Theme:
"You think the only people who are people

Are the people who look and think like you

But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger

You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew" - Colours of the Wind, Pocahontas

Prompts:
5. [object] Ornate mirror
11. [dialogue] "Okay, now I'm impressed."

Word count: 2582 words

They say: "Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes." Harry had never given that idea much consideration until one Friday afternoon in Potions class. More precisely, until he woke on Saturday morning after that Friday afternoon Potions class. His unusual day began when he woke up surrounded by green. He recalled drawing the curtains on his four-poster bed closed before he went to sleep the night before, but he didn't think they would change colours. Perhaps the Hogwarts house-elves changed them for cleaning but he didn't think they would change Gryffindor curtains to Slytherin green.

Another unusual thing that happened was that when he reached for his glasses on his bedside table, they weren't there. Instead he saw a copy of The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson, a book he had never read and certainly didn't own. Looking around, everything around him looked blurry. Trying not to stumble, Harry climbed out of bed and made his way towards his wardrobe to change for the day. But where his wardrobe should stand, he found an ornate mirror hanging above a short dresser. What happened to his wardrobe? He didn't recognize this dresser. Looking— well, squinting— into the mirror, Harry saw a face staring back at him that was decidedly not his face.

In fact, short of Voldemort himself, it was the last face he would want to see first thing on a Saturday morning before he'd had his tea: Draco Malfoy. But how did he come to have Malfoy's face? A closer examination showed that he didn't have his scar, and grey eyes had replaced his green. Blond hair sat where black hair should have been. Taking a scan of the room, he realized then that this must also be Malfoy's room, which would explain the green curtains and his missing wardrobe. Most of the other beds in the room were empty except for two that had what appeared to be snoring boulders he could only assume were Crabbe and Goyle. Getting caught in the Slytherin dormitories would not be a good idea, especially since he had no idea why he looked like Malfoy or how he was going to undo it. Another thought came to mind; if he woke up in the Slytherin dorms in Malfoy's body, did that mean that Malfoy was in his bedroom looking like him? He needed to get back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry tried to leave the dormitory without disturbing the other occupants. The dungeons were eerily quiet but his memory from sneaking in during his second year guided his footsteps. The stone walls were thick and cold and there were thick carpets along the stairs dampening the sound of his footsteps, which was helpful as Harry tried to make his escape barefoot. Moving through the doorway leading to the Common Room, Harry ran directly into Vaisey, whom he recognized from the Slytherin quidditch team. Harry grumbled a vague "good morning" and tried to sidestep Vaisey. but he grabbed his arm before he could make it out the doorway.

"Don't forget: quidditch practice at five, Malfoy.

Not knowing how Malfoy interacted with the older boy, Harry merely nodded before skirting around him. If Vaisey thought it odd that Draco Malfoy was walking around the Common Room in his pajamas without his shoes, he didn't draw attention to it. Harry was halfway towards the wall that doubled as the entrance when it slid open to reveal Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass walking in with breakfast pasties from the Great Hall.

"Hi, Draco, we noticed you weren't in the Great Hall for breakfast and brought you a pasty," Daphne started when she saw him, her eyes twinkling.

"Err, thanks," Harry said, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. He reached for the napkin-wrapped package. He tried to say as little as possible to not be found out as not being Draco.

Tracey noticed his bare feet with a quizzical brow. "Draco, why aren't you wearing shoes?"

"I, uh…" Harry looked at his feet then back up to the two girls who were waiting for his answer. "Lost them," he managed to mumble.

"And why are you wearing your pajamas in the Common Room? You never leave your dormitory undressed."

"Are you feeling alright? Your voice sounds different," Daphne questioned, leaning in to examine him more closely.

Sticking his nose in the air, Harry tried to put on an arrogant image that he frequently thought Malfoy projected. "Perfectly fine. Excuse me." He moved past them to exit through the wall.

"Alright," the two girls replied in unison to his retreating form.

He was almost through the wall before his exit was blocked by Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, who essentially formed a wall that herded him back towards the centre of the Common Room.

