Dear anyone who is actually reading this, thanks a million!

"All Slytherin first years to me!" the Slytherin prefect cried out, waving her hands to beckon them to the end of the table, which the first years obeyed immediately, albeit clumsily and shyly.

Walburga stayed pressed to Euphemia's side, gripping onto her cousin's hand tightly, in an attempt to stay with someone she knew.

Euphemia, however was sneakily peeking through the gaps in the crowds to see Minerva laughing about something with Florean, which sent a uneasy feeling to shoot through her stomach.

What if Minnie is replacing me already? Have I disappointed her by being in Slytherin? But Mia really knew she would've been in for an even harder time had she picked to go to Gryffindor, the Blacks would burn her alive.

"Euphemia!" Walburga snapped, her nails digging into Euphemia's wrist, dragging her over to where the rest of the Slytherin first years were assembled.

Euphemia mumbled an apology to her demanding cousin and followed the prefect and her fellow students to the Entrance Hall, the same breathtaking and dazzling hall that had stunned Mia upon her entrance, which seemed like centuries ago now.

It seemed ages ago that she had been laughing with Minerva, without a care in the world.

Now she was worrying, looking over her shoulder and hearing Druella's words repeat over and over again in her head, like a broken record - doomed to remind her again and again that she had to watch her back.

She hardly noticed where they were until she almost tripped down the steps that led further down into the dungeons and she shivered, a cold feeling suddenly coming over her as she looked around at the dark, gloomy walls that surrounded her, the corridors that were a ghostly green as all the first years traipsed along, some looking a little sceptical.

One girl even looked petrified, leading Euphemia to walk over to her and quietly ask her if she was alright.

The girl was rather small and was shivering with short black hair and a pale face which looked rather sallow in this light.

She smiled though, her dark eyes lighting up a little now someone had talked to her. "Just a little cold and lonely, I suppose," she answered with a shrug and Euphemia remembered her vaguely from one of the pure blood events she had been made to go to which was basically just a gathering of all the Sacred 28.

"I'm Euphemia Black, who are you?" Euphemia asked kindly and the girl in front of her grimaced, "I know who you are, we played Gobstones once at your cousin's house. Eileen Prince," she extended her hand and Mia shook it, feeling a little guilty that she had kind of forgotten about Eileen.

The name did ring a bell now it had been said and Euphemia apologised but Eileen only gave a bitter laugh and remarked that she was 'used to being forgotten about.'

Now Euphemia felt even more bad for not remembering her and decided to walk with Eileen until they came to a stop, an act that Eileen was thankful for as she shot Mia a grateful and friendly smile.

Walburga was chatting animatedly with another girl that Euphemia believed to be called Heather but she wasn't really bothered, just glad she was free of her demanding cousin for a while.

The crowd gradually stopped and the little line of Slytherins all looked expectantly up at the prefect, who was skimming a wall with her sharp blue eyes before nodding to herself.

"This wall is the entrance to the Slytherin common room," she announced. "You are to not tell any of the other houses of this entrance and you must use the password to enter or you will be sleeping out here and trust me, it's not pleasant."

Euphemia shuddered, she didn't imagine so either and the blonde Slytherin prefect nodded grimly at her in understanding.

"The password is Serpent for now, it does tend to change every fortnight but you will be able to see it as it will be posted on the notice board when it does change, do not use the wrong password or tell anyone who is not in Slytherin the password otherwise they will be able to enter and that would be a stupid move on your part and you could possibly be smothered to death by the entire house," the Prefect finished her spiel and let out a chuckle at all the scared faces that were staring up at her in the dimly lit corridor, illuminated to look rather green which made their faces look even funnier to the Prefect before she turned to stone wall and uttered the password, causing the wall to slide to one side.

Euphemia and Eileen exchanged glances before following the rest of the first years into the common room, looking around with slight awe on their faces.

Even Mia, who had been thinking resentfully that she would've been better off in Gryffindor, had to let her mouth fall open in interest and amazement.

The common room was a dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs scattered about, with dark green leather sofas stretching across the wall.

From a simple look at the walls, Euphemia could see part of this dungeon like common room was under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge that made her shiver slightly.

The common room had lots of low backed black and dark green button-tufted leather sofas; skulls; and dark wood cupboards.

It was decorated with tapestries featuring the adventures of famous Medieval Slytherins. It had quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one as Euphemia found out.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" came a breathy gasp into Euphemia's ear, making the poor girl jump a mile before she realised it was Walburga behind her and she let out a sigh of relief, completely forgetting what her cousin said.

That was until Walburga raised an eyebrow at her and Mia frantically nodded, still trying to catch her breath.

"Well come on then," Walburga said irritably, grabbing Euphemia tightly by the wrist, her nails digging into the other girl's arm and dragging her over to where the Slytherin prefect was directing the first years to their dormitories.

Mia beckoned for Eileen to follow, not wanting to lose the only ally she had here in Slytherin, where she was practically wallowing in loneliness and self pity.

Another dimly lit corridor led off from the common room, with doors labelled according to which year they belonged to.

