Draco went to bed that night feeling very frustrated. He hadn't seen Ron at all that day. Ron wasn't in any of his classes that day, but he'd hoped to be able to catch him at lunch or dinner, or maybe in the library. But while both Potter and Granger had been at dinner and lunch, Ron was nowhere to be found.

Draco was almost positive that his new plan would work – if only he could find Ron.

Greg absently grunted a greeting as he entered their dormitory. Vincent looked up, smiling briefly at him before going back to struggling with his homework. Draco got changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed.

A few minutes later, someone turned out the light and they all fell asleep.




Draco woke up early the next morning, as usual. Greg was already awake, presumably downstairs waiting for Draco. Draco used to have to wake Greg and Vincent up every morning, not wanting to be the only one up. Greg had quickly adjusted, now getting up before Draco had a chance to wake him himself. Draco suspected the ice-water spell he had taken to using to wake them had had something to do with Greg's determination to always be up before him. Vincent, who had never been much of an early bird, was still dead to the world and Draco knew from experience that the only thing that would get him up was having his bed flooded with icy-cold water, but he didn't need Vincent up yet. One bodyguard was quite enough, since he wasn't planning on leaving the common room.

Downstairs, he found Greg sitting in front of the fire, staring blankly into space. Greg looked up for a moment, smiling slightly when he saw Draco. His was a truly grotesque smile—twisting and contorting his face into something that barely looked human—but to Draco it was familiar and he could see the genuine warmth behind it.

Draco gave him a slight smile in return—just the slightest upward twitch of his lips, but enough for someone who knew him well to see that he was in an amiable mood.

Draco took the seat next to Greg and started looking over his Potions homework. Greg watched him work until some first year whose name Draco couldn't remember just now joined them in the common room, looking somewhat intimidated by the presence of two sixth years. With an effort, Draco suppressed the urge to bare his teeth at the poor child, instead keeping his attention strictly focussed on his work. First years were truly rather cute, in Draco's opinion—especially when they were screaming their little heads off in fright. But Draco could save his terrorizing for the other Houses.

One by one, more Slytherins began to appear downstairs. Most of them just went off to breakfast, but Pansy came over to join Draco.

"So?" she asked him softly.

Draco rolled his eyes, wondering why Pansy was suddenly nagging him so much. "I couldn't get near him yesterday," Draco informed her.

Pansy smirked and suddenly Draco wondered if she'd done something to sabotage his chances with Ron. Then he laughed to himself. Right, like she needed to. It wasn't like Draco had had a chance with the boy to begin with.

Vincent was among the last to come down, blushing a little when he saw that Pansy was sitting with Draco. But Pansy never seemed to notice Vincent's interest in her, and the four of them set off to breakfast, Vincent and Greg following Draco and looking every ounce as menacing as usual.

Once again, neither Ron, Potter, nor Granger could be found at breakfast. In fact, there seemed to be several students missing, though Draco wasn't sure which ones. None of them were in Slytherin.

Everyone seemed to be there during class, but several students—including Ron and his friends—were conspicuously absent again during lunch. But it wasn't until after Defense Against the Dark Arts—which was the only class Draco still had with Ron and his friends—that Draco even saw Ron.

This year's teacher—a pale, reedy young man named Professor Stanwood who had been appointed by the Ministry to take Umbridge's place. So far, Professor Stanwood was, if possible, even more boring than Professor Binns's class. He stood at the front of the class and droned nonsense about whatever they were studying, telling them nothing they couldn't have picked up from their textbooks. Right now, they were reviewing their third year and learning less than Professor Lupin had taught them at the time.

Draco kept his eyes glued to the Professor Stanwood, who seemed to think that if you were looking at him, you were paying attention and if you weren't, you weren't. And if he thought you weren't, you were probably going to get detention.

Right now, he was saying something about werewolves, or had they moved on yet? Even Granger looked bored. But Draco wasn't paying attention to Granger. He was focusing on Ron, as much as he could without looking away from Professor Stanwood. Ron was watching the teacher with a glazed expression, and though he had cast a nervous glance at Draco upon entering the classroom, he seemed to have forgotten Draco's presence.

Or maybe he was actually asleep. Was it possible to fall asleep and still move your eyes to follow someone as they paced around the room? If it was, Draco was really wishing he could learn. His neck was beginning to ache from craning around to watch Professor Stanwood as he paced around the classroom. Why on earth couldn't the man just hold still as he talked?

And how could someone who moved so much still be boring? He was walking up and down the between the rows of desks, occasionally looking over the shoulder of a student to see that they were taking notes. As he walked up Draco's row, Draco quickly began scribbling little snippets of what Professor Stanwood was saying in his tiny notebook. He had deliberately bought a small one, so it was harder to tell that he hadn't been taking notes. Professor Stanwood glanced over his shoulder and moved on, apparently satisfied. Draco kept writing for a few more seconds, glancing back and fourth between Stanwood and his notebook, before returning his attention to Ron.

