A/N: The HP universe is not mine, but we all knew that. I'm not making any money, hence the dry Top Ramen I'm eating for lunch. There's something else I wanted to say here, but I forgot, so go ahead and read.
The next morning, Loleta awoke with Alla's cat sitting on her head and purring like lawnmower.
"What the hell?" she mumbled. She sat up, dislodging the cat and groaning. Charley pulled the bed covers and grinned.
"Rise and shine, little lady! Breakfast is soon!" Loleta grunted and pulled off the covers. She opened her trunk and pulled out a pair of socks and a wrinkled white shirt.
"Are you guys going to wear pants?" she asked.
"Not on your life," said Alla. "First day, we show off our summer legs, tanned or no. And Charley...she always shows off her legs." She joined Loleta in looking through her clothes. "As for shoes, I'd try the black heeled loafers. Casual, but classy."
"Thanks, but if I wore a skirt every day, wouldn't people get used to the sight of legs?"
"Do what I do!" yelled Charley from the washroom doorway. "When you have a special occasion to look good, wear a shorter skirt." Another voice sounded from the washroom.
"You mean they make them shorter than that one, Donovan?" said a sneering voice. Loleta figured it was one of the third-years that they shared the washroom with.
"Sure they do, they just are in a shop that's magically hidden from people like you, Parkinson?"
"What are you talking about, I'm pure-blooded as anyone here!" Loleta perked up her ears. If that mattered so much, she had a problem. She moved into the washroom and saw Charley applying makeup with an amused expression on her face, while a girl with a squashy nose and a slight case of Hapsburg jaw scowled at her.
"That's true, Pansy darling, but it doesn't change the fact that you're only a sight for legally blind or otherwise impaired eyes." It was a low blow, but Loleta had to admit that Charley had a point. As if Pansy could read her thoughts, she turned her incensed glare towards Loleta.
"Who're you?" she asked venomously.
"Loleta Asli Tilev, and if you have a problem with that or with any of my friends, you can kiss my brown arse." Given Charley's apparent disdain and the general first impression that Loleta got off Pansy Parkinson, it seemed that hostility was in order. Pansy sniffed and walked out a door that led to her dormitory. Charley smirked.
"Nice. She needs to hear that twice a day, every week, and for all her life. She is definitely a taunt-worthy target, but most other people in this house need some finesse. Passive-aggressive is the name of the game."
"Got it. What's the policy on bringing pets to breakfast?"
"If it's small, fine. But carrying a big honkin' snake around is no way to endear yourself to people."
"As I understand it," said Loleta, smoothing lotion onto her arms, "being a Slytherin doesn't make one popular either."
"Yeah, you'd think that with our social disadvantage that we'd stick together more. But, as you can see with Parkinson, that is not the case."
"Come on, you two," said Alla exasperatedly. "If we're late, we won't get good seats." Loleta wondered where they were going in the first place. The notion that there was a gigantic castle that she knew nothing about except how to get to the Headmaster's office and her dorm. She took note of every landmark and distinction she could see in the halls on the way to breakfast. A few of the portraits greeted her amiably. One figure sitting in a painting of the Greek gods and goddesses didn't look like any of the deities that Loleta could remember.
It did seem strange that a pale, black-clad woman with an ankh on her necklace should be peering curiously at her from the lush rendering of the Olympian gods. It seemed like a trivial thing to mention to Charley and Alla, so Loleta didn't bring it up. It was pushed straight out of her mind by the sight of the Great Hall. The hall was decorated with hangings in House colours and a few odd portraits on the walls. At the head of the hall, the teachers sat watching the students. Loleta recognized Professor Snape glaring with contempt at another person at the High Table.
She followed his gaze to Professor Lupin, who was either unaware of the death glare Snape was shooting at him, or was just ignoring it. He looked up from calmly buttering his toast to give Loleta an encouraging smile. She nodded back and followed Charley and Alla to the Slytherin table and settled between them. She looked around at her neighbours. She recognized Pansy, and shot her a sunny smile with an obvious subtext along the lines of 'you are a heinous brat.' The others were complete strangers. She started mentally sizing them up to see which one she could start talking to, when a boy across from her cleared his throat.
