Sun Tzu Says

II

AN: Sorry for the late update. I wanted to update earlier, but the chapter wasn't turning out how I wanted it to, so I decided to revamp it a bit. Also, I finally took a break from my hectic lifestyle and treated myself to a lazy 2-week-long trip to Kashmir, so :)

Also, there was a bit of confusion surrounding Daphne's eye colour- I decided that it would be blue. My previous description of her having green eyes is null.

Lastly, since I was feeling a bit burnt out trying to write a lot per day and getting out with nothing, I decided to increase my update schedule to 2 updates every 3 weeks or one update every 1.5 weeks. (Hopefully?)

Since this is the fifth chapter, as I promised, this will be the last one for like a month or so, because I will be going to update my other work.

Now, here you go. Happy reading!

Time: Next Day

"Oof!"

Having finished her breakfast early, Rose wanted to go and organize her notes before her first class, but it seemed like her haste had been her undoing. With her satchel in one hand and her new Hogwarts schedule in the other, she had run headfirst into someone, and now, the world had gone black, and her face was enveloped in a pleasant warmth.

She just desperately hoped that she hadn't run into a Slytherin.

"Watch where you're going, you inbred Gryffindor-"

The Girl who Lived felt her heart drop to her stomach like she had just swallowed a stone, feeling a bit nervous as she extracted herself from the ample bosom she had accidentally found buried herself in first thing in the morning, the sharp scathing words cutting thickly through the silence of the early morning and making her feel frightened out of her wits, her messy raven black hair standing on end and her muscles tensing in anticipation for a hex that would never come.

She was already on edge as it was- the fame she came bundled with was a double-edged sword that bit deeply into her soft skin, and she knew only painfully well that there were a hundred or more wands in the Hogwarts Castle itself that bayed hungrily for her blood. The stories that the Weasley twins had recounted to her the previous night about evil, slimy Slytherins and all the cursing behind the back- not to say anything about the nightmares that plagued her dreams- had made her feel even more jittery- to the point that she had almost forgotten the fact that Harry was a Slytherin himself.

Leave it to her to bump into one of the snakes during her first day at Hogwarts and cause a scene at breakfast.

All around them, the students were caught up in having a hearty, greasy breakfast with sausages and bacon piled halfway to the ceiling- which reflected the bright, cloudless azure sky outside- now that they were back at Hogwarts and there wasn't anyone to boss over them and decide what they could or couldn't eat. Throughout her breakfast, Rose could see a few gluttons eating the leftovers of the chocolate cake from last night for breakfast, and healthy foods were few and far between, like an oasis among the greasy desert of the Hogwarts breakfast.

The general mood of the student populace was laziness, like they were still shaking off the cloying fingers of a hangover from the Year's beginning feast the previous night, and it reflected in the droopy eyes and the lazy scraping of cutlery against the gilded plates. The sweet cool air of the English morning filtered in through the tall windows, thrown open to let the invigorating vibes in, a silent cure for the reluctance to get back to academics.

The High table wasn't bereft of that either, the tiredness of the Professors clearly visible for everyone to see. Professors Potter and McGonagall seemed to be the only ones up and about without the wisps of sleep clinging to them, their gleaming eyes bright and alert as they chatted with each other over mugs of steaming coffee and glanced over the Daily Prophet.