After we had mostly finished talking, the Malfoys invited us and Pansy’s family over for Christmas dinner. Everyone agreed, and it wasn’t long until the fateful day arrived. Mother had spent half an hour making sure that everything I was wearing was all perfect. At least it wasn’t the two hours she spent on herself.

We arrived at the front door to their mansion, bringing small gifts for our visitation. Val staying home to not cause any issues. Luscious Malfoy opened the door with an elegant smile. “Welcome. It’s good to have you here. The Parkinson’s are already here, please join us in the common area.” My father gave a polite smile alongside his gift of a precious and expensive wine we had in our cellar. “We appreciate your hospitality. Please accept this small gift for this occasion.” Luscious smiled at the bottle while happily taking my father’s coat. “Of course. It would be my pleasure to enjoy this with everyone tonight.”

We walked through the many carpeted hallways in this mansion before a large wooden door opened to showcase a large and luxurious sitting room. Filled with plenty of couches and tables to relax with a drink at one’s side, and bookshelves at the edges of the room for any light reading. A glass chandelier hung from the ceiling, bathing the room in its sparkling glow. “Ah the Petersons! We were just talking about you!” Mrs. Parkinson said with a smile, using her hand to direct us to sit.

My parents and I sat together, matching the other families. Draco sitting between his parents, and Pansy between hers. “So I heard from Draco that you all have been good friends since school started.” Mrs. Malfoy started, causing Draco to sigh while burying his face into his hands. I scoffed while Pansy answered. “Indeed. Draco has helped Lucas socialize with the Quidditch team.” My mother looked at me in surprise. “I never heard about this.” She said with mirth in her tone.

I frowned while lowering my gaze to hide from both of my parents. I never talked about it, because I knew they would both want me to become part of the team before I would graduate for the connections, but I wasn't good on a broom. Draco, luckily, liked the sport, so I was hoping I could lose to him, and my parents might let it go. “It wasn’t much, Draco just introduced me to the captain.” Draco scoffed at me, before clarifying. “You gave the captain pointers, that knocked some poor sap from his broom!” He finished with a laugh. I gave a polite chuckle back, my stomach sinking at my fate being sealed. 

“That is a great opportunity. Make sure to keep an eye for a position on the team.” My father said, sipping a small cup of tea. “Indeed, I would love to see Draco and Lucas bonding over sports! What other interests do you have, Lucas?” Mrs. Malfoy asked, her hands pressed together in front of her chest in interest.

It was then that I noticed that the conversations were mostly involving me talking about myself. Even the Parkinson's’ seemed to only want to hear mostly from me. At a guess, I knew that both Pansy’s and Draco’s families knew each other, so I was the odd one out. They felt that they needed to hear more of my beliefs to see if I was worthy of their children’s friendship. “Botany is interesting. However my favorite class would have to be Potions.” Mrs. Parkinson smiled as she took a sip of tea. “Oh! Following in the footsteps of your father? I hear he is quite the potions master at the ministry.”

I nodded while my father patted my back. “I’m very glad that you have found your calling son.” He smirked at me, the closest one could get him to smile, but he seemed really proud of me. Only further making my stomach swirl in unease from my darker thoughts. ‘Only proud of me, for doing what you say…’ “Well I’m happy to hear we might have some more valuable potions in the future to aid ourselves from the mudbloods.” Luscious smiled as he leaned back in his chair, the other parents, and even Draco and Pansy agreeing. “Indeed, I wouldn’t be caught dead selling my precious products to the lower classes.” “That’s my girl.”

I smiled, my mask already on for the evening. One that I had forgotten how much it sickened me to wear. I felt I was losing myself, my true self between the crumbling façade of everyone’s beliefs. But I had to continue for the entire night. Lest I would not only lose my parents' trust, but my friends and their families’ as well. They believed in things I didn’t, but that didn’t mean they weren’t good people to those they deemed worthy. The only problem was that they perceived worthiness from their parents. I wasn’t sure if I was lucky or not to have my own beliefs, made by my own thoughts, or if it would have been easier to just blindly trust in my father and mother just like Draco or Pansy.

After dinner, which was mostly us talking about school, the Malfoys let Draco show us around his home while they discussed things alone. “This is our personal library. Plenty of books on almost any topic.” Draco said, opening the massive wooden door towards the library. I had been to Hogwarts’ library before, and its expanse was much larger than this, however for just a single home, two stories of books was a great accomplishment. “Wow…” Pansy ogled the bookshelves, looking for ones on Botany.

I wanted to search for anything relating to magical creatures, but couldn’t. The only safe place to study those things was inside my own room. Instead I looked towards history. It wasn’t a topic I much liked, knowing that history was written by the winner. I didn’t trust much of what they spoke about in regards to ‘terrible dragons’ or ‘evil creatures’. However, one book caught my eye, almost drawing me towards its faded green cover, and worn binding. 

I carefully removed it from its shelf, and opened it to the front page. Slytherins throughout the ages. I frowned at its title, but decided to skim through the first few pages. The first chapter was on Salazar himself. 20 pages on his life, and the making of Hogwarts. I read only one page of it, before skipping towards the next entry, already being taught most of this from my own upbringing. Chapter two was much more intriguing. Only being a singular page, not even front and back. However it wasn’t from how short it was in comparison to the founder. The issue was from who they were describing. Merlin.

Merlin was one of the most famous wizards known. Even muggles knew the name. How could someone as famously known as Merlin, be in a book about Slytherin's and why was there so little about him in here. “Merlin was a Slytherin?” I mumbled in shock, reading every sentence, carefully searching for anything else interesting, or perhaps a clue as to why he was shunned from this book. It didn’t take long for me to read through his history.

To me, I had heard the name Merlin, and references to his beard by some adults in shock. However, I never really knew him. My parents never taught me why he was known, only that he was famous. Like Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. I just assumed he was from one of their houses, since they sometimes cursed under their breaths his name and his ‘muggle beliefs’. As it turned out, Merlin was a Slytherin. One that went to school in Hogwarts near when it was first built by the founders.

While attending, he befriended a muggle prince, and even helped him through the use of magic. Helping the young prince on his journey to be a king. Before I could read much more of Merlin, the page ended, leaving me with nothing but only a remnant of his life. However the words stuck with me. A Slytherin befriending a muggle. Someone like myself? Someone with beliefs outside the normal? It was electrifying.