(A/N) Thank you yet again to my magnificent, flamboyant, and all around fantastic beta, BlueViolets87.

Second Year

"Oh no. Here they come." Seamus whispered, keeping his head down.

"Just ignore them, Dean. Your dad has to be a wizard. Besides, you`re a great wizard, and anyway, who cares if your parents are muggles? You`re still worth more than all of them combined." Rachel said, comfortingly.

Dean smiled weakly.

"Yeah, just think of Hermione Granger. Best witch of our year, and what`s she? Muggle-born." Seamus added just as Malfoy and his pack of snarling Slytherins stalked up to our table. Ever since someone had written that warning on the wall in blood, Malfoy had been harassing the Muggle-borns even more viciously than usual. And, since Dean's mum was a muggle and his dad left when he was young, Dean had no way to prove his dad had been a wizard, labeling him a 'Mudblood' in Malfoy`s book.

Luckily for Dean, Malfoy and his pack stopped at Harry Potter, a couple seats down. Seamus let out a breath of relief and Rachel allowed herself to eat a bite of her waffle. Dean`s face started to return to its normal colour.

Rachel glanced over at Harry briefly. "Do you really think he`s the heir of Slytherin? He seemed so nice…"

"He can`t be." Seamus said simply. "We would hear him if he left the dorm room at night; the door squeaks. So obviously, he`s not the one who`s attacking the school, because most of the attacks happen at night."

"Someone should tell that to the Hufflepuffs." Dean said darkly. Ernie Macmillan and a couple of other Hufflepuffs had been spreading mean rumors about Harry ever since the snake incident last week.

"Tell them what? That you`ll be next, instead of them?" Malfoy jeered from behind Dean, who flinched.

"Leave him alone, Malfoy." Seamus said sternly.

"Leave him alone, Mal-foy." Lydia mocked in a sing-songy bad impression of Seamus`s voice. She looked nothing like her sister as she stood next to Malfoy and Pansy, hands on hips, her face smirking in a superior manner. The very air that hung around her made you lose confidence and feel as if you are were an insignificant grain of dirt on her shoe. Dean shrunk back, feeling this, and Seamus almost wished he hadn`t stood up to Malfoy. But Rachel was immune to all of this, somehow.

"Come on, Lyd. Is that really necessary?" Rachel said, rolling her eyes, as if her twin had just tied her shoelaces together or something, entirely immune to her sister`s pretentious snide. She turned to Malfoy. "Dean`s a half-blood, and if there`s a problem with being a half-blood, you might want to take it up with Dumbledore, since he`s one too." Malfoy`s eyes flicked nervously up to where the headmaster was sitting, as if Malfoy was worried that somehow Dumbledore was listening in. "Why don`t you just go back to your table before you say something you regret. See you later, Lydie." The untouchable and aristocratic aura around the Slytherins shattered as they stalked off to their table.

"Cheers, Rach." The brightness in Lydia`s voice was in no way fake as she gave a three-finger wave and walked after her friends.

"Thanks." Said Dean quietly, once Rachel`s sister was gone.

"No problem. Pass the butter please."

"That was brilliant, El. Did you see their faces?" Seamus said in amazement. Rachel beamed.

"It was nothing; they just needed for things to put thing in perspective."

"How can you deal with a sister like that?" Dean wondered, almost not realizing he`d said what he`d been thinking out loud.

Rachel frowned. "Like what? Lydia`s not bad. It`s not her fault the only Slytherins in her year are horridly cruel. She likes to have fun, but knows when to stop. Kinda like the Weasleys, in a way." She gestured towards Fred and George.

"I guess." Muttered Dean. Seamus kicked him under the table.

Across the room, Lydia was picking the crust off her toast. "…and my father says that The Ministry is on the brink of chucking Dumbledore out. I doubt he`ll be around much longer, especially if there`s another attack. It`s too bad whatever it is doesn't go after blood traitors…" Draco looked pointedly at Weasley, who was obliviously staring off into space.

"Do you have any idea what it is?" Lydia asked curiously.

"Well… my father won`t tell me exactly what it was, but he was at Hogwarts during the first time it was loose. He did hint it had something to do with that disgusting gatekeeper, Hagrid, though."

