CHAPTER 7: Asserting Some Dominance
Forget breakfast, this entire day was made to screw with me.
Sarah was grumbling to herself as she made her way to her first class of the day. It could have been any class, a one in seven chance, but of course with her luck her first one had to be potions. And then when the odds were one out of three, of course, it would be a double period with Slytherin.
"If I ever played Russian Roulette, I'd have my brains blown out within the first round," she muttered darkly, not noticing the extremely weirded out look she was getting from Peter Pettigrew.
Breakfast had gone by quickly enough, but the boys had herded her out and away before she could speak with Jenelle. Currently, she and her new posse were heading down into the dungeons, none of them particularly happy about the event. She had actually tried to break away and go with Lily Evans, but the girl had taken one look at James Potter and his peacocking and had left poor Sarah in the dust.
Now, she really didn't have a problem hanging out with guys; a lot of her closest friends at Ilvermorny were guys. What she did have a problem with was just how insistent Black was becoming, not to mention the oddly invasive questions Remus kept throwing at her about Jenelle, as subtle as he tried to be.
She thought it was a little cute, the thing with Remus. He was a sweetheart as far as she could tell, but she wouldn't be giving him anything solid until he had the spine to state his intentions out loud and in front of his friends. Instead, she fielded his questions as vaguely as she could while also glancing side-eyed at Black whenever he got a bit too close for comfort.
By the time they reached the classroom, with about ten minutes to spare, Sarah was getting right tetchy.
Glancing around she spied Jenelle already seated and stepped forward with relief.
"Hey, Waterbrooke!"
Her movement was halted when Black caught her by the arm, looking at her askance. "Where are you off to? We're sitting over there," he indicated with a jerk of his head to the far back corner where the other Marauders were settling down.
She bristled, looked pointedly where his hand was grasping her wrist but the little jerk just grinned and flexed his grip.
Jackass she thought, twisting her arm inwards and up in a move that broke his hold. Years later and she still remembered that technique from her old sensei, who would have thought?
"Sorry," she said as she turned away from his shocked face, "I never got to see Jenelle before we left for class and I really need to talk to her. I'll catch up with y'all in a minute, kay?"
Without waiting for a response she glided over to her friend, taking note that the blonde was surrounded by a sea of green and silver. Said sea was looking a bit perilous, judging by the unfriendly looks being sent her way, but Sarah did her best to ignore them.
"Hey Jenelle!" Her tone was cheerful, which seemed to throw off some of the crowd. "Whose all this?"
Jenelle met Sarah's smile with one of her own, gesturing excitedly to three people in particular.
"Hi Sarah," she greeted quickly, "these are some of my housemates. That's Severus Snape, Narcissa Black, and err, sorry, what was your name again?"
Jenelle had paused on the last person, a teen with flowing, platinum hair and an unimpressed look on his face.
"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy."
Nice to meet you too, 007.
Sarah smiled, mostly at her own joke. She turned to Snape, who was gazing at her with barely hidden disdain. "Nice to meet you," she said, surprising those around her as she stuck out her hand for a shake.
Snape looked wary, before tentatively taking her hand in his own, giving it the smallest shake he could get away with before drawing away.
She turned to Narcissa next and couldn't help her next exclamation. "Nice to meet you too, and can I say, you've got to tell me what you use in your hair it's gorgeous!"
Narcissa looked taken aback before returning the compliment with a small nod and a tiny, tentative smile.
Sarah finally moved to the last person in their circle, who was eyeing her suspiciously. Instead of extending her hand, she merely tilted her head to the side and grinned.
"Jenelle's a close friend of mine, I hope that she has a good time while we're here."
Jenelle pushed against her arm, followed by an embarrassed "Sarah!". Sarah pushed right back but kept her eyes on the blonde boy in front of her. Malfoy had yet to blink, his expression closed off but not quite as condescending as it was a few seconds ago.
Eventually he responded, his words carefully chosen. "We Slytherins take care of our own, Miss Waterbrooke."
"That's good to hear," was all the Asian retorted with.
The strange atmosphere might have continued for much longer, had it not been interrupted in the most unexpected way.
Sarah tensed like an angry, on-edge cat as a sudden heavy weight was dropped across her shoulders. Muscles strained with annoyance, Sarah twisted her neck upwards to see just who the hell was touching her.
She came face to chest with a boy she vaguely remembered seeing last night in the common room. He had quite the look about him, with his puffed-out chest and condescending sneer.
"Can I help you?" Sarah demanded rudely, trying to shrug off his arm without success; he had latched onto her shoulder in a tight, uncomfortable grip.
"More like I'll be helping you, sweetheart," he looked down at her in pity before raising his head to glare around him at the Slytherins, who had instantly closed ranks.
