Ginny Weasley and The Year of The Snake

Ginny Weasley & The Year of The Snake

Chapter Four ~ A Sanctum of Serpents

Ginny stood looking out of the window down at the courtyard. She glanced up when she heard the door open behind her and swung around. Snape stood there, staring down at her with his beetle black eyes. Ginny started to feel nervous and looked away.

"Erm, well, Miss Weasley, welcome to Slytherin, I suppose," said Snape, staring intently at the wall behind her. He was fine when it came to talking to a class or reprimanding students, but when it came to a single child, especially in these circumstance he didn't quite know what to say. "I suppose you are sleeping in Slytherin tonight?" asked Snape, finally looking back at her.

"I don't want to go back to Gryffindor!" exclaimed Ginny earnestly, stepping forward. "Can I not go somewhere else?" she asked, staring up at him and hoping that he wouldn't say that she would have to go back there for the night because it was to late to arrange something in her new house.

"No it's perfectly fine, I just wanted to make sure. Dumbledore hadn't said anything about that to me yet, but it will be just fine," replied Snape. "I'll take you down there and show you around, introduce you to some of the children, if there is anyone still up by the time we get there," said Snape, indicating that Ginny should come with him as he walked down the stairs.

"Sir, what's going to happen to my things? Will I have to go get them?" asked Ginny hesitantly walking along beside Professor Snape.

"Dumbledore said that he would contact the house elves to bring them down to you," replied Snape.

"Thanks, and sorry about this inconvenience, Sir," said Ginny.

"That's quite alright, this is an interesting end to a monotonous day," replied Snape, glancing down at the thin redheaded child. "Do you have any friends in Slytherin?"

"Yes, Celeste Zabini," answered Ginny, hurrying to keep up with Snape's long strides.

"Celeste, wonderful because you'll be sharing a room with her, I expect. I don't think she really enjoys sharing with those older ones," said Snape. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were some of them up still, at least half the Zabini children seem to be insomniacs," Snape said, smiling wryly. Some advice, don't get on the wrong side of the Zabinis, they hold a lot of sway in Slytherin, more than the Malfoys," advised Snape.

"I thought that the Malfoys were the most influential family here," said Ginny, following Snape down the marble staircase.

"So they'd like you to think but the Zabinis are just as old a wizarding family as the Malfoys, possibly even older. They just aren't as over the top in showing off their wealth as some of the other families. Also, in Slytherin there is only one Malfoy currently, compared with the seven Zabinis and three more on the way," explained Professor Snape. "You're going to have to remember how to get to the common room, Miss Weasley. It's pretty easy once you know where it is. You proceed down these steps, the ones closer to the Great Hall," said Snape. Pointing down some stone steps that led to the dungeons. "It's two lefts and a right, then you'll come to a bare stretch of wall in between two torches and you have to say the password, somewhere near the middle of the torches, a door will open up. Also," he said as they neared the common room, a little trick if you ever get lost, there is a small snake carved into one of the stone slabs, near the floor, it marks where the door is."

"What's the password?" asked Ginny, still feeling a bit shocked that this was all happening so fast.

"Vipereus, I believe," answered Snape, walking down the stairs and along the stone corridor till he came to the first turn off and went left. Ginny walked along beside him, hoping she didn't look too nervous. They turned left and then right again until they came to blank stonewall without any portraits or tapestries in between two torches in metal brackets. "You should say the password, it will help you remember," said Snape.

Ginny glanced up at him and swallowed. "Vipereus," she said faintly and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open. "Oh," Ginny gasped.

"Well, don't just stand there," said Snape, waving his arms at her. "Go in."

Ginny took a deep breath and stepped into the Slytherin common room followed by Professor Snape. It was a long, low room, a little larger than the Gryffindor common room. The room had rough stonewalls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was still crackling under an elaborately carved stone mantel piece up ahead and several Slytherins were sitting around it in big carved chairs and lying on the floor in front of it on big, squashy looking, green and silver cushions. Some of them sat up when they heard the door open and turned around to look at Snape and Ginny.

"Is Celeste Zabini still in here?" Severus enquired, addressing the students sitting near the fire.

"No, sorry she just went to bed, I could go and get her if you want," said a skinny boy with dark red hair.

"Could you, please," said Snape and the boy hurried out of the room. Ginny smiled briefly, so it was definitely not just in class that Snape favoured his students, though she had never heard him say please to one before.

"Who's that with you, Professor?" asked a familiar tall, gangly blonde boy, who had just stood up from his chair.

"A new Slytherin and I want you all to make her feel very welcome, understood?" directed Snape seriously.

