Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books, films or anything else to do with J.K Rowling's work. Savvy? (I just watched Pirates of the Caribbean for the hundredth time. It is such a brilliant film.)

"…" Speech

Bold parseltongue

italics thoughts

Chapter 9

The next few weeks Harry was finally beginning to get used to Hogwarts and the time simply flew by. Often literally. After Harry's "spectacular" flying, Madame Hooch had talked to Snape and he had blackmailed (or bribed, Harry didn't know which) the Headmaster into lifting the first-year ban. This was quite a feat, as Dumbledore only favoured Gryffindors and had seemed to have taken a dislike to Harry, no doubt for being famous and in Slytherin.

When Blaise and Draco heard they were ecstatic (after a bit of jealous sulking on Draco's part) and had been bragging about it to anyone they met, especially Weasley, who was enraged at the thought of "that show-off Potter" being the youngest Seeker in a century.

Harry's first practice was quite a challenge. After listening to Marcus Flint's speech on what curses he would use on Harry if it turned out he was wasting his time, Harry kicked off from the ground. Flint then threw golf balls around the place ("bloody muggle things, ah well, we have nothing else") trying his level best to make Harry drop them. Unfortunately for Harry, he caught them all, which made Flint decide to use another tactic. He began to ferociously pelt Harry with the balls, as hard as he possibly could. After Harry had nearly been beheaded four times, Flint grudgingly stopped, but only because he had run out things to throw.

"Well, Snape was right about you. You definitely made it on the team. Unfortunately, we already have a Seeker, Terence Higgs. However, since he's absolutely useless, we'll just have to make him have a timely accident before the game. I'll get working on that. Meanwhile, you'll be our replacement Seeker and you're to turn up at every single practice, got it? I expect to see you here tomorrow, five o'clock. Now scram!"

Harry obediently began making his way to the castle, inwardly cringing at the thought of getting up at dawn. Hell, he would get up closer to five o'clock in the evening if he had his way. Unfortunately, he was under no delusions of what would happen to him if he failed to turn up. Harry desperately wanted all his limbs intact, so he decided it would be a very good idea to come at the right time.

When Draco heard of the ungodly hour Harry had to get up, all his jealousy evaporated away and he cheerfully told Harry that, to allow time for getting dressed and having something to eat, Harry would probably have to get up at around four in the morning.

"And since you're so bloody slow at waking up, better make that half past three," continued Draco, gleefully.

"Yes, I suppose," said Harry. "And since you're my best friend, I'm sure you'll get up too, so as to give me some support."

"Ah, well, normally I would, but… you have to understand…" stammered Draco trying to think up a good excuse.

"Don't worry about it. I was only joking. Even Blaisewouldn't get up that early, and she's the earliest riser I've ever met, or heard of. She actually seems to like getting up in the mornings. Crazy, I'm telling you," said Harry smirking. "You really have to work on thinking up excuses though, a Hufflepuff could have done better."

Laughing, Harry made his way to potions, followed by a grumbling Draco. They arrived early, which was a very good thing, in Harry's opinion. Normally Snape wouldn't have batted an eyelid if they turned up late, as Harry and Draco seemed to be his favourite students, but for the entire week he had been in a foul mood. He swept around the classroom glowering at everybody and took thirty points off Dean Thomas because he arrived three seconds after the bell. He took great pains in terrorising the Gryffindors, taking points off if they so much as blinked irregularly. Even Draco was subdued, and didn't even try flicking dung beetles at Weasley or sabotage his potion. All the students were hard at work, and Snape had finally begun to calm down, when the inevitable happened. Neville's cauldron exploded. Harry was willing to bet that the following tirade could be heard all the way at the top of the astronomy tower. After bellowing at Longbottom for a full ten minutes, reducing the poor boy to tears, Snape ordered him to sit next to Harry, making Draco move next to Granger. Opening his mouth to complain, Draco was quelled with a glare and moved to his designated seat with no further protest. Neville fearfully gathered his things and moved towards Harry.

