"What do you want?" Weasley asked bluntly when Harry settled down with his homework near him and Thomas in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Write my homework?" Harry tried hard to school his face to a friendly expression. It wasn´t easy to hide the contempt he felt for the redhaired boy. "We´d all be faster if we worked together." As if Weasley could help him. Harry had learned most of what was needed for their assignments at Malfoy Manor years ago.
Weasley eyed Harry suspiciously, but Thomas seemed more practical. "We still need to elaborate the effect of cat whiskers in potions. Do you know where to look it up?"
Harry ignored Weasley in favour of the black boy. Of course, Weasley being a pureblood, the redhead would make the more worthy friend, but then being a blood traitor wasn´t so much better than being a filthy half blood. Thomas, Father had found out two years ago, actually had a muggle mother, which made him the worst sort of half-blood there was. Harry had a mudblood mother, but at least the woman had been reasonable enough not to get involved with a muggle. (That his pureblood father had stooped so low to marry a mudblood didn´t speak for him, but then Lily Potter had been a beautiful woman going by the photo Harry had been given by Mr. Lupin, so his slip of reason was understandable.)
Having not much choice, Harry ignored the disgust he felt for the other boy and smiled his most pleasant, non-committal Malfoy smile. "There is a paragraph in this year´s potions text. But you will find ´Your cat – ingredients on paws´ very useful. I got it from the library." Harry rummaged in his book bag and produced the booklet he had gotten earlier. "It has several pages on whiskers. Do you have information on cheering charms? I still need my Charms essay."
Harry didn´t really need help with that, but he wanted Thomas to be able to give something back for the booklet. "Let people think they´re doing something for you in return from time to time. It forms a bond." Father had lectured him and Draco again and again.
"You can copy what I wrote," offered the black boy. He handed Harry a roll of parchment, which Harry accepted with a quick word of thanks.
"You make some interesting points," Harry admitted when he handed the parchment back a little later. "I´m not so sure about what you said on changing the flick at the end of the wand movement though. Would you mind trying it out?"
"That´s a good idea," Thomas replied cheerfully. He and Weasley had just finished their potions essay – in a ridiculously short amount of time. No wonder Uncle Severus never awarded Gryffindor any points for their homework. The boy pointed his wand at Harry.
"Uhm, Dean, I wasn´t talking about using an experimental charm on me." Harry smiled lopsidedly.
"Who else would I try it on?" Thomas was bewildered.
"What about the group of first years over there?" Harry suggested.
Weasley glared at Harry angrily. "This isn´t Slytherin! We don´t go hexing our housemates from behind their back! – You can try your spell on me, Dean." The boy squared his shoulders.
Thomas uttered his spell, using the changed wand movement. It sent Weasley rolling on the floor, giggling and laughing like mad. "Do something!" the redhead chuckled. "I can barely – buahahahaha! – breathe!"
Thomas tried to counter his spell, to no avail. Granger and Patil hurried over to help, but none of the girls knew how to counter a spell they didn´t know.
"Oh, let me!" Harry pushed the girls aside. "Finite incantatem!"
Weasley lay still in an instant.
"You killed him!" Granger accused Harry. She pointed her wand at him.
"I did no such thing!" Harry raised his wand, ready to defend himself.
"Leave him, Mione," Weasley´s voice came from the floor. "I´m fine. I just needed a bit of time to get air." He scrambled to his feet, which was difficult for the boy due to his bad leg. "Thanks, Potter."
Harry made a non-committal noise and returned to his essay.
The next day, Harry hoped, was going to be better. The main reason for that was the fact that they had Care for Magical Creatures in the afternoon and it was a Gryffindor and Slytherin class!
Harry suffered through History of Magic and Charms quietly in the morning. The prospect of seeing Draco – even in the presence of Sirius Black – was so wonderful that not even working with Weasley again could spoil Harry´s mood. The fact that Weasley was less hostile was helping though.
Harry hurried outside early after only a quick lunch. As Care of Magical Creatures required the presence of creatures to care for, the class was held behind the castle, near the Forbidden Forest, whenever the weather allowed it.
