The first post of the new year did not bring any surprises for Harry.

It came in the first breakfast of the new term and brought with it the usual forgotten items for Neville and the Daily Prophet for Hermione. Harry was not brought any post on that day. His insides churned when he remembered the post he used to get from Sirius.

Shortly after the post owls had flown away again Professor McGonnagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick and Professor Slughorn (the house heads) walked round there house tables and handed out the timetables. Harry was pleased to remember that, although he had Double Potions first, he would not be spending it with Snape.

The noise in the hall died down slightly at the arrival of a teenage boy. Draco Malfoy, with the same bleach blonde hair, entered the hall, without his usual smirk. Ginny got up out of her seat two places down from Harry and ran towards the Slytherin table.

She immediately began hurling abuse at him. Malfoy did not, to Harry's amazement, retaliate in anyway, he just went to sit at the Slytherin table beside Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry strolled over towards Ginny and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Come on Ginny, not now," Harry said turning round to face him.

She didn't say anything to him but stopped shouting at Malfoy. Harry did not, unfortunately, catch the look on Malfoy's face but Harry expected he would have been surprised that Harry was defending him. It crossed Harry's mind that Malfoy did not yet know that he had been there when Snape had killed Dumbledore.

Ginny started walking off, back towards the Gryffindor table but Harry caught her hand.

"Ginny," he said, "Can I talk to you?"

"OK," shrugged Ginny and he led her out into the grounds and into the courtyard.

"You know how we stopped dating before the summer, but now I am staying at Hogwarts, I just didn't know how we stood."

Ginny, who had obviously be avoiding this topic shrugged and said, "It is up to you, you are the one that said we should stop going out."

Harry didn't know what to say. The memory of how it had felt asking Cho Chang to the Yule Ball came flooding back. He also remembered the night on which he had first kissed Ginny. His instincts told him that he should kiss her now and he did. She kissed him back and then they walked back together towards there next classes. Ginny had Transfiguration class so they had to part quite soon. He took the kiss to mean that they were back to together and hoped she did as well.

Ron and Hermione were waiting outside the classroom in the potions corridor when Harry found them, discussing Malfoy.

"Do you think he will come to this lesson?" Hermione asked Harry when he strolled over to where they were stood.

"I'm not sure," Harry answered, "If he plans to stay at Hogwarts then he is going to have to come to lessons."

Harry's friends agreed with him and then changed the topic.

"I wonder what Slughorn will be teaching us this year, we learnt some pretty serious stuff last year," Hermione mused.

"I hope he teaches us something easy!" Ron began, "I'm tired of getting P in Potions. Even George got an O."

"At least with Snape gone it's actually fair though, I mean, if Slughorn hadn't started taking this class it would only have been Slytherins who got good marks." Harry said.

Harry was about to continue but stopped when he saw Malfoy walk in to the corridor.

His usual crew sauntered over to him and surrounded him. He looked small, not just compared to Crabbe and Goyle but to compared to everyone. For once the Slytherin crowd was divided into the group surrounding Malfoy (obviously the ones who supported Malfoy and what he had done) and ones slightly up the corridor (who clearly thought what him and his cronies had done was wrong).

Eventually, after many snide comments and harsh abuse thrown at Malfoy and his friends, Slughorn opened the classroom door and encouraged them all in.

They filed in through the doors into the cold, miserable, dark potions classroom.

"Settle down, settle down," said Slughorn cheerfully as he walked past them all and took his place behind the desk. "This year we are going to push the boundaries of magic even further, I will teach you how to save a life with a single drop of potion and how to, as I believe my predecessor Professor Snape told you, brew fame and bottle glory. "This lesson, however we are going to make a very simple healing potion, used to dab on wounds. The prime ingredient is phoenix tears and this potion is the second best thing to carrying your own personal phoenix around with you."

They all got their cauldrons out and went to the store cupboard to collect the ingredients. Harry noticed Malfoy getting several shoves on his way to collect them.

Harry struggled through this potion; wishing he still had the Half Blood Prince's hints to help him (regardless of who there author was).

Harry was not surprised at his fellow pupil's treatment of Malfoy; one thing that did surprise him however was Slughorn. He seemed to be bullying him in a similar way that Snape had used to bully Harry. He refused to give him help, made snide comments whenever possible and was very reluctant even to accept his potion at the end of the lesson, when he finally had taken it Harry saw him scribble a large D on it, without even opening the canister.

Harry left feeling more sorry for Malfoy then he had ever thought he could. He doubted that Hermione and Ron shared his opinion.