"You didn't hear about..." Harry said, turning to Draco with less wariness than he would have four days ago. "No, I suppose you didn't..."

"What, Potter?" Draco's voice was deliberately demanding, and yet not sharp - his eyes sparkling with interest, not true impatience. Though he did rather hope that Harry Potter would get on with it. He wasn't as stupid as Goyle, no matter what Snape claimed.

"Hagrid had told us that what he had gotten from Gringott's - that important whatever-it-was - was tied in some way to Nicholas Flamel." Harry Potter paused, for a moment, and then continued, "Who we didn't know a thing about."

"So you started reading?" Draco Malfoy said, vaguely remembering seeing the "Golden Trio" (what a ridiculous nickname) huddled in the library. And while it wasn't at all strange to see Granger there, he was suddenly realizing that she hadn't had the power to order her friends there, or the social status to bully them into it.

"Yeah, except then I got the idea to look in the Restricted Section." Harry paused for a moment, "We weren't having much luck anywhere else."

"A decent idea - how'd you expect to pull it off, though? A first year, in the Restricted Section?" Draco looked inquiringly at Harry, "You Do realize that means 'certainly not for first years' right?"

Harry's icy "Of course" only made Draco Malfoy grin - as open and wide a grin as Harry had felt after his first broomstick ride - before McGonagall informed him how nearly he had come to getting himself killed. Ask a stupid question, get a reliably annoyed response. Simple as clockwork. Still, Potter should be used to it by now, with Weasley as his friend.

"I had an invisibility cloak - which I don't have now, so don't think it'll help you out of any jams-" Draco was already shaking his head, warily - why would Potter think his cloak would still even be around? Did he really buy a new cloak each summer?

"After hours, I tried to sneak into the Restricted Section."

"Tried?"

"Snape's got ears as well as eyes, you know. And Filch has a cat with a decent nose."

"Did you get caught?" Draco couldn't help leaning closer. This was interesting.

"Naw, but I stumbled into an old classroom. With a mirror that didn't show my reflection." Draco went completely still, his eyes blinking, once, twice.

"What did it show?" Draco asked, his voice quietly respectful, as if dragon's gold was pouring from Potter's lips, instead of simply schoolboy secrets.

"My mum, my da. Me. Just us, a family. Together." Harry said, and Draco thought his voice sounded strange, almost strangled. Almost as if the words were being torn from his throat.

"That's not all there is to it, is there?"

"No... Ron saw himself as Head Boy, clutching a Quiddich trophy."

"You brought Weasley on something sneaky?"

"Of course not, I took him the next night." Draco wasn't sure that wasn't a worse idea... but he realized that of course Potter would want to share something 'amazing' with his friends.

"Not Granger?" Draco spat the name, and regretted it not.

"No, she wouldn't have wanted to come. Not after hours. And we didn't need a lecture."

"What did you need?"

"Magic. Adventure."

"Ah, much is explained about the Great Harry Potter's Midnight Ramblings! In search of adventure, of all things! And searching for magic - in the magical world, where it's everywhere!" Draco's voice sounded briefly like the twins, the grandiousity counterbalanced by the stagecraft.

Harry responded first with a grin, and then a harder, more considering look. "I didn't know that you could sound like that."

"Oh, there's loads you don't know about me, Potter, simply loads."


Sixth period, 7th years. Snape dropped a well-written note on his prefects' desks. Leaning low, he said, "House meeting. 9 o'clock. Don't be late." After class, he rushed back to his rooms for a quick scrub before dinner. He planned to arrive on time, for once. He had a Gryffindor to bait, after all.

[a/n: Snape finds it a touch more difficult to extricate himself from Hogwarts. More duties, but mostly - he intends to come back.

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