The Slytherin Common Room was opulent, to say the least. Decorated in
green and silver, everything was of the finest workmanship. The boys and
girls separated to go to their respective dorms and find their beds; the
first years were surprised to find that their trunks were waiting for them
at the feet of their beds. The amount of luggage in the boys' dorm ranged
from Segev's minimum of one small trunk to Darius' three large trunks, four
suitcases, and a cage for his barn owl. The older children fell in between,
as they were more experienced and knew what to bring and what to leave at
home.
Jason Orm felt rather smug. Judging by the amount of stuff the older children brought, he had about the right amount of stuff—one small trunk and one large. He kept his eyes on his dorm mates, wanting to know as much about them as possible. He knew Jessica would be doing the same thing in the girls' dorm. Knowledge is power, after all.
Hmm, that was odd, that boy that he and Jessica had bracketed at the meal—Segev was his name—didn't seem to be bothering to unpack. He had just opened his trunk and rummaged through it briefly, as if checking on something, then closed it again. Now he was going downstairs. Strange behavior, and strange behavior was something to be marked, especially in Slytherin House. Then again, he could just be lazy and not want to unpack…though laziness was not a quality that placed one in Slytherin.
Jason finished unpacking his small trunk (it had held his school books and supplies) and opened his larger one to begin sorting it out. This trunk held his clothes, but it didn't seem that there were any closets to hold clothes in. Shrugging, he shifted through his clothes and organized them so that he could live out of the trunk they were in right now. Then, he walked over to where the other first year, Darius, was struggling to find places for all of his things. "You seem to have brought a few too many things, Darius. Perhaps you would like some help unpacking them?" offered Jason.
Darius eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want?"
Jason laughed in a friendly fashion, "I merely thought to help a fellow Slytherin get his ducks in order." The smile didn't obscure the calculation in his eyes; no sense in causing Darius to think him an altruistic fool. "Besides, we seem to be the only first years in the dorm." Jason indicated the other occupants of the room—they were all older.
Still suspicious, and now moderately surprised, Darius asked, "What happened to that American boy: Segev?"
Jason indicated the closed and still packed trunk at the foot of Segev's bed. "He went back down to the common room without unpacking. Rather unsociable of him, don't you think?"
"Yes, that is a bit odd, isn't it," agreed Darius. "I would appreciate assistance with my trunks. I wouldn't have packed so much, except one can never be sure what one will need, now can he?" Darius indicated one of his small trunks. "You may unpack that one for me."
Jason worked in silence for a few minutes, watching one side of the room while Darius watched the other. Darius stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Look, Jason, isn't that Draco Malfoy going downstairs?"
Jason casually turned his head to look. "Why, yes it is," he answered in a whisper. "What do you suppose he could be up to?"
The two first years looked at each other and hastened to finish what they were doing before following the fifth year quietly down the stairs.
***
Meanwhile, the girls' dorm was much more chaotic. Jessica Orm had brought the least luggage, and she had as much as some of the more experienced boys. Gretle Wyvern was more typical, in that her luggage covered most of her bed. Alice Garvonna had by far the most; her bed wasn't even visible underneath the stack of boxes, trunks, and bags that formed a small mountain. Whereas the boys were each busy unpacking their own things, the girls formed small groups of two or more to work together on laying out their dorm. Jessica and Gretle had adjacent beds and worked together to unpack their stuff. Everyone wound up helping Alice at one point or another, and slowly her pile lessened. Jessica noticed that one fifth year named Pansy Parkinson was especially helpful…whenever she assisted, Alice's things would fit into remarkably less space than seemed possible, while Pansy's things seemed to take up more than they had before she "helped".
When she pointed this out to Gretle, the taller girl responded, "Yes, I had noticed that, too. I don't think I want Pansy helping me unpack, do you?"
"No, I think not," agreed Jessica.
