With the Christmas holidays over school began with a vengeance. Every professor wanted an essay on some obscure subject, making their free time nonexistent. The plus side to this was that apparently Pinkblossom was also too busy to leave or possibly make more roses.

Draco and he had talked about what he found out. The roses were probably just normal ones. Pinkblossom could have used a spell or two to make it react to a single person, maybe a variant of the tracking spell.

The question was, where does she grow them? It wasn't in her office. Nor was it in her chambers, he'd checked. It could be in one of the unused greenhouses. But with all the schoolwork neither of them had a chance to look.

It was now almost summer, the Professors had finally let up a bit and Zephyr was just walking away from his last class when he had an idea.

"Hey, Draco."

"Hmm." Was the reply, although Draco did turn his face to look at him.

"I found this book in the library and it had loads of useful spells in it. Want to try it out?" He asked, looking hopeful.

"Sure, let's go back to our room."

The walk to the common room was peaceful. Once inside Zephyr glanced at the message board. There was a note on it. Zephyr walked closer to read it and Draco followed him. The note was a message to Draco.

'I know you think you're going to get that title, but I'm going to make sure you won't. You think you're so great, just because you're a Malfoy? Meet me tomorrow night at 11 PM in the old Charms classroom and I'll show you who's worthy of that title. Bring a second.'

"Title?" Murmured Zephyr after he had read it. "Draco, you're not thinking of going, are you?"

Draco looked enraged, "Of course I'm going! This coward just insulted me! My family!" He spat.

"But he wants to duel! At night! What if you get caught?" Zephyr worried.

"I won't." Draco promised confidently. "Will you be my second?" He asked.

"Of course." He agreed. As if he would let his best friend duel all by himself.

Draco looked relieved. "Thank you. Shall we practice those spells now?"

With a frown Zephyr said, "I think it's best if we look up some defensive or offensive duelling spells."

"You're right, let's go to the library."

After a brief trip to the library they stationed themselves at the top of the astronomy tower with at least three useful books for duels. Zephyr took a book and made a list of all the spells they could use during the duel. Draco did the same and after they had completed their list they tried them out.

They took turns hexing each other and deflecting the spell. One book they had brought with them depicted all sorts of duelling stances and their meaning. There was one that meant that you loathed your adversary, which was the one Draco was going to use.

The standard duelling position was with your wand in your right hand, which was outstretched to your rival, and your left hand either behind your back or at your side. At the beginning you clasped hands before turning and walking ten paces, then you bowed. The depth of your bow depicted the amount of respect you had for the other person, not bowing at all meant you had no respect. After the bow came the standard position or a variant.

The position Draco wanted to use was total disrespect. Both hands at his side with his wand in his right hand, not pointing at the rival. As if the other person was no threat at all. Using this position meant that Draco had to have fast reflexes, which he assured Zephyr he had. Zephyr asked to see it but Draco told him that even in a mock battle the stances were meant a lot. And Draco had a lot of respect for Zephyr so he could never use that position.

"Try this one." Said Zephyr while holding up the page for Draco to see. He would have described the movements but it was a bit too complicated. He knew for certain that Draco would be able to perform this spell, even though it was a third year spell. Draco had been practising spell incantations and movements since he was a little boy.

"Hmm." Draco skimmed over the page. "This is a good one. Incarcerous. Ties someone up with conjured ropes." He nodded and gestured for Zephyr to stand up. "Alright, first without defending and then with."

Draco waited until he was ready and then intoned. "Incarcerous." Long, brown ropes shot out of his wand and encircled Zephyr tightly. His arms were bound to his sides and he couldn't move his legs. "Finite incantatem." The ropes fell to the ground and dissolved.

This time Zephyr held his wand at the ready, a defensive spell at the tip of his tongue. The second he saw ropes coming towards him he deflected them with a "protego."

They continued like this until early into the morning. By the time they were both finished and tired Zephyr knew with certainty that they were ready for everything the unknown person would throw at them tonight.


After classes they still had to wait for a good, long while so Draco proposed they went back to their dorm. He told Zephyr that there was something he wanted to do.

So they walked together and when they were in their dorm, went to Draco's bed and sat down.

"So, what was it you wanted to do?" Asked Zephyr.

"My mum taught me a few braiding techniques, she made me practice it on her. And, you've got long hair, can I try it on you?" He explained, slightly blushing.

He was sitting cross legged on his bed with Zephyr in front of him. The curtains had been closed and a silencing spell was in effect. The silencing spell was necessary because while no one else was in the room someone could come in and what he was asking was kind of embarrassing. But he promised his mum that he'd practice and then in the summer he would do her hair in a beautiful braid so she would be pretty for the party father would hold for his birthday.

