Tricky Business

Alli sat in one of the chairs by the unlit fire in the common room, holding a list in one hand. In the other hand, she held a quill and was checking names off as she went. She needed to make sure that she'd collected money from everyone who had placed an order. Check. Check. No check. She frowned. It looked as though she'd be hunting a few people down. She may have been small and young, but she could be very intimidating. She looked up when she heard someone come in, preparing to get her money if it was someone who owed her.

Emily ran back in, having forgotten her cloak for a walk in the grounds, and noticed a second year by the fire. "Oh, hi," she said, not thinking. Then she froze. I just voluntarily talked to a second year, she thought frantically. Someone who knows Aurora Greengrass! Someone who might be able to help me! "Hi," she said again, this time more strongly. "I'm Emily Jackson; who're you?"

Alli looked up from her parchment, but not for long. It was just some first year, nobody important obviously, since she had no idea who the girl was until she offered her name, which she neither asked for nor cared about. When she got it, she was treated to the knowledge that she'd already heard about the girl from Aurora.

"Oh, you," she said, rolling her eyes. "Look, I don't really have time for your nonsense, so I'm going to save us both a lot of time right now. You're wasting my time and yours. Aurora told me all about you, little first year who seems to think she's going to waltz in and make everything all flowers and rainbows. I've got news for you, it's not going to happen. You're stepping on a lot of toes little girl, so you'd better look out, because we won't tolerate it for very long. The only reason that you haven't been dealt with already is because you're a Slytherin. That excuse stops here. Stay away from us, or you won't like the result."

When she was done with her little speech, she went back to her parchment. She didn't even know why she bothered; this girl was a complete waste of her time and breath.

(Permission to God-Model granted by Aurora Greengrass)

Thomas walked into the Slytherin Common Rooms, he'd been looking at a Transfiguration Textbook, but hadn't understood what a good portion of it meant. He thought it would be best to leave it for now and get to doing something else. No use in re-reading something he might not understand for a while. He looked around and saw someone he was pretty sure was a First year, and the girl... Allison? He was pretty sure that was her name. She'd lost a necklace or amulet or something similar last year, and they'd thankfully found it. "Hello." He said to them both, before realising the other girl was Emily from the Empty Classroom meeting. Or was it Emma? He couldn't remember and didn't really care to. He didn't need to remember it any way. He stayed quiet and waited for either of them to say something else.

"Thomas," Alli nodded her head in greeting at the boy who had just come in. They had met the previous year and Alli found him to be adequate company; much better than she expected the first year girl would be. "Have a seat," she offered, waving her hand at one of the chairs.

She scanned her list again, just to be sure he wasn't on it, because if he was, there would be trouble soon. He wasn't, so everything was okay. "You haven't seen Aurora around by any chance, have you? I do believe that she's missing out on an opportunity here and I would hate for that to happen," Alli looked coldly at the first year girl. She might not want to stoop to that level to get the girl to go away, but Aurora would, if what she'd told Alli was any indication.

Emily could see that this really wasn't going anywhere on her part, and from her previous experiences with Aurora Greengrass, she didn't want to get under anyone else's skin as well as hers. "Uh, I can see that this isn't going to work; I'll go now."
As she walked out of the room, she muttered to herself, "Geez, I'm really starting to be afraid of Slytherin. No wonder that kid Drieco or whatever from before the Second War was such a creep."

Thomas let out a breath of relief once he was told to sit down. Call him paranoid, but he knew he was no-where near the perfect Slytherin, and he was always of the opinion that one of the better Slytherin's would get him. He knew he wasn't being the right Slytherin, but facts were, he didn't know how to be a good Slytherin. He shrugged his shoulders mentally, there wasn't much he could do. He sat down in a seat nearby Allison, looking at the other girl... Ellie? Emma? He knew the name started with an 'E' but not much else. "Sadly I haven't seen her around today much, no." He said. "Then again, she might just be in her dorm." He suggested.

He listened to Allison's speech, and vaguely remembered that she had been quite the talk of conversation there, mainly as a brat and someone who really shouldn't be in Slytherin. "Looks like you've stepped on a fair few toes." He said bluntly. He kept his face as unresponsive as he could, shrugging to himself as she walked off. If she was going to just quit, then she wasn't really going to be worth anyone's time. "So Allison." He said after the girl had left. "How have things been going?" He asked. Possibly a silly question, but it worked as something to break the ice, and to be diplomatic.

Checking over her list again, she spotted a few names that owed her money, one up to thirty galleons. "Not acceptable," she muttered to herself.

She paid no attention as the annoying girl left. Good riddance. Hopefully she'd leave Hogwarts for good. She looked up as Thomas spoke to her. She wasn't sure how to respond. She'd only met him once, and she'd been in the middle of a crisis at the time, so she hadn't yet gauged his worth completely.

