A few mornings later, Helena was reaching across the table to spoon some eggs onto her toast when a little Slytherin first-year came and stood by her.
"Can I help you?" she asked her. The girl held out an envelope. Helena took it then the first-year ran away to her friends at the other end of the table. She opened the envelope and pulled out the letter from inside. It was an invitation from Professor Slughorn for a dinner party. Helena looked up and down the table, and saw a couple of other Slytherins opening identical envelopes. Flora and Hestia Carrow, who were sitting just down the table from her, had received invitations and so had Melinda Bobbin and Blaise Zabini.
"What's that?" asked Mason as he sat down opposite her at the Slytherin table. Helena passed it over to him and started piling up toast, eggs and bacon on a plate for him.
"So where's mine?" asked Mason, starting on his breakfast.
"I guess your family isn't as influential as mine," joked Helena. "I don't know why he's invited me."
"You're the smartest in our year," said Mason, "of course Slughorn would invite you."
"Second smartest," Helena corrected him, "and why is he having dinner parties for students anyway?"
"I've heard that he collects students," said Mason. When Helena raised her eyebrows at him he added, "Talented students or students with influential families."
"Why?" asked Helena.
"He gives them a leg-up in their careers so that he can reap the benefits once they become well-connected," explained Mason. "Or at least that's what I heard from what Hannah Abbott's mum told her."
So when it came to dinner time that evening she stayed in the dormitory to get ready while Daphne and Tracey left for dinner in the Great Hall. She changed out of her robes into a black blazer, jeans and a pair of black boots. She let her hair out and brushed it then practiced a spell from Transfiguration until it was time to leave. She was meeting Melinda Bobbin in the common room and when she left her dorm she was already waiting for her downstairs. She greeted her then they headed up to the sixth floor where Slughorn's office was located.
They knocked on the door and it was swung open immediately to reveal a beaming Slughorn.
"Come in, come in," he boomed, ushering them through the door into his office. He pointed them over to a round table had been set up in the middle of the room where several students were already seated. Helena sat down next to Hermione Granger and Melinda sat beside her.
"Now, now," said Professor Slughorn. "Let me first make sure that you all know each other." He then proceeded to introduce each of them to the rest of the table before he waved his wand and a magnificent dinner appeared.
Over the course of the meal, Helena learned why each of them had been invited. Blaise Zabini's mother was a beautiful witch who had been married and widowed at least seven times and thus inherited a great deal of gold from her former husbands. Cormac McLaggen, a lanky seventh-year from Gryffindor, had an uncle who was well-connected within the Ministry of Magic. Flora and Hestia Carrow came from a powerful pureblood family and Melinda's family owned a large chain of apothecaries. Ginny Weasley was there due to a particularly great Bat-Bogey Hex that was witnessed by Slughorn and Hermione Granger was there for the same reason as Helena – she was very intelligent. It also appeared that Harry Potter had been invited but was unable to attend as he was serving detention with Professor Snape.
Before they had dessert, Slughorn insisted that they all switch seats as to get to know each other better. Helena didn't want to sit near Zabini; he was an arse just like Malfoy and the rest of his cronies so she tried to get between Hestia and Ginny but Melinda took the seat before she could, forcing her to sit between Cormac McLaggen and Zabini. Zabini was completely ignoring her and everyone else so Helena was forced to turn and talk to McLaggen.
"So…" said Helena. She wasn't particularly comfortable with the way McLaggen was looking at her. He was licking his dessert spoon slowly while looking into her eyes.
"You're in Slytherin, right?" he asked.
"Yup," said Helena.
"And you're a Muggle-born?" he asked.
Helena sighed. "Yup. The first of my kind," she said.
"So that means you're pretty special," said McLaggen, moving closer to her.
"Yeah, getting shit from all the pure-blood bigots in my own common room is really special," said Helena sarcastically.
McLaggen was taken aback. Helena hadn't meant to swear; at home in Wales it wasn't out of place but at Hogwarts she found that no one ever used bad language.
"What? I'm Welsh," she justified to McLaggen.
He turned around and started talking to Hermione on his other side. Helena didn't mind; she felt more sorry for Hermione as it seemed that McLaggen was now trying to flirt with her instead. She tucked into her ice cream and eavesdropped on McLaggen's cringe-worthy seducing techniques. She looked over and saw a slightly pained expression on Hermione's face and, seeing as the dinner party was getting boring, she decided to help her out. She slipped her wand out of her pocket and aimed it at McLaggen under the table. He took a piece of cake from the table and had several large bites. Helena thought that would the perfect time to hit him with a Hives Hex to make it look as though he had an allergic reaction to the cake. And it worked.
"Oh dear," cried Slughorn when he saw the hives forming all over McLaggen's face. "Looks like you've got some allergies! You had better get to the hospital wing! Zabini, why don't you help McLaggen there?" Zabini didn't look happy but he stood up and followed McLaggen from the office. Helena doubted that he'd accompany McLaggen anywhere, he'd probably ditch him at the end of the corridor and head back to the dungeons.
Hermione jumped over into McLaggen's seat.
"Did you do that?" she whispered to Helena.
Helena shrugged. "I think he just had an allergic reaction," she said, but her smile made it obvious to Hermione that she had done it. "Lucky, don't you think? You didn't seem to be enjoying his flirting."
"I – I wasn't… He's vile," said Hermione quietly.
Helena laughed. "You're welcome then," she said.
"I didn't know that you two were friends!" boomed Slughorn from across the table, looking at Helena and Hermione. "Of course I assumed the two smartest girls in the sixth-year would always be competing against each other, especially seeing as your houses are fierce rivals!"
"Oh… we're not… that close," said Hermione.
There was an awkward silence.
"Like you said, Professor, Slytherins and Gryffindors are fierce rivals," Helena swooped in, "but we certainly aren't enemies. However, I look forward to the day when I get a better grade in an Arithmancy paper than her," she joked.
Slughorn guffawed, not even noticing the awkward silence, then went back to telling Ginny Weasley all about the famous Quidditch players who he used to teach.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" said Hermione.
"Don't worry about it," Helena reassured her. "We can still chat, even if we're not friends. Besides, I get enough garbage from the other Slytherins about being Muggle-born; if we were friends it would just be adding fuel to the fire."
"That must be tough," said Hermione.
"It's not so bad anymore," Helena told her. "It's mostly just Malfoy and the rest of his little gang. Do you reckon we'll be able to leave soon?"
Hermione looked up at the clock.
"I hope so," she said. "I still have to finish my essay for Ancient Runes."
Just then Slughorn jumped up.
"Look at the time!" he declared. "It's past your curfew! We better call it a night!"
Everyone stood up and tried not to rush as they left Slughorn's office. Helena joined Melinda, Hestia and Flora to head back to the Slytherin common room.