I stood nervously outside the Room of Requirement the next day. I was well aware that none of the Marauders were feeling too fond of me at the moment, and this was probably just a ploy. It had to be some sort of elaborate prank that would take revenge on me for my little game yesterday. As though I already hadn't gotten enough of a punishment last night.

I had walked into the Common Room and seen basically my whole class sitting there, with a few other third and fourth years. They swarmed over Molly, making sure that she was okay, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing was in store for me. I quickly started to mount the steps to the dormitories. Suddenly, Harry Whitby tackled me.

"Nice try, Mardec," he spat out. I jumped up, but everyone had surrounded me. They were all yelling things at me, and none of them were complimentary. Quickly I shot some sparks out of my wand, and cleared a path large enough to get upstairs. Unfortunately, at I raced up, Emmeline shot a Full Body-Bind at me. I froze in place, and using a Mobilicorpus spell, she brought me back down to the Common Room.

"You little b-" James hissed. "Now, you'll pay for your act, you little Slytherin!" He shot something at me, and I felt a chill fill my whole body. Then Brian McDonald did something, and I felt as though I was on fire. Both feelings lingered, battled against each other, and ultimately became more and more painful for me. James flipped me around, upside down and right side up again. He bounced me against the ceiling a few times, and then started to take requests for other poses to stick me in. One fourth year named Shannon took over, and started to manipulate me like a puppet, making me clap my hands and do splits, while everyone cheered, except Sirius who just watched the whole thing, and Remus, who had gone upstairs when it all began. And-

"Will you stop it!" Lily snapped, her face scarlet with rage. She yanked the wand out of Shannon's hand. "You don't even know Magda, and have no right to be angry with her! Get off!" Lily undid the spells that held me, and I landed in a heap on the ground. I tried to send a grateful look to her, but she was glaring at James. "Potter, if you ever touch Magda again, I will make sure you are expelled before you can count to three! All she did to you was get you detention! She didn't harm you in any way, you creep!"

James actually backed away, looking stunned. Nobody ever spoke to James like that. He was too popular for that. "Ummm…sorry?" He finally tried. You had to give him credit. He didn't hex Lily in any way- just turned and went to bed. Sirius followed, saying something under his breath to James, who looked humbled for the second. Everyone else retired eventually, except Lily, me, and that fourth-year, Shannon.

"Sorry about That Little Creep," Lily said to me. "He got what he deserved when you did that to him. Emmeline told me what happened on the train. Anyway, he'd probably end up in detention no matter what, so you just sped things up. You're lucky I can't stand him; otherwise I'd have been egging him on. I wouldn't have been able to sympathize with you if he wasn't such a prat. Speaking of prats, Petunia didn't get accepted into Hogwarts, and she was furious."

I laughed. "She must have been hard to live with that last day!"

"Oh, yes. She convinced herself that she didn't want to go here, and that it was a freak school. She's so annoying when she's jealous!" Lily rolled her eyes. "C'mon. Let's get to bed. If they try anything, wake me up, and I'll take of them."

We started up the stairs, but something made me look back. Shannon was staring at me with a look of pure hate and disgust. I crawled into bed uneasily. I didn't want some older kid from my own House to start hating me. That wasn't a good idea at all…

Now as I waited for Sirius, I began to feel indignant. He had some nerve doing even more than he had last night. I hadn't fallen asleep for hours, and now, I was irritable and exhausted. I checked my watch. Sirius was already ten minutes late. I sighed. If he didn't show up in five more minutes, I would leave. Unless… he was already inside the Room!

I didn't know how to get in the Room. Searching my memory, I remembered that he had paced in front of the room for a while, and a door had appeared. I paced too, thinking about how much I wanted to get in. The door appeared, either as a result of my thoughts or pacing. I walked in, and walked into Sirius.

"Oh…sorry," I said, taken aback. "I didn't know you'd be by the door."

"I was about to leave when you didn't show up." Sirius looked uncomfortable, and refused to look at me.

"I didn't know how to get in," I responded defensively. "You never told me last time. Why'd you want me to come here?"

Now Sirius was turning red. "I just wanted to say… sorry about last night. We got a little out of hand."

