Sneakier Than I Thought
They sat at the Ravenclaw table, this time. Rachel and Chloe joined them for lunch, and a girl called Steph.
“You’re a muggleborn, right?” Steph said, the second she’d been introduced to Kate.
“...Yeah?”
“I was wondering - what is a magnet? Chloe mentioned them the other day and I haven’t gotten a straight answer out of her about it all day.”
Kate seemed to chew on this question for a moment. “It’s like… a little horseshoe shaped thing - kinda - that pulls metal towards it.”
“Oh. Well that’s easy enough to get. Why didn’t you just say that, Chloe?” Steph said, draping her torso over the girl in question.
Chloe scowled. “Because I don’t owe you an explanation of muggle shit.”
Steph mock-gasped. “Chloe! Can’t you see there are children here?”
“My baby ears are permanently damaged,” Brooke deadpanned. “Woe is me.”
Kate giggled.
“Oh, Chloe!” she chirped a moment later, turning to the girl in question. “Did I tell you about this new indie band I found?”
“No?”
“It’s called An Unkindness. They’re really good!”
Chloe smirked. “Like a group of ravens?”
Brooke raised her eyebrows. “You knew that?”
“It was on one of those shitty fun facts websites I visited for entertainment when I was like, six,” Chloe said, leaning back against Steph seemingly unconsciously. “You aren’t the only harbitor of fun facts, kiddo.”
She leaned over to ruffle Brooke’s hair. Brooke ducked her head to dodge it, and grinned.
“Nice try.”
Chloe snickered. “Alright, slick. I’ll get you next time.”
“Ahem.”
Max was the one who glanced up and saw her first.
Victoria Chase, of all people, was standing over their little group.
The second everyone turned to her, she had no less than three wands pointed at her. One from Chloe, one from Rachel, and one from Brooke.
The blonde had her hands folded primly behind her back, and an icy cold mask of an expression on her face.
She raised a single eyebrow.
“Kate Marsh?” she said, ignoring the three people pointing wands at her and the two people that were simply staring, and instead focusing all her attention on the muggleborn in question.
Kate - who blinked.
“...Yes?” she said.
“May I have a word?”
“You can have a bat-bogey hex right between your fuckin’ eyes-”
“Chloe, please,” Kate murmured, gently pushing her wand down.
Victoria offered Chloe a glance, before turning back to Kate.
“Well?”
“Why should we trust you with our friend?” Rachel said, wand hand dead steady.
“Don’t be an idiot, heir Amber,” Victoria said, giving her a flat, unimpressed look. “If I wanted to hurt your friend, I wouldn’t come up to you publicly and leave no less than five witnesses and possibly an entire Great Hall of them.”
“You aren’t inspiring confidence, you know,” Brooke said - though she stowed her wand away as she did. “And if this isn’t anything dangerous, surely you can talk about it with all of us here?”
Victoria locked eyes with her.
Max stared - and knew that she was the only one here who understood what was happening.
This was a Slytherin battle. And Brooke was acting as their representative.
“It’s okay, Brooke,” Kate said, standing suddenly. Victoria sent her a startled glance. “I’ll go.”
“That’s negotiational suicide,” Max muttered under her breath.
Brooke sent her a startled glance.
Max shrunk in on herself, a little, and valiantly avoided making eye contact.
“...Alright, Marsh,” Victoria said, taking a step back and holding out her arm - gesturing down the aisle. “Shall we?”
Kate offered her a weak, wavering smile, and walked off.
“...Max.”
Max glanced up.
Brooke was staring right through her.
“We need to talk.”
Max supposed it was too much to hope that Brooke could ignore her little slip.
“...So? What did you want to talk about, Victoria?”
Victoria stiffened a little.
And then sighed.
“...You are such a Hufflepuff.”
Kate blinked. “I am?”
“Yes. You are.”
Kate smiled. “Well, uh - house pride?”
“You shouldn’t be proud at all. Period,” Victoria said, laying her arms down on the table.
They had gone to the library for this discussion. Quiet, mostly private, and with plenty of tables. The perfect place to have a semi-secretive discussion.
“It’s Chase,” Victoria said, when Kate looked no closer to understanding her blunder. This conversation was growing exhausting very quickly. “You don’t call a prospective pureblood heir by their first name. As a mudblood, you also don’t have the authority to use my title. So just Chase.”
“...Why?”
“Pardon?” Victoria said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Why not Victoria? You wanna be friends, right? So can’t I call you by your first name?”
“...Alright, clearly you’ve gotten the wrong impression of this meeting,” Victoria said, rubbing one of her temples. “We are not going to be friends. This is not me extending an olive branch. This is a negotiation. An armistice - not a peace treaty.”
Kate blinked. “...Huh?”
Victoria sighed.
“We aren’t going to be friends. I heard that you get bad astronomy grades. I need help with Care of Magical Creatures. I think that we could have a mutually beneficial association - not a friendship.”
Kate, for a long moment, just stared.
