Belles Of Slytherin

Morrisa Covington was on her way back to Hogwarts for the sixth time. Five years she had already completed, and true to what her parents had told her the first time they had put her on the Hogwarts' Express, she had made friends and enemies that would last her a lifetime. Though not much other than that had went according to her parents' expectations. The Covington family was an old wizard family, one of the more venerable ones. They were all graduates of Hogwarts and it was with great anticipation that she had been shipped off that first year, with a rat in her pocket, and wide starry eyes.

Now, her family had all been Gryffindors, with a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs throw in for good measure. 'There are always a few in every family,' her mother had whispered softly, trying hard not to be overheard on platform nine and three-quarters. But they had never expected her to be one of those. Didn't she bear the trademark black Covington hair, complete with the white witches' streak that made her father so dashing? Hadn't she been raised properly in a wizarding environment without any hint of the unsavory sneaking into her careful childhood? Never was You-Know-Who mentioned in any other than the blackest terms.

Then imagine her family's reaction when their precious darling Morrisa sent an owl with the results of her sorting. Slytherin. The one house that no one had ever dreamed the Sorting Hat would *dare* utter in conjunction with their daughter and heir. Why? They had begged for a do-over or anything. Couldn't it have been some sort of terrible mistake? The Sorting Hat didn't make mistakes, and Rissa didn't think for a moment there had been one in her case anyway. She had known the moment she had entered the great hall and seen the other students at the Slytherin table that it would be there she belonged. That had only been confirmed when the girl that she had shared a compartment with on the train joined her.

Naturally, Medea Malfoy would be in Slytherin. That was her family's traditional house. Possibly not so naturally after all considering Rissa's predicament, but in the case of Malfoys the apple never fell far from the tree. 'Rotten apples all of them,' Rissa's mother hissed upon hearing of her daughter's budding friendship. Medea was every inch the Malfoy though. Pale, blonde, cool and confident. Not to mention competent in all things wizard related. She and Rissa both had breezed through their first five years. Not that they hadn't worked, because they certainly had, but it had been *fun*.

Somewhere along the line, in about year three, the two of them had earned the nickname the Belles of Slytherin. After all, it was hardly their fault that as they had matured they had become more attractive, as opposed to the other more common looking Slytherin girls. That and they both came from well-bred wizard families known for their looks. But the nickname had led to that unfortunate song. The most tacky and unflattering of limericks called Slytherin Belles, set to the tune of Jingle Bells. None other than that wretch Draco, Medea's cousin, had penned it. He was a year younger than they were and a constant source of both irritation and amusement. Amusement because he was so easy to get to and irritating because he seemed to be able to get right back at them.

In the case of that *song*, which the damned Gryffindors seemed to revive every winter, their revenge had been found in the form of a simple charm. On the surface, simply making someone sigh softly and blink whenever someone said the key word seemed harmless enough. When that key word happened to be the name of someone you absolutely hate, the charm because so much more insidious. From Christmas till final exams, Draco and sighed dreamily every time he heard the name Harry Potter in conversation. At first people just blinked and regarded him oddly, and then everyone came to the conclusion that Draco was harboring a secret yen for the rather scruffy looking celebrity in their midst. The truly ingenious thing about it was that after it had gotten snowballing, there was nothing that Draco could do to stop it. And even after he had broken the charm, protesting just made everyone believe it all the more.

The song had been put to a halt though, and if it had been anyone other than Draco, they would have been serving detention for a month for such unsavory writings, but Professor Snape had merely told Draco and his cronies that Slytherin house students would stick together and not publicly defame one another. The girls had glowed under such a defense from their favorite professor, and he was their head of house too. It just made them adore Professor Snape all the more, even if the song continued to be an irritant.

Morrisa was lying back on the seat in the private compartment listening to the music playing softly. That was another of the things that her family despaired about her. She had a passion for muggle music. She found some of it quite good and carried the muggle CD player with her everywhere. Of course she had gotten someone to do a bit of tinkering on it for her; batteries that would never run down. It was bordering on something the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office would frown upon, but it wasn't really hurting anyone.

It wasn't that she preferred Muggle music to Wizard music. She loved it just as much as the next girl, and she loved the Weird Sisters enough to have a whole pile of their pictures and posters, but there was something to be said for some muggle music. There was some very dark, very good music that couldn't be matched by anything else. Sometimes, it was the only thing that perfectly matched her mood.

"So how bad was the family this summer?" Medea asked as she sat down across from her.

Morrisa sighed. That was the other thing that made her look forward to the first of school so much and the last day so little. Ever since she had discovered her niche at Hogwarts, her family had looked at her with something akin to horror. She didn't think they could look at her any more suspiciously if she told them her ultimate goal in life was to bear You-Know-Who's lovechild. Everyone, even her parents, saw Slytherin and thought junior Death-Eater. It got very old. No one really understood but the other Slytherins. "I made it through."

