By the fact that Draco's owlpal chose a book as their favourite thing they owned, Draco was sure he'd gotten a Ravenclaw— which was not surprising at all. And his owlpal's favourite time to spend was reading: what Puff could sit still long enough to read? What Gryffindor would have the brains to read?

Just one.

He laughed to himself, thinking of Granger and the thought of her not being paired with anyone. It would be comical, to say the least.

Nonetheless, if the Gryffindor Princess hadn't been assigned an owlpal, he would have heard by now. He pitied the person who got her.

Draco focused on the first letter he had gotten from his owlpal, not wishing to give that know-it-all Gryffindor anymore of a thought. There were a lot of exclamation marks, and he wondered if he may have gotten someone a little younger than him: the excitement practically screamed out.

Wonderful… He'd have to read letters from a person who couldn't control their emotions, even on paper.

Only one letter a week, he reminded himself. Just one letter. He could easily do this.

He took his time in writing a response, being one of the few participants who didn't immediately start writing as soon as the package from the Heads had arrived. He wasn't one to start random conversations; he'd let his owlpal do that. And judging by the rambling going on in the first paragraph of the letter, Draco's owlpal would have no problem with giving him a few topics to write about.

He would have to introduce himself in an anonymous way…

He nibbled on the end of his pen in deep thought. How could he do this without giving away his identity? He couldn't say he was Pureblood: that, with the book choice and Potions class he picked as his favourites, the person would clue in that he was a Slytherin.

Was he allowed to lie?

As a test, Draco wrote down in the owlpal book: I'm a vampire from Galaxy Tryffold.

The words did not get erased.

So he could lie: he certainly wasn't a vampire, and Galaxy Tryffold only existed in a fictional book series that Blaise couldn't get enough of— Draco had only read the first part of the trilogy. He preferred reading something more intellectual.

Draco decided that he wouldn't say he was a Pureblood. This was going to be a challenge in itself. His Pureblood status was about everything he had, but if his owlpal had any brains at all, they'd know exactly who he was if he told them of his blood status— or they may eventually figure it out sometime during the next eight weeks.

Draco wasn't going to bring it up then, and if his owlpal did, he'd simply ignore the subject and not make a response. And then, if they kept pestering him about it, he'd just lie and deal with it later once he got the 100 house points after the program was completed.

What if they asked about his family? Could he keep it vague? Or was he going to have to lie about that too?

And house-elves! His owlpal mentioned the chapter about house-elves in the Hogwarts: A History book, this probably meant that his owlpal didn't have one and longed to own one.

So his owlpal was likely poor…

Already, Draco was regretting his decision in signing up for the program.

"Draco, I don't even own a house-elf," Vincent pointed out when Draco had mentioned that he thought his owlpal was poor because of their heavy interest in house-elves.

"Yeah, just because someone doesn't have a house-elf—or a dozen in your case—" Goyle rolled his eyes. "—doesn't mean someone's poor."

"My aunt is really wealthy, and she believes in house-elf rights. She pays them to work for her," Theo spoke up.

"That's ridiculous! They don't work for pay!" Draco said in disbelief.

Theo shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I've seen with my own eyes. I think Zipper hoards his pay though."

"Why on Earth would you buy a house-elf just to pay them to work?! That's nonsense!"

Blaise looked up from the letter he had gotten from his own owlpal. "As much as you like to pretend that there aren't any free house-elves in existence, quite a few have been set free and actually enjoy it."

Draco snorted. People needed to stop doing that. House-elves were going to decline in value if more were set free.

Blaise was right though; Draco did know that there were a few free house-elves. Thankfully, it wasn't too common here in most of Europe, as there were many people who would capture them and re-enslave them.

"That's a cruel thing to do," Gregory said when Draco had brought up that fact.

"Yeah, how can they even do that?!" Vincent chimed in.

"They've no rights; the Ministry still considers them an animal," Theo explained.

