I still don't own Harry Potter
Chapter Twenty Nine
Pansy Parkinson and Milicent Bulstrode sat in the Common Room whispering to each other, casting nervous glances at their more popular and prettier classmates; Tracey Davies, Daphne Greengrass and Maia Black. They watched as the three girls giggled and laughed, presumably at their expense, and then went back to their own game of magical chess.
To an extent, they supposed they deserved the way they were ostracised. They had made a clear error at the start of the year, and were now paying the price. Both came from 'degraded' lines of once prominent pureblood families. They had (and they had planned this together in advance) assumed that they could make friends and connections in Slytherin by playing on the purity of their blood and ingratiating themselves with 'good' families, such as the Malfoys and the Zabinis. It had backfired spectacularly when they had misjudged the fact that the old families clung together, even over issues of blood-purity in their own ranks. If you were in, you were in regardless. And Maia Black was definitely in.
And it didn't help that darling Maia Black could do no wrong. Perfect little Maia, who was loved by all the prefects and the rest of the older years because she won so many points, and who was loved by all the students with old names, or the students who wanted to climb the social ladder, because now she had a signet ring and was going to be the Black Heir, and who was loved by all the teachers because she was so sweet and polite and clever.
She'd even gotten away with the stunt in Snape's classroom a few weeks ago, the two girls thought bitterly. And now she'd made Malfoy love her even more by letting him declare 'open season' on Potter, Granger and Weasley, when she'd been trying to hold him back before.
Argh, groaned Pansy inwardly, she hated Maia Black so much.
"We ought to get our own back." She hissed.
"Like what?" said Milicent, rolling her eyes.
"I don't know, just something."
"Rather you than me. Malfoy set Crabbe and Goyle on Weasley after he made a snide remark about her father or mother or something. He had to spend the night in the Hospital Wing."
"Well, he wouldn't do that to us! We're Slytherins and the prefects wouldn't stand for it."
"If I remember correctly, they gave him points for it."
Pansy groaned again and shot another nasty look in Maia's direction. Tracey was playing with Maia's hair (which, when Pansy thought about it, was really the only pretty thing about her. Tracey and Daphne were far better looking) whilst Maia placed out the Tarot cards in front of Daphne. The girls all giggled again.
Milicent shook her arm and bought her attention back to the game, "Stop looking over at them, they'll see you!"
"They don't care!"
"Yes they do, we'll just have to sit it out. At least we have each other."
Pansy shrugged and Milicent thought she could at least try and be more enthusiastic about their friendship, but moved another of her pawns along the board and tried not to think about it.
...
A few evenings later, after gloating loudly at dinner that she had come top of the class in the latest History of Magic essay just to see Granger snarl at her, Maia entered the Common Room.
"A point to Slytherin!" called Bertram as she climbed through the gap in the wall as it appeared (The password had just been changed to Epimetheus, Titan of afterthought and father of excuses).
"What for?" she said with a smile.
"After you beat that Gryffindor sycophant in the essay, she was fuming about it to Potter and Weasley in the library and I got to tell her off!"
Bertram grinned as Queenie looked at him adoringly. Bertram was even worse than most Slytherins when it came to bearing a grudge, and as a prefect, he couldn't risk being caught hexing a first year. He'd probably been hoping for a day like this for weeks.
"Thank you."
She walked over to their fireplace (it had been disputed in the first term by some of the older years, but now that it had been claimed by two Heirs, they had backed off) where Draco was pacing in front of the fire. The chairs were full, so she perched on the arm of the sofa next to Daphne.
"Get up Vincent!" snapped Draco, "What do you think you're doing taking up a seat when Maia's standing?"
Vincent stood up immediately and Maia took his place, curling up where his bulk had left the leather wonderfully warm. The fireplace flickered, where the embers were dying.
Draco's eyes were bright and he was pacing the floor again, clearly bursting to tell them something, but waiting for the right moment.
"Oh spit it out, Draco." Said Maia, knowing that she was the only one who could get away with talking to him like that, expect for Blaise, perhaps, as the two had become very good friends and, as Draco had pointed out, Maia was 'still a girl' and men had to have men to talk to sometimes. Of course, Maia thought that was rather pompous and worthy of Ernie, but what could you expect of someone who was raised by Uncle Lucius?
"Not yet, I want everything to be in order first. I had to wait for you anyway, before I told the others, because you're going to love this!" He paused, looking at the fire and then to Daphne, who was shivering delicately. "House elf!" he called.
