Slytherin Bonding?

Alli went down to the common room feeling happy. She'd had a productive day of demeaning some goody-goody Hufflepuffs, but she thought it was about time that she relaxed a little. She saw a girl sitting in one of the comfortable chairs that she liked and figured it wouldn't hurt to go sit by her, especially since she'd never seen her before.

"Hello, I'm Allison Walker," she said, wondering if the girl had heard of her family before. If she was a pureblood, she should have. Everyone knew the Walkers. "Alli, for short."

Alli nodded, it was the girl that Jude had told her about, the one who went in the secret passage with him. "Ah yes, your parents come to our parties," she said knowingly. Now that she knew they had a daughter that was about her age, she was annoyed, since they had never brought Aurora to the house. It would have given her someone to talk to while all the adults did their own thing.

"Rory then," she winked, using the name that Jude had. Aurora was too much of a mouthful. "Sick of the Gryffindorks yet?"

"Poor you!" Alli sympathized completely. She'd actually tried to have a conversation with a Hufflepuff girl once, and a Gryffindor interrupted them. She'd been extremely rude. It wasn't surprising that she was the daughter of the Headmaster and the Herbology Professor.

She nodded in agreement. "Such a shame that those good looks go to waste," she said. She'd seen a few boys out and about that she thought were cute, but none of them were worth her time, so she hadn't even bothered. "Go on then, what happened? Tell me the story."

Alli listened intently. "Sounds to me like this Larson-Landon person is a little odd," she said. "Wait..."

She thought harder, she'd heard that name before. Landon... Landon the Gryffindor...

"Yes!" she exclaimed as she remembered what she'd heard. "I've got a bit of gossip for you, if you want to hear it," she said teasingly.

"Well obviously I can't be sure if it's true or not, but I heard it from a very reliable source," Alli said. "First, do you know who Natalie Olivier is?"

She wouldn't be surprised if Aurora didn't know the Hufflepuff girl, since Alli hadn't seen Aurora around a lot, which probably meant that she didn't get out much. Then again, the girl was quite weird and news of her had traveled far, even down to Slytherin territory.

Alli didn't move for a moment (she was in shock at the absurdity of Natalie Olivier being a snake), then, she burst into laughter. She could hardly stop to breathe.

When she was finally calm, she said, "No, she's a 'Puff."

She wiped a tear from her eye, still very amused. "Anyway, I heard that her and Landon went into the Forbidden Corridor together..." she started teasingly, not wanting to give everything away at once.

"And they found some sort of monster thing down there... And when they came back out... Oh never mind, you probably don't want to know," she pretended to become disinterested.

"You'll know her when you see her," Alli said, "She's a complete nutcase."

She was getting off-track talking about the peculiar Hufflepuff girl. "Anyway, they came out of the Forbidden Corridor, and I heard that your little Larson-Landon boy just sort of threw himself at her. He was so glad to be out of there that he actually kissed her! Can you think of anything worse than kissing a Hufflepuff? Or being kissed by a Gryffindor?" she asked in disgust, although she had to admit that the rumors about Landon and Natalie were interesting enough that she wanted to hear them.

Then, she started to laugh again. "It must have been a pathetic sight to see," she commented.

Alli was still in a fit of giggles. She didn't know what this Landon kid looked like, but she could still picture the whole scene. "Just imagine it. They're standing there, they think they've just escaped with their lives, and then he just sort of grabs her and plants one on her."

It was utterly ridiculous. "It's obvious that they're going to end up together. How sad for the both of them. I don't know who to feel sorrier for," she said. "Heard any good gossip you care to share?"

Alli found the idea of interesting things happening at Hogwarts to be laughable. "The most interesting thing I've seen happen all year has been two Ravenclaws fighting over a book," she snickered. It wasn't true, of course, she'd seen more interesting things, but it was truthful in essence. Hardly anything interesting happened.

"I suppose we'll just have to make something interesting happen, right?" she said with an evil grin.

Alli's mind was already spinning. She could tell that it was going to be worth it to keep Aurora around. She knew that the other Slytherin girl had met Jude, which meant that she was already liked by two-thirds of their little group, though she didn't know about the final third.

"Have you met Jasmine Delaware yet?" she asked curiously.

"I'd love to be there for that," Alli snickered. She hadn't actually met the girl yet, but she'd heard a lot about her. She thought it would be an interesting throw down to watch.

"You'll like Jasmine," she grinned. "She's just like us. Not sure where she's gotten off to, though..." she trailed off.

She remembered what Jude had told her about their little trip together. "How was exploring the secret passageway with Jude?" she asked, giggling a little, knowing that they hadn't liked what they had found at all.