Disclaimer: Read the first page.

It's not easy to be a Slytherin and not be a Death Eater. There's a lot of pressure to join, to declare your loyalty to the cause of pureblood superiority after the Ministry fell to Voldemort.

Emma Dobbs was, by her own admission, no Gryffindor hero. She didn't have the courage to fight against overwhelming odds, or the cold-blooded ruthlessness that a typical Slytherin was supposed to have.

As a fourth year, she's not under as much pressure to pick a side and so she simply slides into the shadows and tries to stay unnoticed. But the pressure remains. It's subtle, barely noticeable at first. A general hint here, an invite to learn a few tricks here and there and even a few talks about blood superiority. It wasn't just her of course, everyone was getting the same pressures.

But it didn't stop her stuffing her fists into her mouth and desperately hoping that the time for her to pick a side never came. She didn't like the Death Eaters, but she was sure she wouldn't be able to resist the pressure to join.