Ok sorry this took so long but I've had so much homework! This chapter is dedicated to all my reviewers. Thanx for ur reviews! (I know the title sux but I couldn't come up with ne thing else)
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything, except Dani, Taylor, and the plot
Chapter 6: Friend or Foe?
Dani's POV:
As we walked into the Great Hall Hermione pointed to the Ravenclaw table, where Taylor had to sit, while the rest walked over to the Gryffindor table. As we sat down I noticed some people shoot me curious glances. I ignored them and glanced at the head table. My eyes immediately found Snape. I remembered his shocked face on the train when Taylor and I had been sorted and how he had said that he had to keep Voldemort informed on their movements. My eyes quickly moved along the table, the only other person I recognized was Dumbledore. I suddenly noticed how quiet the Hall had gone and that everyone was looking at the Sorting Hat. I watched the new first years get sorted and smiled. I would briefly listen to each ones thought's of nervousness before they got sorted. Mostly they were hopes to get into this house or that house. Then we listened to Dumbledore give a welcoming speech back, I was glad when he didn't make any acknowledgements to her or Taylor.
I sat there and ate she listened to the conversations. Most of them were about what they did on their vacations, families, stuff like that. I suddenly felt people staring at me. I turned around and saw a few Slytherins, including Draco, glaring at me. I shivered; the glares were no where near as bad as the thoughts. If we weren't in England, I thought, some of those guys, in a couple of years, they could be on America's Most Wanted.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked. Apparently he had noticed me shiver.
"Nothing, it's just that they," I said and nodded my head toward the Slytherin table, "have such violent thoughts."
"Yeah, well," he said looking over his shoulder, "that would be one way to describe them."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," he said, "that particular group of Syltherins all have some kind of connection to Death Eaters."
"That would explain, why they have such a strong…dislike for you, wouldn't?" I asked, turning my head to look him in the face.
"Yes, but I think dislike would be an understatement" he said.
"True" I said smiling.
After we ate we were dismissed to go to bed. Harry and I walked up to the Gryffindor tower since Hermione and Ron had to get the first years and fill them in on the stairs and passages of Hogwarts. We said goodnight and I walked up the staircase to the girls' dormitory. I changed into my pjs and crawled into bed. I felt Midnight come lay next to me.
"Hey sweetie," I said petting Midnight, "if tomorrow is as interesting as today, I might get used to Hogwarts."
I fell asleep listening to Midnight purr.
I woke up the next morning and put on my clothes. I swear, I thought, I will never get used to uniforms. Hermione told me to get my bag and just put all the books in it since we didn't have our schedules yet. We walked down to breakfast and received an early surprise for the day. When we walked we saw Taylor swarmed by Ravenclaw girls. I just rolled my eyes and waved. Taylor waved back but he was a bit distracted.
"Did you forget to tell us something?" Hermione asked as they sat down across from Ron and Harry.
"What? That?" I asked pointing over my shoulder toward the Ravenclaw table.
"Yes."
"Believe me, it's been worse, when we were in hiding and we had to get jobs. When he would finally get a job, like at a corner store, there would be herds of girls." Dani said. "Which usually caused him to get fired because the girls never bought anything" I added as an after thought.
"So this is normal?" Ron asked.
I nodded and laughed.
"Doesn't it bother you?" asked Ron.
"Why should it? Better him than me, right?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, clearly bored with this topic.
"Has McGonagall passed out the schedules yet?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, here's both of your's," Harry said handing a schedule to Hermione and Dani.
"Defense, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, and Herbology," I muttered. "Anything I should know about these teachers?"
"Well Slughorn is new so we don't know what he's like. Snape's really just a git and the rest are ok." Ron replied.
"Good to know."
"Alright, see in a bit guys," said Hermione.
About an hour later I was walked down to Defense class with Harry and Ron. I was still learning my way around Hogwarts, so I really didn't listen to Harry and Ron talk about Quidditch. I waved to Hermione who was standing outside the classroom.
"You're right," I said, "Quidditch is one thing you don't want to get them started on."
Hermione laughed, "How long have they been at it?"
"About the last twenty minutes."
We laughed and walked into class and took their seats. Ron and Harry sat behind them.
I noticed that the room had gone quiet.
"Settle down, and put your books away. You won't need them." Snape said.
Settle down? The class was already really quiet…actually they'd been quiet, with the exception of a few Slytherins, since they'd walked in the classroom.
Snape started to call roll. Even though I'm supposed to be "canceling out" other peoples' thoughts, I couldn't help but listen to what he thought of each student. He defiantly favored the Slytherins, and he really didn't seem to be that fond of Harry either. However, since I was so absorbed in his thoughts and stuff I didn't know he'd called my name until he said it a second time.
