Hogwarts: The Slytherin Way
Chapter 01
By: Soretta and Samantha
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The Hogwarts express picked up speed as it left Platform nine and three quarters. Two eleven-year-old girls sat in a compartment by themselves, discussing their future at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The door to their compartment slide open, revealing a tall girl with shoulder length brown hair. Monique Devereaux flipped her curly black hair over her shoulder and glared at the girl.
"What do you want?" spoke up Monique's best friend, Bellatrix Black. The girl merely blinked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"Everywhere else is full, mind if I sit here?" The girl scowled at them. Monique's lip curled into a sneer.
"What's your name?" Bellatrix simpered.
"Victoria Lestrange."
Bellatrix and Monique looked at each other smiled. Bellatrix flicked her hand at the girl to invite her in. Monique settled back into her seat and began applying nail polish to her fingernails.
"Are you Rudolphus Lestrange's sister?" Bellatrix asked as she flipped through that month's issue of Witch Weekly.
"Yes, he's in third year," Victoria answered. "Do you know him?"
"He's friends with Monique's boyfriend," Bellatrix giggled.
Monique carefully screwed the lid of her nail polish back on before glaring at Bellatrix.
"Lucius is not my boyfriend!" she exclaimed. "Ew!"
Bellatrix rolled her eyes at her and said, 'Yeah, right,' under her breath. Monique huffed at Bellatrix and began reading One Thousand Herbs and Fungi.
"Firs' years!" called a huge hairy man. "O'er here!"
Victoria, Bellatrix and Monique all looked at each other disgustedly.
"Ew, who let him out of the zoo?" Victoria sneered. Bellatrix smiled respectfully at her as they followed the man to a group of small boats.
"Hagrid!" they turned and saw a skinny boy with messy black hair approach the man.
Monique looked upon them with disdain. "That must be his son, they both look like they've just escaped the jungle!" Bellatrix and Victoria giggled about this as they hopped into a boat.
"Four to a boat!" Hagrid called. Bellatrix huffed about letting someone else into their boat when a girl with short brown hair stepped in their boat.
"Who are you?" Bellatrix and Victoria sneered at the same time.
"Samantha Adams," the girl said huffily. Bellatrix relaxed a little only because she knew the Adams family was pureblooded. She'd rather swim across the lake than be in a boat with anyone other than a pureblood.
A stern looking witch was waiting for them when they reached the entrance hall. The pesky girl who had shared a boat with them had insisted on putting her hands over the side of the boat and in doing so had splashed Monique.
"If that girl ever annoys me again, I'm going to shove my cauldron so far up her behind, she'll bubble," Monique said. Her robe sleeve was dry now after a quick drying spell on Victoria's part.
The witch cleared her throat loudly. "In a few moments you will pass through these doors and met your classmates, but first you will be sorted into your houses," she told them. "They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin."
Bellatrix and Monique looked at each other and mouthed 'Slytherin' Victoria looked at them and raised an eyebrow but nodded all the same.
"The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily." With a sweep of her robes she disappeared through the doors.
"My whole family has been in Slytherin, I better get in," Bellatrix said nervously. Victoria patted her arm sympathetically.
"Scared, Trixie?" a loud voice said from behind them. They turned to find a tall boy who looked somewhat like Bellatrix grinning at them.
"Sod off, Sirius," she said scathingly. "Don't call me Trixie!"
Sirius would have said something but the witch was back. It was time to go into the great hall for the sorting.
Professor McGonagall led them up between two longs tables to the front of the room where a decrepit wizard's hat sat on a three legged stool. They stopped at the front of the room while McGonagall picked the hat up and unfurled a long scroll.
"Abbot, Timothy!" she called. A small mouse like boy scampered up with the front. McGonagall placed the hat on his head. It sat for a while moving around on his head before yelling out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The Hufflepuff table cheered as he joined their table. Bellatrix had started to chew on her robe sleeve. Her name would be called soon. Monique had finally got her to take the sleeve out of her mouth as "Anderson, Tyler," was sorted into Ravenclaw.
Bellatrix breath became quick as "Baddock, Trey!" was called up to the hat. Her face had gone green. If she didn't get sorted into Slytherin there was going to be trouble. No one in the Black family had ever been in any other house. She held her breath as "Baddock, Trey!" joined the Slytherin table.
"Black, Bellatrix!"
She walked as if in a trance to the stool. The last thing she saw before the hat slide over her eyes was Victoria and Monique giving her the thumbs up.
'What shall we do for you? Hmmm,' the hat whispered in her mind. 'What about …'
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat yelled for the whole hall to see. Bellatrix breathed a sigh of relief as she joined the Slytherin table.
