When the rest of the students came back from Christmas holiday, I figured that the three from Gryffindor had gotten the information they had needed from Draco. I never asked him about it, seeing as that would be weird and instantly suspicious. But the three from Gryffindor didn't try to talk to me for the first few days after everyone came back from break, so I assumed their plan to find the heir of Slytherin was going well.

I hoped they found the heir soon. The thought of being the next Muggle born that was attacked made me shudder.

Meanwhile, Longbottom and I decided to help each other with classes other than Charms. He was struggling a lot with Potions, though this fact didn't make a lot of sense to me. Longbottom was probably one of the best in our year at Herbology. Logically speaking, Herbology and Potions went hand in hand. I pointed this out to Longbottom one Friday evening in January and he had turned a blotchy red.

"I can't help it!" Longbottom insisted. "Professor Snape makes me so nervous that whenever I'm in that room I just...I just can't think straight. It doesn't help when he yells at me, or when Malfoy and his friends make fun of me."

I shifted uncomfortably, knowing that until this year, I had been a part of that group, silently letting Longbottom get harassed. If he noticed my sudden discomfort, Longbottom didn't show it, so we just started going over some common and easy to remember potions.

In February, a wide detour had to be made around a girl's bathroom. When I figured out which bathroom it was, I found it wasn't a surprise that it had been flooded. The older Slytherin girls always made a point to tell the new girls to never go in that particular bathroom, because that was where Moaning Myrtle lived. The manic depressive ghost was inclined to flood the toilets in that bathroom every so often. I had never seen the ghost myself, but I had walked past that bathroom enough times to hear Moaning Myrtle bawling her eyes out.

When I woke up on Valentine's Day, I woke to see that Daphne had braided small pink flowers into her bright blond hair. Tracey handed me a pink envelope with my name written on it with a darker pink glittery ink. I smiled at Tracey and got out of bed, opening the envelope for a rain of fireworks to launch up and sprinkle down on top of my head in warm sparkles. I smiled brightly at the sparkles and looked over to Tracey. "How'd you get these done?"

Tracey beamed. "I got some help from Cassius Warrington. He's really nice if you talk to him." She blushed deeply and I suspected there was a Valentine for Cassius in her stack of envelopes.

Our group of friends entered the Great Hall to an odd sight. Professor Lockhart was wearing neon pink robes, his golden hair shining brilliantly and his teeth so white I could see every tooth from the back of the hall. I squinted at the Defense professor and took my seat at the Slytherin table. Draco was openly laughing at him with Vincent and Gregory chuckling right behind him.

"He looks ridiculous!" Draco snickered.

"He's always dressed like that." I pointed out. Pansy threw me a narrowed eyed look. I shrugged at her. "He is. He's just wearing all pink today."

"Why are you sticking up for him?" Pansy asked, sitting beside me and scooping some oatmeal into a bowl.

I had no idea why I was trying to defend Professor Lockhart of all people. The Defense professor meant nothing to me; I made fun of him myself countless times over the course of this year. But I was getting tired of my friends needlessly hating on anyone outside of Slytherin. It was exhausting trying to hate everyone outside of our friend group.

I didn't answer Pansy and avoided the question taking a deep bite from an apple. The conversation around me continued past Professor Lockhart's pink outfit and to some other poor schmuck getting made fun of. I ate my breakfast, feeling a seed of annoyance begin to bury deep in my gut. I caught a glimpse of Longbottom over at the Gryffindor table. He was talking to Patil and Finnigan, and for a moment I wondered what.

Classes kept getting interrupted that day because apparently Professor Lockhart hired some dwarves to dress as Cupids and go around the school and deliver Valentines. Professor McGonagall pursed her lips severely when one of those dwarves interrupted her class to give a sparkly red and pink Valentine to Finnigan. He had blushed very hard and quietly thanked Brown sitting beside him. Draco barely hid any of his laughter.

It was time for lunch when Potter got stopped by a fairly aggressive dwarf, who was trying to sing a song for him. In his attempt to get away, Potter's bag split open and all of his books crashed onto the floor. The dwarf took this opportunity to sing his lungs out.

"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad!" The dwarf belted out, turning Potter's face beet red. "His hair is as dark as a blackboard! I wish he was mine, he's truly divine; the hero who conquered the Dark Lord!"

I clapped politely at the end of the dwarf's song while several other students clapped and laughed. Potter looked embarrassed to death and was struggling to collect all of his things. Pansy took a break from laughing to narrow her eyes at me clapping my hands and I met her eyes stubbornly.

"What?" I asked. "The dwarf did a good job."

As the crowd began to move again, I heard Draco strike up a new conversation with Blaise and Daphne. I missed the first half of the sentence, but I did hear Draco say, "Did you see the Mudblood's face? She looked like a stunned beaver."

The seed of annoyance I had been feeling for the past several days suddenly swelled up all at once. Without thinking, I stomped forward and shoved Draco's shoulder. The pale boy stumbled forward and spun around looking furious.

I blinked, surprised with my own action. Why did I do that? That was so dumb, and now Draco was glaring at me like he had never seen me before. All of my friends were giving me that look. The crowd that had gathered for Potter's embarrassing singing Valentine were still milling around and a lot of them had stopped again when I pushed Draco. The Hufflepuffs from our year looked very surprised, along with a few Ravenclaws. The Gryffindors present were Grager, Potter, and Weasley, and I felt my stomach churn when I saw Longbottom standing behind them. I turned back to Draco, who had straightened himself back up with Pansy trying to help by dusting him off.

"What's your problem, Heather!" Draco shouted, his pale face flushed a bit red.

