The following week was a hard one for Steven. It felt like he had forgotten almost everything over the break. He had a hard time finding his classes, remembering what he had already learned, and even had a hard time remembering people's names. He saw Casey in the Wishing Room when he was studying one evening, and had talked to him for ten minutes before he remembered what his name was.

When he went to Care of Magical Creatures class, he saw the friends he had met just before the break, Angela and Todd. They waved him over to a table with a large pot of mushroom shaped horklumps.

"It's good to see you, Steven!" smiled Angela.

Steven smiled at Todd, who turned a little pink around the ears. "It's good to see you guys. I feel like I should see you more often."

Angela shrugged. "We've been a little busy. We went to Todd's family's house for the holidays, and since then we've just been studying for our final exams."

"Exams aren't for a few more months though…"

"You'd be surprised how quickly they sneak up on you. Last year I didn't even think about them till a week before, and they just barely let me into my second year." said Angela.

"I'm sure you weren't that bad."

"She was." interjected Todd.

Steven laughed just as Professor Scamander started the lesson.

After they had thoroughly fed and groomed their horklumps, Steven went up to Professor Scamander.

"Professor, I have something I need to ask you about."

Professor Scamander looked over a shoulder at him as he put the last of the horklumps away.

"Steven, I was just about to ask if I could speak with you." He dusted off his hands. "I did some research on your friend's sounds. I don't know why he would be speaking dragon, but I do know there are a lot of other animals that make similar sounds. Any large lizard or snake comes to mind. I communicate with my creatures on a regular basis, and sometimes they communicate with me as well. Does your friend have any particular aptitude for a specific type of animal?"

"Um… I don't know… Maybe?"

Scamander motioned for him to sit down at a table. "I know there are some kinds of snakes that can hypnotize their victims, which would explain why you felt like you were unable to move. I know that there's particular people that have a gift for talking directly to snakes, which is absolutely fascinating. It's called Parseltongue, I don't know if you would have heard that term before. It's often associated with Salazar Slytherin. People have said that he could talk to snakes, although that could just be a myth."

Steven thought back to when he and Sylvia had talked about Tom. "Yeah, I think I remember someone telling me something about it."

Scamander nodded. "I would hazard a guess that Parseltongue was what your friend was speaking. If your friend is willing, I would love to talk to them about it. What do you think?"

Steven looked at his interlaced fingers. "I don't know if he'd be willing sir. You see… I told him about what I heard. That was actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You were really the only grown-up I told and… and I'm scared to tell anyone else. I told him that I heard him, and he was just so furious. I've never had anyone so mad at me before. I… I don't think he's my friend. I think he's… I… Is there something wrong with me?"

Steven's face was red, and his eyes were filling with tears. He hadn't realized how hurt he had been by Tom saying those things to him. His face clenched up, and he felt a hand pat his shoulder for a moment.

"Steven… I… There's nothing wrong with you. I know these things can be hard. Sometimes people just stop being friends. And that's okay."

Steven sniffed, and wiped his eyes. "I'm okay. It's just… It's just scary."

Professor Scamander handed him a handkerchief, and Steven blew his nose.

"Thank you."

Scamander smiled. "You'll be alright. Things will work out with you and your friend, even it's not what you expect."

After Steven had stopped by the bathroom to wash his face, he headed to the Great Hall for lunch. As he walked, he took a detour down a hallway he hadn't catalogued on his map yet. Coming back to Hogwarts had been more stressful than he had anticipated, and he wanted to just take a break to think about it all.

He pulled out his map, marking doorways and windows in the hallways, and even jotting down any interesting paintings or statues he came across, just to set this hallway apart from all the other ones. Steven saw a bust of a man with long curly hair, and was reminded of the Bloody Baron. When they had been talking about the S hallway just last week, he had said something about Salazar's vision… What had that meant? Perhaps the S on the wall had stood for Salazar Slytherin. It seemed likely, what with the green lights glowing from the walls. And then what was it that Professor Scamander had said? Steven tried to sort through all the emotions that he had encountered in the last hour. Steven thought he had said something about Slytherin having the ability to talk to snakes. Could all Slytherins talk to snakes then? Steven shook his head. No, if they could, then Sylvia would be able to talk to them too.

