Professor Lockhart was a joke. He came into class, all white smiles and golden curls, and handed us quizzes about himself and actually counted the grades for them. That first class with him was weird, he kept flashing everyone who got answers correct blinding smiles. Since I had read all of his assigned books, the facts about him were burned into my brain.

"Miss Schmidt!" Professor Lockhart exclaimed when he passed my desk. "You were one of the few who knew my favorite color was lilac. Good girl." He gave me a wink and I curled my lip at his back.

Tracey had a crush on him, so she started reading his books for the fun of it. I had shaken my head at her when I saw. "Trace, there are so many better books out there." I told her.

Tracey shrugged. "You might like these though. He's done a lot of amazing things."

"Doesn't excuse how annoying he is." I grumbled and curled up on a sofa in the common room.

Quidditch tryouts happened for the other houses that needed to fill spaces. Even though Slytherin was missing a Seeker, Marcus Flint didn't hold tryouts. When Draco swaggered in with a brand new broomstick with Gregory and Vincent following behind him carrying some long packages, I figured out what must've happened.

The entire team got the brand new broomsticks. On the last Saturday of September, the Slytherin team left the common room with great flourish to go practice on the pitch. I was sitting at a table, bent over an essay for History of Magic that was due on Wednesday.

Pansy nearly gave me a heart attack when she slammed her hands down on my shoulders. "C'mon, Heather! We're going to the Quidditch pitch!"

"Why would I do that?" I asked, putting the lid on my bottle of ink, just in case Pansy accidentally knocked it over and ruined my essay. The last thing I wanted was to redo an essay about the fifth goblin rebellion.

Pansy rolled her eyes as if I was being ridiculous. "Because we've gotta support our team. And because Draco looks good in green." Her face blushed when she said this and I just raised my eyebrows at her. Pansy pouted a little. "Please, Heather. I barely get to hang out with you anymore. Ever since you starting tutoring whoever."

Professor Flitwick had added a couple more to my tutoring group. I still privately tutored Longbottom every Friday after class for two hours until dinner in the Great Hall. Another was a first year from Gryffindor named Ginny Weasley mainly because she was supposedly distracted in class. And the last one was a first year Hufflepuff name Zacharias Smith, who was worse than Longbottom, simply because he was rude and stubborn.

"You're one of my brightest students, Miss Schmidt." Professor Flitwick had told me when he gave me the youngest Weasley and Smith. "I have high hopes for you, but I think you need to get out of your comfort zone a little. Make some new friends, get a different perspective on things."

I gave Pansy a look. "You see me plenty. We live together, in case you haven't noticed."

Pansy went to her knees and clasped her hands. "Please, Heather!" She shouted, turning heads. A prefect shushed us and Pansy ignored her. "C'mon, you know I can't go anywhere without my best friend."

I rolled my eyes at her and turned back to the table. "I've gotta finish this essay."

The essay was suddenly snapped away from my table and Pansy started running to the door. I scowled after her and had no choice but to follow. A string of colorful curse words ran through when I finally caught up to Pansy outside, just behind the Quidditch team.

She handed me my essay back, a sly grin on her face. I scowled at her as she linked her arm through mine and I had no choice but to follow her and the Slytherin Quidditch team to the pitch.

Pansy was talking about something or other when I spotted the Gryffindor Quidditch team, followed by a few from their house. "The hell?" I muttered. Pansy shot me a look.

"Does your mom let you talk like that, Heather?" She asked jokingly. But she didn't get to answer because then she spotted the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "What do they want?"

The two teams met up with one another and Pansy and I got closer to hear what was happening. Flint was puffed up and looking proud of himself. "Professor Snape gave us special permission to use the pitch today, to train our new Seeker."

"New Seeker?" The Gryffindor captain asked, peering at the paper Marcus Flint was waving around.

Draco positively beamed. "That's right." Potter gaped at him and behind their group, I could see Granger and Weasley coming up closer to see what was happening.

Someone from the Gryffindor team pointed out the new broomsticks. When Flint said they were a gift from Draco's father, Granger scoffed loudly.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," She said. "They got in on pure talent."

"No one asked you," Draco snapped. "Filthy Mudblood."

I stared down at the ground as the Gryffindor team looked horrified. Pansy was hiding her giggles into my shoulder. I looked over to Granger, who just looked very confused; she didn't know what it meant.

Not for the first time, I wondered what would've happened if my house found out about me being a Muggle born. Seeing how the Slytherin team and Pansy were smirking and stifling laughs, it wouldn't be pretty.

