Except she apparently notices them!

Or, well, mostly notices Anathema.

She turns away from Sophie, earning a frustrated huff, and says, angrily, "You two are the ones who started that mess, aren't you?"

Ellie steps between her and Anathema.

"No."

She scowls. It'd probably be vaguely menacing, if her face didn't still have a lot of baby fat and if it wasn't scrunched up kinda like a wailing toddler.

"Professor Snape isn't a Death Eater," she says, stomping her foot. "He's not. You should take that back!"

Ellie's angry face is a lot more menacing. Turns out a month isn't a lot of time to put fat on.

"Why don't you go tell that to Professor Dumbledore instead of throwing a tantrum in the middle of the hallway. Some of us would like the opportunity to eat breakfast this morning."

Now her face is going to blotchy! "You can't just make stuff up, no one would've told you that 'cause it's not true." To Anathema: "You said a Slytherin told you, right? Well why won't you say who?"

"'Cause it's no one's business, and I don't want them in trouble!" Anathema snaps back, shuffling a bit.

"It is if people are lying! And almost no Slytherins followed that maniac in the first place, so there's no way Professor Snape did!" the girl almost shouts. "And now everyone's saying we're all bad too!"

"Oh, shut up, Parkinson," a girl says - another Slytherin their age, pushing through the slowly accumulating crowd.

The girl - Parkinson - spins to her. "Shut up? You've heard what they're saying about Professor Snape!" she snaps. "Not that I'd suspect someone like you to care, Malfoy."

Malfoy hums, getting into an open space and stopping. She doesn't look very angry, or concerned. More vaguely disdainful. "Someone like me? Really? That's the best you can do?"

Parkinson huffs. "Your dad's a murderer," she says, sharply. "You're the sort of bad apple everyone's always complaining about!"

Malfoy smirks a bit. "No one'd ever think you'd be a Death Eater, Parkinson, if that's your worry." Parkinson's eyes narrow as Malfoy tilts her head, then - "We all know you'd be licking their boots."

That gets her an exceptionally enraged noise out of Parkinson. "My family's loyal to the Ministry," Parkinson shouts, "Not like you traitors."

"And Snape's one of those traitors," Malfoy says, sounding bored. "I could hear you shouting about it two halls away. You think he's nice to you, and he never stops you picking on the mudbloods, so clearly he can't really be a Death Eater." She rolls her eyes. "I'm the one who told Anathema, if you must know."

There's murmurs, from the crowd, and Parkinson seems shocked.

Malfoy shrugs, continuing. "Daddy dearest nearly got exonerated, you know. His money's good, even if his morals aren't worth shit. But poor him, his wife decided to testify..." She makes a dismissive gesture. "Got him shipped off to Azkaban, and a lot of his buddies, too. Pity it didn't work with all of them, but Blacks have a long memory - and mom made sure I know who's a rat and who isn't. And Snape? Well... You've heard it. Maybe you should ask him to show you his forearm sometime, hm?"

Parkinson makes a distressed noise. She seems to have folded in on herself. Malfoy just regards her, gaze cold, before continuing, "Now get out of everyone's way. I want to actually eat before today's demonstration." She starts forward - and Parkinson steps aside, clearing the path.

Malfoy, though, glances over her shoulder at Ellie and Anathema before walking all the way. "Well?" she asks. "Let's go get breakfast."

...Huh. All right.

Anathema follows, at a loss of what else to do.

At least they get away from everyone else pretty quickly.

And - "Uh. Why did you say you'd told me - ?"

"I really can't stand Parkinson. Or Snape." She shrugs. "And the social reputation I'm starting with is - well, my mom ratted her husband the Death Eater out to the Ministry. She clearly was in their circles, even if she didn't get the Mark. Her sister's in the deepest level of Azkaban right alongside her cousin, her other sister's a blood traitor..." Dismissive gesture. "So, change the narrative. And your nonexistent source was the easiest lever I could've asked for, especially since it's not like mom can get in trouble for telling me - there's no law against gossiping about the trials, just a rule Ministry officials are sworn to secrecy."

That just makes all this a different kind of confusing.

"...Uh huh."

She smiles, slowly and a bit lazily. "I'm Serpens Malfoy, by the way."

"Ellie Potter."

"Anathema Canta."

Her smile's maybe a bit more genuine. "It's my pleasure." They turn a corner, revealing the open doors of the Great Hall. "Well, I'll be seeing you two around."

"Are you going to sign the complaint?"

"Of course. Just let me know when and what to sign. I'll talk to some of the other Slytherins with complains about Snape, too."

Ellie gives her the name of the Hufflepuff boy who's collating things.

"I'll be in touch."

And she's off, over to the Slytherin table.

"That was convenient."

"Yeah."

"She's - weird."

"I don't trust her."

She bites her lip. "Me either."

"We'll see if she actually signs." But for now, breakfast.

Breakfast!

The gossip at least seems mostly focused on the demonstration today, for now - though the complaint against Snape is creeping in on the edges a good bit.

Still, they can eat quickly and then head to the demonstration hall - apparently a large sort of arena down in the dungeons, which usually just gets used by the Drama classes for some plays, with stepped levels of seats going down to an oval platform in the center so everyone has a good view. They're early - lots of people aren't here yet, including the professors - and the place is big enough to hold about twice Hogwarts' current student population comfortably. Still, that means they can get good seats and have time to read before things really begin.

Ugh, dungeons again. Hopefully today will be better than yesterday.