A Slytherin Black Sheep

“I had a feeling you’d be one of us.” Aileen commented in a bemused manner as Edana sat down at the Slytherin table. “Welcome to Slytherin House.”

“Thank you.” Edana whispered.

“Rosier,” Blond haired Druscilla Arlington mused. “I’ve heard that name before from my older sister.”

“My brother Evan was a beater on the Slytherin House team. He graduated in 78.” Edana offered.

The other girl nodded, pleased to have her suspicion confirmed. “I thought so. I’m Dru Arlington. What was your first name again?”

“Edana.”

“Its a pleasure to meet you Edana Rosier.” Dru replied formally, leaning over to shake her new housemate’s hand. Her pale blue eyes twinkled, as though she found the greeting somehow amusing.

“Likewise it is a joy to have met you, Dru Arlington.” Edana said with equal formality.

There were now only four students left to be sorted. Tabitha, who quickly joined Thalia at the Ravenclaw table; a boy with fiery red hair; a black girl; and a tall boy who appeared bored.

“Weasley, Charles!”

The Sorting Hat lost no time in proclaiming him a Gryffindor.

“They needn’t have bothered Sorting him. Everyone knows that Weasleys and Gryffindors have always been one and the same.” Dru quipped as the boy sprinted over to the Gryffindor table and was embraced by an older student who, from the familial resemblance, had to be his brother.

“There is always room for surprises. Besides, its a tradition.” Malina Cross said in languid tones, speaking for the first time since Edana joined the Slytherins. “And to be a tradition it must be repeated.”

“True.” Dru acknowledged.

“Wilkes, Kali.”

“SLYTHERIN!”

Edana clapped for the new girl who took a seat directly across the table from her. She was beaming with excitement and immediately introduced herself to the other first years.

“Zeno, Braedan!”

“SLYTHERIN!”

The bored looking boy, Braedan Zeno, took a seat next at the Slytherin table to the only other male first year. Unfortunately this seat also placed him next to the Slytherin House ghost, a gaunt spirit covered in silver blood, called the Bloody Baron . Braedan sat as far from the ghost as he possible could; the ghost appeared not to notice the boy‘s unease.

“There are not many boys in our year, just Amiti and Zeno.” Dru noted as the feast began, her lip curling a bit with displeasure.

The two boys, however, were quick to seize upon the advantages of only having two in their dormitory. “We’ll have loads of space!” Edana heard Alex Amiti exclaim to Braedon.

“Its like that with all the houses.” Edana informed the other girls, remembering what she had been told by Celinda on the train. “Its an off year. At least they are nice looking.”

Edana’s last comment was seconded by the girls.

“Ah well,” Malina drawled, “at least with such as small pool of candidates, it will mean better odds for being chosen as a prefect or Head Girl.”

“Ambitious, are we?” Dru chuckled.

“Is there anything wrong with ambition?”

“No. Not here anyway. Aren’t Slytherins supposed to be cunning and ambitious?” Edana queried.

“Well, at least we’ll have an easier time ingratiating ourselves with out house head. Fewer of us to remember.” Dru said. Someone laughed behind her and she whirled around to insult whoever it was, then backed down when she realized the person was older than she was and thus more practiced in hexes and other spells.

“I doubt that tactic will get you very far considering the odds against our house head completing the year.” A third year told them.

“Why?” Dru demanded.

“You’ll see,” he replied airily.

Dru muttered something under her breathe. Just then Prefect Aileen Travers returned to see how the first years were faring.

“Is something the matter with our head of house?” Edana asked.

Aileen looked toward the head table, As Edana and the others followed Aileen gaze toward the current Head of Slytherin and Potions Mistress, they immediately understood the third year’s comment. The Professor’s hair was as thin and white as cobwebs, thick spectacles rested on her long Roman nose. Her skin was like rumpled parchment that had been fished out of a dustbin, smoothed out and stretched tight over her birdlike bones. She looked as though the slightest touch would cause her to crumble into dust.

“Professor Wormwood, our head of house and mistress of potions.” Aileen confirmed. “Only 176 years old.”

“Only?” Edana heard Dru exclaim. Evan had said she was pretty old, but Wormwood appeared to be so ancient each breathe was a miracle. Was it possible for someone to be that frail?