"Uhm, sure. Go ahead."

"Thank you, turn around." He ordered. The pink tinge still faintly on his cheeks, only faded slightly now that he was sure Zephyr wouldn't laugh at him.

Zephyr turned around and presented the back of his head to him. His black hair was now slightly below his shoulders. With most boys, long hair wouldn't suit them. Draco himself would never wear his hair longer than past his ears. His father of course had his hair almost as long as his mum's, and she had really long hair.

But Zephyr, for some reason long hair suited him, although it could use a bit of a trim.

Draco moved so that he was on his knees, placing him a but higher than Zephyr and with a brush he took from his bedside drawer, he started brushing Zephyr's hair.

"Your hair is really pretty." He told Zephyr.

"Yours would be too if you stopped using that sticky stuff."

"You mean my gel?"

Zephyr nodded, still looking forward.

"My father said a pureblood should always look proper. He was the one who gave me the bottle."

"Then why doesn't Lucius use it? I've seen him, his hair flowed freely in the wind that day in diagon alley."

"I- I don't know, but you're right. Would it really look better without the stuff."

"Definitely, you will have Pansy hanging on your arm, gushing about how pretty you look with your hair down." Zephyr snickered.

"Hmm, then you better hide yourself from the girls after I'm done with you."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

During their conversation, Draco was still absentmindedly brushing Zephyr's hair, as soon as he noticed that he stopped and put the brush down.

"Where are your hair ties?" He asked.

"On my drawer." Draco left to grab them and then crawled back behind Zephyr.

He started with parting his hair in three and braided the strands in a simple braid. Small tufts of hair stuck out from the braid and ruined the image. Draco undid the braid tried something else. Zephyr sat patiently while Draco experimented, only softly hissing when he pulled a bit to hard on his hair.

While Draco was braiding they talked about everything. From who they thought was the challenger to when they would finally be able to check out the greenhouses. Draco was a bit nervous about tonight, but he didn't let that show, not after he told Zephyr that he had been duelling since he was six.

After three hours of braiding and undoing it again and then braiding again, Draco was finally satisfied with the result. He had made two waterfall braids at the sides of Zephyr's head and tied them together where they met. It looked simple but nice.

By now it was dinner time so he began to undo the braid again, he hadn't even touched the tie when Zephyr protested.

"No, no. Leave it in."

"Are you sure? Everyone is going to see your fabulous hair at dinner." He smirked.

"I'll tell them you did this and watch as the girls beg you to do their hair." Zephyr retorted.

"That doesn't sound so bad, I'll have more practice this way."

"Even if Pansy asks you?"

Draco frowned and looked down, thinking. "You're right, that sounds awful. You won't tell them I did that, right?" Draco pleaded.

"Don't worry, I won't. I'm not that cruel." With that, Zephyr stood up and went to the bathroom.

Draco stayed behind on the bed and waited for Zephyr to return. Together they walked to the great hall for dinner. As expected the Slytherin girls fawned over Zephyr's hair, and he spend the rest of dinner with a blush on his face. Way too soon, dinner was over and they still had a few hours to go.

Zephyr had the idea to get a few hours of sleep. With an alarm spell that made their wands buzz really hard to wake them up, Draco and Zephyr fell into a light sleep.


Sneaking around at night in Hogwarts was a lot harder than it sounded. Every little sound made Zephyr twitch and twice did they have to hide from Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts.

It was too dark too see but they couldn't use lumos because that would make them easy to spot, so they had to walk carefully and try not to trip.

And because all the portraits were sleeping they couldn't make a sound.

Finally, they arrived at the unused Charms classroom as instructed. No one else was there but, according to the tempus spell Zephyr cast, it was already over eleven PM.

"Perhaps they're late?" Zephyr whispered, looking around.

"Or, they chickened out, too scared to fight." Draco said with a smirk.

"Should we go?" He asked.

"No, let's wait a bit."

Half an hour later, the challenger still hadn't turned up.

Zephyr sighed. "Let's go, they're not going to come."

They walked back to their dorm again and Zephyr could tell Draco was disappointed. He felt the same. They spend so much time preparing for the duel and they didn't even show up.

Zephyr yawned, the late night from yesterday catching up with him, he could barely keep his eyes open. That was probably the reason why he bumped into someone.

He and the unknown person fell down, Zephyr, at least, was cushioned by the other person. He held his breath and cautiously looked up to see who he had crashed into.

"Zephyr! Are you okay?" Said Draco from behind him.