Finally finished with their unpacking, Gretle and Jessica walked down to the common room so they could converse without raising their voices. Jessica was speaking, "If he's not down there yet, my brother should be in the common room soon. We need to talk, and I think—"
The girls' passage down the steps halted as abruptly as their conversation. The most beautiful sound they had ever heard was emanating from further down the stairs, which ended in the common room. At the same time, it was also chilling, haunting, like the song of the dead. As the girls continued down the stairs, they were incredibly quiet, their footsteps not making a sound and their voices frozen in their throats; they didn't want to interrupt the song, but they didn't want to see it's source, either. As they descended the last few steps, they felt a tingling chill, almost like a static charge, rising—making them need to shiver, but afraid to interrupt the sound with such a sudden action.
Taking the last few steps, they made the final turn of the spiral staircase. Gretle's hard-soled shoe impacted with the stone floor like a firecracker, and the music abruptly stopped. With it fled the haunting chill it inspired. The sudden silence, and the dual sensations of relief and regret the cessation of the music caused, made the girls freeze in place. They scanned the room, searching for the source of the sound they had been hearing, but saw nothing except the furniture.
Then, they saw a figure come out from one of the large green armchairs that faced away from them. When Gretle recognized the figure, she asked in astonishment, "Was that you playing that song?"
Segev nodded once.
Jessica walked over to him. When he made no move except to watch both girls, she asked him, "You were playing that flute?" She reached for the bone-white instrument hanging from a red cord around his neck.
He nodded again, and grabbed it possessively, pulling back so it was out of her reach. She looked as if she was about to say something else, but she suddenly turned towards the stairs leading up to the common room.
Draco Malfoy stood in the stairway, regarding Segev with a sadistic sneer. Jessica met her twin's gaze over the fifth year's shoulder.
"Well well, mudblood," singsonged Malfoy maliciously, "what do you have there? Some muggle artifact? Awfully possessive of it, aren't you?" He began to slowly walk around the room, closing the distance between himself and the first year boy as a snake approaches its prey.
Segev stood perfectly still, his eyes following Malfoy with a gaze as implacable as ice. Gretle hadn't moved from her spot at the foot of the girls' dorm steps, but had adopted a studying pose; she was going to watch this encounter and learn her Housemate's styles. Jessica had moved away from Segev, out of Malfoy's path; but that could have been more so that she would be opposite her brother with the fifth year positioned between the twins.
By the time Malfoy was standing in front of Segev—and somehow failing to tower over the shorter boy—most of the male Slytherins had made their way down to the common room, where they formed a very interested audience for the expected bullying to come. Crabb and Goyle were hovering in the background, unsure whether or not to take up their positions behind Malfoy. He seemed to have the situation well in hand.
"Well, mudblood, what is that thing?"
Segev just stared back at the taller boy.
Malfoy sneered down. "What's the matter, mudblood? Can't speak up before a pureblood? I don't know how a pathetic muggle-spawn like you got into Slytherin, but I don't think you have what it takes to be here. Maybe you should run to your friend Harry Potter," he spat the name, "he might protect you from the Death Eaters."
There was an intake of breath at Draco's temerity in invoking the fear organization's name, but Segev continued to stare in icy silence. The twins' gazes were locked as they debated intervening in the confrontation, but if Segev couldn't handle himself, he wasn't worth allying with, and Malfoy didn't seem to need help. Besides, it wouldn't do to make an enemy of someone as powerful as Lucious Malfoy's son.
Gretle watched the two boys, noting that, though Segev never spoke, he didn't seem defensive, just uncaring. Malfoy, though ostensibly in control as he was to one issuing all the insults, couldn't get a rise out of his "victim" and was seeming largely ineffectual rather than imposing. This confrontation had proven educational, but wasn't going anywhere and was beginning to bore her now.
"Malfoy," interrupted Gretle, "why are you picking on Segev? I don't think he's a mudblood at all."
