[First Year 1/6] Trust Issues

Damien stood in the Great Hall, staring around at the various people sitting at the four tables and the professors seated at the main table. From the enchanted ceiling to the buzz of energy from all the new students, Damien felt like this was a place he might be able to call home during the time he was there. The promise of learning and having a place to rest his head was all too good. From time to time, he found himself wondering what the catch was.

He was all too well aware of the eyes that would likely be on him. From the second-hand robes he wore, to the way to he glanced around as if everything could be taken away from him. From the way he shied away from people at the nearest opportunity to the fact that he had confidence that he could handle himself despite his apparent shyness.

All this and more drew many eyes to him as he waited for everything to be over with.

"As I call your name, step forward to be sorted." The man who had announced himself as the Deputy Headmaster spoke with a dull tone of voice. His eyes were glaring at a woman up at the head table as if he didn't want to be the one standing there.

Name after name, house after house, new students walked up towards the stool with an old dusty hat, which told students which house they would go to.

At 'Echo Santi,' he started paying a bit more attention to the names being called. If they were at S surnames, his own would be soon. Sure enough, after 'Aiden Sworm,' the man ended up calling 'Damien Thorne.'

A few of the students in Slytherin looked up a bit curious as soon as the name 'Thorne' was spoken. Still, when Damien walked forward, those students looked disappointed. As if they were expecting something else.

He sat on the stool as the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. He felt the artifact probe into his mind, scanning for traits that would make him sortable. 'I can see a sense of loyalty. You would die for someone who had earned your loyalty. Hufflepuff would do well for you. But, yet, it's not the house best suited for you. I can sense a cunning from you that could rival many, but yet you lack ambition.

'No, neither of these will do. You may have cunning and loyalty, but more than those, you have the drive for knowledge. The desire to learn and to better yourself. "RAVENCLAW" would be best suited for you.'

As the hat shouted, one of the tables started half-heartedly clapping, and he made his way towards them after placing the hat back on the stool. All the while, a thought was dancing in his mind. Perhaps things wouldn't be as great as he thought.

--------------

Most children grow up excited about Hogwarts. They ask their parents about their stories, run around pretending to be full-fledged witches and wizards. Their siblings might tease them, and the children will shout, "Just you wait! I'll get you back once I'm in Hogwarts!"

But Echo was never that child. She never got the opportunity to be. Echo was an empath. She could feel others' emotions. Most people would be jealous of a power like that. To read someone's emotions was a powerful tool, especially when it came to the art of manipulation and information gathering. However, that was only the case if the power could be controlled. Echo could not, no matter how hard she tried, control her power.

When she was a child and first went to school, she panicked. All those emotions were too much for her. Excitement, sadness, anger, happiness, jealousy all swam in the small classroom of 20. Her mother had to pick her up from school; she had run to a closet to cry. It was an easy decision for her mother to homeschool her after that.

In fact, Echo was still supposed to be homeschooled. But.. her mother got sick. She had been ill for a while, but Echo's mother suddenly became bedridden a month ago. No amount of magic could save her, not when nature was so against her. Echo knew she had to go to Hogwarts. She made the decision for her mother so she wouldn't have to. "I cannot hide in the house forever, mum!" She would tell her over and over. "I'm not doing it for you! It's for me! I'm excited." She would then babble on about what she read in Hogwarts: A History.

Her mother would smile. She would say she was proud of her. Happy for her. But Echo knew the truth: Her mother felt fear.

And so did Echo.

The train ride was tolerable. Echo shut herself into a compartment, and only two other people joined. They seemed excited. Echo just stared out the window the entire time as the two girls chattered on and on. At first, they tried to involve Echo, but after a while, they gave up.

Once she entered the Great Hall, Echo wanted to scream. She felt like she was in a middle of an ocean, with her head just barely above the water. Hundreds of students gathered. Anxiety, excitement, happiness, relief, jealousy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, all these emotions all at once. Echo wanted to curl forward and vomit. The only thing that steeled her will was her sick mother. Echo wasn't a child anymore. She could not hide in a closet and cry, expecting her mother to pick her up and take her home. This was her new life now. A life of emotions. She needed to learn how to deal with it by any means necessary.

"Santi, Echo," The voice cut through the emotions. She walked forward and hesitantly sat on the stool.

"My my, what a busy mind you have." The hat spoke to her. "There's only one place for a mind like this. RAVENCLAW."

Echo's sorting was faster than most, much to her relief. She hopped off and hurried to the clapping table. Now that she was sorted, he could zone out everything else.

That was until she felt a wave of intrigue followed very quickly with disappointment from one side of the room. Echo's eyes lifted from the table to see a boy. A moment later, he was sorted into Ravenclaw and started making his way over. He had sat right next to Echo.

The house was disappointed too. Some people didn't care, but the ones who did care didn't really want him. Why? Did he do something?

It's not often anymore that emotions make Echo curious. There was usually logic behind it. Feelings were not as complicated as people made them out to be. There was always a reason we feel the way we do. This time, however, Echo didn't know why people would be disappointed. He's just a kid, after all. What could he have done?

