Encantado

Loleta had bid the assorted Weasleys goodbye and stared around the entrance hall, wondering where to go next. Everyone looked very full of purpose and in a hurry, rushing towards what she supposed would be the Great Hall for food. As the corridor emptied around her, Loleta was beginning to feel a little desperate, until a low, far-away voice interrupted her.

"Good evening. It is lovely to see you outside of the Orb at last." Loleta looked at the speaker incredulously. She looked like a crazy grandmother, though Loleta was very relieved not to have one of those grandmothers; the kind that reads your palm, has Liberace's dress sense and too many cats, and gets teary-eyed when you mention tuna because of the poor dolphins.

"I see great potential for the Sight in you," she added with a watery smile. "I am Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor."

Loleta smiled uneasily and nodded. Her inner bullshit barometer was screaming at her to get away from this woman before her intelligence was sucked away. Professor Trelawney didn't seem to notice that she wasn't answering and continued.

"I am to take you to the Headmaster's office, where you will be Sorted." She looked expectantly at Loleta for a reaction.

"Okay..." said Loleta slowly, trying to keep the worst of the sarcasm out of her voice. "Are we going there now?" Trelawney blinked, her eyes magnified by her enormous glasses.

"Oh, yes, of course," she said, gliding away as if she were a misguided transvestite on wheels. Or a huge, glittering vacuum cleaner. Loleta got the sudden, inescapable image of pushing Trelawney across a dirty floor and giggled. "What was that?" asked Trelawney.

"Nothing."

Trelawney hummed and continued talking about the intricacies of her subject, turning corners suddenly and nodding gravely to passing ghosts (who gave Loleta an odd turn at first) until she stopped at a large stone gargoyle. Loleta half-expected her to start prattling on about the gargoyle's tormented soul and was surprised to hear her say only two words.

"Jelly Slugs," said Trelawney dreamily. The gargoyle saluted and moved to reveal a spiral staircase. Loleta raised her eyebrows, impressed. Whosever idea that little trick was sure knew how to work the grandeur. Trelawney glided ahead of her, her sequined skirt making small clicking noises on the stone.

They reached a large, circular room, lined with portraits of previous headmasters and headmisstresses. A brilliant red bird that Loleta recognized as a phoenix was sleeping in the corner, head tucked into his vermilion wing. Loleta couldn't help but coo softly and move closer. She was probably the biggest pushover for animals ever to walk the earth. It didn't help that she spent half her time at home around unfairly adorable baby goats. The phoenix woke up and cocked its head at her.

"Oh, aren't you a sweet boy," said Loleta, in a more nauseating tone than she would ever admit to uttering. She petted him and smiled rather stupidly. "I bet you're a smart one, aren't you honey-muffin?"

"Hello, Miss Tilev. I see you have met Fawkes." Loleta spun around, embarrassed. An old, silver-haired man that she assumed was the headmaster smiled kindly at her.

"Sibyll?" he said to Trelawney, who looked nearly catatonic. "You may return to your tower now." Trelawney snapped out of the zombie-like daze she had been in, nodded to the headmaster, and drifted away.

"I am Professor Dumbledore, Miss Tilev. Your grandmother has been keeping correspondence with me concerning you, and is of the mind that you will be more than ready for a fifth year education here. Before you can begin, of course, you must be Sorted." He walked over to a shelf and pulled a ragged hat down. "Try this on." Loleta took the hat and put it on her head. It barely fit over her hair. Loleta jumped as the little voice started to speak in her ear.

"What's this? I thought the Sorting was over for the year. No? Oh well, it's a shame you didn't get to hear the song. Anyway, let's see what's in your noodle. Hmmm, older than usual. Transfer? I see...It seems your grandmother went here, Esperanza, her name was. And a Slytherin, I remember her. It's nice really, having a little more time to look inside. The ceremony's become so rushed lately, I sometimes have to guess, but don't tell anyone. Anyway, you wouldn't fit in in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, you only work when it suits you. How do you feel about Gryffindor?" Not very good, thought Loleta.

"Really? I suppose you haven't ever had to be very brave, nor ruthless, so I suppose you could learn to be either way...Are you sure? Let it be SLYTHERIN!" Loleta smiled. Dementors, accent barriers, and Seer-wannabes aside, this had been a successful night. Her heart skipped happily as her black robes were adorned with her House crest.

---

Loleta walked anxiously behind the forbidding, saturnine man who Dumbledore had introduced as Professor Snape, her House head and Potions master. There hadn't been much talking; he wasn't the outgoing type and Loleta didn't care to push a man who was already in a poisonous mood. She wondered idly if he was always going to be so irritable. They walked by suits of armor, portraits with moving, whispering occupants, and descended myriad staircases until the walls started to become damp. Loleta breathed in the musty air and ventured a question.

"Where are we going?" she asked mildly. Snape looked around at her.

"Your common room, Miss Tilev. One hopes you will adjust to Hogwarts and Slytherin House quickly and refrain from asking silly questions."

Loleta whistled to herself. Maybe if you ran your back up against a wall, you could shove that splintering pole farther up your-, she thought mutinously.

