Sinful Bargain - Draco Malfoy

Chapter 3

Walking farther into what felt like the catacombs of Hogwarts, two Slytherin prefects led the new snakes to their home for the next seven years. For the most part, the two little snakes were quiet. They whispered their awes to each other as they saw a ghost past through them, or a painting move to a different portrait. She would never say it out loud, but Toni quite enjoyed getting to be one of the students who took care of the first years. She felt a little bit of pride, when she pulled out her green Slytherin prefect badge out of her Hogwarts letter. It felt like she was honoring her mother, who had been a prefect her fifth year, and Headgirl during her seventh year. Toni wanted to keep the joy on their face for as long as possible. Both prefects knew the inevitable would happen eventually, and the two eleven year olds would find out that more than half the school hated them, just for the color of their ties. She was hoping, with Pucey as their Headboy, they could prevent the bullying that happened to their house. 

The first years were led to a long wall. There were two sconces, already lit, with a gap in-between them. There were only a few portraits in the corridor, sleeping peacefully. The two students, a girl and boy, were not sure why they stopped, but they were more focused on trying not to let the chill of the dungeons effect them. Only one of the first years, the boy, had grown up with magic around them, but they were still astonished with Hogwarts. The school was completely different. The other student, the eleven year old girl, was experiencing magic for the very first time, and she felt powerful. 

"This will be the entrance into our common room." Draco announced for the first time since they had left the Great Hall. "Do not give out the password to anyone, this is our space, and we don't like anyone else knowing about it. Snakebite."

Like magic, a large brick snake seemed to come up from the ground, and slithered into a large arc. In the middle of the arc, was a large cherry wood door. Draco opened it up, letting everyone enter first. There were already a few people in the common room, quietly relaxing by the fire that was going. Theo was sitting next to Blaise Zabini, a tall black boy who had high cheekbones, and was known as the heartthrob amongst the studnets. The boy kept mostly to himself, but would sometimes sit with Draco and his group of friends. The Zabini heir was pretty sure his mother was on her sixth husband at the moment, and Blaise was unsure how long this one would last. Sephora Zabini was known as the Black Widow in the wizarding community. His mother and Narcissa were quite close friends, both meeting up weekly over tea. The two boys had given Draco and Toni enthusiastic thumbs ups, smiles on their faces. 

It was a beautiful large common room, decorated in forest green colors and black. A few leather couches sat in an arc shape around a calming fire, with a coffee table in the middle. Large windows, that seemed to reach the sky, showed below the surface level of the Black Lake. It was known among the older students, to tell the first years they would see a mermaid if they sat still long enough. The first years loved it, and would watch in excitement for hours. Seeing a mermaid for the first time, was always a lifelong memory. What wasn't common knowledge to the other houses, was all Slytherin's learned sign language to be able to communicate with the lake creatures. It was benefited their house to use sign language when they wanted to talk about others in front of them. The Slytherin house, had many secrets that were unknown to all. 

Around the common room, there were a few other places to relax and study. Between the windows were huge bookshelves, overflowed to the brim with old weathered books that were passed down from previous students. In the Pure-blood community, a lot of adults didn't like what was kept from their children about magic. Dumbledore held so much information about different types of magic, and other information like soulmates. There was much that Hogwarts did not cover, all because he wanted people to avoid archaic subjects. Mother Magic was no longer celebrated with holidays in England, unless you were a traditionalist pure-blood. You could see the way their community was slowly falling apart at the seams. If something wasn't done soon, their community could cease to exist.