"Malfoy, where were you this morning, and why aren't you wearing shoes? I know you lost a bunch of gold in Exploding Snap last night but I didn't think you lost your shoes too." Zabini looked Harry up and down with a chuckle. "Come on, let's have a rematch. I'll give you a chance to win back some of your money before quidditch practice."

The group walked towards the leather sofas in the corner. Harry tried to make another attempt to leave the Slytherin Common Room but Pansy stopped him, slapping some folded parchment to his chest.

"Hermes tried to deliver this at breakfast but you weren't there. He wouldn't let anyone touch him but me."

"Your bird is really temperamental, Malfoy. I had to go to Pomfrey to get patched up," Nott added, waving his left hand in the air.

Zabini swatted him on the back with a throw pillow from the sofa with an amused, "Drama queen."

Harry looked at the parchment in his hands. He knew he shouldn't read Malfoy's mail. He could even hear Hermione's voice in his head telling him that it was morally and ethically wrong, not to mention illegal, to read mail that was not your own. But in his hands was possibly insight into what Malfoy was doing this year. Ever since they'd seen him and his mother being sneaky in Diagon Alley, Harry had been suspicious of what Malfoy was doing. This was his opportunity to find out. If it was dangerous, they would need to know, for the greater good. With his mind made up, Harry turned to the waiting group and said, "I'll be right back." He hadn't even bothered to try to sound like Malfoy, too caught up in his own curiosity.

Back in the sixth-year boys' dormitory, Harry climbed into Malfoy's bed and drew the curtains shut. Crabbe and Goyle were still snoring but he didn't want to be interrupted in his snooping if they woke up suddenly. Carefully he broke the wax seal on the parchment.

My Son,

Your mother has informed me of the new tasks you have received in my absence. This is the opportunity we need to bring the Malfoy family name out of disgrace. You have not always performed at your optimum under pressure but now you have a chance to prove yourself. To fail the Dark Lord is to fail me. DO NOT FAIL ME, or you will face the consequences.

I am being kept abreast of your progress. You will hear from me soon.

L. Malfoy

Harry had always thought that his life would have been better if he had gotten to have his parents. Perhaps if they had lived, he would even have siblings. He had always been jealous of Ron and Hermione for having their families still intact. At Hogwarts he didn't really feel the weight of being an orphan because the place was free of parents and all that their presence would represent. But during the summer it was a constant reminder that he had no one. Summers were always the worst time for him because he had to leave Hogwarts and go back to the Dursleys. They gave him food and shelter but there was no love there. The Weasleys tried, but he would always feel pain of them being someone else's parents. In a way, he had also resented Malfoy for having both his parents too. He always thought that Malfoy lived a charmed life, but that he was too arrogant to realize what he had. But maybe his life wasn't as charmed as it seemed. In a way, he kind of felt sorry for Malfoy.

Reading the letter again, Harry was disappointed to learn that the letter, while telling him a lot, didn't tell him anything about what Malfoy was up to, so he folded it and tucked it under the pillow. Hopefully if he ever returned to his body Malfoy would think he had already read it and wouldn't be suspicious. The clock on the wall struck noon and Harry decided that he needed to try to escape Slytherin and figure how to get back into his own body.

Unfortunately for Harry, he was unable to find a way to leave undetected. Everywhere he went in Slytherin seemed to attract attention. He had always thought that Malfoy's persona of popularity and importance was put on, but here in his proverbial natural habitat it seemed to be genuine. People actually wanted to spend time with him. Older students sought him out, younger students tried to talk to him, girls even tried flirting with him. It wasn't unlike how Harry was treated in Gryffindor and around the rest of the school. To not give away his secret, Harry mostly stuck to Malfoy's core group of friends, who didn't seem to mind when he was less than talkative and simply stuck to playing the rematch of Exploding Snap that Zabini had suggested. The afternoon continued in much the same way until it was time for the Slytherin team to have quidditch practice.