"It`s probably one of his horrid beasts." Pansy said, crinkling her nose in disgust.

"Well, I think it`s Potter. After that thing with the snake, I wouldn't be surprised. My father said…" Lydia sipped at her pumpkin juice and gazed at the lake and the grounds around the castle, subconsciously tuning Draco out.

The ground wasn't so cold anymore. The clouds had retreated from their overcast position of last night, leaving the sun hanging alone. Hopefully, this would warm things up. At night, the Slytherin dungeons got especially cold. Lydia had never mentioned this to anyone except Rachel, but the stony dungeons sometimes made her long for her warm bed back at home. Her roommates were cool, there was glowing green fire for light, and they were right under the lake, which was totally awesome, but sometimes a girl needs central heating and, like, to see her sister more than just the occasional brief meetings between class.

A large bang startled Lydia out of her thoughts.

Argus Filch burst through the Great Hall doors and hurried over to the head table. He whispered something to Professor McGonagall the Gryffindor table, and then stalked out. McGonagall followed, her cloak billowing behind her as she walked awfully fast for someone her age.

"I can`t wait for the match," Seamus said, "I bet it`ll be brilliant."

"Yeah…" Rachel said. "Hey, where`s Hermione? She said had a book that she thought I would like, and she was going to give it to me at breakfast…"

"She probably overslept." Dean remarked. "Probably was up late studying again last night."

Rachel heard the library floor creak from somewhere to the left of her, in one of the rows of shelves. Rachel looked away from the window, her eyes scanning the rows and rows of books. She drew her legs closer, hugging them to himself. "Who`s there?" Rachel whispered quietly.

There was more creaking. It was coming closer. Rachel fumbled for her wand. Finding it next to her on the sill, she clutched it tightly in her hand and, still holding her legs close to her with one hand.

"Who`s there?" Rachel demanded.

"Ray? Are you alright?"

"Lydie?" Rachel lowered her wand.

Lydia slipped onto the window seat next to her sister.

"What`s wrong?"

Rachel didn't bother replying 'nothing' or 'what do you mean?'. "Hermione."

Lydia was shocked. "The mud-" Rachel gave her a The Glare. "-ggle born who got petrified this morning? What does she have to do with anything?"

"It`s my fault."

"No, no, what do you mean? You were at the quidditch match, you weren't there, YOU didn't petrify her. I saw you at the match. You couldn't have."

"Do you know why she was in the library?"

"…."

"Last night, she said she`d found the perfect book for me. She was going to give it to me at breakfast…."

"So?"

"So, this morning she went to the library. To get a book. And almost got killed."

"But…they said she was in the magical beasts section. Why would she get you a book about magical beasts?"

"I don't know. Why didn't I tell her not to worry about it or something, so she didn't think it was so urgent she had to go early when nobody was there and almost die?"

Lydia hugged her twin. "Okay, here`s what were gonna do: first, the two of us are going to eat some cauldron cakes I have hidden in my trunk until you feel better. Then, we`ll deliver the leftover cakes to Hermione in the hospital wing for when she wakes up. Does that sound like a good idea?"

"Yeah….by the way, how many cauldron cakes do you have?"

"Well, at the beginning of the year I kinda charmed my trunk to be bigger on the inside than on the outside and crammed food in all available space. I used up about fifteen percent of it on a party earlier this year, but there's still a lot left. I think I have about thirty cakes."

Rachel smiled. "You defiantly have to show me how to do that to my trunk over the summer."

Lydia started to leave to get the caldron cakes but , hearing a laugh coming from Rachel`s direction.

"What`s so funny?" her sister inquired.

"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering how Hermione is going to react when she wakes up and sees all the food piled around her."

Rachel looked out the window and across the lake, wishing Seamus and Dean could see Lydia when she was with Rachel. No matter how many times she told them that Lydia wasn't like Pansy Parkinson at all, they still didn't understand that all Slytherins weren't the same cruel creatures that some of them (like Malfoy) were. One day, Rachel wished as her sister came in with her arms loaded with sugary cakes, they would realize that.