Chapter 2

Tracey was nervously approaching the 7th floor corridor, as the directions Harry had given her instructed. As she arrived near the tapestry of the dancing trolls she noticed a door that, to her knowledge, had never been there before. Assuming this was the meeting place, she approached the door and began to slowly open it. As she did she heard voices arguing.

"-can't trust anyone from Slytherin Harry, the bitch will tell Umbridge for sure. We have to…." Tracey heard Weasley yelling across the room before Harry cut him off, having noticed as Tracey nervously entered the space.

"Hello Tracey, thank you for coming." Harry said kindly, gesturing for her to join them.

She walked towards the golden trio and silently gulped. While Harry was giving her a welcoming look, Weasley was glaring at her angrily and Granger was giving her a calculating but cold expression.

After a few tense and awkward moments Harry cleared his throat. "Anyway….. As you probably gathered the three of us were….. discussing the prospect of you joining the defense group." Ron snorted at this but Harry shut him up with a glare.

"As I was saying." He said, turning his attention back to Tracey. "I think if you were to walk Ron and Hermione through the conversation we had last week it would help them understand why you want to be here." He sighed before continuing. "It would probably be easier if we had access to a pensieve.. unfortunately…" Harry was cut off by the room shifting itself as a pensieve formed in the middle of the room.

"... well that's convenient." Harry said. Turning back to Tracey he asked. "Do you know how to use one of these?" Tracey nodded and put her wand to her head, removing the memory and placing it in the bowl. Hermione and Ron began to approach the pensieve but paused even Harry did not.

"You two go ahead, I'll keep Tracey company in the meantime." Harry said

"But Harry…." Hermione tried to protest but Harry cut her off.

"Hermione I'll be fine, she's not going to do anything to me." He said with finality.

Hermione wanted to argue but knew they had limited time before everyone else arrived. Conceding defeat, she and Ron entered the pensive.

"Sorry about them." Harry said with a shake of his head.

"I'm sure they'll come around eventually but they can both be a bit stubborn and overprotective at times."

"It's alright, I was expecting they'd take some convincing. Weasley isn't exactly known for his love of Slytherin and Granger…. Well…. I'm guessing she's not too fond of me by association." She said awkwardly.

Harry furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well I'm guessing you know Granger is a bit competitive when it comes to grades?" She asked.

Harry let out a short laugh. "Yeah that's one way of putting it."

Tracey chuckled. "Yeah well, I'm not sure if you're aware but despite her constant studying she's not the top student in our year."

This surprised Harry, granted he'd never bothered to check but he'd always assumed Hermione was number one as he couldn't imagine any other student would believe expulsion a worse fate than death "If she's not, who is?"

"My best friend, Daphne Greengrass." Tracey replied.

That name caused Harry to frown. While he didn't have an openly antagonistic relationship with Daphne like he did Malfoy and Parkinson, to say she wasn't exactly the warmest person was like saying a dragon wasn't very cuddly. He had seen her in the company of Parkinson frequently enough for it to be a fair assumption they were friends and Hermione had gone on several rants about her over the years. There wasn't a single student outside of Slytherin that didn't give her a wide berth in the halls as her icy glare said loud and clear 'I will cut out your tongue and feed it to a flobberworm if you even think about speaking to me.'

Seeing Harry's look Tracey jumped in before he could say anything. "Look, I know what you're thinking. I'm not about to tell you she's secretly all sunshine and rainbows once you get to know her, she can be more than a bit prickly, but she's not a blood bigot and she's fiercely loyal to the few she considers friends."

Disbelief filled in Harry's features as he heard this. "I want to take your word for it, truly, but why does she spend so much time with Parkinson?"

Tracey's face immediately contorted into a look of distaste and muttered something that sounded like 'snobby wretch'. "If Daphne could get away with it she'd feed Pansy to the giant squid. Daphne can't stand her but she acts the part to protect me."

Seeing his obvious confusion Tracey sighed. "Slytherin is…… complicated. There's a hierarchy and certain things are expected of you depending on where you stand."

