The Good Slytherin

Chapter Two: Eurydice

An incessant thud nudged Eurydice Thorpe awake. She rolled over in bed and groaned, eyes slowly coming into focus. Sunlight filtered through the curtains and streaked across the foot of her bed. There was yet another thud, but this time it was the distinct sound of the wardrobe closing in her sister's room.

It could only mean that Delphinia was already up and packing.

Eurydice sighed, slid out of the warm covers, and padded across the hall with the specific mind of venting her irritation. Standing in the doorway, she found drawers opened and a jumble of clothes surrounding an open trunk.

"Morning," Delphinia said perkily.

Eurydice responded with a glare as she stepped carefully over spell books before crawling into her sister's bed. "You know what time it is, don't you?" Her voice was still heavy with sleep.

"Half past seven. Dad's already up and done with the paper." Delphinia dumped an orange jumper into the trunk and Eurydice winced.

"You're going to school, Del, not on bloody holiday. Why are you so excited?"

She tossed back her blonde hair and grinned. "Don't tell me you don't miss it."

"Miss it?" No, she didn't really miss Hogwarts, even though it had been only a year. She loved Delphinia, but they had two very different opinions of their time in Slytherin.

When she failed to answer, Delphinia prodded further. "How can you not miss the Great Hall or the moving staircases or the feasts or the lake in the spring?"

"Because I don't."

"Oh, I suppose you are being all superior now that you have a job and everything."

She knew her sister was just teasing, but her words stung for some reason. It was probably just sibling rivalry. "Careful. I'm spending my day off making sure you get to Kings Cross on time."

Delphinia continued on with her haphazard packing, saying nothing. In went the cauldron, schoolbooks, shoes, makeup, and clothes. When she placed a jumbled stack of school robes on the top, she said, "There. That's the last of it."

Eurydice yawned. She had hoped to sleep more before having to trudge off to London with the family, but she was awake now even though Delphinia was climbing into the bed with her.

"You'll miss me when I'm away at school, right?"

Warming to her sister's affections, Eurydice forgave her for the early start. Truth was that she was going to miss Delphinia terribly. It pained her to think that the house would grow quieter in her absence. "Of course. You have to promise me you'll send loads of owls."

"Definitely. I'm sorry for waking you, by the way. I couldn't sleep with the excitement and all."

Eurydice rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "It's okay. I'm up."

"Mum doesn't want to leave till ten, so you can sleep some more. And I suppose you'll be apparating anyway."

"No, I'll go with you in the coach," she said with a stretch. "You want to go put the kettle on?"

"Before I do, you have to look at this trick." Delphinia jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand from off the bedside table and pointed it at her head. "Nova Capillia." Her long blonde hair turned immediately into a medium shade of brown--closer to Eurydice's own color.

"Nice trick, Del, but your eyebrows are still blonde."

"Oh." She grinned and turned her hair back. "I'm still mastering it."

"You've been waiting all summer to show me that trick, right?"

"Now that it is finally September, yes. I've been going through Dad's Transfigurations books."

Eurydice playfully threw a pillow at her. "Go put the kettle on. I'll join you in a moment."

With Delphinia gone, she padded back across the hall and scanned over her own belongings. Everything was far more organized and tidy, something she couldn't help but notice smugly as she began to comb the tangles out of her long hair. But tiredness now gave way to a sudden flutter of anxiety and she set down the brush to try and decipher what she was feeling. Was she actually nervous about seeing her sister off on the train? Something about seeing all those former classmates of hers . . .

It was clear that she still hadn't shaken off the insecurity gained after seven years in Slytherin--a place where one was expected to have the right connections, right family, right breeding, and right friends. She stared into the mirror and studied her reflection. A young woman with half combed hair looked back with a frown and Eurydice was reminded for the sixth thousandth time that she never had any of these.

"One day," she found herself saying aloud with conviction. "It will all be different."

Grabbing her dressing gown, she went downstairs.

Her sister poured her a cup of tea as Eurydice slid down into a chair at the kitchen table. The milky liquid swirled and gave off a curl of steam that dissolved as Delphinia darted around the kitchen. At the rate she was moving around, Eurydice couldn't help but wonder if her sister had already had a few cups.

"Do you want breakfast?"

She was impressed. "Feeling guilty about waking me up?"

"A little."

"Give me a moment." Eurydice's fingers wrapped around the warm cup and she took a sip.

Delphinia sat down at the table, finally motionless.

"So this is your last year."

"I know," her sister beamed. "This time next year I'll be an editor for the Daily Prophet and we can get a flat together in London. It'll be brilliant."

"Del, what are you going to do if you don't get a job there?" Even though it had been her sister's lofty plan to be editor-in-chief someday, Eurydice couldn't help but think practically. The look of denial on Delphinia's face was enough to prove a point.

"I . . . er . . . of course I will. I mean, you always wanted to work for Gordon & Hollings and now you work in appraisals."

"Yes, but--"

"It's going to happen, Dissy." Such conviction. She was reminded of her own lofty desires.

Their mother had appeared in the doorway. "How are my girls?" she asked, looking bright and alert as she strode into the kitchen with her teacup in one hand and the arts section of the Prophet in the other. She kissed them both on their heads, smelling of her morning cigarette. "You two want breakfast?"

Eurydice suddenly realized how hungry she was. "Oh yes please."

"There's more tea if you want, Mum."

"I'm alright, love," she replied, setting her cup and paper on the table. She then took her wand out of her dressing gown pocket. "Eggs? Toast? Sausage? Pain-au-chocolate?"

They placed their orders and a couple of minutes and handy cooking spells later, both Eurydice and Delphinia had a hot breakfast before them. Her mother watched them with a smile from over the top of her outstretched paper.

When Eurydice couldn't eat anymore, she began to rise from the table. "I'm going for my bath."

"Remember, we need to leave here by--"

"Ten. Yes, Mum, I remember."

Eurydice took a last sip of tea and headed back upstairs.

She was nervous again. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters stretched out before her, convulsing students in every direction. Eurydice scanned the throng, silently hoping not to see any one of a half dozen people on her mental list--the very names and faces that represented the worst of her time spent in Slytherin. She took small comfort in the fact that some of these students had left Hogwarts with her. Perhaps she was overreacting. She scanned again. All she could see were a couple of crying first years and Delphinia excitedly making her way to the train. Her mother sighed heavily from next to her, as if realizing with certainty that her children were growing up; her father, quiet as usual, watched his daughter fade into the crowd.

Delphinia didn't give a second glance back and instead went on to meet a gaggle of Slytherin girls. Eurydice watched as her sister's friends bopped around in that excited teenage way, talking animatedly, and laughing. She was unable to stifle the inevitable pang of jealousy that came when she saw her sister fold effortlessly into the rigid social structure unique to Slytherin.

But then something caught her eye. It was a brief flash from down the platform not too far from where her sister began to board the train--an all too familiar shade of pale blond hair and smug detachment. Eurydice didn't need to get any closer to realize that it was Lucius Malfoy and her stomach leapt. She hadn't seen him since they both left Hogwarts a year ago and honestly she would have been perfectly fine to never see him again.

Her mother said something from next to her, enough to cause Eurydice to look away for a moment. And like that, he was gone.

Her sister was somewhere on the train by now, which was giving out great belches of white smoke. Then came the whistle and the slow and labored movements of the train lurching forward out of the station. Her and her parents stood there saying nothing as Delphinia slipped off into the horizon.