The Fools Who Dream

Chapter 8

The five girls played the game for almost the full hour that they had left before breakfast, until Alice suddenly glanced at her watch and realised it was five to eight and they needed to start getting dressed. There was a frantic scramble as everyone grabbed their robes and pulled on their clothes, and then ran out of the dorm and up the stairs to the common room, where there were already lots of Slytherin students milling around. Cynthia slammed straight into one of the taller boys in her haste, who turned around and glared at her with sharp, icy blue eyes.

"Watch where you're going." he said snidely.

"Sorry." muttered Cynthia, stepping around him and joining Alice and the other girls as they walked through the passage to the brick wall, which opened and allowed them into the dungeon.

"Does anyone remember where to go?" asked Alice, glancing up and down the hallway.

"There's a door along the hallway down here." said Cynthia, pointing to the left. "It goes to that weird staircase and then up to the Great Hall."

Ceri and Christi nodded and walked along the sloping hall, followed by Verity and Alice and Cynthia. They reached the door and pulled it open to reveal the dim staircase that they had come down the previous evening. Cynthia groaned inwardly as they started walking up the mountains of stairs, already exhausted, but after what felt like forever, they reached the Entrance Hall, where they could see many students from all of the houses starting to come up to get to the Great Hall.

"Which is the Slytherin table?" Cynthia muttered under her breath to Alice, smirking.

"Probably the one with all the green and silver ties." Alice replied, pointing to the table closest to the wall on the left. "Now come on, hurry up, I'm starving."

Cynthia laughed as the five of them walked towards the Slytherin table, but just before she got there, she felt something invisible wrap around her ankles and she came crashing down to the ground.

"Woah, are you alright?" asked Alice, bending down to help her to her feet.

"Yeah – I'm – I'm fine, I'm just really clumsy." muttered Cynthia, brushing her hands off on her robes. "I just tripped."

"What is there to trip over?" asked Alice, laughing.

"Usually my own feet." said Cynthia awkwardly, blushing.

As the two of them sat down, she turned to look around the hall and spotted James, Sirius, Remus and Peter taking a seat at the Gryffindor table, and James was twirling his wand between his fingers, leering at her. She quickly averted her eyes back to the cereal boxes in front of her and sighed, pouring herself a bowl and splashing it with milk.

"So which one's your brother?" asked Alice in a whisper. "Is he cute?"

Cynthia glared at her.

"What?" Alice grinned, shoving a spoonful of cereal in her mouth. "I'm just asking." she added with her mouth full.

"He's the one shooting daggers into the back of my head with his eyes, and no, he isn't cute." muttered Cynthia. "Also, he's like, three years older than you."

"So?" asked Alice, who was already looking up and down the Gryffindor table curiously. "Wait, there's two glaring at you. Oh, now they're glaring at me. Is he the one with glasses or the one with long hair?"

"Well, they both hate me, but he's the one with glasses." said Cynthia. "Like mine. Our family is cursed with terrible eyesight. At least, that's what Mum says."

"Yeah, you're right, he's not cute." Alice shrugged, turning back around to the dinner table. "Is he always frowning like that?"

"When he looks at me, that's pretty much all he does." said Cynthia quietly. "Can we stop talking about my brother?"

"Fine, fine." said Alice, sighing. "Do you really hate each other that much? I thought you just said you didn't get along."

"Well, it probably just got a lot worse now that I'm in Slytherin." said Cynthia.

"Don't worry, I can protect you." Alice boasted, putting her arm up and flexing what she clearly thought were her biceps, but Cynthia poked her arm and she collapsed almost instantly in a fit of giggles.

"You must be our new first years." said a voice behind them, and Cynthia had to bite back a scream as she jumped what felt like six feet into the air.

They turned around to see a rather elderly teacher with a lopsided, toothy smile, and an old-fashioned scholars hat topping his silvery hair. He was wearing long robes down to the floor of brown, on top of what Cynthia could see to be a tweed suit. Definitely not what she would consider to be modern, more like the kind of thing her grandfather used to wear when she was little.

"I'm Professor Slughorn, your head of house." he said. "I'm also the potions teacher. Now, here are your timetables. Miss Avery?"

"Which one?" asked Ceri and Christi together.

He seemed incredibly flustered at her, but quickly waved it away and handed them each scrolls tied in green ribbon.

"They're the same anyway." he said. "Miss Carroll?"

"Me." said Alice, sticking her hand up in the air awkwardly, not higher than her head, and she took the timetable he gave her, which was also wrapped in a green ribbon.

"Miss Newman?"

Verity nervously took the timetable, looking as if the ribbon was going to fly off and bite her at any second as she pulled it off.

"And you must be Miss Potter." said Slughorn uneasily, handing Cynthia's timetable down to her. "You won't cause as much trouble as your brother, I hope?"

Cynthia went bright red and shook her head, taking the timetable awkwardly from him.

"Good, good." he said, nodding his head. "I'll see you five in potions this afternoon."

As soon as he had walked away, Alice groaned and opened up her timetable.

"Potions? On the first day?" she moaned. "And History of Magic, come on!"

"We've got Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, break, Charms, lunch, History of Magic, break, and Potions last." said Ceri. "Well the afternoon is awful, but the rest of it isn't too bad."

"Is it just me who was a bit terrified of Professor McGonagall yesterday?" asked Verity nervously.

"According to my Dad, we should be." said Alice, grinning. "She's been teaching for almost thirty years. Doesn't take crap from anyone."

"She probably already hates me because of my brother." muttered Cynthia. "Then again, I think all the teachers probably do."

"Yeah, I'm going to feel sorry for my littlest brother or sister when he or she comes here after me and my other two brothers." said Alice. "Every single teacher is going to gang up and march them right out the door."

A/N

I know, I know, I fell behind! Don't worry though, it wasn't just here, I just completely forgot about updating at all. Partly because I kept forgetting what day it was. Anyway, I'm back! Sorry about that.