Chapter Text
Alice was positively fuming, and she didn’t use that word lightly. She was in her sixth year at Hogwarts, but enrolled in the seventh year of Potions. Potions was her best subject, and she got on quite well with the hook-nosed Professor. More importantly, instead of taking Potions in her final year at Hogwarts, Alice would be able to intern with Professor Snape. She’d been interested in teaching since her second year when she’d carried Cassius Warrington through the class.
However, Alice had made a fatal mistake. The seventh year Slytherins were partnered with the Gryffindors, unlike the sixth years who were with the Hufflepuffs. On top of this, Professor Snape had decided that assigning lab partners was the best way to stop the destruction of the Weasley twins. It was because of this decision that Alice found herself in her current predicament, side-by-side to a boy with fire in his hair and a twinkle in his eyes.
It had been two weeks of this arrangement, and it was becoming increasingly more volatile. Alice ground her teeth, trying to ignore the twin next to her, Fred, and stared at her parchment. She was barely listening to the Potions master explain their lesson for the day. They were making a Volubilis Potion. It was relatively simple, there were certain nuances in heating and cooling the potion at the correct intervals that could make the draught tricky at times. However, correctly made, and the potion could not only change the user’s voice, but actually restore it if affected by a Silencing Charm.
Fred kept stealing sideways glances at Alice, his face scrunched in a hard-to-read expression. George had been lucky enough to be assigned to Angelina, their fellow Gryffindor. The two Gryffindors occasionally sniggered at Fred’s luck, or lack thereof, in being paired with Alice, a Slytherin, who had repeatedly kicked their asses at Quidditch during some mock games last year during the Triwizard business.
Alice pursed her lips and scanned over the list of ingredients for the tenth time. Honey-water…mint sprigs…stewed Mandrake…oh for heaven’s sake!
She could feel Fred watching her again, so she muttered quietly, “What?”
Fred seemed to jump slightly at the sudden sound of her voice amidst the bubbling cauldrons and shuffling parchment. He recovered quickly and shrugged. “Just surprised,” Fred said cooly. “I figured the Princess of Slytherville would get a golden pass as Snape’s favorite.”
Alice tried to keep her face clear of emotion, but her jaw flexed with irritation all the same. She had had very few interactions with either twin in the past. The extent of their relationship was related to Quidditch. Alice had been a Chaser on the Slytherin team since her second year. She was very good, and fast. In the five years Alice had been playing, neither Fred or George had managed to land a Bludger on her.
Nevertheless, Fred’s words still managed to get under her skin. What he said was true, half the school, even some of her fellow house, thought Alice had everything handed to her due to her uniqueness as an Elemental. Alice tried to ignore the whispers that followed her, that there was a ‘bender’ instead of a true wizard in their midst, that she received special treatment from Snape, Dumbledore, Flitwick, the list never seemed to end. None of it was true, of course. Alice worked and studied for what she had gained during her time at Hogwarts.
But, people were always going to think what they wanted to think. So, Alice kept her head down and did her work…to a point.
She added the Honey-water to her potion, watched in satisfaction as the liquid turned pink, and sighed. “I’d better have a talk with the Professor then. I’d much rather apply my ‘golden pass’ to never having to look at that orange mop you call hair.” Fred’s ivory hand clenched into a fist around his mint sprigs, crushing them. Alice smirked.
“Well,” Fred hissed in annoyance, “I guess my hair matches my bright and fun personality.” He threw in the crushed mint too early, his cauldron began bubbling thickly and turned mottled grey. Fred didn’t notice the misstep. He continued, “Kind of like how your hair represents your bleak and boring personality.”
Alice screwed her eyes shut for a moment as she tried to ignore the punch to the gut she felt at his words. She bit her lip and didn’t reply, choosing instead to spend the rest of the period in silence. Her potion, which had heated to a pleasant yellow, just let off the sparks marking its completion when the bell rang. With a smile, Alice scooped a sample of her potion into a vial and delivered it to Professor Snape’s desk. He gave her a slight nod of approval before sneering at some other bloke’s potion. Alive hurried back to her desk and avoided looking at Fred, who was determinedly talking to Angelina in a drawl. Alice quickly gathered her supplies and sped out of the room, her book bag gently bumping into her hip as she climbed out of the dungeon.
Two familiar voices called to her the moment she ascended. “Oi!” and “Alice!” She turned to see the faces of Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. Blaise had a wicked smile on his face, and Draco’s sleek hair looked oddly disheveled.
“Hiya, boys. What happened to you, Drake?” Alice fell easily into step between the two.
Draco knocked his shoulder into Alice. “I told you not to call me that, Alley-cat.” Alice glared at him in turn for his use of the nickname. He just grinned at the look on her face and casually slung an arm around her shoulder.
Zabini snorted. “Yeah, Drake, what happened to your hair?”
Malfoy glared at Blaise and removed his arm from Alice’s shoulder. He ran a slender hand through his platinum locks and sighed rather dramatically. “You missed quite the show, darling. Crabbe, to everyone’s surprise as I’m sure you can imagine, is horrid at transfiguration. The crow he was working on became…upset. It seemed to take quite the liking to my glorious hair.”
“Well, it is quite shiny,” Alice said, trying to hold back a giggle at the mental picture forming in her head.
Draco rolled his eyes before continuing, “The damn thing kept dive-bombing me until the Granger brat took it upon herself to transfigure it into a pincushion. McGonagall gave her extra points of course.”
