Here I am again, for another stupid, cursed school-year. The last one, fortunately.
I bet that my dear schoolmates didn't expect to find me here. Probably, they thought I'd be too scared to come back. Because I'm a Slytherin, right? And Slytherins are just coward funks, the Gryffindors are the brave ones…
If they weren't so blinded by they stupid stereotypes, maybe they'd realize that courage has nothing to do with the House one has been sorted in. A Slytherin can be brave and more than a Gryffindor, too. Being a Slytherin requires courage, but not the one they know.
Aberdeen, Louisa…Hufflepuff! Acton, Jeremy…Gryffindor! Addigton, Jackson…Ravenclaw! Akenside, Isabel…Gryffindor!There were brave Slytherins and I did know them. Last year they sat with me at this table that looked immense to us. From more then one hundred students, suddenly, we had lessened to thirty.
All those empty seats dismayed us, scared us.
Attlee, Sarah…Ravenclaw!Maybe we didn't want to believe that the others had really left, that they didn't have had the courage to come back.
Babbitt, Anthony…Hufflepuff!
Bailey, Kathleen…Gryffindor!
Bale, Carla…Gryffindor!
We never thought that one day we would diminish again.
Even if it didn't depend on our will.
Barker, Edward…Gryffindor!
Beckford, Martin…Ravenclaw!
Beckford, Anne…Hufflepuff!
We should have known it. We should have expected it, we should have…Oh, God!
I do not cry. I must not cry. Not now. Maybe later, when I'm back in my empty dormitory, after I've passed through a Common Room emptier and colder. When I find myself more alone than I am now, sitting at this huge table, then I'll cry.
But not yet.
Not in front of them.
Berry, Frank…Hufflepuff!
Betterton, Christine…Gryffindor!
Biddle, Johanna…Hufflepuff!
Blake, Anne…Ravenclaw!
Bloomfield, Mary…Gryffindor!
It's ironic. Everybody accuses us Slytherins as traitors, and yet we have been betrayed.
Those betrayals were our end, the end of the true Slytherins.
Carter, Nathan…Gryffindor! Chambers, Lorena…Ravenclaw! Chivers, William… Hufflepuff!We saw the first betrayal, maybe the heaviest – but it's hard to tell – at the beginning of last year. When almost none of the students came back.
Counting the students from the Second-Year up, we were twenty-four.
Twenty-four.
Out of at least one hundred and fifty.
And even counting those who started their First-Year, we were but thirty. Thirty.
Dale, Harmon…Ravenclaw!
Dane, Britney…Ravenclaw!
Deeping, Allan…Gryffindor!
Dewey, Margaret…Hufflepuff!
Dillon, Alicia…Gryffindor!
Dobson, Martha…Hufflepuff!
Slytherin is quite a particular House. In spite of the normal competitiveness, the other Houses support each other. But who supports us?
Dowden, Mary…Hufflepuff!I'll tell you: no one. We learned that we can count on ourselves only long ago. And this, usually, makes us one of the most united Houses ever.
Eastman, Charlotte…Gryffindor!
We realized that, if we want to survive, the only chance we have is staying close.
Elyot, Charles…Ravenclaw!
But they betrayed their House. They didn't come back.
Some changed schools, denying their House, denying us. They weren't true Slytherin. A true Slytherin is proud to be in the House of Salazar.
To a Slytherin, his House is everything he has got.
Emerson, Elizabeth…Gryffindor!
Others went over to He-who-must-not-be-named side.
Everett, Lydia…Hufflepuff!Their action is a treason as well.
They fight against Hogwarts, our House is part of Hogwarts, ergo they're fighting against us.
Fleming, Dylan…Gryffindor!Yeah, we're part of Hogwarts too… but some here have the tendency to forget it a little too easily.
Foxe, Jennifer…Ravenclaw! Foyle, Robert…Hufflepuff!
Frere, Justine…Gryffindor!
Here they are, the last traitors. Here they are, our murderers.
Gage, Frida…Hufflepuff!
Galt, Walter…Gryffindor!
Garnett, Edwina…Ravenclaw!
I don't know who they are. I didn't see their faces. They covered it with a white hood.
They entered in our Common Room forcing poor Bernard Clover, a First-Year, to open the door.
I don't blame him, poor boy. I saw how they reduced him.
Irving, Heather…Ravenclaw!
Jansen, Jeffrey…Hufflepuff!
