The Snake Pit || Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 10: Party Planning

Transfiguration was surprisingly easy for Octavia. It was led by a broad hulk of a man named Professor Thornton. His voice was strangely soft and the class was virtually silent to hear him. Octavia considered that was the point and appreciated the effort to keep the schools eldest and most troublesome students' attention. He smiled and praised the students when they succeeded and gave points of improvement when they failed. He gave Octavia a dazzling smile when she transfigured her leather-bound book into a soft pillowy blanket. She mumbled a thanks and turned it back just as easily. Homework was set to practice if students had failed and a short paragraph for students who had succeeded, about why they had. Overall, she was quite pleased with the experience.

The group of Slytherin's snagged some food from the Great Hall and then made themselves comfortable on the lawn next to the Black Lake and under a large tree. Octavia had transfigured a napkin into a picnic blanket and they rested on it chatting between themselves. They laid out, soaking in the sun and eating their lunch.

Blaise was settled against the trunk of an enormous oak, casually reading the newspaper until Theo snatched it to defend against the sun in his eyes. Octavia watched the two bicker, Theo getting smacked with the offending newspaper. It was easy to laugh at the chaos the group created. She caught Enzo's eye as she watched each of her new friends carefully, he smiled wide, eyes crinkling.

A pair of heavy Doc Martens drew her gaze away.

'Did you see his smile? Merlin,' Pansy faux swooned collapsing into Octavia's lap. She grinned down at her friend.

'Got a crush Parkinson?' Draco drawled.

'Why must appreciating a person's physical appearance always acquaint to a crush?' Pansy huffed, Draco rolled his eyes, 'I was just asking if anyone else noticed how beautiful that man was, I was merely admiring him.' She had sat up on her elbows and glared at him. 'Honestly, you men make everything so difficult.'

'Only you would make admiring someone sound exhausting, Pansy,' Draco laughed.

'Yeah, and we all know how much you love admiring,' Pansy smirked at him. Draco flushed and the group laughed, Octavia sending confused looks to Daphne who shrugged in response. She was scratching at a bit of parchment atop her Transfiguration book it teetering on her knee. Octavia peered over her to see but she snatched it away a devilish reflection of glee etched into her face. Octavia raised her eyebrows a hiss of air leaving her mouth in a laugh. Daphne waving her away.

Octavia ate her sandwich and fruit, bathing in the sun. It wouldn't be long before it was gone, she dreaded that. The fresh smell of grass and wind lovely and clean around them. Daphne cleared her throat, and the group adjusted to give her their attention.

'Ok party planning,' Daphne said wearing a cartoonish expression of glee. 'I'm thinking a Friday night would be good, maybe next week, depending if we can make it happen in time,' she rambled. The group nodding along. 'Room of Requirement, obviously is the location,' Daphne explained in a duh kind of tone.

'Room of Requirement?' Octavia repeated, eyebrows raised. Enzo held the same expression and he grinned when he caught the mirrored look on Octavia's face, she smiled.

'Magic room that appears when required, a lot of people don't know about it so it's a safe location without interruptions cause you have to be thinking the exact same thing to find other people,' Daphne rattled off, waving her hand. Octavia nodded still a little confused. 'Ok so who's invited, us obviously, the rest of the Slytherin Seventh Years, obviously, but I figured we should invite some of the fifth and sixth years to even out our ratio,' she was practically giddy.

'What's wrong with our ratio?' Theo whined. The girls laughed; Pansy sat up to look at him.

'You've got to give us a fighting chance,' Pansy smiled like he was a child, Theo rolled his eyes.