“Snape is never going to let you forget this,” Harry pointed out to his godfather.
“Well then I’ll just bloody well remind him that all of his spawn are or were in Gryffindor,” Sirius said before quickly draining his pumpkins juice, sadly disappointed that it couldn’t be anything stronger.
“Sirius…” Harry tried to look as though he was still watching the rest of the sorting ceremony, “be careful how you deal with this. If you want to be in her life at all I would not suggest showing any anger or disappointment over the fact that she is a Slytherin.”
Sirius nodded mutely, still too distracted to really notice which tables the rest of the new students were going to.
Sophia’s steps slowed slightly as she approached the Slytherin table, which looked desperately under-populated when compared with the other four house tables. Her steps faltered for an instant, but she quickly regained her confidence when a girl with dark shoulder-length hair partway down the table slid over to make room next to her.
“I’m Kay,” the girl offered, “Kay Parkinson. Across from you is our esteemed Head Boy Mark McKean, next to him is Brandon Potter,” she went on, listing the names of the rest of the students close by.
Sophia nodded slowly, making sure that she memorized each name and face. And not quite sure what sort of welcome to expect.
“I’m so glad you were sorted into Slytherin,” Kay continued, bringing Sophia back to the conversation.
“I’d watch out if I were you,” Mark inserted, “she might get vicious, she hasn’t had to share a room before.”
Kay glared at Mark, “ignore him. He’s just referring to the fact that I was, until tonight, the only 6th year girl in Slytherin. I think it’ll be nice to finally have a roommate.”
“Whatever makes you happy,” he said, turning his attention to the food that had appeared, “just keep an eye on her and make sure she knows what it means to be a Slytherin.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I am worried that our spy may be insufficient.”
“My lord?” Macnair resisted the urge to wring his hands nervously, but did cast a furtive glance in the direction of Vanth and Charun where they were standing rigidly, having refused to take a seat, before the fire.
“I wonder if she will really provide us with all the information that is necessary.”
“But sir, she has access to all of the teaching staff, most importantly to Snape. And she can roam the halls freely without any hint of suspicion.”
“But she is not within the inner circle, she is not in that blasted Order of theirs… she will not be told all. However, she will still be useful, and a most vital asset. I am just thinking of expanding our resources. Another way to spy on the school without that damnable McGonagall being any the wiser,” Voldemort stared into the dancing flames, however, his was immune to their warmth.
“Perhaps we may be of assistance,” Vanth said coolly.
“How so?” McNair asked.
Vanth gave him a disgusted look, her sneer, nevertheless, didn’t seem to affect her beautiful features, and she gave her wings a decisive shake, as though the answer should have been obvious.
Voldemort smiled, his reptilian features as repulsive with that act of happy expression as Vanth’s were beautiful even in moments of revulsion. “The Lasas will be perfect for this operation. How close do you think you can get to the school without making your presence known?”
Vanth lifted a delicate shoulder in a shrug, “with dragons there… not very close if we go by means of the forest. However, if we come around by way of the lake… it all depends on what kinds of wards are protecting the castle.”
“I shall see what our spy has to tell us, she may know enough about the protective wards to answer all of our questions. But I do not think they should be a problem.”
“But if they are set to detect our forces…” Macnair began to protest. Not convinced that this scheme would work.
“You see, that is their weakness. They are expected foul, dark forces, the bane of all existence,” Voldemort lifted a skeletal, white hand, the skin so pale it was all but translucent, to brush back Vanth’s dark curls, “they are waiting for the devil, they won’t be watching for an angel.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
They came to a halt in front of a bare patch of stone wall, indistinguishable from every other length of stone wall in the dark and dank dungeons of Hogwarts.
“Let me through you dunderheaded gits,” Mark said as he elbowed his way through the small crowd of Slytherins, “don’t know why you all insist on pushing your way to the front when you don’t even know the bloody password…”
“Sod off Mark!” Kay snapped at him, “I think that Head Boy badge has gone to your head.”
“I think that if we don’t quiet down and get in the Common Room now,” Mark hissed, “Snape is going to come down here and I’ll make sure it’s your hide, not mine.” He nodded is satisfaction as Kay snapped her mouth shut. Not that he had really meant it, he knew he would make it up to her later… perhaps with an extended snogging session… “Pythos,” he said clearly, and the wall slid away, revealing the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room.
Kay took a hold of Sophia’s hand and dragged the girl inside, “what to see our room?” she didn’t wait for a response, merely dragged Sophia along behind her as they headed for a corridor at the far end of the common room.
Sophia quickly took the chance to look around as she was dragged along. All of the walls were of the same rough grey stones, however woven tapestries, mostly in green, hung from the walls, warming them up a bit. The furniture in the Common Room was rather masculine. It consisted of overstuffed leather sofas and armchairs and dark wood tables with matching chairs perfect for doing homework at.
“This way,” Kay said as they took a right down the corridor and led them to almost the end of the hall. “This is it!” she pushed open a heavy wooden door and Sophia peered around her into her new home.
