Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter...But I don't. I own Tracey's personality and history but I didn't come up with her. That was JK Rowling. I own the plot as well and any OCs but that's it.

CHAPTER 1

Honestly

Cold as they were the castle dungeons were somehow comforting, although standing outside of Potions, waiting for Slughorn to arrive wasn't. The tension between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors was immense. Draco kept glaring sideways in the direction of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, something that made only one of the other Slytherins at least a little uncomfortable. She laughed it off however and stared down the hallway, ignoring Pansy's remarks to the other Slytherin girls.

Finally, Horace Slughorn could be seen walking down the hall a whole 10 minutes late. He was laughing jovially at something the class could only guess at. It wasn't like him to be this late. Most of the class scowled deeply.

"Some of us have better things to do than stand around waiting for professors to walk into their own classes late…" muttered Pansy underneath her breath as the Potions Master walked by, still laughing.

Amid whispers and laughter the class followed Slughorn and settled into their usual seats.

"Now, now, I must apologize for being so tardy," said Slughorn, although the fact that he was still laughing indicated that he probably wasn't really all that sorry.

He continued speaking as a hush fell over the classroom.

"I have just been speaking to the headmaster. He thinks it might be a good idea if I changed things up a bit. That is why I have decided that I'm going to be changing who you work with during your class time."

All of the students groaned, none more loudly than Ron and Harry.

"Come, now! This could be a chance to make some new friends. Inter-house unity and all that. That's why I'm going to be pairing each of you with someone from a different house."

This resulted in even louder groans from the students. The Gryffindors all thought that they might scream if they got one of the Slytherins in the class. Any of the Ravenclaws or even one of the few Hufflepuffs wouldn't be quite as bad.

"At least there are more Ravenclaws than anyone else," whispered Harry, hoping and praying that he got one of them.

This was very true. Out of the 20 people who had made it into N.E.W.T. level Potions half of them were Ravenclaws. It seemed that none of them had gotten below an E on their O.W.L.s. The rest of the class was comprised of various Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors.

Ignoring the silent protests and disbelieving looks from his students Professor Slughorn continued, pointing to various students from different houses and pairing them together. Without realizing it Slughorn paired at least 2 Ravenclaw students together, defeating the purpose of what he had set out to do. The Ravenclaws weren't complaining, though.

In the end Harry ended up with Padma Patil, Hermione with Mandy Brocklehurst, and Ron with a Slytherin girl named Tracey Davis. Ron recognized her as one of the students who had taken part in the Inquisitorial Squad the previous school year, when Umbridge had wreaked havoc at Hogwarts.

Ron looked around the room and couldn't help but notice that he was the only student not paired with a Ravenclaw. He scowled, none too pleased at the way things had turned out.

"Alright, instead of making a potion for today's class I would like for you to get to know your new partner. Then, for homework, I want you to write a short essay about him or her. Four inches should do it. Feel free to write more, if you'd like," Slughorn beamed as he said the words, thinking his idea a stroke of genius.

The room filled with low chatter, nearly every table engrossed in their task. It was, after all, an easy assignment. Ron, however, had yet to say a word to Tracey.

"Um…" she muttered, trying to start a conversation and failing miserably.

Ron didn't even look up, just sat there scowling in the direction of the blackboard.

Tracey tried again.

"Er…Ron? Shouldn't we…I don't know…start talking? Or something?"

Ron merely grunted and shrugged. He wasn't much in the mood be talking to a Slytherin, as well as stuck with her for the rest of the year.

"Okay…I'll start then. I'm Tracey Davis. I'm obviously in Slytherin and I would bet 10 galleons that that is part of the reason why you aren't saying much to me. I'd also bed another 10 galleons that the other reason you aren't talking is because I was part of the Inquisitorial Squad last year."

"You'd be right on both accounts…" muttered Ron, finally forming words as opposed to sounds.

"Thought so. Now will you bother to tell me at least something about yourself?"

"Name's Ron Weasley. Gryffindor. There you go."

Ron's reply sounded harsh, even if it was just a few words.

Tracey stared at the side of his head. He still wasn't looking in her direction. Fed up with his complete and utter disregard for the fact that this counted as an assignment Tracey got up from her seat and walked in front of their table, blocking Ron's view of the blackboard at which he had been staring so intently.

"Oi! Weasley!," she said." If you'd like to stop staring at the potions notes that aren't on that ruddy blackboard and, oh I don't know, look at me, we could both pass this assignment. But that's just a suggestion."

Ron, taken aback at this thoroughly un-slytherin behavior, finally looked at Tracey. When he did what he saw surprised him a bit.

Standing before him was a pretty girl, without the air of cold superiority that the Slytherins usually had. Her long, dark brown hair was pulled back into two French braids which revealed dark red highlights in the underneath layers. At the moment her coffee brown eyes peered at Ron with a mixture of anger and frustration, though he thought they might actually look kind at any other time.

"Listen, I understand you're not too keen on being partnered with me but could we please make this work? I'd like to do well, as I'm sure you would as well," pleaded Tracey, the anger in her face disappearing.

