Rita went to her room with her head swirling with the conversation she had just had with her prefect. Lucius was telling her to be the snake. Snakes adapted to their environment and then ruled their roost. A cobra didn't run from a rattlesnake. She was not going to run from Bellatrix and Bobbi.

Was she not the terror of Jupiter Hollow? Did she not give old Mr. Brooks a heart attack last year with the story about his wife cheating on him with his barber? Did she not have the best tantrum this side of the Thames? Then why was she running and hiding from a pack of girls. Did she not give Calamity as good as she got? “I'm Margarita Skeeter for Merlin's sake.” she shouted as she pushed open the door to her room.

So what she didn't have a bulging vault like the rest of them. If they thought that was going to be a weakness for her then they were going to get a rude awakening.

She had been put into Slytherin for a reason and she wasn't about to let some jumped up wisp of a girl like Bellatrix or Bobbi push her around. Who did they think they were?! The tears stung her eyes and drew in the breath to start a proper tantrum. They had pushed her over the edge.

She punched a pillow and screamed.Not just an ordinary scream. No Rita was better than that. This scream was a decibel that caused seizures in squirrels and rabbits alike. It caused the baby mandrakes that were nursing in the Herbology shed to applaud her efforts. In years to come the legend of her scream would be handed down from shed to shed in whispered awes. She threw things as she screamed. She punched pillows as she kicked over her trunk. Before long she was dizzy and all dried out. She looked like a q-tip that got in a fight with a werewolf and lost.

Rita plopped down on her bed to catch her breath. She always felt good after a good tantrum. It was like a soul cleansing. It helped her to release all the pent up anger and hurt feelings. With her hands propped up behind her head she lounged back onto her bed with a clear head. She was never going to have the money that the rest of them had, not he connections, but that didn't mean that she couldn't have that. But she needed to figure out how to get more gold. Her parents certainly didn't have it. So she would have to get it herself.

She sat up on her bed, “I can write.” she said aloud. That's how she would build up her vault. She nodded at the thought as she looked around the room. It was a bit of a disaster zone. Her belongings were scattered everywhere and she didn't want anyone to know she had thrown a tantrum.

Before she went to bed she snatched open one of Bobbi's Witch Weeklys and poured over the pictures of models with their hair and make up. She wasn't up to the make up part yet, but she could work the hairdos. She couldn't pull off the ringlets, but she always looked good with bone straight hair. She nodded, and she settled on a style she thought she could pull off.

At the back of the Witch Weekly as she was about to close the book something caught her eye. It was a little smudged bit of print. Almost as if it had been printed by accident. “Be the trend, don't follow the trend.” Was all it said.

That had been enough for Rita.

She didn't have the gold to buy the expensive robes and accessories, but she knew all the sewing charms and spells better than she knew the back of her band. Everyone was still at dinner and the preliminary quidditch tryouts so she had the entire dorm to herself. She sat down and pulled out her charm book. She knew what she wanted to do and it took her the better part of the night to figure out now to do what she wanted to do. She went to bed long before anyone else had gotten back.

And Rita woke up brought a renewed sense of purpose for her. And it was with that purpose that she got dressed. She wanted to set a trend, she couldn't afford to follow it, but she wasn't sure what would be a trend. “I will just have to find out.” she muttered to her reflection after she climbed out of the bath. Nothing like a good soak after a tantrum to make one feel like a proper girl again. No one was talking to her, which was fine for Rita, but Bellatrix was watching her like a boiling cauldron. Rita got ready at the pace she wanted to. She rightly ignored Bellatrix and her lidded eyes boring a hole in her back.

She had the picture of the spokeswitch leaning on the sink as she worked on her hair. She would have to write her mom and ask for the hair potions if she were going to keep her hair straight. Rita had been born with corkscrew curls and she never thought to change her hair or do anything different, but she wasn't in Kansas anymore and it was time to go native. Everyone else sported straight hair, so that's what she was do.

It took her extra time to make her new hairdo work but she managed. She even added a black headband she had found in the common room. It made her look like a chic hippie witch. Rita clipped the silver and green fluttering butterfly to her headband. She had gotten up two hours early just to charm the thing. If anything her quest to look better was going to make her a better charmer if nothing else.

She added a little clear lip gloss to her lips thanks to a stray tube that was rolling around the floor of the common room. Rita also took the time to paint her little nails acid green with little silver dots. She loved how it transformed her hands. The acid color of the green brought out the healthy glow of her porcelain skin.

Rita waited till everyone else had gone down for the line up. She stood in front of the mirror hanging by the door. She looked like a grown polished version of her mother. She pulled back her lips in a sneer worthy of Parker and Bellatrix combined. “Be the snake Rita.” she repeated. It was going to be her mantra for her tenure at Hogwarts. She was going to be the snake and Slytherin was going to regret bringing that out in her.

She walked down the stairs in her glittery green shoes that were formerly her glittery red shoes. She had managed to change the color last night. Parker was commenting on a impending pimple on the forehead of one of the fourth years when Rita sauntered into line.

“Well thank Merlin bumpkin Rita could join us,” Parker snapped before she got a good look at Rita. When she did look down the line the fifth year was rocked back on her heels.

“No problem,” Rita said giving her prefect a wink. A few of the girls were staring at the fluttering butterfly on Rita's head. It caught the light in just the right place to look like an expensive piece of jewelry. Parker didn't know what to say so she just turned on her heels and marched out of the common room expecting everyone to follow her.

“Well played,” Lucius said walking beside Rita with his hands behind his back as they filed out behind Parker.

“Why did you help me?” Rita whispered. The rest of the house was marching ahead of them.

Lucius tilted his head to the side as he thought about the question. It could be said that the Malfoy only cared about himself, his money and his connections. Well that could be said about any Malfoy. I mean after all you didn't remain one of the best of the ancient lines, by being lack in your standards or by being poor. So there was no reason for him to have given two wits about some random first year. Especially not a county mouse like Rita. With her ridiculous name and flouncy of blond curls.

“Do you ask a composer why he composes? Do you ask a speaker why he pontificates? No. So don't ask a Malfoy why he moves pieces around a chessboard. Just take my attention as the wonderful gift that it is. And pray you don't fall out of my good graces. You might be a pretty slice of country pie, but I'm not one for sweets.” He gave her a feral grin before striding to the front of the line to walk beside Parker.

Rita watched him go not knowing what just happened. He seemed almost like a friend last night and now he was flicking her away like an annoying piece of dirt on his robes. Rita narrowed her eyes at his back. She didn't like people playing games with her and to Lucius her emotions were a game that he was going to enjoy toying with. Even if he happened to help her along the way.

Well if he wanted to play that game she would play it too.

She did not spend hours a day sitting with her mother watching muggle soap dramas without knowing how to play people. If Malfoy wanted to keep her on her toes well she would be the prima ballerina of Slytherin house. Rita was not going to let them get the better of her anymore She straightened her spine and marched after the rest of her house up to breakfast.