p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Alright, then! Quiet, all of you. You'll have plenty of time to chat after this", exclaimed Prefect Farley in order to silence the crowd of first years./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The murmurs slowly faded, and about thirty pairs of eyes were intently staring at the blonde in front of the fireplace. The flames made her seem imposing, frightening even in the eyes of all the eleven-year-olds, new to all things Hogwarts. I have to admit it was quite intimidating./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma took a few more seconds to scan the room before she began speaking again. The only audible background was the cracking of the fire and a faint underwater sound coming from the windows./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Good evening everyone, it is my utmost pleasure to welcome you all to Slytherin house!" she grinned and paused dramatically, the reality of it all beginning to sink in. For the love of Go-… Merlinem (have to get used to saying that!)/em, it was all pretty surreal./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""For all of those who have been emliving under a rock/em and are not aware of what of an honor this is, let me tell you a little more about this prestigious wizarding community." Her sass grabbed everyone's attention./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Our house was established by Salazar Slytherin, an incredibly brilliant and accomplished wizard, and one of the founders of Hogwarts. He prided himself on his magical abilities and impressive pureblood lineage, and because of that he favored those who shared such heritage."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emPureblood supremacists rejoice, there's a school club just for you! /emI thought darkly./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He chose as emblem a green serpent, the wisest and most cunning of creatures. And like serpents, all those who are Slytherins are particularly clever minded and resourceful."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I glanced meaningfully at Crabbe and Goyle just sitting by the fire and raised a questioning eyebrow. I could hear Theo suppressing a laugh next to me./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But most important of all", continued the Prefect undisturbed, "Salazar preferred students who valued their ambitions over any other thing in the world. In other words, you are more driven and more likely to achieve success than any of your peers in this castle. Because all of you have what Salazar called the emseed of greatness./em"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma was looking at us all now, pausing every so often to gauge the emotions in the room. She was a very commanding public speaker, and all newly sorted Slytherins seemed as if they'd been promised eternal power and glory./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""BUT!" she roared and caught me off-guard, "that does not mean that you will not try your best in here and just expect success to fall on your lap. You are fortunate enough to be part of the most illustrious house of all Hogwarts, and because of that, you need to work hard for the house and ensure we are the always on the winning end. Us Slytherins, we play to win, not to participate." She walked up to a small boy and her smirk was wide and slightly threatening. "We'll make sure that message is clear enough in the next few weeks."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The boy audibly gulped and nodded as if he had been asked a question. The Perfect just snickered and carried on with her speech./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let me dispel a few myths for you on our House. You will have heard a lot of unfounded gossip about us, a lot of hate. Forget about those useless comments, they are coming from a bunch of extremely sore losers who are jealous of our triumphs. Focus on what we are instead, and what makes us the best House. We are like our symbol: proud, powerful and most times misunderstood./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And like snakes, we hunt in packs. We have a deep-rooted sense of community and are extremely keen on being a unified front. Once you're one of us, you're one of the emelite/em." She held her head high, her words ritualistic and formal. "You can rest assured that no one will betray you in here, unlike in the other houses. It'll always be an unspoken rule that if a fellow Slytherin needs help, any of us will come to their rescue. No dark corridor or hallways will ever look scary knowing that you have the serpents by your side."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That seemed to have an effect on the audience, as people were looking at each other with solemn expressions. This whole thing felt like a social experiment; as if we were being forced to bond over the fact that we literally had no other allies but ourselves in the school./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Now, I cannot empossibly/em tell you all there is to know about Slytherin, so because of that, every single one of you will be assigned to a sixth or seventh-year student that will act as your mentor for the first semester here. You will find your appointed Slytherin on the noticeboard next to the entrance." she paused and with a low voice added, "make sure you listen carefully to everything they say". In a second, her whole body relaxed once more, she moved gracefully towards the fireplace and continued "And just to throw in another housekeeping memo, on the same board we'll post the password to the common room that changes every fortnight, so make sure to remember that."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was pretty sure I'd forget to check at least a million times./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And if you forget the password for some eminane/em reason" she rolled her eyes at that, " you might want to make friends in here and stay true to our tradition of fraternity among us Slytherins."