III

In her first night at Hogwarts, Audrey learned that Hogwarts knew how to throw a feast. In her last two weeks – spent in her grandparents' care – Audrey had noted how much different English food were and, despite the elves of her family best attempts, she had been very picky while eating.

But Hogwarts was having none of it. Audrey had eaten until she was sleepy and bloated.

After that, all the little first years – she couldn't let to notice she was going to be one of the tallest in her class, again – followed black-haired fifth girl by corridors that got darker and darker, until the depths of the castle; Audrey hadn't spent a moment thinking about where was she going to sleep, but even if she did, she could never have thought about a dungeon.

But Slytherin's dorms were in a dungeon, in the darkest part of the castle – where all the first years gathered together, standing as close as they could get, because who the hell would put a bunch of eleven-year-olds in a dungeon?

The door to the common room was a normal-looking stretch of a damp stone wall, who would slide aside as soon as you whispered the password – which the prefect reminded them to never tell to anyone out of Slytherin. Behind the magic door, the common room was quite neat, cast under a green light, full of expensive-looking chairs. Audrey shuddered looking at the skulls used in decoration, against dark wood cupboards; but the tapestries were quite nice to look.

"We are under the lake", Cathryn Murel, their prefect, had said, "sometimes the giant squid likes to say hello".

"Is there a giant squid?", a girl asked behind Audrey and all the others snickered. Well, she had never seen a giant squid as much as had never seen a normal-sized squid, but she supposed they would be cool.

The boys and girls had different dormitories, and the prefect send them to it. Audrey found the girls' dormitory was quite nice, almost homely, if she had to be honest – with four-posters bed in green-and-silver curtains, full of pillows. Their trunks were already there, as was Cat, looking at her from one of beds – the one closest to a window where she could see the water soft swirling around.

Apparently, her bed had already been chosen.

"Is that cat yours?", a girl asked. She had short, spiky black hair, with the ends cut irregularly, as if she herself made the cut using pointless scissors, dark skin, and bright green eyes. Audrey thought she looked cool.

"Yeah, her name is Cat, and she was my birthday gift", Audrey answered, sitting at her bed. Cat meowed loudly. "Do you want to pet her?"

"Sure. That's nice. I got a necklace as my birthday gift, what is stupid because I hate necklaces", the girl said, moving quickly to pet Cat. "I'm Sophie Roper".

Audrey smiled prettily, dangling her feet. Doing it was getting harder because she was growing fast. "Nice to meet you, Sophie. I'm Audrey Blanchard".

"I didn't know the Blanchards had children", another girl said, already trying to find something in her trunk. "I'm Pansy Parkinson, by the way".

"Uh, I grew up in California, with my dad. We only came here a couple of times. Dad says the weather makes his skin dry".

Pansy blinked. Her face reminded Audrey of a small, cute pug. "Oh, right. You are American. Ah, this is Daphne Greengrass; like yours, her family is like… super old, one of the twenty-eight sacred, and this is Millicent Bulstrode".

"Hi", Audrey said meekly. Daphne was conventionally pretty, with long blonde hair in a neat braid and a heart-shaped face. She smiled docile. But Millicent Bulstrode was completely another story. Audrey never had been small, but Millicent was probably twice her size in both weight and height, with a mean face like she was more probably to kill Audrey in her sleep than to make sleepover parties with her.

Pansy stopped her search for pyjamas and looked over her. "You are a pureblood, aren't you, Audrey? The Blanchards always had been a bit peculiar, but you look alright".

Her fingers played with the rim of her skirt, and she could swear her heart stopped a beat. "I suppose," she shrugged, trying to look nonchalantly. "I mean, mom's magic, but I don't know a lot about her".

That was the first thing that her dad had told her about lying – make it as close as it could get to the truth. Saying she was a pureblood was as far from the truth as saying she was a muggleborn, but saying she only knew her mom was magic wasn't that different from truth.

After all, her mother was a magic being. She just wasn't a human magic being.

"Oh, right", Pansy said, but it didn't look like it was right. "Can I use the bathroom first?"

She went quickly to change, without waiting for the answer. Sophie took her eyes out of Cat, narrowed them, and whispered as quietly as she could, "We half-bloods should stick together".

Audrey mulled it over a second, her heart incredible fast – of course Sophie Roper, with her cool hair and all that, wasn't like her, but she was offering something like a peace offering and not even Audrey was stupid enough to refuse that. "Yeah, we should".

And they did.