"We are here," said Snape, breaking off her thoughts. They were facing a blank stone wall. "Runespoor." The wall opened to show a low archway. Snape beckoned for Loleta to walk through first.

That would almost be gentlman-like, she thought, if he didn't look like he had been forced to stuff rat placenta in his ears while he was doing it.

She smiled graciously and started to walk in, but Snape stopped her. "Welcome to Slytherin. The moment you walk through that door, I demand that you be a credit to your house or you will regret ever having set foot on this soil. I am pleased that you have the potential to be a Slytherin, as most transfer students inevitably get Sorted into Gryffindor with...Potter." He spat the last word, and Loleta took down what seemed to be a very important mental note; never, under any circumstances laud Harry Potter in front of Professor Snape, unless you are being sarcastic and cruel enough for even the dimmest Hufflepuff first year to notice. When Snape looked at her expectantly for a response, she realised that he was trying to wish her good luck.

"Thank you very much," she said, and bowed her head slightly for a touch of overwrought, flattering respect. Snape seemed satisfied enough to walk back the way he came. Loleta turned back to the open archway and breathed deeply. Some newfound instinct told her that in this situation, any Slytherin worth their green and silver would not skulk in this situation. She tried to envision her grandmother's start-of-term strutting walk that she would have employed in her situation. Loleta tipped her chin up and fiddled with her hair a little.

"Stop preening, you haven't got all night," croaked a suit of armor underneath a torch. Loleta stared. This would definitely take some getting used to. She let out the breath she had been holding and walked through the archway.

Her first impression of Slytherin house was that of faded grandeur and pride, which she supposed suited it quite well, due to the unfortunate reputation that she had noticed seemed to hang around Slytherin. The chairs that the incumbents were sitting on were faded from a dark green to nearly white in some places. Loleta felt a little lick of indignation that Slytherin had been neglected like this, as if even the proud ones had started believing that they were exactly what all the others thought they were; lying, cheating, conniving, untrustworthy, evil bastards who should never be given the benefit of the doubt or allowed out of one's sight. The current people in the common room didn't seem to mind, they were laughing and joking with friends. It took them a few seconds to notice that Loleta was even there.

When they did, there was a calculating silence and some surreptitious nudging until one of their number stood up, a blond girl who appeared to be about her age. She walked over, proud and wary at the same time and with the grace of your average unicorn. Loleta groaned inwardly. She would have to talk and move soon, and that could lead to misunderstandings and severe bruises. The blond girl met her eyes and held out her hand.

"Alla Solarian," she said in a neutral tone. "You would be a transfer?" Loleta nodded.

"Yes, Loleta Tilev, I'll be in fifth year here." Alla smiled slightly.

"You'll be sharing a dorm with me and one other girl, then. We'd heard a rumour that a transfer was coming through, and those usually end up in Gryffindor. It's all that 'honesty and nobility' drivel that reels them in, really. Come on." She led Loleta to a worn spiral staircase and started to walk upwards.

"Thanks for saving me from any more uncomfortable silences," said Loleta. Alla laughed, and it echoed through the narrow passageway.

"No problem at all. They can be vicious, even the little ones. I'll help you out until you can shut any enemies up by yourself. Color me altruistic, I suppose," Alla said breezily. "Where are you from? If I know my accents, yours is either very southern French, Italian, or Corsican, even. Am I right?"

"Southern French, nearer to Italy than Paris. You're good," said Loleta, amazed. Alla grinned proudly.

The air in the tunnel seemed to get warmer, until Loleta was sure that they were above ground again. "Here we are. The dwelling of me, you and the verifiably insane." They had stopped on a landing, where a torch leaked pitch on the floor and a copper snake was fixed on the wall in the shape of a coiled number five. Alla opened the heavy door, explaining that they hadn't had the chance to put wards on it yet. The room itself was grey stone with three large, green canopied beds, bedside tables, and three imposing wardrobes. There was also a girl with pale red hair lounging on the bed closest to the door.

"Hey, Alla, I was wondering when you were going to return from the amazing Malfoy-infested cesspool-" she stopped short of her tirade. "Who's that?"

"This is Loleta Tilev, our new roommate. Freshly rescued from the cesspool. Loleta, this is Charlotte Donovan, the certifiably insane one," said Alla, taking her hair down and putting the hairpins into a carved box.

"Isn't that why everyone at least knows who I am?" said Charlotte sweetly. "And call me Charley, please. The primary school in my town made us read E.B. White. It is too traumatising to think of myself as a spider."

"Much less a dead spider, I suppose," said Loleta, surprised that Charley had read Muggle books. Charley looked thoughtful.

"Yeah, kind of sad, really. Then again, I would rather be dead than spelling 'Some Pig' out with web that I literally pulled out of my arse. Not to mention the situation with all those babies at the end." Charley shuddered theatrically. "Anyway, the bed next to the window is all yours." Loleta was pleased to find that her trunk and ventilated box had been transported to the room and was at the foot of the bed. Loleta put Viola's box on her bed and opened her trunk to unpack.

