The More Things Change

[Preston Paine]

Earning only an A average had left Preston with a sour taste in his mouth as he had boarded the train to head home. His parents, of course, had seen the A average and assumed that it meant that their son was doing exceptionally well. Preston, however, knew the truth. He knew that ‘A’ only meant ‘Acceptable’ and the word didn’t sit well with him. Acceptable was something that you told someone when you knew that you could do the job better than they had. Acceptable was something that you said when you had to settle. And Preston wasn’t the type to settle. That was something that his father, a successful businessman, had taught him long ago. The Slytherin knew that he wasn’t a great student. He had spent longer than anyone in his class learning long division and still had trouble figuring out what to do when he needed to convert meters to feet. But, he knew, deep down, that he could do better. Perhaps fewer late night excursions to raid the kitchens, perhaps less socializing would help him do better. Preston knew that actually doing his assignments on time would actually help too, which was why he had resolved to turn in his assignments as they were due rather than waiting until the day of to request an extension. As the boy lay in his bed to fall asleep during his first night in the castle, he reminded himself that tomorrow would be the first day of a new him. The vacation had already brought about some of those changes in a more physical way. Over the break, the boy had risen three inches. His face had leaned out and his voice had begun doing this incredibly embarrassing thing where it would break every few words. He knew it was puberty, but that didn’t make it any less crazy to deal with.

Rising early the following morning, Preston was off to a good start on being a better student. He was off to the Great Hall and nearly done with breakfast at the time that he would have normally been rolling out of bed. It was kind of weird to see the Great Hall so full actually. As the hours quickly flew by and his class ended, Preston resolved to begin his assignment right away. It was an easy one, just an introduction about himself but he didn’t want to get complacent. Often, it was the simplest assignments that he forgot to hand in entirely. Heading out to the lawn, Preston found a nice spot underneath a giant oak. With his back pressed up against the bark, Preston pulled out his notebook and quickly began to jot down some information about himself. It was all fairly basic – his name, his age, why he wanted to take the class. The boy mentioned everything but his home life. Preston hardly ever mentioned to anyone that his family was well off, very well off. And he never mentioned anything else about them. Speaking about his family life had become taboo, something that he could mention only in generalities, if he had to mention it at all.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel tucked his hands into the pockets of his robes. This year was going to be horrible. He knew that he wasn't focused, and he liked not being focused. For years he had to be focused and do everything by the book and be intelligent and just bore himself with things he didn't care about. That was why he had here, instead of any other school. Hogwarts New Zealand was no-where near Scotland. Scotland was filled with his family members, and he didn't want to continually live under them. They were a force to be reckoned with. He was still a child, so his families beliefs and behaviour heavily weighted on his decisions. Unfortunately, waking up to discover that your big, mean sister was now attending your school was quite a shock. In fact, Abel was sure he had a mini stroke. Why was Kialla here?! She should be in Scotland, sucking up to Grandmother. Grandmother had never really favoured Abel. He was sure that only reason why she spoke to him was because he was pureblood and listened to her. He was useful. She liked Kialla because Kialla was just so damn perfect. The only thing that girl could do to lose Grandmother's favour was marry a muggle-born, or if she was attacked by some werewolf or something just as disgusting.

The Slytherin sighed. Now that Kialla was here, he had to be on his best behaviour. Which meant he had to try in classes, do his assignments and make sure that he didn't misbehave. Kialla would not hesitate to write a letter to Grandmother. His parents nearly killed him for getting a P average. 'You're letting the family down!' They told him. So it was either pick up the grades, or be home-schooled. Abel was most certainly not being home-schooled. Abel headed out to the lawn. He had already spent his time doing the assignments he had. He only had about two or something. They were all really simple. Lack of knowledge was not what stopped the Slytherin getting the grades his family wanted, it was lack of motivation. Right now, Kialla was all the motivation he needed. Talking was never an option with her. If he spoke to her, he was speaking to Grandmother. His eyes scanned the horizon, finding a few people walking around. They were usually in pairs or more, and Abel didn't want to intrude on them. However, he did find someone that appeared to be alone. He nodded. He would talk to that person.