"Riddle, Danielle" he said, kind of irritated.
"Present" I said, timidly. Ok I know real smooth, right? I can read minds but didn't even notice when he'd called me. But I have a good excuse for that, though. See, when he'd said Riddle a lot of murmuring started which caused continued even after he passed my name.
"All of you be quiet now or I will take fifty points from your house" he said.
Now I know why they'd all been quiet. They were scared of him. Well, some were, most just really hated him; with a giant exception from the Slytherins. After roll, he talked about the past five teachers they'd had. Apparently everybody thought this job was cursed. Then he went on to say that we'd be learning how to defend ourselves without saying the spell out loud. I guess it was like surprise attack, but with magic. It turned out that Hermione was the only one who actually knew the answers Snape asked; which clearly aggravated him. He said we had to divide up into pairs. I admit I was a little nervous because I didn't have as much practice as everybody else in here. Sure Taylor and I could defend ourselves but we never really practiced magic after we learned to do a spell and I usually felt really stupid waving a wand- which in my mind is still a stick of wood- around.
I got partnered with some Slytherin boy called Blaise Zabini. He gave off a very overconfident vibe. He didn't look like he considered me much of a threat. And I would have to agree with him…I probably wasn't. So there we were practicing saying nonverbal spells- however many people were cheating- and Snape walking around the room criticizing people who weren't doing it right. I didn't quite catch up on the cheating thing fast enough, but neither did Zabini. He seemed to think as long as I didn't cheat neither would he. We were each taking equal blows from each others jinxes. So far only Hermione had successfully used a Shield Charm without saying anything…not that Snape noticed.
I don't know how I did it I just did. Zabini had said, "Expelliarmus" which he'd used before, and it had hurt- a lot. And I just thought "Protego" and it worked and made Zabini lose his balance for a minute. He looked at me; the look on his face was a mix of confusion and being impressed. However, the look on Snape's face was total shock-which was exactly how I felt, shocked. I mean, hadn't I missed five years of school?
What happy feeling I had quickly vanished. Snape had quickly recovered and was now yelling at Harry and Ron. It was very clear that Harry and Snape absolutely hated each other. Harry ended up getting detention for making a smart-ass comment; that was actually very funny. We were then dismissed and headed down for potions. Ron was laughing very hard about what had happened to Snape and Hermione was saying Harry really shouldn't have done that. When we reached the classroom and had taken our seats I was still listening to Ron and Hermione bicker when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and that it was Zabini. At first I thought he was going to give me a hard time but it turned out that I was wrong.
"For someone who is new and all, it was really impressive that you could do a nonverbal spell", he said. And what was weirder is that he actually meant it, which was weird because of all the stuff I'd heard about the Slytherins.
"Um… thanks," I said.
He smiled and walked back to the table with some Slytherins, including Draco.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked.
"Um…he was just…complimenting me on how I preformed the nonverbal spell thing."
"Wait, you succeeded in performing the spell? When did this happen?" Hermione asked.
"Right before Snape started giving Harry and Ron a hard time."
"I'm still amazed he didn't take any points off of Gryffindor for that." Harry said.
Professor Slughorn walked in and started class. He only stopped for a second when he came across my name on the roll list, saying he remembered how my father had been so good at potions. Only he said it in his head, not out loud, praise the lord. But it didn't make me feel any better.
Rest of the day passed uneventfully, well, unless you'd count lunch. Between Taylor and me most of the sixth years knew about the Riddle twins and wasted no time telling rest of the school. I guess the people who contributed to this mostly was Draco and his group. By lunch everyone knew who we were, unfortunately, related to. At first, people would whisper and be judgmental, but apparently since I was hanging out with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, not as many people were as negative toward me and Taylor as I thought they'd be. It didn't hurt that most of the fifth and sixth year girls thought Taylor was cute/hot, and it helped him even more since he was also friends with the Gryffindor trio. The rest of the week was like this and I soon got the hang of things around here. Many people still gave me a hard time, but would soon give up because I didn't retaliate, which aggravated them to no end. By the end of the month it was just a few Slytherins giving me grief. The only other thing that was really giving me grief was all the homework. It was usually just writing essays, which is very time consuming, and practicing spells but they gave a lot of it. Oh, well, at least people weren't giving as much trouble as I thought they would.
Ok sorry this took so long, I am going to try and be faster. I changed my writing from third person to first person so please tell me if it's any good. R&R! and thanx for the 13 reviews!