Gemma Farley one of our house prefect was to lead us to our dorms.
Though instead she stayed seated in her seat insisting we waited a couple minutes.
So we did just that.
A minute later the Great Hall was significantly easier to navigate through seeing as only a few people remained.
We began walking and as we went down thousands of spiral staircases my legs felt like they would nearly snap off.
I still held my head high because no one else looked to be as tired as I was.
In my sleepy stupor, I nearly missed that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as we passed.
Suddenly we stopped to see a tray of food floating in midair ahead of us, and Farley just stared at it impeccably.
"Peeves... Didn't you want to bother the Gryfindors today?" Farley said glaring at the tray.
There was that name again...
Didn't Malfoy say the baron kept him away?
There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, grasping the tray.
He looked slightly scary but not enough to have me running only slightly frightened by the pop.
"Peeves.....Leave now. The baron's on his way and if you don't leave soon he'll get here and you know what happens after that....."
Peeves sneered and stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the tray at Farley's feet.
We heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.
"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Farley, as they set off again.
"Be smart with your words. The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't listen to anything you say unless it's a direct threat to him."
I nod knowing that would be easy enough for me to handle.
"Anyways here we are."
We were halted before a stretch of bare, damp stone wall.
"Parselmouth" She mumbled so as to not allow people to hear but I caught the words although it may be jibberish for all I know.
A stone door concealed in the wall slid open and we all scrambled through it.
I watched in awe to see the beautiful dorm that lay in front of me.
The first thing I noticed was the beautiful glass window that stared out into the ocean where guppies swam around along with a more accurate to mythology mermaid and a whole lot of coral and kelp.
I then turned my attention to the contents of the common room which were all coloured the same emerald green as the emblem of our house with silver embroidery everywhere.
Farley looked at all of us and smirked when she saw our awe-struck faces.
She pointed her wand to her throat and the next second when she spoke her voice almost sounded like she was speaking through a mic, "Congratulations! I'm Prefect Gemma Farley, and I'm delighted to welcome you to SLYTHERIN HOUSE!"
"Our emblem is the serpent, the wisest of creatures; our house colours are emerald green and silver, and our common room as you've just seen lies behind a concealed entrance down in the dungeons."
She points around the room as if to emphasise her words and by the looks of it, it worked.
"As you can see, its windows look out into the depths of the Hogwarts Lake. We often see the giant squid swooshing by and sometimes for example right now, more interesting creatures."
I look out the window to see the mermaid from earlier staring at us.
"We like to feel that our hangout has the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck."
I nearly laughed at that.
For a place known for its production of evil wizards, it sure had a childish fun to it.
But if you think about it enough that would make sense seeing as most 'villains' are just people who never got a childhood and don't know how to cope with that.
"Now, there are a few things you should know about Slytherin and a few you should forget."
At that, the higher graders that were returning to the dorms with us and hadn't simply dispersed to their dorms smiled probably knowing where this was going.
"Firstly, let's dispel a few myths. You might have heard rumours about Slytherin house that we're all into the Dark Arts, and will only talk to you if your great-grandfather was a famous wizard, and rubbish like that."
Her words reminded me of the lie I made and I nearly winced.
"Well, you don't want to believe everything you hear from competing houses. I'm not denying that we've produced our share of Dark wizards, but so have the other three houses – they just don't like admitting it."
I smiled. By her tone, I could tell she was being frank and that was great.
She reminded me of Martha.
Her calm and casual demeanour along with the authoritative glances and stance made her a copy of Martha with the biggest differences being age, look and magic
"And yes, we have traditionally tended to take students who come from long lines of witches and wizards, but nowadays you'll find plenty of people in Slytherin house who have at least one Muggle parent."
I nod knowing full and well that this speech was gonna have no effect in getting me to reveal my true blood purity.
"Here's a little-known fact that the other three houses don't bring up much: Merlin was a Slytherin."
I grin widely at this, a huge sense of pride surging through me.