"Well, they are," Draco pointed out.

"How is their status any different than a goblin?" Vincent asked.

"Goblins fought for their rights and won, they obviously have proven that they have the means to live without someone holding their hand the entire time. You don't have a house-elf, so you can't make a valid opinion about them. I've grown up around the creatures; they are pathetic, needy things and can barely breathe without someone having to remind them to do it! Without us, they would have gone extinct years ago."

"Maybe you need to seek a new breeder then," Theo advised him, his eyes glued to his letter. "The one I have is quite independent."

"Or perhaps you just need to get your head out of the clouds," Blaise added.

Draco glared at Blaise who was the only one who had the guts to look him in the eye when he stated something that he disagreed with Draco on. "One house-elf isn't going to make a difference." Draco drew the hangings to his bed for privacy, grunting to himself in annoyance.

How dare they gang up on him! They were the foolish ones! How many house-elves would die if it weren't for the wizards who housed them?

Too many…

But his dorm mates would know that if they would actually read anything that would educate them.

"You think you know everything?!" he snarled at them through the draping. "Try reading If I Was a Free One by Wimpy Dooling! And just in case your liberated mummies neglected to tell you, that book was written by an actual house-elf!"

He rolled over on his side, pushing the owlpal stuff out of his way. He was too irritated to use them now.

His owlpal would just have to wait for the next morning before he'd write a reply!

*/*

Dear Owlpal,

I don't have much time this morning, so my words to you might seem a little rushed. My schedule is a busy one on Mondays, but I just wanted to clear things up:

It appears that our matches are not exactly in tune, but it's not like I expected for anyone to like much of anything I marked down. We'll just have to make do, I suppose.

No, my favourite book is NOT Hogwarts: A History (notice the capital letters here?). My favourite book is actually a potion book, and it's not because my favourite class is Potions (but I do like Potions best because I'm excellent in it).

Draco left out that Snape was his favourite professor. Only a Slytherin would say that.

Snape didn't diddle around when he taught his lectures. He kept things straight to the point, and Draco liked that about him.

The book I love was given to me by someone very special before they died. Some things have far more value to them than just a price tag— someday you might understand this.

Cats? Me? No. I wrote down panthers, but they are both a part of the feline family, so whatever, I can deal with that 'match' of ours.

Your favourite class is Arithmancy? Dear Merlin, you need help! Please tell me why you like this subject; I do hope you don't take it too seriously? It's alright for pure entertainment, but it has little use beyond that.

My mother has a wonderful Beef Wellington recipe, perhaps I can get it from her if you'd like. She probably wouldn't mind sharing it. I deeply enjoy Beef Wellington myself and ask for it on occasion when I go back home for the holidays.

The last bit was a little bit of a lie, it was actually his mother's elf that held the recipe, but since his mother owned Bowtie, she also owned Bowtie's recipe. If his owlpal wanted it, Draco would have no problem getting it from the elf, she was quite easy going and was always happy to share her cooking tips— not that Draco ever had been interested before, but Vincent would listen carefully to Bowtie when he'd come over to the Manor.

Looks like I wrote the page I needed for the first letter. Good, I can go now. Someone's calling me for something.

Oh, and one last thing: must you use so many exclamation marks? This program isn't that exciting…

*/*

"You got yourself a Slytherin there," Ron said with a scrunched up face.

"Oh, you don't know for sure!" Hermione grumbled. The first letter from her owlpal was a little more abrasive than she'd expected. She had thought that her owlpal would be just as excited as she was, but they weren't. It was disappointing.

It was also upsetting that her owlpal seemed insulted to think that she had originally assumed that their favourite book was the same as hers.

She'd never find someone who liked Hogwarts: A History as much as she did...

"I've known Ravenclaws to be just as pompous and rude," Harry pointed out. "And the first thing a Slytherin would have asked was, are you a Pureblood like myself?"

