I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up, looked around then lay back down. The dark wood and the green curtains and rugs in the dormitory confused me momentarily, I thought I had been dreaming that I was in such a place, but I wasn't. I was here.

I got up and went to the bathroom to shower, when I was dressed and in my robes I took a moment to look at my reflection.

There was a sort of glow around me, an aura some would probably say. I was comfortable here. I lifted the bottom of my cloak slightly as I went down the stairs, I glanced around to see if I could find Draco, it wasn't as easy as I had thought.

I then looked around for Crabbe and Goyle and found them, I waved to them, they shrugged their shoulders and glanced to the chair. So that's where he was.

'Draco, shouldn't we be getting going to the main hall?'

He turned around in the chair, 'yeah of course.'

I then realised the couple of girls that were sitting opposite him giggling, I raised my eyebrows, 'hey.'

They frowned at me slightly, then waved at me, 'hey Karen,'

'It's pronounced Kay-Ryn,' I smiled at them, 'but no worries.'

Draco sat back and stretched, 'have you only just got up? You're so lazy.'

'I found it difficult to get to sleep,' I pulled the nearest chair next to him, 'you must have been so excited to start school that you woke up extra early,' I pinched his cheek, mockingly, laughing before letting go, 'seriously though, I'm hungry, let's go get breakfast.'

He rubbed his cheek, 'fine, you're so demanding,' he got up and gestured to Crabbe and Goyle. One of the girls went up to Draco, whilst the other stayed back.

'Can we go down with you?' She asked.

'It'd make sense; we are in the same house.' He replied, drearily, 'is your friend just going to stay there?'

The girl shook her head, 'come on Pansy.'

I remembered why they looked familiar, they were two of the girls in my dormitory, as we made our way up to the great hall, I tried to remember the names of the girls... Pansy and Millicent were the ones with us now...there was a girl last night called Daphne I think too. There were five beds in each dormitory I assumed so maybe we were missing one or there were just low numbers...

'So Kaeryn, you missed the little bit of drama early this morning in our dormitory.'

'I did?'

The girls nodded, 'the fifth member of our dorm arrived, she looked furious; Snape was trying to explain that she can't just choose her house.'

'You mean she's not proud of being a Slytherin?' I frowned.

'Apparently not, and I heard from Daphne before she went down earlier that she apparently kicked up a fuss from being put in Slytherin as all her family were in Gryffindor.'

I laughed, 'oh goodness, at least we'll be entertained,' I sighed.

The girls giggled slightly then looked to Draco who was ignoring our conversation totally, I didn't blame him.

'So, you're not actually related to Draco are you?' Millicent asked.

I shook my head, 'his parents just took me in, something as a debt to my father or a promise or something – I like to think we're pretty much like siblings, he's as annoying as a sibling would be,' I smirked.

'What are you saying about me?' He said as we entered the great hall.

'Just how perfect a brother like figure you are,' I grinned.

He rolled his eyes, 'look there's some free space,' he pointed to a gap in the table between some elder Slytherins, the girls purposefully tried to sit in front of Draco but Crabbe and Goyle beat them to it, so they made do with one being beside me and one beside Crabbe.

After a hearty English breakfast, with the biggest amount of bacon and sausages before me you could imagine, the prefects went up and down the table, handing out the timetables.

Apparently our actual lessons didn't start until tomorrow, due to the vast size of the castle we had to have a tour, given by the prefects of our house. After breakfast it was only the first years left in the hall as everyone else had gone, I looked around and noticed how much bigger the Great hall looked without every single one of the students in.

Professor McGonagall explained the form of the day quickly before dashing off to teach a class.

'Why don't we get maps?' Someone asked as she reached the door.

She sighed, 'because if you got maps you'd spend half your time trying to read it rather than actually finding where you should be going, if we spoon fed you everything you wouldn't actually learn.'

One of the prefects coughed as we all congregated in the main entrance then went our separate ways. As we were led all around the castle I noticed Pansy wave at a girl – I think she was Daphne, who was with another – one I hadn't seen before. Daphne smiled slightly then kept walking with the girl.

'That must be that Tracey girl,' one of the girls whispered to the other.

I glanced over to the girls in front as we walked to the Quidditch pitch, they were walking next to each other in silence from what I could see but it wasn't an awkward silence, I guess that Daphne ran into Tracey when she went to breakfast and introduced herself.

'Don't you agree Ryn?' Draco said.

I looked to him, 'sorry, what?' I didn't even realise I had zoned out.

'Tch, forget it, it wasn't important,' he rolled his eyes at me, 'will you ever not be so spacey?'

I scowled at him.

Millicent nudged Pansy, 'well, I completely agree with you Draco,' she said.

'Oh yes,' the girls smiled.

We passed the Quidditch pitch then went round to the gamekeepers hut, Draco and I looked at each other and giggled, he replicated the scared look on Hagrid's face as he saw me before getting into the boats. I bit my lip to stop myself from howling with laughter as we passed him outside of his hut, doing some dirty chore I would have imagined.

'What's so funny?'

Draco and I smirked at each other, 'Oh... nothing,' I said.

'Weasley, I still don't understand why they chose you for the Gryffindor Prefect, hardly a fitting example to the lions,' one of our prefects, Jake Flinton said. We had run into the Gryffindor first years, other Slytherins weren't as amused as our little group was as the Gryffindor Prefect turned bright red.

'It would do you well to remember that Prefects are supposed to be an example to the lower years,' The Weasley boy said.

Our other prefect scoffed, 'please, Percy, be a dear and pass quietly, we don't want to alert...him,' she looked over to Hagrid's hut, Hagrid was already looking over.

