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Chapter Text

It was a sunny day in London as the train to Hogwarts arrived at the Platform 9¾. Harry smiled at the thought of being at Hogwarts again after a really good summer at home. He turned around to face his parents and hugged first his mum and his dad afterwards.
“Goodbye Mum, Dad. See you at Christmas.” He said and took his bag in one hand and the cage with Hedwig in it in his other hand. His dad had his arm around his mother’s waist and both smiled at him.
“Have a good year, Harry. Make sure to win the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup and beat this sly Slytherins again.” James laughed and Harry laughed with him while Lily just shook her head and smiled about her men’s passion for Quidditch.
“You can be sure I won’t let Draco Malfoy catching the Golden Snitch.” Harry promised and smiled as he saw his best friend Ron and his family arriving at the platform, as late as always.
“Hurry or you will miss the train!” Molly shouted and all the Weasley’s children hurried over to where Harry and his parents stood.
“Ah Molly, nice to meet you today. And even almost on time.” James laughed and Molly glared at him.
“It’s not my fault! The twins had to test one of their new inventions on our way and it turned out to be a failure.” She explained and glared at her sons.
“Hello Harry.” Ginny said and smiled shyly while Ron rolled his eyes. His sister had a huge crush on his best friend and he didn’t like that at all because of two reasons. First he knew Harry thought of Ginny as a sister and didn’t have the same feelings for her than she had for him and second he would never like it to see these two together as a couple. Even the thought of watching them kissing made him feel weird.
“Come on guys, the train is going to leave the platform in a few minutes.” Hermione stood in the door in front of Harry and the Weasleys and they all waved a last time before they entered the train.
The brown haired girl had already reserved a train compartment where Neville was waiting for his friends to arrive. Fred and George left them to find their friends while the others walked over to where Neville was waiting. They all said hello and spent the train ride talking about their summers.
Harry and Ron and their families had spent most of the summer together at the Burrow. They had meetings with other Order members and talked about Voldemort’s growing power and what they could possibly do about this. No one, except for the Order, really believed he got stronger with every day. The Daily Prophet wrote about dead witches and wizards almost every day as well as about mysterious accidents and other things no one really could explain. The ministry denied Voldemort would be the reason for all this and the Order made it his mission to convince the magical world Voldemort was more threatening than he ever had been before.
Harry smiled as he saw how Ron bought Hermione a chocolate frog and how the young witch blushed a bit. Ginny giggled and Neville looked at Harry with a confused expression on his face but Harry just shrugged. He wasn’t on the mood to explain this to Neville.
Half an hour before the train would arrived in Hogwarts, someone knocked on their door and they all rolled their eyes, as they saw who stood outside of the glass door.
“What do you want, Malfoy?” Ron asked as soon as the door was opened and the Slytherin glared at Ron before he turned towards Harry.
“I need to talk to you, Potter.” He said and Harry laughed.
“I didn’t know what we could have to talk about. I would say you just leave us alone and let us enjoy the train ride as we did before you decided to interrupt our peaceful atmosphere.” Harry suggested and his friends started to laugh. Malfoy’s face turned red with anger and he turned around to left the Griffindors without another word.

Draco was furious. He just wanted to talk to Pot- Harry for a minute but he had to be the arrogant prick he always was. Snape told him Harry’s dad, James Potter, was exactly the same arrogant idiot when they were teenagers and students at Hogwarts.
Draco walked back to his so called friends and saw Blaise was arrived while he was gone. At least one person who Draco could talk to without getting a stupid answer.
“Draco, why do you have two suitcases with you? I know you love to look good and irresistible and all but I doubt you need so many things that they don’t even fit in one magical bag.” Blaise said and smirked.
“Shut up Zabini! That not your business.” Blaise nodded and decided to ask Draco about that when they were back at school.
Draco took his place at the window and starred out of it. His face showed no emotions but inside he felt like crying. His father kicked him out of the Malfoy Manor. Draco never really liked the idea of being a Death Eater when he was older, he also didn’t like to be his father’s little toy anymore. He didn’t want to kill people, he didn’t want to hurt someone.
Draco spent the summer at Snape’s small house. The blonde Slytherin knew he could trust his godfather no matter what and he also knew Snape was a spy for Dumbledore. With Snape, Draco was safe for a while until he would find a way to be sure to be safe from his father.
Draco wasn’t really sure why is father didn’t kill him and kicked him out instead. Maybe he thought Draco would change his mind or Snape would talk some sense into him and made him going back to Malfoy Manor. His father didn’t know to what Snape was really up to.

