"Had a good summer vacation?"
Elodie looked at the little girl in front of her with a radiant smile. Gloria looked back at her with equal fondness. Elodie Sylvia Jones, a pure-blood from Ravenclaw, was an exceptionally gentle girl whose light blonde hair shone brightly in the sunlight, framing those pale green eyes that were Gloria's favorite.
Hearing her talk about the summer, Gloria inevitably thought of those two intertwined hands. Hesitating for a moment, she smiled at Elodie and quietly pushed that memory down.
"Mm, it was pretty good. I really should have invited you. Mum said the flowers in the garden bloomed again, thinking you might like them."
Upon hearing this, Elodie took Gloria's hand.
"Then let's make it this Christmas. I'll come stay at your place as a guest, and I can check in on your mother too."
"Speaking of which, I didn't even get a chance to say hello to Sirius. Reggie is starting school this year too; I expect he'll end up in Slytherin. I wonder if the two of them will even exchange a few words. Their relationship has gotten worse and worse these past few years."
Hearing Elodie mention Sirius, Gloria froze for a second, but then remembered: Elodie's mother had once been a Black. Strictly speaking, Elodie and Sirius shared a distant blood relation.
Time ticked away second by second, and the sky gradually darkened. Their second year was officially underway.
Holding hands, Gloria and Elodie walked toward the second-year carriages, of which there were many.
Gloria's gaze shifted to the front of the carriage, noticing the complete absence of any animals, which filled her with a trace of curiosity. Had they been draped in Demiguise feathers, perhaps? Or was it some kind of Disillusionment Charm? Still, she didn't dwell on it; she wasn't the type to get bogged down in excessive curiosity.
She parted ways with Elodie at the entrance of the Great Hall and headed toward the Slytherin table, finally spotting Beverly, who had been missing since they boarded the train.
"Gloria! Over here! I couldn't find you earlier, so I came straight to the hall and saved you a seat. I heard our favorite cheesy mashed potatoes are on the menu tonight."
Gloria smiled as she sat down, sensing footsteps pause behind her before moving away. When she turned back, she caught only a glimpse of Sirius's red-backed robes.
She never questioned where Beverly got her news; the girl always seemed to know things nobody else did, especially when it came to food. Because of this, Beverly was one of the very few Slytherins who could chat easily with Hufflepuff and maintain a genuinely good relationship with them.
The Sorting Ceremony had to take place before dinner, and Gloria immediately spotted a dark-haired young boy who looked just like Sirius. He had to be the Reggie that Elodie had mentioned.
Regulus Black.
"Slytherin!"
Perhaps because of Sirius's precedent, many pairs of eyes were fixed on the outcome of this Black's sorting. As the result was announced, some looked unsurprised, some relieved, while others wore expressions that fell into neither category—Sirius Black, for instance.
Gloria clearly saw the fleeting look of disappointment cross his face, even though it vanished in an instant, and even though he pretended not to care. Elodie's sigh had not been without reason; back when they were little, their relationship had clearly been quite good.
Why had things turned out this way? Was it truly just because of differing ideologies? What possible meaning could there be in such a wretched, paranoid, and unreasonable creed?
This world was not simply black and white; everyone's life ought to have meaning. What determined whether someone was noble or base should never be their birth, but rather their own choices or day-to-day efforts.
Yet some families stubbornly believed that blood surpassed everything.
Perhaps the gaze had lingered too long, or perhaps Sirius held a certain special awareness of Gloria, but their eyes met for a second time across the sea of people—a silent, unspoken understanding.
Two kindred souls stirred a tremor deep within one another, as if destined to leave a bold, indelible stroke upon each other's lives, refusing a life of mere mediocrity.
Sirius's lips curved into a smile, and losing interest in the rest of the sorting, he propped his chin on his hand, openly admiring the girl caught in his gaze. Gloria, however, turned her head away and stopped looking at him.
