Powerful Connections
Chapter Six : Powerful Connections
Thoughts || "Dialogue" || Letters
“Longbottom!”
“Neville!”
Blaise and Hermione shouted in unison, the two of them walking swiftly towards the boy, with Gregory Goyle walking menacingly behind them. The trio had been looking for Neville for roughly half an hour since they had finished eating breakfast.
“Oh! Hello. Is there something wrong?” Neville asked, turning towards the trio of students he made friends with on the train ride to Hogwarts. He seemed... apprehensive, Hermione noticed.
“Not wrong per se, but you should still come with us. Better to say this in more… pleasant company.” Blaise muttered, nodding towards the cluster of first year Gryffindors that had appeared and started to speed walk towards them. Greg growled slightly in annoyance and Hermione rolled her eyes, sighing. Neville turned his head and, upon seeing his House-mates, nodded his agreement. The quartet walked through the courtyard, back towards the castle. The group of first year Gryffindors didn’t bother to follow them.
“There’s an abandoned classroom closer towards the dungeons we’re going to. It’s closer to the Hufflepuff level and the kitchens than it is our Common Room or Professor Snape’s classroom, but it still counts as Slytherin territory. Our prefects told us it’s the meeting room for the first year Slytherin court.” Hermione rambled to the Gryffindor in their company. Neville initially seemed to understand, but with that last comment his brows furrowed in bewilderment.
“Alright Granger, don’t give away all our secrets to the rival house.” Blaise laughed for a split second and then wiped the smile off of his face. He and Greg nodded very seriously to each other.
“We’re here.” Blaise said sternly. Hermione burst into a fit of giggles as Greg opened the door for them.
Daphne looked up when the door opened, “Oh good, you found him.”
“Neville, could you come here please? We need to discuss what the Headmaster said last night and what we’re going to do about it.” Draco piped up from where he stood next to Daphne. Neville looked a bit apprehensive.
“Go on Neville, they won’t bite. You sat with us on the train yesterday, remember?” Hermione reassured him when she saw his expression.
Draco and Daphne were seated at an old Professor’s desk next to the large window and seemed to have been looking over a piece of parchment.
“They’ll explain what they want to do, Longbottom.” Blaise said. Greg walked in and closed the door behind him.
Hermione took that moment to look over the room the upper-years told them about and shown them the door to, earlier in the morning. It was obviously an abandoned classroom, but the first year courts had clearly added their own touches to the room over the years. There were only about 10 student desks left in the room, as well as the one for the Professor. Those desks where spread haphazardly around the open space. The Professor’s desk was in front of the large window that took up most of one wall. An archway where the classroom office door would have been was currently separating the desks from a smaller room.
Hermione, Gregory, and Blaise made their way to the lounge to join the others.
In the Professor’s office-turned-lounge was a fireplace and a sitting area. A three-seater sofa, a few armchairs, and a love-seat made up the sitting area around the fireplace, which was where the other first years were sitting. There was a plush, emerald green area rug covering the entire lounge area within the first year court’s room and there were large, half-filled bookshelves lining the wall surrounding the fireplace. The rest of the walls that didn’t have a window, doorway, bookcase, or fireplace were bare, however.
“This room isn’t that bad, just lacks our personal touch. Do you think we could keep it, or a room similar, for all seven years?” Blaise asked, throwing himself on the three-seater sofa between Tracey and Theo. Pansy and Millie sat on the love-seat while Vince sat in one of the three armchairs. Hermione and Greg each sat in the other two. A log crackled in the fireplace and basked everyone in a warm light.
“That's never been done before in recent history, but then again neither has having the entire year make up the entire court. Personally, I’d rather be closer to our Common Room than this, but we have Neville here too, and having a Gryffindor in a Slytherin Court hasn’t been done before either, and it’s not like we can bring him into the Common Room.” Theo replied, poking Blaise in the side with the quill in his hand. Blaise had partly landed on Theo when he jumped on the sofa and Theo was in the middle of writing furiously on a stack of parchment in his lap.
“I think it’s a reasonable request to have a room become our permanent lounge, at least until fifth year when we have prefects in our midst.” Pansy said slowly, raising an eyebrow at the boys’ antics. “What do the rest of you think?”
“Well, I like the idea. But we can’t stay here and isolate ourselves from the rest of our house.” Millicent said somewhat shyly. Hermione nodded.
“My thoughts exactly, Bulstrode.” She commented.
“While I agree with that we could still use a room like this after we’re finished with our first year, we do still need to establish ourselves amongst the upper years. Whether this can be used as a meeting room of sorts, or our year group’s “get-me-the-bloody-hell-away-from-everyone-and-everything” room, I dunno. But yes, we could definitely make use of it because our court is our entire year in Slytherin and we’ll probably be bringing in the other Houses in the future.” Tracey said. Pansy and Blaise nodded.
“So what I’m hearing is yes, we should ask Professor Snape if we can use this room after our first year is over?” Blaise asked.
“We’ll ask him at the next House Meeting, that way he has time to think about it.” Pansy declared with a touch of finality in her tone. Theo set his quill and book on the side table next to him and handed the parchment to Blaise and Tracey to read over.
“Yeah, I like this. We should add a notice board to the room.” Blaise commented. Tracey passed the parchment to Hermione, who was sitting in the armchair closest to them.
Theo had written down a to-do list of sorts, and “Ask Prfsr. Snape about permanent residency of our year’s court” was written at the top.
