Draco led Lucinda to the Slytherin common room after the feast, and sat the silent girl down on the green velvet couch before seating himself next to her. Lucinda had refused to speak to him since she'd given him her hand.

Draco reached down and grabbed her chin, but gently, and forced her to look at him.

"Why won't you speak, Lucinda? Slytherin really isn't all that bad," he asked, sneering at her. "There are quite a few good people here, once you get to know them."

"Oh, Draco!" called a voice. Draco looked over to see seventh year Edana Boyd striding over. He made a face and released Lucinda's chin.

"And here comes one of them now," he whispered sarcastically to her, pleased to here a soft giggle escape her.

Well, I'm making progress, he thought.

"Good evening, Edana," he said aloud with false cheer.

"Who's the new girl?" Edana asked, glaring at the girl who was sitting where Edana would give anything to be- right next to Draco Malfoy.

"This is Lucinda Simington and no, you may not send her to Lithuania like you did with that first year girl," Draco said firmly. Lucinda giggled quietly again, cutting it off quickly as though she didn't want Draco to know he amused her. Edana pouted.

"She made her way back just fine," she said sadly. "And I hear she's making a great recovery in the St. Mungo's 'permanent damage' ward."

"That's not the point, Edana. The point is Lucinda is fine where she is, and I'm sure she has no wish to visit Lithuania or some other equally atrocious place," Draco said. "Am I right, Lucinda?"

"Yes...although if you wanted to you could send me back to Spain," Lucinda said quietly, looking up at the older girl.

"Maybe I will," Edana said nastily. "That is, if you don't stay away from my Draco."

"I have no intention of taking "your" Draco," Lucinda said to her. Edana sneered down at her.

"You had better not," she said before stalking off. Draco shook his head and sighed.

"They just can't resist a Malfoy," he said innocently, stretching and placing his arm behind Lucinda. "Don't worry about Edana. She's harmless."

"She sent a girl to Lithuania," Lucinda reminded him.

"Nah, it was the last day of school and the girl was leaving London for vacation the next day. Edana 'hexed' her with a lot of made up words and when she was gone the next morning Edana convinced herself she's made her disappear," Draco said, chuckling at the memory. "The girl in question is sitting over there," he added, pointing at Pansy Parkinson, who giggled and waved hopefully at Draco. Lucinda made a face before laughing a little and leaning back. She felt Draco's arm there and started to sit up again, but stopped and relaxed into his half-embrace.

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the common room, occupying their three favorite chairs by the fire. Lee was walking in circles around them, muttering about a good amount of rather hideous things that he'd like to do to Draco Malfoy.

"There's always hair loss, that'd show that pompous git who he's messing with," he mumbled. Hermione, getting irritated, caught Lee's hand as he passed her chair and made him stop by pulling him down and forcing him to share her large armchair.

"Honestly Lee, you're worse than Harry and Ron sometimes," she said. "Yes, Malfoy is a git. Yes, we all hate him. Nonetheless, this continuous plotting is so very annoying. Lucinda can take care of herself, I'm sure. She said that on the train, if memory serves."

Lee sighed and situated himself to sit on the arm of the chair so that he didn't cramp Hermione. He looked over at the fire before looking back at his three new friends.

"You're right," he said. "It's just...Lucinda and I have never been separated before. At our old school, we were in all the same classes, shared a room, etc. At home we shared a room. We've always done all of the same things. I don't think I've been without her for even a second in my life," he said, pushing his long blonde hair out of his face. "I guess I'm just a little freaked by it."

Hermione reached over and patted his hand while Ron and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, that must be hard," Harry said. "You'll probably still have classes with her. We always have at least one class with the Slytherins."

"Yeah, Potions," Ron scoffed. "Every year, it's always with them. Why not the Hufflepuffs? We have friends in Hufflepuff. No, it's got to be the Slytherins." He shook his head at the injustice. "I think Snape requests it on purpose. Fortunately for me, I dropped that class last year. No more Snape for me!" he added gleefully. Hermione shot him a patronizing look.

"He's not that bad," Hermione said. "After all, he's- well, Dumbledore trusts him."

She'd been about to say He's in the Order, but she'd remembered that Lee was here. If his father was in the Ministry, he probably didn't know about the Order, so it wouldn't be wise to say anything unless it was determined that Lee already knew about it.

"My father doesn't like Dumbledore much," Lee mused. "Says he's too old to be of any use."

"Fudge fan, is he?" Harry said, scowling. Lee raised his eyebrows innocently.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't have much interest in politics. Just over the past year or so every time Dad got a letter from the Minister he started raving about Dumbledore and how he should be sacked."

Hermione sighed.

"Let's find a new topic, shall we? That one only leads to arguments," she said. "Lee, what's school like in Madrid? Any magic specific to the area?"

"A lot of Arabic magic," Lee said. "Mostly down in Andalucia, where I lived. The area was under Moor control for several years, so yeah, lots of Arabic influence."

"That's fascinating," Hermione said excitedly. Ron rolled his eyes and Hermione glared at him.

"Just because you're not interested in foreign magics doesn't give you the right to laugh at me," she said. Harry sighed and stood up.

"Obviously that's another argument prone topic as well, so why don't we all just go to bed? It's late anyway," he suggested. Lee, as if on cue, yawned and stretched widely.

"I agree," he said. "Bed sounds quite tempting."

"Alright," Ron said, shrugging and standing. Hermione also stood, and grinned at the three boys.

"Goodnight, you three," she said.

"G'night, Hermione," Harry and Ron said.

"See you tomorrow," Lee said, leaning down and giving her a peck on the cheek. Hermione blushed and muttered another good night before dashing off to the girl's dormitory. Harry and Ron started at Lee.

"What was that for?" Ron asked.

"What, the British don't do that?" Lee asked as they made their way to their own dormitory. "Must be a Spanish thing."