Alice frowned and swatted his arm. “Don’t call her a brat, Draco! You really should be nicer to her, to all of them.” Malfoy rolled his eyes and put his hands in his pockets, looking exasperated.
Blaise piped up in agreement at this. “I hate to say it, man, but Alice is our elder. Besides, Granger’s not half bad. She saved my ass in Arithmancy more times than I can count last year.”
“Oh, for Merlin's sake!” Draco threw up his hands in annoyance. “Sometimes, I swear I have no clue how you two ended up in Slytherin. It’s disgraceful. All this talk of inter-house cooperation and kindness. Soon, you’ll be sporting Gryffindor ties and giving Christmas decorations a run for their money.”
Alice chuckled quietly, though her mind traveled back to the increasingly hostile exchanges between her and Fred in Potions. Being cordial with Hermione was a far cry from being a friend of the Gryffindor House. She rolled her shoulders and tried to shake Potions from her mind.
“What’s wrong?” Draco’s tone changed immediately as he looked Alice over with his silver eyes. “Something’s wrong.”
“Your powers of deduction are really coming along.” Alice said sarcastically. “Nothing’s wrong, just been a long week.”
Before Draco could argue, Zabini spun and inserted himself between the two, looping his arms around their shoulders. “You know what the best cure is for a long week?” The warm smells of the Great Hall drifted towards them. Blaise sighed happily, “Food. Let’s eat, then see if Montague scheduled practice for tonight. I, for one, could use some Quidditch to forget all this 'learning' nonsense.”
Alice couldn’t agree with the younger boy more, and she let Blaise lead her and Draco into the Great Hall. She had struck up an off friendship with the two of them during her third year and their second year. Although Alice didn’t approve of Draco’s elitist ways, Blaise wasn’t as bad, and she had come to learn that they were guilty of parroting their parent’s views, not necessarily their own. The three of them had bonded over Quidditch, and Alice worked on their behavior. Blaise was the first to stop being such a prick. Malfoy dropped the act entirely around her, but it always returned in full force around the Gryffindors.
Truthfully, Alice believed a primary reason for their friendship was settled in the reality that neither Draco or Zabini’s parents knew about Alice. Her family and the rest of her people lived practically in Antarctica. They had withdrawn completely from the wizarding community fourteen years ago, just before the Dark Lord fell in an attempt to protect themselves. Alice had chosen to return to the community just to play Quidditch and find out what was happening in the wizarding world.
The news that Harry Potter brought back that Lord Voldemort had returned at the end of last year had disrupted Alice’s home into chaos. She had to fight her parents to return to Hogwarts. They still remembered being hunted like animals, and the peace the Elementals found in their new home was fragile and precious to them.
Of course, Alice had never gone into too much detail when it came to her people and their safe haven. But, the sense of danger that had arisen since the Dark Lord’s return rested at the back of Alice’s mind. She reminded herself that Hogwarts was safe under Dumbledore’s care, and therefore, Alice herself was quite safe in the stone halls.
The Slytherin table was slowly filling with students as the afternoon classes came to an end. Alice settled on the bench between Draco and Blaise. Alice turned her focus to the plates of food in front of her, ignoring the nasty look from Pansy before the girl draped her arms around Draco. Blaise let out a snort of annoyance, or disgust, and began to fill his plate.
Alice smirked at his reaction and started to load her plate with the numerous options in front of her: potatoes, chicken, green bean casserole, and, her favorite, glazed carrots. A few familiar faces filled the bench across from her. Alice smirked wider when she caught a look at Crabbe’s hand. It was covered in peck marks from his infuriated crow.
Graham Montague shoved his way in between Draco and Alice. It wasn’t terribly hard to accomplish; Pansy was more than happy to have Draco pressed closer to her, and Graham made up for his lack of height in girth. He was more of a tank than a man, and people automatically made room for him. He shot Alice and Blaise a crooked grin, and tore into a drumstick.
“So,” he said around a mouthful of chicken, “Word is Potter’s friend Weasley is the new Gryffindor Keeper. No idea if he’s any good, but we should get some hours in tonight.” Montague swallowed and took a giant swig of pumpkin juice. “You know, make sure the team’s cogs are oiled and working properly.”
Blaise reached across Alice and clinked his goblet with Graham’s. “My Captain, My Captain, you read my mind. I’ve been itching to get some practice in.”
Alice nodded vigorously. “Yeah. I’d like to forget about all the homework I have for a bit.” She clinked her own glass with Montague’s and Zabini’s and raised it to her lips. “I’m ready to kick some ass this year, win back the Quidditch cup, yeah?”
Graham clapped Alice on the back right as she went to take a sip of her goblet. The force of his giant hand made her spill pumpkin juice down her front. Blaise didn’t bother trying to hold back his laughter at the sight of her covered in watery orange liquid. Graham barely noticed; he was reaching for the platter of steak and kidney pie near Crabbe while shouting slightly, “I couldn’t agree with you more, Winters! That’s why you’re my favorite Chaser. Oh Merlin, are you alright?” He had turned to toss Alice a wink, and noticed her pumpkin juice-soaked appearance. “Blimey, sorry bought that.” He tried to mop her with a napkin.
Alice waved off his efforts. “Let me.” She flattened her right hand and ran it across her robes. There was a slight tingle in her fingers as she beckoned the water particles in the juice out of the fabric. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the pumpkin juice swirling back into her goblet.
Zabini shook his head, watching intently. “That’s bloody amazing. I could watch you bend all day.” Alice blushed slightly and busied herself with her food.