A Broken Slytherin (Book 1)

The Jinxed Broom

The Slytherin dorm was quite cold that Saturday morning. y/n woke early due to the little cat that had fallen asleep on her face. Nimbus was purring softly, somehow comfortable in that position. y/n lifted him off her face and held him out above her. She chuckled and then sat up, bringing him close to her chest, stroking him lovingly. y/n didn't want to leave the sanctuary of warmth under the covers, but then remembered what was happening today. The Gryffindor versus Slytherin match! y/n jumped out of bed and quickly got changed. The game didn't start until 11 and it was only 9 o'clock. She decided to go straight down to breakfast.

When she entered the great hall, she saw Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting at the Gryffindor table. Professor Snape was walking over to them just as she was and she caught the end of their conversation.

"-even if it is against Slytherin," the potions master said. He noticed y/n had just come over and looked at her which made the other three turn.

"Professor" y/n addressed politely.

"Miss l/n, I'm sure you won't need it today, but good luck," he said oddly kindly and then walked away.

The four looked back at him and saw that he was limping.

"That explains the blood" Harry mumbled more to himself than the others.

"Blood?" Hermione questioned.

Harry turned to the rest of the group and y/n sat down next to him. "Listen, last night, I'm guessing Snape let the troll out as a diversion, so he could try and get past that three-headed dog. But he got himself bitten, that's why he's limping!"

"But why would anyone go near that thing?" said Hermione.

"Hold on!" y/n piped up, the three turned to her, "What's all this about a three-headed dog?"

Harry and Ron explained what happened that night Harry and y/n made the Quidditch teams. How they wound up on the third floor, how they ran into the room to escape Filch, and how they were almost eaten by the three-headed dog that was guarding some sort of trap door.

"But why would Snape want to go down and get whatever is under that trap door? He's been a teacher here for years!" y/n countered. She knew that the three didn't like him but they were jumping to some pretty insane conclusions.

"Look y/n, we know that you're his favourite and he's your Head of House but that man is freaky!" Ron said, finally contributing to the conversation.

"That doesn't mean he's a bad person!" y/n defended, "Besides, what would be so important that Snape would want to steal it?"

Harry jumped in before things between Ron and y/n could escalate anymore, he didn't want a repeat of yesterday afternoon. "The day I was at Gringotts, Hagrid got something out of that vault that was broken into, remember? He said it was Hogwarts business."

Hermione began to put two and two together "So you're saying-"

"That's what the dog's guarding!" y/n gasped at the realisation. What did all of this mean?

"That's what Snape wants!" Ron added, y/n looked at him, she didn't believe that Professor Snape wanted to steal anything.

The four look at each other in fear and questioning. But the moment was broken by Hedwig's screeches echoing around the hall. They all looked up along with the rest of the students eating breakfast. She was carrying a long, thin package and dropped it in front of the four first years. It wasn't too hard working out what was under the brown paper wrapping.

"Bit early for mail, isn't it?" Hermione commented.

"But," Harry turned to y/n on his left. "I never get mail."