The room was much more spacious than the dorms she had seen in Gryffindor, but she figured that it was because it only contained furniture for and the belongings of only two people instead of five. The same chilly grey stones were present, they were almost as cold as the temperature of the room itself. But there was a veritable mountain of blankets stacked on each bed, for which Sophia was grateful.
“Try to ignore the mirror as best you can,” Kay advised as she started looking through her belongings, trying to locate something, “she can be a bit of a bore most of the time.”
“Hmpf… as if you aren’t,” the black framed mirror replied from the corner.
“Everyone decent?”
“Not that we care?”
“But it’s always nice to ask first.”
Sophia looked up to find three dark, male heads poking into the room, “I thought there were wards to keep the boys out of the girls’ dorms…” she looked over at Kay in confusion.
Kay grinned, “Maybe they need that sort of thing over in Gryffindor, but not here.”
“Exactly, us Slytherins are much more trustworthy,” the first boy said.
“Well… not exactly…” the second one amended.
“It’s more of the fact that we know Snape will kill us if we’re ever caught doing anything indecent in the dorms,” the third one added.
“Let me introduce you to the three Slytherin resident morons,” Kay waved her hand at the trio in the doorway. “Troublemakers extraordinaire, creators of confusion… pity for them Snape can tell them apart, makes the whole effect of being triplets almost useless.”
“What are your names?” Sophia finally asked, after standing there in silent confusion for nearly a full minute.
The first one sighed melodramatically, “well you see… we come from a very long line of wizards, purest blood imaginable.”
“And the founder of our line happened to be a Roman.”
“And there’s this horrible tradition of always naming the firstborn son after him.”
“But you see, we had the luck of being triplets, so they decided to divide the name up.”
“They are soooo overdramatic,” Kay inserted, but she grinned at the three fourth year boys anyways. “You have before you,” she couldn’t resist a giggle, “Marcus, Agrippa, and Posthumous.”
The boys groaned in unison. “It really is wretched,” Marcus said, the three of us sharing one name.”
Kay giggled, “I think it’s rather funny.”
“You would,” Agrippa said rather scathingly.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Kay asked pointedly.
“No,” Posthumous assured her, “besides, we thought it only fair that we give fair warning to our new member what to expect from the honorable house of Slytherin.”
Kay didn’t miss the mischievous light in all three boys’ eyes and decided that it would be best if they stayed here for this discussion, that way she could let Sophia know if they tried to trick her.
She half listened as the terrible trio, their nickname from the rest of their Housemates, filled Sophia in on school rules. Not only the Hogwarts sanctioned ones, but the Snape enforced ones as well. Those were the ones that carried the stiffest penalties and were best not to ignore.
“Why can’t I be friends with the Gryffindors?” Sophia cut in as the boys were giving a rather harsh examination of their rival house.
Marcus’ eyes turned dark, “go on, try and be friends with them if you like.”
“They won’t accept you,” Agrippa added.
“All because of the color of your school tie,” Posthumous finished.
Marcus shook his head, no point in bogging the new girl down in House politics right off the start. He grinned evilly, “there is something else we should warn her about…”
Agrippa realized where he was going with that train of thought, “oh yes. NEVER break the rules if you know you’re going to get caught by Snape.”
“NEVER,” Posthumous emphasized, “it’s not worth it.”
Sophia was shocked, she had heard horror stories from students in other houses. But they all claimed that Snape favored his Slytherins. What did she have to worry about?
“He has a cane,” Marcus told her solemnly.
“That he doesn’t fail to use whenever the rules are broken,” Agrippa continued.
“Hurts something terrible,” Posthumous looked very serious.
“Oh stop it!” Kay snapped at them, “its one thing to try and scare the first years but Sophia shouldn’t have to put up with it,” she shooed the triplets out of their room with a disgusted look.
“I already warned the first years about those three,” Mark said as he came in, shutting the door behind him to make sure the terrible trio didn’t try to come back.
“He doesn’t really…” Sophia couldn’t finish the question.
Kay and Mark shared a long look. It was finally Mark that answered, “It’s more of threat, although make sure you remember that it’s not an idle one if you step too far out of line. It’s a very common threat, but not really one you need to worry about.”
“Don’t worry about it, Sophia,” Kay smiled at her new roommate, “I have never seen, nor heard of a Slytherin ever leaving Snape’s office in tears. You’ll be perfectly safe as long as you never lie to Snape.”
“I wouldn’t suggest associating too closely with the terrible trio either,” Mark added with a grin, “they’re not Snape’s favorite Slytherins.”
“You know he loves us all the same,” Kay said cheekily as she unpacked her books.
Mark laughed at that, but didn’t voice how true the statement actually was. For some of them Snape had been more of a parent than the people who had given them life. They owed him more than they could possibly say. “Come on Sophia,” he finally said, “let’s go out to the Common Room, you still haven’t met everyone.”
~~~~~~~~~~
