On the thirtieth of July, Minerva looked up from her breakfast with Albus Dumbledore in the Great Hall to see the same raven flying toward her with a letter attached to his leg.

"Oh my. What is it now?" she murmured as Hwesta came to a landing on the table by her plate. She removed the letter, and Albus cheerfully fed Hwesta some bits of toast and bacon as Minerva read the note. When she was finished, she handed it to Albus to read.

"Hmm. I suppose we should let Poppy know about this," Albus said thoughtfully. "And when she is sorted, if she isn't in Gryffindor, you can inform her Head of House about it."

Hwesta decided that he didn't feel like waiting around anymore, so he ruffled his wings a little before flying up into the air. After a swoop around the Hall, he soared out of the window, heading home to the Zabinis.

August passed quickly for the Zabini family. Blaise wasn't the only one who would be starting a new school; Cara was also going to be starting at the junior high school that fall. However, September first was also the first day of her school year. Cara would be gone by the time Blaise left in the morning. They had to say their goodbyes the night before.

Ten minutes to eleven, the remaining three Zabinis were standing just outside the barrier between Platform 9 and Platform 10 at King's Cross Train Station. Blaise pushed the trolley carrying her trunk against the barrier so that it was just barely touching the brick.

Blaise turned back to Laurel and Elliot. " you guys," she said softly.

Laurel stepped forward and embraced Blaise tightly. "Oh, sweetheart, we'll miss you."

Elliot also gave her a short hug. "Have a good time, Blaise. And I don't want to get any 'owls' back telling me you've been running away from school to spend your time in cemeteries."

Blaise's eyes widened, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh no!" she mumbled.

Elliot glanced at Blaise in concern. "What's wrong, dear?"

"I...I forgot to tell her.. I forgot to tell her I couldn't come.."

Comprehension washed over Elliot and Laurel's features, but wasn't replaced by relief. "Oh, honey.. You know she can't hear you. She won't know if you are gone or not."

Blaise seized Elliot's sleeve. "No! She has to.. Please tell her where I am, Daddy. Please, when you get home, tell her where I am. Promise me!"

Laurel and Elliot exchanged glances, and then Elliot looked back down at his foster daughter.

"I promise," he said reluctantly.

Blaise seemed to relax, and she let go of his sleeve. "Okay then. Bye." Without another word, she turned away, and a second later disappeared through the wall.

Many children and their parents were rushing around with trunks and cages holding owls. Blaise was glad she had sent Hwesta on ahead to Hogwarts. He wouldn't have appreciated being stuck in a cage with noisy animals all around. The noise clamored in Blaise's ears, causing her to wince. She pushed her trolley over the platform and then managed to tug the trunk off of the trolley and onto one of the red cars. She dragged her trunk down the hallway, aiming on finding a compartment to her liking.

She almost ran into a girl with bushy brown hair who was going the opposite way, but Blaise jumped aside just in time.

"Watch where you're going," she snapped irritably.

The girl looked slightly taken aback for a second, but then she made a huffing sound and replied, "I was. You could be a little more polite, you know."

"'You could be a little more polite, you know,'" Blaise mimicked in a mutter. "Geeze. What a snob."

Three doors down, she found an empty compartment. After one glance at the luggage racks above the seats, she shoved the trunk into a corner of the compartment, before sitting herself down on a seat by the window. She watched the people still on the platform, saying goodbye to their families.

A shrill whistle blew further up the train, and several children dashed for their compartments. Another moment later, a second whistle blew, and all of the outside doors loudly snapped shut and locked at once - most likely by magic.

Blaise took out her wand and fingered it, a thoughtful expression on her face. Not yet had she used her wand - Elliot had deemed it too dangerous a thing to experiment with, with no experienced magical people around to help if something went wrong.

She put the ebony wand away when the train began to move, and she prepared for a long, boring train ride.

The train hadn't even left the station when the door slid open, and four students entered. The eldest of them, a boy with dark brown hair who seemed to be thirteen or fourteen years old, saw Blaise first.

