In the Hogwarts Library, Drew savagely tore a page off her copy of A History of Magic.

Cyndee jumped and stared at her with shocked blue eyes. Drew just shrugged, rolled it into a little ball of bore, and flicked it behind her. "I hate that page. I hate this whole book."

Wilby got up and scooped it up, because he was feeling rather green instead of blue. He carefully unfurled it, "International Warlock Convention of 1289?"

"Boring," Drew waved a hand. "I needed that page out of my life." Then she flipped the vandalized book closed, as Madam Pince was prowling by, pointy nose in the air.

"But isn't that..." Cyndee trailed off, then picked up again, "...homework?"

"Not anymore. And I don't need your notes, Wilby, I'm on a train of failure and I'm not getting off."

He stifled a laugh, and Madam Pince spun around and shushed him.

"Sorry," he whispered, even bowing his head a little.

"Why are you so apologetic all the time?" Drew moaned.

Cyndee stared up at the ceiling, "It's so bright here."

Drew rolled her eyes at her and scoffed. She'd discovered that Cyndee often did that. That is, spin an entire topic around like she'd been somewhere else the entire time. "You usually do homework in your room. Of course the library would seem bright to you." She stabbed a period at the end of her last sentence and stuffed the parchment in between her Charms textbook. "Done."

"There's still Transfiguration," Wilby informed her.

She wrinkled her nose. That subject was hard. "I'll do it during class tomorrow. Remind me. And if you forget, I'll jinx your face off."

Wilby made a "wow" gesture that looked minorly sarcastic.

She made the hand motion right back and he dropped his hands, smiling.

* ° * ° *

The three went back to the dungeons at half past eight.

Drew allowed Cyndee a piece of their secret food stash from the kitchen, which they'd kept in a sealed bag jammed under the seat of a broken chair.

Cyndee seemed happier after that.

An hour later, after the showers, she and Drew said goodnight to Wilby and strolled through the stone hallway into their dormitory.

The first thing Drew noticed was that the extra bed had an unacceptable amount of Isabell's things.

See, since there were only four girls in their dorm instead of five, there had been one unoccupied bed. In a brief moment of truce, the girls had decided to share it.

Millicent turned the space under the bed into a place for her cat. Isabell and Drew each had half of the actual bed.

Cyndee hadn't gotten a say in this deal, and now Drew felt bad.

Putting that guilt aside for the moment, she stepped in front of Isabell.

"You're blocking me," Isabell snapped.

"Move your things," Drew said evenly. "Your horrid potions and jars are taking up three-fourths of the space."

"They're perfumes, peasant."

"Right," Drew said, disbelieving. "Whatever they are, just move them."

Isabell gazed at Drew with cold brown eyes. "You, have a disgusting amount of junk on this bed. I have items that require more careful and organized placement than yours."

"C'mon you two," came Millicent's muffled voice from under the covers. "Do stop fighting all the time."

"Please," Pansy added. She must've come in to chat with Millicent, since she was playing with her grumpy cat.

Cyndee sat perched at the edge of her bed, scared and ready to flee at the first explosion.

Jinx prowled out from under the extra bed and climbed up Drew's back onto her shoulder.

Isabell's gold-speckled green eyes clicked over to Jinx in an annoyed manner. "The point is, Getaway, my things need more room. Unless you want my ingredients to get mixed up?"

"So they're for potions," Drew concluded. "Put some on the floor. There's room, you know." She crossed her arms, "We had a deal, de Montmoron."

"And I'm a Slytherin, I don't keep deals."

"You do realize that applies to me as well, don't you?"

"You're not a real Slytherin," she hissed dangerously. "Salazar Slytherin would never have let your kind in. Muggle-borns."

Millicent peeked out of her covers, "You're Muggle-born?"

"Well," Drew snarled, "and here I thought it was extremely obvious." She gestured to her shiny suitcase.

Pansy looked horrified. "I just thought you were half-blood!"

