"Harry?" Seamus waved a hand over Harry's face. "Hello?"

          Harry's head slipped off his hand and he banged his elbow on the side of the table. "Ow!" Harry rubbed his arm. "What?" he asked, turned to Seamus.

          Seamus laughed. "Oh, nothin', nothing'…" he said, shaking his head. Harry folded his arms down on the table and rested his head onto them. Seamus smiled and stuck his head round in front of Harry's. "Harry? You don't really seem…well…yourself, today…"

          "What is myself?" Harry murmured simply. "I am nothing but a tool, what do I matter…"

          Seamus frowned, worried and confused by this. He straightened himself and stood up, walking over to Dean. Dean whispered something to him and pointed over to the fire, where Ron was sitting on the floor, quill poised over a piece of parchment, not moving. Seamus nodded to Dean and walked over to Ron. "You alright, mate?" he asked, sitting himself on the floor opposite Ron.

          "Yeah," Ron answered, offering nothing more. He was frowning down at his parchment.

          Seamus studied the parchment then laughed, seeing the heading. "You do know that that Transfiguration homework is due in in an hour, don't you?"

          Ron nodded. "Yep."

          "And, you haven't even started…"

          "I know."

          Seamus frowned. "Look, Ron, do you want some help? You seem a bit stuck…"

          "No, that's alright, I'm fine thanks."

          Seamus put his hands back on the floor and leaned his weight on them. When Ron said nothing more, he stood up and walked over to a table, grabbing a book. He walked back over to Ron and opened the first page, sticking it in Ron's face. "Here, this might help, since the homework is based on this chapter?"

          Ron nodded slowly. "Right, thanks." He scanned the book then wrote a word down. He was just about to write another word when he stopped, quill touching the paper, causing a lot of ink to leak from the tip of his quill. "Uh, Ron?" Seamus said. Nothing. "Ron?" Still nothing. Seamus poked him. "Oi, Ron!"

          Ron shook his head and looked up at Seamus angrily. "What is it, Seamus? I'm trying to do my homework." He looked back down at his paper and started to write again. Seamus stood up slowly, confused, and walked over to Dean.

          "Verdict?" whispered his best friend. Seamus shook his head. He looked over to Ron who had once more, stopped his quill, and then over to Harry, who had his head in his arms, and seemed to be muttering things to himself.

          "I have no idea, Dean," said Seamus quietly. "But I've got the feeling that something bad is going on."

          Harry and Ron walked to Transfiguration in different routes, but, funnily enough, they met at exactly the same time at the door of the classroom. Their faces showed very different expressions. Harry's brow was worried and confused, Ron's was just angry. "After you," Harry said quietly. Ron walked passed wordlessly, but stopped suddenly. Harry walked in to see that the only two chairs left were seated next to each other. Harry looked at Ron, who just stared at the two seats, as if willing them to move further apart. Professor McGonagall came rushing in then, knowing she was late, and almost bumped into the boys. She ushered them along to their seats and reluctantly, they sat down.

          Ron got his things out and set them down on his desk, then fluttered his eyes up to McGonagall, eyes never wavering. Harry glanced at Ron, then back to the front, where McGonagall had started teaching the lesson. "So, this is how it's going to be, huh? You're just going to never speak to me ever again?"

          "Yep," Ron whispered back. The two were still not looking at each other.

          "I need to tell you some stuff…" Harry started.

          "Yeah, well, I'm not interested, ok?"

          That hurt Harry. Ron was saying he didn't want anything to do with him, and that hurt Harry like a knife going through his heart. He frowned and looked to the front. "Wow, thanks a lot," he whispered. "It's nice to know you care."

          Ron was silent for a moment, then said, "I'm sorry, ok? I do care…"

          "Then why aren't you talking to me?"

          "Because you don't care about me!" Their voices had risen a bit, and McGonagall shushed at them to hush. They apologised quickly, and she went back to her book that was in her hands.

          Harry glanced at Ron again. "Of course I care about you; you're my best friend, idiot! Look, I'm really, really sorry, ok? I can't believe I never thought about how you were missing Hermione. I was so caught up in my feelings for her, I…I'm sorry…"

          Ron didn't say any more to him all lesson, but Harry felt that things would probably get better. Near the end of the lesson, Ron turned to Harry. "So what did you want to tell me?"

          Harry grinned. "So, we're friends again?"

          Ron grinned back. "Of course." He stuck a formal hand out, and said in a posh voice, "It's a delight to be back at your side, Mr. Potter."

