Khaos

On the first day of September, a child with dark black hair and silver eyes sat in a compartment all alone. The child, for all that she may look like a girl, knew that wasn’t the correct label. She was on the Hogwarts Express, having happily left her family as soon as possible.

Soon, a person knocked on the door, they had dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. The person asked, “Can I join you? You look like the friendliest person here, my name Is Hannah Everstone. But everyone calls me Slime”
The child with silver eyes smiled slightly and said, “Of course, you can join. My name is Natrix Nightlock, you’re free to call me Natrix” The next person to enter the compartment was a person in a wheelchair with red hair and hazel-green eyes.
The redhead was clearly nervous and asked, “Do you guys mind if I sit here? My name’s Theo.
Slime immediately said yes, and Natrix nodded, “I’m Natrix Nightlock” Natrix then looked back to the book in her lap, a book on potion ingredients. Slime continued talking to Theo about what they thought the classes would be like along with what they were nervous about for the school year, and soon enough a fourth person came in, a girl named Paige Blossom entered the compartment. She had about shoulder-length blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
She was soon in on the conversation about what classes they were excited about and said with a grin, “I’m really excited for History of Magic!”
Hannah then asked, “What about you, Natrix? What class are you excited about?”
Natrix looked up from her potions book and said, “Potions and History of Magic are my favorites. I’d like to learn more about the rest of the wizarding world instead of just the Nightlock family tree and its members.”
Paige frowned and asked, “Are they a big family in the Wizarding world?”
Nat responded, “They’re an old family, almost as old as the sacred 28, which are the 28 oldest Wizarding families in Wizarding Brittain. We’re an old family, the maternal line of the Burkes to be precise. We aren’t technically part of the Sacred 28 but are considered nearly on par with them according to society. Pureblood children generally don’t learn much history outside of their family tree before going to formal Wizarding school so I wasn’t allowed to learn.”

They were soon at Hogwarts, and the second Natrix stood up, she leaned against the window as dizziness took her over. She gave a smile of reassurance to the others and began walking to the platform of the train. She helped Theo with their wheelchair, and they followed Hagrid, the wheelchair now folded up due to the terrain. The four of them got into a boat and less than halfway across the lake the boat tipped as Slime leaned too far out. They all yelped as they crashed into the water and Natrix sighed, letting herself float on her back. The cold felt quite nice compared to the heat of earlier that day. Slime began to drown and Nat held her out of the water so she wouldn’t die and immediately told Slime to go flat on her back with her arms slightly spread out.

Once she was sure Slime wouldn’t die, Natrix’s attention turned to the other two. Paige was shivering but treading water and Theo was floating on their back. Natrix then heard steam and turned to her right only to see Slime was steaming. She decided it was magic and suddenly Hagrid pulled Slime out by the robes, dropping her into the newly uncapsized canoe. Next was Paige, then Theo, and last was Natrix, who was mildly annoyed by the situation but decided it was fine. Natrix sighed with acceptance, “I’m going to have an ear infection tomorrow.”

Once they got to the doors, Natrix promptly cast a drying charm on the four of them, feeling extremely dizzy but trying not to show it as Paige helped Theo with their wheelchair. Not one minute after Hagrid knocked, a very stern-looking woman wearing an emerald green set of robes opened the doors, beginning to speak nearly immediately, “I am Professor McGonagall, your deputy headmistress and the head of the Gryffindor House. Tonight you will be sorted into your houses. These houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Your house will be like your family, you will work together to gain points for the year and you can lose them as well. Now, follow me and smarten up.” They all followed her and Natrix was feeling dizzier by the second, her vision beginning to go blurry the longer she stood.

