I was walking throughout the passageways of the castle. I didn't want to really interact with others just yet. I was always on my own in the orphanage, and over the summer here at Hogwarts I was alone as well–except for the teachers of course.

I was happy to have met Minerva and Hagrid. Two of my favorite characters from the movies. The only person I was reluctant to meet was Riddle, mostly because I wouldn't know what to do if we started talking. He would most likely have some kind of mask to hide his real personality. It would be weird and just downright suspicious for me to ask him to drop the act and be himself. We've never met before–well, there was that one time in Flourish & Blotts but he didn't know that was me. And if I told him that I knew he was acting he would do…something not good.

My map was out and I was flipping the pages between floors leisurely. Right now I was just pacing around the ground floor, waiting for breakfast to start, when I turned the page to the dungeons. I would have continued to the next page when a familiar name caught my eye. Charlus Potter.

I stopped walking and furrowed my brows at the name Why would he be in the dungeons? I resumed walking and saw another name in front of Potter's, Antonin Dolohov.

Dolohov was a Slytherin, that much I knew. What I didn't understand was why him and Potter were interacting. I would have figured that because Charlus was a Gryffindor he wouldn't want much to do with Slytherins. Maybe they were friends or something.

I wound my way through the passages until I came upon the corridor they were in. One exit from the passage was almost right next to them, and I didn't want them to see the coming out from behind a portrait.

Another exit was thankfully in another corridor just around the corner from Potter and Dolohov's location. I walked out from behind the set of armor and made a note to remember the location of the passage entrance incase I needed the information later.

I peeked around the corner to look down the corridor where Potter and Dolohov were talking. And by talking I meant Dolohov was pressed up against the wall with Potters wand pointed threateningly at his neck.

I put a silencing charm on my shoes and a notice-me-not on myself so they wouldn't see me come up. Even with the spells in place I was careful not to make any noises. As I got closer I saw Dolohov glaring at Potter, which was entirely reasonable considering Potter had him at wand point. I was able to hear their conversation now that I was only about two yards away.

"Don't bother denying it Dolohov, I saw you looking at her. Along with all of your Slytherin buddies." hissed Potter.

I shook my head at the Gryffindor. Of all things to get worked up over it was for a girl.

"In case you didn't notice, Potter," drawled Dolohov, "everybody in the great hall was looking at her. It's not often, if ever, that Hogwarts gets a new student."

When Dolohov said that I realized they were talking about me. I looked at Potter and saw him glaring heatedly at Dolohov. I could see the contrast between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Dolohov was upset with the situation but he didn't show his anger anywhere in his posture, instead he chose to glare at Potter and he seemed to be egging him on if his comment was anything to go by.

And Potter "Shut up Dolohov!" was letting his emotions get to him. In his anger Potter didn't notice Dolohov discretely taking out his wand. He on,y noticed when Dolohov pushed him away and pointed his wand at him.

I thought this was a wonderful time to intervene before they started dueling in the middle of the corridor. I dropped the spells I had placed on myself and pointed my wand at the two of them, "Expelliarmus."

Their wands went flying out of their hands towards me, and I caught them before they could hit me over the head. I shoved the wands, including mine, into my bag before crossing my arms and looking up at them.

They were looking at me with surprise. At least Potter was, Dolohov was able to hide his surprise. "We haven't even been here a day and you two are already trying to duel each other." I shook my head in disappointment.

"You don't understand Dani! I caught this slimy snake sneaking around down here–"

"And what were you doing down here?" I decided to let the Dani nickname slide. "I suppose you decided to take a stroll around the castle and ended up from the seventh floor all the way down here in the dungeons, where you knew these 'slimy snakes' live."

Potter had nothing to say to that and it seemed he decided to try something else, "Look Dani, you're new and because of that you don't know how the Slytherins are." He pressed a hand to his chest, "Thankfully I am here to help you learn about how slimy these snakes are."

I pursed my lips and gave Dolohov a good once-over. I was never one of those girls who would scope out which guy was the cutest or which one I would date, but I had to admit, Dolohov was pretty cute. He had icy blue eyes, and a button nose with freckles shattered here and there. He had a square chin and rather effeminate lips. His skin was pale. It was as if he barely ever went outside, the only evidence he ever did were his freckles. He had a hat covering his straw blonde hair. Why he had a hat on, I don't know.

