Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine, but I invented Maddie and all the other first years. No stealing them without permission.
AN: I finally got round to editing and posting this! Anyone waiting for my other story I'm afraid that won't get updated till Wednesday due to my very busy schedule. Thanks to those who reviewed my last chapter, hope you enjoy this one where Maddie realises just what she's let herself in for.
Chapter 3: Discovering Prejudice
Maddie awoke early the next morning to find Ophelia and Alicia already pulling on their robes whilst Olivia and Emily slept on. Seeing she was awake Alicia quickly put her finger to her lips and grinned wickedly, nodding Maddie hopped out of bed and quietly began getting dressed herself. Grabbing their wands the three made their way downstairs to the common room where Draco and another girl Maddie didn't know were busy pinning some sheets to the notice board. All the first year boys were already there, along with a few students from various other years who were scattered around the common room waiting to read the notices. As soon as Draco and the girl were done Maddie approached the board.
There were various notices about school rules and banned items, one about Quidditch tryouts and finally what Maddie considered the most important of all, the timetables. She quickly located the first year one and began reading off their lessons to the others who were now crowding round.
"Transfiguration first, then charms, then a double period for flying." She read "Tomorrow we've got our first Defence Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic lessons, but we don't have Herbology or Potions until Wednesday." At this news Alicia sighed.
"Shame, I was looking forward to seeing a ghostly Professor, although supposedly his lessons are deadly boring. Still," she continued brightening up "flying should be good fun."
Maddie agreed and they trooped back upstairs to collect their books for the morning's lessons. Up in the dormitory Olivia and Emily were now awake and pulling on their robes so Maddie told them what they would need before hurrying off to breakfast.
On the way to the Great Hall Ophelia introduced them to Mathew, the boy she had been sitting next to at the feast. Maddie thought he looked much nicer than Julian or the other boys, he didn't have the same haughty air about him nor did he seem to think he was too good for them and during breakfast he sat with them rather than the others.
After breakfast they hurried off to Transfiguration which they were taking with the Ravenclaws. Maddie waved at Sally and Josh and was a little confused when they both looked at her in surprise, however after a moment they both waved back with huge grins and Maddie wondered if she had imagined the looks. When they filed into the classroom Mathew, Ophelia, Alicia, herself, Sally and Josh took the front row and she quickly exchanged news of the first night with Sally.
"Everyone in Ravenclaw is lovely." Sally enthused, the almost permanent look of awe back in her brown eyes. "Although the older students seem a bit intimidating, they all know so much." She then launched into a description of the common room and the other students in their house with Josh helpfully inputting bits she had missed and Alicia leaning over Maddie's shoulder to hear better.
Before they had even nearly finished the conversation Professor McGonagall swept into the room and Alicia nearly fell off her chair in her haste to turn and face the front. Professor McGonagall's eyes fell on Maddie and Sally and for a moment Maddie was sure she detected a flicker of surprise before it was replaced by her usual stern expression. Next to her Maddie could see Sally's eyes had grown wide with fear and she was sure she could see her hands shaking slightly as she opened her textbook in accordance with Professor McGonagall's instructions.
Transfiguration pasted quickly in a blur of note taking and diagram drawing about turning matchsticks into needles that Maddie wasn't really sure she understood. She was rather glad when it was all over and the bell clanged in the depths of the castle signalling the end of the lesson. There was a ten minute break before Charms so Maddie and Alicia stood out in the corridor to talk to Sally and Josh. As the other Slytherins departed Maddie could see they were giving her and Alicia rather strange looks, almost as if they wondered why she was stood around talking. Even Ophelia and Mathew looked a little surprised when she introduced them to Sally and Josh but they joined politely in the conversation anyway. Maddie was beginning to think there was either something seriously wrong with everyone else or something about Sally and Josh she had missed. She resolved to talk to Alicia about it at lunchtime.
Charms was to be taken with the Hufflepuffs and as they stood in the corridor waiting to enter the room Maddie looked over at them with interest. Most of them just ignored her, but one or two threw her half frightened, half disgusted looks and Maddie wondered what their problem was. Shrugging it off she entered the classroom and claimed a table for her, Alicia, Ophelia and Mathew near the back of the room. Professor Flitwick, a tiny man who actually had to stand on a pile of books whilst he addressed the class, informed them that they would be levitating feathers this lesson.
After much practising of the charm and the wand movement they finally got to try it for themselves and Maddie was pleased when hers floated up after only a few tries. Professor Flitwick was delighted as well and awarded Slytherin 20 house points. By the end of the lesson no one else had managed it and Maddie left the classroom feeling rather proud of herself.
