(Important AN at end of chapter)

Chapter 6 - Foundation of Friendship

Professor Reign was sitting in her private chambers. She has been teaching Draco and Harry for a week now and she had never seen this much progress from people who have never done combative arts.

The show of strength from Harry the week before was truly amazing and Draco's wandless magic was the most advanced she had ever seen. A shield charm like that should not have been able to keep her out.

The events that happened the week before were unfavorable for the boys' friendship. She had never met them before but it seemed to her that the boys mutually hated one another. Something must be done. She had retained from telling them but they would be sharing rooms at Monty's. The school was very famous but that didn't help their budget. Everybody has a room-mate and since all the other students have made their choices for the past month Draco and Harry were automatically paired with each other.

They needed to sort out their differences because they will never last throughout the whole year. She had asked what the students were allowed to do for fun at the castle and Dumbledore said that they went to Hogsmeade, the all magic village that was a short walk away from the castle. This gave the Professor a brilliant idea.

Harry woke up to the now familiar sound of the grandfather clock. It was seven thirty and he got up off the bed and dragged himself to the bathroom. Malfoy was already there, brushing his hair. He was in his running uniform, and he left within seconds.

Harry sighed, ever since Harry had knocked him out Draco had been avoiding him at all costs, only talking to insult him, he otherwise kept silent. Harry didn't really mind, but it was rather lonely at the castle without Ron or Hermione to talk to.

Harry took a fast shower and slipped into his running uniform. He walked to the great hall for breakfast. Ever since that whispered argument that the two Head's had, the house eves have been serving coffee at breakfast. Harry had to admit, the inky liquid was refreshing in the early hours of the morning.

He finished breakfast and went for his usual run around the lake. After a week of running he could finish within forty minutes, which left them with three hours to do hand to hand. They had gotten much better at the moves Professor Reign showed them, considering that she made them practice for hours. She had also showed them basic defense moves for forward attacks. The day was spent in the usual silence, only broken by Professor Reign's yells of encouragement.

Noon came around and the two young wizards changed into normal clothes and made their way down to the great hall for lunch. There were two empty seats next to Professor Reign and she waved them over. The boys sat down on opposites sides of her and looked at her expectantly.

"I know that you two are mad at each other, and I can understand why but this foolish rivalry has to stop. I have not told you this but you will be sharing a room at Montague's." she raised a hand at the shouted protests. "I cannot change this, the choice is not mine. The students have already picked their room-mates a month ago. If I had known that you two had such a problem with each other then I would have asked for separate rooms but they have all been occupied by now." She said calmly. The boys glared at one another. The prospect of sharing anything was less than favorable.

"So I have asked Professor Dumbledore and he said it would be a good idea for the two of you to spend tomorrow, Saturday, at Hogsmeade, sorting out your differences. I am not asking for a miracle but at least try to talk to each other and apologize. If you come back to the castle still mad at each other I will have to go to extreme methods. You do not want this to happen." she said.

The rest of the day passed quickly. In weapons practice they had short sparring matches with Professor Reign. She had promised them that they would start with real swords next week.

It was late afternoon and Harry usually spent this time reading in the library or helping Professor McGonagall with her marking. Today he decided that his room needed cleaning. He usually came in and threw his clothes on the floor and this resulted in several piles of stinky clothes. Mixed in with the books and other miscellaneous items than he had a tendency to throw on the ground this made his room look like all hell broke loose.

He spent the next hour putting his things away and throwing his dirty clothes into the hamper. The hamper was a wonderful device that took your clothes automatically to the laundry room, cleaned them, and brought them back while they're still warm. When Harry finished his chore he decided to take a bath. He usually took fast showers in the morning and it's been a while since he took a relaxing bath.

Harry was just about to act upon his desire when a soft tap came from the window. He saw Hedwig, with a letter tied to her leg, outside. (M:Do you think I should say 'he saw Hedwig outside. With a letter tied to her leg?) He let the snowy owl in and untied the letter. It was addressed from Ron and Hermione.