Draco stopped mid-insult, and glared at the upstart first year girl who dared to interrupt him. He schooled the glare away from his features when he realized who it was. This girl's family wasn't one to have as an enemy; even Draco's father was nervous when Alexander Wyvern's name came up. Still, she was just a first year, and he couldn't have her putting on airs of superiority. "He doesn't know the first thing about wizarding, girl," he spat—he knew her name, but he wasn't going to honor her with its use—"and his name certainly isn't a wizarding one. Besides," he continued, turning back to Segev to resume his taunting, "he's a pathetic weakling who dishonors Slytherin House with his presence." Malfoy smirked as if a new thought had occurred to him. "It may even be in his best interest to leave," he continued, his voice condescending and falsely concerned. "You- Know-Who is alive and well again, and He won't tolerate a mudblood in his Alma Matre."
Gretle sighed theatrically. "If you had been paying attention to events in the main hall, Malfoy, you would have noticed that this boy has some power of his own. Or have you ever driven away Peeves on your own before? That 'muggle artifact' you seem so intent on ridiculing is what did it. He claims to have had it when his parents, and I quote, 'found me on their doorstep as an infant.' I think he was orphaned and raised by muggles, but with an item like that as his heritage, he must come from a powerful pureblood family."
Malfoy snorted in derision. "So he claims, huh? Well, let's just see about this so-called 'magical item.'" He reached out swiftly, catching everyone by surprise, and snatched the recorder from Segev, snapping the silken cord around his neck. He backed out of reach before Segev could snatch it back. Finally, Segev had a reaction. He no longer looked calm and unconcerned as he had throughout the exchange between Malfoy and Gretle; rather, he looked furious. Pulling out his unicorn horn wand, he pointed it as his tormentor. Power reverberating in his voice, he spoke a single word: "EXPELIARMUS!"
The recorder went flying from an astonished Draco's hand, and sailed gracefully through the air to land in Segev's waiting grasp. Once it was back in his possession, Segev's countenance resumed its icy serenity. Segev turned away from Malfoy, who had recovered from the shock of the spell and was stepping towards the smaller boy. Segev began calmly walking towards the door.
"How dare you attack your betters?" yelled the pale fifth year. Crabb and Goyle took this as their cue to enter the scene, as it promised to get into a form of abuse they understood: physical.
Crabb moved the fastest, and punched Segev in the back, knocking him over. "Don't turn your back on Draco when he's talking to you!" he commanded.
Segev rolled over into a sitting position, tears of pain, humiliation, and rage streaming down his face. Crabb moved to stand over him, gloating. Segev screamed something incoherent, yet inarguably foul, and lunged at his larger tormentor. His right hand was curled into a claw, and glowing with chill blue energy when he struck Crabb in his gut. The Fifth Year opened his mouth in a silent scream, and his eyes registered a look of mild surprise before his slumped to the ground, motionless.
The other children in the room backed away in shock as Segev stood up and collected himself, wiping the humiliating tears from his face with his sleeve. He looked at Crabb on the ground with a sick expression, then muttered something under his breath before touching each of his own eyes. Seeming reassured, his expression returned to what the others were beginning to assume was normal for him.
Glancing around the room once, taking in the stunned faces of his fellow Slytherins, Segev turned again and strode out of Slytherin Tower while Malfoy and Goyle moved to examine their motionless friend.
---
Author's Note: Heheheh. The story is going somewhere, now…where that may be is another matter. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I know the wait has been abhorrently long. Zhel never got back to me with the dialogue, so what is here I wrote over Christmas break. Oh, and she knows full well why I don't read her stories. (Bloody shounen-ai fangirl) But if any of you are interested in that stuff, she's writing a fushigi yuugi reincarnation fic on fanfiction.net. As always, reviews are adoringly read and reread, so please review! Or I'll unleash Segev on you. HAHAHAHAHAHA! cough cough er, bye now.
