both sick of this
Zoning out during the Sorting ceremony had become tradition to Kayda, having sat through so many of them. Her mind wandered to her own sorting only two years ago and the rush she'd felt while she blocked out the Hat's voice.
"Black, Kayda." McGonagall had called, reading from the fresh list of new students written months before their arrival at the castle.
Kayda hadn't been able to find any familiar faces in the crowds when she'd walked up the steps to the old wobbly stool beside McGonagall that was probably older than she was at the time.
Once she was seated, she noticed the boy she'd met only hours prior on the train waving very obviously from his seat on the Gryffindor table — she smiled widely back at him before the hat was placed over her eyes and all light was taken from the candle-lit room.
"How peculiar..." The hat had spoken aloud to himself. Kayda was shouting in her head that he wouldn't announce to the room what she was — during both times that she attended Hogwarts, she was horrified by the idea that people would discover her secrets. "How... familiar."
McGonagall coughed loudly beside it, before she raised her hand to apologise to the students whose eyes switched from Kayda to the Professor.
"The last of your line — the Noble and most Ancient House of Black." The hat spoke, his voice had been deafening in her ears, something she could see plainly on the faces of the new First Years now.
It'd sent a shiver down her spine and the memory was no different. It had made her feel as though she was meant to use her name as a threat, much like Draco Malfoy and his sister had tried to do moments earlier.
The hat continued. "Should I disgrace you?" It mumbled, what sounded like a laugh echoed. "Like I did your father."
Kayda remembered holding her breath. She remembered her eyes staring into the void that the hat created around her small head – begging it to be taken off her.
"He redeemed himself!" Yelled a voice from the far right of the hall, where the students were clad in green.
The hat laughed, low and dry, "I think I'll honour tradition, this time."
Kayda had known what the next word out of the Hat's mouth would be – everybody did.
"Slytherin."
Kayda was snapped out of her reminiscence by the large doors of the Great Hall being loudly pushed open– through them, stepped Harry, Hermione and McGonagall.
She watched as Harry sat down beside Ron, he must've felt her eyes on him because he turned and met hers. Neither of them looked away for a moment.
All Kayda saw was James.
All Harry saw was the Slytherin girl who'd been defending him against Draco Malfoy for the past two years.
Their eyes were drawn away from one another as Dumbledore started coughing from the top of the hall.
"Welcome!" He announced, his arms waving around the hall. "Welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts – or, for the youngest among us, your first." The candle beside him was shimmering on his silver beard. "I have a few announcements to make, before you're able to tuck into the Feast."
"Thank Merlin, I'm starving." Freya muttered, laughing quietly.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued. "As many of you are aware after their abrupt search of the Hogwarts Express – we are playing host to the Dementors of Azkaban." He paused, his voice lowering significantly when he spoke again. "Several of you should know why."
It felt like everyone turned to Kayda at that moment. She shrunk down, scratching at her face in an attempt to hide it. Daphne placed her hand on top of her own from the other side of the table.
When Dumbledore continued, Kayda could barely hear his words through the ringing in her ears – she stared at the Headmaster, but her eyes found Remus', who was already looking at her, his eyes threatening to swell.
"On a happier note," Dumbledore's voice shifted to a slightly higher pitch, the weight on her shoulders felt as though it had been lifted, "I am pleased to welcome two new Professors."
There was instant chatter around the hall in the moments pause between Dumbledore's speech.
"Firstly, Professor Lupin – who has consented to fill the, recently emptied, post of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor."
Kayda applauded excitedly, as did the few Slytherins around her who knew who he was – there was a similar excitement coming from the Gryffindor table. The rest of the hall seemed unenthusiastic at most.
Remus smiled at them all, lifting his hand slowly and Kayda noticed that he sent a nod towards where Harry was sitting.
Dumbledore began speaking, but once again, Kayda wasn't paying attention to his words – rather the table of Professors just behind him.
"Snape does not look happy–" Theo laughed, covering his mouth.
The Potions Professor's face was contorted as he stared Remus down. His eyes narrowed and jaw sitting low. His separated hair draped in front of his face, leaving only his nose clearly visible from where they were sitting.
"That's blatant jealousy!" Pansy squealed, her shoulders rising as she giggled quietly.