Euphemia drew in yet another shaky breath before following the rest of the Slytherin first year girls.

The Slytherin girls dorms were much more appealing than the dungeons go Euphemia.

There were five four poster-beds which were covered in green eiderdowns with a nightstand next to it. Eileen pointed out that their school trunks had been brought down and were placed at the foot of each of their beds.

A wooden chair and dresser was near the bed and a wooden board was situated on either side of the bed for the students to decorate.

Euphemia noted that there was a complimentary book on everyone's nightstand and that a lamp was placed on each dresser.

The walls and floors were stone and there did not appear to be any windows. There was also a white pillow on the floor, a perch on their dresser, and a snuffbox on top of their trunk for their pets.

Even Mia, who was still skeptical and unsure about whether she truly desired being in Slytherin, was pretty pleased with the outcome of the room and began to get excited once again.

Walburga sauntered off to her bed with a flip of her glossy brown hair and was soon whispering animatedly with her new friend Heather and another roommate named Mary Crawley.

That left Eileen to walk over to Euphemia and they both chose to have beds next to each other, seeing as it seemed as if the others were going to exclude them.

However, the thing was, Euphemia knew Walburga wouldn't exclude her as she was her cousin but probably had chosen to at the moment due to her hanging out with the likes of Eileen, a girl whom Walburga did not get on well with despite Eileen being a pureblood. Mia wanted to include Eileen as well so took the decision to actually try and get a proper friend in this cold and unforgiving house rather than trail after her glorious cousin.

Euphemia slowly unpacked her trunk, placing her things where she wanted them, only absentmindedly listening to Eileen blabbering on about Gobstones and how much she loved the game.

She wished there was a window, one of her favourite pastimes was to stare out of a window, any window - dreaming of an adventure.

"Euphemia!" was yelled yet again, in a commanding tone from Walburga and Euphemia turned from where she had been subconsciously polishing the glass on the photo frame of her family, the four of them all smiling stiffly at the camera, her mother patting Euphemia's head as the boys chuckled quietly at some joke that had been told on the day.

Mia had been gazing wistfully down at it, missing her family already despite how cruel they could be sometimes. They were still her family, right?

"Euphemia!" her name was snapped this time and the girl jumped, quickly rushing over to Walburga who smiled sweetly at her, Heather and Mary flanking her either side.

"Yes, Walburga?" she asked politely, secretly irritated at her smug cousin.

"I would like to introduce you to Heather Rosier," the blonde girl on Walburga's left side extended a hand with a slight smirk etched on her face and Euphemia shook her manicured hand, disliking her already.

"And to Mary Crawley," she finished, tilting her head to the dark haired girl on Walburga's right who waved in more of a friendly fashion at Mia. 

Mia already knew of Heather vaguely - the girl was distantly related to her cousin, Druella.

Now that she was acquainted with Walburga's cronies, Euphemia slowly began to back away, grabbing the complimentary book from her bedside and sinking onto her bed to read it, lost in thought.

~~~

The Gryffindor boys dormitory was already a mess by the time Charlus Potter and Alastor Moody had set foot in it, they had already wrecked havoc and spread their belongings all over the place.

Charlus' broomstick was properly in pride of place but everything else was chaos as they threw clothes around and had pillow fights, all yelling loudly and laughing.

Lyall Lupin was the only one who actually sat apart from the rowdy group of boys, simply preferring to watch in mild irritation and amusement over the top of his book.

He had wanted to be sorted into Ravenclaw but now he had ended up with this lot and was seriously regretting it.

Charlus and Alastor had managed to recruit a couple more of the boys in the dormitory to muck about with and simply just ignored the pompous prat in the corner, having way too much fun.

"When're Quidditch tryouts then?" Alastor asked Charlus over the excited rabble that was coming from the other remaining Gryffindor first years, Zachary and Edward.

Charlus shrugged, "Not a clue but I definitely will be trying out, I'm a spiffing Quidditch player," he boasted, puffing out his little chest as he grabbed his broom and motioned flying around on it.

"I've heard that flying lessons will commence on Thursday," Lyall informed them and Charlus let out a whoop, his cheeks already flushed with excitement from running around earlier, and jumped on the nearest bed, bouncing up and down on it.

"Watch it! That's my bed," Alastor frowned and shoved Charlus off, leaving the boy to slip on someone's tie that had been left out and fall onto his behind, causing the entire room to crease into laughter.

After the boys had all finished laughing, Lyall concluded what he had been saying before.

"I've heard we have flying lessons with the Slytherins, actually," and Charlus groaned, smacking his head into his pillow.

"What's the problem with Slytherins?" Zachary asked, having seen the scowl appear on Charlus' face and the boy in question sat up.

"They all believe in blood purity and all that rubbish, the prejudiced gits," he spat venomously. "Every single Slytherin will go to the dark side, mark my words."

Everyone shifted a little uncomfortably at how serious he was being, half expecting him to crack up and claim he was joking but no - Charlus Potter really had something in for Slytherin House.