Malfoy screamed in pain as he reeled back. Everyone in the classroom was shocked to see that out of all people it was Malfoy that had made a mistake in his potion, much less one so drastic it had caused it to explode. Harry did his best to look shocked too. Snape vanished the contents of the cauldron with a wave of his wand and looked at Malfoy with something that looked close to concern.
"Take him to the hospital wing." he said to Malfoy's partner. He looked at the cauldron for a few moments then he snarled, "Potter, come with me."
"Wait, why're you taking Harry away?" Neville protested.
"Five points from Gryffindor." Snape didn't even look at Neville as he said this. The class murmured as Harry packed his things quickly then moved to keep up with Snape prowling down the halls. They stopped in front of a gargoyle where Snape said, "Ice Mice." The gargoyle stepped aside and Snape strode inside, up a winding stone staircase, Harry followed him up and they arrived in front of a door.
"Come in Severus." said a voice from behind the door that Harry recognized. Snape opened the door and Harry walked into what he realized must be the headmaster's office. It was a large circular room that was filled with a number of small silver instruments that stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting small puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses, some of whom were looking on curiously. Then there was the enormous claw-footed desk and sitting on the shelf behind it was the shabby Sorting Hat.
"Potter has attacked Malfoy, causing him to be injured in the hospital wing at this very moment." Snape said.
"No I didn't!" Harry rebutted quickly and loudly.
"Silence!" Snape hissed. "You will speak when spoken to."
"What, so I'm not allowed to defend myself?" Harry spat.
"Why you insolent, little - " Harry had learned that Snape was unwilling to dock points from his own house and whenever he was mad at Harry he would just ignore him or insult him.
"Severus." Dumbledore interrupted. "I'm sure Mr. Potter has done no such thing."
"I assure you Malfoy's potion was splendid, there was no reason for an explosion of that capacity without sabotage." Snape retorted angrily.
"I didn't do anything! Maybe Malfoy just messed up!" Harry yelled.
Harry stared defiantly as Snape bared down on him but Dumbledore interrupted again, "Mr. Potter please do not yell in my office."
"Sorry sir." Harry looked down at his feet.
"Severus, surely you have evidence? Or are you suggesting that a first year has the capability of sabotaging a potion without you knowing?" Dumbledore twinkled.
"That is because Potter had others do his dirty work." Snape growled. "The Weasley twins." Soon enough, Fred, and George were called into the headmaster's office with them. Harry was on tenterhooks the entire time, although not for the reason that Snape thought he was. He wasn't expecting for the headmaster to be involved in such a delicate stage of his plan and he was well aware of his reputation as the strongest wizards in the world. If anybody saw through Harry's scheme it would be him.
"Ah Messrs. Weasleys, Professor Snape has insisted that I call you up here to answer a question. Mister Malfoy has suffered an unfortunate potions accident and he was wondering if you had any involvement in the matter?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
"No professor." they both shook their heads.
"They're lying." Snape said. "It is well-known that the Potter boy has weaseled his way into Gryffindor Tower to make them do his bidding."
Harry, Fred, and George instantly erupted into protests but Dumbledore stood up, silencing all of them. "Severus I am sure that they meant no harm. Fred, George, while the merry spirit of pranksters is always appreciated please do be sure that no undue harm comes of your jests." They both nodded in unison.
"You're not going to punish them?!" Snape asked disbelievingly.
"Severus, as wondrous as the tales surrounding these young men are, I'm afraid that they are not grounds for expulsion." Dumbledore said. "Now, I believe that you have classes to attend?" Harry and the Weasley twins left as fast as they could.
When they felt that they'd gotten a safe distance away one of them said, "Blimey Harry what'd you do?"
"Me? What did you do?" Harry shot back.
"We didn't do anything." one of them said.
"Our next prank wasn't scheduled until later this afternoon." said the other.
Harry leaned in, "Hey, cool it with the pranks for a while. Snape has it out for me and if I'm in the room when your pranks go off he's just gonna blame me again."
"I thought Snape never punished his own house." said one of the twins.
"Yeah well, I don't think he likes me very much." Harry muttered. "See you guys later." Harry walked away so they couldn't see his smirk. Phase two had gone through without a problem, although Snape bringing him to Dumbledore's attention wasn't really in the plan. It was time for the final phase.
