Chapter 10: We Belong
"Welcome, First Years, to Slytherin." The prefect stood tall, flanked by five others. "My name is Abraham Montague, I am a Fifth Year, my counterpart and I will be looking after you in your first few weeks here at Hogwarts. On that note, may I present, my lovely partner, Livia Rosier."
Montague gestured to the smallest girl in the line up. Livia Rosier was very pretty, she and Mali had met on several occasions due to their parents being 'old friends'. Livia had long black hair, pale skin, full red lips and vivid, purple eyes, hidden beneath her long, dark lashes. Even now, Mali could see all of the boys watching her closely as she stepped forward and smiled, giving a small wave.
"Hello." Livia smiled sweetly at them. "Like Abraham said, we are here to help you. So any questions you guys may have, don't be afraid to approach us." She began stepping back in line. "We don't bite." Livia smirked, she then caught Mali's eye, looked pointedly at Harry and then back at Mali and winked. Same old Liv… Mali rolled her eyes. She'd known Livia would know, but of course, she was a Snake, she wouldn't let on.
By the time Mali had returned her attention to the other prefects, another guy and a girl had stepped forward.
"Hey!" The girl smiled. "I'm Aurelia Lysra and this is Taryen Avery. We are the Sixth Year prefects."
"You kids," Mali grimaced at being belittled, as did the others. "Shouldn't come to us unless it is urgent. We will help or protect you if it is needed but your first choices should be Rosier and Montague. Slytherins stick together, but that doesn't mean you get to bother us on a daily basis."
Luckily Aurelia jumped in to save him from stuffing his foot in his mouth further. "Not true!" She glared at Taryen. "It is the complete opposite of that. Just because Livia and Abraham," She made a point of using their given names. "Are in charge of you, does not mean that you shouldn't come to us. All prefects are here to help everyone in the house." She stepped back and yanked Avery with her, cutting off his protests.
The last two prefects stepped forward, nodding towards Aurelia in agreement.
"Hullo First Years." The guy greeted them with an easy smile. "I know you're getting bored so I'll go through this quick." Everyone gave a sigh of relief, even the prefects. "My name is Ivan Pembroke and this is Cleopatra Lacroix."
His counterpart, Cleopatra, glared daggers at him. "It's Cleo." She said, her tone of voice warned them not to question her. "Anything else and you'll find yourselves hexed to oblivion, or hung from the Astronomy Tower like Ivan will be later."
In his defense, Pembroke didn't look at all worried, the guy laughed and threw his arm around Lacroix. "As you can tell, Cleo is a perfect ray of sunshine." He teased her as she crossed her arms and grumbled, she did not, however, move away from his embrace, Mali noticed. "Now, first, what you need to know, is how to get into the Common Room." Pembroke or Ivan (Mali wasn't sure yet, which she would use when talking to herself) continued, leading Lacroix towards a small painting of a young man. There was nothing special about the man, so to speak, however behind him was a snake. It was no ordinary snake, Mali could tell, it was looking straight ahead and it cocked it's head to the side upon seeing that he was being approached. "Ambitio ducit vita." Pembroke spoke clearly and did not break eye contact with the snake, suddenly the area of wall around the portrait broke off and swung forward, turning into a door which revealed a large, dark green room. "Most of the portraits in the dungeons have snakes somewhere in their background, any of these snakes will accept the password so long as you keep eye contact with them. This way you have access to the common room from pretty much anywhere, it can give you escape from any sticky situations."
He gestured towards the room. The prefects led the First Years through the hole in the wall, they were followed by Lacroix and Pembroke. Mali turned around to see the wall reseal itself.
"As you can see," Lacroix pulled back their attention from the disappearance of the door. "There is no door leading from the corridor."
"Instead you have me!" Called out a portrait behind her. The woman in question was dressed in silver and green and had a large snake wrapped around her neck. "If you want to leave, let me know where you're going and I'll open the closest entrance where no other students are present." The woman smiled kindly at them.
"Thank you Lady Mara." Lacroix smiled at her. "Saves me from explaining." She turned back to the First Years who were beginning to yawn. "Ok, ok, I see you're all getting tired so I'll cut the intro short. Boys, dormitories are down the corridor on the right, you'll be in the first room. Girls, the same down the corridor on the left. Your beds have been allocated, you'll know yours when you see it. Since we're letting you go early we'll have to wake you early for orientation, how does 8 o'clock sound?" Mali joined the others in a murmured agreement, all she could think of now was finding her bed and going to sleep. "Ok go on then!" Lacroix sighed and watched as the drowsy First Years stumbled towards their dorms.
