After the first night in the first year Slytherin girls' dormitory, an invisible line was drawn. On one side stood Avalon and Daphne, eager to be defiant towards Pansy in any way they could. The other side of the line was Pansy and Millicent, whom the girls quickly figured out was just a standard lackey who would do whatever Pansy said—or physically intimidate anyone Pansy wanted. Tracey Davis, however, simply stayed in the middle of the war, flitting between the two factions without a care in the world. No one paid her that much attention, though.
On September 2nd, which was the first morning of classes, Daphne and Avalon quickly showered and got dressed, effectively using up most the hot water before it was Pansy's turn to shower. "She'll figure it out soon enough," Daphne laughed as they entered the common room.
"Good morning." Blaise was sitting in a chair reading the same book that he had been treading on the train. "Are you girls ready for breakfast?"
Daphne looked around the common room. "Aren't we going to wait for Theo?"
"He's at breakfast already. He was 'starving' when he woke up this morning, and wanted to get a jumpstart on the food. At least that's what he told me," Blaise answered.
"Oh."
As they were preparing to leave the common room, Draco Malfoy entered, flocked by his two cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"I just can't believe it. Who does that Potter think he is? I mean I—"
Blaise turned to the girls. "Malfoy here has been ranting for twelve hours about how Hogwarts's new celebrity rejected his offer for friendship. We need to leave before I have to hear this story a sixth time."
They departed the common room for the Great Hall, although the trio realized shortly after leaving that they were having difficulty navigating Hogwarts. The corridors were beginning to run together, and the stairs moved, so whenever the realized they had gone up the wrong set of stairs they couldn't go back the way they came and had to continue to wander about aimlessly. They had also encountered several very unhelpful portraits, who had—instead of assisting the first years in finding the Great Hall—simply laughed and slipped out of their own paintings and out is sight. A particularly rude poltergeist who called himself "Peeves" had tried to pelt them with water balloons as the passed him. He had missed, mostly, except for Avalon's shoe, which was now drenched and her toes felt like ice.
Blaise put his hand on a nearby door handle and tried it, but to no avail, as it was locked and didn't budge. "Will we ever get to breakfast?"
Just then, Daphne screamed.
"What? What is it?" Avalon asked. Then she screamed as well.
One of the Hogwarts ghosts, a man with blank, gaunt eyes and robes stained with blood, floated through the door and nearly floated through Blaise. He stopped as he passed them and furrowed his brow at the screaming children. "Is there a problem?"
"No, sir," squeaked Daphne. "It's just that we can't find the Great Hall."
The man-ghost chuckled. "All right then. Follow me." The three students ran to keep up with the floating ghost. He talked to them as they walked. "I see you're all wearing Slytherin robes. That's wonderful. I'm the ghost of Slytherin House. You may call me, 'The Bloody Baron.' Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"I'm Blaise Zabini, and these are my friends. Daphne Greengrass and Avalon Steele," Blaise said, gesturing to each girl as he introduced them.
"Steele, you say? Yes, I remember when your father was a student."
Avalon clenched her jaw and forced herself to smile at the Baron through her gritted teeth. Fortunately, she didn't need to respond because at that moment they reached the Great Hall.
"Thank you, Baron. We might not have made it to breakfast without your help."
There were only twenty minutes remaining of breakfast, so the three students quickly found Theo and joined him, grabbing plates and filling them with food. Theo hardly seemed to notice their late arrival; as he was so engrossed in his timetable of classes. Apparently, the Heads of House had given them out. They would have to see Professor Snape after having breakfast.
"We have Herbology with the Ravenclaws first, today," Theo read off his own timetable. He sighed loudly and over dramatically before holding out his plate to Daphne, who was sitting on his left. "Sausages, please?"
Daphne rolled her eyes, but she picked up Theo's plate and placed some sausages on it before handing it back to him.
Avalon picked up her goblet and filled it with orange juice before taking a sip, turning her head towards the Gryffindor table as she did so. Lucy waved at her, Avalon waved back. The gesture changed as Avalon realized Lucy wasn't just waving hello, she was waving her over.
"Hey, guys, I'll be back," Avalon said.
Her friends grunted their responses, and Avalon slipped over to Lucy, who quickly enveloped her little sister in a hug. "I'm so happy that we're both at Hogwarts, finally. You're going to love it here. Today's your first day of classes, and it's going to be great. I've been dreaming of the day that we'd both be at school together. Remember, if you need help in any of your classes, tutoring, I'm always here to—"
"Right, thanks Lucy. I'll be fine," Avalon said. The Gryffindors around them were beginning to stare. She clenched her teeth. "You're embarrassing me."