Upon closer examination, the boy looked vaguely familiar. A small smirk grew on Abel's face. he was a Slytherin and third year, he could place him in classes and in the Common Room at times. This was great! He sat down in front of the boy, resting most of his weight back on his palms. He smiled. "Hello there, I'm Abel." He was happy to realise that his Scottish accent still shone through his speech. It'd suck if he lost it. "What're you doing?"
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston had long since placed his homework to the side, having finished it. Now, he sat working on a picture that he had sketched earlier in the week. It was an overhead view of the gardens, with trees and hedges as well. His tongue sticking out slightly, the Slytherin worked diligently until he heard a voice that came too close. There had been noise before but he had been able to drown it out since it didn't seem directed at him. This was obviously to him though. Looking up, Preston stared at the kid who had just introduced himself as Abel. Preston recognized him as a fellow Slytherin even without looking at the colors he was wearing. They had slept in the same dorm for three years now, though he couldn't remember saying more than a handful of words to the guy. Even in the classes they shared, they never spoke so for all purposes they were strangers to each other. Smiling, Preston closed his book, his quill holding his place. He could do with a bit of a break. "Hey Abel. I'm Preston" he stated as an introduction.

"I was just working on an assignment and then I finished so I started drawing. What do you think of us sharing classes with everyone now?" he asked. He'd been pondering about that himself, wondering why the school chose third year to let them all come together in classes. He didn't hang out with many Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws, but they seemed alright enough. It was the Gryffindors that annoyed him most, especially the guys. They seemed to have this sense of entitlement that just rubbed Preston the wrong way. "Wanna join me?" he asked in a friendly tone. There was plenty of ground and he was tired of being alone. He figured it would be nice to at least try to get along with Abel since they were housemates. Being enemies with someone who slept beside him just didn't seem like a great idea to him.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel nodded to himself. He definitely knew this boy. Now that he was closer to him and had now heard his voice, he remembered him more clearly. Abel rarely communicated with the other Slytherins. He wasn't sure why, but most seemed to have a massive chip off their shoulder and it was irritating to listen to them complaining about the other houses and all of that petty stuff. Abel didn't care for it. This Slytherin didn't care what some Gryffindor had said about the Slytherin house. He had pride for his house, but heresy was not something he paid much attention to. He listened as Preston mentioned an assignment. They were already getting those dreadful things. They weren't too complicated, but the principle was still there. They were already getting assignments. What were seventh years getting stuck with? However, he was interested to hear that Preston was drawing. "Are you good? May I see?" Abel loved art, but unfortunately, he was not an artist. All that came out of him were crazy lines.

The Slytherin then pursed his lips at Preston's question. He wasn't sure what he thought, but now he had to share a classroom with more people, with even more personalities. "The classes will be a lot more crowded now. At least we've got our electives now. That'll give a small chance of not being crushed into one classroom with a bunch of other kids." Abel was uncomfortable in crowds. He always felt watched in them. It was just disturbing. "On that note, what electives are you doing this year?" Abel had spent a long time trying to decide what he wanted to do. He eventually picked Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Obviously, being who he was, he wasn't going to touch Muggle Studies. Why the school taught such a subject was beyond him. Abel was pulled back to reality when Preston spoke again, and he nodded. He wasn't sure what they were going to do, but surely it'd be better than just hanging out by ones self? "I'd really like that. You're not too bad, Preston. I have no idea why we have not spoken before. You're not a muggle lover are you?" He laughed. Obviously, he was joking. Preston didn't seem too bad, and in Abel's experience, muggle-borns were just irritating air-occupying creatures. Preston didn't seem like that at all. It was also a little bit of a test, for if Preston got all high and mighty about muggle-born 'rights' and such, Abel would have to leave. He couldn't hang around with people like that.
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston listened to his house mate’s response, finding it to be a rather logical answer. He was more used to answers who came from people like Sergei, who was rather negative about most things, especially as they concerned non-purebloods, or Indiana, who was optimistic about most things. That this guy just stated what was to Preston fairly obvious was different. He stared at the Slytherin standing before him for a moment before he nodded his head in agreement. It was true that classes were going to be much more crowded now. Preston didn’t think it would be a bad thing though. Now, he could more easily get lost in the crowd and not have to worry about professors calling on him when he wasn’t paying attention. He knew that it would still happen, but the idea that it might happen less was comforting to the Slytherin. He really did plan on trying his best this year, but he knew that the less pressure he had on him the more likely it would be that he could do well. Perhaps. Preston wasn’t sure if it might have the opposite effect. Perhaps he would simply grow complacent because the professor couldn’t possibly keep an eye on all of the students at once. As Abel asked Preston what electives he planned on attending, Preston thought about it for a moment. He remembered one very easily because it was the one that he was most excited for. “Um…Care of Magical Creatures and…” he paused as he thought about it. “Oh! And Arithmancy” he proclaimed, glad that he had been able to remember. ”You?” he asked, returning the question. It would be good to know that he knew some people in one of his classes. He feared that his electives would be filled with people from other houses. Preston was a fairly friendly guy, but the students in the other houses weren’t always particularly kind to Slytherins. It sort of made him understand why the Slytherins weren’t always the nicest of students, but even he knew that they could overboard at times. He knew better than most actually, having been forced to hear and not say anything when people spoke ill of muggleborns, or mudbloods as they were more commonly known in Slytherin house.

