The Slytherin

Chapter 1

But Pucey had jumped up, and stuck his head out of the compartment. Amelia joined him, and finally Larissa had to come, too. The cause was evident, for loud screeches were coming from down the row.

A tarantula was climbing over the walls, much to the dismay of the girls a few compartments down. One seemed to have fainted as the enlarged spider crawled over their compartment door, the tarantula easily the size of a child. An African-American boy with dreadlocks was laughing with a small crowd behind him.

Larissa watched, paralyzed, as the tarantula made its way closer and closer to the group...

"Reducio!" Pucey bellowed, waving his wand. With a flash of purple light, the spider shrank to a remarkably small size. "Wingardium Leviosa" made the spider float into the box the boy was holding.

The dreadlocks boy glared at Pucey. "I was just having a bit of fun, Pucey."

"Well, have your bit of fun someplace else, understand, Jordan? Or do I need Angelina to tell you?" Pucey sneered.

Jordan took a defiant step forward, but one of his red-haired friends pulled him back, and they went into a compartment.

"Lee Jordan." Pucey scowled, closing the compartment door and locking it. With a defeated sigh, he sat down. "Pranking left and right with no thought of anything else."

"I'm sensing some tension here," Amelia butted into his venting. "What have you got against Lee Jordan?"

Pucey reddened, but was spared the question by a knock on the door. Larissa opened it to a woman with a cart, laden with sweets and snacks.

"Anything off the cart, dears?" The woman asked, turning the cart slightly for a better view.

Larissa and Amelia muttered a "no, thank you" but Pucey jumped up and went outside. The door slid shut behind him, and the two girls shared glances.

"Rich boy." Amelia muttered. "I don't even know what half this stuff is. You know I'm not all magical."

"Hey, didn't I say you can have some of the things Mum packed me?" Larissa comforted her friend. "I persuaded her to pack those brownies you really like."

"Nah, I'm not really hungry," Amelia said, looking out the window.

Larissa shrugged helplessly, and Pucey re-entered with a small shopping bag full of things. He looked curiously at them. "Why didn't you get anything?"

"Some of us aren't overflowing with money at the moment, Mr. Pucey." Amelia snapped, her gaze not moving from the window.

Larissa looked apologetically at him. "Sorry, Pucey..."

"You can call me Adrian, I don't mind." He half-smiled. "My dad's a school governor, he gets paid a lot for it. I made a deal with the Quidditch team that I'd buy a whole bunch of sweets and have a party in the common room sometime."

Amelia looked at him. "I never thought of you Slytherins as the party type." She said curiously.

"Not all of us were stiff Death Eaters, you know." Adrian grinned. "Anyway, the cart woman told me to tell you to go ahead and get your robes on. As you can see, I've already got on mine, but that's because my stepmum had me put them on before I boarded."

Leaving Tonnie and Robin Hood in the compartment with Adrian, they grabbed their robes and left for the nearest bathroom, which was actually quite near. They decided to simply slip their robes on over their normal clothes, therefore getting back to their compartment faster and having more time to chat with Adrian Pucey. Unfortunately, by the time they got back to him, the train had stopped and they were at Hogwarts.

Adrian looked amused. "Your cat certainly is something." He told Larissa as she hurried to grab her things. "You just missed Terence, he left a few minutes ago... you missed the announcement too, you better hurry to catch the boats. By the way, did you hear? Harry Potter's on the train, famous bloke, but of course you know him. Vanquished the Dark Lord he did, and we're all better off for it... you'd better go, I can hear Hagrid now..."

"Firs' years!" A man's voice bellowed.

"That'll be Hagrid." Pucey said quickly, rising. "Hurry, leave your luggage and your pets, they'll be taken care of. Relax, you'll be perfectly alright. Go on, then, don't miss the boats."

With that final word, the girls streaked after the line of first years, finally catching up to them. Amelia wandered around, but after tripping on something slimy she decided to stay close to Larissa.

"Oi, look over there!" Larissa pointed.

The two girls stared at a vast castle, seeming to glow and sparkle with the shining windows.

"Look at those towers!" Larissa heard another girl say to no one in particular. "I bet royalty lived there, I'm simply sure of it."

Larissa turned, trying to locate the voice, but it was drowned out by the crowd of voices, springing 'ooohs' and 'aahs'.

"No more'n four to a boat!"

"Look!" Amelia yelped, pointing.

Larissa tore her eyes away from the gleaming castle to gaze at a giant of a man, towering over the rest of them. Under his watchful gaze, the girls were quite speechless, and wordlessly climbed into a boat with another girl with long, light brown curly hair and a blonde boy, who folded his arms and sniffed.

"Who're you?" Amelia asked, trying to spark up conversation.

"Draco Malfoy, of Malfoy Manor." The boy said snobbishly. "I come of a long line of purebloods. And who are you?" His tone of voice clearly said he didn't expect us to be of any importance, compared to him.

"Florence Lawrene." The girl folded her arms likewise, her cheeks flushed from the night winds. "Half Veela."

Malfoy suddenly looked interested.

"Amelia Julis." Amelia rolled her eyes. "And this is Larissa Hamilton."

"Blood status?" Malfoy questioned.

"Purer than yours." Amelia snorted.

The boy's eyes narrowed. "What House do you think you'll be in?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Larissa shrugged, and the other girls echoed in some variation of that statement.

"Well, I hope I'm in Slytherin." The boy said importantly. "Father says it's the best House and he ought to know, he was in it too and he's on the school board."

He looked at us curiously. "There are people at this school who shouldn't be. You know, mudbloods and half-bloods. Disgusting, they are... not proper magical folk, you know. I can help you out there, you know; so you won't mix with the wrong crowd."

Larissa glanced at her friend. Amelia seemed positively ruffled, but returned Larissa's steady gaze.

Larissa could practically hear the wheels in her friend's head turning. While it sounded like he was just trying to recruit them to his crowd, she could see where sticking with Malfoy could be useful. If he was as well-known as he made himself out to be it might be useful, but if he was pompous, spoiled, and as much of a git as warning signs told her he was, it could be disastrous.

The question is, she told herself, what is best for Amelia and I?

"Let's wait and see what Houses we're sorted in." Larissa said cautiously.

The other two heartily agreed.

Hello, my Potterheads! How are you doing today? Are you enjoying this story so far? Kind of hard to say, since this is only the first chapter, but I made it nice and long for you. Over 2000 words! Amazing, am I right? Well, it's one of my longest-ever chapters, so don't expect this length for every chapter.

The girl you see in the picture is Larissa.

Also, guess what? Every so often I'm going to pick a random commenter or voter from a random chapter and they will get a shoutout. In fact, if they so wish it, I'll even make them a minor character in the story! This chapter's shout-out is to @DarkeCatnip for being my best friend and being awesome! Round of applause!

Her character will be... well... you'll see!