During dinner, Harry talked and laughed with his friends. They were all in high spirits; happy to be back and all together again. The conversation was light and talk of classes was strictly avoided. They enjoyed the evening and cheered loudly as Dumbledore dismissed them. They surged out the doors and raced up to the tower, laughing. Ron spoke the new password and they all tumbled through the hole in the wall. The fat lady sighed but smiled at them.

Ron set up a chess game with Seamus whilst Hermione shepherded in the new first years, scowling at Ron for not helping her. He grinned sheepishly at her and went back to his game. Harry sat with Neville and Dean, swapping stories about their holidays, and trading chocolate frog cards. By eleven o'clock the room had emptied dramatically and the remaining few students were yawning widely. The girls had all gone to bed at a sensible time and it was only Harry, Dean, Ron, Seamus and Neville left.

"Time for bed?" Dean said in between yawns. There was a general murmur of assent and the chess set and cards were abandoned as they traipsed upstairs to bed. Harry cast a cleaning spell on his teeth, changed into red and gold pyjamas and got into bed. He drew the hangings and bid the room goodnight. He got three sleepy replies and a loud snore from Ron's direction. He smiled tiredly and removed his glasses, falling asleep immediately.

Harry woke with his alarm clock and swatted it onto the floor. It shut up but it also broke. He groaned and reached for his wand. Repairing it quickly, he reached for his glasses and pushed them onto his nose, blinking sleepily. It was a bad plan to go to bed later than half ten on a school night; he needed to remember that. He got out of bed and returned the alarm clock to its rightful place. Heading for the showers with a towel over one shoulder, he greeted the slowly waking room, receiving the same response as his 'good night' had. He grinned and disappeared into the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later Harry emerged, hair dripping, glasses cloudy but feeling much more awake. He pulled fresh robes out his trunk and threw a pillow at Ron to wake him up. He got a weak groan of protest and laughed.

"Get up you lazy git; you've got twenty minutes before breakfast!" He said, getting dressed. He was just tying his tie as his pillow hit him in the back of the head. He laughed and returned it to the top of his bed. "Guess I sort of deserved that," he admitted.

"You bet you did," Ron said grumpily.

"Well at least you're awake now."

"Oh great, a day of school," he rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on Ron, it's a magic school, full of magic. What's not to love?"

Ron looked at him. "Slytherins." Harry just laughed.

"You're going to be late if you don't get up,"

"Fine! Fine, I'm getting up! Happy now?" Harry merely nodded, grinning. He finished tying his tie and closed his trunk with a thud. Grabbing his wand from the bedside table, he went down to the common room to wait for Ron and Hermione. He fiddled with his wand, swishing it about and twirling it in his hands. Within two minutes he'd both made it snow and set a chair on fire. He yelped and put it out with a quick 'aguamenti', trying to cover the damage with a cushion.

"Harry, why does it smell of burning fabric down here?" Asked Hermione. Harry started and whipped around, not having heard her approach. She raised an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" He protested, a little too quickly. She didn't believe him, making this clear with a look. He blushed. "I was playing with my wand and the chair caught fire," he said, just as Ron came down the stairs.

His ginger friend immediately started laughing while Hermione removed the cushion and fixed the damage with a simple spell. Harry grinned at her.

"Breakfast?" He suggested.

"Yes! I'm starving" said Ron.

"Tell us something we don't know," Hermione muttered, too quietly for Ron to hear. Harry snickered and led the way out the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall. On the way, Ron regaled them with his nightmare about spiders eating him alive as he tried not to fail miserably at saving goals in a Quidditch match. Harry laughed and made sympathetic noises at the right moments, but wasn't really listening.

They took their seats and McGonagall descended upon them in a flash (of blue light). "Timetables! Let's see now…" she tapped blank pieces of parchment and handed one each to the trio. They accepted them and studied them. Harry and Ron groaned in unison whilst Hermione smiled, apparently pleased with hers.

"I have double potions!" Groaned Ron, piling bacon onto his plate and covering it in ketchup.

