The Slytherin Rose

Chapter II: The Pride of a Slytherin

And then there was Draco Malfoy. The Hat hadn't even properly touched his head before it shouted out and the boy himself looked quite smug about this fact.

All in all, Rosaline would, at that moment, have given anything to be in Hufflepuff with Susan.

The highlight of the Sorting Ceremony was definitely the moment Harry Potter's name was called out and the Wizarding World caught their first glimpse of the infamous Boy-Who-Lived. As Rosaline watched the skinny, lanky black-haired boy walk forward under the mutterings of the whole Hall, she tried to remember what her mother had told her about him.

She knew the basics, of course. She, like any other child, had not only heard stories about how Voldemort was ultimately defeated by this scrawny-looking kid when he was still an infant, she was actively taught in it in her magical history classes. Her mother and uncle Ren both differed in opinion, though, on how the boy survived.

Her uncle Ren was more inclined towards the gossip that had spread among especially the Death Eater families. That Harry Potter was a Dark Lord in the making, with power so grand and special he could defeat a wizard like Lord Voldemort without even trying. Needless to say, neither Rosaline nor her mother, were very convinced of this. And as she watched the small boy sitting on the stool, she became less so by the second.

Her mother worked for the Ministry of Magic. She had trained to be a Healer, but instead of choosing to work at St. Mungo's, she had applied for a job as a Forensic Mediwizard. If a Muggle or wizard alike died, or was otherwise attacked, under suspicious circumstances, Rosaline's mother was one of the first people on the scene to assess the damage and cause of death. It had been Joy Rosier, as a part of the small group of Aurors and Healers, that had found the Potters and investigated their bodies.

Rosaline's mother was a brilliant witch. One of the best, if not the best, Mediwizards in the world. She was an expert in a field many were afraid to involve themselves in, that of Dark Magic and its repercussions. Rosaline was convinced her mother had thoroughly investigated the matter of the Potters' death and it wasn't difficult to imagine her mother knew some things nobody else did. What happened that night had always been a very delicate matter. It wasn't just a sad day were an infant became an orphan, but one of major political importance. And Rosaline was familiar enough with their Ministry to know that they must have had a hand in editing the events of that night to benefit their political agenda. So, only the people who had originally been involved knew the truth.

Joy Rosier hardly, if ever, opened up about what she knew of big cases in the newspapers. But one thing she'd always been adamant in, and that was the fact that Harry Potter was an innocent child and that no amount of power in his soul would take away the fact that the world had failed him.

Harry Potter was Sorted into Gryffindor to the thunderous applause, louder than any yet had been, of the House at the other side of the Hall.

Draco Malfoy grumbled under his breath.

At the end of the Feast, the first year Slytherins were led away by Gemma. Rosaline had to admit that she was slightly sceptical about their common room when Gemma led them towards what she called, "the dungeons,". The first years were half-expecting some kind of hazing, but once the wall opened up and the Slytherin Common Room came into view, they let go of that fear.

The room was huge and reminded Rosaline a bit of an underwater Muggle church. The high ceiling was barely visible in the dark as the lanterns and candles were hung lower to illuminate the floor. But the middle of the ceiling, was a dome of glass, greenish light falling down onto a little pond in the centre of the floor. The water, in which floated lights and flowers separated the area where they were standing from a grand staircase that seemed to lead into the lake itself, As the back-wall too seemed to be made of glass for a large part, behind which the Black Lake was visible. Through the glass ceiling and the glass in the back, several creatures and fish seemed to be peering down at them to see the new arrivals.