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I turned to Blaise and Theo who were smiling sheepishly at me. I felt a little relieved seeing them so eager to be my house buddies./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And that's it, folks. Professor Snape, the potion's master at Hogwarts, is our Head of House and will give you his own welcome when he gets the chance this week. He's a little on the scary side, but he has a soft spot for Slytherin, so make sure not to anger him and you might just survive his class."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The idea of having Snape as head of the house was far from enticing, but alas, it was better than being Gryffindor and having to deal with his hate at Potions every day. emI'll leave that to Harry, thank you very much. /em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Remember, we are a family" she paused on the last word and slowly continued "and as such, whatever happens between us STAYS between us. There'll be consequences I'd rather not say if it were to happen otherwise", said Gemma cryptically, her eyes twinkling softly in the dark common room./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She then instructed us to go check out our dormitories and get ready for the following day. Once we'd been dismissed, I waved Theo and Blaise goodbye and went to the right side of the entrance arch, where the girl's bedrooms were located./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The rooms seemed carved out of stone and were alike in furniture and decorations, but varied in shapes. Some were rectangular, others perfectly squared. Mine was a long corridor of four lined up four-poster beds, with one wall completely made of glass overlooking the lake. If I ever wondered what being a goldfish was like, I had now the chance to live in the closest thing resembling a fishbowl./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The forest green drapes and silver linings, together with the greenish lamps only added to the underwater ambiance. I found my trunk with my initials at the very first bed near the door and plopped down on it to test it out. I then heard the door of the room opening and saw three girls entering the dormitory./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was the heart-shaped, blonde girl from earlier, followed by two other ones I had yet to meet. Daphne approached me with a slight smile, seeing a familiar face seemed to put her in a good mood./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hello there, I'm Lizzie Fawley" I offered my hand to shake to my new roommates./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Viola Richmond" sputtered a very ginger and very pale looking girl; her grey eyes were oddly bright in the dimly lit room. Her hand barely made any contact with mine, as if afraid to contract any lethal germ from the interaction. She swiftly moved to her bad at the far end of the room./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I then turned to the other one standing right beside Daphne, a brunette with pitch-black eyes. Her cheekbones were prominent, her face serious. She went to adjust her black-rimmed rectangular glasses and then formally introduced herself./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""My name is Lily Spencer-Moon, with "Spencer" and "Moon" hyphened, not one word", she tattled with a monotone voice. "Related to emthe/em Leonard Spencer-Moon"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She looked at me waiting to make a connection and recognize her. I obviously had no idea who this Leonard was, so I just dumbly stared back./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Riiight" I responded sounding very confused. Nothing seemed to come to mind./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She was puzzled by my ignorance. "How do YOU not know of all people? Leonard Spencer-Moon! Minister of Magic right after Hector Fawley, emyour grandfather/em, after he was forced to resign" she sneered, making me want to punch her face. Dear Morgana, it's as if she had prepared the whole little speech for years before actually meeting me./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emGreat/em-grandfather" I corrected through gritted teeth, " You mean you're related to the tea-boy who got promoted? That's sweet, I'm sure you must be proud". I was glad I remembered emsome/em History of Magic to counter back. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My snarky comment didn't go unnoticed by Daphne, who was now sitting on my bed and watching the heated exchange./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Lily's temper flared up, as she fidgeted with her glasses. "He was one of the best Ministries of Magic yet! Unlike emFlamboyant/em Fawley who was such a disappointment"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I clicked my tongue and was about to respond when Daphne intervened./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Aren't you related to the Muggle Royal family too? There's that Diana Spencer who's Princess of Wales now". I turned to look at her; she had a devious smile made her look like the Cheshire cat./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The comment made Lily press her lips in a thin line, and look intently at the blonde. She had basically called her out on not begin pureblooded and it was priceless./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, indeed, we are related" her eyes never leaving Daphne's "but we rarely ever see her"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Daphne continued without missing a beat. "It must be hard dealing with the adultery scandal right now, could compromise her marriage to the future King of England", she responded sweetly at Lily./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The brunette just mumbled a few words back and promptly excused herself to go to sleep. I just gave Daphne a look of pure adoration, and she mouthed a "You're welcome" as she went to bed as well./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emMan, these children are out for blood/em, I thought while prepping myself to sleep. I should have expected weird rivalries among kids, but these rich brats liked to mess with family names and brag about pretty much anything. I was also surprised at my own anger at Lily for speaking badly of some relative I had never met. I guess I had been sorted in Slytherin for a reason./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I don't know when I managed