A/N: Here's the next chapter, prompt as ever! This one's up nice and fast because I'm going to be away this weekend and won't be able to write the next bit for a few days – don't read it all at once. ;) As for the Draco/Harry thing, I reckon I'm just going to keep this one as a 'friends' relationship BUT will definitely make up for that by writing a D/H story after this – no fear! Read away and I'll see you soon!


Underestimated

No Pain No Gain

The detention rolled around far faster than Harry would have liked.

He'd spent the afternoon sitting through classes in a similar fashion to Potions; receiving glances and suspicious looks from all corners of the school. His free period was used for homework in the Slytherin common room – which was actually a lot more impressive than he had realised before. The fire dancing in the grate had been very welcome to those in the room, as the day was dark and that winter chill was starting to seep under the windows already. The solid oak panels on the walls added to the warmth, with the deep green furniture making the whole place very comfy – not that Harry would ever be comfy in the Slytherin common room of all places.

However he'd found it to be a very productive area for working through his books. Apart from the odd whisper and evil glares from his housemates he had gotten through a lot more work than he ever would have in the Gryffindor common room.

All in all he had been quite satisfied with the days work, and the worry of what awaited him in Snape's detention with Malfoy only began to resurface as he headed down the corridor that night.

Now he would rather have turned tail and fled back to the Gryffindor tower than wander down these cold corridors towards his two least favourite people. Speaking of which – Harry noticed Malfoy up ahead in the gloom outside Snape's classroom.

"Potter?"

"Were you expecting someone else Malfoy?" Harry replied snidely.

"No, idiot. I just never thought you'd arrive on time for anything," The blond sniffed, "But I suppose you must be quite good at arriving for detentions on time – what with all the practise you get."

Harry rolled his eyes in the dark, and rubbed his arms to keep warm. Fancy robe or not it was bloody cold at this time of night.

"What time is it now?" He asked conversationally.

"Time I was sitting by the hearth in the common room, Potter. I don't believe you got me stuck with detention as well. I never did anything."

"You interrupted the teacher's highly informative speech young Draco - which I happened to be engrossed in," Harry grinned through the darkness, "If anything it should be me back up in the common room warming my toes by the fire, not you."

Draco snorted, "You're an idiot Potter."

Another voice cut through the darkness, sharper and deeper than Malfoy's,

"Well Draco, apparently you do listen to some things I say after all."

Harry scowled and turned to meet Snape who had appeared out of the blackness behind them.

"Good evening sir." Malfoy said merrily.

"Is it?" He answered, looking at Harry with obvious disdain.

Harry felt his muscles tightening in anger. It was going to be a long night.

Snape strode past them and opened his door with a flick of his wand. He indicated that they should follow him.

Malfoy gave Harry a last frustrated glare before entering the classroom after the teacher.

"As you obviously do not seem to care about how important your schoolwork is going to be this year, I intend to make this fact extremely clear to you…"

The two Slytherins watched as Snape hauled a large old textbook out from a shadowy bookcase. He turned and looked at them, a dark smile playing across his features.

"When Hogwarts was first founded it was compulsory for all school leavers to be recorded – both who they were and what they became. Although this ideal only lasted for several centuries, the differences between those who did well in their NEWT's and those who didn't, became quite obvious…"

At this, he looked at them very pointedly before making for the door.

"I want you both to make sure all ingredients in my advanced store cupboard are categorized correctly: something which I would never normally suggest Potter should do, as he probably is not even aware what most ingredients are. That is why you will help him Draco," He smirked at Harry's annoyed face, "After that, I want you both to begin copying every word from the text I showed you. Starting at page one."

"What!" Malfoy asked loudly, a red flush creeping up his face in anger, "That'll take us all night!"

"I'm sure it won't…" Snape said with a satisfied look on his face which said he was sure it would.

"It hardly makes sense that you want us to work harder in class, when we're going to be half asleep tomorrow if we have to do this all night." Harry said with a growl.

Snape stopped and turned to survey Harry before making his way over to the black haired boy. Harry didn't move and stood with his arms folded defiantly.

"I believe you're forgetting that this isn't Gryffindor Potter," Snape said quietly to him, "If you break the rules, I will punish you as I see fit. It doesn't matter to me if it makes sense to you or not."

He leant in closer and the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up.

"You're mine now." He said to Harry, evil amusement evident in his voice, "Don't forget that."

Snape made for the door once again, "You will do what I have told you, or I will give you another detention where you will have to do a lot worse. I'll be back to check up on you later," He paused before exiting with a smirk, "Now it's a good evening Draco."

As the door slammed shut Harry shook himself in disgust at having been so close to Snape whilst Malfoy let out a growl of annoyance.

