Chapter Six: Getting Settled In
Soft candlelight reflected off of the polished green stone floors. Large chairs sat around the room, accompanied by several tables. Viola Trikkit, the prefect who had been speaking, pointed her wand at a fireplace and said, "Incendio!" Blue flames shot across the room, and soon a roaring fire warmed the House. Although it was still September, Slytherin House seemed more like an ice house. I noticed that there were no windows, and that we had gone down several long flights of stairs to get here, so I figured we were probably pretty far underground.
Trikkit turned to the group and raised her voice again. "All right, Slytherins, take a seat somewhere and get comfortable! I have a few announcements, and after that we can introduce the first years." Fourth and fifth years scrambled to claim the "best chairs," but they were stared down by the six and seventh years. Most of the third years and down ended up sitting on the floor. I chose a spot right next to the fireplace; Draco and a monster of a fifth year sat next to me. Felon curled up to sit on my feet.
"First," continued the prefect, "I'd like to congratulate all of the first years on making Slytherin." There was an enormous round of applause. "Second, I'd like to remind you all that Slytherin has been the victorious House for seven years running, and if anyone here wants to ruin it for us, they will find themselves on Flint's bad side." The fifth year beside me sneered and punched a fist into his palm. He could have looked like a normal human, if it weren't for a mouthful of disgusting yellow teeth.
"Thirdly," said Trikkit, bringing forward a tall, wiry boy, "this is Bram Aurvail, another prefect." I recognized him as the one who had put right the pumpkin juice incident. Feeling my face redden, I hoped Draco would think it was just because I was sitting too close to the fire. I certainly didn't want anyone thinking I had a crush on a prefect! Besides, I didn't...I was just embarrassed...maybe. Well, Bram was rather handsome, but he was also quite "off-limits," thank-you-very-much.
Looking up again, I noticed that several fifth years were clapping him on the back, saying things like, "Prefect, eh?" and, "Good for you!" and, "Knew you'd have real power around here some day!"
Bram's mouth pulled into a shy smile, and he said, "Yeah, I'm a prefect. Big deal. It's not so hard. I just have to tell people to stay in their House at night, and not to duel during lunch hour...stuff like that."
Oh, he was so modest! I almost slapped myself for being so silly. "Snap out of it, Andromeda, he's just a guy! He's not worth going to pieces over!" yelled my conscience. Luckily, my conscience wasn't very loud, and I continued admiring the dark-haired fifth year. Soon, Trikkit quieted the group and resumed her speech.
"Now I'm sure you want to know the first years' names," she said, then started pointing to people and calling names as fast as she could. "Here they are: Carol Adett, Millicent Bulstrode, Vincent Crabbe, Inge Fernfrond, Gregory Goyle, Troy Hatter, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Joel Shema, and Andromeda Zænidh." (I winced slightly as she said, "Zennid.") The whole "introduction" had taken approximately ten seconds.
"Lastly, everyone should go to their dormitories now and get a good night's sleep, because tomorrow we start classes. Girls follow me, boys follow Bram." With that, everyone started filing out of the common room. Draco caught me by the shoulder and looked hard at my face.
"Are you okay? Your face is all red." I raised my eyebrows, pretending not to know what he was talking about. Then he smiled. "Oh, I see what it is...you were sitting too close to the fire. Well, goodnight." I let out a sigh of relief, then turned to go to the dormitories, with Felon trailing close behind.
Once inside, I was happy to notice that all of my luggage had been placed at the foot of my bed already. Sir Dinadan hooted in surprise at the sight of my grey cat and swiveled his head left and right. Shaking my head in amusement, I took off my shoes and flopped onto my bed. Then I heard a gasp of surprise from who I thought was Inge.
"Look at the windows!" she squeaked. "We'll drown!" This served nicely to break the silence between the first year girls. The other four of us rushed to where she stood at the windowsill. Sure enough, the window seemed to be underwater. The view was mostly dark and murky, but every now and then a fish or tiny squid would swim past.
"WOW!" I said with wide eyes. "That is SO COOL!" Around me, heads nodded enthusiastically. Inge looked as if she might faint.
"But...," she whimpered, "what if the window breaks? We'll die! No one will be able to save us..."
A girl with a face like a pug interrupted sharply. "Oh, shut up! They wouldn't allow anything dangerous in Hogwarts; especially not in Slytherin Dungeon. I bet it's enchanted like the ceiling in the Great Hall, so it only looks that way. There's probably at least ten feet of stone between us and the lake." She spoke as if we were all stupid; but we were, nonetheless, thoroughly impressed by the windows. To make it even better, there were five of them...one for each of us!
As I crawled back into my soft, feather-mattress bed, I noticed that Inge was trying to figure out a way to cover her window with a sheet. A big, tall girl with a rather square face threw a shoe at her and yelled, "Get over it! You're disgracing the name of Slytherin!" Inge shrunk away from her.
"I don't know, Millicent," interjected a redhead from across the dormitory. "Remember that Sorting hat? It was singing about achieving what you want by any means. And Inge here is certainly achieving what she wants, right?"
Millicent's eyes narrowed. "Why in Salazar's name would she want a shoe thrown at her, Carol?"
"Shoe? The window, Bulstrode! My goodness, how can you criticize her when...oh, forget it...," Carol trailed off. "Well, goodnight everyone...Inge, Pansy, Andromeda..." (She allowed a long pause.) "Millicent."
Carol seemed sharp-witted enough, though Millicent didn't. Inge might not be well-suited to Slytherin. From the events of the past few minutes, I guessed that the discourteous girl with a face like a pug was Pansy. "First impressions can be pretty accurate," I thought as I drifted off to sleep. "Hmm...that's not a very favorable take on most of my classmates...I guess we can't all be as cool as I am."
To Be Continued...
BIG AUTHOR'S NOTE: Inge is pronounced sort of like ING-guh, only the two syllable run together; there is no pause in between. That stumped me when I first saw it...
Disclaimer: Wow! I own a lot of stuff this chapter! I own the characters: Viola Trikkit, Bram Aurvail, Carol Adett, Inge Fernfrond, Troy Hatter, Joel Shema, Felon, Sir Dinadan, and the Zænidh family. The names Trikkit, Aurvail, Adett, Fernfrond, Shema, and Zænidh are of my own creation. (But if you find them elsewhere, it is a pure coincidence, I didn't mean it, and I am very sorry, so please don't sue me. However, WildMage42 is authorized to use them.) I also own the lake windows. As usual, I own any original events and dialogue, and will admit to not owning anything that can be found in Rowling's work. Please review! I accept any comments or suggestions, good or bad.