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CHAPTER TWO
STARING CONTESTS
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EVEN THOUGH ADELINE LOOKED AT HOGWARTS AS A HOME AWAY FROM HOME, MORGAN DID NOT. Hogwarts was where she went to school, where she got her education which she would use in the future to excel in her career – which she would, thank you very much – but it was most definitely not a home. Well, homier than the Ainsley Manor which she had been forced into since Alistair and Helen's wedding, but not home.
She didn't really have a home now. Because Hogwarts was a mean to an end, a step up to her future because education was important and completely necessary to learn spells and control magic in a safe – well, "safe" – location. But Morgan could not call the Slytherin chambers home because it didn't feel that way.
When she thought of home, she thought quilts on couches and the temperature being high and blankets around her shoulders, hot chocolate in her hands. She thought of warm wood underneath her feet, clutter, a bit of a messy kitchen, flowers on the dining room table and family pictures on the wall. Now that was home, and exactly what she didn't get at Hogwarts or the Ainsley Manor.
Because the Ainsley Manor was cold and there were no decorative pillows on the couches or hot chocolate to sip on, cold floors under her feet, and a chilly air all around. There were no flowers on the dining room table and the kitchen was always spotless and the walls were white with standard photos and nothing suggesting like a family lived there. And the Chambers were cold and beneath everyone else, getting all the cold air, and the mermaids above them yelled and screamed and banged on the glass constantly. Everything was immaculate and it felt like a hotel more than a living space.
There were grim photos of old Headmasters which hailed from Slytherin, like Victorian-style paintings in creepy houses, and dorm rooms which were always clean – no clutter, no pants on the floor – because appearances were everything, first of all, and because the House Elves would never allow for clothes to be thrown all along the ground for long.
Nothing about it felt like home, but it was where she had to stay. Where she stayed with Adeline, Wilhelmina Matthews, and Theresa Hangthorne – the last two which she hadn't had an actual, friendly conversation with since first year when the found out they were rooming with a half-blood – the horror!
Since then, Wilhelmina and Theresa only sneered in her direction and held their heads high as if they were better than her all because their parents and those before them all decided to marry wizards instead of venturing into the muggle world. The boasted themselves on their ignorance, which only incited an eyeroll from her. She didn't care if they thought they were better, just as long as they didn't call her a halfling because, in those cases, the person who did so ended up with a nasty scar or hex which they couldn't get rid of and Morgan had detention. But who cared anyway?