"This is all your fault." He said turning to Harry angrily.

"Give it a rest Malfoy, you shouldn't have laughed when you did. That's all there is to it." Harry replied shortly, making his way over to the store cupboard.

"Give it a rest? I wish you'd never come to Slytherin, Potter, all you've done is cause trouble for me!"

The words hurt Harry more than he let on.

"Well I'm very sorry," Harry said sarcastically, "It must be very inconvenient for you. I'm sorry it's such a hard time for you. What about me? You think I wanted to change house? You think I wasn't happy enough where I was? I never wanted to join this snakepit of a house!"

The blond boy grabbed Harry and pushed him against the wall.

"Slytherin is more than your worthless Gryffindor could ever hope to be, Potter." He hissed angrily.

"I'm yet to be impressed." Harry replied just as viciously.

They glared at each other for several minutes, the taller boy holding Harry firmly in place by the scruff of his robes.

"I can't be bothered with this." Malfoy said fiercely, letting Harry go and storming towards the door.

Harry watched as the blond wrenched at the door. It didn't move. He used his wand, but nothing happened. Malfoy's anger then turned towards their head of house.

"I can't believe he locked us in! He's even charmed the room so we can't use our magic!"

Harry considered this. That was quite a complicated spell, and he doubted that Snape would have managed it in the short time it took for him to leave the room. In fact he doubted if even Dumbledore could have managed it in that short a time. Being able to prevent someone from using magic took a lot of power and energy – he'd read about it.

Harry waved his wand at the desk, intending it to rise into the air. Nothing happened. The gentle burst of energy that he usually felt when performing a spell wasn't noticeable.

Then the answer occurred to him. They were still underage wizards. He was sure that he'd heard of a simpler spell that allowed people like parents and teachers to control their children's underage magic so that they didn't hurt themselves. It seemed that Snape had twisted this spell to his own advantage.

Harry tuned back into Malfoy's rants, as the blond Slytherin stomped about the room with a dark expression on his face.

"…can't believe him… never would normally… Potter's fault…"

"Malfoy?"

"…such an idiot… so unfair… I never even…"

"Malfoy." Harry said more firmly.

The taller boy growled and turned to Harry, glare still firmly in place.

"What?" He snapped.

"If you want out of here tonight we're going to have to do some work." Harry informed him bluntly, as if addressing a child.

"I hope you don't expect me to do anything." Malfoy sneered.

"Oh I do," Harry replied threateningly, "But I reckon one of us can get the cupboard sorted out while the other copies the text. It'll save time. What would you rather do?"

Malfoy just looked at him, "I don't have much choice do I? Snape will be sure to check the cupboard and he'll know if you've done it. It'll all be wrong."

"Don't be so dense Malfoy," Harry said irritably, "Of course I can sort out the store cupboard, I've been doing my homework this year. Make your choice."

Malfoy looked at him in suspicion and Harry could tell he was still unsure.

"I'll do the bloody cupboard," the blond muttered after a few moments, "Just don't mess up that writing though Potter."

Harry sighed at Malfoy's mistrust, and made his way towards Snape's desk. After a casual glance around the room, he slid comfortably into the potions master's large chair and grabbed a quill.

The silence in the room was broken by a moan as Harry inspected the old fashioned text in front of him. It was very long-winded, but he rolled his eyes and went to work - his concentration only wavering occasionally at Malfoy's short questions and mutterings about the mess.

After around four hours, Malfoy had just completed the store cupboard triumphantly, and Harry had made it to page twenty nine of the eight hundred word volume, when Snape appeared again.

The door opened with a creak and the tall man surveyed them both with narrowed eyes.

His gaze rested on Harry, and it took the green-eyed boy several moments to work out that Snape was glaring at him angrily for a reason – he was still sitting curled up comfortably in the man's chair… at his desk… with his quill.

Harry cleared his throat and scooted out of Snape's chair to stand near Malfoy.

"Well?" The professor asked stonily.

"The store cupboard's finished, sir," Malfoy informed him, "I did it."

Snape looked at Harry, whose fingers were black with ink. Harry just nodded his head towards the large pile of parchment sitting on the desk that he had copied from the book… adding his own sentences here and there of course, not that he expected Snape to read any of it.

"Page twenty nine." He said stifling a yawn.

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Page twenty nine, sir." Harry added.

"Very good," Snape looked at Malfoy, "Go to bed Draco, I want a word with Potter."

Harry hid his surprise - and his disappointment at this. What was wrong now? He was tired and wanted to go to bed - and all the old-fashioned text was spinning around his head.

