Edith Cahill and the Two Slytherins

The next morning Edith got ready as quickly as she could and rushed down to the great hall. It was early and very few kids had made their way down for breakfast yet, but she was determined to catch her brother before class. Her eyes flew straight towards the Slytherin table by the windows where there were only a handful of students, none of them Marty. Huffing slightly she sat down at her own table and fixed her eyes towards the door. About 20 minutes later Rhea entered the great hall, rubbing her eyes and yawning as she made her way over.

‘Godric, why are you up so early? I got up for a piss and saw your bed empty and almost had a heart attack. You do know it's 7am right? 7am!’ Her friend huffed, plonking down next to her and grabbing a cup of tea.

‘Sorry.’ Edith muttered. ‘I wanted to catch Marty before class.’

Rhea’s expression softened, ‘How was he?’

Edith twitched slightly. ‘He was more worried that I was mad at him than anything else. I don’t think he understands how serious this is. I mean how is it possible?’

Rhea shrugged. ‘No other house must have suited him. But I don’t really see how. We could look through the school records, see if any muggleborns have ever been sorted into Slytherin before.’

Edith calmed slightly and smiled at her friend. ‘Maybe that's a good idea. I’m just worried about how the other kids are going to treat him.’

Rhea winced. ‘I can’t say that they will all accept him but they do tend to back their own right? I mean I’m sure some of them will be okay, there's a decent amount of half bloods there. If we are lucky the others will just ignore him.’

Edith nodded though she still felt jittery. Slowly the rest of the students trickled into the great hall, it was a full 30 minutes later until she spotted a very nervous looking Marty come in. Edith indemnity abandoned her food and rushed over towards him before he could even make it out of the doorway.

‘Marty!’ She called out, meeting him. ‘How was your first night?’

Her brother paused, than offered her a small smile. ‘It was okay. I don’t think most of my roommates like me very much. Joey gave me a chocolate frog though, he said his mum was a muggle but asked me not to tell anyone.’

Edith winced slightly, but tried to keep a smile on her face. ‘Well that's good then. Ignore the others, you don’t want friends like that anyway.’

Marty shrugged, ‘Yeah I think he felt bad for me. Some boy called me a - a mud something? I don't even know what it meant but I’m assuming it wasn’t a compliment.’

Edith nodded. ‘A mudblood. It’s not a nice word for people with muggle parents. I’ve gotten it a few times as well. It’s okay though, who cares? Only they think it’s an insult. We know it doesn't matter.’

Marty smiled at her, ‘Okay then. Regulus was nice. He showed me where the great hall was this morning, I don’t think the other prefect likes me much.’

Edith nodded, her eyes darting towards the Slytherin table where she saw Black sitting next to Rosier. His expression remained blank as it always seemed, while Rosier was grinning madly and flailing around telling him a story.

‘Well that’s good then. He is a prefect so it’s his job to look after you. Do you want me to wait and show you to class?’

Marty glanced at the Slytherin table before looking back at her. ‘No. I’ll be fine. I need to start learning my way around.’

Edith nodded, though she was hesitant. ‘Okay then. Well have a good day, I’ll check up on you after dinner yeah?’

Marty nodded and gave her a quick hug. ‘Sure, see you Eddie!’ Then ran off towards the Slytherin table, where he sat next to a small Asian boy who smiled hesitantly at him.

Edith watched him for a moment before she went back to her own table feeling slightly better.

‘He made it through the night then?’ Rhea smiled softly at her.

‘Yeah.’ Edith nodded, before frowning slightly. ‘Some kid called him a mudblood though.’

‘What?’ Rhea hissed, outraged. ‘That’s terrible! Did anyone do anything? Are you going to tell Slughorn?’

Edith shrugged, ‘No. It’s not the last time he’ll get called that. And he didn’t seem to be upset by it.’

Rhea looked uncertain. ‘Well if you say so. Though it’s a worry they have already started up, it’s only been one night.’

‘Well I'll just have to keep a closer eye on him then.’ Edith said, determined.

~

Edith spent the rest of her day running two and from lessons while trying to help first year students find their classes. The piles of homework she was being assigned were already immense considering it was their first day back and she had the worst feeling it was only going to continue as they progressed towards their NEWTs. So with that in mind she decided to make the most of her free period and head towards the library for a bit of study. She quickly found a small coroner and got to work on her transfiguration essay. She was about half a roll of parchment into her notes when a small voice interrupted her.