"G'night Harry!" Mali called to him.
"Night Mals!" Her brother grinned goofily at her as they walked down their corridors.
"Wow!" Mali heard Pansy sigh within their dorm, she could tell why as soon as she too had entered.
The room was painted dark green (of course) with silver flecks here and there. The room was big, to say the least, it was definitely charmed. Within the room were four black, wooden four-poster beds with intricate carvings and decorations. Mali's eyes were immediately drawn to the shining silver substance, which, was weaving up the bed-posts forming words- no! Names!
The bed next to the door had 'Pansy' written delicately above it, the next bed was for 'Daphne'. The bed on the left was for 'Tracy' and the last one was Mali's.
"I think I'm in love." Mali whispered as she crept towards her new bed, a look of bliss appeared on her face as she collapsed on the fluffy covers. Looking around the room she saw similar reactions from her dorm mates.
"Wow!" Pansy sighed. Mali looked up and the enchanted sparkles surrounding her bed, 'wow' was the perfect word for a moment like this.
"I bet the Gryffindors have nothing like this!" Tracy boasted.
"Look!" Daphne exclaimed, breaking the others out of their trance. Mali looked up. "Our stuff is here!"
Sure enough, all their trunks and their animals had suddenly appeared in the room.
"Asta!" Pansy cooed as her black cat jumped onto her bed and snuggled beside her.
"Guys, check it out!" Tracy called, drawing their attention. "Meet Faye." She gestured to a beautiful, small, light brown owl that was perched on her shoulder.
"This is Alpha." Daphne introduced her own black owl.
"And this, beautiful creature, is Nova." Mali gazed fondly at her own snowy owl. She smiled, remembering when she'd gotten her owl with Harry. Nova and her twin, who Harry had named Orion, had flown towards the two of them, the second they entered the store, it had been like fate. Mali had been fond of Nova since that first moment.
"A snowy!" Pansy gasped, staring at Nova, her dark, green eyes wide. "They're so rare!"
"I know." Mali smirked. "And she's all mine." She giggled as Nova nipped her hand in an affectionate way.
A knock on their ended their boasting.
"Still awake, girls?" They heard Livia Rosier's voice call.
"Come on in Livia!" Mali called as she slid off her bed and begun rummaging through her trunk.
"Hey guys!" Livia sauntered into the room and sat on Mali's bed. "You all settling in ok?"
"Yeah!" Pansy sighed. "This room is awesome!" She gushed.
Livia laughed. "You haven't even seen half of it!" She grinned slyly as she stood up and drew her wand, walking towards the stretch of wall next to Tracy's bed.
"Fenestra Imago." She tapped her wand on the wall twice and suddenly a window appeared. Through the 'glass' the girls could see long stretch of green meadows below a beautiful night sky. "To change what you see just think of it really hard, tap your wand twice against the window, the incantation is 'Imago'." Livia then looked up, pointed her wand at the high ceiling and said, "Caelum." Mali smiled recognised this as the spell her father had used on hers, Harry's and Danny's own ceilings back home. "It'll show you the current sky, right above where we are now. The counter is 'Revertetur Laquearia'." Livia lowered her wand and smiled at them.
"Thanks Livia!" Daphne gushed.
"Oh, I'm not done yet." Livia winked at Mali before crossing the room towards the space of wall beside Daphne's bed. "Revelare." Suddenly a black door appeared in the wall. "The bathroom." Livia explained. "Showers, baths, sinks, loos, the lot."
Daphne walked over to the door and peeked inside. When her head returned into the room, she looked confused.
"It's blue." She stated.
"Blue isn't just for Ravenclaws, Daph!" Mali rolled her eyes, blue happened to be one of her favourite colours.
Daphne blushed and walked back to her bed muttering.
"I trust you all know locking and silencing charms already?" Livia asked them expectantly.
Mali was torn, she wasn't meant to tell people about her lessons or what she already knew (which was a lot).
"I was a First Year from a pureblood family, you do all realise." Livia rolled her eyes at the Firsties. "Who am I kidding?" She asked rhetorically. "Of course you know them!" She began heading for the door. "See you in the morning!" She grinned over her shoulder as she left them.
"She's nice." Pansy commented, staring in awe at their room.
"She's awesome!" Mali added pulling out her Cassie Mockridge (only female member of the Falmouth Flacons, a chaser) poster, mentally reminding herself to ask Livia for help on the sticking charm.
