The Fools Who Dream

Chapter 6

The feast was something that Cynthia had never experienced before. For once, she didn't have to wait for the boys to be served first and then accept whatever meagre portions were leftover. She could have as much as her stomach could hold, and then even more, as the plates never seemed to be empty. Even when she swore she took the last chicken wing, there was suddenly a whole pile of them in front of her, and she could keep eating. Pumpkin juice was certainly something that she wasn't used to, but as it seemed to be the only thing on offer to drink, she swallowed it down and slowly began to enjoy it. In fact, the only thing that made her spit it out was when Alice made her laugh too hard.

For an hour and a half, Cynthia Potter forgot who she was. She forgot she was the Potter that had been sorted into Slytherin. She forgot that her parents would kill her as soon as they laid eyes on her. She forgot that her brother was sat two tables away from her, probably shooting daggers at her through her eyes. She forgot she was a Potter at all. For the duration of that feast, she was just Cynthia, friend of Alice Carroll, a Slytherin, and for just a little while, happy to be.

When the feast was over, Dumbledore stood up to the podium to make a speech.

"I won't keep you long that you've now been fed and watered." he said pleasantly. "Just a few start of term notices, and welcomes to all our new students! I'm sure that you'll soon think of our school as a second home and form friendships that will last a long time for you all. Please note that the forest on the grounds is out of bounds to all pupils unless in lessons or under instruction from a teacher. And, I'm sure, some of our older students could do with a reminder of that as well."

Cynthia couldn't help noticing his eyes glance towards the Gryffindor table; it wasn't hard to know who he was talking about.

"No magic is to be used in the halls between lessons," Dumbledore continued, "and curfew is at ten each evening, at which point all students must be in their common room, and not roaming the castle. Our Head Boy and Girl this year are Evanna Kensington and Matthew Barchester, in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor respectively. Please feel free to speak to them or your prefects if you need any help, and your Professors are of course around. Now then, off to bed. You'll need your rest for lessons tomorrow. Pop off!"

Students began getting up all around the hall on each of the tables, and Alice and Cynthia glanced at each other and got up as well, although they weren't sure where they were going. But luckily, they were saved from being lost by hearing the Slytherin prefects calling out for the first years to follow them.

"Come over here before we leave you behind." the boy snapped as Cynthia and Alice walked up to him and the other girl wearing a green badge saying 'PREFECT'. "Is this all of you? Good. Let's go."

Once they'd left the hall, it was easier to see how many first years there were; from what Cynthia could see, there were about eight boys, but only five girls, including her and Alice. They turned right and walked through a large wooden door that opened onto a set of stone steps that went down as far as the eyes could see. They descended deep, deep down into the dungeons of the castle, where Cynthia knew the castle was situated. Eventually, they came to another door which led to a long corridor made of stone; Cynthia suddenly felt very cold in the strange dungeons.

The prefects stopped very suddenly at a bare stretch of stone wall and turned to face it.

"Sacred Blood." sneered the girl prefect, and the bricks melted away to form a door that opened to reveal a narrow passageway that went through to the Slytherin common room.

It was a long, low, underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chairs. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several carved chairs were casting silhouettes around the entire room. Lots of low-backed black and dark green button-tufted leather sofas, skulls, and dark wood cupboards filled the edges of the room. It was decorated with famous tapestries featuring the adventures of who appeared to be famous Slytherins. It had quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one, and reminded Cynthia of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck, just like the ones in her beloved books.