The skinny blonde boy leads me down more and more flights of stairs, and I start getting a little anxious again.

"Where exactly are we going?" I ask him, pulling him to a stop.

He raises an eyebrow at me, "The Slytherin Common Room."

"Then why aren't we going toward one of the corner towers of the school?"

He lets out an exasperated sigh and turns away from me and keeps walking, forcing me to follow after him, "Only Ravenclaw and Gryffindor have their common rooms in towers."

"Oh," I say. I couldn't tell whether this was like a sore subject or not, so I drop it. I follow after him for a few more minutes–him walking slightly ahead of me, since his legs are a bit longer–until we reach a stairwell leading into a hallway completely made up of drudge-y looking stone, like it's a cellar. I stop short again at the top of the stairs, and he groans, turning back to me.

"What is it now?"

"What are those?" I say pointing down the stairs.

"The dungeons," he replies a little too nonchalantly.

"Why the hell are we going into the dungeons? I thought we were going to your common room."

He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, leaning against the wall of the stairwell. "The common room is IN the dungeons."

I burst out laughing. "You've gotta be kidding me." He looks at me, a hint of amusement on his face. "Oh my God, you're serious." I look down the stairwell at the dungeons, slightly horrified. "That's kinky as fuck."

And now it's his turn to burst out laughing, shaking his head at me. He grabs my hand for the second time of the day and leads me down the stairs, and into the dungeons. I peer into an open door on the way and see desks inside.

"Are there classes down here too? I ask him.

"Mmhmm. That's the potions classroom."

"Huh."

We walk a little further, and I can't help myself. "You're a very touchy person, aren't you?" I ask, and he cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Why d'you say that?" I glance down at my hand, which he's still holding in his long, slender fingers. He blushes immediately and drops my hand. "Sorry."

I chuckle at his embarrassment. "It's fine, Dorko."

"It's Draco."

"Oh, I'm aware."

I smirk and he rolls his eyes at me again, but he's smiling now, too. We come to the end of the hallway and he stops in front of a blank stone wall.

"Umm..."

"Shh," he says, and turns back to the wall. "Leviathan."

"Huh?" I ask, before I realize the stones are folding in on themselves and revealing a narrow hallway to a black wooden door. What is it with this school and passwords? Draco begins to walk through and I timidly follow after him, and he opens the door to reveal a small elegant common room, with an eerie green glow around it. Tapestries hang from the stone walls, and the windows look like they lead out to some body of water.

There are a few students scattered around the room, and they all lock eyes on me as I come in. I fiddle with the strap of my messenger bag once again, nervous under their glares.

"Who the bloody hell is she?" a girl with dark, short hair shouts, jumping down from the armrest of a black-leather sofa and storming toward us, another tall wizard following behind her, also scowling at me.

"Calm down, Pansy," Draco says. I snicker slightly at the name. Who the hell names their kid 'Pansy'? She shoots a glare at me, but I am unapologetic, and continue to smirk at her.

"You brought a non-Slytherin into Slytherin dungeon?" the wizard accuses, and Draco begins to answer.

"Okay, chill," I interrupt before he gets the chance. And the two snap their heads to me.

"This is (Y/N)." Draco takes over then. "She's an exchange student from... Ilvermorny?" I nod. "And Snape took her on as an honorary Slytherin. (Y/N), this is Blaise and Pansy."

The wizard–Blaise?–relaxes a bit and extends a hand to me, which I shake. Pansy on the other hand is still glaring at me with her arms crossed. I snicker at her again. I know jealousy when I see it, and this girl was crazy for Draco. I could tell she was gonna be fun to mess with, too.

"So you're American?" Blaise asks me.

"Yep," I say.

"That's... neat."

After a moment of sufficient awkwardness, Blaise and Pansy leave.

"So," Draco says turning to me. "What do you think of your new home?"

I take another look around the room, and begin comparing it to my common room at Ilvermorny. The stone walls here versus the log-cabin walls there. The cold, black leather couches versus the plush blue ones of the Wampus common room. The odd portrait of a serpent above the fireplace versus the smiling portrait of Chadwick Boot above mine. I feel tears start to prick my eyes, and I look back up into his grey ones.

"This," I begin harshly. "Is not my home."