Chapter 4: Explosive Slytherins

It was Tuesday evening in the Slytherin common room. Serena was reading her new Charms textbook peacefully, while her little Pomeranian dog, Jessica, curled up on her lap.

"Hey, Serena? Is that really a dog?" asked a cutesy, girly voice. Serena looked up and saw Bianca Garbel looking at her curiously.

"Of course it's a dog. Look, I know most people don't bring dogs, but no one has kicked her out yet. What's wrong with bringing my pet? You wizards have owls at home, regular girls like me have dogs," Serena snapped.

"Are you sure? I think it looks more like a Puffskein. Or can those breed with dogs too?" Bianca asked innocently, ignoring Serena's remarks about wizards not being "normal."

"A WHAT?! My dog is just a normal Pomeranian! They're supposed to be fluffy!" Serena shouted, jerking Jessica awake.

"Leave her dog alone, that's not a Puffskein. I have something better to show you," said Louis Weasley, a third-year boy, pushing Bianca aside.

"Go away! I'm trying to read here! I don't care about seeing your little magic trick toys!" Serena shouted, jumping to her feet. Jessica fell off with a yelp, and Bianca picked her up, cuddling her. Jessica began to lick Bianca's nose.

"I knew she was a Puffskein mix! They love to lick up people's noses!" she giggled. Louis stared at her for a moment.

"That is a real dog, you know. I saw pictures of dogs in my grandfather's books. He knows all about muggle things. And that's why I brought THIS to show Serena!" he announced, pulling a blender out of a bag.

"What's so exciting about a blender? You just put stuff in it, push the buttons, and it blends things," Serena sighed.

"What's exciting is that now you're here to teach me how to use it! You're the first muggleborn here in Slytherin that I've met!" he exclaimed.

"Show us how to use it!" someone else shouted, as a crowd of curious students peered at the blender.

"Oh she will show you how to use it, won't you. Mudblood," snarled Andromeda Elm, another first-year girl, coming up behind Serena.

"Who says I will?! I'm leaving!" Serena shot back.

"Not without this, I'm sure? Let's see what's better, a mudblood's wand or her precious blender," Andromeda smirked. Serena turned around and began to growl dangerously. Andromeda was holding her wand.

"That's mine!" Both Serena and Louis shouted this at the same time, the former referring to her stolen wand and the latter about his grandfather's blender, but it was too late. Andromeda casually dropped Serena's wand into the blender and turned it on. The wand began to spark and then there was a tremendous explosion, pieces of the blender flying all over.

"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?!" shouted Cupcake Quigley, a fifth-year prefect and the daughter of Professor Quigley, the head of Slytherin house. She stomped through the smoke, waving it away with her wand. She found Serena, Louis and Andromeda lying on the floor, dazed and surrounded by pieces of broken blender glass. Serena's wand lay in the middle of the mess, completely unharmed by the blender or the explosion. Bianca was huddled behind the chair, clutching Jessica protectively.

"Andromeda was trying to blow up stuff! She almost hurt the little Puffskein puppy!" Bianca sobbed.

"I wasn't TRYING to blow up anything," Andromeda muttered, "I was testing whether or not a mudblood's wand can withstand her precious technology."

"Do not use that word, Elm. It is also completely unacceptable for you to try to destroy a fellow student's wand, no matter what her blood status is," Cupcake snarled, yanking Andromeda to her feet.

"What kind of Slytherin are you?! We are a house of purebloods! Salazar would be spinning in his grave if he heard you!" Andromeda retorted defiantly.

"30 points off. Anyone who is sorted into this house is a true Slytherin, including those of muggle birth. Being a Slytherin is about acheiving great ambitions, and how can anyone acheive their ambitions if everyone thinks they're evil blood purists?!" Cupcake ranted back. Serena quietly slunk back to her dorm with her book, wondering why her studying was interrupted like that.

"Yeah, muggles make great things! Get your head out of those old-fashioned ideas, Andromeda, we can work with the muggles and use their technology to achieve our ambitions!" Louis declared.

"Not here at Hogwarts, Mr. Weasley. If you remember, electrical appliances don't work properly here. I suggest you leave your grandfather's blenders and things at home next time, and I will take 10 points off from you so you remember this," Cupcake replied, although she sounded a bit amused. Andromeda glared fiercely at Cupcake.

"Blood traitor," she muttered and then she stomped off in the direction of the main staircases. Bianca stared at her confusedly.

"Where's she going? Most people aren't out in the hallways now," she said.

"Probably to see Professor Rain, the Headmistress. This isn't the first time she or her sister has gone to complain about muggleborns being sorted here. But I believe that if the Sorting Hat thinks that Serena is worthy to be a Slytherin, then I trust its judgement. It DOES have some of Salazar's brains in it," Cupcake said with a shake of her head, "She's just going to get herself in more trouble doing that at this time of night, but right now I have something different to attend to." Cupcake pointed her wand at the pieces of broken blender and said "Reparo," making them reform into their original shape.

"Put that away and take it home when you next have the chance, or I might not fix it again," she warned Louis. She then turned to head for the girls' dormitory herself. She had barely started going up the stairs when she heard her mother yelling at Andromeda.

"That is ENOUGH going out to bother Professor Rain with your foolish requests! 20 more points off! You should be ashamed of yourself as a Slytherin, you claim to love this house so much but you keep losing us points!" Amanda scolded, dragging a sullen Andromeda back into the common room. Cupcake snickered at Andromeda and then went to the girls' dorm, looking for Serena.

"Hey, Serena. Sorry about Andromeda, but trust me, not all of us are like her," she said.

"Leave me alone," Serena grumped, "I'm reading."

"Professor Sanders's assignments are that hard, huh?" Cupcake joked, sitting on Serena's bed next to her. Serena closed her book abruptly and glared at the older girl.

"Why are you bothering me? Don't you have even MORE studying than me, for those owl tests?" she snapped.

"Those aren't until the end of the year, I have a lot of time until then," Cupcake said airily, "Right now I want to make friends with you. I want to protect people like you from Andromeda."

"I don't need protection, now go away!" Serena shouted, and she threw her pillow at Cupcake's face. Cupcake looked shocked and hurt for a moment, and then she glared back.

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when Andromeda bullies you again. I just want to show people like her that muggleborns can succeed in Slytherin," she huffed, stomping away. Serena stuck her tongue out at Cupcake behind her back.

"I don't need your pity friendship. I have my special dog with me," she muttered angrily, and then she smiled, clutching Jessica to her chest. She could hear Bianca calling for the "puff puppy" out in the common room, and she smirked.

"You're a good dog for me. You're pretty sneaky yourself, coming up here with me when no one was looking," she said with a rare grin as Jessica wagged her tail and licked Serena's face.

"It's the puff puppy! I found the puff puppy!" Bianca exclaimed, bursting into the room, startling Serena and Jessica. Jessica yapped happily and ran over to Bianca, dancing around at her feet.

"Traitor puppy," Serena grumped, opening her textbook again.

"Can I have her? I mean, until bedtime, of course, I know she gets to sleep with you," Bianca asked, although Jessica's eager reponse answered the question for her.

"Fine, as long as you bring her back," Serena sighed, rolling her eyes. Bianca might be annoyingly silly, she thought, but at least she doesn't obsess over me having non-magical parents.