Erasing Time's Tracks
Chapter 10

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

- - -

Draco had been waiting for the wall to slide aside, so he was not surprised, unlike the rest of the first-year students, who had been either chatting in low murmurs or nervously looking around the high-walled, spacious Common Room before the wall's movement caught their attention. For some, it was to be the first night of an extended stay away from home, and that thought seemed a little daunting.

Professor Snape, who was the only person that Draco had seen who appeared almost unchanged, save perhaps for a smidgen more smoothness to his skin as a result of the lack of stress from being an active Death Eater, strode briskly to the fireplace, to take a forbidding position underneath the portrait of Salazar Slytherin.

Draco listened, keeping his Occlumency shields up and remembering not to look Snape directly in the eye. He needn't have worried too much; Snape cast a brief glance over the Slytherin students gathered before him, and his gaze rested upon Harry. It was quick and not too obvious, but Draco noticed it all the same. Snape regarded them all critically, and then spoke, his voice cold and precise.

"First years. If you do not know the Slytherin rules and customs, you will, after my talk tonight. The first thing you must keep in mind at all times is that Slytherins look out for each other. We present a united front to the rest of the school. Any sign of weakness, displayed to the public, creates potential dangers for us which we may not be able to control.

"To this end, any disputes, complaints, arguments or the like stay in these dungeons. I am your Head of House, and it is to me you should come if you have questions or concerns, especially if it involves a dispute and you cannot resolve it amongst yourselves. As a last resort, you may go to the Headmaster or Deputy Headmistress, but understand this—"

His sallow face became slightly less masklike and more earnest as he continued.

"The only time you should go outside this House is if the matter you are taking up involves a danger to the school, or anything of that extreme nature. If you have academic problems or other problems of a more individual nature, you come to me or one of the Prefects.

"As to discipline and House points, I make no secret of the fact that I favour this House. You all will have a hard enough time as it is with the rest of Hogwarts without me making it worse. The important thing is, we are all Slytherins. We know how to accomplish what we want without being caught doing it, if need be. Do not give me the displeasure of catching you at something.

"However, that does not mean I tolerate insubordination or poor behaviour or breaches of etiquette if you are caught at it. If you disobey one of my instructions, or I am informed of an infraction against Hogwarts rules by another teacher, rest assured I will find things for you to do that will ensure you do not repeat the infraction. My Potions cauldrons have a way of becoming extremely messy, and are best cleaned without the use of magic.

"Unlike many members of other Houses, a good number of you have entered this House with the weight of expectation and tradition. If you should find that you are having difficulties reconciling your school experience with the expectations you face, you may see me. I have attended classes here, and I well understand what it is like, balancing academic pressures with the need to be prepared to enter familial businesses."

So far, the lecture had been mostly the same, with insubstantial changes. Draco knew people like Blaise were sometimes prodded by their parents to continue management of substantial financial holdings, even if their academic interests didn't lie in that direction. Or Pansy – she seemed to like Divination and had wanted to be a Seer, but the Parkinsons would have discouraged that straight away if they found out. They wanted her to marry the likes of the Malfoys and so ally two powerful families.

The differences from last time were about to come.

Snape retrieved a piece of parchment from his pocket, eyed it distastefully, and spoke in a tone that clearly indicated he would rather have left the matter alone.

"The Headmaster had occasion to speak to me before I came here. He insisted it was most urgent, and he has… requested... that I elucidate the contents of this parchment. It has to do with the recent Sorting."

At that, all eyes turned to Hermione Granger, who momentarily jerked, startled, then set her jaw and resolutely returned the gazes. Draco thought he heard Pansy hiss, "Filthy Mudblood."

Their Head of House ignored her, and said, "In essence, this is an instruction from the Headmaster that no harm is to befall any student in Slytherin regardless of… blood status. Do not make me have to enforce this. The Slytherin credo, young ladies and gentlemen, is that ambition rules all. If your ambition is to show that Slytherin is a House worthy of consideration on par with the rest of Hogwarts, the last thing we need to do is hand our opponents weapons with which to defeat us. I have resisted the tendencies from without to interfere with the Slytherin credo, the Slytherin way. Do not let my efforts go to waste.

He paused. The short silence was almost menacing, before he broke it with a sharp, "Am I clear?"

All the students nodded, but that did not deter some, like Theodore, Pansy and a few other Slytherins from eyeing bushy-haired Granger as though she were a flobberworm.

The hook-nosed man wrapped up the speech, with some minor odds and ends.

