Rhyann led her house mates through the long meandering halls of the castle. She wondered if they felt much like she did when Hermione first brought her to the secret room. She was sure that Millicent and Drucinda had no alternative plans though. She made sure the night before by peering into their sleeping minds. She would do so again this night just to make sure, but they were the two she believed would be the most trustworthy from Slytherin.
They came to the door to the Room of Requirement and she gave them one last smile of encouragement before opening it up. Though it was still a few minutes to the hour, it seemed like everyone else was already there. And every single one of them fell silent as Rhyann entered with the other two teenagers.
"I don't think we're late, are we?" The dreamer seemed to be unbothered by all the wordless stares that said more than speech could. Millicent shut the door behind them and stood to one side of Rhyann. Drucinda stood on the other, nervously nipping at her lower lip, so that they both were flanking her.
Hermione was present at the meeting this night and was the first to come over, trying to break the tension that had suddenly sprang up in the room. "No, you're not late. Everyone just happens to be early tonight." She gave Rhyann a reassuring smile and put on a more welcoming one for the other two Slytherins. "We're so glad you all could come. Finally we'll have students from all the Houses and this year will be more important than any other for that."
Harry came over to stand beside his friend. His smile was a little more timid. "Hi Rhyann. Thanks for coming." He glanced towards her house mates and made an obvious effort to include them. "Hi Millicent. Drucinda."
Ron did not follow his best friend's example. He stood back with his arms folded, trying not to glare at them. His sister, on the other hand, was not about to be cowed. Ginny did not bother to hide her disapproval and dislike for the Slytherins. She had never particularly liked Rhyann but she definitely did not like Millicent or Drucinda. Most of the others there were either looking away or trying to put on hospitable faces.
Hannah Abbot bounced forward, the smile on her face more genuine than the others. "I'm so happy we're all here." She put an arm through Rhyann's and another through Harry's, linking the three of them. "The Houses at Hogwarts were always meant to get along. I know we can start it with this one little group. We'll unite the Houses for the first time in centuries!"
Everyone was silent again and Hannah's smile faltered slightly, more nervous than before. She leaned towards the dreamer and asked, "Was that too perky?"
Rhyann could not stop herself from smiling. "Perhaps a little too early to be that enthusiastic about it." She peered over at Harry and he was smirking too, his green eyes agreeing with her.
"I think we should get started now." Hermione announced and sat down at one of the tables, picking up a quill with a parchment before her. "I've had a little bit of spare time to get a general schedule worked out. We'll have to know what clubs all of us are in and when everyone's quidditch practices are. I know they'll be more frequent over the next few months."
With the Slytherin quidditch tournament at the end of October, teams were getting an early start on practicing this year. There would be no season within Hogwarts itself, but each House team will get to play in the tournament. Rhyann had already seen Draco's brutal schedule for his team. Designed around his own timetable, of course. She assumed that all the teams would be practicing just as hard.
"I think we agreed that all other clubs would be meeting less or put on hold while the quidditch teams are practicing so much, so we can give full support to them and be more available for this." Hannah stated and looked to one of her house mates, Ernie. "Hufflepuff has taken mostly morning practices anyway, haven't they?"
"Yeah, we're up at the crack of dawn four days a week." Ernie nodded, rubbing his eyes as if they had already suffered a severe lack of sleep but it was only the anticipation of it.
"Ravenclaw has a few mornings and evenings. The mornings right after those nights too." Anthony Goldstein groaned slightly at that.
"And we've already given you Gryffindor's schedule." Ron said to his girlfriend. He looked much more enthused about it than the other two boys.
"You don't have to worry about ours." Rhyann added needlessly. She wouldn't dare to think to invite any of Draco's team to these meetings. She peered at her house mates. "And you two don't have any other clubs, do you?" Millicent and Dru shook their heads in response.
"At least that makes it a bit easier." Hermione sighed as she began to sort out the schedule for them. Her handwriting was quick and neat. "We should make sure to juggle the nights around too."
Drucinda looked down upon the timetable that the Head Girl was making out and leaned in to whisper to Rhyann. "We won't be going to all those nights, will we?"
"No, only some. There's more members this year and we want to recruit more. So it is best we meet in smaller groups as not to draw attention to it." She explained.
"I didn't realize the club was so popular." Drucinda was still a bit shocked that they had not heard the club was in existence after their fifth year. Usually she was privy to all of Hogwarts' gossip through Pansy, but not even she had known.
"It's not popular. It's necessary." Ginny declared loudly from where she was leaning against the wall next to her brother.
"Necessary?" Drucinda asked before even thinking about what she might be starting.
"Necessary to learn how to protect ourselves from people like your family and all the other evil followers of You-Know-Who!" Ginny spat back, no longer leaning but standing ready as if she hoped the other teen would do something.
"Ginny…" Hermione looked up nervously from the parchment.
"My family isn't involved with You-Know-Who!" Drucinda gave a little indignant gasp.
"Oh, come on! We know the Notts are involved!" The redhead shot back and then glared at Rhyann too. She did not mention the Rookwoods, but her eyes were placing the accusation upon her family as well.
