Draco awoke nearly an hour later, his neck and back aching. Next to him, someone gave a small murmur and he jumped, looking suspiciously around. When he saw it was just Harry he relaxed and smiled a little.

He had changed a lot since he had renounced the Death Eaters. The old Draco would never have smiled, but now he did. Simply because he felt like smiling. And there was no Voldemort to prevent his smile.

Harry was waking now, moving around slightly. Draco unhappily walked over to the fireplace and tossed in a handful of floo powder.

"Professor Snape?"

Snape's head popped into the fireplace looking anxious.

"Is everything alright, Draco?"

"Yes sir, I was just hoping you could come and see Harry?"

With another pop Snape appeared in the room.

"Merlin! What happened?" he exclaimed running over to where Harry was semi- unconscious in a pool of blood.

Draco silently cursed. He had been going to keep his suicide attempt a secret, now that his arms were healed, but the blood on the parquet floor would be quite hard to explain.

"Um, I think it would be best if Harry told you that" he stalled. Suspicion written all over his face, Snape lifted Harry and carried him through to the bedroom.

"Draco, you should go to your next lesson"

Draco nodded and left.

*******************************

"Enervate"

Harry blinked and the face of Snape swam into view above him.

"Pro. . .professor. . ."

"What happened last night, Harry?"

"I. . .I think I was sleeping, and I heard a noise. I went into the bathroom and Draco. . ."

Harry stopped and then frowned. Snape was dumbstruck.

"Oh Merlin" breathed Harry, "He didn't tell you?"

"No. . .I saw the blood and just assumed. . ."

"I don't know why he did it, but I healed him somehow, then I think I blacked out. . ."

Snape looked so tired and worried that Harry felt for the man.

"I'd better fetch Draco and have a word with him. . ."

Harry nodded, and then whispered, "Don't be too strict with him, sir. He thought he was doing the right thing for himself."

With a sharp nod and a swish of robes, Snape was gone.

************************

Malfoy emerged red-eyed from Snape's office at the end of the day. All potions lessons had been cancelled while Snape talked with Draco. He made his way to his chambers, and saw Harry sitting up in bed reading.

"Hey Potter" he managed, with a shadow of his former sneer.

"Malfoy" acknowledged Harry without looking up.

"What are you reading, Potter? Nothing useful, I suppose."

Harry smiled inwardly.

"Transfiguring ferrets" he muttered, and then laughed as his friend took off in the other direction, squeaking.

*************************

Ten minutes later, Snape crawled through the portrait hole muttering something rude about bloody cheerful paintings. He was tired and worried about his two charges. He had a feeling that while Draco had now begun to understand that he was not a bad person just because of his father - 'Look at Dumbledore's family! Raving lunatics, the lot of them!' - Harry was still deeply depressed. He didn't eat or speak unless he had to. On occasions he managed a few moments of cheerfulness, but it never lasted. Every time, he lapsed into silence, answering in monosyllables whenever someone tried to talk to him.

Snape had once invited McGonagall to see Harry. The conversation had been boring to put it mildly.

"So, Mr Potter, how are you feeling?"

"Fine thank you professor."

Awkward pause.

"Are you happy in Mr Malfoy's room?"

"Yes thank you professor."

The conversation had gone on like that for as long as McGonagall could think of opening lines. Eventually she had left, looking thoroughly fed up.

Snape had only just heard the other day in the Staff Room (he didn't venture there much) that McGonagall, having heard of the Gryffindors nasty pranks on Harry, had sent the entire house out into the Forbidden Forest with Filch to collect nasty creatures which lived there, called Bang-ended Scoots. They were, apparently, of the same family of those blast-ended skrewts Hagrid had been using for his class last year, except they only had bangs, not stings or suckers. However, it had still been a horrible detention. McGonagall had also deducted 100 points from Gryffindor, effectively putting them out of the running for the House Cup.

McGonagall loved her students like children, though she would never let them know it, and Snape had a feeling Gryffindor would be starting the next few years on negative points if the students weren't nice to Harry. It was quite a nice thought, really.

*********************************

Harry sighed as the blade sliced through his skin, soaking the sleeve of his robes with blood. This just wasn't working any more! He made another slice, hissing through his teeth at the pain, before he heard footsteps and quickly transfigured his blade back into a toothbrush.

It was Snape. He thought. Though. . .everything was going slightly hazy. Using a hand gesture he had picked up from a book, he healed the cuts as well as he could and cleaned the blood from his robes. Snape was looking at his suspiciously, but said nothing. They stood in silence for a few moments before Snape turned his face away. To Harry's horror, there were tears in the black eyes.

"I. . .I have bad news for you Harry. I think you should sit down. . ."





**** Ok, ok, so it's short and ends on a cliffie, sue me. I'll update as soon as I can which might not be too soon, keep those reviews coming in people : ) ****