"Oh; you don't mind if we sit here, do you?" he asked politely. "We can go somewhere else if you are saving this for your friends."

Blaise glanced over the other three people - there was another boy with blond hair about the same age as the first, a girl about Blaise's age who seemed to be related to him (if her appearance was anything to go by, with their similar fair hair - though the girl's was up in pigtails), and another girl (the same age as the boys), who had light brownish-red hair pulled into a simple ponytail.

Blaise shrugged disinterestedly. "I guess. It's not like I own the train, you know."

The dark-haired boy raised his eyebrows. The two boys and the older girl helped each other pull their trunks into the compartment, but came into some difficulty when the light-haired boy hit his shin on Blaise's trunk.

"I can get this up for you if you'd like," the first boy offered. When she shrugged again, he turned to his friend. "Kyle, can you give me a hand with this?"

As the two boys lifted the trunk and heaved it onto the rack above Blaise's head, the first boy added, "Oh, my name's Cedric, by the way. Cedric Diggory. And this is my best friend, Kyle Abbott, his little sister Hannah - a first year, as I would assume you are also," by now the trunk was safely secured, and he was standing before Blaise as he pointed out the people, "and this is Amy Sanden."

Figuring it was the only thing to do, Blaise held out her hand and shook Cedric's hand (hers was completely covered by his), and replied, "Blaise Zabini." Then she promptly turned back to the window. These were exactly the type of people she didn't get along with well; she wasn't very comfortable around the really friendly people, as she felt awkward around them. That was one of the reasons she hadn't been close with anyone before.

Cedric sat down on the opposite seat by the door, next to Kyle, and Amy and Hannah sat on the same seat as Blaise.

Just then, the door, once again, slid open, and a skinny redheaded boy stuck his head in. "Oh - never mind," he spoke quickly, as he realized there was no more room in the compartment. The door shut with a snap, and Blaise could here the boy's trunk grate along the floor in the corridor.

The compartment was silent for a few minutes, and Blaise stared out the window at the dull landscape the train was traveling through. She didn't even notice when the others began to talk amongst themselves. Cedric and Kyle were talking about something called "Quidditch," while Amy was trying to engage Hannah in conversation; apparently she was succeeding, because Hannah slowly became more confident and spoke happily with her.

Around a quarter past twelve, the door slid open to reveal a smiling dimpled woman with a cart of food and drink.

"Great! I'm starving!" Cedric exclaimed, standing up and fishing through his pockets for coins.

When Blaise realized that you had to pay for the food, she frowned slightly. Her money was locked away in her trunk - which was on the rack above her head. She sighed and looked away, out of the window as her stomach twisted with hunger.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" Hannah asked her, as the pigtailed girl sat back down next to Blaise, with several strange items in hand.

Blaise shrugged. "My money's in my trunk. There's no point in-"

"I can buy you something," Kyle offered kindly. "You can pay me back when you have your-"

"No thanks," Blaise interrupted in irritation. "I can handle it myself." She stood up on the seat and quickly unlocked her trunk, before sifting through a few layers of books and clothing to pull out a small pouch of coins. She jumped down and bought iced pumpkin juice (Amy claimed it was delicious), a Cauldron cake, and a chocolate frog. She didn't have much money left, so she was not about to spend it all carelessly. Blaise hadn't been raised as one who squandered money on useless items, and she knew she wouldn't be able to get any more money for a while.

As Blaise watched the countryside slowly switch from fields to woods and rivers, Kyle got up and stretched a little.

"I'm going to take a walk around, Ced. You wanna come?"

Cedric glanced out the window briefly, before turning back to look at Kyle. "Sure," he replied. "And why don't we take our robes to change in the bathroom? That way you girls can get changed in here." He grinned. "Just make sure you're decent by the time we get back, alright?"

"Diggory!" Amy chucked an empty candy box at Cedric's head. He quickly ducked out of the compartment after Kyle, shutting the door behind him.