“That is a really good idea, so is having a to-do list. We’ll have an agenda of sorts, I suppose then?” Hermione asked, passing the parchment to Millicent and Pansy to read over as well.
“We have to. Every year in Slytherin has had some sort of agenda or goal. We need to figure ours out, but securing this room could be a start.” Pansy replied and glanced at where Neville, Daphne, and Draco seemed to be finishing up their own meeting. “I think they’ve finished.” The cluster of Slytherin first years looked over and saw the missing three making their way over, looking smug and proud of themselves. Even Neville had a small smirk on his face.
“We just need to send the letters off, and then the Board of School Governors will know about our illustrious Headmaster’s death corridor. I think we need more chairs in here, though.” Daphne sneered when talking about Dumbledore, and moved to stand next to Hermione’s armchair. “What did you guys talk about?”
“We’re going to ask Professor Snape about making this lounge our permanent one, considering no other Slytherin court is made up of their entire year. We barely even fit in this room as it is - imagine us trying to squeeze into one of the lounges in the common room. And seeing as we've adopted Neville, we really need somewhere outside the common room for us to meet up and have privacy.” Theo said, and having gotten his parchment back from Draco, who had taken it from Vince and Greg, handed it to Daphne.
“We need a notice board, probably near the door - like we do in the Common Room.” Daphne commented after reading the parchment.
“That’s what Blaise said.” Pansy replied, chuckling slightly.
Theo grabbed his book and quill back and quickly wrote on another piece of parchment. That parchment said “Things To Acquire:” and had “notice board, more seating,” written down so far underneath.
“Is there anything else you can think of off the top of your head?” Theo asked the group.
“What about a tea cart?” Hermione asked. Her classmates looked at her confused. *It must be a Muggle thing then.* “It’s a sort of cupboard on wheels. We can have it as big or small as we need, but it should be able to hold a teapot, teacups, another pot or cup to hold milk or cream, and a small bowl to hold sugar cubes. And perhaps cakes or biscuits every now and then.”
“Oooh! That’s a smart idea! That way if we’re in here for a while we won’t need to send somebody to the kitchens to get refreshments. I think it should have more than just tea though. Maybe coffee and pumpkin juice as well.” Tracey said excitedly. Theo and Blaise both nodded when she said coffee.
“Alright, does everybody like the idea of a tea station?” Draco asked, looking around at the court - his court, Hermione realized - with what looked to be a hint of pride in his expression. They all either nodded their agreement or vocalized it.
Theo wrote on the parchment again, this time adding ‘tea station’ to the list.
“Anything else?” He asked again, looking around.
“Do you think we could get a House-Elf to serve us?” Draco asked, looking thoughtful.
“If we get a house-elf, we wouldn’t need a tea cart here all the time. We could just call for the elf and have them bring us the cart - or at least the stuff to go on the cart.” Daphne said.
“That’s a good idea, something else to ask Professor Snape about at the Mabon Meeting.” Blaise piped up, “We should come up with roles for those of us who aren’t the Prince and Princess. We also need to decide who our Princess is."
“I’ve already started with the non-Princess roles. I put myself and ‘Mione as court scribes because we’re the most swotty out of everyone here. Vince and Greg can be bodyguards because we’re bound to piss off some people who wouldn’t stop themselves from trying to physically hurt us - probably the other Gryffindors in our year, if I’m being honest - and who would be stupid enough to try and fight Vince and Greg? I mean come on. Pansy is going to be our key into the infamous Hogwarts rumour mill and Blaise, Millicent and Tracey can deal with crowd control, but that’s more for when we have prefects, or our agenda has been established and other students have requests for our year’s leaders.
“If Longbottom is staying as a member of our court he can be our Ambassador for Gryffindor House, and I think we should try and contact Bones, Abbott, or Macmillan, I know they're one of the few listed in the Directory that don't come from a Slytherin family. And, if they think they’re up for it, Blaise and Pansy can also be our main masterminds behind any operations we need to accomplish. Blaise has already sort of begun that role, with asking about us keeping this room for all seven years. As for our Princess, it'll either be Pansy or Daphne.” Theo said, holding up another parchment - presumably the one he was writing on before Hermione and Blaise arrived with Neville.
“I like it. Very efficient,” Draco said, looking impressed with his friend.
“There isn’t anybody from the directory in Ravenclaw, and we won’t have connections until Luna arrives, who should we contact in our year?” Daphne said suddenly.
“I can try and speak to Padma Patil. When Father’s had them over for business dinners I always got along better with her than Parvati,” Pansy replied. Draco nodded his agreement.
“Sounds good to me. Let’s wait until tomorrow for that though, Pans. We got Longbottom yesterday, let’s try and find Abbott and Macmillan today,” he suggested.
"Obviously, I know why I'm not in the running for Princess, but why Pansy or Daphne and not Bulstrode or Tracey?" Hermione asked, the genuine confusion on her face reminding her year-mates that she might be good at faking it, but Hermione still has a lot to learn.
"Politics, mostly," Theo replied, meticulously stacking his parchments.
Somewhere in the castle, a clock tower chimed 10, startling the first years.
“Wow we’ve already spent almost an hour here. It hasn’t felt that long.” Neville muttered.
There was a brief moment of silence that was broken by the main door to the court’s room being slammed open. Loud footsteps could be heard walking across the abandoned classroom towards the lounge. Hermione jumped and glanced around at her housemates, who were all sharing looks of concern. Two lanky redhead Gryffindors emerged in the doorway separating the lounge from the classroom.
