She wasn't doing well in her classes either. She had always been bad at Transfiguration, but the fact that Professor McGonagall seemed to hate her so much made it ten times worse. She was hopeless at Defence Against The Dark Arts as well, but this was because she refused to learn it. Professor Figg, the teacher for that lesson, wouldn't give up on Ariadne, and still insisted that she come and participate in demonstrations. Ariadne refused to every time, remaining in her seat staring stonily at her desk.
Ariadne hated to admit it, but she was lonely at Hogwarts. She hadn't made any friends, and no one, from her own house or any other, made much of an effort to talk to her. Even the blonde boy who had smiled at her at the feast the first night she arrived at Hogwarts had ignored her ever since. Shame, she'd wanted to get to know him better.
One of Ariadne's only comforts at Hogwarts was her collection of Dark Arts books; all the textbooks she'd used in her first three years at Durmstrang, and several highly dangerous books she'd picked up from dark bookshops without her parents' knowledge. Several contained highly dangerous and illegal spells, but Ariadne didn't care, she found them fascinating. She had smuggled them to Hogwarts under an invisibility spell, and they stayed locked in her trunk out of sight when she wasn't reading them.
One evening in late October, Ariadne was sitting in the common room, on her own as usual. She was absorbed in one of the more dangerous dark arts books, and had her chair turned slightly away from the rest of the room so the other students couldn't see what she was reading. There was a group of male 5th years who kept trying to find out what she was up to, but she just curled up tighter in the chair and ignored them.
The door to the common room opened, and a group of second year girls walked in, closely followed by a snowy owl Ariadne recognised as her own. Without thinking, she got up from the chair and went to read the message tied to Nivosus' leg. She unfolded it, and found that it was blank. Turning back to her chair, she realised why.
The note had simply been a diversion to get her to get up from the chair and leave the book alone. As she turned back she saw a figure leaning towards the book and touching its front cover, about to open it. Without stopping to think, Ariadne grabbed her wand and screamed 'Araneus!' It wasn't until the spell hit the figure that she realised who it was; Draco Malfoy, the blonde boy who's attention she'd been trying to get since she arrived. Well, he'd certainly know who she was now. The spell had turned him into an enormous black tarantula.
Panic ensued in the common room. People were shouting and screaming, and some of the more excitable students were running around trying to get away from the spider. Worried it was about to be crushed under someone's feet, Ariadne rushed forward and was about to pick the spider up when she heard the word, 'Accio!' shouted from behind her. The spider shot across the room, straight into Professor Snape's outstretched hand. 'Miss Fortuna,' he said in his cold, harsh voice. 'My office, now.'
Ariadne didn't have much choice but to follow him. She quickly grabbed her Dark Arts book so no one else would look at it, then followed Snape out of the common room.
Snape and Ariadne had never been the best of friends, but he didn't seem to hate her in the same way as the rest of the teachers at Hogwarts did. He seemed to sense intelligence in her, and ambition, and everything else that Slytherin house stood for.
However, sitting behind his desk, trying to stop the wriggling spider from crawling away, Snape was staring at Ariadne with a look of pure loathing in his eyes. 'Miss Fortuna,' he began. 'Although I have no doubt that whatever Mr Malfoy did he deserved this, students do not take punishments in their own hands. Transfiguring a classmate into an arachnid may have been permissible at Durmstrang, but at Hogwarts it is strictly against the rules.'
Ariadne let Snape continue with his ramblings, which were followed by threats of all the usual punishments; detention, suspension, cleaning frog guts off the underneath of the tables in dungeon 2 every Sunday until Christmas Ariadne blocked out his voice after a while. She was remembering the shocked look on Draco Malfoy's face as the spell had hit him. Damn her stupid temper! There was no way he'd ever like her now.
'in dungeon 2 every Sunday until Christmas. You may go.' Snape finished, as Ariadne jolted herself back to reality. She turned and walked out of the door of the office, trying to remember exactly what he'd been saying, when she heard footsteps running up behind her. She turned to see Draco Malfoy, back in human form, trying to catch up with her. 'In here,' he hissed, pulling her into an empty classroom. Ariadne followed him in, feeling slightly confused. Was he about to get revenge on her for the spider business?
Draco closed the door and turned to face Ariadne. 'I'm sorry about the book thing,' he said. 'I just wanted to find out more about you. I've been watching you ever since you arrived here, and I like you.' Ariadne stared in amazement as he lifted her hand and kissed it. Then he turned slowly and walked out of the room. Ariadne was left to stare into space, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Draco Malfoy liked her! She had turned him into a spider and nearly got him flattened, but he still liked her! She sat down on a nearby desk, smiling happily to herself.
However, she might not have been so happy if she'd seen the look on Draco's face as he left the room; one of deviousness, cunning, and satisfaction.