"Hopefully, you will not be so imbecilic as to blow up a cauldron when you are under the direction of Mr Potter, one of my best students. Come on boy, keep moving! Now, as I was saying, this is an immensely complex- Longbottom! Surely your brain cannot be so deficient as to make you unable to walk properly?" drawled Snape. This last was because of Longbottom nearly tripping himself up in his haste to do as the Potions master ordered. Reverting to his usual cold sarcasm, Snape continued teaching the lesson while Longbottom sat down, looking fearfully around him. The classroom was divided into two parts, Gryffindor and Slytherin. By sitting next to Harry, Neville had effectively isolated himself from any of his housemates and was surrounded by Slytherins. Longbottom was right to be worried, the looks on the Slytherin's faces did not bode well for him. Luckily for him though, Harry was in quite a charitable mood, and had taken a liking to him. After the flying lesson Harry had often greeted him in the hallways, and actually found the boy quite amusing and likable, mainly because Ronald Weasly hated him which was in itself a glowing reference. And , after all, it was always good to have connections in other houses. Therefore, when Neville looked tentatively at him and opened his mouth and said,

"Sorry about all this Harry, I mean Potter. Um, yeah, I'll try not to lower your mark, um…"

"Don't worry about it, I'm a Slytherin, we always get good marks in potions. Just so long as you don't blow up your cauldron too often, I'm okay. And call me Harry by the way," Harry said, smiling and sticking his hand out to be shaken. Staring in shock Longbottom shook his hand and said,

"Err, thanks, um, call me Neville."

The rest of the lesson they didn't have a lot of time to talk as Snape was still on the warpath, but they managed to make a potion without melting, exploding, or otherwise harming themselves or their cauldron, which was probably a first for Neville.

After the lesson Harry was standing talking to Neville when Blaise ran up to him.

"What the hell are you doing Harry?" she demanded. "Do you have any idea what the other Slyths will say when they see you getting friendly with a Gryffindor? You're lucky no one saw you today, as everyone was busy working, but they'll notice sometime and then what will you do? Huh?"

"They'll just have to deal with it, as will you," said Harry glaring at her.

"Harry, I don't have a problem with it," sighed Blaise. "But then I had a much more neutral upbringing. All my family have been Ravenclaws for years. Just think what Draco will say. He hates Gryffindors."

"I know, but he'll just have to deal. It's not like I'm making friends with a muggleborn or something. Anyway, I'll make up some excuse. I'll just say I'm trying to gain his trust so as to turn him against his housemates, or something."

"What, lie to your best friend?" interrupted Neville. Up until then he'd remained silent, his head bowed in shame and embarrassment, but he seemed scandalised at the idea Harry put forward.

"What, is it too much for you're Gryffindor sensibilities? Come on, lighten up. I'm a Slytherin. Being devious and dishonest is what we do. But if it really bothers you I'll tell Draco the truth, but he's the only one. Okay?"

In the end, that's exactly what he did. As expected Draco did not take the news too well but managed to contain his displeasure to a bare minimum. He reluctantly agreed that "Longbottom wasn't as bad as most Gryffs" and probably wouldn't be as "cowardly and weak" as he was now, after he had been "trained up a bit". He also admitted that it would be a good way on keeping tabs on the Gryffindors. But he refused to "suck up to him" at all or "to act any differently" than he did now. Harry, who had expected a much worse outburst, was overjoyed at this and agreed readily.

"I suppose it won't be too bad. He is a pureblood after all. And it's always good to have some allies in other houses. Maybe there's hope left," drawled Draco.

"For him or for me?" asked Harry.

"For both of you. Now leave. Your supposed to be meeting Blaise in the library in two minutes."

With a yell, Harry raced off, taking care to bash into Weasley on the way. Draco merely gave a half-hearted glare at Longbottom, then turned to Thomas Nott and begun discussing ways in which to achieve total world domination without anyone catching on to your plan.

A/N Thanks to all my reviewers. I love you guys. Please tell me what you think of this chapter. I wrote it in little under two hours, so it's a bit rushed. Ah well, next chapter will be better, I promise!