…………………..

He felt Quirrell's arm wrench from his grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down… down… down…

…………………

From the cold and blackness came the warmth of the sun shining on his closed eyelids and a sense of calmness that he had never felt before. With his eyes still shut, feigning sleep a bit longer, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings. There was no way he could feel this safe if he was still in the dungeons with Quirrell.

He was on a mattress; of that he was certain. He felt a warm snugness on one side of his body, a slight pressure across his chest, and could feel slight movements from the comfortable mass. It all added up in his mind…There was someone in the bed with him! Panic started to rise in his chest until he forced himself to breathe.

Slowly and hesitantly he opened his eyes only to be met with the sight of his best friend's pale skin. Draco's face was so close to his own that the tips of their noses were almost touching. Looking closely Harry could see dried tear tracks that made the alabaster skin slightly darker, originating from the blond's matted charcoal eyelashes that fluttered slightly against his cheeks. His mouth was open in a perfect pink 'o' and he would occasionally flick his tongue out to wet his chapped lips. Harry lay peacefully watching the other boy's chest rise and fall rhythmically.

Harry felt a tingling feeling in his heart that he'd never experienced before. Sighting where Draco had their hands joined between their chests, he decided to pin it to possessiveness. He had never had anything that he had ever thought was that important to him, excluding the memory of his parents. But now Draco was his best friend. And he wasn't planning on having that change anytime soon.

………………………….

"Stay at Florean Fortescue's for the next half hour, Draco," Lucius beseeched his son. "I have some business to attend to that I'm sure Mr. Potter would find quite dull. Understood?"

Draco sighed and took the money for the sundaes and nodded his head. "He might as well put tracking spells on us," he muttered to Harry.

"Don't be such a drama queen, Drake," the other boy laughed, "This is ice cream we're talking about!" Harry was in a very good mood. He had spent the beginning of the summer at the Dursleys', but last week Draco had once again come to the rescue with that same shining black limo and swept Harry off to the wizarding world.

"The littlest things make you happy," Draco said in amazement as they walked down the crowded street full of bartering witches and wizards.

"Are you calling yourself little?" he joked lightly, but both their cheeks were stained a light pink as they claimed a table and called the old waiter over.

……………………..

"I know how much you hate being the center of attention," Draco whispered in his ear in the crowded book store, making Harry's body flush with a strange new feeling, "so if you wanna stay out of the papers, stay away from the Lockhart nut."

Harry nodded in understanding and shifted away from the photographer standing five people in front of them. He noticed a red headed girl staring avidly at him close by. Her gaze made him uncomfortable and once again he edged closer to Draco. Neither mentioned their close vicinity or how both had a heavy blush on their cheeks.

"Where is Father?" Draco growled, suppressing the urge to pull Harry closer while growing impatient waiting in this line with people as low class as the Weasleys. "Let's go wait outside."

The sight that met them at the entranceway was something that neither expected. Lucius Malfoy had a hard look on his face and was standing opposite five people with the same flaming ginger hair and densely freckled faces, including a set of twins and a Gryffindor boy in their year.

"Figures, Weasley doesn't have any friends here with him," Draco sniggered loudly so the sound carried to where the boy was standing. Harry just smiled, placated by the feeling of fingers twisting into his own, and allowed himself to be dragged by the hand to stand by Draco's father.

Lucius' eyes swept over the sight of his one and only son holding the hand of the Boy Who Lived and looking like he wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Draco saw the look of hesitation pass over his father's face. A look that most people would have missed, but Draco could read his father no matter how good the man was at masking his emotions. Years of trying to get under the man's skin to somehow find a real Dad had given him that ability. He saw him hand the Weasley girl a book and pocket another one so discreetly that no one else seemed to notice.

……………………….

"Do it again!" Blaise exclaimed excitedly while sitting cross-legged in the common room.

For an early Christmas present, Draco's father had gotten him a familiar, a Black Racer snake. No one could figure out why but it had taken an immediate liking to Harry more than the others, almost as much as it favored Draco.

They had just figured out why.

The majority of the Slytherins were gathered around Harry as Orexis coiled her way up his arm. "Do I have to," Harry moaned, he hated having everyone stare at him like this.

"I think that's enough for tonight," Draco came to the rescue, crawling over to Harry and extending his arm so Orexis slid between them back to her master, her sleek black scales shining in the torch light.

"Good night, atrum unus-s-s," she hissed with a flick of her tail.

"S-s-same to you," He laughed as the people around him cheered.

…………………………

"I don't know how many more of these I can stand!" Harry leaned his head on Draco's shoulder as another dwarf with a diaper shoved halfway up his wrinkled bottom trotted away, checking his list for the next victim.

"So that's three for you and five for me?" Draco laughed as they headed to charms. "I'm beating you," he said with a lavish grin.

"This is one contest I don't care if you win," Harry said heatedly. They were half way up the stairs when they heard: "Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!"

"Oh, dear god, you cannot be serious," his shoulders slumped in defeat as they got to the top of the stairs.

"Over here!" Draco used his two-inch height advantage to point his friend out to the dwarf.

"You bloody bastard," Harry growled.

"Where's your competitive spirit?" he shook Harry on the shoulder.

"It died after the second Romeo and Juliet quote," Harry stated bitterly with narrowed eyes.

If it was possible, after Draco had been made a Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team the two had become even more inseparable. With Quidditch practice every night they would return to the common room muddy and exhilarated in each other's presence. At night they often sat together on one bed talking and laughing until the early hours in the morning, much to their roommates' chagrin.

