My Notes: Hey guys, what'd you think of the last chapter? I suppose you must have liked it if you're still reading. Special thanks going out to mysterious-mists (hun, you gotta start uploading some of your stuff so that I can read it), book worm 878 (Snape doesn't suck! I love him, but thanks for the compliments), Vanyaria Darkshadow (thanks for the awesomeness of your review, it was great. Can't wait to read your fic), and misao-werewolf (Um…no.). Enjoy!! ^_^

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Chapter Two - Don't stay up waiting for me

"Slytherin!"

Drea carefully removed the Hat and walked towards the Slytherin table. She looked back towards Professor Snape, who had a look of shock on his face. Half-smiling, Drea took the only empty seat left.

Why is he so surprised, I did go to Durmstrang. I hope he doesn't cause any trouble for me. Karkaroff doesn't think very highly of him. Then again, I don't think very highly of Karkaroff.

Nobody approached Drea until half way through the feast. While she was eating her third Yorkshire pudding, a girl leaned across the table and spoke menacingly into her ear.

"Hey, I'm Pansy Parkinson, and you'd do well to remember it," she said.

What a sweet girl, she's trying to make friends with me already, Drea thought sarcastically.

"By the way, don't even think about going near Draco, he's mine," Pansy said. Upon seeing Drea's confused look, she pointed to an uptight looking boy that was sitting beside her, although, Drea noticed, he was definitely looking away from Pansy, not at her.

Drea started to laugh. "Don't even worry about it. I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole."

Pansy looked shocked, then disgusted, and left Drea to finish her meal in peace.

Later, when dessert was almost finished, Drea caught Draco staring at her. This could be interesting, thought Drea, remembering what Pansy had said to her earlier.

"Hello, you must be Draco. Why are you staring at me?"

Draco looked unfazed to the average student, but after spending much of her school days with soon-to-be-Death-Eaters, Drea had learned to read eyes, and to her, he looked taken aback, and she was right.

Nobody had ever spoken to him like that before, and he suddenly became very aware that he had, in fact, been staring at her. He quickly recovered, though.

"Actually yes, I am Draco, Draco Malfoy."

Really? I never would have guessed, what with the blond hair and the stuck-up, pompous look on your face.

"Why is your hair purple?" he smirked.

"I dunno, why is your hair white?"

"I was born that way."

To the trained eye, Draco looked ticked.

"Sure you were," Drea replied, returning to her treacle tart.

It was clear that the conversation was over.

When the dishes had finally been cleaned off, Dumbledore began to speak again.

"So!" he began, "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr Filch's office if anybody would like to check it."

Yeah, that'll definitely happen, Drea thought sarcastically.

"As ever, I would like to remind you all that the Forest in the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

That's too bad, I was hoping to watch a match without curses for once. Oh well, the Tournament will be better anyway.

"…in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have the great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

But Dumbledore didn't have a chance to tell the students why the Cup wouldn't take place, for at that moment, the doors of the Great Hall flew open.

There, standing in the doorway, was the most mangled man that Drea had ever seen. He lowered his hood and shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark grey hair. Drea recognized something briefly in his eye, the one that wasn't spinning round like a top.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

Ah, it's Mad-Eye Moody. That must be why he seemed familiar.

There was a bit of polite clapping from Dumbledore and a huge man whom Drea didn't know, but it died down quickly.

"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

Oh my Gods, they've only just found out about it?! Durmstrang's known for almost a year!

The tension that had filled the room since the entrance of Professor Moody was broken suddenly when Fred; Must be a Weasley; said loudly, "You're JOKING!"

Nearly everyone laughed, Drea even smiled. Draco snickered and whispered into the ear of a boy sitting next to him. The boy then laughed along with him.

"I am not joking, Mr Weasley, though, now you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag and a leprechaun who all go into a bar -"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er - but maybe this is not the time … no…" said Dumbledore.

Mmm…just maybe, she thought sarcastically.

"Where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament … well, some of you will not know what this Tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely."

He may but nuts, but at least he's fair. I cannot believe that Durmstrang has an extra year over these guys. I wanted so badly to beat them. Drea sighed and focussed her attention on the staff table.

There weren't very many teachers that she recognized, but that had been expected. She noticed a very space-y looking woman giving Professor Snape a strange look, and watched as he sat up promptly. She also watched his face change to a look of disgust, but she never did find out why. She decided that she had better tune back in to Professor Dumbledore.

"I therefore beg you not waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October, and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. Oh Merlin, why didn't I think of that before? This will be an interesting year, to say the least. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to out foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

Drea stood up with the rest of her House. She watched Professor Snape say something to the Prefects, then left.

The Prefects lead the first years, along with Drea, down to the Slytherin dungeons. The rest of the House went their separate ways. Drea watched Pansy running to catch up with Draco, and laughed silently to herself.