I shrugged and looked back at Potter, "He doesn't look that slimy to me. He actually looks pretty cute." I admitted.

Dolohov smirked at me while Potter stood there gaping like a fish. "You'll catch flies that way you know." I pointed out.

He snapped his mouth shut, but he wasn't done speaking, "He is not cute!" He would have said more but I stopped him.

"Well I'm glad you think so. If you had agreed with me I would have been a little worried."

I could see Dolohov's lips twitching as he held back his amusement. Potter, however, didn't see the amusement. "You wouldn't understand matters like these. Why don't you give me my wand back and I can teach this snake a lesson"

Potters tone irritated me and I walked right up to him. He obviously expected me to give him his wand back and stuck his hand out, waiting for me to give him his wand. I smiled sweetly at him and shot my hand out and pinched his ear before twisting it. Potters whole body cringed with continuous mantras of "Ow!" and "Let go!"

"Do not treat me like I am stupid." I hissed.

His only answer was the continued exclaim actions of pain, only now he was adding "I'm sorry".

A scoff was heard beside me, "Reduced to begging by a useless mudblood." Without even looking I shot my arm out and twisted Dolohov's ear between my fingers. The only noise he made was a grunt of pain and a small grimace.

"Well this mudblood has just brought you to your knees." Following my words I twisted his ear even more and pushed him to his knees.

I released Potter and shoved him away, "Get out of here, and hope you don't run into me again."

"But my wand–"

"GO!" Potter didn't stay any longer and ran down the corridor. I would have Hatty give it to him during breakfast.

"As for you." I dragged Dolohov up and started walking deeper into the dungeons, "here I am, defending you out of my own free will, and you go and insult me." I shook my head, "You could have stayed quiet until the end of the conversation when I would have given you your wand back, but nooo, you decided to open your mouth."

"I didn't need your help." he gritted out between his teeth.

"And when, during that whole confrontation, did I help you?" I didn't wait for his answer, "Exactly, I didn't. I stopped the two of you from fighting over something as stupid as 'a new student' which I will assume is me." I started muttering to myself as we approached the entrance to the Slytherin common room. "Boys fight over the stupidest things I swear."

I found the expanse of wall where I knew the entrance to the Slytherin common room was located. I only knew it was the right wall because Salazar told me there would be a very detailed looking snake near the bottom right corner of the wall. It was thankfully easy to spot.

I cleared my throat, "If you would be so kind as to allow me entrance." The wall slid open and I walked in with my head held high, Dolohov still trailing behind me with his ear twisted between my fingers. A perk to being friends with Salazar was that he made it so I was allowed into the common room without needing to speak the password, just ask. How he did it I don't know, probably some kind of parseltongue.

There were Slytherins scattered around the common room, I figured they were getting ready to go to breakfast. When they saw me, the new girl, walking through the common room dragging Dolohov by the ear, all of the talking stopped as they turned to watch what I was doing.

I walked up to the circle of dark green leather couches placed in front of the common rooms fireplace, and I saw none other than Riddle sitting imperiously on one of the chairs, twirling his wand in his hand as he watched my approach.

I walked up and stood in front of Riddle before giving Dolohov's ear one final twist before letting him go. He stumbled away from me and collapsed on the nearby sofa, rubbing his ear as he glared at me. I never once looked away from Riddle, but I made sure to keep my gaze to the left of his eyes, not wanting him to use legilimency on me. I'll have to start learning my Occlumency.

"I found this little snake lost and unfortunately pinned to a wall by Charlus Potter." I spoke calmly.

"I was not pinned to the wall." I had apparently taken a blow at his pride.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically, "Would you like to see a memory of the events?" Saying that I shifted my gaze and looked directly into Riddle's. I didn't know if he was actually going to look or if I would even notice, but I could feel something brushing against my mind. I held back my creeped out shiver as I showed the presence–who was obviously Riddle–the memory of Dolohov clearly pinned to the wall with Potter pointing his wand at his neck.