‘Um excuse me.’

Edith looked up to see Lilly Evans, smiling slightly awkwardly down at her.

‘Hey Evans, what's up?’

Evans sat down slowly in the set opposite her. ‘I just wanted to say that I heard about you brother. If there’s anything I can do to help, you know make sure he’s being treated well there, come to me and James, we'll sort something out.’ She smiled sympathetically.

Though Edith felt slightly awkward with the attention, she was thankful for the thought. ‘Thanks Evans I appreciate it. He says it’s been okay so far, just a few nasty names, but I’ll keep it in mind.’

Evans nodded, still smiling as she stood. ‘Well that's good. Sirius seemed quite worried, he said they wouldn’t be kind there, so I thought I'd cheek. Us muggleborns need to stick together, you know.’

Edith smiled back at her, ‘Thank you. I appreciate it, really.’

Evans gave her a nod and walked off. It was only a few moments later once Edith had got back to her essay that she realized the head girl had called him James instead of Potter, she smirked to herself and continued with her work, interesting.

~

The next few days Edith had fallen into a routine of sorts. She would wake up early and go down to breakfast, wait until she could see Marty and check in on him. Then go to her first two classes, before quickly finding Marty and checking in on him again. At lunch she would prepare him for whatever class he had next and then head to her own and at dinner she would walk him back to his common room before making her way towards her own common room. It wasn’t taking too much extra time out of her day. But Rhea seemed to disagree.

‘Okay.’ She finally snapped on the third morning back. ‘I have bitten my tongue for long enough. Edith, you are going mental.’

‘What?’ Edith asked, pulling her eyes from her brother as she watched him leave the great hall.

‘With this whole mother hen thing!’ Rhea exclaimed. ‘I know you are worried about him, but you’re driving yourself round in circles. You need to let him figure it out on his own.’

‘I’m not mother henning!’ Edith exclaimed, while Rhea rolled her eyes. ‘It’s just while he adapts.’

‘How’s he ever meant to adapt with you breathing down his neck the whole time?’ Rhea exclaimed. ‘Look, I've done some research. No muggleborn has ever been sorted into Slytherin before.’

‘Exactly!’ Edith replied. ‘That’s why I’m keeping an eye on him.’

‘No you don’t get it.’ Rhea huffed. ‘It’s simply not possible. Why don’t you try looking into your family some more. There has to be an explanation. Then Marty can say he’s not a muggleborn and you don’t have to worry so much!’

‘Rhea I’ve told you it’s simply not possible!’ Edith huffed. ‘Trust me. I looked into it as soon as I got my Hogwarts letter. And this summer when we went back home I had a look through mum’s family tree, nothing magic stood out at all.’

‘Okay, Okay fine.’ Rhea conceded. ‘I just don’t want you getting into one of your frenzies , that's all!’

‘One of my what?’ Edith replied.

‘Oh come off it.’ Rhea scoffed, though she looked a bit amused now. ‘Remember in third year? When you were convinced there was a werewolf in the forest? I know more about them now than I ever needed to. I mean really, who cares if they keep their clothes after they transform.’

Edith went slightly red. Unfortunately her friend did have a point, she did have a rather obsessive streak in her. But this was different. She hadn’t really said it out loud, but the truth was she was terrified. Not many were open about it, but it was clear that the British wizarding world was on the brink of war. The disappearances were increasing daily. Prominent muggleborns and advocates were showing up dead all over the country. And it was starting to affect Hogwarts. The Slytherin students had never been particularly kind towards those they deemed lesser than them, but over the past year it had turned to full on cruelty. She had been hoping Marty would be able to just keep his head down and not be involved with the horror, but it now seemed hopeless. He was a target, clear as day, and all though nothing had happened yet, it was bound to.

‘Look,’ she turned to Rhea. ‘I can’t promise I will completely calm down. But I will try a bit, you’re right, and I don’t want to stress him out even more.’

Rhea held her eyes for a moment, then gave her a small smile. ‘Good. Let him enjoy his first few weeks. And if you need any help, come to me, yeah? It’s what friends are for.’

Edith smiled and nodded.

