Superficial Love|Slytherin Thorn

Chapter 39 - Little Details

"ALBUS!" Albus froze at the sound of his sisters high pitched voice echoing down the corridor. Begrudgingly, he turned around to face his sister. The youngest Potter was making her way towards him, her poker straight red hair bouncing with each step. She had a nafarious look on her face that Albus didn't like, it spelt trouble.

"What are you doing with her?" Lily's bland brown eyes flickered towards Sia, who was watching her with contempt.

"We have prefect rounds." Albus sighed matter-of-factly.

"No, you don't." Lily said bodly. She was a head shorter than both Prefects but, even at fourteen, had a fierceness that demanded attention. "At least not for another 15 minutes. I checked."

"How thoughtful of you." Sia said smoothly.

Lily shot her a filthy look that left her unfazed. The Slytherin was used to vulgar looks beacause of her house or family. "I wasn't talking to you."

"I don't care. I suggest you treat your Prefects with a little more respect or we shall have to dock house points."

Lily raised her eyebrow and looked at her with disbelief and disgust. "Do you know who I am? My father -"

"I know exactly who you are and I know exactly who your father is and what he's done." Sia cut her off sharply, her Slytherin defences and self - preservation coming out. "Were you aware he saved my father's life at the battle of Hogwarts?" She took in the redheads shocked face and smirked. "No, I didn't think so."

Lily shot her another filthy look and turned her attention back to her brother. "You can't hang out with her. She's a Slytherin."

"Rose is a Slytherin." Albus said calmly despite the fact that his shirt was beginning to feel to tight. Despite hating conflicts and the feeling that he was being attacked he always managed to keep a cool head. It was a trait he'd inherited from his mother.

"Yes and look at where that got her." Lily scoffed.

Albus opened his mouth to defend his cousin when Sia cut him to it.

"Your friend, the one with the pink hair, Sophie Warren's, she's got two brothers in Slytherin." Sia questioned, a glint in her eyes. She preferred to attack in a fight than to defend. It was stratagy. To catch them of guard. "Do you tell her not to talk to them?"

"That's different. They're not Death Eaters."

If this comment affected Sia it didn't show. "And neither am I." She mused.

"Your father was." Lily spat, her face screwed up with hatred. It was not a look that suited her. It morphed her delicate features into something ugly.

"Yes," Sia nodded non-chalantly, again seemingly unaffected. "He was. When he was seventeen. Everyone makes mistakes at seventeen. Do you know what he does now?"

Lily shook her head. The girls calm tone struck fear into her. She was not used to this reaction. She was used to spitting words, hot headedness and getting her own way.

"He works as a muggle accountant. Do you know why that is?"

Again Lily shook her head.

"Because he couldn't get a job in the wizarding world after the war. Not many Slytherins could. If you spoke to a lot of my friends parents you'll find they've worked in the muggle world at some point or another. I think it was for the best really, it's eradicated a fair amount of discrimination, or at least in Slytherin house." Sia scanned the girl from beneath her dark eyelashes. "Apparently not in Gryffindor, though."

Lily stared at her at a loss for words, which for the talkative girl was unheard of.

Sia continued. "Do you know why Sophie Warren's has pink hair?" Sia did. She'd asked Sam about it one night when it had been just them in the common room. Although tentative and unused to talking about himself, he'd supplied the answer to his sister's mysterious hair colour.