A/N: There's a weird thing where FF won't let me upload the doc and then add it to my story, so I lose the formatting that I have beforehand. Also, I tried a different way to write this chapter, since I haven't tried it in third person yet, but it's something I'm more comfortable with! Anyways, let me know if you like the story so far!

There was something nostalgic about coming back to Hogwarts each year, and it filled her heart to the brim with the feeling. With each year coming closer, the idea of having to leave and never come back (unless for a job–which seemed less than likely) only added to the feeling. This year, it felt so full that she almost wanted to get sick.

Y/n stopped pulling her luggage once they had gotten inside of the castle's halls, leaving it for the house elves that stood around, waiting for students to drop off their baggage. Although they'd become such a big part of her life, she'd always found herself smiling slightly at them. She hadn't had a house elf–setting her own free in some act of courage…or rather, not wanting to be the odd one in the group home with an elf. Her small act had an elf helping her as she tipped the trunk on its side to grab the robe inside–having not changed into her robes while on the train. She'd stopped being enthusiastic about wearing robes after first year.

"Thanks," y/n smiled, hauling the trunk back up onto its wheels once she'd gotten the inside. Quickly, she pulled her robe over her clothes –not caring to completely change into uniform. Draco had done the same, pulling together the buttons that would conceal that he still wore a black suit underneath. His walk was slow as he started going towards the great hall.

"Hurry up," he quipped, looking over his shoulder at y/n. Eyes raised slight, she was half-tempted to make him wait longer, but the growl in her stomach was nearly impossible to ignore. That, and the smell of the feast was spreading through the corridors.

"You even changed your tie," she teased, half smiling at Draco as they walked down the hallway. Even if he hadn't wanted to, he smiled slightly, but his gaze remained forward, toward their destination. "Aren't you good? If Snape clocks me, I'm gonna point out you've got an entire suit under your robe."

"I don't, Pendragon. I took the jacket off. I'm not a savage."

"Of course not. You're a man of class," she snorted, opening the doors of the great hall. Once they'd both gotten inside, the long walk along the wall felt like a walk of shame. Snape's eyes were burning daggers into both of them, but y/n didn't lift her head to meet his eyes–unlike Draco's, who's eyes had immediately fell away from his.

"Y/n, here!"

Draco hesitated, almost stopping when she had, but Pansy's voice rang a few students away, a little further. If he was going to sit with y/n, he had given up on the idea quickly as he watched her being engulfed by her friends hugs.

"Over here, Draco! We saved you a spot."

Gerald, a boy with a sharp jaw, towered over y/n as he stood to hug her. Over the summer he'd grown more into his features, that even y/n couldn't help but admire. "Holy shit," she teased, arms coming around him in the hug. "You're fucking huge." Just past him, she could see Draco as he walked the rest of the way to his own group. Amongst them, Ariella sat–catching y/n's eye at the last second and mouthing you were together?

Y/n mouthed back later.

And sat down with the friends she'd missed over the summer.

There were a few bustling first years, closer to the front of the table–occasionally looking down the line of unfamiliar and new students. Y/n glanced at the Hufflepuff table, half expecting Marcus to be sitting among them. But when he wasn't, she looked at the other two tables before looking towards the front of the Slytherin table. There, shoving his pudding into his mouth, sat the young boy that hours earlier she had to guide across the station. Lips parted slightly, head tilted. Total shock weren't the right words. He'd never struck her as a Slytherin, and undoubtedly she was going to be given the responsibility of making sure he didn't die his first year.

Y/n's glance flickered, and before she knew it, her gaze was being held by Draco's. He was still trying to figure out where his mother might have recognized y/n from, and while it wasn't his question to figure out–if she'd recognized y/n, there was some importance in it. Narcissa hadn't been much of a socialite except amongst pureblood families, and even then, he couldn't place y/n to a family that his had regularly spoken to.

It was driving him crazy. That, with the added pressures that this year was his final year at Hogwarts, and that before it was out, he was expected to kill the one man that even Voldemort was afraid of. He hadn't realized he was staring until their eyes met, but even then he didn't break the contact until Goyle had reached his fat arm across Draco's plate to grab desert.

His expression was disgust, and y/n held back a smile, before she was looking back to her friends that had gotten into a conversation about muggle rock groups.

Once Dumbledore started speaking, the hall almost went quiet. Everybody knew the previous year that he had faced Voldemort, and in case he was about to say something more about it, nobody wanted to speak. The room was full of oxygen; everybody holding their breaths, only to be let out in gasps as Slughorn was introduced as the new potions master.

