Chapter 15
A/N Mwah! I've updated! Finally. It's not that great... but I hope you like it.
The feast finally dribbled into bloated content, and they retired to the Slytherin common room. Adell silently trailed behind Miranda. No one seemed to notice her newfound leech-like abilities; probably something to do with the fact that Miranda didn't spare a glance in her direction. Nathaniel had departed and been enveloped into a group of older boys, he was in the middle of some important debate about something or other. Regulus, the only one that seemed to truly enjoy her company, was on prefect duty. So she was stuck tailing Miranda. How pathetic.
Adell sighed as she entered the green tinged room. Sometimes the Slytherin common room seemed cold, but no one could party like a Slytherin... and they took any and every chance to do so. The beginning of the year was a valid excuse. She had no idea how they managed to set it up on the first day... but it happened. The room was exploding with banners and balloons. Some crafty student had managed to sneak in beverages. Thankfully, nothing alcoholic was there, the younger students weren't to be trusted around a bottle of fire-whiskey.
A prefect was explaining to a group of scared first years that the beginning of the year party was a tradition in Slytherin. She smiled as she took their questions. A seventh year told a third year to stop being so rowdy. People talked and laughed and milled about, everyone was squashed into the too small space. Adell felt lost in the crowd, as usual. She just wanted to get to her dorm. The crowd was huge. Green and silver balloons filled the ceiling, enchanted to dance around. A fountain was bubbling with something that was too shiny to be water. The portraits ran this way and that, shouting various things. People filled every crevice. Everyone but the first years were there. Adell whimpered. Usually it didn't seem this crowded. With all the people moving, she was getting motion sick. She tried inching to the doorway to the girls' dormitories, but she was blocked. Was she afraid of crowds? More like the people that made them up. She mentally shut down and closed her eyes.
"Merlin. Great way to start the school year.... I'm supposed to be acting like an adult now. Not a little kid. Afraid. I am so pathetic." her thoughts were cut short by a hand yanking her to freedom. Her eyes snapped open to see Miranda dragging her to safety. Adell was thankful and embarrassed all at the same time. When they were next to the door, Miranda stopped and turned to her.
"Don't like crowds?" she asked. Adell blushed. Miranda sighed.
"Me neither," she informed her. Adell couldn't believe that. She was just trying to make her feel better. "Rule number one, you can't let people push you around," Miranda explained. "If they do, push back." Miranda demonstrated this by shoving a sixth year boy out of her way to get to the girl's rooms. The boy was stunned for a moment, and jumped up, ready for a fight. Miranda looked at him pointedly. His face fell.
"Oh. Sorry Miranda," he said, before turning back to his mates. Adell was in awe. This girl, leading her by the hand like some incapable three-year old, had more power in her pinky finger than Adell could dream of. She was dragged to the fifth-year's room, and breathed a sigh of relief as Miranda firmly shut the door, and the noise out with it.
Adell rubbed her arm, feeling awkward. They had been roommates since first year, but never looked twice at each other. No one looked twice at her. And now was this girl going to try and be her friend? The other girls included Sylvia and Gabriella, the inseparable "bffs" and Velvet, the slut. So, logically it made sense for the both of them to spend time together.
Miranda calmly walked to her bed and sat, picking up a magazine. Adell looked at it and did a double take.
"Miranda? Is that magazine in French?" she said with raised eyebrows. Miranda looked up.
"What? Oh, yeah. Witch Weekly is just so boring don't you think?"she said absent-mindedly. Adell blinked.
"It's in French," she said slowly. Miranda gave her a strange look.
"Witch Weekly is printed in English," she said, as if she were talking to a slow first-year. Adell blushed.
"No, I mean... not that... that. I mean, the book, I mean magazine, you're reading. Now, I mean," she stammered. Miranda looked at it.
"So it is," she went back to reading. Adell walked to her own bed.
"You can read French?" she asked with wonder in her voice. Miranda nodded.
"Yep. My mum is from a pureblood string in France," she turned the page again. Adell was starting to think that she was bothering the more sophisticated girl, so she stayed quiet and watched the French witch on the cover of the foreign magazine blow kisses and strut, showing off the latest style.
Finally, after a long stretch of awkward silence, Adell found her mind float off to a magical land where boys took notice of her, and she could speak French.
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"RISE AND SHINE FIFTH YEARS!" Adell was almost blasted out of her bed at the sudden noise. She let out a strangled "eep" as her bedclothes piled on top of her position on the floor. She could hear similar cries of protest from her dorm mates. What in Salazar's name was going on?! She managed to pull herself together enough to check the large snake encrusted clock hanging on the wall. Midnight. Midnight? Midnight! She wiggled out from under her blanket and popped up like a meerkat. A sixth year girl with a build like a hippogriff and a face like a blast-ended skrewt was staring at her down her nose. Adell looked back, her eyes full of fear.
