A/N: Oops?

I have a Psychology essay due this week that I haven't started that I'm putting off to write this, so... Please show your appreciation and support by reviewing? :D

Seriously though. I need to write it...

Also this chapter is slightly darker than the last one, with a possible TW for transphobia and abuse? Not that graphic but... Anyway this hit closer to home to me. (I'm genderfluid and while this hasn't happened to me... Well... It might, unfortunately. Anyway)

A hand slams down onto the desk next to Hermione and she jumps. She looks up at red hair and freckles.

'What do you want, Ronald?'

'I want to know what you were thinking? How could you sit with them? Associate with them?'

'Associate's a big word. Sure you know what it means?'

'Do you know what they've done? What they've said. Malfoy was a Death Eater, for Merlin's sake. Zabini, Parkinson, and Goyle tortured people! How can… How dare you sit with them. They deserve everything that's happened to them and more!'

'They're changing. They made mistakes, did the wrong thing. But it was the fault of their parents, and they're changing and becoming better people. We all made stupid mistakes during the war, under pressure. Everyone deals with situations in different ways. You left us during the war! Harry shouted at us and shut us out. I didn't listen to Harry's ideas about where the horcrux was.'

'Not listening to a friend is not the same thing as killing people!'

'Who killed someone?'

'Zabini's mother has killed many times.'

'Firstly, that's never been proven, and secondly, people aren't their parents.'

He just shakes his head, 'You're not who I thought you were.'

'I don't want to be who you thought I was!'

Hermione clenches her hands so hard her nails form white half-moons in her palm. She sinks down to the ground and breathes, breathes, breathes.

…

Lavender and Parvati stop talking as Hermione comes into the room. They're sitting together on Lavender's bed and glaring at her.

'What? Is it me sitting at the Slytherin's table?'

'What do you think?' Lavender asks sarcastically.

'Hermione, you weren't there last year,' Parvati tries, 'I know what you went through was awful too, but you don't understand. They tortured us. Tortured me. Tortured third- and fourth-years. We kept them from the first- and second- years, but, well, you don't think torturing thirteen-year-olds is bad? You think that they can be forgiven? Ever?'

'They haven't even tried to change. They want forgiveness from us without having to work for it.'

'They have been trying! They have been working for it! You just won't forgive them!'

Lavender stands up. She pulls back her sleeve to reveal a jagged, deep, white scar.

'Goyle gave me this in one of my detentions. I will never forgive him. And if you do, I will never forgive you.'

She walks out of the room like a queen, back straight and head held high. Parvati gives Hermione a Look, with a capital 'L', and hurries after her.

…

People keep stopping her in the hallways. Kids she doesn't even know the names of trying to convince her that all Slytherins are evil. Ravenclaws avoiding her in the small rooms and Hufflepuffs walking away from her.

Dean Thomas walked away from a conversation when she tried to join in. Seamus had immediately followed him.

Colin Creevey lifted his camera to take a picture, realised she was in the frame, and shifted so he couldn't see her.

Perhaps they wanted to make a point to Hermione that all Slytherins were evil and awful, but they were going about it the wrong way

Little first- and second-years dressed in green smile shyly at her and thank her for giving them a chance. A sixth-year picked up her books when she dropped them.

Hermione realises that Pansy, Malfoy, Zabini, and the rest must have talked to the younger students. That easily, she'd been accepted as one of them.

She's walking from Transfiguration, in which she'd been ignored by the whole class, when she hears a sob from a different corridor.

She immediately turns and heads toward the sound. The sniffles stop as she comes into view of the dark figure.

Then, as she crouches down to see who it is, a hand clutches at her sleeve.

'Please. I heard… I heard you don't hate us. Please help. It hurts. So much.'

She sees a dark stain on their shoulder and freezes.

'Are you bleeding?'

She thinks they nod, but she can't be sure.

'Lumos,' she whispers, then gasps. 'What happened?'

She was right. They were bleeding.

'We've got to get you to the Hospital Wing!'

They laugh bitterly. 'Can't. Can you heal me?'

Hermione frowns. 'I can try, but you should see Madam Pomfrey.'

They shake their head. Hermione sighs, then mutters, 'Vulnera sanentur. Vulnera sanentur. Vulnera sanentur.'

The cut slowly closes over, although their whole robe is soaked and dark.

'What happened? What's your name?'

The Slytherin shakes their head. 'Ignorant idiots happened. I'm Tori. Tori Greengrass.'

'Your sister's in my year. Daphne, right?'

Tori nods. 'Yeah. She's mentioned you a couple of times. You're the smartest Gryffindor. And people are talking and saying you tolerate Slytherins.'

'By people you mean Pansy and Malfoy, right?'

They nod. 'And Blaise, and Daphne, and Theo. All the leaders.'

'Wait, wait,' Hermione frowns. 'What did you say happened? Idiots? Who did this to you? It's illegal!'

'Nobody would believe me. Nobody would sympathize with me,' Tori sucks in a rattling breath, 'It's hard being a Slytherin. It's harder being genderfluid. It can be fatal being both.'

'Genderfluid…' Hermione says slowly. 'That means sometimes you're a guy, sometimes you're a girl, right?'

'And sometimes I'm neither.' Tori nods.

'What are you right now? What pronouns do you want me to use?'

'Right now?' Tori frowns. 'Male. He, him, and his, please.'

'Okay.' Hermione says. 'So who hurt you? I'll fight them. I'll be on your side. The teachers will be, too.'

He laughs darkly, with no amusement. 'How can they be? One of them did this to me.'