"Be nice to your sister Avalon. If my sister was Head Girl, I'd never stop talking to her," a voice said from across the table. Avalon craned her neck to see who had spoken. When she found the addition to the conversation, she groaned internally.
Percy Weasley, who would worship the ground that any authority figure walked on. Of course he would be a kiss up. Becoming Head Boy was probably on his career agenda. But if he thought she was going listen to a Weasley—and Percy, no doubt—he was seriously wrong.
Avalon smiled sweetly at him. "Percy? Do me a favor, and stop talking please."
"Don't talk to my brother that way!" Ron jumped up and faced Avalon, fists clenched and chest heaving.
Lucy gave her sister a disapproving look. "Avalon…"
"Whatever. I'm going to get back to my own table." When she was a few feet away from them, Avalon turned back over her shoulder and spat, "Gryffindorks."
"You're lucky there's no witty insult you can make with 'Slytherin!'" Ron called after her.
Harry nudged him, and added, "It's because Slytherins aren't witty!"
The two boys high-fived and laughed at their own jokes, before Ron got distracted by the plate piled high with food in front of him.
When Avalon returned to her table, it was nearly time for the first class of the day. They knew it was Herbology, thanks to Theo and his punctuality for breakfast, but rushed up to Professor Snape to get their timetables. He gave them the timetables and they rushed off in the direction of what they presumed to be the greenhouses for class.
By the time they reached the class, they were moments away from being tardy, but the witch teaching the class was too busy patting down earth tightly around a potted plant that seemed to be snoring. When she finished her task, she turned to the class and smiled.
"Welcome to Herbology, boys and girls. My name is Professor Sprout."
Professor Sprout, a short, stout woman who looked as though she spent all her time in the Herbology greenhouses and was constantly covered in dirt and earth, paired the students up so that they could begin to learn about different plants, their magical properties, and their uses in the wizarding world. This was a class that Avalon had been dreading.
Mrs. Steele was a big fan of gardening, and from a young age, a curious Avalon had always wanted to help her mother tend to her plants. However, Avalon had what might be referred to as the opposite of a green thumb, and often killed the plants. She didn't think the magical plants they'd be studying in Herbology would be any different.
As Professor Sprout talked to them about the Herbology textbook, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, and the importance of always wearing their dragon hide gloves in the greenhouses, Daphne leaned towards Avalon, whom she was sharing a workbench with. "What did Princess Lucy want this morning?"
"It was so awful," Avalon whispered back, trying not to move her lips as much as she could so Professor Sprout wouldn't see them talking. "She gave me this speech about the first day of school and how I could come to her if I needed help. And then Percy Weasley said something about respecting her, and when I jumped in and retaliated to Percy, Ron and the stupid boy-who-lived-and-now-thinks-he-can-do-whatever-he-wants decided to join the party as well."
"A good rule of thumb would be not to talk to the Gryffindors," said Daphne, and Avalon nodded her agreement.
"I agree, because I—"
Professor Sprout stopped talking for a moment and looked straight at the girls, her smile never wavering for a moment. "What's your name, dear?"
"Avalon."
"Well Avalon, let's try our best not to talk while other people are talking, I'm sure your friend won't mind if you hold off on the conversation until break time, all right?" Avalon nodded meekly, but Professor Sprout continued. "Now, why don't you switch partners so this doesn't happen again?" She pointed to the pairing of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, gesturing for them to switch.
Without a second thought, Avalon bolted, so that she would end up working with Draco rather than Pansy. If looks could kill, Daphne's would have at least sent Avalon to the hospital wing. Theo and Blaise snickered behind their hands.
For the next hour and a half, everyone could hear Pansy's voice loud and clear throughout the greenhouse: "Daphne! You're doing that wrong! No, Daphne, of course I know what I'm doing. Daphne, you're not listening to me. Daphne! Daphne! Daphne!"
When the class ended and everyone began collecting their books, Daphne looked as though she had just finished fighting in a war.
"That girl is emotionally draining," she said. She adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and followed her friends out of the greenhouse.
"Better you than me," Avalon answered.
Daphne gave her a death glare, and she moved to Blaise's other side in case Daphne decided to take a swing at her. A wise choice.
A/N: So, this chapter doesn't necessarily have much in terms of plot development but there's some character stuff happening. Updates are definitely going to come pretty quickly with this story. Unlike other fanfictions I've worked on, I started this one knowing exactly where I want to go with it. Unless something changes, I don't know. Anyway, please follow/favorite/review if you like(d) it so far. Thanks!
