Chapter two.
For the remainder of that night, Harry was worried about what Draco was going to do to Ron. The only comfort he had was that Draco had promised not to do anything permanent or life threatening. Harry wasn't totally sure Draco would keep his word, so it was only a small comfort. He glanced over to where Draco was supposedly sleeping, to see he was very much awake, and immersed in a huge book called 'curses for the advanced- how to do the worst without actual bodily harm.' Draco looked up when he felt Harry's gaze.
"What?" he asked, "I thought you were asleep."
"I thought you were. Please tell me what you're going to do to Ron?"
"You'll find out tomorrow." He then grinned, set the book down and went to sleep. Harry sighed, despairing.
"I just hope you don't do anything too bad… 'Cause I'll get the blame for letting you."
"Your concern touches me deeply." Draco said sarcastically.
At five o'clock the next morning, Harry woke up feeling tired, as he had little to none sleep last night. He walked into the living room to see Draco, his wand in his hand, experimenting on a toad. Harry recognised it.
"HEY! Did Neville say you could borrow Trevor?"
"Nope." Draco said shortly, not turning round. He turned the frog into a hamster, then into a ferret. Draco shivered.
"I can still remember being a ferret." He muttered. Harry snorted and pulled Draco to the door.
"You'd better have a suitable curse ready."
"Yeah. I do." Draco smiled contentedly and allowed Harry to pull him down the stairs to the great hall.
Harry let go when they entered the hall. Ron turned round to face them as the came in.
"Hello Malfoy. Stopped spewing slugs, I see?" Draco scowled.
"Rictusempra!" he yelled. A jet of red light threw Ron against a wall. Draco advanced on him. He smiled and uttered, "Simrosetiad." Ron yelped in pain and jumped up, running round the hall, as his hair was now on fire. Harry was struggling not to burst out laughing, but when the fire burned itself out, the end result sent him into a fit of giggles.
Ron had vibrant pink hair. It was electric, and stood on end. Ron blushed incredibly and ran from the hall, with everyone laughing at him, including Harry, who was having great trouble stopping. That is, until Hermione glared at him. Harry quickly got up of the floor and looked from Draco, who was just finishing laughing at Ron, and was now watching Harry with a hint of enjoyment at seeing Hermione so furious at Harry, to Hermione herself, who was still staring ferociously at him.
"Hi!" he said brightly.
"How dare you just sit back and watch while that happened?!" she snapped.
"Well I didn't see you jumping in to help!" Harry retorted, wanting to shift some of the blame off himself.
"I was having my own problems with Derica, who wouldn't shut up about Malfoy!" Hermione then walked briskly off, pausing to throw another angry look at him. Harry tried not to show he was upset. He took a deep breath and turned to Draco.
"Pink hair?"
"Wasn't that great? I'll treasure that moment for life!"
"Yeah… it was pretty good… Hey! We've gotta get to potions!"
Potions was a bit more bearable now that Harry was friends with Draco, although Snape kept pestering him for anything that would incriminate Harry.
They sat on the backbench, away from all the others. Infront of them were Hermione and Derica. When they got down to potions, everyone else was already there. Harry could see Snape's face twisting with anger- Harry was late, yet he couldn't take house points off him because Draco was late also. They took their normal seat, Harry avoiding Hermione's glares. Ron wasn't here.
"Today, we will be concocting Veritaserum. The most powerful truth serum in the world. There is a list of ingredients on your table and how and when to put those ingredients into your mixture. Follow the instructions carefully, for you will be testing the potions at the end. Be warned… mixed in the right way, this is a truth serum. Mixed in the wrong way, the potion can be a deadly poison, or a cure for sight."
Harry and Draco started mixing.
Harry's POV
Lets see… Wigenweld bark, berry juice, fairy dust. Nothing too complicated. First add the berry juice, then the Wigenweld bark…
Normal POV
The lesson moved slowly. At the end, Harry's potion was green, and Draco's was purple.
"Which one's right?" Harry asked.
"Dunno. Just drink them together?"
"Yeah." Harry drank. So did Draco. A strange smile lit up Harry's face.
