Chapter 3

It was official. Ron, Fred and George steal the car and break Harry out of the jail his family kept him in and were nearly seen. Ron and Harry stole the car again and were seen and then lost it and tore up the Whomping Willow and I was still the biggest disgrace and disappointment in the Weasley family.

It all started with that stupid hat.

Or maybe it was on the train.

Or at the book store.

Or When Fred and George gave me that stupid nickname.

Or at birth.

Oh, I don't know.

All I know is that stupid hat ruined my life.

I waited my turn in line with everyone else waiting for my name to be called. I was pretty much ignoring everyone around me because paying attention to them seemed like something I would not really be interested in doing. They were all hopping from foot to foot and fidgeting and Ginny kept trying to sneak peeks at Harry Potter but pretending she wasn't.

I would never be so ridiculous over some stupid boy. No matter how gray his stupid eyes were.

And they weren't even that gray anyway. More like a pale blue.

Not that I even noticed.

They finally called my name. Right before Ginny's because they were going in alphabetical order. The hat goes on and I am expecting it to holler out "GRYFFINDOR!" like it I heard it had done for all of my brothers.

Except it doesn't. It starts talking to me. No one told me it would want a nice little chit chat.

"hmmm… a Weasley head but not a Weasley mind… interesting. Bold, but not overly so. Clever, Ravenclaw would not be a bad choice. Loyalty is not a top priority. But ambition is. I see it all here. Yes, very ambitious, better be SLYTHERIN!"

The entire hall went dead silent at that. Unlike the applause from the other announcements no one moved a muscle including me. This had to be a joke. One of Fred and George's pranks. But when I looked at them the horror on their face said definitely not.

I was not going to let them see this get to me. I stood up and walked to the Slytherin table as though I belonged and sat down.

Some girl with dark hair sneered at me "Ughh they just let a Weasly in to Slytherin, can you think of anything worse Drakey?"

Being called "Drakey" immediately jumped to mind but as usual I said nothing. I merely stared at her. I stared at her through Ginny being sorted in to Gryffindor. I stared until she grew uncomfortable enough to turn away. My greatest power is to make those around me incredibly uncomfortable.

It turned out to not be all bad. Sure there were the elitists, but some of the others seemed friendly enough. I assumed they would all be rich pureblood snobs. Pureblood yes, it is a requirement, but rich not so much.

There were a few others next to me who introduced themselves Esme Fleamont, Morag MacDougal who I learned liked to be called just Mora, brothers James and Frank Gamp. They were pretty nice and didn't seem to mind that I was quiet. They made sure to include me even when I didn't say much and it made it seem OK to be sorted into what my family would call the "wrong" house.

After dinner when we started to walk towards our dorm I felt my two arms link through mine.

Fred and George smiled down at me "Hey little Snake" said George. "When we called you that" continued Fred "We didn't mean for you to take it literally" they finished together. See? Real twins. Ginny and I could never do that.

I smiled "It will be nice to have some peace and quiet for a change."

Mora looked at me in surprise "You get even MORE quiet?"

The three of us laughed and I went downstairs to the dungeons with the first friends I had ever made who weren't related to me.

I got a nice letter from Mum before dinner was even over delivered to my room saying how proud they were of me and how they were not at all disappointed I was in Slytherin. I bet no one else in the family got a letter saying the family wasn't disappointed they were in Gryffindor.

I loved our rooms. Mora and I were together along with another girl named Pria. She was very nice but had an awful lot of makeup. It took up a whole trunk all its own. I didn't even care for lip gloss.

Mora, Esme Pria and I went downstairs to the common room after we finished unpacking to scope out the scene and find out if we were the only normal people or if everyone else was a rich snob.

It turned out not everyone was. A few were, but most were pretty nice.

Gemma, the Slytherin Prefect was very nice, she showed us around, explained the rules to us. Boys could in no way enter the girl's dorm, the staircase would prevent it. But girls could go in to the boy's dorm.

