double witch | Glowfic Constellation

"Of course they are," she says, motioning other firsties into an orderly line. All five of them.

always_and_forever

He bites his lip. That might be a problem. "What happens to students who are boys and girls?" he asks, fairly sure the answer will not be to his liking.

"...Students who are what?" the prefect says.

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"...never mind." He decides he'll talk about his Head of House about it, partly because he doesn't want to advertise his metamorphmagic and there's no way he'll convince this person of his genderfluidity without it.

Something else occurs to him, though. "How are students assigned to different dormitories?"

"House, year, and gender," says the prefect, turning to lead him and all the other Slytherin firsties to the dungeons. "So that's you and the other two boys in line all in one room."

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"Yes, but I mean, where do they get the gender information? I'm pretty sure I didn't fill out a form about it."

"You didn't have to send in your name, either," she says.

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"Yes, that's why I'm asking. If you tell me the answer is 'magic' then that will be very interesting."

"I assume there's magic somewhere to tell the house-elves how many beds to make," she says. "Do you always ask this many questions?"

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"No, I typically ask more," he replies evenly, and doesn't ask any more questions. Mostly, he's pretty curious about what solution they'll have come up with for him.

The Slytherin dorm is cool, dim, and opulent. There's a thick glass window showing the lake from underneath; shadows of fish swim by. A fire is going, there are couches and chairs and desks and tables mostly around a well-cushioned wrought iron theme, and there are hallways going this way and that. "Girls with me," calls 'his' prefect, and another one says, "This way, firstie boys," and they depart down separate hallways with students who know which way to go.

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He purses his lips, looking between both prefects, and finally shrugs and decides to go with the boys. Less of a fuss that way.

There are enough beds for all three of them.

always_and_forever

Sadde scratches his chin at that, but decides it's too early to draw any conclusions.

"Lights out is at ten," the prefect warns them, "and no fussing with each other about who gets which bed or first shower in the morning or any of that rot, or you'll regret it."

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Sadde feels... tempted.

But after much internal debating, decides that causing trouble on his first day is not a very good idea.

He doesn't particularly care which bed he wants, and just picks whichever's left.

That leaves him with the one in the middle; one of the other boys wants to be near the door and the other wants to be near their bathroom. One pops right out into the common room again to socialize; the other digs through his trunk and finds a wizard chess set, which apparently does solitaire by virtue of the pieces being animate.

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Sadde debates introducing to the boy (the one he'd been talking to at dinner was the one who left), and decides that if the boy wanted to be sociable he wouldn't have started playing solitaire chess. Sadde decides to go to the common room as well.

The common room contains: Slytherins. They are showing each other things they acquired over the summer, getting used to being allowed to use magic again, having an argument over whether someone's pet bat is as good as having an owl, comparing class schedules with friends in other years, and in one case quizzing one of the firstie girls about where her surname comes from. She's maintaining firmly that her grandfather invented it de novo and if they think it doesn't sound magical that's a problem with her ancestor's imagination, not her bloodline.

Nobody's asking Sadde; apparently "Woods" sounds like it could be a wizard family or something.

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At least two other people know better. One of them seems to be talking to another firstie girl, and the other seems to be engrossed in upper-year mingling. The older boy spares Sadde a glance and grimaces for a second before pretending Sadde does not exist, returning to his conversation.

One of the people he's talking to looks at Sadde, then looks at the older boy again and asks a question, but the subject seems to be dropped.

Sadde himself smirks at that, but decides for the second time today not to cause mischief on his first day. He scoots over to listen to the conversation about a firstie's bloodline, close enough to be included in it if the participants feel like it, but far enough that they can ignore him otherwise.

They ignore him; apparently neither side of the conversation assesses him as a valuable reinforcement.

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Third time. This is the third time.

It's going to be hard.

He decides to go talk to the firstie he knows and the one he doesn't, maybe mingle a bit.

The firstie he knows is talking to one of the girls in their year and is happy to include Sadde. The topic: Quidditch.

At five to ten, the first years are shooed into their bedrooms for lights out. Apparently the other years have later or nonexistent bedtimes.

always_and_forever

Sadde seems to think the idea of catching a glorified golden mosquito being worth 15 goals and ending the game is a bit absurd, but on the other hand the idea of hitting heavy evil metal balls in order to knock other people down sounds incredibly amusing. Too bad firsties can't join Quidditch teams.

But at least they'll have flying lessons, those are bound to be loads of fun.

At five to ten, he's shooed into his bedroom for lights out. It's really early, for him, so he grabs a book and tries whispering "Lumos" to his wand so he'll be able to read. Its tip twinkles a bit but fades, so he sighs and decides it's probably a good idea to sleep.

Days without mischief: 01