two-faced

6. Unravelled

A collective gasp rang throughout the hall. Gryffindor?! There must be some kind of mistake. I was NOT a Gryffindor. I wouldn't mind being a Ravenclaw, or a Hufflepuff, but a Gryffindor?! Seriously?! I wanted to throw a temper tantrum right there and then; I wanted to scream that I wasn't going to allow myself to be moved. I hated Gryffindor. I remember my very first year, it was the last day and the winner of the House Cup was being announced. It was Slytherin, of course. But then, Dumbledore added a shit ton of points to Gryffindor, so they won. My eleven-year-old dreams of winning the House Cup? Shattered. And all because of those stupid Gryffindors. And now, I was one of them. The staff looked at me awkwardly, unsure of what to do with me now. McGonagall looked mildly pleased but was trying to hide it; Snape looked disgusted, like I was something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe. Great. It was Dumbledore who spoke up first.

"The Sorting Hat has spoken!", he boomed, expecting applause or something like that. The students caught on to this and clapped politely. The Slytherin table looked horrified, the Gryffindor table even more so. 

"I think we should change that up a bit.", Dumbledore murmured to me, with his wand pointing to the Slytherin emblem on my robes. He whispered some kind of spell, and it immediately unravelled itself to form a new Gryffindor symbol. Ew. I went to sit back down at the Slytherin table, my table but I felt a tap on my back. I turned around and Dumbledore was there gesturing to the Gryffindor table. I smiled awkwardly at him, before going to sit down at the Gryffindor table. There was only one free seat... next to Ron, who was sitting with Harry and Hermione, obviously. I took a deep breath and contemplated for a second. Should I apologise for how I've treated them for the past five years or not? Hmmm... I decided to apologise. I'd be living in the same dorm as Hermione, for Merlin's sake! I sat down next to them; they wrinkled their noses in disgust.

"Look.", I said, "I'm... I'm sorry for how I've treated you all in the past. You guys didn't deserve that. The thing is, to be liked in Slytherin it means you have to be mean. And I kind of had to do it. Being an outcast is the last thing anyone wants, right? Please forgive me" Ron turned his nose up at me. Harry looked unsure. However, some of my little speech must've hit hard with Hermione or something, as a longing and sympathetic look shone in her eyes.

"Well, you have been pretty horrid to us... but I suppose we could give you a second chance.", she said.

"Thanks for forgiving me.", I smiled. Harry's look softened.

"I suppose we could forgive you", he mused.

"Thanks, it mean a lot. Oh, and Harry, I, um, am sorry about what I said about your parents. That was really, really not okay.", I said sheepishly.

"It's.. it's fine. Water under the bridge.", Harry sighed. I chuckled awkwardly and smiled. Ron seemed insistent on disliking me, but I was cool with that. I mean, he probably still had a bruise from earlier on the train. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all...