sanguine | r. black

Three

The prefect meeting dragged on for ages. Alice Fortescue stared at her wristwatch as the seconds ticked away endlessly. Remus and Lily had a laundry list of new tasks and incentives which went right over her head. She didn't know what to expect when they told her she'd start as a prefect for 5th year, but this wasn't it. She also didn't know how she was picked, though she supposed the only other viable option was Pandora Xenakis, who didn't do well under pressure. She was informed she would be going on patrol with Dorcas Meadowes, a Ravenclaw in her year, which was a thousand percent better than patrolling with Regulus Black would have been. She had had to stop herself from strangling the boy so many times last year alone. Even though they were in the same house in the same year, the two had exceedingly little in common.

Aside from that, Alice didn't mind most of her peers. Despite common misconceptions, most of the Slytherins weren't that bad. She just had to avoid anyone named Black, anyone closely related to a Black, or anyone who hung out with a Black. This narrowed her social pool significantly, but then again, she had never yearned to be widely popular.

The meeting dragged on until the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and was forced to be cut short. She heard Lily muttering her frustrations about having to start so late due to Black's tardiness, for which Alice found herself grateful. She respected the Gryffindor girl, certainly, but she could be so passionate that she rambled incessantly at times. The head girl had put Lily in charge of the minutes for the meetings last year, so Alice had been told, but she must have been recently promoted. Ever a stickler for the rules, she had droned on about class schedules and upcoming school events for ages, stopping only when the head boy interjected with Quidditch scheduling. That was the only thing Alice wrote down.

After the meeting, Alice was assigned to usher the other students neatly to the carriages. They didn't care much for single file lines, and she had to remind them not to trample each other trying to get a seat with their friends. "You're all going to the same place, you nitwits."

Finally, she was one of the last ones to take her seat at the Slytherin table. The feast spread—her favorite part—was as bountiful as ever. She found a place next to Pandora and began spooning things onto her plate. Most of the table was occupied by younger students Alice didn't really recognize. She primarily only talked to those in her year, with very few exceptions.

Pandora always sat on her left side, she was superstitious about the strangest things and Alice had learned not to ask. The two met their first year and had clung to each other like magnets ever since. Presently, Pandora was creating careful delineations between each type of food on her plate. It wasn't too out of the ordinary, she tended to be a bit anal about things touching.

Alice smiled, "Xenophilius is making eyes at you from the Ravenclaw table again."

Pandora didn't bother to look up from her plate, she didn't seem to care much either way. "So, nothing new then?"

"You should give him a chance. He clearly fancies you," said Alice. She was something of a hopeless romantic, and often spent time encouraging her classmates to pursue each other. Always the wingwoman, never the girlfriend, she distracted herself with missions to get Dorcas Meadowes to make public her affection for her Ravenclaw best friend. She'd have plenty of time to work on it during patrols, she supposed.