Halloween arrived wrapped in cold stone and ever darker nights. Floating candles seemed to have migrated from the great hall to all over the castle, all though the ones outside were hiding inside pumpkins that kept floating around and chuckling hollowly, or screaming shrilly if Peeves happened to be close by.
Every corridor seemed fuller than usual due to the floating jack o'lanterns.
Students moved through the halls in thick groups wrapped in scarves and winter cloaks while enchanted bats flapped lazily through the rafters overhead.
Peeves had apparently discovered how to animate carved pumpkins and was currently using them to harass second-years near the Grand Staircase.
One pumpkin had attempted to bite me earlier.
I still wasn't entirely certain whether that was considered normal here or if Peeves was really overworking today.
The Great Hall had only a few floating jack o'lanterns on the sides of the hall and behind the teachers table. The air was filled with hundreds of bats swooping and swarming around the house tables and dodging the floating candles.
Long house tables were filled with silver platters piled dangerously high with all sorts of food.
Hogwarts seemed to approach holidays with the mindset of, If something was worth doing, it was worth overdoing catastrophically.
I adjusted the brim of my hat slightly as I entered the Hall. I have actually come to like wearing the hat.
Dam, it didn't take long to start getting eccentric! a month more and I will take up divination and start muttering about doom and gloom
I thought, a bit self deprecatingly. At this point nobody even questioned it anymore, it apparently started a small fashion revolution.
Several students from different houses and years wore their hats daily now too, which very annoyingly,went against the whole purpose I had of wearing mine.
Well the weather getting colder might've done something to sway their mood.
A few first-years glanced at me briefly as I passed the Ravenclaw table before returning to their meals. Older students barely noticed anything but the book they happened to be holding.
Ravenclaws!
I thought a bit exasperated and slid onto the Slytherin bench beside Greengrass while opening a book of my own.
"You know," she said after a moment of silence without looking up from her drink, "people have started calling it Alex Exchange, or Hawthorns exchange"
I paused halfway through a sentence about the properties of wolf's bane
"…Calling what Alex Exchange?" I asked, puzzled glancing up at her underneath the brim of my hat.
Greengrass blinked once at her cup. Then very slowly lowered her goblet and genuinely looked at me.
"How is it that you do not know? You know everything"
She whispered, with such an uncharacteristically shocked expression on her face.
She looked so utterly dumbstruck, I almost bursted out laughing,straight to her face.
I swallowed my laughter and scoffed at her
"ridiculous, of course I don't know everything. I'm eleven for heaven's sake" I countered, happy that the open book hid my smile and the hat's wide brim shadowed the rest of my face.
She took a deep breath and began anew.
"How is it that somehow, every house knows you by name?."
I stared at the book blankly.
"I know maybe six people." I muttered defensively to her direction.
"You know six people in every house," she corrected calmly.
I thought about counting them to make sure,but my mouth had learned independence since I found myself saying.
"I don't even leave the library half the time." with a very passable innocent voice, nose firmly in my book I had no hope of reading.
"Yes," Greengrass said dryly. "Which makes it stranger."
I lifted my gaze from the book and finally looked her in the eye.
"…What exactly is this 'Exchange' supposed to be?" I asked.
Greengrass looked genuinely amused now.
"No one seems entirely sure."
I sighed, closed the book and put it aside.
I pushed my hat more on the back of my head and I poured myself a cup of tea.
She continued to stare dubiously the whole time.
I had a nagging suspicion I was going to need this tea to stay focused.
Why do these Slytherin games have to be so complicated? There's games in games and they take what everyone else says,does or doesn't say or do, as such!
I grumbled in the safety of my own mind.
Which had incidentally become quite difficult to advance further. I figured out one evening meditation that I can link my consciousness as a concept in my mindscape, and since my memories were represented as stars it was only natural that my consciousness was the sun in the center.
I sipped my tea and suddenly realized haven't heard a single word Greengrass just said
"Pardon Ms.Greengrass but my mind wandered in directions that caused my ears to be too far to follow the sound of your voice, could you please repeat what you just said?"
She huffed with part amusement and part annoyance but repeated what she said.
" I said that some students think you trade only information," she continued. "Others think favors. Davies thinks you're building a network of agents to take over the school. Also since when have you started to sound like the headmaster?"
I almost choked on my tea.