"Black, Sirius!" Bellatrix looked up with interest at her cousin. Her sister, Narcissa caught her eye and they both held their breath.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled. Both Bellatrix and Narcissa gaped as Sirius joined the Gryffindor table. Bellatrix sat in a state of total unawareness. She was only semi aware that the sorting was almost over and both Victoria and Monique sat on either side of her at the Slytherin table.
She glared across the room at Sirius, who was chatting with the messy haired boy that they saw before they got into the boats, as "Walsh, Julie," was sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Atkins, Baddock, Black, Devereaux, Hurst, Lestrange, Pucey, Snape, Walker!" a tall blonde woman called. The first year Slytherin's gathered around their head of house, Professor Malfoy.
Malfoy led them down to the dungeon common room and stopped before the portrait that would give them access to it.
"The password to the dungeon is 'Hippogriff' the password will be changed every other month. Either a prefect or myself will inform you of the new password," she told them. She then proceeded to tell the password to the portrait and then led them inside the common.
"This is the Slytherin common room," Malfoy said. "Girls dormitories are through that door," Malfoy pointed to a door at the far end of the room, "and the boys are at the opposite end."
Malfoy spent the best part of the next two hours going over the ground rules and explaining how their classes worked. Finally she bid them good night telling them that she would hand out their timetables at breakfast the following morning.
Bellatrix and Monique left to check out their dormitory soon after Professor Malfoy left. They entered the room and found Victoria and two girls they remembered vaguely from their meeting with Malfoy.
"Bonjour!" Monique called. "Je m'appelle Monique!" Bellatrix rolled her eyes at her and then giggled that the other girls' confusion.
"Monique's family is from France. She likes to speak French now and then," she told them.
"Oh!" a look of comprehension passed over Victoria's face, "Anyway, this is Holly Atkins and Angelica Walker."
Bellatrix looked over at Holly with disdain but nodded approvingly at Angelica. Monique caught her look and sneered. The Walker's were a prominent pure-blood family as were the Devereaux's, Black's and Lestrange's. Monique knew that the Atkin's used to be until they had started intermarrying with muggle-born's.
"We have a half-blood in our midst, it's seems," Monique said triumphantly.
"Yes, I'm a half-blood!" Holly exclaimed. "And I'm proud of it too!" With that she sat down on her bed and drew her curtains around her. Bellatrix's nose crinkled in distaste.
"I will not associate with filth like you!" Bellatrix screamed and tore out of the dormitory. Monique quickly ran after her, apologising to Victoria and Angelica on the way out.
Once Monique got to the common room, Bellatrix was no where to be found. She wasn't watching where she was going and she ran straight into Lucius Malfoy. She looked up at him with a fearful look in her eyes.
"Monique!" he exclaimed and pulled her into a hug. She suddenly felt very giddy.
"Hi, Lucius," she giggled. He looked slightly uncomfortable with her giggling but didn't say anything.
"What are you up to?" he asked. "I thought you went to bed." Monique raised an eyebrow at him as if to ask how he knew she had gone to bed.
"I have to find Bella," she told him. "Have you seen her?"
He was about to answer her when he got called over by one of his friends. He quickly shook his head and gave her a hasty goodbye before rejoining his friends.
Monique quickly found Bellatrix. They had a heart to heart and decided that they could live in the same dormitory as Holly Atkins but they would not associate with her.
Breakfast the next morning was an exciting affair. Never before had there been so much food available.
Bellatrix took great pleasure in piling her plate with food that she knew, but wouldn't admit, she wouldn't get around to eating.
Professor Malfoy moved along the Slytherin table handing out their timetables.
"Ugh! We have Defense against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors'," Angelica screeched as she read her timetable.
"Hey I heard that, you witch," Sirius Black said as he passed the table to leave.
"Piss off, Sirius," Bellatrix said with a mouthful of pancakes.
"Oh gladly, cousin dearest. But I must say spraying pancakes is the best look you've had in eleven years!" Sirius replied.
"Watch it, Black," Monique and Victoria said standing to face Sirius.
"Problem, ladies?" Severus Snape said coming to stand behind Victoria.
"No problem, Snivvy," Sirius replied, eyeing him with disgust as he walked away to the hall doors.
"I wouldn't let him get to you," Severus said. "He'll do anything to annoy Slytherin's and get attention." Severus eyed Victoria with a small smirk and left, making her blush a little.
Angelica eyed the students on the other side of the Defense against the Dark arts room. The boy who had disrupted their breakfast, Bellatrix's cousin, Sirius was sitting on his desk making big exaggerated movements and talking to the boy with black messy hair.
The door swung open and everyone jumped into their seats as Professor Malfoy strode into the room.
