A/N: Finally another chapter! Sorry about the slight delay on this one, had a lot of things going on. :) Have a question floating around at the mo – Just wondering if you think I should send this in a Draco/Harry direction. I know some people prefer it, but so far I've left it so that it can still swing either way. Anyway, read on!


Underestimated

Lessons

"…And although it is unusual for magic to favour certain wand cores, it seems that those of us who have natural plant species in our wands are more adept at performing this specific incantation…"

Professor Flitwick's voice drifted through Harry's mind as he sat staring at the worn floor on the other side of the classroom. Malfoy sat next to him, casually taking in every word and occasionally whispering to Zabini on his other side. Harry ignored him.

He wanted to see his friends. Several Hufflepuffs were present in the Charms class, but none that Harry really knew all that well. He'd received a few curious looks when he'd first entered the room, some appraising, some… well - some not appraising. But he wasn't too bothered. He was pleased enough at his appearance and it didn't particularly bother him if no-one else was. Except, he thought, fingering the cuff of his sleek robe anxiously, if Ron or Hermione didn't like it. That might bother him.

He noticed the dark eyes of Zabini were directed at him and the boy raised an eyebrow in question of Harry's fidgeting. Harry let go of the cuff in embarrassment and turned back to the teacher.

"…the information in your textbooks should be sufficient enough, but for arguments sake, I have arranged for you to all have access to the restricted section of the library where you will find that the subject is explored in far more detail…"

Harry allowed himself a little smile as he tuned back into Flitwick's speech. The restricted section – that could prove very interesting. He shared a quick glance with the blond sitting next to him. Apparently Harry wasn't the only one considering the abuse of this privilege.

He had found that whilst going through his textbooks over the holidays a lot more of the theory behind magic had become clearer, however this had merely raised more questions rather than answering them. Harry had decided that his school textbooks felt a lot more restricting than they ever had before. Perhaps now there was a chance to find some answers.

Malfoy, however, probably just wanted access to the Dark books. Harry wondered, not for the first time, if it would be worth looking at some of these himself. Surely he would have to have at least a little understanding about what he was supposed to be fighting so that he could protect himself. And besides, he thought with a little smile, I'm a Slytherin now, it's part of the package.

As Flitwick dismissed them and the class began to file out, Malfoy leaned across to Harry.

"I've got things to do with Blaise just now, Potter. We've Potions at twelve, I'll just meet you down there. Think you can manage on your own for ten minutes?"

Harry scowled at him,

"I think I'll manage, don't you worry about me."

Malfoy snorted and made for the door where Zabini was waiting for him.

"I won't. Oh, and Potter," He glanced at Zabini, "Blaise likes you robes."

Harry rolled his eyes, mostly for his own benefit, and the other dark haired boy shot Malfoy a glare.

Once they had left, Harry got to his feet and made his way out and along the corridor. Glancing at his watch he decided he'd scoot along to the kitchens and grab some breakfast – he was starving.

He quickened his pace and with the help of some shortcuts, soon found himself in front of the fruit bowl painting. After escaping the horde of elves that welcomed him, he left the kitchens an apple, a little bag of cereal, and a steaming mug of coffee the richer.

Quite satisfied with his haul, Harry made his way leisurely downstairs, charming his mug so that it followed him gently on his way. He was munching happily on his dry cereal when he rounded a corner and came face to face with Professors McGonagall and Sprout.

The surprise was evident on all their faces; Harry's – at meeting someone around the corner, and the teacher's at seeing Harry's new appearance.

McGonagall was first to compose herself. She looked down her nose at him sternly.

"I noticed you were absent from my class this morning, Potter. I hope this won't become a habit."

Harry swallowed his mouthful of cereal before replying, "Not at all Professor. I had a bit of trouble… settling in."

"Yes Professor Snape mentioned something along those lines. I can see that you're quite… settled now though." She said with another glance at his robes.

Harry knew she wasn't being overly vicious with her remarks but he was still unsettled by his former head-of-house's coolness towards him. Time to try for some sympathy.

"Professor Snape seemed to think I needed some help – he's made Malfoy my minder."

