𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏 ♔ 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘯𝘦

i . another interesting year

THIS STORY IS SET IN THE 21ST CENTURY

22nd of September, First year

Isadora Prewett's twelfth birthday was supposed to be her best to date... But instead, she was spending it alone. Isolated by her own family for a result that came to her purely by fate.

She sat alone at breakfast, as she had been doing ever since she had arrived at Hogwarts, a place she had been hoping would finally be her place of belonging. Even with her best efforts, she was feeling exceptionally glum, but she tried not to make her expressions give too much away, fearful the people around her would see her as pathetic or weak-minded.

The only person in her family to have interacted with her since the sorting ceremony was her cousin Percy Weasley, who had wished her a happy birthday that morning -and that was only because they had bumped into each other when walking into the hall.

She pondered how so much had changed between stepping onto that train and returning to her new dormitory that night. Isadora had been taken in and raised in a family of Gyriffindors -her own father Fabian Prewett had been one himself- so when the sorting had cried 'Slytherin!' her life was flipped upside down.

She had nothing against the house, nor those who found their place in it -in fact, she had smiled with pride as the hat had been taken from her head. However, the stigma of 'every Slytherin is evil' had weighed so much on her family's perception while she was growing up, that she had wished nothing more than to throw herself into the lake when Fred and George's eyes had met hers as she made her way over to the Slytherin table not a month ago. They had looked horrified.

Isadora was hardly aware of the screeching signal that the morning post was arriving. She was slumped over her bowl of cereal, picking out the occasional sultana and trying not to feel so sorry for herself. Perhaps if she had another side of her family to relate with it would make the whole situation more bearable, but with her mother's side laden with secrecy and fog, she was at a loss.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY!" The shrill cry from Molly Weasley rang throughout the hall.

Isadora's head shot up from her bowl to look at where it was coming from; and there the twins were, wide-eyed and practically shaking, staring at the floating red letter that was screaming at them.

"HOW DARE YOU AVOID YOUR COUSIN! I AM ABSOLUTELY REPULSED TO LEARN YOU TWO HAVE BEEN IGNORING HER FOR THE PAST THREE WEEKS! ALL BECAUSE OF HER HOUSE! YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BAN YOU FROM PLAYING QUIDDITCH! YOU BOTH BETTER HAND HER HER BIRTHDAY PRESENTS WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT OR SO HELP ME I WILL PERSONALLY ESCORT YOU HOME BY YOUR EARS!"

The hall was dead silent after the howler tore itself up. It was only early in the morning, but there were still quite a few students and teachers present; Isadora was sure she saw McGonagall almost laugh. But the amusement of her cousin's beating didn't last long when everyone's attention turned to her. She usually loved being the centre of attention, but after everyone in Gryffindor house seemed to have established a secret agreement to avoid her and shoot the side-eye whenever possible had done horrible things for her confidence.

So Isadora returned to her breakfast, hoping that pretending they weren't gawking was enough to convince her brain they weren't. It didn't take too long for everyone to return to their own business, and after all that neither one of the boys had made their way over to her. She felt even worse, that it seemed not even a scolding from their mother could get the boys to even look her way ever again.

After about five minutes, someone cleared their throat in front of Isadora causing her to look up. There in front of her stood the very guilty-looking twins that had been ignoring her for so long.