Trevor the frog ribbited along the school lake while his owner endlessly chased after him, failing to catch the frog as it continued hopping away.

Romina giggled and swiftly swiped Trevor off the grassy ground. "You just love running about, don't yah?" she cooed at the frog.

"And you just love picking up disgusting things, don't you?" Pansy Parkinson mimicked her tone from the side. She and Arden were in the middle of arguing but of course Pansy took a moment to throw that comment out.

Romina ignored her for the first couple of seconds. "Neville, you're going to have to let me take care of Trevor during the summer, please."

Neville was startled by the comment, mostly because he didn't think anyone - much less a girl - would ever think about seeing him during the summer vacation. "S-sure. A-anytime y-you want."

Romina beamed. She always wanted a pet of some sort but she was never allowed one. Not even a goldfish!

"Look at that fellas, Longbottom's all red because someone might actually like him in this school," Draco had made a stop with Crabbe and Goyle. He was close to laughing at Neville's clearly excited face from Romina's words.

"Oh sod off, Draco," Romina said calmly. "Go taunt someone else for today. Unless you want to meet Trevor up close."

The moment she took a step towards him with the frog in her hands, Draco backed two steps extra. "Oswell, you better get that slimy creature away from me."

A mischievous expression settled across her face just as Romina glanced back at Neville. "You came over…" she said innocently, making another advance for Draco. "Don't you want to touch him."

There was a look of fury in Draco's face that no eleven year old should have been able to conjure up. "Oswell, you'll regret it!"

Romina laughed, and behind her Neville was struggling to hide his own. "You know all about the trapdoor incident with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Do you really think I'm not capable of it?"

Because thanks to Fred and George, the entire school knew about Quirrell and Harry's face off for the Stone. Romina had withheld her boasting of proving right to the three Gryffindors only until Ron had been let go of the hospital wing. She was still waiting for Harry to wake up and point out how Snape wasn't behind anything at all. But beside that, the whole school knew about the three Gryffindors and one Slytherin going through deadly traps set by professors themselves. Needless to say they'd earned some fame, and for Romina some acceptance again.

"Sometimes I think you're not quite the Oswell society would think," Draco ended up saying, but whether it had been a compliment or an insult he wasn't sure. That startled him, but he didn't think on it further.

For Romina, it was the best thing anyone could have said to her. "Draco," she lowered the toad, "That's the kindest thing you've ever said to me. I'm shocked."

"I'm not playing that game," Draco unexpectedly snapped.

"I should give you a hug!"

"Go hug Angel!"

Romina still wouldn't stop smiling and when she opened her arms for a hug, Draco quickly stalked off, calling out to her afterwards about her 'overreacting'.

Romina laughed and turned to Neville, holding Trevor out for him. "I owe Trevor big time now."

Neville barely had time to smile when they heard Hermione calling out for Romina. The girl was running towards them at lightspeed, her face almost covered completely by her bushy hair. Romina handed Trevor to Neville quickly for fear of being tackled down by Hermione.

"He's awake! He woke up!" Hermione was shouting, and thus had every student she passed by hear. "Harry's woken up!"

"Has he!?" Romina exclaimed excitedly. It had been four days since they had come back from the trapdoor but Harry, sustaining some heavy injuries, remained unconscious in the hospital wing.

Hermione nodded her head. "He's - he's with Ron in the-the h-hospital...wing!" she was out of breath due to her run. "I-I saw him! But...I had to...come get you…"

"Well let's go!" Romina didn't wait another minute and pulled Hermione into a brand new run.

Ron and Harry were already talking in the hospital wing, and while it took Madame Pomfrey another round of convincing, the girls were soon able to join and talk with Harry over what truly happened with the stone.

"What really happened, Harry?" Romina was the eager one to ask the question everyone was dying to know. "Who was it? And you can't say it was Snape because he's still working here."

"It wasn't Snape," Harry finally let Romina have the win. "It was Quirrell."

"It's always the quiet ones…" Romina mumbled to the side, but promptly received a whack on the arm from Hermione.