When I knew he had seen the memory I slid my eyes away from his, looking just left of his head. "Indeed." His voice was just as smooth and dark as I remembered. Reminded me of dark chocolate actually.

"And how is it you were able to get into our common room?" Riddle asked me, "Surely Dolohov here didn't give it to you." his midnight blue eyes examining me.

"I am the reason she is able to get in here." I looked up above the fireplace where the voice had originated from, and found a portrait of Salazar sitting in a throne like chair with a snake draped over the back.

I smiled, "Salazar! I didn't even know you were there!"

"Yes, well you never were very observant we're you?" To anyone else he would have sounded condescending, but I knew he was actually a little amused.

"I suppose I'm not am I? But you love me anyway."

Salazar had no answer for me and I continued my smiling until he broke the surrounding silence, "How do you like the common room? You never would come down here."

"It's cold, and it's dark. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful in here but geez, come winter time and I wouldn't be surprised if icicles started forming on the ceiling."

Salazar scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous. There are charms throughout the rooms that prevent that from happening."

"That's great. Maybe next time you can make sure they take care of this lingering cold. Look at me!" I rolled up my sleeve and held it up towards Salazar, "I have goosebumps!"

Now Salazar rolled his eyes, "Put on a warming charm."

"You are such a snake." I shook my head at him. Adjusting my bag I remembered I still had Dolohov's wand. I dug through my bag before I produced all three wands. I took mine and stuck it into my wand holster and held out the other two wands. "Which ones yours?"

Dolohov was looking at me like I had grown two heads, but he reached out and took the darker colored wand from my hands. I nodded and put Potter's wand into my bag.

I looked up so I could make my way out of the common room and found everyone's eyes trained on me exactly like Dolohov's. Riddle was the only one hiding his reaction with a blank face.

"What are you all looking at huh?!" It was Salazar who got everyone to look away. "That's what I thought."

I laughed and started to leave the Slytherin common room, "Thanks Sal." I waved without looking back at him.

"Will we see you tonight?" He called back to me.

I tilted my head and turned to look at him, "I don't see why not." Before I slipped out of the common room.

Once I was out of the common room I calmly took out my book map, "Cross my heart, hope to die, the Jester is here to mystify." The book automatically flipped open to the dungeons. I found the nearest entrance to a secret passage before breaking out into a sprint and reaching a portrait of a woman brushing her hair. "Jester" I breathed to her.

The portrait swung open and I slipped inside before spit shut. I decided to use Jester for the passwords. I looked down at my book and took the route that would bring me closest to the Great Hall.

I made it to the Hall in about five minutes. Before I stepped out I called for Hatty. "Can you get this to Charlus Potter without him seeing you?" I handed her his wand.

"Yes! Hatty's be willing to help her mistress!" and with that she popped away.

I stepped out of the passage and was in time to close the entrance before Annabelle came around the corner. I muttered, "My promise is done, but the fun has just begun." The book snapped closed and I shoved it into my bag.

"Hey Annabelle."

"Hey! I didn't see you this morning, where were you?" She seemed concerned.

I just shrugged. "Nowhere special. I just wanted to take a small walk before classes, you know? Sorry if I worried you."

She waved off my apology, "Don't worry about it, I was just wondering."

We entered the Great Hall together and I saw Hagrid sitting a little ways away from all the others. I instantly felt bad, I mean how can anyone not want to hang out with Hagrid? He was like a giant puppy.

"Hey, do you mind if I catch up with you later?" I asked Annabelle.

"Sure why?"

I gestured to Hagrid, "My new friend is all alone. You can join us if you want?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No thanks. You would be smart to stay away from him. He's a half-giant of all things! Always talks to you about magical creatures, dangerous ones at that!"

I gave her a sneer Salazar would have been proud of, "Do not talk about him like that. He could be half-turtle and I would still be friends with him." I stalked away from her. What is with these people and trying to tell me what to do?

I dropped into the seat across from Hagrid and wiped any trace of my previous displeasure from my face. "Hi Hagrid!" I said brightly.