Weasley drew his wand. "You'll pay for that, Malfoy. Eat slugs!" He waved his wand violently and a burst of pale green light knocked him back. I jerked back so hard that I accidentally knocked Pansy off my arm.

"Ron!" Granger shouted, kneeling down over her friend. Potter was right beside her and the rest of the Gryffindor team got closer. Weasley stood up with shaking legs right before barfing up a long and slimy slug. I covered my mouth with repulsion as the rest of my house recoiled and burst into laughter.

Granger and Potter took either side of Weasley and escorted him away as he kept throwing up slugs. The Slytherin team started towards the pitch, still shaking their heads and laughing. Pansy grabbed my hand again and started towards the pitch and I went with her, knowing it was easier to just keep my head low than to go back inside and cause trouble.

The fall came with a sigh of cold air and I felt happy that October was finally here. My birthday was October fifteetnth, and I didn't think any of my classmates knew, and that was the way I liked it. My birthday had never been a special occasion before, and I didn't see a reason to change that.

Longbottom was slowly getting better. Very, very slowly. Almost a month into our tutoring sessions, he was struggling to cast the levitation charm.

I threw my head back and groaned. "Longbottom, at this rate we'll be caught up to the rest of the class at Christmas."

Longbottom turned red, but still narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm trying!"

"Try harder!" I shot back.

"Surely your detention is over with." Longbottom pointed out. "Why are you still tutoring me?"

"Because you need help with Charms." I said bluntly. "If I left you now, what do you think will happen? You could end up failing."

He didn't say anything, but turned away from me again and tried to make our textbook float. I watched from my seat on top of a desk, really hoping that Longbottom would get this soon. I groaned again when he didn't get it right again.

"Are you okay, Schmidt?" He asked, dropping his arm and looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"Why do you ask?"

"You seem even more short tempered than usual."

I drummed my fingers hard against the wood of the desk. There wasn't a lot of harm in telling him; I didn't think that Longbottom was the type of person to spread rumors.

"Today's my birthday." I said, pausing my drumming for only a moment. Longbottom fully turned towards me and stared. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Longbottom echoed. "Why are you spending your birthday with me? I mean, surely your friends would want to hang out with you."

I stopped drumming my fingers and stared at him for a long moment. With a slight shake of my head, I sighed. "I don't think I like my friends that much."

Longbottom let out a small huff of amusement. "I don't like your friends that much either." He said it shyly, as if he was still nervous I'd lash out at him for admitting that. Instead, when I snorted with laughter, he smiled back at me.

I sighed again. "I don't know. My friends are nice, but only if they like you. If you're not in the group, you're targeted by, by all of them really. The whole house now that I think about it. But in a way, it makes sense."

Longbottom took the opportunity to sit down across from me, settling for a chair instead of the table like me. "What d'you mean?"

I shrugged. "First years get booed at for being sorted into Slytherin, Longbottom. The entire school is against my house. After years of getting treated like crap, I'm not surprised Slytherins decided to act like jerks before the rest of the school could do it first."

He was staring at me with a blank expression. "I guess that makes sense. But some people in Slytherin are still jerks, even if I haven't spoken to them ever."

"That's because some people are still pieces of crap."

Longbottom let out a big laugh at that, looking half embarrassed and half shocked at my language. I smiled at him, happy to see he was coming out of his shell a bit. Longbottom was nice, really shy to a kind of annoying degree, but he was nice.

"Don't you ever get in trouble for talking like that?" Longbottom asked once he was done laughing. "My Gran would kill me if I said anything like that."

"That's nothing, Longbottom." I replied. "And either way, I've heard worse from my own Mum. What I say is absolutely nothing." Longbottom blinked and shrugged at my words. I blinked and clapped my hands. "What're we doing talking? Get back up Longbottom! You've got a spell to get right."

By the end of the tutoring session, Longbottom was finally able to levitate the textbook about a foot into the air before it fell with a clatter. I threw my hands into the air and let out a loud whoop. Longbottom laughed loudly at me and looked vaguely proud of himself.

We walked in silence to the Great Hall, side by side in a comfortable silence. Before we got to separate and go eat dinner with our houses, Longbottom looked up at me (he was a couple of inches shorter than me).

"Since no one else will," He started, his voice back to his usual quiet tone. "I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Schmidt. You're the best Slytherin I know."

I didn't get the chance to say anything because Longbottom rushed away from me and into the Great Hall, the back of his neck burning red. I smiled once he was gone but made sure to wipe it away before I went inside to sit with the other Slytherins.