"Alright so I guess the table looks fine here" I mumbled to myself looking down at my new furniture. "But does it end up crowded on this side?"
I looked around the small room trying to decide whether I should move some more things around or not. It was about time that I decorated it but it was a bit annoying to have to do it myself. Then again, this place was meant to be a secret.
Around the end of the third year, near when the exams were taking place, I decided to build a small private room all for myself. It lay in the dungeon just behind the staircase near the Slytherin common room entrance. There had been a small gap here that no one ever seemed to go near so I figured it would be the perfect place to get some privacy. It wasn't hard to make; all I did was bring in some vines and formed them into a wall. Given the proper spell they would loosen and form a doorway into the small room, otherwise it was as if there was nothing behind them. No one seemed to notice the sudden appearance of my room or lack thereof. I assumed hidden rooms weren't a rare occurrence at Hogwarts.
This became my little study corner when the common room was too busy, or noisy, or both. I ordered furniture from Hogsmeade and had sent some of the Hogwarts house elves to go pick them up for me. They were usually preoccupied in the kitchen but looked happy to help as house elves often did. They had been a little confused as to why I wanted this kind of furniture brought in to the dungeon, to the empty corner by the staircase, in the middle of the night, and have them not tell anyone. But the good thing about house elves was they never asked many, if any, questions.
I gave one last glance at everything as I made my way to the small armchair. Only a few candles were needed to keep the place lit so I didn't have to worry about keeping too many of them around. For the room I had decided to buy the armchair as well as a desk, a bookcase, a floor cabinet, a small rug, and some nice dog dishes for Lev. I had given my puppy the proper spell to use so he too could get inside whenever he got annoyed in the common room. I grabbed my book off the desk and nuzzled myself onto the seat before reading it.
After a few pages I heard a sound and turned to the only wall unoccupied by furniture. The wall began to lose its sleek shape and became bumpy from the vines holding it together. One by one they fell unraveled, forming a doorway with their absence. Draco stepped inside. Once completely in the room the vines snapped tight behind him making the seamless wall yet again
"Hey, what are you doing here?" I smiled at him and set the book back on the table
"I was looking for you. Daphne said she hadn't seen you since you left your room so I figured you'd be here" he answered looking around. He knew about the room, obviously, but had only been here before I put in the new furniture
"Do you think it looks a little crowded over here?" I asked gesturing to my side of the room with my hands. He shook his head and walked over to me. Draco leaned against the table and looked down at me on the seat
"Seems fine. How did you get all this in here?" he asked looking around at my things again.
"I told the house elves to bring all the furniture to the corner outside the door. Then I placed a hovering charm on them and brought everything in. I hate manual labor but the only other option required me to tell someone to do it for me and the point of all this is that I be left alone."
"Am I bothering you then?" Draco teased looking down at me.
"Yes but I'm used to you bothering me" I teased back. He made a face as I smiled at him.
"Anyway, I came because we're actually supposed to be up in front of the castle to meet the arriving schools. In other words, you're already late."
"Oh right… I forgot about that" I mumbled to myself still not moving from my comfortable new chair. Draco rolled his eyes at me
"Obviously. Now come on" Draco told me grabbing my arm.
"'Kay" I replied as he pulled me up and out of my chair. He started walking towards my room's makeshift door and I followed after him, since he was still holding onto my arm.
We stepped outside the room and onto the small hall in the dungeon. Turning the corner we met the stairs and moved up them out of the dungeon and towards the ground floor. As we walked I noticed no one was in sight. Everyone must have already been waiting outside the castle. I had taken advantage of the extra time after our last lesson to stop by and fix some things in the room. Guess I forgot about the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrivals. Oh well. Lev had stayed in the dormitory. Considering his behavior with strangers it was probably for the best.
