Chapter Two: guilty gryfindors

"Potter!"

The figure at the edge of the tower turned slowly, saw who had said his name, then turned back to watch the horizon.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" the voice held none of it's usual malice, just a sort of weary aprehension.

Draco sat down beside Harry on the small wall that ran waist high around the edge of the tower. "Just seeing who was singing at this time of night. Cigarette?" He asked, holding out a silver cigarette case. Harry nodded and took one out.

"Didn't think you smoked Malfoy." He said pointedly, as Crabbe and Goyle sat next to Draco.

"I'm sure there are plenty of things you don't know about me. I'm begining to think there are plenty of things I don't know about you either. How do you know about NIN?"

"Please, I do live with muggles. Horrid, evil muggles to be sure, but muggles nonetheless. I do know something about thier culture."

"Fair enough, but I still didn't think of you as being a NIN fan. More of a... pop-rock fan. You know, Matchbox Twenty and the like. Normally only Slytherins listen to the darker stuff."

"Yeah, well, I'm begining to think the Sorting Hat was right."

"What do you mean?" Draco asked, confused.

Harry sighed. "When it was sorting me, it said that I would make a very good Slytherin, that I would be helped there. I begged it to put me in Gryfindor with Ron though. And everybody knows how that turned out." He snorted softly.

"Yeah, what did happen between the golden boy and his golden trio?" Crabbe asked.

Harry seemed to take notice of the two other boys for the first time before rolling his eyes. "Ron found out I was gay, and Hermione found this." Harry rolled up his sleeve. Draco just arched a brow.

"They faced down Voldemort on a couple of occassions with you, but couldn't handle the fact that you shag guys and run a razor across your flesh? Well, there's no accounting for taste."

"Speaking of taste, Draco," Goyle broke in, "can we go get food?"

"Yeah, you two go ahead. Just don't do anything stupid like be found." The two boys scampered down the Stairs like it was Christmas morning. Draco noticed Harry's puzzled expression. "They're both bulimics. They love to sneak down to the kitchens at night, load up on food, then go up to an unused bathroom and binge and purge."

"And nobody cares!" Harry said incredulusly.

"We all have our problems Potter. Why should anyone judge anyone else for what they do to cope with this fucked up world?"

"For the first time ever, Malfoy, I'm begining to wish that you were my friend instead of Ron."

"Well Potter, if you recall, I did ask you to be my friend the first day of school. Oh, and don't call me Malfoy. My name is Draco. Malfoy is my father. Gods know I don't want to be associated with him."

"I thought you liked your father. You always go on about how he's a deatheater and how Voldemort's gonna win, and we're on the wrong side."

"That was back when I actually had to live with my father. I had to keep up that act. Now, I'm 16, I live outside of my father's house, and I can live how I want." Draco stood up and ran a hand through his long blonde hair. "Well, I'm gonna go see if those two idiots managed to get their food. You should go back up to the tower and get some sleep, you look like you haven't slept in a year."

Harry shook his head. "Can't. They won't let me know the password anymore."

"Have you gone to your head of house?"

Harry snorted. "Yeah. She says that if I weren't so rude to them, they'd be nice to me. She said I need to figure out how to get along with people, and that special exceptions can't be made just because I'm the ruddy Boy-Who-Won't-Die."

Draco looked appalled. "Damn, if the Slytherins tried that, Snape would be on our asses so fast... Well, try to get some sleep somewhere. If you want, you can eat with me tomorrow. You generally get hexed at breakfast don't you?"

"Yeah. I stopped eating with them a long time ago. I normally just get my food from the kitchens now."

"Well, you're welcome to sit at the Slytherin table any time you want, and if anyone gives you a hard time, I'll smack them around."

"Thanks Draco."

"See ya Potter."

As Draco wound his way down the tower stairs, he could hear Harry singing again, this time fainter. He shook his head. "I think it's time I have a little chat with my head of house," he said, heading back down to the dungeons.

A/N

Sorry for the cliffie at the end of last chapter. And sorry about how slow the plot is coming. There will be a plot.. I swear. This is going to be quite a long fic, and it is completely AU.

Tahnks to Elektra107 for my first review ever! I'm hoping to update very regularly on this. :)