Blue eyes met green ones. It was Harry. Only now did he notice that the other boy was not alone, with him were Weasley and Granger.

Zephyr scrambled off of Harry, stood up and held out a hand for the other boy to take.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He told Draco. "You okay?" Zephyr asked Harry.

Harry nodded. "That didn't hurt." He smiled.

While Zephyr was getting up, Draco was engaged in a glaring match with Weasley.

"What are you doing here? Up to no good, right?" Said Weasley.

"The same could be said to you, Weasley." Returned Draco.

They aren't going to fight, right? I should do something.

He stepped in between them and shushed them. "Be quiet! Or do you want Filch to find us?" Draco looked apologetic but Weasley just shot a poorly done sneer at him. He rolled his eyes and yawned again.

"Let's go, Zephyr." Said Draco. And made to turn and walk away. But of course, Weasley couldn't keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it.

"That's right! Run away. That's what you Slytherins are good at."

"Ron…" Harry groaned.

Between one second and the next, Draco had his wand out and pointed straight at Weasley.

"I haven't gotten the chance to pay you back for what you did to Zephyr the other day. Let's settle this now. Seems like I still get to duel." That last sentence he said to Zephyr, who was watching with resignation at the unavoidable fight that was blooming.

"Ron. Don't do it, we'll get caught!" Said Granger.

"Are you seriously unable to not pick a fight as soon as you see each other?" Zephyr said with the same resignation as before. He didn't mind that Draco wanted Weasley to pay for punching him, but not now! And not in a hallway in the middle of the night where they could be caught the moment they made a sound.

"Draco, please. Let's leave." Zephyr pleaded which thankfully worked because Draco sheathed his wand in his holster.

The sound of a throat being cleared could be heard behind them and Zephyr closed his eyes, wishing he imagined that. As one, the group turned around and saw professor Mcgonagall standing there, a scowl on her face and her arms crossed. Next to her stood Blaise Zabini with a grin.

"See professor, I told you they would be sneaking around. Although I didn't count on the Gryffindors being here as well." He told professor Mcgonagall, who ignored him.

"Six students out of bed. That will be 50 points each from your respective house. And detention with Hagrid tomorrow night." She told them.

"Six? But-"

"Six, mr. Zabini. You as well. Now I will personally escort you to your dorms to make sure you actually arrive and you will be at Mr. Filch's office at nine."

Then she twirled around and took of at a brisk pace, leaving them to hurry after her. Zabini had a scowl etched on his face, clearly he wasn't happy with receiving detention and losing points. But what did he expect, professor Mcgonagall was a strict teacher and he was out of bed after curfew. The trip was done in silence, all of them too scared to talk in fear of getting more detention or losing points.

"Hey, don't fall asleep on me, Zephyr." Said Draco after Zephyr let out a yawn and his eyelids flutters as he had trouble keeping them open.

"I won't, I won't." He promised.

After the Gryffindors were behind the closed they set off towards the Slytherin common room. He'd wanted to wave and say goodnight to Harry but he didn't because Zabini was with them. Surely, the other boy would tell everyone that Zephyr and maybe Draco too were getting friendly with a bunch of Gryffindors. He couldn't have that. For one, Draco's father would surely hear about it, his own father too.

His dad had some sort of grudge or something against Harry and if he heard his son was friends with him he probably wouldn't be very happy.

It felt like ages before they finally arrived before the portrait, but they were there eventually. Draco said the password and the portrait swung open, before they stepped in, professor Mcgonagall had some parting words.

"You're lucky I won't tell your parents about this, but I expect this will not happen again, understood?"

"Yes, professor Mcgonagall." They chorused.

With a final nod towards them, she left.

"Zabini." Draco called out quietly to him. They had put on their pjs and were about to get into their beds. "It was you, right? Who left that note?"

Zabini turned around and smirked. "Yes, it was. What gave it away? The fact that I got you detention?"

"No, it was because you didn't show up, like the coward you are." Draco glared.

Zabini chuckled. "You won't be so confident when I'm done with you. Both of you." He said with a pointed glance to me.

"Do your worst. I'll triple it." Zephyr threatened with a glare of his own.

The dark skinned boy let out another chuckle and closed the curtains behind him when he stepped towards his bed.

Zephyr tried to stifle his yawn but didn't succeed, he stretched out his back and made his way to his own bed.

"We should be careful from now on." Draco cautioned him.

Zephyr nodded. "Good night, Draco."

"You too, you could use it." He said with a chuckle.

Zephyr enveloped himself in his warm sheets and let the dreams come.