Harry was wondering what she meant until a horrid feeling entered his head. Seeing his dawning look of horror Tracey quickly clarified. "Nothing quite so crass as what you're imagining. More that those in lower standing are expected to do the dirty work of those at the top. Spy on people, be the ones to sneak out at night if necessary, threaten or hex members of other houses to send a message, and take the fall if necessary."

"And if you refuse?" Harry asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

Tracey looked down. "You get punished…." She said softly. "Your homework gets ruined, your belongings disappear, you get locked in your room for days at a time, sometimes even end up in the hospital wing. It gets worse each time you continue to show…. Insubordination."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. How was this allowed to happen in a school? To children? It was as if Dudley and his gang had been left in charge. Suddenly his face darkened. "What have they done to you?"

"Nothing as of yet Harry, that's my point." She said but could see Harry didn't understand. "In our year, as you can probably guess, Malfoy heads the hierarchy for the boys. Since he's dating Pansy she is automatically head for the girls. Anyone who wants to be on top of the food chain has to make nice with the two of them. As a known half blood, I'm automatically on the lowest rung but Daphne is a pureblood from an old, wealthy family. By staying close to Pansy in public it secures her position as the number 2 girl which grants her certain privileges, one of which is granting protection to family members. Daphne's mother is my aunt on my father's side which gives Daphne the right to grant protection to me as well as her younger sister Astoria."

Harry felt his face soften as she said this. This was something he could understand, doing whatever it took to protect those you care about even if it meant doing something you hate and being someone you're not. Although he didn't like how she was choosing to act he respected that she wanted to protect her best friend and sister.

"It sounds like a hard way to live." He said sadly.

Tracey gave him a weak smile. "It's not ideal but I've survived so far."

"What does Daphne think about you coming here?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Tracey looked away. "She doesn't know. She would try to stop me if she did."

Anticipating his next question she added. "If I'm caught here I would become anathema in Slytherin and Daphne would be forced to drop her protection of me or risk losing all her influence."

"Quite a big risk you're taking being here. Wouldn't it be safer to keep your head down and endure it until we finish school." Harry asked worriedly.

"Would you?" She asked pointedly.

Harry didn't have to say anything, a simple shake of his head was enough.

"I will no longer sit around and just accept living in a society where people like me are expected to be silent and turn a blind eye to cruelty just to be able to survive day to day. I'd rather die." A look of fierce determination came over her.

It was that moment Ron and Hermione reemerged from the pensieve. Ron glared at Tracey for a moment before walking off to continue setting up the room. As soon as he left Tracey turned to Hermione and the two held eye contact for a tense few seconds. Finally, Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out the parchment with the signed names of each member of the defense group and forced it into Tracey's hands.

"Sign." She commanded fiercely.

Tracey placed the parchment down on a nearby table, grabbed a quill and moved to sign her name before looking up.

"What's this hexed with?" She asked.

Harry turned to Hermione with a look of confusion while Hermione paled.

"Hermione you didn't." Harry couldn't believe his friend.

"We need assurances Harry, besides it's nothing harmful just…… visual confirmation if someone exposes us." She replied defensively.

Harry was about to retort until Tracey waved him off. "It's alright Harry, she's right."

Both Hermione and Harry turned to her with shocked expressions so she continued. "If you get caught it could mean expulsion or perhaps even criminal charges against the listed members. It could even be enough to get Dumbledore removed as Headmaster. You have to have some security measures in place with stakes like this, trust isn't enough."

With that Tracey signed and handed the parchment back to Hermione and smirked. "Very Slytherin of you by the way, how many of the others knew about it when they signed?"

Hermione was struck speechless as she wasn't sure whether or not to be offended. Unable to decide, she just accepted the parchment and went to join Ron. Harry couldn't help himself and just laughed at the entire situation.

"I've never seen anyone leave Hermione at a loss for words like that, I can't believe I'm saying this about a Slytherin but I think it's going to be fun having you around." He admitted.

Tracey giggled and smiled at him. "Honestly, she and Daphne are a lot alike. Intelligent, driven, competitive, and stubborn witches who will go to lengths unknown to protect their friends."

"I can think of nothing she would feel more insulted by. You should tell her." He replied, laughing once again. "You ready? The others will be here any minute."

Taking in a large breath and steeling herself Tracey nodded "Yeah, let's do this."