Freaks: Year Two

A New Friend

Alabaster had stayed in the empty corridor for a little while longer after Benjiy Fenwick left. He kept thinking about how he needed to figure out better ways to keep whatever problems he was feeling in, and not have whatever had happened only just a few moments ago, happen again. Soon, it was time for the next class, and he slipped off the windowsill, leaving the almost done sketch of the Whomping Willow and went down another corridor to hopefully find his way to the Potions classroom.

Alabaster hoped that class would be better than History Of Magic.

He needed to figure out how to make History work for him. There had to be some way he would be able to read, and comprehend the material. His mother and father had sent him to Hogwarts with the strict rule that he could not let anyone know about his inability to read, but now after that nightmare of a class, he was beginning to think he would end up failing the first year.

How could he make his parents proud when he had a brain that worked all wrong?

He was wandering down the hall, lost in his own mind when he bumped in with a Ravenclaw boy. "Sorry," Alabaster immediately said. "I was not watching where I was going."

The boy shrugged. "It's alright. Do you need help getting to your class–"

The older Ravenclaw who was beside him saw the green, and silver tie, and immediately said, "Let's go." He signalled for the younger boy to follow.

The younger boy rolled his eyes. "We are not going to have a repeat of last year, Christopher. I can talk to other people."

Christopher sighed. "I know Anthony, but this is a Slytherin." He looked at Alabaster, a scowl on his face. "What's your name?"

Alabaster looked between the two boys, a bit nervous. Why was this older boy so angry? "Um, Alabaster Jackson."

Christopher scoffed, and Anthony's eyes widened. "Yeah, absolutely not."

Alabaster looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Christopher gave Alabaster a hard look. "Don't play dumb, you know exactly what I mean." He started to walk away muttering, "I swear if Theodore Jackson does anything..."

Anthony looked over at Alabaster. "Sorry...uh...he doesn't like Theodore that much. He has also just been in a bad mood ever since the Ilvermorny announcement." He chewed on his lower lip before asking, "Do you need any help getting to your class? I know the corridors are confu–"

"Anthony nooooo," Christopher said coming straight back to where he had left the two younger boys in the corridor. He had thought his brother had been following him but of course not. He would rather talk to Theodore Jackson's bloody relative before listening to him. "No..."

"Chris, you can't–"

"This is different!" Christopher exclaimed. "This is...entirely different! A thousand percent different than–"

"That's not mathematically possible–"

Christopher scoffed, and said in a lowered voice. "This is not me being a git like last year, okay? This..." He indicated to Alabaster who had been awkwardly standing there the whole time as he was unsure what to do. "Is different. He is related to...to Ja–Theodore who...who did..." Christopher gave a side eye to Alabaster before looking back at his brother. "A whole lot of bad stuff..."

Alabaster was still confused by this encounter. What did Theodore do to make them hate him so much and also hate Alabaster? Yes, Theodore was very harsh to Alabaster, but in his eyes, it was warranted.

Also – Illvermorny coming to Hogwarts for a tournament was exciting, why would someone be mad about it?

"Er...I can get to class on my own," Alabaster spoke up.