Disclaimer: Anything that you recognise does not belong to me; it belongs to the very talented J.K. Rowling. Lucky her! I am doing this purely to see if I can, I am not making any money off of this what so ever. Unlucky me!

Also, I have read a lot of stories on this site, so if anything is familiar, it is not on purpose… Could you simply take it as an homage?

The next morning as Draco made his way to Ancient Runes he suddenly found himself unceremoniously pulled into an empty classroom and slammed against the wall. Looking up, Draco's heart leapt with joy for standing in front of him was his mate. Unfortunately Harry was glaring at him as if he was pond scum.

"I don't know what spell you had me under last night Malfoy, but if I hear your friends even whisper about what I said, you will pay. My best friend is a very good researcher, as well as Head Girl with unlimited access to the restricted section, and I am sure she could find a curse for me that would make the Cruciatus look like a walk in the park."

Draco was hurt, was his public image that bad that Harry thought he would spread around the deeply personal event Harry had shared with him last night?

"Harry, I don't understand. What are you talking about? What you told me was in confidence, I wouldn't dream of telling anyone else, it's your story to tell, not mine. Why would you think that I would do that?"

"Cut the bullshit Malfoy. Tell anyone and you'll be sorry."

And with that Harry strode out of the classroom leaving the blonde haired boy behind. Draco stared miserably after Harry's retreating back; he thought he had made such progress only to have Harry believe that he was doing this to find information to use against the dark haired Gryffindor.

Harry walked away from Malfoy feeling very conflicted. Last night when he had left the blonde haired Slytherin, he had felt… ok. It had been such a relief to finally unload all that that his mind had felt lighter than it had since two weeks before the school term began. But then doubt had settled in. He had just told his enemy about what happened to him? Voluntarily? How could that be possible? It couldn't be possible he had decided, Draco must have used a charm on him to make him spill his story. Then anger started to build, by the time Harry had spent the entire night envisioning the taunting and the rumours and the stories in the Daily Prophet, he felt he had to do something, which is why he had accosted Draco in the hall on the way to Divination. But now Harry felt a small twinge of guilt, the blonde had looked so hurt and bewildered when Harry was threatening him, could Harry have got it wrong? What was he going to do this afternoon in Potions? As he climbed to rope ladder to the classroom Harry decided to ignore his problems for a while and resolved to simply follow Draco's lead, if he was a git Harry would be a git right back, if he was civil Harry would be civil, if Draco was nice, Harry would be … civil.

Potions was a strained affair with both boys on tenterhooks around each other. Following Professor Snape's orders to work on their assignments Harry and Draco were sitting at a table in the front on the classroom experimenting with different potions ingredients said to have healing powers. Draco was not exactly feeling very interested in Potions during the class, he was more concerned with the tightness of his chest, apparently Veela do not take well to being threatened by their mates and he was anxious to make amends with Harry, but he didn't know how. Draco's logical side flat out refused to apologise to Harry, he hadn't done anything wrong, it was all Harry's fault, he was the one who overreacted. But his emotional side was clamouring to throw himself at his mate's feet and beg for forgiveness, such indecision had Draco sitting silently, looking over his text book as Harry sliced and diced different ingredients. Harry, sticking to his plan to simply follow Malfoy's lead, was also silent.

"Do you reckon if we add fish oil to the shrink sap it would make a difference?" Harry finally broke the silence

"How do you mean?" Draco looked up at Harry with a questioning frown

"Well, the fish oil has all that amino…."

With that, the two boys were talking again, debating and arguing over certain details and generally conversing til the end of the lesson. With the lesson over and plans to meet again the next night to go over the assignment some more Harry and Draco left the classroom.

As Harry walked up to the great hall for dinner his mind was racing, he had actually passed two hours with Malfoy without incident! It was amazing, and the weird thing was, he had enjoyed it. It was wonderful to be able to argue with someone who was able to look at Potions from both perspectives, one being the 'well it might work, but it might not and we'd get in trouble' and the other being 'stuff it, if it works great, if not it should make a nice explosion', Hermione, much as Harry loved her could only see Potions from the first perspective. Harry was confident hat the things he and Malfoy were going to try would boost them up a grade if they worked, and with all the research the two of them had been doing in their own time, it was fairly certain that some of the experiments would work. It was also good to have someone who just listened to your thoughts, and didn't try to cut in with their knowledge or opinions, as his friends were sometimes want to do.

"Harry, you in there mate?" Ron waved his hand in front of Harry's face; the dark haired boy had been spaced out all the way into the great hall and seemed to not even notice the food in front of him

"Yeah Ron, I'm fine."

Ron nodded and went back to eating his bangers and mash; he was worried about his friend. Ever since the summer holiday Harry had been quieter and more withdrawn than he usually was. When Ron had told him about how he'd asked Hermione out and how he hoped there was a future there for the two of them, Harry had said all the right things, but it had just seemed as if his heart wasn't in it. He also hadn't offered any information about what was happening with his life either, Ron was worried that his best friend was slipping away from him.

"Hey, Harry, what are you doing after dinner? Wanna hang out like we used to? Just you, me and Hermione, no other interruptions?"

"Sure Ron sounds like fun, you can help me make up my Divination homework, can you believe that we have to look fifty years into the future with a crystal ball? I think I might be living in Australia this time, with a pet kangaroo this time, last time I predicted my death she got a bit sniffy"

"Nah mate, that was just because you predicted a crystal ball falling on your head and smashing your brains in"

Laughing, the two friends set off to the Library to round up Hermione and spend the night talking, joking and generally having a good time.

Draco Malfoy did not have such a good night that night. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had heard from their mothers that word had finally come about their fathers. They were never going to return home from the mission Voldemort had sent them on, they were dead. Voldemort had been with them on the mission and had killed them in a fit of rage when his plan did not work. This news had shattered the boys and also strengthened their resolve to never serve under their fathers' master.