Ahhh. I know you all probably hate me right now for not updating this at all like I should be doing. I tried to get a friend to nag me about it, but she kept forgetting too. Haha. Ah well, at least I tried, right? By the way, a lot of you have emailed me asking me for advice about various life issues, feel free to keep doing that. I've experienced so much in my life that I'm happy to share what I've learned with other interested people. So, new chapter time!

Disclaimer: I really wish I could hold claim to being a world-renowned author, but I can't. So, all these characters except for Star, Jason and Alex are completely hers.

These people are the coolest people EVER.

PrettyPrincess01- Haha. Well, they are now.

TomxFeltonsxWifeyx3- I know. So many people were trying to predict my story that I thought I'd throw them a loop.

Raine Windwhisper- I completely agree with you. It was weird coming back to this story months later. I've noticed so many changes to my writing styles.

anon666- Star is a Griffindor to add conflict, and that's why Jason and Alex are in the story too. Draco would not have been enough.

meto- Thanks. I try.

Obsessionist- Thanks.

icerelief2004- Trust me, I know exactly what you mean. I hate it when a character goes against human nature. I'll be doing my best to make Hermione keep her character except for any changes that a normal person would make under certain circumstances. I'm hoping that this story will not be what anyone expected. It's definitely not what I expected, and I'm the writer. D

raven the black bender- Don't worry. I will.

iloveharrypotter4eva- Thanks! And thanks for helping with the ruler issue too. Not that many people read the author notes. I'm impressed.

Draco's Princess 92- Haha. Sooorrrryyy.

BlackScream16- Because it was only a mild sort of beauty charm it doesn't last that long. It wore off enough that powerful witches and wizards could recognize her and it will continue to wear off. Hermione's going to find that out in this chapter actually.

tamurl07- Hope you like this chapter too.

Review:

Dumbledore smiled at me. "Hermione D'Avrene, formerly Hermione Granger."

A ripple went through the crowd as he said that and I could feel people muttering and watching me as I walked up to the platform and sat down. I waited for the hat to call out Gryffindor, but I was not expecting what it did call.

Its voice rang out through the hall clear as a bell, "Slytherin!"


Story Time:

They're gonna find you, just believe.
You're not a person; you're a disease.
All these lives that you've been taking,
Deep inside, my heart is breaking.
Broken homes from separation.
Don't you know it's violation?
It's so wrong, but you'll see.
Never gonna let you take my world from me.
The world outside these walls may know you're breathing,
But you ain't comin' in.
You ain't comin' in.

-Chris Daughtry

(All These Lives)

I sat there for a moment. I felt a shudder pass through my body in fear and confusion. Part of me wanted to cry and another part of me wated to grab that stupid hat and rip it into shreds. I glanced up and looked at the students and faculty, all of whom were staring at me in complete shock. It took me a moment to realize that there was absolute silence filling the hall. Nobody was saying anything, just watching me. I took a deep breath and pushed my emotions to the side. I had always been stubborn and proud, I wasn't going to let anyone see how I really felt, how much this scared me. I stood up slowly and stalked off the platform with my head held high. I felt every pair of eyes in the hall watching me as I walked to the end of the Slytherin table and settled myself as far away from anyone else as I could possibly get.

Finally, after what seemed like hours Dumbledore stood up. He cleared his throat awkwardly and peered around the room through his half-moon glasses.

"Well," he said, "welcome back from the holidays. I hope you all enjoyed a pleasant time with your family and friends. Now, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that as always the Forbidden Forest is off limits and…"

I tuned him out and instead stared down dejectedly at my plate. I still felt the hundreds of pairs of eyes boring into my back, I did my best to ignore everyone and not meet anyone's eyes.

Draco's POV-

I watched her move over to sit down at my table. I was just as surprised as anyone else to see her placed in Slytherin. My mind flickered back to the brief time I had spent with her this summer. I gritted my teeth. I had come so close to kissing her and at the last minute she had backed out. I was not used to being refused, especially by a girl. I had decided this summer that Hermione was going to be my goal. It would be a challenge to get her, but as a Malfoy I was always up to a good challenge. The fact that she was now in Slytherin was a shock, but it would make my life a great deal easier. After all, I would be the only one she actually knew, even somewhat.I glanced over at her again she looked sort of cute sitting there all by heself staring down at her empty plate. If I had a little more emotion I might even feel somewhat sorry for her, but I am a Malfoy and therefore feel very little and when I do I only feel for myself, nobody else. Under the pretense of stretching I stood up and wandered over to her and sat down right next to her.

