I only own Dracaena.

After lunch on the second day of the term Bill was bustling around his classroom, although if you asked him, he wasn't bustling he was reflexively pacing. Although panicking may be a better term, in the last twenty-four hours he and Charlie had had to hide from Ron over ten times. In-between every lesson he had found one of them and started complaining about the twins and how they were treating him, and how it was completely ridiculous how they were being with Harry and Neville. And the twins were another problem, he had seen the glint in Drey's eyes this morning, and she had been plotting with Draco, they were going to do something during his lesson, he knew it.

Just when he was turning to do another length of the room the door opened and Professor Flitwick came in. "Ah, Bill, my boy, wearing a hole in the floor are you. Don't you worry, I was just the same way before my first lessons, somehow the older they are the worse it seems to be." He cast Wingardium Leviosa on himself when he finished speaking, levitating himself to the top of a pile of books. Bill just sent him a sickly grin before heading over to his chair just as the students came in.

Once again the Slytherins and Gryffindors separated, moving to different sides of the classroom, except for Harry and Neville. They seated themselves in the centre of the court; besides her matchmaking schemes Drey had made it her personal mission to bring Neville out of his shell, and it seemed to be working. The two rival houses were paired together for every lesson now, much to the annoyance of the Gryffindors. And Neville was getting on really well with Vince and Greg; they spent most of the History of Magic lesson talking about Herbology.

"Attention, attention class. Thank you everyone, now, welcome back to Hogwarts. For the first part of the lesson we will be studying animation charms, and then you will be working with Mr Weasley about some of the more dangerous charms and curses and how to break them. Now, take out your wands and lets begin."

Wandering around the classroom Bill and the Professor were helping the students with their spells. "Very good Miss Granger, right first time."

"More swish than flick in the wand movement please Mr Finnigan."

"It's 'Animer' not 'Arnimer', Ron."

"Wonderful Mr and Miss Malfoy. Absolutely perfect. Oh, well done Mr Longbottom, Mr Potter."

They were set an essay on the uses of animation charms and what they could affect and then handed over to Bill. After talking for twenty minutes on the various types and strengths of locking charms he began to relax. Then he saw trails of light moving by the Slytherins, the twins were leaning together and whispering, their and their hands were tracing patterns that were followed by blue light. Trying to resume his lecture he shook his head a little when there he felt a buzzing sensation in his mind, then "Hi babe, how you doing." He nearly had a heart attack, Drey's voice was whispering in his head, whipping his head to look at her he saw a small smirk, but no her movement of her lips. "What's going on?" He thought as loud as he could, hoping that this spell worked both ways. "I'm saying hello to my boyfriend, what does it sound like. And you don't need to shout darling, I'm right here." He could definitely hear a smirk in that voice.

"Drey you cannot start talking to me mind-to-mind when I'm trying to teach!"

"Don't worry sweetie, I'm just going to sit here and learn, you won't even know I'm here."

Focusing on the class in front of him Bill realised that he hadn't said anything for a few minutes and everyone was staring at him. Shaking his head again and he turned his attention to teaching again. And that is how the rest of the lesson wait, it was all theory work and Drey kept making little comments about the subject or the other students, or when she was really bored and had finished her work she sent him flashes of their time together in Egypt.

When the bell sounded for the end of the lesson he asked her to stay behind, fully intending to yell at her for what she had done. But when she came to stand in front of him just drank in the sight of her. Her hair was all down loose and her robes were open over her uniform, she was biting her lip, doing her best to look innocent, and succeeding, biting her lower lip, looking absolutely adorable and angelic. He didn't care how much he sounded like one of his mothers romance novels, she was gorgeous and he loved her, but that wasn't going to stop him yelling. "How could you do that, I was trying to teach. I nearly made a right fool of myself out there. I'm going to have to face an inquisition from everyone in Gryffindor about why I let them down in front of the Slytherins. Ron's idea not mine so don't you start rolling your eyes at me." He continued on in that fashion for several minutes before he was cut off by a pair of soft lips closing over his own. When Drey drew back she smiled up at him, covering his mouth gently with her hand. "Shh, I'm sorry. But you didn't think that I would let this first lesson go by without something to remember the occasion did you. Now I promise I won't do that again, I won't do anything in any of your other lessons, promise. If you'll excuse me I have to get back to Herbology." Kissing his cheek lightly she pulled away from him and walked out of the door, when he stood in the doorway he could see her walking off with the court and the two Gryffindors, turning over her shoulder and blowing him a kiss. As soon as Bill turned and closed the classroom door they all broke into peals of laughter, looking very un-slytherin.

Later that day after an uneventful afternoon, the court were cloistered in their common room. After they had exhausted all topics of conversation, the most popular being Drey's performance in Charms, "No guys, I'm serious, I'm not going to do anything more in Bill's classes, that was just the first one so it had to be commemorated." And exhausted themselves, Drey excused herself and went to talk to Snape. Knocking on his door she called out and he came to the door. He scowled down at her, looking every bit the evil, forbidding potions master. "Hello uncle Severus."

"Dracaena."

"Can I come in?" The only reply he gave was swinging the door open wider. Stepping trough she folded herself onto a black armchair and looked up at him with an ingratiating smile. "I don't suppose you've got anything to drink around here do you, we were eating sherbets in the common room and..."

"What are you doing here Drey?" He sounded amused, more like her godfather than the man most of Hogwarts knew. "Well, in potions you said that we would be doing long term projects this year and that you would be assigning the partners." Seeing him nod she carried on. "I was wondering if I could make some suggestions for the partnerships. I've got plans for the court and it would be a lot easier if I could get them working closely with certain people." Although he would never admit it to anyone, Severus would do anything for a Slytherin, especially one of the twins or the court. Smirking he said, "Who do you want with who?" Leaning their heads together the two began to plan.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Morena Evensong: Thanks for the comments about Drey, I'm not sure about Ginny yet, I'm probably going to pair her with Neville, so she'll be on the twins' side. Snape and the King and Queen are going to have a role later when they reveal all their powers. bthatcher2002: as the story gets further on the chapters will probably get longer. Broken Sun: the Gryffindors will be like this for a while, but eventually they'll have to choose a side, and they might not be the typical ones.