Choices; Draco Malfoy

Year 1;3

Dandelila's POV
'Now, form a line, and follow me.' Professor McGonagall ordered.

Everyone got into a neat line. I got behind Lilyth. Only then did I really take in the view.

Over every one of the four tables, hundreds and thousands of candles floated in mid-air, lighting up the whole hall with a cozy effect. The tall ceiling was bewitched to look like the sky outside, which was a beautiful midnight blue with tiny stars scattered all over and dark clouds. The tables were laid with glittering gold plates and goblets, alike the Rose-Gold ones used at Rose Villa. Atop the huge hall, a long table seated the school teachers.

'How enchanting.' I whispered to Lilyth, awestruck.

Professor McGonagall led us up there so that we faced the students and that the Teachers were behind us. The hundreds of students turned their heads so that all their attention was on us. Even the school ghosts at the back of the hall whipped their pale misty heads around to watch us being sorted. Everyone seemed to glow under the candlelight.

As Professor McGonagall placed the four-legged stool in front of us, I thought of the stories Mother and Father told us about this specific moment. We would sit onto this old stool while an equally as old hat is plopped onto our head. Then, it shouts out a house name and you're whisked away to that house's table. Sounds exciting to have an old artefact determine whether you're bullied or not. Anyway, she then takes the pointed said hat and puts it onto the stool. Then, there's silence.

Nah, nothing peaceful happens at Hogwarts! The old hat twitched and a rip near the brim of the hat opened wide, acting as a mouth, as it started screeching. I was later told that it was singing.

'Oh you may not think I'm pretty
But don't judge on what you see
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
                  ....
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!'

Oh, I think I'm deaf.

I'm proven wrong when the whole hall bursts into applause, hurting my ears once again and the hat bows to each house table. It finally becomes as still as it was before.

Professor McGonagall then unrolls a long roll of parchment.

'When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted' Professor McGonagall said.

With that, she calls for a certain 'Hannah Abbott' who is sorted into Hufflepuff. Then another girl named 'Susan Bones' is also sorted into Hufflepuff. This goes on while I stare in boredom at my sister, who stares back. My interest came back to the sorting when 'Millicent Bulstrode' is the first of us to be sorted into Slytherin.

'We'll be sorted soon,' I assured Lilyth, who had been impatiently stamping her foot. Spoiled brats, we were.

'Malfoy, Draco.' Professor McGonagall calls eventually.

He strides to the hat and as soon as it touches his head, it screams, 'SLYTHERIN!' Malfoy shoots us a smug smirk as he goes to join his two fat muscular cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Where in wizard heaven does it say that he gets bodyguards? I'd like to know.

Soon, after Parkinson's Daughter gets sorted to Slytherin, Professor McGonagall finally calls, 'Rose, Dandelila!'

I step forward, nervously taking each step toward the stool. I anxiously sit down and the hat is placed onto my head. A moments pause is taken.

'Isn't that the eldest Rose child?' some one murmured

'Slytherin for sure, that one,' another whispered.

'Would be a disap- '

'SLYTHERIN!' the hat yelled.

Satisfied,I hop off the stool and begin to walk toward Slytherin table. I send my own sassy smirk back to Malfoy, who sends a sarcastic one back. Evil boy.

The far right of the hall explodes into cheers as I take my seat there next to Erine,Venna, and Trineth, who were sorted earlier. The Queens twins were sorted into Ravenclaw and Slytherin, with Claire in Ravenclaw and Erine in Slytherin. Tough luck, those two.

Malfoy walks over to my place and extends out his hand.

'Maybe you aren't so pathetic after all. Let's start over. Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.' he says smugly. His eyes had a hidden friendliness to them. That's odd to see from him.

'Dandelila Rose. Pleasure to meet you.' I say back, shaking his hand reluctantly. With that, he walks away to his other end of the table.

Following my sorting came my sister's. We watched her sit on the stool anxiously as the hat made its decision atop her head. Hat stall. Finally it screamed, 'GRYFFINDOR!'

Yes! Wait, no! Wait, what?

Lilyth's confused face was the last thing I saw before she was dragged to Gryffindor table. This couldn't be. Centuries of Slytherin-sorted Roses. There has to be a mistake. I saw her sit next to Harry Potter, his ginger friend, and a girl with bushy hair. As she conversed with that table full of Gryffindors, I realised that her house didn't define her. She's never going to change as a person. She's still the sister I love. She caught my gaze and sent me a faint smile. I sent it back.

With all the first years sorted and seated, Albus Dumbledore, the principal at this school and one of the most powerful wizards in the wizarding world, began his speech.

I didn't listen. What do you think I am, a keen learner? Instead of paying attention, I talked with Venna and Trineth about subjects. I didn't say I wasn't a learner. I was most excited about Potions, which was with Severus Snape, our house head and Father's old friend. Overall, I wanted to learn about antidotes. My ancestor, Harine Rose, was, after all, a renowned healer in the wizarding world. Being her descendant meant that I would portray some of her traits right?

I'm probably right.

''And now, let us all sing the school song before we go to bed," said the head master.

Now I have to sing? This is ridiculous. What sort of school is this?

Draco seemed to have the same thoughts as me.

"From what I heard, Hogwarts was supposed to be better than this," he sneered from the other end of the table. 'Dude, calm down. It's only your first day here,' I thought to myself.

Professor Dumbledore waved his wand and lyrics appeared above us. I craned my neck to read them. I noticed that Trineth and Venna were both only a tiny bit taller than me. The school broke into chorus.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please..."

My mind drifted elsewhere. I don't pay attention much FYI. I started thinking of my social life here at Hogwarts. Mother says it's important to start when you're young. That Malfoy boy seems to know much. I could use him. Maybe I could even become his friend. After he tones down the sass of course.

The voices stopped at different times. After a majority of us had finished singing, we stood in silence as two gingers twins continued singing in a sad, gloomy tune. Professor Dumbledore conducted them through their last lines and then spoke again.

"Ah, music. Now of you go. Bedtime," he announced, wiping his eyes.

The prefects of each house led the students of each house to our quarters. I watched as Lilyth disappeared with the Gryffindors upstairs while I was brought down to the dungeons downstairs with the rest of the Slytherins.

Venna, Trineth, and I start to discuss what our dorms would look like and what we would do tomorrow. Although I was surrounded by my friends, I'd never felt so lonely before.

Just then, I felt a tap on my shoulder.