Salazar's Angel

VI

"Maybe I shouldn't have hit him..." Dahlia muses to herself as she storms back to the main hallway Draco originally yanked her from, only to now realize she has no means of finding her way around this huge castle.

She continues on anyways, marching indignantly in the direction the group of Slytherins were headed earlier. Eventually the hallway forks. To the right is a set of well lit stairs leading up and to the left a dark set of stairs leading down.

"What would a Slytherin do..." Dahlia whispers out loud, thinking hard.

She heads left. As she descends the stair case she feels a chill wash over. Yes, this was the right choice. It gets darker and colder the farther down the stair case takes her. Soon it turns into a straight up and down spiral staircase.

Finally the stair case ends and spits her out on a winding path. There are off shoots but she chooses to follow what appears the main path as it appears to be the only one with any light at all, minimal as it may be.

Eventually the path dead ends in a plain, albeit damp, stone wall.

"UGH!" Dahlia grunts and pounds the wall with her fist. She considers grabbing her wand out of where she stuck it into the waist band of her skirt but she knows if the wall is charmed it will do no good.

"Password...there has to be a password," She reasons to herself. She knows beyond this wall is the Slytherin common room, she can just feel it. Almost like it's calling to her...

A searing pain over the mark on her arm pulls her out of her own head. It feels like her whole arm is on fire, the heat radiating out over her whole body despite the damp, chilly air surrounding her.

Suddenly it's obvious to her she already knows an entire plethora of words that could function as potential passphrases. One in particular stands out to her in her head.

"Mud blood," Dahlia says firmly at the wall. Before her eyes it seems to almost sparkle and waver, becoming nearly translucent.

She kicks one leg through it and, when it passes through with ease, she follows through with the rest of her body. Suddenly she is no longer in the hallway, but in a vast open room filled to the brim with Slytherins.

Everything is themed black and green. It is far from quiet. It is fairly dark and still pleasantly cold. Dahlia is immediately at ease, and even more so as she scans the room for brilliantly blond hair and comes up empty. She does, however, spot Pansy talking with some other girls who are all draped over a cluster of green velvet upholstered furniture.

"Dahlia! Where did you go?" Pansy asks Dahlia as she spots her walking over.

"I had some things to take care of...transfer things. No big deal." Dahlia attempts to shrug it off.

Mercifully this answer sates Pansy's curiosity and she nods. "This is Millicent and Tracey." She gestures to the two girls sitting with her, who in turn wave and smile.

"You didn't happen to run into Draco, did you? Draco Malfoy I mean." Millicent asks her.

"I know who Malfoy is, and thankfully no I did not. Why do you ask?" Dahlia responds casually.

Pansy laughs. "No reason. It's just odd that he's not around."

At that moment she catches a flash of the aforementioned shock of white hair out of the corner of her eye. Several heads turn as Draco steps into the room, though the conversation doesn't halt.

"Speak of the devil..." Tracey laughs under her breath as people return their focus to their friends.

Dahlia, though, watches as Draco forges through the masses of people. He doesn't pass close enough to their group to say anything, but this does not stop him from sending a poisonous glare in Dahlia's direction before heading up a short set of stairs at the back of the room. Dahlia then turns her attention back to their little group, only to find all three of the other girls staring at her quizzically.

"Oh darling, you are in trouble..." Pansy drawls.