"What are you doing wasting your time with a bunch of tossers and bimbos like them anyway?" he demanded, causing Jenelle and Narcissa to bristle and the two boys to stand. The rest of the room had gone silent, watching things play out.
"You're a lion Waterbrooke, you should act like it, and the first rule of Gryffindor is 'never trust a snake'."
"Get off my friend, jerk" Jenelle warned, having yet to draw her wand but looking close to it.
The arrogant teen looked down on her. "Oh please," he scoffed, "like you could do anything to me. Now if you want to do something for me," his expression had shifted to a leer, causing Jenelle's spine to straighten in indignation, "I guess you're not so bad looking for a snake, why don't you come over here an-"
His words were cut off quite quickly, and everyone searched curiously for the reason why. Only the immediate group was able to see Sarah and her wand, drawn and discretely aimed at the space between his legs. She was looking forward and smiling, not even giving him her attention, but everyone could see that she was deathly serious.
"You're Lighthaven correct? I just remembered." Her tone was casual like nothing was out of the ordinary. "You forget that Jenelle and I are Thunderbirds first and foremost, so I can understand why you might be surprised by the way we do things. Let me enlighten you on how Thunderbirds deal out threats."
The now identified Lighthaven had slowly been removing his arm from across Sarah's shoulders, but her next words, hissed low so that only they and the four Slytherins could hear, stopped him cold.
"If you so much as breathe near me or her this year," she prodded just a little harder with her wand and was treated with a high pitched squeak, "I will curse off everything you think makes you a man and shove it so far up your ass you choke on it. And after you asphyxiate, I'll let the healers reattach your balls."
She finally turned to look him dead in the eyes.
"And then I'll do it again."
Lighthaven meeped, while Severus and Malfoy couldn't help but wince in sympathy. The cowed teen practically bolted away from her and the Slytherins to the far corner of the room. Students started clamoring to him, wondering what she had said, but he shrugged off their questions and involved himself in his suddenly very interesting textbook.
"Oh Sarah..." Jenelle breathed, and Sarah shrugged, pocketing Thorin back into her robes.
"So, everyone!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together and startling those around her.
"Who's ready for potions?"
Horace Slughorn was currently over the moon. Just the other day Headmaster Dumbledore had called for an emergency meeting of all the teaching staff. Amidst stunned gasps and incredulous faces, he had explained to a thoroughly shocked audience just exactly who the two new and completely unexpected students were.
While time travel incidents were quite rare, they were not unheard of. That being said, this particular instance might be the biggest of its kind in all of history, certainly in recent memory! Oh sure there had been the incident back in the 1850's when an unfortunate archeologist in Egypt had actually fallen into the original Pool of Time whilst gathering its precious sands, but that man's situation had been more a question of how far he had been flung back, rather than how long he had stayed.
Lucky for him too, seeing as he had landed somewhere in the mid-1100's and had been mistaken by the local muggles for a heretical, magic-wielding Crusader!
Back to the situation at hand, Horace could not wait to meet his two newest students, destined to potentially be some of the greatest connections he would ever make in his lifetime. After all, how many people could actually say that they had an "in" with the future?
Seers aside, of course.
Not that he was planning anything nefarious, mind you. At the end of the day, for all of his scheming and manipulating, Horace was a man of simple pleasures. He was more than happy with receiving the occasional box of high-quality chocolates or getting that particular signed copy of his favorite Quidditch team's photo. He had neither desire nor reason to dabble in things like amassing power like so many other Slytherins got caught up in wishing for.
No, no, for Horace his joy was found in the cultivation of young minds, and the gratitude they beget him later on.
And now to see what kind of potential awaits me, he thought to himself as he emerged from his potions closet where he had been doing last-minute inventory.
He was met with quite the surprise when he focused his gaze on his class.
What in Merlin's name happened while I was preparing? he wondered, taking in a small clutch of his Snakes trying to hide their amusement over something and failing. He spied Miss Montagnard looking both abashed and oddly proud, shooting a thumbs up at Miss Waterbrooke on the other side of the room. Waterbrooke was looking directly at him, cheerfully anticipatory.
Well, if nothing else, this year should be delightfully interesting.
Lucius Malfoy couldn't help but acknowledge the smidgen of interest Sarah Waterbrooke had garnered from him.
When the petite girl had first made her way over to the Slytherin side of the classroom, he had braced himself for a belligerent speech about how Slytherin's couldn't be trusted with her friend or some other Marauder-influenced prattle.
As such her friendliness, along with her subtle request to keep an eye out for Montagnard, was completely unexpected, as was her response when dealing with that swaggering blowhard Lucas Lighthaven.
