Leaving the Great Hall, Sabrina forced Draco to leave us be and do his Prefect duties whilst she showed me the way to the Slytherin common room - which, just so happened to be the dungeons...kind of underwater. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. The swishing of the water sent me a calm, fuzzy feeling and I knew I could listen to it all day if need be. The black, leather armchairs were to the left of the common room, and to the left of that was the fireplace, above the fireplace a portrait of the famous Salazar Slytherin hung, seeming to have scowled whilst getting his portrait painted. To the right of the common room, there was a bunch of desks and chairs and bag racks - if anybody was even brave enough to leave theirs in there.

"Getting a good picture of your new home, huh?" Sabrina interrupted my thoughts, shifting her bag strap. She exhaled, taking the place in herself, as though glad to be back. "Well, come on, then. Let's go up to the dormitory."

"And who is in there, exactly?" I questioned, jogging up the wide steps until we reached a large bronze door with a strange handle, which really didn't look like a handle at all.

"You, myself, Pansy, Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass. They're all right, really, once you get used to them. I think it's fair to warn you, be careful what you say around Millicent; she'll take anything seriously and usually the wrong way. Daphne is pretty chill. I think you'll like her."

I inhaled sharply as Sabrina reached for the door handle, shaking my hands as though ready to throw a bludger. I didn't understand why I was freaking out; I was great at making new friends. Sabrina gave me an encouraging smile before stepping into the room, followed by myself. There were five beds, obviously, draped with green bed hangings. A trunk was set in front of each bed, and the room was, surprisingly, circular. It smelled of a light touch of perfume. I liked this much better than my previous dormitory. We had a room to ourselves at my old school and it got a little lonely sometimes. The reason for this was because none of us were trusted to share a dorm, not even with the same gender.

"Woah, I like it," I thought aloud, stepping further into the room, the floorboards creaking slightly under my feet. The three girls who were already in the room stopped packing away their things and looked up at me, recognition taking over their annoyance and confusion. "Hi," I smiled, waving. "I'm Emma."

"Yeah, we know," a girl with long, bushy, dark brown hair said, folding a piece of clothing. "We were at the sorting you know, we aren't deaf."

I looked to Sabrina, who mouthed, 'Millicent.'

A girl with straight, shoulder-length blonde hair, who I assumed was Daphne, threw her scarf at Millicent. "Introductions are essential, sweetheart," she smirked, then turned to me. "I'm Daphne, by the way. Welcome to Slytherin, you'll find it's the best House."

I made no comment on the house itself, as I wasn't in the right to judge and compare the four houses; I didn't know very much about them. Instead, I smiled back at her and walked over to the vacant bed with my trunk beside it. The girls conversed back and forth, speaking about their O.W.L's and subjects, whilst I packed my usual clothing away into the small cupboard beside the bed, and while the girls were busy I stripped out of my robes and into simple clothing. It wasn't that I was afraid of getting dressed in front of other girls, it's just I didn't know whether they were comfortable with being in the same room as a girl stripping. There was a girl like that at my old school, where she had never came into the bathrooms or the changing rooms until it was empty and she didn't have to witness any skin and genitals.

"Say, you look awfully familiar," Millicent said, her tongue poking her cheek, eyes narrowed, studying me when I turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" I let out a small laugh.

"I mean, it feels like I've seen you before. I just can't remember," she huffed, tucking herself under her blankets and turning on her side so that I couldn't see her. She pretty much ignored the fact that her bed hangings were there for a reason.

"Night, guys," I heard Sabrina yawn, earning a few 'goodnights' in return.

I lay in my bed as the lights flicked out, thinking to myself. Today had been a pretty OK day, considering I had met more people than I thought I would have. The Weasley twins, their sister, I soon hoped to meet their other brother. Then there was Harry Potter, which had been an amazing experience. Then there was Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, I hardly met Blaise so I wouldn't count him, Pansy, Daphne, Millicent and Sabrina.

The next morning, we had gotten our timetables at breakfast from the Head of Gryffindor house, as our Head of House, Professor Snape I believed, was not present this morning. First up was History of Magic, Double Potions, Divination and then Double Defence against the Dark Arts. Everyone else seemed to be pretty annoyed with the timetable, but I was fairly excited to start off the term with these subjects. History wasn't something that I was very excited about, but I wasn't exactly dreading it.

