Original A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating in so long! School has been really busy for me, and I'm tired all the time. I don't have the time to sit down and write during the school term. I had no idea it would be so bad. Actually, the only reason I was able to upload the last chapter was because I had it about 90% finished before school begun in September.

I've decided to put this story on hiatus until December, where I'll have the time to write again. In the meantime, I'll work at developing the story a bit more in my head and maybe adding a bit more whenever I have a chance.

I'm so so so very sorry.

I've decided to put what I have of chapter 13, unedited, below, just as an apology. Keep in mind that it will not all be the exact same when I "officially" post it!

Thank you all so much for 110 favourites and 188 follows! I'm honestly overjoyed at how well my story has been received. Please don't let my not being able to write dissuade you from not telling me of any good ideas you have for the story! I really enjoy hearing feedback, and your comments help me write better, which means that you'll end up enjoying the chapters more! 3

So long, until December, when we'll meet again!

December A/N: A good 25th, to all my readers, and a Merry Christmas and belated Happy Hanukkah to all who believe in either!

Yo! I'm back! Sorry for not posting until now! My school term only finished on the 19th, and I still had to write the rest of this chapter!

I've basically decided that it'll be near-impossible for me to post during school terms- My school's just way too busy. (Seriously. It's gotten to the point where I'm genuinely upset I got a 93 in English just because everything's really competitive here.) However, I'll try my damnedest to write as much as I can during my holidays!

Literally a day after I posted the WIP version of this chapter, this fic hit 200 followers! It's completely awe-inspiring, that so many people have actually managed to struggle through the first couple of chapters (which, now that I'm re-reading them, I may end up rewriting- just because they're not as good as I want them to be) and have actually ended up liking this fic! I hope I'll do you proud! (We're currently at 125 faves and 223 follows- the number blows my mind. Thank you thank you thank you all so so much!)

Now, on with the show!

Chapter 13

When Harry next awoke, it was to pain. Not just to ordinary pain, which he could ignore, but to deep oceans of constant throbs that pulsed and washed over him with every breath he took. His body felt like it was made of gelatinous liquid, like even his bones had been reduced to puddles of agony after the events of the night before.

Even his eyeballs hurt.

Bringing one hand up from the warmth trapped under the softness of his duvet, Harry rubbed at his eyes and groaned. The action had further jostled his aching muscles and they were loudly and insistantly protesting their rough treatment. The Parselmouth heard the soft sounds of laughter and grumbled, throwing a pillow in that general direction and wincing when that abrupt action jarred his pained muscles even more.

Draco's grinning face appeared at the edge of Harry's vision. The blond wasn't trying to restrain his amusement the slightest and was holding the pillow that Harry had thrown. Clearly, it had not found its mark.

"Good morning, Harry."

Harry yawned, "'m r'lly glad they didn't m'ke me chaser wi' my skills."

Draco looked puzzled.

The dark-haired boy blinked sleep out of his eyes and realised that he hadn't told his roommate what had happened the previous night, during the detention that was not really a detention.

"I'm the Slyth'in seeker now, Flint t'ld me l'st night. 'Xplain more at b'kfast."

It took a second for the information to sink in for Draco.

"Harry!"

Harry let out a groan at the tone that screamed "explain everything to me now Harry Potter or you'll sincerely regret it" and rolled over onto his stomach, making the entirety of his torso throb.

"I'm dying, Draco. Help." The Parselmouth groaned into his pillow. Is this what being made of jelly feels like? Ow.

"Not until you explain how you became the youngest bloody seeker in the century!"

"Inside voice, Blondie. Use it."

Harry made a low grumbling sound and rolled over slowly and painfully, supporting himself with both his hands. Then he stretched and immediately regretted it when literally every single muscle in his entire body screamed that it was a bad idea. His spine made odd clicking sounds as he groaned and curled up into a ball.

Merlin's bloody beard, why did I ever think this was a good idea.

"Explain!" Draco urged again, looking slightly peeved but, at the same time, concerned about whether or not Harry would survive the trip to the hospital wing. At least, said Parselmouth chose to interpret it that way.

