"Harry! If I see you even brush my notes with the very tip of your fingers, I will poke my quill into your eyeballs!" Hermione shouted, breaking the silence that had installed in the common room and making more than a few students jerk in surprise. Gently smiling at the heads that were turning towards her, she angrily picked up the notes that were lying on the ground, only inches away from Harry and Ron. That Wednesday night, it had been the Gryffondor's turn to receive a visit from Thalia, and as usual, Hermione had taken out all of her precious parchments and asked her to revise them. During the first months, the teacher had read and reviewed every word written by Hermione, but after a few weeks, she had become aware that Hermione's notes were absolutely perfect, and that it was ridiculous for her to waste her time looking for nonexistent errors they might contain. Sadly, Hermione was not as easily convinced, and this time, as always, she had patiently waited for her turn to come to hand the scrolls she tightly held, a nervous look on her face. Miss Beauregard was about to say something, but after a few seconds of hesitation she simply closed her mouth and started quickly browsing through the papers she held in had: she had abandoned arguing with the student as rapidly as she had stopped reading her texts. Harry saw her eyes shifting form a word to another, only pausing themselves about three seconds on each little card Hermione had crafted in order to have each and every one of her note sheets identical. Finally, she sighed and gave the notes back to their owner. "Miss Granger, she said, to be quite honest I seriously contemplated the idea of giving out copies of your own notes to students that don't understand the subject." These words had no purpose but to cheer Hermione up, and they succeeded. She therefore let herself fall into a particularly gigantic couch and allowed herself a little bit of light reading, while all the other students were still gathered around their teacher.

Usually Thalia's visits did not mobilize the entire common room, but this day was different: it was already the night before the last DADA class before Christmas, and therefore the night before the particularly tedious exam Thalia had promised them. Each and every Gryffondor student had grabbed their notes and ran down to see Thalia, who was overwhelmed by all the work, but who seemed to be prepared for it. After all, it was not hard to guess that students generally kept work for the last minute. The true surprise of the evening came at the very instant Hermione sat down, when all the students heard a little knock coming from outside the common room. They looked at each other, puzzled. All the other Gryffondor students were either outside the Gryffondor Tower or in their own dorms. The fifth year students had clearly demonstrated that they would do all their possible to keep the common room as silent as grave, and they had done so. Only the Weasley twins had insisted on having their monthly chit-chat with Thalia. Luckily enough for Harry and his friends, they abandoned after five minutes and more or less a hundred annoyed "Shh!" they received from the students. In that case, the knock was quite surprising. It was only when Thalia got up and swung open the door that guarded the entry to the Gryffondor Tower that they understood. Ten Hufflepuff students were standing in the shadow of the Fat Lady's portrait, an embarrassed look on their faces. They were all clutching small pieces of parchment, what Harry guessed had to be their DADA notes. One of the students, which Harry did not recognize from his point of view, apologetically whispered something to Thalia, who turned their back on them and re-entered the Gryffondor common room. "Miss Hanna Abbott," she said, "and her fellow Hufflepuffs, would like to know if they could break a few antique Hogwarts rules and set foot into your common room in order to prepare for their exam, tomorrow."

"Antique rules?" Seamus asked.

"Well technically, only Gryffondor's, and teachers of course," she added, "can enter the Gryffondor Tower."

"Really?" Ron asked, surprised.

The kids had never known that such a rule existed, and they thought that students stayed in their own common rooms only because of their will to do so. Harry realized at that moment that the rule, even though students were unaware of it's existence, had almost never been broken in all his time spent in this school. "Probably the sole unbroken rule of all Hogwarts," he thought. Strangely, he had never felt the need to go meet up with his – quite few, he had to admit – Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw friends outside of their common classes. He had always excused this by saying that the Sorting Hat had placed him with most of his friends, since they all had common qualities, and therefore were simply bound to fraternize. It was only then that it appeared clearly to him: the only reason he had Gryffondor friends was because he was a Gryffondor. Being a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff, he could have made himself as many faithful friends. He looked at Hermione and Ron, who were encouraging the newly arrived Hufflepuffs to make themselves comfortable. It was the Sorting Hat that made sure they were friends. If, as he had feared, the Sorting Hat would have sent him in Slytherin, they wouldn't even dare to approach him. He sighed and went back to his notes.

