Christmas holiday went by quickly after that. Amanda had spent only a little time outside considering the freezing weather, though she did start testing out her glass snake whenever she could. Then it was back to Hogwarts, which meant lessons, studying, homework, studying, and more lessons (not that Amanda did all of those things).
Amanda was…lonely. Audrey was in the library at an even more consistent basis than before, Delilah was not seen without Cedric unless she was in class, Theo decided now was the best time to start actually paying attention in class (which he didn't really need to do, she knew), and Elena…well, it wasn't the same as with Audrey or Delilah. And then there was Draco, who seemed more obsessed with Harry Potter than honored to be with her.
So it was nice to get together with her sisters again under moonlight and be their animal selves. Though it was still freezing, Amanda managed to find herself a warm rock to sleep on while her sisters frolicked about. She caught Audrey looking longingly at the forest and Delilah's exploding excitement when her howls were replied to by something among the trees.
Amanda slithered through the grass to her siblings, transforming into her human form when she was next to them.
"Just think, next year Jessica will be here with us strolling into the Forbidden Forest every full moon," Amanda said as a way to cheer up her sisters when they realized it was nearly time to leave. Both of them transformed alongside her, all staring at the daring forest before them.
"Do you really think it's safe to go in there?" Audrey asked. Amanda rolled her eyes.
"Yes, scaredy cat. Otherwise Dumbledore wouldn't have even hinted to letting us in there next year," she explained.
"What if that was before something dangerous entered the forest?" the Ravenclaw questioned. "What if the rules are going to change?"
"What makes you think that?" Delilah asked with a cute tilt of her head. "Did one of those books you've been reading give you scary thoughts?" Audrey nodded. Amanda just realized the extremely worried face her Ravenclaw sister wore.
"I…" she drifted off, then she sighed. "Our dad gave me a list of books to read, and I think they're just…not leaving me in a good way."
"Wait," Amanda said, "our dad actually wrote you?" Audrey shrugged.
"I accidentally sent him a letter. I didn't expect him to reply," Audrey responded. Then a flash of ferocity crossed her eyes. "And he didn't even reply, really. Just gave me a list of books that may or may not help me."
"Have they?" Delilah asked just as Amanda demanded, "Why in Merlin's name did you send him a letter?"
"I told you, it was an accident, I didn't actually want to give him that letter. I just ranted on a piece of parchment and accidentally gave it to my owl instead Elena's letter," Audrey explained.
"Oh so that's why you were scared about Jessica finding it," Amanda mused. "Good decision, I doubt she would have ever let you forget you wrote a worthless letter to our dad again."
"Did any of those books help you?" Delilah repeated.
Audrey shrugged. "Maybe? I learned unicorns—which is what I'm pretty sure was dying in the forest—are pretty much unbeatable and that it would take extremely dark magic to catch them. I also learned unicorns have magic to keep people sort of alive, but no idea how. Oh, and let's not forget the part about the terrifying kinds of creatures that can actually harm a unicorn."
"Amazing, our dad isn't useful," Amanda said dryly. "Shocking, really."
"It is useful, I just haven't got all the information," Audrey countered sharply. "I probably should have read them in order, but some of these books aren't in the library so I have to ask Elena to help me find them because there's no way on earth Gran would get them for me, given some of the titles they have."
"Merlin, if you talk any faster I don't even think the hummingbirds could keep up," Amanda interrupted her. She was thanked with a very sharp glare.
"I bet you'll find the answers soon," Delilah comforted. "You're always good at finding things out." Audrey nodded.
"I just hope it isn't something truly horrible," she said, her voice wavering. Amanda had a feeling that no matter what her sister found it would scare her.
After a bit of silence, Amanda asked, "Do any of you know how to get rid of an annoying prat who won't shut up about 'getting back at Potter?'" Audrey and Delilah laughed.
"They hate each other, don't they?" the Hufflepuff asked.
Audrey gave a short laugh. "I don't think they met on the best of terms."
"Draco doesn't meet anyone on the best of terms," Amanda sighed, rolling her eyes.
"To be fair, Harry is just as much of a prat sometimes," Audrey told them. "I'm always overhearing him and Ron making jabs at Draco."
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "Overhearing things, hmm?" She was given a playful shove in response.
"It isn't like I can just ignore the fact I can hear so well," Audrey pointed out. "And sometimes I find out useful things, like the fact Harry has an invisibility cloak." Amanda's gaze widened as it fixed on Audrey, who had her head held high with the pride of knowing something Amanda didn't.
"An invisibility cloak?!" Amanda exclaimed incredulously. "I've wanted one for years! Since when did he get one?"