Rather than answer his question, she fired back with her own. "There are three people drowning in a lake. One is a Ravenclaw who refused to do your homework, one is a Hufflepuff who ratted you out to a teacher, the last is a Gryffindor. Who do you save?" she cocked her head to the side and waited for him to answer.

Thomas saw Allison looking at a list, and wondered what it was for. He deemed it best to not ask though, because it might just start the downward spiral. He bit his lip slightly when she looked up at him, wondering what to say. He noticed she just stayed quiet for a while, and was wondering what she was thinking. Maybe about the time that she'd lost her necklace? It was possible.

He raised an eyebrow at the question, wondering why she had asked that question. Even as a person he'd feel resentment towards the Hufflepuff for ratting him out... The ravenclaw a little less, but he would still be pretty annoyed at them. "The... Gryffindor?" He asked, before thinking. Slytherin, so give a Slytherin answer. "Wait. None of them." He said, hoping he got the right answer.

After Thomas gave his first answer, Allison opened her mouth to tell him to go away, but he quickly corrected himself. He'd gotten to the right answer, but he had been about to save a Gryffindor, figuratively speaking. That was hardly an immediately forgivable offense. Still, he had gotten there...

"Lesson one, never save a Gryffindor," she said, looking back down at her paper. If he could be saved, she was going to try. "Lesson two, never second guess yourself. You are a Slytherin, therefore you are always correct. Got it?"

Thomas held his breath while he waited to see what Allison said, he wondered if his bad answer to begin with meant he was in for it. He had realised that his first answer was pretty off course in the end. None of them were Purebloods, none were Slytherins, well, maybe they were, but still not Slytherin, thus they weren't worth his time... Right? He hoped he had that part right at least.

He listened to what she said about lessons, he wondered why she was telling him all this, but shrugged it off, better that he know all this for in the future. He nodded to Allison. "Okay. Understood." He said, mentally writing it into his brain. He was always right, and you don't save a Gryffindor. Ever. He waited to see what Allison said next.

Okay. Understood.

The way that Thomas said it made him sound almost zombie-esque, as if he would do whatever she said. She immediately started to like him better. She set her list down completely and rested her self-inking quill on top of it so that she could fold her hands together.

"Thomas, has anyone ever spoken to you about being a Slytherin before?" she asked seriously.

Thomas forced himself to not bite his lip again. He didn't need to be worried, and he wouldn't be. If he could do that part, the rest of it should start to fall into place, right? He hoped it would. He blinked as she put down whatever she had in her hands, and Thomas wondered why she would decide on doing that... He supposed it was her choice though. He had to think about it for a moment, before nodding his head. "Alyssa Lastwick, she sort of tried, or rather she offered but we never actually did anything." He explained, hoping it was an adequate answer.

Allison paused between hearing his answer and replying to him. "Who?"

That should have told him all that he needed to know. If she didn't know who someone was, even someone from her own house, they weren't worth knowing. "Lesson three, don't waste too much of your time talking to idiots. A little bit is okay here and there, but only if you're going to humiliate them or something. Don't actually believe anything they say."

She picked up her list again. Perhaps Thomas could be of use to her, once she trained him up a bit. If she could teach him to be intimidating, she could send him to collect money instead of her. "Try to scare me," she said suddenly, wondering if he could.

Thomas wondered why Allison didn't know who she was, she had seemed to know everyone and anyone so far. His question was answered anyway though at the mention of not socialising with idiots, he guessed that meant even people in his own house could be pretty stupid. He nodded at Allison to show he understood, and tried to put that lesson in some place in his head, he needed to remember all this. "How do you figure out who the idiots are and aren't then though?" He asked, before she picked the list up again, and told him to try to scare her. "Scare you?" He asked sceptically.

He had to think for a moment. How could he? Firstly, she'd be expecting it, and secondly, he was pretty sure she knew he wasn't the best with intimidation. He thought to himself how he could resolve it. "One Second." He said, standing up and looking around the Common Room. He saw a Slytherin he'd met before, but made Thomas want to punch him, so that would probably work well. He just hoped Allison would actually be watching, otherwise it would be useless.

He walked over to him, and tapped him on the shoulder, smirking slightly when he whirled around. He took out his wand and pointed it straight at him. "I suggest you give me that watch of yours. Now." He said, glaring at the Slytherin, Stuart. Thomas supposed he didn't really need to remember the name. He grinned when he took off the shiny watch he had on his wrist and handed it over, and it was actually pretty funny, seeing as he didn't really know a spell to do much.

He wandered back over to where he had been sitting, tossing the watch to Allison before sitting back down. "That work for you?" He asked. "Wouldn't have been able to scare you, you would have expected it. Stuart on the other hand, didn't." He explained.

Alli watched in amusement and caught the watch when it was tossed to her. She shrugged and put it on, because, hey it was a free watch. She nodded in approval, then thought of one last thing that she needed to teach him if there was any hope for him at all; every other lesson was small and could be dealt with at another time, but this was something that could either make or break him.