          Harry laughed and shook the hand. "Same to you, Mr. Weasley."

          They grinned at each other and packed their things away. Across the room, to Harry and Ron's disknowledge (lol – not a real word, must change!!!! Any ideas??) Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender, and Neville were all smiling at the two happily.

          In Potions, Snape seemed to be in a good mood, so he let them choose the partners they wanted to make their potion. Harry had planned, obviously, to go with Ron – he wanted to tell him stuff – but Ron said he'd already promised to go with Neville, who really needed help. And Dean and Seamus, Lavender and Parvati were already partnered together. Harry stood up, scanning the classroom for anyone without a partner.

          Cassandra. She was looking around anxiously, also trying to find a partner, Harry assumed. Malfoy wasn't there – he must have fallen ill or something. Could Harry really go with Cassandra? A Slytherin and a Griffindor? He knew it was just for a lesson, but there were still rules. Oh well, there wasn't anyone else. Harry stood up and walked over to her. "Hi Cassandra," he said smiling. He sat down next to her.

          "Oh, hi Harry." Cassandra smiled back. "Aren't there rivalry rules or something?!"

          Harry laughed. "Yes, but we have an excuse: everyone else has partnered up already."

          Cassandra smiled flirtatiously. "Isn't that the reason you're sitting next to me? 'Cause there's no one else? You just said that was an excuse."

          Harry burned red. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. Instead he laughed. "Don't twist my words – you know what I mean!"

          Cassandra laughed her musical laugh again, and stood up. They both got the different ingredients needed and got to work on the extra-powerful truth spell they were cooking up. "So where's Malfoy?" Harry asked conversationally.

          "Why do you care? You hate him."

          Harry laughed. "Exactly. I wouldn't want to miss out on an opportunity to make fun of him being ill!"

          Cassandra smiled lightly. "He's got a cold. Thought he'd take the day off." She paused, and didn't say anything for a while. Harry hoped he hadn't offended her; she liked Malfoy. "Why do you two the each other so much?"

          Harry stopped what he was doing, and stared at the cauldron. Slowly, he flipped the pages of the book they were reading from and pretended to be very interested in the pages. "Um, well, number of reasons, I guess…" he said slowly.

          "Like what?" Harry looked at Cassandra. Wasn't it obvious? Did he really need to spell it out for her? Malfoy was a Slytherin, Harry was a Griffindor. Malfoy's dad was a Death Eater (or so Harry assumed that he was again), Harry's parents had been killed by the one his family served. Harry looked away and mumbled something.

          "What was that?" Cassandra asked innocently. Harry looked at her again, and her eyelashes shut together and drifted apart slowly. He stared at her a moment, taking in this beauty, then shook his head and looked back down at his book. Since when was a Slytherin allowed to be so beautiful?

          "Well…" Harry coughed, still not looking at her. "We've been rivals since the first day at Hogwarts." Cassandra didn't say anything, so Harry went on. "Well, first of all, he's a Slytherin. And…they say that, that all Slytherins go bad." Cassandra didn't respond to this at all. She simply blinked again and waited for more. Harry didn't like giving the girlfriend of the one he hated a list of reasons why he hated the one he hated. "Plus, there's the fact that he was mean about Hagrid and Ron. My first friends here." Harry stopped, realising that he sounded stupid. Instead of going on about Malfoy, he got angry. "Look, Cassandra, why are you even going out with Malfoy?"

          Cassandra looked surprised by this question. She blinked again and raised her eyebrows. Obviously, she hadn't been expecting that. "W-What do you mean?"

          "Well…you two are just really different, that's all."

          Cassandra smiled to herself. The smile was quick, and it faded quickly, but Harry had seen it. "We're not that different, Harry," she said quietly and confidently. She smiled suggestively and touched his arm. Harry felt shivers shooting up it and tried hard not to move at the sudden touch. Cassandra slowly moved closer to Harry and touched his tie. She looked at it a moment, then up into Harry's eyes. "I mean, we're both in Slytherin, aren't we?" Harry gulped. "How do you know I'm not as bad as he is?" she whispered. Then she closed her eyes and moved her mouth to his ear. Harry closed his eyes slowly and breathed in deeply. She smelled so lovely. "How do you know?" she whispered again.

          Suddenly Harry heard a cough and opened his eyes. Cassandra moved quickly away from Harry, blushing. Harry turned to see Snape frowning at him. Harry looked quickly around, but no one was looking. He turned back to Snape who had raised an eyebrow at Cassandra. "Mixing with the Griffindors, are we Miss Leaks?" Cassandra didn't say anything, and Harry tried not to think too much about Snape's big emphasis on her last name. Snape turned to Harry. "And have you finished your truth potion yet, Mr. Potter?"

