and stopped once I turned the corner, giving him a few minutes to walk away before turning to head in the right direction of the common room.