- CHAPTER ONE -
❛ what a plot twist you were. ❜
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Look, I didn't want to be a Slytherin.
In fact, I begged the Sorting Hat to put me in any house but Slytherin. Don't get me wrong, I didn't have anything against the House. I did possess all of the qualities one required to be a part of the Slytherins. But when you were one of the very few Muggle-born witches in the House, things tended to get a little bit harder.
Understatement of the century.
Life at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry as a Muggle-born Slytherin was hell. Obviously, the Slytherins hated me because I was a Muggle-born. Students from the other houses didn't want to be my friend because, well, I was a bloody Slytherin. You see the problem here.
Merlin, It was not my fault my parents were Muggles. I really didn't know how I survived six years like that. Yep, you guessed it. It was the beginning of my seventh year of torture at Hogwarts.
Hi, I am Azura Larson.
And this is the story of how I died. . .
Nah, just kidding. This is actually a really fun story.
So, back to the beginning of my seventh year. I was sitting in the last Slytherin compartment in the Hogwarts Express, watching the cottages turn into valleys and hills through the window. Surprisingly, I was not alone.
"I am hungry already," sighed Ray. "Where is the trolley lady?"
"Honestly, Ray, do you ever stop eating?" asked Juliet reprovingly. "You just ate like an hour ago."
They were my only two best friends at Hogwarts: Raymond Powell, and Juliet Cooper.
They were Slytherins too, but they were half-bloods. So we sort of took each other under the wing and have been close friends ever since first year. It had always been just the three of us. Juliet was a blonde, beautiful walking library. You could never spot her without a book in her hand. And if you ever needed any help with your homework, or had any general questions about the wizarding world, she was your go-to. Ray was a dark-haired, lanky wizard. Food was his everything. If food were a person, Ray would be married to them with six children by now.
"What? Can't a guy be hungry around here?" said Ray, as Juliet huffed behind her Standard Book of Spells: Grade seven.
"Oh, I am gonna kill him," I grumbled, staring at the compartment door.
Evan Rosier, the biggest arsehole at Hogwarts, and my ex-boyfriend was standing just outside, smirking at me. Evan and I dated in our sixth year, but I dumped him when I found out that he was cheating on me with Beatrice Weston.
What the hell I saw in that guy, I would never understand. Probably the fact that he was the only Slytherin other than Ray and Juliet who noticed me and wanted to talk to me. But at that time, I didn't know he was just using me.
Boys, right?
You'd think he would have left me alone after successfully shagging Beatrice but boy, was I wrong.
Apparently, Beatrice was cheating on Evan with another Gryffindor. And now, this git was following me around, claiming that he had changed and learnt from his mistakes and that he wasn't in his right mind.
I might not be the brightest witches of our age like Lily Evans or Juliet, but I was not stupid enough to believe him.
"Get out," I said, not looking at Evan as he slid into the empty seat next to me.
"Come on, babe," said Evan, throwing an arm around me. "Don't be so ru—"
"Do not touch me," I elbowed him hard in the ribs and shook his hand off of me.
"Azura, baby, wait!"
Too late. I had already stormed out of the compartment and shut the door behind me, leaving poor Ray and Juliet to deal with him.
I had to get out of the Slytherin compartment. Fast. With that only thought in mind, I ran into another dangerous territory.
The Gryffindor compartment.
"Son of a bi—"
I bumped into another student, who was, by my excellent luck, carrying a hand full of sweets bought from the trolley lady. Their cauldron cakes, every flavour beans, and chocolate wands all dropped to the floor. The bottle of pumpkin juice spilled onto my shirt. That was gonna leave a stain. To cap it all, my bumping buddy just so happened to be another person I absolutely loved at Hogwarts.
Sirius oh-I-am-so-cool Black.
"Fuck!" He groaned, staring at the mess on the floor. "What the hell, Larson?"
Oh wait, I lied. Evan wasn't the biggest arsehole at Hogwarts. It was Sirius Black. And I am not saying I hate him or anything.
But if he were on fire and I had water, I'd drink it.
