Author's Note: I have to say, this is more of a transition chapter. I had to make up most of the stuff here, but nevertheless, I like it! And here, you'll see Dumbledore and Snape! I've tried to make Dumbledore a bit more in-character than in the other story, and more like the book. He won't be evil(-er) until later on!
Reviews are love, and I love you!
Acknowledgements to Maria Arulraj, Twilight-Luv, ultima-owner (thanks especially for being constant!), Godrico Gryffindor, and Sephirotx for reviewing the last chapter!
Chapter Nine: The Snake's Den
A handful of older students, including Flint, led the first year Slytherins to the Common Room, which was in the dungeon. They stopped by a dead end and Flint said "Pureblood" loudly. Like Diagon Alley, the bricks moved, but it was a lot faster. Cordelia tried not to look shocked, so instead, she attempted to put an impassive face to the impressive magic that swarmed all over Hogwarts.
The Prefects led the students in, as they stared in awe at the Common Room. It was a dark forest green, with a stone fireplace and several high backed chairs and sofas around it. Overall, it was quite roomy, and there was a bulletin board with several flyers on it already. Two medium sized bookshelves were in the corner, and a few coffee tables next to them with comfy looking chairs. Hanging lamps let out a pretty light, just enough to be bright, but not too bright. Georgina assumed they were underneath the lake, since there were no windows in sight. There were different archways leading to the dormitories with Roman numerals on top of them.
"Thank you, Prefects for leading our new snakes to the Common Room," a silky voice said from the entrance. Everyone turned to look at him. It was Professor Snape, their Head of house. He wore pitch-black robes, like the rest of the students, but they billowed about him in a commanding way. He looked like someone who shouldn't be messed with.
"You are Slytherins, your house is a place of pride and power; unity and strength; and cunning and ambition. As you might have already noticed, we are the least liked House in Hogwarts, which means you all will eventually fall victim to suspicion and fear from your fellow classmates. Let me tell you now: outside of this Common Room, you will act as one body, one house. You must be united, or the other Houses will pick you off. Unity is strength, always remember that."
Cordelia twitched involuntarily. Would that mean Harry would hate her too? No, she thought, Harry and I will always be friends, I mean, we were friends before Hogwarts too!
"Mr. Flint! What is rule number one?" Snape asked, snapping Cordelia out of her thoughts.
"Yes, sir. Rule number one: Slytherins are the house," Flint answered proudly.
"Right, this means you must always take pride and unity in your House. I don't care if you hate someone's guts. Hate them in the Common Room; stick up for them outside, got it? If someone needs assistance, you will assist them. This also means you must conduct yourself with great maturity in public at all times. We are not sloppy Gryffindors, we have manners and morals, remember that," Professor Snape said, pacing in the Common Room.
Manners and morals? Cordelia could imagine herself having morals, but Wizarding manners were completely different from muggle ones, so she would just have to wait and learn on that one.
"Higgs! Rule number two!" barked Snape.
"Rule number two! Don't get caught." Replied Higgs.
"Good, you can do whatever you need to do here, but do not, under any circumstances, get caught. You can pass notes in class, make fun of your teachers, sneak out from curfew, but keep it sneaky and stay smart. If you are caught, don't argue. Try to lose the least amount of points possible, because many teachers are reluctant to give Slytherin points anyways. Get a detention instead.
"There are more rules that are posted in each dormitory, and I highly suggest you reading them. Since the dungeons are so spacious and there are not many Slytherins, each year has their own dormitory and small common room. Boys are not allowed in the girl's rooms, and vice versa. There are bathrooms in every dorm, but you must negotiate shower schedules with your fellow dorm mates. Welcome to the Snake's Den," finished Professor Snape, while the Slytherins clapped quietly.
Cordelia couldn't believe it. Slytherin was actually an agreeable house. It didn't seem like they were trying to make dark wizards at a young age, or trying to corrupt every little first year into being a killer. Maybe the rumors weren't true then? But Voldemort had been in this house…
"Come on," Pansy urged, "let's go see our room assignments!"
"Wait," Professor Snape interrupted, "I believe the Headmaster would like a quick word with Miss Vixen first."
"It's alright, Pansy, I'll be back soon!" waved Cordelia, following Professor Snape out the Common Room.
"The entrance to the Headmaster's office is on the seventh floor, come, I will show you the way there." Snape said awkwardly. The journey was mostly in silence, since Cordelia stared in awe at Hogwarts, noting the interesting looking places. She didn't think Professor Snape would care if she stared a little, and he didn't seem like the type of person to gossip about her.
