Belonging in Slytherin

The Hogwarts Express steamed into King's Cross. Prefects wandered down the train, chivvying younger pupils out and making sure they hadn't left anything behind. Viola was looking eagerly for her parents. "There they are!" she bounced.

Mr and Mrs Beanacre were rosy-cheeked, happy-looking people. Ethelina smiled. She liked the look of them immediately. The girls rushed off the train and went to find their trunks, then hauled them as fast as they could back to the Beanacres. Viola flung herself at them, clinging to her dad. "Oh, I missed you SO much!" she yelled.

"You're Ethelina?" asked Mrs Beanacre, grinning at her daughter's exuberance.

"Yes," Ethelina said.

"I was a couple of years below your dad in Hufflepuff," Viola's mum explained. "Oh, there he is!" She started waving madly and Mr. Hawley came over.

"Kitty?" he smiled.

"Wayland! I couldn't believe it when Viola wrote and said your daughter was also in Slytherin and they'd made friends. She was so lonely in her first year..."

Viola, letting go of her father, looked embarrassed. "I looked after myself, mum."

"But now you don't have to," her mum said happily. "It's good to have friends. How you ended up in that house I'll never know ..." Viola shook her head ruefully. Curiosity killed the cat - or in her case, got it put into a house brimful of intrigue and gossip.

The two dads loaded the trunks onto a trolley and headed out through the barrier. The station was full of people, many heading home for the holidays. In fact, King's Cross was so busy, there was no way any of the Muggles would have noticed a few extra people popping through from Platform 9 3/4. Ethelina and Viola followed with Viola's mum. Ethelina looked around.

"What's up?" Viola asked.

"I thought Bert would be here. I wanted you to meet him."

"Bert's in the car," Mr Hawley explained. "He's got a surprise for you... I know we'd planned to go shopping, but we can go another day."

Ethelina hugged Viola goodbye and pressed a brightly coloured package into her hand. "Bet you thought I'd forgotten," she laughed. "Happy Christmas, and don't go nosing under the paper until the 255th. I'll see you next term - Dad, race you to the car." With that she dashed off, following the 'Way Out' signs.

"Another misfit Slytherin," Kitty Beanacre said.

Wayland Hawley smiled slightly sorrowfully. "You know, Kitty, I think she's probably a very good Slytherin."

"Oh, she is," Viola informed them both, with pride.

*********

Inside the waiting car, Bert's 'surprise' was immediately obvious and not especially welcome. A pale blonde boy sat beside Bert. Ethelina looked at him. There was something familiar about his icy purplish-grey eyes... She got in and closed the car door.

"You're Crispin's brother," she said to the strange boy. He simply nodded. "You could've come to meet your brother and Bert could've come to see me - Bert, I wanted you to meet Viola."

"I'm not supposed to know people like Bert," Cassius said.

Bert looked from one to the other. "Cassius is staying with us for Christmas, Eth. He didn't want to go home." He was a little bothered by Ethelina's reaction to Cassius. This wasn't going the way he'd imagined it - he'd expected his twin would be happy to see him again, and love having someone new to talk to.

"And how will you explain him knowing you to our relatives?"

Bert looked sheepish. "Mum and Dad said we could just have a quiet Christmas this year - they might Floo to see people, and you can go too, and so can Grandma Hawley. But we'll stay at home. If all else fails, we'll say I've got some Muggle illness, like meebles."

Ethelina stared at him. She'd spent a whole term looking forward to just being herself, to things being the way they always used to, and here was Bert bringing someone home to make things awkward. It was only much, much later on that it crossed her mind that Bert had himself given up a full wizarding family Christmas for his new friend.

Ethelina's dad appeared, put the trunk in the boot of the car, and then got into the driver's seat.

"All settled?" he asked. "Ready to go?"

"Oh, get on with it, Dad," Ethelina snapped. "As Bert's been allowed to ruin Christmas, we may as well get it over and done with."

