Chapter
II: Bitter Betrayal
Dumbledore stood up to make his speech, and once that was
done, all was silent as the students and teachers alike began to guzzle drink
and scoff down food. Kaitlyn sat and timidly ate the food which had been placed
in front of her. The slimy haired boy next to her was watching her eat. Kaitlyn
felt pressured. She wanted to run, but she didn't have anywhere to run to.
Thankfully the feast went by quickly, and Kaitlyn followed the other Slytherin
students who were proceeding behind a tall boy, who appeared from this distance
to be quite handsome. When he opened his mouth, however...
"Right, let's get away from these stupid mudbloods and
get down to some real magic. My name is Lucius Malfoy, and I am your Slytherin
Prefect. If I catch any of you acting in a non-Slytherin manner, I'll have you
at my feet in seconds or I'm not a blood descendant of Salazar Slytherin!"
Kaitlyn gulped, and followed the crowd down a set of stone steps and towards a
corridor which led to a...dead end? Malfoy paused by the stretch of damp wall
and bellowed over the nervous first years and boisterous fifth years that the
password was 'tortured'. Some of the fifth years made comments about this name,
but Malfoy turned and watched a panel in the wall slide away, revealing a
passage that must lead to the Slytherin common room. Kaitlyn stepped into the
room, and looked up to see a low ceiling draped with great expanses of green
silks. Around the worn and chilled walls were green lamps. The centerpiece of
the main wall was the great fire with a portrait of Salazar Slytherin above it.
The picture was surrounded by a great silver snake, which entwined around the
picture, framing it. The fire crackled beneath it and silhouettes of students
now sitting in great-carved oak chairs danced on the walls. There were
staircases dotted around the other two walls that did not have the main door or
the fire upon them. Each was marked with a nametag. Kaitlyn could read some of
the nearer ones - "Seventh year boys" - "First year girls".
The groups were directed up their staircases to their dormitories, which were
long rooms with no windows filled with great beds draped in green and silver
silks. Kaitlyn sighed and sat down on the bed with her trunk at the end of it.
James
sat on his bed, thinking of his sister. Slytherin? She got put in Slytherin.
Slytherin. Slytherin! Mum and Dad had been so sure the two would get put
in Gryffindor, instead it was only him. And Remus in Ravenclaw? But Remus was
brave, and chivalrous (or so James thought) how could he be put in Ravenclaw?
James didn't know the answer would come years later, and he would never have a
clue about it. Sirius was snoring. Typical Sirius. Peter stood up and threw a
shoe at Sirius' head.
"MMMPH!" cried Sirius, and spat the shoe out of
his mouth. James laughed, laid his head on his pillow and tried to get some
sleep.
The
next morning, Kaitlyn sat at the Slytherin tables in the Great Hall poking her
pancakes with her fork and twisting a finger into her hair with the other hand.
Then there was a great gasp as the post owls flew in. Kaitlyn's stomach did a
triple somersault as she saw the family owl flying towards her with a large red
envelope. The greasy haired boy who sat next to her laughed.
"I'd run, if I were you," he said, his voice
dripping with humor. Kaitlyn picked up the letter, and made a run for the door,
nearly knocking over Professor Flitwick in her sprint. Making it outside the
hall, she opened the letter and threw it across the entrance hall, putting her
hands over her ears. People listened, amused, as Edward Potter's voice bellowed
through the entrance hall into the Great Hall.
"KAITLYN ANNE POTTER, HOW DARE YOU GET PUT IN
SLYTHERIN! YOU HAVE BETRAYED YOUR FAMILY - DO YOU NOT CARE ABOUT US ANY MORE?
THINK OF YOUR MOTHER, KAITLYN! SHE'S ABSOLOUTLY DEVESTATED! HOW DO YOU THINK
WE'RE GOING TO COPE, DECENDANTS OF GODRIC GRYFFINDOR HIMSELF HAVING A SLYTHERIN
FOR A DAUGHTER? YOU ARE BANNED FROM COMING HOME ON HOLIDAYS, WE WILL NOT BE
GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO GO TO HOGSMEDE IN YOUR THIRD YEAR, AND MOST OF ALL,
YOU WILL NOT MENTION YOUR HOUSE WHEN YOU ARE AT HOME." Edward Potter's
voice stopped and the letter burst into flames. Kaitlyn took her hands away
from her ears, and walked over to where the ashes of the letter lay. She knelt
down next to them and sobbed into her robes. Kaitlyn felt a hand on her
shoulder and turned round. Lily knelt down next to her and gave her a tissue.