It had been a long time since he heard from either one of them and he was excited to hear what they were up to. Harry ran to his bed and jumped up and down on it. Hedwig gave him an astonished hoot and flew out the window.

Harry finally sat down and opened the letter.

Dear Harry,

Dumbledore told us that you were going to a different school for a year! He said that since you were the best Defense against the Dark Arts student you were chosen to go. Hermione gave a long speech about how this was a great opportunity and how she supports your decision but I have to say WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! You are going to leave us for a WHOLE YEAR. You're leaving everything behind, classes, Quiddich, US. You're going god knows where to a school that hardly teaches magic with MALFOY of all people! If I was given that choice I would never go.

But Dumbledore says it's a really good chance for you to learn how to fight and you can come back if things don't work out. (Sorry, mate, but I personally hope they don't.) Hermione is bouncing up and down with the prospect of 'all the things he'll learn.' Geez, the woman is insane. I hope you meet some great people over there! But while making new friends don't forget us! Write soon.

Your friends, Hermione and Ron.

Harry read the letter and smiled. It was just like Hermione to support him whatever he does. Ron was a little over the top. It was sad that he wouldn't be able to see his friends for a year but he was protecting them! And he'd get to see them in the Winter Break. But their letter also opened up a whole new window of opportunity. Harry never thought about all the new people he would meet. Maybe he could finally find himself a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend.

Harry smiled and went over to the desk. He got out a piece of parchment and a quill and began his letter to his friends.

Dear Ron and Hermione,

I know I won't get to see you for a year but I'll write as much as I possibly can. Malfoy isn't so bad when he's ignoring me and I'm sure I'll meet some new people at the school to keep me occupied.

I've already started training and it's really hard. I have to run for four miles every day. It's horrible. But my new headmistress is very nice. Her name is Professor Reign and she's a really good fighter. She's teaching me a lot.

Life at the castle is very odd without the students. Only a few Professors have stayed for the holidays. I'm just glad that Professor Snape isn't here. Hagrid is also away on 'business' as Dumbledore calls it. I have no one to talk to except Malfoy, and talking to him is like feeding sharks, one false move and he bites your head off.

Please write soon, Harry.

He laid the letter out to dry and went to go take his delayed bath.

Charlie sat down on the bed in Angelo's room. She had spent the last week in Santa Maria with the gorgeous blonde. Her day usually started with him picking her up at her sleazy motel room. But today she had decided to go to his tiny apartment by the beach. She had made her way up the stairs and used a simple spell to open the door so she could surprise him, but she was amazed to find that nobody was home.

She checked all the rooms, there were only two, the bedroom and the bathroom, but Angelo was no where to be seen. So she decided to wait for her Latino God.

A small red blinking light caught her attention. It was the answering machine on his nightstand. The screen told her that there were two old messages. She crawled across the bed to the nightstand and without any moral conflict pressed the old button. The machine whirred and a wheezy voice told her the date and time.

"Angelo, we need to talk. The bloods are getting out of hand, they start to bite humans, and the police are getting involved." said a male voice, his accent was slightly Spanish and he sounded like he was in pain. The machine whirred again and the same voice yelled something inaudible and then screamed. The line was cut and the machine said its usual 'end of messages'.

Charlie swore colorfully under her breath. She knew that the term bloods was slang for vampires. The situation sounded very bad. Charlie suspected Angelo was doing something illegal, or mystical. Every time he would come to pick her up he would reek of magical residue. He was into some deep magical shit and as usual Charlie had to come to the rescue.

Why is it that every time I take a vacation from magic, magic always finds me? She got off the bed and ran to the garage at the bottom of the apartment. She found Angelo's moped and got on. Pointing at the ignition and muttering commenco the engine roared to life and Charlie was off.

Draco woke up Saturday morning with a splitting headache. He had spent the night before choosing carefully what he would wear to Hogsmeade. The prospect of spending a whole day with Harry at the village had scared him at first. But if they were to spend the next year together they would have at least try to be less than enemies.

