A/N Yes, to anyone that reads Angelic Troublemakers - and if you don't, go do it :D - I'm still writing it. Just got distracted with this instead. And yes, there will probably be Drarry in this, because I can't resist. I feel like this could have been just as good (or bad, you decide) with Harry and Draco instead of Hermione and Pansy, but there's a surplus of amazing Drarry fanfictions on this website (if you want recommendations, PM me) and very few good Pansmione. So I'm trying to change that, not sure if I'm succeeding.

Reviews, favourites, and follows are highly appreciated!

Hermione freezes. She's in the great hall, books stacked in her arms, ready for the day.

Harry meets her eyes and gives a sympathetic wince then a shake of the head.

Hermione's usual spot has been taken by Lavender, who's leaning forwards as she talks to Ron enthusiastically. In contrast, he's leaning backwards, politely saying something to her as he pushes her back. That is, until he looks up, meets Hermione's eyes, and kisses Lavender.

Hermione winces. She meant what she said, she doesn't like Ron anymore, but she had also thought that they were destined to be one day. Plus, she still doesn't like seeing Lavender around Ron from the 6th year. She's not sure she even liked Ron back then though.

It was often Lavender that she found her eyes lingering on.

She shakes her head. Obviously she was just jealous of Ron and was wondering what it would be like to kiss him, and so thought about the person who was kissing him. Obviously. Anyway, she doesn't like him that way now, so it's a moot point.

She scans the table, looking for a spare spot. The 7th and 8th years tend to clump up together, and the only spot free is with the 2nd years.

She sighs and takes a step forward. Then, on an impulse, she turns her head towards the Slytherin table.

Pansy is looking directly at her. Hermione remembers her words in the library. Come sit with me. She hopes that she truly meant that, because, Merlin help her, that's what she's going to do.

She carefully ignores the people she's sitting with. She doesn't have anything against Daphne Greengrass, who's quiet and smart, but she's not fond of Blaise Zabini, and doesn't like Goyle or Malfoy. However, she knows they went through just as much during the war, especially last year, and she's willing to believe that they could have been influenced by their parents.

She hears a conversation stop as she passes the Hufflepuff table. The Gryffindor and Slytherin tables have always been on opposite ends of the hall, probably to stop inter-house disputes. There's a muffled cough from a 3rd year Ravenclaw who looks terrified as she steps past him. She glances back at the Gryffindor table for a second. Ron's looking directly at her, looking horrified, Harry's pale, Ginny's looking confused. Seamus, Dean, and Parvati are gaping and glancing at each other as if to confirm what they're seeing. Hermione smiles.

Pansy clears her throat as Hermione walks up to their table. Malfoy, Goyle, and Greengrass stop their conversation and turn to face her. Their faces are masks of confusion and worry. She rounds the table, and Pansy stands up.

Blaise grins, leaning back. 'Go on, Pans. Tell her what happens to Gryffindors who venture into the ''Den of Snakes'' ' He says the last bit in a mock-mystical voice that doesn't sound dissimilar to Trelawney's.

Hermione glances at Pansy hesitantly. Did she mean what she said? Or has she changed her mind.

Pansy grins. 'Shove over Zabini. There's plenty of room here.'

He gapes for just a second, then closes his mouth. Silently, he moves over to the right.

Hermione considers the spot for a long moment, then sits down. Pansy follows suit, still grinning like the cheshire cat. She doubts anyone at this table would get that reference. The 5th, 6th, and 7th years are open-mouthed, swivelling their heads between Hermione, Pansy, and then looking at Malfoy, Zabini, and Goyle as if to reassure themselves that they're not the only ones discomforted here.

'I take it you didn't tell your friends that I was visiting.'

'I didn't know if you'd have the bravery.'

'A Gryffindor without bravery.'

'Okay, she said she's a Gryffindor. That reassures me that we're not in an alternate universe where you and Granger are friends,' Zabini says, eyes narrowed. 'Are we? I wouldn't have thought so, but when a lion sits with the snakes, anything is possible.'

Malfoy closes his mouth, narrows his eyes at Zabini, and apparently decides that the boy's statement is more important than the problem of Hermione sitting with them. 'Must you continue to refer to us by the animals on our crests? It's unseemly, and stupid.'

'Your name means a large snake.'

'A dragon is not a snake!'

Hermione bites her lip. She doesn't want to draw their attention back to her, but…

'Actually, the basilisk is regarded as a pseudo-dragon, being descended from dragons, but is clearly a species of snake since it speaks parseltongue. Therefore, one could argue that dragons are snakes.'

