Auspice

[o2]i’d say it’s bittersweet, but it’s 90% bitter, 10% sweet.

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By the time Fawn and Piper had gotten back to the Great Hall, they were laughing and smiling with one each other. They got along much better than Fawn could’ve possibly imagined. She’d also learned a lot about the other houses and that in fact, she thought she’d been placed in the right house. Even though the rest of the Slytherins seemed worthy of her abhorrence, she wasn’t about to admit that perhaps she wasn’t as different from them as she thought. Sure she was kinder and probably a little less focused, but when it came down to it, she was a cunning, devious person with a dark side. She didn’t often let this side of her claw its way out of her, but it was there, still living in the back of her mind. The reason Piper had been placed in that house was a mystery she couldn’t decode on her own, but she decided against asking in case it was a soft subject.

Grinning at one another, they took their previous seats. “You’re back?” the boy who had fired questions at her like a cannon asked. She could hear the surprise laced in his voice and tried not to roll her eyes and huff.

“Yes. I left to the lavatory. Piper came after me to make sure I wouldn’t get lost.”

Another snort came out of Pansy. “I doubt it. She probably went off boo-hooing and Pippy chased after her.”

“It’s Piper!” the brunette growled at the girl who continued to get her name wrong. Something inside of Piper told her that it was intentional, too, though it didn’t take a genius to figure that bit out.

“Pippy, Piper, Poppy, Prat—it’s all the same,” she snapped back at Piper, whose throat emitted a growl yet again. “Besides, it’s not like Dawn’s going to fight your own battles for you, if she’s smart enough. Though I doubt she’s been paying attention long enough to know the difference,” she added tauntingly, probably watching to see if she’d get a rise out of her.

Fawn merely ignored the jeer from Pansy, ultimately deciding it wasn’t worth getting upset over. Clearly she was just a bully whose face resembled that of a dog, and an ugly one at that. Rather than getting worked up over something pointless, she merely shoved a forkful of food from her plate into her mouth, staying silent as she did so. Piper had gone quiet and it seemed as if Pansy was willing to drop it, a smirk of victory on her face. She thinks she’s won, does she? Good-for-nothing git, she thought to herself.

However, it looked as if the boy with too many questions hadn’t ceased fire to his curiosity. “Have the lot of you Americans heard of Hogwarts before?” This ultimately caused her to scowl, her eyes growing dark with a sense of irritation and a murky, sinister sense of amusement. She had dark humor at the worst of times, but it was something she couldn’t help.

“Unlike you all, we’re tuned into what’s happening to other parts of the Wizarding world, so yes, much like every other witch and wizard in America, I did know of Hogwarts’ existence before I came, just like the rest of our ‘lot’ knows of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. We’re not complete fools, I’ll have you know,” she replied haughtily.

“See? Look at her. She thinks she’s better than everyone here!” Pansy remarked, her voice resembling a whiny cat to Fawn.

“Wrong again, Pansy. I’m merely pointing out the fact that we know more about the rest of the world then you guys obviously did,” she shot back coldly, her eyes like daggers as they glared into Pansy’s own eyes. Pansy responded by giving a similar stare back to Fawn. This staring contest went on for a few more seconds until Piper cleared her throat, interrupting the match and causing the two to abruptly and simultaneously break their glances from one another.

“How many houses did you guys have?” the boy asked once more. Fawn internally groaned; this wasn’t at all fun.

“Four.” He opened his mouth to ask another question but she cut him off, predicting what his next questions would be. “They’re named after the four founders, much like Hogwarts was. We have the House of Vanderbilt, named after Vladimir Vanderbilt, the House of Chekhov, named after Calista Chekhov, the House of Andros, named after Aaliyah Andros, and the House of Lynx, named after Lucifer Lynx. The House of Vanderbilt is the equivalent of Gryffindor, the House of Chekhov is the equivalent of Hufflepuff, the House of Andros was the equivalent of Ravenclaw and the House of Lynx was the equivalent of Slytherin. I was in the House of Lynx, unsurprisingly enough.”

The boy nodded intently, and although many of them weren’t showing any interest at the information being thrown out in front of them, she knew they were listening. They were obviously curious about this newfound person and some probably were more than intent on finding out as much as they could, probably information they could use for later.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

Fawn’s eyes narrowed; this had gone on long enough. She’d humored him and the rest of them long enough. She wasn’t about to give them more information, nor was she keen on telling them the reason she was there. It was a long story and it was one none of them would be too happy about hearing. It was safe to say that telling them would put a lot of people in jeopardy, her family and herself primarily.

“Didn’t Professor Snape say not to ask too many questions?” she inquired, despite the fact that she already knew the answer.