"So do I!" complained Harry. "Followed by choir practice after break. Hey, what do you have there?" He picked Ron's timetable off the table and examined it. Ron had a free period at every point Harry had choir. "Guess you're not in it," he said icily. Ron shrugged, unable to speak through a mouthful of food. That didn't stop him from trying though.

"N't m' fot mt" he said. Harry just looked at him unamused until he swallowed his mouthful. Hermione was pointedly ignoring him while he at with such bad manners. "Not my fault mate!" He repeated.

"I know; I just hate to spend half my free periods in Malfoy's company," Harry sighed.

"Trust me Potter, you're not my first choice either," drawled a very familiar voice just behind them. Ron's hand clenched on his fork and Hermione put a hand on his arm. Malfoy had spread some horrific rumours about the Weasley's over the summer; fuelling Ron's hatred for him until it blazed out of control. Harry turned calmly around.

"What do you want, Malfoy?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "I was merely passing and heard my name. I thought I'd let my opinion known."

"You've done plenty of that already, ferret-face." Harry snarled.

"Come up with a new insult, will you? That one's getting old," Malfoy said, sounding bored.

"Right, because yours are so original." He imitated Malfoy's angry drawl. "Just wait until my father hears about this! You filthy little mudblood!" He spat. Malfoy's lip just curled.

"Not too loud Potty, or you might attract attention. And Merlin knows you've had enough of that for a lifetime."

"Aw, is the ickle ferret jealous of famous Harry Potter?" Harry said in a baby voice.

"You wish." Was the simple retort. Malfoy turned in a swirl of robes and retreated to the Slytherin table to exaggerate the exchange to his ridiculous friends. Harry watched him go, glaring at his back. What had happened to the Malfoy in the carriage? Harry sighed and turned back to his breakfast.

There was a flash of light and Collin appeared at his elbow, camera in his hands.

"You did not just photograph my argument, did you Collin?" Harry said in a voice full of warning. Collin paled.

"Err...no?" he squeaked. Harry closed his eyes. He didn't need another reminder of his and Malfoy's rivalry.

"You are not to ever show me those pictures Collin, understand?" The younger boy nodded rapidly. "Good. Now go have some breakfast or something," he said dismissively.

"Ok!" chirped Collin, disappearing down the table to sit with his friends, already babbling away to them.

Harry mentally sighed and turned back to his own breakfast. The morning post rained down upon the students and Harry caught a rolled up poster before it hit Hermione on the head. He glanced at the name on it and handed it to Ron, continuing to eat as it was removed from his grasp. He heard it unroll and Ron make a satisfied noise.

"Excellent! My new Chuddley Cannons poster!"

"Another one?"

"Well you can never have too many!" Ron grinned, rolling it back up and laying it next to him on the table. Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry grinned, picking a last piece of toast.

Harry, Ron and Hermione trod the familiar and well-worn path down to the dungeons; two out of three of them dreading what Snape would have in store for them. Half way down they ended up walking behind Malfoy and his body-guards. Ron's hands balled into fists and Hermione put a warning hand on his shoulder. Harry scowled at Malfoy's back as the blonde git laughed with Crabbe and Goyle, wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face…or back, either would work.

They walked in stony silence the rest of the way down and lined up quietly in front of the classroom door. The damp, dark corridor did nothing to improve their mood and they filed miserably into class without saying a word.

"Silence everyone." Snape sneered. There was no change in the already silent class. "Today you will be working in partners," he hissed. There was an audible groan from everyone. "Quiet!" He roared. It fell immediately. "You will be paired with the person sitting next to you," he continued. That meant Ron and Hermione were together and Harry was alone. He cursed under his breath. He was sure to be put with one of the Slytherins.

"Draco, you're with Potter." Snape snapped.

"What?!" Harry and Malfoy exclaimed in protest together.

"See, you're already thinking alike." He smirked. "Do it. Now." He said in his most dangerous voice. Malfoy scowled across at Harry but stayed resolutely put. Harry snarled and thrust his things back into his bag, swinging it over his shoulder and slouching across the room to sit next to Malfoy. Ron gave him a sympathetic look and Hermione looked worried. He sent her a reassuring, if false, smile and turned back to Snape, glowering at him.