The Slytherins nodded. "Come on, I'll introduce you to them," Severus said quietly so that only Ginny could hear him. He strode over to them and Ginny followed nervously behind him.

"Ginny?" asked the blond boy.

"Hello, Phillippe," said Ginny shyly.

"Hey, how are you, what you doing here and in Slytherin robes?" asked Phillippe, surprised.

"I, umm, I changed. They, the Gryffindors were," she trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Some of the Gryffindors were behaving most childishly and were threatening to harm her for some ridiculous reasons," cut in Snape.

"Oh," said Phillippe concernedly, "are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, I just didn't want to be there anymore," said Ginny quietly, aware that the other students were staring oddly at her, but obviously thought that if they kept quite any questions they had would be answered.

"I believe," said Snape, "that I was supposed to be introducing you to this lot, not that I can understand why anyone would want to be friends with them," he continued, raising an eyebrow. "Especially when most of them seem to be only just scraping through my class," he finished, disdainfully.

"Yeah, but we all know you love us, Snape," said an older boy, with the same golden-red hair that Celeste had. He grinned widely up at Snape.

Snape ignore the boys' cheeky answer. "This," he said, gesturing to the lanky boy who had just spoke, "is Lachlan Zabini, sixth year now, isn't it?"

"Yep, sure is," replied the boy, grinning at Ginny. "She's a cute one. Good work Professor, we can't let the other houses have all the pretty ones," continued the boy, winking cheekily at Ginny. Ginny blushed a deep scarlet. No one in Gryffindor had ever said she looked pretty, or even joked about her like that, maybe Celeste was right when she'd said that these people would like her. Snape coughed impatiently.

"Moving on now, these two little ones over here, that should really be in bed, are Sebastian Zabini and Balthazar Ignatius, first years. This," he said, turning to look at an exceptionally stunning girl, with deep blue eyes and long, beautiful, straight black hair. The firelight flickered on her face, casting its shadows and making her look like some enchanting temptress. "This," repeated Snape, swallowing uncomfortably, "is Zara." He stared at her for a moment before realising what he was doing and hastily turned back to Ginny. "And, you already know Phillippe." Ginny nodded.

"You haven't told us who this is yet, Professor," said Lachlan, staring at Ginny.

"It's Ginny Weasley," said the little boy who Snape had called Sebastian.

"What?" called Celeste, who had just walked into the room in a green dressing gown followed by the red haired boy. "Ginny, what are you doing here?" asked Celeste, coming to a stop just beside Lachlan, who was still lying on one of the giant cushions on the floor. "Merlin, you've changed haven't you?" gasped Celeste, looking at Ginny's Slytherin robes.

"Yes, I realised you were right about Rose and the others," said Ginny, nodding shyly.

"Great!" Celeste exclaimed, jumping over Lachlan and giving Ginny a huge bear hug. "We're going to have so much fun, you'll love it here, I just know it!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, releasing Ginny. Ginny smiled happily.

Snape cleared his throat nosily. "Oh, right, Blaise said you wanted to speak to me," said Celeste looking at him quickly.

"Yes, I needed to know if you wanted to change rooms, or stay where you are currently," explained Snape.

"Change rooms, definitely," replied Celeste adamantly.

"Okay," said Snape, "I'll just go and ensure the house elves are informed of your new sharing arrangements," said Snape, leaving the common room.

"Wow, I can't believe you changed, I didn't think you would, well not this suddenly at least," said Celeste admiringly, grabbing a cushion and flopping down on it.

"Did you get to try on the Sorting Hat again," asked Sebastian eagerly.

"Yeah, I had to go to Dumbledore's office and get re-sorted," replied Ginny, sitting down next to Lachlan and Celeste.

"Nice, I always thought we should get Phillippe put in Hufflepuff," said Lachlan. "Or failing that, how about Zara in Snape's bedchamber?" he asked, grinning evilly.

"Lachlan!" shrieked Zara, throwing a large book at him.

"Hey, we all know you have a thing for Professor S, it's not like it's a secret or anything," he protested, rubbing shoulder where the book had hit him.

"Jeez Lachlan, don't tease her," said Celeste, pretending to be serious. She turned to Ginny who was watching the exchange with wide eyes. "Sorry, this must be very confusing for you, let me explain. Zara here is the oldest, of the Zabinis at least" said Celeste, pointing at the striking girl with the long, black hair. Zara smiled at Ginny, showing very white, even teeth. "The prettiest, the smartest, the one with all the drooling boys following her around," Celeste grumbled. "Anyway, she has a thing for Snape, but nothing will come of it because she's a student and he's a teacher!"

