I'm a bad girl and you hate me, I know! :c Sorry for not updating for so damn long, but first there was writer's block, then my computer died and I had to get a new one... And after that, real life drama kicked in full time and I couldn't possibly make time for writing. Also, I am very lazy so that contributed to the whole thing... Anyway, read away! I hope it's not too disappointing... It's more of a filler than anything else.

The first few weeks of school flew by like lightning. It was easy to fall back into the routine of eating breakfast in the Great Hall each morning, going to classes during the day and writing homework in the evening. Although not everything was like it used to be.

For Hermione, the transition from the crowded and lively Gryffindor common room was both positive and not. On the one hand, she really enjoyed the peace and quiet she had here, but on the other, it often got lonely, especially given whom her dorm mate was. At least he spent almost all of his time somewhere other than their quarters and didn't bother her too much.

But that still meant she was usually completely alone. It didn't bother her when she wanted to study or read, but all the other times, she wished she had company.

Her friendship with Harry was strained as it was because of the awkward situation between her and Ron, but now that they basically only saw each other during meals and class, he was drifting even further away.

Like that wasn't making her miserable enough already, she couldn't stop thinking about Ginny too. She would catch glimpses of her at lunch or if they passed each other on the corridor, but the redhead now seemed to always be in the company of at least one Slytherin. She couldn't possibly come up to her and try to talk if a snake was right by her side.

The whole thing was just making her more and more depressed as time went on. She felt completely alone and like no one cared about her anymore.

It was on a Saturday morning in early October when she was washing up in the bathroom that she stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing her own reflection in the mirror. She was unusually pale, dark circles stood out under her eyes and her hair that had by now grown into a neck-length shaggy haircut looked broken and lifeless. To put it mildly, she looked like shit.

The image was pretty shocking. Hermione couldn't actually remember the last time she really looked at herself, but now she was disappointed by what she had let herself become.

Sitting down on the toilet seat, she dropped her head into her hands with a great sigh. All those resolutions she had made during the summer, what happened to them? She swore she wouldn't be weak anymore, that she wouldn't bend her will to other people's wishes and that she'd go after the things she wanted. What happened to that strong girl who even completely changed her look to show how much she wasn't going to be subject to stereotypes anymore?

The answer wasn't all that hard to find. Hermione desperately needed her friends, but they apparently didn't need her, seeing as their lives went on joyously even when she wasn't a part of them anymore. That thought was the most depressing of them all.

She would have been able to withstand the loneliness if they would have at least tried to reach out to her and go out of their way to spend time with her. They didn't. And that, more so than anything before, made her realise that she didn't actually have friends to speak of. And even the ones she had thought closest to her lived their life merrily, barely even showing that they were now a part of a completely different house.

Little did Hermione know that not everything was so damn peachy for Ginny either. The redhead was accustomed enough to faking her feelings that she didn't let anything show, but inside, she felt more lost than ever before.

Living in Slytherin was basically like entering a different dimension. It looked like the normal world, but it was like the rules she knew and followed all her past years suddenly just didn't apply anymore. The snakes created their own rules and abided by them strictly, but they were unlike anything the girl had experienced before.

Most prominent was the influence of one's social standing. You earned your way to the top very simply: by being the most powerful. Whether that meant you had an influential family, lots of money, friends in the right places, a position of power, it didn't really matter. If you had the power and let others know you would use it without regret, you belonged with the crème of Slytherin.

Theoretically, Ginny should have been thanking the almighty forces above for her luck in that department. Apparently, the Trio that adopted her as their own were right at the top of Slytherin's royalty, what with Draco and Pansy both being prefects and Blaise just tagging along, using the mere influence of those two and his connections outside of school.

Really, the redhead had nothing to complain about. She was treated with respect by most of the snakes when she had mentally prepared herself for the worst experience of her life. Nonetheless, being a part of a foreign house filled with alien people was extremely stressful and slowly taking its toll on her.

The worst part was that she could never feel relaxed. Yes, her peers didn't exactly exclude her, but unless she was in the company of one of her three protectors all she would get were cold looks and absolutely no sympathy. When she was with her so-called 'friends', she felt better and the more she got to know them, the cooler they seemed. What bugged her most about them though was that she couldn't figure out why they had started being nice to her in the first place. They were Slytherins after all; they must have had some ulterior motive.

Both of the girls were slowly nearing their breaking points when Draco approached Hermione one evening in late October. She was sitting on a cosy futon in their living room, curled up with a book and minding her own business as usual when he tapped her on the shoulder. "Nerdy, mind donating me a few minutes?"

The brunette frowned at his rudeness, but put down the book anyway and fixed him with a glare that clearly conveyed get this over with quickly.

"Okay, I'll give it to you plain and simple. Next Saturday is Halloween and I'm going to be throwing an epic party since I have the place to do it. Now you, you present an obstacle. I presume it's clear that you won't be reporting this to anyone… All I need you to do is find another place to sleep next weekend. I think it's pretty generous of me to give you a heads up so early on… I mean, I wouldn't do that for just anyone, roomie!" Finishing his speech with a wink and that awful word he loved to call her, he waited for her reaction.

Usually, she would have just sighed and said 'Fine, whatever', but this time she actually got seriously pissed. "What the hell Malfoy? Okay, I let some of your shit slide…. Now you want to start throwing me out of my own fucking place?" Getting up and hitting Malfoy with the book she was holding she stormed away to her room, while calling back to him where exactly he can shove that party idea of his.

After fuming for a while in her room, completely outraged, Hermione calmed down a bit. And if I let him throw it? Would that be so bad? To tell the truth, she had never been to an actual 'party' in the sense of the word. She knew what high school parties were supposed to look like in the muggle world since she amused herself by watching chick flicks during the summer break, but she had never experienced a proper wizarding party. Those celebrations after a Quidditch match probably counted for something, but all you had to drink there was more or less butterbeer.

With a decision firmly rooted in her mind she got up and stomped across their common room, banging on the blonde's door until he opened it, clearly confused.

"You can have your stupid party, but under one condition: I am so totally attending."