'Dear Adair,' Tamora wrote, 'I hope this letter finds you well. I have had the strangest week! For some reason, Draco Malfoy has been following me around and wanting to talk to me. He even followed me to my special potions class last Tuesday night. I really don't know what to do about him.'

She paused, tapping her quill against her chin. It would be rude to make this whole letter just about her. She thought for a moment, then continued to write.

'Anyway, enough of that. How are you and Tryphena? Did you get those pictures of the grounds that you asked me to send? I hope they're good enough.' She nodded, that would be sufficient. She finished off by putting 'all my love, Tamora.' then rolled it up and fixed it to the leg of her owl, Hiram.

Tamora spent most of her Tuesday feeling nervous, just waiting for Draco to show up. But he didn't turn up. It wasn't until she was leaving the dungeons that she heard a voice behind her.

"Evening." He said quietly, making her jump. She turned to see him leaning casually against a wall.

"You scared me half to death!" she scolded him.

He shrugged. "I seem to have that effect on people."

"Well, you wouldn't if you didn't skulk around in the shadows like some common thug."

"Hey give me a break" he said, moving away from the wall and slipping his hands into his pockets. "I came to see you, didn't I?"

Tamora sighed exasperatedly. "But here's the thing. I didn't ASK you to come, you just assumed that everyone is prepared to drop what they're doing and follow orders just because it's a Malfoy giving them!" She walked off past him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some homework to finish before bed."

But nobody walks away from a Malfoy. Draco grabbed her wrist. "Now look here!" was as far as he got, because a black snake came shooting out of her bag and writhed down his arm, hissing threateningly. Tamora acted instantly. Dropping her bag to the floor, she grabbed the snake with both hands, just as it was rearing up to strike.

As if this wasn't weird enough, she then started hissing at the little creature. When she had finished, it slithered up the sleeve of her robe. She turned to Draco. "Before you even ask, yes that is a snake and yes I am a parselmouth. Now do you understand why I don't want to be noticed?"

He just gaped in response. The snake had popped up the back of her collar and was looking at him, daring him to come closer. It hissed something at him and Tamora's eyes widened in surprise.

"That's a bit harsh even for you." She said to him in parseltongue. To Draco she said, "You don't even want to know what he just called you. I'm sorry about that, but Merlin can be a bit over-protective."

"You don't say." Draco said hoarsely. "What is he anyway?"

"Oh I raised him myself. I found an Ashwinder egg, put then in a cauldron and made sure that the fire kept burning till he hatched out." She smiled as she felt Merlin curl himself around her neck and go to sleep.

"How are you even allowed to keep him here?"

"I'm not. No one knows about him, not even my family. They all hate snakes. I can't see why. I think he's gorgeous."

As they were walking down the stairs towards the Slytheryn common room, Tamora was so caught up in her thoughts that she failed to remember the trick stair. Her ankle got caught in it and she went tumbling down the stairs, her books flying out of her bag.

"You okay?" Draco asked. She nodded mutely, scooping up her books, hardly able to believe she could've been that stupid. "Here," Draco offered, "Let me get this for you." He picked up a slim book labeled, 'sketches'. Opening it at a random page, he saw a beautiful drawing of Merlin, every scale was perfect.

Tamora saw what he was looking at. "Hey, give that back!" She made a grab for it, but he kept it easily out of her reach.

"Just a minute. This is really good." He turned a page and was confronted by a picture of himself and Harry on broomsticks, both fighting desperately to get the snitch only a tiny distance away. It had been charmed to move so that the two were fighting quite furiously, but neither was wining. The title at the top read, 'an exercise in futility'. Draco looked sideways at her. "Futility?"

"Sorry about that. It's not personal. I just don't see what the big deal about being able to catch a ball is. Do you?" Draco didn't have an answer to that. How could anyone not like Quidditch? Tamora carried on. "I can see how it would be fun to do, I just don't understand what makes it the be all and end all."

"It proves you're a winner. It's just another way of gaining respect." Tamora looked surprised at that comment, but not nearly as confused as Draco was. He didn't know where that had come from, but it did make sense. It didn't mean he was about to swear off Quidditch or anything though.

A/N: So now you know. What do you think?