Just a bit of a oneshot for a Gryffindor friend to break the monotony. As always I do not own anything that you may recognise, such as Hogwarts, the Standard Book of Spells Grade Two, or The Boy Who Lived.

The first half of the evening had passed in a blur of colour and noise. The gentle weight of the tattered hat on her head, the echoing in her ears at its cry of 'Gryffindor!' and the answering cheers from the table of red and gold. She'd been clapped on the back more times than she could count as she joined that table and had joined in the cheers as more new Gryffindors joined them. Even one called Harry Potter.

She'd heard the stories about Harry Potter. Who hadn't? Even though she was only a half-blood her mother had made sure that she knew all about the Dark Lord and The Boy Who Lived. But it was one thing to hear the stories, and it was entirely another to be sat across the table from him, in full view of that lightening bolt scar.

The long line of Gryffindor first years had followed their redheaded prefect to the portrait of the Fat Lady and listened in rapt attention to the password: 'Caput Draconis'. She had wondered what it meant but had quickly decided that it didn't matter as she took in the soft warmth that was the Gryffindor common room.

The evening caught up with her as she stood there with the other first years. The excitement as they crossed the lake in little boats, the anticipation as she waited for her name to be called, the sickening worry that she would be made a Slytherin even though she was half-blood, and the sheer relief and utter glory of being made a Gryffindor. She couldn't stop smiling.

"What was your name?" a voice broke her from her thoughts. Tuning back in to the present she saw that there was a pair of redheaded boys standing before her, identical in every way. Somehow she was at the forefront of the first years, the others more than a full step behind her. She wondered what she'd missed.

"Jasmine," she said after a moment. "Jasmine Curtis."

"Well Jasmine Curtis," one of the boys replied. "I'm Fred."

"And I'm George." Their blue eyes sparkled in the firelight, shining with mischief planned. "Congratulations, you're this year's champion."

Jasmine turned around to the other first years, finally realising that they'd sold her out. Some of them had the grace to look a little ashamed for it. Her eyes sought out Harry Potter who she'd thought better than this only to see another redheaded boy's hand resting on his shoulder, restraining him from stepping forward.

A little faith restored, she turned back to the twins, a grim smile on her face. She was a Gryffindor; she wasn't just going to slink away from a challenge. Lions didn't just walk away when their courage was called into question and she was a lion now.

"What do I have to do?"

The twins grinned at each other for a moment before launching into her instructions. All she had to do, according to them it would be easy, was to steal the list of banned objects from Mr Filch's office without being caught and bring it back to the common room. They wanted to make some changes to it, they said. But she wouldn't be going alone; the so called 'champion' from last year would be going with her.

So, minutes later, Jasmine was walking the corridors of Gryffindor Tower with a surly boy called Cormac McLaggen who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but with her. The office was on the ground floor and, with the moving staircases, it took an unreasonable amount of time for them to get there. By that time McLaggen was looking pale.

Jasmine's heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest but she was unwilling to give up, so she darted from the shadows that hid them, to the door she thought hid the office. The door creaked loudly and she cursed, turning her head wildly to see if anyone had been drawn by it before slipping inside. The door closed behind her, nearly trapping her robes. She heard the lock turn.

"Well, lookee here: an ickle first year Gryffindor." Jasmine cursed under her breath as her eyes got used to the sudden dark. It wasn't the office she'd found; it was the entrance to the dungeons and there was a quartet of second year Slytherins just beyond. She reached into her robes, feeling for her wand.

"All alone, little Gryffindor?" a blonde boy asked snidely. They were all holding their wands and she knew she couldn't fight off all four of them, especially since McLaggen couldn't get to her and her only route of escape had been locked behind her. But that didn't mean that she couldn't try.

/

Helena sighed, resting her head on her hand as she flicked over the page of Standard Book of Spells Grade Two. She should have been in bed but she couldn't sleep. And when she couldn't sleep she read. But that night the green lanterns of the Slytherin common room were giving her a headache and every spell she came across was familiar. That's what she got for reading her textbooks the day she got them, she supposed.