          "No, professor," Harry said truthfully.

          "Ten points will be taken from Griffindor for lack of concentration. Make sure it's ready in five minutes or I'll take a further 20 points." Harry was just about to argue and say it was Cassandra as well, and shouldn't he take points from Slytherin as well, but then remembered what had happened last time with Snape, so decided to shut up.

          Snape walked away. Harry frowned and looked down at his cauldron. "Sorry," came Cassandra's voice from next to him.

          "How are we going to get this finished in five minutes?" Harry muttered. "We've barely started it."

          A pause. "I'll go get the other ingredients." Cassandra moved away. Harry was having a sudden thought. With all his new power…could he do something to the potion to make it complete? But Snape would find out; he knew about Harry being heir to Griffindor, he knew about his extra-specially power thingys.

          But he wouldn't necessarily realise that Harry had done that, would he? Anyway – what if this was a test? To see if Harry could complete the potion with his mind? Harry knew that Snape hated him, but they were part of the same team now.

          Harry concentrated on the small amount of liquid bubbling at the bottom. It began to rise into a bigger amount, and the colour changed from a murky grey to a light purple, just like the book said it was supposed to. Then it stopped and Harry smiled at his achievement. Only one way to test if it worked or not. Cassandra was still rummaging around in the ingredients cupboard, so Harry turned to his only other guinea-pig… Neville.

          "Neville?" Harry walked over holding a cup.

Neville turned. "Yes, Harry?" Then he saw the cup and his eyes opened wide. "Oh no, no no NO, I am NOT taking your truth potion! Why is it always me?" Neville rambled for a bit like this while Ron laughed and Harry gave Neville his best pouty-look. Neville sighed. "Fine. But don't ask me anything too private, ok?"

Harry put a hand on his hip. "Would I do that to you, Neville?"

Ron laughed. Harry handed the cup to Neville, who drank. After a few moments, Harry asked, "Are you feeling ok, Neville?"

"Fine," Neville answered. "Why wouldn't I feel fine?"

Harry sighed in relief. "Ok, what's your favourite colour?"

"Orange." Harry turned to Ron for conformation, who nodded.

"Was that letter you got from your gran really just a Birthday card or was it a howler?" Ron asked, jumping in.

"It was a howler," Neville answered in a perfectly normal tone, as if he wasn't really under any spell at all. "She sent it to me because when I went home last weekend for my birthday I accidentally fed her dog Pipsy some crisps and they didn't quite agree with him and he had to be taken into hospital."

Ron and Harry laughed. "Now for the big one," Ron said, taking in a deep breath. "Who's this mystery girl you keep talking about?"

Neville opened his mouth to answer, but Harry put his hand around his mouth and glared at Ron. "Mean," Ron said grinning. "It was just getting good."

Harry smiled. "He'll be like this for another hour, so don't ask him such private things, ok?"

Ron grinned, and put one hand on his hip. "Would I do that to you, Neville?" he said, trying to sound like Harry. Harry laughed and walked back over to his table. Cassandra was sitting, staring at the potion. She looked up as Harry approached. "You finished it? How?"

Harry was just about to answer (although he wasn't sure what to say) when Snape wandered over, smiling cruelly. "So, Potter…you finished the potion yet?"

Harry tried hard not to smile. "Yes, professor."

Snape looked taken aback. "Well," he stuttered, "Have, have you tested it? To see if it works?"

"Yes, professor. I've just tried it out on Neville. It seemed to work quite well."

Snape glanced over at Neville, who was surrounded by a few people who were laughing. Poor Neville, thought Harry grinning. Snape looked back at him and catched his grin. "Fine," said Snape simply. "But I will however take a further five points for your cheekyness. And see me after the lesson."

Harry opened his mouth in protest, but Snape had already walked away. Cassandra smiled at him. "You were lucky," she said. "I'm guessing this is one of his good days?" Harry nodded, frowning angrily.

"Don't be angry," Cassandra said. They were still standing, and quite close together, and Cassandra put her hand out behind them and reached for Harry's hand. She gave it a little squeeze. Harry looked to her quickly in surprise. Cassandra smiled, and Harry couldn't help but smile back.

Across the room, Snape was, against everyone's knowledge, smiling at the unlikely pair in amusement.

a/n: please don't give me loads of reviews shouting at me! LoL. Just wait for the next chapter…ooh…