"That makes no sense" said Mora, "why would we be able to go to their rooms?"

"The Founders believed that girls were more trustworthy than boys. I guess they just trusted us not to want to."

"Why WOULD we want to?" asked Pria.

"awww… the ickle first year doesn't know why girls would want to go to boys rooms, isn't that adorable Drakey?" that grating voice could only belong to Pansy Parkinson. She was really beginning to annoy me.

Draco just shrugged. He clearly didn't care one way or the other what a first year girl wondered about. He just went up a notch in my opinion.

Not that I have an opinion about him.

Pria blushed and looked down. I took her hand and squeezed it. I hoped that was the right thing to do. It was what I did when Ginny was upset.

I guessed it was when she looked at me gratefully.

"Don't make me take points from my own house Pansy" warned Gemma "Slytherins don't eat their own."

Pansy rolled her eyes and stormed off.

Gemma is the best!

She then explained all about house points to us. How we earn them and how we lose them and about the House Cup.

Which led to an awful lot of complaining about the unfairness of the loss last year. I had heard it from the other side, but both sides were pretty set on their own version.

She then left us to ourselves. Mora and Pria went to watch James and Frank play chess; I curled up in a chair to read the financial papers. I was making lists of how each company had done over the last several months. Malfoy industries had done quite well. I wonder what they produced. I could ask Draco, but I knew I wouldn't.

Asking him would require talking to him. I was barely ready to talk to the people who went out of their way to be nice to me. He went out of his way to just ignore me. Actually come to think of it, in my world that almost qualified as being nice.

I looked up to see him watching me. I was surprised. He was taking care of his broom. I tilted my head questioningly at him.

"You really think the brush makes that much difference?" he asked. I was surprised he was talking to me at all. Clearly his father hadn't taught him the rules.

Weasleys and Malfoys do not mix. That is what my father said. I was starting to wonder why he said that. I think it had something to do with his job and some law that was passed maybe. I forget. Maybe a bunch of laws?

"Well, I admit, I don't know that much about quality Quidditch brooms" I said "but I do know what the Spudmore brother have said about them." He waved a hand for me to continue.

"The market is dominated primarily by the Nimbus Company." I motioned towards his broom "They use Mahogany and birch which is fine and well for speed. Even durability. The Spudmore Brothers believe that by using ebony, which is denser and heavier than mahogany, they can increase the durability by 15% and make it more maneuverable by 10% without having to make the stick thicker, which would increase wind drag. They also believe that the hazel wood will give their brooms an edge by allowing the brush to come to a much finer pinpoint precision increasing aerodynamics dramatically."

"Won't they be crazy expensive" I heard someone say. Looking around I was surprised to see I was virtually surrounded by the Slytherin Quidditch team. I wasn't nervous, it was hardly more than at family dinner, but I wasn't used to this many people being interested in what I had to say.

"Not because of the wood" I continued "but the metal bindings, oh yeah, if rumors are true those will be very expensive."

"Why is that?" asked a heavily muscular boy with gray eyes. Why did it seem like all the boys around me were acquiring gray eyes? Not that I was noticing.

"If rumors are to be believed they will be goblin made." A boy, I think I heard someone call him Miles whistled.

"That is going to take them right out of my price range." Miles said.

"The Nimbus was out of your price range" laughed another boy "but we got Malfoy's old man to thank for these babies" he patted his broom stick.

They all started shoving each other and acting just like stupid boys. Making jokes about how great it was that Draco wanted on the team bad enough to get his Dad to buy them brooms. But hey at least he can actually play.

They sounded just like my stupid brothers at home. They always think this stuff is funny. It never is but it doesn't stop them. It is just plain mean.

Draco watched me. I was not sure if he was looking for a reaction. Whatever he was expecting to find he didn't get. As usual I said nothing at all. I merely looked back at him.

His eyes might have been closer to silver.

Not that I noticed.