It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on Aria's head.
Beside her, Nikola had frozen in shock, and across from her, Draco was quick to school his face. Daphne gaped, and many other Slytherins, stared at Astoria like she had grown several heads. The entire Slytherin table quickly fell into silence as the incident made its way up the table to the rest of the house. All eyes looked towards Aria.
"Muggleborn?" Nikola eventually managed to stutter. "You are . . . Muggleborn?"
Aria glared at a superior looking Astoria before straightening her shoulders and turning to completely face Nikola, head still high.
"I am," she stated. Nikola's mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. She stared him down.
"I had heard good things about House Slytherin," one of the Durmstrang girls said with a growing sneer. "It must be untrue if even this house allows . . . how do you say in English? Mudbloods in its valls."
"Fuck you!" Harry cried, starting to rise. Aria grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. Unfortunately, she did not have enough hands to keep her other friends seated. Daphne stood so that she could glare at the older girl over Draco and Theo's heads. Tracey had drawn her wand. Theo and Draco seemed ready to bodily separate anyone who tried to make a go at the Durmstrang delegation. Blaise lazily rose to his feet as well.
"Aria is a better witch than half of you," Daphne declared angrily. "Including you, Astoria." The smug look on Astoria's pretty face disappeared as her sister's gaze turned on her and she suddenly looked very unsure of herself.
Other students were now starting to look over at the Slytherin table. The Ravenclaws, who were beside the Slytherins, quickly realizing what was happening and whispering it across the hall.
"I tink you should leave the table," another Durmstrang student said to Aria. "Ve do not vish to eat vith your kind."
Krum hit the table, making everyone jump. Nikola finally stopped staring at Aria to look at his friend.
"Ve are guests," Krum growled, his low voice sounding particularly frightening in his anger. "Ve cannot make the hosts vacate their own table."
"You vould defend a Mudblood like her?" the same student questioned angrily. Krum glared at him.
"My family," the Quidditch player said, "fought against Grindelvald. Even Durmstrang could not condone his actions."
Grindelvald . . . whoever that was . . . clearly had an affect on the Durmstrang students. Several leaned over to their neighbors and began whispering. The student that had demanded Aria leave the table curled his fingers into fists. Krum pulled his wand.
Nikola remained silent.
Aria fought very hard not to slump or let the tears threatening to fall actually fall. It was becoming clearer that Nikola would not accept her as a Muggleborn, and that she had been right to keep it from him.
Keeping her head high she spun back to her food, using slightly exaggerated movement to put more food on her plate and pour herself another goblet of pumpkin juice. She was not going to leave the table. They would have to drag her if they wanted her gone. And as Krum said, they were guests. They could not demand she leave.
"Is there a problem?"
Professor Snape's voice held a clear warning in it as he planted himself next to Astoria who squeaked. She attempted to scamper off, but Snape grabbed her arm and pulled her back. The third year sullenly glared at her shoes as Daphne, Tracey, Blaise, Harry, and several Ravenclaws began talking all at once. Snape, and the other adults that had come down from the Head Table with him: Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Karkaroff, listened for a moment.
"My, my," Karkaroff sneered, glaring down his pointy nose at Aria. "A Muggleborn in the house of Salazar Slytherin? The quality of this once great house must be slipping."
Snape turned his sharp gaze at Karkaroff.
"Yes," Snape drawled, "because a Muggleborn student producing a fully corporeal Patronus at age fourteen is poor quality."
Karkaroff flushed briefly.
"Miss Bourne," Dumbledore said, ever smiling, "may I have a word with you?" He gestured for her to rise and come off to the side of the Great Hall. Everyone's eyes were on them as Aria rose and walked down the table passed the judgmental stares of Durmstrang students. No one was trying to hide the fact that they wanted to know what was happening at the Slytherin side of the Great Hall.
"Perhaps," Dumbledore said after McGonagall put up a Silencing Ward around them, "it would be best if you sat at another table. Just for tonight."
Aria's mouth dropped open as she stared at Dumbledore. Snape and McGonagall both sputtered in protest.
"You cannot be serious, Albus!" McGonagall cried. "Durmstrang students are guests at Hogwarts, they cannot dictate who sits where!"
"And as our guests, is it not our duty to ensure they are comfortable?"
