Malfoy's alarm went off too early for Greyson. He turned to throw an annoyed look his way and was greeted with an empty bed and a distant thud. It took him a moment for his sleep-muddled brain to think to look down, but when he did he was greeted with Malfoy face down, tangled up in the sheets and ears bright red. A laugh bubbled up in his throat despite himself and when his fit subsided he realized Malfoy was looking at him slack jawed. For a few moments they just stared at each other, both unsure how to deal with the other.

Eventually he pushed himself out of bed, not particularly feeling like getting out of bed and going to classes. Though the thought that did comfort him was the fact he would see his brother.

He headed to the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table, waiting to see when his brother would appear. His knee bounced up and down anxiously as he waited and waited. It was almost time to start heading to his first class, which was Charms with Professor Flitwick.

He smiled when he saw Harry and Ron appear in the doorway of the Great Hall and got up to go greet them. "Where do you think you're going Potter?" the older boy who led them to the common rooms asked him.

Greyson paused to look at him. "I'm going to see my brother," he said, not particularly caring for him. Was it normal to be at odds with almost everyone in your house? Grey cast a look at the other tables and decided that, no, it was most certainly not.

"You're a Slytherin now," he told Greyson. "So you eat your meals at the Slytherin table."

"Oh, bugger off," Greyson said dismissively as he ignored him to go see Harry. But before he could, the bell rang, signalling the end of breakfast and the start of the school day. He stopped and watched as Harry and Ron eached grabbed a muffin and ran off to go to their first class.

He sighed and drudged his way through his classes. He took notes and made his way to and from but he never really got a chance to see his brother. Anytime he saw him, it was only brief glances and small waves. It was honestly killing Greyson to be apart from his brother for so long.

It didn't do anyone around him any good as Greyson slept very little due to his worry over Harry, so he was extremely snappish and short tempered. Of course it caused anyone from the other houses to stray away from him as he was seen as one the worst in the Slytherin house over those first few days, not that it really bothered Greyson. He actually preferred it as it meant fewer people would bother him.

However, with how late he was staying up, he always managed to see these odd creatures with large eyes and huge batlike ears. House elves, is what they were called, though they weren't such great company as they were all prim and proper when talking with Greyson saying "yes, sir", and "of course, sir", and any other thing with the word sir in it.

Finally, on Friday morning Greyson saw Harry and Ron finally appear in the Great Hall at a decent enough time that he could finally sit down and have a proper chat with his brother. Greyson could feel the stares at him, all with disgust and distrust, but he ignored them with his full attention zoned in on Harry.

"And what do you think you're doing?" a tall red headed boy said, arms folded across his front looking very much like a rule-following, tattletale. Greyson looked at him and recognized him as Percy, Ron's older brother, the prefect, if he remembered correctly.

"Going to see Harry," he said and moved to step around him only to find Percy still blocking his path.

"Oh no you aren't," Percy said. "I'm not going to have a Slytherin cause any trouble with the Gryffindor first years."

Greyson blinked. "But I-" he said trying to go to his brother. Instead he was grabbed by two Slytherins, much bigger than him, and dragged back to his table. He sat there, stunned at the turn of events. He just wanted to know how his brother's first week had gone. He sighed, defeated, and watched as the owls came by. Atrox never brought Greyson anything, and why should he? He had no friends, no family except for Harry, though Hogwarts seemed to be doing a grand job of taking that from him now too.

Greyson blinked when a note fell onto his empty plate, though it was almost always empty as the stress made it hard for Greyson to properly enjoy a meal or even food.

While he wasn't wasting away, his cheeks looked thinner when he happened to glance in the mirror and run a comb through his hair. Every once and a while he caught Malfoy looking at him. However, when ver he turned to snap at him for staring, Malfoy quickly turned away and worked on his studies or whatever else he was doing.

He unfolded it to see he had a note from Hagrid. He smiled softly and quickly scribbled that he'd love to have tea with Hagrid this afternoon at 2. He'd probably even get to see Harry and Ron as well!

He brightened at the prospect of finally getting to spend some time with his brother that it caused the knots in his stomach to loosen and make him realize that he was unbelievably starved. He started piling eggs and bacon and fat sausages onto his plate along with toast with marmalade.

