Chapter Text
The noise of King’s Cross Station made it hard to keep track of everything else around her but she had been through this process several times before. Claudia - Dia, for short - Weasley was starting her fourth year at Hogwarts. Unlike her brothers before her and after, she hadn’t been sorted into Gryffindor like it seemed to be typical for their family. She was smack dab in the middle of the pack as a Slytherin. It had led to things being a little tense with her mother even if she knew her family still loved her.
The twins liked to poke fun at her and Ron - her youngest brother that was just starting at Hogwarts - often made faces when it was mentioned that she was in Slytherin. Even her eldest brothers, Bill and Charlie, made light fun of the fact that she was in a different house to everyone else in their family. The only one of her siblings that didn’t seem to have something to say on the matter was Percy. It was probably one of the reasons they were so close compared to them and their siblings; not that they didn’t love them. He never gave her shit for being a Slytherin. Never really mentioned it unless they were comparing houses for the cup or something.
She shook away her thoughts and focused on where their mother was telling Percy to run through the platform first. A small, black haired boy caught her attention watching them and she jerked her head towards the family as an indication for him to come closer. It was clear he was new to this, probably a muggleborn. He gave her a faint smile as he joined them.
“My mum’ll take care of you,” Dia said before she was pushing her cart forward to cut off the twins. They were once more ribbing their mother for not knowing how to tell them apart.
There was an admonishment from her mother as she went through the brick wall that she completely ignored. The platform was full of students and parents that she weaved through. Percy appeared at her side to help her get her stuff on the train before he went off to find his friends instead. She found an empty compartment and opened the window to spy her family down below. It was normal for her to not be among them. Both her and Percy found it easier to avoid the judgements of their mother by simply not being around to hear them.
The twins gave her a wave from down below before they, too, were running off from their mother and Ginny. No doubt they would come pester her at some point during the train ride. It was usually just her in a compartment. No one truly wanted to be friends with a Slytherin and no one in her own house wanted to be friends with a Weasley, so it left her alone more often than not. Not that it bothered her. She was more focused on her studies than anything else, anyway.
Like she suspected, George and Fred barged into the compartment three hours into the trip to pester her about the sandwiches their mother made them all. Apparently they had gotten switched around. The twins’ favorites were ham and turkey, Ron’s was chicken, Percy liked plain cheese for some reason, and her own was corned beef. It wasn’t unusual for things to get switched around when there were eight of them even if Bill and Charlie had already moved out. She had no issues handing over the turkey sandwiches. Fred had already traded Percy for the ham which meant that George had Ron's chicken. All she did was tell him to find their little brother and make the switch. They could keep the corned beef for all she cared, train rides always made her a little queasy.
There was a brief moment of George going to ask something before he thought better of it and took off after Fred. Dia went back to watching the landscape pass by. Normally she would be going over her textbooks but she had already read all of them, more than once because they were the same ones Percy had last year. The only difference had truly been her extra Potions and Divination classes. She was bored but it wasn’t that much longer.
Once more the twins were pestering her on the Thestral drawn carriages. She was far too used to their messing to be bothered by it but it was clear the others in the carriage with them hated it. Not everyone could handle the twins. They had a lot of personality and got into more trouble than any of them before. Even Charlie hadn’t gotten into nearly as much trouble. It led to them being on their mother’s bad side more often than not but they didn’t seem to care. At least they were having fun.
Dia sat at the Slytherin table next to where the first years sat every beginning feast. It had been her place since she was a firstie herself. The younger kids mostly ignored her as they took their places but a scrawny white haired boy stared from directly next to her. Gray-blue eyes narrowed when she turned to face him. Clearly this kid had a problem with something.
“You’re a Weasley.” It wasn’t a question but she raised an eyebrow at him anyway. “What’s one of you blood traitors doing as a Slytherin?”
“Maybe because that’s where the dusty old hat put me,” she said, reaching out to pick up her cup of pumpkin juice. “Let me guess, you’re Lucius Malfoy’s son. What with the white hair, gray eyes, and bad attitude.”
“How dare you-” The boy’s face twisted up into a nasty sneer. “I’m Draco Malfoy and my father does not have a bad attitude.”
“Did you get it from your mother then?”
The flickering rage in the boy’s eyes had her wondering where that part came from in his family. Probably Malfoy Senior. She gave him an uninterested once over before going back to her dinner. Most first years tended to ignore her but she had a feeling this little pest would be giving her grief for a while. Wait until he learned that she was the top student in Slytherin. That always ticked off the ones that had problems with her status as a Weasley.
Leaving behind the prefects to deal with the firsties, Dia made her way down to the dungeons for their common room. Someone tried to trip her but she simply jumped over the attempt without a glance at who had done it. The stone wall that led into the common room had already been opened and she slipped through the shifting stones into the green tinged room. It was always so dark in there. She barely cast a glance around before making her way up to the dormitory she’d shared with three other girls since first year. None of them particularly liked her.