"Transfer?" he asked in a thick Scottish brogue. Not the only one with funny accent, definitely a good thing, she thought, relieved.
"Yeah, from France. Loleta Tilev.""Will McKellar. Did you go to Beauxbatons?" he asked, pouring syrup onto waffles already festooned with berries.
"No, my mother taught me. Reason I'm here is that she had to relearn the material from what would be fourth year last year, and didn't want to do it again. So my grandmother pulled some strings and got me transferred here. She was in Slytherin too."
"You picked a tough year to transfer. O.W.L.s can be brutal. Anyway, at least you have Slyth relatives. Mine are and were all Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs. I'm quite the aberration." He smiled, but it was a guarded one. Loleta chewed her toast thoughtfully. She'd seen the looks that Alla, Charley and her had gotten in the corridors on the way here, suspicious and wary, like they might draw their wands and kill everyone at any time. To have your family think of you that way, even subconsciously, had to be frustrating and awkward.
"That sounds less than fun," she said finally.
"Christmases are chock full of uncomfortable silences," Will confided. "But they still don't let me stay here for them.
"Have you got any relatives here now?" asked Loleta.
"Yeah, my little brother. He's in Gryffindor, a second year. Little Greg McKellar used to look up to me, but now he doesn't even talk to me. Not even to ask a favor. I'm in sixth year, I could do all his homework and mine and still have free time. I would, too, if he would just talk to me." A flicker of sadness crossed his eyes, and Loleta felt like marching over to the Gryffindor table and giving little Greg a piece of her mind. He wasn't hard to spot, he looked for all the world exactly like a younger, shorter Will, with the same brown hair and thin shoulders. Will seemed to notice her looking purposefully at his brother and hastily changed the subject.
"So, did you hear about that Sirius Black escaping?" Loleta nodded and looked away.
"Yeah, but who's he trying to get at?" she asked. Alla, who had been half-listening to their conversation, joined in.
"My Dad reckons he's after Harry Potter. Glad I'm not a Gryffindor now, it'd be quite dangerous."
"Harry Potter...Boy Who Lived, right? Defeated what's-his-face when he was a baby?"
"That's the one," said Charley bitterly. "And that didn't sit well with Black. If Black can get in here, Potter and some of his mates might just get what some people reckon is coming to them."
"What did he do to brass you off, Charley?" asked Loleta.
"Just the same thing as everyone else, assumed that we are all evil incarnate just because," Alla lowered her voice. "Because some members of Slytherin House..."
"Malfoy," said Will quietly.
"Yes, that one. Anyway, they go around like they own everyone and Slytherin means brats with Death Eater parents and getting what you want." Alla scowled.
"Isn't that what we do, though?" asked Loleta thoughtfully. "Get what we want, when we want it?"
"Yeah, but real Slyths get what they want without their daddy buying it for them. Mostly," muttered Charley.
"If you get wind that Potter got some privilege or another from anyone, you can see the almost weekly show of Malfoy stomping his feet and whinging in the Common Room," added Will.
"So, Malfoy's a brat, and Potter has Maenads to throw rose petals at his feet for something he did when he was a baby and thinks Slyth equals scum, and it's all this 'Dark Lord's' fault?"
"Actually, Loleta, what you've just said quite succinctly is what most of Slytherin's current complaints boil down to."
The first lesson for the Slytherin fifth years was Defence Against The Dark Arts. Professor Lupin looked mildly surprised to see the Slytherin badge on Loleta's robes. She bristled inwardly, feeling very defensive all the sudden. Throughout the entire lesson, she couldn't help but feel as if she was under more pressure to prove herself. Her worries were met with sympathy from Alla when she confided as much.