"Did you get the essay for Professor Snape done?"

Had she? Oh yes, that had been the highlight of her summer actually. She had spent hours and hours pouring over old tomes doing research on ancient potions masters and their secret formulas. Fascinating stuff. But her family had been horrified that she would spend the summer locked in dank old libraries looking at questionably dark material rather than frolicking in the sun with her supposed friends in the neighborhood. In fact, her mother swore she was paler returning to school then when she had come home. "Mmmm hmmm six scrolls on the intricacies of the uses of potions containing magical animal species in ancient Greece."

Medea snickered softly. "Did you happen to come across the one with dragon..." She coughed delicately. "...Something or other that was for virility?"

Morrisa nodded and smiled serenely. "I even added the original recipe in the footnotes in case Professor Snape was interested... not that he looks as if he needs it of course."

They both paused and pondered their potions professor's virility and reaffirmed that he was just fine without any enhancement at all. It was no small secret that they both worshipped him to anyone but Professor Snape himself. He was usually too busy snarling at Gryffindors and wrapped up in his job as potions master and head of the Slytherin house to notice anything as mundane as a pair of goggle eyed fifth years watching him. Besides that, they were fairly sure that they didn't show it... much.

When the cart came around, they both bought a bag of Every Flavor Beans and quickly poured them out onto the seat cushion to sort through them. There were three piles, one for each of them, and the third for the questionable beans which would go to the rats. Medea picked up a blue bean and munched it as she offered one than they were both sure was earwax to Flill, her huge Siamese colored rat. "So what do you expect our schedules will look like this year?"

Morrisa popped a grapefruit flavored bean in her mouth and shrugged as her rat, Issy sorted through the odd pile looking for something that suited her fancy. Issy was a new rat that she had gotten over the summer as a replacement for her old rat, Flowers. Flowers had met an unfortunate end, partially due to old age, and partially due to thinking she could outwit Morrisa's mother's cat. Issy was much better suited to her anyway. She was a sleek back and white calico with shrewd little black eyes and had already shown quite an aptitude for being a witch's pet.

"I figure they will be all right," Rissa added at length. "I am sure hoping we get approved as Professors' aides." They had both applied at the end of the previous term. It was a job that not many students sought, because there was no real credit for it and it was usually just doing the professor's most menial and boring chores, but you did get a lot of help from the professor you worked for and learned a lot of tricks and tips in that subject. You also spent quite a few hours in the classroom and office of said professor. It went without saying whom they wanted to work with. It was also about their only hope, as most of the professors didn't quite know whether or not to trust Slytherins, and trustworthiness was one of the main prerequisites of the job.

Medea sighed and popped another bean into her mouth and then made a face. "Augh! Dirt... I could have sworn that was a chocolate." She spit it into a napkin and quickly took a sip of water. "So do you think we can struggle through another year of Divination?"

Rissa laughed and shrugged. "Didn't we make it through the last year?" They had, but only by learning that there was a fine art to telling what sort of predictions would get noticed and high marks. In other words, they had made up three quarters of it and made it look good. Even most of the other professors thought the class was a joke, but they took it and tried their best in most cases.

Rissa actually did like palmistry, and she had been studying Phrenology over the summer. She wasn't sure she thought it was actual magic and you could do anything with it though. She was anxious to talk to Professor Trelawney and see what her thoughts were on the subject, and if she could point her in the direction of further independent study if it wasn't in the curriculum. It was a good way to bring up her grades in the course, because she certainly wasn't doing outstanding with what they had been doing.

Medea struck a dramatic pose with the back of her wrist to her forehead and pronounced in a wispy voice, "I see much embroidering the truth in our near future..."

The rest of the train ride passed without much incident other than their rats fighting over the last vomit flavored bean. When they reached Hogwarts, they made their way to the Great Hall for the Sorting and the feast. That in itself was exciting if a bit old hat, no pun intended. Seeing everyone again and the sorting was always something she looked forward to. She and Medea laughed quietly between themselves about their fellow Slytherin girls and eyed the boys critically.

"Are my eyes deceiving me Riss, or did Pansy Parkinson actually lose weight this summer?" Medea muttered behind her glass of pumpkin juice.

"I bet you my best set of robes that it's a charm," Rissa whispered back. Then she blinked. Sitting directly on the other side of the thinner-appearing Pansy was Draco. "What happened to you cousin over the summer?"

Medea leaned forward and looked at him quickly. "Nothing much... he had a bad reaction to some berries, but the hives did go away..."

Rissa eyed him again. What she noticed wasn't hives or lack thereof. He looked... less like the little annoying ferret she remembered and more like... She blinked and turned away. Things had really gotten weird when Draco Malfoy started looking... cute.