The dark wood bed frames were still the same as were the white sheets and dark green blankets. Her trunk sat at the end of her bed like was usual. She changed out of her robes into pajamas before using the bathroom and crawling into bed. Normally when classes started she would be one of the last one’s awake doing her homework - including her extra classes - but at the start of term she was always the first asleep.
Morning came with her out of bed before the sun was rising and taking a quick shower in the shared bathroom. Her red hair was twisted into two braids before she was leaving with her first couple classes worth of books to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was too early for classes to start but ever since first year she woke up early. She was the only student in the Great Hall but Professor Flitwick gave her a bright greeting as he was leaving. The staff of Hogwarts already knew of her early morning tendencies. Once she had finished her bowl of cereal she was leaving for the Potions classroom - long before anyone else had even entered.
“Morning, Professor!” Dia dropped her books on a desk and made her way over to where Professor Snape was setting out something on his desk.
“And here I had hoped to not be bothered by your presence this year,” Snape drawled, not looking up from the textbooks and parchment. “You're five minutes late.”
“Got stopped by Mrs. Norris,” she said while peering down at his personal notes. Her first class was actually potions this year but every year before she spent an hour before classes started in this classroom. “She’s not gotten any nicer.”
“Yes, she’s rather…unnecessary.”
“So,” Dia wandered away to check on some of the potion ingredients on their shelves, “what’re we starting with this year? Potions is my first class.”
“Lovely.” The sarcastic reply had her grinning. Snape could be downright foul and nasty but he was her favorite professor. Or maybe it was because her passion was potions. “No doubt you have already read the book assigned to fourth years, I have no such faith in your fellow peers to have done the same.” She looked over her shoulder to find the darkly dressed man flipping through a textbook. “I don’t trust their memory so a simple refresher is required for this year.”
That seemed fair to her. She was constantly working on potions over the summer and reading Bill and Charlie’s old textbooks to push herself further. Not everyone shared the same passion for the subject. “I tried making Amortentia over the summer,” she said conversationally. Her fingers skimmed over the glass bottles.
“You should not have had access to the ingredients needed for that outside of this classroom.”
“I might have nicked a few before summer,” she admitted.
“Mm.” There was nothing telling about the low hum. “Well? How far did you make it before it inevitably blew up in your face?”
“I dunno, actually.” Dia left the shelves to come back to her professor’s desk. “The color looked right and everything but I didn’t smell anything. I think I might have missed a step in the middle.”
“You won’t be making the potion again until your sixth year,” Snape said, leaving no room for argument. “And if I catch you stealing from my stores this year you’ll be in detention until you graduate.” The threat might have been an exaggeration but sometimes it was hard to tell with him.
“You got it.”
Other than Potions, Divination was her favorite class. There had always been something fascinating about meddling in the unseen and possibly having a way to predict the future. Professor Snape always told her it was a waste of talent and time when she brought it up but Trelawney was actually a rather good teacher. Dia didn’t really think she had the talents of a seer but she found some parts of the classes easier than others. Everyone else in her house that took the same class as her seemed to hate it, though. She didn’t understand why they were taking it if they hated it that much but she never asked.
Quidditch was another thing she took great interest in. She had been on the team since her second year as a beater when the last one graduated. During practice was about the only time anyone else in her house spoke to her. It was obvious that the only reason she was still on the team was because of how good she was as a beater. A factor helped by the twins being around to help her practice over the summer. They tended to bounce off each other to further their skills.
The first game of the season came with a plan made to put pressure on Gryffindor’s new seeker. Dia spent a lot of the time fighting the twins in their effort to protect the little first year on their team. It mattered little as she stopped going after him the moment she noticed something up with his broom. She circled in the air above the kid to make sure the other beater on her team didn’t try to do something while the twins did the same below. There was little they could do to help. Not unless the seeker finally fell and the three of them could try to grab him before he hit the ground. He ended up getting back on his broom and shooting towards the ground on his own. Where he coughed up the snitch and brought the game to an end.
That was a rather eventful first game of the season. Even if Flint and the others on the team got on her case for not playing the game and instead helping the ‘enemy’. She rolled her eyes and ignored them. Making sure a kid wasn’t about to die was worth more than scoring a few more points. It left her with the ire of their entire house. Clearly the blame was easiest to put on her for them losing instead of their seeker not catching the snitch.
Christmas break was mostly spent with Percy but occasionally the twins had dragged her out for snowball fights. The green sweater from her mother had her less than thrilled but she appreciated the sentiment. Pink was her favorite color but that seemed a little too hard to remember. Those still around in her house made fun of the sweater like every year before and she had grown used to ignoring them. She ended up helping Snape brew some potions for the infirmary when she got irritated with the comments.
Classes started back up and she found herself alone once more as Percy had to spend more time studying for his OWLs than spending time with her. It didn’t really bother her. She picked up her divination to keep her occupied when she wasn’t allowed to help Snape in his classroom. The other girls in the dorm kicked her out when it started to get late and she had yet to lay down for sleep. In the common room she found little Malfoy sitting at a table with a couple other first year boys clearly still doing homework. She ignored them as she sat on one of the couches in front of a low, round table by the fireplace. Her tarot cards were spread out in a way that Trelawney had shown in class last week.
