A/N: So sorry. So, so sorry. I was going to post in November, but for some reason, this year Nano (nanowrimoDOTorg) ate my soul.

I won though. Yay 50,000!

PS: Chapters 2-5 have been redone, edited within an inch of their sad, one scene each lives(Gag!) So up to Chapter 7 is reposted. No big changes in any of these. Enter the Detharts has been split into two scenes though, because it kept switching POVs. It's all the same content though.

PPS: I am working on that many-times-dammed Plot summary, but being a graspy author I keep putting in WAY too much detail and have to go back and rewrite everything. I'm up to Chptr 29 at the moment. I'll shoot it off the instant I finish it.

I don't own anything important(3 car payments notwithstanding). Enjoy.

The first week would have been a walk in the park, should have been a walk in the park, with no classes to contend with...if it hadn't been for their damned guests. Maybe it was the fact that they'd all gotten more confident after the Ball. Maybe it was just that they were more now relaxed having gotten some, thanks to their accents and the Ball. Whatever it was, the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were out in force, causing chaos and turmoil wherever they went.

Filch's face constantly alternated between bright purple and a white expression that looked as if he were about to cry. McGonagall spoke in a short, clipped tone usually reserved for the worst of offenders in her classroom, at all times and that vein pulsed in Snape's forehead constantly.

And if they had been anyone else, anything other than the Slytherins they were, they all would have holed up in their Common Room for the duration. Considering the short fuses and fragile state of the entire group it would've been the smart thing to do. But they were Slytherins and by Merlin they weren't going to allow these foreigners to send them into hiding on their own ground! Not even Tania was willing to give so much as an inch, though she jumped at shadows and flinched from every touch.

"Well well. What a turn out for lunch," Greg murmured as they all settled themselves at one end of the long Slytherin table.

Draco nodded, his sharp grey gaze taking in the nearly full Slytherin and Gryffindor tables right along side the nearly empty Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff ones. In fact there were only two Puffballs at their table, directly next to Slytherin's. The rest of the people sitting at the table were the foreign students. Neither of the Hufflepuffs looked comfortable, and they kept shooting glances down the table at the interlopers.

Turning back around, he wasn't on the side of the table with the view of the Puffballs, Draco curled his lips in a sneer. "Something needs to be done about them."

"I can't disagree, Draco," Vince said darkly, rubbing the side of his face tiredly. "But do we have time to do anything right now? What with our Yule Break homework... and all our extra curricular activities..."

Draco sighed, then realized what he was doing and pulled himself up straight. "This is not our... current Project," he had to come at the Moody thing sideways because of the small brunette seated next to Alex. "We can get the rest of the House in on the international cooperation."

"And I know just who you should talk to," Alex commented, playing with her spoon with slow motions as they all waited for the staff to show up and lunch to begin. "Tara Cromwell."

Draco felt himself wince, even as he heard Blaise laugh disbelievingly. "You've got to be kidding, Lex," Blaise said firmly. "There is just no way."

Alex grinned slightly, the biggest smile Draco had seen on her since the Ball. "What? You can't tell me you all are afraid of Tara Cromwell?! She's a sweetheart!"

The boys all looked at each other and avoided looking at both girls... because Tania was giving them the same look as Alex, albeit from underneath her hair.

"Oh fine! I'll talk to her later," Alex said finally, breaking the silence.

She looked about to say something else when a cutting French insult skipped lightly across the air. Draco's head whipped around as a pair of those powder-blue wearing Frenchies walked up to the two bold Hufflepuffs. And while Draco knew French, knew what they were being called it quickly became clear the Puffballs didn't. Not that it mattered. Draco had heard enough.

No one insulted his school in front of him. No one attacked his Puffballs without permission. No one broke Draco Malfoy's toys!

Standing slowly, uncoiling upward Draco glided forward silently. Behind him, he knew, would be Greg and Vince. They'd been doing this so long it wouldn't even have to pass through their heads as an actual thought before they followed him.

"Excuse me, bitches," he murmured in flawless French, tapping the nearest one on the shoulder. As they turned he interposed himself between them and the Puffballs. "I believe you just said that this is a pile of moldering bricks filled with people who might as well be teaching Muggles for all their competence," he easily pitched his voice to carry and saw the rest of the Slytherin heads lifted in that same deadly slow motion he'd just used. "I would like you to apologize."

The French students, easily two years older than him, looked down with condescension. Draco smiled. "And then I would like you to kiss the mud off my boots."

The blond on the left drew his wand faster than Draco could watch. In the next breath Greg grabbed him, the Slytherin table surged to its feet and, low and behold, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws did likewise. Draco glanced around and took in that the mood of all his classmates matched his. He let a very satisfied smirk settle on his face.

"You really should have taken my advice," he murmured, reaching for his own wand.

