Chapter 2

The trials of being a Slytherin and losing your shoes

Paige couldn't help but groan as she awoke to the darkness of her room. There were no lights in the room, and no windows so she could see very little of her surroundings - not that there was anything to see. Grabbing her wand from where it had been lying next to her, she muttered lumos, and her wand light illuminated the area. A little light came from the crack under the door from the hall outside; but Paige wasn't sure if it was sunlight or lamplight.

She no longer felt tired; but that didn't tell her anything about the time. Paige had been known to sleep for less than an hour and wake up feeling refreshed. Rolling from the bed, and wincing as her feet thudded against the cold hard wood floor, Paige kept her cloak tightly around her and put on her shoes to avoid splinters. The room was even chillier than it had been before she went to sleep and her heating charm had obviously worn off. Reaching her hand to her hair; she felt the grease and knew she needed a shower. She did not have any particular desire to go in search of someone to tell her where it was. It would just make her look arrogant and incompetent for not listening when Hermione had given her a tour. Instead keeping the cloak tight about her she wandered out of the room. It appeared to be early morning from what she could see and it didn't sound as if many people were up.

She didn't try exceptionally hard to keep quiet; as she figured anyone else housed on this floor, Sirius clearly disliked as much as her, and being as the only person who fit that bill seemed to be Severus Snape and he certainly wasn't here, the floor must be unoccupied. She pushed open half a dozen doors to find rooms in various states of disrepair. It seemed that the work on the house had yet to extend to this floor. Finding a door at the end of the corridor Paige was about to give up hope that this floor held a bathroom. Thankfully as she opened the door she caught sight of the rather dingy bath and shower along with a sink. She walked in; and then wished she hadn't. The floor was clearly spelled as the souls of her shoes began to disintegrate rapidly. Panicking she undid them and jumped to stand on the edge of the bath. The flooring slowly devoured her shoes and Paige was perched rather precariously on the bath edge. She had thought about standing in the bath; but found it rather occupied. Sitting there within the bath were nearly a dozen spiders all of which were larger than the palm of her hand. Wobbling dangerously she pulled her wand from the cloak pocket and muttered a spell to rid the bath of spiders. It seemed, however, that a few of them were impervious to the charm.

Paige was not enjoying her position at all. She had no idea what spell was on the floor and would need to stand in the bath to then stand on the sink to reach the door. The bath which now had only four spiders in it, all of which looked decidedly angry, was also filled with what appeared to be some kind of black mould. With the way her luck was going Paige would not have been surprised if the mould didn't try to eat her too. Thinking quickly Paige grimaced but pulled off her cloak wobbling dangerously as she did so and reached down with a surprising show of dexterity and caught one of the spiders. Feeling decidedly cruel she tossed it onto the floor and watched it be incinerated. Not that there was much else she could have done. She was hardly going to try and rescue the damn things and she wasn't even thinking of getting closer; they were probably poisonous.

Repeating the process, for the others the spiders were finally gone. She didn't actually know where they had gone too though. It seemed entirely possible that the spelled floor had simply destroyed them; but that type of magic tended to wear off after a while; it would have to be exceedingly strong to have survived all the years. More than likely it was more a portal type trapping the spiders and shoes, and any unfortunate visitors without the skill or wit to escape. She did not, however, wish to test her theory. Even if it was right it would still probably kill her, and the spiders, and she doubted she would ever see her shoes again.

Turning back to the bath she looked at the black mould in disgust before muttering scourgify and sighed in relief as it disappeared. Finally something in this house that turned out to actually be what it appeared. Standing in the bath; she wondered whether she should risk having a shower. She had no towel; but she could spell herself dry and use the cloak she supposed. Then again the water was potentially lethal, feeling her hair again she decided it was worth investigating. Jumping back on the bath edge she reached out and switched on the water. It spluttered and coughed before finally beginning to run. It ran a suspicious dark red colour for several seconds before running clear. She tentatively reached out her hand and felt the water; it was cold but appeared to be just water. Feeling the grime on her hair and body Paige decided to risk it. She quickly put her clothes into the sink; the only safe place for them, and stepped into the spray.