"Today you will be making…" Snape introduced the lesson, explaining the method and ingredients of the potion they would be making. Harry's thoughts drifted off whilst Malfoy listened as attentively as Hermione. When Snape finished there was a scraping back of chairs and Malfoy poked Harry, a little harder than necessary, to bring him back to the present.

"Honestly Potter, no wonder you're so bad at potions; you don't listen!" He drawled.

"Of course I don't," Harry scoffed. "Why would I listen to that greasy git?" Malfoy smirked and tried to hold back laughter. A silky smooth voice dripping with contempt came from behind him.

"Because 'that greasy git' is your teacher, without whom you would fail this class. It would serve you well to pay attention in my class Potter. I suppose it's lucky your partner pays attention." He said quietly. "Ten points from Gryffindor Mr Potter, for insulting a teacher." With that he swept away and Harry stuck his middle finger up at his back. Malfoy looked ready to hit him at that.

"I'll get the ingredients, shall I?" Malfoy said icily. Harry gave a non-committal shrug and started doodling on his parchment. Malfoy gave an exasperated sigh and left the table. Harry crossed his arms on the desk and let his head fall onto them; it was first lesson of the term and he'd already managed to lose his house points. What was wrong with him? The noise of ingredients being tipped onto the table caused him to look up into a sneering, pointed face.

"You're pathetic Potter, you know that?"

"I've been told," he said icily. "What page are we on?"

"We're not, it's not the board you idiot." Harry looked up and Malfoy was right; there were instructions on the board.

"Oh." He said shortly, pulling his chopping board and knife towards himself. He picked out some roots and began chopping them. Malfoy pulled his own towards him and started dicing rat spleen.

They turned out to be an efficient team, snide remarks and insults being exchanged every so often to retain balance in the universe. By half way through the lesson they were further on than even Hermione, though Ron was slowing her down a bit.

Harry could tell Malfoy was surprised, but not displeased, that Harry could actually brew potions if he concentrated. He knew the blonde boy wouldn't ever admit that Harry was good at something, but it didn't matter.

"Your first half of the session is up! At this point your potion should be simmering nicely and should be a deep purple-red colour. That would be the ideal stage, though looking around from here it seems only three pairs have succeeded this. I will be coming around to check your potions, keep working!" Snape called out from the front. Harry smirked at him; their potion was beyond that point. Snape made his rounds, coming to theirs last. Harry could have sworn he saw an amazed expression flash across his face before it was replaced with a blank one.

"Very good Draco; ten points to Slytherin." He said with an evil little grin at Harry. He felt his face heat up and as Snape turned away he felt himself jump to his feet. He opened his mouth to have a go but felt a hand clutch the back of his robes and pull him heavily back into his seat. He looked around, bewildered, into Malfoy's calm face.

"Don't," he warned. "You've already lost ten points, you can't afford to lose more and it would suck for your Quidditch team to miss practices because you're being an idiot. And besides, you're the only person who actually gives me a challenge in catching the snitch." Harry just stared at him, his mouth hanging open.

"You…you just…what?" Harry said, bewildered. He didn't understand what Malfoy was saying. He almost seemed to be helping him. It was like the Malfoy from the carriage had suddenly made a reappearance. Malfoy ignored his stammering and turned back to the potion.

"Juice the beans would you?" He said, avoiding Harry's eyes. The Gryffindor pulled the beans towards himself, still confused but leaving it. The rest of the lesson passed in relative silence, the odd command or question being asked every so often.

By the end of the lesson they'd successfully finished the potion and were cleared away before half the other pairs had finished. Malfoy took a flask of it up to the front and for once Snape accepted something that Harry had made. Harry flashed him a defiant smile and Snape scowled at him.

Harry took his scales back to the store cupboard and turned around to find himself face to face with Malfoy. They were barely a foot apart and Harry blinked rapidly in surprise. Malfoy raised an eyebrow, reaching up over him to replace his own scales on the shelf.

"You look like an idiot when you do that," he said softly.

"You always look like an idiot Malfoy." Harry retorted, smiling innocently. Malfoy shoved him backwards with much less force than Harry would have expected and exited the cupboard, leaving a very confused Harry behind.