Still hanging on to his book, Preston listened to Abel some more. Had he not already had two years of experience to draw on, he might have been surprised at the words that came from the Slytherin. They hardly fazed him though, and without skipping much of a beat, Preston smiled, revealing perfectly straight teeth. “Hardly” he began and quickly changed the subject, another skill he had grown quite adept at during his time in Slytherin house. “You wanted to see my sketch book, right?” he asked, holding it out to the guy. Preston had never been shy about showing his drawings to other people, though he also wasn’t an oversharer. If someone asked to see, he showed them. If they didn’t, they probably didn’t even know that he considered himself an artist of sorts. He was fond of drawing scenery like the one he was currently working on.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel was glad to hear that Preston was doing Care of Magical Creatures. He loved animals, and he was relieved to find that he would know someone in the class. Abel didn't really have friends here yet, he only spoke to one person on a regular basis, but that no-longer occurred. He didn't see the Gryffindor these days, he had no idea what she was doing right now, but he did miss her a little bit. He smiled more with her around. However, Arithmancy was not a class he was taking. He doubted he would like it too much. He did not know much about the subject, but his older sister had told him that it would probably not be something he'd enjoy, so he decided against picking it. However, though this would probably surprise quite a few people, the pure-blood had actually chosen Muggle Studies, and was quite serious about attending the classes. He felt silly for disliking muggles when he knew so little about them. Besides, he was secretly curious about how a plane was able to stay in the air. He could only think of the Muggle Studies professor whenever he thought about that. She would most likely know. "I'm doing Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes... and Muggle Studies." He wasn't entirely sure if he was confident in saying that he was going to be doing Muggle Studies, but people were going to know anyway, he might as well try to not make a big deal about it.

Abel was silently relieved to find that Preston did not appear to be a muggle lover, which meant that he probably wasn't a muggle-born. Disaster averted. It would have sucked if Preston was a muggle-born or something. Abel already didn't mind Preston, to find that he had such an unfortunately blood status would have been unfair. Muggle-lovers seemed to be everywhere these days. He would have spoken more on the topic, but his attention was grabbed by the sketch book. His smiled grew as the sketch book was held out to him. He took the book carefully and looked through it. It was mostly scenery, which was amazing to the Slytherin. When Abel tried to draw a tree, his sister thought it to be a picture of Africa and she even accused him of copying it from an atlas. She was nearly laughing for an hour when she discovered it was a tree. He admired the images for a bit, before he remembered that he was not in an Art Gallery and that he was probably being rude or something. "Oh, sorry. Here you go." He gave the book back. "You're really good. How'd you learn to draw like that?" Abel was not fortunate enough to come from a family that valued artistic talent, so no-one ever taught him how to draw. You either could, or couldn't.
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston didn't know Abel very well, so he wasn't really sure what he expected the guy to say about his electives. He couldn't speak for the other guy but he was pretty pleased to learn that he had chosen Care of Magical Creatures as well. He was glad to learn that he'd at least have one Slytherin mate in the class. Ancient runes hadn't interested him so he hadn't signed up for that course despite learning that Professor Kingsley was teaching the class. She was pretty for an old lady. Professor Snow was too, so he figured he'd be fine. It was the last class that Abel mentioned that most interested him. He looked over to the boy, his eyebrows rising. "Muggle Studies? Really?" Preston had a lot of practice at making sure that his face didn't betray his emotions. It was something he'd learned from his father who claimed that a good poker face was a key to being successful in business. Preston had learned that it was also key to self preservation in a house that hated people of his kind. "That's...interesting." Preston let the subject drop for the moment as he watched Abel look through his book. He was always a mixture of nervous and eager energy when someone looked through his book. It was deeply personal.

