a/n: okay, to all of my beloved reviewers (except Georgie) THANKS! everyone's reviews made me feel all special! lol okay, so i hope everyone likes this chapter. Especially a certain part of it which i had a lot of fun writing.

Disclaimer: I dont own any of these characters except Tasha...and Emily. Yeah, i think that's all...

"Tasha, I need to talk to you."

Tasha looked up and saw Draco Malfoy standing at the compartment door.

"About what!" she yelled. There was definitely some anger building up.

"Can I please just talk to you?" he pleaded.

"Come to talk to me about how your mum makes you hang around me some more!"

"No. That's just it. My mum doesn't make me hang around you. I liked hanging out with you this past week. We became friends, and I'm glad. It's just not that easy.

"Not that easy? What do you mean 'not that easy'?"

"It's hard to tell them stuff. Especially when they don't want to hear it. It's just easier to keep a secret," he said. Tasha knew that when he said 'they' that he meant his friends. Tasha of all people knew that when you do something a certain way for four years, it was difficult to change.

"I see," Tasha said, mulling it all over in her head. "You now they're going to find out somehow."

"I know," he replied.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you just told them yourself?"

"I don't know. That's the thing with them. I never know."

"Well, can you really trust them then? I mean you should be able to talk to them. If you cant even do that then how can you really even be friends?"

"They're all I've got," he began, "unless you still want to be my friend?"

"I want to be able to trust you Draco, I really do, but until you tell them, there's not really anything I can do about it. Not with the way you acted earlier."

Tasha suddenly thought back to the look on his face when she left the compartment earlier. Can I still trust him? she thought. That look made him seem trustworthy. I still don't know though…

All of a sudden, she was pulled back to her senses.
"Tasha? C'mon! The train's almost empty. I'm starved!" Emily was standing in the doorway. But Tasha still hadn't finished talking to Draco. Unfortunately though, Draco seemed to have thought it was enough for now, because he began to walk out of the compartment.

"Hey, you can sit by me at the feast if you want," she told him, although she had a very good idea of what the answer would be.

"I would, but you're right. I shouldn't be seen hanging around you until I tell them. It'd probably be worse if they found out any other way. I'll tell them soon. Don't worry," he responded as he gave a small smile.

"Okay," Tasha said. And with that, he left the compartment with Tasha just standing there, thinking the same thing she had a few days ago. That she was again seeing a whole other side of Draco.

Emily stuck her head in the compartment again. "You coming?"

"Yeah, sorry," Tasha answered.

They were the last ones off the train, and ended up in the last carriage, crammed in with a few scared looking second years. They must have realized that Emily and Tasha were Slytherins, and by the looks of it, they weren't.

Once they reached the castle, they filed into the Great Hall, and waited for the new first years. Soon the sorting began, and Tasha clapped loudly with the rest of the Slytherins as the new first year Slytherins joined their table. Then Dumbledore stood up, said his usual word or two, and then the tables magically filled with every sort of wonderful food imaginable. After dinner was, of course, dessert. There was everything from treacle tarts, to puddings, to cakes. Everything was delicious.

Then, Dumbledore stood up and the Hall fell silent. "Well, what a wonderful meal. I will just bother you with a few start of term notices, and then you all may go to your common rooms. I would like to introduce you to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"-hopefully it's someone good!" Theodore Nott said loud enough for the whole Hall to hear.

Dumbledore continued to speak as if nothing at all had happened. "Professor Umbridge."

Everyone clapped as she stood up. She soon began a long speech about we needed careful instruction, and how the minister had appointed her to work in this position.

"I wonder if she'll be better than Lupin. I hated that class. Always favoring Potter," Emily said. It was very true. Professor Lupin had always liked Harry Potter. "And then Moody. He liked Potter a lot too."

"Yeah, but remember, that was just an act. It was really Barty Crouch, A DEATH EATHER…" Tasha said, but only loud enough so that Emily could hear it.

"Yeah, yeah." Emily had always hated talking about she father's 'side-job', even if she really wasn't the one talking about it.

By the time they had finished their conversation, the few people who were left paying attention to Umbridge's speech were clapping. Dumbledore then stood up and addressed the school once more.

"Thank you, Professor Umbridge. And with that, I would like to remind you that lessons begin tomorrow. Goodnight."

Then, all of the students got up from their tables and began heading towards their dormitories. Tasha and Emily waited a few moments for everyone to clear out, and then stood up to leave. They began walking towards the dungeons near the Slytherin common room. Once they got to the portrait, they realized that they didn't have the password.

"Well what do we do now? We can't wait around all night for someone to come and find us!" Emily stated worriedly.

They didn't have to wait long. Two seventh year boys came walking up to them. "You ladies need to get into the common room?" the one bat asked.

"Well yeah, if you've go the password," Emily said.

"Well of course we've got the password, but who says that we'll give it to you?" another boy started.

"So what do you want from us?" Tasha asked the closest boy with the most seductive voice she could use. She began to close in on him. Soon, she was right up next to him. He began to kiss her, and they moved closer towards the portrait.

"Uh, Tasha?" Emily asked. Tasha didn't answer. Her and that boy were glued at the mouth.

"Serpentsentra," the boy managed to say, and the portrait swung forward. Emily hurriedly walked in, and the other boy followed. Both Emily and this other boy seemed to be in shock at their friends.

But then suddenly, Tasha stopped. "Hey, did I catch your name?" she asked.

"Brian," he said, with a sort of longing in his voice that meant he really didn't want to be talking.

"Well Brian," Tasha said, loud enough for the whole common room to hear, "thanks for the password." And with that, Tasha walked off to her dormitory, Emily following close behind her.

"Whoa Tasha, what made you think of that?" Emily asked once they got to their room. She was clearly amazed.

"Oh, just a little trick I learned over the summer. I did a bit of reading his summer. Picked out all sorts of books," she explained.

"Yeah? How many books did you read this summer?"

"20."

"Whoa, beats last year's record by about 10 books!"

"I know. Well we really didn't have much to do around the house all summer, so I went and got a few books from a muggle bookstore just outside London. You wouldn't believe how many types of books there are to choose-"

"Tasha! Any other day and I would just love to listen to your book stories, but I'm so tired…" Emily trailed off exhaustedly.
"Yeah, me too. Sorry. Well, goodnight."

"Night."

final a/n: okay...did everyone enjoy that as much as i hoped you would? well...thanks! and make sure to click that little button down there and REVIEW! THANKS!

Kesler