Thanks go out to MarsIsBrightTonight for correcting my use of colors in the Slytherin common room. And, also, it is a recorder, which is played straight, not a flute, which is played sideways. I have been using it interchangeably on purpose, trying to ensure that no one got confused and thought I was talking about a tape recorder. From now on, any references to it as a flute are accidental (unless a character calls it one—they don't all know what a recorder is), as I intend to call it what it is for the remainder of the story.
Jason Orm felt rather smug. Judging by the amount of stuff the older children brought, he had about the right amount of stuff—one small trunk and one large. He kept his eyes on his dorm mates, wanting to know as much about them as possible. He knew Jessica would be doing the same thing in the girls' dorm. Knowledge is power, after all.
Hmm, that was odd, that boy that he and Jessica had bracketed at the meal—Segev was his name—didn't seem to be bothering to unpack. He had just opened his trunk and rummaged through it briefly, as if checking on something, then closed it again. Now he was going downstairs. Strange behavior, and strange behavior was something to be marked, especially in Slytherin House. Then again, he could just be lazy and not want to unpack…though laziness was not a quality that placed one in Slytherin.
Jason finished unpacking his small trunk (it had held his school books and supplies) and opened his larger one to begin sorting it out. This trunk held his clothes, but it didn't seem that there were any closets to hold clothes in. Shrugging, he shifted through his clothes and organized them so that he could live out of the trunk they were in right now. Then, he walked over to where the other first year, Darius, was struggling to find places for all of his things. "You seem to have brought a few too many things, Darius. Perhaps you would like some help unpacking them?" offered Jason.
Darius eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want?"
Jason laughed in a friendly fashion, "I merely thought to help a fellow Slytherin get his ducks in order." The smile didn't obscure the calculation in his eyes; no sense in causing Darius to think him an altruistic fool. "Besides, we seem to be the only first years in the dorm." Jason indicated the other occupants of the room—they were all older.
Still suspicious, and now moderately surprised, Darius asked, "What happened to that American boy: Segev?"
Jason indicated the closed and still packed trunk at the foot of Segev's bed. "He went back down to the common room without unpacking. Rather unsociable of him, don't you think?"
"Yes, that is a bit odd, isn't it," agreed Darius. "I would appreciate assistance with my trunks. I wouldn't have packed so much, except one can never be sure what one will need, now can he?" Darius indicated one of his small trunks. "You may unpack that one for me."
Jason worked in silence for a few minutes, watching one side of the room while Darius watched the other. Darius stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Look, Jason, isn't that Draco Malfoy going downstairs?"
Jason casually turned his head to look. "Why, yes it is," he answered in a whisper. "What do you suppose he could be up to?"
The two first years looked at each other and hastened to finish what they were doing before following the fifth year quietly down the stairs.
***
Meanwhile, the girls' dorm was much more chaotic. Jessica Orm had brought the least luggage, and she had as much as some of the more experienced boys. Gretle Wyvern was more typical, in that her luggage covered most of her bed. Alice Garvonna had by far the most; her bed wasn't even visible underneath the stack of boxes, trunks, and bags that formed a small mountain. Whereas the boys were each busy unpacking their own things, the girls formed small groups of two or more to work together on laying out their dorm. Jessica and Gretle had adjacent beds and worked together to unpack their stuff. Everyone wound up helping Alice at one point or another, and slowly her pile lessened. Jessica noticed that one fifth year named Pansy Parkinson was especially helpful…whenever she assisted, Alice's things would fit into remarkably less space than seemed possible, while Pansy's things seemed to take up more than they had before she "helped".
When she pointed this out to Gretle, the taller girl responded, "Yes, I had noticed that, too. I don't think I want Pansy helping me unpack, do you?"
"No, I think not," agreed Jessica.
