Chapter 4:

It didn't have the same effect as the rest, not that Rodrick had any place to complain in the first place. After going through everyone else's sorting, most houses met them with applause or cheers at their newest addition, After Rodrick, there was only silence.

Rodrick stood from his place and started to make his way over to the Slytherin table, avoiding any eye contact, He saw a place in front of Daphne and decided to take it. He sat down focusing in front of him having no intention to engage any strangers around him, especially considering the wary looks everyone seemed to give him. The biggest one being from a certain blonde haired kid who'd already started to act like the head of the bloody house; he sat four seats apart from him on the other side, he had no problem in making Rodrick uncomfortable with the way he was staring.

"I Didn't know orphans were allowed in Slytherin," Malfoy sneered towards Rodrick, his eyes were almost challenging. Two Slytherins beside him puffed their chests out of nowhere.

'How did he know I am an orphan?' thought Rodrick, His first suspicion went towards Daphne or Tracey telling Malfoy but thought better of it quickly when he remembered Harry Potter been targeted out of nowhere earlier. 'Leave it to an extremist pureblood to set up a spy network.' He'd heard of the Malfoys on his way through Diagon Alley; They were well known for their dislike of Muggles, not much for anything else, nothing positive anyway. Rodrick Turned his eyes towards the source of the voice, only to see a smug face in return. "You ought to be grateful for that" he shrugged back.

"Why the hell would I care?" he bit back confused. Daphne, as well as some more Slytherins around them, turned their attentions towards them.

"Because if your family ever gets another heir, you'll still be welcomed here," he replied back with tugging smirk.

Rodrick was quite surprised with himself at this, it wasn't in his nature to antagonize someone, but with Malfoy he found himself lacking any care. He knew a friendship with him would neither end well nor even start. 'If I had a family whose reputation I cared about I might've been more careful, sadly mine's a reputation that can't be saved.' The thought brought a sad look on his face 'any case no matter how good of friends he was, (if that were possible), with Malfoy, his family wouldn't be willing to help an orphan. Of course, if I told him my family name, that would be different but it wouldn't be the kind of support I'd want...' Rodrick turned his attention back towards table and noticed most of those around him had trouble keeping the smile off their face at this response, Malfoy looked positively radiant with anger. Greengrass was positively glowing with laughter, Tracey looked nervous.

'How dare he... doesn't he know who I am? Who my father is?' these thoughts sent a storm through his mind however before Malfoy could form a response the Headmaster started his speech.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin out banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

The reactions were mixed throughout the hall. Daphne looked towards Tracey with a look of mild confusion before she turned towards Rodrick and found a different expression.

"Subtle," This brought some looks his way which was once again quickly taken away towards Malfoy who had, in his glories number of years of wisdom, decided to question the headmaster's sanity.

Daphne ignored the blonde and turned her head towards Rodrick and tried asking what he meant but before she could let out any words. Food had appeared on the tables. The sight of all those different kinds of cuisine almost made her salivate at sight; she hadn't realized how hungry she was until now. Her long time friend was staring at the food in awe. Rodrick, however, looked almost like a stone. 'Ah, he's probably never had anything like this,' she realized. She called out his name and told him to relax and eat. He merely nodded back before attempting to bring food onto his plate. One of the boys near him got into a conversation with him.

Rodrick was currently talking to one of his fellow first years, A boy named Blaize Zabini, he was slightly closed off from what Rodrick could tell, this however made it all the easier to start talking to him, it was something they had in common. After explaining his situation, Blaize seemed more intent to listen, of course, it was only after mentioning he wasn't a muggle born. Telling him he was pureblood would cause more harm than good, what would he do if he asked for proof? Half-blood was a little more open, of course, Blaize still asked the question, but Rodrick's response earned a small smirk.

"What muggle born goes to Slytherin exactly?" it was vague, but it seemed to lighten the mood between them.

The boy was indeed stuck up, to say the least. His opinion seemed blunt but that sometimes could be useful, which is far more than he can say for his fellow other Slytherins, his two friends aside. Whether they could be friends or not was another matter. Rodrick was terrible at making friendships, to begin with, his lifetime in an orphanage helped start the foundation for that. His strange dreams helped put an even bigger wedge between him and his fellow orphans and the sudden proof, his letters, that those dreams were more a part of his reality then he realized helped ruin everything he'd grown up believing as a muggle. He was essentially starting from scratch, and with terrible social skills, it was a tiring adventure.