"I what?A network?Headmaster?" I sputtered trying to not spray the table with tea.
"You do realize you somehow owe no one in Slytherin anything, yes?" She continued as if I didn't say a thing.
Davies on her other side strained her neck and looked at me curiously waiting for answers.
I blinked. Looking from one girl to the other.
"…and that is unusual?" I hedged
Greengrass stared at me for several long seconds.
"Yes." She said deadpan
"Oh." I let out and pulled my hat lower to hide my embarrassment.
Well how am I supposed to know?Isn't it common sense to not owe favors to suspicious people.
I thought crossly,although that did explain several looks I had been receiving lately.
Apparently Hogwarts operated on some horrifying invisible economy where everyone quietly accumulated social obligations like cursed heirlooms.
That sounded exhausting.
Greengrass continued eating calmly, and explaining the puzzling situation.
"You also keep solving small problems before people ask."
"That's just preparation, and basic problem solving " I said, still not seeing any issue, or anything that would hint at organization.
"That," Davie said while pointing at me with her fork accusingly , "is exactly the sort of thing people running mysterious Exchanges would say."
Greengrass was more amused than suspicious but she too was waiting for an answer.
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it again.
Because honestly what could I possibly say that they wouldn't take as an attempt to divert attention from the perceived truth.
A tiny pop sounded beneath the table.
A pop, I started to suspect only I could hear since there wasn't that much noise in the hall and nobody reacted at all.
I could feel her invisible form near my knee.
Tweak apparently wanting to have her say and try her best to surprise me still.
"Master Alexander's vast spy network has become economically suspicious," came the delighted whisper near my knee.
I resisted the urge to kick her,barely. Then I remembered I never did show her the trick I picked up the first week in History of magic.
"Tweak you scoundrel what did you do?" I growled and focused my magic on my throat.
Not a word came out, but something flew beneath the table and soon I heard a thunk as she hit her surprised head to the table.
"What a bad master bullying his poor little elf," came the scornful whisper back,"I will be back," she added ominously,then She was gone once more, and without a sound I might add.
I knew it!!
I seethed, but as the self-satisfied smile tried to creep onto my face I finally remembered what I was doing before she came to distract me.
looked to my right where Greengrass and Davies were staring me wide eyed.
Oh no, I wonder what that looked like to them.
I threw caution to the wind and decided to just lean on my apparently very shady reputation.
I gave them a quick smile and a wink then went back to studying the Great hall and sipped my tea as if nothing happened.
Across the Hall, the Weasley twins were somehow balancing candles on each other's heads while pretending not to notice Professor McGonagall glaring at them from the staff table.
One of them caught the candle before it tipped over.
The other bowed dramatically.
Further down the staff table Professor Snape looked as though Halloween personally offended him and he was preparing for revenge.
Professor Flitwick meanwhile appeared delighted by everything.
And Dumbledore—
The Headmaster was watching the Hall with that same distant twinkle in his blue eyes behind his half moon specs, his absurdly colorful robes covered in silver stars made him easy to notice even for the blind. I assume.
He was watching everything with a genuine smile like a grandfather watching his favorite nephews and nieces.
For one strange moment I found myself wondering if he ever stopped observing.
Then Dumbledore suddenly looked directly toward me from across the Hall.
I froze.
It felt as if our eyes met for a second and he could see right through me and all of my secrets. The feeling lingered for barely half a second before his gaze moved on.
Yet somehow it felt less like being looked at and more like being briefly acknowledged.
Odd.Very odd.
"Careful," Greengrass said idly beside me.
"With?" I muttered distractedly
"Thinking too loudly."
I glanced at her, puzzled, but she just smirked faintly to Davies next to her and kept eating, ignoring me entirely.
Okay?
Before I could ask what exactly that meant, the doors to the Great Hall burst open hard enough to slam against the walls.
Professor Quirrell stumbled inside.
Pale and out of breath, visibly terrified.
His turban was crooked and more on the back of his head.
"T-Troll!" he shouted breathlessly.
The Hall fell silent instantly.
"A troll in the dungeons!"
For one bizarre second nobody reacted and silence rained in the hall.
Then Quirrell swayed dramatically.
"…Thought you ought to know…" he whispered into the silence and fainted face-first onto the stone floor.
Chaos erupted immediately afterward.