The Bloody Baron had said something else too… That he was surprised Steven was able to find the hallway in the first place. But if it was a hallway, it should always be there. Right?

Steven took a left down a hallway to find a staircase leading down to the dungeons. This was a magical castle. Steven thought about going down the hallway again, and shivered. What if it wasn't always there? Steven checked his watch. It was midday. The dungeon couldn't be that scary during the day. Maybe he should go see if it really was there. But he didn't want to go by himself.

Steven turned back in the direction of the Great Hall. He would ask Sylvia to go with him. She wouldn't mind taking a break from her classes. Maybe she was having lunch.

He set off down the corridor, and nearly bumped into someone headed the other way.

"Well, hello Egbert. I haven't seen your Mudblood face in a while."

Steven looked up to see Walberga Black. He remembered his commitment to make friends with her at the beginning of the year and gave her his best smile.

"Hi Walberga! Did you have a good holiday?"

Walberga puffed up. It seemed to Steven that she was trying to make herself look bigger and more intimidating.

"Don't try and patronize me. Your filthy little tricks won't work. Just because your friends with half the school doesn't mean I'll sink to your level of insignificance."

Steven shrugged. "If you don't want to be my friend, that's okay. I'm just friendly to everyone."

Steven was a little surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth. Normally the thought of meeting Walberga alone in a hallway would have scared him half to death, but compared to the storm he had felt coming from Tom, Walberga now seemed as harmless as a gust of wind.

Walberga sneered. "Friendly to everyone? Like how you lie about your so called 'friends' to make yourself look better?"

Steven looked at her, confused. "What? What are you even talking about?"

"Tom's told me everything." she said, inspecting her nails. "How you pretended to be his friend just so you could be seen with a Slytherin. How you threatened to tell people that Tom's parents were Muggles if he didn't invite you to be invited to Slughorn's club. How you want to be a Slytherin so badly that you cried when the Sorting Hat put you in Hufflepuff?"

Steven's heart sank. He had been sad then, but he hadn't even known what the houses were. But none of those other things were true.

"Tom said that?" Steven asked quietly.

"Every word. I didn't know you could be so heartless, to hurt all those people who were stupid enough to care about you." She smiled a cruel smile, and flipped her long black hair at him as she walked away.

Steven peeked his head through the huge oak doors of the Great Hall. He locked eyes with a Slytherin he had chatted with in Herbology before. He had hoped against all hope that Walberga hadn't told anyone else the lies that Tom had told her. No such luck. The Slytherin boy glared at Steven with such contempt it felt like he wanted Steven to jump into the Black Lake. He kept his eyes down, and saw Sylvia sitting at the Slytherin table. He made a beeline for her.

"Sylvia?"

Sylvia didn't take her eyes off her sandwich. Her eyes were full of hurt.

"I know Walberga is a bully and a liar, but… none of those things she said about you were true… right?"

Steven's heart ached. "What did you hear?"

"She said all kinds of awful things, and Tom was with her. I wouldn't have believed a word she said but… Tom was there. He's our friend too. And he was saying… he was saying that you had never been his friend in the first place. That you had only been hanging around Slytherins because you thought it would make you look better." She paused. "Is that why you're friends with me? Because you want to be in Slytherin?"

Steven reached out and hugged her. "I would never do that, Sylvia. I'm your friend because you're smart and funny and I just like being around you."

Steven let go, and Sylvia gave a small smile. "Well, if you're tricking me into being your friend, you're doing a very good job."

Steven's stomach clenched.

"I'm not trying to impress anyone. I just like being friends with everyone."

Even as he said it. Steven prayed that it was true. Originally, he had wanted to be friends with Slytherins because he wanted to be part of their group. But now, he looked at the individual people he had met, and he really just cared about each of them as a person. Not because they were in Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or any other house. At least, that's how he was trying to be.

"I believe you, Steven." Sylvia smiled. "Sometimes, I think Slytherins have such big egos that they can't see past the end of their nose."

Steven laughed. "Not all Slytherins are like that. I think you're alright."

"Yeah, well, I'm a Slytherin, so I can say that." She smiled at Steven. "C'mon. Let's get out of here."