AVPM: Fever, ch 13

The train moved progressively on the tracks, making the trip to Hogwarts shorter by the minute. Voldy couldn't deny that he was beginning to feel excited about finally getting there. He kept looking out the window to try and see if the school would get into view soon, but always ended up looking at either trees or lakes rush by.

He looked on at the kids sharing the compartment with him. Bella was squirming excitedly in her seat, letting out little squeaks every now and then. Lucius seemed a little more dignified, but Voldy could tell that he was looking forward to the arrival to the school just as much as the others. They had all been fairly silent for a while, and Voldy imagined that the reason was because they had already talked about everything they anticipated from Hogwarts, and were now completely consumed by excitement.

Voldy looked out the window once more, and finally saw a glimpse of a large building – no, castle – in the distance. His eyes bulged as he looked on, realizing just how immense it was; with countless towers reaching high up in the air, walls and bridges that went on for miles, not to mention how old it looked. The darkening sky gave it much more of a magical feel than it already had, and the windows almost sparkled. That and the mountains and forests surrounding it made it look like something that could have been cut out of a storybook.

"Guys, take a look at this!" Voldy exclaimed to the others as he pressed his pseudo-nose against the glass. Bella and Lucius rushed to his side and gasped.

"Wow," Lucius said in awe, his mouth hanging open for a few seconds before he spoke again. "It's… awesome. It's just like how my dad described it."

"It's so beautiful, ohmigosh!" Bella yelled and then twirled around, letting out another high-pitched squeak. "I can't believe we're actually going to that place! It's the coolest thing ever!"

Voldy had no more words. They were almost there. Hogwarts and everything it had to offer was just around the corner. The three of them stayed at the window for the remainder of the trip, all gawking at the castle, not uttering a single word. Bella was practically jumping now, and Lucius was beginning to hyperventilate. Voldy himself felt like he had a mixture of both of them: he was super excited to go to school like Bella, but in a way, he was also somewhat nervous to meet all the other students like, presumably, Lucius was.

Suddenly, he train turned in the other direction, and the castle disappeared from view again. All three kids groaned in disappointment at the same time, Voldy being the loudest.

"Hey! What gives?" he exclaimed. "It's just over there! Why can't the train get there?"

Bella pouted and folded her arms. "I dunno! Maybe they wanted to make us hope that we were close, or they're tricking us into thinking that the ride is over!" she said, frowning.

"Wait, you guys," Lucius said, a certain optimism in his voice, and raised his finger. Bella and Voldy simply stared at him in confusion and waited for him to keep talking. He let a few seconds pass, and then grinned. "Isn't the train slowing down?"

With a raised eyebrow, Voldy looked out the window again, though doubtful. To his surprise, Lucius was right. In just a few seconds, the train had started slowing down, and Voldy could see a flicker of light at the far end of the tracks. He turned and nodded accordingly, making Bella jump up and down and scream. Lucius put a finger in his ear and squinted because of Bella's obnoxious loudness, but looked happy nonetheless. For a brief moment, Voldy's tummy even twisted a little in excitement.

As the train gradually kept slowing down, Voldy heard a little DING, and then a voice echoed: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

The three kids looked at each other with puzzled faces. Lucius shrugged as if there was nothing to worry about, and Bella just batted her hand.

"Come on, it's a school," she said and put her arm around Voldy's shoulders. She had obviously seen how nervous Voldy looked when he thought about leaving all his belongings behind. Was it really that obvious? "I'm sure they know what they're doing. Let's go! You too, Lucius!"

With one swift movement, Bella had linked her arm with Voldy's and was now pulling him towards the compartment door. Lucius followed suit. When they opened the door, there was already a crowd of kids in the corridor, which they managed to squeeze themselves into. Voldy could feel at least five other kids pressed against him, and for the first time, he was thankful for Bella's clinginess, otherwise he would have lost her.

The train finally came to a complete halt, and the crowd starting moving forwards a bit. Still feeling squished, Voldy barely moved as the wave of kids carried him with it, until he was finally out. He gasped for air as he stepped on the tiny platform and moved away from the train door, Bella and Lucius right behind him. The night air was a little chilly, but Voldy didn't mind. He had a look around, and saw a rather big and bearded man approach the crowd, holding a lamp.

