Disclaimer: I don't own any characters herein.

Rating: PG-13

Chapter Three: Collision at Fort Slytherin

"Oh this letter is priceless…" purred Pansy in a dark voice.

Harry really didn't like the tone of voice she was using. It sounded evil, far more so than anything that ever been uttered by Malfoy. He shuffled closer to them so he could hear everything that was going on. He made a mental note to listen to the painting known as Azriel more often.

"What are we going to do with it?" asked Crabbe rubbing his hands together as if they were talking about a treasured artefact or ancient antique. Goyle nodded Harry supposed it was his way of echoing the question.

"Nothing." Spat Blaise, "We shouldn't even have it."

Harry couldn't see the look on Pansy's face as she had her back to him, she was leaning on the wall with her shoulder, Blaise was standing before her a look of disgust while Goyle and Crabbe were leaning against the wall lazily with smug looks on their ugly faces.

"Shut up Zabini." Snapped Pansy, as she turned around and also rested her back against the wall, and staring at Blaise coldly. She traced the edge of the piece of parchment she held with her fingers and smiled, "I think that we'd be very well rewarded," she began, stressing the word 'very', "If we sold this to The Daily Prophet." She gave a short humourless laugh, "Think of the money we would receive."

Goyle began to chuckle, "It would sully the Malfoy name beyond repair."

Harry swallowed, it was obvious now that there people were not actually Malfoy's friends, with the exception of possibly Blaise, they were interested in money rather than the welfare of their class mate and it seemed as if they were willing to sell him out to get what they wanted. They reminded him of the Dursleys.

"Pansy!" barked Blaise, swinging his lithe body around to face her, "Have you no sense of loyalty? Draco is still a Slytherin and we should treat him with respect and no go around flaunting things this close to his heart-"

Goyle cut the taller boy off by grabbing him by the collar and shoving him up against the wall, "Treat that spoilt brat like one of us? Perhaps you'd like to join him in the infirmary?" the threat came out in a low and dangerous voice.

To Harry it seemed that Blaise was inevitably going to get a beating, even though the dark haired boy was a good inch or so taller than Goyle.

Blaise bared his teeth at the three of them, "You call yourself Slytherins? Where is your sense of Slytherin honour? You're supposed to think of your house like a family."

Crabbe growled something and grabbed Blaise's arms twisting at a vicious angle, Harry knew he would never forgive himself if he let a fellow student, Slytherin or not get physically hurt when he was there to stop it. Harry started to move out of the shadows intent on helping Blaise.

But Pansy spoke before he could fully emerge into the light, "Easy boys, I'm sure Zabini would rather you spare his pretty face," she turned to the afore mentioned boy and gave him an icy glare, "I know you come from a very old fashioned family Zabini, and yes I realise that part of your heritage stems back towards china, and we all know that China is virtually drowning in honour and loyalty, like a damn Hufflepuff." At this point in her obnoxious tirade Blaise had lashed out with one of his fists, but it had been caught by Crabbe's overly large meaty fist. Pansy wagged a finger at him, "Behave Zabini, as I was saying, we're not in China now Zabini, the rules that apply there are myth here, there is no honour, there is no loyalty. If by selling this letter we screw over Draco, then who cares?"

Harry, now in half and half out was having considerable trouble taking all of this in, he had no idea that Slytherins could be this vicious especially to one of their own.

"It's not right!" growled Blaise fighting to get free, "Don't give that letter to the Skeeter woman! She'll have a glorified field day!"

"What a wonderful idea Blaise." Purred Pansy, "Let's give it to her, she'll make sure that the world knows all of Draco darling's most inner thoughts, what a disgrace that brat'll be to his father." She giggled again to herself and then began to fold the letter up. "Let's go to Hogsmead now when the others go and we can go and find that woman, I bet she too was a Slytherin when she went to Hogwarts."

Harry felt the great need to do something, to do anything, but he couldn't think. It was that moment that Blaise Zabini tilted his head to the side and locked gazes with him. Harry froze startled like a deer in the headlights.

All of a sudden as if granted strength from a force unknown Blaise lunged forwards taking Crabbe and Goyle by surprise, he ripped himself from their grip and leapt at Pansy. The girl shrieked and threw up her hands to protect her face. Blaise ran past her.

Harry looked on confused for a moment as to why Blaise was running, they were all in the same lessons they were going to catch up with him sometime. His eyes widened when he realised that Blaise just wasn't running anywhere, he was running straight towards him.

Harry was too surprised to move. He watched in slow motion as Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle turned and began their pursuit of the tall dark haired Slytherin. Their feet thundered against the wooden floor, it sounded like thunder coming towards him, like a storm.

Harry wondered if Blaise's plan was to ask for help or something. But then he noticed that Blaise was running directly at him. He barely had time to brace himself before the boy slammed into him and they both went careening to the floor.

Harry's back hit the wooden corridor hard and the wind was knocked out of him, something was shoved into his hands before the weight of Blaise's body on top of his disappeared as the boy heaved himself to his feet.

"Watch where you're going Potter." He snarled as he started to run off.

Luckily the fall had pushed him back into the shadows and the others mustn't have seen him because they paid him no heed or attention as they ran after their house mate. He thought that maybe it was because he was wearing all black today.

He sat there stunned in the shadows as the four of them disappeared down into the darkness that was the stairwell. Shaking his head he started to get to his feet and then remembered that something had been thrust into his hands during his collision with Blaise, who despite appearances seemed to be an alright kind of guy.

He looked down and his mouth formed an 'O' of surprise, for in his hand lay a piece of folded up parchment. Was this the letter that they had been talking about?

With some hesitancy and apprehension he began to unfold it, flattening out the creases between his long fingers. He recognised the slanted spidery lettering of Malfoy's handwriting. He began to read it with some amount of guilt, as if he were betraying a trust, even though he had no trust with Malfoy to betray anyway.

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing this in the hope that perhaps there is someone out there who cares…

OooooOooooOooooOooooO

Stunned by what he had read in the long and heartfelt suicide note, he leaned back against the wall once more. It really was too much to take in, he hadn't even had breakfast yet, and he needed time to think. Perhaps he would go down to eat first to allow his mind time to process all that he had learned, it was highly likely that Malfoy wouldn't even be awake yet.

In a daze he began to make his way back down to the great hall, all the while that one line of the letter going over and over in his head as if it were a record on repeat… perhaps under different circumstances Potter and I could have been friends, perhaps even more… he shook his head to try and rid himself of that thought. Did that mean that Malfoy was gay?

Harry himself was bisexual, not that anyone knew that, but he had discovered that during the last summer holidays as well. It had been a time of discovering ultimately, who he was inside. And now it seemed he was being asked to find out who Malfoy was inside.

It was going to be a long and difficult year…

He pushed open the doors to the great hall and ducked as a pear flew past his ear, looking up in shock he came to the conclusion that he had just walked in on one of the only food fights that happened at Hogwarts.

Dammit he thought to himself as he dived under a table, narrowly avoiding being splattered by tomato sauce.