Chapter Two- You know it's a bad day when...
Erin: We're back.
Christina: Not dead yet.
Erin: Hurrah!
The train slowed to a halt, and the students left, eager for the chance to stretch their legs. Slaine jerked awake, and realized that she'd fallen asleep, halfway through an article on gay alien space pilots. Her stomach growled, telling her that she'd slept through the nice lady with a trolley full of candy. Rubbing her eyes, to clear them of sleep (and then cursing loudly as her careful over-application of eyeliner became two large coalish smudges vaguely centered around her eyes), Slaine left the train, yawning continuously.
Riley was thoroughly bored now. Somehow, Crabbe and Goyle (at least, that's what she thought their names were) had managed to manipulate the conversation. This meant that it had gone downhill fast. In the end, she'd resorted to talking to Pansy Parkinson, who, despite infatuation with Draco Malfoy, and the tendency to exaggerate, was actually an alright conversationalist. Nevertheless, getting out of the train had been a relief.
"Dude...I love those horseless carriages" Slaine said, with a grin. Ok, so now she knew that they weren't horseless, but were pulled by invisible, apparently lizardlike winged horses, but she'd never seen anyone die, so it still looked invisible. Which was cool.
However, while Slaine was staring at the not horses, Riley was grinning brightly at them. The thestrals, being in their right minds, were a little intimidated by this. Riley ignored the aggravated horse sounds, and gently stroked the muzzle of one. The grin on Riley's face as the thestral warmed to her was almost innocent. Draco came up behind her, a bemused look on his face.
"You can see them?" he asked, pointing to the lizardlike horse. Riley nodded
"Yeah. How'd Dumbledore get thestrals to pull carriages?" Riley asked, deftly steering the subject. Draco shrugged.
"No idea." At this point in the conversation, Slaine, who had been watching Riley pet what looked like air, to interrupt.
"SEE?! I'M NOT THE ONLY SCHITZO AT HOGWARTS!!" Slaine yelled triumphantly, pointing at Riley, and then she grinned brightly.
"AND SHE'S WORSE THAN I AM!!" Malfoy shook his head,
"Just ignore her." He said, disdainfully. Riley smirked
"I already was. What house is she in, again?" Riley asked, her tone saying that whatever house it was, it held her utter disdain. Draco shook his head, sighing unhappily.
"The mudblood is the undying disgrace of the Slytherin house." He said. Riley's jaw dropped.
"No. Way." She said, in shock, "I thought Slytherin's were supposed to be smart, cunning and ruthless?" Malfoy sighed.
"They are." He said, disdainfully. Riley raised an eyebrow, and darted a glance back at Slaine, who seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep. Riley couldn't help it- at the moment, with her smudged eyeliner, half-asleep position; Slaine didn't look smart, cunning or ruthless. She looked like a cuddly thing from Nightmare before Christmas. It was sad.
"Shall we ignore the disgrace, and continue off?" Draco asked, grimacing.
"Yes. Lets." Riley said, stepping into the carriage.
The carriage ride continued with silence in Slaine's carriage, and much happy talking in Riley's.
The garbled conversation made Slaine's ears twitch, and she resisted the urge to cover them. Instead, she settled for giving surprisingly vicious glares to anyone who talked too loudly. The best reaction came from a younger girl with bright red hair- she squeaked! Slaine giggled, and so did other things. Riley caught a glance of Slaine, hands covering her mouth, as she giggled at something incomprehensible- horrible example of a slytherin. The best of Slytherins, Riley had read, were aloof, cool, and obviously superior. Slaine, upon seeing that the door to the great hall was open, walked though it, haughtily.
In the great hall, at the Slytherin's table, there is a hierarchy. Older students sit closer towards the teachers table. Highly respected older students get to sit near the end of the table, and get the last cookies. The lower the 'rank' of the student, the farther they sit from the front of the table. And they definitely do not sit anywhere near the salt. Therefore, Slaine, being considered the weirdest of the weird, sat by herself at the other end of the table, and didn't use salt on any of her food (why wait the amount of time, anyways?).
Riley stood in the line for sorting, glancing imperiously at any foolish enough to a) come to close, or b) look at her. Some of the first years squeaked. Again. However, having a last name that begins with 'C' can put an end to your glowering pretty quickly.