Students shouted over one another as benches scraped violently across the floor. Bats scattered upward from the rafters in alarm while several younger students looked moments away from panicking entirely.
The teachers got up instantly.
"Silence!"
Dumbledore's voice cut across the Hall effortlessly.
"Prefects will lead students back to their dormitories immediately!"
Authority rolled through the room almost physically and the panic lessened.
Slytherins around me began standing at once, then collectively paused.
Slowly, very slowly. Several students turned toward the dungeon entrance, then looked back at the headmaster.
Our dormitories were in the dungeons after all.
Which, unfortunately, was exactly where the troll allegedly was.
A heavy silence spread down the Slytherin table.
"Well," Greengrass said flatly while standing, "any guesses who's going to be the distraction?"
I snorted despite myself.
What can I say,the girl is funny.
Around us older Slytherins were already muttering darkly under their breath.
Marcus Flint looked like the Quidditch season was just cancelled as he stomped toward the door without a second glance.
"This is ridiculous," one fifth-year hissed nearby. "Why are we being sent toward it?"
His friend didn't miss a beat
"Trolls fear snakes, everyone knows that, except the trolls obviously,but we can tell it soon, you know, educate the poor creature, " she said with a perfectly straight face
"Apparently survival also builds character," another replied with a sage nod.
Strangely that did not ease the fifth-year's mind at all.
Professor Snape swept down from the staff table like an approaching storm cloud.
"All Slytherin students,get to the common room" he said sharply, "through the wall if you have to!" He added and glanced at the prefects meaningfully
"Seventh year prefects at the back of the group fifth and sixth on the front everyone else in between and do not wander off" he finished and turned on his heel and marched off
Nobody argued. Mostly because arguing with Snape was not only foolish but medically inadvisable.
I stood up slowly, adjusting the brim of my hat once more and slipped the book in my bag,as students began funneling toward the Hall exit in a loose line.
Us first years were probably packed in the middle of the crowd to stay out of the way, since we knew the least amount of magic. Or so I assumed.
The pace through the corridors was fast, crowded, and increasingly irritated the deeper into the dungeons we went.
It also became evident that fear among Slytherins,seemed to manifest less as panic or bravado like it seemed to happen in other houses but more as collective annoyance and in one instance that shall remain unnamed.
"My father will hear of this" and similar mumblings accompanied by some angry stomps.
Probably because being told that:
"There is a dangerous creature loose in the dungeons."
followed immediately by:
"Please proceed directly into the dungeons."
Felt like the sort of decision making that should perhaps be reviewed by responsible adults before executed.
I also noticed for the first time that the Slytherin house was really poor at moving in any cohesive manner.
Slytherins naturally formed smaller clusters instead of one obedient stream. Friend groups,alliances and study circles. Older students quietly collected younger ones they considered useful or tolerable to orbit their group.
Social gravity at its best.
I walked somewhere near the middle with Greengrass and Davies beside me.
Tweak remained invisible overhead, occasionally sending increasingly dramatic updates from the ceiling.
"No troll visible yet," her serious voice came to my ears.
"That is generally considered a good sign," I sent back,while simultaneously trying to minimize the movement of my lips.
Greengrass glanced sideways at me.
"…Talking to yourself again?"
"Thinking aloud." I nodded
"Dangerous habit." Came the reply.
"I've been told."
Ahead of us several older students were arguing quietly.
"If the troll really is in the lower levels then why are we going down?" One asked
"Headmaster sent the expendables as a bait to see if the troll is desperate enough to try and eat us"
her friend said matter of factly
"That is an insane sentence." Third put in.
"Still in the realm of possibility though" sighed the fourth.
They all went silent after that.
Part of me suspected Hogwarts as an institution had mainly survived this long because everyone had quietly accepted a baseline level of insanity that went on in here.
Eventually the familiar stretch of the dungeon corridor opened ahead.
The official entrance? really? so even a troll isn't enough to spill some secrets casually. Not even to your own housemates.
I mused and glanced at the prefects who all looked tense like violin strings.
Students filtered inside quickly so it took only a few minutes since it was the whole of Slytherin house at once. I expected the atmosphere to go back to normal now that all of us were inside the house walls and the entrance was sealed again.
It didn't and something immediately felt… different.
Older students weren't dispersing toward the dormitories.