After dinner, the prefects led the first-year students to the common room for a briefing. Many students noticed the girl sitting on the couch in the common room; her flawless, pale white hair stood out sharply against the dimness of the Slytherin common room, though her striking beauty certainly played a part as well.
Gloria had finished her dinner early and returned to the common room to preview the next day's Potions material. Seeing the freshmen, she had no interest in listening to the prefect's lecture, and it was clear that the space was no longer suited for quiet studying. Gloria closed her book, stood up, and walked toward the dormitories.
...
The next morning, Gloria dragged a half-asleep Beverly through breakfast and settled down early in the Potions classroom. Next to them sat a group of whispering Gryffindors. Yes, unluckily, this class was shared between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Professor Slughorn had them brewing Swelling Solution, evidently deeming it simple enough that he saw no need to assign partners.
She sat beside Beverly, while Beverly sat directly in front of Snape. Gloria glanced toward the Gryffindor side; if the professor hadn't abolished partnerships, Snape would already be paired up with Lily Evans as usual. She remembered that both of them were quite good at Potions, though not everyone was gifted—Beverly being a prime example.
"Oh, gods, Lia, the professor didn't assign partners! Oh, Merlin, what am I going to do?"
Beside her, Beverly draped herself over Gloria, whimpering softly. Gloria smiled helplessly and tried to soothe her.
"Calm down, Bailey. It's just a standard Swelling Solution. It's not difficult; just follow my lead."
Hearing this, Beverly relaxed quite a bit. After all, Gloria was good at Potions and brimming with confidence—so much so that she hadn't even opened her textbook.
Gloria's words prompted Snape in front of them to cast a covert glance her way.
Yet Gloria paid it no mind, setting about brewing her potion with steady, methodical steps.
She scooped two measures of dried nettles from the glass jar in front of her into the mortar, selected three blowfish eyes from the container, added them to the mortar, and ground them into a medium-fine powder.
She placed two portions of the ground mixture into the cauldron, heated it over medium heat for twenty seconds, waved her wand, and continued heating for forty-five minutes. During this interval, she prepared for the next step.
Using her balance, she weighed out a bat's spleen on the table. First she weighed the empty glass jar, placed the bat's spleen inside, measured the combined weight of the jar and spleen, and finally subtracted the weight of the jar to find the net weight of the bat's liver.
Then she resumed brewing, dropped a piece of bat's spleen into the cauldron, stirred four times counter-clockwise, heated it over low heat for thirty seconds, and waved her wand to complete the potion. Brewing finished.
She had intentionally slowed down her pace during the process to wait for Beverly. Right as she waited for the final heating of the cauldron, amidst a shout from Sirius nearby—
"James, wait!"
—she sensitively caught a commotion coming from Snape's cauldron ahead, which looked as though it was about to explode. Gloria froze, but reacted instantly, drawing her wand to cast a Shield Charm over Beverly and herself.
However, she failed to notice a splash of potion flying toward her from the side. Just as Gloria tried to dodge, a hand grabbed her and pulled her aside. Before she could process what was happening, she crashed straight into someone's chest, her field of vision filled entirely with crimson robes.
Looking up, she gazed directly into Sirius's eyes. Gloria stared blankly at him for a few seconds before breaking away and pushing herself up from his embrace. No sooner was she on her feet than Beverly rushed over and grabbed her hand.
"Are you alright, Lia?" Beverly pulled her this way and that, checking her over from head to toe. Only after confirming she was unhurt did she let out a sigh of relief, cast a complicated look at Sirius standing behind her, and fell silent.
Only then did Gloria turn her attention to the farce unfolding around them. Fortunately, everyone had managed to dive out of the way in time, and no one was hurt. Snape glared venomously at James Potter, clearly having guessed who the culprit was.
In the end, Slughorn offered nothing more than a mild, toothless reprimand, and the matter seemed to blow over. Even so, the animosity between Potter, Black, and Snape was evidently growing worse by the day.