Draco looked around his room. He had laid out his final choice of clothes on the desk. He chose a pair of black dress slacks and a green silk long-sleeved shirt. They were folded beside the envelope with a letter to Blaise Zambini and Tracey Davies, who were spending the summer together because they just recently hooked up. The couple was Draco's best friends and he was happy that they had finally gotten together. He was getting a bit tired of them making goo-goo eyes at each other.

He had told them that he was going to Montague's for a year and wished them the best of luck together. He hated not seeing his friends for a year, who would he talk to when he was in a bad mood? Harry made his feelings clear when he knocked him out a week ago. Draco sighed, I just have to face it, we'll never end up together. There are too many factors: my family, Harry's friends, and the fact that Harry wasn't gay. Draco rolled off the bed and walked to the bathroom. He was a night-shower person and so all he had to do was brush his hair and change.

He looked around the counters for the hairbrush. He finally found it beside Pansy's bag of make-up. He had somehow put it in his bag the year before and thought he would be able to give it back to her, but it seemed like he wouldn't be seeing her for a while. My, how Pansy must be suffering without her make-up, Draco thought idly.

The door on the other side of the room opened and Draco instantly pasted on his 'I'm mad at you' look. Harry sighed and walked over to the counter. He got out his own hairbrush and started to brush his sexily tousled hair. Draco stared at the now shoulder length mass.

"How the hell do you control that mess?" he asked vehemently.

"Malfoy, if we're going to live in the same room for a year you might as well start by not insulting me all the time. I'm sure you won't melt if you say something nice to me. And who knows, it could be therapeutic." Harry said.

"What do you mean, say something nice?" Draco asked.

"Say something nice about me, and I'll say something nice about you. I saw it on TV once. It's a way for you to concentrate on the positive aspects of a person instead of the negative." Harry explained, putting the hairbrush back on the counter and facing Draco expectantly.

"What? You want me to say something right now?" Draco asked.

"Yes." Harry answered simply. "I'm sure you can find something about me that you like."

"Ok…" Draco trailed off. There was plenty that he liked about the raven boy but none of it would be appropriate to say.

"I like that you don't give up. You try to befriend me even if it's hopeless." Draco finally said.

"It's only hopeless because you make it hopeless." Harry replied. "But thank you. I like that you stand up for your family and friends, you're loyal, something I would have never expected."

Draco smiled. "You know this really helps." Then his gaze narrowed, "Bt if you try to hug me right now I will feed you your head in a basket."

Harry laughed and said, "Don't worry, no chick-flick moments."

Draco stared at him. "What the bloody hell is a chick-flick?" he asked.

Harry smiled at the blonde's bewilderment. "Muggle thing. Come on, I want to go to the village."

They walked out of the room, Draco still muttering about 'infernal muggles' and went to the entrance hall, where Dumbledore was waiting for them.

"I've decided to take Professor Reign on a tour of Hogsmeade while you two explore the shops on your own." He explained. "I think it's best if we use one of the carriages."

Professor Reign came down the marble staircase in a relatively normal outfit, a leather jacket over a royal blue tank top and black jeans.

The quartet piled into the carriage and off they went. The journey there was short and silent. Professor Dumbledore attempted several times to make conversation but the boys answered with monosyllable responses.

The carriage stopped at the gates that introduced Hogsmeade. Dumbledore got out first, as he was closest to the door, followed by Professor Reign and then the boys.

"We were planning to stay until the afternoon, so if you meet us here at around four we will all go back up to the castle. Remember, talk it out or I will have to go to extreme measures." said Professor Reign.

The boys mumbled their replies and went into the Three Broomsticks for a drink. They go a table at the back and sat silently for a few minutes.

"Ok. This is never going to work if we don't talk. If you're still mad at me because we had a fight then I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I was just trying to get you off of me." Harry finally said.

Draco looked up from his cherry syrup and soda with ice. He never expected Harry apologize first.

