A Slytherin Black Sheep

In the brief interval between when Professor Wormwood pulled her out of Stoker’s class and Edana’s return a few days later, something had changed among the Slytherin first years. Dru treated her like Malina, Kali followed suit, and Malina ignored her after being railed at about Death Eaters when she tried to commiserate with her housemate and try to suggest Evan might be a martyr. Edana attempted to apologize a few days later for her outburst, to explain that she did not mean what she said, that she had been keeping her emotions under lock and key and they tumbled out because she overwhelmed her capacity to control them. Malina left the room every time she tried to speak to her. After the first few tries, Edana gave up completely.

Edana slowly began to realize that being the sister of a Death Eater put her in a rather precarious social position. Never having been exposed to group dynamics outside of the ones present in her own small family before her arrival at Hogwarts, Edana had entirely overlooked the subtle but definite schism of Slytherin House.  Now that she was forced to pay attention to such things she noticed the divide between those who supported the Dark Lord and those who hated him. Those who did not like the Death Eaters despised her and no matter what she said in her own defense, believed that she either aided or supported them. The sympathizers did not like her because she was not an avid supporter herself and because she refused to think of her brother as a fallen martyr to the cause.

What little comfort and solace Edana found at school was in her studies and in flying. If her roommates wanted to ignore her, she would ignore them in return. It was with some satisfaction that she watched Dru and Kali’s Charms marks plummet after they stopped studying with her. Malina received detention in flying for her refusal to get off the ground no that she no longer had aerial bodyguards. As one year faded into another, her ostracism became status quo. Only later did Edana realize that it most likely would have been a temporary situation had she not encouraged it until it was an unshakeable routine.

Her first summer home from Hogwarts found her spending far more time with the family house elves, Squeaky and Tuffy, than with her mother. Lenore Rosier had taken a position with an antiquities firm to pay for Evan’s funeral and fill the financial void his death had left. All of Evan’s assets had been frozen or had been placed in a trust fund for Edana that not could not be accessed until after she graduated for Hogwarts.

The subject of Evan was now forbidden in the Rosier household. Edana knew that the Aurors had the house under constant surveillance, though what they expected to see Edana never understood. The Aurors knew the Rosiers were aware of their presence. In Edana’s books, the characters always tried to conceal surveillance attempts so the subjects would feel free to carry out illegal activities.  She concluded the constant observation was more harassment than investigation and resolved to pay it no heed, though the idea rankled when she allowed herself to think about it. 

To pass the long hours, Edana kept busy with a strict regime of exercise, Quidditch practices, and study. As a second year she would be eligible to try out for her house Quidditch team, and she was determined to become a Chaser for Slytherin.  Edana found that she welcomed the physical exhaustion, it kept her thoughts from straying toward certain topics. Additionally, with her mother preoccupied with work and Evan in his grave, she had little else to do. The House Elves did the majority of the chores, and aside from occasional trips to Diagon Alley on errands, she had little responsibilities.

Edana had the house elves erect a makeshift goal post in the back of the house.  She had Tuffy throw her the Quaffle so she could improve her catching as she tended to fumble the ball a bit when she first caught it. In a real match an opposing Chaser could easily snatch the Quaffle away from her while she tried to steady it. She was getting better. Her obvious fumbles had turned after hours of work into slight hiccups.

Tuffy threw the Quaffle at her. The House Elf had good aim and she caught and steadied it easily.

“Tuffy, this time throw the Quaffle near me rather than directly at me.” Edana instructed. She could not assume that her teammates would have Tuffy’s accuracy. Also, Tuffy was throwing the Quaffle from a stationary position while Chasers moved about the pitch on brooms.

Tuffy complied and Edana was forced to dive to catch the Quaffle. If she had not been using a Pennifold Quaffle she would have had to fish it out of the Holly bushes. As she corrected her position she caught sight of something flashing across the road from the house. Probably the sun reflecting off one of the Auror’s cameras or watches, Edana thought as she chewed her lip in vexation. Couldn’t they go bother another Death Eater’s family, the kind that actually participated in crimes?

Aside from the irritation of being watched, the summer passed quietly. Before Edana knew it her mother was dropping her off at King’s Cross station. Edana had to call after Mrs. Rosier to enchant her bulky, black trunk so it would go through the barrier as she was not officially permitted to perform magic until she was actually on the Hogwarts Express. It was unlikely she would be reprimanded for enchanting her trunk as so many other students did, but Edana had no desire to invite trouble from the Ministry when she knew their were Aurors shadowing her family itching to catch them in the slightest infraction of the law. She managed to pull her trunk onto the train without assistance from any other student and passed the trip reading a biography on her favorite Quidditch player of all time, the famous Pride’s Chaser Catriona McCormick, and trying to tune out a debate by a group of Hufflepuff Sixth years over who was the most attractive boy in their house.

Her second year at Hogwarts began with a jarring note when she glanced at the staff table. Wormwood was gone and in her chair was a wizard that Edana thought familiar, though she could not place him in her memory until Professor Dumbledore formally introduced him to the school.

“Finally, Professor Wormwood has resigned from her position as Potion‘s Mistress and Head of Slytherin.” Dumbledore began in a bland voice. His announcement generated much concern among the Slytherins. Wormwood was the only Slytherin on the faculty and often their sole advocate. “However, the position of both Head of Slytherin and Master of Potions has been filled by another Hogwarts alumni, Professor Severus Snape.”

