Hyacinth was not ashamed to admit that she rushed into Aunt Petunia's arms as soon as she got out of Platform 9.75.

She even hugged Duncan, who was not yet old enough to be too embarrassed to hug her back. Not after three months without her, at least.

When they got home, Aunt Petunia had dinner ready in a matter of moments. It was Hyacinth's favorite, steak with fried potatoes, and they questioned her endlessly about her school of magic as they ate.

"Your mother was in Gryffindor," said Petunia, "But she had a close friend in Slytherin. Actually, and I didn't want to tell you this until you'd had time to form your own opinions of the man, it was Severus Snape. He was a bizarre, strange boy then, but it seems he's treated you well so I suppose he's matured."

The revelation smacked Hyacinth like a ton of bricks. But, wait, what about what Drisana had told her?

"But Aunt Petunia, my friend Drisana told me Snape didn't like my father."

"Oh, he didn't. I suppose that was one thing he and I had in common, although I eventually warmed up to him, and Snape never did. I don't really know the details of why that was," said Aunt Petunia with a feigned ignorance that Hyacinth saw through, but figured that Aunt Petunia would have told her if she'd wanted her to know, and Aunt Petunia was not one to give away information if she didn't think you should have it.

Duncan, meanwhile, wanted to know if she could show him any cool spells.

"No," she said sadly, "We're not allowed to do magic outside of the school while we're underage."

The next morning, she was delighted to receive an owl from Drisana explaining the details of the New Year's Eve event, which she would be escorted to by Narcissa and Drisana themselves who would pick her up and bring her back via Floo about an hour before the party was to begin. Aunt Petunia easily granted her permission to go, smiling and saying how happy she was that Hyacinth was making friends.

"I wish I could meet your friends," muttered Duncan on Christmas Eve, while they were staying up late in her bedroom.

"You can," she replied. "You can meet Drisana when she and her mother come to pick me up, and I'll invite Hermione over during the summer, and maybe you can meet Blaise and Theo as well. Or Fred and George, they're twins and they're pranksters, you'd love them." She ignored the fact that Blaise and Theo would never be allowed to set foot in a Muggle home, and the only reason Drisana was was because she had no other way of getting to Malfoy Manor, and she imagined it would look very good for the Malfoys if Hyacinth Potter, savior of the wizarding world, attended their New Year's Ball.

Even so, Duncan looked excited at the prospect of meeting even one or two of her friends.

Christmas morning was wonderful. She and Duncan continued their tradition of trying (and failing) to wake up before Aunt Petunia, who always had breakfast ready by the time they were awake no matter how early.

As usual, their presents were divided by pattern of wrapping paper; hers had little reindeer, and Duncan's had little snowmen, and they attacked them eagerly.

Hyacinth was pleasantly shocked to discover that her aunt had somehow managed to acquire her a soft t-shirt that had the name of her House and it's emblem printed on it, as well as a beautiful green and grey sweater made of the softest fabric she'd ever felt.

"How -?"

"Come now, Hyacinth, you must have realized your old aunt here has her ways, now try them on, hm?"

She also received a lovely pack of emerald-green socks, and it occurred to her that she had the best aunt in the entire world.

She also, incidentally, received a fair amount of presents from her friends, and she realized with shame that she'd neglected to buy presents for any of them. She wasn't used to having so many friends, and the thought that they might send her gifts hadn't even occurred to her. Hermione had sent her a book on all the greatest witches and wizards who came from Slytherin. Daphne and Pansy had sent her magical lip glosses. Tracey, a cute little painting of the window looking into the lake from the Slytherin common room, enchanted to move and have different creatures drift in and out of the frame, with a note saying "For when you miss it, because I know you do, Potter." Blaise and Theo had both sent her sweets, and Athena had sent her a little golden dragon figure charmed to move around.

Drisana, ever the extravagant, had sent her a gorgeous snake pendant made of silver and emerald on a silver chain.