“Lookie here, Gred. Ickle baby Neville Longbottom is fraternizing with the enemy! And the ickle firstie snakes don’t seem to be biting him!” The first one who stood on the left-hand side spoke.
Draco scoffed.
“Ugh. Weasleys.” He muttered, rolling his eyes.
“Now, now, young Malfoy, just because our fathers are carrying on the blood feud doesn’t mean the three of us have to, you can keep it going with Ronnikins. We were almost put in Slytherin ourselves, but we both had to beg the Sorting Hat to put us with our brothers.” The other one said, putting an old piece of parchment in his robes as he spoke. Well that information was certainly shocking.
“Gred, we should probably -” The same twin spoke first again.
“-Introduce ourselves? You read my mind Forge.” The other one finished the sentence.
“So do all magical twins do that, or is it just them?” Hermione asked the room. Blaise snorted in amusement.
“Oh Granger. Granger, Granger, Granger. How easy you make it to forget you’re muggle-born, and then you remind us all by asking questions like that.” Pansy crooned. “They’re the infamous Weasley Twins - the Terrors as my brother informed me the upper years call them. They prank everyone in the school and seem to have blackmail on everybody. The Patil twins don’t speak like that, so I’m fairly certain that it’s just the two of them that do it, presumably to throw people off their tails.”
“I’m sorry but did you also say that the two of you were almost Slytherin students?” Draco asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Yeah apparently our mischievousness -” Right twin, Gred?, started speaking.
“- was cunning enough, and our determination to -” Left twin picked up the sentence from where door twin left it.
“- reach our goal of owning our own -” Only to hand it back to the other twin again.
“-joke shop was ambitious enough -” Back to the second twin.
“- for the hat to seriously consider putting us in Slytherin.” They finished the sentence together.
Watching the two of them was like watching a tennis match.
“Merlin, the two of you are going to give me a neck ache.” Tracey complained from the sofa, rubbing her eyes. The twins grinned at her.
“I’m sure we could figure out another way to give you a neck ache.” Gred said, smirking.
“One that doesn’t include talking.” Forge said right after, smirking as well.
“Great well now the two of you remind me of Draco and Theodore, smirking like that.” Daphne said, rolling her eyes, “If you don’t have anything productive to say to us, please leave immediately.”
“Well actually…” They changed it up and Forge started speaking this time, at least Hermione thought they did.
“We were wondering -” Back to Gred.
“- just what exactly is this room?” and Forge ended the question.
“None of your business. Now leave.” Draco said, crossing his arms across his chest.
“Touchy, touchy Young Malfoy.” Gred said, tsking the first year.
“No matter, we’ll figure it out one of these days.” Forge piped up.
They left the room with dramatic bows.
“What are their names?” Hermione asked, “because I’m certain it isn’t Gred and Forge.”
“No, they’re Fred and George Weasley.” Neville replied, “They have a younger brother in our year named Ronald, or Ron - they call him Ronnikins though and it annoys the hell out of him - he’s the one you argued with last night before sorting, Hermione.”
“Ohh, the Potter-lover.” Hermione commented flatly. Draco snorted.
“That’s one way to put it. The whole family is full of Dumbledore and Potter lovers - I’m sure of it.” He sneered, “They’re all blood traitors.”
Something in Hermione’s brain clicked and she suddenly remembered one of the questions she forgot to ask Theo and Draco before term started.
“Right, so what does blood traitor mean? I figure mudblood is just a really rude way of saying Muggleborn, but I’m clueless for the meaning behind blood traitor,” Hermione asked, turning to the group of pureblood children.
Draco and Theo sighed simultaneously. Blaise snorted at their reaction.
“Might as well get comfortable, ‘Mione. Draco’s very passionate about this and it’s begun to rub off on Theo,” Blaise cut in before the boys got started. Draco and Theo shot identical glares in Blaise’s direction, making everyone laugh or snort in amusement.
“Way back in the past, before the time of Dumbledore, the pureblood families all used to celebrate the Olde Holidays that make up the wheel of the year - Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Samhain, etc - as a thank you to Lady Magic - as literally everything that we are is because of her.
“But then Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald back in ‘45 and everyone hailed him a hero. And when he chastised the Olde religions and branded everyone who celebrated them as Evile? Well, the Weasley’s were among the first to join him - thus abandoning and betraying the very beliefs that make us wizards and witches and forcing the remaining traditional families to coin the term blood-traitors.” Draco explained sullenly. It must be difficult to talk about…
“The term mudblood has a similar history, actually. The traditionalists were so pissed off that their former allies were trying to change and adapt their world - our world, with all of our culture and history - to keep the muggleborns happy - and really, banning our Olde Holidays is really just the tip of the iceberg - that they started called the muggleborns mudbloods. Because in their eyes, the muggleborns were muddying up our way of life by not wanting to learn and adapt to our culture when entering our world.” Theo said afterwards.
“Ohh so there’s an entire history of why all this conflict is happening within politics. I’m guessing that your Dark Lord wants, I mean wanted, to completely separate the two worlds to keep the wizarding culture and traditions alive?” Hermione asked. Theo seemed to freeze in his seat when Hermione corrected herself.
“Yes, I think I remember Mother saying that to Father after she recovered her interview notes from when she spoke to him before his downfall. She also found out that he wanted the Ministry to bring in the muggle-borns when they have their first bouts of accidental magic, because of his own upbringing as well as the upbringing of some of his followers who had muggle parents or guardians.” Daphne replied, nodding absentmindedly.