Of course, when Harry told the three of his friends how Voldemort had attached himself to - quite literally - the back of Quirrell's head, all jokes were put aside. Harry then explained how he had attained the stone from his pocket - thanks to Dumbledore's clever trick - and was able to fight off Quirrell/Voldemort until they had turned to dust.

"Love's the way to win?" Hermione made a face. She was never one for fairytales and this one was just plain wicked. Harry's mother's love had been his ultimate protection against Voldemort and Quirrell.

"So the Stone's gone, then?" Ron asked after Harry finished telling them the story. "Flame's just going to die?"

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that - what was it? - 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure," Harry repeated Dumbledore's words to them but no one was really understanding.

"Well, maybe it's for the best the Stone to just be destroyed," Romina said quietly. "It was causing too much trouble. Honestly, nobody should live forever."

Harry nodded. "So what happened with you afterwards when you got back to Ron?"

"We ran like mad," Hermione said with widened eyes. "We were heading to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall."

"And he just knew you were going after the stone," Romina said, slightly amused. "How well must he know you, hmm?"

"Do you think he meant you to do it?" Ron suddenly asked, getting both girls to look at him weirdly. "I mean, he sent you your father's cloak and everything…"

"Well, " Hermione exploded, "-if he did - I mean to say that's terrible - you could have been killed."

"No, it isn't," Harry calmly said. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could..."

Romina and Ron had matching faces, and Ron - unknowingly - spoke both their thoughts out loud. "Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right."

"Ron," Hermione scolded but the ginger went on without a care.

"Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course…" Ron threw a warning look in Romina's way, as if to say for her to keep quiet. "You missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you - but the food'll be good."

"Yeah, and we can tell you all about how Fred and George thought it would be hilarious to gift you a toilet seat," Romina still laughed at the idea the twins had. "Nearly got them kicked out of the hospital wing."

Harry laughed, but the soreness of his head prevented him from a complete laugh.

~ 0 ~

"You're just an idiot, do you know that, Parkinson?" Arden was barely containing her shouts while Pansy, sitting beside her at the Great Hall, seemed less than put together.

"How dare you call me that, muggle-born?" snapped the girl. She discreetly looked over to Romina who was once again warning her - deadly silent of course - not to even dare to use the word against Arden. "Learn your place!"

Romina thanked Daphne Greengrass for the biscuit and tried her best to eat her dinner without snapping both Arden's and Pansy's necks. Those two were beginning to tire her out with all their bickering.

"Don't get stressed," she heard Angel say. She cracked a smile when she met his gaze and saw him sending her a worried look. "They can figure it out."

"I don't think they can," Daphne whispered to them, quietly drinking from her goblet.

"Nah, look," Romina nodded over to Dumbledore who was arriving to take his seat at the High Table. "They won't last longer."

"Not even because we've won the House cup they seem to forget their arguments," Daphne made a gesture to the Slytherin-colored banners decorating the room.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore had begun his usual speeches, and of course everyone - including Arden and Pansy - ceased to talk. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts. Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and twenty."

The Slytherin table erupted into applause for themselves. No one else in the room seemed to agree.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," Dumbledore cut in, "However, recent events must be taken into account."

Confusion fell across the Great Hall and with it came a curious silence.

"I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes. First - to Mr. Ronald Weasley…"

Romina snapped her head in the Gryffindor table where she could see Ron looking just as shocked as everyone else.

"...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

The Gryffindor tables cheered for the new addition, but Dumbledore wasn't finished there.

"Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

"Third - to Miss Romina Oswell - for the outstanding collection of memory and logic, I award Slytherin house fifty points."

Romina wasn't exactly cheering for her own collection of points, and neither was her table, because they were all busy doing calculations…

"Fourth - to Mr. Harry Potter...for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points. And, there are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

There was no doubt who had won the House cup with the shift of points. Even with Romina's 50 additional points, Slytherin had lost to Gryffindor by two points.

"Which means, we need a little change of decoration," Dumbledore clapped his hands and the Slytherin decorations came down to be replaced with Gryffindor's mighty lion and its brilliant red and golden colors.