to fall asleep that night; the last I remember was the lulling sound of the water against the windows./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The murmurs slowly faded, and about thirty pairs of eyes were intently staring at the blonde in front of the fireplace. The flames made her seem imposing, frightening even in the eyes of all the eleven-year-olds, new to all things Hogwarts. I have to admit it was quite intimidating./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma took a few more seconds to scan the room before she began speaking again. The only audible background was the cracking of the fire and a faint underwater sound coming from the windows./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Good evening everyone, it is my utmost pleasure to welcome you all to Slytherin house!" she grinned and paused dramatically, the reality of it all beginning to sink in. For the love of Go-… Merlinem (have to get used to saying that!)/em, it was all pretty surreal./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""For all of those who have been emliving under a rock/em and are not aware of what of an honor this is, let me tell you a little more about this prestigious wizarding community." Her sass grabbed everyone's attention./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Our house was established by Salazar Slytherin, an incredibly brilliant and accomplished wizard, and one of the founders of Hogwarts. He prided himself on his magical abilities and impressive pureblood lineage, and because of that he favored those who shared such heritage."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emPureblood supremacists rejoice, there's a school club just for you! /emI thought darkly./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He chose as emblem a green serpent, the wisest and most cunning of creatures. And like serpents, all those who are Slytherins are particularly clever minded and resourceful."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I glanced meaningfully at Crabbe and Goyle just sitting by the fire and raised a questioning eyebrow. I could hear Theo suppressing a laugh next to me./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But most important of all", continued the Prefect undisturbed, "Salazar preferred students who valued their ambitions over any other thing in the world. In other words, you are more driven and more likely to achieve success than any of your peers in this castle. Because all of you have what Salazar called the emseed of greatness./em"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma was looking at us all now, pausing every so often to gauge the emotions in the room. She was a very commanding public speaker, and all newly sorted Slytherins seemed as if they'd been promised eternal power and glory./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""BUT!" she roared and caught me off-guard, "that does not mean that you will not try your best in here and just expect success to fall on your lap. You are fortunate enough to be part of the most illustrious house of all Hogwarts, and because of that, you need to work hard for the house and ensure we are the always on the winning end. Us Slytherins, we play to win, not to participate." She walked up to a small boy and her smirk was wide and slightly threatening. "We'll make sure that message is clear enough in the next few weeks."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The boy audibly gulped and nodded as if he had been asked a question. The Perfect just snickered and carried on with her speech./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let me dispel a few myths for you on our House. You will have heard a lot of unfounded gossip about us, a lot of hate. Forget about those useless comments, they are coming from a bunch of extremely sore losers who are jealous of our triumphs. Focus on what we are instead, and what makes us the best House. We are like our symbol: proud, powerful and most times misunderstood./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And like snakes, we hunt in packs. We have a deep-rooted sense of community and are extremely keen on being a unified front. Once you're one of us, you're one of the emelite/em." She held her head high, her words ritualistic and formal. "You can rest assured that no one will betray you in here, unlike in the other houses. It'll always be an unspoken rule that if a fellow Slytherin needs help, any of us will come to their rescue. No dark corridor or hallways will ever look scary knowing that you have the serpents by your side."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That seemed to have an effect on the audience, as people were looking at each other with solemn expressions. This whole thing felt like a social experiment; as if we were being forced to bond over the fact that we literally had no other allies but ourselves in the school./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Now, I cannot empossibly/em tell you all there is to know about Slytherin, so because of that, every single one of you will be assigned to a sixth or seventh-year student that will act as your mentor for the first semester here. You will find your appointed Slytherin on the noticeboard next to the entrance." she paused and with a low voice added, "make sure you listen carefully to everything they say". In a second, her whole body relaxed once more, she moved gracefully towards the fireplace and continued "And just to throw in another housekeeping memo, on the same board we'll post the password to the common room that changes every fortnight, so make sure to remember that."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was pretty sure I'd forget to check at least a million times./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And if you forget the password for some eminane/em reason" she rolled her eyes at that, " you might want to make friends in here and stay true to our tradition of fraternity among us Slytherins."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I turned to Blaise and Theo who were smiling sheepishly at me. I felt a little relieved seeing them so eager to be my house buddies./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And that's it, folks. Professor Snape, the potion's master at Hogwarts, is our Head of House and will give you his own welcome when he gets the chance this week. He's a little on the scary side, but he has a soft spot for Slytherin, so make sure not to anger him and you might just survive his class."