Chapter 3. The First Division

They got their timetables during breakfast the next day. Snape, their Head of House, handed them out to everyone without saying a word.

"Why do we have to have Potions with the Gryffindors?" Malfoy asked angrily after he quickly scanned the piece of paper Snape had given him.

"I don't make these, Mr. Malfoy," Snape answered and walked away to the next person whose name was on top of his pile of timetables.

"Yeah, it's stupid," Pansy chimed in. Maura, who had been looking attentively at her own timetable Snape had given her a few seconds earlier, looked up in irritation. How dare they. Neville was in Gryffindor.

"Honestly, why are you so judgemental? You haven't even met them yet."

"I've met Potter and his stupid friend Weasley," Malfoy replied, "I know enough. As for Longbottom," he looked piercingly at Maura, "We all know how dumb he must be after everyone saw him take a tumble yesterday." He smirked and Pansy gave a little giggle. Maura shot her a dark look.

"Call my brother dumb again and I'll put firecrackers down you pants, Malfoy."

"Oh no, now I'm scared," Draco replied. He stood up and got his bag in which he stuffed his timetable. "We're Slytherin. Figure out where your loyalty lies," he added and walked away. Crabbe and Goyle quickly followed and to Maura's annoyance Pansy did as well. After a few steps she turned around.

"Millicent?" she said. Maura sat in disbelief as Millicent stood up, got her bag as well, gave Maura an apologetic glance, and followed.

Maura was dumbstruck. How could they side with Malfoy after they had made friends with each other yesterday? She had helped Pansy with the Bloody Baron. She had laughed with Millicent during the school song. Why were they not taking her side?

Figure out where your loyalty lies. What did he mean by that? Was he expecting her to side against her brother? Laugh at Neville as well like most Slytherins had done at the feast yesterday?

"He has a temper," Maura heard someone to the right of her say. She looked up. A few feet away sat a tall, dark skinned boy. He eyed the departing group with raised eyebrows. Maura nodded.

"I know, right?" she replied while looking down at her plate. She had almost finished her breakfast. Only a few grapes and some left-over scrambled egg remained. She pushed it away. "Just when you think you're making friends, they walk out on you."

"You made friends with Malfoy?" The boy asked. Maura looked up dazedly. He was looking at her with a smirk on his face.

"What? No. I was talking about Millicent and Pansy," Maura replied, feeling a bit annoyed, not at Blaise, but at the situation.

"Doesn't seem like they're good friends, then."

Maura stared at him. Thanks Captain Obvious. She decided, however, to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"My name is Blaise. Blaise Zabini," he replied. Maura tried to remember watching him get sorted the night before, but she couldn't.

"Zabini. That means you were probably the last one to get sorted. I'm sorry to say I probably wasn't paying attention." Maua tried to look as if she felt ashamed; she didn't, really.

Blaise laughed as if he saw right through her. "You probably weren't the only one. I was starving by the end. I couldn't wait for my own sorting to be over, so I could eat," he sniggered, going along with her act.

"So, you're a Longbottom. Maura right? See I was paying attention," he added with an exaggerated wink.

Maura had the strong desire to hit his arm. She didn't. This boy was insufferable already, but in the good kind of way, which meant: not the Malfoy kind of way.

"So how do you feel about Potions with the Gryffindors?" she asked. Blaise pretended to take his time to think about his answer. Maura raised her eyebrows. "Well?"

"Honestly? I couldn't care less," he replied finally. Maura approved.

"Yeah, that's how you're supposed to feel. Why hate people you haven't met yet?"

"Exactly! For example, why hate You-Know-Who if you haven't met him?" Blaise mimicked Maura's voice.

Maura had the strong desire to hit his arm. She did.

"Don't touch the robes! I'm not going back down to my dorm to iron them again," Blaise said, faking as if he was offended, and patting out the non-existent wrinkles Maura had caused. Maura laughed and decided she liked Blaise.

After a few more seconds of acting like he was upset, Blaise asked: "But you've met them? The famed Gryffindors?" Maura looked at him, but couldn't figure out if he was joking.

"Well, one of them is my brother and everyone I met on the train yesterday got sorted into, or already was in Gryffindor." She looked at the Gryffindor table with a sigh. Blaise looked her over and wanted to say something, but changed his mind. Maura snapped her eyes back at him.

"What? Out with it."

"Why didn't you ask the hat to be sorted in Gryffindor as well? If all your friends are there," Blaise asked. Maura felt like she got a punch to her gut. Leave it up to strangers to make her realise what was bothering her, she thought in annoyance. Maura fumbled with her hands for a few seconds.

"I was afraid I would be sorted somewhere I didn't belong, so I didn't interfere. The hat was telling me how my parents had both been Gryffindors, but that there was something in me... Then it shouted 'Slytherin,'" Maura explained, not understanding why she was telling this to Blaise. "And it's not like they are my friends. They probably won't talk to me anymore now that I'm in Slytherin," she added quickly. She thought of the train ride on the Hogwarts Express and of the game with the Every Flavour Beans with Hermione, Neville and the twins. That was all before she was sorted in a different House.