The water was freezing cold and she shivered violently, before rapidly washing her hair and body; then turning the water off. Drying herself with a spell; she put her clothes back on and then precariously climbed onto the sink. Judging the distance she jumped, and landed clear of the bathroom floor and onto the wood floor of the hall; minus any shoes. She groaned again as she realised she would now have to walk around the house barefoot for the rest of the day; because she had not bothered packing another pair of shoes in her abrupt departure. Unfortunately she had not managed to predict the shoe eating floor; and had not come prepared, so not only was she going to be viewed as the epitome of all evil by members of the household, she was also going to look like a complete idiot who owned no shoes. She did not delude herself with the idea that explaining the bathroom predicament would help them understand. Then again, maybe they weren't all like Sirius. Maybe some of them could accept that not everything is as it appears.

Still, thinking on everything that had happened since she had walked out of those school gates on the last day of term, and even from the day she had walked through them she doubted it. She had known that there would be a price. Had she not have been placed in Slytherin for her rather grey view on the situation then she would have paid the price at the home and perhaps at a higher cost to herself. As it turned out she had managed seven years nearly pain free; a little lonely, and a certain amount of being highly observant and then picking out what you weren't meant to see; but pretty painless. Her parents had been proud if disinterested; and the rest of the Callaghan mob had more pressing concerns of who was to become family leader; on their great grandfather's death. However there had still been a price. The price she paid for being a Slytherin and seven years of basic freedom. It was the price of guilt for shutting her eyes for years and ignoring; the cruel; the unjust the things that she knew were wrong. It was the price of every wary glance, prejudiced comment, lack of friends and allies. There was a price for everything; but for Paige the price was always high.

As she padded barefoot down the many stairs towards the kitchen, she wondered. Were there any other Slytherins like her; who had done the same or acted the same? Except for them there would not have been any circumstances that pushed them to this. There would have been no deciding factor; that had shown them however tempting the darkness, however right they had been told it was; it was a lie. Maybe there was just her; the foolish girl clinging so hard to delusions of right and wrong; and of her family that she refused to see the truth. And when she did it was too late to change the past; to put right some things that so desperately haunted her present. She knew just how close she had come; just how close she had come to the other side of the line; and that just one moment could have changed everything.

Her eyes caught sight of a tapestry hanging at the bottom of the stairs. She came to a halt as her eyes stared at it, gold threads interconnected the names and the motto lay scrolling across the top. The Callaghan family tree was similar, with parts burned off, for those who had shamed them; she didn't actually remember if hers had ever been there to begin with. She stared at all the interconnected pureblood families and the burn holes of those who displeased the head of the Black family. It seemed however that the Black family was slowly diminishing as blood was kept between only wizarding families, whereas the Callaghan family was forever increasing with bastard children and long lost relatives. Extended family lived and died at the manor, often within short spaces of each other. Their entire view was so archaic, and at times savage, Paige often wondered how they had survived at all, let alone become so widespread.

She wondered why Sirius kept it here; she searched for his name towards the bottom but only found a burn mark; not surprising really. Next to his name lay the name of his brother Regulus Black. Regulus had been at school the same time as Paige had, they were in the same house, so she had known him - though not much of course. Not that she really knew all that much about the Black family in general; the Callaghan's were hardly well respected and she and Regulus had not really interacted all that much. She knew quite a bit about the aristocracy of pureblood society; despite how her own family was run. Even from a young age she had decided she did not want to be like them and at the time the only way out had seemed to be the darkness, if she could be good enough, if she could prove herself worthy. Sirius however had not seen it like that; he did not want to be like them, so he pushed himself so far opposite into the side of good that no one could ever mistake them again. That was where she supposed if she had the courage to begin with they would have been similar. Then again courage never really had been her forte.

Stepping into the dining room, Paige was not surprised to see it only occupied by one person: Remus Lupin. He was sat at the other side of the table a cup of coffee in front of him, and a plate with one piece of toast. He had the Daily Prophet in his hand and was deeply engrossed in reading it. Paige took the chance to study the man; he had hazel eyes which were almost amber and light brown, although she did see flecks of grey, slightly mussed hair. A small scar was on his left cheek, and he looked tired and a little haunted, but Paige got the feeling this was his normal look. Despite all this Paige did not think he was particularly unattractive, he did not have the striking looks of Sirius who despite his years in Azkaban still showed the signs of being the incredibly handsome youth he was once.

