It was well after midnight when Harry finally found herself cursing once again at the fatlady who sleepily retorted, "same to you," and proceeded to open up.

The common room was empty save the brilliant fire that raged in the large fireplace and Harry cautiously made her way to the stairs to the girls' dormitory. She was just going to check it out, she told herself.

It felt to her like her legs were made of lead as she began her slow ascent up the stairway. Her breathing felt ragged. A small voice inside her head, that she could not silence, kept telling her how wrong this was. This was the –girls'- dormitory. She had no business going to the girls' dormitory and yet the barrier that would have denied her entrance all those times in the past was letting her slip unmolested up the stairs and into the girls' sleeping quarters.

She finally cleared the steps and made her way slowly and silently down the hallway checking at the names posted at each door, in search for the name that was sure to look out of place. Her heart pounded at her chest. She couldn't escape the very real feeling that what she was doing was somehow dirty. Guys weren't supposed to sneak into the girls' dormitory and yet here she was.

After a dozen rooms or so she finally encountered the room. Lavender, Parvati, Alicia, Hermione, and... Harry...

Harry stood, eyes transfixed on the nameplates written on the door. The name looked even more out of place than she had expected, but that was perhaps due in part to the fact that she had only half expected to see her name. This all felt too much like a dream suddenly. She was as out of place here as her name was, and yet here she stood, staring wide-eyed at the door that stood between her and four girls, all asleep.

It felt like an eternity that Harry stood like an immobilized deer on the other side of her new room. She so wished none of this had ever happened. She should be sleeping in her old room with Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean, as a boy. She shouldn't have had to endure this. This wasn't right, and the only person she couldn't seem to find any blame was herself. It just wasn't fair.

Neville with his poor ability at potions, coupled with Malfoy's bullying, and Hermione's need to always go way above and beyond the call of duty, for what Harry could only assume was to prove herself, and Snape's sincere hatred of her. Where was her blame? Why did this sort of thing always happen to her? Was she being punished for some unknown wrong she committed in a past life? It didn't make any sense...

Finally after several moments Harry cleared her mind of these destructive thoughts. If she continued to dwell on the matter she'd stop moving. She had to continue to move forward, or she'd find herself incapable to do so.

Harry let a long hard sigh, and without another thought she pushed herself through the door.

The room was quiet with the exception of several small breaths that she could hear only when she strained herself. The light from the nearby window cast a dim glow throughout the room and Harry finally located a four- poster that's curtains lay open. Concluding that this must be hers she wearily made her way to the bed and carefully lowered herself down into the bed.

She lay there only a moment before a strong sense of warning began to overcome her. She heard the door to the room push open again and was tensed to discover who could possibly be entering in the room after her. But just as she could make out the image of the silhouette of someone, something wrapped around her causing her to jump with a yelp.

A sudden fit of shifting occurred in her bed and Harry realized she was not alone. Suddenly a sharp cry rang out from under the covers and Harry felt herself violently being pushed from the bed. She felt her breath catch as she was pushed off the bed and reached out blindly with her hands to catch hold of the curtain to quickly steady her fall. She heard a scream and felt a body collapse on top of her.

Harry's heart beat hard against her chest as she struggled in the floor with someone. She was getting beat and felt someone grab at her hair and take a great yank, which made her holler out loud in pain.

Harry grabbed at the wrist of her assailant and pulled them into a roll placing herself on top of the unknown stranger and pinned them against the floor. Though as she managed to subdue them she felt a kick to her shoulder from the person still in the bed knocking her over. The stranger now freed was quick to their feet and forced Harry into much the same position she had had them in only seconds ago. Harry called out in panic as she found herself pinned to the floor.

"Lumos" A voice called.

The room came into focus as a light from the bed nearby lit the room. Harry gasped as she discovered she had a rather disheveled and very naked Lavender Brown pinning her to the floor. Lavender's face seem to be as equally shocked and amazed to be staring down at what she had recently discovered to be a female Harry Potter.

Hermione's voice was the first to be heard, and Harry discovered it was she holding the lit wand. "What in the world," was all she could manage.

Harry was having a very hard time piecing her mind together as this was one of the first times she had ever seen a young girl naked, let alone having one on top of her. Finally she managed to form a sentence in her mind and tried to speak it, "Lavender, your kinda heavy."

Lavender's eyes seem to grow even larger, and as if her thoughts hit her all at once she jumped as quickly as she could from Harry and into and through the curtains of her four-poster bed. Harry picked herself off the floor and peered into the bed she had first lay in to discover Parvati looking almost as amazed at Harry as Lavender had.

"I'm..." Harry attempted, though sounding quite a bit flustered. "I'm sorry, I thought this was my bed." Parvati, eyes still wide, shook her head, 'no' which was quite apparent to Harry at this moment. Harry found a slightly torn nightdress in the floor and suddenly it dawned on her what must've happened. "I'm real sorry Lavender... I... I grabbed out when I fell down and thought I had caught hold of the curtain. I didn't realize I had pulled your dress..." 'Off' Harry had almost finished but instead let the word die from her lips.

The room remained silent after this for a time. Harry glancing at each of the girls' faces feeling her face grow redder and redder by the moment. This was so humiliating. "Well then," Hermione attempted. "Er, Harry, I'm sure Lavender would like her dress back"

Harry stared down at the wadded dress in her hands and nearly tripped over herself to reach the bed Lavender had fled into and stuck the dress through the curtains. She felt the dress snatched from her hands, and looked around to find an empty bed underneath the window, much the same as the one she had had in her old room. She made her way to the bed and sat in it, the room still feeling as though it was sucking all the sound in the area. Alicia, Harry noticed, was also looking a bit shocked over these events.

"I'm really sorry." Harry offered again to the girls of the room, with downcast eyes.

Lavender at last stuck her head out from the curtains of her bed and grabbed at a wad of clothes and a bag, and without another word, left the room. The four remaining girls watched her go, and it wasn't but only a short moment later that Parvati grabbed much the same as Lavender and with a small apologetic smile to Harry, she left as well. Alicia looked over at Harry and Hermione and with a shrug said, "Don't take it the wrong way Harry, I just think I'm going to follow them." Harry said nothing as Alicia departed with much the same belongings as the two girls before her.

Harry glanced over at Hermione, silently wondering if Hermione was about to leave as well. But rather than grab her stuff Hermione extinguished her wand and lay back in her bed. "Umm, g'nite then, Harry," she said sounding a bit overwhelmed.

Harry stared back out into the night sky and repeated in her mind, 'In the cosmic scheme of things' as though it were a lifeline. She lay her head down into the pillow, and before she could think more on the matter, as she was sure she would do nothing else, she fell asleep almost instantly.