#wools

[asktheheirofslytherin]

So I was watching Annie the other night and noticed her orphanage was for girls only, and I would assume there was also a boys only orphanage. Was yours the same way? I think it'd be weird if it was not?

Wool's was actually a co-ed institution, however the children were housed in different wings regarding to gender once they left the nursery. There was mingling at mealtimes and for lessons, though we sat on opposite sides of the assembly room for church service.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

was it a hard knock life tom?

I hate you.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

On the subject of hiding your accent, when you went home for the summer would the other orphans take notice that you were trying to mimic your new posh wizard friends?

They certainly noticed differences about me, and some of the older students teased me for it. The first few summers back at the orphanage I allowed myself to slip back into my old ways of speech and behavioral patterns for my own survival.

By about sixteen i was a blend of selves in the summer, retaining favorite parts of my Hogwarts self, but falling back into the more practical practices that allowed an uneventful time at wools.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

what is your birth time

Unfortunately I do not know the answer. The orphanage did not record the exact time. It was written in my file that my mother had given birth to "the child" - being myself - in "mid-evening, shortly after the younger children were sent to bed." We were sent to bed around seven, from what I can recall. If I had to guess, I was born between between seven and seven -thirty PM.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

What if Delphi ended up at Wools?

She would never.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

What were the most positive parts of your childhood? You couldn't have been unhappy all the time.

I suppose not, no. I enjoyed the books we had access to at the orphanage. I enjoyed my classes well enough as a child - learning to read, to write, to do basic maths. I would work ahead, lose large amounts of time in a book or workbook.

I enjoyed the garden we kept, the way it would get overgrown and how I would find garter snakes while tending the weeds. I would work in a far corner of the plot, away from the other children, so I could whisper to the snakes as I worked.

I enjoyed the times we given a peppermint or an orange.

I enjoyed taking small yet important items from my peers, and pretending not to notice as they searched the rooms for what I had stolen. I enjoyed taking smaller things as well - things they would never notice: a button, a pin, a marble. I built up an entire collection of marbles this way, taking one from each child. Not that I played with them. The having was what was important, for some reason.

So no, it was not all bad.

[asktheheirofslytherin]

Who signed your hogsmede permission slip? The orphanage? Cygnus? Did you even get to go?

Mrs. Cole at the orphanage did. It was easy to do - I handed it to her and said it was to authorize my continued stay over winter break. She did not even read it, just applied her signature.

If she had read it and for whatever reason refused, I would have forged it.