Jac ran down the stairs, grabbing her books on the way down the stairs, how the hell had she managed to oversleep on her first day of classes, she wasn't sure. As she rushed down the stairways to her first defense against the dark arts class she ran by a clock and briefly stopped to examine it, upon reading the clock she discovered she still had six minutes until class started, and she would surely make it to class on-time. She sighed in relief as she slightly slowed her pace, she wasn't one to be late, and being late to her first class at a new school would have killed her. As she walked down the hallway she sighed again, this time in confusion. She was absolutely sure she had set her alarm the night before, and even if she hadn't, couldn't her roommates take two seconds to go wake her up? She decided she was clearly over-estimating their kindness and decided that she should watch out for herself a little more.
Since the night of the sorting she had been too preoccupied with dodging Malfoy and getting settled in to find time to talk to Harry, Ron and Hermione, but when they received their schedules, much to her surprise and delight, it seemed that the Slytherins and Gryffindors shared many classes, which meant she may have a chance to talk to them and explain herself. She didn't completely understand why she felt so compelled to explain herself to them, after-all she had only known them for a few short days, but for some reason she cringed at the thought of them considering her to be just like the other slytherins. She did not want to be placed in this house, and she probably couldn't change that, but that didn't mean she was going to immediately subscribe to all the pureblood ideals.
As she walked into the class with a minute or two to spare she scanned the busy classroom for her friends. After looking for a moment or two, she finally spotted them and walked over to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat, and noticed the seat beside Harry was empty except for his schoolbag.
"Could i sit here?" she asked, her brilliant blue eyes meeting Harry's vibrant green ones. Harry watched her for a moment, and then looked over to Ron before nodding and moving his things out of the seat. "Listen you guys." She said pleadingly. Hermione and Ron looked back at her from there desks in front of hers, and Harry turned his head to the side to face her. "I'm sorry about the other night, i should have explained it all to you." she said solemnly.
"It all?" Harry asked. His eyes focused on hers.
"Yes." She said nodding her head. "My Family, there the reason why I'm in Slytherin, i swear to god, it has nothing to do with me." She said desperately. Harry and Hermione nodded understandingly, but Ron still sat there with a sour look on his face, and began to shake his head.
"Oh, stop it ronald." Hermione hissed. "As i have tried to explain to you, not all slytherins are bad!" She said even more forcefully.
"Don't try to defend them, Hermione." He said miserably. "How do you know she's not just trying to get close to Harry so she can turn him over to you-know-who?"
"Ronald!" she shrieked, "how dare you say something like that? You can't just assume that she's associated with voldemort!"
"Hermione, she said she's in slytherin because of her family! Of course they're involved in you-know-who!" he whispered loudly, looking at hermione, and trying to persuade her. Hermione then looked back at harry whos face was twisted in a mix of confusion and contemplation. Jac could tell by this look that Harry had taken what Ron said into consideration, although he may have not wanted to believe it. Seeing Harry's glance Hermione shook her head disapprovingly.
"Don't listen to him, Harry." Hermione said softly. Harry sighed, not sure of what she thought, and turned to Ron, to whisper about their opinions of her.
"You know I'm still here." Jac said, her voice rough and irritated sounding. "And if you all gave me a chance i was going to explain all of this." Hermione glanced at her and nodded, and looked at her friends who had resumed whispering about Jac, much to her displeasure.
"Harry and Ron, stop it now." Hermione said. "Why don't we hear what Jac has to say before we make any assumptions." She said sensibly, and they all, the boys more slowly, turned to face Jac so she could speak.
"Okay, so--" she had started to speak, but the room had suddenly gotten quieter. Jac looked around warily before realizing the teacher had entered and class had started. Jac sighed in frustration, he had been just about to explain her situation when she had been interrupted again.
If the lesson that followed their conversation was interesting, Jac didn't know. For the rest of class she was too busy noticing assuming glares from Ron and Harry and sympathetic ones from Hermione, at least there was one person on her side, she thought weakly.
Finally when the class had ended she walked over to where Ron and Harry stood, knowing that they were the ones she had to convince, but before she could get there someone grabbed her.
"Jac, we have to get down to the greenhouse, thats all the way on the other side of the grounds." Pansy said mock-sweetly, pulling her away from Harry and Ron. Jac shot a pleading look at Harry trying to tell him that she would talk to them later.
"dunno why you need us." Ron said smartly as Jac was being pulled away. "You seem to making friends in Slytherin just fine." He said, cocking his head in the direction of Pansy, who was currently dragging Jac out of the classroom.
"That was uncalled for Ronald." Jac heard Hermione hiss as she entered the busy hallway.
"Listen Jac." Pansy said as she dragged Jac down the hallway. "Let me put this plain and simple for you. They, are gryffindors. We, are slytherins. Gryffindors and Slytherins do not make nice. Understand?" She said, continuing to walk down the corridor. Jac took that she was supposed to follow, and did so with a sigh.
"Thats ridiculous, pansy."Jac said as she followed pansy down the corridor. "I'm not going to discriminate against people because they are in another house, I like Harry, Ron and Hermione." She said, looking pansy straight in the eye, when pansy looked over her shoulder.
"Lemme explain something to you Jacqueline." Pansy said stopping right in front of Jac, facing her. "I don't care how things worked at your old school, and i don't care how you think they should work here. There are certain rules you have to follow here at Hogwarts, there are certain ways things work." Pansy said in her shrill voice.
"I'm warning you Gregory, as a friend of course." Pansy said smiling evilly. "Those gryffindors, Potter, Weasel, Granger, they may seem like your friends now, But you're in Slytherin for a reason, and they're going to realize that. Everyone knows that your family may be one deciding factor in your sorting, but its not the main factor. Face the fact that you have something to do with it too!" Pansy said, he voice going from harsh and almost yelling to now whispering loudly. Pansy turned around and continued to walk down the hallway, pushing open the door and picking up her pace as she walked towards the greenhouses. Jac also picked up her pace so she was walking beside pansy.
"So what exactly are you trying to say, Parkinson?" she asked as they walked.
"I'm trying to say that your time here would be a lot easier if you stopped kidding yourself and stopped trying to fix your friendship with Potter." She replied, her voice steady. "Slytherin is your house, and its where your friends are going to be, so i would focus on them, not the gryffindors, especially because half the house already thinks your a freak after your bout with Draco the first night." Pansy finished, sighing and pushing open the door to the greenhouse.
"Come on, its what's best." pansy said finally, just a moment before class began. Jac simply nodded.
A/n: I'm not sure i really like this chapter, i was much happier with the last chapter, but it might just be because i hate writing chapters with lots of dialogue.
But, anyways, please read and review each chapter, i love to hear your opinions and i love feedback, positive or negative.
Also to answer some questions: Yes, you will find out more about Jac and Draco, and you will find out more about Jac's past. Additionally, i am considering revising the first chapter, someone had mentioned it was a little slow, and i have to agree, i wrote it months and months ago and I'm not very fond of it at all.