Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Other citations will be made where necessary.

Chapter 2

"You WHAT?"

Hermione sighed. She has just told Ron and Harry about her and Malfoy's punishment- err, 'assignment'. Naturally, they were shocked. And very angry.

"Bugger!" exclaimed Harry, running his fingers through his hair.

"I know, but you haven't heard the good part yet," she smiled inconvincibly.

"There's a good part?"

"Yes! You see, Malfoy will have to do the same next Sunday." They blinked.

"He'll have to be a Gryffindor for a week as well," she explained. They blinked again, and then a sly smile begun to form on their lips as they went "Ohhhh…" and nodded to each other understandingly. Well, almost.

"Wait, I don't get it," said Ron. "Why is that a good thing, exactly?"

"Because Ronald," she rolled her eyes. "Think of how miserable that'll make him! He promised me Hell when I come to Slytherin, so… we can promise him the same thing."

"Ohhhh…" they nodded again. Hermione grinned.

"But isn't switching Houses is bad enough? I mean, why make you also spend time together? Can't Dumbledore see the danger behind such a thing?" asked Harry.

"Oh come on, Harry," said Ron as he hopped onto the couch beside him. "It's not as if they're actually going to spend time together. Right?" he glanced at Hermione with an unsure look.

"Actually Ron, I think we'll have to. Dumbledore said that he'll know if we don't, and in that case, he'll have to magically chain us, so we don't have a choice."

"Wow… That bad, huh?"

"I'm afraid so. He said it should improve our relationship or something, and switching Houses will make us gain some respect towards the other House."

"That's ridiculous. It'll only cause homicide!" he huffed.

They were quite for a few seconds, when Harry finally asked:

"So… Do you know when you're uh… you know, leaving us?"

Hermione looked up with a sad look on her face, "Sunday."

"This Sunday?" she nodded. "But that's two days away!"

"You're not helping," she grumbled.

"Sorry. Well, don't worry Hermione, we'll make sure to spend as much time with you as possible, so you won't have to hang around the Slytherins too much. We'll try to make it as easy on you as we can," Harry promised, pulling her to a tight hug.

"Yeah, don't worry, Hermione, we'll be there for you," said Ron as he joined them in the hug.

"Thank you, guys," Hermione smiled. "I really don't know what would I do without you."

Hermione woke up to a soft thudding on the window. She opened her eyes, momentarily regretting the decision. The morning sun was shining brightly through the window frame, hurting her sleepy eyes. With a groan, she threw off the blanket and walked over to the window, to let the school owl inside. She landed on Hermione's desk and stuck out her leg, letting Hermione untie the package she was carrying. Noticing there was no note with the package, Hermione started removing the brown wrapping paper, when she finally saw what was inside. Realization hit her when she groaned again and threw herself on the bed.

Slytherin uniform.

Of course, how could she forget? Today was Sunday, the first official day of her torture.

With a sigh, Hermione slowly lifted herself off the bed and looked at the package again. Now she noticed a piece of parchment on top of the uniform. There were two words written on the parchment: "Dendroaspis Angusticeps*". As soon as she read the words, the parchment lit on fire and burned in her hands. 'Must be the password,' she thought and then scoffed, 'how Slytherin-ish.'

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and trudged reluctantly to the bathroom to get ready for the day. After taking a shower and brushing her teeth, she came back to the room to get dressed. Since it was a weekend, she didn't have to wear school robes, so she settled for her favorite light-blue jeans and a lawny sweater. Satisfied with her looks, she took out her trunk and with a spell, swiftly packed it up with all her belongings, replacing her Gryffindor robes, with the Slytherin ones.

"Just a week, Hermione," she murmured to herself. "You can pull off a week. And then, you'll have another full week to get back at the sleazy ferret."

With that in mind, she levitated her trunk and went down the stairs to the common room. Once she was there, she noticed her three best friends sitting on the couch and chatting, clearly waiting for her.

"Hey, guys."

"Hey, Hermione…" smiled Ron, but when he noticed her trunk his face fell. "Oh… it's today."

