You're Still Standing By This Sinner's Side.

As soon as the carriage was at a full stop, Tobias was out of it and headed to the castle, leaving Evanna behind. He wanted a spot at the table before it was full so that he could maybe seclude himself a little longer. It wasn't that he didn't want to see his friends; he was just in a bad mood and didn't want to take it out on them. It was already a bad start of the year and it had barely even begun...

Evanna watched Toby hurry off with a raised eyebrow, dragging her trunk out of the carriage and towards the school. Finding her friends at the Slytherin table, she sat down next to Jon, whose expression asked her where she had disappeared too. "I went to talk to Tobias," she answered and he nodded.

"Any new teachers?" Rosette asked, with a glance towards the head table.

"Well, we need a new defence teacher again," Charlene replied, also glancing at the table. "But there's two faces up there I don't recognise. I wonder who else left."

"They don't look very cheery," Esme said, with a apprehensive look.

"Are you expecting them too?" Jon asked with a raised eyebrow. "With either Snape or the Dark Lord giving them their position. They aren't going to give us cheerful teachers," he snorted.

"Shh," Liam said, with a gesture toward the teacher's table again, where the new headmaster had stood to address the school. He hardly got through a few sentences, before they was a shout from the Gryffindor table. They swivelled around to watch.

"Idiot," Liam muttered.

"Gryffindors," Charlene said at the same time.

"Same thing isn't it?" Evanna asked. Thinking that the girl, no, girls -another one had started shouting- really were stupid. If they wanted to get on the bad side of Snape on his first day in charge of the school. With the way he was glaring, that was a death wish.

"Isn't that the Malfoy girl?" Rosette asked, as everyone watched the shouting match. A few of the group glanced down the table to where Draco was seated. Jon made a derisive comment about ruining the family name.

"That's not going to end well," Esme said with a slight wince.

"Guess we'll find out what happens when you cross Snape."

"Bad things."

They all nodded in agreement.

From where Toby sat, he had a clear view of the two shouting girls. A tiny smirk played across his face as the event unfolded. That took serious guts. Now if only everyone else would be that way... His smirk disappeared and he sighed. His friends had yet to find him, but he had his suspicions that as soon as announcements were over, he'd be bombarded by them. He could already see them glancing down the table at him.

The two girls were led out of the hall, but the rest of the students didn't quieten down, talking about what just happened. Evanna wondered if the Gryffindors would realise that going against Snape was a bad idea. It was one thing when he was only a teacher, under Dumbledore's rule, and the worst that he could give was a nasty detention and docking of house points. But punishment was going to be a lot more severe, with Voldemort practically in charge of the school. She gave a happy sigh when the food appeared, and gathered it onto her plate, listening to Rosette and Charlene discussing the new teachers.

As soon as food showed up, Toby was almost literally pounced by his dormmates. He gave them a semi-cold stare, showing that he wasn't in the mood to muck around, though, and they backed off. They did not, however, leave the area, sitting around him and causing a bit of noise. Oh the horrors of overexcited fifteen year olds...

Dinner and desert ended - with Vanna eating more ice-cream than she had in a long while - and the announcements started. The two new teachers were introduced, siblings, one defence and the other muggle studies. "Muggle studies?" Esme mouthed with a frown. "You'd think they'd abolish that." Evanna shrugged at her, one would think so, considering how against muggles Voldemort was. There was an outbreak at murmuring, at being told that everyone was going to have to do the class.

"They're going to use it, to try to turn all the students against muggles," Liam murmured, at the raised eyebrows the group gave at that announcement.

"Waste of time though," Evanna said with a sigh. "We could use that time for our other classes."

He shrugged, and they tuned back into the announcements. Glad when they were dismissed to bed, it was always a long day getting to school.

If he weren't such a good person and if killing people wasn't illegal... Toby sighed as he stared up at the staff table. This would not be a good year for his nerves, stress levels, or temper then. He had OWLs to worry about. He didn't need extra bullshit to distract him. Good thing he didn't care about an OWL in Muggle Studies, because he wasn't planning on putting any effort into that class... Or Defense for that matter, if what he was assuming would happen if it played out. Good thing he was proficient in Defense already and could easily bring himself up to fifth year standards.

The group headed back to the common room, still talking about the announcements that had been made at dinner. Evanna could hear other people complaining about having to do muggle studies, that they had better things to do then sit through such a stupid class. Evanna agreed, and needed no convincing about muggles anyway. The girls said goodnight to the boys, and headed up to their dorm room. The other two Slytherin girl not in their group were already there, getting ready for bed.

Once the majority of the crowd had left the hall, Toby finally stood up and headed to the Slytherin common room. He was still tired despite his nap, but he would probably sit up for a while anyway. So, instead of heading to his dorm, he settled down on one of the couches and just looked at the fire. While doing so, he lost track of time, and it as nearly three in the morning by the time his eyes slid closed, and he fell asleep on the very same couch.

Evanna headed out of the dorm room the next morning with Esme, the others still getting ready, and came across Toby sleeping in an arm chair. She bobbed down next to the chair, and shook him gently. "Tobias," she said quietly, wondering why he'd fallen asleep in the chair, rather than heading up to his dorm room and sleeping in the actual bed.