"Books and Wands away for the time being," she told them before sitting at her desk. "For my Defense against the Dark Arts classes you will be divided into pairs. They have already been chosen and you will not argue with me about them."
Muttering arose amongst the students but quickly stopped when Malfoy send them all a quelling glance.
"The pairs are as follows; Miss Lestrange and Mr. Black, Miss Devereaux and Mr. Potter, Miss Black and Mr. Lupin, Miss Atkins and Miss Watkins–"
Malfoy was interrupted by one of the Gryffindor girls raising their hand. "Yes?"
"Which one?" the girl asked blinking up at Professor Malfoy. "There are two Miss Watkins' we're twins."
Malfoy raised her eyebrow and looked back down at her list, "As I was saying before I was interrupted, "Miss Atkins and Miss Kathleen Watkins, Miss Wells and Mr. Pucey, Miss Walker and Mr. Flint, Miss Evans and Mr. Snape, Miss Greene and Mr. Hurst, Miss Gabrielle Watkins and Mr. Pettigrew."
Angelica looked around at Monique, Bellatrix and Victoria in dismay. They were going to be partnered with Gryffindors? This year was going to be hell.
"There is no way I'm partnering with Potter all year!" Monique exclaimed. Victoria, Bellatrix and Angelica grimaced. Of all the Gryffindor's James Potter was the worst fool of them all.
Since they weren't doing practical work in class that day the girls didn't have to pair up with the annoying twits across the room. Several of their Slytherin year mates voiced their disgust as they copied down their year plan off the board. Across the room it was obvious that the reverse of their conversation was going on.
Professor Malfoy heard this but turned a blind eye to it. It was not her choice to combine the two houses; it had been that attention seeking fool at the ministry, Cornelius Fudge. He had been so eager for an official job that Minister Bagnold had given him the job of helping the professors of Hogwarts with timetable setting. Bagnold thought that under Dumbledore's wing he would loose some of his eagerness that would be his downfall. The idiot had managed to convince Professor Dumbledore that in the core subjects the students would be paired with a student not in their own house. Thus they had to muck around pairing up students in every single core class.
Professor Malfoy shook her head and silently took the roll while her students wrote down their year plan from the black board.
"I have to partner with Evans!" Severus Snape was still in shock. They looked over at the short red head girl seated next to Potter. Severus' lip curled into a sneer. "She's a mudblood!"
Monique and Angelica sneered at the very same time. Bellatrix was looking over at Evans in disgust. Victoria's expression hadn't changed, she had been in a bad mood all morning as it was.
She had apparently been given make up by her older sister but upon leaving the common room that morning Bellatrix's bitchy older sister, Andromeda, who was head girl that year, stopped her and ordered that she take it off or she would take points off Slytherin. Victoria had sulked all the way back to the dormitory.
The girls then decided to talk to Professor Malfoy about changing the pairs around. It was decided that Monique would do the talking as Malfoy Manor was the closest estate to her own home, Devereaux Castle and the two families had always been close. Up until arriving at Hogwarts she had always called Professor Malfoy "Aunt Aetheria". The same was reversed in Lucius Malfoy whom they had heard referring to Monique's mother at "Aunt Adrienne" even though they weren't that closely related.
But that was not before their next Defense against the Dark Arts lesson that Friday. It was their first practical lesson.
Professor Malfoy was waiting for them by the door when they arrived that afternoon. There was no getting out of being paired with the Gryffindor's.
Their plans to talk to Malfoy before the lesson were foiled as Malfoy ushered them into their pairs as they entered the room.
Monique cast one last look at her friends before sitting next to Potter.
"Silence! Ingredients out, the recipe is on the board," Professor Slughorn called to his Slytherin/Ravenclaw first year potions class. "Any problems raise your hand."
Angelica looked at her potions partner in disgust and began chopping up vine leaves. Her partner, Heidi Singe was dutifully stirring their potion. Her friends kept sending her sympathetic looks; at least they hadn't been paired off with a mudblood. Bellatrix, Victoria and Monique had both been paired with pureblood Ravenclaw girls. The only thing that was keeping the snide remarks that were only said to Mudblood's was the fact that Professor Slughorn was watching them all like a hawk.
"I was paired with an absolute bitch!" the girl who Angelica had seen paired with Victoria exclaimed, not realising that the Slytherin girls' were following them.
"Well, it wasn't that great working with you, Adams!" Victoria exclaimed.
"Bugger off, Lestrange," the girl standing next to Adams said.
"Stay out of this, Tas de Merde!"
"Huh?" Adams said in total confusion.
Monique sneered at her. "Go find out what it means. In the mean time, watch your back."
With that Monique flicked her hair and walked off in the other direction with Angelica, Victoria and Bellatrix walking in her wake.
--End Chapter 01