It had been thought that the selection of the prefect to replace Draco would sort out whether it was Blaise or Theo who became the new leader of the boys, but then Potter and Sinistra had gone and awarded the badge to Daphne!
The coup was then complete. Without Draco around, Pansy suddenly didn't have quite as much support as she had thought and the strike against her had left her in a precarious position. Last night the balance of power had shifted completely.
She had always known that Daphne could have seized the title of Queen Snake if she had wanted it, so Pansy had always sought to keep the girl sweet, making her second in command and keeping Draco away from her half-blood friend Tracey Davis.
With the prefects badge pinned to his front, Draco's arrogance had increased tenfold (and Pansy was prepared to admit that hers had as well) and he had gone after both Tracey and Daphne's younger sister Astoria on the Hogwarts Express with Pansy stupidly backing him up.
They had been caught and punished for their actions whilst the three girls were now getting noticed by Potter. While Pansy had elected to keep her head down and Draco had bigheadedly dug his hole deeper and deeper, Daphne and her friends had used the mealtimes that Potter sat at the Slytherin table to get into his good books.
The badge on front of Daphne's robes had been the straw that broke the camel's back. Pansy had been dethroned and Daphne had taken the crown for her own, leaving the former Serpent Queen feeling like nothing more than the court jester.
Now she was following along meekly in the shadow of Daphne, Tracey and Astoria. That she had a badge gave her some power still, but Pansy knew how things now stood. She answered to Daphne and Daphne alone could protect her. Over the years Pansy had made a lot of enemies, both within Slytherin and without. If she was going to survive she needed to stay in Daphne's good books because staying in Daphne's good books was the best way to stay in Potter's good books and she really needed to stay in Potter's good books.
So wrapped up in her thoughts was she that she completely failed to notice when the three girls in front of her stopped walking. This had the effect of causing her to walk into Daphne's back with an "Oof" escaping her.
She looked around and realised that they were standing in the Entrance Hall, just at the doors to the Great Hall.
"What's the hold up?" she asked as the smell of bacon and eggs wafted out of the hall and assaulted her nostrils.
Daphne turned and pushed Pansy and the other two away from the door.
"Something's wrong," she whispered once they were all pressed against the wall.
"What?" asked Pansy.
"Harry's eating at the Gryffindor Table." replied Astoria, as though this explained everything.
"And?" prompted Pansy, who completely failed to grasp the significance of that morsel of information.
"He's supposed to be sitting with us at the Slytherin Table this morning," said Tracey.
Pansy still didn't see the problem "So? Maybe he forgot."
"Did he also forget that he had a falling out with Granger and Weasley?" asked Daphne "Because he's in there right now, talking to them as if it's still last year."
"Ok, that does seem a little odd," agreed Pansy. The fact that Harry Potter had fallen out with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in a big way was well known throughout the school, though the reason for it was a mystery.
"Maybe they've just patched things up," she suggested "It has been a week."
"Yeah, maybe…" muttered Daphne.
Just then four Hufflepuffs exited the Great Hall.
At the same time Neville Longbottom stepped off the bottom step of the marble staircase and was just about to go into the Great Hall when Hannah Abbott grabbed him by the arm and hissed "You can't go in there Neville!"
He gave her a puzzled look, though one that was hampered somewhat by the blush that was flaring up on his cheeks.
"Why not?" he asked as three more Hufflepuffs and a trio of Gryffindor sixth years exited the Great Hall as well.
Daphne stepped forward and asked "What's going on?"
"Something bad," was all the answer that Hannah gave before leading the group of Hufflepuffs towards the marble staircase.
Neville and the three other Gryffindors followed behind and, after sharing a look between them, Daphne, Tracey and Astoria joined
Pansy hesitated for the briefest of moments and then hurried to catch up.
.....
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