On the morning of her 11th birthday, Nadia Zabini’s usual birthday breakfast in bed was interrupted by the appearance of an old woman dressed in some peculiar (and quite frankly unflattering) green robes. While at first she’d assumed her parents had hired some sort of travelling theater for her party later that day, she soon learned that this woman was a professor from a school for magic. Witches and wizards were real and Nadia was one of them. Of course, Nadia had always known she was special–her parents made sure of that, but when the professor announced she was a real, true witch, with magic powers and everything, even she was surprised. But like most things, Nadia took it in stride, because of course if someone in the neighborhood were going to be extraordinary, it was going to be her. And so she hopped out of bed, put on her best dress and went along with this Professor to Diagon Alley, imagining just how glamorous and brilliant a life with magic would be.
That was seven years ago, and if Nadia were being honest, the Wizarding World was a bit of a disappointment. Magic itself was brilliant, but the people and society left a lot to be desired. When she’d read up on the houses, she’d known immediately where she’d be placed–there was nowhere for her but Slytherin. She loved being the best, and the Sorting Hat–a ratty old thing that really ought to be refurbished because really, she’d almost refused to put it on her head on sheer principle–had barely needed a second before it put her in the house of the ambitious and cunning. And that was where the problem began. Apparently, being a “muggleborn” as Nadia was, was really code for ’outsider’–and for someone like Nadia, very much used to being an insider, it was a hard pill to swallow. The same kind of girls who she was sure she’d have been best friends with under other circumstances shunned her, and actually had the audacity to look down on her–as if she were the strange one for not wanting to use a writing instrument that came straight out of the 1800s. Honestly.
So Nadia had to branch out, seeking students from the other houses; made more difficult by the apparent stigma being a Slytherin carried, much to her annoyance. But eventually it had worked itself out–one of the Ravenclaw girls in her year, a girl Nadia had originally seen as a rival (girls who were both as pretty and as smart as her couldn’t be trusted, as a rule) weirdly became Nadia’s best friend. Melody taught Nadia to be kind, softer in ways she never would have been otherwise, though Nadia would never really shed the judgmental, somewhat cold persona she’d had since she was a young girl. She was still a Slytherin, after all, she mused to herself as she sat down across from Melody, ready to embark on their final train ride to Hogwarts.
“You know, if anyone but you had gotten Head Girl over me, I’d probably kill them in their sleep. You’re lucky I like you, Shacklebolt.”
