A feast and a fancy
The beginning of the Welcome Feast had passed without major incident. Slytherin gained a new tiny legion to the ranks. All of them seem so small this year and I can’t help but think that I was never so tiny when I was eleven. The exciting news of the year of course, was that the Quidditch Cup wouldn’t be taking place this year. Eleanor and I were despondent, as was most of the school - until Dumbledore continued his announcement. The Tri-Wizard Tournament. What a joke. Truly horrendous competitions to consider letting children enter into. I am so thankful that Jasper has already left and I won’t be seventeen until December, and therefore will be too young to enter - just. I doubt that father would have let me anyway, surely it wouldn’t be proper for a woman of the Nott family to enter such things. I wonder what mother would have thought. She probably thought it would have been a marvellous adventure.
I am, however, looking forward to meeting students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. I apparently have cousins at Beauxbatons, but I’ve only met them a couple of times and not since I started Hogwarts. Father always spoke well of Durmstrang, but everything I’ve heard of them freaks me out - and who would want to live in Eastern Europe anyway, Scotland is bad enough.
The conversation at the table during the Feast revolved exclusively around the Tournament. Both Cassius and Miles were going to be seventeen by Halloween, so both were planning on entering - Juniper turns seventeen on the 30th, so she just reaches the cut off. Personally I think she’d be brilliant - but who knows how the Champion will be chosen. I bet it’ll be some stupid Gryffindor who doesn’t know up from down - or potentially worse, some Hufflepuff. I still don’t think it’s worth cancelling Quidditch over. Even if I don’t play, the victory parties in the Slytherin common room are the only time the place feels remotely alive - even if Professor Snape makes us go to bed at midnight. Caspian wouldn’t be a bad champion, but I think his birthday isn’t until June so he is surely out of the running. I could hear Theo further down the table complaining about the age rule, but honestly I am so relieved. Neither he nor that Malfoy snot could put their name in. Malfoy’s goons looked confused, so clearly not much had changed there.
I filled my plate with roast vegetables - the Hogwarts house elves always do the best roast carrots, I don’t know how they get them so crispy yet smooth. Juniper was talking to Eleanor, no doubt making the to-be-snogged list of the year, whilst I glanced up at the staff table, trying to take a look at the new Defense teacher. Defense has always been one of my favourite subjects, especially last year with Professor Lupin - he is the sole reason I got an O in my O.W.L. exam last year, to say nothing of the fact that he was pretty fit in a shabby academic way. Moody looks terrifying, quite frankly, and I am not looking forward to lessons with him. “Davies got tall this year,” I heard and turned back to Elle and Juniper, who were arguing about the possibility of getting the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain to snog them. Juniper has always been able to get anyone she wants to snog her, and I said as much. She just rolled her eyes, but smiled too, looking over at Roger Davies at the Ravenclaw table. There was only ever one guy on my to-be-snogged list, and unfortunately despite living in the same part of the castle and having nearly every class together for six years, I am pretty sure he thinks my name is Stella. Still, I looked over at him. Dear Merlin even when he was eating he looked perfect. Beautifully floppy brown hair, square black frames perched on his long, thin nose. He smiled over at Damien Avery of the year above, and I thought I just might about die, it was so beautiful. He looked over at me, and raised his eyebrows at my staring. My face was beet red as I turned back to Juniper and Eleanor who were both smiling at me knowingly.
“Don’t.” I said, and both of them looked at me with mock innocence.
“Don’t what?” Asked Juniper and I glared at her.
“You know exactly what.” I said. They had been watching me pine for Caspian Burke for at least two years now, and every year started the same. “You simply have to talk to him this year, Serena.” Eleanor said, pointing her dessert fork in his direction.
“And why on Merlin’s Green Earth would I do that?” I asked, and they both simultaneously rolled their eyes. Over Juniper’s shoulder I could see Fred and George Weasley all the way across the hall at the Gryffindor table throwing the recently materialised dessert at another red headed boy. The Weasley’s really do have more children than they know what to do with.
“You need to grow a pair of balls and just ask him to Hogsmede or something, Serena. It is very much getting to the stage of the pathetic.” Juniper said and my mouth dropped open in mock outrage. I am well aware that I have fallen deeply into the Valley of the Pathetic and am making my way to the Village of the Truly Sad. I served myself some Victorian Sponge Cake to make myself feel better.
I was just finishing up my dessert when Eleanor stood up and commanded the first years to follow her. I hope Juniper got the password from her because I had been completely absorbed in cake and absolutely not looking at Caspian Burke, not even a little bit. I also, notably, did not pay any attention to the antics over at the Gryffindor table - at one point they got so loud Professor McGonagall threatened to send her own house so far into negative points they would be making them up for the whole year. Of course, Dumbledore would always just rescue them, same as always - the biased old coot.
Juniper and I drifted back to the Common Room in a food related daze, six years of muscle memory directing us down to the Dungeons. Juniper had got the password - Black Dahlias - and the wall parted to the plush leather couches and classic glamour of the Slytherin Common Room. Home. The little firsties looked terrified with the third years telling stories about Hufflepuffs drowning in the Black Lake and seeing their corpses out of the common room window. Thankfully, I am not a Prefect and therefore do not have to bother correcting them. There hasn't been a Hufflepuff float past the windows since the fifties. All I cared about was my four poster bed and ensuring that Ivy Selwyn didn’t steal my bed by the windows - the cool green light of the lake was one of the most relaxing things in the world and very necessary to my night time routine.
I was just getting into bed when Eleanor came through, having finally sorted things out with the first years - apparently one of the girls’ cats had attacked another and there was a huge debacle. I was grateful, not for the first time, that I was not made Prefect last year and all I had to worry about was getting enough time in the bathroom the five of us shared so I could do the entirety of my nighttime skincare routine.
Juniper pulled the curtains of my four poster bed open just before I pulled my silk sleep mask over my eyes. “You really need to do something about the Caspian situation.” she said, and looked very seriously about the whole thing. “He won’t be alone forever and you have the chance now - jump on it.”
I shook my head, “He doesn’t like me. He doesn’t even know me!” I said and she climbed on to bed. She looked incredible in her silk nightgown, her blonde curls falling beautifully around her face making her look like a particularly sexy angel. I, on the other hand was practically translucent, I was so pale - especially in the lake-diffused moonlight. My hair was pulled back in a tight braid to keep it out of my way while I slept. I would never be in the same category as her. “You are a curvy goddess, Serena. Show it off. Make him know you. You are tall and gorgeous and actually have a brain in your head, which he will like. It’s time. Make this your year!” She shook my calf through the duvet, as if attempting to force me to believe her. I rolled my eyes, but nodded. “Sure, darling. What do I have to lose anyway?”
“That is exactly the spirit! Good for you. Start tomorrow, yeah? No time like the present!”. She had way too much energy given the amount of food we had both consumed. I could hear Ivy Selwyn puking up dinner in the bathroom - I see that particular affliction of hers hadn’t abated. Pushing Juniper off my bed, I grabbed my wand and pulled the bed curtains closed, and attempted to block Ivy Selwyn’s weight loss progress from reaching my eardrums. Sleep came easy, and all I could hope for in the morning was that Juniper would have no recollection of my promise. I knew that I had plenty to lose from talking to Caspian Burke, my dignity at the top of the list.