They were waiting and waving their wands or conjuring hooded winter cloaks.
Groups lingered near the edges of the common room speaking quietly while prefects moved between them with unusual purpose.
Marcus Flint stood near the fireplace speaking with several sixth-years in low voices.
Even Malfoy looked confused by the atmosphere.
The common room gradually filled until nearly the entire house was present.
Then silence started to spread outward almost naturally.
One of the seventh-years stepped forward near the fireplace.
Tall and hooded already despite the warmth of the fireplace next to him or her.
"Winter cloaks," he said simply.
A collective groan passed through portions of the room that hadn't noticed the weird atmosphere as of yet. Like students informed they were once again being forced to participate in an ancient tradition nobody fully respected anymore.
"We really still do this?" one older girl muttered.
"Yes," another sighed. "Because Salazar himself might rise from the grave if we skip one meeting."
"That would honestly improve attendance." pointed out a boy next to them who conjured himself a cloak and draped it over himself.
The girls snorted quietly and agreed, one summoning her own cloak from her room and the other pulling it out of her bag.
I glanced toward Greengrass.
"…What exactly is happening?" I asked, visibly confused.
She looked faintly amused by my confusion.
"The Serpent Court."
I hesitantly nodded
Ah,right, that thing.
I had honestly half assumed it was exaggerated student nonsense.
Apparently not.
"The troll?" I asked quietly.
"Convenient excuse," Greengrass replied. "Theres usually a meeting around Sauin anyway"
Of course they did.
younger Slytherins began disappearing briefly toward the dormitories before returning wearing heavier winter cloaks with raised hoods.
Some were dark green, most were plain black and a few had silver-trimmed edges.
The effect was immediate and deeply intentional.
Individual students blurred together surprisingly quickly once faces vanished beneath shadow and identical cloaks.
Tweak appeared invisibly beside me hiding behind the leather armchairs holding a cloak to me.
"Ohhh," she whispered reverently.
"This is aggressively theatrical." She whispered out loud clearly impressed, she also was wearing a cloak instead of her usual spy get up.
I dropped my hat to her and took the cloak draping over myself in one quick move.
"Someone's dressed for the festivities" I whispered back and she beamed at me and vanished with my hat just as Greengrass turned partly in my direction holding a heavier cloak towards me.
"Wear it." she said without looking in my direction.
I just coughed and looked and waited till she looked at me and noticed I was already wearing a cloak although I haven't pulled my hood up yet.
"How?what? were?" She muttered
I shrugged" well I am a wizard" I said in my defence
She narrowed her eyes towards my head and ignored the statement.
"Where's your hat?" she demanded
I could almost feel the smirk sneaking to my face and did my best to suppress it.
"Well its a wizards hat..I think it disappeared" I said seriously
She looked at me for a few seconds, face completely blank then she gave me the most gorgeous smile I have ever seen.
I immediately felt I was in mortal danger.
"This school takes seven years Hawthorn, I am a Greengrass heiress and as such I have nothing but time to figure out every single secret you have in that skull of yours. so it would be in your best interests to just tell me things" She said with that beatific smile on her face
I tilted my head refusing to show any weakness, my own smile curving my lips as Ms.Davies stopped next to Greengrass to wait for my answer.
"Ms.Greengrass that went dangerously close to proposing and I must inform you that I'm far too young to marry. Also, what ever do you mean? Me having secrets? I'm an open book" I nodded with my best Malfoy impression at the end.
Ms.Greengrass managed to surprise me by bursting out laughing as Ms.Davies blushed to her hairline.
"Is that so? well I shall be asking questions from the 'open book' then" she said with air quotes and put the cloak Davies brought to her, over her shoulders.
I looked at her silently few seconds then asked
"Is the hall actually cold?"
"Yes," she admitted. "But that's only half the point."She said and pulled up her hood so I did the same.
"And the other half?"
Her expression sharpened slightly.
"Anonymity." she said simply
Indeed it did explain nearly everything. Secrecy from each other.
After raising the hood of my cloak the room seemed to have immediately changed.
Or more likely my perception of it did. People became shapes instead of individuals. Voices instead of faces.
A system designed so students could speak without every word uttered attached permanently to their name.
That was… surprisingly intelligent.
I see that older students are casting spells on themselves, warming charms?voice masking magic?