"Not for ever," interjected Zara, with a wicked look in her eye.

The other four Zabinis rolled their eyes, while Balthazar and Ginny stared at them in bemusement. Celeste ignored her. "This is Lachlan, the next oldest. He's the one that gets away with everything and all the girls love him, no idea why, he certainly doesn't deserve it. He likes to annoy people too. Last time Snape was here he charmed a cushion to follow him around and whine about the holidays not being long enough, so watch your back around him. He also hasn't paid me back the eight galleons I lent him," she said, giving Lachlan a vicious poke in the ribs. Ginny blushed, she couldn't even remember seeing more that five galleons at once.

"Aurora's next," said Celeste. "Is she on Prefect duty?" she asked the boy with dark red hair. He nodded. "Oh, this is Blaise, he's in Draco's year, he's after Phillippe," Blaise gave Ginny a brief smile.

"And I'm Sebastian," piped up the smallest Zabini. "Did you really see inside the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked eagerly. Ginny's eyes widened in surprise.

"I, yeah, I did actually," she said, when she had recovered from the shock of the question. "It smelled like mould too," she said, warming to her the subject.

"Wow," said Sebastian in awe.

"That's so cool," responded Balthazar, staring at Ginny in admiration. Sebastian was just about to open his mouth to ask another question when Snape walked back in to the common room.

"Celeste, I have had your belongings moved into your new room and you might just want to go and check that everything was taken. I need to go now, but before I do, Lachlan, Phillippe and Celeste could you please look after Miss Weasley, make sure she's settling in and the other students don't give her a hard time. If there is any sort of problem I want one of you to come and tell me immediately, and my office door is always open if you need any help, Miss Weasley," Professor Snape said. "Well, goodnight everyone," he nodded at them all and left the common room, his long black robes billowing out behind him.

"Good, I can go to bed, again. No more squashing in with that other lot," said Celeste happily, getting to her feet. "Are you coming Ginny?"

"Sure," replied Ginny, stifling a yawn and standing up.

"Good idea," agreed Zara, getting up from the chair and following the two younger girls towards the girls' dorms.

The entrance to the long stone corridor was near a wall with four huge bookcases on it, to the right of the fire. There were large, exquisitely cut glass snakes along the walls that gave off a warm glowing light and a soft, dark green rug that ran the length of the passageway. "Hey, Ginny, I've just got to go and check that all my things were moved. Do you want to have a look where I used to sleep?" asked Celeste, opening the third door along.

"Okay," nodded Ginny, following Celeste into the room.

"Nice," said Celeste, "my bed's gone and the other five have been spaced out. Don't think they even woke up," she said, laughing. "They're going to get such a surprise when they wake up and see that all my stuff is gone. Lets go, I can't see anything of mine," said Celeste, turning and walking out. Ginny stared at the five four-poster beds, hung with the same long, velvet curtains that Gryffindor had, except that these were a dark, vivacious green. As she closed the door she noticed a silver plaque on the door that said 'Third Year'. "I always found that a bit annoying, no mention of me whatsoever," said Celeste, noticing where Ginny was looking.

"I know what you mean," replied Ginny, walking further down the hall.

Celeste stared at Ginny for a moment. "I know, if you come from a big family you don't often get recognised as an individual, you're just stuck in with the group. Oh cool, look," said Celeste, pointing up at the door just ahead of them. It looked like any of the other doors in the hall, complete with a silver plaque, but on this one it said Second Year.

"Good, I'm tired," said Ginny.

Celeste laughed and pushed open the door, walked in and stopped. "Wow, nice," said Celeste, looking around the spacious room, an impressed look on her face. There was a large tapestry on the wall opposite the door. It was dark green with silver lettering like the large rug on the floor that stopped within a foot of each of the walls. The rug had the Slytherin emblem on it whilst the tapestry had the motto. "Its better than the other rooms."

"Wow, double beds," Ginny said in an awed voice.

"They must have been enlarged to be in scale with the room, I swear this place is twice as big as my old room, anyway, which one do you want?"

"Can I have that one, the one with the painting of the Dragon next to it?" asked Ginny hopefully.

"Yeah sure, I wanted the one with the serpent tapestry anyway," giggled Celeste and with that she ran towards the huge bed and bounced on to it.

Ginny laughed and with a joyous "Whoop," she bounded towards her own bed and fell on to it.

"We are going to have so much fun, it's going to be so great sharing with you instead of those know-it-all older girls," said Celeste, taking of her dressing gown and chucking it on the bottom of her bed.

"Didn't you like them, who are they?" asked Ginny, sliding off her bed and opening the lid of her trunk hesitantly. She shouldn't have worried because the words were now gone from the inside of its lid.

