With the decision over and her fate settled, Drucy ate well. The food was just as good as from home. This was no surprise, since she was accustomed to house-elf cooking, and house-elves served as the cooks at Hogwarts as well. When the feast ended, Headmistress McGonagall made a nice little speech welcoming the students to Hogwarts and giving out the usual notices and warnings. Drucy watched the other students' reactions, but nobody seemed at all shocked or surprised, as they had at the Hat's new song. Thankfully, McGonagall's speech was fairly short, and the Hall was filled with the sound of hundreds of students rising to their feet.

"Come on," Esme urged, taking hold of her sister's hand. "Let's get you to your bedroom."

"My bedroom?" Drucy asked, surprised. "Well, don't you mean 'our' bedroom?"

Esme smiled comfortingly. "I'll be right next door, Drucy, you'll see. It'll be fine. Your room has already been picked out for you. It won't be scary at all."

A boy several years older than Drucy approached the two. He had a handsome, pleasant face and a cheerful smile, sandy-colored, very curly hair, and freckles. He didn't look particularly like "a Slytherin". His eyes, periwinkle blue, even twinkled. "Hi Esme. This must be your sister Drucy. You're right, she's pretty!" He crouched slightly, getting closer to Drucy's height without making himself imposing. "Welcome to Hogwarts and welcome to Slytherin! I'm one of the prefects. Please let me know if you need anything or if you're running into any problems. My name is Brian."
So this was Brian! This was the boy Drucy was supposed to hate! That realization stifled the smile that was so readily rising to her lips. How could this be Brian, the underhanded reprobate who was stealing her sister's loyalty?

Drucy stiffened inside and took a formal tone. "Pleased to meet you, Prefect Brian. I will let you know if I require assistance." She was not pleased to see Brian's amused grin in response. He straightened, backing away two steps. "Alright, Drucy. You must be tired from your long trip. I'll probably see you in the morning. Esme, you're taking care of her? Alright then, that works for me."

Drucy relaxed as the older boy strode away, and turned to find Esme nearly shaking with suppressed laughter. "What?" Drucy demanded.

"That's probably the most spunk I've ever seen you show to a stranger," Esme chuckled. "That's good. It'll help you fit in. Come on. The nice thing about living low is that you don't have to climb the staircases to get to bed. It's all downhill from here."

Indeed it was. The Slytherin dungeon sat below grade. As they descended, the rooms visible through open doors were no longer windowed. One of them, dimly lit from the inside, prompted Drucy to pause and peek. She saw one corner filled with bottles and jars of every shape and size sitting on shelves all the way to the ceiling, filled with mysterious items of every shape and color imaginable. A couple of cauldrons squatted heavily near the teacher's desk. "That's the Potion's Room," Esme told her. "Pretty, isn't it? Come on, I'm beat. You'll have a whole class period here tomorrow, and you'll have plenty of time to look around. Ol' Slughorn loves potions students. I'm not that good at it, myself."

Drucy thought of her basilisk wand and its mildly uncomfortable propensity for dangerous power. "Maybe I will be," she murmured, letting Esme lead her further down the hall.

"The password won't be hard for you," Esme told Drucy, lowering her voice. "Right now it's 'Deliberation'. But here's a little tip most people don't know; the dungeons will open to any word spoken in Parseltongue."

"I thought Mom would freak out if I let anybody know I could do that," Drucy whispered back, shocked.

"Mom won't be your boss forever," Esme pointed out. "I think she's right in that you shouldn't go around speaking it in front of the teachers and the other Houses. But you're going to have to come to terms with it in your own way, and it is still considered a gift in Slytherin House. Go ahead, try it."

Drucy concentrated on the hidden presence of her little snake Jade, still resting comfortably within her robes, "Please," she said. Her voice turned the plea into a hissing sound, and the false wall obediently moved for her.

The Slytherin Common Room looked nicer than Drucy had feared, after hearing all of these stories about "cozy Hufflepuff". A variety of comfortable benches and chairs littered the room, which featured a huge stone fireplace with the fire burning low amidst glowing coals. There was an enormous window on the wall to the side of the fireplace, which surprised Drucy. She had not expected to see any outside light down here. Of course, she couldn't see anything through it now, either, but she knew the sun had set. She wandered to the window, hoping to see the stars, but she still saw nothing but deep black. Suddenly, something enormous and shadowy brushed across the other side of the glass, and she leapt back with a shriek. Esme burst out laughing.

"What was that!?" Drucy gasped.