I speculated as one of the prefects moved toward the far side of the common room and pressed his hand briefly against the stone wall and then raised his hood.
Low grinding echoed through the common room.
Then part of the wall slowly shifted inward revealing a descending staircase hidden behind it.
Cold air rolled upward immediately and several students sighed in resignation.
One muttered "Wonderful. Hypothermia and politics."
The line ahead began moving downward into the darkness.
Greengrass stepped forward beside me.
"You coming?"
I glanced once toward the hidden stairway.
Toward the old stone beneath Hogwarts.
I reached for the brim of my hat out of habit.
My fingers met only the edge of my hood.
With a faint sigh, I pulled it lower instead.
I had become entirely too accustomed to the bloody thing.
"…I suppose, I'm already committed to the dramatic outfit."
Greengrass snorted softly and Davies next to her smiled amusedly.
Together we descended into the dark.
The staircase seemed older than the castle above it.
The stone steps were uneven from centuries of use, worn smooth at the center while the walls narrowed just enough to force students closer together during the descent. Cold damp air drifted upward carrying the faint smell of old stone, extinguished torches and the lake somewhere beyond the walls.
The noise and warmth from the common room faded quickly behind us.
Conversations lowered naturally the deeper we went.
Not silence exactly.
But the sort of careful volume people adopted instinctively in old places.
"I think there might be ghosts down here," one student whispered excitedly in front of us.
"There are ghosts everywhere in this castle." answered her grumpy friend.
"Yes but these ones would be dramatic, potentially scaly." she insisted.
Fair point I guess.
I thought, amused and glanced at Greengrass and Davies whose shoulders shook at the hidden laughter they were suppressing at the absurd conversation.
The staircase finally opened into a long underground chamber supported by heavy stone pillars.
Blue-green flames burned within iron braziers along the walls, casting shifting light across the room while cold pooled near the floor strongly enough that I immediately understood why the winter cloaks were not entirely theatrical.
The hall itself looked strangely multipurpose.
Part dueling chamber and Part assembly hall. An ancient storage room someone had aggressively politicized over several centuries seemed to have been the original intention.
Circular marks scarred portions of the stone floor where spells had clearly impacted repeatedly over the years. Several elevated platforms overlooked the chamber from above while old carved serpents wound through the columns supporting the ceiling.
Not dark or sinister. Just old,very old.
The chamber beneath the common room looked as though it had existed before half the castle above it. Time had worn smooth the edges of the stone steps and left strange marks carved into the walls. Some were little more than scratches now. Others looked old enough to date back to the founding of Hogwarts itself.
The room had clearly been built for more than simple dueling practice.
Stone bleachers surrounded the central floor in a rough circle, rising in tiers around the chamber.
Students spread throughout them in loose groups.
Not randomly, I noticed but purposefully.
Three sections slowly filled while the rest of the seats remained mostly empty.
Us first-years were directed toward a smaller platform overlooking all three.
Observers and not participants.
That realization alone told me more about the Court than any explanation could have.
Around the chamber, conversations gradually died away.
Then, from each of the three sections, a single hooded student stepped forward.
The movement was so coordinated it could not have been accidental.
One from each group.
Three figures.
Three representatives.
The murmuring faded further.
I watched as each of them reached beneath their cloak and produced a wooden mask carved with the likeness of a serpent.
The masks disappeared beneath their hoods.
A moment later their cloaks began to change.
Emerald green spread across the fabric like ink through water.
Not a sudden transformation but a slow one.
As though the colour itself was seeping through the cloth.
When it finished, the three stood out immediately against the sea of black winter cloaks surrounding them.
No introductions were needed.
I even understood what I was looking at.
The three students who collectively led Slytherin House.
The central figure stepped forward.
The center most head of the Runespoor was called Dreamer right? so this is the Dreamer faction leader I guess.
The Dreamer carried no staff or wand. Yet he suddenly vanished without a sound from his faction section in the bleachers, and appeared instantly standing in the center of the dueling floor with his green cloak hanging motionless around him.
When he spoke, his voice carried easily through the chamber.
"First-years."
The word echoed softly from the stone walls.
"Welcome to your first serpent Court."
A few students shifted in their seats.
"Relax. You are not here to speak." Dreamer added
That drew a scattering of quiet laughter from the older students.
