Before she knew it, the beginning of the school year was imminent. Since the run in at Diagon Alley Cyn hadn't seen Draco or Narcissa. Standing on Platform 9 ¾ she was hoping that she would run into them sooner or later – she had quite liked talking to them. Julia handed Cyn her suitcases, and her owl and Charles rested a hand on her shoulder. He bent down, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.
"Have a good year at Hogwarts Cyn," Charles wished her.
Not likely, she thought. Just as quickly she dismissed the pessimistic thoughts. She'd do her best to have a good year at this new school. Entering into the school year with a bad attitude would set the tone for the rest of the year. So she only needed to be positive. Cyn stepped onto the trainer, nearly getting run over by a gaggle of redheads as they ran to find an open compartment. Shaking her head, Cyn shouldered her way past a cluster of first years and headed into one of the first rooms that she saw. She shut the door, setting her suitcases on the floor underneath her.
"Well hello," Someone said.
Cyn jumped, having not noticed that anyone was there. She looked to her left and felt her cheeks flush when she saw who it was – Draco Malfoy. Sitting across from him on the other side of the room were two rather large boys, who didn't appear very smart, a girl with a squished face, and a rather handsome boy with dark skin and dark eyes that glimmered with mischief.
"Hello Draco." Cyn returned cordially. She arched her eyebrows. "Fancy seeing you here."
He snorted, gray eyes twinkling with amusement. "Yes, I'm sure that it's utterly surprising to see me on a train bound for Hogwarts, where I go to school," he drawled. The pug-faced girl cleared her throat rather obnoxiously and Draco rolled his eyes. "Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini." He gestured to them as he said their names.
"Charmed," Pansy smiled falsely.
"Cyn Winters, pleasure." Cyn narrowed her eyes at Parkinson. "Pureblood I would assume. All of you?" They nodded. "Interesting – I'd expect a pureblood to behave with more decorum."
"Oh God you're sounding like my mother," Draco intervened.
Cyn looked to him, green eyes glinting like ice. "Oh really? What'd you do?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with Winters," Draco sneered although there was no real bite in his words. He sighed. "We're all nearing marrying age and needless to say my parents are both less than impressed with my antics."
"Isn't your father in Azkaban?" Pansy questioned, and Draco tensed like a coiled spring, turning baleful silver eyes to the girl. Parkinson flinched back.
"Hm, my parents say the same thing although it's not because I'm nearing marrying age." Cyn murmured thoughtfully. "With high aspirations and because I'm nearly an adult, my parents too have grown weary of my whimsical nature and habit of causing trouble."
"English please." Draco said. "These idiots can't seem to comprehend words that are larger than three syllables."
"I'll have you know that I'm not an idiot," Blaise snapped. "Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson, sure. But I'm not, keep that in mind."
"My apologies." Draco answered.
Cyn rolled her eyes and dug through her messenger bag, producing several different books including Academic Sorcery by Elythia Winters, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander, and The Complete Guide to Healing by Wesley Vermance. She had yet to decide what she wanted to do with her life but so far she had decided that she wanted to do something with either magical creatures or healing. Being an Auror was not a career for her, and she couldn't break a curse to save her life.
"Are you a nerd or something?" Blaise spoke up, tilting his head to the side and watching her as she opened up the book by Elythia Winters – a distant relative of hers – and she scowled at him.
"No but I do like to be well-informed." Cyn shot back and then flushed because she did sound like a nerd. "I'm not a nerd," she almost whined but caught herself.
Winters don't whine. You're a pureblood, Cynthia Elysia Winters and purebloods don't whine, her grandmother had once said to her. We take what we want. But under no circumstances do we ever whine. That was a lesson that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. While in America, people didn't care about blood status as much, that didn't mean that they didn't uphold old pureblood traditions.
"If you're as studious as you seem right now, you'll end up in Ravenclaw." Draco spoke up.
