"Right, first years listen up!" Veronica called above the tiny heads of the first year Slytherins shortly after the feast in the Great Hall had ended. The rest of the common room seemed to continue in deep conversation completely oblivious. "The girls' dormitories are on the left, the boys' are on the right. The password to the portrait is 'Flaming Weebles'." With that being said she waved at the crowd of small children and they suddenly dispersed. She turned away and plopped herself down onto a dark green sofa that bore black iron legs.

"I am beyond tired." She suddenly spoke up to a girl with a head full of mousy brown curls. The girl suddenly spun her head away from a Slytherin boy of whom seemed very interested in her and beamed a big welcoming smile towards Veronica.

"RONNIE!" She squeaked as she thrust her arms around Veronica and pulled her into a friendly embrace. "How are you? I didn't see you at the sorting ceremony; I thought Riddle might have done something to you down in the grounds!" The girl laughed.

"I'm fine just had a minor mishap with one of the first years." Veronica began as she let her head rest wearily upon the back of her seat. "As if I'd give Riddle the chance anyway" She sneered with a slanted grin. "But speaking of Riddle, where is he? Once again he's left me on my own to do his dirty work."

"Well knowing Riddle he'll be probably torturing Mudbloods." The girl named; Mildred Bowen joined in laughing. "Hey how was your summer? I got a bit worried when you stopped replying to my letters."

Veronica didn't falter her exhausted expression but merely remained, eyes closed, resting. "Where do I start? My parents have temporarily disowned me because I don't agree to what they want me to do- I'll fill you in properly about it later- but basically they've kept me on lock down in my room for last two weeks, they made sure I couldn't apparate out of my room or use the Floo network and they even took my owl off of me."

"Oh my, what did they want you to do?" Mildred exclaimed. Her hand slightly rose to her mouth in shock.

Veronica lolled her head to the side and there she opened her eyes to look at her friend who was eagerly waiting for the re-telling of her final days at Bennett Manor. "Like I said, I'll tell you later. It's too crowded in here." And there she gestured to the many faces in the dimly lit common room.

"Okay." Mildred responded sounding slightly put out. "Oh Alphard's here" She suddenly piped up happily. Even without looking over at her best friend, she could tell Mildred was smiling wildly. It was plainly obvious to even Alphard himself that Mildred had some borderline obsession with him.

Veronica perked her head up off the cushion she was resting her head on, her eyes meeting Alphard's grey ones. He didn't seem his usual upbeat self; he seemed more withdrawn and quiet than normal. As he made eye contact with Veronica he suddenly found himself looking away; looking around her at Mildred.

"Hey Alpha-"

"Do you mind giving us a minute Milly?" He asked as he now stood before the two girls. Mildred who was momentarily overcome with joy looked at Alphard with confused eyes and then towards Veronica who gave a meek nod.

"Yeah erm- okay..." She rose up from her seat quickly and left to, more than likely; find the Slytherin boy she had spoken to earlier. Alphard quickly took Mildred's seat next to Veronica.

"How has it been?" Veronica asked quietly. Alphard shook his head of dark brown curls, his handsomely contoured face clenched slightly as if it was physically paining him to speak about his final days at his family home.

"Terrible. Really, really terrible."

"I would have wrote-"

"Do you realise what you've caused Veronica? My parents won't even acknowledge my existence any more. They keep thinking that I'm siding with you-"

"But you are siding with me?" Veronica interjected, her voice sounding childlike as she seemed even more confused than Mildred had done previously.

"Right now, I just want things to go back to normal. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to do it." Alphard looked at her, his face sad as if he was pleading with Veronica to see sense.

Veronica refused the plea in his eyes, determined to keep strong and defiant. "I'm not going to marry you for the sake of keeping peace with our parents. My mum and dad haven't given a shit about me since the moment I was brought into this world." She kept her voice strong and only audible to Alphard.

"Since when did you become so selfish? Whatever happened to the Veronica I grew up with who wasn't such a brat?" he snapped.

Veronica's demeanour had changed from relaxed to provoked within a matter of seconds. "Since when did you allow your father to control your life? You said it yourself you can't stand him."

"At the end of the day Ronnie," Alphard was now on his feet towering over her causing a few of their classmates to look over in curiosity. "He's my father. I don't want to be disowned from my family because you want to act like a disobedient child."

Veronica, who held up the uninterested front she had used earlier that day with Tom Riddle, looked up at him; her pale blue eyes never ceasing contact with his. She was not falling for his intimidation tactics. "Alphard, if it was as simple as folding my arms and stamping my feet to get my own way over something so miniscule then maybe I could see your point. But this is something I am not going to let down. You can hate me as much as you want but I know for a fact I'm not marrying you just to please our parents."

Alphard's eyes suddenly softened and he returned to his seat beside Veronica who had turned away from him, staring hard at the onyx marble fireplace before them.

"I don't hate you Ron. I just want things to be normal again." Seeing that she was refusing to look at him he grasped her hand, holding it gently in his own. "Don't you want that as well?"

Veronica was to say the least startled at his touch. Looking down at the interlocking hands she then caught sight of Alphard's face. His eyes told Veronica he was being sincere but she couldn't help noticing something else in them, something she didn't want to address right now. "Right now Alphard," Her voice was quiet. "it's the least of my worries."

She quickly withdrew her hand from Alphard's. The thought of Alphard seeing her more than just a relative was scaring her to say the least. "I'm quite tired, I'm going to go to bed." She spoke all too quickly as she rose up from her seat and practically ran towards the girls' dormitories completely disregarding Mildred's calls asking her if she was okay.