You might be wondering why I don't like the Sirius Black, honorary member of the Marauders, famous, rich, the 'heartthrob' of Hogwarts.
Well, allow me to uncover the biggest rivalry tale of Hogwarts. Sirius Black and I met in that very same spot of the Hogwarts Express during our first day. He immediately took a liking to me when he heard that I was a Muggle-born. His mother didn't want him to do anything with Muggle-borns or Half-bloods, she thought they were filth, but Sirius was hell bent on proving her wrong. I was his first ever friend, then we met the biggest drooling fool on earth, James Potter.
But the thing was, Sirius hated the Slytherin house as much as I hated when people chewed with their mouths open. So when the majestic Sorting Hat kicked me into the Serpent house, Sirius turned a disgusted face towards me.
And that, was the end of an eight-hour friendship.
It also didn't help that I broke his jaw once in second year with his own Beater bat but we're not going to get into that now.
I also kicked him in his crown jewels in our third year but we're not going to get into that either. In my defence, he called me weak just because I was a girl.
There were a lot of clashes between me and Sirius Black after that, he'd broken my nose once, tripped me into the Black Lake, and got me into endless detentions. And I got revenge every time, don't worry.
Though, after a serious incident in our fifth year, we sort of took a break from tormenting each other.
So anyway, back to the mess we have in our seventh year.
"You bloody moron, Black, you ruined my shirt!"
"It's not my fault you're fucking blind, Larson!" Sirius shot back. "You're paying for all of this!"
He gestured at the junk pile of sweets on the floor. I felt my anger rise to my neck.
"Go to hell, Black."
"Don't show me your attitude, Larson," sneered Sirius. "It's all your fault!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on?" said another voice.
Lily Evans stepped out of her compartment, with her friends Alice Fortescue, Dorcas Meadowes, and Marlene McKinnon in tow. Sirius's body relaxed at once at the sight of Marlene.
"Shit, what happened in here?" came Ray's voice from behind me, followed by Juliet's, who said, "Uh oh."
"Sirius, go back to your friends," said Lily.
"Let's go, Azu," Juliet whispered, tugging my shirt. "Come on."
"No," Sirius and I said, glaring at each other.
When Sirius Black and Azura Larson fight, the people in the vicinity crane their necks to catch bits of the argument. Our fights were legendary. The pureblood Gryffindor versus the Muggle-born Slytherin. We wouldn't stop until our friends or professors took control and dragged us off.
"She needs to pay for this," Sirius told Lily. "This is all her fau—"
"If I need to pay for that, then you need to pay for my shirt, you git," I retorted as Sirius glared back at me.
"Listen, no one needs to pay for anything," said Lily, suddenly in a commanding voice. "If you two don't clear up and go back to your compartments, as the Head girl, I'll have to deduct points from both of your Houses."
"I don't care," said Sirius coolly. "Losing House points isn't new to me. But if Larson doesn't apologize—"
"If you're gonna wait for my apology, you'll be waiting for a long time, Black," I interrupted and I swear I could see smoke coming out of his ears.
"Powell, Cooper, can you please get her out of here?" Lily whispered to Ray and Juliet, as she and Alice got hold of Sirius's arms and dragged him off. He and I did not break our death stares as we struggled in the hold of our friends pulling us away.
⋆⋆⋆⋆
Ray, Juliet, and I took the seats at the end of the Slytherin table as always, since nobody wanted the 'mudblood' Azura Larson sitting near them and dirtying their pure butts.
The door of the Great Hall opened and in walked Professor McGonagall, leading the line of terrified looking first-years.
"I can't believe this is our last year at Hogwarts," said Juliet, waving at a few first-years.
"Remember when we were like that?" chuckled Ray. "Midgets."
"Oh, I can't wait to be Sorted!" Sirius exclaimed to me. "I really want us to be in the same House, Zura!"
"Zura?" I laughed.
"My uncle told me that we give nicknames to the people we love," Sirius said seriously. "Do you like it?"
"I like it," I said, smiling. "No one's ever called me Zura before."