"Well, I guess I'm sorry for overreacting and starting the whole thing. I'm still a little mad at Moody for doing that to me." Draco replied slowly.

Harry smiled, "See, that wasn't so hard." He thought about a mutual subject they could both relate to and settled on Quiddich. He began a conversation about his favorite team and Draco, obviously appalled by his choice tried to explain to him why they were the worst team ever. The conversation wasn't the friendliest but, hey, what could you expect from two former rivals.

The boys spent the day exploring the shops, going into Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke shop, which was reopened under the name Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The shop was run by a blonde girl in her late teens and it had all of Fred and George's latest pranks.

It was already lunchtime and the two boys decided to go to the Three Broomsticks again to eat. The topic of conversation was clothes and Draco was currently insulting Harry's unique ensemble of patched up jeans and orange T-shirt.

"I know that the muggles in America think it's the newest thing since sliced bread to look like they just crawled out of a garbage bin but that doesn't mean that a well bred wizard such as you should lower yourself to their standards." Draco said.

"For your information I did not crawl out of a garbage bin, I just put on the first thing that I found. Unlike you, I don need to carefully select each item of clothing. What the heck is this anyway?" Harry asked, feeling the fabric of Draco's shirt with his fingers. Draco shuddered under the touch but replied in his usual snarky manner.

"Its spider silk, you oddity of nature. And stop touching it, it's very expensive. I don't need your dirty fingers wreaking my clothes." Draco replied.

A day with Draco and Harry was already used to his insults. He brushed the insult aside and laughed at Draco, he knew that the blonde hated when he laughed at him.

"What is wrong with you? Why do you laugh at everything I say? It's infuriating you know." Draco said calmly.

"Why would anybody wear a shirt made of spider excretions?" Harry asked.

Draco smiled at the comment. "It doesn't have anything to do with spiders, actually, it's just called that because spider webs are really fine and the material for this shirt is the same. I don't know who came up with the name."

"Maybe they were really drunk." Harry thought out loud. Draco looked at him and saw that the boy's eyes were bloodshot.

"You have had one too many butterbeers." Draco said to the younger boy. "I think it's time to go get some fresh air."

Harry and Draco finished their meal and went back outside just as the two Heads were coming in. The boys waved at them and left the pub.

Harry was walking slightly crooked but he tried to not let it show. Draco laughed at the other boys antics.

The two boys were rudely interrupted by an odd squelching noise in the alley behind the Three Broomsticks. They looked at one another and silently went to get a better look. What they saw was a group of about five men, dressed in dark clothing, standing over the figure of a blonde boy who was lying on the ground. Harry saw a wound on the boy's neck that was slowly oozing out blood.

All logical though left his mind as he walked into the alley and crouched closer to the boy. The men stared incredulously at Harry and then at Draco who came into the alley after realizing what Harry had done. Harry stared at the wound, it was made by fangs.

"You killed him." He said, his voice rising. Draco stood behind him, his wand raised at the vampires.

"Yes, the little bastard thought he could control us. We are creatures of the night! Nobody controls us. He paid dearly for his mistake. And you shall now pay for your interference." said a tall, dark haired man. He bared his fangs and walked towards Harry.

"Stupefy!" Draco yelled at the vampire. A burst of red light came out of his wand but the vampire simply put up his hand and the spell vanished, leaving the target unharmed.

"Silly child, your magic doesn't work on immortals such as us." the vampire said, smiling at Draco.

Draco could only watch helplessly as the vampire walked up to Harry and lifted up his head.

"NOO!" Draco yelled and ran to the raven boy. But his attempts to help Harry were stopped when two of the other vampires grabbed his arms and held him still. None of what Professor Reign had taught them was good for this kind of fight.

The vampire smirked and lowered his mouth to Harry's throat. Harry stayed perfectly still, his eyes unfocused, as if he had been hypnotized. A small gasp was heard and his eyes fully closed. Draco could not see the vampires face but he knew that the bastard had bitten Harry.

