Thanks for all the awesome reviews so far guys. Sorry, I'm a really slow updater, just so you know, so don't worry I didn't die or anything. Special thank-yous to Earelen (wow, that's a great review...thanks so much!) Vanyaria Darkshadow (your usage of my lines encourages me....that's great by the way!) and mysterious-mists (what does assimilation mean?...hahahaha) for reviewing this chapter. Once again, so sorry for the long wait.

Chapter Three – Black and Blue

Severus entered his chambers and softly closed the door. He had gotten a terrible headache from all of the chatter in the Great Hall, and was looking forward to a long, hot shower.

Leaning against the door, he thought about the best way to get rid of the headache. Everything started to get dark and he saw yellow spots in front of his eyes, indicating to him that it was, indeed, as predicted, a migraine. He slowly stood up properly and walked into the kitchen to prepare some coffee.

He put the water on to boil, then walked into the bathroom to make a cold compress. He stood there, staring into the sink, until he heard the water boiling.

Severus walked back into the kitchen and filtered the water through the coffee. He reached into the cupboard and grabbed the sugar bowl and a large spoon. From the cupboard across the kitchen, he summoned a large, brown mug and poured the finished coffee into it.

After adding three large spoonfuls of sugar, he walked into his room and slid into a large, comfortable armchair. He put the cold cloth back onto his head, and picked up the mug. He brought the mug slowly to his lips, but misjudged the fullness of it, and burnt his tongue. Jumping more in surprise than in pain, he spilt the coffee all over his robes.

"Bloody Hell."

Severus took the cloth off of his forehead, performed the charm to clean up the mess, and then walked into the bathroom. He undressed and stepped into the shower. He just stood there for a moment, allowing the hot, rushing water to pour down his face and chest.

After a few minutes, the pounding in his head returned. He leaned against the wall of the shower, then reached down to turn it off. He grabbed a dark blue towel off of the back of the bathroom door, then walked to his bedchamber.

He was putting on his sleepwear when he heard the pounding again, only louder this time. That was when he realised that there was someone knocking at the door. He quickly threw on his outer robes and walked towards the door.

Who would be knocking at my door at 10:30? It must be another teacher, all of my Prefects know not to disturb me at night.

Severus put on a menacing snarl as he swung the door open quickly. There, in front of him, was the purple-haired girl. Severus wondered what she was doing there. Maybe she went to the wrong door, he thought, but quickly dismissed it, as his chambers were the only things in that area of the castle. A dare, perhaps?

"Ms. Daray. What is the problem?" he asked with a growl.

"Professor Snape, sir, I'm sorry to be a bother, but I punched another student in the face and was told to come see you," she answered, lowering her eyes to the ground.

"I see. And why, may I ask, did you do this?"

"Well, I was playing my guitar in my room, minding my own business, when in walks Pansy Parkinson, yelling about all of the noise that I was making. I tell her that I'll put a silencing charm on it, and all of a sudden she starts saying stuff about my family, so I punched her in the nose."

"I see. So I assume that she was saying not-so-nice things about your family." He was eager to know from where he recognised her.

"Yes, Professor."

"I'm going to need to know what she said if I am to talk to her about it."

Drea swallowed nervously. "She called me an orphan."

Severus narrowed his eyebrows, observing the girl. "And are you?"

"No!" she stated forcefully.

"Well why would she say that you were, then?" he questioned her. The entire story wasn't making much sense, and his headache was getting worse, just trying to make sense of it.

"Professor, with all due respect, I don't really feel that talking about my family will solve the situation," Drea responded, suddenly aware that she had almost told a complete stranger about her life.

"Of course," he replied. He wasn't one to give up so easily, but he had seen the pain in her eyes when she spoke the word orphan, and he knew how painful it could be to relive a part of your life that you wished that you could forget. "Detention with myself tomorrow evening at 8:00 sharp. I have potions to prepare and organise; you can help me with the organising section. I'll speak to Pansy tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, Professor Snape." Drea stood there watching him, hoping for an indication of what to do next. She tried to read his eyes, but they were strangely blank.

"Well, be on your way then."