"Mr. Longbottom!"

The entire class jumped at the sudden change from his normal monotone. Stanwood was looming over the poor boy, who was looking even more confused than normal. In any other class, Draco would have laughed at him. But right now he was too bored to bother. And Professor Stanwood would probably give him detention again if he did.

"Y-yes, Professor?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

Longbottom stared at Professor Stanwood in confusion and Draco was too bored to bother to point out that Longbottom didn't think.

"…uh… taking notes?"

Draco smirked at that. Longbottom was probably the only student in the entire class aside from Granger who actually was taking notes.

"Taking notes what?" Longbottom looked confused and Stanwood gave an overly patient sigh. "Sir. I told you at the beginning of the year that you were to address me as Sir at all times. Five points from Gryffindor."

"Sorry," Longbottom mumbled. Stanwood cleared his throat dangerously and Longbottom flushed. "Sir. I meant, sorry sir."

Stanwood smiled at him. "Good. But if you were taking note, why were looking out the window?"

"…I… I… I…" Longbottom struggled for a few moments for an answer that wouldn't dig him in deeper before giving up and looking properly ashamed. "I'm sorry, Professor," he said softly. "It won't happen again."

"Of course not. Ten points from Gryffindor. And to see that it doesn't happen again, you have detention with me after school this evening. Right after dinner. And it's another ten points from Gryffindor for every minute you're late."

"Professor!"

Ah yes, Potter to the rescue.

Professor Stanwood turned to face the raven-haired boy who had spoken. "Yes?"

"Professor, that's not fair. You can't—"

"I can and I will, Mr. Potter. Now please sit down before I take any more points from Gryffindor."

Several Slytherins including Draco snickered at that and Professor Stanwood gave them a hard look. "Ten points from Slytherin. Now, if we can please move on with the class."

Draco suppressed the urge to roll his eyes until Professor Stanwood had turned away. There were two fundamental differences between Snape and Stanwood. First, Snape's classes were interesting and challenging, not boring and impossible. Second, Snape almost never took points from Slytherin. Snape simply was a demanding teacher who hated Gryffindor; Stanwood was just plain evil.

They managed to get through the class without either House loosing any more points or anyone else getting detention.

Draco told his friends to go on ahead without him and waited for Ron outside the classroom. Professor Stanwood wanted to talk to Potter after class, presumably reprimanding him for his outburst, so Ron and Granger came out alone. They each walked off in separate directions once they'd left, and Draco followed Ron. Ron didn't seem to notice he was being followed until Draco called his name.

Ron walked faster, but Draco caught up with him easily. "Hey, I just want to talk."

Silence.

"Look, I just wanted to say sorry about the way I've been acting recently. It was for a dare and it was stupid, but it's over and I won't do it again."

"That's not what Pansy said."

"What?" Oh heck, what had Pansy told him? "And what did she say?"

Ron glared at him. "She told me to watch out for you because you'd been dared to rape me."

Oh. How could he have missed Pansy talking to Ron? "No… I wasn't dared to rape you, and I'm sorry."

"Then what was the dare?"

Shit, what was he supposed to say now? "Uh… to molest a Gryffindor three times."

Ron gave him a suspicious look. "Okay, so you've done that. Now leave me alone."

"Well… actually, you know, I was watching you a bit so I could complete the dare and I kind of realized that maybe you're not so bad after all. My father hates your family, but you aren't like he said you were and I was wondering if maybe we could start over and try to be friends."

Ron stared at him. "You're mental. Completely and totally mental."

"Well, it was worth a shot. So, where'd Granger go?"

"Library."

"Oh?"

"She's looking up—studying."

Draco decided to let that slip slid. "And you?"

"I have Quidditch."

"Hmm, well, practice hard and maybe we we'll forget the badges this time."

Ron flushed angrily and Draco started humming Weasley is our king under his breath.

"Shut up, Malfoy."

Draco hummed louder.

"Malfoy."

"Yes?" Draco asked innocently.

Ron rolled his eyes in disgust.

"So, where were you during breakfast?"

"Uh… busy. Finishing up some homework."

Did he actually expect Draco to believe that? There had been at least twenty or thirty students missing from breakfast and even more from lunch. And not one of them had been in Slytherin. Did he actually expect Draco to believe that they'd all been finishing homework? But Draco decided not to push it.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Ron asked him in disgust as they left the castle.

Draco shook his head. "Not really, no."

"Well, go find something else. Because you're not watching us practice and stealing our strategies."

"Why would we want to?"

"You're a Slytherin. Slytherins cheat."

"Only when we have to. And we don't really have to. Not to beat you, anyways."

Ron glared at him. "Just go."

Draco smirked back and walked back to the castle feeling very accomplished. He had actually managed to have an actual conversation with Ron—and neither of them had even been bruised.

A/N: Princess Orli: I don't know as it's the most creative plan in the world, but as long as it works... Orange: Thanks