Being a Greengrass after all should sound pretty serene.
But being a part of "the Emeralds" should not, especially when hearts become entangled with the infamous Regulus Black.
Goodness, lawfulness, or evilness. Which path will they tread in the ti...
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September 2nd, 1976
"YOU DROPPED ARITHMANCY THIS YEAR?"
Avery's voice carried across the Great Hall loudly enough that several first-years stopped eating to stare. At the Slytherin table, the Emeralds sat scattered among abandoned breakfast plates and half-finished cups of tea, comfortably ignoring the usual house divisions now that term had only just begun. The professors hadn't bothered enforcing seating arrangements yet, leaving the six of them exactly where they preferred to be.
"It's BORING okay? Leave me alone about it," Dorcas replied, clearly in a mood despite the serenity of the morning.
"But what about me?" Avery demanded, genuinely offended that Dorcas hadn't mentioned her decision in any of the letters they'd exchanged over the summer.
"You have Barty. Besides, you can survive on your own."
"He's useless!"
"Excuse you?" Barty cut in immediately.
"You heard me."
He leaned back against the bench with the effortless confidence of someone who had never doubted his own abilities for a single day in his life. "I'll get twelve Outstandings in my O.W.L.s by the end of the year."
"As if," Avery scoffed.
"I'll bet you anything, what are the stakes?"
Evan chimed in, "Loser does the others chores for the whole sixth year."
"And what else does the winner get? An ego boost?"
Pandora, who had been staring dreamily at the enchanted ceiling for the better part of ten minutes, answered without looking away from it. "A Chocolate Frog."
The entire table turned toward her blankly. She blinked once. "They were expensive."
Barty pointed at her emphatically. "Thank you. Finally, someone with vision."
"I'm in," Avery declared.
The alliances formed just as quickly afterward. Regulus and Pandora sided with Barty — partly because they believed he was intelligent enough to pull it off, and partly because they found the entire thing entertaining. Avery, Evan, and Dorcas sided against him out of principle. It wasn't that Avery thought Barty was incapable of earning twelve Outstandings or that he was stupid. Unfortunately, the opposite was true; he was effortlessly brilliant in the most infuriating way imaginable — the sort of person who barely studied, acted like every lesson inconvenienced him personally, and still somehow ended up at the top of the class along with her and Regulus. This only made him more unbearable to Avery.
"Right," Dorcas muttered, reaching into her bag for her timetable. "What torture did we have first—"
A deafening THUD suddenly echoed through the Great Hall. Several owls burst upward into the air in alarm as every head turned toward the entrance doors. Turning toward the source of the noise, Avery was met with the spectacular sight of Sirius Black sprawled across the stone floor near the entrance of the Great Hall, groaning dramatically while clutching his leg. Presumably, he had tripped over one of the benches by the doors. Marlene McKinnon stepped over him without a second glance and casually kicked the offending bench aside as she walked in.
