A Slytherin Black Sheep

Time continued its march relentless forward and before Edana knew it, she was a fourth year. Aileen left Hogwarts and went on to play Keeper for the Wasps before she was sidelined by an injury. She accepted a position at a Quidditch training facility for league players and moonlighted as a photographer for the Prophet during the season. Illiana had been made a prefect the year before, and Malina moved from the reserves to the main team. Slytherin had put together a good side in Edana’s opinion, but they could not seem to find a Seeker capable to beating Charlie Weasley to the snitch.

Edana was divided in her feelings on that matter. On the one hand, she was irritated, on the other she was proud of her boyfriend. She was also glad that she and Charlie had agreed to keep their relationship a secret. The last thing was wanted was to be taunted about having a boyfriend like Dru had, after she was caught snogging a Hufflepuff fifth year in the astronomy tower. If it were widely known she was seeing the Gryffindor Seeker, what Dru went through would seem a pleasant stroll by comparison. Edana also understood Charlie’s position. She knew full well how narrow the scope through which most Gryffindor’s viewed Slytherins was.

They usually met in disused classrooms. Edana often wondered why Hogwarts was so vast, it hardly seemed necessary to have so many rooms for the number of subjects offered. Hogwarts: A History provided an answer in a passage Edana had read numerous times but hardly paid much attention to. In times past, Muggle-born students were sent to Hogwarts two years early to be taught to read as the majority of the Muggle population were illiterate. There were also a greater number of courses offered before the seventeenth century when three disciplines were combined into the umbrella subject of Charms.

Three weeks before Valentine’s Day, Edana and Charlie met in one of their favorite rooms after dinner.

"Hard to believe Fred and George will be old enough to start here in a few years." Charlie told her shaking his head, after showing her a letter from home.

"They’ll terrorize the school. When will they start?" Edana had only met one of Charlie’s brothers, Bill, the others she could not match names with ages. Bill was a prefect and considered a candidate for Head Boy next year. Bill was among the few who knew about the couple. The only others in the know were Illiana, Sabrina, and Dru.

"Six years. Percy will start in four."

"You’ll be gone by the time they arrive," Edana reminded him.

"True," Charlie conceded, then his gaze became distant. "Strange to think about leaving this place, grown rather fond of it. Have you thought about what you’ll do after you leave?"

Edana was startled. "I don’t know, haven’t really given it much thought."

"I want to do something with Dragons." Ever since spying a glimpse of a rouge Welsh Green when he was nine, Charlie had been as obsessed by dragons as he was by Gryffindor’s chances of winning the cup. When the current team Captain left in June, Charlie was the heir apparent. Edana thought he would make a fine captain, Charlie was not so certain.

"I thought you might want to play Quidditch for England."

"No, I feel the same way about league Quidditch that you do. I wouldn’t want Prophet reporters following me around!"

"I used to want to play professionally," Edana reminisced, twisted the fabric of her robe with her hand as she spoke.

"I know. You told me."

"It’s nice to have a boyfriend who remembers such details." Edana teased.

Charlie smiled, brushing the tips of his fingers across her lips as he spoke. "I’m riveted every word that leaves your lips."

"How poetic. Have you considered that as a career?" Edana asked, drawing closer to Charlie.

"I’m terrible at making things rhythm."

"Not all poetry has to rhythm."

The pair kissed, unaware of the shadow that lingered in the doorway for a moment before departing down the hall in the direction of Gryffindor tower with only the wish of a black school cloak to mark the figure‘s passage.

* * *

"A word, Rosier."

Edana turned to see Malcolm Edwards staring at her. Instantly her expression frosted over. Edwards had never been a friend to any Slytherin and went out of his way to cause trouble. He blamed Slytherin House for the death of a relative during You-Know-Who’s time and seemed to have a special loathing for those such as Edana who included the Dark Lord’s followers in their family trees.

"I have nothing to say to you." She said and started to turn back around to continue in her original direction. Edana disliked standing in the middle of hallways, too easy to be bowled over by traffic from both directions.

"Not even about your boyfriend?" Malcolm hissed. Edana stopped in her tracks, a cold metal weight dropping down into her stomach. "I saw the two of you snogging last night."

"What?"

"You heard me. Perhaps you would care to continue this conversation elsewhere."

Malcolm mocked. He gestured for Edana to follow him, leading her into the very room where she and Charlie had met the previous evening.

Edana felt any lingering bits of doubt dissolve. She saw Edwards smirk and itched to remove it from his face, but the Gryffindor boy had his wand in his hand.

She decided to bypass the preliminaries. "What do you want."

"Stop seeing Charlie."

Edana stared at him.