"All of you are to go to a medical examination some time during the first week of classes. Your medical records here are strictly confidential, of course, but it is in my interest that you all be healthy, both physically and mentally. You must be at the top of your form to earn Slytherin as many House points as possible, and to ensure that we win at Quidditch. If you have medical problems that may interfere with your ability to assist your fellow Slytherins in gaining House points, you must take steps to ensure the situation is managed properly."

Draco knew that given sufficiently sneaky manoeuvring around Hogwarts, no medical records were actually confidential. He remembered how Nott had come back in second year with a nasty bruise on his cheek. The weedy boy had claimed that it was a careless pratfall after flooing to the Leaky Cauldron (he said he'd struck a chair) in order to get to Muggle London and take the train from Platform nine and three-quarters. Draco had impolitely characterised the excuse as the waste product of hippogriffs and demanded the real explanation: it transpired that Nott had curiously, albeit incautiously, picked up and fiddled with a snake sculpture on his father's desk. The man had been enraged and used a Percussion Hex on the boy, resulting in nasty bruises all over his body.

Snape had made the boy go for his routine medical examination. Apparently coincidentally, just before Christmastime that year the man had left Hogwarts for the day, and then come back. The junior Nott had told Draco that after Snape came back, that his father had grudgingly apologised for "excessively harming him", and had explained that he had been upset because the boy had handled a snake sculpture reported to have once belonged to Salazar Slytherin.

In hindsight – or foresight, depending on what tenses Draco wanted to use, he would bet a hundred Galleons that Snape had put a word in Nott Senior's ear about some medical records under lock and key at Hogwarts and the inadvisability of letting curious eyes see them if Poppy Pomfrey should happen to forget to re-file them after certifying that she'd discharged the patient.

The man had worked behind the scenes like this a few times for other Slytherins, and each time a disappearance for a day occurred, later on a student would always be heard to remark that his parents had laid off on some of their "discipline". Near the end of sixth year, Nott had admitted to Draco that he had guessed that Snape had made his father back off, and he wished that he had taken the chance to thank the man.

Whilst Draco was thinking all this, he happened to notice that bloody rat of Weasley's acting as though it thought Snape was about to attack it. It kept looking at the Potions professor and twitching its nose.

Stupid animal. Why be worried? It wasn't as if the sarcastic teacher gave a damn about who brought what familiar.

With the other loose end tied up, Snape moved onto the matter of curfews and such.

"There is a curfew for all students, with the only exceptions being the Head Boy and Girl as well as Prefects. Any other student found outside their House residence – that is, for Slytherin, outside that wall which forms the entryway to these chambers – may be penalised with detention or the loss of House points, or both. I will make no exceptions for members of Slytherin here; some rules are not negotiable and one of them is ensuring your safety. Students wandering around late at night expose themselves to potentially unsafe situations and that will not be tolerated.

"Finally, your rooms. The dungeons are spacious and as a result, you will find that the first-year dormitories are somewhat larger than they would be in the towers, for example. If there is a problem with your room assignment you may go to the Prefects, or failing that, come see me."

Draco remembered that there were actually more rooms than students, and while it was not obvious to first-years, by second or third year students started to learn that Snape actually kept a rather loose hand on Slytherin when it came to how students organised their internal affairs. Invariably one or two students would decide they disliked the communal arrangements of the standard dormitories for years one through seven, and would slip into small one-bedroom nooks that peppered the dungeons.

He decided to wait and see if Granger would figure out that such refuges existed from communal experiences, especially as pug-faced Pansy seemed to be gearing up for a hexing war.

Their head completed his annual speech by saying, "Are there any questions?"

Surprisingly, or maybe not, Granger's hand shot up. Draco tried to stifle a snicker as he remembered the time he had made fun of her for it in fifth year.

The greasy wizard nodded fractionally and said, "Yes?"

"If we get detentions, who oversees them?"

"It depends, Miss Granger. Usually the professor that assigns a detention will choose who actually oversees it. Now, if there are no further questions, I would like you to begin preparing to go to bed. You will have class schedules issued to you tomorrow at breakfast, so do not fail to attend."

With a baleful glance all around at the lot of students, Snape left, with the characteristic swish of robes. As soon as the wall clattered shut, Higgs spoke up again, saying, "We separate the boys and girls. Boys, go down the hall behind me—"

Here, he pointed to the hallway that faced the exit wall, so that if you walked in a straight line from entering the Common Room, you would head to the first-year dormitory for boys.

He continued, saying, "And girls are to go down that hallway."

He pointed opposite the painting of Slytherin.