Blaise chuckled.

"What?"

"You're in luck. I haven't made any friends yet either. We can be loners together," Blaise offered.

"Sure, why not?" Maura extended her hand. Blaise looked at it with a blank expression at first, but shook it after a few seconds.

Maura had told Blaise she would meet him at Transfiguration. She wanted to talk to Neville. She suddenly really missed him. Yesterday she had been too tired to think about anything but sleep, but now she wanted to see him.

While she walked over to the Gryffindor table she thought about her conversation with Blaise. It had felt so easy to talk to him. She liked the fact that she didn't feel like having to go through small talk to get to the interesting part of a conversation. However, she was a bit disconcerted by the way she had talked about her Sorting. She didn't want people to think she doubted if she was meant to be in Slytherin or not. Especially not other Slytherins.

Maura pushed her thoughts away and smiled when she saw Neville.

He was sitting next to Hermione. Opposite them sat Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Maura sighed and braced herself. For what, she didn't exactly know yet.

"Good morning!" Maura said brightly. The group of Gryffindors turned their heads. Neville smiled.

"Maura! Did you see we have Potions together?" Neville asked.

"I do! I'm really looking forward to it." Maura took the empty seat next to Neville and gave him a hug, which he returned.

"Honestly Neville, you should see our common room. It's crazy. We're under the lake! I was told that you can see the giant squid swimming by sometimes!" she began to tell. Neville exclaimed a small 'wow'.

"I'm happy for you that you're in Gryffindor. Just like mum and dad. Gran will be so proud," Maura added while giving him a small playful shove." Neville's cheeks flushed a bit.

"I'm really happy as well," Neville mutered. "It's a pity that we're not in the same House though." Maura felt a pang of sadness at his words, but didn't show it on her face.

"Yeah, that's a bummer, but at least we don't have to compete with each other to be the best in class now."

"I could never be! We have Hermione, remember?" Neville laughed. Hermione gave a little cough, that seemed to hide her embarrassment at Neville's praise.

Maura noticed Harry and Ron were playing around with the remains of their food without looking at her.

"What's up?" she asked them. They looked up. Harry quickly put down his fork and smiled sheepishly.

"Nothing," he replied, but he didn't quite look her in the eyes.

"You— You're in Slytherin," Ron stammered. Maura looked at him, expecting him to continue. He didn't.

"Yeah, so what?" Was he seriously going to make a problem out of that right now?

"It's the House You-Know-Who was in," he said. Maura scoffed.

"Don't be simple minded, Ron. You were willing to have a normal conversation with me yesterday. Nothing's changed. We're not evil," she said. Ron grumbled something inaudible.

"It is the House Voldemort was in," Harry chimed in.

"That's actually true. I read about it. All his friends were as well," Hermione added. Then she quickly eyed Maura with a bit of shame in her eyes. "Of course that has nothing to do with you."

Maura couldn't blame her for spitting out facts. She figured out that Hermione was like that after she had met her yesterday.

"That still doesn't make Slytherin evil," Maura said stubbornly. Hermione looked down, but didn't say anything. Same for Harry, who just shrugged. Maura didn't even look at Ron.

She got up again. It wasn't even nine o'clock in the morning yet and she was already feeling tired of all the people who suddenly seemed to decide she was not worth talking to, except for Blaise— and Neville of course. "Let's meet up somewhere this week?" she asked Neville. He nodded and gave her a little smile. Maura returned it quickly before she walked away.

Classes started and Maura soon found out she didn't have much of a head start, as someone who was born in a magical family, regarding the subjects at Hogwarts. There was so much to learn that she had a hard time keeping up with all the new information, even on her first day. She felt annoyed about it, but she was glad Malfoy had trouble with a lot of the subjects as well, even though he tried not to show it.

During almost all her classes she sat next to Blaise and together they (often silently) struggled through the assignments the teachers gave them. No one in their class had managed to fulfil their first assignment of turning a match into a needle during their first Transfiguration lesson. At the end of the class Maura was terribly frustrated and sweaty from concentrating on the small piece of wood so hard. She had to quickly freshen up in the bathrooms during their ten-minute break before History of Magic began. She was glad for this little break. She would rather fake an illness than show any imperfections to her fellow students.

Professor Binns was a ghost, and people might think having a ghost as a history teacher is fun, but if they do they haven't met Professor Binns. He was terribly boring. He talked in a monotone voice about unexciting events in the history of Wizards and Witches, while the students were trying to scribble down notes. Maura had trouble trying to pay attention and had to snap herself out of her thoughts a few times when she noticed she was daydreaming about other classes she was more excited about, like Defence Against the Dark Arts for example.