Harry sped up when he saw a nearly white veil of hair ahead of him. "Draco!" he cried and his brother turned to wait for him.
"Harry!" the blond squealed with delight. "I can´t start to tell you how much I missed you! I was so waiting for the new school year only to find out that you were removed from Slytherin!"
"It´s been so bad!" cried Harry. "I was cooped up with Gryffindors all summer and they even moved me to that house. All for the sake of my safety!"
Draco´s face darkened. "Come," he said softly. The two boys ran to the edge of the forest and hid behind some bushes. "As much as I hate to admit it, Dumbledore was right to no send you home. He turned up right after he had been reraised and the Weasley girl had told him everything about you. He asked Father to hand you over and," Draco hesitated and Harry could see fear in the blond´s eyes. "he used Cruciatus on Father when you weren´t there. I was so scared! I thought he was going to kill us all! If you had been there, I have no doubt he´d have killed you the instant he saw you."
Harry swallowed hard. "Are Mother and Father all right?"
Draco nodded. "Once he had accepted it was Dumbledore´s fault you weren´t there, he calmed down. But he´s there all the time. He – he even took over your room!"
Harry closed his eyes. His dearest possessions had been there. Toys, books, his broomstick. Draco understood without him saying a word. "He destroyed your stuff." He smiled. "Mother saved some of it, but only little."
"She didn´t!" Harry whispered urgently. "Tell me she didn´t risk her life for my toys!"
"He sent her up to prepare the room for him. She took out as much stuff as she dared. I have it all in our dormitory. It was too risky to keep it at home any longer. All we have to do is find a place where I can give it to you."
"Perhaps Uncle Severus could help?"
"That´s a great idea. Nevertheless, we have to find a place to meet. I refuse to talk to you only twice a week!"
"We could meet at the library," suggested Harry. "They can´t forbid us to learn."
Draco nodded. "That was exactly what I was thinking."
"HARRY POTTER!" Their conversation was interrupted by an angry roar. Harry rolled his eyes and stepped out from behind the bush. Draco followed suite.
Sirius Black was livid. "Which part of ´mortal danger´ don´t you understand? We do everything possible to protect you and the first thing you do is meet with the enemy! You ungreatful little brat! James would be ashamed!"
"Let him!" Harry hissed back defiantly. "As long as Father is proud of me, I don´t care what you say! And Draco is my brother, not my enemy!"
"Oh! And Father" – Black spat the word as if it were a curse – "would be proud if you got yourself killed. I see! I´m certain his master will reward your Brother" – another face of disgust – "well if he does the killing for him!"
"Draco would never hurt me!"
"Oh, and can Draco withstand Imperius?" Black sneered at the boys.
The exchange was interrupted by the first students arriving for the lesson. Black shooed Draco and Harry to different sides of the group, using all of the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years to seperate them. The two boys exchanged glances, but they had to stop even that when Black threw the textbook he was holding at Draco – he missed him so narrowly that Harry was sure the man had aimed for Draco´s face – and took a considerable amount of points from Slytherin for "not paying attention".
The lesson itself was interesting though, despite the fact that Harry would have prefered a different teacher. Black explained the purpose of caring for magical creatures, outlined the basic parameters you had to watch out for when dealing with creatures (he refered to them as the five Ws: What do you need the creature for? What does it eat? Which habitat does it need? Why would you handle the beast yourself and not let others do it? And hoW dangerous was the beast? Most of the class laughed at the last W, but Harry wasn´t willing to give Black the satisfaction.). Then he gave them a summary of which creatures they were going to cover during their first year of the subject, the only interesting creatures on the list being kneazles, which were well known for being able to sense bad intentions around them. Kneazles were often kept by business men. Of course, Father didn´t need one, he had the superior instincts and education of the House of Malfoy to rely on. Neither Draco nor Harry were going to need one either, but it would come in handy to know how to fool one.
When the lesson was over, Black made sure to send Draco back to the castle and keep Harry out on the lawn long enough for Draco to get to his next lesson without further contact. As a result, Harry was late for Divination, which earned him another prediction of his impending, very painful death, this time read from his palm "just to check whether there had been a mistake with the cup due to the necessary haste".