Cassius looked out of the window, his face emotionless. Bert frowned at his twin. Mr Hawley, his expression troubled, tapped the wheel with his wand and started for home.

********

"Your sister's ashamed of me," Cassius told Bert. They were sitting in Bert's room, playing with his wizard train set. Cassius blew a whistle and a dozen tiny passenger figures streamed out of the station café and on to the waiting train. Bert waved a flag and the train pulled out of the station.

"I don't think it's that," Bert said. "I don't think she has a lot of fun at school. She wanted Christmas to be like it used to be."

"I'm glad it's not like normal for me!" Cassius exclaimed. "I don't know what I'd have done if my parents had wanted me at home."

"She knows it can't really be the same.. Everything changes. She just doesn't want to believe it."

"She's like every wizard or witch - they all want everything to be perfect. And if something's not perfect, they hate it."

Ethelina, standing outside the door, heard Cassius' words and was angry with him disparaging her to Bert, then sad. There was some truth in his comments. She pushed open the door, and both boys looked round.

"Great!" Bert said, genuinely pleased to see his twin. "Do you want to sound the horn to work the mines and load up the goods wagons with coal? I need some more at the train depot."

Ethelina bit her lip. "I heard what you were both saying... And Bert, you're right, things can't be the same. And Cassius, you're right too, I do want everything to be perfect."

Cassius' face froze, a blank haughty expression fixed firmly in place. Ethelina continued, "...but not in the way you think. You're like my twin. I love Bert; I don't care if he can't cast spells! And I'm really, really angry that we have to hide away because your family are telling stupid lies, and we either send you home to them or we have to keep their stupid lies going. The problem isn't you, it's them. It's us. Wizards."

Bert looked at his friend. "She's the brainy one." Bert desperately wanted Ethelina and Cassius to be friends. The other boy had been unfriendly and self-reliant to the point of rudeness in his first three weeks at school, but slowly Bert's generous, happy nature and Honey Johnson's endless cheerfulness and tolerance had prevailed. Neither of them really understood what made Cassius so unhappy, but they were both determined to help him nonetheless. Cassius had now started to trust people, but Bert was horribly afraid that a few knocks would make him worse than before. He'd been so sure that Ethelina would welcome his friend...

Cassius didn't smile, but picked up the mining horn and started to stand.

"Don't," said Bert. "I'll do it." But Cassius ignored him. Bert was relieved, really. Cassius had learned something from his first term at St Jude's, at least - to be willing to give people a chance.

Cassius limped over to Ethelina and handed her the horn. "Thanks," she said, as Cassius returned to his position, wincing as he sat on the floor again. Ethelina stationed herself by the coal mine. "Tell me about St Jude's," she said, blowing the horn and watching as tiny men stared hauling coal onto the goods wagons.

"It's a biggish house, really," Bert began.

"With four floors and an attic, plus a basement," Cassius added. "Quite modern, only about 250 years old, built in the time of the Muggle King George."

"There are between two and five people in each year, but some of those are Muggle kids from halfblood families, the sort who used to be sent to orphanages," Bert continued. "Our year's odd, because Cass and Honey are purebloods and me nearly so, but blood doesn't matter there, apart from Muggle kids not doing Care of Magical Creatures or Herbology 'cos they can't see things and purebloods needing extra lessons."

"Why's that?" Ethelina asked. Who'd have thought purebloods would be deficient?

"Well, because kids with a Muggle parent can do some things the Muggle way - make drinks, post letters and use telephones. We can't, so we have to learn from the beginning. Although I'm lucky, our grandparents taught us some stuff. We do a lot of field trips, going out into Muggle towns and taking buses, buying train tickets, using money and stuff like that."

"Weird. We just do lessons. Your classes must be really small!"

"Some are. Some things we do all together," Cassius told her, then grimaced. "Like Muggle Customs."

