Sorry about the wait! Just got back from a month on the east coast and finally kicked my ass into gear to write this. A bit shorter than the other two, but with a bit more happening, and I've already got a head start on the next chapter. Thank you for all your kind comments, and I sincerely apologize for some very odd typos; when I get the chance I'll go back and fix them. Anyone with critique, please, please share: I'm sure nothing short of pure flaming will insult me and I have heard from some trustworthy sources that my writing occasionally puts them to sleep (?) which is absolutely heartbreaking but also something I definitely want to fix!

With that, enjoy!

"He really seemed to hate me."

It was Friday afternoon, and Harry was seated in a massive armchair in Hagrid's hut. The man poured Harry tea into a chipped mug and offered him another rock cake.

"Rubbish!" said Hagrid, not quite meeting Harry's eyes. "Why should he?"

"Hagrid, the other students have been complaining all day about how Professor Snape favors the Slytherins. He didn't favor us at all-at least not Blaise and I!"

Blaise, who was examining a plant in the window, added off-offhandedly, "Well, he did seem a bit off."

"Now look here, Harry," said Hagrid. "Yeh've got more to worry 'bout than that Snape's bad moods, what wit' school an' all. He hardly likes any of the students, in any case. Yeh just put it out of yer mind."

"But Hagrid, I'm-" Suddenly a piece of paper sticking out from under the tea cozy caught Harry's eye. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet. "'Gringotts Break-in Latest?" Harry read.

"But Hagrid, I thought Gringotts was impossible to break into! And look! It was on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there, even."

Hagrid didn't seem at all pleased by the change in topic. He grunted, not meeting Harry's eyes, and offered him another rock cake, forgetting that Harry had already rejected seconds. Harry read it again-The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day.

Hagrid cleared his throat. "Weren't you telling me about the old git Filch's cat, Blaise?"

"Hm?" Blaise turned away from the window. "Oh, yes! She's the sneakiest little devil, you know that? The other day she found us in front of the forbidden corridor-"

"And what'er yeh two doing up at that corridor?"

"We got lost!" Harry assured him.

"Yes, we've had a terrible time this whole week," agreed Blaise. "Quirrel and the Bloody Baron have had to save us twice from Mrs. Norris and Filch already. It's not like we mean to end up at that door!"

"Well, yeh two ought to pay close mind to Dumbledor's rules. Ther theh fer a reason." Hagrid glanced out the window. "Speakin' uh which, 'ts nearly lunch time. Yer supposed to eat wit yer house, yeh know that."

Despite Harry's protests (for Hagrid's cabin was a much friendlier place than the Slytherin table), Blaise and he were quickly hurried out of the hut, and with a loud thunk Hagrid shut the door behind them.

As Harry and Blaise hurried back to the castle, Harry noticed how quite his friend was. "Feeling alright?" he asked as they entered the open stone hall.

"Fine," Blaise replied. The word came out harshly, and for a moment Blaise looked like he was going to snap further at Harry, but then he smiled brightly as ever. "Those rock cakes were right impossible, yeah? I think I chipped a tooth... it hurts terribly."

Harry frowned, trying to remember if Blaise has so much as sniffed the food Hagrid had forced on them, but he had been paying too much attention to Hagrid to recall. "Should you go to the hospital?"

Blaise laughed. "No, I'll just find my brother later. He used to get in fights all the time, so he learned how to fix all sorts of little things like this on his own."

"Your brother got in fights?" said Harry with a frown. "But I thought he was a Ravenclaw?"

"He is, he is! But he's the same year as Adrian, and had a bad way of running into him whenever he was in a foul mood-which was oftener, you know, before Rose came."

"Funny," said Harry, "I thought only Gryffindors and Draco's lot got in fights."

The pair entered the Great Hall and sat down at the nearest seats. The sixth-years they'd squeezed in between barely shot them glances before returning to their meals. "Well, you know what they say," said Blaise. "A Slytherin has an idea, a Gryffindor's there to shoot it down, beat 'em up, and take credit for it after all that."

"They sound like a bunch of gits, but... Isn't that how Crabbe and Goyle got their Transfiguration homework done?"

"Well, I didn't say that all of us have great ideas. But we're the house where the true potential goes. All the Gryffindors get is 'courage.' What good is courage if you're no good, anyways? Don't need courage if you know you've got the skills."

"So Slytherin is the 'skilled' house?" asked Harry. "I thought the sorting hat said 'cunning.'"

"We've been doing better than everyone else so far, haven't we?"

Harry paused, mouth half filled with asparagus. "We have?"

Blaise didn't answer, and they stopped talking so he could get a bite to eat.

Just as Harry finished, Rose walked past, apparently on her way out, but she halted abruptly and sat down across from the boys. "Hello, Rose," greeted Harry, as Blaise was still eating.

"Hello, Potter, Zabini," she replied, but she sat quite still after that, studying Harry intensely. Harry didn't know what to say.

"Is there something on my face?"

She frowned. "No, nothing in particular."

Harry stared back at her. He was beginning to get familiar with her fox-like face; her sharp nose, scrutinizing green eyes, and tight-lipped mouth stretched into a thin, straight line. Her wavy black hair was today pulled back, leaving her bangs to frame her face.

"Rose," Harry asked abruptly, question forming before he had a chance to think about what he was saying. "Are you at all related to Professor Snape?"

Well, at least she stopped studying him. Rose's harsh expression was replaced with one of bewilderment. "I'm sorry," Harry quickly amended. "It's just, you look a bit like—"

She waved him off. "I suppose we both have black hair," she said skeptically, purposefully glancing at Harry's own black head-full, "but I dare say I take far better care of my appearances than Professor Snape does, Potter. It's not as though black hair is unusual."