"Hee hee hee! Your name is in the school phrase thingy. 'Draco Dormeins Nunquam Titilandus!' Your name! Your name!"
"Um Harry?"
"You know what else? I think Ron looks like a stick insect and I've never told anyone!" everyone was now staring at them.
"HARRY! I CAN'T SEE!"
"Oh sorry!" Harry, still with a deranged smile on his face, took Draco's hand and pulled him out of the classroom.
"Where're we going?"
"Hospital wing. I've always wondered… why do they call it a hospital wing? Birds have wings, not hospitals. You know what else? I reckon this scar is cursed. Also, I often wonder what it would have been like to be in Slytherin, instead of Griffindor. The hat thingy said I should be in Slytherin. I said I didn't want to be! HA HA! Isn't that funny!"
"Um… no, not really no." Draco mumbled.
"Hey guess what? You're really, really sexy. I've always wondered how you'd be in bed, but I've never asked because it sounds kind of a stupid thing to say."
Harry's POV
WHY THE HELL DID I JUST SAY THAT FOR! Oh no oh no oh no oh no!
Draco's POV
SHIT! That's something I really didn't want to know! I hate Snape! WHY TRUTH SERUMS?! Why? I wish I could run away… but I'm blind, so I can't.
Normal POV
Harry kept his hands firmly over his mouth. Because of this, he couldn't guide Draco very well, so he kept bashing into walls.
Once in the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey gave Draco an antidote and his eyesight returned. The first thing he saw was Harry looking at him, a cross between guilt and worry on his face.
"Listen, about what I said…"
"Forget it. But if you tell anyone else what you said, I'll kill you." Harry smiled a thank you and they headed to the hall for lunch.
Ron was there again, his hat was crammed onto his head as far down as it could go, but it didn't hide the pink. He glared at them when they came through the doors.
"How long does this stay pink, Malfoy?" he snapped.
"About a month."
"A MONTH?!" Draco sniggered.
"Yep!" Ron turned to Harry.
"A stick insect?" he asked. Harry looked behind Ron to see Hermione.
"Grass." He muttered.
"You two are just right for each other." Ron said. He pushed Harry backwards into Draco, who stumbled and fell with Harry on top of him. "Hope you're very happy."
Harry got up and helped Draco up.
"Please can I curse him again?" Draco asked. Harry didn't care anymore.
"Be my guest." He muttered.
"Crucico!"
Harry's POV
Draco knows the unforgivable curses? Oh shit…
Normal POV
Ron was screaming. He was on the floor in a heap, twisting and turning like a maggot.
Draco grinned maliciously. Harry grabbed him.
"Come on! You'll get sent to Azkaban!" he hissed. Draco freed Ron and followed Harry out of the hall and out of the school.
They ran straight to the forbidden forest.
"I'm not going in there… again!" Draco protested. Harry just took his arm and dragged him in.
They walked for several minutes before Harry came to a conclusion.
"I'm lost."
"Well that doesn't take a genius to figure out!" Draco snapped. He went to turn off the path.
"Don't go that way. If I remember rightly, that's where the giant killer spiders are." Draco stopped in his tracks and backed up.
"Where do we go then?" he asked. Harry shrugged. He sat down to think for a while.
"How'd you know the cruciatus curse? You know, how to do it?"
"I've been practicing. I'm half way through learning the Imperius curse too." Harry sighed.
Harry's POV
Terrific. I'm in the middle of the forbidden forest, hopelessly lost, with a Slytherin who used to be my enemy, who's now probably gonna get expelled and sent to Azkaban for doing the Cruciatus curse on someone, who happens to be my best friend! My life just gets better and better. One thing we can do though…
Normal POV
"Draco? How good are you at memory charms?"
"Quite good." Harry grinned.
"Well come on then. We've got a lot of memories to modify!"
Draco's POV
Modify everyone's memory? That'll take a while. Good plan though.
There was still one problem though…
"How're we going to get out of here?" Harry thought for a while. Sheesh, since when does he do anything else? After a while, it looked like he was searching for something.