"Fine. I'll try. But I doubt I'm going to like it," murmured Ron.

Tracey smiled slightly and sat down as she said, "You don't have to like it, although my house will probably expect me to tell them all sorts of nasty things about you."

As another scowl spread across Ron's face she quickly added, "I won't though."

This last bit made Ron grin, however briefly.

"You're not like other Slytherins, are you?" he said quietly.

"Nope…I'm one of the few who isn't bent on Pure-bloods being the only worthy wizards and witches. I can't be though, can I?"

"Why's that?" inquired Ron, a little bit confused. He was under the impression that all Slytherins currently attending Hogwarts thought Pure-bloods were superior.

"Well, I'm not a Pure-blood, am I? My mother's a witch. My father's a muggle, though.

Ron could only nod at this. He plucked up the nerve to ask Tracey a question.

"How'd you end up in Slytherin? I mean, you seem too…nice to be there."

"The hat couldn't decide. Said it saw too much of all of the houses to decide right off. Gryffindor was the first off the list, though. Not enough courage in me, apparently. Next went Hufflepuff. I'm a little bit too lazy for that. Eventually the sorting hat said that it was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin…"

"What finally settled it, then? You seem like you'd do better in Ravenclaw."

"My family history," Tracey said with a wry smile. "Slytherin's been in my family since Hogwarts opened. Generation after generation of Spungens have been in Slytherin. Actually, for a while there it looked like my grandfather might be the last one. 7 children and his six oldest were squibs. Only my mother turned out to be a witch. He disowned my aunts and uncles because he was ashamed of them. Grandfather tried to keep them hidden but Grandmother wouldn't let him. Eventually he died just before I started school."

Ron tried to absorb all of this information for his paper.

"Blimey. Uh…I suppose I should go into more about me, then. I'm one of 7 children, like your mum. I have 5 older brothers and my younger sister, Ginny. I'm sure you know all that though. Malfoy's always making fun of me for how many children my mum and dad have…I'm Pure-blood but the Slytherins…I mean Malfoy call my family blood traitors. My best friends are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

Tracey made a face that resulted in Ron stopping to say "What?"

"I don't like them much…no offense or anything. Hermione's a bit of a know-it-all, isn't she? Much more so than any of the Ravenclaws. They don't have to prove to anyone that they're smart by answering every question a professor asks, do they? My best friend's a Ravenclaw and she always manages to let someone else have a go at it. And I don't like how Harry manages to get everything without really trying to. It's like he doesn't have to work for anything…And now you see why I'm in Slytherin. Sorry," she said the last word rather sheepishly, realizing that she had insulted Ron by insulting his friends.

Ron shook his head slightly from side to side. "You're still not as bad as the rest of them."

Tracey couldn't help but smile widely at the sentence.

"I'll take that as a compliment, then."

Before Ron could respond the bell signaling the end of Potions class rang. Ron gathered up his books and quickly joined Harry and Hermione, who were waiting for him by the door. As he left he muttered a quick "See you around" to Tracey.

"So?" asked Harry.

"So, what?" a confused Ron asked. He clearly had no idea what Harry was talking about.

Before Harry could say what he meant Hermione answered for him.

"I think he means to ask you what your new potions partner was like."

"That's exactly what I meant to ask, although I could have said it myself, Hermione," Harry grumbled.

"She's nice," was Ron's matter-of-fact answer.

This was obviously not at all what Harry had expected. He had expected to hear that she was as horrible, worse than Pansy, that she thought that Ron was a blood-traitor, Hermione a mudblood. Ron's simple "She's nice" did not seem like something that would apply to a Slytherin.

"Nice? But she's a Slytherin. She was on the Inquisitorial Squad. She's friends with Draco Malfoy. I've seen them talking and laughing at the Slytherin table at meals."

Harry was really having trouble believing in the existence of a nice Slytherin.

"I think her best friend is dating Draco. Aurora Ketteridge, from Ravenclaw. I've seen Draco talking to them both, holding hands with Aurora. She's in my Arithmancy and Ancient Runes classes," explained Hermione.

"I don't see what her best friend's love life has to do with her being nice," said Ron not seeing how this was relevant at all.

"Oh, well, nothing really. I just…never mind," Hermione said, turning slightly pink.

"Come on, guys. Let's just go to dinner and forget I asked what she was like, okay?" said Harry, sensing Ron glaring at both of them.

"Fine," muttered Ron as he walked up the steps into the entrance hall a little bit behind Harry and Hermione.

He didn't know why he was being defensive of a girl he barely knew. A girl who happened to be a Slytherin, a member of the house that Ron had despised since their first day at Hogwarts. Something Tracey had said made sense to him. Hermione really did seem like a know-it-all. That was one of the reasons he hadn't liked her during their first year. And Harry really did get things handed to him. He hadn't had to try out for the quidditch team, he had just been handed a chance to partake in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he didn't have so many talented, funny older brothers to overshadow him. Jealously surged inside Ron stronger than he had felt in a long time. And yet he still felt like Tracey had understood his friends better than he did, somehow.