That summer was put to good use. Hermione came over the second week of summer and slept over for the whole week, all too eager to teach Duncan everything she knew about magic, who, for his part, was all too eager to learn.
On the last night before Hermione went back home, the two of them stayed up all night.
"So what are you doing with the rest of summer?" Hermione asked, laying on her stomach with her ankles crossed above her.
"Eh. I think I'm going over to Malfoy Manor but I'm not sure the specifics yet. You?"
"You know," said Hermione, "I'd quite like to spend more time with Tracey. D'you think she'd want to?"
Hyacinth smiled, satisfaction running through her. "Of course. Tracey thinks quite highly of you, Miss Granger."
Hermione chewed her lip. "I think so too, but what about her parents? She's pureblood, isn't she?"
"Yeah, but I think her mum's a half-blood. In any case, her family isn't half as snobby as some others you might be thinking of, so I wouldn't worry too much."
Hermione wore a small, reassured smile. "Good. She's quite nice."
"She really is. Nicer than I am, to be sure. In fact, I think you caught the wrong Slytherin."
Hermione made a face. "I think I found exactly the right Slytherin, thank you very much, but it has occurred to me that you're not the only nice one."
"Well this is awkward, because I got the wrong Gryffindor, and I was hoping we could come to a mutual kind of thing and I could exchange you for Lavend-"
She was cut off as Hermione, laughing, shoved her off the bed. She hit the floor with a decisive thump and saw Hermione's face leaning over the side of the bed to look at her with a cheeky grin.
The two weeks at Malfoy Manor were, somewhat surprisingly, wonderful. Hyacinth thought she might start feeling uncomfortable spending so much time at the manor, but Narcissa and Lucius were perfectly kind and charming, and she didn't exactly see them so much anyway, as she and the others spent most of the time at the brand-new pool.
Summer was sticky-sweet as Hyacinth sat on the edge of the in-ground with her feet in the water. Theo was next to her, Pansy and Blaise were currently racing, Drisana was making an attempt to tan which they all knew would fail, Athena had been whisked off somewhere by Narcissa, and Tracey was sitting next to Drisana, reading a book that had been loaned to her by a certain Gryffindor the week before, when they'd went over each other's houses for the first time.
"You know," said Theo from next to her, "It's weird, but I kind of want to go back to school."
"It's not weird," said Hyacinth, "Hogwarts is an interesting place."
"I heard Snape's thinking of offering special potions."
"Where'd you hear that from? And special potions to who?"
Theo flicked a gaze behind them, where Drisana was sprawled across a beach chair.
"Lucius and Snape are friends. Me and Blaise overheard their Floo call the other night. Apparently he's thinking of offering them to you, me, Padma Patil, and Granger. 'They're the only halfway acceptable students in their year, and even that is just a hair short of utter disgrace.'" They giggled at his spot-on impression of the Potions Master's drawl.
"Hm. That sounds interesting. Does he usually do that?"
Theo shrugged. "Probably sometimes. I mean, it wouldn't make sense for him to randomly start doing it for our year and have that many."
"It's only four."
"Yes, but for Snape to find four students, two of which aren't Slytherin, decent enough to be worth teaching special potions, and for them to be all from the same year, is unlikely."
"You've got a point there, Nott."
After a moment, he said, "If you ever repeat this, I might kill you, but I'm starting to really respect that Granger girl. And more than just that part of me that thinks we should treat people with basic decency every now and then, which no one seems to believe can exist in a Slytherin, but I'm starting to realize how much effort it must have taken for her to go from knowing nothing about magic or our world into the top student of the year."
Hyacinth held in a breath. None of the others had heard them, they were ensconced in their own activities, and Hyacinth was afraid of saying too much and halting the quiet revelation Theodore Nott was experiencing.
"I mean, I don't know. She's still kind of a know-it-all, and Merlin that can be annoying, but I don't think we should be giving her so much crap just for her blood status when she does better than any of us, you know?"
Hyacinth nodded. "She may be a know-it-all, but she's not so annoying once you get to know her," was the farthest she would dare to push the boy beside her.
Theo chuckled. "Maybe so, or maybe you're just soft on her."