Hagrid looked up, startled. When he saw it was me he relaxed a little bit, but he still seemed surprised I was actually sitting with him. "Hello."

I started putting some food onto my plate, "So how are you doing this morning?" I took a bite of some bacon as I looked up for Hagrids answer.

"It's been alrigh'." his voice was a little uneasy. Obviously his morning was not as alright as he wanted me to believe. I would have asked him what was wrong but Minerva came up and walked past me, "You better hurry Danielle, classes start in five minutes. That goes for you too Hagrid." and she continued in her way.

I looked around the Great Hall and found that it was almost empty. I quickly gathered my bag up and checked my schedule. It seemed my first class would be potions. "See you later Hagrid!" With the potions classroom all the way down in the dungeons I was thankful I knew about the secret passages that could get me there in at least two minutes.

When I reached the potions classroom door I was able to slip in at the same moment the bell rang, signaling the beginning of classes. I looked around the full classroom and spotted Slughorn at his desk up front. "Morning professor. Am I too late?"

"Not at all miss Abby! There's a seat still open next to Tom there." In the back corner of the room Tom Riddle calmly stood with all of the potion supplies set up on the desk. I didn't have much of a choice so I joined Riddle at the table.

"Morning." I mumbled to him. Slughorn was at the front of the room, his jovial voice explaining to them how to make their potion. Riddle just nodded in response.

After Slughorn wrote the ingredients they needed on the board I finally looked over at Riddle, "You want to get them or shall I?" he didn't respond.

I waited for him to do something, anything. A nod would have sufficed, but he did nothing. He just stood there until he looked over at me, "Are you going to go get the necessary ingredients or not?"

My brow raised at his thinly veiled command, "Maybe if you ask nicely." I crossed my arms and waited for him to either get them himself or actually set aside his pride and ask me nicely.

If Riddle wasn't so bent on keeping his polite mask on he probably would be glaring at me right now. I could practically hear him grinding his teeth together, "Will you be so kind as to get the ingredients for the potion?"

"Of course! Why didn't you just say so?" I left our table and went to the cabinet that held all the different kinds of potion ingredients for the classes use.

I returned to the table and set out the ingredients. I passed Riddle the salamander blood, "You want to add the blood?" I put two scoops of standard ingredients into the cauldron and looked at Riddle expectantly when he stood there and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as if surprised I had told/ordered him to do something. "Well hop to it! This potion won't make itself you know."

He still didn't move and it was starting to irritate me a little, "I'm not doing this potion myself you know." Nothing. Looks like I'll have to go a Slytherin route. "Alright let's do this. You're going to help me because you won't accept anything less than an O, and because I will answer any questions you might have, to the best of my abilities."

Riddle took the salamander blood and added six drops into the cauldron, "Any question?"

I nodded and stirred the potion clockwise three times, "To the best of my ability."

Riddle lowered the temperature of the cauldron to low and we waited for ten minutes. Riddle used the time to start his questions, "This morning in the common room you talked to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin."

"Yea so?" I shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

"Not only did you get into the common room without a password, but you talked to Salazar Slytherin."

"I'm not seeing the question here Riddle." I sighed impatiently.

"My point is, Slytherin talks to no one. He just sits in the portrait and watches everyone in the room. The fact that you were talking to him like you were old friends and for him to respond in the same way, it was quite a surprise." He paused to check how much time had passed before asking his question. "What I want to know is how you two have become so familiar with one another. Especially with you being a Gryffindor."

"Well," I sighed, "when we met the first time I was pretty surprised. I didn't even know who he was at first until he started hissing at me in what I assume was parseltongue. After that I tried to ignore his presence but he never left me alone."

"How would he have the chance to bother you? This morning it seemed that that was the first time you ever entered the Slytherin common room, considering he asked you what you thought of the room."

Damn him and his perceptiveness. "You're right, that was the first time I've been in the Slytherin common room. I met Salazar somewhere else."

Riddle couldn't ask anything more because the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I collected my bag and looked at Riddle, "Maybe another time, yeah?" I smiled at him and swiftly left the classroom.

Our next potions class together was sure to be interesting.