Harry's POV
"How're we going to get out of here?" ah… good point. Well, as I remember, this looks like where Ron and I saw the spiders, so right around there should be where I met Firenze… I walked forward a bit, looking for hoof prints or something.
"Firenze? Ronan? Bane?" I looked back to see Draco was staring at me, bewildered. "They're centaurs, remember? Back in first year."
"Oh yeah…" the light has dawned. Ok, I continued looking. I heard galloping footsteps.
Normal POV
A huge centaur raced towards them. Harry saw that it was Firenze. Good, he thought, he's friendlier than the other two.
"Hi there!" Harry said cheerfully.
"Hello Mr. Potter. What brings you here?"
"We're lost."
"Should have known." Firenze smiled. "Follow me."
Firenze guided them to the edge of the forest. "This is where I leave you. Good luck in your ventures."
Harry and Draco stepped out of the forest and watched as the centaur galloped away. They turned to go back to the castle. Harry groaned as he saw professor Dumbledore and professor Mc Gonagall heading towards them.
"Mr. Potter! Mr. Malfoy! What have you done? Mr. Weasley has informed us that you performed the cruciatus curse on him!" Draco decided to play dumb.
"What's that? I didn't do it! I was doing a Curcatus charm! It was supposed to turn him into a cat!"
Dumbledore gave that penetrating stare. He stared long and hard at both Harry and Draco.
"Hmm. Harry, you obviously were unaware of what Mr. Malfoy was planning to do. Draco, I will believe it for this time. But not again. You are, however, going to have two weeks worth of detention. One for the pink hair, and one for the attempted transfiguration that went terribly wrong. Now, off to bed."
Harry and Draco walked in silence up to their room. Once there, they stayed in the living room. Hedwig and Moonlight came to greet them.
"Hiya." Harry mumbled. Hedwig perched on his shoulder and dropped a dead mouse into his hand. Moonlight did the same.
"Thanks for the great influence your owl is having on mine." Draco said sarcastically. Obviously Moonlight didn't catch mice before. Hedwig hooted softly and flew over to Moonlight. She settled beside him and cuddled up to him. Harry snorted.
"Our owls are in love." He stated.
"What a mastermind you are." Draco said. It seemed that all Draco said these days was with sarcasm. The owls flew off and waited for Harry and Draco to follow them. They lead the two students into the bedroom and showed them a nest with five eggs in.
"Oh my god." Harry muttered.
"Um, what do you get when an eagle owl and a snowy owl mate?" Draco asked.
"A really fluffy brown ball of feathers?" suggested Harry.
Next day:
Harry woke up at around nine o'clock. He hadn't slept that well in ages. He went down into the living room area and saw Draco infront of the fire, reading a piece of parchment. Harry walked up behind him to read.
Mr. Malfoy.
Your first detention will be at 6. O'clock to 11 o'clock tonight.
Meet Hagrid by the forbidden forest at six.
Minerva Mc Gonagall.
Draco sighed. "Why'd they have to catch us?" Harry smiled and made his way to the door. "You can't go down there. No offence, but your friends all hate you."
"So? I'm not going to starve because of them, and I didn't think you were afraid of anyone. So are you coming or not?" Draco grinned.
"Well… ok then." He got up and followed Harry down.
The hall was quieter than usual. Most people had already eaten and were enjoying the weekend at Hogsmead. Draco couldn't go because he was on detention, and Harry couldn't go without him- Dumbledore's rules.
Much to Harry's despair, Hermione, Ron and their Slytherin partners were still there.
"Hello Harry." Hermione said. It was polite, with no hint of malice, but very formal.
"Hi. Are you mad at me?"
Hermione's POV
Well I guess I am a bit mad. Harry shouldn't have let Malfoy curse Ron. However, if there's a suitable explanation, I'll over look that one.
"Well, why did you let Malfoy curse Ron? The pink hair one?"
"A curse for a curse. Ron cursed Draco first. So I said I wouldn't stop him, as long as it wasn't anything permanent or life threatening." Hmm. Harry's got a point. Ron did curse Malfoy first. And he did make sure that it wasn't life threatening… but…
"So what about the Cruciatus curse?"
