TPS Part 4: Daphne's Advice

Onyx took off the hat and placed it on the stool after getting up. He walked over to the Slytherin table inspecting his yearmates. He was trying to figure out who to sit next to.

While he was walking over there, the applause wasn't nearly as loud as with many others. Clearly Slytherin house wasn't all that happy with having him, but that didn't matter to Onyx. Eventually he found one who met his gaze and sat down next to them.

With clear amusement in his voice he asked "Surprised, Greengrass?" The girl looked at him and raised an eyebrow "More surprised that you seem happy with the hat's decision. You don't have any friends in this house you know." This caused Onyx to place his hands over his heart to feign it breaking "Are you telling me you're not my friend?" He gave her his most calming smile.

The girl huffed "Nope. Not in the slightest." After a moment she added "BUT, I could show you which around us are your best bet to get to know first. You have to choose your dormmates wisely after all."

Onyx's eyes lit up and he gave her a slight bow "I'd be in your debt miss" She seemed happy at the thought of him owing her something. Daphne Greengrass leaned in near, whispered, and gestured to different people.

"That there is Blaise Zabini. He'll be your first choice. Plenty of attitude and sarcasm but he won't care about your "new-blood" deal." Onyx nodded in understanding and so she went on.

"Then there's Theodore Nott. Considering what happened to Longbottom, and I assume that's your doing" She looked towards Onyx for confirmation but all she got was a smile and so she went on ", then you might want to try and handle Nott as well. From a dark family but he doesn't quite agree with them. Pretty timid, probably something to do with his father."

Onyx nodded once more "Finally there's Lily Moon. We don't know much about her since her family stems from New Zealand. Because of that she has no allies, might be perfect for you."

Onyx raised his eyebrow and looked past Daphne at her friend "What about Miss Davis over there? Sure she's not friendly?" Tracey obviously heard him and met his eyes before Daphne came in between them.

"She's taken. She'll be spending time with me, which you will not. Now move along, I have a feast to enjoy." Onyx did as told. He stood up, sending one more glance at Davis before walking along the table over to the end where Moon and Zabini sat.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Onyx was met with a dry tone as soon as he sat down. It was Zabini, and he obviously wasn't in a great mood. Zabini was a dark skinned lean guy with a fairly long face. He had very short black hair and currently his face looked unamused.

Onyx raised one eyebrow and smiled at the two "Figured I'd fit in better over here. Greengrass can be quite intimidating after all" He sent a playful smile, which Moon picked up and gave back but Zabini wasn't as easily amused. He looked towards the mentioned girl. "Well you seem to have made an impression anyway. She's clearly inspecting your move."

"Well enough about her" Onyx changed the subject "I'm Onyx Grey, who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?" He flashed his patented calming wide smile and even Zabini seemed to loosen up a bit "Blaise Zabini." He answered matter-of-factly.

"Lily Moon, pleased to meet you Mr. Grey. Perhaps we should dig in now that we are acquainted?" Onyx nodded and they did. While Onyx had travelled across the table, the headmaster had said some words he didn't pay any mind to. If there was anything important, he was sure to hear it being talked about later anyway.

The feast in front of his eyes was magnificent. All across the four long tables were countless dishes. It was quite amusing to see how the different houses dealt with trying to get to their favourite dishes.

The Hufflepuff table was loud, everyone was kindly asking others to send dishes along the table so that everyone could have what they wanted.

The Gryffindor table was louder, everyone ran around the table grabbing what they wanted before sitting down.

The Ravenclaw table was quiet, it seemed the upper years remembered where the dishes they wanted were last year and sat appropriately. Only the first-years were confused and looked with envy.

Finally, the Slytherin table. Here everyone simply took what was in front of them. The places to sit were based on status and affiliation and so what food was in front of them seemed insignificant in comparison.

Onyx dug in and enjoyed further conversation with the two sitting with him. Blaise wasn't as dry as he intended to seem. As soon as they got onto the topic of Quidditch his passion shone through.