"Yeah," she nodded sadly. Then she sighed, "But never mind that, it's just for a week. And besides, you guys promised me we'll spend lots of time together, so there's nothing to worry about."

"And," said Harry as he stood up with the rest of them to go to breakfast. "Don't forget how much fun it'll be next week, when the git comes here," he reminded her with a sly smile. Hermione just stood there, taking his facial expression in, when she finally narrowed her eyes and said, "You know, Harry, I think the Sorting Hat had a point when she said you'd be one hell of a Slytherin." He just scowled at her playfully.

They started walking towards the Portrait hole, when Ginny asked her warily, "Say Hermione, um… where are you eating breakfast today?"

"What do you mean 'where'?"

"I mean, is it still okay for you to be at the Gryffindor table, or do you have to be with the Slytherins now?"

"Oh, um…" she stammered. She actually haven't thought of that, but she figured that if Dumbledore ordered her to move in with the Snakes first thing in the morning, then that probably meant having breakfast with them as well. She sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right Gin… you know, why don't you guys go then and I'll catch up with you later. I need to put my trunk in my uh… new room," she cringed.

"Sure you don't want us to come?" asked Harry with concern. She shook her head in protest, "No I'll be fine, thanks. It's not as if you can actually come with me either."

"Alright, see you later then," they said as they turned away and went to the Great Hall.

Hermione took a deep breath and strode off towards the dungeons. She was now walking down the dark, creepy Slytherin dungeon, and a shiver went down her spine. She has never been in this area of the castle before. Just as she expected, this place freaked her our, and knowing that it was located under the Lake didn't help ease her anxiety. Finally, she reached the Entrance Wall that was leading to the common room.

"Well," she murmured. "Here we go. Dendroaspis Angusticeps."

As soon as she said the password, a passage was revealed that led her to a low-ceilinged, dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. Hermione slowly and curiously observed the unfamiliar room before entering it. The Slytherin common room had lots of low backed black and dark green leather sofas with buttons, skulls, and dark wood cupboards. It had quite a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one.

"Well, well, well…" drawled an awfully familiar voice. "If it isn't The Great Gryffindor Mudblood!" Just when she was about to step inside, his figure got out of the passage, probably heading out for breakfast. He eyed her in a way Hermione found vey disturbing and smirked. "I can see you're already making yourself fit with the Slytherins, aren't you, Granger?" he motioned to her sweater. Hermione cursed herself silently. 'Nice Hermione,' she thought. 'Of all colours, you just had to go with the one green sweater you have, didn't you?'

"I resisted against the temptation of wearing a red one. Perhaps I should have though," she smiled sweetly, cocking her head to the side. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head in amusement, striding away.

"Good luck, Mudblood," she then heard him chuckle. She scowled, then turned on her heels, and with the soaring trunk behind her, entered the common room.

It was nearly empty, as almost everybody was at the Great Hall eating their breakfast. She walked to the middle of the room searching for any sign of where the girls' dormitory might be, when she spotted Pansy Parkinson sitting on the couch with her arms crossed and a scowl on her features.

"Finally, the Gryffindor Highness decided to arrive," she drawled scornfully. Hermione glared at her, but decided to ignore the comment and kept on looking around, searching for the dormitories. Pansy continued, "What took you so long? It's not that hard to find the Slytherin common room."

"What do you care how much time it took me to arrive, Parkinson?" she snapped.

"Well, Granger, I happen to care because I'm starving and I want to eat my breakfast, and judging by the time it took you to drag your royal Mudblood arse here I thought I was only going to make it to lunch!" she stood up and went to a staircase at the back of the room. She went up, but then stopped and turned around sharply.

"Well? Are you just going stand there all day or you'll let me show you to your room?"

"Oh," she mumbled and followed Pansy up the stairs, ignoring how she mimicked her 'Oh' mockingly, rolling her eyes.