~

Edith took her friend's advice and stopped following her brother between classes for the next few days. She was still concerned, but he assured her nothing bad had happened and he would come straight to her if it did, which calmed her a little. So much so in fact that she almost forgot about her perfect meeting.

‘Shit!’ She exclaimed, jumping from her chair by the fire in the common room.

‘Wha?’ Rhea said, sleepy, looking around.

‘I've got a perfect meeting in ten minutes!’ Edith quickly began scrambling to grab her things. ‘I’ll see you after?’

‘If I’m still awake.’ Rhea mumbled.

Edith sprinted through the castle, quickly running up the flight of staircases towards the prefect's common room. She was about to bolt through the door, so focused on making it in time she didn’t notice the other person entering.

‘Shit sorry-’

‘You know, if you were in such a rush you should have left yesterday.’

She looked up to see the blank face of Regulus Black. His cold grey eyes narrowed at her.

‘Sorry I was- well - I didn’t see you there.’

‘Clearly.’ The boy responded, then walked calmly into the room.

Edith quietly followed in after him, her heart racing a hundred miles an hour. She risked a glance over to the boy, who sat himself down silently on a chair next to Carrow. Regulus Black was in the same year group as her and despite that she could count all of their interactions on four fingers. The boy wasn’t as vocal as most of his Slytherin counterparts, but the crowd he ran in said enough. Edith knew his brother Sirius, somewhat. Sirius was incredibly popular alongside his fellow Gryffindor friends, and given their natural personalities and loud pranks it was hard to avoid them. Sirius Black was also known for two other things; One being incredibly handsome. Two having a massive falling out with his family. The two brothers hardly interacted, and when they did it wasn’t pleasant. Regulus was quite good looking as well, Edith supposed, but in a more haughty way than Sirius. Sirius was tall, well built without it being too much, had perfectly tousled hair and a cheeky grin on his face at all times. He had a sort of tamed ruggedness to him that seemed to make half the population of Hogwarts fall to their knees. Regulus was more composed. His face always in a blank expression, his hair slightly shorter and perfectly neat, he was taller than his brother but skinner as well, and he came across rather cold and aloof. Handsome yes, but not welcoming in the slightest.

As though he could hear her thoughts his head snapped up and met her eyes, Edith quickly looked away and focused on Lilly who stood up to address the room.

‘Hello everyone, thanks for coming. Today is more of a check in to see how everyone is doing and if there are any problems that need to be addressed.’ The head girl smiled around the room.

Rosie’s hand shot up in the air instantly. ‘Yes Rosie.’ Lilly said, rather calmly Edith thought.

‘We need more people patrolling around the dungeons.’ She said, her looking as though Lilly had caused her a massive inconvenience. ‘Last night Adams and I caught two Slytherins targeting a Hufflepuff student.’

Carrow snorted. ‘How do you know they were “targeting” them? Perhaps the small Puffer shouldn’t have been wandering around the dungeons.’

Danny glared at her, ‘They were targeting them for being muggleborn, they made that pretty clear.’

Carrow sneered and Potter’s eyes narrowed in at her. ‘Thanks for telling us. Well make sure there’s a few extra around there at night.’ He said.

Rosie nodded stiffly. Mathew Partridge, the other Ravenclaw prefect also raised his hand. ‘Do we know if Dumbledore is planning on doing anything?’

‘About what?’ Asked Potter.

‘About all the muggleborn targeting that has been going on. It’s gotten worse than last year and I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.’ Partridge said.

No one said anything aloud, but all eyes in the room glanced towards the two Slytherins present.

‘Doubt it.’ Muttered, Macdonald, the other Gryffindor prefect. 'We all know Dumbledore is a bit to forgiving.'

‘If anything happens, act as you normally would, but make sure you keep note of who is doing it and report it to Lilly or I. Then we'll go to the heads of houses, so they know who to keep on their raider.’ Potter replied, loudly, before Lily could get a word in. Lilly stared at him with a slight look of amazement before going bright red and nodding.

‘Anything else?’ Lilly asked around the room, everyone shook their heads. ‘Great. Well the next roster will be posted here on Monday. Until then make sure you are all on time for your patrols and if you need anything come to James or I.’

Everyone quickly gathered up their things and left. Edith quietly followed Danny out the door, towards the Hufflepuff common room, glancing at Regulus Black one more time.