An: I know it's been nearly five years. I'm sorry. Life has been incredibly rough. Thank you for sticking with me.

After word of what Hermione had done in the infirmary had spread, most of the school had given her a wide berth, being very careful not to aggravate the Slytherin Princess. The Slytherins, while they did include her, treated her like glass. She hadn't figured out if they were afraid of her or afraid of her father but, either way, it was starting to get on her nerves. Being constantly surrounded by people who acted lukewarm to her (at best) was a huge change from the almost familial atmosphere that had developed in the time since she had joined them. Hell, even Draco was gentler with her; no more love bites or play-fighting, he hardly even kissed her anymore. If they kept this up, she would be plotting the whole house's murders before the end of the week.

Friday morning at breakfast, she decided she'd had enough, things were going to change immediately, or she was going to destroy people.

"Draco," she purred, "why is everyone treating me like glass?"

"Well, it could be that your father threatened to break each bone in everyone of our bodies if you got so much as a bruise because of our, how did he put it-"

"Irresponsibility around the Heir apparent of the empire." Pansy piped in. Draco huffed. Hermione growled and gently placed her fork back on to her plate. She rose, the cool, collected lady of breeding everyone expected her to be, and walked briskly out of the great hall.

She'd made it halfway to the owlry before she decided that sending an angry letter to the man who planned to take over the world and put her in charge probably wasn't a smart idea. So, she turned around, heading for the dungeons so she could draft the talk she would be giving the house after dinner.

HGDM HGDM HGDM

After skipping most of her morning's classes, Hermione had arrived at what she felt was quite a rousing speech. She asked Pansy to spread the word that after dinner, she expected everyone's full attention for a house meeting. Feeling fully confident in her ability to regain the comradery of her housemates, she headed off to potions in the best mood she'd had in a week.

Of course, this term, the Slytherins were sharing potions class, in what Hermione was sure was some cockamamey plan by her least favorite old coot to convince her to come back to the "right" side. With a steely gaze, she waited outside of the classroom. As more students started to congregate outside the door, she felt Draco's strong arms wrap gently around her waist, his head sitting gently in the crook of her neck.

"Where were you all morning?"

"I was busy," She whispered.

"Doing what?"

"I was writing. You'll hear what about later."

The boy-who-just wouldn't die rounded the corner, along with his red headed buffoon. Ginny trailed behind, looking less than amused. Harry looked particularly bold as he approached Hermione.

"This is going to be great," She almost giggled. She was looking forward to hitting someone. At least this way she could work out some of her frustration. Some of the Slytherin boys moved in, to form a protective barrier, which she noticed mostly because of the sudden lack of Draco's arms around her waist. Before she had really registered what was happening, He had moved in front of her, blocking her line of vision, and practically puffing up. She saw a flash of red, as Ginny joined the ranks, coming to stand next to her and gently placing her hand over Hermione's, presumably to keep her from drawing her wand.

"What are the arsrholes up to today?" She asked as Ginny grabbed her arm slightly tighter.

"They may have seen my new tattoo, and may not be so thrilled about it." Ginny huffed. Obviously having already had a rough day.

"How the hell did that happen?"

"Long story, I'll have to tell you later." Hermione turned to look at her friend and noticed that her hair was pulled down over the side of her face, rather than pulled back like normal.

"What the hell did they do to you?" Her voice raised and she felt her hair start to frizzle.

"Not now, 'mione. We can talk about it later. You need to stay calm, or else we're all going to be in a lot of trouble."

Harry chose this moment to speak.

"What the hell have you done to her 'mione? You'd really stoop so low as to imperious someone who was your friend for so long?" Ronald chose to butt in.

"Really, 'mione? My sister? How could you?" His face was just as red as his hair.

"What have I done to her?" Hermione was furious. "What have you done to her? Spent her whole life making her feel inferior, ignored the danger to put her in, failed to rescue her when you thought she was in danger… and you're blaming me for her coming to her senses and realizing who her real friends are? That's thick even coming from you Ronald Weasely." She sighed deeply. "And Harry, I can't tell if you're more upset that she defected from your absurd movement, or that she doesn't moon over you anymore. At least if you accused me of interfering in your love life I might be able to take you seriously."