Hermione sighed. "Harry, not all Slytherins are Pureblood."

"Name one that's a Muggleborn like yourself," Ron dared her.

"Maybe there are one or two, but they could be just afraid to admit it," Hermione said. "Imagine the attention they would get—"

"A Slytherin would love the attention—"

"Not the negative attention they would get from their own house!" she cut Ron off.

"Hermione, Slytherin has never and will never have a Muggleborn sorted into it— it goes against all they believe in."

Harry didn't add to Ron's comment, which usually meant he didn't agree with what his best mate had said. He scribbled down something on his Herbology homework, not wanting to get in between Hermione and Ron's arguing.

"Just because the Slytherin founder was against people like me—"

"Hermione!" Ron protested before she could finish defending their rival house. "They treat you like the name they call you!"

"Not everyone is like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, Ronald!" Hermione scolded with a flaring nose. "Now, we're supposed to be setting aside our opinions about the other houses this year, and that includes Slytherin!"

"But Draco is the Slytherin Prince! He's the prime example of what they—"

"Draco Malfoy is an arrogant, spoiled, rich arse who has never had to work a day in his life for anything— that's not what Slytherin is really supposed to be about!"

"You can't be serious?!"

"Oh, just read the bloody book already, will you?!" she snapped at Ron, speaking about Hogwarts: A History, which gave detailed information on every house. Sure some Slytherins had been sneaky, unfair and sometimes evil in the past, but not all of them were, not even most of them were. It wasn't fair to judge the entire house because of a few bad apples like Malfoy, who had the brains to do whatever he wanted but only spent his time bullying people he thought were 'beneath' him.

One day, eventually, the actions during his school days were going to come back and nip at him; hard. Would he learn from it? Probably not, but Draco Malfoy was not her problem either, so Hermione wasn't going to care about it— why should she care at all about that snivelling, little ferret?

Hermione didn't make a reply to her owlpal right away, wanting to allow her some time to think about how she was going to make a response. Her owlpal did seem a little rude, and perhaps somewhat arrogant, but she wasn't going to give up. She'd make it all the way to that party. The Professors assigned her this person for a reason: they must have thought they were the perfect match. She had eight weeks to get to know this person, that was plenty of time to form something.

She decided that she wouldn't take offense of what her owlpal wrote (even though they appeared to have belittled her a bit). Maybe that's not how they meant to come across. They did say that they were a little rushed this morning.

Hermione went to the library between her classes that day to find a book for Ron. She knew she was wasting her time as he didn't read anything he didn't have to, but she felt he needed to be educated— enlightened, more like. At this point, his bigotry against the Slytherins was no better than the way Malfoy treated anyone outside his little circle of Slytherin friends.

"Oh, this is just lovely! Though, I don't know why I should be surprised to see you here!"

Hermione stiffened at the voice, cursing herself for even thinking about him, likely jinxing her afternoon. She pulled a book from the shelf, glaring at Malfoy who'd just joined her in an aisle.

He was alone, something she was beginning to notice this year as she'd had the privilege of seeing him more than she wanted.

"I do hope you disinfect the pages of every book after your filthy fingers have touched them. I make sure I do it when I first get them; knowing people like you read them!"

"Shove off, ferret!" she snapped, gripping the book tighter in her fist.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed and dropped down to the book she was holding. "Why would you possibly want to read that? Looking to know what to expect of me in a few years from now? Maybe if you come crawling to me, I'll give you a job— does that surprise you? Me, hiring someone with filthy blood like yourself? Well, it's not strange at all, really. We need people like you to do the unpleasant tasks that pay too little— all the way at the bottom— that's where you belong, after all."

Hermione laughed bitterly, upset by his words, knowing he truly believed that she deserved nothing more than a crummy job beneath him.

