Updated 7/31/16
After the feast, Allyna was shown to the Slytherin common room by a few of the girls in her house. She met the other three girls who were to be her roommates, though she could only remember their first names: Maegan, Lucrezia, and Damera. They seemed nice enough, but had giggled nastily after tripping a little Ravenclaw first year. As they hurried away, Allyna helped pick the little girl up and smiled. "Are you all right?" she asked the girl. The girl nodded, looking wide-eyed at the beautiful older girl who was being so kind to her, despite having been sorted into Slytherin.
"My name's Allyna, what's yours?" Allyna asked.
The little girl looked shy, but murmured, "My name's Holly. Holly Whitwood."
Allyna smiled at her, "Holly's a beautiful name, it's one of my favorite plants at Christmas time. Can you make it back to your common room by yourself?"
Holly nodded, then whispered "Bye!" and ran off. Allyna smiled after the girl and stood, brushing her robes and the hem of her cloak off. She didn't see Severus watching her from the shadows.
As he watched, Allyna moved closer to a window, staring up at the moon. She smiled and turned to follow the girls who were still giggling over their prank. She said nothing to them, just followed behind them, her wand leaving a strange trail of purple light from it's tip that Severus had never seen. He watched, to see if she would hex the girls. But Allyna was perfectly calm and smiled at the girls as they led the way to the dungeon common room as though nothing had happened. He snarled and turned in frustration, then walked to his own quarters.
Allyna was happy to see her trunk resting at the foot of the bed that she was to occupy. Her roomates were sitting on Damera's bed in the corner, oohing and ahhing over a popular male Quidditch player being interviewed in Young Witch Weekly magazine.
Allyna listened to their chatter for a few minutes but was bored by their gossip and fawning over the moving photos in the magazine. She opened her trunk and pulled out a book to read; one of the many she had stored in there. She also grabbed her hairbrush and sat down on the edge of her bed. She began to brush her long hair out and braided it down her back, fastening the end with an elastic band. She took off her cloak, hanging it in the wardrobe next to her bed. She shed her robes, placing them in the woven basket beside the wardrobe to be cleaned by Hogwarts' house elves. She dressed swiftly in a pair of muggle-style pajamas that had a Hello Kitty print before leaning back in the bed to relax and read.
She began reading from Ganymede's Potions for Young Witches and Wizards. Before she got too far into it, however, the lights flashed twice; the signal that it was time for lights out. The other girls scrambled to put on their pajamas and climb into bed before the female prefect would come in and check on them. Allyna bookmarked her page and placed the book in the drawer of her nightstand, using her wand to swiftly set the lock with a verbal password, "Hell fire." The lights flickered one last time and went out. Soon the sounds of the other girls' deep breathing lulled her to sleep.
The next morning, Allyna was up before the sun and in the common room, staring into the flames, her book open in her lap where she'd been reading. She gasped and jolted in surprise when a voice came out of nowhere. "What are you doing out of bed, Miss Wilson?" came the deep, silky voice of Severus Snape. Seeing who it was, she gave a dazzling smile, surprising him. After all, no one smiled at their cold, callous Potions professor. No one smiled at Severus Snape.
"Good morning, Professor. I was wide awake, and little cold. I didn't want to disturb any of my roommates, so I came down here to think and maybe read a little before breakfast." she replied. Astonishment crossed Severus's face; he'd never heard of any student, except know-it-all Hermione Granger, who'd spend their time reading before classes had even started for them.
"And what, pray tell, are you reading?" he asked, figuring it was probably some piece of rubbish like other girls her age read, something like Young Witch Weekly or Quidditch World for Witches. Needless to say, he wasn't expecting it to be Ganymede's when she held the book up for him to read the title. He still had the copy he'd bought as a Seventh Year. "And what are your thoughts so far?" he asked softly, after checking where she was in the book.
"I think it was rather pretentious of him to suggest that there are 1,000 uses for Archaem roots and completely ignore the fact that the bark often has ten times the potency as the roots. And the way he insists you use to prepare marshmallow root is idiotic. If you splinter them fresh, they'll never dry correctly. They need to be dried first and then splintered or ground." She smiled at him, he'd been nodding with her thoughts.
"Yes." he said, and then seemed to realize that he was alone in a room with an eighteen year old attractive female student and sitting rather close to her. This wasn't appropriate at all. "I look forward to seeing your work today, then. You have double potions I believe, with Ravenclaw?" She nodded and smiled.