"Nor are you here to vote, challenge, petition, object, swear allegiance, or otherwise embarrass yourselves before witnesses."
The laughter grew slightly louder.
"Your purpose tonight is observation."
The Dreamer slowly turned, indicating the three sections of the chamber.
"For nearly a thousand years Slytherin House has been divided between the Three Heads of the Runespoor."
His arm extended toward the first section.
"The Planners. Those who look toward tomorrow and concern themselves with what may yet be built."
The second.
"The Dreamers. Those who preserve what was earned by those who came before us."
The third.
"And the Critics. Those who insist on finding flaws in everyone else's ideas."
Several older students applauded politely at that. Several Critics bowed.
"Each Head serves a purpose."
The Dreamer waited for the amusement to die down.
"No Head is superior to the others. A Runespoor with only one head is a rather stupid snake."
That earned a few snorts.
"You will spend this year learning. Listening. Observing."
His gaze settled on the first-year platform.
"You are not expected to choose a Head tonight. Or tomorrow,or even next week." Dreamer added
"In fact, you are forbidden from doing so." Dreamer said slowly and clearly
Now that got our attention.
"A first-year does not know enough to choose." Dreamer went on
His tone remained calm.
"You have attended Hogwarts for scarcely two months. Most of you have not yet decided what sort of witch or wizard you intend to become."
A few students looked away.
"Good." The Dreamer nodded once."You should not know yet."
He let his gaze go through us all first years slowly, or so it seemed like. ITs hard to say for sure since the mask hid his features and eyes fully.
"Choices made without understanding are merely guesswork masking itself as wisdom."
Silence settled over the chamber.
"At the beginning of your second year, you may choose a Head." Dreamer continued.
"You may change that allegiance once per semester thereafter. Some never change yet some change often." Dreamer said calmly.
"Neither is considered a virtue by itself."
He folded his hands behind his back.
"For now, your duty is simple."
"Watch,listen and learn"
His masked face turned slightly toward the gathered Court from us, first-years.
"And try not to become convinced that your elders know what they are doing."
The chamber erupted into laughter. Even several of the hooded leaders bowed their heads in surrender.
The Dreamer waited patiently for the noise to settle.
Then he inclined his head toward the first-years.
"Welcome to the Serpent Court."
The Dreamer inclined his head once,then vanished again without a sound. back to his own faction.
For a moment the center of the dueling floor stood empty.
Then a crack sounded and followed immediately afterward, a second green-cloaked figure stood where the Dreamer had been moments before.
I had to glance at the platforms to see who was missing, and recognise that the one standing in the middle was The Planner.
No introduction was offered and none appeared necessary.
"The Court recognizes the matter of the troll."
His voice carried calmly through the hall as several students shifted slightly in their seats near me.
"A troll was reported within the dungeon levels."
A pause.
"Slytherin House was instructed to return to the dungeon levels. Granted it can be interpreted as accidental since all houses were ordered to return to their houses and ours just happened to inhabit dungeons."
The planner took a small pause, perhaps waiting for comments or disagreements and when none were coming.
"The Court notes this created unnecessary risk to most of our house." He finished simply.
Merely a statement.
"Discussion on the topic and potential avenues of repricing Headmaster on what can be interpreted as an attack on our house,without coming off as busybodies or worse politicians we are."
The Planner folded his hands behind his back amongst the scattered laughter.
Immediately a sixth-year rose from one of the Planner benches.
"The Headmaster acted with incomplete information."
A few heads nodded.
Before he could continue, another student stood from the Critic section.
"The Headmaster possessed complete information and still made a poor decision."
Laughter rippled through the chamber.
The first speaker rolled his eyes.
A third student rose immediately afterward.
"The Court notes these statements are not mutually exclusive."
That earned even louder laughter.
Even several of the masked faction leaders dipped their heads.
The Planner waited patiently for the amusement to pass.
Another student stood.
"If the troll truly occupied the lower levels then directing students toward the lower levels appears questionable."
"Questionable?" someone called.
"Mental," another replied.
A wave of quiet chuckles followed.
A Dreamer student rose next.
"Questionable perhaps. Yet the Headmaster has protected Hogwarts longer than any of us have been alive."
"An inspiring observation,truly, what's next 'Ministry is just protecting us all'?" a Critic immediately replied.
"It unfortunately does not make the troll less large."