"That's why it's special!" Sirius smiled back.
And now he calls me Larson, I thought sadly, shaking away the memory.
"Wait, who is that?" said Ray suddenly.
Juliet and I followed his gaze and frowned. A tall boy, who was definitely not eleven years old, was trailing behind the first years. He looked extremely familiar.
"A new student, perhaps," said Juliet thoughtfully.
The Sorting hat began to sing a song and after that, the first years were being Sorted. I clapped half-heartedly whenever someone got into Slytherin. Another snobby pureblood who would look down at me in disgust. But nobody was paying attention to the first years. All eyes were all the new boy, you could actually smell the anticipation and whispering in the Hall.
When the final name, "Zelder, Brandon" was sorted, the Great Hall held its breath.
"Rutherford, Nathaniel."
Everyone gasped, including me.
"Rutherford?" Ray hissed. "You mean— he's related to Lucretia Rutherford?"
Lucretia Rutherford was my Goddess. She was the world's most skilled Quidditch player, the captain and Beater of the Puddlemere United, and my biggest role model. She could punch me in the face and I would thank her.
"He's not just a relative," I said. "He's Lucretia's son."
Someone had better catch me before I faint.
But this shock was nothing compared to what I heard next. The moment the Hat touched Nathan's head, it yelled, "SLYTHERIN!"
Oh boy.
I watched with my lips slightly parted as Nathan strode up to the Slytherin table and sat down, I was so in awe of him that I had actually zoned out the thunderous applause coming from our table and the disappointed groans from the rest of the Houses.
"This year is going to be interesting," Ray smirked.
Oh Ray, if only you knew how right you were.
The feast began and to everyone's pleasure — mostly Ray's — the plates filled with delicious and mouth-watering food. After everyone had eaten, Dumbledore stood up.
"Now we are all fed and watered, I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is strictly forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."
Dumbledore's eyes glanced in the direction of the Gryffindor table, where James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter grinned at each other.
"Our caretaker, Mr. Flich has asked me to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact their team captains. And now, bedtime. Off you go!"
The Slytherin first-years followed Gwenog Jones, the Slytherin prefect, as Juliet, Ray and I trotted between the crowd walking to the dungeons, chatting lazily. We were so immersed in our conversation about which pudding was the best, that we forgot to ask Gwenog the password.
"It's probably something like 'Pureblood' or 'Serpent'," said Ray, but the door did not move. "Ah, well, worth a try."
"Now, what do we do?" I asked.
"Are you stuck outside, sweetheart?" came a voice.
I cursed under my breath but before I could turn around and tell him off, Evan had wrapped an arm around my waist.
"Let me go, Evan!" I struggled to push him off of me, but that slimeball's hold only got tighter. Ray and Juliet tried to help me, but Evan's friends Avery and Mulciber held them back. I almost reached into my robes to pull out my wand when a deep voice shouted,
"Get away from her!"
The six of us turned and saw the one and only Nathaniel Rutherford strutting up to us, a murderous look on his face. Evan let go of me at once.
"She said no," said Nathan, glaring at Evan. "Don't you know that it is disgusting to touch a lady without her permission?"
"Don't lecture me, Golden boy, you don't know who I am."
"And I would very much like to keep it that way. See, I wouldn't want to make any acquaintance with fucktards who harass women."
Damn, he just slapped Evan with words. For a second, Evan looked like he might punch him in the face but then he nodded at his friends, and the three of them stormed out of the dungeons.
"Sorry about him," Nathan turned to me, his expression softening. "I am Nathan. Nathaniel Rutherford."
My role model's son was holding up his hand for me to shake. No big deal. Happens all the time.
"A-Azura Larson," I shook his hand, ignoring the chills I got. I looked at his face and analysed his features. His eyes were the exact same shade of green as mine.
He then shook hands with Juliet and Ray as well.
"The password's 'Basilisk', by the way," said Nathan, and the door slid open.
Sharing what-the-fuck-just-happened? looks with Juliet and Ray, I followed Nathan inside.