Hermione's POV
I felt someone sit down next to me and I glaced over through my eyelashes. I recognized Draco's profile through the thick lashes and lifted my head to look at him. He smiled down at me with an oddly kind expression on his lips.

"So, Slytherin huh?" he asked with a little bit of a laugh.

I sighed and buried my head into my hands with a groan. "What the hell is going on here Malfoy? I'm not supposed to be here. I'm supposed to be over there sitting with Harry, Ron and Star. Not over here at a table where everyone hates me."

He put his arm around me sympathetically and pulled me a bit closer to him then I would normally have liked from anyone except Harry or Ron, but I was to upset to do anything about it. "It's okay Hermione, not eveyone hates you. In fact, with your new pureblood status you should be well liked in Slytherin."

"I'm beginning to think that's not such a good thing," I groaned.

"Well, you're going to need to accept it. You know the rules. Once the sorting hat choses…"

"… It has chose, I know. Still, why me, why now? This is our sixth year for god sakes. I need to stay with my house. The last thing I need right now is to be in Slytherin."

He gave me a overdramatically shocked expression. "Well, if I didn't like you so much, I'd be insulted." Then he turned away from me, "Blaise, get Pansy, Daphne, Nott and Kali over here."

Blaise nodded and beckoned the four of them over. Then he himself moved so we were all seated together in a group.

"Well Hermione, you've already meet Blaise, but I don't think you've been properly introduced to any of the others. This is Pansy," he said and gestured to the familiar face of Pansy Parkinson that I knew all too well. As usual her short black hair framed her square face and her brown eyes were caked in too much make up. I nodded at her then glanced away. It was hard to control my hatred for her, especially when she was right next to me.

"And this is Daphne Greengrass and Kali Higgs." Kali was a thin girl with curly white blonde hair and violet colored eyes. She had a rounded face and like Pansy, her face was caked in make up. She looked at me and gave me a little smile as she was introduced. As for Daphne, she had long thick chesnut brown hair and green eyes surrounded by thick black eyeliner.

"And Theodore Nott." I looked at him, he had changed from a thin weasel like boy into a pretty well balanced guy. His brown hair hung down over his eyes which were also brown, but he had a cute face and his cheek dimpled when he smiled at me.

"This is Hermione D'Avrene."

I looked over at Malfoy and on impulse said, "Call me Mia."

"Mia?" Malfoy asked. "Why?"

I blushed a little, I don't know what had prokoked me to say that. It just seemed to me that Hermione would not ever be able to accept being in Slytherin, even if she needed to, but Mia might be able to deal with it. "It's what Star calls me."

Malfoy looked over at me in a sort of understanding and then nodded. "Alright then Mia."

Sometime during this whole conversation food had appeared on the table and people had begun eating. We stopped talking and instead filled our plates with food. Instead of not being hungry, like I usually was when I was sad, I had become almost ravenous. I filled my plate up and began to eat. I noticed the Slytherin's seemed to talk very little and listen a lot more. I was so used to the usual chatter of the Gryffindor table that this was very unusual for me. However, I knew I had to get used to it, at least for now. After all, with Malfoy being unusually nice, it wouldn't be that bad. He kept looking over at me with a sort of smirk on his lips, it was beginning to give me the creeps.

Soon the meal was over and people began to stand up and filter out of the doors of the Great Hall. I stood up to go and realized I didn't know where the Slytherin common room was. I sighed and looked around the hall. Star was beckoning me over to where she was standing with Harry, Ron and Ginny. I walked quickly over to them.

"Hermione, what is going on?" Harry asked. "Why are you over there? We all know you should be in Griffindor."

He had a pained expression on his face while Ron and Ginny just looked lost and confused. Star looked worried, confused and even a little guilty.

"Is it my fault you're not in Griffindor?" Star asked.

I tried to smile at her reassuringingly "No, it's not your fault." Then I looked at Harry and Ron, "It's not all that bad. Malfoys being really nice and he introduced me to a few people."

Ron gave me a look, "I don't like that Hermione. He shouldn't be treating you that nice unless he has a motive. You can't trust him and I don't like the way he was touching you earlier. He's probably just after sex, don't believe anything he tells you, he's up to something."

