Greetings loyal readers, I have just returned
from being out of the country on Holliday. I returned to a great deal of reviews,
and a new chapter of Slytherin Rising, so life is good. Hope you all enjoy this
next bit. Here's what is coming up in this chapter.
Quidditch
try-outs are announced. Severus and Lucius are pumping up for them. And Sevi
gets in a huge row with Lauralie, hence the chapter title.
Review Responses:
PL: Interesting,
and the first actually theory as to Lauralie's parentage. Though many people
have told me that they surely believe that Wesley Black is not her real father.
Though I'm not saying if it is true, or when you'll find out for sure. I think
the suspense will keep you all reading.
J. L. Matthews: Thanks for the plug, love. I was wondering why I was suddenly
getting more responses when I haven't put out a new chapter till now. Hope you
enjoy this bit.
Lauralie Black and the Cloak of Destiny
(YEAR 1)
Chapter 4: The Row
McGonagall looked quite a bit annoyed as the
door to her classroom opened in the middle of her lesson. Professor Lestrange entered
first, whispering urgently to the much younger Transfiguration teacher, whose
face morphed from annoyance to mild concern. She ushered Lauralie in, and to a
desk in between Narcissa and Katia.
Narcissa, Anastasia, and Katia looked
inquisitively at her as she took her seat. She mouthed 'I'll tell you later'
before turning back to Professor McGonagall.
"It's a shame you had to miss most of
your first lesson's worth of notes, but I daresay Miss VanBuren will allow you
to copy hers this evening, won't you Narcissa?" she murmured. Narcissa
nodded.
"It's fairly easy really. So you'll be
able to do some anyways, with out all that history and background
hogwash," she whispered, as Professor McGonagall handed out matchsticks to
be turned into needles. "Just point your wand at it and imagine it
changing into a needle."
This however had no effect but to make
Lauralie feel extremely foolish. She finally gave up and started to copy
Narcissa's notes instead ("Is that 'book'?" "Don't be
stupid, that says 'wand'!" "I can't read this bloody chicken
scratch!")
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Entering into the Common Room after class,
they ran head long into Severus and Lucius.
"Are you Ok?" Severus asked.
"Your dad looked furious," Lucius
exclaimed.
"Yeah, what did happen?"
Narcissa asked. "Might as well tell us now that we are all here!"
"Nothing really," Lauralie
shrugged, "Except the Sorting Hat telling off my dad. And him saying that
I was no daughter of his, because he couldn't be associated with any
Slytherins."
They all looked simply furious.
"Disowning his own daughter because she
isn't a bloody Gryffindor," Narcissa hissed.
"Bastard, daft bastard, good thing your
mother isn't so damn hard headed," Lucius said.
Lauralie shrugged. "It's no big deal
really."
"Oh no, she's in denial," Katia
said, "Snap out of it Laur." She placed her hands on Lauralie's
shoulders and began to shake her roughly.
"I'm fine," she hissed, wrenching
away from her friends grip, "He'll see the error of his ways soon enough,
no need to dwell on them."
"She's got a point," Anastasia
concluded.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright,"
Severus said, patting her congenially on the shoulder. "Best get down to
dinner then. I'm bloody starved. Just waiting for you lot before we left."
"How gentlemanly," Narcissa said,
fighting back a fit of giggles.
Lauralie smiled too, as they walked up the
stairs and into the Great Hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first month of lessons seemed to flood by
uneventfully. In fact, Lauralie realized with a start that Halloween was just
around the corner. It seemed like only a few days had passed since her father's
run in with the Sorting Hat. For it was two weeks prior to Halloween that a
sign appeared in the Slytherin common room announcing that Quidditch try-outs
fro the House team would be in one week.
"Blimey, I suppose I should tell Sevi,
eh?" Lauralie said, "We'll have five more nights of practice to smash
in."
"Really, Laur, I have no idea when you
and Narcissa have been doing your homework," Katia said, over the top of
her A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration book.
"We stay up in the common room and do it
after it gets to dark to p- p- practice," Narcissa said, stifling a yawn.
"Of course, the better question would
be: when do you sleep?" Anastasia asked.
"In Binns' class of course,"
Lauralie said, with a smirk.
"Come on, let's go find the guys, I
think they went to the library to get more Quidditch books," Narcissa said,
hooking her arm around Lauralie's and hauling her out of the stone slab door
that guarded the Slytherin common room.
As they entered the library they could hear
the murmurs of their friends.
"Gone again, ill," Lucius said.
"It happens once a month. No fail,"
Severus added. "There's got to be a pattern that we're missing."
"But where is he, he isn't in the
Hospital Wing," Lucius said, "We've checked there."
Lauralie and Narcissa exchanged confused
looks. These two weren't talking about Quidditch. Narcissa tilted her
head, listening intently.
"What are we missing?" Severus
hissed, "There's something there that we aren't seeing." There was a
loud bang, the sound of a huge book being slammed shut.
"What're you two up to?" Lauralie
asked, stepping out from behind the bookshelves.
Both Slytherin boys jumped. And Lucius shoved
a piece of parchment into his robes.
"Nothing," Lucius said, putting on
his most oily smile. "What're you two doing here?"
"Just thought we'd come and tell you
that Ludo Bagman just placed the announcement about Quidditch try-outs in the
common room," Narcissa said, "They'll be next Saturday."
"We have one week?" Severus asked.
"Yeah, considering it's Saturday
now," Lauralie said, "And in seven days it will be Saturday
again."
"Very funny Laur," Lucius said.