More laughter.
I glanced toward the hood that I believed to be Greengrass. The little I could make out of her face underneath the hoods shadow she looked completely unsurprised even bored.
Davies, next to her on the other hand appeared to be enjoying herself apparently political caddyness was her kind of humor.
This wasn't a trial,nor was it rebellion.
The students weren't attacking Dumbledore, they were dissecting the situation and finding fault with the Headmaster not the war hero Albus percival brian Dumbledore.
The difference was hair thin but for Slytherins it might as well have been the space between stars.
The discussion continued for several minutes.
Arguments and Counter Arguments.
Observations and pointed jabs all accompanied by several surprisingly clever jokes.
One extremely lengthy speech about dungeon evacuation procedures that appeared to lose even its speaker halfway through.
Finally the Planner raised one hand.
The room fell silent almost immediately.
"The matter has been heard."
Crack.
The Planner vanished, and appeared amongst his own faction like the Dreamer before him.
A heartbeat later another crack echoed through the chamber.
The final masked figure stood in the center.
The Critic. He stood his hands on his hips looking menacing around although most of the effect was lost on the fact he was wearing a mask so nobody could tell.
Well they probably can, like I can but pretended to not notice, like I do.
I thought amused. The chamber seemed to straighten up slightly or perhaps just the Critics faction that all seemed to stand as if nailed to the ground once one of their own was on the sand.
"The Court finds the decision of the Headmaster foolish."
Not a single student appeared surprised.
"The Court also finds itself alive,not even glimpsing the aforementioned beast."
That earned several nods.
"No further action is required,but there should be a verbal or more preferably a written reprimand directed to the headmaster on the location of the Slytherin house.. in case he forgot"
A pause.
"Should another troll appear, we recommend not walking toward it again, no matter who tells us to do so."
The chamber erupted into laughter.
I felt my mouth twitch. The Critic waited patiently for us to calm down once more.
When the noise finally settled he turned toward the first-year platform.
For the first time all evening I had the distinct impression he was looking directly at us.
"The first-years have observed."
Silence settled.
"The first-years have listened."
Another pause.
"The first-years have learned."
The masked face tilted slightly.
"The first-years are now dismissed."
I heard several older students chuckle already.
Then the Critic delivered the final verdict.
"Go to bed."
The chamber exploded in laughter and noise that echoed from every section of the Court.
Even several prefects looked defeated by the tradition.
Apparently a thousand years of political ceremony still ended with adults telling children to sleep.
We first-years slowly began standing.
Around the chamber older students were already turning back toward one another.
The real discussions are apparently beginning only now.
As we started toward the stairs I caught fragments of conversation drifting through the hall.
"The potion ingredient proposal is still ridiculous."
"You only oppose it because it was my proposal."
"Correct."
"Fair enough."
A different voice nearby:
"The Critics are trying to kill the owl subsidy again."
"Because it's expensive."
"Because they hate fun."
"Those are not mutually exclusive."
Another argument had already started regarding Quidditch funding. Third seemed to involve library access and how to best sidestep Madam Pince all together.
I slowed slightly while listening, it was obvious that the troll had never been the purpose of this gathering.
It had merely been the first item on the agenda. The Court had existed before tonight. It will exist after tonight and judging by the increasingly heated discussion behind me, it intended to continue existing long after I left.
Which somehow made me feel far more at ease at Hogwarts.
huh well that's a weird take on things.
I thought to myself as I drudged back upstairs to sleep.
The next day, the castle was buzzing with the news that famous Harry Potter and his friends apprehended the Mountain Troll in the girls' lavatory on the second floor and killed it.
It was practically all I had heard all morning and I was utterly sick of the nonsense
Killed a fully grown mountain troll? with what color changing charm or levitating one
I lampooned in my mind as I moved through the halls in my "other" appearance that morning.
Posture was muted, I was wearing Ravenclaw colors, my hair was brown and the glasses made my eyes match my hair color. A few books in my hands and a brisk walk made me utterly forgettable.
Or at least that was the goal.
The disguise itself had improved disturbingly quickly over the past weeks. Not because the magic became dramatically better, though it had improved somewhat, but because people rarely looked carefully at someone they had already decided was unimportant.
I adjusted the strap of my bag slightly and continued toward the library corridor.