Finally noticing her presence Remus looked up from his paper and acknowledged her with a small smile. Returning it, Paige went into the kitchen and made a coffee before taking a seat across from him. Paige did not feel any open hostility and the man showed no signs of hatred, or even open mistrust as the others had.

"Up a little early?" he questioned as she took a sip of coffee.

"Not really sure what time it is to be honest." She admitted.

"A little after six." He told her. Well he was right it was certainly early being as she didn't really get to sleep until about two, maybe three yesterday.

"Just felt like it was time to get up. You?" She questioned hoping to drive the attention away from herself.

"Similar, I'm generally first up anyway." He said good naturedly. "Was your room alright?"

Paige was unsure how to answer she could answer truthfully and make Sirius look bad, or she could lie and try to live with it. She had no real reason to lie except that perhaps it would improve Sirius's judgement of her, but she decided telling the truth to a pretty much complete stranger despite the topic may be pushing it. There was also the added advantage that if she lied, Remus would find out eventually that she had been doing so; it would make her look better for putting up with it; it would also give her the whole martyr look.

"Not too bad." She replied vaguely, slipping back into old habits, or keeping her voice deliberately blank. Remus nodded his eyes not meeting hers or questioning what she said; then again why would he have need to?

He closed the paper as he finished it and Paige looked with interest at the front cover she looked up at Remus.

"Do you mind?" She asked indicating it.

"Not at all." He told her. She picked it up with a smile before offhandedly speaking again.

"I would go fetch my book to read; but I don't know if I can be bothered to trek up about six flights of stairs." She chuckled to herself but heard no sound from her companion, eyes reading the inside cover. She finished a sentence and looked up almost feeling his gaze.

"Sixth floor?" He asked almost too casually. She nodded, taking a sup of coffee.

"Not too busy up there to tell you the truth, aside from the living collection of mould and spiders so large Sirius should think of charging rent." She joked again. It seemed her attempt at currying sympathy were working. Remus looked thoroughly disgruntled and to be honest a little annoyed. Possibly the sympathy angle was not her best idea? She thought fast to try and placate the situation.

"It's quite nice really…..kind of." She muttered "And peaceful…. Well sort of." She tried again, there had been a valid reason she was bad at the politics of the Callaghan household and this was it; she just couldn't pass up the chance to get an insulting word in; she wasn't sycophantic enough. She realised that she had slightly destroyed her own plan of making herself look better; but this could work too, she had at least tried to appear less Slytherin by not openly complaining about the horrid dangers she had faced at Sirius's generosity.

"Excuse me." Remus said getting up and walking out of the room his eyes set.

"That didn't turn out quite how I planned." She muttered before going back to the paper. She had barely reached the middle before she heard shouts that would probably wake the rest of the house.

"We agreed, Sirius." She heard Remus's voice say as they moved closer.

"I didn't agree anything; except from allowing her to stay. Which I did." He objected sharply. "I don't see the problem." He said obviously trying to calm his anger.

"The problem Sirius, is that you have housed that young woman who has turned against everything she knows to try and be of some help to us, in a place unfit for animals let alone human beings." Remus said rationally if not a little angrily. It was nice at least that someone was standing up for her.

"It's fine Remus. I don't know what the fuss is about; she said it was fine herself." Sirius said walking into the room where Paige now sat. Sirius shot her a look of utmost loathing; and almost feeling the back of her neck rise she stood up. Remus walked in and gave Paige a tired smile.

"I'll just go then." Paige said laying the paper down "Thanks Remus… Just…Thanks." She said and moved away from the table to walk past them.

"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?" Sirius shot at her.

"I was wearing shoes. They got eaten by the bathroom floor." She replied almost nonchalantly. Both Remus and Sirius turned to stare at her and she figured they probably wanted an explanation. "Sixth floor bathroom's got some kind of spell on it. Anything on the floor seems to get kind of dissolved; I went for a shower and was unable to save my shoes. Although my life was in question." She said a typically Slytherin irony in her voice. "As you may have guessed the shoes became a lesser concern."

Not waiting for a reply Paige left the room; unwilling to trek back upstairs and see what other nasty surprises the floor where she was staying held, she took a right turn and planned to explore the ground floor. She figured this was the floor which would be most occupied therefore void of any strange and dangerous spells. As she came upon what looked to be a sitting room her eyes were drawn to a redhead sat by the fire. He was young she wouldn't have placed him at over the age of sixteen. Red hair clearly marked him as one of the Weasleys and by the look of his dishevelled state he had just got up, no doubt courtesy of Remus and Sirius. He was also looking down at a chessboard which sat on the table.