He headed to potions class, a double session that he shared with Harry and Ron. Perhaps he'd even be able to sit with them. Greyson was one of the first to arrive as he was familiar with the class since it was in the dungeons near the Slytherin common room.

Try as he might, he couldn't even get close to his brother or even save him a seat and before he knew it, Harry was surrounded by a sea of Gryffindor's and he was stuck beside Malfoy.

Greyson watched helplessly as Snape began an endless tirade of questions that Harry didn't know but Greyson did. He had an excellent memory compared to his little brother and was more of a bookworm than Harry ever was. Though there were many ways Greyson outshone Harry, though he never really focused on them enough to notice.

Adding powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood? It produced a horrid sleeping potion, something by the name of Draught of Death.

A bezoar stone? Easy, it was in a goat's stomach and saved you from most poisons, they learned that in history class last year and was told it was a myth and believed by old kings. And as for monkshood and wolfsbane, they were the exact same plant.

"I don't know sir," Harry said and looked at Hermione who knew the answer to every single one of Snape's questions as well. "But why don't you ask Hermione, she seems to know."

Snape narrowed his eyes at Harry. "Didn't bother opening you books before the school semester, Potter?" Snape asked. "I guess fame isn't everything."

Greyson stood up, unable to help himself. "He did open them," Greyson snapped. "We read them the entire month before the semester started. And as for your questions, it would be a powerful sleeping potion, come from a goat's stomach and is used as a cure for most poisons. Wolfsbane and monkshood are the exact same plant. Not to mention that Harry has never even had an inkling of superiority his entire life. It's everyone here who has ridiculous expectations here for him since he's the bloody boy who lived." Snape eyed him and his lips curled back into a sneer.

"Go to Dumbledore's office," Snape commanded, pointing one long pale finger towards the door. "And ten points from Slytherin for your outburst." He was given disgusted glares from the other Slytherins and surprised looks from the Gryffindor first years as if someone standing up for someone outside of their house was unheard of.

Greyson sighed and grabbed his books before leaving the dungeons. Who the hell was Dumbledore? That name sounded familiar. He frowned and remembered Hagrid talking about him being the greatest headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen. He walked around and eventually saw Percy. "Scuse me," Greyson said, hopefully Percy the Perfect Prefect could help him.

"What?" he asked, snappishly.

"I was wanting to know where Dumbledore's office was, but of course a Gryffindor wouldn't want to help," he drawled before pushing forward. Is this how school is going to be forever?

He ended up not going to Dumbledore's office after his encounter with Percy and instead trudged his way towards Hagrid's hut since it didn't really matter what he did if he was going to be miserable either way. Hagrid's hut was all the way across school grounds and out by the forest. It looked practical and functional more than anything. Hagrid had a giant pair of work boots sitting out by the door and a crossbow of all things, but he was quickly learning not to be surprised.

Greyson didn't even knock as he strode in, ignoring the great black dog and taking a seat in one of Hagrid's massive chairs. "Greyson!" Hagrid said cheerfully. "What're you doin' here so early? Thought you had classes this morning."

"I did," he practically growled. "But Snape apparently doesn't like it when someone tells him somethin'." He got up and began to pace as he ranted all about how horrible Hogwarts was and how everyone stopped him from seeing Harry because he was a damned Slytherin and Harry was a Gryffindor and all about how agrravating Malfoy was and how Percy the Perfect Prefect Weasley had just about the largest stick shoved up his ass that Greyson had ever seen and then Snape was the biggest asshat to his little brother ever and when he snapped because everyone saw Harry as larger than life they expected him to carry on those same expectations and then he was sent to Dumbledore's office wherever the hell that is.

"Alrigh', alrigh', take a deep breath an' drink," Hagrid said and set a large cup of tea in front of Greyson before pouring in something from his flask. "Don' tell nobody I did that. But should help calm ye down a bit." Greyson nodded and took a large sip to what he suspected was brandy and hot tea. The smell of the alcohol reminded him of Uncle Dursley, but he pushed past it like he did everything else lately.