The hall outside it was crowded with students escaping the early morning chill. Voices overlapped endlessly. Homework complaints, Quidditch arguments and gossip flowed together into background noise.
Which was why the conversation near the staircase alcove caught my attention almost immediately.
"…I already told you I don't know where to get one before Monday," a second-year Hufflepuff hissed quietly.
"But you said somebody always knows somebody," the younger student protested miserably. "I just need the notes, I'll trade for them!"
The older boy groaned and rubbed his face.
"Then ask Hawthorn's Exchange."
I slowed slightly without meaning to. Struggling to keep my face and aura as they were.
The younger student blinked "What's that?"
"It's not a what, it's a who," the older boy muttered reluctantly. "Sort of."
That seemed to confuse the first-year even more.
"He's a Slytherin first-year," the older student explained. "Weird hat. Talks like a tiny professor he knows everyone."
I nearly walked into the wall but the ever present "predatory stalking charm" helped me to avoid such fate and I ended up leaning against the wall studying the top most book I hastily opened, to seem less like I was doing what I was doing..evesdropping.
"If he doesn't have what you need," the Hufflepuff continued, "he usually knows who does." Older student voice came
"…Is he expensive?" said the younger one
"Nah, that's the weird part," the older student said with visible suspicion in his voice"He just hates depts, so give him something for his trouble, can be anything from a rumor to money if you prefer that"
I closed the book and kept walking before either of them could notice I had nearly stopped breathing.
Behind me the younger student asked quietly,
"Why's it called an Exchange?"
The older boy snorted.
"Because that's what happens dolt, you give something and he gives something, it's an EXCHANGE" He enunciated clearly. Their voices died down as I kept walking.
I turned the next corner automatically and kept walking in silence. I could feel my brow twitching.
This is that thing Greengrass was babbling about yesterday. I was half convinced it was some weird scheme of hers.. but this..
Then I stopped, and stepped into another classroom and looked around,once I was sure I was alone.
"Tweak," I said flatly.
She appeared upside down from the ceiling beam above me wearing tiny round spectacles today for absolutely no reason whatsoever. She still had the cloak from yesterday on. Apparently she had gotten a thing for different costumes
"Yes Master?" She asked happily
"…What is Hawthorn's Exchange?"
Tweak blinked once.
Then very slowly she pulled herself upright on the beam and looked down at me with enormous innocent eyes.
"Oh," she said carefully. That alone told me everything I needed to know.
"Tweak."
"It may have become a thing." She said squirming a little.
"How." I demanded to know.
She coughed lightly into her fist.
"Well Master keeps solving problems for people." she said with a approving nod
"I answer questions." I retort
"Yes you also trade information." she added helpfully
"Yes." I said with a nod
"And occasionally acquire things, or make you Spy master acquire them" She added
"And I do not owe favors to any Slytherin" I added as a finish
"Yes." she nodded confirming
I stared at her.
Tweak pointed both tiny hands at me dramatically.
"Exactly! It became branding."
"…Branding."
"Yes." She nodded eagerly. "Students started saying things like 'ask Hawthorn' or 'Hawthorn probably knows' and then someone called it an exchange and now it exists."
"That is not how organizations are formed," I objected weakly.
Tweak tilted her head.
"Master," she said gently, "that is exactly how organizations are formed."
I opened my mouth.
Closed it again.
Annoyingly… she might actually be right.
The worst part was I could already see why it was spreading so fast.
No debts or public humiliation. No obvious factional loyalty to need to concern themselves over.
Just information moving where needed with "cash" deposit or whatever was at hand.
That probably looked almost supernatural in Slytherin.
I rubbed at my temple slowly.
"Tweak I planned to stay unnoticed and this is becoming dangerously close to a reputation." I said annoyed to the extreme that all my plans seemed to have been scrapped by sheer competence on my part.
Tweak gasped happily and clapped her hands, so much so I noticed the glasses she was wearing weren't the only decoration. Her robes were gryffindor colors and she had drawn a lightning bolt on her forehead.
God I hope wonder boy will see this, probably wont but it would be so funny.
I chuckled to myself until Tweak said
"Oh, it is far past close now! You're almost as famous as Harry Potter. Different kinds of famous but famous nonetheless." She said and honest to god cackled as she jumped around the room.
"Well..Shit" was all I had to reply to that.