Finally, they reached the Gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's Office. Professor Snape said the password, which was "Chocolate Frogs," and pulled her aside once the Gargoyle leaped aside.
Slightly unnerved by this, Cordelia bit her lip and walked up the stairs, knocking on the large wooden doors. She wouldn't try to look at the Headmaster in the eye, but it would be kind of odd if she looked like she was purposely avoiding eye contact.
"Come in," a calm voice answered. Cordelia pushed open the heavy door, to reveal a large, but slightly cluttered office. Portraits or certificates lined every spot available on the wall, and a red bird on a perch stood next to Dumbledore. It just stared at her calculatingly. She felt more nervous. Dumbledore himself was behind his desk in a large, blue chair. A smaller one stood in front of it.
Hesitatingly, Cordelia took a seat avoiding the Headmaster's eyes.
"Lemon Drop?" he offered.
Cordelia widened her eyes. How did he know of her favorite candies? She was about to decline, out of politeness, but she hadn't had a lemon drop in ages! They were tempting her.
Dumbledore looked at her oddly. She seemed to be fighting an inner battle with herself, maybe she had a bad experience with lemon drops? Still, if she didn't want any she could just decline, instead of staring at the bowl of lemon drops, like she was now.
Cordelia finally gave up and took a handful of the Lemon drops and shoved half of them in her mouth. The sweet and sour flavor immediately made her happy, and she forgot how much she missed them.
Dumbledore was shocked. This was the first time someone actually took his offered candy! He gave Cordelia a grandfatherly smile and began once he assessed how many she took. Half! He would have to order more in the morning then.
"Can I suggest you try cherry drops, grape drops, or apple drops? They're like the same things except for in a different flavor. They might help you balance out the overly sour flavor in the lemon drops. Honestly I can't eat only Lemon Heads, I have to eat a mix of them and savor all the flavors," Cordelia said beaming brightly.
"Hmm, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try them," Dumbledore said, smiling, then he got quickly to his point.
"Well, Miss Vixen, you caused me quite a shock. I thought you might be sorted in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, because your father was a Gryffindor. How was the ride here for you?"
"Well, it was nice. I got your chocolate frog card, which was quite interesting indeed. It's an honor to meet you sir, after defeating the Dark lord and finding the twelve uses of dragon's blood. Hogwarts is lucky to have you, I believe, its not every school who has a dark wizard vanquisher as its Headmaster!" Cordelia praised sincerely, trying not to choke on the lemon drops.
Dumbledore's electric blue eyes twinkled. Freaky, Cordelia thought. "Hmm, how was your sorting then? We wouldn't want you to grow up in the wrong house now do we? Maybe another go with the Sorting hat wouldn't hurt."
"I'm sure it wouldn't!" exclaimed Cordelia, "in fact, I begged the Sorting Hat not to put me in Slytherin, but it did anyways, maybe I'll get a different one this time. Maybe even Gryffindor, that's where Harry's at anyways."
"It's settled then, let's re-sort!" Dumbledore took the Sorting Hat down from its case and placed it on her head. Wandlessly and wordlessly, Dumbledore cast a confundus charm on the hat, making it believe it was sorting Harry Potter, who would no doubt land in Gryffindor.
"Ah, it's you again. Not happy with your old house?"
"Actually I know where I want to go this time, put me in Gryffindor!"
"Very funny. It took me almost an hour to figure out I'd been manipulated."
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah, your little, 'Not Slytherin' chant won't work this time."
"I was chanting? I don't seem to recall…"
"How could you not? The feast was only two hours ago!"
"You're mad. I never chanted!"
"Calling me mad won't let you get out of it this time."
"Get me out of what? I have no clue what you're talking about!"
"Oh, you're a slippery one. Just because I let you go to Gryffindor last time-"
"HUH? But you put me in..."
"SLYTHERIN!"
Dumbledore almost choked on the current lemon drop he was eating. The Sorting Hat believed Cordelia to be Harry, and yet it still put her in Slytherin? He would have to talk to Harry soon, just incase he was having some doubts. Maybe putting a Potter and a Vixen together wasn't such a good idea after all.