Harry sputtered and turned almost as red as Ron. Then, the door to the potions classroom opened and a stream of third years came out, being very careful to keep their eyes directly in front of them rather than on the scene occurring on both sides of the corridor. The Slytherin contingent swiftly entered the classroom, and Ginny dragged Hermione to the very front of the classroom, where the constant watch of their diligent potions master would ward off any further annoyance from the wild Gryffindor boys.

Hermione was still pent up as she aggressively chopped potions ingredients. Every once in a while she would turn her head to see the two boys in the corner, who remained as red as when she had seen them in the hall and were talking angrily to one another. She got a little too aggressive with the knife , and too distracted trying to get into the boys brains, and cut her finger.

"Shit!"

"Ms. Zabini, language!" Snape spat out, trying to cover his concern.

"Sorry professor, I missed my ingredients and caught my finger." She waved her hand over her finger to heal her cut. "I'm fine now."

"Perhaps, If you paid more attention to your work, and less attention to your classmates, you would be more precise in your technique." He quipped. Hermione didn't answer but resolved to pay more attention to her work. She finished cutting her ingredients and added them to her cauldron. Taking advantage of her down time she sat down and started to speak quietly to Ginny.

"What on earth did they do to you, and why didn't you heal the bruise they've left on your face?"

"You have to promise not to get angry. You know we'll deal with it but I'm not going to tell you if you're going to do the freaky hair thing." Ginny looked more scared of her reaction than she looked upset about what had happened.

"Fine. I will do my best not to get upset. I just get angry when people think they can screw with my friends." Hermione crossed her arms, not impressed in the least.

"When I was going back to my room during my free period, the buffoons ambushed me. Them and a couple of the other boys from the nonsense club. They actually had the audacity to grab me, almost like they forgot they were wizards. I obviously wasn't having it, so some punches got thrown. Someone threw a petrificus my way, then they nullified my glamour, and the rest, as they say, is history."

"And you didn't wipe their memories because?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"By the time it wore off, they were long gone. I didn't even see everyone involved. And at this point, I'm sure the old coot already knows." Ginny sounded frustrated. "I can't go back to the tower, Hermione, I don't trust a single one of those lions." She sounded a little scared.

"You won't go back there. Absolutely not. Rules allowing or not, you will be joining us in the Slytherin dorms. Care to explain why you left the bruising?"

"So I can go whinge to McGonagall and maybe lose Gryffindor some house points." Ginny smirked. "Of course, they may also help with the move… I can clearly claim that I don't feel safe in my current living situation."

The timers for their potions went off and the two girls went back to work.

HGDM HGDM HGDM

Once everyone had filtered down back to the Slytherin common room, Hermione began to hold court. All the soft black sofas had been moved into rows, to create more of an audience. The students had seated themselves by rank, with older students sitting in the front, and younger, less affiliated students to the rear.

"You're all probably wondering why I've gathered you here tonight." Hermione started her speech. "I'm aware that some of you received explicit instructions to ensure that no harm comes to me. That's all fine and dandy, but I'm fairly certain that nowhere in those instructions were you told to stop interacting with me or to treat me as a china doll. I'm over it. You can fight all my fights for me, keep Dumbledore far away from me, and make sure that tweedledee and tweedledum don't poison my food for "stealing" their sister-slash-girlfriend. But, if you keep keeping me at arms length, I may very well explode. Any questions?" She gave everyone a pointed look.

When no one dared to ask any questions, Hermione walked away from the gathering and got to work helping Ginny settle into the extra bed in the room that had been set aside for the eighth year girls. They laughed and joked together, and HErmione finally started to feel like she belonged again.

AN: This chapter is the last chapter I intend to post on FF. This story will be continued on AO3, where it can become a little more intense and lemony.