The new professor came as a surprise since some of the older students still remembered him from his time as a student at Hogwarts. Edana remembered Severus Snape from the numerous times he had come home with Evan during the holidays. Snape had always carried himself with the air of older than his years, but when she saw him at the Welcoming Feast, she was shocked by his appearance. He seemed more like an man in his thirties than twenty-two. No wonder she had failed to recognize him on sight.

Within a week, three quarters of the school hated him. According to rumors Edana overheard during a pretense of study in the common room, Wormwood tendered her resignation only days before the start of term. There had been a scramble to replace Wormwood as whoever was hired would have to be a Slytherin, which made the pool of candidates very small indeed. Speedy hire or not, to Slytherin, Snape was a godsend. In his class the standard subtle discrimination of Slytherins was reversed, he always favored students from his own house and was more than willing to help any Slytherin having difficulties with his subject. Snape had high expectations for his House and made his presence felt far more than Wormwood ever did.

Quidditch trial for Slytherin were held the third week of September and Edana felt herself ready to go out for the team. Hugo Ryan, the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team agreed. Slytherin’s best Chaser had just graduated, and the remaining two were now seventh years. Edana was the only person trying out for the team who was not on the verge of leaving the school. Ryan did not like her, but he wanted to win. She made the team.

If Edana was happy, Prefect Aileen Travers was not. Over the summer she had learned that a Ravenclaw girl she did not get on with would be Head Girl.

“I wouldn’t have minded as much if Melissa got it,” Aileen confided to Edana. “But Miranda Prosser...”

“You don’t care much for her?” Edana ventured.

Aileen snorted disdainfully. “Prosser and I do not get along. At all. We worked together - once - in Potions. Prosser fouled everything up, but pretended it was all my fault and smirked when I had points taken off me, points that cost us the House Cup for that year. I can’t stand liars. No, Edana, I don’t like her.”

“Did you get her back?” Edana asked.

A cat like smile spread across Aileen’s face and her mismatched eyes glittered with satisfaction. “Oh, yes.”

Edana tried to find out the specifics, but Aileen refused to divulge what she did. Edana knew she obviously had not killed Prosser, but it must have been good for Aileen to look as pleased as she did with the memory.

“Are you going to do anything to her now for being Head Girl instead of you?” Edana queried.

Aileen toyed with a strand of her long hair. “Yes, but I have yet to decide exactly what. I never rush into such things. I always wait for just the right opportunity so my vengeance won’t blow up in my face like an unopened Howler.”

* * * * *

On Halloween, Edana woke up with a strange feeling in her stomach, as though she had swallowed a jarful of live pixies. It was not until after her last class of the day that she realized why she felt so awful.

Gryffindor Malcolm Edwards, whose attitude toward Slytherins had not improved in the slightest, called out to her in the hall. “Hey Rosier, tell your brother happy anniversary.”

Edana whirled around. She knew that it would be better not to say anything, to just keep walking, but the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. “What?”

Edwards smirked in a way that reminded her of how Aileen looked when she was thinking of how she got Prosser back. “Don’t you remember? Today is the one year anniversary of your dear brother’s death.”

Edana felt even more sick to her stomach. How could she have forgotten? Then something snapped in her mind, as though some hidden willpower had been poured into her. Edana took a deep breathe, gathered the fragments of her composure and did the Slytherin thing: she haughtily stalked off in her original direction.

“That was cruel.” Another Gryffindor told Edwards. Edana recognized the voice as belonging to a red head whose name she could not recall.

“She’s one of them, Charlie, she deserves it.” Edwards spat bitterly. “Her kind killed my dad. I‘ll never forget that.”

* * * * *

Edana amazed herself by retaining her composure until she reached her dormitory, where it finally crumbled into dust. She climbed into bed, yanked the curtains closed, pulled the covers around her and buried her face in her pillow to muffle the sound of her crying. Shadow managed to climb onto the bed from his afternoon napping spot atop her trunk and wiggled his way into her arms.

“I think,” Edana whispered to her cat. “That you are the only living thing who cares about me in this entire school.”

Just then the door to the dormitory opened and closed. Edana heard two sets of footsteps cross the room: Dru and Kali.

“I can’t wait for the Halloween feast to start!” Dru gushed. Edana could see her through a gap in the curtains as she preened before the mirror. Her blond hair floated about her like a cloud, though Edana knew it only did that because she used expensive hair potions every morning. Otherwise it frizzed. “Did you see the decorations?”

“Those pumpkins...some of them are bigger than my room at home!” Kali exclaimed.

Edana stroked Shadow, trying to ignore the pain that shot through her every time she saw classmates happily chatting with friends and was reminded that she had no one to talk to outside of class. As Dru and Kali continued to discuss the upcoming feast, Edana’s sorrow switched over to rage. She pulled the curtains of her bed open with unaccustomed force, startling her roommates. At the sight of her, their conversation ground to a halt. Dru tried to pretend that she had not seen Edana, but something in the other girl’s face stopped her.

Edana smirked at them, feeling better after having spoiled their conversation. She changed her black school robes, even though her old ones were spotless, and made a show of smoothing out wrinkles in the fabric. Dru and Kali did not know that Edana had master Anti-Wrinkling charms months ago and used them on all her clothes. The two girls gathered their books and headed off for the Common Room as Edana fussed with her hair.