“Hermione?” Theo asked, turning to face her, looking thoughtful.
“Yes Theo?” She answered, looking over at him.
“Why did you say that the Dark Lord *wants* to separate the two worlds completely? He’s dead.” Theo inquired, tilting his head to the side.
“Well… there wasn’t a body. That was one of the only things I managed to wrap my head around in all of the books you and Draco recommended. When Potter supposedly defeated him - nobody mentions anyone finding the Dark Lord’s body, which means technically he’s just missing, not dead. Therefore, if he’s just missing then he still wants the worlds to be separate, even though he isn’t around to make that clear.” Hermione said.
“I… wonder if our parents have come up with that conclusion?” Draco asked, visibly stunned.
“Time to write more letters.” Daphne sighed, “I don’t think we’ll need you for those ones though, Neville.”
“Well… My Grandmother’s always had us celebrating the Olde holidays, but I don’t think she ever knew about the political pursuits of the ‘Dark Side’. She has said that the reason so many pureblood families are having squibs for children is because of Dumbledore, though.” Neville said somewhat quietly. “Also, anyone who doesn't already can all call me Neville. We’ve been to a lot of the same ‘Sacred 28’ functions together before our letters arrived, and we rode the train together, and just spent over an hour talking about politics. We’re friends, now.”
“I’ve never heard that theory before, Neville, can you explain it more, perhaps?” Theo asked, putting his glasses back on and grabbing his parchment and quill.
“Well, let me think a minute… Right. Well, Gran always made sure to start with why we have rift between the ‘traditionalists’ and the Dumbledore loving ‘blood-traitors’. She said that when the division happened between the purebloods, the traditionalists were left to further their lines with only each other while those who deserted them had all the rest of the magical world to continue their lines. The traditionalists have been reduced to marrying their second, or even first, cousins, and because their blood is so close together they have a higher risk of having squibs for children and any children they do produce are weak when it comes to magical abilities and any family magicks will stay dormant.” Neville explained.
“Is that why, when Mother’s older sister Andromeda married a muggle-born, their daughter gained the Black family abilities of Metamorph-magic?” Draco asked.
“Exactly.” Neville replied, nodding his head.
“I’m going to assume that squibs are the opposite of muggleborns?” Hermione asked.
“Yes. Squibs are children born to magical families who lack magic of their own,” Neville answered, “Back in the time of the Founders, up until the Ministry of Magic was fully set-up and functional and we had the Wizengamot to make our laws, purebloods used to give their squib children to muggle families so they were raised by the same kinds of people.”
“I wonder…” Hermione said thoughtfully, “Do you think there’s a chance that the children and grandchildren of those squibs who were given away are who made muggleborns possible?”
“Maybe…” Neville replied, trailing off.
There was another moment of silence.
“Well, who else is excited for Mabon? My older brother Perseus says that while we’re discouraged from doing the actual blood ritual while at school, the Hogwarts house-elves always make a very traditionalistic feast for our table, and the Prefects have sometimes chaperoned the younger years on a walk through the forest to offer libations.” Pansy spoke up suddenly.
“Mother told me that Slytherin always participates in some way during every Olde Holiday. She said that during her seventh year, she and a few of her year-mates had gotten smudge sticks made of purple sage from the Hogwarts house-elves and they cleansed the Common Room and all the dorms on Mabon.” Daphne replied.
“When and what exactly is Mabon?” Hermione asked. “I couldn’t find a clear explanation…”
“It’s the Autumnal Equinox, essentially. Mabon is sometimes referred to as the Second Harvest Festival in the Wheel of the Year. This year Mabon falls on 23 September. The first harvest happened on 1 August and is called Lughnasadh, while the third harvest is called Samhain and on 31 October.” Theo explained somewhat quietly. Hermione heard Daphne take a deep breath and turned to look up at her.
“Basically what we do here in Slytherin, according to Mother at least, is we eat a traditional feast with all different breads, grains, seasonal fruits and vegetables - apples, pomegranates, squash, pumpkin, root vegetables, etc. - and some dark fruity drink - the upper years have a sort of wine I think, we get non-alcoholic cider or juice. Then we each set aside some of what we picked from the feast so we can leave it out as an offering to whichever harvest gods and/or goddesses you identify closest to. I prefer the ancient Greek Pantheon, personally. I know Theo prefers the ancient Egyptians, and Draco and Pansy follow the Celtic gods/goddesses. Our prefects sometimes take us to the Forrest where there’s a clearing with a bunch of wand-wood trees where we do this offering.
“Sometimes ,there’s been a couple smudge sticks used to cleanse the air of all its negative energy. Sage is very common for this, but sometimes there’s thistle or myrrh as well. The King and/or Queen hold a group prayer to thank Lady Magic for her gift and ask her to continue blessing us all, that’s before first year’s curfew so we can participate, and then we have a few minutes of silence to reflect on what we appreciate in our lives before going to bed.” Daphne explained, looking around the group.
“I wish Gryffindor did that, but considering my house is full of half-bloods, muggleborns and those who the traditionalists call blood-traitors; there’s a very small chance of us doing that.” Neville said enviously.
Blaise yawned and stretched his arms out above his head, “Let’s go explore the castle or the courtyard for a bit before lunch? I’m starting to feel claustrophobic.”
The group agreed. After organizing the papers Theo had written and leaving them in a neat stack on the old Professor desk, they all left the room together.
“Hey Longbottom? Where’s the Gryffindor Common Room? Ours is down here in the dungeons and Hufflepuff’s is right above this floor.” Theo asked as they all exited the old classroom.