"She has it in for you," Dean said pityingly when the Gryffindors walked down to the Great Hall for dinner. "I don´t want to be in your shoes. She´s pretty scary."
"This definitely wasn´t my day," admitted Harry. "You should have heard Black shout at me before you turned up."
"Did you talk to Malfoy?" asked Weasley. He was panting as keeping up with his housemates was hard for the limping boy. "Was that why Sirius took so many points from him?"
Harry nodded.
"Why did you talk to the git at all?" asked Dean. "You should be glad to be rid of him." He looked at Weasley, insecure. "Ron says you shouldn´t have ended up with the Malfoys to begin with."
Harry had to suppress the urge to hit the boy for badmouthing Draco. "But I did. Draco is my brother. Not being able to talk to him is like having lost him. And knowing he´s so close makes it so much more difficult." He glanced at Weasley, whose expression had hardened at the mention of losing a sibling.
"We were very grateful for what you did back in June," Weasley said after another flight of stairs.
"I did nothing," said Harry. "Your little sister is dead."
"But thanks to you we know where to go to mourn her. Not knowing where she is would have been worse."
Harry was deep in thought all the rest of the way down to the Great Hall. Seeing Draco from afar and not being able to talk to him was hell. But how much worse would it be not to know where he was? Whether he lived or had died? He remembered the first part of the holidays, before he and Draco had exchanged messages with their cheating quills. If Draco had been killed then, Harry wouldn´t have known.
"I´m glad you know where Ginevra is," he said when he sat beside Weasley for dinner.
-x-
Although Harry´s situation in Gryffindor improved little by little – he was far from friendship with any of those socially underprivileged creatures, not that he wanted that, but there was kind of a truce – he couldn´t have cared less about Sirius Black´s warning concerning Draco and Imperius. He KNEW his brother. Who would be able to put Draco under Imperius without Harry realising?
The two boys met in the library every evening from then on. They sat in a quiet corner, sharing a table, doing homework for anybody who wouldn´t look closer.
Harry told Draco about how dreadful his life had become since Ginevra Weasley had died and Sirius Black had demanded the privilege of guardianship. Draco pitied him, especially when he heard that Harry had been made spend the summer with the Weasley pack. That Harry wasn´t able to tell where that had been was a bit disturbing, but couldn´t be helped.
Draco shared more details about his life with the new house guest at Malfoy Manor. Lord Voldemort, it seemed, though younger than when Harry had won over him and cost him his body, was more vicious than ever. Or at least the boys couldn´t imagine anybody being so evil! Ginevra Weasley had gotten hold of a book about the wizard for him and it seemed he had read it front to back before he had turned up at the Malfoys´ treshold.
As soon as he had taken residence at the Manor, he had demanded Lucius to give him any information that was not in the book.
Draco hung his head when he reached that part of the story. "It seems that Father was his righthand man during his last reign. The Lord said several times how lucky he was to have chosen him for further information."
Harry patted Draco´s hand soothingly. "Of course Father would have been his righthand man if he thought that Voldemort was going to be victorious. Gain power for the House, remember?"
"Ever since I learned he worked for him I keep asking myself..." Draco hesitated.
"...whether he took me in for the power which was to be gained in doing so." Harry completed the sentence for him and Draco nodded. "That´s what Black and Dumbledore keep telling me. But whatever Father´s original motives were, he loves me now. That´s all that counts." Harry said stubbornly.
"Yes," Draco beamed at his brother. "He loves you! I have no doubt of that."
"See," Harry smiled back. "Can you blame him for doing what he always does? Take care of the house of Malfoy? Make sure you and mother and I have everything we could ever want? He saw an advantage for you and Mother in fostering me, but he made me a Malfoy, so I gained, too. Why would I hold a grudge for a thing that gave me an advantage? We all gained through what he did." Harry smiled happily.
"It sounds good when you say it."
Harry fished for the pendant he had worn for the past eight years and showed it to Draco.
"March, 5th, 1987; colourful sparks of light while laughing," he read out to the blond. "Does that sound like the first act of magic of an unhappy child?
Draco shook his head. "It doesn´t. We all gained."
"So tell me more about this Lord."
