Slytherin Royalty

The Sleepover

Over the next month, Alya and her friends continued with their lesson as usual. They were still being stared at constantly by all of the students in the school. People moved well away from them in the hallways, barely looked at them in lessons and would sit as far away from them as possible. Except of course, for Hermione and the rest of the Gryffindors that Alya was friends with. Alya and her friends didn't seem to mind this, because it meant that they had some peace, rather than the constant questions and gossiping that they were used to. Alya had been practising her legilimency and telepathy with her father, Snape. She could now read and control people's thoughts without even touching them or being near them. She'd been practising on her friends, with their permission, and she could now communicate with them through their minds, even if they were apart.

 It was now the 21st December, the day before the Christmas holidays and the day before Alya was due to go to the Weasley's with Hermione. She was feeling very excited, but quite upset because it meant that she wouldn't see her Slytherin friends for two weeks. Her friends, particularly Mattheo, were feeling quite visibly sad too. They all sat in the Great Hall eating their lunch together making small conversations to fill the silence, before walking to their Divination lesson. Alya went to go and sit next to Fred as usual, smiling at him as she sat down.

"Hey, Freddie!" she said.

"Hey, Ally," he smiled.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, of course," he replied. He didn't look at her properly so she thought that something was wrong with him.

"Are you sure? It seems like something's bothering you," she said, looking at him with a slight puzzled expression.

"No, I'm good," he said.

"Okay... are you excited for the holidays?" smiled Alya. "It's going to be so fun staying with you all for two weeks,"

"Uh... yeah, I guess," he said. Alya smiled at him and turned to face the front. *clearly something's bothering him. I hope he hasn't changed his mind!* she thought to herself, as Professor Trelawney started the lesson.

She told them that they would be studying horoscope charts and using the crystal balls in that lesson. "Could one person from each pair come and get the supplies from the front of the class, please," she said.

Fred shot up straight away without even saying anything or looking at Alya, and went to the front. George turned around to say hi to Alya once Fred had gone.

"Hi George... is Fred okay? He seems really off with me," said Alya.

"No, he's okay," said George, quickly.

"Okay... do you think he's changed his mind about me coming to stay with you?" asked Alya, softly. "Because I don't have to come, I can just go back home or go and stay with my dad,"

"No!" said George. "No, it's not that at all! It's just... I think he's just a bit... worried,"

"Worried? Worried about what?" asked Alya.

"It's just that... well, our parents - they don't have a lot of money and our house isn't very...big," said George. "Most people that come to our house usually end up laughing or being mean about it and we've lost a lot of friends that way. People usually wouldn't want to be our friends anymore after seeing our house,"

"George... that's horrible!" said Alya. "I don't care about money or the size of your house! I'm friends with you guys for you, and nothing is going to change that, I promise,"

"I can see why Freddie likes you so much," George smiled. "He doesn't stop talking about you,"

"Wow, really?" blushed Alya. She smiled at George as Fred returned from the front of the class with the supplies for the lesson.