Open Doomed

[Freddie Lagowski]

(Set immediately after Freddie was sorted)

Ravenclaw? Ravenclaw? There had to have been some kind of mix-up. It was that kid, Ares’ fault - he’d gone up there before he was called, and now everybody was being sorted out of order. Ravenclaw?? It was a dream. Yeah, it was a really bad dream. Freddie sat down dazedly at the end of the table - a table full of people he’d never fit in with, who thought studying was fun and did their homework before they left the classroom. He’d heard all about Ravenclaws. Indirectly, of course, because there were no other Ravenclaws in his immediate family. But still…

Freddie leaned on the table, holding his head in his hands. The truth of the matter was quite simple. He was doomed.

 

[Audrey Beauchamp]

Audrey hadn't read anywhere that she couldn't have extra piercings on her ears, and as such she felt especially cool with her new seconds, not to mention the helix piercing on her left ear. The rest would have to wait until after her seventeenth birthday, but that was rapidly approaching. It was a contrast in a way to the prefect's badge on her lapel. Audrey liked the contrast. Still, she did have a job to do so she was politely clapping with each sort into Ravenclaw. A first year had sat down near her who looked like his world was ending. Audrey couldn't help but snort with amusement, but leaned over to try and do something prefect-y. "Woooow. You look like a niffler found your savings. Hoped for another house, didja?" Maybe not that prefect-y.

 

[Freddie Lagowski]

Freddie looked up. Woah. Was he at the wrong table? Since when were Ravenclaws so… No. He wasn’t going to call her cool, not even in his head. Damn! He just did. “Um,” was about all he could say while he processed this revelation. A quick glance down the length of the table only deepened his confusion. Hardly any of them looked dull, or pompous. What had his cousin been going on about?

“Yeah. Slytherin,” Freddie said at last. His expression hadn’t changed much. He didn’t quite dare to think he might fit in here. There had to be something he was missing. “Slytherin. I asked for Slytherin, in my head.” What had he expected, really? Since when did anybody ever listen to what Freddie wanted?

 

[Audrey Beauchamp]

"Ah, that'd do it," Audrey responded, nodding in a way that she thought might be somewhat sagely. Instinct kicked in as someone else was sorted and she politely clapped, then turned back to the boy. "Welllll...from what I hear the Ravenclaw dorms are muuuuch nicer than the Slytherin dorms." Honestly, they were probably about the same, and the Ravenclaw ones were further away, but they were aired out better. The Slytherin ones got mustier. Allegedly. The hat had nearly put her in Slytherin, but she quite liked Ravenclaw. "And you've got a much lower chance of having terrible roommates." Maybe he had relatives in Slytherin and Audrey was putting her foot in it, but she was trying.

 

[Freddie Lagowski]

Freddie clapped half-heartedly, because he guessed he was supposed to. He’d stopped paying attention to the ceremony. Watching other kids get sorted into his preferred house was only going to make him feel bitter. Ha. He allowed himself a smirk at the idea that he at least had the superior dorm. But the roommates? Well, if they were all like this prefect, perhaps they’d be all right, but Freddie had a horrible feeling he wouldn’t be so lucky. He could think of few things worse than being stuck in a room full of nerds. “Yeah, we’ll see.” There was another round of applause. Freddie fiddled with the cuff of his sweater, seemingly disinterested. “I am smart. People say. Sometimes.” ‘Sometimes’ meaning, when he bothered to do his work. “I’m good at math.”

 

[Elise Ito]

Elise wasn't surprised by her bad mood. She knew coming to Hogwarts without her brother or Dorian would sting and she knew she just had to wait it out. She'd probably feel better in the morning. So she sat away from her friends to spare them any of her grumpiness for the time being. She usually liked watching the sorting ceremony but this year all she wanted to do was to sink into her robes and disappear. She hardly noticed when a new first year sat next to her until Nyx, her raven, hopped up from her lap where she had tried to hid her in her robes and onto the table to peck at the boy's fingers. "What's gotten in to you?" she scolded and scooped up the bird. "Careful before you get sent to the tower without any dinner." she whispered, knowing that pets usually weren't aloud during feasts. "Sorry about that." she said genuinely, in the airy way she often spoke. "I think she's cranky."

 

[Audrey Beauchamp]

Audrey's clapping was somewhat automatic, a trained response to join in with everyone else. She had no reason not to clap as she didn't need to be uncooperative despite her cool affectations. But she wasn't paying that much attention, tilting her head at the boy and thinking of what to say. Audrey was terrible at this sort of thing. She was almost thankful for the appearance of Elise's raven. At least it wasn't a food fight. "Ooh, a special guest, hello," she greeted the bird with an acknowledgement to its owner, surprised not to see the rest of her roommates around her. But Audrey had picked an odd place to sit as it was, and decided to hold her tongue for once. "You're probably already doing better than most of 'em, then," she eventually said looking back at the boy, having decided this was the best she could come up with for encouragement. "Seriously."

 

[Freddie Lagowski]

Freddie wished he hadn’t said that. He just… felt the need to justify the hat’s decision, somehow. At the same time, he felt a bit sick. What was he trying to prove? Was be already expecting to screw up?

The boy startled at the flash of black feathers, snatching away his hands. What the…? Was that a crow? A raven? Freddie’s knuckle hurt, but he couldn’t be mad. That was awesome. “Is it my rings?” he asked, showing her from a distance. The one on his middle finger glittered as he twisted it. He folded his arms on the table, tucking his hands under his elbows where they wouldn’t provoke the bird again. That did mean he couldn’t clap the next first year into their house, but the people around him seemed to have it covered. “What’s her name?”

He turned back to the prefect. Ugh - he really shouldn’t have said anything. What was he thinking? He didn’t even like math. He just happened to be good at it, which wasn’t the same thing.

… OK, he did like it. Numbers were reliable; they calmed him down. But he was sick of being asked to perform, sick of being fawned over, sick of being shoved in a stupid little box. It was like the guitar. He could never just enjoy it. People had to take a piece of it for themselves, like he owed them something as recourse for all the trouble he caused. Well, he didn’t - and he wasn’t going to let that happen here, at Hogwarts. He was going to keep his head down, stay out of trouble. Be average. Maybe that was why the blue badge on his robes worried him: it reminded him that his average was never good enough.

“Well, I was kidding,” he said, looking away. “Sorry.”