"Maybe it's just me," Hyacinth responded, "But I've never understood how someone couldn't be. Aside from the prejudiced, of course."
"No, yeah, I think that one's just you," Theo said with a grin, his light blue eyes dancing with mirth.
Hyacinth shrugged. If she was the only one in the world who thought Hermione Granger was the coolest person she'd ever met, then that just meant she was the only one with a brain. "Anyway, you know it's my birthday next week, right?"
He nodded. "Absolutely. I've already called the ensemble."
"Oh, shut up. I brought it up because my aunt's getting a cake and everything and she wants to know if my friends are coming."
"Oh."
Suddenly, Hyacinth looked at the water beneath her, fighting with everything she had not to be embarrassed of her family. "Yeah."
"Well, ordinarily I imagine the answer would be 'absolutely not'," he began, "But, considering you are Hyacinth Potter, savior of the wizarding world and Dark family reputations, you might just wrangle permission out of our parents. Tracey's won't care, obviously, but the rest of us might have to do some convincing."
"If you can't, it's okay," she said, "Or any of the others. I just thought I'd ask you first because you tend to be aware of things like this."
His eyes drifted towards the house. Lucius and Narcissa were in there somewhere, and Athena too. They would later find out Narcissa had gifted her a book of offensive spells that were 'difficult to obtain at Hogwarts, dear,' and was practicing with her.
"Like I said. It would do most of our fathers some good if it got to the papers that they let their children go to Hyacinth Potter's birthday party at her Muggle family's house. That's the kind of heartwarming thing no one expects from them."
"And," he added after a second, "It's what any good Slytherin would do."
She nodded, feeling hopeful. It would be nicely surreal for all of her friends to meet Aunt Petunia, although she'd have to tell Duncan not to ask them too many questions.
"Oh," she had a wicked realization, "Hermione's coming. And a few other Gryffindors. Do me a favor and don't tell Drisana or Pansy, whatever you do."
He threw back his head and laughed, drawing the attention of the others.
"Your secret is safe with me," he whispered, "And hey, maybe while we're there you can finally play that violin for me."
"You've never heard me play?" She frowned. "Hm. I played a few times but that was only in the dorm, so I guess you haven't. Alright, maybe." She nudged him. "If you're lucky."
Narcissa and Lucius were convinced with little-to-no effort; as they sat down for dinner a few nights later, Drisana cleared her throat.
"Mother, Father, you may or may not know it's Hyacinth's birthday next week."
Narcissa's face lit up. "Oh, Hyacinth darling why didn't you tell us? We'll have to make a day of it, of course, we can make it a girls' day with all us girls, or you can invite the boys too if you'd like, but -"
"Actually, Mother," Drisana cut in, because Hyacinth wasn't quite comfortable enough to interrupt Narcissa Malfoy yet, "Her aunt's having a party over at her house, and I was wondering if I might go."
Narcissa turned to Lucius, who smiled. "Well, of course, honey, we'd love nothing more. But Hyacinth, don't think you've escaped a girls' day. We'll just have to postpone it." Her red lipstick contrasted sharply with the pale skin. Narcissa Malfoy was a lovely and graceful woman, and Hyacinth couldn't help but to feel a weird fear-respect feeling for her.
She looked around at the rest of them. "And of course the rest of you are going? I can speak with your parents about arranging transportation." Just like that, none of their parents could refuse permission even if they'd have wanted to.
Narcissa Malfoy was also the most Slytherin person Hyacinth believed she'd ever met.
Subsequently, Hyacinth found herself getting dressed and ready for her party on the day of her 12th birthday. Aunt Petunia had taken her to a nice shop a few days before and found her a gorgeous dress, white and printed with green palm leaves. She had found simple white flats to wear with it, and she had even taken the extra step to force Daphne, Lavender, and Parvati over a couple of hours early to help her do her hair and even a slight bit of makeup, because Merlin for big she attempt to do it herself. The girls, of course, had been delighted, and were currently collaborating on the beauty project as if they had no idea they were in rival houses.
"Jesus," said Duncan as he came in her room, "How many girls does it take to do hair?"
"Actually," said Daphne as she worked on curling yet another lock of Hyacinth's thick hair, "This isn't really that many."
