The Heiress of Slytherin

Quidditch Rulez

The rest of the feast passed by happily, but exhaustedly for the Slytherin group, and as delicious as the food was, Ivy couldn't help but be thankful when it was time to leave for the dorms. She had missed her soft sheets and large shower so much.

On her way out of the Hall she caught up with Hermione, who smiled and told her that although she hadn't seen them yet, she'd heard that Harry and Ron were back at Hogwarts.

Ivy bit back her comments about their preferred mode of transport; if Hermione didn't already know, she certainly didn't want to break the news. She chose instead only to send on her well wishes, and a request that Hermione gather them at a convenient time to talk.

Her friend gave her an odd look at the invite, but before she could press it any further Ivy was whisked away by Pansy and Selina, who were almost more determined to get to bed than she was.

Pansy had seemed distracted all supper, staring across the room at something Ivy couldn't quite place, and as they said goodnight to the boys and ran to flop into their beds, she remained unnervingly quiet.

Ivy and Selina frowned at each other from their beds, silently agreeing that she was acting unusual. "Are you alright, Pansy? You seemed a bit distracted during dinner." Asked Selina with a slightly worried tone.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, just a bit sleepy is all." She smiled at her two friends before resuming her task of staring unseeingly at the blanket in front of her, evidently deep in thought.

"Did you see someone cute?" Joked Ivy, trying to lighten the mood, but the opposite effect was achieved when Pansy shot her head up to look at her, her cheeks obviously flushed.

"What? No, of course not. Why would you ask?"

Ivy and Selina raised their eyebrows at the incredibly unsubtle response, "I was just joking, Parkinson, but now I think I may have been onto something. You don't have to tell me who, I'll enjoy trying to figure it out." She grinned and winked at her friend, who was now sporting a horrified look on her face and flipped the light off, letting darkness fill every space that wasn't touched by the deep green light of the moon through the lake.

"Goodnight ladies," she sang, slipping under her duvet, leaving Pansy to absorb her words.

She sat upright in the dark while Selina and Ivy drifted asleep, thinking about everything she'd felt that night. In the Great Hall, she had tried to make sense of why she felt unable to stop looking at the pretty redhead across the room.

As she thought, a crescendo of realizations she'd been fending off for years crashed through her mind. About how she'd very often seen a girl and thought she was incredibly pretty. How she'd always brushed it off as appreciation when deep inside it felt like something more.

She had no idea what to do with these epiphanies. She had only ever heard of women liking women one time, and her mother had spoken of it with such revulsion that she just accepted it as a terrible thing.

Granted, she wasn't sure if her mother hated them for loving each other as much as she thought it was a disgrace that they were "wasting their pure-blooded lineage on an unproductive marriage", but the sentiment was still there.

Either way, the idea of her mother knowing there was even a possibility that she may like women more than men sent a horrid chill through her body, and she lay down and tucked herself under the covers for warmth.

Her brain spun until she finally fell asleep. When she did, she dreamt of her mother flying towards her on a Thestral, screaming horribly, before she was saved by a knight with long red hair and a stunning smile.