"He got it for Christmas, I think," Audrey answered. "Oh! And I think he also may have encountered that mirror you and Delilah were going on about."
"Really?" Amanda asked.
"What did he see?" said Delilah.
"His parents," Audrey answered. "And Ron saw himself as Head Boy, and Quidditch Captain and a whole lot of other positions. I think I figured it out."
"Oh please don't go Ravenclaw on us," Amanda whined.
But Audrey was already explaining. "It shows you what you desire most. Harry obviously wants to see his parents, Ron wants to be remembered as something other than 'another Weasley,' and Amanda, you want to be a dragon…"
"Obviously," she scoffed.
"…and Delilah…well, I'm not sure what yours is all about, but there you go. I answered that question."
"Not that either of us were really begging for an answer to begin with," Amanda muttered with a smirk. Audrey rolled her eyes.
"Could you at least let me relish in my victory? Just a little?" she asked.
And so they went on talking about their ordinary days. Not long after that conversation was done, Professor McGonagall told them it was time to go back to their common rooms, and for once none of them complained.
Of course, Draco and Theo waited for her, both thinking she was taking extra lessons from Snape. Amanda just said a quick "goodnight," however, before rushing up to her dorm. After all, she had other things to do than listen to Draco bet on how long Harry was going to last in the next Quidditch match. So instead she nested on her bed with her mother's things, something she hadn't done since September.
She held familiar note that was crumpled at the corners because of how much Amanda read it. Being that her mother was much too above writing a diary or journal, the note was the only written account of Adrianna Arisio's life that the new Slytherin Heir actually had. It wasn't long, and it seemed more like a letter. Though, if it was, there was no indication as to whom she was sending it.
It was just a small update on a pet she must have had called Salazar. Amanda had always wondered what the pet was. At first she had thought it was a snake when her mother wrote down about how she talked to her pet and how it was finding out the most interesting things for her, but then she started talking about very specific tasks it did, like telling other people things, so Amanda decided it was an owl. It didn't make a lot of sense, but owls at least relayed information in English.
Then Amanda started to put together the pieces when she saw the sentence 'he's fragile, so of course I have to be careful.' Fragile. Fragile like glass…Amanda glanced at the glass snake curled up on her nightstand.
She had always assumed she just meant that the animal itself wasn't very strong, but now she wondered if that was true. So she said the only word which would wake her glass snake from his unanimated mode: "Salazar." It shifted, blinked, and swerved its head gracefully to her, waiting for a command.
Amanda froze. How in Merlin's name did she miss this? Her mother had had this gift? Was it a Slytherin Heirloom? If it was, none of the history books mentioned it. And it could record. How? Amanda supposed she just had to ask it. But who could she test it on?
The idea struck her harder than the realization of its purpose. She grinned.
The next day, after pacing in her dormitory all morning while she plotted, she trekked out of the castle and across the grounds to the Quidditch pitch, soon reaching the Slytherin section as she watched the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheer for their teams.
Why was she at a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match? Well, her plan for one thing, but she was going whether or not she had a plan. See, the House Cup currently teetered on this Quidditch match. If Gryffindor lost against Hufflepuff, Slytherin was in the lead by a lot. If Gryffindor won, Gryffindor would take the lead.
Suffice to say, it was important.
But, her plan was just as important. Without looking for anyone she knew, she took her seat, reached into her coat and whispered in parseltongue to Salazar, "Go to Professor Quirrell and record him throughout the match. Then come back to me."
Just after it slithered down into the bleachers out of sight, Amanda saw Professor Dumbledore in the stands with the other teachers. What was even more, Snape was apparently refereeing the match, which she probably would have known if she had listened to Draco earlier. She sighed. Well that was a waste. He isn't going to prove he's the murderer while both of them are here.
And then, once the game started, another realization: Draco wasn't with her. He wouldn't have missed the match, she knew that for certain, so she searched the stands, starting with the Gryffindor section.
There he was, taunting Neville and Ron. Merlin, he was annoying sometimes.
Ron attacked Malfoy, but the fight was drowned out by the crowd that erupted around them. Amanda looked up just in time to see Harry take a huge dive. Cedric sped toward him, but it was too late.
Harry had caught the snitch.
As the Gryffindors cheered, some of the other houses started shouting in awe. It was the quickest game in Hogwarts history. She was both impressed and disgusted. Just how could someone be that good with only a few months training?
In the end, she didn't stay long. Draco had found her, and as he put pressure on a nasty looking bump on his cheek, he decided to complain about how awful it was no teacher believed him when he said Ronald Weasley had punched him. Suffice to say Amanda just went straight up to her dormitory as soon as she could.