He waited patiently, ignoring any people trying to grab his attention or interrogate him on what happened. He knew Malfoy had been healed quickly when he walked into the dorm room.
"Potter! How dare you attack me!" he yelled immediately, with Crabbe and Goyle flanking his sides. Harry resisted the urge to scoff and point out the irony in him being able to attack Harry but being so offended when he was attacked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Harry calmly replied.
"I know you paid off the Weasel twins to sabotage my potion!" he yelled vehemently.
"No I didn't." Harry said with a deadpan look.
"Yeah? Well you're gonna pay for it. Get him!" Malfoy urged Crabbe and Goyle, the two went to grab him but Harry just pulled out his wand from under his pillow and flicked it at them saying, "Locomotor Mortis, Locomotor Mortis."
The two had their legs snap together under them, causing them to fall forward on their faces with identical grunts. Harry then pointed his wand at Malfoy, who froze, unsure of what to do now that his first strategy had failed.
"Malfoy we may have our disagreements but let's not bring it into the dorms where the four of us live. We all agree to a truce. No attacks in the dorm. Deal?" Harry asked, trying to look serious as possible.
Malfoy had a few seconds of deliberation but being at the wrong end of Harry's wand was an excellent encouragement. "Alright Potter. Deal."
"Okay then, we all put our wands on the opposite end of the room so anybody who tries to use them has to run all the way across and be seen breaking the truce." Harry motioned at the end of the room with his wand.
"You never said that was a part of the deal Potter!" Malfoy exclaimed.
"We have to do it since we don't trust each other. Let's drop them at the same time." Harry performed the counter-curse on Crabbe and Goyle. They stood up and looked uncertainly at Malfoy until he nodded. All four of them dropped their wands, while looking at each other warily. Or at least Harry and Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle mostly just looked.
"Okay then." They slowly made their way to their beds. "Good night." One by one, the lights winked out. Malfoy was practically boiling as he went to sleep. Already he was thinking of all the nasty ways he could get back at Potter. Crabbe and Goyle fell asleep quickly and started snoring. Soon Malfoy fell asleep too. Then it was just Harry, laying awake while pretending to sleep.
If Malfoy was smart then he would have just tried to have Crabbe and Goyle physically overpower him as soon as the wands got put down. Unfortunately, he wasn't. He wasn't really expecting Malfoy to keep up his end of the deal. He knew that he would break it sooner or later. Uneasy truces never lasted. So he would break it first, just like he planned. He waited until he was sure that they were all asleep and then waited even longer until he was sure they wouldn't wake.
Once he was sure he slipped out of the covers silently. He picked up his wand after carefully noting how it was positioned. He took out a scrap of parchment and transfigured it into a playing card, the joker to be precise. He placed it in front of Malfoy so it would be the first thing he saw when he was awake. Then he walked over to the beds and whispered, "Incendio." causing a small fire to start on each of them, including his own. He then pointed his wand at his own legs and performed the leg-locker curse and the counter-curse each twice in quick succession. Then he slipped back into his own bed and waited patiently.
He was waiting for so long that he thought the transfiguration would wear off but soon he heard the screams. He resisted the urge to smile and instead pretended to sleep for a few more moments before turning over and saying, "Goyle will you stop making noise and just go - OHH! You're on fire! Aaaauuugh!" He joined the others in screaming as he tried to put out his fire. It hurt his heart to burn his book but he needed it to look realistic. Eventually all the noise they were making attracted the attention of other slytherins and one of the older ones used a water-making spell to douse the fires.
"My book." Harry moaned in genuine pain. Snape walked in and Harry could instantly tell by how the lines tightened on his face that he was mad but that was alright, he was prepared for that. Even if he decided to punish Harry for no reason it wouldn't disrupt his plans.
Snape said slowly, "What happened here?" Harry gulped. Somehow his soft voice made him more intimidating but this was no time to show cowardice.
"I - It was Potter!" Malfoy stuttered.
"Me?! No it wasn't - it was you wasn't it?!" Harry cried. Before Malfoy could fire back he turned to Snape and the other students and said as fast as he could, "We all had an agreement to have a truce inside the dorms since Malfoy tried to bully me with a leg-locker curse but he broke it!"
"No! It was Potter! Th - There was a card!" Malfoy shrieked.
"A card…?" Snape asked.