Nobody approached Drea for the rest of the night, though she had to admit that she wasn't surprised. She figured that it was probably because she had just shot down the last two people that had attempted to speak to her. Drea noticed that Professor Snape hadn't been around since they had left the Great Hall, and wondered why. I thought that I'd at least get to meet him before I have a class with him, we always did at Durmstrang.

Drea flopped on her bed, pulled out her guitar and began to strum the first few cords of 'Reason' by Hoobastank. She wasn't the greatest singer in the world, but she was good enough that she wasn't embarrassed, so she did.

Suddenly, Pansy barged into the room. She looked really mad, too, and Drea assumed that it was probably because she had shot down her beloved Draco.

"What the hell is all this noise about?!" she screamed.

"It's called music, and it isn't that loud," replied Drea nonchalantly.

"Well I could bloody well hear it from the Common Room, which makes it loud enough!"

"I'm sorry," she said with mock sincerity. "I'll just put a silencing charm on it." She could tell that Pansy was annoyed by her lack of response to her anger.

"Don't get fresh with me, you little orphan!" whispered Pansy in a cold tone that would have frozen beer.

"Actually, Pansy, my dad's just fine thank you," said Drea, her voice quivering a little.

"How would you know, he left you when you were two. I suppose you were right, you're not an orphan. You're just unloved."

"Shut up," Drea said in a menacing tone.

"Ya know what? I don't think I will. In fact, I'm beginning to have fun. Why don't we discuss the fact that your mom deserted you when you were 13 with –"

All of a sudden, Pansy hit the floor. She lay there, stunned for a moment, then reached up to her nose. Wiping away the blood, Pansy began to scream.

"If you ever," said Drea, silencing Pansy, "ever, call that woman my mother again, I'll do a lot more than give you a bleeding nose."

Drea picked up her guitar and walked out of the room. She heard Pansy begin to scream again, then heard people running towards the room. Who the hell does she think she is, talking like that? And how did she find that stuff out in the first place?

"Ms Daray! Ms Daray, come back here this instant," she heard the male Prefect calling.

Drea wasn't about to start running away, she had done nothing wrong. Merlin knew that Pansy had deserved it, but she wasn't about to hand herself in, either. Screw that, they can come and get me if they want me so bad.

Unfortunately for Drea, they did. The male Prefect quickly caught up with her angry pace.

"Drea, what happened back there?" he asked.

"She was talking sh*t about me," she replied, clenching her jaw.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to explain better than that."

"It's not really any of your concern what she said, is it now?"

"There's no reason to be angry with me, I'm only doing my job."

"Sorry," she replied honestly.

"As am I. Now, you are going to have to tell me exactly what happened back there, or I will be forced to take you to Professor Snape, and you wouldn't want to disturb his sleep on your first night here, now would you?"

"Actually, I think that that's probably the best idea. Lead the way."

The Prefect's eyes grew to twice their size at the thought of disturbing the Professor that late at night. "You'll see him in the morning," he said curtly.

"But what if I do it again? We would want that poor girls face to be any more deformed than it already is."

Drea noticed that the boy smiled quickly with his eyes, then got serious again. "Professor Snape does not like to be disturbed, and as much as he dislikes violence, I'm sure that this can be dealt with tomorrow," he began.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to be a disturbance, but I really think that I should see him now. If I see that ugly face again I'll probably curse her into the next century, and this school is already so much better than Durmstrang," she stated angrily.

"If you insist. But if he gets angry, as I'm sure he will, I'm going to assert that it was your decision."

"And I'll back you up on that. So there's really nothing to worry about. Agreed?" she asked civilly.

"You really are a strange girl."

"Aren't you a flatterer."

The boy smiled again, only this time outwardly as well. "I'm Xander, by the way."

"Xander? Hm, cool name. I take it you already know mine."

"How ever did you figure that out? I was sure that I had kept it so secret," he replied sarcastically.

"It may have been the fact that you were calling it out while chasing after me."

"Ah yes. That may have given it away. Anyhow, these are his chambers. Good luck."

"You aren't coming with me?" Drea asked.

"I think you're strong enough to handle it on your own. See you back at the Common Room."

"Don't stay up waiting for me," Drea muttered to herself as she watched Xander walk quickly back towards the Slytherin dungeons.

Great. Now what am I supposed to do? Knocking on the door would probably be a good first step. What am I supposed to say? 'Good evening Professor. I just thought I'd stop by to let you know that I punch Pansy Parkinson in the nose. See you tomorrow, Sir.' Drea scoffed at the idea, then sighed. I might as well get it over with.

Drea knocked softly at door. When there was no answer, she knocked more clearly. She stood quietly, waiting, and decided that he was probably asleep. I'm calm enough to go back now anyway, I'll come see him tomorrow like Xander suggested.

Drea turned around to go back to the dungeons, but she stopped when she heard sounds coming from Professor Snape's chambers. Turning back towards his door, she composed herself for whatever awaited her on the other side.

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So let me know what you think! Be honest, but kind. Thanks ^_^