"Clyde, Riley." Professor Mcgonagall called out, and Riley walked up to the stool, keeping her pace slow and measured. Riley sat down on the stool, managing to look like a queen in her court. Carefully the hat lowered down onto Riley's head. Or at least, in theory that's what it was supposed to do. The hat hadn't even been let go of by Proffessor Mcgonagall, when it yelled
"SLYTHERIN!!" And, as the hat departed, Riley could have sworn it was muttering 'get it off, get it off, get if off' continuously. Riley shrugged, and headed over to the slytherin table, where a seat had been saved for her, by Draco.
Slaine watched the sorting with a bemused half-interest. She remembered when she'd been sorted, the hat had asked her to make the choirs to stop singing. Slaine had pointed out that the choirs didn't stop. They just sang, rather constantly, and they weren't that difficult to ignore. The hat had muttered, but continued to sort, eventually yelling 'Slytherin!', and then muttering that one of the tenors was out of pitch. Slaine had spent her first night in Hogwarts listening carefully to see if the hat was right. It had been.
"Oooh! Food! CompleteandtotalSCORE!" Slaine chirruped, grinning insanely. First years scooted away, while from down the table Draco talked to Riley.
"And it'd be fine if she was an amazingly gifted seer, but she can only read Tarot cards, and stay awake in history of magic." Slaine sniffed, and dug into some sort of chicken. She could do more than that, except so could everybody else, so nobody noticed. Then she decided she liked the chicken taste. And besides Draco Malfoy wasn't that important. ...Unless he was a ferret, of course, and bouncing around, because that had amused her to no end.
Professor Severus Snape watched the transfer, Riley Clyde as she ate dinner. She seemed to be adjusting incredibly with the switch from Durmstrang to Hogwarts, but she had no idea where anything was...the professor's would eat her alive if she was constantly late for the first week or so of classes (first year classes started three minutes later than the other years, for that very reason). She would have to have someone show her where everything was...preferably not Mr. Malfoy, as he didn't want any excuses for lateness that involved rumpled clothing in the slightest. And it couldn't be an incredibly large burden for the other one, either...rolling his eyes; the potions master decided that students were horribly annoying. It should probably be someone in her dorm, who commanded presence. Thinking, he came upon the perfect candidate...alright, so she fell short of every requirement, but they were in the same dorm, and Slaine did need to talk to people her own age more.
The feast ended slowly, with the last of the food sitting forlornly in their platters, while students leaned back in their chairs (well, except for the brussel sprouts, because most of them were still there. So they weren't forlorn!). Finally, Albus Dumbledore got up, and told all the students not to stay up too late, as they had classes in the mornings, and, regretfully, sleep was not an acceptable excuse for missing class. Students began to file out of the great hall, heading for their common rooms, and then their dorms. As Riley began to leave, following as Malfoy began to immediately point out that there was a bunch of portraits of people related to him in the school, so he had to be important. When a tall, hook-nosed man swept down upon the two, Riley almost thanked him.
"Ms. Clyde? How are you finding Hogwarts so far?" Snape asked, despising the petty pleasantries it seemed necessary to spew before one could get down to business. Riley shrugged.
"I haven't been here very long, but so far, it seems pretty good." She said, offhandedly. Slaine, who was intent on leaving to her dorm (she'd shoved a bunch of gory books in her trunk, and 'The Relic' called.), brushed past Snape.
"'Scuse me, professor." she said, sounding more awake than she had for the past hour.
"One moment, Slaine." Snape said, and Slaine stopped, turned around, and looked at Professor Snape inquisitively. It was, Snape had always thought, a disturbing sight, when Slaine was curious. For one thing, her eyes seemed to get impossibly glassy, and Trelawney-ish. Another was that she would stare like that until her curiousity was sated. And she'd do it without blinking.
"Riley, this is Slaine Murphy. She'll be showing you around Hogwarts until you can find your own way." Snape introduced the two. Slaine blinked once, twice, and three times, opening her mouth in silent amazement. Riley tried to glare, but the painful shock made it difficult. Finally, both in sync, they managed to gasp out a single word-
"WHAT?!"
Oh god...that took FOREVER...sorry for the delay. I blame it all on someone else...I blame it on KAKASHI!!
Kakashi: looks up from raiding Erin's fridge What?
Anyways, hopefully the next chapter'll be here soon!