Just then Tracy yawned, the yawn became contagious and suddenly everyone was feeling drowsy.
"Do we have to go to sleep?" Pansy drawled as she put on her nightgown.
"I'm glad to sleep, I'm exhausted." Mali countered, and really she was. In all the excitement of the day, she hadn't realised how long it had really been! She got into bed and tucked herself in under the plush duvet and fluffed the pillows and sighed. "I could get used to this." Mali murmured as she drifted to sleep, along with all the others in the room. Settling into her dreams she sighed again.
"Before any of you ask any questions, I would like to clarify that you ARE sleeping."
Mali whipped her head back and forth. What was going on? She wasn't alone, all her class mates were here too. They were in a foggy area, Mali couldn't call it a room as she could see no boundries, yet it was still too vague to describe.
"Is this real?" She dared to utter.
A man suddenly materialised before them. It was Severus Snape.
"Yes and no, Miss Levesque." He looked her in the eye as he answered her. "You are all physically asleep in your beds, but mentally this is real. I used a special spell on your beds to allow us this time." He smirked at them. "You the unsuspecting… Anyway, we are just waiting for the prefects-"
No sooner had their Head of House said the words, than they appeared, all six of them.
"Mr Pembroke, shall we begin?" Professor Snape seemed to be slightly impatient.
"Of course Professor!" Pembroke began. "We are using this time instead of waking you all early tomorrow morning to introduce you to the true Slytherin house. First, we have eight rules in Slytherin. Rule Number 1: Slytherin does not mean Junior Death Eater." He paused, taking in their reactions, which ranged from shock to guilt and embarrassment. "I don't think I need to explain that one."
"Rule Number 2:" Lacroix stepped forward. "Loyalty is not only for Hufflepuffs. This means that we expect you all to get along and stick together. After all, how can a lone snake fend against a raven, lion or even a badger?"
Avery took her place as she moved back inline. "Rule Number 3: Blood matters." He sneered at them before stepping away, he did not intend to say more than needed.
Lysra took his place, still glaring at him as she had earlier. "Rule Number 4: Ability matters most." Avery scoffed, but Lysra ignored him. "Meaning, blood may mean a lot but ability matters more, we are here because we all possess magic, even the squiblings people call Hufflepuffs." Snape coughed, meaningfully. Lysra sent him an apologetic look and stepped back.
"Rule Number 5:" Montague cut into the awkward silence. "Never take the blame, don't get caught." He grinned at them meaningfully. "In other words, rules don't matter, have fun, play pranks," Mali looked over at Harry and Draco, they exchanged small nods. "Just don't get caught,don't be obvious. Snakes are slippery for a reason." He winked at them.
"Rule Number 6:" Livia's turn. "There is no rule 6." She shrugged nonchalantly. "But I can tell you that Rule Number 7 is 'Ambition leads life'. If you don't have something to work towards, you feel no reason to work. You have to want something to get it."
"And Rule Number 8:" Snape stepped forwards and spoke up. "Bravery is to be admired, Gryffindors are not." The prefects snickered, they were soon joined by the First Years. Mali found this rule highly entertaining. "Bravery is one thing, foolish stupidity is another. Slytherins use their knowledge before they act, the key is to always know what you are going to do before you do it. Whether it be a prank, provoking someone or some sort of stunt or so, that is what makes a Slytherin."
The First Years looked at him in admiration and nodded in understanding.
"I want to get one more thing straight, before I return you to your dreams." Snape called to them. "I don't want any of you roaming the castle or grounds alone. Slytherins rather unnerving reputation makes you all targets. I know you all know a few hexes and jinxes but that doesn't mean you are ready to face the world. Stay in packs, for your own safety. And remember, I am your Head of House, you are my responsibility. My door is always open to my snakes." He smiled warmly at them. "Good night children." He whispered the last part as it all began to fade away.
The meeting was over, the room gone, they were all left to their childish dreams in the darkness of the night.
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update! I'm now back at school and have a few tests here and there and lots of homework. I will try to update at least once a week, maybe twice, so sorry!
I really hope you like this! Please review and let me know what you all think!
Luna Potter : I know it doesn't all make sense but I've tried leaving a few details until the end. I can tell you though that the reason the goblins can't serve Dumbledore his big plate of justice is because of his standing in wizard society. He has many titles and is almost untouchable. The goblins will need outside help (humans) to serve him as they themselves are not treated as equals and would most likely be ignored. I am glad you enjoy it still though!
To the Guest who reviewed (whoever you may be) : haha you may be right ;)
Thank you all for reading!
XXX