She and Alicia ate a hurried lunch and then dashed back to the dormitory where they quickly dumped their bags and raced down to the common room. They managed to get good seats on one of the couches by the fire and Maddie broached the subject that had been bugging her most of the morning.
"Haven't you noticed how people looked at us strangely when we spoke to Sally and Josh?" she asked Alicia, deciding a forthright approach was the best and hoping Alicia didn't think she was imagining things. To her surprise though Alicia nodded and looked thoughtful.
"Remember I was talking about the prejudices against Slytherin, well it works both ways, a lot of Slytherins are also prejudiced against anyone who is in any house other than their own." She explained after a short pause. "I think everyone expects all Slytherins to be like that, including most of the Slytherins. I guess when we talked to Sally and Josh everyone was surprised because it's so unusual to see a Slytherin being friendly with anyone outside their own house. In fact I don't think some of the Slytherins were that happy with us, did you see the looks we got after Transfiguration?"
"That's ridiculous!" Maddie exclaimed, "They can't expect us not to talk to anyone outside of Slytherin!" Alicia shrugged.
"Like I said that's what they all think, it doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Obviously they think no one outside Slytherin is worth speaking to."
"Well that's stupid." said Maddie, folding her arms defiantly "I'm not stopping speaking to anyone just because they're not in Slytherin. If you ask me it's those other stupid Slytherin first years who aren't worth speaking too." As she said this she glanced up and noticed for the first time that they had an audience. Draco Malfoy was sitting in one of the chairs across from them. He raised his eyebrows at her as she finished her little speech before going back to the book he was reading. Maddie was rather embarrassed at being overheard saying something bad about her own house members, especially by someone like Draco Malfoy, but she didn't have a lot of time to think about it as the bell started clanging, signalling the end of lunchtime.
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Flying lessons turned out to be just as much fun as Alicia had predicted, they were with the Ravenclaws again so Maddie got to see Sally's first reaction to flying. Mostly it had involved her turning rather green, shaking a lot and finally almost falling off in fright when Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Alicia on the other hand had taken to it straight away, impressing Madam Hooch with her balance and control. Maddie had been nicely placed between the two extremes, she was no expert but in time she felt she might make quite a decent flier.
At the end of the day she tumbled into bed tired yet happy, feeling that if everyday went as well as this one her time at Hogwarts would be a breeze. Of course that was just wishful thinking she knew, there were bound to be some hiccups and there was still the matter of the Slytherin prejudice to deal with. That though could wait till tomorrow, for now she drifted off to sleep to dream of feathers that floated around before turning into giant needles that she could ride like a broom over the Great Lake whilst below Madam Hooch frantically blew her whistle and shouted at her to come down.
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The next day when she awoke to the pale morning light shining in the window Maddie found only Alicia left in the dormitory, Olivia and Emily had already gone to breakfast and Ophelia had gone to find Mathew. Dressing quickly they hurried to breakfast, taking their seats next to Ophelia and Mathew in the Great Hall.
"History of Magic first, then Charms again, then Defence Against the Dark Arts." Mathew was telling them as Maddie helped herself to some toast and jam. Maddie nodded and only listened with half an ear as Mathew told them how he had been practising the levitation charm and thought he might have finally got it.
History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs turned out to be rather boring, after the initial novelty of having a transparent Professor had worn off there was nothing to do but listen to him drone on about Goblin riots and attempt to take notes. Charms was a little better, they were continuing with levitation Charms and after her success yesterday Maddie was allowed to try her hand at levitating a small book whilst the others practised on feathers. After lunch they had Professor Snape for Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors, luckily for Maddie Professor Snape seemed to favour his own house because she couldn't get her shielding charm to work at all. Unfortunately for the Gryffindors he appeared to have some sort of vendetta against them and took away 20 points when one of them accidentally set a piece of parchment on fire. The favouritism however didn't get them out of the homework: a foot of parchment on why shielding charms were useful. Everyone groaned knowing that they already had an essay about levitation charms to write and a chapter of A History of Magic to read and take notes on.
All in all though Maddie felt it had been another successful day and as she snuggled down in her warm bed she could only hope tomorrow's new lessons of Herbology and Potions would be just as interesting.
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Potions turned out to be more of an event than expected, thanks to what Maddie thought of as the eccentricities of Professor Slughorn. For one thing there was his huge velvet covered belly that almost seemed to arrive in the dungeon classroom before him. Then there were the incidents during the register. Like Defence Against the Dark Arts, potions was taken with the Gryffindors and when Professor Slughorn had called out the name of one of them a rather strange conversation had taken place.
"Gerald Thornber."
"Yes sir."
"You wouldn't by any change be related to Henry Thornber who plays for the Wimbourne Wasps would you?"
"Yes sir he's my Uncle."
