Drucilla Bulstrode finally finished her leisurely awakening and bath by lunchtime, but she chose to take her lunch in her own room. She made her last two classes of the day. Nobody scolded her or asked her where she'd been that morning. In Charms, she mastered the new lesson as quickly and easily as any average student did. In Potions, she forgot half the ingredients and a couple of the instructions, and produced such an amazing mess that it took Slughorn three different spells to find the one that properly cleaned up her cauldron. He didn't scold her for her inattentiveness, but she was mildly shocked by how quickly it turned her potion into disaster, and silently reprimanded herself.

It didn't seem right to punish herself, though, not after last night. She still felt achy, but not nearly so much as before. After class, she decided to skip down to visit Hagrid, who complemented her on the health of her greensnake, and then up to her favorite spot on the Hogwarts green, near the lake. It wasn't long before one of her friends joined her.

"So," Roenna offered, dropping down beside Drucy and holding Herbert the Toad in her lap, "what did you tell Brian about me?"

Startled, Drucy racked her brain for all the things that had been said the previous night. "Uh, nothing? I mean… I guess… I did say something about how House loyalty wasn't enough to get Slytherins to help you out. But that's it, honest."

Roenna laughed wryly. "It's ok, Drucy. I was just wondering, because he took some time after class and talked to me. Actually, it's more like he asked me a few questions and listened really well. He said that his family owns a construction company. He was curious about how Dad and I were fixing up that little abandoned cottage to live in. He noticed that I've been practicing woodcarving. It was a really nice conversation."

"Well, I'm glad," Drucy replied, relieved. "I know I was out most of the day…"

"Matt told us all about it," Roenna told her. "You dueled Brian, and you held your own for over an hour! Then you told off a whole bunch of older students about how important it was to make friendships between Houses…"

"Wait, wait, Matt's been telling everybody?" Drucy asked, aghast. "I thought he'd have more sense than that!"

"No, no," Roenna answered soothingly. "Just Daniel and me, and it was very secretively. He swore us to secrecy, too, but I figured you already know about it. And it's just us here."

"Right now, anyway," Drucy pointed out. "Looks like Daniel is on his way over." She waited until her first friend at Hogwarts had joined them before correcting the story. "There's no way I was dueling for a whole hour. I'm not sure, you know, I wasn't exactly keeping track, but I'm pretty sure it was about ten minutes, maybe fifteen, tops."

"I knew Matt was boasting about that bit," Daniel said airily. "Didn't figure you had enough stamina for such a long fight."

Drucy pointed her wand at Daniel. "I've seen that the Tickling Charm can be quite effective," she deadpanned. He laughed openly as he joined them on the grass. He had a hunk of grey burled wood tucked under one arm, which he offered to Roenna. "What's that?" Drucy asked.

"Driftwood," Daniel told them. "Buddy of mine found it at the edge of the forest, near the lake. I thought you'd like to carve with it, Roenna."

"Thanks!" Roenna beamed. "I'll make something for you, if you don't mind. Something special?"

"Sure," Daniel answered. "Though you'd be hard put to find something more special than that broom. Drucy, I think I'll get it working pretty soon… I think I have the parts on right, and then it has instructions on how to set up all the flight charms…"

"I don't think a first-year should be trying to charm his own broom," Roenna pointed out, "especially a Muggleborn. No offense."

"No argument there," Daniel assured her. "Got any better ideas, then?"

"Yeah." Matt joined the little group and the conversation they were having. "Yeah, take it to Madame Hooch and Professor Flitwick. Ask them to put the charms on and let you watch."

"You don't think they'd mind?" Daniel asked hesitantly.

Matt laughed outright. "A remade Silver Arrow? Are you kidding me? The only problem's gonna be getting Madame Hooch to give it back to you!" That started a long discussion between them about Quidditch. Daniel was eager to cram all of the new sports information into his head, from broom manufacturer history to teams and players, and the two girls were left sitting next to each other in a moment of companionable silence - relatively speaking.