Hot with embarrassment, she wrote them all back and explained that she'd been so busy catching up with her Muggle relatives the past few days that there'd been no time to wrap their gifts, but that they'd all receive them upon their return to Hogwarts, and then explained to Aunt Petunia why they'd need to make a trip to Diagon Alley before break was finished. Aunt Petunia agreed, understanding why it was absolutely unacceptable to receive gifts from all her friends and send not one back to any of them.

Before that, though, came the New Year's Ball. Hyacinth had dressed in what she thought what was a respectable dress, but it appeared that the primary reason the Malfoys were picking her up early was to take her to get a "proper" dress.

Narcissa Malfoy, ever the well-groomed socialite, Floo'd into Number Four, Privet Drive just one minute early, and greeted Aunt Petunia with a charming smile, telling her how she'd heard "absolutely wonderful things about Hyacinth, I must thank you for raising such a dear young lady."

Drisana, meanwhile, slanted her eyes at her with a smirk.

"Happy New Year's, Potter."

"Happy New Year's, Malfoy."

"Hi, I'm Duncan."

It was a credit to Narcissa Malfoy's extremely severe stance on courtesy when she'd raised her daughter that Drisana didn't recoil from Duncan's presence alone, because her mother would have had her head.

"Charmed."

"Anyway, we must be off, but I can have her home by about one tonight if you'd like? Or she could stay over at the Manor, some of the other children are staying over as well since the ball will be running quite late."

"Oh, that's quite alright, as long as it's okay with Hyacinth."

It was okay with Hyacinth, so she quickly packed a bag of pajamas and they took off, Narcissa showing her how to use the Floo system.

They arrived in Diagon Alley, where Narcissa sent Hyacinth's things ahead to the Manor and they took off for the dress shop.

"Hyacinth, my dear, the dress you have on is lovely of course, but I'm quite interested in seeing how you might look in a few pieces I saw in this little dress shop down the way."

"Just go with it, Hyacinth," muttered Drisana, so Hyacinth went with it.

They arrived at a nice little dress shop with big glass windows and a bright woman working behind the counter, who greeted Naricissa Malfoy as "Cissa, darling," and rushed off to find some dresses for Hyacinth Potter to try on.

She returned with something pale pink, something silver, and something deep emerald.

Narcissa and the clerk cooed at all of them, but Drisana's jaw nearly dropped when she saw her in the green.

"Oh, Hyacinth dear, I think you must go with the green," decided Narcissa, while Drisana was nodding with vehemence.

It was a pretty dress, to be sure. Hyacinth wasn't necessarily interested in beauty, but she respected what looking good could do for a person, so she always let Daphne do her hair and listened to Pansy's lectures on the perfect colors for every season and skin tone. So she let Narcissa Malfoy buy her a dress that probably would have costed her half of the Potter family fortune, and said not a word of protest, only appreciation.

"You're a smart girl," said Narcissa as they left, dress in hand, "and smart girls know their worth."

It was then that Hyacinth arrived for the first time in Malfoy Manor. A gorgeous, regal estate that had live peacocks strutting about the grounds.

They still had about twenty-five minutes before the rest of the guests (or, in the case of who actually mattered to Hyacinth and Drisana: their friends) arrived, and so it was that Hyacinth Potter encountered Lucius Malfoy for the first time.

"It is good to meet you, Miss Potter, I've heard many good things about you from Drisana."

Drisana was smiling with pride at the way her parents took to Hyacinth, explaining to her after the children were sent off to their own devices, that her parents were rarely fond of any of her friends. It was more like they accepted them as being in the same social sphere and so were kind to them, but they were delighted with her when they'd found out she was friends with Hyacinth Potter.

