A/N First of all I have to say thank you to the incredible review respons, I have NEVER had 20 reviews in one chapter, I can't believe the BZHG following is so big.

Also, to anybody who doesn't know me, my updating habits are terrible, I am not abandoning this story, I'm just lazy.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston Churchill

II

Hermione straightened her skirt in an attempt to bolster her self-assurance. Since her decision to talk to the student body at dinner had been made she had been running over her speech constantly. The words became lyrics on a broken record that refused to stop repeating itself. Unite… take the first step… make a difference…. As she walked towards the teachers' table she felt eyes of every colour upon her back. No student, aside from Ernie MacMillan, knew what she was going to do, and every resident of Hogwarts was interested.

Putting on a brave smile she began to talk. "Good-evening teachers and fellow students. Most of you know my as the Head Girl, the know-it-all, or Harry Potter's best female friend." She paused to give a nod to Harry and their other best friend Ron. "However, I have a name, my name is Hermione Granger and I am a Gryffindor. Upon saying this I know you will make assumptions; I am brave, I will stand up for what I believe in, and I am proud. These are all true. The house Gryffindor does not define me though, like the Ravenclaws I have intelligence, Hufflepuffs share my loyalty, and like the Slytherins I am determined." Pausing for a second, Hermione let her words sink into the students who were listening to her raptly. "Voldemort," she stopped once again to allow the collective gasp to subside, "has come among us. Once again I will say that fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself and so, to abate my fear, I use his name. Voldemort seeks to strike discord among us, without each other we will not prevail against his tyranny. Since the end of my fourth year, when Voldemort first returned in the flesh, the Sorting Hat has been issuing warnings amongst us to stand together. I echo the words of John Dickinson who said, 'By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.' We need to unite. I know this will not be easy; we will have to overcome our prejudices and prejudgments of each other. I would like to encourage each of you by taking the first step. And I mean that literally."

Taking a deep breath to instill courage into her heart she stepped down from the raised dais on which the teachers sat and she had made her speech from. Instead of taking the route that lead directly to the Gryffindor table she turned and began a dramatic walk, her head held high, towards the Ravenclaw table. When she reached it the students continued to look at her, not understanding what she was doing. Sighing with irritation that the smartest students could be so dense Hermione raised her voice so that it spread to every corner of the room.

"May I please sit here?" The students sat in consternation; they were shocked and bewildered by this turn of events. Sitting at another House's table was something that had never been done before, and because of tradition, no one had ever even thought of doing it.

Blaise leaned forward slightly in anticipation. He was positive that the Ravenclaw students would allow Hermione to sit with them but he wanted to be able to have a clear view of who was the first to shift over and what the others' reactions would be. When Hermione had taken the first step towards the Ravenclaw table his senses had instantly been heightened. Blaise had a need to be cognizant of all the events taking place at the school and, due to his observance he knew many secrets that were believed to be absolutely clandestine.

Luna Lovegood blinked as a shadow fell over her plate. She turned around to see what was obstructing the light and noticed Hermione Granger standing behind her. Luna had listened to the speech in her own detached way so she wasn't aware of what Hermione was trying to do. "Hello."

"Hi Luna, would you mind if I sat beside you?"

Not finding the request as strange as Blibbering Humdingers Luna shifted in her seat without questioning Hermione. Hermione sighed with relief as she lifted her legs over the bench. The Great Hall did not resume the cacophony associated with dinner, instead the students sat in silence. Most of them were too circumspect to look straight at Hermione, but they all gave her short glances while pretending to be idly looking around. Lavender and Parvati had whipped out their make-up bags.

"Why do you need make-up now?" asked Ron, keeping his voice low so that he wouldn't break the silence.

"To see. Obviously." Parvati was rather irritated at the stupidity of boys.

"Yourself?" Ron still looked confused.

"Hermione," Lavender hissed. "Be quiet, we don't want her to know we're watching her."

"This is ridiculous," Harry interrupted. "All she did was sit at the Ravenclaw table."

"Harry," Parvati addressed him as if she was talking to a two year old. "Can you remember anyone sitting at another table? Ever?"

"No, but there's a first for everything, and a second." Harry abruptly stood up and headed over to the Hufflepuff table. If his best friend had the courage to try and make a difference, then so did he. The Hufflepuff table was closest to the entrance and exit to the Great Hall. Nobody thought anything was out of the ordinary until Harry sat down. The Hufflepuffs he had chosen to sit with knew what was happening after watching Hermione. They quickly squeezed together to make room for Harry.