Lily smiled at Kaitlyn, and Kaitlyn stopped crying. The Great Hall went silent.
Kaitlyn stood up and walked back into the Great Hall. She sat down in her seat
and picked up her timetable. She smiled slightly. She had double
Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, then History of Magic with the
Ravenclaws. At least she'd get to see all her friends. The bell went and the
students hurried off to their lessons, swinging bags stuffed with books over
their backs and walking in their separate directions. Kaitlyn ran over to Lily
and walked with her to Transfiguration. They sat down in the classroom, Lily next
to Kaitlyn, James next to Sirius and Peter next to a boy called Andrew who was
in Gryffindor. Kaitlyn was the only Slytherin sitting next to a Gryffindor. The
class fell silent as Professor McGonagall entered the room. She stood at the
front of the class and explained to them that they would be learning to
transfigure an object into another object of similar shape. After what seemed
like hours of copying from their textbooks, she walked round and handed each
person a match, instructing them to take out their wands and stand behind their
desks. McGonagall demonstrated the incarnation and the wand action, then left
the students to try and transfigure their matches into needles. Kaitlyn raised
her wand to shoulder height, and bought her wand down, aiming it at the match
and speaking the incarnation. The match turned silver and pointy, then into a
proper needle. Professor McGonagall was standing and watching, and stopped the
class, making them look at how well the match had been transfigured. McGonagall
put the needle back on the table, then asked Kaitlyn to go and help Peter,
giving her a rare smile. Kaitlyn went over to help Peter, and by the end of the
lesson he had managed to turn his match slightly silver. By the end of the
lesson James and Sirius had also managed to transfigure their matches, and the
greasy haired boy Kaitlyn had sat next to at breakfast had a pointy, silver
match. Kaitlyn decided she liked Hogwarts, despite the howler she had received
earlier. The bell went and they went to their common rooms to pack for their
next lessons. Kaitlyn put her incredibly heavy History of Magic book in her bag
and went to meet Remus outside the Ravenclaw classroom. He was waiting for her
there and smiled as she walked up. They walked together to History of Magic and
took seats at the back of the classroom. Professor Binns walked in through the
door in the side of the room and took the register. He then began to drawl on
about goodness knows whatever happened in 1845.
"What's it like being in Slytherin?" Remus asked,
whispering to Kaitlyn timidly.
"Weird...like I don't belong there in some ways, but
like it's perfect for me in other ways. How does it feel to be in
Ravenclaw?"
"I don't mind, actually. Although all the people in
there seem to be interested in studying and nothing else. Look at them, they're
copying word for word what Binns is saying." Kaitlyn looked, and chuckled
under her breath.
"Do you think we'll spend every History of Magic lesson
talking?" Remus smiled at Kaitlyn.
"Hopefully."
"Yup, we're the two non-Gryffindors from the group that
once was five." Kaitlyn smiled and looked at Binns, who was now droning on
about the Goblin Rebellion. "I want to know how Binns doesn't bore himself
to death talking such rubbish."
Kaitlyn
sat down at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall and ate her lunch,
silently. She looked up and saw James
and Lily mouthing things to her. James seemed to be saying 'Tip your lunch on
his head'. Whose head? 'HIS head! SNAPE's head!' Snape who? 'The greasy git
sitting next to you"' chirped Sirius. Kaitlyn glanced to her left and saw
that hook-nosed, greasy haired boy next to her. He saw her looking at him, and
leered,
"What are you looking at?" Kaitlyn sat up, pushed
her plate away from her and turned to Snape.
"I was just wondering what shampoo you use. Is it eau
de oil or eau de grease?" Snape fumed and jumped up, knocking his chair
backwards.
"What's going on over there?" Professor Mori, head
of Slytherin house stood up.
"Oh, nothing Sir, Severus and I were just talking." Kaitlyn smiled sweetly, then got up and left the Great Hall, leaving Sirius, James, Lily, Peter and Remus in stitches. From that moment on, Snape vowed to get his own back on that...that bitch of a girl! Kaitlyn walked down the stone steps to the corridor that lead to the blank wall. She stood in front of the wall and whispered the password. The section of wall moved out of the way and she stepped through into the common rooms and went to pack for double Herbology.