My thoughts, though, had clouded my mind too quickly. History of Magic was dead set awful. It wasn't entirely the subject, it was more the teacher, a ghost. It was spooky because there weren't any ghosts at my old school, but that wasn't the problem here. The problem was his voice; it made me want to fall asleep as I had yawned fifty two times in the last hour. Yes, I was keeping count, tallying along my notebook with a pen. I wasn't used to the quills, as I had never used one before. This school was very much old school compared to my last, but I didn't see what the problem was with using just a normal pen. And the ghost didn't question on it, either. Or hadn't noticed as he droned on and on about stuff that didn't even matter any more. Where was History going to get us in the future?

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who got all sleepy in class. Sabrina had fallen asleep beside me twenty minutes into the class, a girl with bushy hair beside Harry Potter was scowling at her.

Afterwards, we made our way down to the dungeons, and it was surprisingly much bigger than it looked as I hadn't noticed all the corridors. The classroom door was already opened, and the two of us swept in slowly. I cautiously looked around. The room was full of shelves, vials, potion books, and so on, and the room smelled an awful lot like garlic, liquid, and other things I couldn't quite name. It smelled a bit like metal, too, for some reason.

"Settle down," said a cold voice from behind, and I took my seat next to Sabrina, in front of Pansy and Draco.

"Hello," I greeted over my shoulder, earning only a small wave from Pansy.

The teacher, Professor Snape, who reminded me of a crow bird with a hooked nose, stopped walking when he reached the front of the class. When his gaze rested on me, his sneer faltered ever so slightly, his eyes widening just a fraction. He let out a quiet, audible gasp, and I thought, though my ears were probably playing tricks on me, that he had muttered the name 'Lily.'

I looked around awkwardly, wondering if anyone else had noticed this teachers odd behaviour, which they did.

"Sir?" Sabrina interrupted, making the teacher turn his back on us for a moment, leaving the class in an unpleasant silence as they constantly glanced my way, until he finally turned back around and explained our O.W.L's for potion making.

The Potions teacher did not look my way for the rest of the lesson.

"Talk about weird," said Sabrina when we left the dungeon with Draco, Pansy and Blaise Zabini. "He was practically gawking at you, like - like he was in love with you or something."

Blaise and Draco both snorted.

"Ew, don't say that," I shuddered. "He was probably just trying to remember me from last night. Perhaps he forgot that I was new here."

Sabrina shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

When were out of the dungeons, I heard a faint cry coming from the left side of the entrance hall by a statue.

"Wee little huffly-puff."

Distant laughter broke out, and I frowned, craning my neck to get a better look. The only thing I could see was two very large Slytherins, and they were staring down at something. Or someone.

"Hey!" I yelled, noticing Seth trembling in front of them, tears brimming his waterline. The two boys whirled around the same time Seth looked at me. I rushed over to the first boy and shoved him. "Leave him alone!"

Both boys laughed, eyeing me down like I was a piece of meat. "Or what?"

"Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?"

"You mean us," Draco cut in.

None of the boys replied.

I allowed myself to step through the gap between the two morons, took Seth's hand, and pulled him with me. Sabrina, Draco, Pansy, and Blaise were all watching curiously, a little further away by the doors to the Great Hall.

"Are you OK?" I said to Seth when we went into the Great Hall.

"Yeah," he responded quietly, sniffing. He looked over his shoulder a couple times at the group of Slytherins I was with.

"If they pick on you again, come and find me. OK? Or even a teacher." I said sternly, Seth only nodded and walked solemnly over to the Hufflepuff.

"Is that your brother or something?" Sabrina asked when we reached the Slytherin table, sitting along the bench.

"No," I huffed. "I wish I had a brother. Being an only child is so boring."

"There's something both you and I can agree on," Draco piped in, rolling his eyes.

"It's all right, Draco," Pansy cooed, resting her hand on his upper arm. "You have us."

"Right..." Draco said lowly, turning to the food on the table.

Sabrina gave me a look, which I tried to contain my laughter. Draco looked uncomfortable with Pansy cooing him for the rest of lunch, while Blaise, Sabrina and I conversed back and forth. Getting to know Blaise was definitely...not what I expected. I learned that he hated Muggleborns, Muggles, and 'Blood-traitors.' Or better known as Pure-bloods or Half-bloods who accept and associate with Muggleborns and Muggles.

"You can't even write with a quill?" Blaise curled his lip upward, staring at me, dumbfounded.

"This school is very much different to my last, as I'd already explained you before," I rolled my eyes. "They just look so...weird. Honestly, I didn't even know that people still used them. Pens are so much easier. You don't have to go back and forth for the ink, you just write as the ink is already stored inside the -"

"Yes, I know what a bloody pen is, I haven't been living under a rock."