He was an avid Puddlemere United fan and as Onyx also cheered for the team they had quite a long discussion on whether it was time for Benjy Williams to finally get his chance. Puddlemere needed to youthen up their team.

During this conversation Moon simply looked at the two with a gentle smile on her face. The girl was certainly different from the others around him. She was fair skinned, dark blonde hair which laid straight, long past her shoulders. Her face was a bit round and undefined, as was the rest of her body, but there was a gentle charm to the girl. By first glance she was sure to be a future friend, but he wanted to know what kind of ambitions put her in this house without any connections.

The meal went on in that fashion and eventually the headmaster ended on a few words, some warning not to go to the third floor unless you'd like to die painfully. That seemed like a strange threat as it technically wasn't against the rules then, you'd just have to claim that you want to die painfully. Probably end up with a mind witch for a while after that though, but if you really wanted to there was nothing stopping you.

While those thoughts went through his head, everyone got up from the table and walked out. "Follow me! I'm your prefect and I will escort the first years to their dorms."

It was a tall young boy with chalk white skin and completely black hair. He looked a bit like a ghost. Onyx made a promise to himself to not stay in the dungeons too many hours of the day. Some fresh air and sunlight would do him good.

They were led to the dungeons and to a wall which seemed inconspicuous. The prefect spoke up "Ashwinder" and the wall opened to show a magnificent common room. "That is the current password, it'll change every fortnight so keep up with the notice boards inside."

They were led inside and its pragmatic charm became more and more clear. Everything was meticulously crafted from the chairs and tables to the fireplaces which were all lit around them.

They were obviously below the Black Lake as you could see sea creatures swimming outside the windows. There wasn't much light being shone down but the windows must be spelled to make seeing things easier as you could see fairly long distances.

"This is the common room. Those are the notice boards. That is the lake. Those are the fireplaces. All clear?" The prefect had been pointing around the room. He was obviously bored of this. "The dorms are this way." He led them down a spiralling staircase. All the way down he stopped.

"First years have their dorms the furthest down. You will be put into rooms by groups of two or three." At this notice, Crabbe and Goyle moved a bit closer to Malfoy and Bulstrode stepped behind Parkinson. "I'm sure you'll be able to make that decision by yourself. You have until the end of the day so…about twenty minutes."

"You can't change it again until after the winter solstice. Once you make up your minds, insert some magic into the door and your name will pop up on the sign next to it. Have fun." With that, the prefect hurried off to meet his friends.

As soon as the prefect was gone, Malfoy stepped in front of the group. "Remember to choose wisely now. Choosing to be in the same dorm as someone means acceptance of who they are" He glared at Onyx, who was just calmly smiling as usual.

"If you hang out with the wrong crowd, you yourself will be considered the wrong crowd by affiliation." Onyx took one step forward and looked Malfoy in the eyes.

"Noted Malfoy. If you don't mind, I'd like to go to sleep now." Before Malfoy could retort, Onyx walked past him and poured some magic into the first door to the left. "Good night fellow snakes. I hope we can get to know each other better tomorrow"

Onyx gave them a wink and walked in through the door only to find a very large room clearly large enough for five or even six students. It seems Hogwarts has fewer students than it once did, or Slytherin just has too much space to waste.

Currently, only one bed was situated at one corner of the room. It was a two-poster bed with green blankets on top. The wooden frame of the bed had a silvery sheen to it and this was clearly a Slytherin bedchamber. On one side of the room were large bookcases, perhaps he could fill them with the books from his trunk which he now realized sat by the end of the bed.

Rufus, who had been incredibly quiet this entire time now barked and Onyx knew it was time to feed him. He took out Rufus's blanket and food bowl from the trunk and before he could fill it, food just appeared into the bowl.

'Must be the elves. I've read that this castle has a massive amount of elves bonded to it.' Onyx thought and petted his fox before getting ready for bed. The chamber had its own bathroom but before he made it there, he saw another bed and trunk pop into the other side of the room and the door opened.