“Hey, you!” Malfoy’s call a few minutes later had her looking up from the spelling of doom in the cards. All three boys were staring at her. “Come tell me how to do this.” The demand only had her raising an eyebrow. “You’re an older student, isn’t it your job to help with this stuff?”
“It’s not,” Dia replied while restacking the cards. “I’m not obligated to do anything for any of you firsties.”
“I thought all you Weasels were the helpful type.”
“Call us that again and I’ll hex you six ways to Sunday.” Her wand sat on the table next to her old deck of cards. “And don’t think running to Snape is going to do anything.”
The frustrated silence finally had her looking over at the boys again. They had gone back to their work. For a long moment she simply watched. It was clear they were all struggling with something that had her sighing and getting to her feet. A single glance at the Transfiguration textbooks made it clear what they were having trouble with. Something she had noticed with a lot of other first years.
“You’re pronouncing it wrong,” she said. All three boys startled and glared at her. “It’s an ‘o’ sound not ‘a’.” She pointed out the accent under the lettering that was usually used to help first and second years get the hang of pronunciations. “Did you not pay attention in class?”
“Oh, so now you want to help just to tell us we’re wrong,” Malfoy snapped. The boy glowered at her but she only met it with a blank look. “I was saying it right.”
“Sure you were.” Dia glanced at the two rounder boys before taking a look at their short essays. “Structuring your essays correctly would make it easier to write them. Doing it wrong takes up too much space and time.”
“Do you have anything helpful?” It was clear Malfoy was the ringleader of the trio with how he was speaking. “Or are you just going to point out what I’m doing wrong?”
“You asked for my help,” she said. She grabbed a spare sheet of parchment and quill from one of the boys. “Alright, for an essay you usually have your opening,” she marked out a general structure for how she planned her essays, “a few sentences to introduce the subject. Next is the body. Where most of your information is going to go. Depending on the subject and length, the body can be more than one paragraph.” The boys were silent as they watched and listened. “The last part is gonna be your conclusions, restating the important facts and closing the essay.”
The parchment was put in the center of the boys so they all had access to it. Then she walked away. If they couldn’t figure themselves out from there then that was their problem. She was going back to her tarot readings and trying to get clarity on what this impending doom was about.
It almost irritated her when Malfoy decided she was his tutor every time he needed help with something. She was more used to everyone ignoring her that having a little first year hounding her about subjects she already knew tended to get on her nerves. But he never seemed to take a hint. The only time she didn’t pick a bone with him about bugging her was when he needed potions help. This was how she imagined being in the same house as her little brothers would be, being constantly bothered to help them with one thing or another.
When the end of the year was starting to close in, Dia spent more time studying for her exams than doing anything else. It was how it took her a week to learn that Ron had gotten into something alongside his little friends. She made sure to check on him specifically before going back to her studying. He was fine. No one was seriously injured or dead so she had no guilt in continuing her own work instead of worrying.
It was almost ridiculously easy to pass her exams, like it was every year before. Things would undoubtedly become harder with OWLs next year but she doubted she would have any serious trouble. As the very last days of the year came along she helped Snape clean his classroom and tried to nick a few ingredients like she had the year before. Only to get a very nasty slap of a wand on her knuckles when she tried. There was a threat of detention for next year that had her holding up her hands to show them empty. Of course, she had already hidden several loose items in her robe pockets. She wasn’t leaving without what she wanted.
She found it to be total rubbish that Dumbledore gifted last minute points to Gryffindor when the House Cup had already been Slytherin’s. It was something the twins shoved in her face on the train ride home from Hogwarts. They shook their red and gold scarves at her until she finally kicked them both out of her compartment for being annoying. Fred pressed his face to the glass to make a stupid face that had her pulling down the blind to cover it. There had been a small tap on the glass that had her partially lifting the white blind to find George giving her bright grin.
“What?” Dia opened the door to listen to what her brother had to say.
“We’ll beat you at Quidditch next year,” George said, confidence filling his voice. “It’s rubbish luck what happened this year.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she said, already knowing that Gryffindor had no hope of beating Slytherin. “You and Fred can’t even control a bludger like I can.” Granted, they were still learning but the fact remained true.
“Then we’ll just beat you over the summer.” The sheer finality in George’s voice had her raising an eyebrow.
“Please,” she started to close the door in his face, “I can win even with uneven odds.”
The grin on George’s face didn’t leave even after she shut the door. She gave him a shooing motion before pulling the blind back down and sitting by the window. In all honesty, the twins would probably win for the simple fact that no one else in their family would play Quidditch with them. Their mother said Ron and Ginny were too young, Percy wasn’t interested, and their other brothers didn’t visit all that often. It didn’t bother her too much. She would probably be spending most of her time reading Percy’s fifth year books and practicing her potions and tarot.