"You don’t deserve him."

"Charlie doesn’t see things that way."

"You’ve obviously bewitched him."

"If I bewitched him, I would have had him throw the match against Slytherin while I was at it." Edana grumbled.

"Slytherins know no shame."

Edana raised an eyebrow. One thing she hated was a hypocrite. "If you have something to say aside from admitting what a nosey parker you are…"

"I heard you’re pretty good with charms," Malcolm drawled.

"I heard you are not." Edana hit back.

"I want better marks."

"Don’t we all. Try studying."

"I want you to do my essay for me."

Edana perched on the edge of a desk and stared at Edwards through hooded eyes. "Blackmail is not a Gryffindor tactic. Why don’t you challenge me to a proper wizard’s duel in accordance with the ideals of your house."

Malcolm squirmed a bit, Edana knew how much it must gall him to be identified with anything Slytherin. "You Slytherins are incapable of playing fair. I’m sure every Slytherin has grassed up one of your own at least once. Gryffindor’s have honor."

"Honor. I see." Edana layer the sarcasm as thick as she could.

"What’s the matter Rosier, can’t handle the tables turned? Thought you’d be used to blackmail."

"I’m not."

"Doesn’t matter. Bring the essay here on Friday so I can test it to see if it’s the real thing before copying in over."

With that, Edwards turned and left.

Edana stared after him. "Swarmy git."

* * *

"If I let him blackmail me now, he’ll be able to blackmail me forever." Edana fretted to her cat later that evening as she sat in the common room with Shadow, who was in the process of cleaning his paws, on her lap.. "I will not allow that to happen. What I need is something on him."

The problem was not she had nothing on Malcolm Edwards. Not even the thinnest rumor or innuendo that she could hold over him.

Edana stared off into space, considering and then rejecting a wide range of ideas. As the grew ever more frustrated, her gaze was drawn to the Slytherin portrait wall were two images of her younger self waved back at her. Both pictures had been taken by Aileen, the oldest of the two at the Welcome Feast, the second on the Quidditch pitch in the spring of her second year. The disarrayed hair she sported in both made her cringe. Now she understood the prefect’s cryptic comments the night the first picture was taken.

Edana had to pick Shadow off her lap to reach the small bookcase wedged into a small alcove of the common room. Its mahogany shelves were charmed to include an impressive array of books. Edana ran her hand along the various titles until she came to a copy of Anton Fatelli’s Ambition & Power that would long ago have disintegrated it not for innumerable charms and spellotape. There had been talk of replacing it with a newer copy, but most Slytherins were fond of the book. Its appearance among the other pristine books had drawn them to it, it seemed a crime to leave a conspicuous copy of such an important read for future Slytherins. They did add a second copy.

"Here it is Shadow," Edana whispered, running her fingertips across the text. "The Suggestions for Revenge."

The cat purred.

Edana read: "Revenge is best attempted in such a manner as leaves the victim alive. Not only is their suffering increased, but without a body or disappearance, the likelihood of criminal prosecution is greatly diminished. The most cutting vengeance is one that involves a twist to the original insult. Nothing is more damaging than seeing one’s own effects used by an enemy."

"I want to blackmail Malcolm, Shadow. Any idea how?"

The cat stretched, brushing against Edana’a hand, causing her to flip to the next page. It continued the revenge discussion, but the top of the page was marred by a large stain.

Just then an idea sprang to mind and Edana fell back on her bed laughing. "I think I’ll borrow a few pages from Mr. Edward’s book."

"You seem happy." Dru said, poking her head out of her own bed.

"I am ."

Dru grinned. "Seen your boyfriend today?"

"No, he has practice this evening. Gryffindor is playing Ravenclaw next week. I’ve been reading putting off doing my reading for Stoker, read Fatelli instead."

"Good choice," Dru murmured.

"How is your boyfriend?" Edana asked, shifting the topic of conversation away from herself. Dru’s boyfriend was in Hufflepuff, the only house with which Slytherin shared no classes. Edana had always been grateful for that fact as she had made an enemy of Hufflepuff Celinda Green on her first day of school. They saw each other only in passing and seldom acknowledged the other.

Dru’s cheeks grew a little pink, but she did not blush. "He’s asked me to visit him this summer. He wants me to meet his parents."

Edana raised an eyebrow. "Will you go?"

"Of course, I’ve always wanted to visit London proper, I‘ve never been to any part of the city except Diagon Alley. My mother dislikes large cities."

Dru’s father was born in America, but moved to Swansea to take put a position at the Muggle university. It was there he met Dru’s mother, who was performing a memory charm on a man who had seen a dragon. She asked him to dinner that night.

