(A/N: I wanted to use a classical book as a way to move the story on in this chapter so uhh, I hope you like Anna Karenina.)
(Y/N) stumbled over her words. ''I...I don't know. That...that's the full truth, I swear; on my father's life.'' The group still didn't look very satisfied with the response, but they realised that she wasn't going to say much more, and thus let her off the hook. She ran back to her dormitory in embarrassment moments later. Jessika had decided to stay with her new friends while (Y/N) screeched into her pillows about her muddled feelings. She seriously hated Malfoy, but...but he was so pretty. How she wanted to touch that beautiful blonde hair... 'Get yourself together, (Y/N)! He's a terrible person!' she spent the rest of the day in a haze, hardly doing more than leading Jessika to her lessons; (Y/N) had been told that Jessika threw an absolute fit and threatened to set fire to the school if she didn't have (Y/N), her new best friend, as her guide, and thus she was saddled with the job. Hey, at least it got her out of potions with Pansy. ''And this would be your Charms class, Miss Mikhailov. Please don't destroy it when your feather doesn't float first time...'' Jessika pouted a little, mumbling, ''But I'm too good to fail at stuff...'' With a roll of her eyes, (Y/N) made sure the girl got into her class. She was allowed to take the entire day off to make absolutely sure that Jessika wasn't going to kill someone; mainly by hanging around outside of classes like an idiot. She spotted more than a few older students sneaking out of lessons, and almost all of them jumped at seeing a random Slytherin hanging around in the corridor. It was annoying to have to explain why she had to hang around, but every time she did, the students seemed to get even more scared. Whatever Jessika had tried to do in the past must have been utterly terrible for them to shiver about it this much. Eventually, the end of the day came, and (Y/N) and Jessika were able to go back to their dorm; but Jessika decided to spend the rest of the day with Ginny who was, in her words, 'acting all weird'. Thinking nothing of it, (Y/N) went back to her room after making Ginny swear up and down that Jessika wouldn't get up to mischief, or worse. She nodded slowly, looking a little strange behind the eyes. This stuck with (Y/N); she'd been completely different earlier, so had something happened in that Charms class? She took a seat on one of the common room's sofas as she read, thinking about Ginny the whole time. Rather childish sounding footsteps made a gentle noise on the floor as (Y/N) read, and then, the voice that read in her head took physical form;
''This position of affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members of their family were conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there was...seriously, furball, why do you read this stupid Muggle stuff?''
(Y/N) turned around quickly and instinctively hit her new narrator on the head, albeit gently. He flinched, obviously expecting to be in pain from it; ''I know you can hit me harder than that, furball. Is someone beginning to-'' (Y/N) hit him at almost full force this time, swiftly turning around to keep reading. Draco stumbled back a little in pain, but decided not to throw a full-on diva hissy fit over it. ''So, your little illiterate friend has run off with a Gryffindor already? Shame. It appears that you'll have to talk to Pansy again now.'' (Y/N) rolled her eyes, desperately trying to get back into her book. She felt a pull on her hair. And then an almost painful hit on the head. He was desperately trying to keep her attention. (Y/N) moved further along the sofa, hissing, ''Let me read or I'll bloody kill you.'' For a split second, Draco looked like a sad puppy over this comment; he pretended to flounce away to his dorm room, but (Y/N) knew he was still listening in on her. She sighed as she went back to her book; but this only lasted seconds, as Jessika ran in panting and shouting in worse English than usual, ''Cat! Petri fry! Quickly, quickly, come!!'' (Y/N) was dragged out of her room by the extremely fast girl, forgetting about her book on the sofa and the boy who was listening. He hastily came out of his dorm room, intent on following them, but made sure to grab the book first; 'She'll want this back. She loves her stupid Muggle books...' he shook his head as he ran out of the common room. Since when had he cared that she liked having stupid books back?! He just managed to spot (Y/N) in amongst the crowd of people staring in fear at the Golden Trio. As usual, they were in the midst of a huge palaver that, at least in (Y/N)'s opinion, probably wasn't their fault. She was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts something being thrown at her head, much to the dismay of the Hufflepuffs behind her. The four or so students helped (Y/N) regain her composure and handed her the thing that had been thrown; the very book she'd been reading, with a message stuck to the front cover. ''Thought you'd want this back. And I hope you do, because I sure don't want it.'' (Y/N) sighed as Filch continued to use every single little reason that Harry and friends were in the wrong, only to be eventually shut down by a conclusion of 'wrong place, wrong time' from Dumbledore. With another sigh, (Y/N) slunk back to her dorm room along with the other, now very disappointed Slytherins. As she walked away, that's when she properly saw what was written on the wall;
''The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware.''