Paige had not played chess for a long time, she had been taught it when she was younger. Firstly by one of her many uncles, but who had given up after realising that Paige actually had no aptitude for the game. After that her tutelage under the subject had been taken up by a rather different sort of person. She had never questioned his motives and to be perfectly honestdid not really want to now, for she knew it would lead her down a dark path. She had been young, and foolish, and in awe when he had first shown interest. However despite the chilling feeling she got whenever thinking back over the times she had been in his presence he had taught her how to play. In retrospective their games had perhaps been of more importance than she first believed; they also seemed more sinister, his eyes boring into hers, his smile so false and cold. She had been young she had not wished to question, just as she had never done.

The redhead finally seemed to notice her presence, his eyes widened in shock before narrowing in distrust.

"Oy, who are you?" He asked abruptly.

"I apologise." She said "For not introducing myself earlier. My name is Paige Callaghan. Would I be correct in the assumption that you are another member of the Weasley family?"

He nodded dumbly his mouth open. Paige knew why, for while physically she was little to look at, mouse brown hair and steel grey eyes were hardly startlingly beautiful, she did possess the typical ability of Slytherins to play whichever role needed to be played and for the moment the polite and sophisticated would probably be best.

"Do you play?" She asked with forced mild interest. She probably shouldn't take the temptation to play, for whilst it would take her mind off her present troubles it would force it into the past. Into the past of purely Slytherin temperament of no doubts and no regrets, and of blind belief and loyalty. He nodded again and she took the opportunity to take the seat opposite from him. Noticing that her pieces were white she moved to switch it before remembering. He had always wanted to play as white; she had never understood why; maybe just another façade, another layer of deceit, for they all knew, it was plain to see if you chose to. It was plain to see that the man had no shred of goodness in him, he was pure malice, anger and hatred, his soul was as black as night, and yet he had always played white.

"You don't mind do you?" She asked indicating the board; as the boy looked a little confused "I can't play as white."

"No." He replied, obviously still a little shocked. She switched the board and waited. White always played first. Maybe that was why, maybe that was why he was white, because he always played first, he always made the first move. Shaking the thoughts she concentrated on the board as the boy made his first move, realising with shock she had yet to ask him his name.

"I'm sorry, I'm being inexcusably rude. I've yet to ask your name and I'm already coercing you into playing chess with me." She said in what she hoped was an apologetic voice.

"Don't worry about it; I'm Ron by the way. Ron Weasley as you guessed." He said watching as she made a move.

She had no doubt that she was going to lose. She always did. It sounded odd that she loved to play when she always lost. It wasn't though, not really. To Paige the game was symbolic in a lot of ways. It was taught to her by one of the most evil men she had ever met and yet it marked the fact that she could never count herself amongst them no matter how much she may have at one point willed it. She was a defensive player. Nothing really wrong with that, except it was virtually impossible to win. She hated losing pieces. Any of them. Even the pawns were important. That was why she always lost; she was unwilling to sacrifice her pieces just to win. He had seen it as weakness; perhaps he was right, but it didn't matter that she lost. It never did; because she wasn't really losing at all. Every time she had played; and still remained at this point, she had never really lost at all. Not really. She had won the most important game of all. She hadn't lost herself to the darkness. Not yet at least. Paige knew that the moment she was willing to put her knight in harms way; that it would be the end. She would have failed. She would have truly lost.

Once the game was over, Ron looked up from the board surprised for although he had beaten her, only one of her pieces lay destroyed on the board.

"You're really good you know." He told her as she repaired the pieces and stood up "You'd have beaten me, if you'd have just sacrificed that….." Paige cut him off, wondering how to explain it.

"That's not how I play. You would have beaten me anyway." She assured him as she caught his glare. "Thanks for the game Ron." Paige said giving him a true smile before she left the room.

Padding back up the stairs, bare feet cold against the dark wood floor. Paige smiled slightly; maybe she hadn't made the wrong decision after all. There would always be a price to pay for everything she had done. A price even higher than the trials of being a Slytherin.