Edana watched Dru play with her own cat Calliope. She envied her uncomplicated family life and the openness of her relationship with Payton. She tried to imagine introducing Charlie to her mother, but those imaginings always ended with her mother staring down her nose at Charlie and commenting on how amazing it was that his family was still pure-blooded.

* * *

Edana was not able to put her plan into action until Thursday, when the fourth year Slytherins had potions.

She carefully researched the potions the class was due to prepare to see if what she planned would be feasible. It was. Obtaining the critical ingredient proved to be the greatest challenge and Edana had to resort to filching it from Malina. There was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up and she would be able to replace the purloined item without Malina any the wiser.

Her plan was simple, lifted from a tale told by Evan about an incident in his fifth year when infamous Gryffindor troublemakers Black and Potter dropped a Zonko FireballÔ in Severus Snape’s cauldron. Edana knew that the pair’s exploits were still remembered and recounted though Gryffindor seemed to skip over Black betraying the Potter’s. Gryffindor had difficulty accepting that one of their own had gone dark.

Edana chose to mirror that stunt for two reasons: one, Edwards had sabotaged a potion of hers as a first year and second because Snape’s mind would link it with his own past. He would look to Gryffindor to the guilty party. It bothered Edana to use Snape in this way, but she could see no other means to her end.

She kept the tiny firecracker in the pocket of her robe, carefully charmed not to betray its presence with a bulge. Snape had sharp eyes and Edana did not want to attract his attention. She waited until Snape was sneering over Charlie’s caldron and not able to see either Edwards or Edana. She eased the firework out of her robe, and concealing it with the sleeve of her robe, ignited it and plopped it into her potion while her partner chopped the gingerroot.

Edana stirred the caldron, then turned her back on it to mash her scarab beetles. She forced herself to focus on the task, to ignore the impending explosion behind her so that she would be able to display suitable surprise.

BOOM!

Edana did not have to feign shock, the sound was louder than she expected, and she instinctively ducked behind a table with Malina. She understood now why the younger Snape had fallen forward into his caldron when it had been done to him.

Snape appeared in an instant to inspect the situation. Edana glimpsed the peculiar expression on his face when he recognized the stunt. Had Snape looked at her in that moment he would have had his culprit, but his focus was not on the Slytherin girl crouching behind a table.

"Who is responsible for this?" Snape asked in a lethally quiet voice. He directed his question to the Gryffindor half of the room.

No one answered.

"When I discover the identity of the student who did this, I will see that they are expelled." Snape vowed, his black gaze sweeping the room. Edana managed to keep her composure, thankfully Snape’s searching look was not long fixed on her. There was something in his eyes that frightened her. She wondered what he had done during the Dark Times and if Evan would have had a similar look to him had he lived. But if he lived, Evan would have been sent straight away to Azkaban.

Edana shook herself from that train of thought. What ifs were useless and capable only of driving a person mad. She shoved her books into her bag and hurried from the room with the rest of the class.

* * *

Edana kept her appointment with Edwards, but she did not bring any essay for him to copy. The only thing she took to the meeting was her wand.

"You fancy having your relationship gossiped about the entire school?" Edwards asked, a note of incredulity entering his voice. It was obvious to Edana that he expected her to hand over the essay without incident.

"You won’t tell anyone." Edana responded as she traced a pattern on one of the desks with her index finger.

"Oh? Who’s going to stop me? Memory charm would not work, besides I have my wand."

Edana smirked. It was the kind of smirk that a Slytherin only uses when they are about to lay out their trump card and watch their opponent squirm. The kind of smirk intelligent individuals would know to be wary of. "You talk and I’ll tell Snape that you put that firecracker in my caldron."

Edwards blanched, his mouth hanging open for a long moment before he remembered to close it. "But I didn’t do it!"

"Who would Snape be more likely to believe?" Edana reminded him. "I’ve never been responsible for any incidents in potions class before. You have, Professor Wormwood and the entirety of our class can attest to that.. Then consider that Snape is my house head and predisposed to believe a Slytherin over a Gryffindor…"

"That’s blackmail!" Malcolm hissed, outraged.

Edana was amused. It was perfectly all right in his mind for him to blackmail her, but not all right for her to reverse the situation. "Imagine that," she purred.

"You can’t."

"I already have. We should return to your attempt to force me to do your charms homework so you won’t tell the school about Charlie and me. I think a little change in terms would be in order. Now you keep your mouth shut about us, I don’t go to Snape."

Edwards glared at her. "All right, but if you hurt Charlie...I’ll find a way to make you pay. You remember that."

With that, he stormed out of the room.

"Typical Gryffindor," Edana mused. "Empty promise before departure. So clichéd"