"You think you could be as great as one of these people?" She laughed again in mere sarcasm, tapping the cover of the book. She knew he thought highly of himself, but he was going to crash and burn as soon as he was out of school. Once he was out of his sheltered life, he'd be lost, and because he spent so much time bullying others, he'd not know how to do anything more.

He expected himself to be a leader? An employer? Of who; his friends? They would be the only ones to work for him, as anyone else would be crazy to even think about it!

"Just be on your way, and let me be— for once in your pathetic life, ignore the fact that I even exist!" Hermione warned him quietly. "Unless you just like it when I break your nose?"

Malfoy sneered, curling up his lip. His eyes shined with hate. "What about the whole unity rubbish? Aren't you supposed to look past the colours of my house and respect me?"

"I respect your sorting Malfoy, just not your personality! Frankly, your attitude is for the birds! I'm shocked you have any friends at all— you're lucky you're even in Slytherin! Any other house would have shunned you for the way you treat people!"

Hermione spun around, walking away from him. How she had the will to not give him another broken nose, she didn't know, but obviously, he hadn't learned from it twice before, so why bother with it now— it'd just make her hand ache all over again!

He really wasn't worth it!

By the time dinner came around, Hermione had cooled off from the obnoxious males surrounding her and was able to give her owlpal a thorough response.

Dear Owlpal,

I took your warning seriously, hoping that you hadn't intended to come off as rough as you did. I didn't realize that I would end up getting someone who wasn't as eager to participate in the program as much as I am.

Speaking of which, does that mean you only signed up for Owlpals just for the points? Well, I guess I should have expected it… About everyone else has. But you should take note that I'm going to return every letter you send, I do NOT want to fail this program (notice these capital letters here?). Hopefully, you feel the same.

As you mentioned in your letter, you're right that our interests aren't exactly the same. I was not informed that our favourites weren't exactly a match, so anyone could have easily made the mistake.

I think it's lovely that you treasure an object with such sentiment. I don't have anything like that personally. You could say that I'm very lucky to not have lost someone so special to me. I can only imagine how that would feel. May I ask whom it was that you lost? Is that too personal? If so, disregard this question…

My favourite belonging was my first book bought for Hogwarts, so that's why I like it so much.

Here, Hermione stopped herself from writing that it was also because she was a Muggleborn. When she was eleven, Hogwarts, a History had prepared her for the magical world that she had not known about.

There weren't many Muggleborns in Hogwarts, which would narrow down her identity, and if she did have a Slytherin owlpal, she didn't want to ruin the upcoming 'friendship' she was supposed to be having with them for the next many weeks. Who knew what her owlpal thought of Muggleborns.

This was why things were kept anonymous.

She'd just have to deal with their reaction later. If she was lucky, her owlpal would end up getting over the fact that she'd not been born to magical parents. And if not, oh well, she tried and won points for Gryffindor. Plus this would add an additional credential for whatever career she'd choose after graduating.

Oh, you don't like Arithmancy…? That's a shame. It's an interesting subject. Entertaining, like you've stated. I like it because it's relatively straightforward, involving no guesswork. It's not like Divinations, which is nothing but a bunch of unintelligible, dramatic, fabricated rubbish!

I would very much appreciate your mother's recipe. My parents don't cook (they are both very busy people). Hogwarts has introduced me to some exquisite cuisine! Thank you for that offer, perhaps I'll be able to do something nice for you too in the future.

We should probably introduce ourselves now, I may as well go first: I'm a happy, only-child, who as you know has busy parents (summer is really the only time I get to spend with them, with the exception of an official holiday).

I have a pet cat at home. Her name is Bianca, and she loves my dad to pieces, so I couldn't bring her to Hogwarts. She likes to sleep around his neck at night. Dad complains about this (even in his letters!), but he doesn't honestly mind, he's used to it by now. I think he would miss her if I had brought her to Hogwarts with me.

