Hogwarts, A Story

Slytherin Common Room

Amaya's PoV  

After the feast, after all the food and drinking and making nervous eye contact with the other students, Amaya found herself trundling along, alone in the crowd. Severus had been next to her, but he had somehow disappeared, and Amaya didn't have the guts to go looking for him. She was following the Slytherin prefect who had been leading the first years down several flights of stairs.

She glanced up, realising that they'd stopped. They were in front of a blank stone wall, and the prefect raised her voice.
"All right, everyone! This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room. The password changes every fortnight, so if you can't remember or forgot to look at the notice board, there'll usually be a prefect keeping watch from inside. Or if someone lost us loads of points, we'll make them do it. Right now though, the password is..." The prefect broke off to lean forward and whisper something to the wall.

The word was passed back through the crowd. "Serpent," Amaya caught from a girl with dirty blonde hair in front of her. She passed it back, to a dark skinned boy with an awkward smile. The boy smiled back. Amaya took a deep breath and prepared to say something to him.

Then, the first years gasped in shock, several jumping back, as the wall just melted away. Inside the new hole was a dimly lit, yet elegant room. The prefect smiled smugly. "Come on in then everyone!"
The first years made their way forward.
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Reyna's PoV

There was no one else in Slytherin.
Not one person she met in her journeys up and down the Hogwarts Express was sorted there, not that she particularly minded that part - Reyna doubted any of the first years they had come across were on exceptionally good terms with them.
Hah, they love me, I'm sure.
But while Sirius, Remus, James and even Peter were put in Gryffindor, and Lyra had bounced away to Hufflepuff, Reyna had been shoved into Slytherin.

Thump.
Not again.
Distracted by her thoughts Reyna had walked right into the house prefect in front of her, who was now giving her a rather odd look.
"Ahem?"
Reyna's heart jumped. Uh oh uh oh uh oh.
"Ahem," she spoke again, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Hi, I'm Reyna?" she said, holding her hand out in front of her.
Agh, no why did I say that? I can't make a total idiot of myself already.
"I wasn't asking"
Fine.
She retracted her hand.
"And I wasn't answering a question."
"Reyna, Reyna Lupin was it? The twin?"
"Got it first time, have a sticker"
"Well, Reyna, that was rather brave wasn't it? I'd have thought even Slytherin first years would be nervous to be here, having to prove themselves to the whole house."
"Well, I'm not trying to prove myself to anyone."
"Welcome to Slytherin, Reyna Lupin"
Reyna thought she could see a ghost of a smile before she turned away to face the wall up ahead.
"Alright everyone, this is the Slytherin common room! The password for the doors changes every fortnight but right now the password is..."
The prefect broke off from the group and leaned back around to Reyna,
"Serpent," she whispered with a wink.
"Bit predictable" Reyna muttered, but turned back to the blond haired boy behind her to pass it on all the same.
Before she turned back to face the common room, the wall at the end of the hallway had simply folded into itself, giving the impression of just falling away. Soon the small hole in the wall had opened to reveal a large, marble room.
Welcome to Slytherin, Reyna Lupin.

A series of oddly placed, sea worn bricks made up the majority of the walls, keep for the two doorways, that Reyna guessed led into dormitories, and a trim of delicately carved stone ribbon that ran along the perimeter of the room. Triplets of green velvet chairs were grouped in several places along the dungeon, set on a darkened silver spine. A thick rug was sprawled before the fireplace, also highlighted with silver embroidery. A set of animal skulls were placed on the mantel piece that was carved into the Slytherin emblem, serpents sprouting from it in all directions.

Reyna stood before the relentless fire as the rest of the first years crawled through the, now metre-wide, door, gasps slipping from their throats as they took in the majestic glory of the Slytherin dungeons.

She noticed with a start the whole room was lit from an eerie glow shining in through the windows, accompanied by silver wrought lanterns that hung from the damp ceiling. The khaki green mass shrouded the entirety of the glass, blocking all other views, and seemed to sway with an indefinite rhythm, almost as if it was affected by the breath of the wind.

"Ah yes, the whole dormitory is almost entirely submerged into the Black Lake, you might see the schools of trout swimming by, as well a couple more peculiar ones-"

"Li-li-like the giant sq-squid?" squeaked a first year behind Reyna

"And merpeople?"

"What about Grindylows?"

Murmurs and squeals spread through the new Slytherins as while series of groans rose from the corners of the room as protests for mercy were called out by the older students.

"Make them shut up, they do this every year!"

The perfect shot looks of sympathy to the others as she turned to face the first years again.

"Just keep an eye out while you're walking about and see if you find anything," she said with a wink, "And anyway, nothing can get through the walls, they're laced with enchanted platinum. Now, upper years have mixed dorms but first years are separated boys and girls, so, if all girls follow Smyley here-" she broke off as a freckled brunette stood up,

"And boys stick with Ferin."

The girls' new prefect led them through one of the passages that broke off from the main room and stopped in the foyer outside a line of dorms.

"Okay dorm number one is to your left there and inside will be staying Rene Pointer, Rosetta Ginna, Dayna Mazur and Bridie Child. Dorm number two includes..."

The prefect continued to read off names from her list and sorting them into their corresponding dorms and Reyna's mind wandered until she heard her  name again.

"And finally we have Reyna Lupin, Gwen Bulstrode, Jasika Zabini and Amaya Lestrange in Room 6, right at the end of the corridor," the prefect lowered her voice slightly, although the other girls had cleared off to unpack their belongings, "You only get that room for a year girls, and enjoy it, before you have to move back in with the boys."

"Oh, and Reyna, everyone can hear what's going on outside the common room door, it's part of the security," Smyley said with a smirk.

Great. I thought maybe the whole of Slytherin didn't think I was a total twat.