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Thrêę: Phoebe

I walk along the hall on the 3rd floor in the Hogwarts castle. My books from the last lesson— one of my favourites, Transfiguration—are clasped close to my chest. My best friends Cho, Marietta and Tamsin walk next to me and we chat as we usually do, making pointless jokes and teasing each other about whatever happened in the lesson.
I had made plans to meet Lainey at the window-seat opposite the library on the 7th floor during lunch, but Marietta says I shouldn't go.
I wonder why? Lainey is a Slytherin, everyone knows that, but it doesn't mean that I can't at least get to know her.
"It'll probably be some huge prank, Phoebs,"says Marietta cautiously. She seems genuinely worried for me so I have to be as gentle and reassuring as possible. Etty's that sweet friend we all have, the one who always watches our back, and she's against Slytherins.
"I dunno. Lainey doesn't seem like that sort of girl and anyway, I can look after myself. What could possibly happen?" The others still don't seem very happy.

"If all those weird Slytherin boys arrive instead, promise you'll change them into rats or something,"suggests Cho, thinking of our Transfiguration lesson.
"How will that make a difference, exactly?"I ask jokingly and we laugh together for a bit (causing a passing Professor Snape to twitch his nose at us).
We come to the staircases and I turn to my three best friends with some mustered seriousness.
"I'll be fine, guys. Seriously, just go to lunch without me." Marietta takes a deep breath and nods with the other two. The three of them walk off down the stairs towards the Great Hall, whispering to each other and shooting a few insecure backward glances at me.
"It's okay, Phoebe. It'll be fine, just like you said. It won't be a prank, Phoebe, just get that into your mind,"I whisper to myself, turning away from my friends and stepping slowly up the newly appeared staircase on my left.

I finally reach the 7th floor. My legs are aching and my chest is rising and falling quicker than normal but all is okay. Nothing is happening to me, yet, though it's a bit early to tell. Taking some care to look around as I walk, I turn a corner and see Lainey sitting (quite alone, so far) on the window seat with a book in her hands and her head bent down to read it.
"Lainey?"I say, moving towards her tentatively. She jumps up, throwing the book in her bag in a flash, and draws her wand at me.
"Phoebe,"she says, only just recognising me. "Sorry about that. I'm a bit...jumpy." She puts her wand in her robe pocket and sits down.
"Yeah, I can tell,"I reply, raising an eyebrow as I take a seat next to her. The book, hastily stuffed in Lainey's bag, is dark green and reads 'A Beginner's Guide to Advanced Potion Brewing'. "Isn't that a bit ironic?"
Lainey follows my gaze to her book. "Oh, this? It's just some light reading. You know, single pressurising pure-blood mother verses only child with no life?" I smile sadly.
"You have a life,"I say. "You just—"
"Prefer my own company. Yeah, I've heard that one before. What are your family like?"she asks. I can tell that Lainey is lowering her defences slightly, the guard that has been up for what seems like a lot of her life is taking a break.
"I have two sisters,"I reply. "They're younger than me, twins. Either I'm bossing them about or they're annoying me, but generally they're great."
Lainey nods thoughtfully. "You wanna here what happened earlier today with my friends?"
She blinks at me silently. "Friends?"

I tilt my head at her questioning voice. Lainey doesn't seem like the type to joke about, and her confused expression is clearly real. "Yeah, my friends: Cho, Marietta and Tamsin."
"Oh," says Lainey, glancing down at her lap. "Friends. I see." What does she mean?
"What other type of friends are there?"I ask her. I then regret it straight afterwards, realising that Lainey (as a Slytherin) probably doesn't have much experience with friendships.

Not expecting a reply, I start again: "Anyway, we were walking in the corridor and suddenly we turned the corner right into Professor Snape! He didn't seem to be in a good mood, when is he? So we..."
Lainey and I carried on talking. She was getting more comfortable with me, which was good because she seems like a very friendly person. I don't think I've ever seen a friendly Slytherin before. And in the end, we're both rolling around laughing, tears streaming down our cheeks.
"...and so Professor Lockhart was like 'I shall let the pixies run wild!' and the stupid man opened the cage and then ran for his office! And guess who had to clean up his mess?" I say.
"You!" chimes in Lainey. "Duh. This is Professor Lockhart we're talking about!"

So I walk away, Potions books clutched to my chest, satisfied. My friends were wrong and I was right. Lainey didn't prank me at all, though we did joke around a little, so I think we'll be friends.
In Potions, I crash down in the seat next to Tamsin.
"Well, you're not dead. That's a good sign," she says without looking up. Marietta leans over from her bench.
"Check yourself! What if she planted something?" She hisses. "Like a—"
"Miss Edgecombe, I suggest that you sit properly on your chair and listen to your instructions. Unless, of course, you want to have a broken neck?"says Professor Snape drily. God, I didn't even notice he was there! Marietta sits back silently, chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"Didn't think so," continues Snape. He puts his back to us to get the register, so I turn to Marietta.
"Don't worry, Etts. I trust Lainey. She'd never use a—"
"Detention, Miss Edgecombe, Saturday 7pm in my office. And if I have to repeat myself, it will be every Saturday until Christmas."

"Professor!" I interject. "It wasn't Marietta, it was—"
"You too, Miss Mason. Detention Saturday at 7." I scowl and put my chin on my hand as he carries on the lesson. Tamsin, who has been writing in her notepad, rips off the page and passes it to me...

Saw Lainey girl get detention with Snape too. Something's gonna happen.
I take out my pen and scribble a reply:
You could be right.

And for the rest of Potions, I do focus on the instructions but my mind is elsewhere. Tomorrow, I will meet Lainey again, and I am actually looking forward to it.

Maybe people misjudge Slytherins.