"A Muggle-born in Slytherin?" Millicent gaped. "Now that's something rare."

"It's more than rare," Isabell corrected, smiling, happy that she'd gotten such an entertaining reaction. "It's a scandal."

"You know?" Pansy murmured. "I'm going to leave now. Goodnight."

No one acknowledged her.

"I'm amazed you took so long to tell anyone," Drew said. "Eliza's a coward, so there's no way she would. But you? Why didn't you say anything last year?"

"I'm not an idiot," she scoffed. "Why would I throw away my ammo the first chance I get it? It's a waste. I'm not some impulsive Gryffindor."

" 'Ammo,' " Drew repeated. "That's a pretty Muggle term you used, there."

Isabell started to splutter. "Wh-what? It's because I'm hanging around people like you! You know, Mudbloods."

You could hear a feather drop in the silence that followed.

Jinx quietly hopped off Drew's shoulder, as if sensing that she was going to explode.

Mudblood. When she'd first heard it, it hadn't sounded that bad. But the word had turned out to be one of the most derogatory insults in the wizarding world. Even Isabell looked stunned to have said it.

So she moved to slap Isabell across the face. The other girl ducked, but Drew changed gears and grabbed her golden hair instead. Howling, Isabell struggled and raked her nails across Drew's arm.

"Guys!" Millicent protested, black eyes wide. "With this racket, you'll wake the whole dungeon!"

Both girls were screaming now, and hitting at each other with their fists, legs, and anything they could get their hands on.

Jinx and Millicent's cat hid under the spare bed, and Cyndee's blue eyes darted to the door.

Isabell screechingly tore at Drew's hair, and Drew kicked at her shins and stomped bare feet.

Millicent strode forward and tried to shove herself between them, "You blooming prats, shut up!"

"Drew..." Cyndee whispered.

Drew turned her head at the worst possible moment, and Isabell threw her to the stone floor. She felt pain in her skull that quickly went numb.

Isabell's hands leapt to her throat, and Jinx chose that time to interfere. Gasping, Isabell fell backwards with bleeding scars and a cat all over her face.

"What is going on?" a shrill voice asked.

Drew sat up and scratched at her neck. She was annoyed to register that it was the newly appointed prefect in fifth year. She was known to be a really stupid girl who really shouldn't have been given the position she had.

People often secretly wished Xavier would talk some sense into her. Drew shot her a nasty glare of loathing, "Not doing patrols through broom closets tonight?"

Gracelyn Montague narrowed her brown eyes at her, probably wondering how she could possibly have known about that. "I'm quite sure that I'm not patrolling today, so I was in my dorm. Studying."

"Right," Isabell snapped, looking equally livid. She turned her furious expression from Drew to the prefect. "And what are you going to do now? Take away points? Give us detention? Call Professor Snape like last time?"

The prefect put her manicured hands on her hips. "Soo you want Snape to deal with it instead? Lucky for you, he's doing rounds. And yes, I will give you detention. There, you have detention. Now get into bed."

Gracelyn might seem irresponsible, but she was still prefect. Drew and Isabell took a step away from each other. "Were you two involved?" Gracelyn demanded, scrutinizing the other two Slytherin girls.

Millicent shook her head quickly. "No! I was trying to stop them, and Cyndee didn't do anything wrong."

Cyndee didn't add anything.

"Whatever," Gracelyn snarled, flipping her coffee-coloured hair back. "Drew Getaway — yes, I know your name — you better stop getting in so much trouble. It gives me and Xavier grey hairs. And do stop dragging that Wallaby boy around with you. He shouldn't have to take so much flak for being your friend."

"It's Wilby," Drew barked back.

Gracelyn pursed her lips, "Watch your tone." And without another word, she strode out the door.

"Muggle-born," Isabell hissed, but that sounded half-hearted. She looked immensely tired.

Millicent hung back, then grunted, back to her grumpy self. "You two should go to the Hospital Wing."

