Daphne Greengrass made her way along one of the many corridors of Hogwarts Castle, making her way towards the office of her (temporary) Head of House, Professor Sinistra.
She had been most perplexed earlier when, at breakfast, she had received a summons to visit the office of her Head of House. As far as she was aware, she had not done anything wrong that might warrant a request for such a visit, but one thing that she had learned from being in a House ruled by Severus Snape for four years was that if the Head of House summoned you, you had better turn up no matter what.
So, while some of her fellow Slytherins had vacated the Great Hall in favour of the Great Outdoors in an attempt to spend their Saturday morning basking in what was sure to be one of the last truly sunny days of the year, and other Slytherins had made their way to their House Common Room or to the Library in order to do homework, Daphne had headed off on her own path towards Professor Sinistra's office, which was located near the base of the Astronomy Tower, an appropriate location for the Astronomy Professor to have her office.
She approached the office door and gave three sharp knocks. A moment later, the voice of the Astronomy Professor called out for her to enter.
Inside Daphne found not only Professor Sinistra waiting for her, but Harry Potter as well. No doubt he was here in his capacity as Student Advisor, and so she came to the conclusion that this was merely going to be a follow up regarding the incident on the Hogwarts Express.
The office was nice, Daphne thought, but then after having had Snape as her Head of House for four years, a cardboard box filled with baby blast-ended Skrewts would have been considered an improvement.
The star charts covering the walls made a nice change from shelf after shelf of murky glass jars filled with a miscellany of pickled animals who stared down at you with wide, vacant eyes, and the to scale replica of the solar system which moved in time with the planets and asteroids themselves was a nice touch, especially when compared to Snape's preferred choice of simmering cauldrons of dubious content that spewed forth nauseating fumes that would make even the most unhygienic of mountain trolls seethe with envy.
"Ah, Miss Greengrass," said Professor Sinistra "please, do have a seat. This will only take a few minutes."
Daphne took one of the offered seats that were located on the opposite side of the desk to her Head of House. Harry was standing to the right of the Professor.
Without preamble, the Astronomy Professor got straight to the point "Now, as you know, Draco Malfoy was recently stripped of his Prefect's badge and we have been looking for a replacement."
Harry took over "After reviewing the classroom reports on the other boys in your year, we found that not one of them was up to standard. Therefore we have been forced to bend the rules a little and appoint a second female prefect for your year group."
"And after much consideration," continued Professor Sinistra "we have decided to offer you the position."
To say that Daphne was stunned was an understatement. Of all the things that had gone through her mind whilst trying to figure out why she had been called in to see her Head of House, this was not one of them.
After several long moments she finally found her voice, enabling her to mutter "I don't know what to say…"
"Say you'll take the badge," suggested Harry, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
Daphne's mouth worked for a few moments, but no sound came out. Instead she just nodded her head in acceptance.
"Excellent," said Professor Sinistra "we will make the announcement at dinner. Until then, here is your copy of the prefects' handbook. Please study it well."
Daphne nodded again and took the book. Harry then handed her the silver badge that denoted her new rank and she pinned it to the front of her robes.
"Daphne, in addition to your regular duties as prefect, there is one other task that we would like to assign to you." said Harry.
"What is that?" she asked, her voice returning once again.
"Help Pansy Parkinson to become a decent prefect," answered the Professor "It would not do for Slytherin House to have to lose two prefects from the same year group."
Daphne nodded her acceptance and was dismissed.
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