I held my breath and walked through the passageway that had appeared in the stone wall, allowing me to enter Slytherin House.

As I stepped into the common room I let my eyes adjust to the dark, green tinted dungeon like room. There were several Slytherins dotted around, all talking in low murmurs. I glanced towards the huge elaborately carved mantelpiece where a fire was crackling and seated on one of the black leather sofas next to it was Draco Malfoy, proudly fingering his silver and green prefect badge as Pansy sat fawning all over him.

I started towards the dormitories dragging my trunk when Pansy suddenly shot up and came skipping towards me.

"Here, let me help you with that." She said smiling, offering out a hand.

I just stood there with my mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish. Pansy Parkinson being friendly?! I noticed Draco too, looking up from his badge suddenly, sporting a rather perplexed expression at Pansy's alien gesture.

Without waiting for an answer, Pansy grabbed hold of my trunk and started dragging it to our room. All I could do was follow her, simply lost for words.

"I know we didn't get off to a great start," said Pansy, giving the understatement of the year as she placed my trunk down and plonked her bum on to my bed. "But we are fellow Slytherins so I think we should give our friendship another try."

Friendship?!!! It felt like I had walked into the twilight zone. I just stood there in shock, still not saying anything.

Pansy waved her hand up to my face, giggling. "Hello?! Is anybody there?"

I mentally gave myself a shake and finally found my tongue. "Er... yes, of course. Why not?" I smiled weakly, not entirely trusting this situation.

Pansy jumped up grinning. "Fabsies! Well I'll let you get unpacked and then maybe we can walk down to dinner together?"

"Sure, umm..." I hesitated, "won't you be walking down with Mal- I-I mean Draco?"

Pansy, skipping to the door, turned to look at me and giggled. "You know what they say: 'sisters before misters!'" And with that she was gone, leaving me in a stunned silence.

***

"She said what?!!" Ron's mouth was hanging open in shock.

Ron, Hermione, Harry and I were making our way down to Hagrid's hut the next day and I was finally able to bring them up to speed on my new "friendship".

"Well I don't trust her one bit." Hermione huffed. "All these years she has been nothing but a.. a bully towards you. Has she even apologised for the dreadful time she has put you through?!"

I shrugged my shoulders not wanting to admit that Hermione had a point. It wasn't that I did trust Pansy, it was just that I wanted to believe so much that I might be finally accepted into Slytherin and not feel like such an outsider in my own house.

"I kind of agree with Hermione," Harry spoke up gently, seeing the look on my face as if he realised what this meant to me. "Slytherins are not known for their... friendliness, especially where Pansy Parkinson is concerned. Just tread carefully, ok?"

I sighed, knowing my friends were right in being cautious. But Pansy had seemed genuine last night and I hadn't caught the slightest hint of sarcasm or mockery in her voice - she seemed like she really wanted to be friends. She even sat by me at breakfast this morning and discussed which lessons we were taking and what classes we would be sharing. And I noticed that our fellow dorm mates, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were taking Pansy's lead and both offered me a smile and a 'hello' when they came to join us at the Slytherin table.

It really was looking to be a good year and, for the first time, I felt I could enjoy being a Slytherin, maybe even proud. There seemed to be no thawing from the rest of the Slytherins though. I expect my blood status was always going to be too much of an issue for most of them to overlook. Especially for the likes of Draco Malfoy. I had overheard him whispering angrily to Pansy at the back of Charms class this morning, saying, "what are you doing hanging around with that Mudblood?!" And she had simply replied, "well we do share a dorm Drakie, be nice now." He had said no more but I could feel his glare burning into the back of my head for the rest of the class.

***