Many students at Hogwarts idolized Harry Potter; his move was greeted with a deafening applause from his admirers. Other students began to stand tentatively and tried to motion for their friends to do so also. Harry's display had done more than Hermione's did, nobody wanted to be seen as supporters of You-Know-Who so when the poster-boy for the Light changed seats, so did they.

Millicent went to stand up. She was known as the dissenter among the Slytherins, Blaise was not surprised at her choice. He would not forbid her to go but he would not give her his outright support. He trusted her but did not want to be involved with the consequences of her decisions.

Inter-house unity sounded fine in a speech, but in practice it was impractical. Students were raised from childhood to believe that they would be put in a certain house; many glorified their prospective houses before they even arrived at Hogwarts and had paraphernalia purchased in Diagon Alley hanging on their bedroom walls before they were eight.

Draco's pale hand clamped tightly around Millicent's shoulder, his fingers dug deeply into her soft flesh. "Sit," he commanded, his voice attempting to emanate the domination that Snape exuded. His words had no effect on her. Blaise also knew that Draco could not impose his wishes with physical force, as Millicent was larger and stronger than him.

"Do not touch me, Draco." Her words were stressed, each one enunciated for emphasis. "You cannot tell me what to do."

"Millicent," his voice became pleading. "Sit down, please. Leave us Slytherin's some honour."

The pair's altercation had the entire Slytherin table watching. "Slytherin's have no honour," she replied neatly. "We do what is best for ourselves, and I am going to ally myself with Potter and his friends." With that she swung her legs over the bench and walked over to the Gryffindor table.

Ron Weasley had not joined his friends in switching tables, some Gryffindors had to stay with the Gryffindor table after all. He wished Hermione had told him about her idea before going through with it; he hadn't had any time to adjust. Looking up briefly from his food he noticed a large girl in Slytherin colours walking purposefully towards his table.

He recognized her. Millicent Bulstrode, the only female who looked more like a male than most of the boys. When he realized that she had been the cause of Hermione turning into a cat in their second year he decided to tell her she couldn't sit at the Gryffindor table. "There's no room here, go sit somewhere else."

Millicent's nostrils flared in anger. How dare he talk to her as if she was inferior to him. She decided not to retaliate immediately but her shoulders and neck had stiffened with the effort it took to keep herself from punching him. "I thought you Gryffindors were attempting to promote inter-house unity?"

"Within reason. After all, which house wants to be friends with an entire crew of vicious murderers?" Ron knew he had gone too far with the statement and become conscious of the fact that Hermione would be extremely angry if she found out. He was about to retract his words but Millicent had already turned her back to him. He did not want to apologize to her and justified himself by going over the fact that most Slytherins were evil and she was probably just trying to confuse him so he had been right to refuse her.

Hermione smiled happily as she looked around the hall. Most house tables had people from various houses sitting at them. All the Slytherins were still at the Slytherin table. She knew it was her duty to try and include them but she couldn't bring herself to do it. They had made her life as miserable as possible for six years now, and probably had no intention to stop for their last year in school. Hermione would never sit with the Slytherins.

A/N. The end... just joking, I'm warming up. This wasn't one of my favourite chapters, but unfortunately they don't come until later on in the story. If you have any questions about the characters feel free to post them in your reviews and I'll try and answer them.

I would like to invite everyone reading my story to join the forum FICTION NET found at sycotic. Org/fnet It's a great Harry Potter website where a ton of aspiring writers hang out and chat about all things, including all things harry potter. Register and don't forget to get sorted into a house, it's competitive, say kissofcuteness or sierra sent you and hopefully I will see some of you in Slytherin

Shout Outs:
Thanks to: Elizabeth Bilberry, psychoravenclaw, anguish, sortinghat086, excuse me Mr. Mister, HPfreak2gd4U, blaiselover, Liam O'Mallon, professionaldooropener, kePPIE, robin777, flairVerona, Charolastras, and Alenorfor taking time to click on the review button and make my day super happy.

Angel-Girl-1103 - I feel so special. Thanks for reviewing the first chapter, please continue to do so for every chapter :P
FarDeep - You don't love me? I'm hurt, actually in pain, I thought I was beloved by the entire world. Thanks about loving my story though, it's affiliated with me so I think some of the love filters through
Mage-Aurian: Dearly beloved sister, thank you for writing such a long and thoughtful review, especially the part about me eloping with Goyle. And the word's philosophical
Mel: Your review was really thoughtful, thank you so much for taking the time to give me such positive feedback. I really like Blaise and hopefully I'll be able to continue writing him to your satisfaction. I was a little lax on him in this chapter but he returns next chapter.
CareBearErin: I felt so deep when I read your review, high praise!
Nova-Janna - I was hoping for the new perspective so thanks for noticing it.