Kean, Valery…Gryffindor!
There were thirty students in the House of Slytherin and now there's only one left.
I, who was the last one to reach the battlefield.
I, who have been saved by my Housemates because somebody had to live.
Muirhead, Peter…Gryffindor!
Muirhead, Susan…Ravenclaw!
Norris, Moses…Hufflepuff!
It's just a case if I'm still alive. It could have been anybody else…I've been saved just because I was the only one left.
Oates, Kendra…Ravenclaw!
It could have been anybody else.
Overbury, Gabriella…Grifondoro!
Unfortunately, it has been me.
Page, Margaret Anne…Hufflepuff!
Sitting alone at my House's table, I meet professor Snape's gaze. None of us can stand the other's sight and we turn the other way immediately.
Price, Fredericka…Ravenclaw!
He can't forgive himself for not being able to protect us.
Quinnley, Philip…Hufflepuff!He never told us, but I think that he was proud of us.
Radcliff, Johnatan…Gryffindor!
Try to make him understand that it wasn't his fault.
Randall, Josephine…Gryffindor!
Reid, Carter…Ravenclaw!
Rogers, Benjamin…Hufflepuff!
Our House is dead. We are the last two left. As the list shortens, our hopes fade like burned out candles.
Sheridan, Thomas…Ravenclaw!
Stevens, Lucinda…Gryffindor!
Symons, Giles…Hufflepuff!
Jacqueline Stratton, who would be Fourth-Year if she had lived, has a sister, who is a witch like her. This year she is to start school, but where is she? Where is Yvonne Stratton?
Thornhill, Lloyd…Gryffindor!
Thynne, Paula…Hufflepuff!
Townes, Violet…Ravenclaw!
It seems that her parents prefer not to send her here.
Unwin, Dawn…Gryffindor!Maybe they feared that she'd be Slytherin, like her sister and the two of them before.
Vickers, Sylvia…Ravenclaw!
Walford, Trevor…Hufflepuff!
The Sorting is ending. A new school year is about to start.
Webster, Darcy…Ravenclaw!
Whitman, Cassandra…Hufflepuff!
Woolner, Patrick…Hufflepuff!
Wyatt, June…Ravenclaw!
Wyler, Orville…Gryffindor!
Yerby, Carson…Gryffindor!
Here, for this year it's over. Even if I won't be here, I know that in the years to come the scene will always be the same, just like the rigmarole.
Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor,
Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor,
Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor…
I could go on forever, it won't change.
Professor Snape and I are the last Slytherins left.
The House of Slytherin is dead. It died with my brothers and sisters, who were killed by their schoolmates that night.
There won't be other Slytherins at Hogwarts after our leaving.
I wonder: who will take our place now? Who will be the next Dark House?
Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?
(I know Gryffindor will be the last one. They're the heroes, aren't they?)
There aren't many choices.
Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?
I watch professor Snape as he walks away. There are only the two of us left. We and the bloody baron. I almost pity him, poor ghost. He'll bury us both. We will pass away, like every other man, when our time comes or when somebody decides that our time lasted long enough. But he will stay. He will have to stay, he has no choice. He'll have to stay even when Slytherin will be only a dusty relic, a piece of a long-lost past, an empty drawing on a shield. He'll have to stay, even when we will be nothing, even when the whole of Hogwarts will follow our destiny.
Unfortunately, things turned out this way.
After all, who will care about the Lost House? The ones who kinda caused our death by joining the Dark Side and strengthening a stereotype? The ones who didn't have the pride and the courage to come back, who abandoned us and don't wish to be called our brothers and sisters anymore? The other Houses, who weren't able to give us anything but the cold blade of a knife and a cold tomb?
No, none of these traitors care or will ever care about the Lost House of Slytherin.
We are the only ones left.
A professor, a girl and a ghost.
That's all.
Author's note: Victoria Cross is moving. She's currently leaving for Middle Earth.
Yeah, you read well. I know, it sounds Mary- Sueish.
What can I say, I hadn't planned this development when I started writing "Drops of water wearing through the stones". I hadn't planned this fiction, either. It just…happened.
If you like the character 'till now, I suggest you to have a look to the other fictions, "The long way – the ten walkers." Since I don't know how to post it in more than a place, you'll find it in the Lord of the Rings section.
Thank you for stopping by, reading and reviewing [the button is down there…Thank you! ; ) ]