"Thanks" Preston stated as he received his book back along with a compliment. It was always good to hear praise even if Preston knew that he was talented. Answering how he had learned was a bit more tricky. "I dunno really. My mum said that I was always drawing on paper, the sidewalk, her walls. So, when I was old enough she hired someone to give me private lessons." He hoped that answer would suffice. It was the truth without any of the other details such as how he had continued to learn at his boarding school. "So, what made you choose Muggle Studies? Are you sure you aren't a muggle lover?" he asked, turning the question he'd been asked back on the guy sitting across from him. He had a smirk on his face as he said it as if he already knew the answer. If Abel was like most of the other Slytherins, he was about to get an earful.

 

[Abel Smith]

Abel had expected the surprise that appeared on Preston's face. Fortunately, he didn't seem to want to make a big deal of it. What a relief. Abel was sure he would have done the same thing, probably. He was pretty sure his sister was also doing Muggle Studies, so he was okay on that end. Abel's head tilted to the side as Preston explained how he learnt to draw that way. He could only imagine what his own mother would do if she found him drawing on her walls. She would probably make him clean the entire house, and paint it all again, without the help of house elves or his older siblings magic. He was going to ask more about the artworks in his book, but when the conversation was turned back to him, with such an accusation, he was near speechless. Did he seem like one of those? Did he give off that vibe? There was no way Abel could ever be a muggle-lover. The thought of liking those things was hard to handle.

Before opening his mouth and saying something he was probably going to regret. Abel carefully thought out his next actions. He had reasons behind his madness of picking Muggle Studies, and if he went all red and blue on the subject, he'd just seem defensive and then Preston might think that he was secretly a muggle-lover and that was something Abel did not want to happen. "Ofcourse I'm not. I'd be a hypocrite if I liked them. But," here was the hard bit, trying to actually explain why he'd pick such a subject. "I figure it wouldn't hurt to try it out for a year or something. I have a few questions for the professor. When I was in a muggle area with my mother a few months ago, this massive thing," he held out his arms to try and show just how massive the thing was. "Flew through the air, like a broom. But it wasn't a broom, it was this massive metal thing that must have weighted more than a giant! I can't remember the name though. Aeroplan... Aero...plane. Aeroplane. Have you ever seen one of those things before? I'm hoping to ask the professor how it flies." Everyone knew that muggles didn't have magic, nor did they even realise that it existed, a main reason why Abel disliked them as strongly as he did. So how could they make something so big and presumably heavy fly?
​

 

[Preston Paine]

Preston listened to Abel’s response, curious as to how purebloods could be so against muggles yet so curious about them at the same time. Abel wasn’t the first person he’d heard state that they had questions. It seemed to him that some of them just hated the muggles because they didn’t know enough about them, not that Preston had any plans on advocating for muggles and trying to make his pureblood housemates understand. They were only twelve and thirteen year olds after all, and the idea of standing up against his friends was not something that had even crossed Preston’s mind. Preston could hardly contain a laugh as Abel spoke about airplanes, and he had already opened his mouth to tell Abel that it was called an airplane when the boy finally got it out. He was close enough, so Preston didn’t step in. It was probably a good thing too because then he’d likely have to explain how he knew about planes, and somehow saying that he regularly used one to go on family vacations probably wouldn’t go over well.

Instead, Preston just nodded his head. “How could I not? They’re everywhere” he replied with what he hoped was the appropriate amount of disdain. They weren't everywhere though. He had once noted, to himself of course, that airplanes were noticeably absent in the airspace occupied by the school. He wondered if a spell kept them away or if he just didn't notice them. Preston closed his artbook and put it down on the grass beside him. He looked out over the lawn, noting that other people had the same idea as he and Abel did. It was nice enough that most people were not keen on remaining in the school for very long. “So, do you think you’re going to join any clubs this year?” he asked. “I think I might try out for the Brotherhood this year” he added with a smile. That was the only club that seemed really interesting to him. Well, that and Muggle Sports but he knew better than to go out for that club. He’d never hear the end of it from his housemates, though he knew that there were Slytherins in the club. He’d walked near their meeting spot once last year just to see the type of students who showed up. They seemed to have a good time together, but he knew it could never be. Not not anyway.