"Find your trunk. The bed near your trunk is the one you've been assigned. You can discuss among yourselves if you want to switch around, and don't let me or the other Prefect, who is Fiona Davis, hear any arguing or fighting. If we hear it, we'll assign beds ourselves, and you may not like the way we handle it.

Higgs heaved a sigh, and said, "I don't want to have to say this, but Professor Snape did say the Headmaster brought it up. If you have any disputes with Granger, leave them here. I don't want to have to be the one to tell Professor Snape that the Headmaster will need to be informed because a fight broke out between two Slytherins in the hallways of Hogwarts."

Draco saw wary looks exchanged all around as students assessed whether Hermione Granger was a threat, a problem, an asset, or just someone to be ignored and overlooked. He guessed that Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott would probably lead most of the hexing and abuse, and some of the older Slytherins would probably join in. He would just use the excuse of his friendship with Harry Potter to stay out of the battles, and if Weasley used any strategic thinking at all, he would figure out how to help defend the Granger girl.

But Merlin help him if she beat him out for grades again. He did not need his father going half-barmy because a Mudblood in Slytherin edged him out for grades. It had been bad enough hearing his cutting remarks because a Gryffindor had beaten him out. Luckily, he had an unfair advantage.

The students by now were milling around, deciding whether they wanted to renew acquaintanceships or head off to the dorm rooms. The pale blond spotted Harry standing near the Weasel... well, Ronald Weasley, and Gr–Hermione, and he went over to say hello – very briefly – and plucked the bespectacled boy's sleeve, saying, "Come on. We've got to go."

The former stared, uncomprehending, and then realised what Draco was up in arms about and resignedly said, "All right, I'll come."

The raven-haired boy turned to the witch and the redhead and said, "I'll be fine, guys. Go on to bed; I'll see you tomorrow, Hermione, and I'll see you in the dorms later, Ron."

The pair nodded a bit uncertainly, and Draco dismissed their worries from his mind as he lightly held Harry's sleeve all the way to Snape's office. The door was slightly ajar, and Draco knocked twice, hearing the familiar echo of the sound through the walls.

The Potions Master gave out a huffy sigh, but wordlessly escorted both boys inside. Draco was unperturbed by the shelves upon shelves of strange ingredients and animal specimens, whilst Harry was rather surprised, and showed it. However, he showed that he had taken the advice that Draco had given him when they were on the Hogwarts Express well in hand. As guided, Harry looked at their Head of House as soon as the man began talking.

"To what do I owe the pleasure – or not – of this little gathering?"

Draco spoke first, seizing the initiative.

"It's Potter, sir. He says his scar hurt at dinner tonight."

A dark eyebrow lifted, and Snape said to the other boy, "Is this so?"

Softly, the boy in question replied, "Yes, sir. It…well… it was just a twinge, really, but it happened when I looked at the High Table. I'm just not sure why it would happen."

The teacher looked to be thinking.

"I shall ensure the Headmaster knows of this. Is there anything else?"

Both boys said, in unison, "No, sir," and then looked at each other in surprise.

They immediately looked back at Snape, who said, "Very well, then. The both of you, be off to your dormitories and go to bed. I remind both of you that disobedience of the rules will mean swift consequences. Am I clear, Mr Potter?"

The bespectacled boy looked at the older wizard, saying, "Yes, sir."

"Mr Malfoy?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now go."

The boys left the chilly office with alacrity, and headed back to their warm beds. Draco thanked the fates that the two had managed civility with each other on the first meeting.

- - -

Draco did not hear about Hermione's misadventure in the female dormitories until the next day, but he did know that Harry Potter had had an easier time of it, as Crabbe and Goyle were all-too-happy to see that they had beds next to each other and Draco, while Harry was on the other side of Draco. Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini got beds at the far end, near the bathroom, while Weasley had got the one between Harry and the door.

The dormitory itself, like the all the others, was laid out in a rectangle, with all the beds along one wall and the trunks at the foot of each bed. Each bed was separated by about ten feet on each side, with wardrobes next to the beds for robes, hats and the like. There was a spacious walkway along one of the long walls that would let two seventh-years walk side by side and still allow enough room for a first-year to squeeze past. There would be little trouble with students colliding on the way to the bathroom or out the door to the Common Room.

The only sign of trouble was when Theo looked poisonously at Weasley and muttered, "Blood traitor." The black boy, Blaise, had just looked unconcernedly around, and hopped straight into bed, pulling the drapes about the bed to enclose himself.