A house elf appeared and bowed low. "What can Minny do for young Master?"
"Stoke up the fire, my friends are cold, and bring us some hot chocolate."
The house elf bowed and, with a crack of her fingers, the fire place burst back to life.
"Thank you." Said Daphne and the Minny's ears wiggled with delight.
"Anything for pretty Mistress!" she said, before disappearing with another crack.
"Did you really just thank an elf?" said Draco incredulously.
Daphne nodded, "We aren't all as mean as you are to Dobby."
Draco rolled his eyes, "Dobby's useless, rude and insolent. We'd dismiss him if we could but he's been with us for too long. He knows too many family secrets."
Daphne shrugged. Maia did feel bad for the way the Malfoys treated Dobby, and he had always been polite enough to her, but she'd also seen the glares he'd given Draco and knew that she couldn't blame her cousin for disliking him. Dobby went out of his way to 'forget' to tell Draco messages from his family, or sought to 'misunderstand' orders.
Her thoughts were interrupted with another crack, and Minny stood before them, smiling broadly, and holding a giant tray of large mugs, filled with thick hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream, and sprinkled with flakes of Belgium chocolate and ever-lasting marshmallows. The rest of the common room looked on enviously, and cries of 'house elf!' filled the room as the elder students started to place their own orders.
"Thank you, Minny, these look delicious." Said Maia, as she took her warm mug. The rest of their group said their thanks, even Draco who was clearly delighted to finally have a friendly elf, before Minny bowed to each of them in turn and vanished.
Tracey took a gulp of her drink and sighed contentedly. "So, now you've kept us waiting for an hour – Maia that is a hint for you to spend less time in the library by the way, even though I know you'll never listen – could you please tell us what we're all waiting to hear, Draco?"
Draco turned to them all, his back to the fire, and announced, "I'm going to see Potter, Weasley and Granger expelled, or at least lose their House a hundred points and spend the rest of the year scrubbing floors for Filch."
The rest of their group shared a significant look and leant in closer. "How are you going to pull that off?" Said Blaise, who looked the most sceptical.
"I've been spying on them and that oaf Hagrid's got a dragon hatchling in his hut-"
"What!" whispered Daphne, chocking on her drink. "That shack's made of wood!" Maia was fairly certain that Daphne's look of horror was mirrored on her own face.
"Is he insane?" whispered Blaise.
"He has to be!" whispered Maia.
Draco waved his hand for them to be silent, "That's what the Golden Trio think as well, so they're going to sneak it out of the castle at midnight next week, giving it to one of Weasley's brothers. The three of them will be wandering around out of bed in the middle of the night and all we have to do is tell Filch to catch them and Merlin's your uncle, they're done for!"
Blaise nodded, "I like the idea, but how do we tell Filch to find them, without being out of bed ourselves?"
Draco sighed, "I'm working on it."
"Maybe they'll get themselves caught?" said Tracey hopefully.
Maia shook her head, "Granger's too clever to let them get caught, we have to make sure they get caught ourselves." She paused, "I have an idea. That muggleborn in their year, the boy?"
"Dean Thomas?"
Maia nodded, "Yes, him, he's friends with that hot-head Finnegan as well. We just tell him that if he follows Potter and his friends, he'll see a real baby dragon. He'll take his friend along with them and both of them are as subtle as rabid Acromantulas. They'll be caught in no time, and they'll say they were following Potter and his lot, and then the rest of them will caught as well. We won't even have to get out of bed, we can just go to breakfast in the morning and gloat."
Blaise beamed, "Maia, has anyone ever told you that you're the best Slytherin since Salazar?"
Maia toyed with the ring on her little finger, "Only once or twice."
As the leader, Draco brought the attention back to himself. "That is brilliant, but how are we going to tell them? How are we going to make sure Thomas and Finnegan follow?"
Daphne and Tracey grinned at each other, looking a little evil as they did so. They flicked their long hair and said simultaneously, "You all just leave that to us."
Maia didn't even want to think about what they were planning...
...
When the night of the 'Great Dragon Escape' finally arrived, neither Maia nor any of the other Slytherins could sit still. They fidgeted nervously, hoping that their plan would work and that it wouldn't be traced back to them. In the end, Blaise had suggested they all have an early night and sleep through the nerves. They could see how it had all panned out in the morning.