It filled Greyson with a fiery kind of warmth and he took a deep breath before addressing Hagrid again. "Sorry," Greyson sighed, forcing his shoulders to relax. "It's just... this has been one of the absolute worst weeks..." He took another sip and stared at the amber liquid. "First Harry was put in a different house than mine... and it's the absolute worst house... or at least I was put in the worst one... No one will even let me near him... This morning with Percy, he thought I was just going to harass Harry because I'm a Slytherin and before I could even speak, the Slytherins dragged me back to our house table. I haven't even talked to Harry all week.

"Not to mention I'm stuck sharing a room with that Malfoy kid and he just wants to tell me how expensive all his rubbish is as if I actually care about something as stupid as money...

"But everyone is enamored with him, and I mean they should be, he's bloody wonderful, but they just see him as this great thing because of something he doesn't even remember doing, not to mention he has no idea how the wizard world even works. And all I can do is worry about him... Worry if everyone is going to treat him horrible because I'm a Slytherin, or what if he has trouble sleeping and gets his nightmares where he sees bright green flashes and hears screaming and his scar hurts, or what if he needs me and I'm not there?"

Greyson felt his eyes start to sting. He hated how when it came to Hagrid he always felt the need to cry and tell the man everything going on in his head. Hagrid was just so sturdy, in body and spirit, the words seemed to spill from him before he could properly think them through. It made him feel stupidly weak. He knew it was stupid because Hagrid was the most gentle and understanding soul he knew. He didn't have to be brave and strong for Hagrid. And then a thought struck him. What if Hagrid leaves me too? Harry didn't try to visit... what if... what if... he doesn't care anymore?

Hagrid sat down and looked at Greyson. "That's a lot ye got tumblin' aroun' in there," Hagrid said. "No wonner yer a mess with all of tha' goin on." Hagrid held his arms out once more and pulled Greyson into them when he didn't make a motion of going to him. "It'll be alrigh', Greyson."

"What if... what if... you start to hate me too?" Greyson asked in a small voice.

"Hate you?" Hagrid asked in shock. "Fer wha'?"

"For being a Slytherin," Greyson said. "Harry already does..."

"An why on earth would Harry hate ya'?" Hagrid asked. "From all ye've told me, he's bloody lucky to have a brother who cares so much about him that he'd get points taken away from his house, much less in front of his house teacher."

"He never came to see me... today was the first day he came to breakfast early enough for me to talk to him," Greyson said. Hagrid frowned and stared at him before poking him in the stomach, catching the new slight give of his robes in large fingers.

"Ye haven't been eatin," Hagrid said frowning. Greyson looked down, not wanting to meet Hagrid's stare. He felt his cheeks start to heat in shame. "Ye got to let Harry go an' explore a bit. Ye can't keep him with ye forever." Greyson knew that, even if he didn't want to admit that Hagrid was right. "What were ye gonna do at the Dursleys when Harry wen' off to Muggle school without you?"

"He wasn't," Greyson said. "I was just going to go with him..." He sighed. "I've never been without him... he's always been there. When I slept, when I ate, when we were out... it was always just me and him... but I can't even spend time with my brother or ask him how he's doing..." That stinging in his eyes was back and Greyson couldn't stop it this time. He felt the first of the hot tears spill onto his cheeks and drop onto the floor. Small sobs broke free, despite his best efforts to keep them at bay. "Nobody even cares about me... they all just care about the boy who lived..."

"Now stop that," Hagrid said softly, his arms tightening slightly. "Harry cares plenty and I sure do. I'm just sure he's been occupied with figuring his way aroun'. Jus' you wait and see, he's just waiting to see his brother and tell him all about his great first week at Hogwarts."

"Fine," Greyson moped, quickly wiping his eyes and taking a few deep breaths as he turned back to his brandy tea and worked on unwinding the ball of stress in his chest to something manageable. Greyson waited, glad that Hagrid didn't shoo him off to see Dumbledore or go to his other class of the day.

While he waited for two o'clock to come, he helped Hagrid with his work and took in how homey Hagrid's hut was. It had a large fireplace with a huge cauldron hanging in it and a massive bed in the corner with a handmade patchwork quilt.

When Greyson heard the bell ring, signalling the end of his wait, Greyson felt himself smile a little, looking forward to seeing Harry. He sat waiting and waiting and waiting. It was almost three when Greyson finally gave up on the waiting.

Greyson just got up and made the long trek back to the Slytherin common room, wishing that Hogwarts had just been a horribly long dream...