While the boys were gone, Amy and Hannah changed into their robes, tugging off their light sweaters before throwing on the black material. Blaise, who disliked changing around others (she always yelled at Cara when she walked in while Blaise was halfway between dressing or undressing herself), sighed. Then she shrugged off her Royal Army field jacket, which had belonged to her grandfather (Laurel's father) when he had fought in WWII, and then retrieved her own robes from her trunk.

It was a strange sensation, wearing witch robes. It almost felt like Halloween. She remembered one year - she had been five - when she dressed up as a witch. The only difference between the two instances was that now Blaise did not have a big, crooked, plastic nose tied around her head, with green face paint all over her face and a fake wart on her temple. She also distinctly remembered whacking Cara in the mouth (accidentally, mind you) with her plastic pumpkin bucket, causing her sister to lose the loose tooth she had been bragging about all that week. Blaise smiled slightly at the memory.

Five minutes later, Cedric and Kyle burst back into the compartment, apparently in good spirits.

"Hey, Amy, guess what!" Kyle exclaimed.

Amy looked up from the book she had taken out to read. "What?"

"Harry Potter's on the train!"

"Some first years we ran into told us that they'd seen him a little farther down the train," Cedric added.

Blaise, meanwhile, was frowning thoughtfully. "Harry Potter," she repeated softly. "Why does that name sound so familiar?"

Hannah's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't know who Harry Potter is?" she asked incredulously. "Why, he's the most famous wizard out there, other than Dumbledore, of course."

"Are you Muggleborn?" Cedric asked her curiously.

Blaise shook her head. "No, but my foster parents and sister are Muggles. Oh.I think I remember now," she added. "I read about a Harry Potter in that book I bought - 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts,' I think it was called. And there was another he was mentioned in, but the title was really had something to do with Halloween though."

"That's because Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who on October 31st, in 1981," Cedric replied. "He was only a baby, but somehow he managed to defeat the Dark Lord." He shivered. "I don't know _what_ I'd do if I had to face such a terrible and powerful Dark wizard like that."

"You'd probably wet your pants, mate," Kyle laughed, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I would not!" Cedric exclaimed indignantly, his cheeks pink.

"Besides," Amy cut in, rolling her eyes at her friends' behavior, "Harry Potter was only a baby, so he didn't _know_ to be scared of He-Who- Shall-Not-Be-Named."

"Wait. So he's a first year too?" Blaise couldn't help asking.

Kyle nodded. "Yep. The girl who told me said he has black hair and glasses, and is pretty small and skinny for his age. A right little runt, you might say," he said in a doctor-like tone of voice, before he realized there was someone in the compartment who fit that description quite well. He grimaced. "No offence to you, of course," he apologized hastily to Blaise.

Cedric hit Kyle lightly on the head. "She's not a runt, you twot. Blaise here is _petite_."

Blaise resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and settled instead on staring at the two boys with a scowl.

For some odd reason, both boys looked startled, and then glanced at one another. Kyle whispered something in Cedric's ear, and Cedric nodded, shuddering slightly.

A little while later, Blaise was beginning to regret not buying any more food to eat, for her stomach had started to feel sore. She played with the sliver locket around her neck absentmindedly while staring out at the darkening scenery. The sky was a deep purple hue against the black mountains and thick-forested area.

Blaise jumped when a voice suddenly echoed through the compartment door, seeming to come from nowhere: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

"Well, I suppose we'd better get ready now," Kyle looked around at the others, checking his pockets to see that he had everything with him that he needed. "You have your wand, Hannah?" he asked his sister, and she nodded. "Good."

Outside of the train, it was quite chilly, and Blaise wrapped her arms around her thin form to keep in her body heat. Now was not the time to become sluggish, as she usually did when it was cold.

It was very crowded on the tiny platform by the tracks, and Blaise had to peer over and around people until she saw a lamp bobbing above several students' heads. Holding the lamp was the largest man Blaise had ever seen - he must have been about twelve feet tall!