Bert laughed. "That's not exactly a lesson, but we have to do some things every year. Bonfire night is one of them. Muggles celebrate it every year, so we have to, just to get into the habit. We had to have a Muggle Christmas party too, and we have to watch telly for an hour every night. That's like a wireless with pictures."

"It's indoctrination!" Cassius grizzled. "My dad'd lock me up for a month if I talked about that stuff at home. I'm not going to live with Muggles."

"You liked the sausages," Bert accused. "You'd have liked bonfire night if the fireworks were better."

Cassius shook his head and looked at Ethelina for support. "Muggle fireworks are rubbish."

"I like the sound of your school," Ethelina said, "Rubbish fireworks or no. I hate mine..."

There was a pause as Bert and Cassius reflected on how horrible Hogwarts must be.

"You know my brother, don't you?" Cassius asked. Ethelina nodded. "Before I went to St Jude's, I thought he was okay. He doesn't hate me like some of my family do..."

"There are worse people than your brother around," Ethelina said darkly.

Cassius looked at her, his eyes unfathomable. "I know."

********

Dear Viola,

Stop worrying. There wasn't much of a surprise at all. Bert had baked a cake and brought it to show me, and didn't want to carry it out of the car. I hate to say it, but he's a pretty good cook already - can't make much, but what he can make is good. He's actually been teaching Flurry how to do some things better.

Thanks for the chocolate frogs. Bert got me a really cool book for Christmas, The Worst Witch. It's really for Muggles younger than us, but it's about a witch who goes to witch school and is dreadful at everything. It's the funniest thing ever! Muggles have such crazy ideas. Mum and Dad got us a small greenhouse to share, bewitched to water everything while we're at school. I haven't told them I'm nearly the worst in the year at Herbology. I'd better improve a bit so they won't be disappointed! Even Bert is better than me.

See you on the train next week,

Love,

Eth

Ethelina tied her letter to the owl's leg and watched it fly away from the treehouse where the three were lounging, protected from the winter cold and damp by heating and sealing Charms placed on the treehouse as it was built. "You do have friends, see," Bert told her.

"Only Viola," she replied.

"And Toby, who you give stamps to. And Ed, and Kelly..." Bert grinned. "You spend too much time being gloomy, Eth."

Cassius grinned. "You say that to everyone, Bert. You haven't met the worst sort of wizard. I live with them half the year, and so does your sister." He shifted awkwardly and pulled a face.

"Is it hurting again?" Bert asked.

"A bit," Cassius conceded.

"How... if it's not rude... how did you hurt your leg?" Ethelina said.

Again, that dark look in Cassius' eyes, the look that gave nothing away. "It's been broken a few times, and my family aren't very good healers..."

"The worst sort of wizard," Ethelina said, understanding. An impulse struck her. She took her penknife from her pocket - she and Bert had identical ones, and they had, after a private discussion, clubbed together to buy one for Cassius as his Christmas gift. She cut the tip of her index finger. "You two do the same. We're going to make a promise."

"We're not wizards," Bert reminded her.

"There's a little bit of magic in Squibs. Do it."

Solemnly each boy cut his fingertip and they all pressed their cuts together. "One day," said Eth, "When we're all big enough, we're going to do something to put things right, okay? We're not going to be the worst sort of wizard, or listen to them, or live with them. We're going to make things good for ourselves."

"And for others," Cassius said. "For Muggleborns and halfbloods and parthumans and Squibs."

"Agreed," the three said as one. They dropped their hands, each feeling a little foolish. Yet it was as though something had changed. A declaration can never be unmade. Somehow, they felt their futures tie in a knot.

Bert shuffled a bit. "Well, that's that. C'mon Eth, Cass and I are going to teach you to make an apple pie. I can't wait to see you trying to manage with an apple peeler..."

And with that, they all tramped back to the house. Cassius was limping where the cold had got into his bad leg but he didn't about the pain. What was a sore thigh during the happiest Christmas he'd ever had?

By the time she went back to school, Ethelina knew she too would remember this holiday as one of her best ever.