“We’re in a tower at the top of the castle. I think Ravenclaw’s Common Room is in another tower, and Weasley the Prefect said that the Astronomy classroom, Divination classroom, and the Owlery make up the other three towers” Neville replied.
“Right. Are we taking the stairs or the passageway to the Entrance Hall?” Draco asked the group. “Hufflepuff’s Common Room and the Kitchens are right above us, and the trophy room and infirmary are just above them before you hit the ground floor with the Great Hall.”
“Passageway. Then we can work our way up the stairs and maybe find more secret passageways.” Blaise replied. There were a few nods of agreement from the group of first years.
“Everyone in agreement with taking this passageway?” Daphne asked, turning to look at everyone.
After a chorus of yeses the group climbed through a secret door behind a tapestry and into the passageway to the Entrance Hall.
They discovered that there were many, many abandoned classrooms in the castle. In fact, there were more abandoned classrooms then there were rooms being used and when they discovered that the library was on the first floor, it took Vincent and Gregory to drag both Theo and Hermione away - the former due to his love of researching odd theories and concepts and the latter for her ability to absorb information like a sponge and love of reading because of it.
“You won’t be able to physically drag me away forever, you know.” Theo grumbled, wrenching his arm out of Vincent’s grip.
“But I can right now, so you just have to deal with it.” Vince replied, grinning at him. Theo tried shoving Vince in the shoulder, but just succeeded in pushing himself away and making their rather large group of friends burst out in laughter.
The second floor held a girls bathroom that was haunted by a ghost of a girl 50 years dead, who died in that exact bathroom. Most of the elective courses held their classrooms on this floor, but considering that Hogwarts students don’t choose electives until their third year, that floor was declared pretty much useless by them.
The third floor was split in half for some reason. The right-hand side was the Headmaster’s death corridor and none of them were stupid enough to try and enter it. The left-hand side, however, was where the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom was hidden amongst the vast amount of empty ones. The fourth floor was a single corridor leading from a staircase on the left-hand side of the third corridor and filled with locked doors and a large Griffin statue at the very end of the it. The hidden fourth floor corridor looped around to the moving staircases where it met the one for the fifth floor had a rather large portrait that told them he was guarding the Prefect Bathroom and because they weren’t prefects, they needed to stop bothering him *now*.
The sixth floor was one of the more interesting floors if only because among all the abandoned classrooms, both the Charms corridor and the Transfiguration corridor were there along with the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Heads of House’s personal rooms.
The seventh floor was another long corridor with a few abandoned classrooms but the only exciting thing was a tapestry of what Theo said was Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach trolls ballet.
“Why the bloody hell do you know that, mate?” Blaise asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I found a directory of all the portraits in Hogwarts in my family’s library. I think there’s a hidden room up here somewhere too, but I don’t remember exactly. I’ll look over the break we have for Yule and tell you all when we get back.” was Theo’s answer.
“Bloody swot.” Blaise scoffed fondly.
By the time the group of first years made it back to the ground floor, it was time for lunch.
“Thank Merlin. I’m starving.” Greg groaned.
“Hear, hear!” Vince, Pansy, Daphne, Blaise and Theo agreed.
Who knew plotting could be such hungry work, ‘cause I sure didn’t.
Before they could enter the Great Hall, Draco threw his arms out and stopped them all at the bottom of the stairs.
“Draco, what is it?” Hermione asked.
“What do you all think about eating near the Lake?” He asked, a cross between a grin and a smirk started making its way across his face. “I mean. Longbottom can’t eat at our table, not yet at least. We’ll have to be seen talking to him, and studying and laughing with him more. And we certainly can’t eat at his table. Why don’t we all grab a plate of food each and make our way onto the grounds and have a little picnic?”
“Oh Draco, that’s a brilliant idea!” Daphne exclaimed, exchanging an excited look with Tracey.
“Alright, let’s go grab ourselves some food and meet outside in ten minutes.” Draco instructed, letting his arms drop to his sides.
In ten minutes exactly, the group of first years had managed to go into the Great Hall, grab their plates of food, and walk out again. Draco and Daphne had also explained to Prefects Spiers and Farley what they were doing, and Farley had conjured a large blanket for them to sit on outside and given it to Daphne. Draco had ended up carrying both his and Daphne’s plates of food while she held onto the blanket with both arms because it was so big.
Hermione handed her plate of food to Blaise and took the blanket from Daphne. Tracey, Pansy, and Millicent handed their plates to Neville, Theo, and Vince respectively in order to help Hermione lay the blanket down on the grass. They were gathered underneath a large willow tree - not the Whomping Willow, just a regular one - that was planted near the shores of the Black Lake. After a rather quick, yet quiet meal, the students set all their plates and utensils to the side of the blanket in a neat stack and started gossiping.
“Merlin, that was almost as good as the food the house-elves make at home.” said Draco, stretching his arms above his head for a moment before falling onto the blanket on his back. Everyone else took the cue and stretched out on the blanket as well. Hermione saw Theo pull Daphne towards himself and she, Daphne, rolled her eyes with a grin on her face and laid her head on his stomach.
“This is nice.” Hermione commented, laying next to Pansy and Millicent.
“This is wonderful.” Pansy agreed, “I can’t even think of anything that could ruin the moment.”
There was a loud shout off in the distance which interrupted the laughter that had been bubbling up from the group of first years laying beneath the tree. The group had elected to ignore the noise. Eventually, though, they could hear quite a few thudding footsteps coming towards them.