Draco was having trouble hiding the jealousy and eventual vicious satisfaction that filled his chest, for reasons unknown, when Harry received then turned down each valentine.

"Well it better resurrect itself soon because I am not loosing the Quidditch Cup or the House Cup for Slytherin," he stage whispered with a smile as the dwarf adjusted his halo and cleared his throat:

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,

His hair is as dark as a blackboard,

I wish he was mine, he's really divine,

The hero who conquered the Dark Lord

There were two moments of awkward silence before: "That was sure some original poetry!" Draco gasped out in between bouts of laughter. Harry chuckled along as well even though he hated being called a hero.

"I can't believe I got one from a Weasley," he groaned as she saw the girl running down the hall in tears.

"That makes it even funnier!"

"As funny as the one you got from Sally-Anne Perks, the Hufflepuff?" Harry laughed viciously as Draco blanched and looked around to see who had heard.

…………………………

"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"

"Do you think he's still here?" Blaise whispered as he, Pansy, Daphne, Draco, and Harry pulled their sleeping bags into a circle near the wall where the Slytherin House table usually sat.

He spoke, of course, of Sirius Black. The Bloody Baron had spotted him in the dungeons trying to break into the Slytherin common room. Everyone knew that the convict was on the loose and in the area but none had expected him to actually try and get into the castle.

Harry lay dazedly staring up at the sky above him; he imagined that this is what it would have been like if the Dursleys had ever taken him on a camping trip. Except for the tiny little detail of having an insane mass murderer after him. That changed thing just a little.

He didn't pay much mind to the conversation and Draco took notice. He heard the blond try and discreetly direct the conversation away from the subject of the escapee. Draco has always been good at that, at getting people to do what he wants without them knowing what's happening. Harry thought idly to himself.

Not an hour after he had heard the news of Black's escape on the Dursleys' kitchen television, Draco had arrived at his door. The blond had looked nervous and kept looking behind him with a nervous fidget.

……..Flashback………

Harry was about to greet his friend properly with a hug when Draco had burst out, "Go get your things!"

"Wha-?"

"I'll explain it later, just hurry up. You're staying with me for the rest of the summer; it's safer there," Draco said with a look over his shoulder.

"Safer?" Harry asked, confused. What did he need to be safe from?

"Get your things!" Draco yelled pushing Harry into the house, closing the door behind him and instinctively pushing Harry towards the stairs.

"Boy! What's happening in there?" Uncle Vernon shouted from the sitting room. Harry's eyes went wide; it would not be good if Vernon found one of his friends from school at their house.

"N-nothing!" Harry called back, "I just stubbed my toe!" Harry grabbed Draco by the wrist and hauled him up the stairs to his miniscule bedroom. It took him less than two minutes to clean out his room of all his belongings and empty the loose floorboard under his bed.

"What is this all about, Draco?" Harry asked firmly leaning on his stuffed trunk.

"Sirius Black!" Draco panted while fumbling with a chain around his neck and taking quick steps toward Harry.

"What has some Muggle con-" Harry began to ask, severely confused.

"I'll explain later," Draco cried. "Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do, but-" Draco shoved a smooth stone into Harry's hand and clasped it in his own. Harry barely had a moment to register what was happening when it felt like there was a blunt hook pulling at his chest and the world spun around him. The image of his friend standing with his eyes firmly shut was the only thing that remained clear.

When the world stopped moving at an all too dizzying rate, Harry fell flat on his bum Thankfully his head was saved by the plush maroon carpeting underneath him. "Draco," Harry said slowly, "where exactly are we?"

"Your room," Draco said matter-of-factly, "…well, your room in Malfoy Manor at least."

Harry had had enough. "Explain," he grit out.

So Draco told Harry everything his father had told him about the escaped man. The blond had taken a deep gulp of air and reached for Harry's hand when he was nearing the end of his tale.

"There's one more thing, Harry." The boy's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

What could shock him after learning a mass murderer was out to kill him for something he did before he could even talk? "It's about your parents' relationship with Black."

………………..

"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted, breaking Harry out of his reverie. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking."

The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, Harry felt as though he was surrounded by a light wind.

His eyes drifted shut in mockery of sleep as the Head Boy walked by. He stayed like that for god knows how long, until he heard a rustling nearby. After another silence he wrote it off as a restless sleeper.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand cover his mouth in a tight but gentle hold. His eyes snapped open then released a breath heavily out his nose when he saw Draco kneeling next to him. The blond placed a finger to his lips and motioned for Harry to make room. Harry moved until he was pressed against the seam of the sleeping bag.

Draco silently slipped into the empty space. It was tight, but not uncomfortably so. Draco laid his head down on the pillow and locked eyes with Harry.

It was one of those times when they didn't need words; they were at an understanding. This was Draco's way of saying that he'd be here, without the sappy words. Harry knew he'd never hear any professions of adoration or loyalty, but the feelings were there.

Draco laced his right hand with Harry's left and they gave a mutual squeeze of reassurance. Draco's eyelids fell to meet his cheeks and his steady breath, that smelt of toothpaste and the raspberry creams that he horded under his bed, ghosted over Harry's face.

As Harry fought against the fatigue that darkened the edges of his eyes, he remembered the time when they were eleven and Draco had stayed with him for three days and nights straight, never straying out of arms reach. Harry's eyes closed as he placed the lightest of kisses on their intertwined fingers.

…………………..