"Well, well fancy that. So nice to have you in the class."
Maddie was just wondering what his Uncle had to do with Professor Slughorn's class when he began on the list of Slytherins and called her name.
"Madeline LeCardieu."
"Yes sir." Slughorn peered at her and Maddie felt already that she knew what was coming next.
"Are you related to Helena LeCardieu from the French Ministry of Magic?" He asked, as she had expected.
"Yes sir, she's my great aunt."
"Well it's a pleasure to have the great niece of such an illustrious lady in my class. An unexpected honour as well, I'd have thought you would be at Beaubaxtons."
"Well we've lived over here for most of my life sir." Replied Maddie feeling some sort of explanation was required of her.
"Of course, of course." Professor Slughorn agreed "I've met her several times and she often mentioned she had family in England, you must be it." He beamed at her as if making this connection was something he was rather proud of. "Now do you prefer Maddie or Madeline?" he continued.
"Everyone calls me Maddie." She replied, trying to stop herself from giggling at Alicia who was now rolling her eyes.
"Excellent, excellent. I'll remember that." Professor Slughorn nodded, before continuing the rest of the register.
Thankfully for Maddie the rest of the lesson passed without any further mention of her great aunt and her and Alicia's cure for boils turned the right shade of blue by the end of class, causing Professor Slughorn to award them 20 house points each. Maddie was rather grateful to escape the dungeons and race across the lawns to the greenhouses so she could finally giggle at Professor Slughorn's odd behaviour.
Herbology with the Ravenclaws passed peacefully enough, Maddie and Alicia worked with Sally and Josh on their Devils Snare. Although this arrangement earned them several strange looks, no one made any comment, which was rather lucky as Maddie was getting thoroughly tired of all the silly prejudices.
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Whilst waiting outside the Transfiguration classroom later that afternoon Maddie spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione walking past. Without thinking she grinned and waved at them, forgetting that they were much older than her and probably wouldn't want to be bothered with a first year student. As she expected they all looked surprised, but not as surprised as she was when Harry and Ron gave her barely a nod before sweeping past. Hermione on the other hand quickly rearranged her features into a friendly smile, before hurrying to catch up with her friends. Maddie was sure she heard Hermione telling them off for something as soon as she thought they were out of earshot and wondered what was going on.
She turned back round to find Sally bubbling over with excitement and Alicia looking concerned.
"That was Harry Potter!" Sally was enthusing as if she'd just witnessed an extremely rare event "Chloe from second year was telling me all about him, those are his friends Ron and Hermione. You've met Ron before haven't you Maddie?" As Maddie was nodding Alicia pulled her to one side and began whispering urgently.
"Did you see their reaction?" She hissed "You said they were friendly before but they hardly looked at you just then."
"I know, it's probably just because they don't want some first year talking to them all the time." Maddie laughed, surprised at how seriously Alicia was taking this.
"No" Alicia shook her head "It's because we're in Slytherin. Everyone's prejudiced against us, even Harry Potter probably thinks all our parents are Death Eaters." Maddie looked at Alicia in amazement, hardly believing what she was hearing. Just because of what house she was in she had not only already been marked out as a snob who thought no other house was good enough for her but it also seemed that everyone was also going to assume her parents were Death Eaters. No wonder everyone acted so surprised when she spoke to anyone outside her own house, even Professor McGonagall had looked taken aback when she had found her speaking to Sally that first Transfiguration lesson.
As they all filed into the Transfiguration classroom Maddie wondered what she was going to do. There was no way she was about to conform to what everyone else expected of her. She liked Sally and Josh, they were a lot better than most of the people in her house, far better than those haughty boys whose names she still wasn't sure of and far better than Olivia who had judged people worthy or unworthy depending on their backgrounds. She would just carry on as normal she decided, everyone else was just going to have to get used to it. If the other Slytherins didn't like it, that was tough as well, they might be in the same house as her but Maddie felt that some of them could do with a really good kick up the….
"Madeline open your book at page 5, unless of course you think you already know everything about Transfiguration." Professor McGonagall's sharp voice cut off her thoughts and she quickly mumbled her apology as she bent studiously over the book, attempting to make sense of the strange diagrams drawn there.
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Well that's it for this chapter, Maddie is beginning to realise just what Alicia meant on the train when she said people were prejudiced against Slytherin. I wasn't too happy with a few of the sentences in this chapter, I felt they didn't flow too well but after several hopeless attempts to make them sound better I gave up and decided not to keep you waiting any longer. The next chapter is pretty much already written; it's called 'Discovering Power' -when some of the first years start getting a little bit above themselves Draco Malfoy is only too happy to put them firmly back in their places! Till next time, please review.
Love and lollipops,
Sivany