Theo sat up, looked around for the source of the noise and groaned. “Potter” was all he said.
“Merlin help us.” Blaise muttered, his eyes looking up at the tree trunk behind his head. Draco scrambled to his feet and leaned seemingly nonchalantly against the trunk of the tree.
“What the hell do you want, Potter?” Draco sneered the moment Potter, Weasley, and two other scrawny Gryffindor boys stopped running towards them. A group of Gryffindor girls quickly came up behind them as well, giggling amongst themselves.
“Neville, what are you hanging around this lot for? C’mon, mate, you’re supposed to stick with us. Your housemates.” The scrawny Irish boy said, completely ignoring Draco, while at the same time, trying to walk up to the blanket that the Slytherins, and Neville, were now sitting up on. Vince and Greg stood up and walked over to the front of the blanket with their arms crossed, making the Irish boy lose some of his confidence.
Neville stood up as well, but joined Draco at the tree and raised an eyebrow at the group of Gryffindors. “Maybe if you were all nicer and more accepting than this lot, I’d be more inclined to ‘stick with you’.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But, for the record - you’re not. You’ve done nothing but complain about me for hanging out with them since we got to the Common Room last night, Finnegan.”
“But Neville, what would your Grandmother think of you hanging out with all the junior Death Eaters?” One of the girls asked with obviously mock concern.
“That’s Lavender Brown. She’s pureblood, but not on the directory, so her family’s not influential enough to associate with us.” Pansy quietly informed the group of girls sitting on the blanket.
“Well that makes sense. We get lessons on how to behave in public, and if she’s going to fake being concerned the least she could do is learn how to act.” Daphne said, leaning towards Pansy and Hermione and allowing her voice to carry over so everyone could hear her. Brown’s face flushed bright red at the quiet laughter that bubbled up from the Slytherins.
“Last time I checked, Weasley, there weren’t any accused Death Eaters named Zabini, Granger, Davis, Bulstrode, or Greengrass, so don’t go around telling people nonsense. Just because they’re traditionalists doesn’t mean they’re going to become Death Eaters, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead anyways, so there aren’t any Death Eaters left.” Neville retorted, rolling his eyes at them all in annoyance. “Besides, my grandmother is a traditionalist, too, and won’t care about me being friends with children who grew up the same way I did.”
“You keep telling yourself that Neville.” Potter said sadly, shaking his head in disappointment.
“Yeah, don’t bother crying to us when they all prove you wrong and are Death Eaters.” Weasley said, wrinkling his nose at them all which didn’t have the effect he was hoping for as his ears and neck were bright red from embarrassment. Draco scoffed and pushed himself off the tree to walk towards the Gryffindors.
“Hey Weasley, here’s a million Galleon idea you might take into consideration. Why don’t you stop spewing nonsense into Potter’s ear and take your little following with you back into the castle,” he said, defending Neville. His wand appeared in his hand with a flick of his wrist and Hermione, who had been watching the interaction, stood up the second she saw it. Theo and Blaise finally stood up as well, wands out, and stepped into place behind Draco.
Hermione had stood up with the intention of trying to convince Draco to not resort to violence but ended up sighing instead and took his place leaning against the tree. Daphne leant back to speak to Hermione.
“Wise decision, staying out. It’s better to let them get rid of their anger and frustration now, otherwise they’ll be in awful moods later.” Daphne whispered to her. Pansy nodded her agreement, as did Millicent. Hermione’s eyebrow raised on its own accord and she snorted in disbelief.
“Trust us, Hermione, with the amount of times that Draco, Blaise, and Theodore have gotten into arguments and fights over stupid things… You’d think we would’ve learned to stop trying to intervene after the first dozen times. At least they haven’t resorted to anything physical yet.” Millicent said once Pansy had convinced Hermione to sit back down again. Hermione sighed and flopped back down onto the blanket, pouting.
“Don’t worry, we hate having to do this too.” Daphne reassured, patting Hermione’s knee.
“It hasn’t gotten easier, and I don’t think it will until we’re all much older and have other things to worry about.” Pansy piped up, laying on her back next to Hermione.
It was only after Hermione made a sarcastic comment about how there haven’t been any classes to teach the first years proper spells that the Gryffindors collectively decided that Neville was a lost cause and returned to the Castle.
“Why’d you have to ruin our fun, Hermione.” Draco whined when he sat back down on the blanket.
“Well sorry for not wanting to make enemies before classes have even started.” Hermione grumbled sarcastically. Draco snorted and laid on his back next to her.
“Hermione, we’re Slytherins. They decided we were their enemies the minute we sat at our table.” He commented.
“Well, this blows. They totally just ruined the vibe we had going and I’m over this. Who else wants to go exploring again.” Blaise said, climbing up onto his feet.
“Yeah, alright. Let’s see if we can find Abbott, or Macmillan and ask if they’ll be willing to meet with our Court a few times during each term.” Draco replied, standing up as well. He lent Hermione a hand and helped her up as well.
“Macmillan’s a prat though, Drake.” Theo groaned, but reluctantly stood up as well. He offered a hand to Daphne, who accepted it. “Abbott is nice and all, and Susan Bones is a bit uptight - don’t give me that look you know they’ll be together, especially since they’re both in Hufflepuff now - but I can stomach both of them. Macmillan’s just a straight up prat.”
“Says the world’s second biggest prat of all.” Pansy rolled her eyes, smiling. “Second to our very own Draco Malfoy, that is.”
