An Exquisite Pain

spiders

When Danielle stuck her head back in the Entrance Hall, everyone was just getting up, stuffed from the beginning-of-year feast. She scanned the Slytherins for two familiar faces, and grinned in spite of herself when she saw Alyssa and Dylan. Alyssa, of course, yelled and bounded toward Danielle, throwing her arms around her neck. "Hey!" she yelped. "Did you meet Tommy boy?"

"Oof—yes," Danielle grunted. For such a skinny person, Alyssa was strong.

"What happened?" Dylan asked. "Was he nice to you?"

"Of course he was nice!" Alyssa said scathingly. "He's nice to everyone. Not that he's ever said a word to me," she added as an afterthought.

"He's certainly a riddle," Danielle agreed, then smirked at her choice of words.

"I share a dormitory with him, and I don't know anything more about him than I did the very first day of school," Dylan said. "He mostly keeps to himself. I've only seen him with five or six friends." He began counting them off on his fingers as they descended the stairs to the dungeons. "Abraxas Malfoy—he's in my dorm—and Orion Black. Also a few sixth-and seventh-years. All Slytherin, of course."

"What about Alphard Black?" Alyssa asked. "He's in your dorm too."

"Yes, but Alphard is actually a decent person. He's the most un-Slytherin Slytherin I've ever met, including me and you," Dylan said.

"Hey—Clara—you'd better watch out," Alyssa hissed in Danielle's ear, unsmiling for once. "Olive Hornby is coming towards us, and she looks angry."

Danielle turned to see a pretty girl with long, wavy mahogany hair and chocolate-brown eyes stomping towards them. Her striking features were somewhat offset by the murderous expression on her face.

"You!" she hissed at Danielle, stopping in front of her.

An idea began to form in Danielle's mind. "Play along," she mouthed to Alyssa before turning to Olive. "Yes?" she asked brightly, trying to look as annoying as possible. If her act worked on Riddle, perhaps it would work on this girl as well.

Olive's eyes bulged. "You're the one that stole my Prefect badge! I was supposed to be the Prefect!"

Danielle clapped a hand over her mouth. "Really? I didn't know that! I'm so sorry!"

Olive looked surprised in spite of herself. Whatever reaction she had been hoping for, it was not this. "What?"

Danielle pulled her Prefect badge off of her robes and handed it to Olive. "Here you go—Olive, wasn't it?" She smiled sweetly at her. "I'm sorry. The teachers must have mixed us up. You're smarter and prettier than me. How could I ever do a better job than you?"

Looking stunned, Olive took the badge and pinned it onto her own robes. "It seems you've come to your senses." She smiled smugly at Danielle.

"That's great to hear!" Danielle said enthusiastically. She looped her arm through Olive's. "Can you show me how you do that to your hair? We're sharing a dorm, after all! Let's not get off to a bad start and be best friends, right?"

"Right," Olive agreed, still looking like she had just been hit in the head by a Bludger. Danielle giggled infuriatingly and strode off with her, stopping only to turn around to the open-mouthed Alyssa and Dylan and wink.

She let Olive lead her into the Slytherin common room and up the stone staircase to her dormitory.

"Now," Olive was saying, "the bed closest to the door is mine—" She gasped as she registered Danielle's suitcase and owl cage on the floor beside the bed.