Victoria stared right back.
“...Well? Do you accept?”
“Why do you even take Care of Magical Creatures, anyway?”
For a moment, something flashed in Victoria’s eyes.
“This is not a quid pro quo, Mars-”
“It’s alright,” Kate said with a smile. “You can call me Kate.”
“This is not a quid pro quo, Marsh.” Victoria said, glaring at her. “Do you accept or not?”
“I was just curious,” Kate said, giving her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Of course you fucking won’t, because I won’t answer,” Victoria snapped - before, suddenly and forcibly, gathering herself again. “...Do we have a deal?”
“Sure!” Kate chirped, giving her a wide smile. “I’ll help you out! I can always use another study buddy.”
“We are not going to be study buddies,” Victoria hissed, glaring at her.
“Then what will we be?” Kate said, sounding genuinely confused.
“Acquaintances at best,” Victoria said, scowling.
“...Study acquaintances doesn’t have the same ring to it at all, though,” Kate said, leaning back and scratching her cheek thoughtfully. “Study pals? Study friends?” She snapped her fingers triumphantly, and grinned at Victoria. “Study cronies.”
“I hate you,” Victoria muttered, already regretting this.
But she really needed help with Care. She could read the books, but practical work was very, very hard. And after hearing so many wonderful things about Kate’s Care classes just subtly asking around, she feared that there was no other option.
This was her last resort. Her ace in the hole, before OWL year.
...She would just have to muscle through it.
“Are any of your friends going to be studying with us?” Kate chirped, still smiling.
Doesn’t that hurt her cheeks after a while?
“Of course not,” Victoria said, waving her off and trying her very best not to tack ‘dumbass’ onto the end of her sentence. “The only Slytherins who take Care are usually mudbloods-”
“Could you please not use that word?” Kate said.
“Are usually mudbloods who don’t know better,” Victoria said, plowing past the objection without a second thought. “Besides, I don’t have friends.”
Kate blinked. “...You don’t? What about Nathan?”
“Prescott is an acquaintance. His family is associated with mine. We aren’t friends,” Victoria said, trying to ignore the way Kate peered at her. With wide, soft eyes that seemed to be trying to pry open her very soul.
“...Oh. Okay. Well - I’ll just have to be your first, then!” Kate chirped.
“We are not going to be friends, Marsh.”
Kate grinned at her. “How much do you want to bet?”
Victoria considered. “Ten galleons.”
Kate’s eyebrows crawled up. “Uhm - I didn’t really… yeah, okay! Ten galleons.”
“So mote it be,” Victoria said, voice tired. She flicked her wand lazily, and a burst of dusky orange light showered over them.
Kate smiled widely.
“The Hat considered you for Slytherin, didn’t it.”
Max, instantly, recoiled. “What? No, of course it di-”
“Did. It did,” Brooke said, plowing right past her objection. “I must confess, I didn’t have you pegged as a missort, even with Chloe’s little stunt on the first day. I thought that Hat was considering you for Hufflepuff, if anything. But a snake in lion’s clothes…”
“Brooke, really, I’m not a - a snake,” Max said, holding up her hands like Brooke was holding her at gunpoint.
“...That Hat wanted me for Slytherin, too, you know.”
Max blinked. “I…”
Brooke stared right through her.
“...Yeah,” Max muttered, hunching in on herself a little. “I knew.”
“Because family always knows each other,” Brooke said, raising an eyebrow at her.
Max didn’t say anything.
“Would you like to know why I didn’t want to go to Slytherin?” Brooke said, with an eyebrow raise.
Max glanced up.
“My parents,” she said, leaning forward a little. “They were in Slytherin. I didn’t want to end up anything like them, but… the Hat wouldn’t consider me for anything else.”
Max blinked. “Really? You seem like a natural Ravenclaw to me.”
“Honestly, the Hat… considered me for Gryffindor before Ravenclaw,” Brooke muttered, looking away.
Max raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yeah.” Max didn’t think she’d ever heard Brooke say yeah. “But Mom and Dad wouldn’t accept that in a million years.”
Max hesitated for a moment.
And then she leaned forward, and took Brooke’s hand.
Brooke started, and glanced up.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, stroking a thumb down Brooke’s knuckles. “It must’ve been awful living with them.”
Something dark and sharp glittered in Brooke’s black eyes, for a moment.
“...Yes. It was,” she said - and pulled her hand subtly out of Max’s grasp. “But we weren’t talking about me.”
Max blushed.
“You’re sneakier than I gave you credit for,” Brooke said, eyes still glittering. “But you aren’t getting out of this that easy.”
“I’m really not a Slytherin, Brooke,” Max said, trying for the second-best option - running away. She stood up from her chair - they had gone to the Gryffindor dorms for this - and started towards the door. “Let’s go back to the Great Hall, okay? Maybe we can still get some peppermint toads before lunch ends.”
She opened the door, jumped out, and closed it behind her before Brooke could say anything.