After Pansy showed Hermione the dormitory and their (…yes, their) room, she left for breakfast. Hermione followed a few minutes later. Now when she entered the Great Hall, instead of moving on to sit with the Gryffindors as usual, she stopped by the Slytherin table, receiving many curious glances and even more, piercing glares. She sat right at the corner of the table that was close to the entrance. She poured herself some coffee and put pancakes on her plate, feeling hundreds of eyes watching her all the while. Even the teachers were watching her as if any minute now she was going to blow the table up. She snickered at the thought. She glanced over at the Gryffindor table and saw three pairs of eyes looking at her with concern. She nodded and smiled at them, as if saying she's fine, and continued eating her meal.

She noticed Dumbledore watching her, too, and when she glanced at him, he smiled and looked between her and Malfoy. She understood. There was another, larger part to the assignment she and Draco received, switching Houses was only the 'extra' part. She glanced at Draco who was surrounded by his stupid fanclub and sighed. For a moment, she thought about pretending she didn't understand the Headmaster's hint and just continue eating her breakfast, but when she noticed his face turn a bit stern, she decided to obligate. With another heavy sigh she picked up her plate and cup of coffee and rose to her feet. She walked over to where Malfoy was sitting, with Pansy clutching to his side and stood beside him. All eyes were on her, and when he noticed that everybody went quite and were looking at something particular behind his back, he turned around.

"Granger?" he raised his eyebrow. Then he sneered, "Decided to join my fanclub?"

She narrowed her eyes. "No Malfoy, I'm doing our assignment."

"What do you…" then he looked at Dumbledore, who was still watching them. "Oh, right," he grumbled. He clenched his jaw and turned to Blaise who was sitting beside him. "Blaise, move."

Blaise, who was looking between Draco and Hermione now looked at his best friend in utter disbelief. "What?"

Draco hissed in annoyance. "I said move, Blaise!" he snapped. Dumbfounded, Blaise finally moved with his plate to the side, making room for Hermione. She sat hesitantly between the two Slytherins, and did her best to ignore all the gasps and whispers (oh, and Parkinson's hysterics of course as well) that went through the Great Hall. Draco quickly finished his breakfast and darted through the Great Hall, probably back to his common room. Hermione didn't take her time either and soon she was out too. She really didn't want to follow him to the common room and face him again, so instead she just went to her favorite place – the library.

Meanwhile, Draco was pacing in his room thinking about how unfair his life was, when Blaise walked in. He stopped pacing for a second, only to look at his friend, and then went on.

"Hey, man, what up?" he asked, closing the door behind him. Draco hasn't told Blaise about the other part of the punishment the old coot has given them yet. He ignored him now though, so Blaise went on.

"Draco, what up?" he asked more loudly this time. "What was up with Granger this morning?"

Draco huffed in annoyance. Finally he spoke. "That loon wasn't done with just making us switch the Houses. He also wants us to spend time," he rolled his eyes.

"Spend time? With the Mudblood?"

"Yes, Blaise, spend time with the Mudblood," he said. Blaise, much to Draco's irritation, just looked at him and smirked. "What the hell are you smirking at?" he snapped.

Blaise arched his brows slightly and smiled. "I was just… well, I was thinking that'd be interesting," he replied, hopping on the bed. Draco glared at him.

"That's it? That's all you have to say? 'That'd be interesting'?" he scowled. This time Blaise chuckled. "Well, hell! It should be. Especially if she's actually going to do it."

"Yeah well, you don't understand. We have to do it. It's either we do it on our free will, or we get chained," he snarled.

"Chained?" Blaise raised his eyebrows. "Well. He is a loon," he chuckled.

"Glad you find that entertaining," he spat and sat abruptly on his bed. He shook his head, "Just wait till my father hears about this… this imbecile forcing me to hang around filthy Mudbloods."

"Your father is in Azkaban, man. I don't see how he would be of any help."

Draco just pursed his lips and with a sigh threw himself on the bed. Yep, life was going to be pretty tough now.

A/N: THE PASSWORD to the Slytherin common room Dendroaspis Angusticeps, is actually a green venomous snake, the Green Mamba.