She wordlessly got up and went to the chair that Tom was sitting on and perched herself on his lap. If he was going to be a true Slytherin, he was going to have to handle awkward situations all the time with the same demeanor that he would anything else. Still without saying a word to him about her final test, she took his face in her hands and kissed him without hesitation.

When she was nearly certain that she'd made him so uncomfortable that he probably wanted to go jump off a cliff, she got up and went back to her chair and stared at him, waiting to see how he would respond to such a shock.

Thomas couldn't help the fact that he was grinning slightly once he had sat back down on he chair, from her taking the watch and putting it on, he obviously couldn't have done that bad a job. He noticed her walk over to him and raised an eyebrow before blinking in shock, barely having a moment to react before being kissed. awkward... was his first thought, but he kep himself from doing anything until she had got up and sat back down where she was before. He blinked again from shock. "What the-" Then he noticed she seemed to just be staring right at him, as if observing him again. He tried to figure out what the whole idea of that was, while trying to bring himself out from his shocked state. "What was the thing to learn from that then?" he asked her, now fairly calm again.

Alli kept one eye on her new watch to see how long it took for him to speak. It didn't take too long, though she was a bit distracted by the time on the watch being obviously off (clearly that boy didn't deserve to have this watch in the first place, since he obviously couldn't tell time). When Thomas did speak, Alli responded not with an answer but with a few questions of her own. "What do you think you were meant to learn from that? What if there wasn't anything to learn? What if I just like to kiss random people?" she asked, once again looking at her new watch to see how long it took for him to come up with a decent answer to her questions.

Thomas listened to the questions, and had to pause to think for a moment... He knew there must have been some reason behind it, he just couldn't tell what... He resisted the urge to bite his lip, while trying to figure out what he was supposed to learn. "Well if you were to kiss random people, I'm pretty sure you would have done it many times before now and it would have gone around the gossip chain." He said, at least being able to answer one question.

"This means there has to be something to learn, seeing as you wouldn't do that and thus there would be a motive behind it." He added, having now answered two questions. It may not have been in the order they were asked, but at least he was answering them. "As for why... Is it something to do with coping in situations you don't expect?" He half said and half asked, uncertain as to whether it was right or not.

"What if the gossip chain just hasn't made it to you?" Alli continued asking questions. She was going to keep asking until she truly ran out of things to ask him. "Isn't it possible that you just haven't heard about it happening?"

As for his last answer, she merely raised an eyebrow at him, as if to say I don't know, you tell me.

Thomas shrugged. "Then it hasn't. But since before today I tended to liaise with the other houses, I'd likely find out." He said calmly, that made sense, he would have heard about something had something happened. "Which means I would have heard about it if it had happened." He added, trying to remember to never second-guess himself.

"That means that it would make sense for it to be so I can guess how to cope in unusual or uncomfortable situations." He said, trying to keep confident even though part of his head kept screaming at him to stop being so cocky. He could shut it off for now.

"Well what if I didn't kiss people in other houses? I mean, honestly, can you imagine me actually making that sort of contact with a Hufflepuff? Or worse, a Gryffindor?" Alli asked.

She admired the fight that Thomas was trying to put up. He was using logic to the best of his ability, but she wasn't going to relent on that aspect of questioning, even if he had answered the others adequately. It was quickly transforming from a lesson on how to deal with startling situations to a lesson on how to argue intelligently.

"That doesn't mean the other houses wouldn't have heard about it. Slytherin gossip tends to be the ones everyone's after, which is no surprise, and I'm hardly the only Slytherin who's talked to the other houses, which means they would still find out. Plus I'm on decent terms with others in our house too." He argued. Thomas was actually enjoying this a little, though he didn't know why. "For example, you could of kissed... Caden Callaghan." He started, using the guy he'd met at the Slytherin Meeting as an example. "He would probably tell Aurora afterwards, and that would start the loop until everyone in the Common Rooms knew, and that would happen pretty quickly." He added.

Alli shook her head. And the day had started out with such promise too. Such a shame. "Tom, do you know why Slytherin gossip is so coveted?" she didn't give him much of a chance to think about a possible answer, much less actually say anything before she continued. "It's because Slytherin business is Slytherin business. Things that happen between Slytherins stay between Slytherins. Gossip, problems, etc all stay in house. The only Slytherins who would say anything about it aren't ever privy to that knowledge in the first place."

It was lucky that she was around to teach him these things, otherwise he would be a complete failure at being a Slytherin.

Thomas ended up biting his lip without thinking about it... Well there went his window of opportunity, he supposed. Then again, she certainly didn't seem to just be dismissing him, which meant he might have a bit of a chance still... Right? He shook his head. Even if she did go to ignoring him, he could use what he learnt now to become a better Slytherin by himself. "Point Taken..." He said quietly. He should have thought about that, he was probably looking a right idiot to anyone who was listening as well as Allison herself... That couldn't bode well.

He started wondering whether asking for re-sort to Ravenclaw would be a viable option in the back of his head.