Too late to turn back now. "Stop it with the Mudblood stuff. Stop calling people that!"

Pansy stepped forward, looking genuinely angry. "Why do you care about the Mudbloods?" Pansy asked, her eyes now narrowed to slits.

"Because I am one!" I screamed back at her. There was a sudden silence as every Slytherin and Gryffindor and several others in my year stopped and stared at me. "My parents are both Muggles and I as far as I know, I have no magic in my veins. It's just me! And I have no clue why the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin but it did!"

There was a long pause in which Pansy just stared at me, her brown eyes flaring up with something I couldn't place. I felt tears at the back of my eyes as a wave of muttering went through the crowd of our peers. Draco was standing somewhere behind Pansy and he was the first to react.

"You tricked it!" Draco snarled viciously. "You must have!"

"How do you trick a hat?" I started. I took one step forward but was stopped when Pansy's hand lashed out and her slap echoed around the hallway. I looked up just in time to see Pansy stalking away.

Draco took her spot as I straightened and shouted, "Mudblood!" in my face before he left too.

The rest of the Slytherins in my year, my former friends, followed Pansy and Draco. Tracey and Daphne were decent enough to give me a glance but all the others, Theo and Blaise and Millicent, didn't give me a passing look.

Just like that, I was dead to my friends.

I stood there for a moment, standing there and letting the slap redden on my face. I had been hit before, plenty of times. But that slap from Pansy hurt a lot. Finally, I turned around on my heel and stalked away, shouldering my way between Michael Corner and Terry Boot.

"Schmidt!"

I heard Longbottom's familiar voice sounding behind me and I wanted to keep going, but my feet froze. Longbottom caught up to me and he stood by my shoulder in silence for a long moment, as if he hadn't thought through what he was going to say.

"What is it, Longbottom?" I asked, roughly rubbing my eyes with my sleeve to try and stop the burn of unshed tears there.

When I looked up, Longbottom was standing there, his face pink and his big brown eyes nervously watching me.

"Um," Longbottom started quietly. "You want to eat lunch by the lake? You won't have to sit with them at your table." When I didn't answer right away, he started backtracking. "Or, anywhere, you know. You don't have to say yes. I mean, you're my friend and I don't like it when my friends are sad."

"We're friends?" I asked, and I immediately felt bad that I had to ask.

Longbottom didn't notice and he shook his head. "I think we are. Tutoring sessions are my favorite parts of the week." He paused and shot a glance to the crowd of people behind us who were slowly dispersing again. "I know how to get food from the kitchens. C'mon, let's go."

Without saying anything, I followed Longbottom away from the hall. I'd still have to face my dorm mates after lunch when we had History of Magic class. But Longbottom wasn't thinking about that, and right now I didn't want to think about it either.

Longbottom led the way silently down several stairs and towards the basement. He stopped in front of a large portrait and he reached up and tickled the painting of the pear. I blinked at the high pitched giggle that sounded from the pear and the portrait swung open, nearly knocking Longbottom over.

"Here Schmidt." Longbottom said, stepping through the portrait hole. I went after him and blinked at the large room. Four long tables that matched the Great Hall filled the hall and I stared at the amount of small creatures rushing around the hall between the tables, dropping off platters of food.

"What is this?" I asked. My words brought the attention of several of the small creatures and they rushed over, bowing and curtseying at me and Longbottom.

Longbottom looked confused for a moment before he nodded at the short creatures. "They're house elves. They cook all the food in Hogwarts."

"Can we bring you something, mister and miss?" One of the house elves asked in a squeaky voice.

Longbottom smiled at the house elf. "Just a peanut butter sandwich for me, please. What about you, Schmidt?"

I blinked as one of the house elves rushed off to get Longbottom his sandwich, so I turned to the one closest to me. "A grilled cheese sandwich?" The house elf rushed off and I called after him, "Thank you!"

The other house elves directed us to a couple of seats at the table where the Hufflepuffs usually sat. Longbottom sat across from me and scratched his head. "I'm sorry about your friends back there. I had no idea you were Muggle born."

"No one did." I muttered. "I didn't know it was a bad thing until I was first sorted into Slytherin. I heard Draco talk about it once that first night and knew I shouldn't tell anyone. I made it a whole year and a half without telling anyone."

Longbottom looked concerned. "If you don't mind me asking, why'd you tell them now?"

"Because I heard Draco making fun of Granger." I explained. "Kept calling her a Mudblood. I don't know, I just got so angry at him that I was tired of being quiet about it."

The house elves both showed up with our respective sandwiches and behind them came five more house elves, each of them carrying a large jug with a different drink. They dropped off everything and bowed and curtseyed some more before taking their leave. Longbottom waved goodbye to them and we ate our sandwiches in silence for a long while.

After several minutes, I looked up at Longbottom. "You know, we've only been friends for a few months now, but I think you're a better friend than any of the ones I made in Slytherin."

Longbottom smiled at that, his face turning faintly pink. "Thank you, Schmidt."

We finished our lunch and left the kitchen, saying goodbye to all of the house elves. Longbottom and I walked in comfortable silence back towards the History of Magic hall for our next class. When we heard the sound of students talking, I glanced over to Longbottom. "Thank you again, Longbottom. You're good to talk to."

He beamed brightly as we rounded the corner to where the students were waiting for Professor Binns's door to open. The Slytherins weren't there, but everyone else was. Longbottom and I stayed at the edge of the crowd as people did bad jobs at pretending not to notice.

I tried to ignore the uneasy feeling I got every time I thought about facing the other Slytherins. They'd be here sooner or later, but right now Longbottom was trying to keep me distracted from those kinds of thoughts, and I had to admire him for that.