Mass Collision

7. Umbridge

The entire table of green clapped for me. I looked over at Harry and the others and a few looked disgusted, but Harry just smiled and I headed over to the table of snakes.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands— welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuckin!"

Suddenly, food covered the table and people started reaching across, setting stuff on their plates. I grab a chicken wing, some greens, and some bread. I ate some of it before reaching forward for the golden goblet placed in front of me. I gulped down some of the sweet substance, it wasn't bad.

"Congratulations on getting into Slytherin," a boy next to said with a smirk. "Theodore Nott," he stuck out his hand. I slowly shook it as he pointed to the boy next to him. "That's Blaise Zabini and I'm sure you've already met Malfoy, heard what he did on the train to you and Potter's other friends. Don't listen to them by the way, we're not all evil pricks, just our families."

Wow, I think that's the most someone's willingly said to me the first time we ever met other than Leo or maybe Conor. "I'm sure you know my name from the sorting, but I'm Natalia."

"Yeah, transfer from Ivermorny, how was it over in America?" Blaise asked, drinking from his cup.

"Interesting to say the least," I decided. "Don't really know much, I mostly just spent my time there for school or at camp in the summer. I was in Italy for most of my life," I explain.

"Oh, I love Italy," A girl with brunette hair cuts in saying. "I'm Pansy and this is Daphne." The other girl next to her with blonde hair and blue eyes waves.

"Hey," I wave back. "I have a question, why does everyone say you're evil?"

"Just how we act sometimes," Daphne shrugs. "We've been taught to act a certain way in front of people. Plus, Malfoy gives us a terrible rep. We got tired of their distant conversations and whispers in our first year so we gave up on them."

"Honestly, a lot of us have friends in other houses, it's just not portrayed that way to first years– or Gryffindors apparently," Pansy rolls her eyes.

Theo looks down at my plate with barely anything on it, "is that all you're going to eat?"

"Yeah, most likely," I nod, turning back to him.

He shakes his head, "No, you need to try the roast beef, and at least one potato, oh and some pudding, and some treacle tart," he says, piling a little of each on my plate. I took a bite of each and some of it was good, but I'm still unsure about the treacle tart. It's something. "Pretty good," I compliment, laughing.

"Are you a pureblood?" Blaise asks as Theo hits his shoulder.

"Somewhat," I hesitate. "My family tree is complicated."

All of them scoff or laugh, "Oh, please all of ours is, don't worry about it," Pansy giggles.

"Well, then no, I'm a half-blood," I say. It's just in more ways than one.

The others get a little quiet, "You're a pureblood, that's perfect!" Theo says loudly, turning a few Slytherins towards us.

"What are you doing?" I ask him in a whisper.

"Helping," he smiles at me. "Haven't you heard about you-know-who and what he's done?"

"Yes–"

"Well we're the kids of his followers, with him back if they know you're a half-blood who knows what could happen," Daphne explains.