Despite being used to going to school – unlike most of the other girls, as she soon learned, Audrey discovered that Hogwarts was quite different from any school she had been before. The castle was huge, almost alive, impregnated by ancient magic and hundreds of staircase; moody doors and moodier ghosts (she had to run away from Peeves in her first morning), and full of portraits that most would often confuse her more than help anytime she would get lost.

And then was the fact that being in Slytherin meant a clearly uncomfortable fact: no one liked Slytherins. Their prefects had made clearly in her first morning – don't go anywhere alone, at least until you can defend yourself.

People would more easily glare at Audrey than greet her in corridors – despite her being perfectly cordial to anyone. Slytherin' students were always the perfect target to any prank that others house wanted to do. In her shared classes, not even the Hufflepuffs – who are supposed to be all sugar and no spice – would consort with Slytherins if they could avoid it.

She quickly learned the slytherin' answer for that. Her colleagues were, often, rude and crude to anyone outside their house, with their venom dripping over anyone who dared to stop in their way. Maybe by choice or by habit, but Slytherins were all rough, vicious, and passive-aggressive.

So, she did what was the best thing she could do: she kept herself as out of the radar as possible. Having Sophie Roper by her side was also an amazing thing – the girl was quick-witted, foul-mouthed and would happily watch her back if Audrey did the same.

Of course, the Gryffindors were the worst. Like water and oil, snakes and lions didn't mix, despite the staff's best efforts; no shared class nor activity would put they together and make them mix.

But, besides that, Hogwarts wasn't that bad. While evicting being subject of traps and pranks from other students, Audrey would gladly sit at fascinating classes. Charms had quickly become her favourite subject – was easy, and fun, and Flitwick seemed to like her. She liked Astronomy a lot, and despite being as difficult as it could, Transfiguration was rewarding since Audrey noted it was very much like writing – she just had to left her mind run free, picturing the perfect image of she needed to create.

However, potions' class was a mess. She had trouble measuring things, and even if Sophie tried to help her as she could, Audrey had sure she would pass Potions just because Snape did everything he could to help his own house, out of spite.

Snape was a terrible Professor. Audrey had met her fair share of cruel professors – she could remember Mrs. Clarke, from her third grade, who called her dumb in front of everyone because she couldn't do multiplication to save the life of hers – but Snape went beyond. He was petty and cruel, and had fun with that; fortunately, he also was Head of Slytherin House, so Audrey was most safe from his cruelties.

Her spare time would either be spent in the library, with Sophie – who liked to annoy Madam Pince – or outside, finding the best – and safer – places to read her muggle books safely hidden from the other snakes. As she quickly had discovered, they aren't keen with muggle things.

"What the hell is that, Audrey?", Millicent had asked, when Audrey had accidentally let her copy of Dear Sister (you know, Audrey could never resist another book of Sweet Valley High) in her bed. Audrey had been so scared of the disgust face of Bulstrode that she tried twice as hard to hide all her muggle teenage books.

Besides that, her life in Hogwarts wasn't bad. She would stay away from drama and trouble, read her books, and do her homework. If anyone come at her, Audrey would just run, stay hidden and don't come out until Sophie had sure they could get safely back to their common room. Every Thursday her grandmother would send her a letter, sometimes with new books that her dad asked her to buy. Her grandpa would also send her some gifts of his own, like lucky charms and home-made sweets – "everything to my little sun", that she would often share with Sophie.

Life wasn't good, but wasn't bad either.


In the beginning of November, when the weather had turned and Audrey discovered that Scotland was probably the coldest place she had ever been, Sophie got her first detention.

It wasn't intentional, but Sophie was much harder to control than Audrey. They had been trying to get in their Transfiguration's class in time – McGonagall hated backwardness – when they had been cornered by some second year Gryffindors. Audrey really had never got into trouble with them, but with the Quidditch season approaching, things were getting worse between the two houses – Gryffindor being allowed a first-year player – which never happened before – wasn't helping either; Slytherin was split between the ones who thought of it as a poor choice – "Potter can't be that good", and the ones who thought of it as absurd – "He is smaller, what makes him faster – and why can't our firsties have brooms too?".

And Audrey and Sophie being two lonely first-years wasn't helping either, because that made them easy target. Had been Audrey a bit older – and braver – she probably would have hexed them into oblivion, but she wasn't that skilled. Yet.

But Sophie was completely another story, because as soon as the two older boys started to laugh at them, even before they could say any spell, Sophie kicked one of them there, grabbed Audrey and sprinted down the corridor as fast their legs could carry them.