Chapter Text

Harry cheered along with the others during the sorting ceremony. They seemed to have a few, really nice Gryffindors now. During dinner Harry looked over at the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy never really asked him to talk to him. He was insulting him straight away or left some nasty comments but he never asked him for a real conversation. Harry started to get interested.
“What are you thinking about?” Seamus asked Harry while loading more food on his plate.
“Just trying to figure out what Malfoy wanted to talk about.” Harry answered and Ron frowned.
“Why are you so interested in that?” He asked and Harry shrugged.
“I’m just wondering. He never asked me for a conversation before so it must be something important I guess.” He explained before shaking his head.
“Whatever, it’s not like I would care about that.” He added and Ron nodded. Hermione looked at her two best friends. She thought like Harry, when Malfoy asked for talk with Harry, it must be important.
“I think you should ask him, Harry.” She said and Ron glared at her.
“Hermione! Why should he? It’s not like Malfoy would have anything important to say.” He shrugged. Hermione shook her head and dropped the topic. She would talk to Harry again when Ron wasn’t with them. He was so stubborn when it came to Malfoy or any other Slytherin. Hermione knew they weren’t all bad but Ron still believed all of them could probably Death Eaters and kill Harry because Voldemort told them to do it.
A paper bird flew through the Great Hall and landed on Seamus empty plate. Seamus blushed and tried to hide it but his friends had already noticed. “What is that?” Ron asked and raised an eyebrow at Seamus.
“Nothing.” The Irish boy said and stuffed the bird in his pocket.
“Yeah, sure.” Harry said and laughed.
“Tell us.” He told Seamus and grinned at him.
“Or is it a love letter from a secret admirer of you?” Ron teased and Seamus blushed even more.
“It is a love letter.” Ron laughed.
“Who is it?” Harry wanted to know.
“Boys, stop that.” Hermione stopped them and looked at Seamus. His face was bright red and she smiled softly.
“Don’t worry, no one is going to kill you when you’re not telling it.” She said and he nodded, breathing deeply.
“I tell you soon.” He promised his friends, biting his lip before glaring at Dean, making sure Ron and Harry weren’t paying attention to him.
“Asshole.” He mouthed then got the bird out of his pocket, Dean grinned proudly. He knew Seamus would probably kill him later but his face has been priceless.
Dean had visited Seamus over the summer and they had ended up as a couple. Seamus refused to tell it someone, not even their friends. Dean had tried to convince him, telling him that gay relationships were somehow normal in the magical world but Seamus still preferred to hide his sexuality and his relationship. Dean accepted it, not that he had a choice, but he wanted to convince Seamus as soon as possible. He really didn’t want to sneak around all the time and worry about who could find out about them. He definitely had better things to do than that.

“You’re an idiot.” Seamus told Dean as they walked upstairs to the Gryffindor tower.
“I told you I don’t want to tell.” He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Now Ron and Harry will ask me constantly and that is your entire fault.” He added, glaring at Dean.
“Come on Shay, you know they will forget about it very soon. Did you at least read what I sent you?” Dean asked, grinning.
“No not now.” Seamus said and pulled the now crumbled piece of paper out of his pocket.
“Sorry for making you angry but I couldn’t resist to tell you how much you mean to me. Like, really much, you know.” Seamus looked at Dean and blushed.
“You have an awkward way to be romantic.” He said and laughed softly.
“But thank you. You mean a lot to me too.” He added and put the paper back in his pocket. They walked the rest of the way silently, just smiling at each other from time to time.

Harry was still wondering what Malfoy wanted from him. He was so deep in his thoughts, that he didn’t really pay attention to what Ron was telling him about the new school year.
“Harry?” The black haired boy blinked, focusing on Ron’s face.
“Yes Ron?” He asked, sounding almost annoyed as he pushed his glasses back on his nose.
“Are you even listening to me?” Ron asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Or are you still thinking about that stupid ferret?” He added and Harry shrugged.
“I’m just still wondering about him. I mean, if he would have wanted to insult me, he would have done it. And if he would have wanted to hex me, he wouldn’t ask me for a talk before, everyone else would know that it was him. I think it must be something important and I think I should ask him about that tomorrow.” Harry explained.
“That’s stupid Harry, just forget about it. He isn’t worth your time anyway.” Ron shrugged, unpacking the rest of his things. Harry shook his head but didn’t say something. It was useless to argue about Malfoy with Ron. Sure, Harry didn’t like him too, but he hasn’t been raised to hate every single Malfoy on this planet.