"Said I'd explain it at breakfast. Pansy'll be there, then. I'd rather not have to do it twice." Harry said, groaning again and yanking up his blanket to cover his face.

Wait.

Blanket?

When did this blanket get here?

It was a really pretty blanket, though. Poofy. Warm too, and absolutely enormous.

Harry pulled the blanket down again and looked in the general direction of where he knew Draco was, blinking and squinting as his eyes readjusted to the light.

"Is this yours?" He asked, gesturing to the fluffy expanse of colour that was draped over his body.

"Of course." The blond replied. "Come on, you'll need to hurry now if you don't want to be late for Charms."

Harry groaned, "I don't even want to think about moving, let alone hurrying anywhere."

"I hate quidditch." Harry grumbled. "Pass the pumpkin juice."

"Really? I had absolutely no idea." Draco said sarcastially while handing over the bright orange liquid.

"Oh shush."

"You've complained roughly three hundred times in the hour or so that you've been awake." Draco pointed out.

"Impossible." Pansy laughed.

"See, Draco, even Pansy agrees wit–"

"It's more like five hundred or so times, I'd think." The brunette finished. Draco laughed and leant over the table to high five her.

Harry made a low growling sound of fake exasperation as Pansy patted him on the head with an amused grin.

"You shouldn't antagonise the new seeker." Tracey chimed in with a laugh, her pigtails bouncing. She'd sat through the whole of Harry's retelling of the night before. "After all, we're partly relying on the points that you'll get to win the House Cup!" She added with a grin aimed at Harry.

Harry managed a weak smile back, the most his muscles would allow him.

"Did Professor Snape say what type of broom he's going to get you?" Draco asked, his love for quidditch winning over his desire to tease Harry even more.

"No... Though, I hope it'll be a good one, though. I'll be bad enough without a decent broom, especially considering how I didn't even play quidditch before this." The Parselmouth replied. "Also, I'm skipping Charms. Tell Professor Flitwick that I've caught Dragon Pox or something, anything that'll make him let me skip. There's no way I'm going- those arm movements may actually kill me."

Draco glanced down at his own schedule. "We have double Defense after Charms, are you seriously going to skip the whole morning?"

Harry paused and pursed his lips as he considered his options. "I suppose I'll go to Defense. If I'm not mistaken, we've just finished learning about gnomes. The paragraph's due Monday, right?" At Draco's nod, Harry continued. "Perfect. Doxies are next up in the book– I checked last night– so that means today's class won't contain any wand work!" He checked his schedule again. "Great! Now, anyone want to come with me to the hospital wing? I'm reasonably certain I'm dying."

Just then, before anybody could reply, the owls swooped into the Great Hall, each clutching their own letter or parcel. Hedwig elegantly glided to the centre of the table with a Daily Prophet tied to her leg and promptly stole a sausage from the nearby plate. Harry untied the newspaper and unrolled it, shooing Hedwig away when she attempted to steal another piece. She flew away, but not before huffily nipping Harry's finger in retaliation.

"Prat." Harry said, his voice amused, as he gingerly spread the thin printed sheets of parchment over his lap.

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.

Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

"Isn't Gringotts supposed to be impossible to break into?" Tracey commented, her eyes large. She was reading over Harry's shoulder.

"Well, it's supposed to. But it evidently isn't." Pansy huffed. "Vault 713 evidently had something in it that was worth risking the Kiss for."

Harry scanned the front page again. "It doesn't mention the vault number here."

"That's because the Daily Prophet is filled with mudbloods and blood traitors who have absolutely no idea what they're doing." Pansy smirked. "Mother told me, of course. Witch Weekly did a small article on this right after the break in and they actually got the full story." She said proudly.

Harry laughed, a little uneasily, feeling not for the first time a little bit out of place and uncomfortable amongst the older families in Slytherin, the ones which placed great values on blood purity.

"Huh," He said instead, "I wonder what was in there."