"You mean James got a little out of hand. You didn't do a thing," I cut in. "Anyway, you gave me that note before the…ordeal last night. What else did you wish to say?" Sirius didn't say anything, so I repeated my question, watching his face like a hawk.

"Nothing. I just… forget it." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Sirius turned to face me. "I'm also really sorry. Just because I was angry, I shouldn't have involved others, especially Slytherins and teachers. My quarrel is with James."

"And James incorporated other Gryffindors. Unfortunately, he wasn't warned about Shannon Helta. She participated, and now…well, she's friends with Bellatrix. I've met her before and she scares me with her intensity. If she is given someone to hate, she will never stop hating her. If an idea is planted in her head, it will never leave. She's almost like the robots in Muggle books- fixed on one specific thing and never ceasing in her pursuit of it. Now she'll hate you forever, and trust me, that's much worse than detention for a week." Sirius looked pale. "I wish I could do something, but all I can is tell James about it so he'll stop being so angry with you, and keep an eye out for you. You have to be careful with Shannon."

I stared at him. "Thanks for everything, Sirius. I appreciate the sentiment, even if I'm doomed for life." I stood and watched him, bright red, give me a quick smile and leave the Room.

I wondered at his face as I left. Perhaps we hadn't been friends throughout the year, but we had worked together the whole time, and Sirius had never acted so odd around me. I was just another classmate, not someone who deserves a blush. Besides, Sirius was very good-looking, not the type who went for weird people like me. Anyway, I wasn't ready for a relationship. I shook my head. I was reading into this way too deeply. Sirius was just embarrassed that his friend had been so evil…

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As I made my way into the Great Hall for breakfast, I saw Severus Snape waving me over to the Slytherin table. I walked there gratefully, not wanting to think about what the Gryffindor table would be like. I quickly sat down next to Severus, grinning around at all the others. Walden MacNair, Bellatrix Black, Narcissa Black, Evan Rosier, Rabastan Lestrange, Ramon Wilkes, Annie Luvre, and Selena Helta smiled back. It felt nice to be wanted, so I stayed with them for the whole breakfast, engrossed in a debate about the use of Muggles in the world. I believed that they were convenient at times, as did Cissa, Ramon, and Severus. Bella, Rabastan, Evan, Annie, Selena and Walden all argued that they had no point whatsoever.

After breakfast, we split up on the way to double Potions. I remained with Selena and Bella, and we headed down to the dungeons. Out of nowhere, Bella tapped me on the shoulder. "You're in Gryffindor- what are my Muggle-loving sister and cousin up to?"

I shrugged. "You probably already know that Andromeda is too sweet for her own good, and isn't really very outspoken. Sirius, though, is loud and popular and spends most of his time sneaking around the castle, doing prohibited stuff. His best friend, James, though, should probably be in Slytherin. He just hexes people for the fun of it, and in creative ways that only a Slytherin would normally think of. He's actually the model Slytherin, but he despises the Dark Arts, and thus was put in Gryffindor. He went ballistic when I said I wanted to be in Slytherin!" I told her about what had happened last night, and James's fun with me.

Bella looked apologetic when I spoke about Shannon. "I'll ask her to ease up on you. She's isn't quite the typical Gryffindor, if you know what I mean." I nodded, remembering Sirius's warning.

Selena grinned a sly grin. "Shannon is my sister. Do you know what it's like living with her? I have so much fun with her. A simple suggestion planted in her mind, like 'give every Muggle you see an acid pop', and she goes crazy doing it! My parents never even consider that I'm responsible, and Shannon gets it every time. I love it."

We walked into the dungeons a few minutes late. My whole class was there, but only a few Slytherins had shown up on time, as always. As the head of Slytherin House, Professor Dreldi was stingy with taking points from Slytherin. However, I wasn't from Slytherin, and Dreldi would probably jump to take off points. But to my surprise, Dreldi just smiled at us and nodded to an empty space near the back of the room. Either he had just assumed that I was another Slytherin, or my "honorary Slytherin" status had gotten around.

I sat down with Bella and Selena, winking at a perplexed Lily. She looked very startled to see me with two Slytherins, but didn't glare, like most of the others did. Severus joined my table, and we enjoyed the class immensely. As I walked out, I finally felt as though I had found my niche in school- for now.