Lavender was debating on which shade of lip gloss to smear on Hyacinth's lips, and Parvati was doing a touch of mascara.
"Anyway," said Duncan, shaking his head, "Aunt Petunia wants to know what time the rest of your guests are arriving?"
Hyacinth checked the clock that sat on her dresser. "From now it'll be about twenty minutes."
Daphne swore under her breath. "We'll have to hurry up, then. Have I ever told you just how much hair you have up here?"
"Once or twice."
"Good. Just making sure you're aware."
Lavender settled on a shade of peach for the lips, and the Gryffindor girls joined Daphne's effort to finish Hyacinth's hair.
They made it just in the nick of time, Daphne applying hairspray as the doorbell rang.
Hermione was there, her mother standing behind her to say hi to Aunt Petunia.
The two women went into the kitchen for a chat (turns out they got along pretty well when they'd met the first time Hermione and Hyacinth hung out) while Hyacinth brought everyone to the living room, where most of the party would be taking place.
"Happy birthday, Hya, you look gorgeous," said Hermione with a smile, hugging Hyacinth hard and adding a present to the pile that had been growing in the corner ever since Daphne arrived.
"So," said Hermione to the group with a grin, "Anyone want to take bets on how long Malfoy's heart attack will take when she sees I'm here."
Daphne snickered, and flicked her ash-blonde hair behind behind her shoulder. "About half a second."
She didn't exactly have a heart attack, but the noises of shock that came out of Drisana Malfoy upon her arrival were quite amusing to just about everyone else, who had a brain and realized that Hermione Granger would probably be invited. Even Pansy wasn't that surprised, disgusted though she might have been.
"She's here-" began the blonde.
"Yes, she's here, and everyone's going to shut up and play nice because it's my birthday and on your birthday I had to go to Bulgaria with you and endure the terrible rainstorms that day all for a Quidditch match so you can bloody well keep your comments to yourself for a few hours," hissed Hyacinth, despite her amusement at catching Drisana by surprise.
All in all, she was lucky Aunt Petunia hadn't heard her speaking to a guest that way, because she was still in the kitchen finishing up the chips she'd made homemade to go with the chicken.
Drisana's cheeks were flaming red, and she looked down at her shoes as Theo, Blaise, Tracey, and Athena entered the house behind her.
Luckily, she recovered quickly from the embarrassment, and did manage to keep her mouth shut for the duration of the party.
It actually went pretty well, all things considered. There were no open fights or even arguments, and all the Slytherins in attendance cheered in delight when they saw what color her cake was: Slytherin green.
Hermione, Tracey, Daphne, and Parvati formed their own subgroup, as did Drisana, Athena, Theo, Blaise, and Pansy, and Hyacinth bounced between the two of them for a while until they did gifts, while Duncan was pretty much only paying attention to Parvati and Lavender.
She received more or less similar gifts to Christmas, and she was happy. The way everyone was getting along (or at least trying to) made her hopeful that one day her vision could be a reality.
Finally, not a moment too soon, it was time to go back to school. Apparently the new Defense teacher was some lunatic celebrity that girls went crazy for, but none of the girls Hyacinth knew, herself included, were particularly taken by him.
On the train, it was her, Hermione, and Tracey again, which Hyacinth knew would become the tradition. Theo had even stopped by and sat with them for a few minutes before returning to his typical compartment.
Then, a first-year came to the compartment. She had bright red hair and a dusting of freckles.
"Hi," she said without a hint of shyness, "Can I sit with you? There aren't any empty compartments, and I don't want to sit with my brother and I thought you guys looked nice."
"Sure," said Hermione, moving over so the girl could sit next to her, "Who's your brother?"
The girl rolled her eyes into the next dimension. "Ron Weasley. I'm Ginny Weasley."
Despite herself, Hyacinth felt her lip curl. If there was one boy that really irked her, it was Ron Weasley and the way he treated her and the rest of Slytherin like they were evil. "Ron Weasley is your brother?"
"Yeah, but please don't hold it against me."
"Nobody can choose the circumstances of their birth," said Hermione, patting the girl's shoulder in a sisterly manner.