"We do need to practice, you two willing to help us practice for one more
week?"
Lauralie nodded, as did Narcissa. They had
been practicing with them for weeks anyway, what was one more. Though Lauralie
knew that Narcissa was dead tired of throwing golf balls for Lucius to catch.
And Lauralie's arm had long since tired of the endless volleys of Quaffles she
threw for Severus to block.
"Only we must keep in mind that we have
been practicing for a month," Narcissa said, "So perhaps we won't need to work
as hard."
Lucius looked astounded. "NONSENSE, this
merely means that we need to work even harder than before," he exclaimed, "None
of the others who are trying out will be relaxing this week."
Narcissa simply rolled her eyes as they
marched off to the broom shed to fetch Lucius and Severus' Cleansweep Fives.
~~~~~~
Needless to say, both girls had become fairly
sick of playing Quidditch by the time the Saturday of try-outs rolled around.
Severus and Lucius sat at breakfast with the girls that morning and didn't
touch any of the food on their plates.
"You know," Katia said, " You'll feel better
if you just ate something."
"She's right guys, you need your energy for
this," Anastasia agreed, "Here Lucius, eat some of this toast. It's just the way
you like it."
"I'm not hungry," Lucius hissed through
gritted teethe, "Just leave me alone."
Severus was staring off into space, ignoring
the argument. His eyes fell on the Gryffindor table, where James Potter and
Sirius Black were talking and laughing. Severus wondered if either of them had
made it onto their House's Quidditch team. He hoped he made it on the team
merely so he could wipe the smug smiles they always wore around the Slytherins
off their faces. He wanted to show them that Slytherin wasn't bad, and
Gryffindor wasn't that good. He wanted to do it for Lauralie.
"I've no clue why you two are so nervous,"
Lauralie said, dragging Severus back into reality, as only she had the uncanny
ability to do. "With as much as you two practiced, you're a shoe-in. Ludo'd
have to be mad not to put you in the line up."
"Yeah, but we're second years," Severus
pointed out, "There are loads of students in higher years trying out for the
positions that we want."
Narcissa rolled her eyes. "Oh, please," she
laughed, "What on Earth has happened to our confident and cocky Sevi and Luci?"
"Don't cal me Luci!" Lucius exclaimed, "It
makes me sound like a girl."
"What's so wrong with being a girl?"
"Well, for one thing, a girl can't play on
any House Quidditch team…"
Lauralie's fork fell suddenly down onto her
plate with a loud clang. "Surely you don't mean they aren't allowed,"
she hissed, "Surely they wouldn't honestly prevent a girl from getting a spot
on one of the teams."
"Of course girls can't be on the teams," Severus
said, obviously not noting the angry tones underlying Lauralie's statement.
"It's been that way for years."
"That doesn't make it right,"
she hissed shrilly, "That is discrimination."
"It's tradition," Severus growled
back, "That's the way it has been for centuries. Ever since the founders days."
He was angry now. Angry that she couldn't respect an age-old tradition. Angry
that she'd called the founders discriminatory.
"That was a different time," she shouted,
"Now women have more authority, more rights. And it should be the same for
witches. Girls should be able to play Quidditch at Hogwarts."
"I don't know why you're going on
about it," he barked, "Not like you could ever get a spot on the team either
way. You should go try the Gryffindor team, they let riff-raff like Gilderoy
Lockhart on their team, so they might as well let girls join up too!"
Lauralie stood up, slamming her goblet of
pumpkin juice down on the table and sloshing a great deal of the orange liquid
onto the table. She looked at him as if he was a disgusting sea slug.
"Well, if that's how you truly feel about
me," she said, "Just a talent-less little Gryffindor girl stuck in the wrong
house eh? Then I guess you won't mind losing my friendship. I wish you the best
of luck in your try-out. Though if they don't accept girls, you haven't got a
prayer."
And with that she stormed out of the Great
hall, leaving Severus sitting there stunned, his jaw working furiously.
"Completely misunderstood," he murmured more
to himself than the others.
But the three remaining girls were glaring at
him now. Narcissa stood with the air of dignity she always had, and slid her
chair back into its spot at the table.
"Good luck, Lucius," she said, "Though you
really don't need it." And she left with out saying a word to Severus.
~~~~~
Lauralie stormed down the icy, stone dungeon
corridors. She huffed past her Potions classroom and towards the stone carved
snake that guarded the stone door to the Slytherin common room. It sprang to
life.
"Pass-s-s-s-s-word?" it hissed, it's forked
stone tongue whipping in and out of its mouth.
"Broomsticks," Lauralie answered, and the
snake and stone door retreated, admitting her into the common room.
The Slytherin common room was large and
stone. There was a large Slytherin banner on one wall, a Slytherin serpent slithering across it. On
the opposite wall was a portrait of Salazar Slytherin himself, the founding
father of their house. He smiled and winked at Lauralie now as she stormed into
the common room.
"You all right, Miss Black?" he asked
congenially.
"I've been better."
She stormed over to the fire and collapsed
into a chair. "Try the Gryffindor team… daft bastard," she mumbled angrily.
When the stone door opened once more, she
looked up to see Narcissa entering in, followed by Professor Lestrange.
~~~~~~~
Nest Chapter: We get to know the Slytherin
Head of House a bit more, we find out whom Ludo put on the Slytherin Quidditch
team, and things between Severus and Lauralie are tense (of course). Hope you enjoyed
this bit, and as always, review. I love to get reviews. It gives me the will to
write a new chapter. With out them, my stories just tend to dry out.