That night it snowed. I sat cold, huddled up with Lev by the fireplace in our common room. I absentmindedly stroked Lev's fur as I thought about Harry and the snake in the duelling club. Everyone thought he had been pushing the snake to attack the Hufflepuff kid, Justin I had found out, but he hadn't been. I was the only one who had been able to understand what he had really been saying. The sad thing was that I couldn't tell anyone because if I did everyone would know I could speak parseltongue too. I sighed frustrated and drank from my hot chocolate.

"Hey" Draco said walking towards me. He was wearing the green jumper I had made him for Christmas the year before. It helped me smile a little

"Hi" I said and he sat down next to me in front of the fireplace.

"Sorry if I scared you yesterday, I know how much you hate snakes" his voice was hushed so others wouldn't hear. It probably wouldn't help me to have someone, especially a certain roommate of mine, find out about this

"It's okay I know you didn't mean to scare me." On my lap, Lev was sleeping peacefully. I was happy to see him so relaxed; after the incident with Pansy he had been a little jumpy

"But I bet you had fun with Pansy" he smirked. I laughed a little at his comment and drank from my hot chocolate "Getting back to your old habits I see"

"It was just once. She scared Lev so I scared her. I'm very protective of my pup you know" I said giving Lev a quick kiss on the top of his head. Draco looked at me thoughtfully for a second before snapping back

"You don't have to keep acting nice, you know. You're fine being the way you are. In fact, I think you're more fun this way." I smiled at the similarity of his and the twins' words and looked back to the fireplace. I was a lot meaner as a child, kind of like Draco is now, if not worse. But I had decided it was best to be nice, or at least pretend. I had wanted to be good so my parents didn't have to deal with the trouble I caused as they had been dealing with more than enough back then. I became so good at pretending that eventually I started to believe my own lies. Now I naturally act like I used to pretend to be, nice. It's part of me now and only a few people know how I used to be, Draco being one of them.

"You're only saying that so I won't nag you as much" I said nudging him a little as he smiled at me. "It's okay, I like being nice. Just sometimes certain people push me too far." I started rubbing the spot by Lev's ear that Pansy had hurt. I just hoped she'd learned her lesson. Trying to distract myself from Pansy, I turned to Draco. The jumper I had made him was starting to look a little smaller, probably because he'd grown. It was also a duller shade of green than I remembered but it still looked nice. He caught me staring.

"What?" he demanded. I pulled at the fabric of his jumper and smiled at him teasingly. He made a face and we both went back to staring at the fire. It was nice to have it here to warm us up; the dungeons could get pretty cold sometimes...

Peace didn't last long at Hogwarts, as if it ever did. Soon there was another attack. Apparently this time it was Justin, that boy who was almost attacked by the snake in the duelling club. It made sense why people would think it was Harry that did it. I could've told themit wasn't him but that would've only made me look suspicious. It was really getting to me that I couldn't tell anyone what I knew. My parents had forbidden me to tell anyone about my "gift." If I told the wrong person our family could be in serious trouble. It would automatically be assumed we had a connection to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and if they did enough digging around they would find one. We would be sent to Azkaban. That is why I could never tell anyone, not even Draco. It's not as if it was our fault we shared an ancestor, Salazar Slytherin.

Thankfully no one suspected me of anything. Everyone was so sure that Harry was the Slytherin Heir they didn't consider anyone else a possibility. Well, there was one more suspect. Draco had been acting so outraged by Harry's new title that he only made himself look questionable. While I had spent my time worrying, Draco had spent his complaining.

"Why would that pathetic wimp be the Slytherin Heir? He's a Gryffindor for crying out loud! It's maddening!" he practically screamed one day during lunch.

"Do you know who it is, Draco?" asked Pansy batting her eyelashes. In front of me, Daphne made a gagging noise. I giggled but Pansy ignored us. She was leaning in to Draco intently, as were Crabbe and Goyle.

"No I don't... I don't know who it is. But I sure do know it isn't him!" I agreed with Draco but of course for different reasons. Many people were scared of Harry because if these rumors. Some Slytherin, those who weren't purebloods, stopped mocking Harry all together; most just rushed away whenever he came near. It was sad. Thankfully not everyone believed the ridiculous story. Fred and George were a great example of that

"Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through..." They yelled down the corridors as Harry walked by. I laughed and Fred winked at me before going on ahead. The whole time Draco became more and more bothered by these rumors as he believed the heir would be someone of a good family background. Someone like him. This only made him more suspicious to those who didn't believe Harry was the heir

Thankfully, it was almost Christmas. It was a nice distraction from everything that was going on at Hogwarts. Many of the students had decided to leave for the holidays. Most all Slytherins had left except for a handful of students, Crabbe, Goyle, Draco and me. All my roommates had gone home, leaving just me and Lev by ourselves. Daphne and I had exchanged gifts before she left and I was waiting impatiently until I could do the same with the others. I had gotten Fred, George and Hermione each a gift and had planned something special for Draco. Hopefully this would take their minds off the Heir of Slytherin.