The next few days that passed were more or less the same. A blur or school indespersed with spatters of homework and large splashes of studying. In a normal school, it would have become monotonous. Boring, even. But, this was Hogwarts. School of the magical, mystical, spellbinding and all that, and Harry would probably pay good galleons to see anyone try to argue that school could be anything close to uninteresting when classes alternated between potions accidents, charms mishaps, and occasional meetings with traps set by a very annoying poltergeist.

Thankfully, Harry got time to heal his muscles over the weekend, but not before the Golden Trio took full advantage of his injured state by tormenting him at every opportunity, and a badly-cast Tarantallegra put Draco in the hospital wing when he danced so fast that his calf muscles tore.

The next day at breakfast time, while Draco was still in the hospital wing (complaining loudly all the while), Harry's broomstick arrived.

The owls, as usual, swooped into the Great Hall whilst everyone was eating, delivering their packages to their respective owners in a flurry of feathers. Harry, had just raised a spoonful of his tomato soup to his mouth when a dark streak shot into his vision and landed haphazardly next to his soup bowl, one long wing dipping into the viscous red liquid.

Harry wrinkled up his nose in a grimace.

There goes my breakfast.

Thankfully, the brown package that the owl was carrying appeared to have escaped the trauma that would have come of falling into Harry's food. After carefully retrieving said package, Harry took his butter knife and carefully sawed one of the side flaps of the parcel open. Enclosed was two things: a note, written with elegant calligraphy that Harry recognised from Potions Class, and a second package in yet another inconspicuous box. Harry skimmed over the contents of the note.

Harry, the note read

Your new broomstick is in box that should have come with this. For easier delivery, I had to shrink it and put a featherweight charm on it. I suggest that you not open the box at the table, since your broom will automatically revert back to its original state once you do so.

The Slytherins have a vault at Gringotts for matters like these. There will be no need for you to pay for the broomstick, so long as you put it to good use.

~Professor Snape

"Bloody rich kids." Harry chuckled.

Pansy, who was reading over Harry's shoulder, let out a happy laugh. "Draco will be delighted!" She said, leaning forward to pick up the broomstick box, holding it in her hands carefully. "We still have a bit of time before class starts, let's pay Draco a visit and show him. We could open it together."

Harry nodded and shooed away the owl, who'd started eating his toast. It huffily flapped away, but not before taking a large chunk of bread with it in retaliation.

The Slytherin spied the weasel walking over towards the Ravenclaw table and discreetly pulled out his wand, whispering a sticking charm that stuck the Gryffindor's foot to the floor for a fraction of a second, enough to throw off his natural walking motion and cause him to trip. There was a loud thump as he fell over, discernible even over the loud buzz of breakfast conversation. Pansy grinned at Harry.

"Serves him right." She said with a disdainful look at the fallen Gryffindor. "It's only payback for Draco."

Harry really really wanted a camera of some sort. It didn't even have to be a magical one, though that would obviously have been better. He just really wanted some means of documenting the expression of the sheer delight that encompassed the whole of Draco's face the moment that the miniaturised broomstick tumbled out of its box and grew into a full-sized Nimbus 2000 right there in the middle of the hispital wing.

It would have made brilliant blackmail material, though Harry had no idea what he'd potentially want to blackmail Draco for.

"Snape got you a Nimbus 2000." Draco whispered reverently, running his hands over the smooth, polished handle. "Snape got you a Nimbus 2000, the absolute ass."

Pansy giggled.

"Merlin," Draco breathed eyes wide, "I don't even have a Nimbus 2000 and he goes and gives the one person in the whole of the Slytherin house who cannot fully appreciate a Nimbus 2000 a bloody Nimbus 2000."

Harry laughed, "Oi now, that's a bit mean."

"Snape's a bit mean. I'm just stating the truth." The blond shot back with a snarky grin, turning the broomstick over to examine the twigs neatly grouped at the end of it.

Harry flicked Draco's forehead and used the motion as a distraction in order to to reclaim his Nimbus 2000. Draco pouted huffily, obviously unfamiliar with not getting his way, and Harry found himself wishing for a camera again- it would really have made brilliant ribbing material.

