Hermione was waiting outside the Headmaster's office when Tom left, her arms wrapped around yet another enormous book, brown eyes huge with anxiety. Raven felt touched that Hermione had actually waited for them, like she cares!, but Tom didn't feel anything. He couldn't yet. He'd been Occluding like mad in the Headmaster's office, and the effort involved exhausted him. If he'd been a fully grown wizard, that would have been one thing. But trapped as he was in a first year's mind, with only bits and pieces of his old scholarly knowledge available? No. It was tiring and it wasn't pleasant, but it was also necessary. Still, driving off a friend and potential ally was a bad move, and he gracefully slid back inside to let Raven talk with her friend.

Raven smiled at Hermione a tad too brightly, pushing Harry's glasses up her nose.

"Hi, Hermione," she said, falling neatly into step beside the Ravenclaw. Another brief moment of envy stabbed through her when she saw the blue and bronze school tie Hermione wore, gently flapping against her uniform shirt. That was where she belonged. Oh, the House of Snakes wasn't that bad. But there was so much intrigue, it made her head spin. She wasn't really capable of cunning, of deception.

"Hi, Harry," Hermione babbled. "I can't-I can't believe what..." The normally overly talkative girl fell silent. Raven nodded in understanding. It was one thing to know that Weasel had a penchant for minor bullying. Quite another to know he'd been involved in the vicious assault and near-murder of a fellow student. The whole incident felt very removed from Raven. She hadn't been out for it, or much of the aftermath. Consequently, it felt like something you remember in a dream or read ina particularly vivid storybook. Slightly distressing, but not enough for any real emotion to spill out.

"Professor Dumbledore sounded really mad," Raven offered. "And Professor Snape." Her eyes rounded at the memory of Professor Snape. "I thought Professor Snape was going to eat Ronald alive," she confided in a slight giggle that she changed to a cough at the last minute. Boys do not giggle! Jay thought indignantly inside.

"Professor Snape's scary," Hermione nodded, clutching her book even tighter to herself. Her bushy hair bobbed around her shoulders and Raven caught herself admiring it for a moment before scrambling to catch up. Oh Merlin. Her cheeks stained bright red. She wasn't supposed to have a crush on Hermione. That was silly. Beyond silly. And entirely un-logical. She knew that girls could like other girls, Raven wasn't that sheltered, but for her? Oh no. Definitely not.

Caught up in her thoughts, she only caught the tail-end of Hermione's statement, something about not wishing to ever cross Professor Snape, lest she be used for Potions ingredients. Raven nodded.

"Um, well, I guess you should probably go back to your dorm," Hermione said nervously, catching her bottom lip with her teeth. With a start, Raven realized they'd reached the dungeons.

"I guess," Raven said, reluctant. "The Headmaster said I should stay there for the rest of the day, until everything's sorted out."

"See you at dinner," Hermione smiled and walked off, probably to the library, judging by her direction. Clearly the reprieve from classes (which had been broadcast through a mysterious spell that Raven was dying to investigate) was not going to stop Hermione's studying.

Nor should it, Raven thought with approval as she walked down to the Slytherin dormitory. She was nearly there when someone stepped out of a neighboring corridor.

Bentley? Brently? Something like that, she thought, and then realized with a gasp and a slowly sinking heart that his name was one of the ones Ronald had mentioned.

The boy looked half-mad already. His face was ghostly white and sweat rolled down his face in fat drops. Raven backed up against the opposite wall, their wand falling into her hand. She clenched it with a death's grip, too terrified to allow the proper switch to take place.

"He told, didn't he," Bentley or Brently said in a low, nearly emotionless tone. Raven nodded slightly.

"When he finds out..." The Slytherin fifth year moved forward, and Raven was struck anew by how big he was. Harry's body was tiny and painfully scrawny for his age, but even Blaise or Draco would be dwarfed by Bentley.

"He?" Raven's voice quavered, but her curiosity forced the question out. Bentley shook his head, dismissing her.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "You, on the other hand..."

But what he was going to say, Raven never found out, because all of a sudden, she was surrounded with the rest of the Slytherin first years, who were all glaring quite defiantly (and bravely-almost like a Gryffindor, although none of them would admit it) at the fifth year boy.

"Don't you have somewhere to be? Like the Headmaster's office?" Draco inquired snidely, as haughty as Raven had ever seen him. Bentley glared at them, but apparently the thought of using magic to immobilize them all never occurred to him-he simply turned and vanished back into the shadows of the dungeons.

"How did you know?" Raven asked. Her knees were very wobbly, and she was certain she was about to pitch forward onto the unforgiving stone floor.

Draco shrugged, then smiled, a gesture that looked surprisingly child-like in the flickering lamp light.

"Easy," he bragged. "Why else would he be intimidating you like that? Acting like he's gonna hurt you? Especially after what Weasel said at lunch? He had to be one of the people who beat you up, Potter."

"Right," Raven murmured, slightly dazed. "And you came to my aid because...?"

"You know that," Blaise interjected, steering her toward the welcome refuge of the dormitories. "Slytherin House watches over its own."

Perhaps Slytherin was a better fit than she'd realized, Raven thought as they walked back with the rest of the first years and she slipped inside, letting Jay front instead. She had a lot of thinking to do, about quite a few different things, and it was much easier to do so when she was undisturbed by the outside world intruding.