"So," began Tracey, leaning forward a little, "What House are you hoping for? Tell me it's not Gryffindor like all your brothers."
Ginny giggled. "No. I don't know." Her eyes went straight to Hyacinth, and she knew that this girl knew who she was. "I wouldn't much mind Slytherin, though."
Hermione gasped, clutching her chest as though she'd been wounded. "My heart!" she cried, "My aching, Gryffindor heart!"
"Hah, another one of ours, Granger," shot Hyacinth with a smirk.
"Oh, Merlin," said Hermione, "Suppose I could come hide down in the vipers' nest when Ron has a meltdown about that?"
Tracey shrugged. "I don't see why not, we'll just go in the dorm and you'll be okay."
"I mean," added Hyacinth, "If I can go in Gryffindor Tower as often as I do, there's no reason why the snakes can't get used to a lion."
Ginny Weasley, (along with Daphne's sister Astoria), did in fact get Sorted into Slytherin, which left a shocked silence akin to Hyacinth's own Sorting.
"Some people don't understand that you can grow beyond what your family was," Hyacinth told the youngest Weasley as she sat across from her.
Ginny nodded, gripping her goblet with white knuckles.
That night, Hermione did in fact come down to the Slytherin dungeon. It was the first time she'd ever been there. She was met with a rather large amount of stares, sneers, and mutters, but Hyacinth and Tracey quickly whisked Hermione away to the second-year girls' dorm, where, mercifully, Drisana was absent.
Ron Weasley did in fact have a tantrum that night, ranting to anyone who would listen how he couldn't believe his baby sister had been Sorted into that House, that there must've been some mistake.
Ginny, meanwhile, merely got a short note from her parents at breakfast the next morning saying they still loved her.
"As if they should've stopped for something as trivial as your Hogwarts House," muttered Tracey, but Ginny shrugged.
"It seems like Ron might."
"Well," said Blaise, "Family ought to come 'round sooner or later, and if he doesn't, we can be your older brothers."
"Yeah," agreed Theo as he looked over his schedule. Hyacinth, sitting next to him, looked over his shoulder. They'd both received the same note in Snape's spidery scrawl telling them that they were being offered advanced potions tutoring, which would take place in their free block on Wednesdays after lunch, if they should so choose to attend.
"You're going, right?" she checked.
He scoffed. "Is that even a question? If you have the chance to advance yourself, you take it."
"Do you think he still offered it to Hermione? And Padma Patil?"
"I guess we'll find out."
First, though, they found out what a miserable joke the new Defense professor was. Gilderoy Lockhart was a shameless, full-of-himself braggart who had probably never done or even seen half the things he said he did. And that was only according to Athena, who was furious at the replacement of the teacher who'd taught her the foundations of everything she knew about dueling.
"You'd think," she muttered, rubbing her temples at lunch after their first Defense lesson of the year, "That Dumbledore would have the sense to not downgrade on Defense teachers! How in Merlin's name do you go from Professor Quirrell -who may have been intense, but was at least competent -to this miserable excuse for an educator."
All this she said through grit teeth, lest someone outside of Slytherin hear her and run tattling. Hyacinth was surprised; other than her antagonism of Ron Weasley, which was a popular sport for pretty much all of Slytherin, she wasn't usually one to engage in vehement bouts of rage or passion. Generally, she had an air of being above such things. She was a precise, skilled duelist that never showed sign of temper, and yet, she had been pushed to the edge by Professor Lockhart.
Well, at least now Hyacinth knew what it took to get under Athena's thick skin. The girl's brown hair fell in long waves around her as she tried to calm herself; Tracey was rubbing her back in soothing circles, which seemed to help bring her indignation down.
To be fair, she was right. Lockhart had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Drisana was muttering about how her father would hear about this, and Theo looked ready to hit himself with the Killing Curse.
Things started really getting weird, though, when Hyacinth, Daphne, and Drisana were walking back early from dinner the next evening, only to discover what appeared to be a dead cat hanging from the wall, and a message written in a substance suspiciously dark red.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened," read Daphne.
". . . enemies of the Heir beware," Drisana finished, "We have to go."
