A/N: When/if you review, I'd like to request if you think this should have a next part, and if you'd prefer any particular house for a next part. (If you want one) If there is going to be more, I'm definitely leaning towards Ravenclaw, but I can do other houses as well.

In the meantime, enjoy!



Pansy Parkinson and her crowd of girls giggled, just as they had for the past hour. Elisa tried to ignore them.

"AND he also-"

"Excuse me." snapped Elisa. "SOME of us have exams tomorrow."

Linda Farra, Pansy's best friend, looked up long enough to glare at her, but she got no more acknowledgement than that.

I should just go to the common room, Elisa thought. At least intelligent people hate me there.

There were smirks and mutters as she emerged from the girl's dorms, but her fellow students must have been feeling tolerant, because she managed to study for 15 minutes in an armchair before Blaise Zabini approached her.

"Good evening, mudblood." he said. She ignored him. She'd been called worse than that.

Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him, ignore him ignore him IGNORE HIM

"Where's your mum tonight? Walking the streets, looking for a wizard to dirty with her sex? Or is it a beast-only service?"

Zabini was stronger than her, more muscular, but she was quick, agile, which turned out to be all she needed as she punched him across the face.

"Miss McCabe!" Professor Snape seemed to appear from nowhere. She looked around at the common room, meeting looks of disgust, triumph, hate. She released a feral scream of rage and jumped away from the armchair, leaping through the portrait. Not looking back, she ran through the halls, and into the Forest.

She stopped, leaning against a tree, crying. It was too much. She'd been able to handle their cruelty for a long time, but there were limits.

I'm so stupid, so stupid. Goddamned temper, I'm going to be expelled. I should just throw myself to a dragon-

"Are you lost?" said a patient voice. Elisa turned. A man leaned against a nearby tree. His hair was silver-blond and his eyes were green. He looked at her, concerned.

"No." she sighed. "Who are you?"

"You wouldn't believe me. Let me just say I'm a friend. And a...a former head of house."

She did a double take. The man couldn't be older than 30. Too young to have held more than a year or two as a teacher.

The forest holds secrets, doesn't it? Everyone says that.

"Tell me." he said, breaking the silence. "What is Slytherin house like?"

"I'm a mudblood. I'm not worthy to know about the rest of the house."

"One of my best friends was a muggle-born." he shot back. "So tell. Tell what you're like, at least."

"Well, I've got a bad temper, I don't like mixing with people, and I'm a mudblood. That enough?"

"Let it go, Elisa." The man's voice was steely and impatient. "Tell me about Slytherin house, what it is now."

"We're hated! We've all gone over to the dark side!" She blinked back tears, her energy spent. "We all belong at Durmstrang. And they all hate me. All of them."

He sighed, looking down. "I'm afraid it would have come to that. I'm sorry, Elisa."

They stood in silence for a few seconds.

"You wouldn't believe me if I gave you my friend's name. She was a great witch, you know. Intelligent. Stubborn. Kind."

"What happened to her?"

"She was killed. By someone she trusted." His face was contorted with wistfulness and hate.

Elisa looked away, at the castle. Something clicked in her mind.

Silver and green....

"I should go back." she said softly. "Thank-you, Professor Slytherin."