"Oi! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Sylvia's voice was clear above the din. The sixth year girl rolled her eyes.
"It's time you grubs stopped being children and started becoming adults," she responded condescendingly.
"Wha-?" Velvet was sitting cross-legged on her bed with a confused face. "I don' get it," she mumbled, not yet awake. Adell was still curled on the floor, not sure what to make of the situation. The sixth year looked at their clock and then back at them.
"You have five minutes to be downstairs and dressed. It's time for the real party." With that she spun out of the room. There was a beat of silence before all the girls scrambled to their feet. "Party" was the only word they needed to hear before stepping into action. All of them started throwing clothing out of trunks and rapidly using magic to curl their hair. Adell was still to paralyzed with fear and surprise. Like a opossum knocks itself out with an internal acid when encountered with a bigger predator, Adell was frozen and unable to move after being awoken by the larger girl. Miranda, the only composed one of the lot, swept over and helped her to her feet.
"Come on, do have any nice clothes you can put on?" she asked the paralyzed girl.
"I don't understand what's going on..." she said weakly. Adell had a very strict internal clock, that if upset, made her practically nonfunctioning. Miranda rolled her eyes. She didn't have the time for this.
"None of us understand. All we know is some ugly sixteen-year old just told us to wake up and get dressed because a party is about to go down. Get ready," she said, turning to her own pajama-clad state. Adell blinked.
"But... the party already happened," she said. Velvet sauntered over and knocked on Adell's skull a few times.
"Hello? Retard much? Obviously we're about to go to a fifth-year and up party. This one will probably be upped to PG-13... or higher. Oh! I'm so exited. But what to wear..." Velvet wandered away to her trunk. Adell visibly paled.
"What! PG-13... I... I don't like parties..." the last thing she wanted now was to be forced into yet another large crowd and told to socialize. This was her ultimate nightmare. Miranda walked back over to her.
"Come on, Adell. Let's get ready. What have you got..." Adell could only look at her blankly. "Focus! Get dressed," she commanded.
"I'm already dressed," said Adell, motioning to her rumpled state. Miranda gave her a tired expression.
"You slept in that? Get on something nice, for Salazar's sake!" Adell gave her scared look.
"I don't really have anything nice..." she trailed off uncertainly. Miranda looked her up and down before looking away.
"Sylvia!" she yelled into the bathroom.
"Yeah?" came the muffled response.
You're about the same size as Sanctamonia, will you lend her something?" Miranda asked with authority. Sylvia emerged with a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth. She took it out to speak.
"Lend Sanctamonia something?" she asked, confused. Miranda rolled her eyes.
"Are you deaf?" Miranda snapped. Sylvia stared at her a moment longer before jumping into action. She walked over to Adell and sized her up.
"I'm thinking something dark," said Sylvia slowly."What do you think?" she asked Miranda. Miranda gave her a look.
"I would have thought that was obvious. The question is how to make that look attractive," she said dully, motioning at Adell like she was a piece of furniture. Gabriella walked over while adjusting a pink dress that showed quite a lot of skin.
"What's up?" she asked. Sylvia turned towards her best friend.
"We're trying to figure out how to make Sanctamonia look seemingly presentable," she answered. Velvet came over as well.
"Ooh... I love a challenge!" she screeched. Adell took a step back from the four girls eyeing her like she was a piece of meet. She gulped. What was in store for her?
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Adell was humiliated. She never wanted to be seen in public again. After tonight, she didn't know how she could go on in life. Not after people saw her in... this. She was wearing a black mini-skirt and a black tank with a neckline a little too far down for comfort. She tugged at the skirt's bottom uncomfortably. How did she manage to get herself into these situations? She wasn't supposed to dress this way... not the wallflower, the shadow. Sure, she had wanted some more attention... but this was just plain wrong. She didn't like this at all. Not only that, but her hair... they had put it into short pigtails, leaving some of the shorter hairs near the front to hang down.
"Cute... but sexy," Velvet had clarified. She felt like a skank. That was new. This was more awful than anything that could ever happen to her ever. She would rather run ten laps around the lake, she would rather announce to the entire great hall that she brushed her teeth three times a day, she would rather endure a lifetime of the marauders scheming. But no, she had to be at this party.
Adell sought solace in a green chair, pushed into the corner. She hated this. Loud music was blasting through the soundproofed common room. Alcohol was being tossed down like nobodies business. It was no longer a mystery why the older Slytherins were always so grouchy on the second day of school. The prefect and seventh year she had seen earlier were now making out on a sofa like they were alone. Adell made a face and looked away. This was gross.