It was perhaps uncouth, but Echo didn't like lingering questions. If she was curious about something, she needed to know. "Why are people disappointed that you're sorted here?" Echo asked the boy, her wide blue eyes peering at him through her messy brown hair.

-------------------------

The disappointment wasn't something Damien was used to. Loneliness, sure. Hollow emptiness. But disappointment? No. There was never anyone for him to disappoint but himself. So the fact that he disappointed two fronts, both Slytherin and Ravenclaw, really hit hard. After a life on the streets, he was hoping for somewhere he could belong. Somewhere he could fit in.

But it was apparent that he wouldn't fit in here. Quite the opposite. He wasn't sure what it was or why the Slytherins looked interested when his name was mentioned. Or why the Ravenclaws weren't as interested in him joining as anyone else.

He stared at the table as the last people were being sorted. His eyes welled up with tears as he was overwhelmed with sadness. It was almost as if his hopes were destroyed before his eyes. He wanted to be more than 'That Poor Kid.' He wanted to have a place, a role. And after the hat's description of Ravenclaw, he thought that could be where he fits in.

When Damien was younger, when he wasn't training with a dagger, he read anything he could scrounge up. Learning as much as he could.

But instead of that, it was just the opposite. Damien didn't fit in. Nobody wanted him there.

Almost nobody.

He heard a voice off to his right before glancing up towards its owner. He brushed his long unkempt hair aside as he raised his head. Steel eyes regarded the girl in an inquisitive light before instantly frowning as she asked the question he'd been asking himself.

He threw his hands up in a sigh of defeat, glaring around at people at the Ravenclaw table.

"I don't know," he cried out in frustration, "Maybe because I'm that poor kid that brings down the image of the house."

He then quickly carefully steeled his expression as he stared the girl down. Perhaps this school was like living on the streets, where showing weakness made the sharks attack.

"It suits me, though," he lied smoothly, leaning back in his chair, before looking shocked as food appeared on the table. He quickly piled as much food on his plate as he could possibly fit before guarding it jealously as if he hadn't eaten in days. "Solitude means I can better use my time to study or read in the library."

--------------------

There was a reason that empaths, although rare, excelled in fields such as law and law enforcement. Understanding someone's feelings is one way to know if someone's lying. Does it truly suit the boy that has such an overwhelming sense of loneliness coming from him, one that matches her own?

Frustration, sadness, loneliness, these negative emotions were a black cloud above his head where everyone else in this room had nothing but clear skies.

Echo opened her mouth to ask why he lied, but this time she wisely shut it. Instead, she moved her plate beside his. "Your food is spilling over. Here, have my plate. I'm not hungry." Echo still felt rather sick being in this room. She would eventually get used to it, or at least she hoped. She would have to eat at some point, yes?

"I like to read on my own too. But sometimes, it gets lonely. So can we study together? I'm very good at being quiet." Echo said in the hope of lightening his sky, if only slightly. If Echo had to stomach other people's feelings, she would prefer it to be only positive.

-------------------

He quirked a brow at the girl. How often in his life had people shied away from him? He had to steal to survive, and even there, it was a tough life. No one wanted anything to do with the poor homeless kid. Hell, even his own parents abandoned him.

So what did this girl want? Did she have something to gain? Was it pity? He couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he was staring at a fork in his path. Taking a left would mean taking the same approach he'd been on all his life. One of solitude and loneliness. Taking a right could potentially mean him making a friend. He wouldn't have to be lonely anymore as he would have a friend by his side.

But at the same time, there were risks to making a friend. If she was, in fact, gaining something from his company, then when she earned everything there was to achieve, she could easily stab him in the back.

It was a predicament, but somewhere deep inside, he was sick of being alone. He was sick of being 'That poor kid.' He wanted to make something of himself, and no matter what he made of himself, it would be HIS thing. He wanted to live his life as he wanted instead of how poverty made him live.

He wanted to be happy.

And that feeling, that desire, was what decided for him, not the logic that was usually a deciding factor for him.

"What's the point of studying and being quiet at the same time? If we're going to study together, we should at least bounce off each other and learn from each other."

-----------------------------

Hope, weariness, and fear. Out of those three emotions, Echo really clung to one of them. Hope. He felt hope. And hope was a beautiful emotion. It was the most contagious.

Just like that, Echo felt hope too. Echo felt hope that Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad. She felt hope that she, too, could make a friend. Echo wouldn't be able to see her mother for Christmas. Her mother had a scheduled treatment. But by summer? Echo wanted to be able to run home then and tell her mom she had made a friend. Maybe even not just one friend. Two! Three! Echo longed to feel her mother's pride and relief.

A smile spread across her lips, a true, genuine smile. She stuck out her hand. "Echo. Echo Santi." She introduced herself. "I'd like that, by the way. To bounce ideas off of someone."

For a second, a moment, she felt more than just her head pop up above the ocean of emotions. For a second, a moment, Echo felt her own feelings. Her own excitement, happiness.

Her own hope.