"I'm sorry," said Harry again. "It just kind of came out."

This earned him a reproachful look. "I suppose I am related to him in some way or another—but it's so distant I dare say there'd be no resemblance. No more so than I'd have to you, or Zabini, anyways." Harry blinked and looked at Blaise who, with his tidy brown hair and bright-eyed face, couldn't possibly be related to him, or Rose or Snape, for that matter. The boy was just finishing himself, and took a long drink of pumpkin juice and dabbed his mouth with a napkin before turning to Harry.

"I'd say Rose looks more like yourself, Harry," he said after studying his friend's face for a moment. Harry blinked at Rose, who shook her head in disbelief.

"Really, you two, you ought to think before you speak!" she snapped. Harry was startled by her sudden change of mood, but he was growing more than used to short tempers in the Slytherin house.

"No, I'm serious," began Blaise, but Harry elbowed him heartily until he shut up.

"Rose," he cut in, "aren't you going to eat?" She frowned and looked at the table, as if just now noticing the platters heaped with turkey and potatoes and—and whatever that was spread out before her. Blaise stood up, apparently not interested in sitting through her meal.

"Well, I'm off to find my brother," he said, slinging his book bag over his shoulder. "I'll see you back at the common room, Harry."

"Yeah, bye." Harry turned back to Rose, who had begun piling enough food on her plate to feed five people her size. "You're going to eat all that?" he asked before clamping a hand over his mouth."

Rose gave him the sourest look he had ever seen, even counting the sneer Snape had given him when he turned the potion black. Harry felt his ears burn with humiliation as she asked, "Don't you have anything better to be doing?," and he practically ran out of the Great Hall.

Really, Harry, just learn to keep your mouth shut, he thought bitterly as he headed down the stairs. He was so distracted by his stupidity as he rounded the corner he ran straight into someone—a very tall someone in Slytherin robes. Harry fell flat on his back and looked up into a pair of very angry grey eyes.

Adrian's lip curled as he looked down at the first year stammering apologies, and waved his hand to silence the boy. "Oh be quiet, Potter," he snapped. "Your yammering is giving me a headache." He reached down, offering a hand up, which Harry stared at, uncertain of what to do, before realizing how stupid it would be to refuse a hand from Adrian LaConner. The Head Boy smiled and pulled Harry up, but did not let go of his hand.

"Be sure to pay attention where you're walking in the future, Potter," he said in an almost gentle voice. "Oh, and… flagrate nexus."

For a moment Harry was confused, until he realized his hand was glowing and, a moment later, burning! Harry yelped, yanking his arm out of the older boy's grip, and swatted out the tiny flames that had started on his sleeve. For a moment he cradled his hand, wide-eyed as blisters formed in the shape of Adrian's hand, before he realized he should be looking at his upperclassman. It was too late, though; Adrian had his wand out.

"Locomotor Potter!"

Harry suddenly found his body being lifted into the air and flew back fifty paces into the wall at the end of the corridor. He cringed as he slid down, but scrambled to his feet and rounded the corner, running. The only problem was he had never gone this way before, and had no clue where he was running to! He turned as soon as he could and found himself scrambling up a narrow stairway.

"Come back here, Potter!" he heard Adrian shout behind him. Coming out in a deserted hallway, he pulled out his wand, knowing he'd have to defend himself against. But how? Harry hid behind the corner of the next hall over, out of breath, as he pondered this. The only spells he knew were, well, wingardium leviosa, which he'd not quite managed despite the hour Blaise had spent explaining to him exactly what he was doing wrong, and lumos. Harry doubted that transfiguring a person would be quite the same as turning a toothpick into a needle, and besides, he had only really manages to make his a bit shinier in the whole class time they'd been given. So unless he was planning to blind Adrian with an overly bright lumos—that was it!

Harry spun out from around the corner, pointed his wand at the flickering lantern on the ceiling, and shouted with as much might as he could muster, "Nox!"

The lights flickered out, and Harry was encased in darkness. He turned and ran down the hall without a clue as to where he was, or even which floor he was on. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the dim glow of Adrian's lumos spell as the boy chased after his footsteps, but couldn't see his own hands in front of him. Or, for that matter, Professor Snape as he stepped out of the seventh-year potions classroom. With a thud Harry found himself sprawled on the floor for the second time that evening.

Snape drew his wand from his cloak and waved it vaguely at the ceiling, illuminating the hallway to find Adrian rushing towards him. He raised an eyebrow.

"LaConner," he called, as the head boy quickly slowed. "Why, exactly, are the lights in my hallway out?"

"Don't ask me," said Adrian. "He's the one who did it."

Snape's other eyebrow joined the first. He shot Harry an unreadable glance, which quickly turned into a frown and a creased brow as he looked back at Adrian. "And what's that you've done to Potter's hand?" he asked. "Furnunclus?"

At this Adrian grinned, almost looking proud. "Professor, Professor… I wouldn't settle for something I knew worked!" he assured Snape gleefully. "It was one of my own hybrids, of course… flagrate nexus."

Snape shook his head. "You're going to damage your own hands that way, LaConner." Adrian shrugged non-chalantly.

"Rose can fix them."

"Not if I tell her not to." Snape spun around, and for a moment, Harry thought he was going to leave him there with Adrian. But as he scrambled up, he heard the professor snap, "Potter! With me." He quickly chased after the man.