Brothers

Chapter Five

Alyssa

Rivers awoke the next morning with a growling stomach, a small headache, and the conversation he'd had with Dumbledore the previous night on his mind. He pushed the memory aside, and pressed the palms of his hands to his forehead, trying to soothe the dull pain with pressure. He was only partially successful, and the burning hunger in his stomach made him forget about it. Still tired, he rolled out of bed. After taking a moment to realize he was alone in the dorm, he changed, fixed his hair, and went out into the Slytherin commons. Before he had a chance to escape from the commons and into the castle corridors, a dark-haired, dark-eyed girl approached him.

"It's Cassius, right? My name's Alyssa Myers." Her tone of voice didn't suggest any interest in friendship, nor did she extend her hand to shake his...not that Rivers cared.

Rivers glared at her. "Don't ever call me that. It's Rivers."

"Rivers Malfoy?" She shrugged. "I suppose it has a nice ring to it."

Rivers flinched and grimaced in disgust. "Milligan, not Malfoy."

Alyssa grinned in an almost evil way. "Even better."

Rivers tried to go around her to get to the exit, but she moved in front of him.

"Where are you going?" she asked, still grinning.

"Breakfast," Rivers said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. His stomach growled and burned in protest to this delay.

"Great. I'll go with you. Besides, you probably don't know the way very well, you might get lost." Alyssa turned and walked to the door leading to the corridor outside.

Confused, Rivers followed. The stone door slid open automatically when they approached, and shut itself behind them. Rivers glanced back as they walked away. The night before he had seen that on the outside the door looked like a regular stone wall. At the time, he'd thought perhaps he had just been tired enough then that he hadn't seen the door, only thinking that it opened from nowhere when the password was spoken. But his glance now confirmed what he had seen; the doorway was nowhere to be found. How did the other Slytherins find it again?

In any case, Alyssa had been right. Had he gone on his own, Rivers would have been utterly lost in this vast castle. On several occasions on their trek to the Great Hall, Alyssa turned the opposite direction Rivers thought they should have gone, or went up staircases when he thought they were supposed to continue on down the hall. Hogwarts was an impossible maze Rivers thought he would never figure out. His last school hadn't been so confusing, and it didn't have Houses either.

They passed Draco a short distance from the Great Hall. He was heading back towards the Slytherin commons and threw both Rivers and Alyssa a contemptuous glare, and Alyssa returned it.

"I see you and Malfoy don't like each other much," Rivers said as they entered the Great Hall.

"You mean Draco?"

"I mean Malfoy."

Alyssa shrugged and sat at the Slytherin table. Rivers didn't really want to sit next to her, he wanted to be alone, but he was brought up to not be rude, so he sat down there as well. He helped himself to the food before him.

"Draco's never liked me, and I've never liked him. Everyone else in Slytherin does though, just because of his last name." She rolled her eyes. "I guess you can expect the same thing."

He hoped not. Privacy was something Rivers liked to have, and the last thing he wanted was a ton of people worshipping him like they did Draco. Rivers was aware of Alyssa watching him as he ate, but chose to ignore her for now.

"So, you grew up with Muggles?" Alyssa asked after a short pause.

Rivers looked at her for the first time since he sat down. "How would you know?"

She pointed to his shirt. "You're wearing Muggle clothes. You'll want to change into your school robes, though. Classes start soon."

It couldn't be that soon. Rivers only saw a few students from the other Houses in the Great Hall, all of them looking tired and groggy. It was early, about seven-thirty in the morning. Those that were there, at lease those who weren't from Slytherin, had obviously just woken up, like Rivers had. He assumed they were the early risers, even if the Slytherins all woke before they did.

Alyssa continued to look at him, chewing a little on her lower lip. "What was it like living with Muggles?"

"Don't you have any Muggle-born friends?"

Alyssa burst into peel of laughter causing heads to turn and eyes to stare. Her laughter died off slowly, and she gave Rivers an amused grin.

"There aren't any, er, Muggle-born in Slytherin." This statement sent her into another, much shorter, fit of laughter.

"Is that even possible?" Rivers asked. "With so many students, there's bound to be a Muggle-born once in a while at least."

