Hermione slipped into the classroom and fussed a little with rearranging the couches. She tugged a pillow this way and moved a side table that way and moved a bowl of crisps from one table to another and then back again.

"Nervous?" Hannah asked her, wiping her own hands on her jumper.

"Yeah," Hermione admitted.

Draco came in behind her and, taking her hand, led her to one of the couches. "I can't do this if you're not here," he said very quietly in her ear. "Just… don't - "

"I'll sit here the whole time," she said.

Theodore came in and refused to sit. He just leaned up against the wall and stared at the still empty couches with a blank expression. "Is this going to be one of those parties no one comes to?" he asked.

"It doesn't start for five more minutes," Hannah said with a frown. "I'm sure people will - "

"I'm here, all right?" Pansy stomped into the room, her overpriced, ostentatious bag swinging from her shoulder, and glared at Hannah. "I said I'd be here and I'm here." She slammed her body down into a chair so no one could sit next to her and looked at the bowls of crisps. "Is that it?" she asked. "I think for this there should be beer, and not butterbeer either."

She looked at Theo and he patted his pocket and she smiled.

"You shouldn't drink if you're taking - " Hermione began.

"Trust me, swot, I know," Pansy said. "Doesn't mean I don't want to."

Neville slipped in the door and walked with diffidence to the couch next to Hermione's. "Hey," he said to her.

"Hey, yourself," she said.

"Interesting first week," he said.

"Yeah," Hermione said as the little second year who had defended Draco the first night came inside the door and stood, uncertainly, on the edge of the room.

"Is this just for - "

"No!" Hannah realized she might have sounded too enthusiastic so she said again, moderating her tone, "it's for anyone who wants to come."

The boy nodded and, looking around, sidled over to the couch where Hermione and Draco were sitting. Once there he positioned himself on the same seat as they were but as far away from them as he could get. He smiled at Hermione and she smiled back. "It was brave of you to come in here," she offered.

"Isn't bravery supposed to be our thing?" he asked.

Hermione nodded. "You still are," she said. He huddled back into the arm of the couch and didn't answer her.

Padma walked into the room. She looked tiny in her giant jumper and she pulled a chair over to the lit fireplace and sat next to it. "I'm always cold," she said to no one in particular.

Susan Bones loped in, her mouth painted in a garish red that was wrong for her skin tone, and sat next to Neville. "Hi everyone," she said. "What a summer, huh?"

"Where'd you stay?" Neville asked her.

"Well," she said a little too brightly, "As I'm sure some of you know the Death Eaters murdered my whole family. Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone." She flashed a smile first at Draco who dropped his chin even lower, then at Theodore, who blinked at her in slow motion like a cat but didn't otherwise respond. If she was disappointed by the their lack of reaction she didn't show it, just said, "So I got to stay with some distant cousins. Muggles. It was really fun."

"Really?" Pansy drawled.

"Oh yes," Susan said. "There's nothing better than a houseful of people who aren't quite sure what to make of the suddenly orphaned 17-year-old who cries every night. They told me to put it behind me and move on, try to be more normal. I think I heard the phrase 'stiff upper lip' every day for two months." Her smile contorted to a grimace. "Someone please pass me the crisps if you don't mind."

Neville reached over and grabbed the nearest bowl and handed it to her.

"So, anyway," she said. "I'm here because at least at school I have a place to sleep where no one tells me I… I… I… that it was… that they…." And then she broke down into racking sobs that filled the room and everyone shifted where they were sitting, unsure of what to say.

It was Theo who finally broke the silence. "Your Muggle relatives sound like fucking arseholes," he said.

. . . . . . . . . .

A/N - People have been asking when we get nothing but a cute dramione moment and it's coming. Chapter 55. I had forgotten to include just moments of the two of them because I was so focused on getting the plot lines for all eight 8th years and Ginny established but they are coming.