Hermione's promise didn't fall short, only the news came a little late. She told me all about the Philosopher's Stone and how they thought that Professor Snape was trying to steal it, but that was all I heard about until after the three of them returned from actually going into the room with Fluffy and trying to stop Snape and there was nothing I could do to help. The trio had spent the whole rest of the year after Christmas break working on their secret little mission, and once I realized that they had left me out, I wasn't so sure if they were really my friends or not.

Returning to Hogwarts after the break had been great. As promised, I told Daphne everything about my muggle holiday and she was completely intrigued. I was equally as fascinated to learn about what Christmas was like for my Pureblood friends. As the excitement from Christmas wore off and everyone settled back into the routine of being in school, I threw myself into my studies and barely noticed how fast the rest of the year was going by.

I fell into a routine of studying for my classes, filling the time that I used to spend with Hermione with Draco and Daphne instead, since Hermione was too busy with Harry and Ron to spend time with me. Draco, who excelled at Potions, always helped me with our homework since that was the one class that I always seemed to struggle with. As I spent more and more time with just him and Daphne, the three of us grew extremely close and their friendship really made me finally feel as though I belonged in Slytherin. For each of our birthdays, we stole cupcakes from the Great Hall and snuck them into the library to our little corner that we would always sit at and celebrated with each other. It started with Daphne, who insisted on us keeping it quiet between the three of us and carried over to both me and Draco and I knew that this would be our little tradition from that moment on.

I grew closer with my other housemates as well, Pansy and Millicent growing on me more and more as the year went on, the same with Theo, but Crabbe and Goyle never seemed to be anything more than acquaintances to me, despite how they usually followed Draco around everywhere he went.

"Can you believe that Potter actually did something like that? He really thinks he's so special. My father says that he got lucky and that if he was him, he would just keep his head down and not draw so much attention." Daphne grumbled as we sat in the Great Hall for the year end feast, the whole room filled with green and silver to congratulate the Slytherin house on winning the House Cup.

"Perfect Potter." Draco mumbled, still annoyed that Harry was getting so much attention.

"Why are you being so quiet, Liliana? You haven't said a word since we sat down." Pansy said very obnoxiously.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say." I shrugged, picking at the food in front of me.

"Are you sad that we all have to go home?" Daphne asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I promise that I'll write to you all the time, all of us will. Maybe you can come visit me at my home and we can go shopping in Diagon Alley with mother! Pansy, you'll join us of course, and maybe you can come too, Draco."

"Ew, no. I don't want to go shopping." Draco cringed. "Besides, I'll be too busy training to join the Slytherin Quidditch team for next year. Father thinks I'll be an excellent Seeker."

"You will be." Pansy nodded excitedly right away.

Daphne and I shared a little laugh at how ridiculous our friend was and how blatantly obvious she was when it came to Draco. I had accidentally let it slip one day in the library about Pansy's crush on Draco, and since then he had been trying his hardest to avoid being alone with her. I found it rather funny how the more Draco avoided Pansy, the more desperate she would be to get his attention.

Our conversation was interrupted by Dumbledore standing and starting his speech and announcing the winner of the House Cup, even though everyone already knew, but he didn't seem to stop there. He started to award points to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all the way up until Gryffindor was tied for first with Slytherin. Angry whispers erupted from our table as we stared at Dumbledore in disbelief. He awarded a final set of points to a fat lump of a kid, Neville, and Gryffindor ended up winning the house cup.

"He can't do that!" I whined, taking off my hat and putting it on the table. "It's not fair that he favours the Gryffindor house and we get punished for it."

"My father always said that he is a crazy old man, and now I believe him." Draco copied my actions and crossed his arms.

I caught Ron's eye and he gave me a triumphant smile which I returned with a glare. It was pretty clear from the look on Ron's face that he didn't view me as any different from the rest of my housemates. Harry and Hermione noticed Ron looking at me and gave me small, sympathetic smiles, but I quickly looked away from the two of them. I knew that the idea of all of us continuing to be friends didn't seem like it would happen, and there wasn't much that could be done about it because of the large divide between the houses. It was almost as if the closer I got to my own housemates, the farther away I had grown from the three Gryffindors.

I felt sad as I packed all of my belongings and walked with my fellow classmates towards the carriages that would take us back to the train to go home. Hogwarts had very quickly become my new home and I found myself not wanting to leave it to go back to my muggle life for the summer. I was still excited to see my mother, but I wished I could still see my friends as well, which I knew I couldn't do because my mum was a muggle. Everyone had promised that we would write to each other over the break, especially Draco and Daphne, but it wouldn't be the same as seeing them in person.

I enjoyed the final hours I had with my friends on the train ride home, listening to Pansy go on and on about how her family were going to one of her houses in France for half of the summer and then another one in Spain for the rest of the time before school started again. Daphne also mentioned her family's plans to do a bit of travelling, but she didn't brag nearly as much as Pansy had, but we all knew the girl was just trying to get Draco's attention.

There was a long time where we all said goodbye to each other once we reached the platform, the girls all hugging goodbye and the boys just nodding their heads. Daphne had taken off as soon as she saw her little sister and Draco and I started to walk farther down the platform together.

"Do you know that woman over there? The one in the muggle clothes? She has been watching us for a while since we got off the train." Draco pointed to where I found my mother standing with a massive smile. She gave me a small wave and I quickly looked away.

"That's my mum." I said quickly, trying to hide my embarrassment.

"Why is she wearing those clothes?" Draco narrowed his eyes at me and glanced back at my mum.

"Oh, she... She just likes how they look. She's a bit odd sometimes." I quickly gathered my things and put on a smile. "I should go. Write to me?"

I didn't wait for a response from Draco before turning and walking towards my mum. "Who's that? Is he your friend?" She asked after she gave me a big hug.

"Yes, that's Draco. Let's go home, mummy. I'm very tired." I tried to rush her out of the station as I spotted Draco and his mother starting to walk towards us.

"I want to meet…"

"Please, mummy? You can meet her another time."

My mum sighed but gave in, helping me with my things as we started to leave the station. I glanced behind us to see Draco giving me an odd look. I felt my heart beating fast in my chest as I thought about what could have happened if our mothers met and mine revealed that she was really a muggle. As close as Draco and I had gotten, knowing how much he seemed to care about blood purity, he would surely stop talking to me and would tell the entire house, making me an outcast and taking away the one place where I really felt like I belonged.