Another boy decided to enter the conversation. She managed to recognize him to be the one Professor Snape had glared at, the platinum blond boy who looked both arrogant and as if he was made out of some sort of ice that would never melt.

“Like Snape would mind,” he said, casting off her reminder as if it was a useless scrap of codswallop, a fragment of no value that remained within his presence, which appeared to be oh-so important. “He was a Slytherin. He was Head of House last year and the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher. Slughorn, the blasted fool of a Potions teacher took his place this year.”

Her eyebrows had risen in surprise; did they really think that lowly of their Head of House? And did they really refer to their professors by their last names? “I don’t think Professor Snape would be too keen on you referring to him by his last name. He seems to be a man of respect and since you all appear to have such high regards for him, I would expect you all to at least refer to him as Professor or Sir. That’s what we did at Arvada’s—it’s just manners.”

Pansy’s jaw dropped, her eyes widened in surprise. Fawn fought back a smirk, though she couldn’t help the internal guffawing she was experiencing. I’m guessing no one stands up to this kid. And now at least I know who she likes. The rest of the Slytherins seemed to be surprise—not even Piper turned out to be the exception of this, although her expression showed amusement as well—which caused her to feel both high and mighty mixed in with a little bit of surprise. She hadn’t realized that one student could collect so much respect from their peers, especially not this boy.

“Snape favors our house,” he told her simply, though his expression was one of pride and even a hint of admiration but for whom, she had no clue. Probably the professor. “So we’re not going to get into any trouble.”

“Still, it’s not about the trouble. It’s about the lack of respect you show your professors. Honestly, we’d be sent to detention no matter how much the professor liked us if we did that. It’s deference, you ought to have it for the others. Have some reverence and show some sort of manners.”

Many people had their eyebrows flown up higher than usual as they watched this. It seemed to them that this was less about the professors and more on the girl and boy trying to outdo one another with their words. Many were impressed, some were annoyed, and a few were just downright entertained to the very core about it, shockingly enough.

He looked as if he was about to reply, but her mind was barely there as the headmaster instructed them. Instead, she silently followed them out, the blond boy shooting her silent glares. He hadn’t looked too pleased when she spoke, but she figured that it was a matter of time before she had more than just Pansy hating her. She couldn’t understand why either of them could already dislike her so much, but it wasn’t really her choice or under her control, therefore it didn’t matter at all. She found Piper beside her in a matter of moments and for that, she managed to muster up a grin. At least there was one person she got along with.

As they were directed to the common room, she felt someone’s body push through hers. Unsurprisingly, it was the blond whom she’d had a ‘disagreement’ with, for lack of a better term. “Watch yourself, Willows. You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he muttered threateningly, his eyes cold and angry. Fawn attempted to resist flinching from his harshness that preceded his words, but the involuntary movement happened anyways and it left him looking satisfied that he’d managed to get under her skin, if only for a brief moment.

Fawn looked away and Piper gave her a reassuring glance. “It’s fine—he’s just a jerk, Fawn. Ignore him. None of them are worth any of your time. Besides, the only time we’ll have to see him again is for classes and mealtimes. That’s it. We should be more worried about who’s in our dormitory.” Fawn took comfort in her new friend’s words, deciding that she was probably right.

And right she was.



When it was time for the students to be dismissed back to their dormitories, Fawn was glad. People kept staring at her and Piper oddly, but they had managed to have another conversation flow between them easily and no one approached them. Perhaps everyone was as tired as she was after the first day because she knew that as lucky as she was now, she wasn’t going to continue to be lucky and avoid confrontations with them. Chances are, they didn’t like her at all, but chances are, she couldn’t care less.

Her and Piper’s eyes widened and their jaws dropped once they found out who they were with. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she grumbled loudly to Piper. A loud shriek came out of the girl in front of them.

“You two?!” she screeched, angry at what her assumptions were telling her.

“We’re not too pleased, either, Parkinson!” Piper shouted at her. That’s right—Pansy Parkinson and a few of her little ‘crew’ were the roommates of their dormitory. As if things couldn’t get worse, they had to throw this bag of dung on me. Just perfect, she thought to herself. She was desperate to get a different dorm, any dorm, so long as she didn’t have to share dormitories with Pansy. Fawn’s grim expression matched the one Piper had etched on her features.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Fawn muttered with annoyance, hoping that they could at least all agree to do this one thing for all of their sanity. If all of them wanted to come out of that dormitory alive, they’d have to find some way to avoid each other or get along and become friends, although the second choice was highly unlikely.

The only good thing about this was the fact that Fawn was almost positive that nothing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could throw anything at her that was worse than this.