The rest of the weekend passed by in a heavenly blur for Harry, he and Draco made it back just in time for dinner Saturday night, and Sunday was spent studying and doing homework with each other in the Shrieking Shack.

Then Monday morning came and he dragged his feet along the ground towards his first class of the day. He hated Mondays. He was finding it more and more difficult to return to his every day life during the week after the blissful weekends he spent with Draco. It was also getting harder and harder to think up excuses to give Ron and Hermione about his frequent disappearing act, he hated lying to his friends but he wanted to be with Draco no matter what it cost him.

"Hey, Harry!"

Harry turned and hitched his bag higher up onto his shoulder as he watched Ethan struggle through the crowd towards him.

"Hi, Ethan," Harry greeted, glancing at his watch.

"We're sharing Transfiguration today," Ethan smiled.

"We are?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Yes, McGonagall is leaving in the afternoon and she needs to combine our two classes so that we don't miss anything. She only has four classes today, so she's combining the first year Hufflepuffs with the fourth year Ravenclaws, and the sixth year Gryffindors with the seventh year Slytherins."

"I wonder where she's going?" Harry frowned.

"No idea, can I walk with you to class?" Ethan smiled.

"I guess," Harry shrugged.

They set off down the corridor together, heading towards McGonagall's room. Blaise passed by in the opposite direction and gave them a funny look.

Harry dumped his bag onto one of the tables and sat down. Ethan hesitated before walking to the other side of the room and sitting by himself on the Slytherin side.

"Harry, you left without us," Hermione accused as she entered the room with Ron.

"Oh, sorry guys." Harry smiled apologetically. "I thought you'd already gone."

Ron dropped his books onto the table beside Harry and sat down. "Strange about McGonagall combining classes, huh?"

"Yeah, I wonder where she's going?" Harry replied, glancing at the door.

"She probably has a job to do for the Order," Hermione said quietly.

"Dumbledore doesn't usually take them away from their teaching though."

"I hope everything's okay," Hermione said, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Hey, what's this about you walking to class with that French Slytherin guy?" Ron interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked as he turned to face Ron.

"I heard you two were walking to class together," Ron winked.

"Yeah, so?"

"Never mind," he smiled knowingly as he opened his text book.

"Why didn't you ask him to sit with us?" Hermione asked as she spotted Ethan sitting alone.

"I dunno...."

"Well, that was rude of you. Ginny said he's really sweet and that he doesn't get on with the other Slytherins at all."

"How does Ginny know him?" Ron asked.

"She said he ordered something from the twin's shop from her and they started talking. She said he bought a Skiving Snackbox, and when she asked if he wanted anything to give to other people he just laughed and said that that was mean."

"Wow, I think he's in the wrong house," Ron said in surprise.

Harry glanced over to Ethan and saw that he was still sitting alone and doodling absentmindedly in his notebook.

"I feel sorry for him, forced to live with the Slytherins," Hermione said as she followed Harry's gaze. "Why don't you ask him to sit with us, Harry?"

"Yeah, maybe I should," Harry said slowly. He did feel bad for the guy, being shoved into a house with the worst reputation at a new school. He knew from Draco some of the things that went on in there and he shuddered to think of someone of Ethan's character trying to survive. Harry stood up and walked over to Ethan.

       "Do you want to come sit with us?"

Ethan looked up and smiled gratefully. "Sure."

He packed up his stuff and followed Harry back over to his table. Ron and Hermione moved over so that Harry could sit beside Ethan.

"Thanks," Ethan said as he sat down, flashing Harry another one of his patented white smiles.

Harry just grinned back and opened up his text book as Professor McGonagall came striding in, looking a little flustered.

"Alright, let's get started," she barked.

                        *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *


Harry waved cheerfully at Ethan as they parted ways after class. Ethan had turned out to be very nice and helpful during class, whispering answers to Harry out of the corner of his mouth when he was called on and laughing with him when Neville accidentally transfigured his quill into a small snake, causing the terrified Gryffindor to leap backwards in fear.

"Ginny was right," Hermione mused as they headed for Herbology. "Ethan is sweet."

"Don't get any ideas, Hermione," Ron warned. "He already has his eye on, Harry."

"So I've noticed," Hermione grinned, glancing at Harry.

"Can we please let this drop?" Harry pleaded in exasperation. "My love life is not the only topic of conversation."

"Hey, did you talk to Dumbledore about playing quidditch yet?" Ron asked.

"No, I forgot." Harry realized. "I'll talk to him today."

"Good, he'd better let you. The practices we've had so far have been terrible, no offence to my sister, but she's just not even in the same league as you."

"I'll talk to him before dinner," Harry promised.

The three continued on to class, talking excitedly about the upcoming quidditch season.

                        *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

         The rest of the week passed by achingly slowly, Harry served detention each night with Snape and found himself getting so exhausted that he had to stop meeting Draco afterwards. He was literally counting the seconds until Saturday. The only bright spot of the week was when Dumbledore had announced that Harry would again be allowed to join the Gryffindor quidditch team. Ethan had come up to congratulate him personally, causing Ron to nudge him with a smirk and Draco to fume silently from the Slytherin table. Harry just grinned happily and blushed as his house-mates clapped enthusiastically around him.

Saturday couldn't come fast enough for Harry, then finally it was here. He jumped out of bed in the early hours of the morning and threw on his clothes, then practically skipped all the way to the Whomping Willow. He saw Draco already standing there, his breath coming out in little puffs in the chilly morning air. Apparently he wasn't the only one who had been extremely impatient.

"Draco!" Harry called.

Draco turned and saw Harry sprinting towards him. He smiled and swung Harry into his arms when he reached him, not caring if anyone saw them or not at that moment.