"What's in the box? Better not be a spider, or Charley will kill it." Alla had walked up to Loleta's bed and was peering curiously at the box. Loleta smiled mischievously.

"This room's new unofficial guard-pet." She pulled the lid off and lifted Viola out. Alla and Charley gasped in mutual astonishment.

"That's...interesting."

"Whew, girlie. Aren't you a Slytherin and a half?" Loleta grinned.

"Yeah, she's very...pink, isn't she," she said with pride. Alla was the first to return to a serious tone of voice.

"Everyone is going to think you are the Voldemort's lost heiress or at least tangentially related, you know." Loleta shrugged.

"Last I checked, she was just a boa constrictor with enough runespoor in her to give her two lumps where the heads should be and enough smarts to figure out the gist of whatever is going on. She even passed the Ginny Weasley non-evil test, and if anyone's paranoid and shell-shocked, it's her."

"Made friends with some Weasleys, have you?" asked Alla amusedly. "They can be a good sort. Fred and George are not someone you would want to turn your back on, though."

"So I've heard." Loleta sat down on her bed as she noticed that Alla and Charley were switching to valuable advice-mode.

"One big thing you want to watch out for with them," said Charley ominously, "is when you only see one. When you only see one of the interchangeable FredGeorge, the other is probably behind you with something slimy, embarrassing, or with too many legs." Loleta listened raptly. If her grandmother's letters were good lessons in Hogwarts philosophy and essentials, then Alla and Charley were a mine for the tiny details that made life easier.

For one thing, Loleta didn't want to be on the wrong end of Fred or George's more slimy or partially-transfigurating pranks. She made a mental note to make very good friends with them, or just stay out of the way. Ginny could help me there too, she mused. The conversation with Alla and Charley had moved into the area of how to sneak out of bed at night and not get caught. Loleta listened closely to all the hiding places and tricks one could use to avoid the caretaker, Filch. Once the speeches on not getting caught were finished ("or if you do get caught, make sure it's Snape. He'll barely even chew you out," Charley pointed out.), Loleta brought up the subject of winning points.

Note to self, thought Loleta after a few minutes of observations on favoritism, points easily won in Potions for the most mediocre efforts.

Charley kept on talking long after Alla had disappeared through a semi-concealed door for her nighttime grooming, mostly about how to behave around certain teachers, proper Quidditch rules and how to break them without Madam Hooch seeing, and the most popular games to play with the giant squid in the lake. When the conversation turned to the use of personal power and charm, Charley became as opinionated as she was knowledgeable.

"The key is to have confidence," she said. "That may sound clichéd, but it is true. You see Hufflepuff and Gryffindor girls who are not unfortunate, but they don't get noticed at all. Do you know why?" Loleta tried to think of supposed Gryffindor bravery and reconcile it with Charley's comments. She gave up.

"No, why?"

"Because they act like they're not pretty. They just wander through life, head down, hair flat, thinking that they are too average to be noticed. This is untrue. They may not be radiant part-veelas, like our Alla, but then again, neither am I. Do I despair? Not a chance. I put on a short skirt and flaunt what I've got. You see?" Loleta nodded. She was starting to understand Charley's gist.

"So, even though I may have the hair that wouldn't listen and a huge arse, I still can have the advantage if I believe that I am heartbreakingly gorgeous?"

Alla, having returned, mumbled something into her pillow that could have been 'and so modest!'

"Exactly," said Charley. "Just like I have bony knees and arms. And it doesn't hurt that we Slytherins have a sort of underground following. All the nice boys who don't want to admit that the name Slytherin has some taboo appeal piled on over all the negative connotations. And it isn't unfair that we use our advantages for the purpose of say...pulling the guy that all the girls want. It's not our fault they don't have the trademark Slyth sex appeal or enough chutzpah to pull off their looks."

"Taboo appeal. Got it. Where do I put all my toilettage?" asked Loleta. Charley pointed her to some cabinets in the bathroom, and informed her that they shared it with the third year girls, before going to sleep herself.

Loleta sat in bed, reading the letter intended for after her Sorting.

Dear Loleta,

I'm not going to pretend that I haven't figured out that you are a Slytherin yet. There really was no other feasible direction. This will be a relatively short letter, but do not neglect the words in it. As a Slytherin, people will never completely trust you. This is not altogether unfair, but that is the price one pays for being superior. But a few rules remain, learn them well. Never expect altruism from anyone other than your closest friends; even your housemates will stab you in the back. Never try to fish for approval from anyone but yourself. Other Houses do not matter. They will want to drag you down, make their House's stars seem better than yours because you are a Slytherin. Slytherin is hated for a reason, and it's not just jealousy. Fear is also there. Everyone is afraid of you, because you have power. Let me rephrase that, though. Every witch or wizard has power, but the Slytherins are the ones who make it go far. Your Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, they will hold back because they are too 'noble' or because they 'don't care about winning as long as everyone's happy.' Never be afraid of yourself just because other people are.

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage, Slytherin alumnus and damn proud.