Cordelia saw that Dumbledore didn't look too pleased, so she decided to say something, "Don't worry sir, I won't go Dark or anything like that. I don't like Voldemort at all, and Harry's my best friend. We'll keep each other in check." Cordelia had no idea how she managed these words, because her mind was reeling from her conversation with the Sorting Hat.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled again, "I think that is a very good idea, Miss Vixen. Remember, if you need me, I will be in my office. Good night."
Cordelia left without another word, and she found Professor Snape at the doorway. She smiled at him brightly, extremely pleased that she had the headmaster's approval and enough lemon drops to last the week.
"How was the meeting, Miss Vixen?" Professor Snape asked, hoping Dumbledore didn't transfer her out of his house.
"It was quite interesting, if I might say so myself. The Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin again, which I'm kind of glad for. I mean, I had my doubts before, but I guess Slytherin is an okay house," Cordelia replied, smiling at the black robed professor.
Snape almost choked on his spit. An okay house? He tried not to show how much shock he felt.
Cordelia didn't look at him, "I even told him I wanted to be in Gryffindor…"
This time, Snape couldn't control himself, "Wanted to be in Gryffindor?" he murmured disbelievingly.
Cordelia looked at him, "Oh yes. I really wanted to be in Gryffindor."
Snape looked at her, shocked. She was so different from her mother!
"I mean, look at their house colors! Wouldn't you dream of proudly donning those colors and roaring like a lion?" she said innocently
"Wha- no. How- why-wha-who? Bla-" Professor Snape tried to express, but words failed him at the moment.
Cordelia burst out laughing, "Ha! Gotcha! I didn't mean the last part at all!"
Snape looked offended at first, and then angry, then the last expression took her completely by surprise. He looked proud. Like mother like daughter. It was interesting how much they were alike. "Did you know I went to school with your mother?"
Cordelia looked genuinely interested, "Really? How was she? Did she get good grades? What was her favorite subject? How well did you know her?"
"Your mother and I were friends, but she was two years ahead of me. She was very good at potions. I believe she also owned a snake, and I'm assuming you have one too? [Cordelia nodded] I'll send in a cage tomorrow, and you can let the snake wander in the dungeons. There are many more around here," replied Snape, not willing to tell her everything at once. "Go to sleep, you have a long day tomorrow."
"Okay, goodnight, sir." Cordelia said politely, still thinking about the joke she played on Snape. She couldn't wait to tell Harry.
She walked up to the first year dorms, which had its own little fireplace, sofas, and tables to work on. Malfoy was writing a letter to his parents, and Crabbe and Goyle were looking around stupidly.
"Hey, Malfoy," she greeted, plopping down on the green armchair next to the fire, "where's everyone else?"
Malfoy looked up, "Call me Draco. I think Pansy's in the shower, Millicent and Daphne are in their room unpacking, and Blaise is in the shower also. I think Theo fell asleep already."
"Cool. Well, I better get going. I wanna see which bed Pansy saved me," Cordelia said, getting up.
"Wait! What did the headmaster want?"
She frowned slightly. "He wanted me to transfer to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, so I tried on the hat again, but I still got Slytherin. I hope Granger didn't have lice or anything, or I'm sure I have it now." She joked good-naturedly.
He laughed a little. She supposed he had a nice laugh when he actually used it.
"Oh yeah, there's also a Gryffindor who manipulated the Sorting Hat. He or she was supposed to be in Slytherin. I guess when the Sorting Hat tried to sort me; it thought I was that person. Maybe we should keep a lookout for them?" Cordelia asked.
"Well, maybe. I suppose it wouldn't hurt," Draco replied, then murmered something under his breath. She couldn't catch the whole phrase, but it had something to do with a 'Mudblood.'
Cordelia grinned, trying not to show her hurt from him not telling her, "Well, I'll be heading off now if you don't mind?"
"Yeah, see you in the morning," he said, looking at her retreating form and wondering how the heck she could be in Slytherin. She was way too happy and carried her emotions on her sleeve.
There was a black door that read, "Girls' Dorms" in gold letters. She pushed the door open to reveal a rather large sea green room with five queen-sized beds with curtains on it, arranged in a circle. Pansy had already claimed the bed closest to the door, but Cordelia didn't mind. The other three girls were sitting on the other beds, so the last option was the bed directly across the room, next to a window…wait, window?
"It's charmed to look like the outside world, even though we're under the lake," a pretty blonde haired witch said, smiling at her curiosity.
"I'm Daphne Greengrass, by the way. And you're Cordelia Vixen right?"
"Yeah, that's me," Cordelia said, smiling also. She noticed the other two girls stop talking and looked at her. "Hi, I'm Cordelia."