“Hey, Seamus.” Dean whispered as he stood next to Seamus’ bed, the curtains pulled aside slightly. Seamus groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“What do you want?” He mumbled, not fully awake. It must be around midnight and he just had fallen asleep.
“Can I sleep with you? I miss it to have you in my arms.” Dean asked innocently, hiding his grin. He hoped he could convince a half sleeping Seamus, that’s why he hadn’t asked him that before.
“Mhm.” Seamus answered and moved a bit so Dean would fit into the bed next to him. He instantly felt asleep, cuddled close to his smirking boyfriend. Dean knew Seamus would probably kill him the next morning but for now he didn’t care. He would take care of this later, he decided after charming a spell that would wake him up early enough to go back in his own bed. He really didn’t fancy explaining to his roommates why he was sleeping in Seamus’ bed. It probably would be just another reason for Seamus to kill him, making sure it was a slow and painful way to die.

Draco was laying his bed, arms crossed behind his head. He couldn’t sleep, his thoughts were keeping him awake, as well as the fear of another nightmare. He had them a lot lately and he didn’t really fancy them. Draco shivered as he thought about them and tried to get another picture in his mind and groaned. Potter was on his mind a lot lately too and Draco really wished he wouldn’t. He really didn’t want to waste his time thinking about Potter and his stupid friends. Draco groaned again and turned around to lay on his stomach, casting a tempus spell. It was already after midnight and Draco knew he wouldn’t get much sleep that night if he wouldn’t go to sleep straight away. He closed his eyes and laid his head down on his arms. Not even two minutes later Draco opened his eyes again, sighing. He couldn’t fall asleep when his father showed up in his mind, laughing evilly every time Draco tried to sleep. He stood up and got a back out from under his bed, pulling out a small bottle - dreamless sleeping potion. The blonde Slytherin swallowed the sour liquid and got back into his bed. He knew he shouldn’t take this potion almost every night but it was the only thing that helped him. Luckily his godfather was a potions master.

Chapter Text

Their week started on a Thursday and Harry was really happy about it. Only two days until a peaceful weekend without any classes and, more important, without seeing Snape.
Ron groaned as he looked on their timetable and banged his head down on the table, next to his plate with his enormous breakfast.
“It’s not that bad, Ron.” Hermione said after she looked over the piece of paper in his hand.
“You are quite lucky, to be honest.” She shook her head before focusing back on her breakfast.
“She is right, Ron.” Harry said and kicked Ron’s leg under the table.
“Not that bad? How am I going to survive a double lesson of Potion and a double lesson of History Of Magic afterwards every freaking Thursday?” He asked dramatically and Hermione hit the back of his head.
“Stop whining about that and eat your breakfast or we will leave without you.” She huffed and actually managed to shut Ron up. Harry grinned at her and mouthed a ‘thank you’ when she looked up.

Draco were sitting at the other end of the Great Hall, holding a cup of coffee in his hands while trying not to hex a non-stop talking Pansy.
“Can you ever shut up?” Blaise asked and really, the black haired girl stopped, pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. Sometimes Draco was really happy to know Blaise, sometimes he wondered why he had chosen him to be his best friend.
Draco grabbed and apple, nibbling on it. He wasn’t hungry but he had to eat at least something if he wanted to be able to concentrate on his first day back at school. He noticed someone staring at him and looked to the table where the teachers were sitting, seeing Snape looking at him. Draco sighed. He knew his godfather was worried about him so he decided to eat at least the apple, making him less worried. The last thing he needed was a Severus Snape who wanted to make sure he was okay. A caring Snape, how weird would that be?
Harry looked over at Draco as well. When he wanted to find out what he had wanted to talk about the day before, he should ask him this morning. More or less luckily for him, they had their first class together. Harry sighed and shook his head. He couldn’t just walk to Malfoy and ask him; surely that arrogant prat wouldn’t even look at him. He really needed to stop thinking about that, Harry decided and took another toast. Maybe more food would distract him. He doubted that but it was worth a try, right?
Seamus was glaring at Dean every time the boy was looking or talking to him. When he had woke up that morning by Dean’s spell he almost jumped out of his bed, surprised to see Dean sleeping next to him. His boyfriend was so lucky that no one had seen them like that and ignoring and glaring at Dean was now the punishment.
Dean knew Seamus couldn’t and wouldn’t be angry with him for long and he was slightly amused by his boyfriend’s behaviour. Of course he didn’t like it when Seamus wasn’t talking to him but he could take this for a few hours. At least he had had a really nice night next to him.

