The Forgotten Year
Chapter 1
It had been a wonderful summer. You had spent the whole of it dreaming the days away with the butterflies and Quidditch practise in your 20 acre garden, and waiting to go back to Hogwarts to see your friends again; to tell them about all the secrets you had uncovered and such forth. The summer had not been particularly eventful, but that didn't mean that your weakness hadn't escaped you: gossiping.
Being a proper girl, you could talk for hours on end about the girls of Hogwarts, assessing their best and worse aspects; it was almost like a sport. And if they held a World Cup, you were sure that your team of Slytherin girls and you would definatly win gold. You could gossip for the whole of the school put together, about anyone who walked by, even the teachers.
Seconds later, a large tawny owl appeared by your feet and starting to playfully nip them until your attention was fully brought to the letter enclosed in its beak. Reaching down, and giving the owl a bronze knut, you opened the letter to see the unusual black writing of your Potions master:
"Dear Miss Eve Norman,
As you know, term starts again on the 1st of September and you are compelled to attend. A letter attached gives you the details of all the new books you will need for the new subjects…" the letter went on and on, details about the new teachers and such. Smiling to yourself, you ran indoors to start packing almost immediately even though the term was still one week away, shoving all your clothes, books you knew you would need, but leaving your wand out on the side.
Being able to do magic at home now was a common occurrence in the household, and your parents took to it straight away, testing you on all the spells and even sending you on a long weekend in the South of France to a wizard convention. Of course, you had come out top of the league, even being the youngest, but your intelligence was to rival no-one's…apart from maybe Granger.
But this year was your year. Knowing Harry Potter and his little friends, they would quit school now that Dumbledore had died, and Eve Masters would finally become top of the year, just as you deserved. Smirking, you went into your en suite to grab most of your toiletries and to brush your long, curly brown hair that had become tangled from the low hub of the wind.
"Where've you been?" Looking up and into the reflection of the mirror, you saw yourself reflected twice. Lily, your identical twin, stared back at you with those emerald green eyes that you shared and glared to her heart's contempt. You smiled sweetly and walked back into the room, dumping the Hogwarts letter onto the plush bed and sat by the window. You could retaliate, but you've learnt over the years that your twin's tongue is sharper than a knife and extremely fast at comebacks.
"What's that?" She moved over to your bed and shifted the letter to the side to see the object that you had tried to obscure from her eyes. "You're the Head Girl?" You smirked and nodded, loving to see the way the jealousy distorted her beautiful features into utter hatred. "But what about…me?"
"Haven't you got your letter yet?"
"No, obviously, or are you that thick that you thought I couldn't be bothered to go and get mine from the House Elf? I bet Snape's made special arrangements so that we could both be Head Girls together." But he hadn't. Lily came running upstairs, yelling as loud as she could so that everyone could hear her even though Mother and Father were out on business.
"Give me your badge." She came to a dead halt at the end of your bed in which you were sitting on, reading through the Hogwarts letter again.
"No." You answered simply, not taking your eyes off the sheet but re-reading the same sentence over and over again.
"I said give me your badge." She loomed over you, a shadow cast over her face and her long, brown (and perfectly straightened) hair sweeping in front of her eyes.
"No." You stated yet again. You didn't want to get on the wrong side of Lily, although you did often, because she could change the Slytherin girls' minds in seconds.
First would come the rejection, then the humiliation and, lastly, the dismissal: public dismissal. You had been witness to many of these, having come up with the tradition yourself, and had always somehow had the power to make the outcast move houses and almost disappear into a shadow of their former selves.
"But, there might be something you can do. Professor Snape has requested a meeting for us on the evening we arrive at school, he may be able to do something then."
She pondered this for a moment, and finally decided:
"I bet he's given me a much higher role to play in the school than you. Yeah, that's it. He knows I'm better at everything and wants to keep it secret." Smirking to herself, she ruffled your hair, "See you around, little sister."