The next morning, they went down to breakfast and saw that the only Gryffindor first years sat on the table were Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown and that the red rubies on the House Cup scoreboard were conspicuous by their absence. Only a handful remained.
Daphne leant over, "Queenie just said that Bertram's gone to talk to Percy Weasley to see if he knows what's happened, so we should find out what happened in a minute."
Draco helped himself to a slice of eggy bread, "Poor Bertram. I wouldn't like to hold a conservation with any Weasley, but least of all that one."
Daphne shrugged, "I know, but he's the Gryffindors fifth year prefect, and McGonagall must have told them what happened."
Bertram and Percy appeared to be having a rapid conversation and Bertram's eyebrows were almost reaching his hairline.
"It looks like something dramatic happened." Whispered Maia.
Bertram walked back quickly, sat with the other fifth years and Queenie Greengrass, lowered his head, and began to whisper to them so quickly that all the first years could make out was a 'hissing' noise that may as well have been Parseltongue. Queenie beamed when he had finished, kissed Bertram quickly on the cheek, and hurried over to her sister.
"You are never going to believe what happened." She said, before sitting down and promptly recanting the whole story to the first years. Nobody even objected when Parkinson and Bulstrode shuffled closer to hear the story.
"Well," she stared, "it seems that Potter, Granger and Weasley aren't Merlin's gift to the rest of us after all. From what Percy Weasley was saying, and Professor McGonagall spoke to all the Gryffindor prefects this morning so he should know, they decided to play a prank on Finnegan and Thomas. They made up some Basilisk and Cockerel story about having a dragon hatchling that they were going to set free from the top of the Astronomy Tower."
She paused while the first years made appropriately contemptuous noises.
"And so lured the two of them out of dorms. Anyway, Longbottom woke up, saw that they were all gone, so went wandering around looking for them. Filch found him first, but then found Finnegan and Thomas when they ran into the Bloody Baron and ran away screaming. So, they told him the story about the Astronomy Tower, and off he dragged them, only to catch the so-called Golden Trio coming down from the top of the stairs. Well, McGonagall was livid. She took fifty points from Granger, Potter and Weasley each for winding up their house mates and being out of bed, and then twenty five points each from the other three for being stupid enough not to realise that the story was a load on nonsense and for being out of bed as well."
She finished up as the first years burst into hysterics. Their plan had gone even better than they thought. Maia and Draco looked up to see all the Gryffindor first year boys and Granger turn up in the doorway to the Great Hall, only to turn and flee at the glares of their other housemates and the shrieks of laughter that echoed from the Slytherin table. The first years laughed even harder.
Gryffindor House had lost two hundred and twenty five points in one night.
Hermione Granger stopped putting her hand up in class. Neville Longbottom received a Howler from his irate grandmother, and Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnegan received equally angry Howlers from their mothers. Dean Thomas had been told by a normal owl letter (because his mother was a muggle) that he was grounded for all of the Easter holidays, but Tracey had overheard him complaining in potions and wasted no time telling the rest of her friends. Harry Potter, the old man's Golden Boy, found that his team mates only addressed him as 'The Seeker', as Draco proudly informed them after spying on their practice for Warrington.
The rest of the Gryffindors walked around with the air of having been collectively wronged, and wished fervently that Potter had been put in one of the other Houses, if he was always going to get the rest of his year into this much trouble.
The world was a shiny happy place, as far as Maia Black was concerned.
Of course, Draco dropped a few hints to the older years and it soon made its way round to the rest of the Slytherin Common Room (never to leave its hallowed walls, of course) that he and his friends had played a leading hand in setting up Potter's downfall. He made especial reference to Maia's cunning plan in order to make sure that they all knew her dubious birth hadn't affected her abilities as a Slytherin.
So, that Friday, the Slytherin first years (minus Bulstrode and Parkinson, of course) walked into the Common Room after their last class to find that they were on the receiving end of a standing ovation. Such a thing was almost unheard of in the history of Slytherin, who were generally a very reserved lot when it came to public congratulations and displays of emotion. Coeus Blishwick, the Head Boy, made a toast in their honour and the Slytherin Common Room celebrated late into the night.
The Gryffindor first years, on the other hand, where hiding in the library as it was the only place the rest of their House couldn't shout at them, as Madam Pince had a habit of charming books to attack students who raised their voices.
...
Thank you for all the lovely reviews from the last chapter. I hope that you're all enjoying the story and I'm pleased that people still like Maia. I can't wait to write the rest of this story, especially third year. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome.