I opened my mouth to tell Ron he was worried for no reason, but before I could say anything, I heard Malfoy calling me. "Mia, come on let's go."

Ron looked at me angrily, "Why is he calling you that? Hermione, what's going on?"

I was too tired to even try to explain to the jealous Ron and I knew that there was just going to be a big issue if I tried. "It's nothing Ron. I'll see you all tommorrow."

Then without saying anything else, I turned and walked away towards Malfoy, I just didn't want to deal with Harry and Ron. They were acting ridiculous. Who really cared if Malfoy was being nice to me. It was none of their business. It wasn't until later that I realized I had taken Malfoy's side over Harry and Ron.

Malfoy, Blaise, Nott, Kali, Daphne, and Pansy lead me down through a series of long hallways and passageways in the dungeons that I had never known existed. They then lead me to what appeared to be a blank wall. Malfoy glanced down at a small slip of paper. "Serpent." He said.

I watched the door slide slowly open and appear out of the apparently blank stone wall. It reminded me of the way to get into Diagon Alley. I followed the group into the common room and froze. The walls were covered in green and silver drapes and tapesties. There were green silk couches with silver pillows and embrodiery. However, what had surprised me the most was the blare of sound that hit me as soon as I entered the room. I was used to the relative calm and quiet of the Griffindor common room after the feasts, but the Slytherins seemed to never sleep. The main source of the noise came from the wizard stero which was blaring the wizard version of rap music.

I noticed the only Malfoy, Blaise and Kali were standing by me. The others had slowly intergrated themselves with the others who were dancing. Malfoy smirked at me. "It's a bit different from the balls, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah," I sputtered, "just a bit. Tell me, do you guys ever sleep?"

Malfoy laughed, "Hardly. We spent most nights partying."

"Doesn't Snape notice anything?"

Malfoy got a strange look on his face. "He doesn't mind."

I glanced over feeling there was more to it than that, but I did not press the issue. Instead I watched Kali begin the flirt all over Blaise. I glanced over and noticed Malfoy eyeing me. I began to feel pretty uncomfortable. I was used to my normal plain appearance and this apparently "hot" new body didn't really feel like me.

"Want to dance?" Malfoy asked with a odd expression on his face. He held a shot of wizard vodka in his hand and tipped his head back, gulping it down. I took a second glance around the room and noticed that mixed in with all the dancing and grinding were people doing drugs and drinking shot after shot of alchol. My uneasiness increased and I felt very out of place.

"Umm. I think I'm going to go to bed, I'm kind of tired." I muttered and headed towards the stairs.

"Come on Hermione," Malfoy pleaded. I felt him snake his arm around my waist.

"No Malfoy, I don't think so." Then I turned and ran up the stairs escaping the common room.

I followed the signs up to the 6th year girls rooms and paused outside the door. I could hear the sounds of a girl crying inside. Cautiously, I opened the door and saw a hunched figure with white blonde hair curled up on the bed.

"Kali?" I asked and went closer.

She looked up at me and I gasped, she was wearing a white tank top and the pale skin on her arms were covered in black and blue bruises. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "Kali…" I sat down next to her. "What happened?"

She looked up at me, "Blaise."

"No way. He shouldn't be doing that to you, who does he think he is?" I stood up, fully ready to storm downstairs and confront him.

"Mia, don't. Please. Let me handle it, he doesn't mean it and he was drunk."

"That's still no excuse…"

"Please, Mia. He'll kill me and you too."

I looked down at her face and her big pleading sad eyes and sighed. "Fine, but if happens one more time…"

She sighed in relief. "Thanks. Why aren't you down there?"

"Umm. Partying isn't really my thing."

"Yeah, I know how you feel. When I trasfered from Beauxbaton last year, I felt really out of place. You get used to it."

"I hope so," I muttered.

"You will," she smiled. "And I'll help you get used to it."

"Thanks Kali." I went over to my bed and laid down, "but all I want to do now is get some sleep."

She nodded, "Yeah, me too. Night."

"Night."

Before the word was out of my mouth I fell asleep, still fully dressed. My day had been emotionally and mentally stressful and all I wanted to do was rest.


Alright, that just about wraps up this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it. Please review, so I know that I still have people that like this story. I am already working on the next chapter and I like how it looks so far. As always, I love you all and feel free to email me with ideas or just to talk in general.