"First-years! First-years over here!" he shouted over the chattering group. "Don't be shy now! First-years!"

Voldy swallowed, and then proceeded to walk up to the man, with Bella still clinging to his arm. He looked around for Lucius, and when he saw him by his side, gestured to Bella to link arms with him too. Reluctantly, she did so. The three of them then looked up at the man who was still yelling at their peers to come to him.

"Come on, now, follow me!" he continued as the youngest kids flocked to him. "Are there any more first-years? Alright, stay together first-years. You all have a little trip ahead of you!"

Voldy, Bella and Lucius, along with the other students, all followed the man down a steep, narrow path. Somewhat tightening his grasp on Bella's arm, Voldy glanced around himself, seeing only darkness.

"Not to worry, kids," the man called. "You'll see Hogwarts just around the bend here."

He had barely let go of the last word when the crowd gasped. The path had opened slightly, and they were not all standing in front of a big lake. On the other side of the lake was the castle in all its glory, sitting on top of a large cliff, now looking even more magical than before with the night sky behind it. Voldy could hardly stop staring at it, his tummy jumping at the sight. He felt Bella's arms tightening around his as she shook gleefully.

"Now!" the man suddenly bellowed, surprising Voldy so much that he almost jumped. "Four in each boat should be more than enough. Off you go then!" He gestured towards a fleet of little boats that were sitting in the lake.

Voldy, Bella and Lucius all instantly hopped in a boat, accompanied by a rather pudgy boy. None of them bothered to try and get to know him, as they were too focused on simply staring at the castle ahead. Voldy managed to take his eyes off the school for a few seconds to see the big, bearded man step into his own boat.

"Is everyone in?" he asked. No one replied, but no one declined either. "Alright then – forward!"

The boats all started moving simultaneously, and Voldy was surprised that none of them was bumping into the other. He supposed it was because of the magic. The boats quickly reached the cliff, and the man told all of them to duck so as to not hit their heads on it as they sailed through a curtain of ivy that hid a passage under the cliff. They were now in a tunnel of some sorts, which then took them to a small harbor. The boats all came to a halt and the kids jumped to the surface, some more bewildered than others. Voldy, Bella and Lucius joined the group as they all walked up a rocky path in the dark (the only light being the big, bearded man's lamp) until they finally came out on the grass. Voldy looked up, and saw that they were just outside the castle. The group of kids went on, finally reaching a flight of stone steps that lead to a humongous, oak front door.

When everybody had gathered around in front of the door, the big, bearded man turned to face them all, scanning the group. "Alright, is everybody here? No one got left in the tunnel or anything?" Again, no one replied. The big, bearded man nodded, and then knocked on the oak door.

It opened instantly, on its own, to reveal an enormous entrance hall so big that Voldy was certain that half of the orphanage could fit in there. As the kids hurried inside, Voldy had a look around, his spirit brightening when he saw a familiar face standing inside the hall.

"Here are the first-years, Professor Dumbledore," the big, bearded man said.

"Thank you, Ogg," Dumbledore said and nodded. "I'll take it from here."

Without saying anything else, Dumbledore then gestured the group to follow him down a large hallway. As they walked, Voldy had a look around, admiring the huge stone walls that surrounded them, taking in nearly every detail before him – even the torches that hung on them to give the place some light. The group walked on until they reached a chamber at the end of the hallway. It was smaller than the entrance hall, but still relatively large. Once everybody was inside (and looking around nervously), Dumbledore spoke again.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, before you ask, don't worry, we are not going to make you take any sort of test, as I am sure some of you have heard," he said and eyed a couple of kids who Voldy thought he saw were biting their nails. "In a few moments, you will all be taking your seats with your fellow housemates, but before that happens, you have to be sorted into your houses. For the rest of your years here at Hogwarts, this house will be your home."

Bella shivered a little at that, and Voldy saw her put her hands together and start muttering hopes under her breath. Voldy looked over at Lucius, who just shrugged.