“Hey Blaise, is there a reason why you said the name of the Weasley girl that night?” Draco asked suddenly, remembering that he indeed had heard Blaise saying her name a few times during the night. The blonde looked at his best friend and smirked as he could see a slight blush on the boy’s dark cheeks.
“Uhm…I can’t remember to say it. Maybe I had a nightmare.” Blaise answered slowly, his voice slightly shaking and Draco huffed.
“Of course you can’t.” Draco said and shook his head.
“You better make a move before someone else is going to do that. After all she is the only Weasley which is not looking like a red-haired accident.” Draco told his best friend and then turned his attention back to his apple, sitting there with his mouth open in the corner of his eye.
“What? Did you think I would throw a spell at you for falling in love with a pretty girl?” Draco asked, making Blaise open and close his mouth without saying something.
“I talk to you again when you remember what you wanted to say, alright?” Draco smirked and stood up.
“See you in class.” He said and left the table. Pansy was staring at Blaise, totally surprised by what she just had witnessed.
“The Weasley girl, hm?” She asked interested, grinning a bit at Blaise.
“Well, it’s not a bad choice actually.” She admitted.
“But I really am surprised that you choose a blood traitor. Not my problem, though. I hope you really make a move.” She grinned and stood up as well, leaving Blaise alone with his thoughts. He shook his head slowly. Who had thought that would happen. He sighed and drank the rest of his coffee. Well at least his friends were fine with that. Blaise just wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that they knew about his feelings, Pansy and Draco were really good in teasing people with exactly that and this was the last thing he could use right now. It was difficult enough to figure out how he should start speaking with Ginny without being awkward.

While Harry still tried to figure out what the best way was to speak to Malfoy, he didn’t notice the blonde Slytherin walking towards him.
“Would you speak to me now, Potter?” Draco asked coldly, his arms crossed over his chest. He still was a few inches taller than Harry which made him feel less insecure than he was in that moment. He didn’t even know why he was so stupid to try to speak to Harry again but it was somehow important to him. He felt like he needed to do that now that he wasn’t on the dark side any longer. He wanted Harry to know that. Maybe he even wanted the friendship he had asked for on their first day at Hogwarts. Even as an 11 years old boy he had known that his chances were slim, seeing that Harry had been friends with the Weasleys his whole life. Draco bit his lip at this memory. He had been used to get everything he wanted, being rejected by Harry Potter had hurt him more than he would ever admit. He didn’t even know why he wanted to be friends with Harry. Something at this boy seemed to be special, at least special enough for Draco to talk to him. And maybe he developed a small crush on Harry over the last year. Not that he would ever admit that, of course not.
Harry, looking up slightly, shrugged and crossed his arms too.
“Depends on what you want, Malfoy.” He answered, hating the fact that he was smaller than this damn Slytherin. He raised his chin lightly, straightening his back.
“I would prefer to speak about this in private.” Draco said, trying not to smirk as he noticed Harry’s movements, his attempts to seem taller than he was.
“Oh, is that so?” Harry asked back, raising his eyebrow.
“Let me invite you for a walk around the lake after dinner.” Draco asked, desperately hoping Harry would agree to that. He watched the Gryffindor, hoping to see anything in his face that would tell him Harry’s answer before he would say it. After all, his face was an open book, even to Draco. It was easy to read the emotions in Harry’s face.