Only seconds later, Ron and Hermione were at his side, unaware of Harry's unsound thoughts. "First time I see a teacher so happy to break rules," Ron said with a smile, pointing at Thalia. She was helping two Hufflepuffs to understand the origins of Devil's Fog, but thought the subject of her conversation was rather grim, her face was illuminated with a huge smile. In only a minute, she had passed from an exhausted teacher to a spruce young woman spreading joy around her. "It probably reminds her of her old days of killing and breaking the law," said a bitter Hermione.

"No," replied Harry, standing up for his teacher.

"Why else would she be so happy of breaking the rules?" Hermions asked, still as sullen as before.

"She's happy to see we're mixing up and leaving the House's behind. You remember our first class? She told us that she wanted us and the Slytherin's to blend in as one group… She's happy yo see that we are generous enough to let the Hufflepuff's take some of our time with her."

"She's happy to see Gryffondor's are actually as good as they say," Ron added.

Hermione finaly smiled, and admitted Harry was probably right. "Still," she said, "it sickens me…"

"What does?" Ron asked.

"Her way of exposing her Dark Mark as if she was proud of it," Hermione said, darting a disgusted look on the tattoo adorning Thalia's forearm.

Their teacher was dressed for the occasion as a muggle, wearing a sleeveless shirt that clearly exposed the black design printed on her skin. The two boys looked at her, them at themselves. They both found Hermione was being a little bit harsh on Miss Beauregard. "Well she can't wear long sleeves her entire life…" Ron objected.

"No," Hermione replied, "I don't care about the Dark Mark itself… I mean her way of presenting her past as something cool. You know, look at me, I was a Death Eater… She talks about her own friends and her old way of life as if they were normal, but anyone in their right mind would consider these things disgraceful."

"I guess it's her way of living with it…"

"No, it's her way of convincing us that she was right."

"Hermione you're exagerating, she couldn't…"

"Yes she could"! Hermione yelled at Harry, tears falling out of her eyes. "I don't see why people appreciate her when she spent entire years trying to kill people because they didn't have the luck to come to life in an entirely pure-blood family."

The two boys immediately stopped arguing. They knew Hermione was simply upset. Muggle-born, she was insulted anytime someone would dare demeaning her because of that. The two boys simply took her into their arms and let her gently sob on their shoulders. Apparently Thalia hadn't discovered she was the center of their conversation, as she remained seated, helping other students. It seemed almost impossible that she could have missed Hermione's cry, and Harry thought she may have understood more than they thought she had, but in either case, he was thankful that she stayed away. Turning back to Hermione, who had stopped crying, he asked: "So why don't you explain to us the origins of Dementors?"

There was only half an hour left to Thalia's visit when the students heard another dull knock coming from the common room entrance. "I told you Ernie didn't understand a single word you told him!" Seamus shouted, causing general hilarity.

"Maybe it's the Ravenclaw's now," Hermione suggested.

She had spent the last half-hour reciting a summary of the entire program, and it had made her forget all about Thalia and Death Eaters. "I wouldn't think so… I was in their common room last Wednesday, so they had time to review almost everything… Anyways, our reunions usually last about five minutes," Thalia giggled. "Unlike, erm, certain students, they always take the time to prepare their notes in advance." The Gryffondor's laughed at this half-hidden reproach, until Thalia announced : "Should I go get them myself?" Nobody answered, and she interpreted their silence as a form of approval. She entered the small tunnel that led to the hole situated behind the Fat Lady's portrait, and opened the door. All the students ceased their conversations and listened intensely. "Why hello!" Miss Beauregard said.

"Hello miss," a voice they did not recognize answered. "Erm… We were in the library studying when we realized we had a few questions for you… Well, five actually... We know you're supposed to be with the Gryffondor's tonight, but we wondered if you could give us a minute or two…"

"Sure I can," she replied, "why don't you come in?"

"Ermm… In the common room? Are we even allowed to?"

"No. But the Hufflepuffs have without a problem, and I'm also inviting you."

"I… I really don't think it's a good idea."