"Summer's coming up," Drucy remarked, looking out over the pond. "What are you going to do, Roenna?"

Roenna shrugged. "Go back home, of course. It'll be fine. We've got our little cottage, and I've missed Daddy. I know he's missed me even more. Now that I'm learning how to carve, that's something I can do that doesn't really cost any money as long as I can always find a piece of a tree somewhere. And maybe, now that I've learned magic, I can help out even more."

But the final weeks of classes were enough to change life for Drucy's friends. On the train ride back to King's Cross, with the four of them sitting in the same compartment, Daniel revealed that he was not going home to his oft-drunk and neglectful father at all. "I'm going with Roenna and her dad. I'm going to help out around the place and practice my broom-riding."

"How are they going to feed themselves and you, too?" Drucy asked bluntly. Then, she chastised herself quietly for saying something like that.

"Oh, you hadn't heard? Roenna, do you want to be the one to tell her? Can I? Ok!" Daniel grinned. "Mr. Goyle got himself a job. It's a Muggle job, actually, working for a place called Tack Construction. Seems that his work on the cottage got himself noticed somehow."

Matt leaned back in his seat, next to Roenna and diagonal from Drucy. The girls had entered the compartment first and monopolized the window seats. "I guess it's really weird, isn't it, a Slytherin graduate of Hogwarts doing skilled labor like a Muggle. What brought him to that? How does he feel about it?"

"If he's happy, then I'm happy," Roenna asserted. "I guess, by the time he started begging Gryffindors and Ravenclaws for my Hogwarts money, he didn't think he had any lower to go."

"If it really counts as 'lower'," Daniel pointed out. "He sure as heck isn't any lower than my dad. And you know what? Lots of Muggles work Muggle jobs and make good Muggle money, including the parents of every Muggleborn in Hogwarts. All the more power to him, I say. Why is it a step down to be a Muggle, anyway?"

Nobody had an answer for this.

"I'll invite you over some time during the summer," Matt offered to Drucy, as the train slowly ground to a halt. "I'd love to show you around the place. And maybe you'd like to return the favor."

"Do you think Mom would let me?" Drucy asked. She was the only one not reaching for luggage. Topsy had already brought hers home.

Matt laughed. "A Gryffindor-heavy wealthy house? What makes you think she wouldn't?"

Drucy had to concede the point. "Mom's probably going to try to get me into some sort of enrichment class during the summer, too," she told Roenna. "If it's ok with you, I'll ask her if you can come, too."

"I'll take any enrichment I can get," Roenna answered plainly, amused. "You go ahead and put in a word for me, Drucy."

Drucy didn't actually see her sister once during the entire train ride. But when she climbed out of the train and saw Esme together with her parents, waiting for her and looking very happy to see her, she lost all thoughts of properly offering her goodbyes to her friends. She hurried to take her place with them, and put in her vote for ice cream at home instead of Diagon Alley.

When they got home, though, her mother presented her with a surprise gift certificate to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes… and told her she was proud.

"This isn't the end of the story, of course," the Hat told Headmistress McGonagall that evening. "This generation learned a lesson. Within three years, they'll all be at each other's throats again. It's going to take a very long time for a Gryffindor family to not mind if their child is Sorted into Slytherin, or for a Slytherin family to not mind a Sort into Hufflepuff."

McGonagall smiled grimly. "Of course. We had House unity briefly, at the end of the Second Wizarding War. This year, we had it for a few months. How long will it last next time? I would not have expected an object that was enchanted hundreds of years ago to have so much less patience than I do. And when it happens, I'll expect it to have been the result of your own Sorting work, so you'd best get your head out of your own demise and into the delicate balance you were made to create."

"You're right, of course," the Hat suddenly acquiesced, and fell utterly silent.

For that moment and several weeks following, it remained silent, but that did not stop McGonagall from casting suspicious looks at it several times each day.

THE END