Finally finished with their unpacking, Gretle and Jessica walked down to the common room so they could converse without raising their voices. Jessica was speaking, "If he's not down there yet, my brother should be in the common room soon. We need to talk, and I think—"
The girls' passage down the steps halted as abruptly as their conversation. The most beautiful sound they had ever heard was emanating from further down the stairs, which ended in the common room. At the same time, it was also chilling, haunting, like the song of the dead. As the girls continued down the stairs, they were incredibly quiet, their footsteps not making a sound and their voices frozen in their throats; they didn't want to interrupt the song, but they didn't want to see it's source, either. As they descended the last few steps, they felt a tingling chill, almost like a static charge, rising—making them need to shiver, but afraid to interrupt the sound with such a sudden action.
Taking the last few steps, they made the final turn of the spiral staircase. Gretle's hard-soled shoe impacted with the stone floor like a firecracker, and the music abruptly stopped. With it fled the haunting chill it inspired. The sudden silence, and the dual sensations of relief and regret the cessation of the music caused, made the girls freeze in place. They scanned the room, searching for the source of the sound they had been hearing, but saw nothing except the furniture.
Then, they saw a figure come out from one of the large green armchairs that faced away from them. When Gretle recognized the figure, she asked in astonishment, "Was that you playing that song?"
Segev nodded once.
Jessica walked over to him. When he made no move except to watch both girls, she asked him, "You were playing that flute?" She reached for the bone-white instrument hanging from a red cord around his neck.
He nodded again, and grabbed it possessively, pulling back so it was out of her reach. She looked as if she was about to say something else, but she suddenly turned towards the stairs leading up to the common room.
Draco Malfoy stood in the stairway, regarding Segev with a sadistic sneer. Jessica met her twin's gaze over the fifth year's shoulder.
"Well well, mudblood," singsonged Malfoy maliciously, "what do you have there? Some muggle artifact? Awfully possessive of it, aren't you?" He began to slowly walk around the room, closing the distance between himself and the first year boy as a snake approaches its prey.
Segev stood perfectly still, his eyes following Malfoy with a gaze as implacable as ice. Gretle hadn't moved from her spot at the foot of the girls' dorm steps, but had adopted a studying pose; she was going to watch this encounter and learn her Housemate's styles. Jessica had moved away from Segev, out of Malfoy's path; but that could have been more so that she would be opposite her brother with the fifth year positioned between the twins.
By the time Malfoy was standing in front of Segev—and somehow failing to tower over the shorter boy—most of the male Slytherins had made their way down to the common room, where they formed a very interested audience for the expected bullying to come. Crabb and Goyle were hovering in the background, unsure whether or not to take up their positions behind Malfoy. He seemed to have the situation well in hand.
"Well, mudblood, what is that thing?"
Segev just stared back at the taller boy.
Malfoy sneered down. "What's the matter, mudblood? Can't speak up before a pureblood? I don't know how a pathetic muggle-spawn like you got into Slytherin, but I don't think you have what it takes to be here. Maybe you should run to your friend Harry Potter," he spat the name, "he might protect you from the Death Eaters."
There was an intake of breath at Draco's temerity in invoking the fear organization's name, but Segev continued to stare in icy silence. The twins' gazes were locked as they debated intervening in the confrontation, but if Segev couldn't handle himself, he wasn't worth allying with, and Malfoy didn't seem to need help. Besides, it wouldn't do to make an enemy of someone as powerful as Lucious Malfoy's son.
Gretle watched the two boys, noting that, though Segev never spoke, he didn't seem defensive, just uncaring. Malfoy, though ostensibly in control as he was to one issuing all the insults, couldn't get a rise out of his "victim" and was seeming largely ineffectual rather than imposing. This confrontation had proven educational, but wasn't going anywhere and was beginning to bore her now.
"Malfoy," interrupted Gretle, "why are you picking on Segev? I don't think he's a mudblood at all."
