21 Arriving at Hogsmeade

What is this an interview? Do you take me for a library? I criticised in my head before giving her my answer.

"And Slytherin produced Voldemort and merlin," I said with a chuckle. She looked at me Indignantly before opening her mouth to speak. I cut her off before she could.

"Let me ask you, Are all houses equal?" I asked quickly. She looked at me before shaking her head.

"maybe they share the same traits then?" I asked again. She once again shook her head, before getting confused as to where I was going with this.

" I can see that you are a studious person, so am I, therefore I thought about which house valued knowledge and wisdom the most. That would be Ravenclaw, which also has a library of its own in their common room." I said with a smile. Hermione glowed with curiosity at the mention of a library in the common room. I raised my hand to tell her to calm down. I laughed at her reaction which seemed to embarrass her a bit.

"Gryffindor is said to be chaotic, noisy and overall unproductive, yet they value courage and determination the most. Then there is Hufflepuff, They are all known to be good people with a friendly team environment. But this attitude has led them to never really reach anywhere, they are known to be hardworking but it seems to never pay off for them.

As for Slytherin, It is just a matter of perspective. Most people see it as a bad place because of the people that are placed there. Voldermort studied there and so did Merlin. Both were in the same house and yet ended up on opposite sides of the table. Even so, they were both extremely powerful wizards. Dark and light, good and bad it is all a matter of perspective Hermione. One's evil is another's saviour and vice versa. The same happens in our world, wars occur and the killing of the opposition is perceived differently depending on the side you stand on." I looked at her before continuing.

"What does this mean Hermione?"

she didn't answer and I continued. "it means that even though the Slytherin house has produced dark wizards it doesn't mean that the house is inherently bad. It is just a matter of how you use your acquired knowledge that places you on the scale of good and evil."

" I understand Tom but the books clearly depicts-" I cut her off once again.

" I understand, but books can be faked, altered and changed to portray a certain person, organisation and in this case house, in a bad light. You can't take all that is said seriously." I said calmly while looking at her.

"But the books are authorised by the ministry of magic themselves. you're saying that what they publish is incorrect and altered to serve their needs? Isn't all this a bit farfetched Tom?" she said incredulously.

"yes it would be, but have you heard the expression History is always written by the winners?" I asked.

She nodded, "Winston Churchill."

"exactly, so it would not benefit anyone to go against the winner, in this case, the ministry of magic, even if they know that the knowledge is being manipulated. Because they would gain nothing from it. It is better to think, collect, compare sources and come to conclusions when you are sure that your conjecture proves true. That way, you save yourself from making decisions based on misleading or incomplete information.

She looked at me with uncertainty, as what I was saying was probably too much too soon. "don't worry about it, In any case, I happen to know a secret that you will find most interesting," I said pretending to be mysterious. She perked up instantly at the mention of something interesting. I didn't find it weird since the girl probably found anything and everything interesting.

"It's called the Sorting Hat, which you may or may not have heard of. The Sorting Hat can detect nascent qualities in a student and place them in the House that will challenge them the most and put their character to the test. There is of course a backdoor of sorts If you want a specific house." I grinned before stopping.

She was enraged before kicking my shin. "Ouch! Oi, relax yeah, I was only joking," I said while holding my shin in pain. Her shoes were hard as hell. "That stupid hat will take your preference into account when making a decision," I said reluctantly while looking at her hatefully. My shin was throbbing.

She looked at me with a smile. "Interesting I didn't know about that." She said while resting her chin on her hand that was placed on edge of the window.

"yeah yeah, the hat says it never made a mistake but there have been some questionable decisions in the past," I said vaguely. She rolled her eyes seemingly not believing me at all. I only shrugged; it didn't really matter at the end of the day since it was 99% accurate.

We talked about all different kinds of things, from hobbies to school and she even said that she heard about a seven-year-old winning a high school math competition and even going on to break the record. I smiled awkwardly when she mentioned that. She noticed it and asked me why I was acting this way. When I told her that it was me, she freaked out. I really regret my actions sometimes.

We spent the next hour talking about maths. Time flew by and several hours later, we had finally arrived at Hogsmeade station. By now we had left our compartment and stood in front of the carriage exit doors as the train began to stop. It was simply to avoid the initial surge of students coming out from their compartments. It seemed to be effective as we managed to come out unscathed from the now crowded corridors.

The train doors swung open and Hermione and I jumped off before walking to the side. The sudden amalgamation of different sounds flooded our ears before the voices of older students advising the first years to stay still and form a group could be heard.