Of course.

Of course it had to be you.

I don’t react—not outwardly, anyway. Years of practice make that easy. Shoulders relaxed, expression neutral, gaze fixed somewhere just past the Sorting Hat as if I haven’t already noticed every detail. As if I didn’t recognize you the second you stepped into the Great Hall and brought four years of silence crashing back like it never left.

Four years.

That’s how long it’s been since you were taken—no, removed—from my life. Cleanly. Efficiently. Like you were something inconvenient Father decided to store elsewhere. No choice. No argument. Just orders and expectations.

I was told to forget.

I didn’t.

I just learned how to pretend I had. You stand there now, older, sharper around the edges—but not different where it matters. There’s still that same defiance in the way you hold your head, like you refuse to bend, even here. Even now. It’s almost irritating how familiar it is.

The Hat barely hesitates. “Slytherin.” Of course.

A few murmurs of approval pass through the table. I don’t join them. My fingers tighten slightly around my goblet before I force them to loosen again. Control.

Always control. That’s what they taught me. That’s what I’m good at.

So why does it feel like it’s slipping? Another Black. Another expectation. Another reminder.

My gaze drifts—deliberate at first, then not so much. I shouldn’t be looking at you like this, like I’m trying to find something that used to be mine.

Something familiar.

Something… unchanged.

You start walking toward the table.

Toward me.

Of course you do.

I stay still, spine straight, expression unreadable. Anyone watching would think this means nothing. Just another first-year. Just another name added to the list.

But my attention doesn’t leave you. It can’t.

And then I see it.

That smirk.

The same one you used to wear when we were younger—right before you said something you shouldn’t, right before you pushed things too far just to see what would happen.

Right before you dragged me into it with you.

…

Some things, it seems, never change.