"Oh, right. Well, good-night Professor." Drea walked away quickly, eager to get back to the Common Room.

Well, that wasn't so hard. I sounded like a teacher's pet for most of it, but at least I didn't get cursed into the next century. Intriguing man, Professor Snape. I've only ever known three people who could make their eyes that emotionless, and they all had good reason.

Drea spoke the password to the portrait and walked quietly into the Common Room. She expected to see it empty, and was surprised to see some students sitting around, talking quietly.

Xander looked up to see which of his students were back. "Wow, you're in one piece."

"So it would seem," Drea replied.

"So what happened? Did you tell him what happened?" Xander asked

"More or less. I have detention tomorrow night, but that's all."

"Nice. By the way, this is Chase, Jadon, and Candra. Candra's in your year."

"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Drea."

"Hey, you're the one that punched Pansy in the face right?" asked Chase, obviously impressed.

"Yeah, I am," she replied.

"Good job, she deserved it. I don't know what she did to you, but after everything she's done to the younger students, she deserves a good smack once in a while," said Chase.

"Chase! You're supposed to be setting a good example!" said Xander, laughing.

"Actually, Mr Prefect, you are supposed to be setting a good example. I, on the other hand, can say and do anything I want to, because even if I do something wrong, you'll never get me in trouble."

"True," said Xander.

"That's hardly fair," said Drea. "You got me in trouble," she said, narrowing her eyebrows.

"I didn't know you before. And, to be fair, you're the one who insisted on going to see Snape tonight."

"I guess. Anyway, I'm going to bed. See you guys tomorrow."

" 'Night Drea," said Jadon and Xander.

"I'm coming too," said Candra, speaking for the first time.

The two females walked in silence for a few moments, when suddenly Candra spoke up.

"What was Durmstrang like?" she asked bluntly.

"That depends what you mean by that."

"Well, I heard that they teach the Unforgivables there," she replied modestly.

"Teaching the Unforgivables would require doing them, something that nobody could ever get away with. They did, on the other hand, have a philosophy class, during which they reinforced ideas pertaining to the Dark Lord."

"Of course, sorry."

"That's okay, a lot of people make that mistake. That's part of the reason why I left that school, there was too much Dark magic going around. You couldn't trust anyone; you always had to be wary of curses coming toward you for doing whatever to so-and-so, or talking about the other guy. It was real cut-throat."

They reached the door to the Dorm and walked in.

"Is that where you got the backbone to stand up to Malfoy?" she asked, in awe.

"The little blonde brat? No, I just have a very low tolerance for people who think that they're better than everyone else."

"Whatever it was, I'm glad you did it. He wasn't very nice to me when I started. He made fun of my braces. Called me a mudblood just cuz my mom's a muggle dentist."

"Well you sure showed him though, didn't you? I bet you have perfect teeth now, don't you?"

Candra smiled and nodded, then said goodnight and walked to her bed to get changed. Drea changed into a black tank top and purple bottoms, picked up her toothbrush, and walked into the bathroom.

She knew that she could just use a spell for her teeth, but she'd always had a thing for brushing her teeth the muggle way. Her breath always tasted better, and her teeth felt cleaner.

Drea left the bathroom, and walked down the long corridor back to her Dorm. She casually glanced into each room as she passed, expecting everyone to be asleep, as it was getting quite late.

She walked past the fourth year male room, and surprisingly, saw someone awake. She hardly had to glance twice to figure out that it was Draco, because of his blonde hair, but it was different than it had been in the Great Hall. It was falling into his eyes and it wasn't gelled back like it had been before.

He was leaned over a pad of paper, quietly sketching away. He looked almost civil, not put on and stuck up like usual. He was wearing a long, dark blue t-shirt, and black boxers. He looks so different, being alone without other people. After all, he is a Malfoy, and everyone knows that they never show their true selves.

Drea walked into the Dorm, put her toothbrush on top of her bedside table, spelled her belongings into the drawers of another dresser, and crawled into bed. She fell asleep almost instantly.

So, let me know what you think! Flames are completely acceptable too, they just make me laugh and fuel me, so keep it all coming!