There's Something About Potter

Chapter 3

The first thing Aria realized on the morning of her first day of school was that, unlike the Gryffindors, Slytherins were actually very punctual students.

Unfortunately, Aria had a horrible habit of sleeping in on most mornings and without Hermione there to wake her up, she could sleep all the way until noon. So it was actually a miracle in itself when Aria managed to wake up at seven after her first night in the dungeons. Despite her best efforts, she was shocked to realize that both Pansy and Morag were already gone, their beds already made up, while even Hannah was already finishing up with putting on her uniform.

When she noticed Aria peering at her from behind her bed curtains, the former Hufflepuff gave her a sympathetic smile and delicately reminded her that their first class was in less than an hour.

Flushing with embarrassment, Aria had jumped out of bed and rushed to the shower immediately, emerging messily from it about fifteen minutes later and wrestling herself into her uniform. As she stumbled down the stairs to the Slytherin common room, she was relieved to realize that Neville was there as well. From his haphazard appearance, it appeared as though her friend had also just rushed out of the shower.

The two former Gryffindors shared a knowing grin before they exited the Common Room together.

"So...You looked like you survived your first night." Aria commented idly as she and Neville rounded a corner and made their way up the long, narrow staircase leading out of the dungeons.

"Surprisingly, I did." Neville agreed with a chuckle. "It wasn't actually that bad. Well, Zabini at least was friendly. He oriented me about a lot of the house rules. Malfoy was mostly quiet and kept to himself the whole night. To be honest, it was actually Smith who was a little bit of a prick about the whole resorting thing."

"Really? What did he do?" Aria asked curiously as they finally made it to the ground floor and began heading in the direction of the Great Hall.

"Well, nothing terrible. He just went on and on about how his father didn't donate so much money to the Hogwarts board of directors for them to force him to associate with Slytherin scum." He winced at the memory, shaking his head.

"Are you serious?" Aria snorted under her breath and rolled her eyes. "I gather that didn't exactly sit so well with Malfoy then?"

"Malfoy was actually quite...civil about the whole thing." Neville answered, though he looked as though he was having trouble believing his own words. "He looked a little annoyed but he didn't rise to Smith's taunts or comments at all. At some point, he even looked amused."

"Wow."

Aria tried very hard not to let the stunned disbelief show on her face.

"I know." Neville shrugged and gave her a rueful grin when he saw her reaction. "Anyway, it didn't last long. Eventually, Smith stopped whining long enough for Zabini to befriend him and by the end of the night, he wasn't as annoying anymore. He even show me his card collection." He grinned at her.

As they entered the Great Hall, they noticed that most of their new housemates were already eating breakfast at the Slytherin table.

Glancing around the room, Aria caught the disapproving look Hermione sent her from where the brunette was sitting with a small group of Ravenclaw girls. She gave her best friend a sheepish grin in response, to which Hermione responded by rolling her eyes and smiling slightly before she turned back to her conversation with her new housemates.

Over at the Gryffindor table, Ron looked as though he was having an interesting conversation with Seamus Finnigan and Anthony Goldstein, though when he saw Aria looking at him, he gave her a wink and wave. Aria was just about to wave back when a large, bulky student several seats away from Ron caught her attention. She did a double take when she realized that she was actually staring at Gregory Goyle, and apparently the former Slytherin was too caught up in his conversation with Luna to notice that Aria was gaping at him.