Only for a moment, and the moment's gone
Maeve Gaunt held her tongue, which was not something she was used to.
Her two peers, AJ and Katy, whom she met on the journey to Hogwarts, were sorted into Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, respectively.
The F surnames had just finished, and as Maeve watched Katy make her way to the Gryffindor table, she knew she would be the first person called up for G.
“Maeve Gaunt” The headmaster called. Her name caused a bit of a ruckus from the Slytherin table on the far right of the room. The Gaunts were the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin, and Maeve had received plenty of threats about what would happen to her if she was in any house besides Slytherin.
Her clunky boots echoed across the hall, she could feel the penetrating gaze of the rest of her year, she knew that the older years didn’t care one bit. But she was too busy trying not to trip to care about who or who didn’t care.
What if the hat didn’t know who she was?
What if the hat was gross and greasy?
What if she got lice from the hat?
The sorting hat wasn’t just whispering into her ears, it was like it was inside her brain.
“One of Slytherins,” It muttered
She kept her tongue at the roof of her mouth until the iron-like taste of blood started to make itself known inside her mouth.
"Please, anything but Hufflepuff, great stars anything but Hufflepuff” She prayed.
The hat found her comments funny.
"If I’m in Gryffindor, I can be a rebel, If I’m in Ravenclaw I can be smart, If I’m in Slytherin I’ll live up to my family name.” The thoughts raced through her head.
“If you are in Hufflepuff, you’ll be shoved to the side, and not be able to make a name for yourself.” The hat had said.
"Exactly,”
“That’s quite selfish.”
"I don’t care.”
The hat was silent for a beat, before speaking out loud to the whole hall.
“SLYTHERIN”
Maeve had let out a sigh of relief, she couldn’t wait for the praise she would be receiving from all her pureblood cousins once she sat down at the table.
***
Maeve laid awake in her four-poster bed that night, the curtains pulled closed around her. The Slytherin dorms were cold, and no matter how many blankets she piled up on herself, she was mildly uncomfortable at best.
She held her wand, mahogany wood, twelve inches, black cherry stain.
She wanted to scream, but out of respect for her roommates, she did not.
The walls of the room were a deep green adorned with intricate tapestries of serpents and ancient wizarding symbols. They freaked Maeve out, it reminded her way too much of all the scum that she came from. Through her curtains, she could see the faint glow of a few flickering candles. Shadows danced around the room, creating an ambiance that sent shivers down her back. The only sounds are the soft rustling of parchment and the occasional murmur coming from one of the beds. The poor girl seemed to be writing a teary-eyed letter to her parents.
Maeve didn’t care to learn who her roommates were, she knew that these other Slytherin girls would probably be cruel to her. So she stayed detached.
After a couple of hours of tossing and turning, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When she awoke the next day, the room felt no brighter than it did in the middle of the night. She groggily pulled her tights and skirt on, only to cover it up with her billowing robes and sharp green tie.
She tried to stay alone, to stay out of trouble. She was so afraid of getting in trouble. She had kept her mouth sewn shut ever since she was separated from AJ and Katy at the sorting.
Maeve wandered through the shadowy halls of Hogwarts, the ancient stone walls seeming to whisper secrets at her. She clutched her map tightly, the ink smudged from her nervous grip, as she navigated the winding corridors. Each portrait she passed watched her with knowing eyes, their faces flickering with amusement or disdain. Laughter echoed from a group of Gryffindors walking past her, but she focused on her own house and the sleek green and silver banners that adorned the Slytherin common areas. A mix of excitement and trepidation swirled within her—maybe this was her chance to prove herself among the ambitious. The hat was right, she was selfish, but she needed to make some sort of name for herself.
She caught sight of a few more Slytherins down the hall, their confident strides illuminating the path she hoped to follow, she wouldn’t dare actually ask anyone for directions, she needed to find her way herself. With a determined breath, Maeve pressed on, trying to remember the way she came from the great hall the night before.
She was normally never hungry in the mornings, but the long journey from the day before and the curiosity of what kind of food would be served override any other thoughts she could have about food.
The great hall was still as magnificent as it seemed the night before, but Maeve was too enamoured by a large plate of cinnamon rolls she had spotted at the Slytherin table.
She gave the room a quick once-over, trying to spot her friends, AJ appeared to be pretty quiet over at the Ravenclaw table, and Katy didn’t seem to be getting too chatty with any of the Gryffindors either.
Maeve hoped she would at least get to see them throughout the day, especially in their classes, she did not want to be alone there.