I have a cousin who I'm close to. She doesn't go to Hogwarts though; instead, my uncle schools her. She's quite crafty, and when we were younger, Penny and I used to have reading competitions. She was the only friend I had before Hogwarts. I don't talk to her much anymore though. She has a boyfriend now and spends all her time with him.

Now, tell me about yourself. Do you have any siblings or friends outside of school? Any pets at home that you wish were with you now, or did you bring them to Hogwarts with you?

I do hope your next letter isn't so harsh, I hadn't meant to irritate you already, but just a small warning, my friends tend to tell me that I'm a bit on the annoying side; another thing you'll have to accept from me in these next few weeks. This includes my 'excessive' use of exclamation marks!

Sincerely, your Owlpal

Hermione looked over at Ron who was scribbling away in his own Owlpal book (yes, he'd signed up, even with Hermione's warning that it was a lengthy commitment).

"How can she think that?!" Harry was saying next to Ron. "The Stormwalls have an excellent Seeker!"

"Much better than The Harpies do!" Ron exclaimed. He started cursing under his breath, upset over a nasty blotch from him smearing his ink. "Look at last year! Simpleton out-flew everyone in the league!"

Apparently, Ron had been matched with a perfect owlpal: one just as crazy about Quidditch as he was. Maybe this girl will end up being his soulmate.

Hermione nearly snorted at the thought.

Later that night, in the common room, Hermione tried getting both Harry and Ron to look at the book she'd borrowed from the library. Naturally, Ron wanted nothing to do with 101 Things Slytherins Have Done That No One Will Acknowledge.

"It's probably written by a Slytherin who wants you to blindly accept them."

But Ron couldn't logically argue when she read the "About the Author" fold to him. What could he say about a Hufflepuff willing to defend Slytherins?

"Just listen!" Hermione said impatiently when he rolled his eyes.

Ron sighed. "If I do, will you stop bothering me about it?!"

"If you give this an honest thought."

"Alright…" he grumbled, leaning back into the sofa.

"Yolanda Juicyknot was known for healing over twenty-seven hundred injured Muggles after an earthquake hit the shores of Japan."

"Knowing the Muggles, they thought it was an earthquake when in reality, it probably was an experiment gone bad. Look at Seamus, he's always blowing things up! Yolanda probably caused it."

Hermione pressed her lips together. "That was a real earthquake, Ron! You just want to hate them! You're no better than half of them, you know!"

She snapped the book closed and hurled it into his lap. He groaned, clutching himself. "Merlin, Hermione!" he said with a gasp. "Watch where you're throwing that thing! Bloody well about hit my knockers!"

"You're an insensitive prick!" she screeched to him, stalking off.

He was supposed to be a Prefect, but like Malfoy, he certainly wasn't acting like one! Those two could practically be brothers with how shallow they were!

Hermione threw herself into bed, screaming into her pillow, and ignoring her dorm mates who were asking what was wrong with her.

She was wasting her time anymore. People like that would never change if they hadn't already…

She was exhausted and hopeless, and she wanted to give up. Ron didn't understand how important his position as a Prefect was (he didn't even want to. Like Malfoy, he only wanted the perks, not the responsibility), and it was too stressful to work with him!

If her professors weren't counting on her to assist them with this whole unity thing, she'd seriously think about giving up!

AN: All chapters are written. In a sense, this story is complete! The last chapter will be quite long though. Something to look forward to! :) There are seven chapters.

Review Responses:

neha200: You can actually read the books for free online! They are really good books, a lot of detail was left out of the movies, and you're missing out on so much! If you love fanfiction, you might end up enjoying reading the original series :) Thanks for reading!

Shawnjoell: They can't directly tell their identity. The books are also charmed so that they can't write down details that would give them away. Listing down interests and their favourite things isn't going to intentionally give away someone's identity. In the next chapter, the two will even go further into detail. Essentially, the students COULD play a round of "Guess Who" (and some probably would), eliminating people as they try to identify their owlpal, but then if they DID find out, they would lose points doing it.