Chapter Text

Harry tilted his head and looked at Draco. That could be trap to trick him, to hex him and leave him there until someone would find him. He could serve Harry to Voldemort or to his father or another Death Eater. Harry shook his head and sighed.
“You can meet me in the empty classroom at the end of the corridor in the right wing of the castle on the first floor.” He answered after a few moments and uncrossed his arms.
“That’s the only thing I can offer you. You can take this or leave me alone with your damn talk.” Harry added and waited for Draco to answer.
The blonde nodded slowly. That was better than nothing, right? At least he could make Harry listening to him and tell him about his new plans and that he now was on his side. Or at least not on the dark side anymore.
“Fine.” Draco said shortly and then nodded again before he walked away from Harry and over to Blaise who just arrived for classes. Draco grinned at him, Blaise still looked a bit confused.
“You’re alright?” Blaise was in fact the only person Draco really cared about, along with his mother and himself. Well and maybe Pansy, she wasn’t that bad. And Harry of course but no one need to know that.
“I had better mornings to be honest. Thanks to you.” Blaise answered and huffed but rolled his eyes and grinned after a moment.
“I guess you’re right. With making a move and all that stuff.” He added and Draco grinned, raising his eyebrow.
“Of course I was right.” He said and nudged Blaise a bit as they walked into the Potion’s classroom. Draco really didn’t mind starting a morning and their whole year with Potions and Snape, he knew his godfather would leave him alone so he could easily watch other students, more watching one other student.
Draco leaned his elbow on the table and his head on his hand, sitting between Blaise and Pansy while listening to Snape telling the class what they would do this year. Draco already knew it, he had been there when Snape made his plans for the next year. Not that potions wasn’t already easy for Draco but this year would be especially easy for him since he had used the holidays to prepare himself for a new year.
Draco snapped out if his day dream and turned his attention away from his godfather and looked over to Harry and his friends. Weasley seemed angry and Draco guessed that it was because Harry had agreed to meet Draco. The blonde Slytherin smirked. It was a pleasure for him to drive the Weasel nuts and if he could do it without even talking to him, than he was even more satisfied. It saved him the energy and time to actually talk to the stupid Gryffindor.
“What are you smirking at?” Pansy asked and raised her eyebrow at Draco who just shook his head.
“Nothing important. Just like to see Weasley angry.” He chuckled quietly and grinned at Pansy who grinned back. The times that she had a crush for him where over. Draco never said it but she knew he was not interested in girls. Pansy waited for the day that he would admitted it at least to her and Blaise. She had laid her eyes on someone else and this time she knew she had a real chance to get the boy. She smiled to herself and slightly turned to the right, glancing at a Slytherin a few rows behind them.
“Really, Pans?” Draco laughed as he followed her glance and she blushed lightly.
“What?” She huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at Draco.
“He is good looking, smart, a pure blood and he is charming. What do I want more?” She asked, raising her eyebrow again. Draco laughed and raised his hands in defence.
“Nothing, I’m just surprised, that’s all.” He answered and smiled slightly.
“He indeed is a really good choice.” He agreed and then turned back to Snape. Even if he knew most of the things already, he should listen from time to time to save exactly that later when it came to homework.
Harry wasn’t happy with having Portions as the first class of the new term but at least it was over then. Of course Snape was his usual annoying self and it annoyed Harry even more that he snapped at him and Ron for talking while Draco could talk as much and as loud he wanted all the time without being told off. Well it wasn’t something new and Harry was used to it but it still was unfair.
Ron, of course, was absolutely not happy with the fact that Harry had agreed to meet Draco.
“He is evil, Harry. This is just a trick to hex you or do something worse to you.” He whispered and Harry rolled his eyes along with Hermione.
“Shut up, Ron. It’s just a talk and you all know where I am so he can’t do something to me. Everyone would know it was him and he isn’t that stupid.” Harry answered to that, pretending to write down notes.
“You guys should stop talking and pay attention instead of discussing something so stupid.” Hermione interrupted them and Harry nodded.
“She’s right.” He agreed quietly and Ron rolled his eyes but stopped talking. Harry was glad he did, he wanted to think about the possible topics Draco wanted to talk about but he couldn’t think about something if he was honest. They had nothing in common and there just was nothing which would be important enough to make them talk. This fact made Harry think that it might be a trick to hex him but somehow he knew that wasn’t the truth. Draco wouldn’t announce it, he just would do it secretly in a dark corner of the castle so no one would know for sure it was him.
Harry shook his head. That was so confusing for him and he hated it, he hated not to know things and he bloody hated Draco Malfoy more than he already did anyway.