The common room was empty except for her; everyone else was asleep. She raised her wand and muttered "Avifors." turning a nearby quill into a small grey bird. The bird circled the room once and then settled onto her desk, pecking at the woodwork.

She turned the page again, flicking her wand lazily at the bird that promptly turned back into a quill. Another page turn, followed by another, and finally another before she slammed the book closed.

Helena got to her feet and straightened her robes. If she couldn't read anything from her trunk then she'd have to go to the library, curfew be damned.

She kept her wand in her hand and slipped out of the hidden stone door that served as the entrance to the common room. After barely a glance she moved purposefully along the corridor, pretending for all that she was worth that she was supposed to be there.

The dungeons were cold at night and damp all the time, so after one year she was accustomed to the steady drip, drip, dripping of water from the ceiling falling to the floor. What Helena wasn't accustomed to was yelling echoing through the corridors at night. She picked up her pace towards the noise and gripped her wand tighter, hoping that she wasn't about to come across teachers berating a pupil for being out of bed. That would be bad.

She rounded the final corner to see a group of four boys hassling a younger looking girl. The girl was tall, dark haired and dark eyed, her wand pointed straight ahead at one of the boys. The boys were only laughing at her, but Helena was slightly impressed.

"Lumos." Her wand tip flared with blue light, lighting the badges on the boys' robes when they turned. All four of them were Slytherins and, now that she could see their faces, she recognised them from her class. She cursed them as cowards under her breath, advancing on their little group.

"Hey, Hel," one called to her. Randall Verian, he wasn't the brightest candle in the candelabra, but he had a penchant for gathering followers. Sure enough the other three were Richard Shye, Theron Stark and Zaul Faraday; his more favoured companions. She could have left them be but that door was the only way towards the library, and she had been complaining that she was bored.

"Verian," she replied shortly, advancing on them, "What do we have here?" Now that she was closer she could see that the girl was a Gryffindor first year. She shook her head; boys like those four were what gave Slytherins such a bad name. And it was girls like this one that gave Gryffindors such a good one. Anyone else would have run but she had stayed and held them at wand point.

"First year Gryffindor on a mission, we were just thinking how to deal with her when you arrived. Any ideas?" Verian answered her smoothly; his pale green eyes cool in the blue light from her still raised wand. She lowered it with a sigh.

"Bloody hell, Verian, why don't you just let her go?" The Gryffindor girl caught her eye when she started in surprise. It didn't seem that she had been expecting help to come from the fifth Slytherin. Helena smirked, folding her arms. Four in five Slytherins may be total jerks but the one left over might just surprise you. And Helena liked being surprising, her parents could attest to that much.

"What?"

"I said let her go, Randall. Go back to bed and try not to yourself expelled on the first day." Verian's group looked to each other, unsure what to do. The girl should have been trying the door while they were distracted but, for some reason, she was just watching them. "Nox." Helena put out the light.

"Lockwood, my father would not let me be expelled for upholding tradition." Verian pointed his wand at her now. Helena rolled dark blue eyes.

"Your father's reach doesn't extend to Hogwarts, and neither does mine. McGonagall, on the other hand, is rather fond of her Gryffindors."

"I'm not afraid of the old bat; Snape could take her."

Helena sighed. She was beginning to get tired of speaking with them; maybe she could try a Leglocker Curse? Or a full body bind, she'd been dying to find a 'volunteer' to try that one on. Her wand shot angry red sparks. She was feeling adventurous; maybe a Stunning Spell?

"Are we doing this the hard way?" she asked in the most innocent voice she could manage. "I think I would enjoy the hard way." Verian looked back at the girl who was still holding her wand towards him, then spat at her feet.

"She's not worth the bother. Come on boys, we'll leave her to Lockwood." Verian somehow made it sound as if he'd won their battle of wills but Helena didn't care as he led his group away, back into the shadows of the dungeons.

"Well that's a shame; I really would have enjoyed the hard way." She murmured, twirling her wand through her fingers. She shrugged and then turned back to where the girl was still stood. "Ah, well, on you go." The girl didn't move.