"Firs' years!" he was calling. "Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" the man added to a short boy who had walked up to him, followed by the redhead Blaise had seen earlier. She wondered if that was the "famous Harry Potter."

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!"

Blaise almost slipped and fell on the steep path they were taking. And, though nothing could be seen in the darkness around them, somehow Blaise _knew_ that there were trees on either side of the path, and a great forest beyond them.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a ' round this bend here," the large, hairy man called over his shoulder to the first years following him.

Many people made sounds of awe as they broke free from the trees. The first thing Blaise noticed was the large, black lake, with small boats sitting in the water along its shore. Her stomach clenched nervously. Blaise hated large expanses of water like this. Pure water in vast amounts made her feel strange, dizzy in a way. Blaise looked up a little. Across the lake on a high mountain, was a magnificent castle, its windows alit.

"No more'n four to a boat!" The man shouted, pointing to the boats.

Blaise followed the rest of the first years and climbed into the nearest boat. Two girls and one boy joined her a second later.

"Everyone in!" Blaise could hear the man's loud voice command from several boats away. "Right then - FORWARD!"

Blaise jerked violently and grasped the edge of the boat as it suddenly began to move forward.

Five minutes later, there was a shout of: "Heads down!" as the first of the boats reached the cliff, where there was a curtain of ivy hiding an entrance to the inside of the cliff. Blaise, however, did not duck, but felt compelled to let the ivy slide over her, raising her right hand to touch the vines as her boat entered the cave. Once all of the boats reached a little harbor-like area, they got out of the boats and followed the tall man up the stairs.

Finally, a couple minutes later, everyone stood outside a huge oak door. After three knocks on it, it swung open of its own accord. In the doorway stood a tall, black-haired woman in emerald-green robes: Minerva McGonagall.

"Firs' years, Professor McGonagall," the man nodded to her.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

Blaise and the others followed her through the enormous entrance hall, into a small chamber where they all crowded close together.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Minerva. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take you seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." She went on to tell them the names of the houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin), how it was possible to gain and lose points for their house, and about the prize at the end of the year.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." With that, she turned and left the chamber.

Blaise shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She was starving, and hoped they would get to eat soon. Just then, Blaise felt very cold, and not a second later, several people screamed. Blaise whirled around to see almost two-dozen ghosts drift through the back wall. As the arguing ghosts neared, Blaise could feel her muscles stiffening. She rubbed at her arms in irritation. She didn't even notice when the ghosts began to talk to them.

However, she broke free from her daze when Minerva came back.

"Move along now," she said sharply. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line, and follow me," she then spoke to the students.

As they entered the Great Hall, Blaise's eyebrows rose. Never in her life had she seen so many people, and such a large room. The teachers were sitting at the top end of the hall, at a long table. Minerva led them up to the table, and they turned to face the other students. Blaise was standing next to the brown-haired girl she'd almost run into earlier that day on the train.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside," she whispered, and Blaise turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow in skepticism of the girl's sanity. But not a second later, she understood what she was talking about. "I read about it in 'Hogwarts, A History.'" The girl was staring up at the ceiling.

Blaise sighed and turned away to look out over the hall. Apparently, this girl was one of those nerdy, studious students. She hoped she wouldn't be put in the same house as her; Blaise didn't think she'd be able to stand it if she had to be around her all the time.

Severus Snape sat in his seat at the High Table beside Quirrell, frowning as he scrutinized the first years. His fist clenched unconsciously as he noticed one first year in particular: Harry Potter. The boy was not hard to miss, especially for Severus, who had known the boy's father in school.

The two hadn't been on the best of terms, and Severus sincerely wished that this small Potter offspring didn't get put into his house - Slytherin - though that was highly unlikely, considering who the boy's father was. But even so, Severus feared he would end up strangling the scrawny bugger if he was put in Severus's charge.