Hermione whispered to Harry: "Ravenclaws… they are so afraid to break the rules!" Harry stopped himself from reminding Hermione that she had once been as cautious, and instead went back to eavesdropping his teacher's conversation. Thalia, it had seemed, had convinced the students of entering. Only, as Harry caught a sight of their green robes, he stood up, along with a few other students. Thalia was escorted in their common room by three Slytherin students. Harry had rarely seen them before: they were in most of his classes, but they usually stayed silent. Nevertheless, simply couldn't imagine these students daring to enter his territory. He could only agree with Dean as he clearly stated: "No!"

"What?" Thalia asked, outraged.

"They can't come here."

"How come?" she asked, challenging him with her cold eyes.

"Because they are Slytherins. They're not allowed to be here."

"Hufflepuffs neither weren't allowed to be here. You didn't mind."

"It's not the same."

Their teacher stood still for a while, starring at Dean. Finally, she emitted a low, unfathomable "Aaahh…" . After a while, she continued. "I see," she said with a disgusted voice. "Slytherins. Enemies. Kids unworthy of receiving a proper education because a stupid hat didn't shout out the good name."

"It's just…" Harry started protesting, then stopped.

"No, don't stop yourself, Potter. I'm dying to hear what's on your clever little mind."

Thalia was angry, and her tone of voice and sarcastic expressions were now approaching Snape's. "Well," Harry tried explaining, "they wouldn't have let us in either."

"Well not necessarily. If these students had the courage to come up here maybe it's because they don't really mind what House you're in."

The students in question seemed about to faint. "And do you really want me to believe that this is the only reason you're rejecting them?" Thalia continued, keeping the entire common room trapped in a terrorizing silence. "So this is what Dumbledore calls Wizard Solidarity. To be quite honest, if you can't even get together to study, how does he expect you to get together to fight Voldemort."

"They won't fight against You-Know-Who, they fight for him!" Dean shouted.

"Oh is it so? I don't see anything on their forearms," Thalia replied.

"Well not yet… Their parents…" Harry objected.

"Harry can you tell me the name of one of these students?"

Harry racked his own brain at the research of a name, but he was unable to find one. He knew the girl's name started with M, or maybe S… Thalia quickly realized he was unable to answer, and carried on. "So you can't tell me their names, but you can tell me what their parents do at night?"

"Well they are Slytherins. They are bound to end up being Death Eaters!" Seamus continued.

"I beg you pardon?"

"You heard me! All Slytherins are going to become Death Eaters, just like you!"

"You should know, my dear friend, that I wasted seven years of my life wearing the Gryffondor insignia. Seven years were what it took me to realize that your House is only a lie."

"What…" Harry started.

"If you are to believe your motto, you students should be brave, kind and courageous… This is what you call courage and honor? Refusing to help students in need? You think you are oh-so-perfect in every way… But to be honest I have never seen such a gang of narrow-minded cowards. It's easy fighting evil when you only fight the evil you want to."

On that assasin remark, she left the common room, followed by the three Slytherin students, who were litterally running out into the corridors. Harry looked at Ron, who was simply astonished, and at Hermione, who was about to burst into tears again. Though he could decrypt every one's emotions, he could not understand his. On one hand, we wanted to shout at Thalia and tell her that she was entirely wrong, but on the other hand, he knew she was partly right. Hermione's words were echoing into his mind, blending in with Miss Beauregard's reprimand. " …she spent half her life trying to kill people because they didn't have the luck to come to life in an entirely pure-blood familly," his friend had said. The sentence strangely ressembled Thalia's: "Kids unworthy or receiving a proper education because a stupid hat didn't shout out the good name." It seemed that all wizards had their way of judging other wizards. By a last name, or by the colour of a insignia… He couldn't stop himself from letting a sad smile show on his face. Maybe he was judging the three Slytherin students too harshly. He got up, abandoning his friends without a word. He had been within a hair's breadth of entering the Slytherin house. Everybody would have thought he was a future Death Eater. As he climbed the stairs leading to his dorm, he realised he could never sleep with all these thoughts swirmming in his head. He looked at his watch: thought it was dark outside, it was still rather early. Rummaging through his trunk, he quickly found what he was looking for: his invisibility cloak.