Percy stood straight, 'and why not? He is staff.'

'Not really, we must give you credit though, this year Gryffindor might be interesting for once.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Oh I don't know, Harry Potter, the well known and well adored child for just being in the way.'

Percy's ears turned bright red as he turned around to face the Gryffindors, he cleared his throat, 'this is the game keepers hut, behind him is the forbidden forest, it's forbidden for students to go in there...right, yes, moving along now.' He marched them away.

I could tell that we were all trying to refrain from laughter as the prefects led us to the Greenhouses and back to the main entrance.

'That concludes the tiresome tour, please don't lose your way around here – it reflects badly on us as prefects.' Jake muttered, 'you can go wherever now, we don't really care.'

As the Slytherin's disbanded I noticed the hooked nose professor walking along the corridor, 'ahh...shouldn't you be...touring the castle?'

'We finished, professor Snape,' Gemma Farely replied.

His eyes hovered over the few that remained around the entrance, including myself. He glared at me for a moment and opened his mouth.

'Riddle!'

I turned away from Snape and to the voice, I frowned as there was no-one where the voice had come from, I turned back to Snape who had gone, along with the prefects.

'Huh...' I muttered, 'so what on earth do we do for the rest of the day, our classes don't start until tomorrow?'

'Eager to start, Kaeryn? Maybe you should have been in Ravenclaw,' muttered Millicent.

I blinked, 'oh, I'm sorry, could you say that again?' I walked towards her.

'Kaeryn, leave it, let's go to the owlery?' Draco took my arm.

'My apologies, Millicent,' I grinned at her, before hooking my arm through Draco's and walking off. 'You seem to be hitting it off well here.'

Draco smirked, 'I know how to make friends, maybe you should learn from me?'

'I've done without friends for years, I don't need them now,' I replied, 'we're not going to the owlery are we?'

He chuckled, 'no, it smelt dreadful up there, come on, we'll go to the common room.'

When we got there, Draco disappeared to get something. I sat in one of the chairs before the fire. Mister jumped up onto the arm, I stroked his messy fur as I stared into the fire.

'Hello.'

I jumped and looked beside me, 'urm, hi.'

'Tracey, you are...?'

'Kaeryn, Kaeryn Riddle.' I replied, looking around the common room.

She smirked, 'you fell asleep, the blonde boy, Draco, left with two other boys I think.'

'So you watched me sleep? Creepy.'

'I could tell you were waking up, actually I just wanted to have some quiet. This place is so noisy.'

I looked at her for a moment then sat up, 'and those girls?'

'In our dorm? They left too, I think, I don't know, don't really care.'

I laughed, 'you seem to be getting along with...'

'Daphne, she saw I was putting an act on, my parents weren't thrilled by my house but they should have known...'

'Why?'

She glared at me, 'I would have gone on if I wanted to tell you.'

I shrugged, 'fine, whatever.'

She got a book out, 'anything interesting about you? Or are you like the others?'

'I'm not mind dead if that's what you're asking, and I don't know my family, is that interesting to you?'

She thought for a moment, 'yes...who raised you?'

'Muggles.'

'How did they react when...?'

'They didn't. The Malfoy's adopted me.'

She scoffed.

I glared at her for a moment then sighed, 'Draco said I should make friends, got any tips?'

'I just lie.'

'Sounds about right,' we grinned at each other, 'what's Daphne like?'

Tracey shrugged, 'smart, I hate the smart ones.'

I yawned, I didn't think I'd be able to become friends with this girl either. I bit my lip and brought my legs onto the chair, tucking them in.

'So you're awake then?'

'You could have awoken me Draco,' I muttered as he sauntered in.

He smiled, 'but you looked so cute asleep, you missed dinner by the way.'

'Then you certainly should have woken me up!' I snapped.

He emptied his pockets, 'luckily for you, I didn't want you to starve,' he produced a couple of sandwiches.

I tuck into them, offering one to Tracey, she took one and we ate in silence, Draco sat opposite me, 'is this... a friend?'

'No,' I muttered.

He smirked, 'of course, the girls wondered where you were.'

I looked to him, 'I highly doubt that, but it's a ...nice thought.'

He pulled out a chess board, 'they seemed pretty relieved to be honest, want a game?'

I shook my head, he looked to Tracey, 'do you play?'

She spun the board round so that she was white, 'yes, but good luck beating me.'

'You should play me if you want a challenge, Draco's not so good at tact,' I winked at Tracey who chuckled. They played best out of three and I was not surprised with the outcome.

'Aw, best out of five?' Draco suggested.

I moved from my armchair to crouching next to the coffee table, watching the game, again Tracey won the majority – although I'm pretty sure she let Draco win the last game on purpose.

'I did wish you luck,' she laughed.

I shoved Draco out of the way and reset the board, 'feeling up to playing more games?'

'Always,' she smiled, helping me out with the board.

'I hope you know that's my board,' Draco said.

'Not now, Draco,' I smiled as the game begun. Draco was yawning and slipping in and out of sleep for the duration of our game.

He jerked awake suddenly, and looked around like he had lost something. I looked up from my twenty-seventh game with Tracey, 'you okay there?'

Draco looked at the grandfather clock, 'jesus... it's that late?' He muttered, 'I'm going to go find Crabbe and Goyle and probably go to bed, you should too – we start classes tomorrow.'

I grimaced, 'maybe you should have been in Ravenclaw?' I mimicked what Millicent had said earlier.

Draco rolled his eyes, and left the room.

'How can you stand him? He's so arrogant,' Tracey yawned, 'Checkmate.'

I started packing the board away, 'aren't we all?' I grinned, looking up at her.