Meliorism

---------------------------------------------------Delphini POV---------------------------------------------------

I barely slept that night. I don’t know if it was because of my nerves or excitement. I mean, I was sure that my parents hated me now, I was there when Mother was writing the howler to Sirius when he was placed into Gryffindor last year. But I was at Hogwarts now, a place to make new friends, and learn heaps of cool stuff. Over the holiday Sirius had shown me so many cool things he had learnt, and I couldn’t wait.

Eventually the sun rised and I could hear someone getting out of bed, so I decided to follow suit. I opened the curtains that surrounded my bed and saw Arya coming out of the bathroom wearing her Gryffindor robes. We didn’t have classes today, in actuality, we didn’t have classes for the rest of the week, so it gives first years a chance to find their way around the castle. Arya was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, she was attempting to tie her tie, but she just couldn’t get it right. …”Would you like my help?” I asked, hesitantly. She turned to me with a grin on her face. “Really? Yes please, my dad taught me how, but I don’t really remember” I went into the bathroom and stood in front of her, tying the red and gold tie for her. “Thank you!” she said, “I think our brothers are friends, James always talks about Sirius…he also said how your parents wanted you to be in Slytherin, something about like 300 years of Slytherins in the Black family until him, is that true? Is all your family really in Slytherin?”
“Oh uhm yeah” I replied, I really didn’t want to think about my family right now. Suddenly the other girl, Mary, bursts into the bathroom. She was still in her pyjamas, an oversized shirt, and shorts, and she was holding ice to her face? “Hi….Why are you guys standing in the bathroom?” she said, rubbing the ice on my face. “Delphini was helping me with my tie” Arya said, walking out of the bathroom, back into the main room of our dorm, “Why are you rubbing ice on your face Mary?” “it gets rid of puffiness, well that’s what my Aunt said anyway. You guys are purebloods, right?” Arya and I nodded, “I’m a half-blood, my dad was a wizard, my Mum’s a muggle”
“Was? Is your dad…?” Arya asked, cautiously. “Yeah, Dragon Pox, he died when I was 3. My Mum owns a business, has to leave on trips a lot so I spend a lot of time with my Aunt, she’s a witch too”. She went on to talk about her family a bit more, but I was barley listening, instead making my bed, and getting ready for the day.

*

We sauntered down to the grand hall for breakfast. I sat next to Sirius who was talking to James Potter. James’ hair was messy and kind of everywhere, which I thought was ironic, I mean, his Father, Fleamont Potter, invented a hair gel. That’s why they have money, well at least that’s what my Father says. My parents don’t like them much, and they never attend the scared 28 balls. I suppose our families have had a feud for centuries.

“Morning Delph” Sirius says, going to ruffle my hair, but I push his hand away before he can, it took me way to long to tame my dark hair this morning. Its getting a bit long now, it reaches past my waist. Mother says it makes me look feminine, but I just think its annoying. “Good morning, Sirius.” I say, putting a piece of toast on my plate.
“Mornin’ Delphini” James said with a grin, his glasses slightly falling down his nose bridge. “Hi I’m Peter, Peter Pettigrew” said the blond boy who was siting next to Remus, who was reading a book.
“Delphini Black, nice to meet you” I say, eating a bite of toast.
“You nervous for the Howler?” Sirius asks, while loading his plate with sausages. I just nod, “at least it will be funny” I say. I try to act confident on the inside I’m slightly freaking out, when all of a sudden, an Owl drops a letter in front of me. I hesitantly open it and it comes to life; in my mothers’ shrill tone I hear.

“Delphini Cassiopeia Gabrielle Black, How DARE you get Gryffindor! 300 years of Slytherins just for you to go and mess things up! You are lucky your Grandmother and Grandfather aren’t alive; they would have had you blasted off the tree as soon as the word Gryffindor came out of that hat! Your father and I are extremely disappointed in you. You are becoming too much like Sirius. We are expecting top marks this semester or there will be dire consequences!”

The letter burst into flames, and I’m grateful that the letter isn’t too loud, and it hasn’t attracted too much attention with only a few people turning to look at me, but I do notice Lyra, Pandora, and Barty are all staring at me from across the room, they look concerned, likely knowing the contents of the letter, I mean the same thing would have happened to them if they were placed in Gryffindor, or any house besides Slytherin. I guess that’s just how it works when you come from Noble Pureblood families. Sirius looks at me with a sympathetic smile.

*

I remember his punishment when he was first put in Gryffindor. Lyra and I were supposed to be upstairs in our rooms, but we had snuck downstairs just in case Sirius needed help. We could hear from his screams that our parents were being extra harsh this time. The cutting curse, Diffindo, that’s what they were using this time, not the worst, but certainly not the best. After a while Sirius trudged upstairs. “You girls should be in bed, you shouldn’t have been listening” he said, clearly in pain. Luckily Andromeda was over for the holidays so Lyra and I dragged Sirius to her room so she could help. Andy quickly healed him, she had been healing us and her sisters, Narcissa and Bellatrix, for years.

*

A few hours later I was walking around the castle trying to find the library when I was pulled into a hug. “Hi Annie” I said, hugging the blonde back.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you last night, I don’t hate you for being Gryffindor, none of us do, I wish I could have spoken to you sooner” She said, rushing to get all her words out. “It’s alright…I’m going to the library, would you like to join me?” I asked. She nodded and we walked there casually chatting. When we made it to the library we sat down at a table and continued talking. “The strangest thing happened last night, so Lyra and I were going to our dorms and when she stepped on the stairs they turned into a slide, and we couldn’t go up” Annie said.
“What?” I replied, confused, “Why?”
“I don’t know” she said, although I knew she was lying as she discretely tried to cover her ears that turned slightly red when she lied, but I didn’t call her out on it. I wanted to ask more questions when Remus Lupin, the werewolf boy, and a red-head Gryffindor girl that I slightly recognised walked up to us.

“Hi!” said the red-head…Lily Evans, that was her name. “We know that you guys are new and we wanted to see if you needed any help?”
“Leave them alone Lils” Remus said, “They don’t need our help, you’ve done this like 7 times today.”
Lily elbowed him in the ribs, making him slightly double over, “its called being nice Remus. I’m Lily by the way, Lily Evans second year Gryffindor. This is Remus Lupin he’s in my year and a Gryffindor too!”
“I’m Pandora Lestrange” Annie said, her voice turning slightly cold. She did this around all new people, I mean she was the nicest person I knew but when she wanted to, well you didn’t want to get on her bed side, “And we don’t need your help thank you.”
Lily looked like she wanted to say more but Remus took her arm, slightly pulling her away to another table. They looked strange together, Lily was short with fiery red hair, green eyes, and freckles that covered her face, she looked like one of the sweetest people on earth, while Remus was tall and lanky, with scars, presumably from his transformations, all over his body, he looked a bit intimidating and not someone you would want to mess with. The pair walked back to a small table, picked up books and started reading. It looked like they were getting a head start on studying as Lily was reading the syllabus. They must be good student, probably getting mostly O’s and E’s in their report cards.

Pandora and I sat in the library for a little while longer before I went back to my common room.