I am SOOOOO sorry, everyone, for the long wait. I have a different account that I promised weekly updates on, so I've been busy with that, and these next few months still aren't going to be easy to update. It's crunch time in school, now, since exams are coming up. After that, I'll be spending the first three weeks of July over in Europe, so I won't have internet, either. I am SO sorry, and I'll try writing more as soon as I can.

Disclaimer: Do I really need to say it?

The fight on Halloween had forged a new friendship, but crushed another. Zim was left alone, and for some reason, that bothered him. He stopped going into the dorm, and just spent his nights on the couch. He knew he wasn't wanted. Harry and Ron had probably told all the other boys about him.

But he didn't give them enough credit. Both boys had kept their mouths shut about Zim. Hermione was doing the same. Not only would people probably not believe them, but they probably owed him their lives. That troll could have easily killed all three of them if Zim wasn't there.

One night, the three sat in the library, chatting quietly.

"What are we supposed to do about Zim?" Hermione asked.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked. "Who says we have to do anything about him?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's going to try to take over the planet. He's an alien, and he's probably going to destroy the world. How can you just sit there and be okay with that?"

"Oh. Good point."

"So what do we do?" Harry asked, but the three were stumped. They knew next to nothing about Zim's race, so they had no idea as to how to stop him.

And unfortunately for them, a few people overheard their conversation. Lavender and Parvati whispered to each other. They just had what was probably the gossip of the century. There was no way they could keep it to themselves.

Zim had been trying to act like nothing happened, other than his sleeping on the couch. GIR was still waking everyone up in the morning, so they were really starting to get angry. That is, until he started making waffles.

"Uh, Zim?" Katie Bell, a second year asked. "How can your dog make waffles?"

"It's kind of a long story," Zim said.

So all the Gryffindors had waffles for breakfast. GIR made good waffles. One morning, though, everyone gave him a wary look.

"What?" he asked, wondering why they were all avoiding him. His eyes landed on Ron, Harry, and Hermione and narrowed. All three shook their head. He turned his head, and saw Lavender and Parvati gossiping with a few of the other girls, and picked out words like 'Zim' and 'alien'. That was all he needed to know. He had to know how they found out. He stalked over to them. "Why are you telling everyone I'm an alien?" he asked, trying to cover up his nerves with anger. "Is it because of my skin condition?"

"We heard Hermione talking about it," Parvati responded quickly, and Zim turned his narrowed eyes to the bookworm. While he wasn't paying attention, Lavender reached over and ripped off his wig, revealing the antennae underneath. The entire House gasped, though Zim had no idea why, because they'd already known anyway. He took out the lenses, glad to not have to wear them anymore.

GIR ran in with a plate of waffles. He set the waffles down and tried to hand Zim his wig back.

"No, GIR," he said. "They know."

So the first thing GIR did was take off his dog suit. With his newfound 'freedom', he started flying around.

Naturally, they got tons of stares. Zim was slightly worried that his mission was compromised, since everyone knew, but if he was right, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would keep his mission a secret. And in a school of magic, an alien wasn't really all that weird, right? He calmed down and went down for classes.

He didn't even bother wearing his disguise, because he knew the truth would be passed through to the other Houses. He let the legs of his PAK carry him down the stairs, because it would be much quicker. A few people screamed, making him laugh in response.

He sat alone in all of his classes, which was just as well. The only slight disappointment was that Neville, whom he had actually started to take a bit of a liking to as an actual friend, was avoiding him too.

That night, he went up to the Seventh Floor again. He'd brought GIR with him this time, because this was probably a good time to add weapons to the robot. It was a good precaution, just in case another troll, or something worse, got into the castle. He had to admit, it had been a pretty close call that night.

Before he got to work on GIR, though, he reasoned that he'd have to report to the Tallests. Surely they were worried about him, because he hadn't transmitted in over two months!

"Zim!" Purple said in surprise when his transmission was answered.