Movement a few people away from the young Potter boy caught Severus's attention, and he inwardly gave a double take as he noticed the unusual color of Blaise's hair. The girl's hair was in a most peculiar style, as well: she had several different length braids, with her bangs simply hanging down to her chin on either sides of her face. Severus could not see her face though; only her left side and back. Blaise was shivering slightly, causing her longer braids to tremble against her back. She was fingering something around her neck, but Severus could not see what it was.

Severus turned away from her as the Sorting Hat began to sing; this girl unnerved him somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was that made him so uneasy about her. Maybe it was the mulberry hair that was so similar to - no, he was not going to think about that now. It just wasn't the time for such nonsense.

He settled on glaring at certain students he knew to be troublemakers, watching for anything they might do wrong that he could punish them for. That was the one thing Severus loved about being a teacher. The students could not get away with making fun of a teacher, unlike how they could get away with if it was another student they were teasing. He had bad memories of such circumstances.

As the Hat stopped its song, Blaise watched Minerva step forward and begin to read from a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

Hannah stumbled out of the line and put on the hat, only to have it fall over her eyes, and sat down on the stool. Blaise groaned inwardly when she realized that this would be alphabetically. She was always last for roll call, but this would be even worse.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted out loudly to the rest of the hall after a moment. Hannah took off the hat and joined the Hufflepuff table, sitting beside Kyle, who hugged her happily.

Blaise's stomach growled softly, demanding food, and she grimaced, hoping the Sorting wouldn't take too long. Her head began to hurt.

"Granger, Hermione!" Minerva called out several people later, and the bushy-haired girl beside Blaise dashed eagerly to the stool to put on the hat.

Blaise began to zone out after a while, not really hearing the names being called. However, many names later, it sounded like leaves had suddenly been blown into a breeze, and Blaise blinked. The black-haired boy with glasses had been called up ("Potter, Harry!"), and people all over the hall were whispering excitedly. The boy was apparently a right little celebrity here in the Magical world.

After a considerably longer time than the other students had taken, the hat finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" to the Hall, and Harry took off the hat and walked, visibly shaking, to the Gryffindor table, where they were cheering very loudly.

A moment later, as Dean Thomas joined the Gryffindor table as well, the only people left were Blaise, another girl (Lisa Turpin, she found out within a second), and the same red-haired boy who had been looking for a compartment earlier. The boy was a pale greenish color, and Blaise shifted away from him a bit, in case he decided to hurl while he was up in front of everyone.

"Weasley, Ronald!" Minerva called out, and Ronald left Blaise's side to put on the hat. He was declared a Gryffindor.

Now Blaise was left standing there, all alone, in front of the whole school. She felt her face go pale.

"Zabini, Blaise!" Minerva called, though there really was no need for her to.

Blaise stepped forward, and taking the hat, sat down on the stool. As she placed the hat on her head, she heard a soft voice in her ear.

"Well, now. What is this? I never imagined him having a daughter. How very interesting.."

'Oh, will you hurry up, you ancient piece of cloth?' Blaise thought. 'I'm starving, and I've been waiting for McGonagall to get through the damn alphabet-'

"Patience, dear, don't let your stomach and headache decide what house you're in. Relax, so I can figure you out."

'I'm always like this. There's nothing to think about.'

"Oh, but there is much more to you than meets the eyes; did you know that?"

'Yeah, yeah. That's great. Now what house do I go in?'

"Hmm. You don't appreciate following the rules, now, do you? .And you are more comfortable being alone, I can see. Now, here is something I cannot understand: you are quite an intelligent child, and yet you want nothing to do with school? Why is that?"

'School's no fun. It's full of those prissy little brats who claim that they are smart, whereas they are actually complete Neanderthals.'

"I'm afraid you are mistaken, my dear. Now, then, I believe I know where to place you. I just hope you do not follow in your father's footsteps.."

'What? What are you t-'

"SLYTHERIN!"