"Maybe other Notts, but not my parents." The Slytherin looked almost like she were ready to cry. Her eyes were watery and she was glancing about as if she were looking for somewhere to run. She could tell by Ginny's expression that there would be no winning an argument with her.
"And neither is my family." Millicent added unwaveringly. She folded her arms and stared coldly at those that were gaping at her. She was an imposing sight, standing taller than everyone in the room.
"Really, I don't think we should be talking about his." Hermione said nervously and looked to her friends for support.
"Yeah, you can't judge people because of who their families are." Harry put in, getting a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered his godfather.
Ginny murmured something under her breath, but she did not say anything more. There were a lot of eyes directed at the floor at the moment and people shifted uncomfortably. They had all agreed to give the Slytherins a chance, but they were still nervous about their presence. Only Rhyann was different, they knew. Millicent had been one of Draco's cronies and Drucinda always by Pansy's side. It was hard to think of them as anything else.
"We understand that you don't trust us right away." Rhyann spoke up. "I know a lot of you didn't like that I was brought in, but I did prove myself. Just as I know Dru and Millicent will do too. You need only give them time and a chance to do so. If they prove untrue, I'm sure some of you would be more willing to practice memory charms on them."
Drucinda looked a bit horrified at that thought but Millicent gave a singular nod in understanding. It seemed to ease the tension in the room though. The dreamer sighed inwardly. She knew it would be difficult to bring other Slytherins into the fold. She was not personally worried about either of her house mates, but she knew they would also be tested by the other members. Especially by ones like Ginny Weasley. If Hermione had not been there, she was sure that Ron would be right there snarling at them by his sister's side.
The Head Girl smiled thankfully at Rhyann and went back to the schedule. "We'll start this weekend. Get things in motion. It's easy enough to figure out the first week of it." Her quill was flying across the parchment. "And if things change, we have our galleons to tell us."
Harry searched through the pockets of his robe as if he had lost it but finally pulled out a gold coin with a relieved exhalation. "I still have mine. Does everyone have theirs still?"
"I have mine!" Hannah held hers up with a smile. All the others announced that they still had theirs.
Millicent and Drucinda were looking to the petite teen for an explanation, but she had none. She motioned to the galleon in Harry's hand. "What are those? What do they do?"
"Oh well," Harry looked a bit embarrassed as he suddenly remembered that she had not been given one. "We needed a way to let everyone know when a meeting was but without whispering it about or posting it. So we had these galleons enchanted. They have the date for the next meeting on them and if it is changed, then I can change it from my own coin."
"That is very clever." Rhyann replied slowly. Why hadn't they given her one of those the previous year?
"Thank you! It was my idea." Hermione proudly beamed.
"Are there any extras then?" Rhyann asked tentatively. She could not understand why she had not been given one and did not want to demand an answer as to why. Hadn't they trusted her enough? Surely she had proven herself to them. She had seen as much in their sleeping minds.
Harry went over to one of the shelves and brought over a box of them. The room had provided them with dozens more for new recruits. He held the box out to the Slytherins so that they each could take one. "Just keep them in your pockets. If the date changes, it will feel warm to let you know."
"Just make sure you don't spend 'em." Ron piped up, a little redness in his cheeks. It seemed he might have done so himself.
"Thanks." Rhyann picked up one of the galleons and examined it. It looked like an ordinary coin except where the date of when it had been made, there was the date of the next meeting which was Saturday. Millicent and Drucinda did the same thing, clearly impressed by the idea.
"Okay. I'll finish up the schedule for the month and post it up in here." Hermione's quill was still scratching away. "If there's nothing else, that will be it for this evening."
No one else had anything to add and slowly they began to file out of the room in twos and threes. Rhyann did not rush to go anywhere. There was no reason they needed to hurry back to the Slytherin common room. She stepped over towards Harry as he came towards her.
He smiled and ran a hand through his tussled hair. "I'm sorry you didn't get a galleon last year. We would have given you one, but Hermione was doing fine at letting you know and then everything started happening and, well, you know…" He seemed to have known just what she wanted to hear.
Rhyann gave a little nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. There were more important things for you to be thinking about last year."
"Yeah, that's true." Harry nodded and then lowered his voice a bit. "I still would like to talk to you about your dreams and such. I did a bit of reading over the summer on it but there's not much that I could find."
Her body went a little tense but she managed to keep an easy-going smile upon her lips. "We'll do that sometime then. I have never found much about it myself."
"Okay. That sounds good."
"I guess we'll be going now. We don't want to be absent from where we are suppose to be for too long." Rhyann motioned to the door. Sometimes conversations with him could be easy and other times, they were a bit more awkward. "I'll see you later, Harry." She gave a wave to Hermione and Ron too.
"See you, Rhyann." Harry waved as well and stepped back to sit next to his friends.
The dreamer did not look back as she left, hearing Millicent and Drucinda right behind her. She fiddled with the galleon in her pocket. She had no desire to talk about dreaming with Harry. The less he knew the better. It only reminded her that she wanted to get back to Salome's book and all the secrets it contained.