As they had begun to turn in the other direction, though, the rest of the students began pouring out of the Great Hall, so they were forced to stay put or risk looking guilty.
Everyone stood staring at the wall in shock and fear, until McGonagall and Filch came along. Filch was shrieking something about his cat while McGonagall attempted to calm the hysterical man.
"The Chamber of Secrets," Drisana was saying that night, while all the girls in the dorm huddled around her bed, "is supposed to be a hidden chamber that Salazar Slytherin built in the school. To keep his monster in."
"So the Heir . . ." Hyacinth began to put the pieces together
"Means the Heir of Slytherin. But nobody ever really believed the chamber was real, most thought it was just a myth, because no one's ever been able to find it. Or the supposed monster."
"What is the monster?" asked Tracey with anxiety in her voice.
Shrugging, Drisana replied "No one knows that, either."
"Great, there's a mythical monster on the loose, and nobody knows what it is or where it's hiding," huffed Pansy with irritation.
"That about sums it up," confirmed the platinum blonde.
"Well, we should be alright then, I mean we're Slytherins, so how could we be enemies of the Heir?" reasoned Athena.
This didn't necessarily alleviate anyone's fears, but it was the closest thing to comforting about the whole situation, so they grasped onto it.
The next morning, Hyacinth received a rather interesting gift. It had been left under her pillow, and when she opened it up, it was a long cloak of dark material that shimmered and looked almost translucent. There was a note.
Dear Hyacinth,
The time has long since passed for me to give this to you. I hope you will excuse my tardiness, but I feared what you might purpose it for during your prank war with the Weasley twins last year, and furthermore, I had quite hoped to understand its secrets before returning it. I have had no such luck, but the time has come for another to don this cloak.
You see, it belonged once to your father, James. He used it for mischief, of course, but I have every faith you will find grander and more noble purposes to employ it.
Yours sincerely,
Snoop Dogg
"There's no way," Hyacinth muttered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and reading the last line again. But nothing changed. It still said it was from Snoop Dogg.
Since that was impossible, she told her mind to start trying to figure out who it could really be from. Who had known her father?
Snape had, but how on earth would Snape have come by something of her father's when they hated each other? And anyway, even if it were Snape, he would have loved for her to have an advantage in the prank war, so that didn't make much sense unless she was missing something.
When she put it on, she found herself invisible.
"That would've been a nice thing to include in the note as well, Snoop Dogg," she said, but she wasn't actually annoyed at all. In fact, she couldn't believe her luck. A cloak of invisibility? That had to be one of the most useful things ever.
She decided it would be best not to share that information with her roommates, and merely buried the cloak in the bottom of her trunk while the rest of them were in the bathroom getting ready for the day. Even after a year, their patterns hadn't changed, and Hyacinth tended to be the last one awake.
At breakfast, she noticed Ginny was looking rather ill, but after the grim events of the night before, who wasn't?
Hermione, Padma Patil, Theo, and Hyacinth all arrived at Advanced Potions right in time, only having to wait a minute or two for Snape to arrive.
"The four of you are here because you have demonstrated a lack of complete and utter failure to understand potions, and as such I have selected you for these advanced lessons which are designed to propel your education in the art of potion-making," drawled the Head of Slytherin, "Should any of you prove me wrong, you will not return to these lessons and shall be free to do whatever you like with your empty block."
They confirmed that they understood, before they divided into partners. Hyacinth, of course, chose Hermione, which left Theo and Padma together.
The first thing he taught them how to brew was Polyjuice Potion.
A/N: Second-Year will probably only cover two or three chapters in total including this one, I'm almost finished writing it right now. Also, I feel like I should probably mention this now, in case it wasn't evident: This story will involve femslash. The pairings aren't 100% decided yet, but some of them are, and some of them are femslash pairings. If that's not something you're comfortable with or enjoy reading, I'll understand if you want to stop, but as a general note, no romantic relationships of any kind come into play until at least late third-year. Oh, also, I'm just going to assume most of you are okay with Slytherin!Ginny, because you're already reading a Slytherin alternate-Sorting fic.
Thanks for reading, and it should be noted that detailed reviews get detailed replies, so if there's anything you want to know or are confused about that won't spoil anything for me to reveal, please ask.