"I didn't know he was going to do that!"
Harry's POV
"So what about the Cruciatus curse?" I can't believe she thought I knew what Draco was gonna do!
"I didn't know he was going to do that!" then Draco stepped in.
"I didn't do it on purpose. I was trying to turn him into a cat! You yourself know that the spells are alike, Hermione."
Hermione's POV
He actually called me by my first name! Not 'Mudblood' or Granger, my first name! Maybe Harry has changed him… maybe.
Normal POV
"Ok. I believe you." Hermione said finally.
"NO!" Ron yelped.
"Oh come on Ron! Their story checks out good. Those two curses are alike, and it was a curse for a curse, so, I'm not mad at them, and neither should you be." Ron just stomped off in the other direction. "He'll come round, don't worry. So… are you two going to Hogsmead?"
"Can't. Draco's got detention."
"Oh. Wanna visit Hagrid?" Harry looked over to Draco. He wasn't too fond of going to Hagrid's house because of Fang's obsession with him. Draco however, nodded.
"Ok then."
"Derica, you got anything against going to Hagrid's house?" Hermione asked.
"I'd follow Draco to the ends of the earth." She answered. Draco edged further away from her.
"Help me." He whispered to Harry.
They walked up to Hagrid's house, knocked and waited outside for him to let them in.
"Oh hello there! Yeh wanna come in then?" they all nodded.
"Harry?" whispered Draco. Harry stopped to listen, "Don't' tell Derica about the toffee cakes. It'll shut her up for a while." Harry smiled and nodded, passing the message on to Hermione.
They stayed for half an hour, during which time Derica ate one of the toffee cakes, which made her shut up for a while.
"Ok, where to now?" Hermione asked.
"Well I know where you want to go… how long has it been? Half a day without going to the library?" Harry asked.
"Don't be so smarmy. Can we go though?" hurry laughed and nodded. Draco frowned.
"What's so great about the library?"
"Hermione's trying to set a world record- read every book in there before she turns sixteen."
"Shut it Harry." Hermione muttered.
The four of them headed up to the library. Derica kept inching closer to Draco, which was obviously unnerving him.
"Harry, help. She's doing it again!" he whispered hastily. Harry grinned and shoved Draco to his other side. Derica scowled at him and sped up to Hermione. "Thank god for that." Draco sighed.
Library:
Hermione walked straight over to the advanced charms section, Derica went in search of love potions, which left Harry and Draco not knowing what to do.
"What do you usually come in here to read?" Draco asked, looking round at the thousands of books.
"Well, the last time I came in here with Hermione, it was to look up stuff for the triwizard tournament. I really didn't want to come here… I'm leaving."
"What about those two?"
"You wanna get away from Derica, and I wanna get away from having to read for no reason."
"Ok then."
They slipped quietly out of the library and into the hallway.
"Where to now?" asked Draco.
"Well, I do have one idea, but I'm not sure it's a good idea."
"Try me." Harry sighed and led Draco to a huge room filled with paintings. He walked up to the one with the pear, tickled it and waited. The door leading to the kitchens opened and Harry walked in.
"Dobby?" a house elf came rushing up to Harry and lunged at him, knocking him to the floor.
"Mr Harry Potter sir! How nice it is to see you! Dobby hasn't seen you since last year sir!" dobby got off Harry and waited fro him to rise. "You is bigger Harry Potter sir!" Harry grinned.
"Only a little."
"You is much bigger to me sir!" Dobby then saw Draco. He screeched and hid behind Harry. "Don't let him hit me sir! I hasn't done anything!" Draco walked up to Harry and looked down at Dobby.
"What's that doing here?" he asked, glaring at Dobby, who was still quivering.
"He works here." Harry answered. Dobby got some confidence back.
"YES! For pay! More than your stinking family ever gave dobby! Dobby works for money now he does!" Draco continued to glare at dobby. "Sorry young master." Dobby murmured and scurried back to work. Harry scowled at Draco.
"What?"