"I could've taken them," she said.

Helena laughed. "Sure you could, all four of the blighters." She had laughed but the girl's fiery brown eyes told her that she was perfectly serious: she had been going to try. The Sorting Hat had really hit that nail on the head. "What brings you all the way down here then?"

"An initiation for the year." Helena had heard it done before but she didn't think that it had ever resulted in fighting another house. Not even Slytherin.

"Dunderheaded morons sent you out alone?" The girl shook her head, sending long brown hair flying. The animation brought a smile to her face and she decided that it had been a good idea to help her out.

"No, but I don't think he stayed after the door got locked." Gryffindor Tower was on the way to the library.

"I'll walk you back if you like?" There was that surprise again. The surprise that a Slytherin could actually do something helpful, the surprise that was laced with a healthy dose of suspicion. "I was headed that way anyway."

"I need to get the banned list from Filch's office." It wasn't a 'yes', but it wasn't a 'no' either so Helena smiled and raised her wand.

"Once more unto the breach dear friends," she quipped, aiming at the lock. "Alohomora."

/

Jasmine looked at the piece of parchment in the blonde girl's hand wondering if there was a catch. The other girl was a Slytherin after all and, for all she knew, she'd set up the ambush just to make Jasmine trust her. She hadn't even told her her name.

"Who are you?" The Slytherin girl quirked an eyebrow, still holding out the list of banned objects to her with an insistent hand, it was clear she wanted to move on.

"Helena Lockwood, second year Slytherin, your rescuer and partner in crime for one night only. Are you going to take this or not?" Jasmine took the parchment slowly and placed it in the pocket of her robes.

"You're crazy," she said.

"That too," Helena agreed. "But most pure bloods are. I think it's from all the in-breeding our families have to do to stay, well, pure." Blue eyes looked up at her from the step behind. "You?"

"I'm a half blood," she replied instantly as they crested the main staircase. She had been right about McLaggen having left her behind, but she wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. Helena was certainly better company, but she was also a Slytherin.

"Good to know but I can hardly keep calling you that. There are people who object to that kind of thing." Jasmine felt a light flush rise onto her cheeks but Helena simply kept walking towards Gryffindor Tower, oblivious.

"I'm Jasmine. Curtis," she said, hurrying to keep up. "First year, perfectly sane."

"Well, that's a pity." Jasmine didn't understand her. Every time she thought she had some handle on the Slytherin girl's thoughts they would twist away into something completely different. "We're all mad here, you see. It must be horrible for you to be the only sane one in the castle." She didn't know what to say to that.

"Jasmine!" a voice called out to her from further up. She tilted her head to see a head of bright red hair poking over one of the banisters beside a darker head of hair. A pair of redheads joined them a second later. Fred, George, the first year who had to be their brother, and Harry Potter. She smiled. Helena was smiling too. They met the four Gryffindor boys at the bottom of the staircase that let to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"That idiot McLaggen came back without you," one of the twins said.

"We thought you were a goner for a bit there," the other finished.

Jasmine reached into her pocket and pulled out the list, handing it to the twins, still smiling.

"Blimey, she did it," the small redheaded boy said. "But what's with the Slytherin?"

"What Slytherin?" Helena replied, perfectly deadpan. "I don't see a Slytherin."

"You led her back to the common room." The boy's blue eyes were accusatory even as Harry put a hand on his arm to try and calm him. Jasmine appreciated the gesture, even though it didn't seem to work.

"Yes, Weasley, because no one's ever even dreamed that the Gryffindor common room could be in Gryffindor Tower," Helena hissed, then rolled her eyes. "Anyway, this is your stop, I'm off to the library." And with that, she left; heading back down the steps and through the nearest door. Jasmine watched her go with a smile.

"What happened exactly?" Harry finally spoke to her as they filed through the portrait. Jasmine thought of the five Slytherins she'd met and decided that, maybe, just maybe, they weren't all as bad as they said. But to Harry she simply smiled and said;

"Nothing much."

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