"Ahem."
"And girls," corrected Alan Montague, the retiring Slytherin House Representive. "As you all know David and I are graduating in a few short months, and so comes the time that I must choose my successor." He paused, and David looked at him intently.
"Right. And David must choose his." David was the head of Slytherin prefects.
Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass looked at each other, then around the room, sizing up their competition. Pansy stared longlingly at Draco Malfoy for a moment, but was startled by Montague's continued speech.
"I know you all must wonder how the process is done, as we keep it a careful secret from the youngsters, so here you are." Alan folded out a bit of parchment on the table in front of him. It held a list of all their names, excluding his own and David's.
"I'll be posting one of these in each of your dorms," he continued, "Which will hold your ranking, due to points."
"Points?" inquired Theodore Nott, a tall, slim boy with sand colored hair.
"Yes, Theo my boy. Points," David laughed.
"You may wonder how you will recieve these points, and we'll tell you. Tomorrow morning, each of you will recieve a letter by owl. The letter will contain a single phrase, the name of an object. You are expected to have this object to us by the end of the week. First to get theirs gets extra points."
"The one with the most points will gain the hefty title of House Representive and all that it entitles. Second will take my place," David said, throwing an arm loosly about Alan's shoulders. "And no hard feelings between the winners."
"Well? Off you go, then."