"I mean," she said in a somewhat light and whimsical tone, "who hasn't thought about kicking Draco out of the window when he goes on one of his little tirades? Or slipping acromantula venom into Pansy's tea when she mocks my latest dress, right?"

The other Slytherins stared at her in horror. Pansy began choking on her morning tea with wide eyes.

"You know," Marcus Flint murmured, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he wouldn't be overheard, "I think I know why she and Potter get along so bloody well with each other now."

His friends and cohorts nodded, some rather jerkily and with ill-faces, and they cast furtive looks over at the ever cheerful blonde.

In the other corner of the Slytherin common room, Harry, hidden behind a book whose cover occasionally shifted to have screaming faces over its finely stitched leather binding, sighed dejectedly. Another day of loneliness and being essentially a pariah.

He couldn't understand why everyone and everybeing avoided him!

He tried to be affable and friendly, even going as far as to take a few lessons on establishing bonds and friendships from various books.

The attempts after were even more disastrous: One of his yearmates ran away screaming and yelling at the top of her lungs about "eyes and blood on the walls"; one of the Many Eyed Ones from the Space Inbetween skittered away on its eight mismatched legs on seeing him, chittering up a high-pitched storm; lastly, the herd of centaurs he encountered one night in the Forest stiffly trotted back into the treeline without saying a word.

At least the unicorns liked him, but he thought they were supposed to be white, not dark blue or black, and have only one horn, not two curly ones like a sheep?

A long, bony finger made of red and paper began to reach from the page towards his face, and he absent-mindedly swatted it down without a second thought.

Oh well, he mused -- that potions homework wasn't going to do itself!

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