What He Knew

Chapter 4

McGonagall led me to the Slytherin table in the Great Hall and I took a seat inbetween a red haired girl and a brute-ish looking boy who was eating so fast I felt the indigestion for him. I strained my neck looking for Valentine and the rest of the people from the train but I couldn't see through the vast sea of black cloaks. I wondered what they would make of me being sorted into Slytherin. Ron had seemed disgusted at the thought of anyone being in Slytherin and while Hermione had made excuses for it none of them really had had anything great to say about Slytherin.

Just as expected, there was a lot of staring and whispering. I tried my hardest to ignore it, grabbing at random pieces of food, swirling them around my plate and not eating any of it .

"Didn't your mother tell you it was rude to play with your food?" A playful voice asked.

I turned around to see that the  fiery haired girl sitting beside me was grinning at me.

"My mother's dead actually" I replied, raising my eyebrows at her.

"Wouldn't blame her really, if my daughter was playing with her food I'd rather be dead too" laughed the girl and then she held out her hand, "Ryan Casey."

I was glad she didn't take the dead mum joke too seriously and shook her hand, "Fiadh Rose."

I didn't think it was possible but she smiled wider, a cheeky glint in her eye, "You're Irish?"

"Half, my mother's french, that's why I'm here so late, had to move from Beauxbatons."

"Well Fiadh, my Irish sister, welcome to Hogwarts, the greatest school in the world! And hey, don't worry, the rumours about Slytherins aren't all true. My parents are muggles for example, big ole mudblood over here but we do throw the best parties and there's one tonight. You're in 6th right?"

"Yeah I am, do you hold the parties in the dorms?" My mushed up food disgusted me so i pushed my plate away and it vanished without notice, leaving a clean on in its place.

"No way, thats boring and also way too obvious. Just stick with me and I'll show you how Slytherin's really are," her smile was wide and her eyes excited and I began to think that maybe Slytherin wouldn't be too bad. That was until I caught sight of the blonde boy from yesterday. Draco. He caught my eye, he seemed shocked to see me here. He looked away quickly and I decided maybe I did need to have something in my stomach before a party.

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As tired as I was and as much as i wanted to crawl into the four poster bed, I forced myself to follow Ryan to the secret party location. We climbed from the dungeons all the way to the 7th floor. We had been told to only go in twos so as not to draw attention to ourselves. When we got to a tapestry of some old man Ryan put her hand in front of me and stopped me.

"We're here."

I looked around. No door, no people, no party.

"We're...here?" I whispered, cautiously, looking over my shoulder. When I looked again, Ryan was looking intensely at the wall opposite the tapestry.

"What are-" Ryan held up her hand as a gesture for me to be quiet and after a few moments a door materialised on the wall. I stared at it in complete shock.

"What in Merlin's beard..." I whispered.

Ryan grabbed my hand and then the door handle and turned to me, "Welcome to Slytherin, Fiadh Rose!"

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The Party was crazier than I'd imagined any secondary school party to be. Beauxbatons were obsessed with well put together events and balls, there were never any impromtu parties but at Hogwarts, they partied whenever and wherever they could. The room looked like a church with stone walls, high ceiling and stain glass windows that weren't really windows.  There was even a gallery over looking the party and random corridors leading off of the main room. Hanging from one of the structural beams was a magically enhanced disco ball that flashed to the beat of the music, sometimes plunging the room into darkness for a second causing the party to cry with glee.