Malfoy snaps his head back to her and glares. 'What's know-it-all doing at our table, Pans.'

Hermione closes her eyes. She hates that every moment that anyone calls her that - which is a common insult for her - she'll think of Ron, and what he said.

Pansy's hand touches hers under the table, and squeezes it. Hermione remembers her panicked expression and worry for her yesterday. Maybe all Slytherins aren't so bad after all.

'I like her.' Blaise announces in a loud voice. 'She has you owned, Malfoy. Dragons are snakes, therefore your name is a snake, therefore you are the most snakey of us all, therefore your opinion about not calling Slytherins snakes is stupid, therefore you are stupid.'

Hermione wonders if his idea about alternate universes before wasn't so incorrect. Since when was Zabini so informal? For that matter, since when was Pansy nice? And Zabini and Malfoy were arguing about whether dragons are snakes a moment ago. That doesn't sound like evil snakes - she smiles - plotting to take over the world.

'Therefore you are stupid,' Bulstrode leans over from where she was sitting and mocks Zabini's accent, 'That'll tell him, Blaise. What a retort.'

'Excuse me, Miss Punch-Everyone-That-Annoys-Me. You don't even use words to solve your problems. What would you know about them.'

'I'm on Draco's side. Calling us snakes reduces us to our house, and we know how the others feel about us now, even if they didn't before.' Millicent frowns.

Everyone falls silent. Hermione thinks back over the year, remembering slurs thrown at them, tripping jinxes in the hallway that were ignored, the older students showing up to class with bruises or not showing up at all. She guiltily remembers shrugging those off, assuming they deserved it or that the perpetrators would be caught. The Slytherins had been the victims this year, and even if some had done similar things to the other houses, two wrongs didn't make a right.

'Don't feel sorry for us, Granger,' Malfoy says, looking straight at her. 'I can see your pity in your face. You'd never make a good Slytherin. You show your emotion too easily.'

'We don't deserve your pity.' Goyle says quietly.

'We were awful,' Pansy adds, 'And we knew it. Sure, we can also blame our parents, our families, but in the end, we could have chosen not to, and we didn't. It's not self-pity. It's just facts. We were awful people, we deserve what's happening to us, and we can endure it and use it to become better people. Don't feel sorry for us.'

Hermione just sits there. She's trying hard, so hard, to not feel sorry for them, but in the end, it was circumstances doing this to them, just like it did to Harry. And at least Harry got his happy ending. Even if he's not dating Ginny anymore. Their happy ending still came true. Even if she's not dating Ron, and he's not talking to her, and Harry's taking his side.

Maybe the true meaning of resilience isn't struggling to fight during a war, but struggling to remake their lives after it's over and move on.

'Can I feel sorry for the 1st and 2nd years? The kids who didn't have a choice and were hated because of what a hat said?'

'Please do. Maybe you'll convince your housemates to treat them better. It's getting old taking curses and jinxes for them, taking bruises so they don't have to,' Malfoy says, a wry smile forming on his mouth. 'Merlin knows we have enough bruises as it is.'

Hermione glances at Pansy.

'Slytherins stick together,' she says simply, 'Especially when the rest of the country has abandoned us.'

'We're noble, and loyal, and all that. We might not be chivalrous, but chivalry's dead anyway.' Theodore Nott leans over to contribute to the conversation.

'And kind of sexist.' Millicent agrees.

'All right, I get it! You're all amazing people who are perfect in every way.' Hermione says.

'Hardly,' Malfoy sniffs. 'But the point that we're trying to make, that we're trying to drive into your thick Gryffindor skull' - 'Excuse me?' - 'Is that not all Slytherins are evil and terrible and scary just because we're in that house. When did ambitious and cunning become wicked and manipulative?'

'Not that there's anything wrong with being manipulative.' Pansy adds with a smirk.

Hermione sighs. 'I never believed that all Slytherins are evil anyway. Harry was almost put into Slytherin. He's not evil.'

Malfoy gapes slightly, and the others raise eyebrows. They look almost impressed with him.

'Talking of Potter,' Pansy begins with a wicked glance at Malfoy. He shakes his head frantically at her. 'Is he seeing anyone? I heard tell that he broke up with the Weasley girl. I know someone who's interested in him?'

'Just one?' Hermione grins. 'Practically the whole school's interested in him. Happen to share a name that I can pass onto him?'

Draco shakes his head frantically, the others laugh, and Hermione feels like perhaps, just perhaps, this could be a home, a beginning of friendship that could help make up for, even fill, the void Ron and Harry left.