"Pans, d'ya want to see it?" The Parselmouth said instead, holding out the broomstick to her.

Pansy took it and lightly scanned her eyes over it, turning it over in her hands before carefully handing it back. "It's not bad."

"'Not bad'?" Draco repeated incredulously. "'Not bad'? Pansy, this is the best broomstick that was ever made. It's literally the fastest in the world and you say that it's not bad? That's the worst understatement since Emeric the Evil told Ulric the Oddball that it was 'a bad idea' to dump half a dozen Flobberworms into a cauldron of a badly-made Draught of Peace!"

"You're stretching it." Pansy replied flippantly, daintily dropping on the edge of Draco's bed with a small bounce.

"You're right." Draco said. "A cloud of hallucination-causing noxious gas that turned clouds into piles of acidic goo is a lot less severe than the wounds in my heart after your horrific comment." The Slytherin pretended to double over in pain before flopping back into his mass of pillows. "Ow. Hurts. I'm... Dying..." He coughed, dramatically, arching his back in fake agony. "Tell... My mother... I–"

Pansy threw a pillow at him.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves' voice rang out behind the trio as they frantically scampered away. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED, DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

"I told you that it would be a horrible mistake!" Pansy insisted in a loud whisper.

"You were the one who said we should scope out the area before we set the trap!" Harry whispered back, his voice a little louder than he'd have liked.

"Argue about this another time!" Draco hissed back. "Y'know, when we're not running for our bloody lives from Filch!"

Their figures made shadowy shapes against the wall as they ran, lit by flickering torches. They turned a corner, still running as fast as they could, their feet pounding against the stone floor.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!"

Harry's cheeks felt too warm, like they were containing so much heat that they were actually glowing with it all. He started lagging behind, not used to so much physical extension.

"Oh for Circe's sake!" Pansy exclaimed when she noticed. She slowed slightly as well to let Harry catch up.

"Over here!" Draco called. Naturally being the fastest, he had already reached the end of the corridor where there was a door. As Pansy and Harry ran closer, they could hear Draco's whispered "Alohomora" as he tapped his wand against the keyhole.

There was a clicking sound that sounded gunshot-loud in the near-silence of the corridor, previously broken only by their harsh panting. Then, the door slowly swung open, and they all scrambled to get inside.

"Hide!" Harry hissed. Being the last one in, he was the one unofficially in charge of closing the door. That was probably why he didn't see the dog until he heard two sharp gasps and a whispered "Merlin's beard."

He turned around.

The dog was absolutely gigantic and monstrous, filling the entire space around it from the roof to the floor. Even worse, it had three heads, which meant three pairs of giant, blinking eyes, three noses ('All the better to smell you with' a hysterical part of Harry's brain chimed in) and, the worst part, three giant slobbering mouths with three sets of very sharp-looking teeth. Whether they were actually that sharp or not, Harry didn't want to stick around to find out.

He wrenched open the door again and bolted out, with Draco and Pansy following close behind. Thankfully, Filch was nowhere in sight. Though between the Filch or death, Harry would much rather choose Filch.

They ran and ran and ran. Through the corridors and down staircases. They didn't stop running until they finally reached the wall outside the Slytherin common room.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" Draco panted out, the first to get there.

Only when the wall behind them slid back into place did they finally relax, taking gasping breaths.

Pansy spoke first, "Did you see, under its paws..."

Harry nodded, "The trapdoor? Yes."

"Well it's evidently guarding something. Nobody goes to the trouble of getting an animal that big and dangerous for fun." Draco said.

There was a pause, filled only with the sound of them all catching their breaths, their breathing gradually slowing down

"Did one of you actually close the door?" Harry softly inquired.

There was a long pause, then the sounds of two voices exclaiming simultaneously:

"I thought you did!"

A/N: Oh, before any of you ask, Harry didn't go to the hospital wing for his muscle pain because he's a stubborn ass who doesn't like to ask for help.