Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, not even a small part! :D

"Stop it, guys... we're supposed to be friends, right? Not be arguing over some petty little..." Theo didn't know how to end that sentence. What were they fighting about again? He would have to check with Draco again and hope that he wouldn't forget it the next time they fought again. This was getting ridiculous. Annoyed, Theo flicked his wand and shouted "protego", shielding both of those irritating teams from each other.

Draco sighed in exasperation. "Look, Theo," he yelled. "If you're not going to help me, could you at least not disrupt me when I'm about to win?" Theo rolled his eyes. No one ever won this kind of stupid fights. Both party lost in the end. He didn't catch what Draco wanted to win so badly either.

"No!" Greg shouted angrily. "He will be in my team! He is smart enough to know who will win!" Before Theo could yell at them that he already said he wasn't going to help either team no matter how many times they literally sang and wrote poems about how excellent his wandwork was, Draco had already replied.

"He is my best friend you big idiotic baboon!" Draco pointed out. Greg scrunched up his features as he pondered over it and Vincent, Draco and Pansy picked this chance and send furious hexes at the little protego shield. Vincent even violently threw himself onto the shield charm. Millicent and Daphne (who were on Gregory's side) didn't attempt to work up the shield to protect themselves but helped to destroy the shield instead. Theo rolled his eyes at them.

Of course, that was the disadvantage of being still seven. Your spells wasn't strong enough to hold for more than ten minutes with six little witches and wizards attacking it (Greg gave up on thinking and resumed throwing hexes), even if you were the best amongst them.

While they were trying, Tori suddenly giggled and Theo looked up at her with a "what?" expression. She giggled some more. "They're not very smart, are they?" She asked and Theo flushed, not knowing what to say. He rarely conversed with anyone if he could help it. Draco was only an exception because it's hard to be shy of a person you knew since you were well... born in his case because their mothers were close and Theo was younger.

"You are, though. Why do you stick with them?" Tori asked, turning slightly to face them.

Theo blinked. "Well..." he began slowly. "I'm actually only friends with Draco."

"Oh," Tori said as she glanced around. "Which one is Draco?" she asked. "The one who claimed to be your best friend." Theo nodded his confirmation as Tori squinted Draco. "He's kind of cute, isn't he?" That threw Theo of guard. That was Daphne's little sister talking about his best friend being cute, at the age of six. That was insane! Greengrass must have madness running down the family. Daphne enjoyed aggression and Tori was a... well...

"I think I'll have him some day," Tori decided while Theo shook his head in disgust. He turned at the noise of explosion and saw that his shield have just been broken. "Expelliarmus!" Theo cried five times, confiscating all their wands. He didn't need to do that for Greg since he ran around in panic to avoid the spell and before Theo could aim, Greg tripped and threw the wand away in attempt to break his fall. Theo caught it.

"You could at least not disarm us," Draco said hopefully, putting out his arm, indicating that he wanted his wand back. Theo shook his head stubbornly and stuck all the wands into his pocket. Draco growled and was about to snatch it from Theo and Greg ran straight into him, sending him flying. Here come the violent part, Theo sighed. That means the fight was ending soon with all of them running towards him to get themselves healed. No one every questioned why he could heal so well.

Sure enough, within the next five minutes, they had come running one by one and ended up in a perfect queue (Theo insisted they queue or they would fight over who would go first). One by one, he healed them. No one thanked him, no one bothered where he learnt those spells. Draco frowned as Theo used a spell on him which cause his badly bruised cheek to heal within a second. He gave him a "we'll talk about it later look".

After another hour or so, their mothers came to fetch them home and they all left almost immediately. Theo's mother, Katherine, lingered to chat with Narcissa, as usual, and Draco and Theo knew they probably talk for another hour or so.

"So..." Draco began, intending to ask about Theo's father but Theo interrupted him.

"Why were you fighting again?" Theo asked quickly with an uneasy grin which pretty much told Draco he forgot again.