However, Maura soon found out there was nothing to be excited about regarding the subject. Professor Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. The Slytherins started dreading going to the classroom, because it smelled strongly of garlic. People were saying it was to ward off vampires. He wore a turban, which, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but none of the Slytherins believed this story. In no way had Quirrell ever fought a zombie. He looked like he was afraid of everything, even his own reflection, and he stuttered with every word he said. He was only focused on explaining theory, and because of his stuttering, everyone failed to take him seriously.

Maura was not amused by the low quality of the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. It was the subject she had been excited to learn about the most since she got her letter to Hogwarts and now it seemed like it was going to be a fluke.

She didn't have time to focus much on her disappointment because the students were quickly burdened with lots of homework. Their Charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk, had asked them to write an essay about different wand movements after their first lesson.

Professor McGonagall had ordered the class to keep practicing their Transfiguration assignment of turning matches into needles. Maura practiced this every spare minute she could find. She was determined to be able to do it before their next Transfiguration class the next day. After Lunch she managed to make the match look pointy, but it was still a match. Blaise had managed to change the material of his match from wood to metal, but the shape was still the same.

"If we could bundle our magic together, we would have a perfect needle," Blaise said jokingly. At his words, Maura focused on the metal match that was lying in front of Blaise and with a flick of her wand gave it a sharp point and on the other side a small eye. Together they proudly examined their collaborative work.

On Tuesday Maura met up with Neville again outside on the grounds right before dinner.

"How have your first couple of classes been so far?" Maura asked him. She nibbled on the Chocolate Frog Neville had brought her, which she had gratefully accepted.

"It was alright. I feel kind of intimidated by all the things we have to learn. I already feel like it's hard to keep up," he answered.

They were walking around the lake. The weather was nice and a gentle breeze blew through Maura's curly hair. It had been in a braid during classes, but now she had taken it out. Maura was incredibly grateful to be around Neville again.

Neville picked up a stone and tried to make it skip over the water surface, but it disappeared after its first contact with the water.

"Yeah, I feel like that as well, but don't tell anyone," Maura chuckled. She also tried to skip a stone. It bounced three times.

"I wouldn't dare," Neville laughed. I remember you buying that book Curses and Counter-Curses when we are at Flourish and Blotts. You wouldn't stop reading it all summer. I pity the ones who will cross your path."

For a short moment Maura thought of Malfoy. She wouldn't mind practicing a curse on him. She had to practice some way. She made a mental note to try out the Tongue-Tying curse on him sometime.

They kept on walking. Maura was chewing the inside of her cheek. She wanted to ask Neville about the Sorting, but she didn't want to upset him by telling him what the hat had said during hers. After a minute of silence she decided to ask him anyway.

"How did it go? Your Sorting?" she asked. Neville was quiet for a few seconds.

"I had an argument with the Sorting hat," he began.

"Why?" Maura nudged him to go on.

"I asked it to be placed in Hufflepuff. I kept repeating it in my head, but the hat disagreed with me," Neville explained. "It argued that I belonged in Gryffindor and in the end it won, and sorted me into Gryffindor. I wasn't sure about it at first. I— I'm not brave. But I do like it there, so now I'm happy I got sorted in Gryffindor," he finished.

"Oh." Maura didn't know what to say. She wanted to ask him why he didn't think he was brave, but she didn't want to make him feel embarrassed. She was secretly very happy the hat had sorted him into Gryffindor. At least one of them would be in the same House as their parents had been.

Their parents.

Maura decided Neville could handle it.

"The hat talked to me about mum and dad," Maura spoke. "He said he knew them and that they were—" Maura's breath caught. "—great wizards." Neville was quiet, but he smiled at her, encouraging her to go on.

"He said maybe I would've done great in Gryffindor as well, but he put me in Slytherin. It seems like a cruel joke," Maura finished.

There. It was out. The thing that had been gnawing at the back of her mind since that night. She felt tears prickling in her eyes again— just like during the Sorting when the hat had told her about how happy dad had been to be sorted in Gryffindor. She quickly blinked them away.

By now they had made it half-way around the lake. Dinner would start soon.

"Don't you like it in Slytherin?" Neville asked her warily. Maura thought about the question for a few seconds. She thought of Malfoy who had immediately decided to hate her that first night. She thought of Pansy and Millicent who had abandoned her the next day, even though they had been having fun together during the start-of-term feast and later while unpacking their stuff inside their dorm.

Then she thought of Blaise who had at first annoyed her yesterday morning, but who she had quickly decided to befriend. She also thought of their common room; of its musky smell, that had an underlying sharpness to it like mint, and a faint refined freshness like rain; of the view into the depths of the lake, with its strange creatures, flowing weeds and changing colours. She loved it already.

"No, I really do like it. It's just—" Maura began. "I just have to get used to it I guess. Some people in Slytherin are not as open to new people as Hermione, and Fred and George had been on the train for example," she finished, but now she thought about how Hermione had barely spoken to her since the Sorting. She sighed.

She just had to get used to it.