I don't own Harry Potter and Co. Okay, so the first chapter was basically a prologue, so you'll have to wait to find out where that's going. Sorry - I know, but I'm the only one. This is still a pretty short chapter, but they will gradually get longer and longer. I think that's all you need to know. Read on, and thanks for the reviews!


Harry shrugged off the blankets and made his way to the Gryffindor common room. Too many thoughts sought to keep him from sleep this afternoon. It looked like he wasn't going to get his much-needed nap today.

The Potions test had required two nights of extensive studying, and even then only Hermione had seemed comfortable right before the exam. Harry's own eyes betrayed his level of discomfort with the idea of the test.

"It's hopeless" Harry said, agreeing with Ron's assessment. "I haven't got a chance in Hades."

He thought he caught a glance from Draco- a triumphant smirk?

"Mind your on," Harry muttered wearily.

Professor Snape strode in, setting an odd-looking figurine on his desk. It had 2 outstretched hands, each with six fingers forming a circle in front of it. In the center, a miniature wand moved slowly around the fingers.

Snape waved his wand, and their exam parchments appeared in front of them. Harry screwed his eyes shut.

"You will have one hour," snapped the professor. He tapped the pointed hat atop the StopWitch, and the wand began to move around the fingers at a faster rate. The professor cast a glance back towards Draco.

"Mr. Malfoy, as my monitor, will assure that there is no cheating." This didn't seem very likely, as Snape had seated them in a staggered fashion. Every Gryffindor found themselves surround front, back, and sides by Slytherins, and vice-versa. Certainly, Harry was not going to cheat, no matter how badly he felt he might be destined to perform on this test, but the boy felt robbed of moral support.

Then Draco turned around again and shot him another queer glance. Harry couldn't quite read the smile, but it made him a little sick. Draco muttered something in an intense tone under his breath.

Sighing, Harry turned back to his parchment. For a second, his head spun, and a wave of dizziness and nausea came over him. As he struggled to conquer the feelings-test anxiety, probably-Harry suddenly felt the answers come to him. An odd sort of clarity settled over him, and he finished the test with confidence and ease.

But now, that confidence had been thoroughly squelched by doubt. Why had he been so comfortable? There was a more than slight probability that it had all been complete bunk. There was a significant chance that Harry's total confusion had generated a series of meaningless answers. Had his subconscious sought to finish the horror of that test? Harry knew that he had not been well enough prepared.

And that was not the only thing bothering Harry as he trotted down the spiraling stairs. What was that peculiar look Draco had given him? It was not quite one of Draco's usual mocking glances. Beneath the condescending, challenging amusement, there had been something else. Another . . . suggestion . . . hidden in those cruel, angular, well-chiseled, finely-made features, so very-

Harry tripped down the last few steps. Lately, he'd been noticing Draco's aesthetic qualities.

Why? Harry tried to erase thoughts of Draco with those of Cho.

Fionulla Brickleduffer was staring at him from Fred Weasley's lap. He shifted uncomfortably. They did not like each other at all, much to the chronic frustration of Fred. Fred guessed that Harry disliked her because her cousin was a Slytherin, and she was well acquainted with a number of them. But Harry's consternation came from her piercing glares. She always seemed to know what he was thinking, even when he didn't know himself. He almost thought her full, smirking lips mouthed the word "Draco." Harry broke away from her gaze.

"Fred, have you seen Ron?" Harry asked, avoiding Fio's look."

The redheaded young man touched Fio's check. "Not since lunch."
Harry nodded. A pang of jealousy shot through him. Why couldn't he feel that way about someone?


Draco was in the only place that Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't follow him. The late afternoon sun streamed in through the library windows. Draco was seated at a mahogany desk that shone brilliantly in the bright squares of sun. A book was open in front of him. That was definitely something Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't have recognized. Idiots! "From good families," his father had said, "The perfect comrades for you. Them, and Potter. We need him."

Draco had been obedient, and Crabbe and Goyle had become his lackeys. "Potter" refused his overture of friendship. Over the past few years, Draco had gradually come to realize something.

"'We need him?'" he said softly to himself. "Funny, I need him." Bloody Harry Potter – blind to Draco's controlled and reserved admiration. Malfoy wasn't one to demean himself by begging and too strong and composed for tears or falling apart. He was not the most open of persons. He kept his feelings to himself, and his subtle communications were expected to suffice.

Today's Potions exam was a good example. Draco's gift, preceded by his gentle expression of camaraderie, had been completely unappreciated. And Harry's reaction suggested he had completely misread the look.

"What more do I have to do?"

The library doors opened again. Apparently one of the Wonder Twins had finally mustered the courage to set foot in the library. Draco slammed the tome shut, and a bevy of Dust-Mote Pixies sparkled upward in the light. Sighing, he followed Goyle, clearly uneasy in the library, back out into the hall.


Harry thought Ron might be snuggling Hermione in the library, so he hightailed it over there. But just before he rounded the corner to the library, he ran into Tweedledee and Tweedledum, followed by His Highness Draco Malfoy.

Author's Note: Yes, I know it ended on an awkward note. I'll try to be more clean-cut with my chapters in the future