"Because," Draco said, clearly exasperated, "We're the two most suitable candidates for the Slytherin leader as our father's are one of the most powerful people among the Dark Lord Circle. It does help that Aunt Bella is also part of the inner circle which basically mean I'm totally gonna win this thing. Well... yours is very powerful too but then you have no interest in it, which is good. I wouldn't want to be your enemy."

"That is quite pointless," Theo pointed out. "So what if you're the leader. Not everyone will listen to you or anything, right? They can't be that dumb. And how do you even know you're getting into Slytherin?"

Draco looked at Theo likes he was insane (which happened quite a lot since their views varied so much). "First, this is the Slytherin House. If you win, everyone listens to me. Even Millicent, Astoria and Greg. I won't lose to Greg and have to listen to him. It's simple embarrassing to lose to a bumbling baboon like him. I have Slytherin qualities, my dad was a Slytherin, my mum was a Slytherin, I want to be in Slytherin. Where else would I be?"

Truthfully, Theo cannot think of another house for Draco either so he didn't answer that question. He honestly didn't care about positions and knew it was pointless to row with Draco about that so he ignored it too. Instead he chose to corrected Draco. "She's Daphne. Her sister is Astoria."

Draco flushed pink. "Oh... yeah, I forgot." Theo hoped that threw him off-track. Maybe they could talk about stupid things. Like that most recent news. A lady called Mrs Zabini with 4 dead ex-husbands and a whole lot of fortune from each one is getting married to another rich dude tomorrow. It must be a record to have been widowed so many times.

"Why is the world so wicked to that poor woman... Mrs Zabini? She got widowed five times already." Theo exclaimed, completely changing the subject and catching Draco off-guard. He didn't want to talk about the dreaded topic and prayed that mother and Narcissa didn't have much to talk about.

"Widowed?" Draco said looking at Theo in surprise. "You think she's widowed?"

Theo looked uncertainly at Draco. "Well... her husband died so she is widowed, right?"

Draco laughed out loud and Theo was offended, turning away from Draco huffily and rather childishly with a little "hmph" which just made Draco laughed louder. "Merlin, Theo, really? I'm telling you, she murdered all her husbands! She's a lunatic, that one!"

Theo looked at him like he was crazy. "She is married to them, Draco. They bloody love each other. Why in the world would she kill him... uh, them?"

"Simple," Draco answered. "Money."

Theo frowned instead. "Money? Your parents don't kill their spouse for money. Neither did mine," he stated firmly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Theo... our parents are bloody rich. They don't need money. I'm telling you. She married them for money. The new bloke that is about to die is stinking rich too, isn't he?" Theo huffed again, refusing to believe anyone would do something so mean.

Draco chuckled. "I'm not sure you're going to Slytherin, Theo, with this attitude, you might just end up as Hufflepuff!"

Theo felt his heart rate increase, half in fear, half in anger. He spun around as Draco realised what he just said. Draco raised his arm in surrender and Theo pushed him up against the wall. "I will get into Slytherin. I will make my father proud. I will!" he exclaimed angrily.

"Of course," Draco replied in a strangled tone. "I was joking, Theo, and you're murdering me!" Theo put him down and sat down on the garden floor, facing the other direction, hoping Draco would keep silent and not bring up...

"What did your father do this time? You worked on your healing spells again and the only time you work on them is on yourself or with us. Since there was a rapid change, I'm assuming..." His voice trailed off, clearly not wanting to finish that statement but both of them knew what he meant.

Theo looked away, not wanting to answer, but knowing that Draco would persist even to the extent of asking his mother (it has happened before), he sighed and turn back around to face Draco. "He wanted me to learn the Cruciatus Curse this time and I refused. He... bound me on the chair and... used it on me."

That was the simplest explanation but having friends for so long, Draco understood. It was pretty much self torture. Struggling against the rope because of the curse and cutting yourself with the ropes. Draco put an arm around Theo, to comfort him and whispered that one day, they will show his father. Just then, his mother entered and not wanting to worry his mother, Theo put on his bravest smile.