Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.

Changes

"Furnunculus!" Harry Potter's yell echoed through the courtyard. First years shrieked and scrambled out of the way of the duel starting up without warning in the crisp January snow. Around the edges of the courtyard, the students were lining up to watch it, even a few bets could be seen passing around.

"Incendio!" Draco Malfoy's returning spell made a beeline straight for Harry, who couldn't quite duck in time. Diving into a snow bank to dampen his smoldering robes, he fired his own burning spell back. One thing Snape's project had done, they both knew an insane number of fiery and burning spells.

"Blizzaga!" Malfoy's screech came across the snow as he very quickly neutralized the little fires starting up all over his robes. "Salamandra!"

Harry yelped. He shed his cloak, then his sweater, dropping out a feisty salamander having a go at burning a hole through his stomach. It sizzled down through the snow bank as he shouted, "Geshunteight!" Hermionie had found a rather nasty set of curses designed to inflict someone with a set of cold symptoms, and Harry had just been itching to try them out on someone.

Sure enough, Malfoy doubled over under Harry's wand, sneezing like an allergic at a dog show. "Ric- ric- rictoshempra!" he gasped out between sneezes. It didn't last long, because of the shoddy casting, but it was enough to break Harry's concentration. They both leaned on nearby trees, gasping for breath, until, "Tarrentalegra!"

"Oh, great..." Harry muttered as he started a bizarre riverdance. Once he fended off a tree, and leapt over the hole left by the now extinguished salamander, he realized his hands were free to cast spells, despite his franticly moving feet. Your fatal mistake, Malfoy... "Stupefy!" he yelled, snapping his wand down between bounces.

"Hah!" His opponent's wand swirled and snapped up in a decisive movement, completing what Harry recognized as a trampoline shield he must have been weaving while Harry was distracted with not leaping into a tree.

"Oh, sh-" Harry was catapulted backwards into a statue of Sorceress Edea. The good thing was, his legs stopped their ridiculous up-and-down bouncing. The bad was, he dropped his wand when his entire body went numb.

"Give up yet?" Malfoy was standing over him, twirling both wands in his fingers, sneering down at his fallen opponent.

"Do I look like I have a choice?" Harry hated saying that.

"Good. Enervate." Harry sighed as feeling swept back into his limbs again. "You're getting better, Potter. Someday, maybe, you'll be able to beat me." He laughed as he reached down.

"Someday? Excuse me," Harry said, as he pulled on Malfoy's arm to get up out of the snow, "but didn't I get you yesterday? And the day before that?"

"No!" Draco laughed as he handed Harry's wand back. "McGonnagal interfered, remember? Seemed to think we were being dangerous."

"Well, maybe sending offensive spells across the Great Hall at breakfast was a little over the top." Harry laughed back, clapping Draco's shoulder.

"Fun though,"

"Oh, definitely."

Since that night in the dungeons, which neither of them talked about with anyone, Harry and Draco had started getting along. Neither was able to give up six years' habit of being rivals, however, so they were still constantly getting into fights and trying to top each other. Now, however, they picked each other up off the floor when the smoke had settled. Actually, their duels had gotten more vicious since they became friends. This was because the teachers were a little slower at sending them to detention, likely because they thought they were less likely to kill each other now.

"You little pain-in-the ass excuse for a wizard! Look what you did to my sweater!" Harry held it up, glaring through the hole the salamander had burned in it.

"Not my fault!" Draco said with an innocent expression, "And anyways, you can always get Dobby to fix it for you. He likes you, for some reason."

"Probably because I've never cursed him."

"Hey, I never cursed him! Well, not often... Joking! Just joking!" Draco chuckled as Harry brandished his wand at him again, and was just about ready to start up another duel when the chime for class rang. "Shite! We're late for Potions!"

"I doubt Snape'll mind, he likes you."

"Hmm, yeah, you've got a point. Ugh," Draco said as they passed a shadowy staircase, "Do they have to do that right there?"

"Apparently. At least you don't have to watch them in the common room every night." Ron, who hadn't bothered taking Potions since the fifth year, and Hermionie, who had a free period because she'd finished the project early, were under the stairs, quite busy. Actually, they were busy enough that they should probably be somewhere more private than a staircase, where some poor first year might see them and be scarred for life.

"Yeah, I pity you. Speaking of which, any luck on the soul mate front?"

"Nah, that girl from Hogsmeade just wanted an autograph..."

"Too bad, she was cute." Neither boy had been able to find a girlfriend, which frustrated them to no end. They had decided back in November that two boys, neither of which was in any way poor, insignificant, or ugly should be able to find suitable girls.

Unfortunately, none of the world's girl population appeared to have heard this astounding bit of information. "Someday, Harry, someday we'll find the loves of our lives."

"Yeah, hopefully before we go gray."

"Or get killed."

"Or tortured."

"Or mutilated."

"Or drafted by the aurors."

"Or forced into the Dark Lord's army."

"... we are living in a really depressing time, did you notice that?"