He set Harry back down and grabbed the stick to trigger the secret opening. Smiling, he pulled Harry through the entrance and they disappeared into the tunnel.

Ethan straightened up from his crouching position in the garden next to the school entrance and wiped his hands on his trousers with a smirk. He turned and walked all the way to the owlery.

        He reached into his school robe and pulled out the parchment, quill and ink that he had hidden there, before settling down onto the floor. He thoughtfully chewed on the end of the quill for a minute, then began to write.

He completed four separate letters and sat back to read them over. With a nod of approval, he sealed them into envelopes and stood up to look around for Harry's owl, thanks to Ginny he had found out that Harry owned the only snowy white owl in the school, so it wasn't hard to find.

He finally spotted her near the rafters and called her down. She accepted two of the letters with dignity then flew off out the window. He sent the last two letters with another owl and watched as it carried them away.

Ethan sighed and clasped his hands behind his back as he wandered back out into the school halls.

"It's only a matter of time now," he thought darkly, as he walked back to his room in the Slytherin dorms.

                        *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

        Ron woke up suddenly to the sound of something tapping at the window. He muttered grouchily as he pulled back his drapes and looked out. Hedwig was standing on the sill with two envelopes clutched in her beak.

"Hedwig?"

He quickly unlatched the window and held out his hand for the letters. She dropped only one of them in and turned to fly away again

"Hey, wait!" he called, but she was already soaring off around the side of the school.

He shut the window and climbed back into bed to warm his cold feet as he ripped open the letter and read:

~ Ron,

   Come to the Shrieking Shack immediately. There's something you need to know.

Ron flipped it over in confusion. It wasn't signed but he assumed it was from Harry, it was Hedwig after all who delivered it. He stood up and slipped into his clothes, tossing the letter back onto the bed.

He was just entering the common room when Hermione emerged from the girl's staircase.

"Hermione, did you get a letter too?"

"Yes," she said, waving it in the air. "Did Harry sign yours?"

"No, do you think maybe they're not from Harry?"

"I'm not sure, maybe he just figured we'd know since they were from Hedwig."

"No one else knows how to get into the Shrieking Shack anyway," Ron reasoned.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "That's true."

The two cautiously made their way down into the grounds, hugging their cloaks around themselves as the cold air hit them. They paused by the Whomping Willow. Hermione summoned a large stick, laying on the ground by the trunk, to her outstretched hand and hesitantly pressed the secret knot.

"Weasley! Granger!"

Hermione and Ron turned in surprise and saw Blaise and Pansy coming towards them across the dew-covered grass.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked stiffly.

"We received letters that told us to meet you guys at the Whomping Willow," Pansy answered haughtily. "So what do you want?"

"We didn't send any letters," Ron denied angrily.

"Can I see?" Hermione asked.

Blaise gave the parchment over to Hermione and stuffed his hands back into his pockets for warmth.

"Hmm...." Hermione thoughtfully scanned the letter. "There's no signature and it's the same writing. I don't think these are from Harry."

"Potter's missing too?" Pansy asked, then glanced at Blaise and raised an eyebrow at him in silent question.

"Draco isn't in his room either," Blaise explained.

"Malfoy? Why would he have anything to do with this?" Hermione asked with a frown.

"Unless he kidnapped Harry and took him into the Shrieking Shack!" Ron suddenly exclaimed.

"Please," Pansy rolled her eyes. "Draco would not wake up early on a Saturday just to drag Potter into a haunted house for the hell of it, and by himself."

"How do you know he's by himself?" Ron demanded. "Are you in on this too?"

"Shut-up," Hermione ordered. "Why don't we just go inside and see?"

"Inside what? The Shrieking Shack is miles away. I am not walking all that way," Pansy retorted indignantly.

This time it was Hermione who asked Ron the silent question. Ron sighed and nodded.

"There's a secret entrance to the Shrieking Shack under this tree," she explained.

"What? How do you know?" Blaise asked in shock.

"Never mind, let's just get this over with," Hermione muttered.

"Maybe we should tell Dumbledore," Ron whispered to Hermione. "This could be a trap or something."

"No, if Harry wanted to talk to us about something privately then we should trust him."

"What if it's not him?"

"But he's involved, Ron. He might need our help."

"Alright, but I'm keeping my wand out and I'm letting them go first," he said jerking his head towards the two Slytherins who were conversing quietly together.

"Let's go," Hermione called.

She pushed the knot again, the opening having resealed itself when they were standing around arguing, and climbed through first.

"Hurry," Ron ordered the Slytherins. "It doesn't stay open for long."

Pansy glanced at the dirty opening dubiously, as Blaise climbed through.

"Just go!" Ron cried shoving Pansy in the back and causing her to stumble through the doorway.

Ron jumped in after her as the door began to close. He lit his wand and stared around as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the tunnel. Blaise helped Pansy up from the ground as she glared daggers at Ron.

"What the hell-"

"Shh!" Hermione shushed Pansy's angry tirade before she could begin. "We should be quiet, we don't know what's down here."

Pansy looked as if she wanted to say something, but stopped suddenly when they all heard something from down the dark tunnel.

"Come on," Hermione whispered, her voice shaking slightly.

The group made their way slowly up towards the house.

"Where now?" Ron asked when they reached the inside of the Shack.

"Let's start checking the rooms down the hall," Hermione suggested.

They nodded and each opened one of the first four doors down the hallway. They were all empty. They moved on until only two doors were left, Blaise opened the one on the right and shook his head.

"Why is it always the last door you check?" Ron asked quietly as they approached the final door.

Hermione lifted her wand and grasped the handle. She turned it with a creak and swung it wide open.....