Even if Hyacinth weren't always the slyest serpent in the nest, she did know what this one was about. According to Parvati and Lavender, who quite liked to gossip and were both from pureblood families that had stayed relatively neutral during the war, there was a lot of suspicion cast on the Malfoy family after the Dark Lord's defeat, when Lucius Malfoy had been revealed as a Death Eater. He'd escaped Azkaban on a claim of Imperius, which many thought was false, and ever since he'd been trying to cast himself in better lights.

One effective way of doing that, Hyacinth supposed, was to align yourself with the girl who defeated your supposed master. Well, even if Lucius Malfoy was only playing at being good, his daughter could be the real thing, if only given the chance.

Soon enough, the guests began to stream in, and Hyacinth was reunited with her Slytherin companions. Athena, Daphne, Pansy, and Tracey were dressed in fine silks and chiffons of various colors, all dolled up for the high society event, while the boys were in proper wizard's robes.

"What, no skirts tonight?" jabbed Pansy as she examined one black manicured nail.

"No, we upgraded to the dresses," shot Blaise, holding the end of his emerald green robe in demonstration, which fell all the way to the floor.

But Hyacinth was paying closer attention now to Tracey. The girl had her soft black hair tied in a half-ponytail out of her face and wore a simple pink dress which contrasted nicely with her dark skin. Her eyes were deep blue like the night sky, and she watched those around her with increasing dislike.

Maybe there were a lot of things you could see once you finally started paying attention to people. Tracey was good, Hyacinth decided, and whatever fondness the girl retained for the other Slytherins might not survive the next several years unless they found some good somewhere too.

The problem was there was good, probably in all of them, but it was such a chore to get any of them to admit it.

Hyacinth was pulled from her thoughts by Drisana, who had grabbed her by the hand and was pulling her to the children's table for dinner. Not to be deterred, however, the back of her mind pushed and pulled at all the ways she might go about pulling Slytherin into the light, so much so that she hardly noticed the rest of the night until it neared midnight.

Lucius and Narcissa had arranged for a wondrous display of magical fireworks, and the youngest serpents of the bunch had gathered onto Drisana's private balcony to watch. Hyacinth sat between Blaise and the Malfoy heir, and watched with amazement as the brightest and most brilliant fireworks she'd ever seen lit up the sky above Malfoy Manor. She felt a pressure on her right hand and realized Drisana was squeezing it. The blonde girl wasn't looking at her, and maybe didn't even realize she had grabbed hold of Hyacinth. Her gray eyes were an iridescent silver in the light, her platinum hair shining almost reflectively, and she looked entranced. Almost like when she saw the sun rise.

Afterwards, they were all directed to their private guest rooms for the night.

Athena Rosier was just finishing her before-bed routine when there was a faint knock at the door.

She was somewhat surprised to see Daphne behind the door, her ash-blonde hair done up in a loose bun, looking tired.

"Sorry, 'thena, it's just that -I was wondering if I could sleep in here with you? I don't usually sleep all alone in one room, even at home me and Tori share a sleeping room, and . . ."

She didn't say more, but she really didn't need to. Athena was already moving out of the way so that her friend could enter.

"Thank you," Daphne murmured as she fell asleep next to her.

Athena Rosier, meanwhile, wondered what nightmares followed her upbeat friend Daphne Greengrass.

Two days later was the day before the students of Hogwarts were scheduled to return, and Hyacinth was pulling Aunt Petunia through Diagon Alley to purchase presents for her friends. She had even brought Duncan along, who was rubbernecking to look at anything and everything.

By the end of the day, she felt satisfied as she wrapped the gifts.

For Hermione, a Muggle book about biology that focused on genetics. 'For your pursuits in proving a few people wrong.'

For Athena, who had been rather enjoying their late-night escapades into Gryffindor Tower, a bag of pranks from Zonko's.

Tracey had been one of the most personal. Hyacinth had found a small white orb that would emit light and levitate with a single tap on its surface. 'Don't lose your light.'