"I don't know. If there are any, they don't admit it. I'm sure there are a few who have a Muggle or Squib somewhere in their bloodline, but no one ever says so." Alyssa looked as if she wanted to say something more, but she didn't. She just smiled.

Rivers stood and walked out of the Great Hall. Alyssa, whom he hoped would stay behind and leave him alone, followed.

"Why are you following me?" he asked, not stopping or even looking at her.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"I don't think so."

Rivers shook his head and turned a corner. He wasn't really paying too much attention to where he was going, but he was pretty sure this was the way to the Slytherin Common Room.

"You're going to get lost," Alyssa said. Rivers could hear the smile in her voice.

"What do you care?" Rivers muttered.

"What did you say?"

He didn't answer. Maybe if he ignored her, she'd go away. He had no such luck.

"Well?" Alyssa quickened her pace, trying to get into Rivers' line of sight. Rivers responded by speeding up too. "What did you say?"

"I said," Rivers said through clenched teeth. "What do you care?"

"Hmm...you know what? I don't. I don't care, and it feels good." She gave a content sigh. "You know, you never answered my question."

Rivers turned another corner and stopped, now knowing he was lost. He didn't recognize this suit of armor or either of the pictures next to it. But he wasn't going to admit he was lost, at least not to Alyssa. "Which question?"

"What was it like living with Muggles?" she repeated.

"Oh." Rivers wondered if he should ask one of the portraits the way to his common room. "Why don't you go find a Muggle-born and ask them?"

Alyssa scoffed. "I really don't care to go converse with a Mud-...a Muggle-born. Thanks, but no thanks."

Rivers turned and looked at her for the first time since leaving the Great Hall. She wanted to say Mudblood.

"Well," she said. "I can see you can handle yourself. Perhaps I'll see you later."

And with that, she left. Rivers watched her go, wondering just what her intentions were.

He looked around. He had no idea where he was, and he was so unsure of his navigating skills now that he didn't dare try to find his way back to the Great Hall. So, instead, he turned to a portrait of wizard in his late forties or early fifties.

"You wouldn't happen to know the way to the Slytherin Common Room, would you?"

./'./'./'./'

Lucius Malfoy was a busy man. Even though he had lost his job as a Governor of the School Board, he was still busy. He had properties to manage, things to sell, people to meet...so an unexpected owl in the morning wasn't something he was at all pleased with.

The tawny owl arrived just as Lucius was gathering the last of the inessential items he had somehow collected over the past year. Lucius was never quite sure how he always ended up with excess things, but he had an idea that it was Draco's continual demands for useless things that caused this. Draco didn't seem to be able to tell when he truly needed something or just wanted it to be able to say he had it, and this trait seemed to rub off on others. At least, it had rubbed off on him. Lucius would have to remedy that.

The owl dropped a professional looking letter right in front of him. The owl did not hang around to wait for a reply. It simply swooped through the air, made a U-turn, and departed through the open window from whence it came.

Lucius inspected the letter, expecting it to be from the Ministry or one of his partners in business. So, it came as a surprise to him when he found the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry seal holding the piece of parchment shut. Mildly interested, wondering whether it was about Draco or Rivers and how in Merlin's name either one of them could get into trouble so soon, Lucius broke the wax seal and shook open the letter.

As he read the letter, a large smirk spread across his face. When he finished, he folded the letter, tucked it away into a pocket on the inside of his robes, and continued with his business. As he left Malfoy Manor, he walked past one of his many house elves. As he passed by, his house elf cowered, ready to be kicked or hit with Lucius' snake headed cane...but the blow never came; his master only grinned an evil grin and continued on his merry way.

./'./'./'./'

Alyssa settled herself into one of the chairs around the fire in the Slytherin Common Room. She glanced over at the group of Slytherins sitting around one of the tables across the room. Draco was among them, and he caught her looking. They exchanged glares, and Alyssa promptly opened the Transfiguration book she had retrieved from her dorm before she sat down.