A loud bang came from behind them, startling the vampires who were holding Draco, which gave him the slack to kick the one on his left and freeing his hand, which he used to punch the vampire on his left.

Someone jumped from the roof of the pub and landed in the alley with perfect cat-like grace. It was a girl with a long sharp-looking sword. The vampires obviously figured that she was the bigger threat and attacked her. She swung the sword with perfect aim and hacked of the head of the first vampire who came at her.

Draco tore his gaze away from the girl and ran to Harry and the vampire currently sucking out his blood, the vampire was oblivious to what was happening around him. Draco collided with the two and brought them down to the ground. The vampire hissed at Draco, blood pouring down his chin. The girl ran over to him and promptly chopped off his head. It landed a few feet away from Harry with a loud thump. The vampires face forever contorted into a snarl.

The girl was attacked by the remaining two vampires, one wielding a long knife.

Draco returned his attention to Harry. He was lying unconscious on his left side. The right side of his neck was a bloody mess. He came to with a gasp and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Draco crawled over to him and cradled his head in his lap. Harry was shaking uncontrollably and his eyes were rolled into the back of his head. Draco was having trouble holding him still.

"Harry! Harry, look at me!" Draco yelled. Harry was beginning to hyperventilate, taking deep uneven breaths.

"Harry! Look at me, you have to breathe! Calm down, and breathe." Draco said, tears almost coming to his eyes. Nothing seemed to work.

"Raven!" he yelled. Harry reacted to that. He looked at Draco but his breathing didn't improve.

"Raven, you have to calm down. Take deep, even breaths." Draco instructed. Harry calmed down, his breathing regulated but he still shook. His eyes started to droop and he was soon unconscious. Draco yelled something inaudible, but Harry lay limply in his arms.

The girl who had killed the vampires came over to the blonde boy, who was the reason Harry got himself into this mess, and checked for a pulse. She cursed loudly and wiped her bloodstained hand on the boy's shirt.

She walked over to Draco and Harry and checked on the wound in his neck.

"Apply pressure to the wound." She said calmly. Draco looked at her, shock was setting in. No, now is not the time to panic, he told himself.

He stripped of his shirt and ripped a sleeve off. He wadded it up and put it to the wound at Harry's neck. The girl put her hand on the makeshift bandage and looked at Draco.

"You have to go get help. Can you do that? I'll stay here until you come back." She told him. Draco could only nod numbly. He got up and ran to the Three Broomsticks. He found Professor Dumbledore and ran to his table. Dumbledore must have seen the blood on Draco's chest because he instantly got up and met him halfway across the room.

Draco ran back outside, quickly followed by Dumbledore and Professor Reign. Dumbledore ran to Harry's side and inspected the damage. The girl looked at Draco and backed away from the scene.

Dumbledore somehow managed to lift Harry into his arms, and carry him to the carriage. Draco took the remainder of his shirt and ran after them. The carriage ride was slower than Draco remembered it being. He used his shirt to re-apply the bandage, the other one was soaked in blood.

Draco was questioned by Professor Reign. He told her everything he remembered. When he came to the part where the girl told him what to do he realized that she as gone. He vaguely wondered what happened to her but was more concerned with Harry to care.

The carriage finally stopped and this time it was Professor Reign that lifted Harry and carried him to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was summoned and she quickly performed her healing magic. She bandaged Harry and told Draco to take a seat on one of the hospital beds.

She checked his wounds, mostly bruises and scratches, and told him that he was fine. When questioned about Harry's health she pursed her lips and said "Only time will tell."

End Chapter 6

TBC

(AN: Ok, yeah, I know, I haven't updated for 2 weeks, but I can explain. See, the reason the updates were so frequent back then was because there was a teachers strike, so I could happily write all day, but now stupid school is back in session and I have too many things to do, Homework, after school stuff, plus I'm injured! But this chapter is 10 pages long so HA! Please review, thanks.)