At a quarter to five, Harry changed into Malfoy's quidditch kit and made his way down to the pitch. At least this was something he didn't have to fake, even if he could barely see. When he arrived at the broom cupboard Harry was pleasantly surprised to see that the rumours of Malfoy's new broom were true— he did in fact have the new Firebolt X7— and Harry was being presented with the unique opportunity to try it out. "Okay, now I'm impressed," he said to no one in particular.

Indeed, it was impressive. When Vaisey, the Slytherin Captain, started practice and released the Snitch, Harry gave it five minutes before he took to the sky to give chase. His job would be to catch the Snitch as fast as possible while the rest of the team flew drills. However, his blurry vision put him at a distinct disadvantage and he just used the time to put Malfoy's broom through its paces. During one particularly steep fall, he brought the broom to a sharp stop and couldn't resist the exhilarated whoops and shouts he was making. Too soon, practice was over and he was forced to return Malfoy's broom to the cupboard. The entire team went back to the Common Room as a group, and once again Harry joined Malfoy's friends who were doing their homework in front of the fire.

Under the guise of doing his Potions assignment, Harry tried to figure how he came to be in Malfoy's body. The only explanation was that something more severe had happened when he had crashed into Malfoy in class. But he had no idea what kind of potion Malfoy was assigned to brew. Not for the first time today, he wished Hermione was here. In Potions class on Friday, Professor Slughorn had given each student a potion that was at a different stage of completion. It was the student's task to figure out what potion it was and write a paper on how to complete it. The diagnostic essay was to be turned in on Tuesday. Harry had been given a Befuddlement Draught but he wasn't sure what Draco had been given. At the end of class both students had been walking to Slughorn's desk with a vial of their potions when they had bumped into each other and their vials had fallen, shattering on the floor and forming a combined puddle. The resulting mixture had bubbled briefly and released a gas that smelled oddly of rotten eggs and peppermint before dissipating. Whatever it was that was happening to him now had to be as a result of that accident. He and Malfoy were the only people within the vicinity of the fumes at the time. But he had no idea how to undo it. Was he going to have to brew an antidote or would whatever this was wear off on its own? And what if it never did? Was he doomed to live the rest of his life as Malfoy?

Feeling suddenly crushed by the weight of uncertainty, Harry excused himself from the group and returned to the dormitory. Sitting on Malfoy's bed, he reread the letter from Lucius Malfoy. He was no closer to figuring out what Malfoy was up to but he thought he understood the other boy a little better. The pressure to perform and the expectations that came with being the "Chosen One" were difficult but Harry had never considered what it must feel like from the other side. Did Malfoy even want to be doing whatever it was that was now expected of him? Based on his father's letter, it didn't seem like he had a choice. At least that much Harry understood. He had no choice either. Similar thoughts ran through his head until he fell asleep, the stress of the day and the vigorous quidditch practice getting the better of him.

The first thing Harry noticed when he woke up was the sun streaking through a crack in his bed curtains. Jumping out of bed, he grabbed for his glasses, finding them where he had left them on Friday night. He ran to the mirror on the other side of the room to check his appearance. Messy black hair, striking green eyes, and a lightning bolt scar stared back at him. Instinctively his fingers went to his scar and a feeling of relief threatened to consume him. He thought about going back to sleep but his growling stomach reminded him that he had hardly eaten anything the previous day. Checking the clock above the door, he noted that it was ten minutes to six. His roommates were not yet awake but surely the house-elves would already have breakfast in the Great Hall. Dressing quickly and quietly, he left the Gryffindor Common Room and walked the well-travelled route to breakfast.

The Hall was occupied with a few early risers but most students had a lay-in on Sundays. As he made his way to the Gryffindor table, his eyes scanned the room, landing on Draco Malfoy. Harry's eyes met Draco's just as the other boy looked up from his porridge. Harry's steps faltered at the recognition he saw there. They stared at each other for a long moment before the eye contact was broken by a Ravenclaw third-year trying to get to his table. When Harry looked back at Malfoy the Slytherin boy gave him a nod. Harry returned the nod in understanding. He continued his path to his usual seat at the Gryffindor table. Perhaps they weren't so different after all.