Malfoy nodded tearfully. "He was showing his stupid muggle playing cards the first dinner here remember?!"
Snape slowly stalked over to Malfoy's bed. Harry watched without fear. After all, parchment burnt up pretty quickly. Finding nothing, Snape turned around and Harry jumped on the opportunity, "See!? There's no card there! Malfoy's lying!" he cried.
"Playing cards are liable to burning Potter." Snape drawled.
"Well - I still have my full deck! I can show you! No cards are missing!" Harry replied.
"Why don't you tell me more about this truce of yours." Snape said.
"We made a truce to leave our wands on the other side of the room…" Harry trailed off.
"And I see that Malfoy's wand is still there, rendering your theory invalid…" Snape said confidently.
Harry thought quickly of what to say next to keep the suspicion off of him. Snape seemed preoccupied with protecting Malfoy from his accusations for some reason so if he just kept accusing Malfoy then he should be in the clear. "He could have used Dark magic!" he blurted out.
"Dark magic?" Snape lifted an eyebrow. Some of the older slytherin students laughed. "Potter, are you implying that Draco is capable of such wandless magic at his age?"
"I - I, yes!" Harry cried. Snape just scoffed at him while the older students laughed harder.
Snape stood still, probably to revel in his apparent victory. When he felt that he had had enough he said, "Enough. If you are injured one of the older students will help you to the hospital wing." Then he turned to help Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, leaving Harry alone. Harry grabbed his wand and his trunk and rushed out the door with tears in his eyes.
"Where do you think you are going?" Snape said menacingly.
" An unused classroom! I'm not sleeping in the same room with him." Harry spat and rushed out before Snape could stop him. He spent the night in his trunk which he draped his invisibility cloak over, which was charmed to extend into a small room. In it, he had everything he needed; a bed, a lamp, a small desk that he didn't need a chair for, and a box for his books and other things. It was where he lived when he wasn't at Hogwarts and it was a vast improvement.
The next morning he tried not to smile as he heard the rumors floating around. Things were going perfectly. It was time to tie up a loose end and then complete phase three.
First, he pickpocketed Malfoy's wand discreetly. Then Harry made his way to Gryffindor Tower to meet the Weasley twins again.
"I said to tone it down with the pranks, not set the dorm on fire! I live there too y'know?!" he angrily whispered. He didn't have to turn his head to know that already people were looking at their "private" conversation.
"We didn't do anything Harry!" they protested.
"You really didn't? Harry looked at them suspiciously.
"Honest!" they nodded.
"Listen, just - no more pranks alright?" Harry asked. They both nodded and Harry left Gryffindor Tower quickly. That night, Malfoy returned to his dorm and found his wand on his pillow with a note in his own handwriting that read: Don't mess with me or next time, it'll be in pieces.
Inspecting his wand with trembling hands, he found a hairline crack at its base. Harry walked in a bit later, stared Malfoy straight in the eye, and slept without any guard. When he awoke without being accosted he knew. He knew that Draco Malfoy had been thoroughly cowed. He wouldn't bother him again. The whole school either thought that the Weasley twins he hired were to blame, another older student was responsible, or Malfoy himself was. The only one who knew the truth was Malfoy, who couldn't prove anything. Not bad for an eleven year old with only an hour and a half of planning.
Fortunately for him, he wouldn't have to worry about Malfoy being his roommate again because of Dumbledore, who was talking to Snape that night as well.
"Severus you know the boy has the right to feel unsafe in your house with who his parents were." he said.
"So I am to give the Potter boy special treatment?" Snape snarled.
"Yes." Dumbledore said matter-of-factly. "I believe that separating him from Malfoy would be the best course of action."
"Malfoy has done nothing wrong." Snape said.
"Of course Severus but you cannot deny that he clashes often with Potter. Besides, you of all people should know the pains of being a halfblood in slytherin." Dumbledore gave him a look over his half-moon spectacles.
"I will only go so far as to switch him with Nott." Snape conceded.
"Very well Severus. Would you like a lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked. Snape just stormed out.
Harry Potter looked at Blaise Zabini. Blaise had dark skin and dark hair that was shaved short. He looked at Harry and sniffed disdainfully once, returning to his italian book. Harry dropped his trunk at the base of Nott's former bed. He took out his own book and started reading. Hogwarts was just getting better and better.