Pansy and Daphne she'd simply sent Muggle lip glosses, figuring they'd be interested by the taboo, and that it made a nice exchange.

Meanwhile, she'd bought Blaise and Theo matching green skirts, accompanied with gray leggings.

Drisana, finally, she'd bought a charmed necklace of the sun, that would fill and drain with light in accordance to the actual sky wherever she was. 'In case you can't make it to the Astronomy Tower for a sunrise.'

And so she felt very pleased with herself when she handed out gifts on the train the next morning as it bustled towards their beloved castle.

Once again, she spent the majority of the ride with Hermione, who spent a great deal of time looking through the new book that Hyacinth had given her, but was sitting with her head in Hyacinth's lap, and every so often would ask her something about her break, or share some of her own information. This was friendship with Hermione Granger; you would always have to share attention with a book.

It was worth it, though, because the way Hermione's face drew together when she was concentrating was like magic to witness, and the way Hermione would laugh when she was truly amused, the way her head would lean back and her mouth stretch and her shoulders shake, was such a sight of joy that Hyacinth could not imagine a world where she did not get to see it, to hear it.

"Hey," Hermione said after a moment, "Fred and George are organizing a little back-to-school party tonight, are you coming?"

"Probably," Hyacinth answered, "In Slytherin it'll mostly just be Daph and Pansy forcing everyone into makeovers with all their new makeup and hair products, so."

It was then that Hyacinth received one of those laughs, and it was a sight to see.

"Alright, just walk back with me to the Tower after the Welcome-Back feast."

Some time later, Hyacinth found herself in amazement and wonder that Gryffindor Tower did not get caught often for the noise. Someone had brought in a boombox and was loudly playing all the latest new rock and roll, pop, and hip-hop.

Hermione was once again relaxing, and Parvati and Lavender interrogated Hyacinth with a thousand questions about Muggle cosmetics.

"Well," Hyacinth was saying, "I could always have my aunt mail me some products for you to try."

They went mad at the prospect, and thanked her profusely, making Hermione chuckle. She was wearing one of Fred's old Gryffindor Hoodies, and her hair was pulled into a half-ponytail. Most of the time, of course, Hermione's entire body was a line of stress and focus, and Hyacinth enjoyed these Gryffindor get-togethers where she saw her friend more at peace.

"So," said Hyacinth conspiratorially after Lavender and Parvati had run off, "What do you think the twins' next prank will be?"

Hermione smiled, rolling her eyes. "Something very childish, I'm sure," she replied, and then lowered her voice, "but if I were you, I'd learn how to repel snakes."

"Why, Hermione, you should know I'm a bit of a snake charmer."

Hermione had spoken true. The very next morning, the Slytherin student body woke to a serpent in every room, mostly ball pythons.

The one in the first-year girls' dorms was actually kind of cute, the more Hyacinth thought about it. He was white and green and just a baby, and since Drisana had grown up with a tank full of snakes in her home, she had no problem at all conjuring a tank to put him in for the time being.

That being said, it caused quite a havoc in the boys' dorms, when Theo, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle ran out shrieking one by one, none of them knowing how to handle a real-life snake.

Needless to say, Snape was furious.

"Headmaster, students could have been injured or killed," he snapped while Dumbledore looked at the tanks stacked in the Slytherin common room with amusement, "And as much as they astound me with their ignorance, irresponsibility, and dullness, I would be most displeased by the commotion it would cause if any of them were to die on school grounds."

The Headmaster sighed. "Yes, Professor Snape, I suppose those boys have gotten out of hand this time. Very well, I shall speak to Molly."

That very afternoon, the Weasley twins received what was (surprisingly) their first Howler of the year, which carried the shrill voice of whom Hyacinth assumed was their mother, shrieking at them that they better not step another toe out of line, and imagine if they'd gotten someone hurt, and did they want to spend their lives in Azkaban because she would happily arrange a visit for them.