I was a little curious to see the other schools. I didn't know much of Beauxbatons Academy other than it was located in France. With Durmstrang, on the other hand, I knew probably everything. I had spent quite a lot of time with some of the students who, as far as I knew, were still studying there. In some of his classes my brother asked me to wait outside. That was usually because it was something he thought I was too young to know about, which I thought was a dumb reason, or because the lesson required a lot of his attention. Either way that caused me to become bored and wander around the grounds where I met some, at the time, first years and such. They were not first years anymore and part of me wondered if any of them would be coming here today.
Outside we met up with the other Slytherins. All the Hogwarts students were standing in four lines, one for each house, with the firsts in front. Draco let go of my arm as we got closer, before the others would see. They were in a line too, sort of. Since the lines were arranged by year Professor Snape was preoccupied with the firsts and I doubted he had bothered looking back to see the rest of the line. It was a good thing too, seeing as Draco and I were late. In fact, Professor Snape didn't even seem to know I had been gone.
"Where have you been?" Daphne, who had clearly noticed my absence, called when she saw us. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently at me. "You said you would meet me out here."
"And I did" I smiled as Draco and I walked closer to them. Daphne gave me a look so I decided to elaborate. "I left to get something from the kitchen and went back up to say goodbye to Lev. After that, I simply forgot about this whole thing" I lied, about the first part at least, since I actually did forget… Oops.
"It didn't catch your attention that literally everyone in the dungeon was gone?" Theodore asked in line behind Daphne. I shrugged at him getting into line behind him. Draco moved to stand behind me in line. He remained silent since none of the questions seemed to be directed at him.
"To be honest, no" I answered Theo.
"Why would it?" Blaise called back to us. He was placed in front of Daphne not bothering to turn back to us. "She usually ignores everyone around her; unless she wants something from them."
"Are you sure you're not referring to yourself?" I called back. Blaise leaned to the side and smirked back at me for a second before turning back into line.
"Wait, if you were in our room how did Draco find you?" Daphne asked sounding a little suspicious.
"I was in the common room when he got there" I lied again. Daphne was one of the people I really didn't want knowing about the room. For one, she would tell most everyone she knew which contradicted my making the room in the first place. And two, she would annoy me with questions of why I didn't trust her enough to tell her about it even though her telling everyone should be enough of an answer.
"You're lucky you came back in time or Snape would've been irritated at both of you for being late and making all of Slytherin look bad" Theo said in a tone with a slight hint of annoyance. All of the professors had been overacting to our guests and had been insistent on us students being on our best behavior. Hopefully when the guest schools arrived the professors would relax a bit.
"Not that you have to try very hard to make all of Slytherin look bad by example" Pansy commented happily more to herself than to me. She was standing smiling behind Draco and from what I could tell she was slyly leaning into him pretending she was doing it to look at me. Draco didn't look to notice. I stuck my tongue out at her in reply and turned back to the front. "Real mature."
"I know you are but what am I?" I teased turning back to her with a smile.
"That—how is that an insult?" she glowered at me.
"I know it is but what are you?" I teased again. Pansy's eyes narrowed in aggravation.
"What—"
"I know we are but what is that" I interrupted still smiling.
"What is wrong with you?!" Pansy screeched fed up with me.
"Miss Parkinson kindly lower your voice lest someone thinks something is wrong with you" Professor Snape spoke to her as he reached us having gotten the front of the line fixed. Pansy shot me a glare choosing not to scream at me while our professor was around. I smiled innocently at her and looked forward without a word.
"You timed that didn't you" Draco whispered from behind me. I nodded still smiling and remained staring ahead.
"So… how long do we have to stand out here?" Daphne complained once Professor Snape was far behind us, in the back with all the other professors. She was breathing into her hands trying to warm them a little.
"Who knows" Blaise yawned already bored with this and everyone here. "It's six isn't it?"
"Should be" Draco replied looking bored himself. "But how long are they going to keep us waiting?"
"I'm cold" Daphne grumbled rubbing her hands together.
"Me too" I said, noting I was a lot colder than I had been before.