And when she laid on her bed, pleased with Hogwarts for making sure no boy could enter a girls' dormitory, she dozed off to sleep thinking about just what idiocy she had would have to deal with the next day with Gryffindor squarely in the lead for the House Cup, not even noticing that there was a weight in her pocket that was missing.
Audrey spent weeks going through the books her father had listed for her. The information she was getting from said books was interesting, such as the fact werewolves were too slow for unicorns. Unicorns had useful abilities too, the most relevant being that their blood's healing powers could keep a creature from death. But what kind of creatures? And what did a "half-life" even mean?
That's how a lot of the information ended up being—mixed and matched. Splotchy. Incredibly important facts without any connection to one another.
She sighed loudly and fell all the way back onto the couch. An older student walked by and whispered to her friend, "Can't even handle the pressure her first year. Wonder what's going to happen in her fifth?" They giggled and went on.
Audrey really hated being able to hear so well.
She glanced up at the standings, seeing her name second behind Terry Boot's. 'Which means I'm about fourth, if Theo and Hermione have continued being brilliant. Which means I should be studying for that test I have tomorrow. And going over potions homework. And preparing what I'm going to say to Flitwick about that low grade…'
'No stop thinking about that,' she ordered herself and closed the book she had been reading on the magical qualities of different sorts of blood. She picked up her dad's list again, sighing as she figured out she had read all of them that she could find in the library. The ones Elena had ordered wouldn't arrive for a few days.
She reached into her bag, just to make sure, and brought out one final book. She knew it was there, knew she would avoid reading it, but looked at it anyway.
The Families Of the Founders. It was a completely random book, but it was the first one on her dad's list with two little letters next to it: AA + AT. Whatever that meant. Audrey knew that the book would only be just another pedigree report on families supposedly linking back to the Founders of Hogwarts. She had read enough of them to know no one was really 100% certain any of the current families were related to the founders.
'I wonder if Zacharias Smith's family is in here,' she thought suddenly, remembering the newspapers from early in the school year. She started flipping through the pages, looking for his name.
When she passed a page with the letters AA beautifully drawn together, she paused, and skimmed over the first paragraph.
The Arisio family is, in the modern day, most well-known for their matriarchy and their tradition of gifting their children with names beginning and most times ending with A. However, their most significant legacy is definitely their direct relation to Salazar Slytherin, being the only family to completely retain a pure assortment of Salazar Slytherin's abilities. Though most documents about them remain hidden, a few dating as far back as the Founding of Hogwarts proves this family could be as old as the school itself. Some famous members include—
Audrey stopped. Arisio. Wasn't that the little nickname Theo and Malfoy had used for Amanda so many years ago? Her mind put it together. Arianna Nott. Adrianna Coppin. Amanda Coppin. That's how it was in every lineage she had seen. 'But were any of them written by a pureblood of Malfoy's standards?' Audrey thought. Bias. Patriarchal tradition. Everything that could get in the way of actual history.
Audrey flipped the page she was on to look at the family tree, finding the most recent generation: Anthony and Alanna Arisio along with their daughter, Arianna Arisio. Her heart must have been beating faster than it ever had before.
Arisio wasn't a nickname. It was a surname. A family name, one that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. And if it was a matriarchal family…that meant Amanda, the oldest of the three, was the heir. The Slytherin Heir. And it meant Audrey, Delilah, and Jessica were also related to one of the founders of Hogwarts.
However…no, the family was matriarchal. Elena was the oldest of Adrianna Arisio's children. Elena was the Slytherin Heir. And if they were the only family that kept all of Salazar Slytherin's abilities, that meant their oldest sister had been keeping a very large secret for a very long time.
Audrey shut the book, simply staring at the cover for a long time. Her mind raced through the maze of information, trying to cut a straight path. Elena was a Slytherin Heir. Amanda was the pureblood's Slytherin Heir. She was a Slytherin Heir. 'I probably can't speak parseltongue because of our father's family curse,' she decided, concluding it to be the same with Delilah and Jessica. Even Amanda, though with her being a snake it made no difference.
Audrey quickly set the book back into her bag, telling herself to check it back into the library as soon as she could. But then she remembered she hadn't gotten it from the library. It had been the only book her father had sent with the letter.
'He can't have just sent it so I could learn my history, he must have sent it for a reason,' she thought, but as her mind dove into the hundred of reasons he could have wanted her to know about their mother's family, she decided she didn't want to know. Not if there was a bigger surprise waiting within the answer.
So she decided she would leave it in the library anyway, just another book among thousands.
Still, she sat on that couch thinking about the fact she was related to Salazar Slytherin and the fact that Elena knew. So why would she want to keep it a secret?