"Millicent Bulstrode" introduced the girl who almost found out her secret during the feast. Now that Cordelia thought about it, Millicent looked similar to Crabbe and Goyle.
"I'm Tracey Davis." A brunette girl with striking gray eyes said, "My brother's a fourth year in Ravenclaw."
Cordelia shook both of their hands happily, pleased that she was making fast friends with her dorm mates.
"I'm just going to get settled in now," Cordelia said, turning her attention to her trunk that was currently next to her bed.
She briefly wondered if she could put a cage for Pumba underneath it. Hopefully the other girls weren't afraid of snakes. She looked around the room again. There was a pretty mahogany dresser on her side of the room, where she could put her clothes in. There was also a vanity mirror between every two beds. Cordelia decided that she immensely liked the room.
Cordelia searched through her trunk after telling Pumba to go exploring. She found her pajamas and walked out of the door, off to find the bathrooms. She bumped into Pansy on the way, who directed her to the bathrooms.
Cordelia quickly showered; finding the bathroom only had one shower, bath, toilet, and two sinks. It was actually quite small. She scurried back to her room, since no one was in the Dorm Common Room.
"Hey," Pansy greeted, "we made a shower schedule already. Millicent's going first at 5:45, then Daphne at 6, and Tracey's going in at 6:15, then you're going at 6:30. I can go in at seven, and that'll give us about an hour to get ready till we have to go down to breakfast, which is at eight, and classes start at nine."
"That sounds great. Do you know when classes usually end?" Cordelia asked, not bothering to question why she got twice the amount of shower time than the other girls.
"Well, I think this is the schedule my mom told me: breakfast at eight, then we have our first class at nine, then we have a fifteen minute passing period then our second class. Then we have lunch, then two more classes in the afternoon. Then, we do our homework and what not, and dinner is at 6:30. Our curfew is at nine. Don't worry, tomorrow, the prefects will give us a tour of the place and what not," Pansy said, trying to think about what her mother told her.
"Thanks Pansy," Cordelia replied, "Oh, yeah, I have a pet snake, and she's wandering around somewhere. I was thinking of putting a cage underneath the bed. Do you mind?"
"A snake?" Pansy asked, paling a little, "well, I wouldn't mind if it didn't bother me or anything. What kind is it?"
The other girls gasped and looked at Cordelia in awe.
"She," Cordelia automatically corrected, "She's a black mamba, but Pumba's not that big yet. She couldn't hurt anybody unless she bit them."
"Where is she?" asked Tracey nervously.
"Oh, I told her to explore somewhere. She should be back in the morning," Cordelia said absently. She couldn't keep tabs on Pumba all the time.
"You mean there's a black mamba running around here? How can you be so calm?" Millicent shrieked.
Cordelia shrugged. She knew despite Pumba's irritable nature, she wouldn't bite anyone unless they stepped on her. She shared her thoughts with the panicking girls (except Pansy) in front of her.
"Okay, I'm fine with that. Let's go to sleep now, I'm tired," whined Pansy.
"What? How?" Millicent spluttered, "How can you be okay with that?"
"I trust Cordelia. You should too. Now let's sleep."
The other girls nodded mutely, trying to put their faith in Cordelia and her snake.
"All right, night, Pansy," Cordelia said before climbing into her bed, but before she went to sleep, Georgina got out a quill and parchment and wrote a certain list:
Things to do Tomorrow
1. Make new friends!
2. Be better friends with Harry, Pansy, Blaise, and Draco.
3. Talk to some of the older students.
4. Make friends from different houses.
5. Learn something new! Excited!
6. Write to mom, dad, and Christy
7. Don't end up on the train ride home.
8. Read the Slytherin rules
When Cordelia was finished, she sighed. She sure set some pretty high standards for herself, but she wanted to make her parents proud!
Author's Note: Well, that was chapter nine! Sorry it wasn't more interesting. Hopefully the next chapter will have more action (or something).
I'm sorry Cordelia and Harry couldn't be in the same house, but yes! They will still be friends (Snape and Lily anyone?). Also, note that Cordelia doesn't know that Draco hates Harry! However, this will still be a fic where Draco and Cordelia are best friends :)
With Ron and Hermione, Cordelia won't like them, but she'll try to keep herself in check so she won't upset Harry.
I'll try to get the next chapter up ASAP, but it's a lot longer, so no guarantees. Reviews are my brain food!