When Anna got up, it was rather late and the dormitory was already empty. An autumn sun shone brightly through the glass-paned windows, and Anna hurried to dress and go downstairs, not wanting to miss receiving her new timetable at breakfast.
On her way to the Fat Lady's portrait, she collided with another late sleeper, a tall boy with honey blonde hair. Anna knew him, of course, although they never talked much – it was Lennox McKinnon, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain for the past three years. Like Anna, he played Seeker, and up till now they had played against each other three times, out of which Anna got to the Snitch first twice.
"Sorry," Anna said, slightly breathless.
"Oh, hey," McKinnon looked at her with surprise, running a hand through his sleek hair. His eyes were grey mingled with green, very light. "You'll be in Gryffindor this year, then?"
"Yeah," nodded Anna, spotting at that moment that a silver badge, scrupulously polished, gleamed on his chest, a badge identical to her own. Lennox McKinnon noticed her badge as well and grinned broadly at her, showing very even, white teeth.
"Head Girl," he said, impressed, "well done! I expect this will pretty much guarantee Gryffindor winning the House Cup this year!"
Anna fought the urge to scowl.
"Actually, it's good that I ran into you so soon," she said, "Lennox, isn't it? I wanted to ask you, when are Quidditch tryouts?"
"This weekend," replied Lennox, looking slightly uncomfortable, "but I doubt you'll want to play Beater, and those are the only slots I have left open."
"Actually, I have been meaning to try out for Seeker," Anna said serenely, "you have seen me play, haven't you?"
Lennox looked slightly taken aback at this open declaration of her intention to try out for his place in the team, but he wasn't angry.
"Seen you?" he raised his eyebrows, "Two years ago, you were the only obstacle between us and the Quidditch Cup!"
"Well, then, you ought to let me try out," Anna insisted, "even if it means you won't play Seeker. As captain, you ought to care more about the team's chances for winning."
"Alright, then," grinned McKinnon, "Sunday, ten o'clock, and don't be late. But I'm warning you, Anna – the other people on the team won't hesitate to do their best to knock you off your broomstick."
"Don't worry," said Anna, smiling sweetly, "it will be amusing to see them try."
… Shortly after this discourse, Anna made her way towards her first Transfiguration class of her final year, ten minutes into which Professor Jones announced that she had gained ten points to Gryffindor for knowing all about the intricacies of Animagi. For a second, Anna had the instinctive urge to jump up and exclaim, "what do you mean, ten points to Gryffindor? I'm in Slytherin!" - but she remembered in time and stopped before making a fool of herself.
Unfortunately, the only space to sit was beside Molly Weasley, who kept making remarks about Anna's work in a huffy know-it-all voice. James was sitting behind her, next to his best friend Ronan Caldwell, and though Anna didn't know it, was staring wistfully at how the sun shone on her soft chestnut locks.
But despite the excitement of the first day of her last year in school, despite the many talks about the NEWT examinations they were to take in June, Anna's mind wandered all the way up to the Astronomy tower, where she would be meeting her friends that night.
At dinner, James skidded onto the bench next to her, nearly knocking over her plate of goulash in his excitement.
"McKinnon just told me you're going to try out for the Quidditch team!" he gushed, "That's brilliant, Anna, I hope you get in! I'm on the team too, you know – Beater. Good luck on Sunday! Be careful around McKinnon, though – he's bulky for a Seeker, but up in the air he's much more speedy than he looks."
"I've played against McKinnon before, James," said Anna, "and I know he's pretty good, but frankly, the one time he beat me, he couldn't have done it without help from the rest of the team. This time it will be only me against him."
After dinner, just as she was about to go up to the dormitory and pretend to go to bed early, she ran into Lennox McKinnon again.
"Can I have a word?" he asked.
"What, McKinnon?" Anna smiled mischievously, "going to ask me to take pity on you at tryouts?"
