Miss Slytherin

Book 1: Chapter 7

The next few weeks occurred and it was finally mail day again, with this day also came a response from Ms Thorns who she owled the moment she received her first free lesson. Owls flooded the great hall at breakfast, she saw an eagle owl fly towards Draco Malfoy who had a small box of sweets from his mother. The other Slytherins had gifts, as she anticipated a reply from Mirelle Thorns.

True enough she saw a familiar tawny owl that had a big box on its claws along with a letter, it landed in front of her as she stroked the owl's head. "Thank you Tina."

She took the box first and opened it to see her favourite muggle cake, it was a green black forest cake. It also had the a drawing of a snake on it, she knew that it would be delicious and she was certain that she wasn't going to finish the cake before classes started.

"Hi Evans, what do you have there?" A familiar voice said. Looking up she saw Blaise Zabini sitting beside Theodore Nott.

"A congratulations cake from my other guardian," she said as she took the envelope from the Tawny owl whilst giving her a treat before flying away.

"Looks delicious," Theodore awed.

"You can have some if you'd like," she offered as she sliced the take for the boys, she gladly shared them. Boys were eager to have a taste of it as well that they thanked her with an eager smile on their faces.

She opened her letter and saw elegant cursive writing.

Congratulations on getting into Slytherin! I can only imagine what Severus is feeling as he saw you get sorted to his house, is he treating you well? I hope you're making friends.

Work has been extremely rough without someone going to muggle shops with me anymore. I miss you already!

Enjoy the cake with your friends, I got it specially made for you. Owl me if you need anything! Tell Severus I said Hi.

Mirelle Thorns

"Isn't she a member of the Muggle-born rights department?" Blaise commented as he took another slice of the cake.

Taking a slice for herself, she nodded as she ate her piece of the cake. Making sure she watch where Severus was to offer him a slice as well, she sets aside a slice or two for him. "What house was she in?" Theo asked taking another bite from the cake.

"She didn't attend Hogwarts, she graduated from Beauxbatons," she stated closing the box that had four slices of cake.

"Really," the boys chorused in awe. She stood up from her seat taking the box with her, "where are you going?"

"I'm going to share my cake with my friend and Professor Snape," she said curtly.

"Professor Snape?" Boys were dumbfounded as they heard her say that she was going to give delights to their head of house. The young witch shrugged.

"He's my legal guardian, it's the least I could do for taking care of me in his House," she winked as she skipped to the Gryffindor table beside Hermione who was still sitting alone.

"Hullo Hermione," she peeked causing her friend to jump.

"Will you stop that," Hermione pouted, Finley shook her head as she sets down the box of cake and gave her two slices.

"What's this for?"

"For getting in Slytherin, Ms Thorns sent me a cake. Give the other slice to Neville will you, I don't think some of your house mates would like it if I gave it to him myself. They would think I'm poisoning him," she muttered as she masked her sad tone.

House prejudice was extremely severe in Hogwarts, especially with the house of Godric Gryffindor and Salazaar Slytherin. Hermione nodded as she slide beside Neville who was now reading a letter from his Gran.

Finley on the other hand skipped towards Professor Snape with her box of cake, and possibly giving a slice to Professor McGonagall as she had taken a liking to her from her first Transfigurations class.

"Good morning Professors," she greeted. Professors either greeted her back or just nodded except Quirell who was a stuttering mess towards her.

"What are you doing her miss Evans?" Asked McGonagall who was eyeing the box in the young witch's hands suspiciously. Finley as she opened the box and gave it to her favourite professors, "Ms Thorns sent me a muggle Black Forest cake to celebrate me getting in Slytherin, I wanted to share it with you."

Amused McGonagall accepted the cake as Severus Snape nodded taking a piece of cake as well, she ran back to the Slytherin table where Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini still sat, most notably fighting for a piece of cake.

"What are you both doing?" She chuckled. Both boys were childish enough to use their forks as make shift swords. "The cake was too good, we settled for the last slice in a duel."

"But—"

"Anggard you fied!"

As both boys started fighting with their forks again, wondering if she made the right choice of sharing her cake with them. She eventually ate the cake in pure amusement as the boys fought for the slice, and as they finished with Theo winning they were shocked that it was gone.

"Where?"

"Is"

"The cake?"

Finley now realising her mistake, her eyes widened. "Sorry," she muttered shyly.

Few minutes of silence that they bursted out laughing, it was sure that they would be friends now. 

"Fancy going to the library with us? We have free period before Potions," Theo offered to Finley placing an arm around Blaise's shoulders.

Thoroughly thinking about it, she eventually agreed, knowing her friend Hermione that she was going to meet her around 4 after classes to do some work.

"What are we looking for?" She asked as she scanned shelves from left to right looking for something particularly interesting. Some books were already in her collection in Cokeworth, and it bored her to oblivion to open a book on Divination.

"Something to pass time," Blaise suggested opening a History of Magic book. Cringing as she watched her friend read the book, she remembered what professor Binns had taught them. It was absolute torture.

Finally settling for a book on Advanced Herbology, she sat beside Blaise who was writing nonsense on his parchment whilst Theo slept on the table. All was in peace until they had to go to their respective classes, and to her luck she was partnered with the Blond Draco Malfoy who was oddly avoiding her.

"Follow the instructions on the board," Professor Snape said as he went around observing the joint activity of brewing potions. Exchanging nods and brief yes and no's to each other, Finley and Draco were given points for making the potion correctly. Some were lucky and some were not like Harry Potter who struggled to work with his red head friend Ron.

"Perhaps next time you should learn how to read correctly," Snape told the boy.

Finley raised her hand that gotten his attention. "Yes Evans?"

"Professor, I have a concern with the instructions," she said. She rarely ever questioned his instructions but she could barely take the amount of criticism the professor was giving to the Gryffindor boy.

"What is it Evans?" Snape asked. He wrote the instructions himself, yet only few had gotten the potion correctly. Finley stood up and took a deep breath before meeting her professor's eye.

"It said that we add the roots then we stir it moderately at least eight times. I thought I made the mistake and stirred it six times but it turned out well and perfect," she said. It was purely a coincidence that she miscounted the stirring but the instructions said it was eight.

The professor checked the instructions again and nodded, erasing the eight replacing it with six. "Twenty points to Slytherin for finding the error," he said eyeing the girl as she sat down.

It was either she did it for everyone else, or she did it for more praise, but to Harry he was grateful that he wasn't the only one who got it wrong.