The entire Great Hall had burst into a new round of applause and cheering, except for Slytherin of course. Their seventh year streak had broken. Romina was sad, of course, but she felt like losing wasn't the end of the world. There was always next year. In fact, there were six more years left.

~ 0 ~

The ride back to King's Cross would be long enough and when Romina and Arden sat down and noticed some of the dirty looks the older Slytherins were giving them — more specifically at Romina — the trip felt agonizingly long.

"Okay, why are they all staring at you?" Arden said in a hushed voice.

Romina rested her hands on the table, shooting dirty looks back at the elder Slytherins. "I don't know. Somehow they think us losing the House Cup is my fault. I won you 50 extra points!" She had exclaimed at the students and perhaps it was the embarrassment of being called out but they looked away.

"Your 50 extra points did nothing for us, Oswell," Draco said on his way down the aisle.

Romina arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh, well, I didn't see you risking your life to get those 50 points."

Blaise had come up behind Draco and heard Romina, leading him to snort. "Please, for Malfoy to do something risky, there'd have to be, I don't know, some sort of hurricane or something."

"Wow, did we just agree on something?" Romina laughed.

Draco rolled his eyes at the two. "You know, this is the kind of behavior that'll never let you rise the ranks."

"What ranks?" Arden made a face.

"You would never understand, King. It's beyond your muggle world."

Arden shook her head. "Whatever. I'm going to get me some candy off the trolley. I'd offer you some but I don't want to." She slid out of the booth and promised Romina she'd be back in a few minutes. She pushed past Draco and disappeared down the aisle.

"You really have to be a grump at all times?" Romina asked Draco a moment later. "I thought that was Blaise's job."

"Watch it, Oswell," Blaise warned and continued down the aisle to find him a better seat.

Draco surprised Romina by sliding down in the opposite seat of her booth. "You're going to have to watch your mouth in the future."

"Is that a warning?" Romina frowned. "Like, are you threatening me?"

"No," Draco said sharply, "It's a precaution. Trust me. Unfortunately, you're like Arden King in this world. You've lived cooped up in the muggle world to know the rules and the consequences in the Wizarding community."

"Consequences?" Romina understood less and less. "What on earth are you talking about? Can you go back to insulting me? You made more sense then."

Draco rolled his eyes and snapped at her to listen. "I don't want you getting into trouble because you just didn't know. You need to be careful now that you're going to be more involved in our world."

A strange smile spread across Romina's face. "Draco, I'm shocked."

"By what?"

"Your ability to care for my well-being — albeit it is very misguided."

Draco rolled his eyes again. "Forget it! This is what I get for trying to be nice!"

Romina chuckled. "It's a foreign concept to you, huh? Keep going, I'm fairly interested in how you're going to wrap it up."

Draco deadpanned her for a long minute. "Do you have to be so...you all the time?"

"I don't know how to be anyone else," Romina said simply.

"Well in this world — our world — you're going to have to be the best version of yourself," Draco said, leaning forward on the table, "Mistakes are not allowed, Oswell. Seriously."

Romina wondered how rash these "consequences" had been to have him looking even more pale than he already normally was. She tilted her head at him. Putting all her jokes aside, she suspected he was being honest with her. It was such a strange notion coming from him of all people. "Okay, um...well, you're right. I don't actually know much about our world, but that's not my fault. My aunt and uncle did that on purpose. Oswells are not very well liked amongst the public. You saw what half of the school did to me when they found out who I was."

"See, that's the thing, Oswell. You don't have to worry about all these different people so long as you pick the best of the group. And believe it or not, the Oswell name still carries prestige."

Romina scoffed and actually laughed thinking he was being absurd. "Yeah, right!"

Draco remained perfectly calm in the face of her laughter. "You are a pureblood witch, Romina. Your family has remained one of the last few pureblood families to remain. You fail to see how that puts you up the ranks."

"Well, I just...never really put thought into that," Romina admitted, her eyes shifting towards the other Slytherins around them.

"Why would you being surrounded by muggles," Draco said, shrugging, "I can't say that I blame you for lack of knowledge but now that you're here, you should learn. Learn the customs and traditions of purebloods — of our social circle."