Dumbledore grinned, and then continued. "The houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Each of the houses values certain traits that will be taken for evaluation for each of you as you are being sorted. Your behavior will also be graded, to use a light term, with points given for your triumphs, but taken away for any rule-breaking. Do the points amount to anything? Not necessarily. It's just a fun tradition that has pretty much grown on us teachers over the years. Plus, it's fun to see the students get stressed about it."

Voldy was apparently the only one of the bunch who knew that the last remark was only a joke; the rest of the kids gasped in horror, and Voldy could hear some of them swear to themselves never to break any rules whatsoever. Even Bella and Lucius, who had been pretty mellow compared to the other kids until now, shook nervously.

"Alright, the sorting ceremony will begin shortly, we just have to do a few final tweaks," Dumbledore continued, trying to ease the stress a little by talking very lightly. "I'll be back soon, but in the meantime, you should all try and freshen up. I can tell that you're a little worked up after the trip." He looked over the group and smiled before leaving the chamber.

There was a silence which was only broken a couple of seconds later with someone whispering. Soon, the whispers became louder and louder, and eventually, the chamber was filled with voices chatting about Hogwarts and the sorting ceremony and the points. Voldy turned to Bella and Lucius, who were both still looking pretty nervous. He let out a small chuckle.

"Relax, guys, Dumbledore was just kidding," he said and patted them both on their shoulders to reassure them.

"How do you know?" Bella asked and bit her lip. "It's a magic school. They probably have tons of stuff that is totally legit! Like trying to freak us out with points!"

Voldy's eardrums stung unexpectedly at Bella's yelling, but persisted. "Nah, I know Dumbledore," he said as he moved Lucius' hand from his face (he had been pulling on his hair for about two minutes). "He'd never make us feel bad on purpose."

"You know him?" Lucius asked, his eyes widening, as if this was something extremely important. "How? This is your first day?"

Uh-oh. The thoughts were coming back. Voldy squinted and shook his head violently to try and shoo them away, and then tried to quickly come up with a logical reply. "Uh, well, when I was at the orphanage, he helped me with some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Bella asked, her nervous demeanor fading a bit, making room for a curious yet sympathetic one.

"Just… stuff. I'll tell you later," Voldy replied. His tummy tightened as he said that. He had had this exact conversation somewhere before, only with the roles reversed. He swallowed, and tried to think of something else to say to that the thoughts and memories wouldn't make him cry again.

His efforts proved to be unneeded when someone poked him in the back. He turned around to see a skinny, dark-haired girl with a big mouth smiling at him with wide eyes. Bella glared at her, for some reason.

"Hi!" the girl said cheerfully and waved.

"Uh, hi?" Voldy said, confused at the sudden confrontation. Why was this girl talking to him?

"So, uh, couldn't help but notice that your skin is really, really white," the girl continued, gesturing to Voldy's face. The moment she said that, Voldy noticed that the other kids had started to whisper and stare. Oh great, this again.

"Yeah, so?" he replied, trying not to sound too rude, although at this point, he sort of wanted to get this girl out of his face.

The girl kept looking at him like he was some kind of statue to be examined, her eyes still open wide. "And your hair is all gray too," she said, pointing to Voldy's slicked-back hair. "And what's with your nose? It's all… snakey."

"Leave him alone!" Bella suddenly cut in just as Voldy was about to tell the girl to back off. She actually had her wand out, and was pointing it at the girl. The other kids gasped at Bella's sudden outburst, and were now completely silent as they presumable waited for her to strike.

"Whoa, hey, I was just asking," the girl said, putting her hands up in defense. "I mean, he does look kinda weird—"

"Shut up!" Bella shouted, causing everybody, including Voldy, to jump. "Who are you to talk! With your bug eyes and huge mouth! Huh?!"

The girl frowned, and Voldy could tell that her eyes were getting glossy. He put a hand on Bella's to try and get her to lower her wand, to relax her. "Hey, Bella, it's fine," he lied – he just didn't want to cause any major commotion on his first day.  

