Minerva's fifth year at Hogwarts is full of rivalry as Quidditch scouts enter the grounds. Slytherin's new chaser, Willow Callum, is the only thing standing in the way of Minerva and a summer of playing Quidditch for her favourite team, the Montrose...
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I'd rather suffer than spend another delightful moment with you, Gryffindor.
The words drummed over and over in Minerva's head as she followed Willow through the chilly dungeon corridors. She wore a warm sweater Alice had brought her over her Gryffindor robes but Willow still wore her quidditch robes, crusted in dried mud and grass and freshly torn. She must have been freezing cold.
They reached a stretch of wall and Willow pressed her hand against it, "I am worthy."
The wall shifted and there was a soft grating as a doorway slid open.
"That's your password?" Minerva scoffed, "And what is it you are worthy of? Your superiorty?"
For the first time since they had left the hospital wing, Willow looked back at her, her warm eyes searching Minerva's face as she replied, "Worthy of this home." She stepped through the wall and Minerva took a deep breath as she stepped through.
The common room had walls of cut limestone that were pale in the blue and green light save for the massive fireplace pulsing a gentle orange light. Black metal rings of lamps burned light green above, like sunlight filtered through leaves in a forest and three thin, tall windows showed the bottom of the Great Lake where tangled black weed hid glimmering stones. The water shone a soft azure blue into the room, and a sense of calm settled into Minerva as she followed Willow around. A few Slytherin students lounged on leather sofas, reading, and barely paid her a second glass. Small desks were pressed against walls and stacked with neat rows of books and spare parchment and quills free for the taking. Instead of bookshelves, dark wooden cabinets rested between the windows, and trinkets of treasure sat idly behind glass doors.
Unlike Gryffindor tower, the rooms were all on one floor, only a mere two steps higher than the common room. Unsure what to do, Minerva followed Willow to where the fifth year girls shared a dorm, except, they didn't. Not entirely.
Where each Gryffindor dorm was one big room, the Slytherins had a network of narrow corridors splitting into each years section, girls on the left, boys on the right.
Willow led her into a pentagon antechamber of sorts where 4 sprawling desks had been shoved together and a worn, cracked sofa stretched across one wall. The remaining four walls had two doors each for the eight Slytherin fifth year girls.
Willow undid the top laces, just below her knee and kicked off her boots. The antechamber looked lived in and loved. A corkboard was pinned with pictures, notes and posters of quidditch teams and bands. Each desk had two simple chairs and at the top corners of each desk were neatly arranged stationary and trinkets. Minerva wondered which side of which desk was Willow's.
A shoe rack had been ambitiously placed at the entry of the antechamber but shoes were haphazrdly scattered around it instead of on it. Minerva carefully took off her own school shoes and placed them on the wooden rack.