Aileen nodded. “She wasn’t so bad term before last, she looked fifty years younger than she does now. Death Eaters killed her daughter, son-in-law, a grandson and one of her great-grandchildren. She aged thirty years overnight when she heard the news, and another twenty when one of her surviving great-grandchildren announced his intention to become an Auror.” Everyone knew the death rate for Aurors had skyrocketed in recent years so the first years could understand the Professor’s concern. Edana noticed a distant look in Aileen‘s mismatched eyes, but the prefect shook herself out of it before continuing to speak. “They say the governors are searching frantically for a replacement. No one believes she will be with us for very much longer, but finding someone to fill the shoes of not only the Potions Mistress but Head of Slytherin will not be easy.” A moment later Aileen added, “none of the other teachers are Slytherin.”

Malina raised an eyebrow. “None of the other teachers are Slytherins?”

Aileen nodded. “We used to have a Slytherin Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but he has not been seen in four years.”

Edana shivered. She had heard a little about Professor Nyssa from Evan, but only that he had suddenly left and not been seen since. Evan never mentioned anything sinister being involved, but he tended to with hold information he thought was not appropriate for his little sister.

“I need you lot to stand up.” Aileen said suddenly, distracting Edana from her thoughts. She brandished a camera Edana had not noticed before.

“I hate having my picture taken.” Malina complained.

“Too bad. Its tradition.” Aileen said as she arranged the reluctant first years so that they would all be visible in the shot. “Cross, stop hiding behind Zeno. Now smile nicely.” Edana heard the unspoken ‘or else’ in Aileen voice and forced a smile.

Aileen snapped a few pictures and let them go, blinking from the brightness of the flash. The first years returned to their seats and with the prefect gone, the talk turned to the various theories on the missing professor. Many of the first years were from old Slytherin families they had heard the tale from older relatives and friends and were able to enlighten those unfamiliar with the story.

“I heard he was eaten by the Loch Ness Monster on vacation.” Dru told them in conspiratorial tones.

“Don’t be silly,” Malina snorted. “That’s an old Muggle myth. Everyone knows its really a kelpie, and a DADA professor ought to know the proper way to deal with one of those.”

“I heard it was You-Know-Who!” Kali cut in with a dramatic whisper.

“Everyone thinks that!” Malina rolled her eyes. “Its the obvious explanation.”

“My parents run The Daily Prophet.” Alex told his housemates. “Good reporters always try to find out six things: who, what, where, when, how and why. The who is Professor Nyssa, the what is he did not show up for the next term, that leaves four questions upon which to speculate: where, when, why, and how. If the common assumption, that You-Know-Who was behind it is correct, why? I mean Nyssa was a Slytherin.”

“I heard You-Know-Who wanted one of his supporters to get the job.” Kali told them. “So his agent could kill Dumbledore and a whole lot of other people. We all know he wants to kill all the Muggle-borns and those he thinks aren‘t worthy to study here.”

“Obviously, it didn’t work.” Malina drawled, her dark eyes surveying the room. “Not everyone here is pure-blooded. Besides, Wilkes, that just sounds like an updated version of the Chamber of Secrets story with a Death Eater standing in for the monster of Slytherin.”

“It didn’t work because Nyssa either knew or guessed the plan and cursed the position with his dying breathe.” Kali retorted. “He was supposed to know all kinds of obscure hexes. Since then Hogwarts has had three Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes.” A fifth year prefect who had been half listening in on their conversation said from behind them. His glasses cast shadows across his face, making it all but impossible to tell if he was serious or not. “The part about having three teachers anyway. No one knows if Nyssa actually cursed the position, though I wouldn’t put it past him. I had him my first year and he loved the dramatic.”

* * * * *

As the feast began to wind down and conversations slowed, Edana noticed something peculiar: Malina had never once taken a drink. Her goblet of pumpkin juice was untouched.

“Aren’t you thirsty?” She asked, curious.

“I never drink...pumpkin juice.” Malina pronounced pumpkin juice as though it were an expletive.

Edana tried to think of something to say, but she was not very good around people her own age. She had never really known any other girls and had to rummage around in her mind for something to restart the conversation with. “Do you read comics?”

Malina reguarded her carefully. “Yes, Mitchie Miggs.”

“Have you read the latest issue?”

“The one where he is chased by a cloaked figure on a broomstick that only he can see? Oh yes!” Malina exclaimed, all attempts at dignity cast aside at the mention of her favorite comic series.