"So what do you want us to do about it?" Blaise muttered from up front.
"Give me your scarf" I said turning to Draco behind me.
"You have your own; why didn't you bring it" he commented placing a hand on his scarf, as if to keep me from getting it.
"I forgot" I shrugged and continued to look at him.
"Well that's your problem isn't it" Pansy observed reaching to wrap her scarf one more time around herself. I ignored her, though part of me wanted to encourage her to wrap it just a little tighter around her neck.
"Just give me your scarf" I told Draco, still looking at him. He gritted his teeth and stared at me. Knowing I wouldn't let it go he sighed heavily in defeat and started taking it off. I smiled happily and took it from him. "Thank you"
"Shut up" Draco glared at me as I put it on. I turned back ahead to see Daphne making a face at my new scarf. She began to pout and turned to one of the other scarfed boys in line.
"Blaise would you—"
"Yeah right" Blaise let out an abrupt laugh not bothering to turn back to look at her.
"Theo…" she called sweetly, looking back at him with puppy dog eyes. He sighed and handed his scarf to her. Daphne smiled widely at him. "Love youuuuu"
"Don't be weird" Theo replied shaking his head and smiling back. Daphne happily put the scar around her neck and turned back to look at the sky, waiting for our two guest schools to finally arrive. I placed part of the scarf over the bottom half of my face. I had enough experience wearing scarves that I had learnt it was the perfect way for me to keep my face warm. That and it smelled nice. Then again it was Draco's and he always smelled nice.
It only took a few more minutes but finally one of the visiting schools arrived.
"Aha!" Professor Dumbledore called from the back. "Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
"Where?" many students asked eagerly, looking in all directions.
"There" a sixth year called out pointing towards the top of the forest, where something appeared to be coming closer, crossing the sky towards the castle.
"It's a dragon!" yelled a girl first year excitedly.
"She's obviously never seen a dragon" I muttered shaking my head. I heard Draco snicker at that behind me.
What we were actually looking at was a large powder-blue horse-drawn carriage. It measured up to a decent sized house. The thing was pulled by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, each looking rather large themselves. As it landed the front students had to draw back not to get hurt. The carriage landed with a crash.
"Watch it!" a fifth year behind us yelled as the Gryffindor Neville backed away slowly. He had stepped on the Slytherin's foot, which was one of the many things one should not do if they knew what was good for them. I turned back to the front where the carriage door opened.
A boy in pale blue robes jumped down from the carriage. He fumbled with something on the carriage floor for a second before unfolding a set of golden steps. Once he did a large woman stepped out. A few people gasped at the sight of her. Her size reminded me of Hagrid's. It surprised me, to be honest. The woman was decently pretty though, despite her size. She was dressed in black satin and wore opal jewelry. It reminded me a bit of my mother's taste, except a little less shiny; she liked shiny things.
Dumbledore started clapping and we followed his lead, because why not. The woman smiled graciously and walked over to Dumbledore. He kissed her hand when they met. I turned away, not very interested in their conversation, and watched the boys and girls of Beauxbatons Academy walk out of the carriage. The first thing I noticed: they were shivering.
"They have nice robes but they really should have prepared better for the weather" Daphne said looking at the fine silk of their robes. Few had thin scarves or shawls but Daphne was right, they were unprepared. I had only visited a couple of times but the weather in France was very differing from that here. For one, it was a warmer
"Says the girl who insisted we give her our scarves" Theo mumbled, mindlessly scratching his recently bare neck. Daphne smirked at him and happily grabbed his scarf that now around wrapped comfortably around her neck. Back on the grounds the Beauxbatons students were staring at us Hogwarts students apprehensively. I'm not sure what they thought we were going to do to them but they should have known we'd behave, at least with all our professors watching us.
"Look at them shivering" Blaise laughed at them.