"Of course you have to work harder to prove yourself. If everyone wants to think you're manipulative and conniving, then it's really hard to make them think otherwise, if at all. You get used to it or you give up altogether and do what everyone thinks that we're all about. Don't worry too much, I'm here to help. And so is Will McKellar, it seems." Alla raised her eyebrows and subtly gestured toward him. "He's got a small female following, you're a lucky girl to get him to open up so easily."
"Please, Alla. I do not fancy him. He's just the first guy who talked to me, and he seems nice."
"Sure," drawled Alla. "Then some lonely, cold weekend, you'll find yourself alone in the Common Room with him and a few butterbeers, and we'll so who are just friends and who are not."
"I get this terrible feeling that you can and will orchestrate this," whispered Loleta. She noticed that she had stopped taking notes on Ashwinders somewhere along the way and hurried to catch up while Alla chuckled throatily.
"You bet your arse I can. I don't know if I will...And if I do, you won't know until it's too late."
"Fabulous," muttered Loleta sarcastically. She thought about being caught in that kind of situation with a few people, before she remembered Percy Weasley. Then she remembered how Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't mix that way, and he was taken anyway. She scowled. He wasn't all that attractive anyway. Besides, Will McKinnon was a lot more friendly. Alla's little plan was starting to look more viable by the second.
As the fifth year Slytherin class left the DADA room, the second year Gryffindor one was waiting in the hall. Loleta picked out Ginny Weasley immediately and was blank on what to say, if anything. It was easy enough to say that they could stay friends in rival Houses, but the situation was far more awkward than she had foreseen. Ginny was surrounded by a group of tittering girls, but looked Loleta's way anyway. They locked eyes and nodded, but Ginny didn't seem comfortable speaking either. Loleta felt another worry settle on her shoulders. What if she couldn't keep any friends outside of Slytherin? She like Charley and Alla and Will so far, but still...
"Miss Tilev, a word before you leave?" said Lupin from his desk. Alla and Charley exchanged glances and left the room with wild speculation etched all over their faces.
"Yes, sir?" she asked warily. Lupin smiled benevolently.
"You're not in trouble, I just want to ask a few questions. Are you settling in well at Hogwarts?"
"Yes..." Where is this going? wondered Loleta.
"Are you happy with where you've been sorted?" he asked. Loleta raised an eyebrow critically.
"Yes, I am," she said, almost defiantly. Lupin smiled.
"I'm glad for you, I just know it can be hard to be in Slytherin, especially when you don't have any family to ally with and have to start late here." That was unexpected, thought Loleta.
"Were you a Slytherin, sir?" she asked.
"No, I was a Gryffindor, but it's amazing what you can learn just by watching people. After all these years of it, I'd indulge myself so much as to think I have an idea of what makes Slytherins tick. One thing that seems to be important is who you ally yourself with, and I am happy to see that you are successful thus far."
"Er, thanks for taking an interest," said Loleta awkwardly.
"Anytime you need help, just find me or another teacher. They're just as concerned as I am, not the least because your grandmother is a pivotal player in our North American contacts. But unless I'm mistaken, my next class is anxious to start. Have a good day." Loleta nodded and walked briskly out to find Alla and Charley giggling madly, until Charley launched into a torrent of questions.
"What did he say? Do you fancy him? Does he fancy you? Any after-hours detentions?" When Loleta just looked at her blankly and didn't say anything, she exulted.
"Your silence tells all!" she yelled, ignoring the looks she was getting, and launched into the chorus of 'Hot For Teacher.' Loleta was half-embarrassed and half-amazed at Charley's impressive grasp of American pop culture.
"Charley, let the girl get a word in!" admonished Alla. "Is there any, erm, extra homework to be done?"
"No, you idiots. He was just wondering how well life as a new Slyth was going. For an ex-Gryffindor, he's pretty sharp about what's important to us."
"Really?" said Charley in an interested tone. "He seems like a decent catch, then. Gryffindor enough to manipulate easily, but Slyth enough to understand us. He does look awfully sickly though....You can make him chicken soup!"
"What in the hell is she rambling about?" Loleta asked Alla. Alla shrugged.