And then, just as the tension was about to break out into an all out brawl, with the entire student body of Hogwarts taking on the visiting students without mercy, a tall man with a very long beard stepped into the room.

"Ah, I see you've all just arrived as well," the Headmaster said evenly, a note of steel underpinning the cheerfulness. "Excellent. We've not kept you waiting. Please, everyone have a seat."

There was a minute, one very long minute, where the students all stared at each other. Then something like intelligence slipped back into the room. Draco slowly lowered his wand, his grip loosening as Greg dropped the blond. The boy immediately collapsed into a chair, gasping for air. Draco didn't stop smiling evilly though. Because it wasn't over. They were going to hurt them. It was just going to be done in a Slytherin way. Quietly. In the back hallways. Later, when no one else was around to stop them.

"Does it bother anyone else?" George Weasley commented randomly, later that day.

"What? The French thing?" Lee Jordan replied.

"No. Not really. I meant the Slytherin thing."

Even Fred looked at his twin in something like confusion. "What Slytherin thing?"

"Draco Malfoy and his two cronies," George continued, tucking his hands under his head where he lay on a Gryffindor couch. "Jumping up and defending a couple of Hufflepuffs like that. It was weird."

"I didn't see Malfoy doing a good deed George," Lee said, his voice mocking on Malfoy. "I saw him picking a fight with those damn French."

Fred snorted. "A much needed fight, I gotta say. I am surprised though."

"About what?"

"Well someone picked a fight with a couple of French," he said in his 'Leading up to a good joke' voice. "And they just stood there. Not a one of them ran for the hills."

"Oh come on Fred," George shot back, easily fulfilling his part in the joke. "the French don't run. They were just waiting for Malfoy to shut up long enough for them to surrender."

Lee let out a bark of laughter as Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson slipped into common room.

"I'd ask what was so funny, but I don't want to know," Katie said shaking her head. "Besides, you've got to hear this."

At her tone Fred and George sat up and looked up at her.

"It's all over the place, or at least it's all over Gryffindor. Seems Dumbledore finally got fed up. It's said that he had a private talk with the other two headmasters. Somebody said he was heard yelling. Something about keeping their students under control."

Fred snorted again. "About damn time."

Alex rubbed her forehead with her first two fingers as she followed Tania's slim form toward Common Room. She didn't know how the little girl did it. It didn't matter that she'd just been through a healing. She kept right on going, trucking along without so much as a falter. Alex's respect for her rose. She could do a lot of things, handle a lot of things, but physical pain and exhaustion… it knocked her on her ass every time. Just look at what she'd been like after the protection spell on her books.

Though, she mused as Draco came up behind her and slipped a hand around her waist, the end result of that was fun. Even as she thought it she was filled with the desire to settle back, lean into Draco and let him take some of the weight. She blinked a little in shock. It wasn't just that she was thinking like that about Draco. The whole concept disturbed her.

"Don't even think about it," Draco murmured directly into her ear, as she pondered how to pull free without it looking like she was pulling away from him.

She twisted her head. "Don't think what?" Alex flashed a smile.

"Now see, that was just weak Bellmonte. I didn't even have to try to tell that you're lying through your teeth."

"Oh Draco," a high voice that sounded very much like a falsetto version of Greg came up from behind them. "You're just so hot. And you smell like cheese and beef."

"Alex, my beauty, it is in fact you who smells like beef. The finest veal even." Vince replied, his voice even higher than Greg's.

Alex looked up at Draco out of the corner of her eye. "Do something to them please."

"Refractions," Draco called, the portrait swinging open for Tania as she approached it. "But Alex, you do smell like veal."

He was teasing her. She knew it and she knew that if she were less tired and in a better mood she'd be taking it better. She tried for a tightlipped smile, but the corners of her mouth barely moved. "Thank you for the escort gentlemen, but I think Tania's looking a bit peaky. We're going upstairs."

"Wait, what?" Draco sputtered, but she'd already ducked away from him, jogging a couple of paces to catch up with Tania.

Fortunately for her Tania was still in her completely-silent mode and didn't contradict her. Instead she followed silently, her head down as Alex led the way across the room toward the stairs.

She fully expected another objection, but they crossed the Slytherin common room without incident. As her clunky heels clumped up the stairs Alex felt a tiny thrill of disappointment. She didn't want to be around them if they were going to be pains… but she didn't want Draco to just let her go. Alex sighed and shook her head.

"Sorry," Tania whispered.

Alex glanced over at her, managing to catch Tania as the small girl looked up at her from under her hair. Despite the fact that she was walking as if she was perfectly fine, there was a weary, beaten look in her warm brown gaze.

"What for?" she shook her head, pausing at the top of the stairs. "They were being pricks. I'd rather spend time with you any day."

