Chapter 2--Hogwarts
Author: Maryh
Hogwarts was horrible at first, but after awhile, it became merely awful. Improving my skills in magic was the only thing that made it endurable, and at first, I wasn't even sure it was going to do that. I seemed to already know as much as my teachers. When I found out what the older kids were learning, I put up with the boring repetition. And it was true that I didn't have any wand skills to speak of, although I could already brew a potion at OWL level.
The magic was worthwhile. The kids were a disaster. The other half-bloods and the mud-bloods weren't too bad. They either had not grown up around magic at all, or had grown up where it was not out in the open. But the pure-bloods were excruciating. None of my old measures for keeping others at a respectful distance worked - those kids could see it coming a mile away. And they thought it was funny! It was the first time in my life other kids laughed at me to my face, and I had to take it.
The sorting hat put me straight in Slytherin as soon as it touched my head. Mother had told me that's where the kids went who wanted to learn the really powerful magic. Although I was "just" a half-blood, they were impressed by the knowledge of the dark arts I already had from my mother. I ignored my muggle heritage altogether among them, and forestalled unpleasantness by calling myself the "Half-blood Prince." The name "Prince", I was happy to find out, had no small standing in the wizarding world, and I told anyone who dared confront me about my ancestry that a "half-blood Prince beat a pure-blood whatever" any day. That worked very well, especially with Lucius and his cronies.
I never acquired the Slytherin fetish with blood-lines. Yes, I still use "mud-blood" to myself. And the shock value can be useful sometimes. But power is built on reality, not wishful thinking, and blood lines clearly have nothing to do with magical aptitude or skill. Wasn't mud-blood Lily Evans twice as good as pure-blood James Potter? And mud-blood Granger is ten times more powerful than pure-blood Ron Weasley or Neville Longbottom could ever hope to be. And then, of course, there are the Dark Lord and me - both half-blood, and both more powerful than any pure-blood except the Headmaster himself.
I knew I was considered odd at my muggle school, and I was at Hogwarts, as well. Naturally, I was the best student at Hogwarts as I had been at my muggle school, so a few well planned hexes and jinxes soon taught the other students to leave me alone. Except for a few Gryffindors, who styled themselves the "Marauders."
It's curious that Slytherin has the reputation of being the "evil" house, when nobody was ever as casually cruel as Gryffindors. I was perfectly content with a few hexes to stop the bullying and disrespect of other students, and for that, I won the dislike of most of Hogwarts. James Potter would hex people just because he could, for the "fun" of it or to show off, and they still loved him. Every wizard that ever went "bad" came out of Slytherin, the saying goes (not completely correctly) but all the bullies come out of Gryffindor.
I was the ideal target for Potter's gang. Not only was I odd, I was a first class wizard. Ironically, if I had been a less capable wizard, or if I had not always fought back, they would have gotten bored (have you noticed how easily Gryffindors get bored?) and left me alone. By the time I realized this, however, I had also realized how much better my reflexes and skills were than any other wizard. Towards the end, the Marauders could never get the best of me one-on-one, and they didn't even try.
Posted by Madmaxime at October 22, 2005 02:30 AM