~~*~~

After the feast and announcements were over, they headed back to the Slytherin common rooms. Medea stopped at a seemingly blank wall in the dungeons' corridor and said, "World Domination." The door to the common room appeared before them quickly.

"Who comes up with these passwords?" Rissa muttered as they passed through into the bustling crowd beyond the door.

Medea shrugged as she threaded her way through the room toward the hall that led to their dormitory. "Either someone with a good sense of humor, or no sense of humor at all. I've never decided."

Rissa noticed glances from a few of the other Slytherins as they walked through, most notably, Draco's eyes, feeling like a lead weight on the back of her neck from across the room. Crabbe, Doyle, Millicent Bulstrode, and Pansy were all sitting in a huddle around the fireplace. They were never a friendly group. En masse, they were almost always posturing to see who could look the best by putting down everyone else. She was about to duck down the hallway when someone calling her name made her turn back.

Professor Snape was making his way toward them, his black robes billowing out behind him. "A word with you, girls?"

Medea and Rissa looked at each other and then nodded quickly.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Sure, Professor Snape."

He smiled sardonically at their quick answers and gestured toward the door to his office, which was situated between the common room and the Potions classrooms. They both settled in the chairs in front of his desk as he paced slowly behind it, his hands clasped behind his back. "I wanted to speak to you both about the applications you turned in for Professors' aides at the end of last term."

Rissa clasped her hands in her lap and looked down, worrying her lip between her teeth. 'This is it,' She thought. 'This is where he says that he doesn't want or need us.' She shot a quick glance at Medea, who was looking equally nervous.

He sank down in his chair and regarded them both over his steepled fingers. "As you might guess, I have had very little patience with student aides in the past, but I am making an exception for the pair of you. You are both bright relatively intelligent girls that I feel will be at least a modicum of help, rather than a hindrance." He paused to let that sink in.

Rissa fought back a smile. That meant they were at least getting a chance. "Thank you Sir," she murmured softly under her breath.

"Yes, well don't say that before you hear exactly what I will be expecting from you both," he continued on, opening a scroll and consulting it for a moment. "You will both be assigned to me two afternoons a week, separately, to help with first year classes, prepare some ingredients an other housekeeping chores. Then one day a week, preferably on Saturday, I will require several hours of your joint efforts in cleaning the classroom thoroughly and possibly helping prepare potions in quantities for the infirmary and other uses."

The girls exchanged glances. It was a tall order, though they had been expecting no less from Professor Snape.

"If you feel that you are not competent for the task," he added silkily.

Rissa shook her head. "No Sir, I am prepared to take it on."

Medea quickly nodded. "It sounds acceptable."

Professor Snape let his lips curl into a brief half smile. "Well then, Miss Covington, Miss Malfoy, I hope that you prove competent and not the disappointments that I fear."

~~*~~

After their dismissal from Professor Snape's office they quickly made their way to the dormitory that they had called home for the past years. It was a cozy room, if any room in a dungeon could be called cozy. There were four other beds, beside theirs in the room, all with thick heavy emerald green velvet curtains and coverlets. Rissa flicked her wand out of her pocket and muttered fervefacio to warm the bed before she flopped down on it and lay back. She noted that Issy has already made herself at home on the pillow and was napping. "Not demanding much, now is he?"

"Good thing that we don't require that much extra study time!" Medea muttered as she dug a pair of thick woolen socks out of her trunk and pulled them on after kicking off her shoes. One of the few drawbacks that either of them had ever found to being sorted into Slytherin was that the floors in the dungeon rooms of theirs were almost perpetually cold feet.

"Complaining?" Rissa asked with a grin.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't have turned it down if he'd asked for blood and spending every evening cleaning the glassware!" Medea grinned. "I think I'd walk on cut glass."

Rissa agreed. After all, they could have wound up helping Madame Pince shelve library books or something. Worse yet, would have been one of the two of them getting a position of aide and the other not. This was almost the perfect scenario.

The girls settled in bed, their minds racing as they tried to relax and get some sleep for the long day ahead of them.

"Hey Riss?"

"Hmmm," Rissa answered drowsily.

"I saw you looking at my cousin."

Rissa opened one eye to look over at Medea. "What?"

"You were looking at him."

"So? I'm sure lots of people look at him."

"Yeah but you looked at him like you liked what you saw."

"DRACO? You must be kidding!"

Medea snickered softly. "Say what you want. I know what I saw."

Rissa blushed furiously as she rolled onto her side and buried her face in her pillows. "Dia... you have the most vivid imagination." But as she tried to get to sleep, she learned that she too had a very vivid imagination, as she couldn't get the picture of Draco out of her head.