There was another round of applause from the hall, Kayda joined in, despite not knowing what it was for.
"That is all. Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore declared – and food appeared in front of them all.
She'd only just taken her first bite when there was a presence looming behind her.
Turning around, she was greeted by the very toothy smile belonging to Marcus Flint.
"Hey Black." He grinned, his jaw lifting slightly.
"Hi Flint." She groaned, rolling her eyes as he shoved the student beside her further up the table so that he could sit down right next to her. Kayda could feel her friends watching the interaction closely.
"You can just call me Flin, you know that." His tongue dashed between his lips to wet them before they parted again. "You also know that I am the Slytherin Quidditch Captain." Kayda just stared at him without a single indication as to what she was thinking.
He was a few years older than herself, it was more obvious than it had been two years ago. The small amount of facial hair on his top lip and the sides of his face were new. It helped that he'd sat so close to her that she even could see the finer parts of his facial hair, the ones that would soon grow to be visible further away. The hair on top of his head was completely black and very short, Kayda assumed it'd been buzzed recently.
His warm hand reached out and fell onto her own, it remained there for longer than she was sure she was comfortable with. She shuffled back slightly too, forgetting that Freya was right behind her — but the blonde girl quickly moved up, placing a gentle hand on Kayda's shoulder.
"What do you want, Flint?" Kayda made sure to emphasise the 'T' at the end of his name.
He laughed. "Would I be right in assuming you have an interest in the sport of Quidditch?" He grinned, leaning closer.
She and Flint had rarely spoken before, apart from him approaching her several times last year with the same exact question – beside that, they had only seen one another around the castle. He was also one of the few people who knew that something was going on between her and Oliver.
Her eyes narrowed at him slightly, "you know that you would." Flint then leant his arm against the table, slouching so that he was staring up at her.
"You're more than old enough now, Black." He practically whispered it, but his mouth was wide as he paused for what must've been dramatic effect. "Be a part of my team." With the hand that wasn't on the wooden table he pushed her shoulder roughly, as if she was one of the ones on that team already.
"Answer's the same as last year, Flint." She sighed heavily, rolling her shoulder. She turned so that her body was no longer facing him, her eyes didn't meet his. "Not with you as it's Captain."
"You would love the rest of the team." He leant forward again, into her line of sight. "Don't let me put you off. How 'bout, I'll introduce you to them sometime?" He gestured backwards to where he had come from where his team assumably sat.
"Sure, whatever." She pushed forward a smile, just wanting him to leave her alone now.
He grinned back, finally standing up and nodding more to himself than to her as he returned to his friends.
Freya muttered something which might've been asking if Kayda was alright, but she wasn't listening, she was too distracted to notice Daphne's hand holding her own again — her eyes had found Oliver, who's own eyes were locked on and glaring directly at the now cackling Marcus Flint.
Oliver's expression was speaking for itself: 'Back, the fuck, up.'
─ « ⋅ » ─
After they'd eaten, the older years were allowed to head back to the Common Rooms before the First Years got their personal tour from the Prefect. As they walked out of the Great Hall, Draco spotted Harry and without any pause to think, he sauntered straight over to the boy.
"Potter– you fainted?" He shouted loudly, laughing as he did. "You actually fainted?" Pansy had followed the blond boy as soon as he changed direction from the rest of the group, she cackled the same as he had.
Harry had stopped when he heard his name being called, Hermione and Ron waited several steps ahead.
Kayda sighed, her arm interlocked with Freya's when the blonde girl walked them over to her brother.
"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron spat back at him, his jaw tight.
Draco took a step forward. "Did you faint as well, Weasel?"
"Stop it." Kayda cut him off sharply, grabbing hold of Draco's arm and forcing him to face her.
Draco's expression shifted from smug to agitated quickly. Kayda shot Harry a look, her head tilting ever so slightly to tell them to leave.
"Why the fuck do you defend them?" Draco stood over Kayda when the trio had walked up the grand staircase, her fingers still wrapped around his arm. "They aren't your friends, Black."
Freya pushed at his shoulder when his face got closer to Kayda's, repeating the action when Kayda didn't take any initiative and step back herself.
"Why are you always an arse to them?" She shrugged, putting her hand out to Freya to tell the girl to stop.
Draco's lips curled. "You're insufferable."
"And you're insolent."