Y/n looked across to a girl in her year, twisting her features to try and indicate how odd the news was. Only for most of the room to gasp, while the Slytherin table was in a sudden cheer at the announcement that Snape would be teaching defence against the dark arts. Y/n looked down the table, half expecting to see that everybody was cheering, or at least following her in giving confused, slow claps.

But among the cheers, she saw Draco with his hand against the palm of his cheek. He looked distant, and it worried her. Pulling at heartstrings.

"As you know, each and every one of you was searched upon your arrival here tonight. And you have the right to know why." Even Draco's gaze lifted, so y/n's followed, going towards Dumbledore. "Once there was a young man, who, like you, sat in this very hall. Walked this castles corridors, slept under its roof. He seemed to all the world a student like any other. His name? Tom Riddle."

The same name that had other tables glancing towards the Slytherins. The name that had for years hung over their heads, and created the expectation that everybody in the house was undoubtedly evil. It hadn't mattered how many successful wizards and witches had been produced from the house; Slytherin was the black plague to anybody who wasn't among them. Y/n dropped her gaze, not wanting to make eye contact with those at the other tables. Even as Dumbledore regained their attention. "Today, of course, he's known all over the world by another name. Which is why as I stand looking out upon all of you tonight, I'm reminded of a sobering fact. Every day, every hour, this very minute perhaps, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castles walls. But in the end, their greatest weapon is you. Just something to think about."

Y/n was full of rage. As Dumbledore walked away from the pedestal, she knew that his speech was going to turn the school further against Slytherins. It was going to create suspicion, and mistrust.

The hall was dismissed to their dorms. And y/n stood, waiting only a few moments before Ariella had weaseled her way through the crowd. Y/n owed her an explanation of why she'd been the one to come in the hall with Draco, and why Harry had been covered in blood and coming inside not long after.

"I have nothing to do with the blood," y/n claimed, rightfully so because she didn't. She had stood outside of the train waiting for Draco, and when he'd left and she saw Harry next, he'd had a bloody nose. She couldn't even say that it was Draco that had done it. "I just waited for him because nobody else did."

"Uh huh." Ariella sounded skeptical, even in the few words that she'd given.

"I'm serious! The grounds are creepy as shit, and I knew we'd miss the carts if he took his time." Y/n was explaining like she was put under the imperius curse, and told to tell the complete truth and nothing but the truth so help Merlin.

"You're sure it's not because you wanted to spend time with him?"

"Fuck off. We practically sat next to each other the entire train ride here."

"Yeah, with Pansy guarding him like a fucking guard dog."

"More like a pug," y/n replied, barely skipping a beat–even if it was insulting another girl for features she couldn't help. Ariella let out a sudden laugh, dimples showing as she muttered, "you're bad."

"She deserves it. Who's that protective over a guy that's not interested in you. Like, she could do so much better than that. Like, use a love potion-"

"Oh my God, how hasn't she?" Ariella exclaimed, jaw dropping a little bit. "You think she has and it just didn't work he was that uninterested?" Y/n laughed, shaking her head and going down the final flight of stairs before they were in the dungeon, and approaching the already open Slytherin common room door. The first night, the door was almost always open with students going in, and out.

Y/n and Ariella stepped inside, only to glance across the common room couches. Draco was sprawled across one, with his robe opened, revealing his loosened tie and untucked white shirt. Y/n sighed slightly, copied by Ariella who'd spotted Blaise.

"God, he's hot," she muttered, hoping Blaise would look back to her and invite her over.

"He really fucking is."

Her gaze snapped to y/n, only to realize that she was talking about Draco, not Blaise. When she looked back, she spared a little grin before she motioned towards the steps. "Are you going to bed, or are you gonna try your luck with Blaise again?"

"I'm gonna slip him this love potion I got from Weasley's the other day. I'm not gonna need any luck this year."

"Gross. That's like…manipulative."

"I'm a Slytherin."

"Dude," y/n groaned, already sick of how many people excused their shitty behaviours for being in Slytherin.

"Fine. I'll try my luck. But if it doesn't work by Christmas, I'm gonna have a Happy New year."

With that, Ariella went down the couple of steps down to the couches, greeting Blaise. The sudden greeting was enough to make Draco's head lull slightly, following the sound–only to go past it to y/n. Y/n didn't stay for long though, only gave an awkward wave before going up to the familiar room and taking up her bed again. Her same posters hung up on the wall from the last five years she'd been in there.

And if y/n kicked herself a little for the awkward wave, well–that was between herself and the pillow she buried her face into.