"I don't think even she knows. Just smile and nod until she's done."
Herbology with the Ravenclaws went smoothly enough. There was one harrowing event when the Venomous Tentacula got a hold of Alla's robes and she ended up having to use her wand like a cattle prod to get it off. The Ravenclaws seemed a lot more indifferent towards the Slytherins, but as Charley pointed out afterwards, they tended to side against Slytherin if it came down to that. As they were walking back from the greenhouses, Loleta brought up a question that had been nagging at her mind.
"So if there are all these disadvantages to being a Slytherin, what are the advantages?" Charley and Alla proved very outspoken once again.
"Well, we went over the 'taboo appeal' last night, but our biggest advantage is that with all the pressure and prejudice that gets flung our way, we end up way better for it in the real world," said Charley confidently.
"Interesting, explain."
"Thing is," added Alla. "The Hufflepuffs, for example, end up learning that they should work to please other people and make them happy. Same with the Gryffindors, they're always told that there's no 'I' in team and all that. The Ravenclaws end up mostly believing that book smarts will get you everywhere. They end up as doormats in the case of the Huffs, either completely overlooked or really famous to the point where no one else gets the attention for the Gryffs, or at a boring research job at the Ravenclaw end. Since we know how to use every advantage and not care if someone doesn't like us, we prevail." Loleta nodded.
"Sounds good. I think I've had enough Slythology for one day though."
"There's not much else to talk about in the end," said Alla morosely. "Since other people identify us as Slytherins rather than individual people, we end up doing the same. Once you leave here, it's harder to let go of your House pride if you're one of us because it's what you've got." A long silence followed this. Alla looked introspective and a little frustrated, and Loleta felt the same way.
"There's no I in team, sure," said Charley. "But there is an I at the center of every win. Did you ever notice that?"
"Enough deep thoughts from you," Loleta ordered. "I'm hungry."
"Well, I've got one Slytherin advantage that benefits us all right now," said Charley slyly.
"What's that?"
"Alla, explain," commanded Charley.
"You see, we Slytherins love to explore every advantage possible. Knowledge of say, secret passages in the castle is one thing that everyone can enjoy. Secret passages that lead to, for example, High Street in Hogsmeade, where we can purchase food and drink for resale to students who wouldn't know of such a passage, and also enjoy the benefits of regular trips to the beauty shop in town, thus increasing our 'taboo appeal.'"
"You're saying that you two nutjobs know a way to get to that village thingy without official permission?" asked Loleta disbelievingly.
"Damn right we do, and no one else knows about this one. Not even Filch." Loleta grimaced at the mention of the caretaker. His very presence made her feel like she was doing something reprehensible.
"What doesn't Filch know about?" asked Will, walking up to them from his Care of Magical Creatures class.
"Nothing of consequence," said Loleta smoothly, fluttering her eyelashes in an attempt to distract him. He gave her a look that clearly said that it would take more than that to deter him.
"Don't try that, I wasn't born yesterday. You know something, and I'll find out someday."
"Will, Will, let us have our secrets," sighed Charley, inspecting her nails. Talk of the Hogsmeade beauty parlor had got her to thinking about her manicure.
"For now, ladies. But I'll have it out of one of you." He looked meaningfully at them and walked ahead of them.
"He is a rare gem in a lackluster family," said Charley fervently. "You should go for it, Loleta."
"Shut it," warned Loleta. "I'm not shopping for a boyfriend here."
"So what are you going to do?" asked Charley raptly. "Just walk around all raven locks and dark eyes until the male population of Hogwarts would gladly throw themselves off the Astronomy Tower for you, yet stay alone?"
"Um, yes?"
"You'll be taking a leaf out of Alla's book, then. She has been keeping everyone on tenterhooks for years, waiting to see who the poor sap is."
"It's great fun, messing with their heads," said Alla, rolling her eyes. "Despite the inevitable exaggeration that goes on whenever Charlotte Donovan opens her mouth." Charley pouted for a moment, then gave up and started humming 'Hot For Teacher' again.