Bella lowered her wand, still glaring at the girl, and then huffed. The girl folded her arms and turned around, and Voldy thought he heard her mumble something about hoping never to meet 'that one' ever again. Voldy frowned, sort of hurt, since this was the first time anybody had ever actually said something about his appearance straight to his face, and then patted Bella on the back. She turned to him once the girl was out of sight, pouting.

"Hey, uh, thanks for that," Voldy said awkwardly. He wasn't quite sure how to react to something like what she had done.

"That was just awful of her!" Bella exclaimed. She then turned to Lucius, who had basically been playing innocent bystander like the rest of the kids. "And you! Why didn't you do anything?"

"I- I'm sorry, okay?" Lucius said nervously, obviously just as puzzled as Voldy as to what in the world he should say.

"Look, guys!" Voldy finally exclaimed as he saw that Bella was about to keep arguing and Lucius braced himself for what was about to come. "It's fine, alright? It's fine. I'm okay, she didn't hurt me."

Bella turned to Voldy with a somewhat hurt expression, but before she could say anything, the chamber door opened again, and Dumbledore peeked inside. "Alright then, first-years!" he said happily. "Form a line, and let's get started on your sorting."

With a little gulp, Voldy joined the kids in forming a relatively crowded line; nobody wanted to be left last, and so everybody tried to cram themselves somewhere in the front. The group then followed Dumbledore out of the chamber again, back into the hall they had come from, and then through a pair of immense double doors into the Great Hall.

There was a harmony of "ooh!"s and "ahh!"s as the group walked in, and Voldy couldn't help but join in on it. The Great Hall was by far the most bizarre place he had been in so far. It was lit up with thousands upon thousands of candles that floated in mid-air high above, and Voldy could see the starry night sky just beyond the candles. To their sides were four long tables, where Voldy could see the rest of the students sitting, and in front of them was another long table where the teachers were sitting. All the tables were full of golden plates and goblets, presumably prepared for a large feast or something.

Dumbledore led the first-years towards the teachers' table, where Voldy could see that they had planted a stool and a worn-out old hat on top of it. He poked Lucius in the shoulder and asked him without words if he knew what this was about, but Lucius just shrugged and shook his head. Biting his lip, Voldy looked back up at the hat, and saw Dumbledore approach it. The older wizard reached into his robes and pulled out a rather long roll of parchment, and then picked the hat up from the stool, looking over the group.

"Now, when I call your name, you'll put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," he said and then started reading from the parchment. "Abercrombie, Peter!"

A rather frail-looking boy shakily approached the stool. He stumbled to get up on it, and then Dumbledore placed the hat on his head. Voldy wasn't sure how in the world a hat would be able to sort anybody, but was then surprised to see a rip open near the brim like a mouth, and two buttons seemed to appear out of nowhere above it, like eyes. For a short moment, nothing happened, and the Peter kid was starting to shake even more, until—

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted.

The table on the far left exploded with cheers as Peter went to sit down at it.

"Aubrey, Julia!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left was the one to cheer now, as a plump little girl with a blonde ponytail hopped off the stool and joined them. Voldy noticed just now that he was rubbing his fingers together nervously, and bit his lip. He turned to his two friends and saw that they were doing the same thing.

"Betta, Tyler!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table on the right joined in cheering when the small boy with huge teeth (Voldy could only imagine he had some weird genetics) sat down at it.

"Black, Bellatrix!"

Upon hearing her name, Bella jumped and squeaked, though not as loud as Voldy would have expected. She squeezed his arm and looked into his eyes just before she went up to the stool. Voldy looked on as Dumbledore put the sorting hat on her head, covering her eyes completely. He saw her squirm on the stool, obviously hoping to hear the word she knew she wanted.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Bella let out a loud scream, as did the students at the table on the far right. Voldy and Lucius eyed each other, both feeling a bit more nervous than before. They had now heard every house mentioned except for Gryffindor, and yet nobody knew just what quality each of them treasured. Voldy swallowed and then looked on.

"Callaway, Darren" and "Choudry, Chris" both went into Gryffindor, and Voldy was certain that that house was probably the loudest of the bunch. A few more names were called that Voldy didn't quite catch, but he did hear that "Derrick, Denise" became a Ravenclaw.