"Yes, Merlin himself, the most famous wizard in history! He learned all he knew in this very house! Do you want to follow in the footsteps of Merlin? Or would you rather sit at the old desk of that illustrious ex-Hufflepuff, Eglantine Puffett, inventor of the Self-Soaping Dishcloth?"
HAH!
"I didn't think so."
"But that's enough about what we're not. Let's talk about what we are, which is the coolest and edgiest house in this school. We play to win because we care about the honour and traditions of Slytherin."
Ohhhh... So we're like the fire nation from Avatar the last air bender.
"We also get respect from our fellow students. Yes, some of that respect might be tinged with fear, because of our Dark reputation, but you know what? It can be fun, having a reputation for walking on the wild side. Chuck out a few hints that you've got access to a whole library of curses, and see whether anyone feels like nicking your pencil case."
I grin widely all my previous thoughts that questioned why I was here and not somewhere like Ravenclaw or Gryffindor vanished.
I'd been here for less than a minute and I already loved it.
"But we're not bad people. We're like our emblem, the snake: sleek, powerful, and frequently misunderstood."
I didn't know about that but sure I'll take the compliment.
"For instance, we Slytherins look after our own which is more than you can say for Ravenclaw. Apart from being the biggest bunch of swots you ever met, Ravenclaws are famous for clambering over each other to get good marks, whereas we Slytherins are brothers."
By the looks of their table from the great hall in comparison to ours back then, I could see that coming to fruition.
"The corridors of Hogwarts can throw up surprises for the unwary, and you'll be glad you've got the Serpents on your side as you move around the school. As far as we're concerned, once you've become a snake, you're one of ours one of the elite."
That's a sweet lie to believe.
"Because you know what Salazar Slytherin looked for in his chosen students? The seeds of greatness. You've been chosen by this house because you've got the potential to be great, in the true sense of the word."
Doubt it but I'd like to believe that was true.
But the hat did say I'd be forgotten in Ravenclaw so that implies I won't be here.
"All right, you might see a couple of people hanging around the common room whom you might not think are destined for anything special. Well, keep that to yourself. If the Sorting Hat put them in here, there's something great about them, and don't you forget it."
Thanks but I'm beginning to get bored of this pep talk soo can you skip to the part where you show me where I have to go to sleep?
"And talking of people who aren't destined for greatness, I haven't mentioned the Gryffindors. Now, a lot of people say that Slytherins and Gryffindors represent two sides of the same coin."
"Personally, I think Gryffindors are nothing more than wannabe Slytherins."
Tell that to Harry and Hermione. Their face when I got sorted into Slytherin still stings.
"Mind you, some people say that Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor prized the same kinds of students, so perhaps we are more similar than we like to think. But that doesn't mean that we cosy up with Gryffindors. They like beating us only slightly less than we like beating them."
Sure, winning against them will definitely make them not dislike me and think I'm not evil...
"A few more things you might need to know: our house ghost is the Bloody Baron. If you get on the right side of him he'll sometimes agree to frighten people for you. Just don't ask him how he got bloodstained; he doesn't like it."
That would be good to keep away bullies.
"The password to the common room changes every fortnight. Keep an eye on the noticeboard. Never bring anyone from another house into our common room or tell them our password. No outsider has entered it for more than seven centuries."
Oof. That's a long while...
"Well, I think that's all for now. I'm sure you'll like our dormitories. You'll sleep well; it's very soothing, listening to the lake water lapping against the windows at night."
And make nightmares harder to deal with but that's fine.
She then directed us, the girls, through one door to our dormitory and the boys through another.
We walked through the door which led to a tube-like place which was entirely made of glass making it look like we were in the ocean and it was absolutely gorgeous.
After passing through the tube it leads to seven doors next to each other.
Farley led me and all the other first-year girls to the first door from the left.
Author's Note:
WE'RE AT THE DORMSSSSSS!!!!
Word count: 1690 words
~Author's <333