Cyn wrinkled her nose. "From what I've read, I'd rather be in Slytherin. Hufflepuff seems too boring, Ravenclaw is too studious, and Gryffindors are too self-righteous." Both boys looked at her in surprise. "Yes I've heard that many Dark Wizards have come from Slytherin, but bad people can come just as easily from Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Even Hufflepuff. Slytherin has just earned the stigma that only bad people are sorted into their house, when bad people can be sorted into any house."
"You know," Blaise spoke up sounding amazed, "she makes a very good point."
"That she does." Draco agreed. He smirked, "But it's hard to fight against all the data. Most people who end up being evil come from Slytherin."
"Hush." Cyn insisted.
Cyn shifted nervously in front of the Great Hall. Professor Minerva McGonagall had yet to let them enter and it was making her nervous. She was one of Hogwarts's first transfer students and because of that there was going to be a lot of attention on her. Finally the doors flew open and McGonagall strode forward, indicating for Cyn and the first years to follow her.
"First to be Sorted is our transfer student, Cynthia Winters who will be a sixth year. Previously she went to Ilvermorny in America."Albus Dumbledore spoke, a twinkle in his eye as he looked at Cyn. "Come along Ms. Winters."
Cyn stepped forward, her slightly big robe trailing on the ground. She hopped up onto the stool and the Sorting Hat was placed on her head.
"Hmmm…." The Hat mused. "Where to put you? Certainly not Hufflepuff, you aren't compassionate enough and definitely not Gryffindor because you think that they're too pretentious and you aren't selfless enough. That leaves Slytherin and Ravenclaw. You're certainly ambitious enough for Slytherin and you're smart enough for Ravenclaw; so where should I put you?"
Cyn held her breath as the Sorting Hat silently debated with himself.
Finally after what felt like an eternity the Sorting Hat came to a decision. "SLYTHERIN!" the Hat boomed.
The other houses clapped politely, but Slytherin cheered the loudest. Cyn yanked the Hat off of her head and hopped off of the stool. She scurried towards the Slytherin table, collapsing into the seat next to Draco and across from a stunning dark-haired girl with silver eyes.
"Verity Black, pleasure to meet you." The girl said with a kind smile. "I'm Draco's cousin."
Looking between the two Cyn decided that she could see a few similarities, but she never would have connected the dots herself.
"Cyn Winters," She said in return with a shy smile. "What year are you?"
"Fifth," Verity scowled. "Certainly smart enough to be a sixth year though; I mean look at Crabbe and Goyle. It's a wonder they even passed their O.W.L.'s."
"Verity do be nice and practice some sense of decorum." Draco mocked, ducking when she threw a piece of apple crisp at him. "Hey now Verity, whatever would your mother say if she saw you now?"
Verity's pale face flushed scarlet and she glared at her cousin. "I'm certain that she'd think that I'm doing the whole world a favor by humiliating you and preventing you procreating."
"Hush now child," Draco patronized. "Verity's been cranky lately, I don't know. Maybe because she broke up with her boyfriend?"
"It was a mutual break up!" Verity nearly shrieked, gaining a few curious looks from the other Houses.
"Who was her boyfriend?" Cyn inquired curiously, watching Verity closely.
She mumbled something that Cyn couldn't quite catch. She looked over at Draco in confusion and was surprised to see him looking at his cousin with some amount of affection and pity. Though she hadn't known Draco for very long, Cyn had discerned that he wasn't very open with his emotions and quite often he took only his own feelings to account. To see him looking at his cousin with such fondness was a little surprising.
"A blood traitor." Blaise Zabini spoke up from Verity's side. "Fred Weasley, correct?"
Verity nodded.
"She's lucky that she didn't get blasted off of the Black family tree." Draco muttered, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. "Malfoys and Blacks do not associate with the Weasley family. Slytherins as a whole don't associate with blood traitors. That includes you too Cyn."
She nodded. What had she gotten herself into, she wondered.