"I am sorry, My Tallests," he said apologetically. "Things on this end have been very busy lately. Actually, right now, I'm a school that is teaching me magic. I know, that sounds pretty unbelievable, but it's true! And there was a wizard named Voldemort, who killed thousand of people. If I can learn this kind of magic—"

"Zim, stop," Red said. "Just stop." He looked at Purple. "I can't take this anymore," he said. "Let's just tell him."

"You weren't sent to Earth on some sort of secret mission," Purple told him. "We wanted to get rid of you. We didn't even know there was a planet that far out in space."

"You're defective Zim," Red added. "Very defective. And you are not an Invader. You're just a pain in our sides, so we really don't care what you do anymore. Just don't contact us again." And with that, the transmission was cut off.

Zim stood there, stunned. No, it wasn't true… the Tallests were playing some sort of trick on him… He was an Invader, and a valuable one.

He made his way back to the Common Room in a daze. He lay down on the couch that night, staring at the fire. He'd just lost his purpose in life. He had no reason to be here, or anywhere else. He was very tempted to just self-destruct. But he shook his head. No, he wouldn't do that. He wasn't that weak.

The days dragged on, and all of Zim's grades plummeted. He'd been doing very well in all his classes up to this point, except Potions, which he failed on purpose. People started to notice.

"I think there's something wrong with Zim," Hermione said, sitting down at lunch.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"All his grades have dropped. And have you even looked at him lately? He's like a zombie," she said.

"Uh, no, I didn't," Ron answered. "Sorry that I don't watch him as closely as you do."

"I just wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't try anything," Hermione hissed. All three shut up when the alien in question walked to the table and sat down next to the brunette. It was the only available seat left.

They were about to get up when he spoke. "No, don't worry," he said dully. "Your planet's no longer in danger. I'm not going to destroy it anymore." The three gave him a puzzled look. On the few occasions that he had spoken about his plans, he became very excited, so what would change all this? "My Tallests told me that I'm defective. I'm no longer an Invader," he said, giving a small, empty chuckle. "I have nothing."

They stared at him for a moment. Was this some sort of trick to lure them into a sense of security? But Zim seemed so sincerely defeated…

Zim grabbed an apple and stood up. "I'll be going now, I guess…" And with that, he moved back up the stairs to the Common Room. When he was sure he was alone, he started pounding the floor. "WHY?!" he yelled. "Why would they do this?!" He pounded his anger out, then stared at the floor where he'd hit. He ignored the stinging pain in his hand and sat up. He curled into a tight ball. He had no idea where GIR was. Maybe the little robot had abandoned him, too. Now he was all alone…

He heard the portrait move and his head shot up. Neville stood in the doorway, looking at him. "Harry told me what happened," he said, and Zim cursed the Boy Who Lived under his breath. Neville sat down next to him. "It's okay, you know," he told the alien. "You've still got friends."

"Oh, you mean the 'friends' that shunned me the moment they found out I wasn't human?" Zim asked. Neville winced.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was just hurt that you didn't trust me enough to tell me, but you told Harry and the others."

"I didn't tell them," Zim muttered, realizing how it must have looked to Neville. The boy obviously didn't know what had really happened Halloween night. "There was troll in the school on Halloween."

"I know," Neville said. "They herded us back to the dorms."

"Well, I was on my way down when it saw me," Zim started, leaving out the part about the room that acted as his base. That would stay his secret for now. "I ran, and wound up in the girl's bathroom with Hermione. It attacked me and my wig came off, I removed my lenses so I could see a little better. Then Harry and Ron ran in and saw me. I didn't tell them, they saw it."

"Oh…" Neville said. "Well, sorry. Are we still friends?"

Zim chuckled. "Oh, we were never 'friends', Neville. Acquaintances, maybe, but Invaders don't need friends." Neville frowned, clearly put out. Zim grinned. "I guess it's a good thing I'm not an Invader anymore, huh?"

Neville laughed, and for Zim, it seemed a bit better. Yes, he'd lost a big part of his life, but if this was one of the things he got in exchange, maybe it was worth it.