"I am not– what?"
It didn't matter what Draco said after that, out of the corner of her eye – Kayda saw Oliver watching.
Freya seemed to notice the older boy too, especially since he took a step towards them when Draco's voice grew louder in Kayda's face. Only then, did Kayda step away from the blond boy, leaving him where he stood and heading towards the dungeons after giving Oliver a quick look and an almost missable shake of her head.
Draco didn't talk again until they'd reached the door to the Slytherin Common Room and found that it was blocked by several students blindly guessing the password – having forgotten.
"Snape told me the password earlier." He said smugly. "Pureblood."
Kayda rolled her eyes, much like she'd done when Snape told them the password during dinner – next month should be: 'predictable'.
"You're aware he told all of us, right?" Theo grinned, walking beside the boy as they walked through the small round corridor.
Kayda didn't wait to admire the room like she'd done the first time seeing it, instead she headed straight for the small, round corridors at the side of the massive room which led to the Dorms.
Daphne, Freya and Pansy were close behind her.
"Look, there she is." Kayda stopped at the sound of the voice, her eyes dashing around the room to find its source. She was disappointed to find Flint pointing her out to the group of boys he was sitting with beside the fireplace. She didn't bother mustering up a smile for him as he did for her.
"You think she'd look happier to be back at Hogwarts." One of the other boys laughed, not even attempting to be quiet.
"I mean– her Father did just break out of Azkaban, so..."
She'd already left earshot of their conversation before the boy could finish his point. The girls had stopped with her and Freya was glaring back at them as they followed Kayda down the corridor.
Their dorm room was in the same place that it was last year, and the year before that. It was a fairly large room, very clearly split into four sections and two levels. There was a platform protruding from the back wall and halfway out into the middle of the room, a small staircase in the centre of it.
There were two massive, four-poster beds carved out of dark wood with a large cloth draped over the top and curtains tied to every post on that higher level and two more identical ones pushed up against the wall the door was on. Underneath the platform was just an empty space, the far wall being four built-in-wardrobes.
To the right, was another door – it led to the bathroom, which Freya went into immediately. Which reminded Kayda exactly why Freya had the bed closest to the bathroom.
Her and Daphne made their way up the few stairs, Kayda falling, face-first, onto the bed on the left side as Daphne grabbed her case from the base of the one on the right.
It was hours later when Kayda actually started to unpack her case, by then, the others had already finished with their own. When she'd finally hung the last shirt, she listened into the conversation of pitiful small talk that the three girls had fallen into. She didn't partake, simply laying on her back on the bed quietly, her fingers mindlessly playing with the satin sheets.
Until Daphne went quiet, leaving just Freya and Pansy's voices to fill the room. Kayda turned her head to look at the girl across the room from her, furrowing her brows to silently ask if she was alright.
"I'm ok, just–" She failed to get the rest of the sentence out. Freya and Pansy's attention was taken from their own conversation.
Freya, after looking between the two on the higher level, coughed slightly before speaking. "You can tell us anything, Gee."
"I know, I know." Daphne was picking at her nails, clearly thinking hard. "It's my sister."
"Astoria, right?" Pansy tilted her head with a smile from where she sat cross-legged.
Daphne nodded. "I'm worried about her, is all. It's her first year and last year was just...Merlin."
"Horrific?" Kayda filled in. "This year won't be the same, Daph."
"We can look after her." Freya grinned.
Pansy nodded eagerly. "We can protect her from some of the scum in these halls." She spoke jokingly, but it wasn't far off her true opinions on some of their peers.
Daphne smiled at them, but she still seemed to be lost in her own head.
"Scum like Marcus Flint." Freya tutted, shaking her head and falling back onto her bed. "He needs to leave you alone this year, Black."
"We all know that he won't." Kayda laughed, knocking her feet together. "You gonna try out for the team again, Frey?"
Freya sighed, "I'll try my best – but they only want you, Black."
"That's not fair." Daphne muttered. "You're both equally capable."
"I think it's Black's name," Pansy squeaked, "her reputation is, now no offence Malfoy, just better."
Freya gasped suddenly, her hand imitating a spear piercing her chest as she rolled off the side of her bed and landed with a thud on the floor.
"Offence...taken." She sobbed, a forced grunt poorly disguising her laughter.