"Hey, Voldy," Lucius suddenly said, making Voldy lose all focus on the sorting. "D'you think you can switch houses once it's done? I mean, if you don't like it?"

Voldy raised an eyebrow. "Uhh, I don't know," he said and scratched his chin.

"Because I'm really worried that I'll either be in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, and I don't want my dad to hear about that," Lucius said, timidly pressing his index fingers together. "I don't wanna disappoint him, ya know?"

Without knowing what to say, Voldy simply nodded and patted Lucius on the shoulder. Having never had to worry about his parents' expectations, he didn't really know how to reply to that. He hoped he had assured Lucius that there was nothing to worry about, because he didn't really want to talk that much right now.

"Griffin, Arielle!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

As "Lestrange, Rodolphus", the pudgy boy that had accompanied Voldy, Bella and Lucius in the boat earlier that night, was sorted into Slytherin, Voldy couldn't help but bite his lip. What if they were being sorted compared to how popular the first few students were, and just crammed everybody in the same house eventually? That would mean that he would be sorted into either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff! He didn't want to be in another house from Bella. As annoyingly loud as she could be, she was also entertaining, and made him forget about his troubles.

"Malfoy, Lucius!"

Lucius paled instantly, and staggered up to the stool, almost falling down in the process. Dumbledore had barely placed the hat on his head when it hollered, "SLYTHERIN!" Lucius sighed heavily, and Voldy could practically see the worry-weight being lifted off his shoulders as he ran towards the Slytherin table.

It was only then that Voldy realized that he was alone again. Since that morning, he had had Bella and Lucius' company, but now that they weren't there anymore, he felt his heart beat a little faster. Now he was really worried about being sorted into a different house than them.

He barely noticed that "Munch, Rosalie" and "Nettles, Zach" were both sorted in Hufflepuff, simply because he was so wound up in his own thoughts. Maybe if he just ran out of the castle now, he wouldn't have to worry about waiting to be sorted. The teachers would all notice, and then have him do it immediately as punishment – he would actually prefer that!

Voldy heard "Pugnite, Ember" being sorted in Gryffindor, but then his worries made him black out again. What if he was going to be sorted into Slytherin, but then the hat would randomly decide to twist things around and put him in Hufflepuff or something? He couldn't bear that; not now that he had seen what types of people generally went there. Even Gryffindor felt more plausible than that! But oh, what if before he would even get sorted, the hat would give up and just leave everybody out that came after him? Voldy was about to start twitching in fear when—

"Quirrell, Quirinus!"

Time froze completely. Whatever feeling of fear or wanting to run away Voldy had had disappeared, and he found himself standing perfectly still in the midst of the crowd. He couldn't hear anything. How could he anyway? His rampaging heartbeat banged in his ears, making it impossible for him to distinguish little whispers from loud chatters.

It was all coming back again. His tummy stung, twisted, turned, leaped and dropped; his hands shook; he could feel the heat rush to his face; his heart beat insanely fast… Voldy could barely breathe from the intensity of everything going on in his body. His short gasps were very shallow, and even though he hardly noticed anything about him, he saw that the other kids were looking at him in a concerned way. But he didn't care. It was all coming back. The fever was back.

How the heck could he have forgotten? It was one of the last things he had heard from Quirrell; that they'd go to school together. Clearly, he had repressed his feelings and memories long enough to not even remember that he and Quirrell were the same age. How stupid! But still, hadn't Quirrell forgotten about him too? Wasn't that the reason why he hadn't sent him any letters for all this time?

"RAVENCLAW!"

Voldy snapped out of his thoughts and jerked his head upwards to try and have a look. How could he not have noticed Quirrell on the train? He still had his signature brown, scruffy hair, his rather large nose, and relatively thin body (although it was hard to tell because of the robe). In a way, he was still recognizable, and even though Voldy hadn't seen him in almost a year, he still remembered everything about him.

Just as quickly as time had frozen, it went back to normal again, and Voldy was aware of the fact that there were people around him. His darn fever was still making his body almost ache, but at least he didn't have to worry about it for now. Still, just hearing the name had really given him a hard time. He wondered if he should somehow approach Quirrell some time, just to see if he really had forgotten about him.