"OK, well, I was just comparing the difficulty, but whatever," I shrugged.

The bell rang, and the five of us set off for Divination. The three of them, because Pansy wasn't, were warning me of how weird Professor Trelawney was and told me not to listen to whatever predictions she had in store.

"She has a habit of predicting deaths, too," Sabrina scoffed. "She's been predicting Potter's death the last two years and each death was different. A bit of an old fraud, really."

"Oh..."

"Yeah."

We entered the classroom, which smelled of smoke and sage, and sat on a poof in the front of the class.

"Good day," said a mysterious voice, before the woman showed herself to us from beyond the shadows of the classroom. The sun was set on just the right level. She, herself, went into the depths of O.W.L's. She explained that we were doing something with our dreams.

"I always forget my dreams when I wake up," I frowned, hoping somebody else would speak up about having the same problem. Nobody did. Sabrina only shrugged.

Professor Trelawney walked around the classroom as we read our book on dreams, or whatever it was called. She spoke for a while to two Gryffindor girls who seemed wildly interested in the subject. Then, however, she inspected me for a while. Just standing there, staring at me, head cocked to the side and eyebrows slightly sketched inward, before she hummed to herself and walked away.

"Another teacher forgot about you," Sabrina snickered, scribbling in her book.

"I do hope that's the reason they're being all weird."

"We have Defence against the Dark Arts next," Draco whispered excitedly, eagerness glued on his face as he folded the pages in his Dream book, similar to origami.

"Erm, yeah," Sabrina said awkwardly, turning around in her poof to face him. "With that strange Ministry woman, I doubt it's going to be any fun like last year and the year before."

"Third year was the best," Blaise nodded, scribbling on the desk in between himself and Draco. Draco scoffed under his breath.

"It really was! The boggart was the best part, as well."

Draco scoffed again.

Class ended, and we packed our things away and went straight to D.A.D.A, where the plump ministry woman was already sitting in her desk, a wide smile on her face, though it didn't look too friendly.

I sat beside Draco this time while Blaise sat next to Sabrina. Pansy scowled and moved over to Millicent, dropping herself dramatically beside her.

"Good afternoon, fifth-years."

Professor Umbridge made us repeat ourselves because hardly anybody bothered to respond to her. She, like the rest of the teachers, spoke more about our O.W.L's, and handed out textbooks based on Defence against the Dark Arts. She then told us not to open the books yet, but pointed to each person around the class and got them to introduce themselves and say one thing they like.

"My name is Hermione Granger and I love to read."

"My name is Ron Weasley and I like...um...lunch time."

"My name is Harry Potter, obviously...and I like Quidditch."

"I'm Daphne Greengrass, and I like the colour green."

"Names Seamus Finnian, and I like to dream about killin' Banshees."

"I'm Blaise, like the holidays very much."

"Hello, I'm Sabrina, and I like Potions."

"Draco Malfoy. I like being a pureblood."

A lot of Gryffindors scoffed in unison.

"I'm Emma Baranov, and I like...magic?"

Professor Umbridge seemed pleased enough with our cooperation and dawdled to the front of the class again, where she turned around and fixed herself into a mature posture. Myself and the rest of the class opened the book Umbridge had handed out, and all it showed was images of wand movements and pointless descriptions. A girl, Hermione Granger, pointed out that the book said nothing about Defensive spells, to which Umbridge replied that it was the point.

"Told you it wouldn't be fun," Sabrina said to Draco.

The class broke out into a loud argument with Professor Umbridge, and Harry even landed himself into a weeks detention, making Draco snicker very loudly. Harry glared at both Umbridge and Draco for the rest of the lesson.

"Poor Scar-head," Draco laughed loudly after our last lesson of the day. Blaise laughed along with him while Sabrina cracked a smirk. "Right got what he deserves, after all this time, though. I kind of like this Umbridge woman, to tell you the truth. She won't go all soft on Potter just 'cause all the other teachers do, minus Snape."

"No, McGonagall treats everyone the same," Sabrina shrugged.

"Still. I'm so happy to have seen that."

"He did have a right to go at her like that, though," I pointed out. "She did very well call him a liar and such. You would have acted the same, wouldn't you?"

Draco shrugged, and the four of us sat down for dinner. Dinner was the same as last nights, with the exception of two speeches.

____

A/N Boooooo, boring chapter I know. I just wanted to put a bunch of classes in this chapter. Probably won't happen like this again xD