"I-I don't know any of that stuff," Romina said, her face scrunching, "I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"I could help you," Draco said, startling her. "I would," he said, seeing her face of doubt.

"Why would you help me?" Romina raised an eyebrow at him. "You barely seem to like me."

"Purebloods help purebloods," Draco said flatly, "You're one of us, Oswell."

"Well, would you help Pansy if she was in my situation?"

"Alrihgt, maybe you're also about the least annoying girl of our year."

Romina smirked. "See, now that sounds more like you. So, how exactly would you help me out in this predicament? I doubt you'll be coming over to my house to give me lessons."

"God no!" Draco nearly laughed in her face. "I'd never step foot in your neighborhood."

Romina's smirk spread. "Never say never. I can be very persuasive."

"You would never persuade me to do such a horrible thing like that. You're missing my point here! Look, I'll write to you, okay? You do get our kind of mail, right?"

"I live in the muggle world, not the Stone Age," Romina said with a laugh.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Draco said, "Then you better respond to my letters, got it?"

"Got it," Romina nodded, fairly bemused with the whole thing. "I look forward to these history lessons. You should know that's where I got my lowest test score. I suck at history."

"Oh, so it wasn't Potions then? I hear you can be kind of bad at that too."

"Get out," Romina pointed at him to leave the booth.

With a smirk on his face, Draco slid out of the booth and went to go find Blaise further down.

Romina had just gotten comfortable on her own when Arden returned with a couple sweets in her arms. "Oh good, Malfoy's gone." Arden plopped down beside Romina. "I kind of hate that guy."

"Eh, he's not that bad," Romina shrugged. For the moment, she decided to keep Draco's abrupt help to herself. She didn't want it going around and getting to Harry of all people.

Halfway through the trip, Romina left the Slytherin compartment - which was really just the further compartment in the train the House collectively decided to overtake - and went to go find Harry. She found him, Hermione and Ron in a compartment more at the front of the train and sat down with them.

"You're not mad Gryffindor won this year, then?" Ron seemed to size Romina up while she took her time to answer.

"It's just a competition, Ron," she shrugged, "I don't really care. I can't say the same for most of my House, though."

Ron still cracked a smile at her. "That's fair. You know we'll crush you next year too, right?"

"Ron," Hermione jabbed her elbow in his side.

Romina just laughed. "Bring it on, Ron!"

Hermione exchanged a stunned glance with Harry. Maybe Romina's and Ron's relationship had finally mellowed out into a real friendship. Their suspicion was confirmed a moment later when Ron spoke again.

"You must come and stay this summer — the three of you! I'll send you an owl!"

"Ron, you would want me to come over?" Romina raised an eyebrow, skeptically looking at the ginger.

"I know we had differences, but you're definitely not like the Oswells were portrayed," Ron gave a sheepish shrug.

Romina hummed, swaying her head. "You're the second person to tell me that."

Romina remained with the Gryffindors when they finally reached their destination. It was a hassle getting back to the Slytherin compartment to retrieve her things and then getting out of the train. Luckily, it was easy to spot the Weasleys amongst the crowd of parents waiting on the platform.

Romina and Arden trudged with their trunks towards them and had a moment to chitchat until Romina spotted Lyonel and Sage approaching them. After the school year they had, Romina sqeualed with excitement seeing them.

"Well, someone's looking far happier than the last time," Lyonel hugged Romina tightly. He was happy to see the great change in his niece.

Romina pulled away, incredibly happy. "You wouldn't believe what happened!"

Sage nudged her husband and nodded in the direction of Harry, Ron and Hermione. To the side was still Mrs. Weasley and Ginny.

"Did you make new friends?" Lyonel went ahead and asked Romina, who immediately went red in the face.

"You did not just ask me that like I'm some kindergartner!"

Her friends, including little Ginny Weasley, burst into laughter. Romina covered her face, and shook her head in mortification. But deep down, she wasn't really that bothered.

A/N:

End of Book 1! Book 2 will continue in this same story! I don't have plans of making it into separate stories because there's literally 7 books so...yeah!

P.S As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"