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Severus Snape sat alone on one of the many sofas. He had a perfect view of the entire room, and it was completely nauseating. He had been forced to attend this... debauch... last year. He had assumed that as a sixth year, the world might leave him in peace. Unfortunately fate had decided to shed as little light as possible onto his dark, dark world. The filth surrounding him was enough to make anyone of moral standards vomit. He scanned the room from his slouch on the emerald sofa that had been pushed into a corner. There, two mongrels were getting into an extreme snogging-fest that was about to escalate into heavy petting at any moment. There, a group of boys were singing strange drinking songs at the top of their lungs while hoisting their bottles of fire-whisky in the air and wearing large buckets on their heads. And there... wait. Who the hell was that?
Severus squinted. There, perched on a green chair and looking uncomfortable... there was a girl, attractive, yes... but dressed like a trollop. She looked like an escapee from an under-age brothel, and that was being generous. Who was she? He certainly didn't recognize her from anywhere. She had honey colored hair, pale skin. He assumed she was probably in fifth year, because he definitely hadn't seen her here before. But had he seen her anywhere before? He didn't make it his business to associate with the fifth year girls, but certainly he would have noticed that before. What kind of person ever wore... that in public: although in her defense, she seemed uncomfortable. He felt himself cock his head to the side. He usually didn't find "trampy" attractive, but this girl had... something... going on. He tried to mentally smash the R-rated scenario running through his head. Bloody hell. He needed a girlfriend.
"Hmm... looking at Sanctamonia, are you?" Regulus Black seemed to have materialized from nowhere behind him. He jumped slightly. What had Regulus meant? He wasn't looking at Adell Sancta-... Holy Shit. Was that Adell? As in... Adell Adell? What the fuck? Was that her? Her? Was it? Severus made an involuntary gagging noise. Regulus looked at him.
"It's not that I blame you... she's an attractive girl," Regulus continued. Adell? Since when had Adell been considered by anyone in any way... attractive? But if Regulus Black was saying it... well, he was one of the "cool" ones. Why would he lie?
"I-I don't know. I mean... I can see... objectively-" Severus said awkwardly. He was always awkward around Regulus. Something about the fact that his brother was Severus's self-declared rival and torturer made looking him in the face physically difficult.
"What's going on here, mates?" slurred a slightly inebriated sixth year. Regulus didn't look up.
"Oh, nothing. We were just weighing the pro's and cons of that girl over there," he said nonchalantly. Severus felt his eye twitch. Adell? Really? He still couldn't get over the shock. She was supposed to be the pathetic little girl that helped him. That he found crying in the library. Not... attractive.
"What girl?" asked the sixth year, suddenly sounding sober. When it came to girls, he was interested. Severus started to scoot away, but Regulus grabbed his shoulder, planting him to the spot.
"That girl, just there," he said, nodding towards Adell. "In the corner." There was a thoughtful pause.
"Yeah, I defiantly see the appeal. She's a little small, but yeah. Wonder why I haven't seen her around before?" the boy mused. Regulus smothered a laugh.
"You have seen her. That's Adell Sanctamonia," he said, grinning. There was another pause.
"Sanctamonia? The little one who's failing transfiguration? Her? But she's so... mousy," the boy said with wide eyes. Regulus made a noise of agreement.
"I think this is a season of change, my friend," he said, slapping the boy on the back. The sixth year wondered away, confused. Severus looked at Regulus. Since when was the favored Black son interested in Adell Sanctamonia? He was "cool," she was ignored. Even though she had gone through a nightmare of a makeover, it didn't mean that Regulus was going to be interested with her or anything... right? And another thing, she was almost unrecognizable, but Regulus had had no trouble picking her out. Something weird was going on...
Adell tugged on the bottom of her skirt again. Why oh why? What had she done to deserve this suffering? Suddenly Miranda plopped down beside her.
Severus watched the two talk animatedly. He couldn't hear them but... wait. Miranda? Miranda Hathaway? He didn't know her personally... but everyone knew her. Was she honestly talking to Adell? What sort of dreamland was this? This was...this was-
"Oh shit. Nathaniel's started dancing on the tables again. Bother. Put him near one bottle of fire whisky..." Regulus walked of, grumbling, to go help his best friend get a hold of himself. Severus was left to watch Adell by himself. She was the only interesting thing in the room, really. He thought back on their awkward train conversation. Certainly this couldn't be the same girl. Suddenly he realized that Adell was looking at him with an odd expression. He straightened up, embarrassed about being caught staring. She gave him a questioning look. He returned it. What was going on? Miranda followed Adell's gaze to Severus and asked her something that he couldn't hear. She blushed and replied. Severus was getting annoyed. What was going on? Miranda suddenly grabbed Adell's hand and led her out of the room. Severus watched them go. What was going on?
A/N This Chapter is actually incomplete. But I looked at it and went, "what the hell, it's long enough." I'll get to work on chapter 16.