Hyacinth held back from anything more than a discrete snicker or two, while most of Slytherin had fallen into absolute hysterics. Blaise was laughing so hard his stomach hurt.

And thus an end came to the Great Prank War of 1991, because the twins could no longer retaliate and so Hyacinth would find no further joy in enacting tomfoolery within Gryffindor Tower.

Winter slipped into spring with ease, in what Hyacinth would later remember as a blur of class, Quidditch matches, dueling club, Gryffindor parties, and studying with Hermione. Birthdays for most of her friends passed and she gave them all little trinkets to show her affection. The entire school waited with bated breath at what new tragedy or scandal would befall the Defense teacher, while Quirrell taught on with a direct and precise approach that left most students exam and battle ready.

In the end, he resigned, claiming his mother had fallen very ill and he would have to go take care of her, wishing the students well. They all sighed in relief that they had nothing to think poorly of the professor, who had for all intents and purposes been a pretty good teacher.

And so, spring slipped into summer, and Hyacinth realized she had arrived at the last day before summer break.

"Not firsties after today," Athena murmured as she packed her things next to her.

"No," Hyacinth agreed, "And thank Merlin for that."

"What do you think the next Defense professor will be like?" asked Daphne.

"Dunno," answered Athena, "Just hope they've got passing competence."

The girls all giggled, remembering that first night in Slytherin.

"Anyway," said Drisana, "Everyone's invited over this summer for a couple weeks to stay, after the pool's all finished. I'll send out invitations, of course."

"Will the boys be there?" asked Pansy, batting her lashes as Tracey tried to shove the last jumper in her trunk.

Drisana rolled her eyes. "They're invited, but they'll be staying in a completely separate wing anyhow, so why don't you just slow your roll."

They all took one last look at the dorm that had been home for nine months. Hyacinth missed her family, but she didn't want to leave.

"Well," said Athena after a minute or two, "We'd best get going if we don't want to miss the train."

Hyacinth, of course, continued her tradition of riding with Hermione, who had a lot to tell her about the noted she'd gathered on Muggle genetics and what it might mean for the genetics of magic.

"From what I understand," began Hermione, brushing a curl out of her face as she looked over her annotated genetics book, "The gene for magic should be recessive, which means all Muggleborns are technically descended from witches or wizards whether they know it or not."

"Then what about half-bloods? And squibs?"

"Hm. That's a good question, but in any case, magic is obviously genetically linked. It might not be recessive then, or it might be complex. I'll just have to do more research."

Hyacinth shrugged. "Honestly, 'mione, it doesn't really matter to me. You're the best student in our year regardless of who your parents are."

Hermione smiled under the praise, gently blushing. "Well thank you, but-"

Knock knock knock.

It was Tracey Davis.

"Oh, hello, I didn't mean to interrupt," she said, "but would it be alright if I sat here for the rest of the trip?"

Hermione and Hyacinth met eyes, and then Hermione gestured that she could come in.

"It's quite alright with me," she said kindly, offering the other Slytherin a smile.

"What brings you here?" asked Hyacinth.

Tracey shrugged. "You know how Drisana can be. It just got rather tiring. I see why you don't sit with us." She laughed, but it was a tired laugh, and she leaned against Hyacinth.

Meanwhile, Hermione put her book away.

"Well, are you excited for summer, Tracey?"

Tracey nodded, smiling a sunshine smile. "I can't wait. Of course, I can't wait to go back to the castle, either, but the weather's so much better." She ran a hand through her sleek hair, nails freshly painted baby pink.

Almost naturally, Tracey and Hermione fell into amiable chatter, and Hyacinth offered something every so often to the flow. Eventually, they pulled into King's Cross.

And just like that, their first year at Hogwarts was over.

A/N: Next up will be covering the summer, and then after that onto second year, which will probably be shorter than first year. Anyway, please leave a review, they really do motivate me to write more, and the faster I write, the faster I update. Thanks for reading!