A trace of what seemed like a smile started to play on Alaric's lips. So Mr. Loony's actually pretty entertaining, he thought again, albeit much less snidely than before. Who would've thought? "Thanks," he replied rather wryly, "That's nice, I guess..."
The boy trailed off in the middle of his sentence as he noticed a rather peculiar look starting to form on Nathaniel's face. A look he knew all too well by this point, actually... "Oh by Merlin's beard, here we go again," Alaric groaned to no one in particular. The boy suddenly got the odd urge to bash his head against the wall in sheer frustration. This's getting godamned ridiculous, he thought irritably as he watched Nathaniel leave the compartment. Then he fell silent for a moment, pondering.
"They can't all be mudblood supporters, right?" he muttered to himself, frowning, "No, no... they can't all be that daft." If the people with even a shred of sense left in their brains weren't going to come to him, he'd just have to find them, then. Alaric would normally be... uncomfortable with the idea of barging into compartments like Nathaniel had earlier, but he needed to find them before he was convinced all the people here were idiots. Alaric got up and made his way to the aisle, eyeing the people in each compartment.
...Then he noticed the Slytherins enter through the door.
Alaric's frown deepened as he watched them tell the first years in the first two compartments to just "move along". What a jerk, he thought disdainfully, You're not supposed to make such a ruckus then just... shove people out of their seats. The boy stood there and stared for a moment, wondering what he should do.
So, of course, he did what he always did when he was stuck. What would Archie want me to do? he asked himself. ...He'd definitely want me to help. Unless they were mudbloods. But there wasn't any time for doubt right now (or so he told himself), so he made a mental note to check. Later.
The boy gave the Slytherins a rather disapproving look. "She's right," the boy said, "Now bugger off before I... make you bugger off." As the words left his mouth, however, the boy started to feel a little doubtful. He hadn't asked any of them for their blood statuses, had he?
But if he was saying this to a pureblood...
Alaric suddenly felt a little queasy.