This last word was shouted out to the rest of the Great Hall, and Blaise gratefully stood up. She took off the hat before walking over to the Slytherin table and sitting down beside a blond-haired boy.'something' Malfoy, she seemed to recall his name was.

The silver-haired man who sat at the center of the High Table stood up, and beamed at everyone, with his arms opened wide.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

"_What_?" Blaise stared at the man with an expression of mixed horror and confusion. "Is he off his rocker or something?"

The blond boy sitting next to her shrugged. "My father thinks so. He says he can't believe Dumbledore ever became the Headmaster of this school. Father was in his third year here when Dumbledore took over for Armando Dippet."

"Mm," Blaise responded, not really that interested. "Hey, what was your name again? I kind paying attention halfway through the ceremony. It's bloody irritating to have your surname begin with 'z.'" She rolled her eyes.

The boy laughed, dishing some newly appeared food onto his plate and handing her the bowl of salad once he'd served himself. "My name is Draco Malfoy. And you're Blaise Zabini."

"Yep," she replied, as she took a piece of steak. She looked up when she heard Draco hiss suddenly, and jerk in his seat to move a little closer to Blaise, without it being too noticeable. "What is it?" Blaise asked him. Draco was holding his right elbow closer to his side than was normal. Draco nodded his head to his right, a surly expression plastered on his face.

Blaise's eyes widened in disgust and horror as she noticed the ghost sitting to Draco's right. She had to quickly look away before she lost her appetite; the ghost was covered in silver blood, and his eyes were glazed over blankly. His cheekbones protruded from his face, through the tight, smoky-colored skin.

"Never," Draco muttered quietly to Blaise, "touch or put any body part through a ghost."

"Why not?"

"It's bloody freezing!" he explained.

Blaise raised her eyebrow. "Thanks. I'll try to remember that. What are you looking at?" she asked suddenly, as she noticed Draco's eyes had slid past her face to something behind her. She turned to look behind, but didn't see anything except the High Table. She looked back at Draco.

His eyes were back on her face now. "You look kind of like Snape!" he whispered in surprise.

Blaise frowned. "And which one is Snape?" she asked incredulously.

"Severus Snape, Head of our House," Draco replied. "He's the one all in black, next to the loon with the purple turban."

Blaise turned and immediately saw whom Draco was talking about. She tensed when Severus turned toward their table, and their eyes locked. Severus narrowed his eyes at her, and she quickly whirled back to face Draco.

"I do not look anything like him!" she exclaimed in a highly affronted tone of voice. "Why, that's the ugliest man I've ever seen in my life! He looks like a corpse or something, and he's just plain _creepy_."

Draco smirked at her. "No, I wasn't talking about those kind of looks, Zabini-"

"_Blaise_," she correctly sharply. "I won't have people calling me Zabini, like I'm not worth them calling me by my given name."

"Please yourself, then, _Blaise_," Draco looked quite amused. "And am I worth enough for you to call _me_ by my given name?"

"If you prove yourself to be, then of course," she replied absently. "Now, what were you saying?"

"Ah, yes. I was saying that it's not really your features, so much as your expression. Like, just now when you raised you eyebrow, I was distinctly reminded of Snape. See, he's an old friend of my father's, so I have met him before at family gatherings and stuff."

"Oh. That's a relief, I suppose," Blaise turned back to her food.

Draco rolled his eyes and picked up his goblet of juice. "Girls," he muttered, taking a drink.

"What was that?" Blaise asked.

"Nothing!"

"Fine then."

As the dinner food disappeared a little later, and desserts appeared, Blaise was beginning to feel a little tired. She sleepily ate her chocolate- dipped strawberries, while Draco worked through some raspberry trifle.

When Blaise decided she'd had enough to eat, she pushed her plate a little farther away and rested her elbows on the table, putting her head on her arms.

"Tired?" Draco asked, though it didn't sound like he was very interested in the answer.

"Exhausted," Blaise confirmed, yawning widely behind her hand. "Geeze, how long does it take everyone to eat?" To take up time, she looked up at the High Table and glanced over the teachers. "So, Draco. Is Snape nice?" she asked after a while.