There was a pause, and then Tania shrugged, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. A tiny smile slipped into her expression. "So, what now?"

Alex flashed a tired grin. "Your dorm or mine, Tania?"

"Tara had a mission for my dormmates." Tania offered. "It'll be empty for hours."

"Good enough for me. Let's go," she bunched her robes in one hand and set off down the hall, her desire to lie down giving her the energy to move at speed.

"What? You're not even going to go after her?" Blaise sneered from the far rear of their group, leaning, no lounging on the inner edge of the portal picture.

Draco turned, grasping his suddenly empty hands together behind his back. "If she wanted me to follow her she'd have gone someplace I could go," he replied coldly, taken aback by the harshness in his dormmate's voice.

"Wonderful. Just damn wonderful," Blaise shoved past them, stomping toward the stairs to the boys' dorms. "After everything we gave up for this little tryst and you won't even play. Merlin save me from damn idiots."

His voice faded, trailing away as he disappeared up the stairs, taking them two at a time despite his fatigue. Draco wrinkled his nose. "Is he drunk?"

Greg exchanged a look with Vince. "He's drunk a lot more than you'd think."

Draco scowled.

"So, you can't sleep either," Alex said to the canopy above the third year bed she was borrowing. She and Tania had decided to spend the next few hours napping… but Alex couldn't sleep. It was too hard to relax these days. She never slept when she was 'On Duty' anyway. In the silence she heard Tania's breathing, irregular. Clearly the other girl was awake as well.

There was a rustle of fabric as Tania sat up, tucking one knee up underneath her chin. Alex rolled off her bed and flopped the wrong way across Tania's, at the other girl's feet.

"I'm sorry you know," Tania murmured after a minute or so of comfortable silence, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. The motion didn't help because it dislodged several more loose curls.

Alex twisted to look up at her. "Huh? About what?"

Tania rested her cheek on her knee, looking away, across the room. "About the dress," she whispered regretfully. "It was gorgeous."

Alex scoffed, made as if to wave her hand dismissively, but then decided it was too much trouble and let it flop back down beside her. "It was nothing. Don't worry about it. I've got dozens just like it."

Tania didn't respond for a minute. A long minute. Alex frowned and started to sit up.

"I… really am sorry… anyway…" the younger girl said even quieter. "It… I didn't mean…for…anything to… h-happen… to it I mean."

Alex sat all the way up, crossing her legs tailor style. Her frown deepened. "You… we aren't talking about the dress, are we honey?"

Tania was suddenly a bundle of energy. She threw herself off the bed and crossed the room, her robes whipping around her legs. Her fingers wrapped around her lower arms, tracing along the inner side over and over as she paced. Alex tumbled forward off the bed and grabbed Tania by the shoulders.

The other girl flinched then froze, holding herself completely still. For a second it looked like she wasn't even breathing. Stunned by the sudden change Alex slowly peeled her fingers free.

"Honey," she bit the inside of her lip, searching for words. It didn't make sense, that she didn't know what to say. Everyone knew who needed to know in Slytherin, about what happened at home. But no one ever talked about it. There just… no one talked about it. It hurt too much. It made too many things real. Alex felt a rough patch pinch the back of her throat and swallowed. It didn't help.

"Honey, I don't know what to say to you," she rubbed her head. "I don't know if you're mad at me, or if you're humiliated and wish you'd never met me, which I've gotten before… mostly from Blaise. Or maybe you think we should've been there sooner…"

Tania turned and looked her full in the face for the first time today. "What?" she asked in complete disbelief. "I did it. I ruined the ball. You didn't… you couldn't…"

"Are you kidding me?" Alex demanded. "Falon the Bitch is not as subtle as he seems to think he is. We knew what he was. Or rather we'd started to guess. We should've known better. I should've kept a closer eye on you. But I got… distracted!" she hissed the last word. The memory of her dance with Draco washed over with the blood on a patch of clean snow clawed its way to the surface.

"You didn't do anything." Tania actually sounded mad.

"Neither did you," Alex snapped then pulled herself up short when Tania physically winced away from her. "Tania, the only person I'm mad at is your whiney, ass kissing, sociopath, sadistic, bitch of a brother. If I promise to stop blaming myself, will you stop thinking I blame you?"

Tania ducked behind her hair again, her fingers wrapping around her left wrist. "Maybe," she admitted grudgingly.

Alex didn't smile. It wasn't a full on agreement, but she would've been even more suspicious if Tania had agreed outright. There was no way to remove guilt that easily. Instead she stretched, rising up on her toes before falling back on the nearest bed. "You owe me a favor though," she said to the green fabric canopy. "After all, I did yell at Hunter and his many many friends until they agreed to let you hang out with us. They aren't even going to hover all over your life… much anyway."

The laugh that slipped out of Tania was a little weak… but it was a laugh. Alex smiled in relief.