With his attention back on the sorting (though the fever was still present and the image of Quirrell still engraved in his mind), Voldy heard a couple of names being uttered. There was a "Randall, Seymour", "Ray, Elanor", "Redding, Harriet", and finally—

"Riddle, Tom!"

Voldy cringed at hearing his name once again, and then shook his head to try and snap himself back into reality. He rushed towards the stool and hurriedly planted himself on it, wanting to get everything over with as soon as possible. Dumbledore placed the hat on his head, and it only just fit him, so he was able to glance over the tables in front of him. He eyed the Ravenclaw table, and saw Quirrell with his back turned towards him, talking to a blonde girl (what was her name? Something… Denise? Whatever), obviously not paying attention. Yup, he had forgotten about him. Voldy sighed.

"Hmm," a voice suddenly said in his ear, making him jump. "Not bad, not bad at all. I see you're quite the clever tyke – ooh, and a good sense of loyalty, very nice – and what do we have here? Loads of cunning behavior. Oh, and a descendant of the man himself too! Well then, let's not waste any time. SLYTHERIN!"

The amount of relief Voldy felt was indescribable, and he couldn't help but smile. The Slytherin table cheered, and Voldy felt Dumbledore take the hat off him. He sprinted towards his housemates, looking for Bella and Lucius. As expected, Bella was jumping up and down and screaming, trying to get Voldy's attention, while Lucius just sat next to her and waved patiently. Voldy grinned and sat down next to him. Various students shook his hand and welcomed him to the house, though most simply just nodded in his direction as a sign of approval.

Bella clung to Voldy's arm as he had made himself comfortable and giggled. "Yay! We all made the same house!" she shouted gleefully, resulting in the others shushing her in order to hear the rest of the ceremony.

Lucius fanned his face, pretending to still be completely overwhelmed. "I'm just glad I don't have to face my dad and tell him I didn't make Slytherin," he whispered. "He'd freak out!"

Voldy was just about to reply when Bella yanked on his arm and pulled him closer to her. "Oh, look," she hissed angrily. "There's that girl who called you weird."

Voldy looked up, noticing that "Samuels, Meredith" had just been sorted into Ravenclaw. He looked back at Bella, who was still glaring hatefully at the girl. He put his free hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down.

"Relax, will you?" he said as he rubbed her back. "She's not in the same house as us. Stop worrying about it."

Bella sighed and (finally!) let go of Voldy's arm. "I know, I know," she admitted. "It's just… I don't like to see her make fun of you and stuff. Because I don't care that you look different, ya know?"

We can be d- different together now.

Voldy shook his head violently as a familiar voice rang in his head. For some reason, Bella had this odd way of constantly reminding him of Quirrell. Why was that? She couldn't possibly know him, so how was she able to reference their conversations over and over again? Besides, anything that reminded him of Quirrell now made him feel even worse than it would have over the last year, now that he knew that Quirrell didn't even remember him. No, Bella couldn't possibly know. She wouldn't purposely make him feel bad. Or would she?

"Hey, Voldy, you okay?"

Lucius' voice snapped Voldy back to reality, and he saw that he had been looking at him in a concerned way. "Uh, yeah," he replied. "Yeah, I'm just, uh… thankful for… for Bella standing up for me." He had no idea what he was even talking about, but he hoped it would get by as a valid excuse.

Bella gave him a quick hug and smiled wide. "You're welcome," she said sweetly. "I just think you're too amazing to be made fun of."

Voldy sighed. If she kept doing this, it would be pretty difficult for him to try and forget Quirrell like he apparently had. But still, at least he wasn't alone anymore. He had Bella and Lucius now, so he wouldn't have to worry about being lonely for at least the remainder of the school year.

He looked up at where the sorting had taken place, and saw that Dumbledore was now taking both the hat and the stool back to where he had taken it. Behind the teachers' table, an elderly man (even more so than Dumbledore) in blue and yellow robes stood up, his arms raised.

"Let the feast begin."