His friendship with Daphne didn't start out with him talking to her but more out of him saving her sister, the rest just fell into place really, Tracey Davis came along with it. There wouldn't be such luck with everyone else. There was no harm in trying either. They had been talking about their different lifestyles up to this point, it was comical, to say the least. Blaize who had grown up with more fathers than he'd ever wanted and a mother who may or may not have smothered him a touch too much was talking with an orphan who had no idea what having a family in the first place feels like. Yes, it was comical. Which is why it was so easy to talk to each other, they get to see a glimpse of what the other side was like. While this may have been true for the other first year Slytherins, They seemed to be slightly too discriminating towards him for some unexplainable reason, other than insulting Malfoy but that was bound to happen sooner or later. He'd seen Daphne's family first hand and felt uncomfortable talking to her about what it's like, he couldn't fathom why. Tracey had too much energy to be stuck in one conversation. He had no intention of talking to the older years if he couldn't even manage his year group.

A small shriek came from a Slytherin girl near Malfoy; she looked shocked before she pointed towards the cause.

A ghost... It was a ghost with blood on his shirt, it had the first years entranced. Daphne turned towards the other tables and noticed even more of them, but none of them had any blood on their selfs, except the one pulling his head back, that one was disgusting. She almost threw up her food at the sight. Next to her Tracey looked in awe and excitement. 'I have no idea how her brain works' thought a bemused Daphne. She heard the boy in front of her ask who the ghosts were. It still surprised her how easy it was for him to accept all this. Rodrick, for an orphan, was acting like he had known all this his whole life. "That there is The Bloody Baron, he's the ghost of Slytherin," This came from one of the older years. 'of course, he is...' thought Daphne.

"Leave it for a Slytherin ghost to die with blood covering him" Shrugged Rodrick.

She couldn't help the chuckle that came out. Her fellow housemates returned to their food, a few of them had started up conversations with said ghost. Daphne turned to see the rest of the hall, Hufflepuff's table seemed to be chatting animatedly, Gryffindor was a little too loud, some even let off sparks with their wands. 'Dolts the lot of em' thought Daphne. Ravenclaw looked reserved; though she couldn't quite see much of the house from here. She turned back towards her plate of food and went back to eating. It wasn't long before Tracey brought her back into a conversation about the food back at her home.

The first years were soon escorted out of the hall; they were following two prefects towards there would be rooms for the year. Rodrick was chatting with Daphne on the way, Tracey was trying to make new friends with the other students. She was currently speaking with a pug-faced girl.

"Something about her seems off," Rodrick remarked, slyly pointing towards the girl with Tracey.

"What is?" replied back Daphne although there appeared to be the hint of a smile.

"She isn't snorting; I half expected her to," shrugged the boy with a small glint in his eyes.

"That's just rude! there your classmates you really ought to take care what you say!" Daphne had pulled him closer to whisper and attempted to come off as serious, Rodrick turned his head towards and gave off an innocent look in his eye which prompted the girl to start laughing immediately. " I don't understand you at all, one minute you're nice to everyone, the next you insult them behind their backs. It's hardly a good quality you know,"

"The way I see it you should have no problem as long as it's not you or miss Davis getting insulted," Rodrick replied back with an air of misplaced confidence.

"And how do I know you won't talk behind our backs when you're with someone else?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Oh, I value our friendship too much for that," This time Rodrick had a smirk to go with it.

"You've barely known me a day, hardly enough time to warrant such value," she was slightly confused at him for this.

"Yes, just from that you can imagine just how hard I try to make friends," He'd attempted to say this with as much sarcasm as he could, but all it did was get him to look slightly pitiful, realizing that he gave a resigned look towards the ground.

Daphne seeing this tugged at his arm before giving him a small smile, "Perhaps but you're not as bad as you think you are," she tried to cheer him up. Instead, the twinkle in his eyes from earlier returned.

"Try to convince our fellow Slytherins that,"

"I am afraid that's impossible, even with magic," she replied back playfully.

The group of students had made it towards a wall the prefects decided to stop in front of. One of them had motioned to said wall and told the rest it was the entrance to their dorm, after uttering out the password, Basilisk, they pushed in how important it was that they kept such a thing a secret from the other houses. The prefects led the way down the dimly lit corridor before explaining more of the rules surrounding the wizarding school and of course, more importantly, their head of houses rules for Slytherin.

Tracey Davis had come back towards them, looking quite put out after her conversation with the pug.

"Basilisk," said Rodrick, "Is it any wonder the other houses are wary of us."

This managed to light up Tracey's features, Rodrick smiled back at the little victory. He continued the rest of the walk in silence slowly behind Daphne who was busy animatedly chatting away to her friend.