He nearly returned it and began to curse himself internally. Severus Snape did NOT smile. He grunted and left, practically fleeing her presence, leaving her wondering if he was okay. She sighed and leaned back against the couch cushions and picked up the book, flipping it open to the bookmarked page.
And then it stands to reason, that … she read, her mind focusing on the words. Suddenly she heard a door open and her roommates and others began to pour down the stairs. "There you are, Allyna! Come on, it's time for breakfast!" they urged. With a flick of her wand Allyna shrunk her copy of Ganymede's and walked with the rest of them down to the Great Hall. She was happy to see the sun rising through the bespelled ceiling. She sat down at a small distance from the others, but not so far that it seemed to be an intentional snubbing. She served herself from the bowls and platters that were standing ready on the table. She was quite happy when she spotted cherry turnovers, her favorite. She also took a scoop of scrambled eggs and a few sausages and strips of bacon. She poured herself a glass of milk, bypassing the pumpkin juice that tasted like liquid pumpkin pie to her. It was definitely an acquired taste.
She was just finishing when a softball-sized owl flew over her head, dropping a small package in front of her. Surprised, she picked up the little box and was astonished to find a beautiful blue rose, preserved forever in perfect bloom by a permanent stasis spell. She looked in the box for a note, but found none. She looked around the Great Hall, smiling when she saw little Holly Whitwood quickly blush and duck her head. Allyna sniffed the forever-fragrant bloom and smiled. What a sweet little girl, she thought.
She shrunk the rose and put it in the pocket of her robes so she could put it in her room later. She looked at the wristwatch she'd created; it worked on solar power and thus wasn't interrupted by the flow of magic like most electronics were. It was almost time for classes to begin, so she stood and checked her Slytherin-crested school robes for any crumbs or spilled milk. It was clean, so she gathered her books, parchment and quills. Her never-spill charmed ink bottle had been shrunken down to fit into her pocket. She saw a younger girl with frizzy-looking brown hair carrying a satchel and thought it was a good idea considering how bulky some of the course books were.
She wandered over to the younger witch. "Hello," Allyna said politely. The younger girl looked at her, surprised that a Slytherin was speaking to her, let alone acting politely. "Uh…hi?" The girl said, looking nervous. Allyna smiled brightly and stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Allyna Wilson. I just arrived and was Sorted last night." The other girl, after a moment of hesitation put her hand gently into Allyna's in case it was a trap. Allyna just shook her hand before the girl smiled back.
"I'm Hermione Granger. I heard you had excellent test scores. Professor McGonagall was rather annoyed you weren't sorted into Gryffindor. How'd you get put into Slytherin with all those…" Hermione tried to think of a polite way to describe most of the people who were sorted into Slytherin House. She blushed when she realized she could be accidentally insulting the older girl who seemed quite nice. "I'm sorry, it's just that you seem to be rather nice and I don't understand."
Allyna grinned. "I want to be a Potions Mistress, and Professor Snape is pretty much the best. I simply told the Sorting Hat that I wanted to work with Professor Snape as much as possible and it Sorted me into Slytherin." Allyna was a little taken aback when Hermione was suddenly flanked by two boys, one dark haired with glasses and another with carrot-orange hair and a wary look on his face.
"Is this Slytherin bothering you, 'Mione?" the redhead asked and Allyna blinked in surprise. There was such anger and malice in his voice. She instinctively took a step back and felt a shield spell beginning in her mind, her lips ready to speak it if it was needed. And then Ron was the surprised one when Hermione punched him lightly in the arm.
"No, Ron. She's not. And her name is Allyna, not "this Slytherin," Hermione said loftily.
Allyna smiled at Ron and the other boy who was still looking at her skeptically. "Hello," she said, holding her hand out to them. Ron refused to take her hand, but smiled at her warily. Allyna mentally shrugged but was happy when the other boy took her hand and introduced himself. "Hullo. I'm Harry, Harry Potter." he smiled, his green eyes peeking at her from behind his glasses. He nodded his head as he spoke and Allyna saw the lightning shaped scar that proved his identity. "Nice to meet you!" Allyna said, happy to have made a few new acquaintances.
Suddenly Professor Snape appeared next to Allyna. He glared at the three Gryffindors, causing them to give Allyna a quick goodbye and wave before they scurried off. He stared down at Allyna. "Class starts in a few minutes, Miss Wilson. I suggest you get to the Potions classroom now." Allyna gave him one of her sure-to-dazzle smiles and nodded. "See you in a bit professor!" she said, as she began to walk towards the dungeons, a strange spring in her step that caused Severus to look at her retreating form with an odd look of confusion on his face.