"Well, there's Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, they're quite bitchy so stay away from them as much as possible without looking obvious, you don't want them as enemies or it can get quite nasty." Ginny paled noticeably. "Don't worry, Pansy loves Draco, she'll do anything he says. I'll make sure that if they give you a hard time I'll get him to make them back off," said Celeste hurriedly, not wanting Ginny to get upset. "The other three girls are Daphne Greengrass, Cassandra Felton and Stacey Beaumont. Stacey and Daphne follow Cassandra around a lot, but I don't think that Stacey and Daphne really like each other that much. I try not to pay too much attention. I don't actually like any of them, except Cassie. She lives near me, so I see her and her sister Eleanora a lot during the holidays," Celeste told Ginny as she crawled under the big green quilt that covered her bed. There was an exact same quilt on Ginny's bed.

"Who are the six boys in our year?" asked Ginny, whilst rummaging through her trunk looking for her pyjamas.

"Calvin Easton, Octavius Avenger, William Ricketts, or Will, Eric Zeller, Phoenix Volatus and Tom Lestrange, have you ever heard of him or the Lestranges before?" asked Celeste eagerly.

"No," answered Ginny. "Who are they?" she asked, retrieving her clean pyjamas from her trunk.

"Well," said Celeste, getting into story-telling mode. "Bellatrix Black and Rodolphus Lestrange met at Hogwarts. They were both Slytherins and together they made the perfect couple, he was a year older than her and-"

"Was Bellatrix related to Sirius Black?" asked Ginny, cutting Celeste off mid sentence.

"Is, and yes, they were cousins. Bellatrix is also Draco's Aunt, on his Mother's side. Anyway, when Bellatrix and Rodolphus finished school they got married, it was like a fairytale, all the pure bloods went to their wedding, even though You-Know-Who was beginning to be very powerful and people were starting to be afraid. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to many people Bella and Rodolphus had joined He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Apparently they were right in his inner circle of Death Eaters, but when Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who they were captured by the Aurors, alongside many of his other supporters. Most of them went to Azkaban, along with Bella and Rodolphus, but what no one knew was the Bellatrix was pregnant!" exclaimed Celeste, crouching at the end of her bed.

"Did they take her out of Azkaban when they realised she was pregnant?" gasped Ginny, pulling on her pyjama bottoms underneath her school skirt.

"No, they didn't know, Dementors can't see. When the Ministry Officials visited her to try to extract the identities of other supporters of the Dark Lord, she was four months pregnant and they didn't notice. Five months later though, the Ministry was contacted by the Dementors of Azkaban and told that something was wrong in Bellatrix's cell. So a Ministry official came out to investigate and found Bella holding a two-day-old, skinny, little, baby boy with a thatch of black hair and the bluest eyes you've ever seen! Of course, he took the baby away immediately and someone was arranged to care for him. Actually he's living with Emmaline Vance, she's a really nice lady who lives about ten minutes away from my house."

"Oh," breathed an amazed Ginny, now fully dressed in her pyjamas and sitting on the edge of her bed. "Was he alright, I mean after being born in Azkaban?"

"Yes, well he seems fine, so far. He never cried as a baby either, in fact, I don't think he's ever cried. He has little peculiar things about him too, like sometimes he seems to disappear. He'll be right next to you and you'll turn around to talk to him, and he's not there, even though it was like a split second since you last saw him there. It's a bit freaky, but he's really nice, we've nicknamed him Cat, because of the way he walks around, it looks like a cat when its stalking something," finished Celeste, grinning.

"I've never even noticed," said Ginny, getting into her bed.

"Of course you wouldn't have, why would a Gryffindor notice anything about a Slytherin?"

"True. I wonder what my brothers will say when they realise I'm in Slytherin now?" asked Ginny, feeling very apprehensive.

"Who knows, let's see how long it takes them to notice, with their attention span it could be a couple of days," laughed Celeste, punching her pillow in an effort to get comfortable.

"With the amount of attention they've being paying lately, we could get to the end of term before they even realise I haven't been in the common room recently," giggled Ginny, rolling over and hugging her toy dog, Benji, which she had found placed in her trunk.

"Goodnight," called Celeste, "tomorrow I'll introduce to you to the guys."

"Night," called back Ginny. A few minutes passed until Ginny asked, "How do we turn off these lights?"

Celeste sniggered. "You have to close your eyes and put your head on the pillow, then they'll go out," Celeste said, still laughing.

"They were right when they said Slytherins were a bit weird," muttered Ginny to herself, closing her eyes.