Edana grinned. Maybe this was not going to be as difficult as she feared. “I liked the bit in the cornfield best.”

Malina shook her head. “Poor Mitchie. The Obliviators always get to him at the end.”

“I liked the one where the Obliviator hid in a trash can and ambushed him with the Memory charm. I wonder what they’ll do next month.” Edana wondered.

Before Malina could answer there was a great scrapping of chairs as students from the three other houses started to get up.

“First years! Over here!” The prefect with the glasses called them over to him. He counted heads to make sure he had all of them and nodded to himself before speaking.

“I’m Joshua Harker, one of the prefects for Slytherin. Follow me, please.”

Harker led them down a flight of stairs and into a maze of passages. Edana gave up trying to remember directions after the third turn and the second secret door. The loopy stone corridors were as tangled as a ball of snarled yarn. Finally Harker led them to another right turn and halted in front of an unremarkable stretch of bare stone wall.

“Sanguis.” A hidden door popped open, and Harker ushered the first years inside.

The Slytherin Common Room was a long room with the low ceiling typical of the Hogwarts dungeons. The Slytherins had never been intended to occupy the dungeons on a permanent basis, but during construction of the castle Salazar Slytherin had grown to like the dampness of the dungeons and told the others not to bother adding a tower for Slytherin House. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw never understood this decision, and after Slytherin left the school they again offered a tower to Slytherin House. Be it out of a sense of tradition, stubbornness, a desire to be different, or simply being disinclined to move, they refused. The offer was never made again.

With no windows, the common room was twilight dark. The main source of light came from greenish glass lamps hanging from the ceiling on polished brass chains. The lamps provided a somewhat murky light, Edana could easily understand why the older students had pushed most of the chairs around the fireplace, even if it made leaving difficult. The fireplace on the wall opposite the entrance was surrounded by an elaborately carved mantle piece that had been added during the fifteenth century. Upon closer inspection the Romanesque columns proved to be carved stone snakes.

The wall to the right of the fireplace was covered with portraits of famous Slytherins and previous graduating classes going back to the start of modern photography. The wall opposite it contained images of the present occupants in order of their year with separate framed pictures of the current Quidditch team and Slytherin prefects. There was also a place for photos of Slytherin Head Boys and Girls. Harker explained that the pictures Aileen had taken during the feast would be added as soon as they were developed.

“The pictures are always taken at the feast.” Harker informed the new arrivals. “That way you have something to strive for.”

“I don’t understand.” Braedon said, perplexed as he stared at the Slytherin Picture wall.

Harker grinned like the cat with the canary in its paws. “Wait a few years. You’ll change but your picture won’t. You have to be a prefect or on the Quidditch team to get another, newer, picture on the wall.”

“That’s blackmail.” Dru whispered.

“We prefer to think of it as an incentive.” Harker shrugged, then pointed out the two doors, one located on each side of the fireplace, that concealed the labyrinthine corridors leading to the students dormitories.

“Boys to the left, girls to the right.” Harker told them before disappearing down the left hand door. The first years thanked him and found seats in the ring of heavy armchairs farther away from the fireplace. They were sleepy but intent on continuing their conversation until Aileen got up from her high backed chair by the fire to shoo them off to bed.

* * * * *

The first year girls dormitory was the second door from the end of the corridor. Like the common room it was a lengthy rectangle with a low ceiling and rough walls like gray sandpaper in texture. It had been intended to accommodate up to twenty students, but positioning of the four beds and trunks along with the usual students clutter would soon disguise that it was only one fifth filled.

“Who calls the bed by the window?” Dru quipped. The others laughed and took whatever bed their trunk had been positioned next to.

Edana found Shadow curled up in a ball of gray fur, sleeping on one of the beds. The cat opened his yellow eyes to slits and regarded her without interest. Edana scratched him between his ears and the cat gracefully stretched himself out to his full length.

“Is that your cat?” Dru asked. Edana noticed that a coal colored kitten was settling into her lap.

“Yes, his name is Shadow.”

“This is Caliope. I’ve only had her a week. I hope they’ll get along.”

“They haven’t killed each other yet.” Edana noted wryly. “I guess that is a good sign.”

Dru laughed and kissed her kitten on the head.

The girls were far more tired than they cared to admit and pulled on the nightclothes and climbed into their beds. As Aileen reminded them, they had classes the next morning.