Toby's eyes opened just a little to glare at his sister. "Shush, 'm tired," he muttered, trying to roll away from her and hide his face. "Go a..." he yawned, "away." He didn't even remember falling asleep or not going upstairs. It had just sort of happened when he got lost in his thoughts. It wouldn't be the first time, though it was normally Peter who caught him before anyone else. The thought sent a slight pang through Toby's chest as he tried to imagine classes without the other boy. They hadn't been apart for class the whole time they'd been at school together, having hit it off right away...

She gave her brother an amused look. "It's morning Toby," she said. "You gotta get up, classes and food and all that," she glanced over at Esme who just smiled, content to wait until Evanna had finished with her brother. "What are you doing sleeping on the couch anyway huh?" she asked, prodding him in the shoulder as he ignored her. "You've got a perfectly fine bed upstairs, they're quite useful."

"Fires are soothing," was Toby's simple reply. "I was asleep before I even realized I was getting tired enough. Thinking does that to people." He'd given up on sleeping with his pestering sister there and opened his eyes to look at her. "What time in the morning is it?"

She had to agree on the fires are soothing part, and wished that they had them in the dorm rooms too. She would be quite content to sit in front of the fire in the colder days of the year. Something she couldn't really do in the common room. "Classes start in about half an hour," she answered, standing back up. "So you've still got time, as long as you don't go back to sleep."

"Screw classes," Tobias muttered spitefully. It was completely out of character for him. He'd never skipped a class. Hell, he'd never even gotten a detention. Not that it got him anything... like a shiny Prefect's badge. But, oh well. He wasn't fit for a leadership role anyway, not that he was a follower. It was more like suspended limbo, neither one nor the other.

Vanna raised an eyebrow. Well that was new. Toby seemed to enjoy his classes, or most of them anyway. "Come up," she said peering down at him. "Up you get," when he didn't go to move, she shrugged. "Suit yourself, be late to your first class of the year, see if I care," she wasn't going to sit there and prod him till he woke up, and got up off of the couch anyway. She headed around the couch towards Esme, to head off to breakfast.

Slowly, Tobias pushed himself from the couch. If he took his time, he could avoid everyone at breakfast and just go straight to class. That seemed like a good idea, and he could use the time completely alone to get himself back in order. If he was going to make it through the year, he needed to squelch this depression that was trying to take him over before the year had even started.

Sighing quietly, he left the common room and headed towards his first class. At the pace he was going, he'd be a couple minutes late, but that wasn't awful.

The boys were already at breakfast when Esme and Vanna got there, and passed them their time tables. "Transfig first," Liam said, before Evanna could even glance at it and check herself. She nodded, and put the piece of paper in her bag, filling up a bowl full of porridge, and covering it in honey. The other girls got there a few minutes later, and they ate and talked for a while before most of them headed off to transfig. Charlene and Rosette had dropped the class and had a spare. "Hope McGonagall's alright," Esme said. Vanna hummed in agreement, she was a good teacher, strict and stern, but fair enough. She just hoped she'd stay like that, with the change in head of school.

Carrow had just started it's first lesson, with the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. And was going over the change in coursework, practically gloating over the fact that Voldemort was now in charge. The door opened and Carrow glanced up, watching a Slytherin boy step in, the Jameson boy, his father was a death eater. "Take a seat," it barked.

Tobias grimaced at what class he had first. That wasn't going to end well, especially considering he was in fact late. There was no hope in sneaking in either, since he was noticed walking in the room. "Sorry," he mumbled, hurrying to find an empty seat near one of his housemates.

Carrow waited until the boy was seated before it continued on with what it was saying, how the assessment for the class was going to completely change, and they better bloody well pay attention if they want any hope at passing their owls. The Carrow completely ignored the fact that the students didn't look too pleased at the course being changed the year they had to take their owls.

By the end of the class, all Toby wanted to do was rip his hair out. This year was going to be an absolute nightmare. If it wouldn't cause too much suspicion, he would just up and disappear for a while and try to avoid the hope mess, even if it messed up his schooling. But he couldn't do that, because that would just cause more bad than was already happening. He sighed as he packed his things away and headed off to his second class.

"This is ridiculous," Evanna muttered as they left the transfiguration classroom and headed off to muggle studies. "Muggle studies? I don't care," she made a disgruntled expression.

"Maybe it'll be a bludge?" Liam suggested.

"I hope so," because transfiguration was going to be anything but, it had gotten even harder from the jump between years and they already had an essay to write for it. But that was nothing new, McGonagall had always pushed them.

"Just don't try to sleep in it," Esme murmured as they reached the room. "That might end badly."

"Yeah."

The others were already in the room when they got there, and they settled down in a group, with a apprehensive glance at the teacher, wondering how the class would go.

The day continued on miserably towards lunch. Or maybe it hadn't been miserable and Toby was still just upset from his first class. This year was looking so cheerful already and it was only day one... NOT. If anything it was looking worse than he'd been expecting his OWL year to be. Maybe his sister would be able to make him feel better about, although he had his doubts since he didn't think she'd understand the problem.

The group of Slytherin's left their class and headed off down to lunch. Esme and Liam bickering over what steps to take over changing a potion to change the affects of it. Evanna was slightly amused at the conversation, though they both had good points. Heading down the table to their usual spot they passed Toby. "Hey Toby," she said to her brother, and dumped down next to him, her feet on the wrong side of the table. "How's classes?"

Toby looked up at his sister with a sad expression on his face. "I don't really want to talk about them" he said. "They were absolutely awful. Especially the stupid Carrow's class." He made a face at the memory and was not looking forward to Carrow Number Two later on.