"SEVEN YEARS!"
It was the first time in Merlin knows how long that someone shouted in the Slytherin common room. In Slytherin - the house of whispered alliances and hissed threats
Shouting was for Gryffindors.
Loud, uncivilized, rowdy, tactless, no-talent, insufferable, annoying, infuriating Gryffindors.
Somewhere, the universe was paying dearly for such an atrocity. However, Jade was sure the universe would forgive them. It was only fair. Tonight was exception. Because tonight marked the night that Slytherin showed it's superiority.
You get those kind of bragging rights when you've won the house cup for-
"SEVEN. YEARS."
-straight. So yes, Jade thinks the universe will have to excuse Pucey and his mates for their poorly concealed excitement. After all, securing the House cup for all seven of your Hogwarts school years must be some kind of high.
"Yes!" she hears Draco cheer in a drawling tone. (a feat only a Malfoy can accomplish), "We are awesome! Of course I already knew this…"
She shakes her head and turn to Theodore, who is beaming at everything in sight. She laughs.
"Wipe that look off your face." she tells him. "You look like a Gryffindor."
He merely sticks his tongue out at her before resuming looking like an idiot. She lets that slide and instead fixes the ridiculous hat on his head.
She doesn't understand why they need the blasted things. Apparently, they only wear them twice a year.
Jade watches Professor Snape try and fail to quite down her exited housemates. He wasn't trying too terribly hard, to tell the truth. She supposes trying to wipe that smug look of his face must be awfully time consuming.
And as she enters the Great Hall she understands why.
Green and silver as far as the eye can see. And there! Behind the High table is the Slytherin banner with their snake looking as though it was slithering up into the stars.
Not a twinkle of blue, a drop of yellow or a flash of red. It as if the other three houses don't exist.
Simply Slytherin.
Only Slytherin.
Jade entertains herself with the idea of changing the school's name. She think Slytherin's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sound much better than Hogwarts.
"Another year gone!" Dumbledore says cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle-" Jade and a few others snicker at this, "- before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…
"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."
Jade allows herself to get carried away with the rest of her house. She enjoys the storm of cheering and stamping that breaks out from the Slytherin table.
"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," says Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."
The room went very still. Jade can feel the uneasiness those words strike in her peers.
"Ahem," says Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes…
"First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley…"
Jade's eyes flicker to the Gryffindor table. A part of her thinks Weasel looks like a radish with a bad sunburn. The other part is damning him to hell.
"… for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."
Gryffindor cheers nearly raise the bewitched ceiling as whispers break out among the Slytherins.
"Surely he isn't-" Pansy begins.
"Of course he isn't." Somebody cuts her off. No one believes him.
At last there was silence again.
"Second — to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."
"What is he doing?" she hears Tracey hiss. "In front of the school filled with people who live to hate us, What is he doing?"
"Third — to Mr. Harry Potter…" said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."
The din was deafening. The Gryffindors were out of their pathetically small -(excluding Granger)- minds. Those Slytherin's who could add up while seething knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and seventy-two points — exactly the same as Slytherin.
Jade was beside herself. What. The. Hell? He is the Headmaster. He is not supposed to go about embarrassing a quarter of the school so Potter and his pals could feel special. To think she was feeling guilty about stealing the -
Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.
"There are all kinds of courage," says Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."
Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. The Slytherin's were dumbstruck. Jade figured her face looked like Draco's, who couldn't have looked more stunned and horrified if he'd just had the Body-Bind Curse put on him.
"Which means," Dumbledore calls over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were cheering for Gryffindor. "we need a little change of decoration."
He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place.
Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile and Jade knew exactly how he felt.
She looked around at the other house. She realizes with a start and a flare of anger that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff weren't just cheering for Gryffindor.
They were laughing.
At Slytherin.
Jade looks up at the red hangings that reminds her of spilt blood.
She briefly ponders the irony of how everywhere else in the world Red equals bad and Green equals good.
She remembers earlier and how she thought that the universe would forgive them for being out character. After all it was only fair.
Marcus Flint's voice rings loudly in her ears.
"Since when has Slytherin ever been treated fair?"