(Y/N) bit her lip. Her parents had mentioned the Chamber before, but also that it had, in their memory, only once been opened. And of course it would happen while (Y/N) was here. The rest of the evening was uneventful; (Y/N) got partway through her book in her now silent dorm room, and soon fell asleep. The rest of that month actually felt rather quiet; Jessika hardly even returned to the dorm at night due to permanent detentions, and even when she wasn't in detention, she was spending all of her time with Ginny. The poor girl was terrified for her; she mentioned something about a 'scary writing book', and 'a lot of crying'. (Y/N) tried her best, but she hardly ever even saw the two herself; but Draco was a whole other story. He practically insulted her into coming to one of his Quidditch games (which he was an absolute diva throughout in), and made his presence behind her in lessons clear with constant comments about her smelling of wet cat. He'd also taken to pulling on knots in her hair to make sure she was paying attention to his comments, be it in class or in the common room; but it was usually to make sure she was paying attention to his insults and not her book. (Y/N) sighed almost permanently, and her eyes almost rolled out of her head, but she secretly enjoyed it ever so slightly. She rather liked that he appeared to be desperate for her attention, even if it was just to be cruel... '(Y/N), you're completely mad!' was a thought that went through her head a lot. She hardly even had time to pay attention to the palaver that was going on with the Golden Trio, Ginny and the Chamber of Secrets due to her seemingly being followed by someone almost everywhere. Jessika completely disappeared as soon as she saw the second message. There were rumours she was being shipped home, or that the Ministry was going to take her back, but all of these turned out to be fake. Even with Hermione petrified, Harry and Ron managed to be heroes for the school once again, bringing Ginny back unscathed, much to the delight of Jessika. She was so happy that her friend was back that she actually sat with her own year group instead of shivering next to (Y/N), and it turned out that the odd few first-year Slytherins actually found her rather interesting. This, while a great turning point for the girl and a point of pride for both Jessika and (Y/N), made the Slytherin table even worse. Trying to listen to teachers talk about the year, Harry's great achievements and how Lockhart now had spell-born amnesia was rather difficult when all you could hear behind you was sniggering and Pansy's annoying voice. (Y/N) tried her best to eat in silence once they were allowed to, but this proved to be difficult. ''You've lost your friend now, Silverlie! Back to being a mad little furball now, eh?'' (Y/N) sighed, but endured these comments for what felt like ever. And then it was time to get on the train. Jessika had run off to sit with people her age, but had given (Y/N) an adorable little hug as she walked off, her pockets filled with sweets from both Ginny and her new fellow Slytherin friends. Finally, after what felt like forever, (Y/N) could finish her book. She snuggled against the window, getting pleasantly warmed by the sun, and melted into the pages. For about thirty seconds. ''You're in love with that hateful woman; she has bewitched you! I can see it in your eyes-'' someone who sounded an awful lot like Ron cut Draco off halfway through his annoying narration; ''She isn't hateful! Hit him with a book again, (Y/N)!'' It took the two a second to work out what he meant by that, but as soon as it hit Draco, (Y/N) was sure a small volcano went off in his head. He went to run after him, but he'd already disappeared from view. Draco threw himself down on the opposite end of (Y/N)'s seat with a growl. ''Seeing as I have to sit with you now,'' he hissed, ''At least tell me what that stupid book's about.''. (Y/N) shrugged, replying, ''It's kind of difficult to explain. It's about affairs, and dishonour, and high-society and stuff...'' Draco smirked, ''you mean what'll happen to you in the near future?'' (Y/N) rolled her eyes, replying with venom in her voice, ''If you're subtly asking me if my parents have already arranged a marriage for me, then the answer is 'no, they haven't'. But my father sure likes you, if you catch my meaning.'' Draco went magenta, replying angrily, ''As if I'd ever even think about marrying you! You're the ugly, unwanted furball who no-one in their right mind would even bring to a banquet, never mind marry!'' (Y/N) scowled, hissing back, ''I never said I wanted to marry you either, Malfoy.'' The blonde boy recoiled a little. That stung a little. He was the most beloved boy in his year, maybe even the whole school, and (Y/N), the cat smelling friend-of-Gryffindor seemed to be completely repulsed by him. He went back to scowling in the corner, muttering to himself like a child. (Y/N), feeling proud of her efforts, exclaimed, ''Wow, I've finally crushed the great Draco Mal-'' suddenly, he leapt from his spot and practically jumped on (Y/N), forcing his lips onto hers, most likely so she'd be quiet. It only lasted seconds, and it was very strange, but...god, she couldn't kid herself. That was probably the highlight of her year. After he'd pulled away and instantly scooted back to his spot in the corner, he scowled over at (Y/N), who was still completely silent. As soon as she went to speak, however, she was yet again cut off. ''I didn't mean to, okay?! It was only to get you to shut your stupid trap, furball!'' he tried to regain his composure before he continued, ''Tell anyone about what happened here and you'll be right down with your mother. Or worse...'' (Y/N), still rendered basically mute, zipped her lips with her fingers. Draco growled again. ''That's hardly a promise. But I suppose I have to accept it,'' he smirked, ''because now it's me who won the argument, furball.'' The train ground to a halt, obviously having gotten to Platform 9 3/4. Draco left the train as quickly as he possibly could, knocking over a few students as he did so. (Y/N) sighed deeply to herself. Somehow, she felt like things were about to change for her.
And that she was going to like said changes.