She recognized some of the other Slytherins, lots of them distant relatives.
A strange boy tapped her shoulder.
“Gaunt, Aye?”
She nodded sheepishly.
The boy jeered, clamouring for the others around him to toast to Maeve.
“Oi, last of the greatest!”
Maeve did not enjoy that implication, she had never agreed to any of the crazy pureblood shit that ran so rampant in Slytherin.
She turned to the boy that had made the second comment, his voice was just about as nasally as his hair was greasy. She must’ve pulled some sort of expression that showed that she had absolutely no clue who he was.
“Severus.” He stuck his hand out to her.
‘Godrick’ She thought, “He definitely greased up that hat.”
“Severus Snape.”
She shook his hand, while letting out a small sigh of relief, relief that he was sorted after her.
“Maeve, Maeve Gaunt.” She gave him a bit of a halfway smile.
She tried to discreetly wipe her hand off on her robes.
Maeve didn’t enjoy most Slytherins, and she had no desire to. She was facing a strange feeling of hypocrisy, knowing that Slytherin was the worst house, the house full of traitors and blood purists and criminals.
But it was the house she was in.
“Lot to say about my character.” She thought to herself as she saw her classmates with their snooty upturned noses and their cold, piercing gossip.
She got up from the long table after she had finished her meal. As she left the hall, she bumped into one of her friends from the train, Katy.
“Maeve!” She smiled, reaching her arms out for a hug. “ Slytherin, huh?”
Maeve hugged her, and the two of them walked out of the dining hall, Katy quickly checking over her shoulder to see if their other friend was still in the hall.
“I expected to be in Slytherin, I’m happy to see that you’re in Gryffindor!” Maeve responded.
The girls took a look at Katy’s crumpled schedule, they had potions together for their first class.
“Do you know where the potions class is?” Katy asked Maeve, all Maeve knew was that the head of her house, Horace Slughorn, was the potions master.
Maeve unfolded a map from her pocket, the first years had all been given them the day before, but they barely helped, in Hogwarts she couldn’t even tell forward from backward.
It took the girls a while to find the classroom, but they were by no means the only people who got lost along the way.
The room smelled so strongly of everything and nothing at the same time, the large basins on stone top tables made everything else in the room feel small. The girls sat themselves at one of these basins, near some poor ginger girl who had been paired up with Severus.
“Do y’know who that is?” Maeve gossiped. “Sat over with Severus?”
Katy peered over at the girl.
“Lily? I don’t know much about her, she’s a muggle born though.”
A muggle born, just the type of person that Maeve’s parents would not want her to be friends with, so at that moment Maeve decided she wanted to be friends with her.
“D’you Reckon she was dared to sit with him?” Maeve laughed.
Katy furrowed her brows in thought.
“I don’t think so, they seem like friends.”
Maeve pushed back her cuticles.
“It’s quite brave of her, being a muggleborn and sitting with a Slytherin.”
Katy smiled. “That’s probably why she’s in Gryffindor.”
Their conversation was cut short as their professor entered the room, hushing the students and situating himself in front of the class.
“It’s not every day that I get to welcome a new batch of students into Hogwarts, to be their first ever class experience.”
Maeve wrinkled her nose, Professor Slughorn's pudgy face seemed too far in thought, too far in that he wasn’t remembering what he said as he said it. She raised her eyebrow at Katy, trying to discern if she had noticed as well.
He continued on his spiel, and Maeve got a sneaking suspicion that she would be receiving this dreadful monologue from every teacher that day. So instead of paying attention, she instead turned her focus to her classmates.
There were two rowdy boys sitting in front of Lily and Severus. Maeve recognized one of them, Sirius Black. He was her cousin or something, the Black family almost as notorious as the Gaunts for being Slytherins.
She could see his exuberant face, and the gold and red tie hanging from his neck.
Maeve shifted around in her seat, if she was sorted into Gryffindor, she would be hung by her neck.
She sighed in relief that she made it into Slytherin.
She also sighed in annoyance, part of her wished she was in Gryffindor, Gryffindors had all the fun, her older cousins had told her about how amazing life became when one was invited to a Gryffindor party.
Maeve was just stuck with greasy old Severus, and so much pressure on her shoulders that she might as well explode.
She looked at the girl sitting next to her, she liked Katy. She didn’t know a whole lot about her, but she could tell she had a good heart, seeing as she was still sitting next to her, even though she was a Slytherin.
Maeve went into her first day with no clue what the next seven years held for her, but she was glad to know she would be going into them with a friend.