“Hey! Don’t make me tell Mother you said that, she won’t send any of the cakes you like in my sweets box.” Draco said, glaring mockingly at Pansy, who mock gasped and ended up choking on air. Draco and Theo burst into laughter and were doubled over before Pansy caught her breath. She glared at them for a moment and turned to speak to Daphne and Hermione.
“See, the world’s two biggest prats and we’re forced to hang out with them because our parents run in the same social cliques.” Pansy said to Daphne with a look of exasperation on her face. “What ever did we do to deserve this?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea, but let’s go find Abbott and Bones,” Daphne replied, “And Macmillan.” she added as a afterthought.
It took a little while, but eventually the first years were finally on their way to the library - led by Theo and Hermione - when they literally ran into Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan and the few other first year Hufflepuffs coming out of the library.
“Oh, sorry. Pardon us, Abbo- Hang on! We were just looking for the three of you.” Theo exclaimed as he was the one who ran into them in his excitement to get to the library. Draco stepped forward as their spokesperson so he was standing in front of Theo and Hermione. Vince and Greg stepped forward as well to back him up.
“Abbott, Bones, Macmillan.” Draco nodded to each of them in greeting. Abbott stepped forward to speak for the Hufflepuffs.
“Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson, Greengrass, Longbottom?, Bulstrode.” She nodded back in a similar greeting, seemingly confused as to why Neville was with them.
“Let’s walk and talk, Abbott?” Draco suggested, offering his arm to her courteously. Hermione eyed him curiously for a bit before turning and making eye contact with Daphne, who had also been watching Draco. They exchanged a quick look and Hermione turned back to the situation at hand, not noticing Daphne’s silent conversation with Pansy.
“Let’s.” She agreed and accepted his arm.
The two walked on for a bit before Draco stopped and looked back at them all.
“Come on guys, we’re all gonna talk where we had lunch,” he said, motioning them with his unoccupied arm. They looked around at one another and shrugged before trekking off to the willow tree at the edge of the Black Lake.
Luckily, they didn’t encounter the first year Gryffindors again. When the large group of children arrived at the willow tree, the boys spread the blanket out. It took a little while, but eventually the Hufflepuff’s were drawn into the calm atmosphere that, surprisingly, surrounded the Slytherin first years and Neville. Draco, Daphne, and Neville sat further away from the other Slytherins and were speaking to Abbott, Bones, and Macmillan in hushed tones.
Blaise clapped his hands together loudly, and startled the entire group of first years. Draco and Daphne both glared at Blaise out of the corner of their eyes, making the boy laugh.
“Alright everybody, why don’t we take the time, while our House Leaders are speaking with one another, to introduce ourselves. The Slytherins and I will go first. My name is Blaise Zabini and uh… I speak fluent Italian. Next.” Blaise said, laying on the blanket next to Vince and Greg.
“I’m Theodore Nott, Jr. and Draco and Blaise are teaching me French and Italian respectively.” Theo said, glaring at Blaise’s general direction.
“Hermione Granger. I’m a muggle-born, and I actually used to be fluent in French.” Hermione muttered begrudgingly.
Tracey, Millicent, Pansy, Vincent, and Gregory each introduced themselves as well, but only with their names. The Hufflepuffs went next, and the main group of first year Slytherins now knew them by name. The Hufflepuffs were also very lax about the unspoken name rule that Slytherin had, so by the end of the introduction they were all on first name bases. After a few minutes of casual conversation about their expectations of classes and classmates - specifically the Harry Potter and the rest of the Gryffindors - Abbott, Bones, and Macmillan stood up from the blanket and the Hufflepuff entourage walked back into the castle.
Draco, Daphne, and Neville re-joined the deformed circle Hermione and the other Slytherins had made on the picnic blanket.
“So what did you say?” Blaise asked, rolling onto his side to use his hand and arm to hold his head up.
“Well, I just mentioned that the three of us are sending our parents, in Neville’s case his grandmother, letters to inform them of the Headmaster’s death corridor and asked if they could do the same.” Daphne explained, “I figured it would be better coming from me than Draco, if only because his father has been trying to have Dumbledore removed since he, Lord Malfoy, finished Hogwarts and became a politician.”
“Well, when you say it like that it does make sense. I’ve overheard my Father talking to Perseus about how difficult it’s been for Lord Greengrass to stay neutral, especially when all of our generation are just as close are the older generations. I think he must have been giving Perseus Lordship lessons or something similar.” Pansy confessed.
“Pans, we’re only first years. We won’t need to worry about politics until we set our agenda and tell the rest of the House.” Draco sighed, struggling to run a hand through his gelled hair, “We should be worrying about Uncle Severus’ first potions class. I tried to get him to tell me something that would set me ahead of the class but all he told me was to read the introductory of our textbook and pray to my gods he won’t pick me for the surprise verbal test he gives every year.”
Hermione bolted upright. “We have an exam in our very first Potions class?!?” came the Banshee-like screech, “Why aren’t we in our Room studying!?”
“Merlin help us, we have another swot in our midst.” Blaise groaned, flopping on his back dramatically to make the other girls giggle.
“No, Blaise, Hermione’s actually right. I’m fairly certain we’re going to have Potions tomorrow, and Slytherin’s always get paired with Gryffindors in Potions. We should all read at least the first chapter of our Potions text. And if we really wanted to make sure we’re ahead, we’d do that for all our textbooks.” Draco suggested.