Just to run into McGonagall, who had been livid because of Sophie's use of brute strength. Audrey had lost ten points for Slytherin, but Sophie had lost ten points and got a detention.

And that was the story of how Audrey had been all alone in a corner of the library in the evening, trying to get her homework done. She was having trouble with History of Magic dates – 1789 and 1987 looked the same for her, when she felt someone stop besides her.

Audrey took her eyes from her book to see Hermione Granger, the girl from the train, by her side, looking pretty unsure of herself. "I'm sorry", she said, "but Madam Pince said you have the last copy of 'Magic in XIV century Europe', and I, uh, need to do an essay for Professor Binns. Do you mind If… Sit with you?"

Audrey was a bit speechless. Hermione hadn't spoken with Audrey since they arrived in Hogwarts – at first, Audrey had thought she had been mad because the whole incident with Cat and all that, but then she had learned all about the bad blood between Gryffindor and Slytherin – which, apparently, Hermione had bought by heart as anything else magic-related. She couldn't believe that what would take for Hermione to actually break the ice was… a book.

Oh no, scratch that. Audrey could believe pretty much. She had seen Hermione in class – the girl was a machine that devoured textbooks like Audrey did with muggle fiction.

Audrey smiled. "Oh no, no problem at all! We can… Do it together? Anyway, you can sit, of course you can sit".

Hermione looked unsure by a moment – but Audrey was making room for her quickly, and Granger apparently made her mind, sitting as far away from Audrey as she could. The blond-haired girl just kept the smile on her face, no matter how uncomfortable she was. "Potter and Weasley aren't with you?"

That was a pattern that Audrey had noted in the last week. Suddenly Hermione – who would be seen alone most of the time – had started to keep herself glued with either Harry Potter or Ron Weasley, if not both. It was a strange friendship, but each with their own.

"Ron said he was going to play wizard chess with Seamus and Harry is…"

She stopped and narrowed her eyes.

"Training?", Audrey asked. "Everybody already knows he is on quidditch. Malfoy couldn't shut up about it in the common room – I think he is in love".

Hermione cracked a tiny smile at that. "Wood wanted to keep it a secret".

"Well, this is Hogwarts. I don't think you can keep anything a secret for too long here", Audrey shrugged. "Anyway. I've done some research about the muggle vision of magic in different European cultures, but I'm having trouble with the evolution of it through the years and the incorporation of magical superstitions in their cultures. Maybe we can work from there?"

Hermione looked a bit aloof, her bunny-teeth biting the lower lip. At some point, as someone who says whatever, she finally loosened herself – probably deciding that Audrey wasn't a real threat.

"Oh, about it, it's very interesting…"

Sophie couldn't believe her eyes when, a week later, she found Audrey Blanchard and Hermione Granger siting together in a table of the library, both leaning over a heavy textbook about transfiguration. Audrey had her hair in a loose bun, her nose all scrunched up in the way it did when she tried to understand something really hard, but Granger looked perfectly comfortable.

Well, they hadn't really become friends. Something like acquaintances. Audrey learned that Hermione was more intelligent than she thought, thinking sharp as a knife and organising facts as easy as Audrey could sing Madonna's songs. They bounded over homework and school things, not a true friendship, but a strange fellowship that allowed Audrey to borrow Hermione some of her books.

They worked well together, and they respected each other.

But some weeks later, Hermione would arrive the library – full until the brink because of the older students, dragging Potter and Weasley with her. She seated herself by Audrey's side like it was the most natural thing in the world, and, when Weasley looked like she was crazy, she just shrugged and said – "she is cool".

Audrey had never been prouder of herself.

Who said snakes and lions couldn't mix?


a/n: originally this chapter was completely different. audrey would get into the mix of the golden trio in the troll accident but honestly, i don't want her as part of the golden trio. she isn't a gryffindor and would never be; she is smart, and cunning and ambitious, and even if she isn't a coward, she has none of the that stupid braveness of theirs. she is going to have her own life, her own problems, her own adventures, and her own friends (like Sophie, who is a total badass).
anyway, with this chapter we are around chapters eleven-twelve from the first book. i want to finish this book as soon as possible because things gets more interesting in the later ones.
i hope you like this chapter! i have the next one ready, and i plan on posting it this week. thanks for everyone who had favourited and/or followed this story!
shout out to the guest who left a cute review last chapter. it means a lot 3
with love,
star.