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The idea of having Snape as head of the house was far from enticing, but alas, it was better than being Gryffindor and having to deal with his hate at Potions every day. emI'll leave that to Harry, thank you very much. /em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Remember, we are a family" she paused on the last word and slowly continued "and as such, whatever happens between us STAYS between us. There'll be consequences I'd rather not say if it were to happen otherwise", said Gemma cryptically, her eyes twinkling softly in the dark common room./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She then instructed us to go check out our dormitories and get ready for the following day. Once we'd been dismissed, I waved Theo and Blaise goodbye and went to the right side of the entrance arch, where the girl's bedrooms were located./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The rooms seemed carved out of stone and were alike in furniture and decorations, but varied in shapes. Some were rectangular, others perfectly squared. Mine was a long corridor of four lined up four-poster beds, with one wall completely made of glass overlooking the lake. If I ever wondered what being a goldfish was like, I had now the chance to live in the closest thing resembling a fishbowl./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The forest green drapes and silver linings, together with the greenish lamps only added to the underwater ambiance. I found my trunk with my initials at the very first bed near the door and plopped down on it to test it out. I then heard the door of the room opening and saw three girls entering the dormitory./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was the heart-shaped, blonde girl from earlier, followed by two other ones I had yet to meet. Daphne approached me with a slight smile, seeing a familiar face seemed to put her in a good mood./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hello there, I'm Lizzie Fawley" I offered my hand to shake to my new roommates./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Viola Richmond" sputtered a very ginger and very pale looking girl; her grey eyes were oddly bright in the dimly lit room. Her hand barely made any contact with mine, as if afraid to contract any lethal germ from the interaction. She swiftly moved to her bad at the far end of the room./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I then turned to the other one standing right beside Daphne, a brunette with pitch-black eyes. Her cheekbones were prominent, her face serious. She went to adjust her black-rimmed rectangular glasses and then formally introduced herself./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""My name is Lily Spencer-Moon, with "Spencer" and "Moon" hyphened, not one word", she tattled with a monotone voice. "Related to emthe/em Leonard Spencer-Moon"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She looked at me waiting to make a connection and recognize her. I obviously had no idea who this Leonard was, so I just dumbly stared back./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Riiight" I responded sounding very confused. Nothing seemed to come to mind./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She was puzzled by my ignorance. "How do YOU not know of all people? Leonard Spencer-Moon! Minister of Magic right after Hector Fawley, emyour grandfather/em, after he was forced to resign" she sneered, making me want to punch her face. Dear Morgana, it's as if she had prepared the whole little speech for years before actually meeting me./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emGreat/em-grandfather" I corrected through gritted teeth, " You mean you're related to the tea-boy who got promoted? That's sweet, I'm sure you must be proud". I was glad I remembered emsome/em History of Magic to counter back. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My snarky comment didn't go unnoticed by Daphne, who was now sitting on my bed and watching the heated exchange./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Lily's temper flared up, as she fidgeted with her glasses. "He was one of the best Ministries of Magic yet! Unlike emFlamboyant/em Fawley who was such a disappointment"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I clicked my tongue and was about to respond when Daphne intervened./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Aren't you related to the Muggle Royal family too? There's that Diana Spencer who's Princess of Wales now". I turned to look at her; she had a devious smile made her look like the Cheshire cat./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The comment made Lily press her lips in a thin line, and look intently at the blonde. She had basically called her out on not begin pureblooded and it was priceless./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, indeed, we are related" her eyes never leaving Daphne's "but we rarely ever see her"./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Daphne continued without missing a beat. "It must be hard dealing with the adultery scandal right now, could compromise her marriage to the future King of England", she responded sweetly at Lily./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The brunette just mumbled a few words back and promptly excused herself to go to sleep. I just gave Daphne a look of pure adoration, and she mouthed a "You're welcome" as she went to bed as well./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emMan, these children are out for blood/em, I thought while prepping myself to sleep. I should have expected weird rivalries among kids, but these rich brats liked to mess with family names and brag about pretty much anything. I was also surprised at my own anger at Lily for speaking badly of some relative I had never met. I guess I had been sorted in Slytherin for a reason./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I don't know when I managed to fall asleep that night; the last I remember was the lulling sound of the water against the windows./p