Although crude it had been immensely entertaining, not to mention effective. The mudblood idiot had shot her nervous looks throughout the entire Potions class.
And speaking of, Waterbrooke had shown herself to be quite the deft hand at brewing. She was no genius, that title still belonged to Slytherin's very own Severus, but she had done very well proving that there was a brain behind the veneer of crimson and gold that so many of her housemates lacked.
Waterbrooke and Montagnard were starting to pique his interest, something he hadn't expected.
Lucius had been wondering ever since the two Ilvermorny girls had shown up whether they would prove themselves potentially useful to the Malfoy family and by extension, the Dark Lord. It was an idea that Regulus had come to him with, and he was still considering all his options. Lord Voldemort was always looking for more ways to extend his reach and a potential opening into the untapped wealth of the United States would be just the thing, so long as they had the right connections.
Yes, he decided as he walked out of the classroom, the lesson finished, 'I will be keeping a close eye on those two.'
That night, Sirius pounced again.
"Well hello, Waterbrooke," he slid up behind the girl while she was doing an assignment in the common room. The area was somewhat buzzing, students bemoaning their workloads or relaxing after dinner; it was the perfect time to make a little small talk.
She startled, turning from where she had been cozied up in one of the armchairs to meet his eyes. "Oh, Sirius, you need somethin'?"
There is was again, that little drawl she sometimes slipped into that Sirius thought of as adorably quaint. "I suppose if you wanted to help me out you'd let me in on what happened today during Potions?" Seeing her pull a face of disgust he chuckled, before wrapping himself around the back of her chair to peer at her from the side.
"Or if you really wanted to help me out," he purred near her ear, "you could free up your schedule some time for a little one-on-one studying."
She lifted an eyebrow at him, looking unimpressed. "It's only Tuesday. You calling yourself dumb?"
Ouch, little kneazle's got claws. Good thing I don't mind a girl that likes to scratch.
"Maybe I'm just a little in over my head, but it's all for you, Sarah," he retorted smoothly. He loved the fact that she had given him free reign over her first name, it made building a more intimate relationship that much easier.
Sarah though continued to defy him when, instead of giggling and caving in, she instead sighed dramatically. "I'd almost rather just talk about that, person, Lighthaven."
Person, he guessed, was talking the place of a much more colorful word.
"Just what exactly did you say to him, anyway?" Sirius asked curiously. The usually smug toerag had been subdued today and had practically skittered back like an Acromantula when Sarah had come within five feet of him.
Sarah blinked up at Sirius, looking innocent. "I have no idea what you mean, did something happen to him today? I hope he's alright."
Sirius was taken aback for a few seconds before he barked out a laugh, moving to sit next to her in another chair. "You little-, you look like butter wouldn't melt in that little mouth of yours!" he teased. She broke into her own smile, laughing slightly as she shook her head.
"Let's just say he won't be making any unwanted advanced towards me or Jenelle anytime soon, hmm?" she revealed. Sirius sat up a little straighter at that, scowling.
That brain-addled hobgoblin, he knew I had already staked my claim! He's gonna get his arsed royally pranked for this.
He was already well into his plotting by the time he realized that Waterbrooke had gotten up to leave. He jumped up to follow her, catching her wrist for the second time that day. She didn't seem to like it just as much as the first time, judging by her attempts to shake him off, which reminded him of one last thing.
"How'd you do that thing this morning in class?" he asked, and the girl stopped trying to break free long enough to send him a questioning look.
"Do what exactly?"
"That thing," he elaborated, "where you just twisted your arm and suddenly 'bam!' free arm!"
His inquiry was enforced when she did the exact thing he had been trying to describe.
She looked at him quizzically. "Doesn't Hogwarts have some kind of self-defense elective?"
"You mean DADA?"
She shook her head. "No, I mean physical defense."
Sirius couldn't comprehend it. "Why the flying bludger would a wizard ever need to know physical defense? Isn't that what shield spells are for?"
Now Sarah broke out into the giggle he'd been looking for, but he couldn't help but feel it was at his expense rather than due to his charm.
"Guess you're not up to much physical activity then?"
He instantly stepped closer, lowering his voice into a more husky range. "Oh, I am quite skilled at all things physical, Waterbrooke. I could go all night if need be, want me to prove it?"
She looked taken aback as if she hadn't expected him to respond the way he did.
"Um, no," she pushed him away, backing up slowly towards the stairs. "I'm good, thanks. Err, see you tomorrow."
With that, she turned quickly and fled up to the girl's dorms.
Sirius sighed, slightly irritated. Foiled again! he groused, but eventually he smirked towards the open air.
"She definitely wants me."