With a collective groan the first years begrudgingly stood up, folded up the picnic blanket, and started the trek to the Court Room to read their potions textbook.
“Everyone’s read through the introductory to 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi?” Theo asked, snapping his book shut and walking to the front of the old desks in the first year’s Court’s Room.
“Not bloody willingly, but yes.” Blaise complained, rubbing his eyes before he looked up at Theo.
“Alright, so who can tell me what the potion used as an example does - without looking through the book, Vince.” Theo asked his friends. Hermione’s arm shot into the air immediately. Theo looked at her, perplexed. Draco and Daphne exchanged a puzzled glance, and Neville sighed, defeated.
“You aren’t gonna let any of us answer, then?” Blaise said sarcastically.
Now it was Hermione’s turn to be perplexed.
“What do mean, Blaise? I’m not preventing you from answering?” Hermione replied slowly.
“No, except only now the Professor’s won’t pick anybody else because you raised your hand so quickly. Doing that makes the rest of us seem stupid. Did you not hear Neville’s sigh of defeat?” Pansy spoke up. She and the others in the back row of desks - Millicent and Tracey with Daphne and Draco sitting at the old Professor's desk- had been curiously watching Hermione since she had thrust her arm in the air.
Hermione looked as if she had been slapped.
“I honestly did not mean to do that. What do I do then, if I know the answer to any question the Professor asks?” She asked.
“Do what Theo does.” Draco sniggered at his friend’s offended facial expression. “He waits for a while to see how many get the answer wrong and then lazily gives the answer as if it were obvious.”
“Hey! I do not-!” Theo cut himself off with an apologetic smile, “Okay maybe I’ve done that a couple times, but it's only because the answer is obvious. If you think it’ll help, Hermione, I can sit next to you in our classes this term and prevent you from making yourself a social pariah unintentionally by being the ultimate swot.”
“Merlin save us all. The only two swots in our year that aren’t ‘Claws and they’re banding together. What are we going to do.” Blaise whined to Greg, who was seated between Hermione and Blaise, and Vince, who was seated in the middle row next to Neville.
“Wow Granger, I’ve never heard anyone make Blaise whine like that before.” Millicent said, giggling between words.
“Guys, we’ve gotten off task. Can anyone, besides Hermione, tell me, again without looking in the textbook, what potion they used as the first example?” Theo asked, looking around at his group of friends.
Neville made the mistake of looking Theo in the eye.
“Neville? Can you give me an answer?” Theo asked.
“Uh… I’m not, I don’t.. Um..” Neville stammered, his eyes shut and head shaking.
“Try and remember, eh? We only just read it so it should come to you. Here’s a tip, it’s a Draught.” Theo said patiently. *Wow, he’s good at this. I would have just moved on or gave the answer. But that would’ve embarrassed Neville and probably made him more nervous, which is probably the opposite of what Theo wants.
“Oh! It’s the Draught of the Living Death!” Neville exclaimed.
“Excellent! Good job Neville!” Theo praised, “Can somebody else tell me something they thought was interesting in the introduction?”
Blaise had been leaning on his hand when he casually motioned to himself with his fingers and set it back down on the desk. Hermione narrowed her eyes.
“But Blaise just raised his hand? Why can he do it but not me?” She accused.
“There’s a couple reasons actually,” Daphne said from the back of the room, “First off, our ‘Professor’ asked a question that wanted someone’s opinion, so he’d need a volunteer for that, but the way that Blaise raised his hand wasn’t… no offense, Hermione, but Blaise wasn’t as obnoxious or attention drawing as when you did it. He did it subtly so you’d only tell if you were looking at him or right next to him.”
Hermione huffed. So much unspoken etiquette. Someone should write a book explaining the in’s and out’s of pureblood etiquette.
“Someone should write a book explaining all of that,” she grumbled.
“Someone already has. I can’t remember the name, but I’ll ask my Mother about it and get it to you after Yule.” Draco replied nonchalantly. Hermione nodded in agreement.
“Alright! Blaise, what did you find interesting?” Theo asked, changing the subject back to Potions.
“There are different names for the exact same plant, but instead of using a common name for the plant, different potions use one of the alternative names.” Blaise answered without skipping a beat.
“Did anyone else find something different interesting?”
Hermione made eye contact with Theo and lifted her chin subtly. Theo smirked, looking behind her and nodding his head a few times.
“Alright, Hermione?” Theo said, motioning for her to continue.
“The first potion listed in the book is a cure, but the introductory said a bezoar could cure most poisons, using the Draught of the Living Death as an example of a case where either a cure or a bezoar can be used. I thought that was interesting because we’re still expected to know how to make cures even when a common ingredient could be bought and used instead.” Hermione rattled off, making Blaise turn in his seat to roll his eyes dramatically at Pansy.
“Don’t be rude Blaise. She’s smart and can connect dots easily. She’s gonna get far as our House-mate, I can feel it.” Tracey remarked, staring directly at Blaise while she spoke.
“I was trying to come off as playful. Apologies, Hermione, if it didn’t seem that way.” Blaise turned to Hermione, who shook her head.
“No, it’s alright, I saw you smiling the whole time. Theo, I don’t think anyone wants to do this anymore. If Draco was right and we are going to have a surprise exam in Potions, I have a feeling it will be on the introductory, just for Professor Snape to see who actually bothered to open their books before classes actually started.” Hermione said, shutting her book.
A chorus of agreement met Hermione’s assumption, and the group of first years packed their books back in their rucksacks, just in time for the toll of the bells signalling dinner.