"Snape, wasn't it?" The voice of Charna Wellington echoed off of the stone common room walls. The common room was much the way it had been when Salazar Slytherin furnished it - rather blank. There were a few couches, and armchairs by the fire. To the sides of the walls, there were tables and chairs for students wishing to study or do homework. A few emerald green tapestries were hung around the walls, though they appeared as if they had not been dusted in the past century. The fire was controlled by a cruel iron grate, and over the fire on the mantelpiece, a clock with the face of Salazar Slytherin would announce the time, by the hour. At that moment, the mouth of Salazar Slytherin opened, and a serpent protruded from it in place of a tongue. It hissed three times, announcing that the hour was three o'clock.
Severus Snape, occupying one of the chairs by the fire, nodded. "Indeed, though you should be out with your friends, Miss Wellington. I daresay they are enjoying the afternoon outside," he noted, drawling as usual as he settled his beetle black eyes on Charna, who had just entered the common room. With that, he turned his eyes back to the fire, staring into it as if it had insulted him in some way, shape, or form. He felt, rather than saw the presence of Charna Wellington. His keen ears picked up the sound of a small weight displacing into the overstuffed cushion of one of the armchairs of the fire. When he returned his eyes to his unwanted company, he found that he had been correct in guessing that this Wellington girl had decided to join him. "Well? Why aren't you basking in the sunlight with all of your new allies?" he questioned, looking himself as if sunlight had never touched him.
Dismissing his question with a wave, Charna made a noise from the ends of her nostrils. "Entirely overrated, as everything I have heard about Hogwarts has been," she commented, not breaking her gaze from the enigmatic second year. So far, she had heard from her father about how great Hogwarts was. The food was edible, and even that was a close call - the decorations were sparse and horrid, and the excessive number of paintings lining the halls were thoroughly repulsive. Moreover, blood seemed to have no importance outside of the Slytherin circles. People thought that Muggles were just grand, and Charna had even encountered in one instance a person who claimed that Muggles were better than wizards. She would make sure, of course, to prove the person wrong by making their life a living hell. No one degraded the noble title of wizard in front of a Wellington and got away with it.
Again, Severus nodded. Charna noted that he was not very communicative, as far as the exchange of words was concerned. "Hogwarts is just … concordia discors. It's ridiculous, though - don't let me trouble you. Since you seem so inquisitive, I'll return the favor. What are you doing inside, when you could be enjoying this fine afternoon out of doors?" Charna raised an eyebrow, surveying the boy with a degree of interest.
The blank face of Severus Snape curled into an awkward sort of smile. "Yes, I would say that Hogwarts is a bit of discordant harmony. I do speak Latin rather fluently," he explained. "Though I will give you this bit of hopeful advice - look forward to that same discordant harmony, because you will have seven years of it." It appeared that the Severus Snape that rarely talked was rather sarcastic as well. Charna detected a sort of shell around him, self-inflicted seclusion. He was one of the 'thinker' types of Slytherins, those that did more thinking than they did talking. Intrigued as to what lay beneath the shell of silent contemplation, a spike of determination rested in the head of Charna Wellington. She was determined from that point on to break that shell, even if it took her a few years.
"Do you play chess? I have a set in my trunk - after all, as the strategist, I believe that I need a bit of practice. People are like pawns you know - unless of course you have some obligation that otherwise occupies your time - that is if you think staring into the fire is more productive, of course," Charna drawled, waiting, watching for a reaction. Severus scowled. "Go get your chess set.," was all that he said, but Charna did not need telling twice. She walked up to her dormitory, where the girl she had threatened to do serious harm to still sat. At Charna's entrance, she froze. Charna rolled her eyes. "Honestly, grow a backbone," she muttered, straightening as she produced the chess set. Without another word, Charna turned on her heel and headed back downstairs, leaving her dorm mates in a dazed shock.
When she returned, victorious, Charna set the chess set on the table between the two chairs where she and Severus were sitting. Automatically, the table unfolded itself, giving Charna the advantage of white pieces. With an air of certainty (as she considered herself an expert of the game) she ordered one of her pawns two spaces forward. Thus began the chess match of the century, and the bond of a friendship of sorts.