"You were supposed to be nice!" Draco snorted and left. Harry shook his head and followed him, wishing he hadn't even tried.
6.00
Draco was about to make his way down to Hagrid's hut.
"Wait up!" a voice behind him said. Draco turned, seeing no one.
"Harry?" Harry took off his cloak. Draco nearly jumped out of his skin. "Why are you coming?"
"Something to do." Harry said simply. He put his cloak back on and followed Draco down to Hagrid's hut.
"Hello there! Ye'll be helpin' me tonight then!" Draco nodded. "Well, I thought we'd go see Aragog." A load moan was heard behind Draco. "Who's there? Come out or I'll shoot yeh!" Hagrid barked, drawing out a cross bow. Harry took off his cloak. Hagrid sighed. "Well. It seems everyone's here then. Lets go."
"Uh Hagrid?" Harry began.
"Hmm?"
"Last time I went to see Aragog, he tried to eat me."
"Ah, so yeh did follow the spiders then? Don' you worry, he won' hurt you if I'm there." Harry followed by Draco, totally unconvinced.
"He tried to eat you? What's Aragog?" Draco asked.
"He's a giant spider that Hagrid kept as a pet in his third year oh Hogwarts."
"Got me expelled he did." Hagrid said grimly, "Damn that Tom Riddle." Draco's head shot up.
"Hey! That's Volde…"
"Shh!" Harry whispered, putting his hand over Draco's mouth. They walked on for a while until Hagrid stopped infront of three big spiders.
"Hello Hagrid." Clicked one of them, "Snacks?"
"Oh no! They're friends of mine."
"I know that one!" the second spider clicked angrily, "I tried to eat him three years ago!" Harry shuffled his feet nervously.
The three of them were escorted by the spiders down to Aragog.
"Hello Aragog!" Hagrid said, smiling.
"Hagrid. It's been far too long. How are you?" Hagrid never got to answer.
A giant snake, a Basilisk, charged at Aragog, biting four of his legs off. Smaller spiders tried in vain to stop the giant snake, receiving deadly glares, literally.
"Harry do somethin'!" Hagrid roared. Harry couldn't believe he was gonna help Aragog after he tried to eat him, but nevertheless, he ran straight up to the Basilisk.
"Close your eyes and face me!" Harry yelled in parseltongue. The snake stopped and turned to him, eyes closed. "what are you doing here? Who sent you?"
"Nobody sent me," the snake hissed in his native tongue, "I followed you, Harry potter. I am famished. I crave spiders, and you led me to the largest spider cove in the world! Thank you!" the Basilisk then turned away from him and started on Aragog again.
"Harry! Why didn' you stop it?" Hagrid whined. Harry walked back towards him.
"I can't. He craves spiders, and I don't think a starving Basilisk is gonna listen to me."
"Wow. You can understand it?" Draco asked, in awe.
"No. I'm a parselmouth, but of course I can't understand snakes." Harry snapped sarcastically. When the spider had finished devouring Aragog, it turned back to Harry, eyes closed.
"Thank you, Harry Potter. You and your friends will always be safe to basilisks." It then bent down to sniff at Harry, Draco, then Hagrid. "These two are safe from us, and if you ever need my help, you have only to come to the chamber." Then it slithered away. Knowing he was safe from basilisks wasn't really a great comfort. Hagrid was never going to forgive him for this.
Hagrid walked up to all that remained of Aragog, a leg. He sighed forlornly and turned back to Harry and Draco.
"Go on boys. You can go back up to the castle now."
Harry groaned.
"He'll never forgive me for this!"
"He might." Draco said.
"No." Harry sighed and sped up to the castle. He saw professor Snape waiting for Draco. Harry hastily put on his cloak and walked back behind Draco, who ran up to Snape.
"Hello sir."
"What did he make you do?"
"Nothing much."
"How's Potter being?"
"Ok." Snape frowned.
"You do still hate him… don't you?"
"Well… no." Draco then ran past Snape and up to the castle. Harry paused behind Snape to kick him up the ass, before turning and running after Draco. Snape fell over on his face.
"Potter." He growled.