Professor Sprout sent a little sad smile his way and Harry was sure McGonagall looked pitying, then angry, but in a second her expression was back to normal.

"If he was minding you properly, Potter, he'd make sure you were present for all your classes, and also," She frowned at his floating mug which seemed to be examining a portrait to her left, "He would make sure that you knew food and drink are banned in the corridors between classes."

Harry's head snapped up. Surely not. She wasn't going to take points from-

"Ten points from Slytherin for disregarding the rules." She said shortly.

His mouth fell open,

"What?" He asked dumbly.

This was becoming a habit.

"You heard me, Potter, now on your way before I take more points for rudeness to a teacher."

She watched him with a small smile on her face as he struggled to regain composure and folded his arms crossly. She had hardly ever taken points from him personally in Gryffindor.

"That's very immature." He muttered darkly after a moment.

Professor McGonagall smiled more warmly at this, leaned slightly closer and lowered her voice,

"I'm afraid I intend to pay Severus back tenfold for all the innocent points he took from Gryffindor due to your wrongdoings in my house. Starting now," She straightened up again and spoke at a normal volume, "Now do I have to tell you again?"

Harry stared at her for several moments, not quite sure to believe what he had just heard. She wasn't going to make his life any easier taking that attitude towards him - especially with Snape breathing down his neck, waiting for him to step out of line.

He shoved his cereal back into his bag and marched past them, coffee cup following him. Once he made sure he was clear of the two teachers he grabbed the cup out of the air and finished it off, then retrieved his cereal and began munching on it again – feeling very rebellious as he did so. It wasn't very convenient to have rebellion skipping through your mind during a Potions class though, so he tried to calm down before he reached the dungeons.

"You took your time. I thought you weren't going to turn up!" Malfoy growled from ahead as Harry made his way over.

He ignored him.

"Where have you been this whole- what's that look? What have you done? You're all grumpy again. You got into trouble didn't you?"

Harry scowled, "No."

"That's a lie." The blond shot back immediately.

"McGonagall took points from me," Harry said in an offhand way, "Alright?"

"What?" Malfoy exploded, "What did you do?"

"Nothing! She has a vendetta against me now. I've betrayed her house." Harry said dramatically, explaining what she'd told him.

Malfoy shook his head in disbelief, "Snape won't be happy."

"You don't need to tell me that." Harry muttered.

"Well, come on then." Malfoy said with a sigh, making for the classroom.

Harry let his shoulders drop in defeat as he followed. He wasn't looking forward to Snape finding out about the points. Still, Harry wasn't about to tell him – what Snape didn't know couldn't hurt him… or anyone else…

The classroom looked the same as ever, dank and foreboding, and the rest of the class were already seated. With a thrill of excitement Harry spotted Hermione sitting near the back with a couple of Gryffindors and gave her a little wave. Happily, Harry realised that apart from her initial shock at his appearance she seemed to be more bemused than angry or disgusted, and she returned his wave with a grin. The others just looked shocked. Perhaps it was a good thing Ron didn't make it into Advanced Potions, he though uneasily – the other Gryffindors didn't look too pleased.

"When you're quite finished, Potter." Malfoy said icily.

Harry looked at him. The blond boy looked a bit put-out at not being the centre of Harry's attention. Green eyes filled with amusement at this revelation.

"Sorry dear." He said, taking the seat next to Malfoy.

The weight in his chest felt considerably lighter now that he knew Hermione hadn't rejected him for being a Slytherin and he felt a lot more able to tease his new 'friend'. This was what he should have started a long time ago!

Malfoy looked at him wryly, cheeks flushed.

"Shut the hell up, Potter."

Harry's grin just increased and he gave Malfoy a wink as he took out his textbook.

Right on time Snape entered the room and shut the door with a heavy slam, effectively silencing the room. He glanced in Harry's direction and the dark haired boy could have sworn he saw the man's lip twitch in a smirk before he launched into the first-class-back-speech. He was too elated to care – he had at least one friend still!