Drew looked at the marks all over her arms from Isabell's freakish nails. She was sore all over, and bruises were already forming.

Isabell looked at her, and their eyes met — brown and green — for a startling moment. Then her pale and scratched features contorted into a scowl, and she marched out the doorway, hugging her arms.

Drew wasn't sure if she should go to the Wing now, since she had no intention of staying there with de Montmorency.

"So that's why," Isabell said.

Drew looked up. The blonde was still in the doorway. "What?" she asked warily.

Isabell was half-smirking, "Eliza broke off your friendship because of your blood pollution, is that correct?"

"The only pollution here is your breath," she shot back, prepared for more dumb insults. "And Eliza'll find some reason to dump you too, mark my words."

She laughed without any inflection, then flounced out the dungeons.

Drew stormed over to the extra bed and shoved all of Isabell's things back to her side, not caring that some stopped bottles had tipped over. She looked briefly at Cyndee, "You can hang your clothes on the bar for the curtains, if you'd like."

She didn't respond, and deciding that having to go to Madam Pomfrey's in the morning was a good excuse to skip class tomorrow, Drew went straight to bed and ignored the pain. "Goodnight Cyndee."

"Goodnight," came the quiet reply.

* ° * ° *

Waking up for breakfast wasn't pleasant. She often got out of bed sore because of fighting with her brother or other kids at school, but this was some real agony.

She shrugged on her robes, angrily tore a brush through her messy dark hair, and tromped out of the dorm, Cyndee behind her. Millicent and the ugly troll had already left.

Wilby was waiting for them, and he stared at her open-mouthed. He looked disappointed too, and Drew felt bad for brawling so often.

"Yeah," Drew said with faux cheer, "I got in a fight. Let's get breakfast, and we can skip class after that."

Cyndee hung back meekly, "Skip class?"

"First class today is Herbology with Ravenclaws. Very boring."

Cyndee shook her pale head, "I — I like Herbology. Next time, okay?"

Drew eyed her. Just her luck to befriend a plant-lover like that clumsy Neville boy. "Yeah, okay. Next time."

"It's okay," Wilby said merrily. "We'll still eat breakfast with you." Then he stopped and glanced at Drew, "Will we?"

Drew shrugged, "Yeah. I think the bruise on my cheek looks cool anyway."

He nodded in agreement. "Like a warrior."

She smiled idly, "Thank you."

He bobbed his head again, ever the awkward supportive guy. "Yes."

* ° * ° *

Breakfast wasn't that great, because Isabell was healed and as flawless as always. The only indication that the fight had happened at all was when she flicked her eyes up at Drew to glare at her.

Pansy Parkinson had also changed seats so she was closer to Malfoy and farther from Drew, but she didn't look like she was going to blurt out anything.

Skipping Herbology was fun. Professor Sprout let them go without a fight once she saw the bruise on Drew's face.

The two took the opportunity to further explore Hogwarts. It turned out that the third floor, other than the whole Philosopher's Stone thing from last year, didn't have anything interesting.

They wandered around the seventh floor, since they hadn't seen much of it besides the owlery. Wilby pointed out a blank wall. "Looks a little weird, don't you think?"

Drew nodded, "True." She pranced over to it. Having gone to the Hospital Wing, she was all fixed up and ready to kill someone.

They stopped in front of the wall, and Drew's eyes scoured around it before announcing, "I think you're just being stupid."

Shrugging, Wilby said she was probably right.

They turned and decided to go down to the kitchen. They had about half an hour left before students would flood the corridors.

Jinx had appeared and jumped into Wilby's arms, and he patted her affectionately while she purred and changed from grey to black.

Drew grumbled at her, "Now where have you been, pesky cat?"

Jinx meowed.

They'd just stopped at the painting of the bowl of fruit when Drew looked at her friend, lips curling into a smile. "Your birthday's coming up."

At his shocked expression, her grin changed to a smirk, "Didn't think I'd remember, huh?"