She shifted her head on her arms to stare at Draco when she heard him snort into his drink.

"And what's your problem? It was a simple question, you know."

Draco set his goblet down and turned to Blaise. "Snape," he began, "is not a very sociable bloke. At all."

"Yeah, so? I'm not either, and that's nothing to-"

"Yes, well, I can't imagine you scaring anyone away when you talk to them," he told her.

Blaise grinned. "Oh, so he scared you away once?"

Draco scowled. "Of course not," he retorted snobbishly, as if it was the most ridiculous idea in the world.

"I don't believe you," she countered instantly, gazing at him. "How old were you?"

Draco's scowl deepened, he stared at his empty plate. It looked as if he was pouting. "Six," he muttered softly, an almost unnoticeable blush appearing on his face.

"Aw. What'd he do?" She had propped her chin up on her hands to watch him better.

"You never give up, do you?" he asked irately.

Blaise sat up. "Don't get all hot and bothered about it, Draco. I'm not _that_ interested in what Mr. Meanie Professor did to you when you were an innocent little kid. you weren't so innocent," she grinned at him, and he couldn't help smiling slightly as well.

They stopped talking as the desserts disappeared from the plates, like the dinner had, and Dumbledore stood up once more.

"Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

"Excuse me?" Blaise muttered to Draco. "What's he talking about?"

Draco frowned also. "I don't know. It almost sounds like he's hiding something from us."

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

Blaise's eyebrows rose as Dumbledore flicked his wand, making a gold ribbon fly out of it and turning into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite off we go!"

"Oh my god," Blaise murmured, sinking down in her seat.

Draco smirked at her. "So, what do you think of our headmaster?" he asked sarcastically, as the school began to sing the horribly demented words.

When the school was finally finished, Dumbledore announced, "Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Blaise and Draco stood up and followed Slytherin's prefect out of the hall. They headed down a passage off of the entrance hall, and then descended some stairs down into what looked like dungeons. The group stopped at a blank stretch of wall, and the prefect turned to face them.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room," he said stiffly. "The password is 't'ser o feht nir et snom.'"

A stone door in the wall that Blaise hadn't noticed before slid open. The prefect led them into the room, which had rough stone walls and ceilings. Round lamps, faintly glowing green, hung from the ceiling on chains. High-backed chairs were arranged around an elaborate fireplace.

"The girls' dormitories are on the left, and down the passageway. The boys' is the same, but on the right. Now get lost," he finished, turning and joining his friends by the fire.

Blaise gratefully followed Millicent Bulstrode, Meredith Nott, and Pansy Parkinson to the left, and they walked down the passageway to the very end, where there was a door with a sign on it saying FIRST YEARS.

Blaise found her trunk by the farthest wall, by a window that looked out over the grounds. The window appeared to be only a few feet from the ground outside. Blaise kicked off her shoes, and was in the process of tugging off her robes when she froze, staring at the dark green four-poster bed.

Meredith came out of the bathroom and pulled back the covers on her own bed, which was next to Blaise's.

"What's wrong?" she asked curiously.

Blaise turned to her. "Nothing." To prove it, she climbed onto the bed and pulled the drapes closed. She was still wearing the clothes that had been underneath her robes. She sat in the dark for a few minutes, unmoving. She felt unnaturally high up from the ground, and it unnerved her slightly. She clenched her eyes shut and curled up on the blankets after undoing all of her braids.

Blaise wanted back her own bed, pushed up against the wall and set on the floor so that she didn't have a long fall to the ground. Perhaps in the morning she would ask if something could be done about her bed. But for now, she would just have to hope she did not fall out of bed tonight; the fall would definitely hurt, if the stone floor was any indication.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: It's so much fun to write about Slytherins! *sigh* If there's one thing I don't like about following the book, is that I have to deal with all the dialogue.

Btw, read the Slyth password backwards to see what it means.