Draco stopped mid-insult, and glared at the upstart first year girl who dared to interrupt him. He schooled the glare away from his features when he realized who it was. This girl's family wasn't one to have as an enemy; even Draco's father was nervous when Alexander Wyvern's name came up. Still, she was just a first year, and he couldn't have her putting on airs of superiority. "He doesn't know the first thing about wizarding, girl," he spat—he knew her name, but he wasn't going to honor her with its use—"and his name certainly isn't a wizarding one. Besides," he continued, turning back to Segev to resume his taunting, "he's a pathetic weakling who dishonors Slytherin House with his presence." Malfoy smirked as if a new thought had occurred to him. "It may even be in his best interest to leave," he continued, his voice condescending and falsely concerned. "You- Know-Who is alive and well again, and He won't tolerate a mudblood in his Alma Matre."
Gretle sighed theatrically. "If you had been paying attention to events in the main hall, Malfoy, you would have noticed that this boy has some power of his own. Or have you ever driven away Peeves on your own before? That 'muggle artifact' you seem so intent on ridiculing is what did it. He claims to have had it when his parents, and I quote, 'found me on their doorstep as an infant.' I think he was orphaned and raised by muggles, but with an item like that as his heritage, he must come from a powerful pureblood family."
Malfoy snorted in derision. "So he claims, huh? Well, let's just see about this so-called 'magical item.'" He reached out swiftly, catching everyone by surprise, and snatched the recorder from Segev, snapping the silken cord around his neck. He backed out of reach before Segev could snatch it back. Finally, Segev had a reaction. He no longer looked calm and unconcerned as he had throughout the exchange between Malfoy and Gretle; rather, he looked furious. Pulling out his unicorn horn wand, he pointed it as his tormentor. Power reverberating in his voice, he spoke a single word: "EXPELIARMUS!"
The recorder went flying from an astonished Draco's hand, and sailed gracefully through the air to land in Segev's waiting grasp. Once it was back in his possession, Segev's countenance resumed its icy serenity. Segev turned away from Malfoy, who had recovered from the shock of the spell and was stepping towards the smaller boy. Segev began calmly walking towards the door.
"How dare you attack your betters?" yelled the pale fifth year. Crabb and Goyle took this as their cue to enter the scene, as it promised to get into a form of abuse they understood: physical.
Crabb moved the fastest, and punched Segev in the back, knocking him over. "Don't turn your back on Draco when he's talking to you!" he commanded.
Segev rolled over into a sitting position, tears of pain, humiliation, and rage streaming down his face. Crabb moved to stand over him, gloating. Segev screamed something incoherent, yet inarguably foul, and lunged at his larger tormentor. His right hand was curled into a claw, and glowing with chill blue energy when he struck Crabb in his gut. The Fifth Year opened his mouth in a silent scream, and his eyes registered a look of mild surprise before his slumped to the ground, motionless.
The other children in the room backed away in shock as Segev stood up and collected himself, wiping the humiliating tears from his face with his sleeve. He looked at Crabb on the ground with a sick expression, then muttered something under his breath before touching each of his own eyes. Seeming reassured, his expression returned to what the others were beginning to assume was normal for him.
Glancing around the room once, taking in the stunned faces of his fellow Slytherins, Segev turned again and strode out of Slytherin Tower while Malfoy and Goyle moved to examine their motionless friend.
---
Author's Note: Heheheh. The story is going somewhere, now…where that may be is another matter. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I know the wait has been abhorrently long. Zhel never got back to me with the dialogue, so what is here I wrote over Christmas break. Oh, and she knows full well why I don't read her stories. (Bloody shounen-ai fangirl) But if any of you are interested in that stuff, she's writing a fushigi yuugi reincarnation fic on fanfiction.net. As always, reviews are adoringly read and reread, so please review! Or I'll unleash Segev on you. HAHAHAHAHAHA! cough cough er, bye now.
Thanks go out to MarsIsBrightTonight for correcting my use of colors in the Slytherin common room. And, also, it is a recorder, which is played straight, not a flute, which is played sideways. I have been using it interchangeably on purpose, trying to ensure that no one got confused and thought I was talking about a tape recorder. From now on, any references to it as a flute are accidental (unless a character calls it one—they don't all know what a recorder is), as I intend to call it what it is for the remainder of the story.