Malfoy disappeared, giving Harry a last wink before going.

"Ten points."

Harry looked back at Snape in question.

"Excuse me?"

"Ten points," Snape looked at him through narrowed eyes, "You lost my house ten points."

Oh for goodness sake, Harry thought to himself.

"I didn't do it intentionally." He said with a sigh, "I was eating in the corridors."

"The rules say you shouldn't eat in the corridors between classes Potter. You broke the rules, and you lost Slytherin points."

"Well, maybe I was hungry." Harry said making a face that clearly said to Snape – you're an idiot.

Snape scowled deeply.

"Well maybe you better get your act together, Potter," He snarled, "Any more points from my house and I will make sure that you regret it."

"What're you going to do, sir? Give me detention? Assign Malfoy as my minder? It's bad enough a punishment that I have to be in this house, never mind anything that you could make me copy from a book."

Harry was seriously annoyed. He was tired, and just not in the mood for Snape's constant attempts to provoke him and grind his self-esteem into the ground.

He didn't care that Snape was a lot bigger and stronger than him, or that the man was actually a qualified Death-Eater. He just cared that Snape was standing between him and a warm comfy bed.

Snape glared at him and shook his head.

"We'll talk about this tomorrow, Potter. Go to bed." He said spitefully.

Harry was rather surprised that the teacher had backed down like this, but to be honest he didn't care. The opportunity to leave was there so he took it gratefully.

"Fine," Harry muttered, "'Night."

Harry exited the classroom quickly, before Snape could change his mind and sped along the dark corridor. His mind was racing – the thought-owls were back full speed.

Why had Snape let him leave without escalating the whole thing into an argument? Why didn't Malfoy just make up his mind whether to hate him or befriend him? And- why had he just walked into something solid?

"Sorry." Harry said embarrassed that he had walked right into someone.

"Who's that?" Came an unfamiliar voice through the darkness.

Harry squinted, then blinked in surprise as a wand lit up the corridor in a flare.

Three burly Slytherin seventh years stood staring at him.

Uh oh.

"S'Potter." One said, a nasty grin spreading across his face.

"What are you doing down this corridor at this time of night?" Another asked suspiciously.

"What are you doing down this corridor?" Harry asked boldly.

He had faced real Death-Eaters. These guys were just wannabe's… right? Still, alarm bells were ringing somewhere in his head. It was three in the morning… something told him that whatever these boys were doing - chances were, it wasn't totally legal.

"That's none of your business, Potter." Said the first one again.

Harry caught the flutter of a robe as something was hidden out of his sight. He looked up at them suspiciously.

"Looks like we've caught ourselves a spy." Said the brown-haired one Harry had walked into, stepping forwards.

"And we don't like spies…" The third said threateningly.

"I'm not a spy," Harry said annoyed, "It was just my bad luck that I ended up in this stupid house-"

He was too busy thinking of his warm bed, and the annoyance that these boys were being to him, to notice the fist flying towards his face.

The punch snapped his head backwards, but thankfully he didn't fall to the ground.

It was the second punch that achieved that, and he sank to his knees only to receive a kick from a different direction.

"The Boy-Who-Lived…" One of them drawled.

Harry coughed, taking another kick in the ribs.

"Slytherin idiots." He hissed in Parseltongue at them, frustrated at being unable to fight back.

They were very big, but not completely stupid, as they seemed to realise that his hiss was an insult and that it was rather ironic that Harry was insulting them in the language of their founder and they didn't understand. Unfortunately this only seemed to anger them further and Harry began to lose track of the number of punches and kicks that came his way. In fact he began to lose track of most things…

After what seemed like an eternity, Harry felt himself being pulled to his feet and a voice swam through his head.

"…Don't get too comfortable in Slytherin, Potter – you'll never belong here."

A final heavy blow to the face sent Harry to the ground again, but this time nothing followed. Only silence.

Green eyes strained to focus on the retreating figures and then moved to the cold stone in front of him. He lay still for a moment and tried to pull himself upright – failing painfully. His body ached, but – he thought numbly – I've had worse.

He didn't know how long he lay there quietly, swimming in and out of consciousness trying to work out what hurt the most.

One of the last things he saw before he passed out entirely were a pair of shiny black shoes.

Oh no, he thought, drawing to mind the one person he knew who would look after their clothes that perfectly.

Then the world went completely dark.


Can't believe I just had Harry beaten up! But it's an integral part of the story :) so please don't be mad! Will all be better by next chapter! Hope it wasn't too violent for anyone. As always thanks to all my reviewers – I have a good laugh reading them and I definitely make a point of reading them all don't worry. They're really welcome. Thanx! x x x