"That's mean" I told him though it was muffled by my scarf. Blaise rolled his eyes at me
"What? I can't hear you with that thing on your face" Blaise sneered pointing to his mouth area.
"It's a scarf, dummy" I replied pulling it down just long enough to stick out my tongue at him. When I was done I smiled and returned the scarf back to its rightful place over my face. Blaise snickered and made a face at me.
"What's with you, today?" Theodore asked him. "Something sit with you bad from dinner?"
"I like this scarf" I said in a muffled voice to Draco not bothering to hear the answer to Theo's question.
"Good for you" Draco told me in his usual condescending tone but smiled when hearing me trying to talk with his scarf over my mouth. I smiled back, though I knew he could only see eyes, and turned back to students.
"Will they just hurry up so we can go inside" Pansy complained moving around frustrated and bored. For once I agreed with her.
"Come" called the Beauxbatons' headmistress, Madame Maxime, to her students. We had to part to let them through but it was worth it if it got us that much closer to getting inside.
"Can we go yet?" I asked to no one in particular.
"There's still Durmstrang" Draco reminded me, though not sounding too happy about having to stay.
"Ugh" Pansy groaned in reply, even though no one here was talking to her. "They better get here soon"
Once they were inside, the rest of us students turned a bit quiet. We spent the next few minutes in silence, impatiently waiting for the next set of visitors to arrive. To avoid massive boredom I distracted myself by playing with the scarf Draco had given me. It was actually really nice. The quiet was actually not bad, and perhaps even a little nice. That is until a loud and oddly eerie noise came drifting towards us from the darkness. It was coming from the riverbed
"The lake!" yelled the twins' friend, Lee… I think, pointing in that direction. "Look at the lake!"
We all looked to the water, but not just because he said to. The smoothness of the lake vanished as great bubbles started to appear. The bumps in the water reminded me of how the vines looked before they turned into the doorway of my secret room. The water started moving onto the banks. A whirlpool appeared in the middle of the lake and I couldn't help but wonder if the creatures living there were getting annoyed. Regardless of that a long black pole began to rise slowly followed by the rest of the ship attached to it.
"It's a mast!" Harry Potter yelled to his friends.
"Obviously" Draco muttered sourly. I patted his arm in conciliation and smiled. He smiled a little too but still had a grudging look to him. I'm not sure what the thing was between those two but I don't think I'd ever asked Draco either. I just figured they didn't like each other and left it at that. I turned away from him to watch the rest of the ship rise out of the water.
A few moments later the anchor fell and, with a thud, a plank lowered as a pathway onto the bank. Students of the Durmstrang Institute began walking out. Their cloaks were the same as before, looking of shaggy matted fur. I never really cared for their uniforms but remembering their grounds it got colder even than here. Not significantly but sufficiently.
"At least they're prepared" Theo commented watching as the rest of them filed orderly out of the ship.
"Why are everyone's uniforms better than ours?" Daphne complained crossing her arms as if greatly offended by this.
"Dumbledore!" a voice called a little behind the visiting students. The Durmstrang headmaster Igor Karkaroff appeared as the source. "How are you, my dear old fellow, how are you?"
"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff" Dumbledore replied. They shook hands, as if they were old friends. But when comparing Karkaroff's behavior to that he showed when around my father it wasn't hard to figure out he was being nice because of appearances.
"See anyone familiar?" Draco asked quietly to me as he looked at the crowd. I looked around too, wondering the same thing.
"A few," I answered looking at a number of somewhat familiar faces. Some I remembered as nice, others as annoying, and one in particular had grown rather famous from when I last saw him.
"Dear old Hogwarts" Karkaroff said looking up at the castle and smiling. A fake smile, of course, as his eyes remained cold. "How good it is to be here, how good… Viktor come along, into the warmth… you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold…"
The Durmstrang headmaster beckoned forward one of his students. Vik walked towards him quietly, just like I remember him.
"And there goes one now" I muttered to myself as Viktor Krum stepped into the castle