"I'm not your little sister; I'M 2 MINUTES OLDER THAN YOU!" You shouted after her retreating figure. Ever since you were born, Lily and you had been identical and given the identical things: rooms, haircuts, clothes…but that didn't stop you two being different. True, you could both be absolute bitches when you wanted to, but you were different deep down. Something about your personality made you slightly diverse to Lily, but, a lot of the time, you didn't show it.
Being in Slytherin meant being part of the usual gang of girls. You didn't particularly like all of them, but you got along because you all knew that you had to, and that, in the future, you could use one another for your own gain. Gossiping was tons of fun, and there were always plenty of girls to talk about: Hermione Granger, Susan Bones and Lavender Brown were the favourites being in the sappy houses.
You could tell that, so far, this year already promised you to be the best Hogwarts could offer.
* * *
"Enter." The cold voice drawled through the heavy oak door of the Dungeon. Even though Snape had become headmaster of Hogwarts, he still insisted on using the Dungeons for meetings. Lily and you pushed open the door and sidled into the cold, dank classroom, walking side by side up to the desk located behind the stone podium.
"As you know, you are Head Girl," He inclined his greasy locks and hooked nose at you, "And will be along with Head Boy Malfoy. The staff and I found it most inappropriate not for you, Lily, to get the same and so we have organised for you..." His black eyes motioned over and onto Lily's well perfected smirk.
"Thank you, Professor."
"So, you will be getting your own quarters away from the common room." He half smiled and turned back to face you, "As you know, Heads of the school and other pupils have great responsibility and so I urge you…" Snape pulled put a large picture of a fourth year Harry Potter, "…not to speak or help him if he returns. Do you understand?"
Lily and you nodded and surveyed the moving picture of Harry that Rita Skeeter had taken 3 years previously for the Daily Prophet when he had taken part in the Triwizard Tournament. His eyes were shining behind his round glasses and you noticed that his shade of emerald were almost identical to yours.
"Why would I want to talk to him?" Lily said, utterly disgusted as she looked down on Potter, Undesirable 1, "Look at those eyebrows, they're taking over his face!" Lily sneered and Snape leaned back in his chair:
"You are dismissed. Go to your quarters, Eve, while I have a word with Lily about her arrangement." You bid goodnight and walked in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
You suddenly realised you didn't know where your room was and, kicking the wall in anger, thought how stupid you were not to ask Snape. Furrowing your eyebrows in concentration, you looked around, completely bewildered in the huge labyrinth of the castle's corridors, and thought for a moment about the direction you wanted to take.
"Ahoy, there!" A deep, Southern accent spoke behind you. You wheeled around to see a statue of an old sailor, hand to forehead as he looked out into the distance. His eyes flicked to the "Head Girl" badge pinned onto your robes and sighed, "Head Girl, eh? If only I could have been in my day…Common room's down this corridor, take a left, then the second right and there's a statue of a House Elf- that's your entrance."
Thanking him, and tapping his ugly head in a patronising fashion, you used his directions and soon ended up in front of a statue of a house elf smiling into the faraway distance.
"Urr…hi?" You said, "I'm the new Head Girl, so you better let me in." Obviously the pompous manner of your voice worked and the house elf swivelled away into the ground to reveal a large hole with a huge tube. "Oh, as if." Laughing at the ingenious of Dumbledore, you looked around quickly and jumped in before anyone could see what you were doing. You slid all the way down the giant slide, and ended up quickly, too quickly in your opinion, in a large room.
Getting to your feet, you examined the common room you and Draco would share. It was equipped with a large sofa in front of a roaring fire, a small kitchen with sink, cooker and utensils, and three doors leading off into, what you assumed would be your bedrooms and bathroom. The walls were painted a lush golden-cream colour and everything looked as though over 1000 Galleons had been spent on it.
"Classy." You thought to yourself, and walked into the room you assumed to be yours, owing mainly to the fact that your trunk was laid at the bottom of the king-sized bed. Even in your room, Dumbledore had spared no expense. It was like being back at home in your parents' mansion, and you were pretty sure that you would enjoy this year far beyond any of the others.