"No," he tried to sound cross, but grinned back despite himself – Anna Snape was too pretty to be cross with, and she knew it well. "It's just that as we're Head Boy and Girl, we are supposed to participate in the board of governors meetings. First session is next week, Monday night. Professor Lupin asked me to tell you."
"OK," said Anna.
"So, I'll wait for you after dinner and we'll go together?" asked McKinnon, more nonchalantly than he felt.
"Alright, then," nodded Anna, feigning indifference. She gave him a small wave and walked away, and with her back to him, she smiled.
At a quarter to ten Anna, who lay awake with her eyes open until then, got up, wrapped herself in her cloak and pulled the hood over her face, and crept silently downstairs and out of the portrait hole, unnoticed by the few students who still inhabited the common room at this late hour. Up many corridors and flights of stairs she went, until finally, panting, she reached the top of the Astronomy tower. She was rather proud of herself for avoiding Filch and getting there with no detours, but it was already two minutes past ten and she was clearly one of the last to arrive.
Nearly all her Slytherin friends were there – Lavinia Malfoy and Gertrude Nott, and Lavinia's brother Scorpius, and Macnair and Avery and Davenport, and other people whom Anna only knew by name, but with whom she ate and celebrated and shared the house trials and triumphs during six years. All faces were wearing the same expression of grim determination.
"Anna, you're here, good. We can start now," Lavinia said briskly.
Anna took a seat next to Gertrude on the stone steps where everyone else was sitting. Lavinia, who appeared to be sort of an organizer of the entire meeting, remained on her feet.
"I think all who have gathered here aren't forgetting that they are Slytherins," Lavinia started right off the bat, "whatever other house this hideous new decision of the governors plunged us into."
Everybody nodded; there was a general murmur of agreement.
"And I think it's also more than obvious," continued Lavinia, "that since the board of governors is so clearly and blatantly against the house of Slytherin, we should keep this meeting, and any other meetings that might follow, a complete secret."
"Seconded," barked Macnair, looking around as though challenging someone or other to disagree with him. Nobody did.
"We will henceforth refer to ourselves, then, as the Secret Slytherin Society, or the SSS," Lavinia went on more confidently, "anyone who has an objection to this name, raise your hand."
No hands rose into the air; people nodded approvingly.
"Our goals are as following," Lavinia carried on, "restore the house of Slytherin to its former state of power and influence. Get the Slytherin students back where they belong, in the house which is best suited to their capabilities, together with their friends. We realize it might take a long time," she added, "perhaps some of us will already leave school by the time we achieve something. But we won't give up."
"Do you have any ideas on how to do all this?" asked a curly-haired fifth-year girl.
"As a matter of fact, so far we thought of two venues," said Lavinia, "one, publicity. We plan to contact every prominent name out there who had been a Slytherin, especially those who were proud of it – such as Arthur Thornpyke, the singing sorcerer, or Blaise Zabini, who works in the Ministry. And we have my father, too," she added as an afterthought. "If all these influential people start bombarding the press and the school administration with letters telling how unfair they find this reform, it might help get things moving."
"Great idea," said Travers, impressed, "but I don't think, somehow, that it will be enough."
"I agree," said Lavinia, "to successfully work for our cause on another front, we need people to influence the board of governors from inside. To tell them – politely, of course – what a lousy move they made and how the whole school is suffering because of it."
"Yeah, we should do that, because they will surely listen to us," Avery said sarcastically.
"They might not listen to us," Lavinia countered coolly, "but they will have to put up with our new Head Girl," Lavinia gestured towards Anna. For the first time, Anna felt everybody's eyes on her, and it was distinctly uncomfortable.
"Well done, Anna, getting the badge!" said Gertrude, "I'll bet they thought having you as Head Girl will be convenient, because you are the Headmaster's daughter. But you won't conform, will you? You'll do what it takes to get Slytherin back together, won't you?"
"Yeah," said Anna with a rather reluctant smile, thinking of her father. "Sure."