"Durmstrang knows that Hogwarts accepts Muggleborn students," Snape hissed. "If interacting with Muggleborns were to make them uncomfortable, they should not have come."
"Nevertheless, perhaps it is for the best for Miss Bourne acts as the "bigger person" and move. Just for tonight."
"I live in a house where I have to be the "bigger person" every single day!" Aria argued, this time unable to keep the hot tears from rolling down her cheeks. "I've had to be the bigger person since I was eleven and didn't even know what Muggleborn and pureblood meant!"
McGonagall handed her a handkerchief.
"I'm sick of having to be the bigger person!" Aria cried. "For once, could I not be judged on my abilities as a witch and not my parents?"
McGonagall placed a calm hand on Aria's shoulder.
"I find it insulting to one of our best students to make her move from her house's table," McGonagall stated, "for a great number of reasons including the fact that we're playing host to a number of foreign and domestic dignitaries and the press. I refuse to subject Miss Bourne to any more spectacle than Miss Greengrass and the Durmstrang students have already subjected her to!"
"I am of the same mind," Snape answered, standing just behind Aria. "The Durmstrang students are more than capable of moving if they don't wish to sit by Aria. Though they'll not be able to find any table that doesn't have Muggleborns. And . . ." he glanced around the Great Hall to the students who were whispering and staring unrepented at them, "I don't think any table will appreciate having Durmstrang come and sit with them after the insult they've paid their favorite little Muggleborn."
Aria managed to stop crying and scowl at Snape.
"I'm not little!" she hissed.
"Be as it may," Dumbledore replied to his two Heads of House, "I must insist that we do what we can to make the Durmstrang students comfortable on their first night here."
The words came out of Aria's mouth before she could stop them.
"Some fucking headmaster you turned out to be."
Snape all but shoved her out of the Silencing Ward, one hand on her shoulder as he stepped out with her. His grip on her shoulder was tight in warning and she knew that he would be having words with her later. But she did not care. She shrugged off his hand, causing several Slytherins to gasp. Aria straightened her uniform. She stepped closer to the Slytherin table and made sure she had Nikola's gaze before she spoke, willing her voice not to shake.
"Headmaster Dumbledore has asked that, for tonight, I move tables," she said, a bit louder than necessary, but the silence of the Great Hall meant that her voice carried. "To ensure your comfort for your first night away from home. It's good to know that Durmstrang will not be too much of a problem come the tournament, seeing as you can't even handle sitting at the same table at a fourteen-year-old Muggleborn. I can't imagine any of you being able to take on anything more challenging than that."
McGonagall coughed behind her.
Forcing her head high, Aria turned and began making her way towards the Gryffindor table. She passed the silent Beauxbatons students. All she needed to do, she told herself, was finish making it through dinner and then she could return to her bed and pull the curtains close and pretend tonight did no thappen.
"Mr. Potter, sit down."
Aria paused at Dumbledore's command, looking over her shoulder to see Harry coming around the Slytherin table. Her friend ignored Dumbledore. Ginny hurried after him, followed by Tracey.
"Miss Weasley, Miss Davis, sit down!" Dumbledore ordered.
Daphne shoved back from the Slytherin table.
"Where're you going?" Astoria demanded. Daphne shoved past her sister.
Chest warm and full of a soothing, bubbly feeling, Aria walked with her friends the rest of the way to the Gryffindor table. The Gryffindors, having realized her path, had already scooted around to make room for them. They made sure to make a show of welcoming Aria and her friends to the table. Dean and Seamus loudly congratulated her on her Patronus. Lavender complimented Aria's hair and Katie Bell asked if Aria could teach her how to do her hair like that. Hermione grabbed Aria's hand and pulled her down beside her.
Seconds later there were more benches scraping against the stone floor as other fourth years from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables hurried to join Aria at the Gryffindor table. Padma, Lisa, and Luna joined the table from Ravenclaw while Susan, Hannah, Ernie, and Justin came from the Hufflepuff table. Cedric even came over.