"The giant squid," Esme chuckled. "Gave me a turn, too, the first time I saw him. He's friendly. He likes to pop up and see what we're doing from time to time. We're partly underwater, Drucy. You're going to love looking out that window. There is a whole garden of anenomes against the rocks, and sometimes you can watch the mermaids swimming in formation. You'll see in the morning. Come on, our rooms are this way."

Drucy had never heard of anything so charming. She loved gardens, terraces, and balconies, but she had never had such a look into a lake before. "I think I could love this place," she said quietly, but her words echoed strangely, and she began to feel uncomfortable again.

Several corridors opened into the Common Room, all of them leading to half-flights of stone stairs, some leading up and some leading down. Esme led Drucy up to a small hallway with doors opening on both sides. She tapped the first left-handed door. "That one is yours, and mine is right next to you." Then she opened the door… and Drucy blinked in surprise.

Her own coverlet was already spread across the neatly-made bed, which was large and comfortable, a four-poster with sheer curtains half-drawn. The stone floor was mostly covered in several slightly-overlapping fur rugs. Her room apparently had a half-circle window, with wooden shutters closed. The furniture was wooden, as were a set of beams across the ceiling, giving it a warmer look than she had feared. It was a large room, only a little smaller than the bedroom she shared with Esme at home, with a small table and chairs on the opposite side from the bed and a lovely armchair in front of the fireplace. The fireplace burned low and the room was warm. Drucy stepped inside slowly, turning around and smiling. "It's beautiful! Do I really have a window? I thought it would be like a cave!"

Esme followed her inside and sat on the bed. "Drucy, it's one of the best rooms in Slytherin. Mom paid for it. Mom's probably the richest Slytherin alive right now. She's got both money and reputation to spend. Usually Slytherin students use wealth or cunning to get the best rooms. You've had the way made easy for you." She rose and walked to the door. "I'm going to put a charm and a jinx on this door. I'll help you protect it until you learn how to do it for yourself. The Unlocking Charm should be enough to get you back inside. If you can't do it, call for me and I'll take care of it for you."

"Okay," Drucy said in a small voice, watching as her sister touched her wand to the door and concentrated for a moment. Then Esme gave one last wave and shut the door, leaving Drucy alone in her own room, for the first time ever.

It didn't take long for Drucy to dress for bed and slip under the covers. Something – perhaps a spell – made the sheets warm. Jade curled happily around one of the bedposts. Drucy tried putting the Butterfly Maker on the nightstand and watching it for a while, but it did not lull her to sleep. Everything in the room had obviously been designed for comfort, but it was too strange and too empty. She was used to hearing her parents faintly elsewhere in the manor, but stone did not conduct sound the way that wood did, and the room was eerily silent. "I miss Mom…" Drucy whispered quietly to herself, suddenly blinking back tears. "And Dad, and Esme, even though she's right next door… and I miss my room, and the garden, and Topsy-"

Drucy was not entirely sure why she had mentioned the house-elf, one of the older ones who often accompanied them on trips and ran errands specifically for the girls. She did not expect to hear a "crack", and she did not expect to see the funny, huge-eyed creature suddenly at her bedside. "Did Mistress Drucy call?" Topsy squeaked, reaching out her hand. "Mistress has a lovely bed, and a warm room… there is no need to be crying," she added soothingly.
"Oh…" The sight of the familiar house-elf calmed Drucy considerably. Suddenly, her home didn't seem very far away. "I didn't know you could come!" She gladly reached out and clasped Topsy's hand. "I didn't know it was allowed. Did you come from home?"

"This is going to be Mistress's home for a while," Topsy told her encouragingly. "Yes, Topsy came from the Bulstrode-Lestrange manor, doing some dishes, but nothing that can't wait for my littlest mistress, oh no. Perhaps she is not sleeping well. Perhaps she is a little bit afraid, and the place is new. Of course house-elves always come when Master or Mistress calls. It is only natural."

"Topsy…" Drucy smiled, settling down in her bed, which suddenly seemed considerably more comfortable. "It's really good to see you. Is it alright if you come back again tomorrow night, too?"

"Mistress Drucy may call at any time," Topsy asserted with a cute little bow. "And Topsy will come if she needs help with her dress, or to bring things from her room, or to sing her to sleep, oh yes, it is an honor to do that again, just like when Littlest Mistress was littler."

With that, the house-elf started singing one of her hauntingly familiar tunes in her wavering, squeaky voice. As much as the talk of wealth and privilege (and Slytherin houses) had made Drucy uncomfortable that day, her last sleepy thought was one of pure thankfulness for what she had.