Riddle Me This: Where do I belong?

Sorting Hat

Edward wanted to be the smartest in every room he walked into, he wanted to have all the answers and ask all the questions. Even as a small boy this was the case and it scared people. Sharp, inquisitive eyes seeing more than they should and silver-tongue spinning tales of deceit. All little boys lied. It was normal, even argued as a defense mechanism. Oh. Oh he certainly was an odd one. His parents knew it, he knew it, and soon the young witches and wizards of the finest school of magic would know as well. Edward Nigma was a...well an enigma and he was quite proud of that fact. What was the point of being an open book to others? He would much rather be the one prying apart the pages of other's, eyes scouring each and every word hungrily, to learn all he could.

Strange things started happening when Ed was around the age of eight, when he was scared or upset, when he was overjoyed or simply bored. His mother's eyes had widened when he had been caught laughing as he tapped his fingertip to a toy car, watching it change back and forth between colors. She had tried to explain to him that it was very important that his father never saw him doing anything like that. She seemed to know more about it than she was letting on but said nothing further on the matter despite being hounded with questions. She gave him one gift though, showing him that she was the same and how his eyes had lit up at the marvel. Oh, but Edward couldn't let it go. Not when it was a mystery. A puzzle to solve. How he loved those. Perhaps his mother just needed a gentle push to make her divulge what was going on with him. As hard as he tried, he couldn't make anything exciting happen again. It was a year until something substantial occurred, he accidentally made the Christmas tree explode during the holidays. It truly hadn't been his intentions but his father knew straight away what had happened. With his floppy dark hair and small face covered in soot; Edward had sat in the remnants of the singed tree with his hands over his ears to block out the yelling and crying as his parents had an...altercation. Then it had been his turn.

Edward was already very small for his age so he weighed very little as his father yanked him up to his feet and further, legs dangling as he was attacked with questions such as: where had he learned that; had his mother showed him how to do it; was she teaching him to be a freak like her; had she known he could do it?

Heart hammering in his chest, Edward glanced over his father's shoulder to see his mother crying on the ground. She had gotten hurt because of him, so he lied; lied so she wouldn't get in more trouble. "She didn't show me anything, mum didn't even know.." he said blankly, brow furrowing as he stared straight into his father's eyes, waiting to see if his lie was believed. It wasn't and he suffered for his dishonesty, harshly. He was 'disciplined' every time he lied after that until one day he was no longer able to. Something in him snapped. Truth became his reality and his language took the form of riddles. Perhaps riddles in themselves are a type of lie, he could admit to that but they were also the honest truth, free to be unraveled by those with enough wits to see the blatant hidden veracity. Not able to look at him, Edward's father sent him to boarding school while they awaited the letter he dreaded. Schooling with the muggles had been difficult to say the least. He was already the odd duck, raising his hand for every question but now it was worse. His teachers got quite annoyed with how often he tried to reply in riddled answers to the point where they stopped calling on him. Being silenced did not bode well with Nigma. Not at all. Being told to keep quiet left him to his thoughts in his head, endless riddles bouncing around his mind to keep himself entertained. It wasn't good to be in one's head so often. So when he could, he talked to anyone who would listen, hoping to get him or her to play his game. To humor him and try to solve his riddles. It made him immensely happy when they did, even if they got it wrong, though getting it wrong meant they were not smart enough for him. He loved the smart ones; his eyes would light up whenever he met someone clever, only to dim once they couldn't keep up with his mind.

A few hellish years later when he finally got his hands on the letter his mother said he would receive, he had such strong hope of finding others like him, not just those who were special but those with more appealing intellectual prowess. Edward's father had been all for his son going to Hogwarts, much to the boy's and his mother's surprise, at first. He simply wanted him out of the house.

When the time came to be sorted into his house and his name had been called, Edward had to be given a slight nudge from another first year. What if he wasn't right for any of the houses? He knew which one he wanted most but would the sorting hat see his logic? Would he agree or would he say he was too strange for his school and send him home. The small boy nearly tripped over his robes as he made his way up to plop down on the stool, tensing up as the hat was placed over his fluffy hair, pressing it down into his eyes a bit followed by the rim of the had falling as well.

His head was filled with a voice only he could hear.

"Oh! Interesting but what is that sound?"

"The sound..." He mumbled softly to the speaking fabric. "Oh! I am stowed away behind bars and without me you won't get far. My sound can be slow or can be fast and it won't even out till its cause has passed. What am I?"

"It was a rhetorical question. No need for your heart to beat so quickly, no need to be nervous we will find where you belong. You are a riddler eh? Let me take a look...Hmm yes-brilliant mind...very brilliant I am sure your parents are proud....you have a great desire to prove yourself do you not?"

Edward nodded quickly, the brim of the hat falling completely over his eyes.

"Yes...I can see that. You seem to be prepared to do whatever it takes to do that. Such high ambitions to find all the answers you seek. Where to put you...I can see you doing very well in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw...You have the mind for both. Oh you are quite a tricky one Mr. Nigma. Where. To. Put. You..."

The other student's started whispering among themselves as it was taking quite long, longer than anyone else who had been sorted so far. Even a few of the professors were looking at Edward oddly.

"I think you know where to put me," Edward whispered, a small grin spreading across his lips. "I taste the air, the scent of blood calls. I've claimed the earth since before the Fall. Silently, I creep through the night. Poised to strike. My fangs do bite."

The Sorting Hat's voice thundered through the Great Hall, shouting out one word. "SLYTHERIN."