Hermione and Harry slung their arms around Aria's shoulders and Ron slid a large slice of pavlova topped with whipped cream and berries in front of her. Sending Ron a watery smile, Aria dug into the sweet treat. Fred and George began to loudly discuss pranks and their need for new test subjects. Aria tried not to laugh at their dramatics, but it was a difficult thing. It was much harder not to look around at the Head Table to see Dumbledore's expression of the show of solidarity, or to peer over her shoulder to look at the Durmstrang students, but she managed not too. She hoped the press roasted Dumbledore alive.
Daphne was on Astoria the moment they returned to the Slytherin common room. Astoria shrieked as her older sister wrestled her to the ground, yanking at hair and scratching. She fought back, uniforms tore, and there was general chaos in the common room as Pansy and Millicent attempted to pull Daphne off her sister, but Daphne was not having it. To Aria's surprise, no one else made a move to help Astoria even as she screamed for help.
"You're a bloody bitch!" Daphne shouted.
"Get off me!"
"I ought to strangle you!"
"Someone help!"
Pansy and Millicent managed to yank Daphne up. Astoria gave one last scream as Daphne came away with a chunk of her hair.
"I'm telling Mother!" Astoria sobbed.
"Go ahead!" Daphne shot back. "And I'll tell Father that you revealed the blood status of one of your classmates to complete strangers! And you better hope that my owl makes it to him first before he finds out from his ministry colleagues or the newspaper!"
A little bit of worry appeared on Astoria's face.
"As it is," Daphne continued, "you've humiliated more than just the Greengrass family. You've humiliated the entire house of Slytherin!"
"I humiliated the house?" Astoria cried, indignant.
"Yes," Adrian Pucey snapped. "You did. We're already persona non grata at Hogwarts, or have you forgotten how during your first year the entire school thought we had something to do with the petrifications? Or how Dumbledore turns a blind eye to anyone picking on us?"
"I don't see why you're upset," Astoria argued. "It's not like any of you like Bourne anyway."
"We don't flaunt it in front of ministry officials or foreign newspapers!" Cassius Warrington snapped. Aria tried to hide her surprise, but her emotions were shot, and she knew she failed. "You just threw all of Slytherin under the fucking Knight Bus!"
Professor Snape swept into the common room. Silence fell over the students. He looked Astoria up and down and then looked over at Daphne who did not quaver under his gaze.
"Miss Greengrass and Miss Greengrass," Snape finally said, "make your way to Madam Pomfrey. I will be with you in just a moment. Please try not to kill each other on your way up."
Daphne stomped out of the common room, Astoria trailing behind her, giving Aria one last stink eye as she walked by.
Snape began walking slowly around the common room. No one dared to meet his gaze. Even Aria found the ornate corner of one of the side tables more interesting.
"Mr. Bole," Snape said, appearing next to Lucian. "Tell me, who took down the mountain troll four years ago?" Lucian looked over at Aria.
"Aria," he muttered.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Aria, sir."
"Right. Burnt out of her wand too if I remember correctly." Snape continued to make his way around the room. He came to a stop next to the seventh-year prefects, Magdala and Arnold.
"Tell me, Miss Gamp," he said to Magdala, "who slew a basilisk two years ago?" Magdala looked like she had eaten a lemon as she answered.
"Aria, sir."
"Right." He continued walking around the common room until he stood, back to the fire, the light casting ominous shadows around him.
"Tell me, Mr. Montague," Snape called across the room, "of the four fourth-years who produced Patronuses at the Hogwarts demonstration tonight, how many of them were pureblood?"
Graham Montague looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach.
"One, sir," he answered. Snape nodded.
"And of those three who were not pureblood, how many of them were Muggleborn?"
"Two."
Snape nodded.
"I think," he said, "it is safe to say that Miss Bourne has been an asset to Slytherin since the moment she walked through these doors. She had taken the abuse of her classmates for being a Slytherin and the abuse of her housemates for being a Muggleborn and yet, time and time again, she acts with grace and dignity. A far cry, I dare say, from many of you."
Silence.
"I now remind you," Snape continued, "that Slytherin's reputation precedes itself. Do not give further cause for Dumbledore or any of the other houses to come after you."
Murmurs of "yes, sir" came scattered around the room. Snape folded his arms and glared at them before nodding his head in satisfaction.
"Good. Now, everyone . . . to bed!" Students jumped to do as he ordered, not even arguing that it was nowhere near curfew.