Harry was high on Hermione's acceptance and so in a dangerously playful mood. He wasn't listening to a word Snape said about schedules and hard work and all the rest, and instead had decided to start doodling on Malfoy's parchment. By the time Snape had started writing on the board, Harry had already completed a picture of a fuzzy lion, a snake with large fangs (he'd had personal experience of snakes with large fangs after all), and had started on his masterpiece of Voldemort in a Victorian-style dress, smoking a cigarette. The pictures were surrounded by different lazy scribbles of his name - he was rather pleased with it if he did say so himself.

Malfoy had been watching him with narrowed eyes as he'd started but had soon ignored him as Harry had become more engrossed in his artwork. He took a second to look down at the parchment once again and his eyes widened before he let out an undignified snort of amusement. The class fell deadly silent.

Snape turned slowly from the board and eyed the two boys at their desk. The rest of the class waited in anticipation of his reaction.

"What are you doing Potter?" He asked dangerously.

Harry threw caution to the wind and replied confidently,

"Making notes, sir."

Malfoy covered his smile with his hand as Snape put down his chalk.

"Really…" The teacher didn't sound impressed.

It was only as Snape began to walk over to the desk that Harry realised there may be a flaw in his plan – where the hell was he going to put the evidence? He slid the parchment under his textbook smoothly and discreetly, but unfortunately it didn't go all that unnoticed by his dear professor.

"Potter, give me that parchment."

Harry held out a blank piece of parchment for him innocently. He didn't take it.

"The other one." Snape's voice held an impatient snap this time.

Harry cringed and glanced at Malfoy, then back to Hermione who looked rather disapproving of the interruption to the class. He then looked up at Snape. The man had raised an eyebrow and looked as if he was savouring every moment.

Harry passed him the doodle-sheet slowly, and as Snape took it his dark eyes scanned the drawings with an expressionless face.

"Potter, this is a potions class not an art class-"

"It's not mine." Harry said quickly, interrupting Snape's drawl.

Snape just stared at him blankly and turned the parchment around so that Harry was staring at the multiple copies of his name that surrounded his characters.

"Oh." Harry said soundlessly, reaching a hand round to the back of his head in discomfort.

His happy-mood was quickly disintegrating.

Snape held his gaze for several moments before smiling nastily.

"I believe a detention is in order. Tonight, Potter, my office."

The mood had definitely crashed to the ground. Malfoy chuckled quietly but Snape then turned his attention to him as well, and he stopped.

"You will be joining him Mr Malfoy. Don't be late."

The rest of the class snickered amongst themselves and Malfoy shot Harry a death-glare.

The rest of the class passed quickly as they worked silently over their steaming cauldrons, concentrating hard so that Snape had no excuse to give anyone else a detention. It was only once they had been dismissed that Hermione appeared at his side.

"You'll notice that he didn't take points from you," She said very pointedly, "Detention maybe, but no points."

"Nice to see you too, 'Mione." Harry said with a grin.

Malfoy had also appeared now, but to his credit, made no nasty remarks and just scowled.

"I'm just saying. Everyone misses you Harry - Ron says hi. I like your hair by the way. What did you do with it?"

At this, Harry noticed Malfoy became more interested in the conversation.

"Malfoy decided to lend a hand." Harry grimaced slightly.

"Well, I like it," She leant forwards and spoke to the blond, "Well done."

Both Harry and Malfoy looked at her in surprise and she gave Harry a wink before heading off down a different corridor. She called back to them happily,

"Building bridges! See you later Harry."

They had both stopped walking by this stage and stood in silence for a moment.

"Well, that was weird." Harry said after a moment.

Malfoy said nothing but the look on his face indicated that he felt the same. They stood quietly for a minute or two before Harry stepped forwards once again and set out for the next class, turning back to see if the blond was following.

"I just got complimented by a mudblood." Malfoy said, scandalised.

Harry shook his head, ignoring the insult to his friend, "Malfoy, you just got complimented."

Malfoy's face darkened as Harry grinned at his own joke, then made to follow him down the corridor as it echoed with the black-haired boy's laughter, scowl only deepening an his pale face.

It was going to be an interesting detention, Harry decided. Painful, but interesting.


I wanted to have so much in this chapter but it's already really long so it'll just have to wait! I know where the story is going now though, so we'll be zoomin' along! ;) Next chapter up soon! Hope you guys are still enjoying this, luvvin my lil' reviewers! x x x