Draco remembered that Harry would have no idea about silencing (the kind that could selectively allow or disallow sound, depending on volume) and protection charms, and quickly whispered some instructions in his ear. Gratefully, the boy acknowledged them, and then changed into his pyjamas, and finally cast the spells before he pulled the drapes to. Shyly, he waved good-night to the blond, who smiled and said, "See you tomorrow, eh, Harry?"

At that, Harry pulled the drapes fully closed, and Draco cast his own silencing and protection charms. He had been able to do them non-verbally, having practiced this when he was at home. After the drapes were closed, creating a comforting interior, Draco quietly cast a permanent perimeter-detection ward around his bed. It was designed so that anyone with malicious intentions who attempted to get within two feet of his bed would be suddenly Confunded, and he would be alerted. He made sure to allow house-elves free reign to clean the bed and its sheets, but resolved to make sure none of the elves could be tricked into doing something nasty to his bed.

- - -

The next day, Draco was up bright and early, thanking whatever Deities existed that he had not had a nightmare the first day back at Hogwarts. As he showered and dressed, he thought about what had happened so far, and felt relieved to be once again living in a comparatively simpler time, when the world wasn't yet at war and his loyalties weren't constantly subject to questioning, probing and prodding. Hogwarts had never felt so welcoming and safe as it did that day as he waited for his famous friend to finish his morning ablutions.

The surprise of seeing Harry in those bloody awful clothes galvanised Draco into action. This was intolerable. He grabbed the former's arm and pulled him over to the wardrobe next to his bunk, saying "Harry, those clothes – look, I mean no offence, all right, but… they're ghastly. Sure, you'll be wearing a robe, and that'll cover your clothes, but Merlin, Harry!"

Abashed, the other stared at the floor as the young aristocrat wondered how to break it to the boy that the Boy-Who-Lived just could not wear those sodding oversized clothes. He was surprised nobody had dared comment on it last night, but he guessed the boys had all been so busy getting ready for bed that it had sort of gone by unnoticed.

As he was unable to think of a decent way to put it, he just grabbed black trousers and a white silk shirt and shoved them at the boy, saying, "Go change into these, all right? I'll help you transfigure or get rid of those awful things you're wearing, after classes have finished for the day."

Harry simply stood there, before looking up from the floor and at Draco. He spoke, his voice tinged with suspicion.

"Why? Nobody's ever done something this nice for me before. What do you want from me, Draco?"

Draco thought it a good thing that they were still in the silencing perimeter of the spell that he had cast, because the four-letter word he used would have woken the other boys up. He got ahold of himself and forced a sense of calm and reason to the fore as he said, "Look, Harry—you're a Slytherin. This isn't a matter about being nice, it's about being a Slytherin, and Snape said we've got to at least look out for each other. You can't go around wearing those old rags; that's ridiculous. Come on, just borrow mine. You can order new clothes from Madam Malkin's, or some other shop, by owl order later."

Harry blinked, and said, "Well, all right. Thanks." He grinned at Draco before slipping into the bathroom. When he emerged, Draco couldn't help but try to suppress a satisfied smile. At least Harry looked a great deal more presentable now than he had with those terrible clothes, which had now been relegated to the boy's wardrobe. Maybe he could even persuade Harry to do something about his messy hair—introduce him to brushes and gel, perhaps.

Then Draco realised that he was hungry. Very much so. He motioned to the door. "Let's get down to breakfast, Harry, and get something to eat."

The other boy nodded, and the pair left the dorms to go to the Great Hall.

Author Notes:

Thanks go to Maddevillechilde and Talriga for the beta work and suggestions. You've been very helpful. :-)

Draco's friendship with Harry -will- have spin-off effects for Ron and Hermione, as the spells he gives Harry will percolate to the other two of the Golden (or is that Silver:-P ) Trio. Ultimately we'll see some Slytherins get put in their place, and I want to reassure you all there will be no Ron bashing or Hermione bashing. :) Our dear Ronald has already had the stakes anted up for him compared to canon, and his brain's working overtime to figure out what to do.

Hopefully I can handle Draco's dicey situation properly, since he needs the Trio to bear the brunt of the vanguard of the "winds of change". Once it becomes more-or-less clear that they're not to be messed with, Draco can be a bit more open with his friendship with the other two and justify it to his father on the grounds of expediency. We hope.

I haven't decided how dogmatic versus pragmatic to make Lucius Malfoy. There are canon elements that support both views. The man clearly loves backing the winning horse, even if he has to make a show of being nice when he'd rather sneer and use the PimpCane to whack people with. At the same time he's been pretty well implacable on the whole blood purity thing, considering how he rakes Draco over the coals for it.