She read a page, not really interested. She wasn't a bookworm, nor was she fond of this particular subject, but she was bored. Charms and History of Magic were her favorite subjects (which made her very upset that the History teacher was so boring), but the Transfiguration book was the first book she saw in her trunk (she hadn't gotten around to unpacking yet), so that was what she had grabbed. It really didn't matter which book she read right now anyways, it was just a way to pass the time.

She managed to read five more boring pages of her book. Just as she turned the page to start on the sixth, one of her fellow Slytherin's left the common room, and another stepped in. She glanced up, and grinned when she saw who entered.

Rivers walked in, looking a bit confused and frazzled and a little proud of himself at the same time. He had made it back to the commons without asking Alyssa for help. Of course, the pride vanished when he spotted Alyssa.

Alyssa grinned a little more and waved at Rivers. Whichever way he had managed to find back to the common room took a hell of a lot longer than the way Alyssa and every other Slytherin took. Rivers gave her an almost contemptuous look and quickly departed into the boys' dorm.

Alyssa closed her book, set it on the table, and strode over to where Draco and his goons were. There were only five of them including Draco. There was the thickheaded Crabbe and Goyle, as usual. Ian Kindler, and Oswald Bole, Oz for short, was there too. Oz was a sixth year, and a Beater on the Quidditch team.

"Hi, Draco. Oz, Ian, Vincent, Gregory." She addressed all of them to make sure they were all paying attention. "So, Draco, how long have you known about Rivers?" She sat down. "You do know that that's what he wants to be called, don't you? Instead of his Malfoy name? I don't see how he got into Slytherin. He doesn't even think the same way about things like the rest of us, you know? He says things like 'Muggle-born', and he doesn't seem to think anything's wrong with that. I guess being raised by Muggles can really poison you, huh? Well, I have things to do. This has been a really enlightening conversation. Maybe we can talk again some other time. See you."

Alyssa got up and went back to her chair. She took a good long look over at the table Draco sat at before returning to her book. She had meant to embarrass Draco in front of his friends, but she didn't think she had managed that. She'd also meant to try to show them that they didn't have to follow Draco around just because of his last name. He hadn't really done anything great after all, had he? What she had managed to do, however, was get Draco royally pissed at her, and his friends looked like they shared his feelings rather than thinking about Rivers and whether or not the name Malfoy really meant anything. Well, she'd just have to try again.

She tried to read more of the Transfiguration book, but she just couldn't do it. So, she got up and retrieved a History book from her trunk instead.

About seven minutes after her 'talk' with Draco and five minutes after getting her History book, Rivers came back out of the dorms. He was wearing his school robes, with Slytherin crest and green and silver colored tie and everything. Alyssa watched as he looked around for a moment, seeming to be confused as to what he should do now, and then choose to sit in one of the smaller chairs away from the fire.

Alyssa continued to read, though she did peer over the top of her book to gaze at Rivers on occasion. She saw Rivers sitting there, watching others, waiting for a sign that it was time to go to class. She also saw how some first year girls, including her sister, Grace, were sneaking glances at him. They were blushing.

She could see why. Draco was fairly cute, but Rivers was more handsome. Alyssa didn't know about the other Slytherin girls, but she did know her little sister had begun to realize that guys could be cute. She also knew that Grace liked handsome better than cute, as did Alyssa.

She looked at Rivers, and knew that she wouldn't mind seeing him. She was only twelve, but as her folks said, she was born old. She didn't plan on having a boyfriend any time soon, but maybe in the future...

It was impossible now, she knew, with the way she acted. Rivers wasn't like other Slytherins. There was no way he'd like the way she was, because she had the same view as everyone else sorted into the house of serpents. Muggles were inferior, as were Mudbloods, half-bloods, and Squibs. Rivers didn't see a difference between any of them. How the hell had he gotten into Slytherin?

Alyssa went back to her book. She had no chance with Rivers if she ever wanted to go out with him, and she probably didn't have much of a chance with any one else either. They all saw her as a pest, a nuisance, a troublemaker, and real bad news, even for a Slytherin. Every house had one person who wasn't liked as well as the rest, and she was it. Sometimes, just sometimes, she wondered why she had to be the way she was. Sometimes, just sometimes, she wished she weren't such a smart-ass.