When they stopped, Natrix swallowed before asking, “Theo, could I partially lean against your chair, I feel very dizzy and don’t want to collapse.”
Theo looked extremely concerned and said, “Of course, are you alright?”
Natrix immediately said, “I’m fine, I just need to not collapse.”
Slime looked over, clearly concerned, and said, “If you fall, I’ll catch you.” Natrix gave a smile meant to be reassuring but Slime still looked concerned. Paige also looked very concerned but was called up before she could say anything.
Practically immediately the hat yelled, “HUFFLEPUFF!”
Very shortly after, Slime was called up, and McGonagall was confused by the name change to Slime on the list. “Slime Everstone!?” Slime went up, looking nervous and the hat took a long time before decidedly yelling “GRYFFINDOR!” Soon came Natrix’s name and she walked up to the stool, feeling relieved when she sat down on it. Then she heard the hat’s voice in her head and her mind immediately went on the defensive.
The hat said, “No need to get all spiky, I’m not going to hurt you. My name’s Alistair, I’m here to sort you and nothing else.” Nat’s mind began filling with the logistics of a magical hat but was cut off by her overall distrust of the hat. The hat took a minute, scanning through several memories, and just before it could be called a hat stall yelled, “SLYTHERIN!” Nat got off the stool and nearly collapsed, vision extremely blurry and losing her hearing momentarily but making her way towards the table with the most green. It was also awfully hot in the Great Hall, probably because of all the floating candles. She nearly collapsed but luckily got to the table in time.
By the time it was Theo’s turn, her vision and hearing had gone back to normal and she heard the yell of “HUFFLEPUFF!”

After Dumbledore said his stupid words, the feast started. Natrix kept fanning herself with her hand and only ate the fruit that was on the table, knowing that stomaching anything else while feeling like this would result in bad consequences. Her plate had a bunch of strawberries and an apple on it. She didn’t care that she was getting weird looks and said nothing about it. The Bloody Baron was soon floating behind her and said, “Child, surely you are hungrier than just wanting fruit?”
Natrix grimaced at the thought and said, “I apologize, Baron, however eating anything else will cause issues for me at the moment. The fruit will have to do for now.”
The Baron, who was known for being protective of the more secluded Slytherins, immediately said, “You may have your fruit now as long as you promise to eat something other than fruit at breakfast in the morning, and I will be checking.”
The Baron immediately knew that this child would be one of the less included Slytherins because every year had at least one student that the other Slytherins didn’t quite understand completely and would therefore abandon to the prejudice of the other houses. He was the one who watched over the ones that were abandoned to the prejudice against Slytherins, though he liked to call them his foundlings. They were another thing that made him feel slightly better about himself, helping them felt nice and he’d been doing it since very shortly after his death. He sighed and floated downward so he was sitting between her and Draco Malfoy, where there’d been a gap. She finished her apple and began to eat the rest of her strawberries under the close watch of the Baron.

Once the feast was over, the Baron stayed close to her, watching closely as they walked to the common room. Natrix Grimaced at the password, a terrible word that had roots in blood supremacy, but entered the common room. The Baron floated just slightly behind her as a man in all-black teaching robes with greasy shoulder-length black hair, pale sallow skin, and a nose that was hooked in a way that made it seem as if it had been broken at least twice, walked into the common room. The man stared them all down, eyebrow twitching at the Baron before beginning to speak. “I am Professor Snape, the Potions Master here as well as your head of house. There are a few rules I would like to share with you. One, Slytherins must stick together because otherwise you’ll be bullied simply for your house. Two, Slytherins are to argue in the Common room and not outside of it. Three, Girls may not go in the Boys' dorms and vice versa, the stairs will turn into a slide if you aren’t on the proper stairs.” Something in Natrix tensed up at that knowledge, worried she wouldn’t be able to get to her dorm room. She bit the inside of her cheek and let the rest of the rules sink in but was barely listening. She was the last to try going up the stairs and the second she was on them, they immediately turned to a slide and she yelped as she fell flat on her back. She got up and Snape looked surprised before saying dryly, “Try the boys' stairs” Natrix did as told and the stairs immediately turned into a slide, which resulted in lots of grumbling. The Baron looked warily at Snape, who seemed annoyed, practically daring him to see what would happen should he say anything rude about this to his newest foundling. Snape suddenly asked, “What am I to do with you? There are only boy and girl rooms, not rooms for…whatever you are, who knows.” Snape was pacing and he suddenly asked, “Baron do you have any idea what to do?”
The Baron said casually, “Put the child in the Head person's room for now until we figure out what to do. The head boy this year is a Gryffindor and the Head girl is a Ravenclaw.” Snape sighed and said, “Show it to that room and ask the elves to bring its things from the girls' dorm.” The Baron’s aura darkened at the word “It” but he said nothing, electing to instead bring Natrix to a single room.

Once there, he said, “This is the room. Now go to sleep child, I will see you tomorrow Morning.” Natrix headed into the room and changed into her pajamas the second her trunk appeared, thanking the house elf who brought it just before it popped away. She went straight to sleep.